Tom and Toby’s Hog Hill Diary (Episode 1)

For the last two weekends running Toby and I have been heading down to Hog Hill to work on our crit racing skillz in the Cat 4 only Saturday race series. The ‘chopperfest’ description is unwarranted, although both our crashes at training camp have landed us firmly in the chopper camp (I’m speaking on your behalf here, Toby). Anyway, to simplify our report we decided to split it into a nice and simple ‘what went well’ and ‘what we can do better’. So here goes:

What went well:

  • We went to Tottenham Hale and rode 16 km through chaos, instead of riding 40 km through countryside from Bishop’s Stortford
  • Tom got points
  • Tom got a great leadout from Toby
  • Toby didn’t get choppered, Tom didn’t have to go cyclocross to avoid the falling bike and rider
  • We met some Rapha people and they were nice so maybe we’ll get a discount
  • Hot chocolates are £1
  • We fixed Toby’s first puncture with at least 30 seconds to chill out before the race started

What we can do better:

  • Try not to kill Toby by trying to form a gruppetto with a random guy on a three-lane roundabout
  • Get Toby some points
  • Get Toby to the end of a race without puncturing, so Tom can repay his leadout
  • Get Toby any tyres other than Gatorskins
  • Pray to the weather gods not to pee it down every time we’re trying to get to Hog Hill
  • Don’t go at the bottom of the hill, go at the top of the hill
  • Don’t ‘GET SIDEWAYS’ on a crit race

Until next time,

2/3 of Team Catz

Photo credit: Roger Maidment https://www.flickr.com/photos/139984887@N02/

Photo credit: Roger Maidment https://www.flickr.com/photos/139984887@N02/

Photo credit: Roger Maidment https://www.flickr.com/photos/139984887@N02/

Photo credit: Roger Maidment https://www.flickr.com/photos/139984887@N02/

Photo credit: Roger Maidment https://www.flickr.com/photos/139984887@N02/

Photo credit: Roger Maidment https://www.flickr.com/photos/139984887@N02/

Photo credit: Roger Maidment https://www.flickr.com/photos/139984887@N02/

Photo credit: Roger Maidment https://www.flickr.com/photos/139984887@N02/

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