Written by Holger Steinmetzger
Probably everyone knows the Red Kite Bump Circuit Race. The E5's do 3 laps on the course that is quite narrow due to centerline rule, consisting of a descent, rollers and 3 straights on the firs half, rolling hills towards the end and a nice kicker to finish it off.
Conditions on race day, Feb-4, could not have been better. Blue skies and temperatures in the lower sixties. This was the first race of the season and we had a big field of 40 racers, 2 representing Mikes, Anton K. and myself.
Neither did I have a strategy nor expectations going into this race. I did not know any, except for two or three of the other riders, so I was not sure what the race would bring. The only plan was to stay on or close to the front as it was going to be difficult to move up the field on the narrow course.
The first lap was slow, with everyone settling in, I was making sure to stay close to the front. As in most low category races, most riders were lazy and sitting in, so I found myself and one other no-team guy on a white Venge Vias, being at the front almost the entire race.
At the end of the first lap no one really wanted to go for the prime lap, although there is no prime in the 5's, I went for it and got it. After that, I slowed down and waited for the bunch to catch up what happened quickly.
After sitting in for a few minutes, I went back to the front and the no-team guy on his Venge and I tried getting away from the bunch but were brought back every time, mostly by some juniors who seemed to wait for the rolling hills and kicker on the last lap.
This pattern of trying to get away and getting chased down continued pretty much all the way to the end of the race.
This brings me to the last lap, going into the last set of rolling hills the tempo and watts went up with other riders trying to make their moves to the front. I stayed with the front and this time a group of four or five riders got away from the bunch.
The first to pay tribute to spending his time spent on the front, was white Venge Vias rider which left me with a Junior and a Davis rider. Before going into the last right hand turn the junior faded which made clear it would either be me or the Davis rider. Due to the effort of the race, there wasn't really any power left for a final sprint but increasing the pace, I could see that the Davis rider was not able to keep up, so I went into the last turn, gave it a few padel strokes, going down and up the final kicker and crossed the line first.
By the numbers:
- 67 minutes
- Avg power: 270W / max: 860W
- Avg speed: 36kph
