The Scottish Road Race champs were held on Sunday over 12 laps of an 11km circuit at Balfron. Fortunately although the weather was pretty poor for the womens race in the morning, by the afternoon the sun had come out and although it was very windy we had some good conditions for the race. The race had a full field of 80 riders with most of the best Scottish riders taking part (the exception being James McCallum who was racing elsewhere). Our Velo Ecosse team had a decent number of riders taking part again, with the usual guys - me, Eddie, Phil, Lewis and Tom. I was also surprised and pleased to see Fin return after his crash at Tour Doon Hame. Stirling Bike Club were well represented as well which was good, with Richard, Eddie and Mark all lined up.
We had a chat pre-race about tactics and the view was that judging by the circuit, and how recent races had played out, that the early break away attempts would most likely get chased down and it would take some time for a break to form. We judged that the guys to watch were Evan Oliphant, Robbie Hassan and Michael Nicholson - we figured these guys were the key riders and the break would form with them. The plan was to conserve as much as possible for the first 50 miles (6-8 laps) before doing anything aggressive. I was pretty happy with these tactics, as I agreed that the early breaks were unlikely to stick, and following the Sam Robinson the previous weekend (when my legs died toward the end) it made sense to be conservative.
The race started with a climb to Boquhan followed by a fast rolling section toward Fintry. I was just following wheels in the bunch, making no effort to attack, and letting others chase after moves. I therefore wasn't really paying full attention when a group of 8 or so formed on the up wind section coming back toward Balfron. The group steadily pulled away, but I wasnt fully aware exactly who was in it. I could still see Robbie and Michael in the bunch, so I thought "when they go i'll go with them, and we can bridge across, or maybe the break will still get pulled back later anyway". With some many riders in the bunch it took a hwile to work out that Evan was in the break, plus some strong time trialists (Arthur Doyle, Ali Robinson, Ali Thomson) and 2009 Scottish Champ Ross Creber.
The gap gradually stretched out, and I made a several attempts to get clear of the bunch and form a chase group. Eventually after several laps trying we got a group of about 10 away, including 4 Endura (Hassan, Young, McCrossan and Cowie), Paul Coates (Via Manzini) Craig Adams (JLS Racing), Ross Crook (ERC) and Peter Murdoch (Cyclelane). We started working together pretty well together, and made some small inroads into the breaks lead, bringing it back from 2mins to 90seconds. It was obvious that some of the guys either didn't have the legs for it or didn't have the belief as more and more often riders were missing spells and the chain kept breaking. The gap to the break then went beyond what we could close, quickly going out to 3 minutes.
Robbie and I were becoming increasingly frustrated with the other guys in the break and made a few attempts to get away together, but it seemed that although the other riders were unable to work to close down the leaders, they did have the legs to chase after us. Eventually our group did break up. I ended up with the 2 Murdochs, but by that stage it was race over and we were just hoping we might catch some riders dropped from the break. I wasn't especially happy riding with 2 big riders from the same team, but I felt pretty good and at least capable of staying with them to sprint it out at the finish.
Up front Evan had dropped his break away companions with a 2 laps to go apparently, and rode to a solo victory. Very impressive! Gary Hand took 2nd and Ross Creber 3rd. We eventually caught Ali McNicol who'd been dropped from the break, but managed to sit in behind us. The final sprint up Balfron High Street was pretty cool, lined with crowds. I was expecting it to be tougher and had selected the wrong gear so had to change down mid sprint, which didn't help and took 3rd from our group of 4, and 11th overall. Behind us the bunch were wheeling round. Eddie made several attempts to get away, but couldnt shake off the pack. He put up a good sprint though and got 18th.
I was pretty disappointed with how it worked out as I felt strong enough to beat a lot of the gus in the top 10, however I wasn't paying enough attention and strayed away from my usual tactics of attacking early. Leason learned hopfully.
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