Charlotte and Kat went unto Knutsford. Being un-pennied and therefore skill-less, I assumed the Choppy Warburton role (minus the strychnine and brandy, natch) and worked the pit. The course: a 700m tight circuit. The race: 3 hours, most laps wins.
Kat had previous penny-racing experience in Evandale (Tasmania) so she took the first leg. They both rode hell for leather and WON THE TEAM RACE with an official 105 laps.
(it gets complicated around the lap counting: I was counting each lap, so as to call the changeovers before they flagged, so I had notes for 103 laps. Two free processional laps before the starting gun gives 105. The laps initially announced were well down at 94, so there was some querying...)
That's 72 km!
Did I say starting gun? Starting Napoleonic freaking cannon. We felt the shockwave over in the pit lane.
The big boojum on the course was The Czech, Josef, who has Grand Tour palmares and (in legend) faceplanted to get over the line for a win. A nails nutter who took corners so steep we were all gawping. Once their blood was up, the ladies were cornering like the Czech -- and unlike the Czech, not riding dangerously and not causing DQ-earning dangerous crashes. Later in the race, he was taking Charlotte's wheel for a few laps. There was a respectful nod after it all was over. There are some awesome photos of Calshot-steep turns at speed.
The buzz in the pit was fantastic: the other teams coming through and swapping bikes or transponders, knackered racers, frantic repairs (the Joffs were being ridden to spokey death; the old bikes just falling apart). You'd catch urgent imprecations in random languages and accents, the whole thing had a vintage car race. No pie fight at the end.
There were a team of young'uns on a 27" repro and they had it nailed. The charity guys from Spend A Penny were great, and it was neck-and-neck between our girls and the spiffing moustaches right to the end. We redlined Charlotte for the century lap, swapped over to Kat until the finishing gun, and the two rode a valedictorian lap side-by-side high-fiving through the finish to tumultuous applause.
The solos, the processional teams -- all awesome. Dave Brailsford won the solo, with maybe half a dozen serious solo GC contenders (including the DQ'd Czech). In the last hour we'd see these speedy boys being paced and then being taken by Charlotte and Kat; with a pit-lane time of 15 seconds, we could change often, keeping them sprinty-fresh.
The marshalling, course -- awesome. There's the steward's enquiry to look at yet but we know who won.
Queensbury Rules: We're all friends (penny racing is a small, weird pond), but by crikey, they were in it to win it. A-game all the way, perfect bikes for the course (the big wheels couldn't accelerate out of the corners), solid experience (London on a penny = coping with race traffic and the pit), exactly the right dose of red mist and a solid strategy.
Chapeau, Knutsford Great Race 2010 team champs!
