Conditions at Gravesend were tough on the day, light drizzle on a heavily soaked track meant that spray was a real issue on the descent. The organisers decided to combine the Cat 3/4 field with the e123 field to make up the numbers, so the race consisted of 20 riders with seven of them in Ryan's group. The race was run over 90 minutes plus 5 laps of the Gravesend circuit.
After the first lap, Ryan put in his first dig on the descent, hoping to split the field up and test the legs of other riders. He built a gap of around 50 metres but a small chase group had formed leading to a wise decision to sit up and wait for them given that the group included a Cat 1 rider, two Cat 2s and three Cat 3s. Once across, they quickly started working together with Ryan slotting neatly in to begin working on building a good gap over the chasing riders.
After 20 minutes of through-and-off, the higher category riders began to attack, in an attempt to ditch the slower riders in the lead group. The back was clearly a bad place to be, with the Cat 3s rapidly getting tailed off.
A decision to push the pace by Ryan - alongside some big efforts by te fast riders - saw the 3s dropped with Mr V settling in with the faster riders until the last few laps. By this stage, the front group was down to four riders with Ryan the only remaining representative of the 3/4 race and after a few more hard laps they had gained over two minutes on chasing group.
The last 30 minutes of the race saw the Cat 1 rider put in a huge effort on the climb, pulling a cat 2 with him and distancing another rider. Sitting in the back of the group, Ryan - who had no need to chase given the massive advantage over the 3s and 4s briefly waited for the other Cat 2 rider before it became obvious that this wouldn't happen as he had cramped up!
In a nervous limbo Ryan kept the pace high, whilst keeping a wary eye on the chasing pack and trying to maintain the distance.
In the final 20 minutes, the chance of getting a full lap ahead was a real prospect and with a spell of hard work the tail of the pack was reached on the final lap. However, it was at this point that the endorphins were clearly having a field day as Ryan not only stayed with them but first lead them into the sprint on the final climb and then looking as fresh as the first lap, kept pulling ahead to cross the line not only first but a full lap up.
This capped off a miserable day weather-wise with one of the most impressive race wins by an RCC rider in recent times. A sign of things to come!
Chapeau Ryan...