East London Velo Race 5

On Saturday 9th of February Will Houghton raced at the Redbridge Cycle Centre, in a category 3/4, hour long criterium. With a solid week of training and improving numbers along the week, it was to be a good race. The previous week there had been a breakaway which Will did not get into, so the first 30 minutes of the race Will was in the top 10 making sure that if a break went away he was in it, or in a position to chase them down.

When the 5 lap marker came up, Will tried a mini-attack at the top of the hill, his aim was to raise the speed and try to force a selection and get a breakaway going, this is the video below. The attack failed and the bunch was brought back together again.

By the last lap Will was in prime position in the top five of the bunch, it was coming down to bunch sprint.

The last 500 metres of the race is uphill and averages about 12%. When people started attacking from behind in the bunch and overtaking Will, they where travelling to quick for him to accelerate up to  them and go fro the win. He was left in between the top 15 riders who had come from behind in the bunch and riders at the back of the bunch who did not have the final sprint.

To correct this next week, Will is  going to attack further down the hill to gain more of a gap, or get into a breakaway. If the race does come down to a sprint again, being further down the bunch maybe 10th or 15th position will be better to get a slipstream and give him more chance of a sudden acceleration.