London Grand Prix (TOB)

Today was the Tour of Britian prologue and associated support races held throughout the day.
I was down to race in the Elite race at 1pm, second to last counting round of the National series, I left home at 11.45 to ride the short distance to Crystal Palace, 10 minutes later and I was there.
Once pointed in the right direction to the sign on tent which happened to be three quarters of the way along the grass bank over looking the finish straight, not that obvious. With plenty of time I pinned numbers on and then went out to warm up, after 20 minutes came back to find the circuit was open to warm up on, did a few laps, going to hurt as the extra climb from the back of the stadium to were it connects with the tuesday night circuit takes alot out of your legs as it is quite steep.
My legs felt tired which is not a good thing before a race, back that up with a head cold since Wednesday I was not expecting to have much input into this race, be lucky if I could even keep up was my initial assesment.
Had to change my race number to read from the side as opossed to my pocket, although that was pretty much every rider then changing there numbers on the start line as the race was about to start, all this while calling selected riders forward to present to the spectators on the front row which happened to include me, so no stress as I was able to part the bunch and get to the front row.
The race was fast from the off but not as bad as I feared, that first part of the climb tended to peg the riders desire to attack up the rest of the climb, which allowed me to use as small a gear as I could get away with, managed to stay near the front but not do any work for a few laps until the first prime which I had a go as I was near the front, one rider had attacked up the climb and no one chased so I had a sprint with Dean Downing to bag 2nd place, a few more points for me to add to my series total, pretty much held postion but it was getting harder for me as we went on, so by the time the 2nd prime came I gave it my all and won it, but then Malacolm Elliot who had been on my wheel attacked after the sprint and took Dean Downing with him, at this point I thought that it was game over as I was stuffed and those two are very strong, so I drifted to the back of the bunch at the time when I should have been helping in the chase, but I need'nt have worried as the Merlin boys worked well and bought it all back after 3 laps.
So far no one had given it full gass on the climb and that was what I was worried about, but I guess most of the riders didn't know the climb like the locals that race every tuesday here so I was hanging on, we race quicker up here on a tuesday night but then again we have never raced this full circuit before, I know if I had had the legs I would have attacked but as I was suffering I was into following Malcolm as he was the strongest rider of the day.
The last 4 laps I had worked my way slowly back up to the top 5, on Malcolms wheel leading into the bell lap, this was it, was expecting a world of pain up the climb as I imagined the pace would be sky high, the opposite happened, I got out of the saddle as I could hear the bunch swarming behind us but what happened is every gap at the front was taken up and no one wanted the lead, which to my annoyance I scooted into the lead as I do not like breaking at moments like this, so it was down to cat and mouse tatics, I was on the right, someone attacked on the left, Malcolm reacted, I went, someone got in front of me but I had to measure my effort, round off the top of the climb there was a touch of wheels that took out 4 Rapha-Condor riders and split the bunch which left 5-6 for the sprint, I was back in 3rd wheel when the two in front eased up with 250 meters to the line so I dumped it into my normal sprint gear to blast to the line and win, but no, legs tied up as I had over geared myself simply because I had no more to give, so knew Malcolm was on my right so moved right then someone started coming past on my left so I moved slightly to the left trying to block but all that did was allow Malcolm to come by and win and me failing fast to have a quick glance back to see if I was going to get nailed, would if I didn't give it everything plus some more to hold onto 3rd place, which I did with some relief.
Upset that I didn't win but grateful that I placed well considering my condition at the moment.
Nice to be up on the podium again. Nice to see such a big crowd had gathered.
After I came home , had a bath(shower broken) and lunch then rode my mountain bike to watch the Pros ride the prologue, sat on the grass hill overlooking the straight after the climb leading into the left then right corner, been watching for 5 minutes when a rider bombed into it fully committed on his TT bike , hands on aero bars but not a good line and the front wheel let go and he crashed into the crowd barriers hard, got back up onto spare bike as all riders had there team cars following each rider with a round of applause from the crowd as he got under way again, he was shifting at the time compared to Mark Cavendish but I guess Mark nailed the climb as he won the King of the Mountains jersey, the Prolouge and the Yellow leaders jersey with his ride, great to see, all in all a great day out, very tired at the moment.
1st Malcolm Elliot
2nd Andrew Tinsley
3rd Warrick Spence