Scottish National Road Race Championships
Words by Bruce Wallace (July 25th 2021)
Scottish National Road Race Championships 2021
**Race/Report**
Guess I'd better do one of these...
Brodie & I travelled up to Aberdeenshire for the Scottish National Road Race Championships at the weekend. Being run by Spokes RT and on the infamous Suie Course it was always going to be one for the climbers which probably explained a lower than usual field with 43 starters on the day. Initially advertised at 69miles (111km) it was upped on the day to 86miles (140km)....not what i wanted to hear!
Weather on the day was roasting around 25degrees without a cloud in the sky. Brodie & I went to the top of the Suie and dumped some bottles & gels to retrieve each lap, hoping we'd have time to jump off and grab them and make up time on the descent! Unfortunately these turns into hot water bottles pretty quickly.
The race was neutralised for about 1.5miles and the flag was barely back in the Comms car window and multiple attacks went up the road including riders from Vanelli Project Go, Dooleys and Davie Lines of Wheelbase Cabtech, the latter who spent the whole race up the road in the break, madness. On one of the first long climbs I was caught out as riders attacked and was distanced from the bunch (not a great start), I chased on the descent clocking 47.9mph and chased for about 2miles and got back on through the cars. Brodie was doing a sterling job sitting in the bunch, keeping his powder dry, not putting a foot wrong!! He even managed to give me a wee push onto the wheel as I got back on!. Next.....THE SUIE.....I can only describe it as Pomethon Brae x 5, its touted as averaging 8% but its way more than that and we did it 5 times. Again I lost contact and watched Brodie get in the wheels and use his power to grind his way up in what was now a plane crash of the bunch as it exploded....we were only about 17miles in !! Once over the top I chased with a Vanelli rider for a lap picking up others as we went and leaving them behind, none willing/able to work. Eventually on lap 3 my counterpart exploded also and I was on my own for another lap! At this point I was suffering in the heat, bottles were like really warm tap water and my gels were horrible. Next time up the Suie and at 50miles I called it a day! Happy to have gave it a go, not so happy at the performance and on retrospect being caught in a couple of silly positions probably cost me dearly!
I sat and watched Brodie ride his next lap, the leaders flew over the climb at warp speed, roughly around 2mins faster than I did taking on mass amounts of food and water each lap...makes sense. Brodie came up a few minutes back out from what was left of the grupetto and made the time cut to be pulled and placed in a hugely respectable 28th place, massive bravo to him, he really dug in and stuck in with the top guys!!! He tells me later how he should have chased harder on the descent on lap 2 and he would have got back in, chased through the valley with 3 other riders who rather than do spells on the front wanted to do chaingang efforts...they inevitably blew up leaving him to push on himself picking up an Ayr Roads rider en route who even gave him a bottle as a peace offering (cyclists even in the heat of battle showing class!).
Anyway, a hard tough race in hard conditions....maybe next year!!! Thanks from both of us for all the messages of support and help, it was greatly appreciated from everyone!....maybe I wont moan on Tuesday night Bangley Brae efforts anymore...maybe!
Photos: Courtesy of The Press Room (Go visit the page for all the photos from the day)