Navan Criterium : Simon wins ‘flat out’!

I didn’t know whether to not to ride this one or not as I was a bit tired after the exertions of the last week when I rode 4 races in 7 days, including the little matter of that 4 hour rain soaked spin on Sunday. The race was 8 laps of a 4 mile undulating circuit. The Stamullen lads were there in force and looking ambitious too. The C’s, Juniors and Vets were given a 5 minute handicap and the As and Bs were chasing together. The race settled down and we caught all but two the first group, two juniors Andrew McQuaid and Stephen Enright. These two were 30 seconds ahead with 2 laps (8 miles) to go. There were a couple of jumps made to bridge the gap but nothing serious until Robert Whelan attacked and the bunch sat up. As soon as they sat up I went after Robert and we got working quickly and we got a gap of about 20 seconds at the bell. Soon we caught the 2 juniors and there were only 3 miles to go when I got that terrible sensation that my back wheel was softening. ‘Was I imagining it’ – NO I was flatting and with only 2 miles to go. It was a matter of getting to the finish before it was completely flat and not letting the other realise my predicament. Robert attacked out of the final corner, which I took very slowly. I got back up to him and decided to lead out the sprint from 400 metres out with my back wheel sliding around behind me, and I managed to hold on for my first win of the year.