After many years of not having raced, I decided that this year I was going to make an effort and get a BC racing licence. As I work in Brentford, the track at Hillingdon is an ideal venue to get to easily after work. So on a sunny Wednesday evening I rode over for the first race in a series of 12. The last time I raced at Hillingdon (probably 2007) the only amenities were an old portacabin, it now has a modern new building with changing facilities, tea room and toilets, but strangely no showers, a 100% improvement using money from British Cycling no doubt. I signed on and got my number for the series and noticed that a lot of the riders were 3rd, 2nd and 1st cats so I wasn't expecting an easy ride.

I had a couple of warm up laps to get my legs spinning and to acquaint myself with the circuit again. Then it was time to head to the start line, which has been moved to the long straight from the top of the twisting uphill section, which was the cause of too many crashes. The series is for vets and ladies, who race on the track at the same time, but not together. After a brief from the Organiser and Commisssare we were ready to go, for 1 hour + 5 laps.

The first half a lap was a leisurley roll out, led by me and the only time I would see the front for the whole race! As soon as we hit the twisting climb the attacks started to happen and the hammer went down, and stayed down for the whole hour. The circuit has been designed so that it is possible to pedal, when taking the bends, which I did manage to do most of the time to keep my cadence up. The setting sun made it difficult to see when entering one of the bends at 30mph with a bunch of 50 or so riders, but it was the same for eveyone and as soon as you were out of the corner it was slightly uphill towards the finishing straight and then full stem ahead with the wind in your face for the whole section. The pace did ease off for a few seconds before the picking up again, quickly. We passed the Ladies race on 3 occassions who dutifully kept to the left to let us go through.

After 3/4 hour I was beginning to feel cramp in my right calve so knew that I wouldn't be in with a chance to sprint for the finish line! I slightly eased up on the uphill sections to make sure that I would at least finish in the bunch, which I did. The pace was so high that there wasn't a chance for a breakaway and when I checked the average it was 26 mph, no wonder I felt slightly worn out at the end. It was a thoroughly enjoyable race and a good way to see where you are fitness wise, but not for the faint hearted! There was a crash in the Laides race, involving 2 riders, but there were both only walking wounded at the end. One good thing they do now is have Commissares racing as well, so they can keep an eye out for any wrong doings. If you haven't raced before, I thoroughly recommend it as it gives you a real adrenalin buzz, 11 races to go - watch this space!