Our club mate Paolo took on Mallory Park, here is his report.
Grey, misty and drizzly day, my bum was soggy after a couple of laps warm up on the track, not exactly the best start of the day, so I went back to the car and put on a Goretex layer to keep warm. I was given a late start number, then I realised it made no difference as the track is a mile, riders go off every minute, so you end up having around 20-25 riders on it at the same time. Being an Open event, I could spy the opposition beforehand on the CTT website, just to have an idea of whether I was looking to finish last or just in the bottom 20%. I figured out on a good day, I could beat a few, so bottom 20% is! Once again I was assigned a minute woman behind me, this time the course record holder and my maths told me she was going to pass me on the third and on the 7th lap… if she was going to pass me a third time, that meant I was going really bad, or she had a super day. The start is on a steep descent, so immediately you pick up a lot of speed, enter the circuit faster than anybody else and for a few seconds you are the king of the road… before the first bend a few of the competitors I passed returned the favour. I manage to draft on and off, in the absence of marshals I figured out any advantage I could get was a bonus. My minute woman passed me on the third lap, as predicted, so low, probably three feet off the ground, no wonder she is so fast!! I passed a rider on a TT bike and he passed me back, we did this pass and counter pass game for a couple of laps, I was faster in tail wind, he was quicker in head wind, should have been the other way round, but so be it. My minute woman passed me again, I lost count of the laps but my Garmin said I had done 13 km, so only two laps to go… either I was doing better than expected, or she was having a bad day, either way good news! I found some extra power on the last two laps and managed to finish quite strong, as the drizzle was becoming ore persistent rain. I stopped the clocked somewhere shy of 26 minutes, which is my PB for the distance, so quite pleased with it. If you haven’t raced at Mallory Park, I definitively recommend it: no junctions, no cars, you can push all the way and a PB is almost guaranteed. It’s also fun to be surrounded by so many other competitors for a change…
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