The Mt Heslington circuit is always a hard course. When I left home the temperature was 9 degrees which at the time made my clothing selection fairly straight forward. Unfortunately by the time I got to Richmond it had dropped to 6 degrees. Thankfully my handy supermarket bag provided some protection from the elements.
As the race progressed I realised that I was having a hard time with my breathing - often when it gets cold I start to feel really tight in my chest - its ok when the pace is not on but if things get too hard it really starts to cause a problem.
As usual I got in the break but with the increased intensity and my difficulty breathing there was no chance of me staying with it and I drifted back to the main group.
Just like the previous race the main guys doing the work were Chris, Paul, Rob, Murray and myself and we pretty much rode tempo for the rest of the race. On the last lap I attacked at the fertiliser works and Chris bridged across but the group was not happy to let us go. We sat in for the remainder of the lap. In the final sprint there was a huge gap on the left hand side. I got behind Chris and he led me out to the last 200m. I managed to hold off Murray who was coming up on the right hand side and placed 5th overall (which seems to be where I'm always finishing).
Chris is riding really strongly at the moment - he certainly improves quickly.
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