TLI Brattleby Road Race

 TLI season has started again in Lincolnshire and the first of the races that I could make was the daunting Brattleby Road Race laid on by Velo Club Lincoln. It's a c.30 mile affair which takes in 9 climbs of Brattleby Hill - a 1km climb rising to 38m - a real leg tester !

I'd always avoided this one because of the climbing, but as I seemed to be a climbing a little better this year I decided to chuck it into the training mix. Six Wheelers lined up on the night and I chose Group 2 as my nest for the evening.

It was wet and a little windy, so pleased to get under way at just past 7, where I took ages to clip in but once I had, I managed to get on the back of the Group and sit there ready for the first assault of THAT hill !  Turn left, wind a bit and there it was, I just kept my position and to be honest it wasn't that bad - in fact, at the top, I hit the front to do some work. Down the hill, again, and low and behold I made it up a second time - easy innit ?

My formula then was to save energy at the bottom, work hard up the climb, and then sit in the group on the bottom leg - this seemed to work really well. At the top of the 5th climb, something annoyed me so I attacked and led the race for ooh 300 metres or so, but that just meant another attack came and I followed that one breaking my no work rule on the bottom - group 3 caught us up the 6th climb and that was it - I was shelled along with others and coasted around that last 3 laps !

4th Wheeler on the night - and I FINISHED BRATTLEBY ROAD RACE !! V.happy.