We hope you enjoyed Chapter 6 of 'Derrick Woodings - My Cycling Career'
Here is the next chapter from Derrick's memoirs:
Chapter 7 - Racing as a veteran
It was late on Saturday afternoon October 2010, I was riding the 10k points race in the LVRC track Champs; seeing an opportunity after sprint 1 of 4, instead of sitting up I attacked hard, and gained a large gap, my normal tactic after the first sprint and continued with my effort and gradually started pulling in the main group, until sprint 2, where I lost some of my advantage, as usual in points races again the group sat up(the sprinters waiting for the next sprint and not willing to waste energy pulling back escapees like me, Points races and distance events are always a gamble between sprinters and endurance riders) and I continued to gain more distance until I was within a few metres of latching onto the back of the main group to gain a lap. Team mate Mick Allen had seen my attack by then, from the trackside, and encouraged me to continue. Paul Morphet (a coach at Manchester) was just detached from the group; I took his wheel then accelerated past him to gain the lap. I thanked Paul for his assistance and cruised to my first win in the LVRC track championships. (Gaining a lap gave me an unassailable advantage irrespective of points scored)
The LVRC (League of Veteran Racing Cyclists) is an organisation catering for Veteran (over 40, male or 35 Female) riders.
To make the racing competitive and balanced. All riders are classified in age bands of five years, 40-44 - A, 45-49, B and so on up to 80+. Races are organised such that three or four events run concurrently spaced out by about 5 minutes. The first group are usually, A’s and B’s first then C’s D’s then finally E, F, G’s +any H or I riders. In my experience, H and I riders usually get a good kicking. That’s why I’ve finally called it a day now. To give everyone a chance of winning: In each race all riders in the same category are positioned at the finish in the placing within that group. Obviously in the very old age categories G+ etc. the number of riders diminishes due to retirement from competition. Also if riders do not feel up to the level their peers are at, they can ride in an older classification but not be eligible to take a prize, this rule enables novice riders to gain experience of racing.
Mick Allen, my erstwhile travelling companion and club mate had persuaded me to re-start my track career that year after he came 3rd. in the UCI world pursuit championships at Manchester.
So I entered the two distance races plus the pursuit in the nationals, at the Newport Velodrome South Wales, ending up winning both the pursuit and points races and coming 3rd. in the scratch race. I was hooked again.
Note: This chapter is a summarised account from Derrick's memoirs, Derrick can expand on any of this so if you have any questions, please reply to this post with a comment and Derrick will respond.
Coming up next time: Chapter 8 - My latter years in cycling
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