win in singapore

The course was a strange one, roughly 6kms of almost pure flat road - we headed 3km up one lane and did a U-turn, then headed back for another 3km to the second U-turn, and back again, 17 times for a total of 102kms.

If the course was rather dull then so too was the first hour or so of racing, as almost all of the 60+ member field watched just two riders - Geumsan Ginseng’s Lo Ji Wen (defending champion) and Vincent Ang of CycleWorkx, who’s been riding well in the UCI Asia Tour. These two were the favourites for the national title and nothing of any real importance would be going up the road without them.

Two riders from the aggressive OCBC team - the biggest team there and under quite a lot of pressure to get a result - set off after a few kms and hovered at about 25secs for a good 20 minutes. I was content to let my legs rest as I knew that, not being a sprinter at all - in fact, being terrible at sprinting - would mean that I would have to launch a big attack in the last 10kms if I wanted to win.

My Fuji-Singapore teammates did a good job of keeping me out of trouble, and were responding well when they needed to chase, but as the pace increased they began to fall away. With 40km or so to go two riders from Cannasia-Cannondale, one being Robert Hensby, who I knew was strong, broke away, and I decided it was time to thin out the pack. I put in a quick attack on a slight rise and was soon joined by Vincent Ang and Lo Ji Wen, along with another 15 riders. We soon split the group and within one lap, we had caught the front men and put in 45 seconds on the second group.

As it was obvious that the winner would be coming from this select group, we settled into a fairly even pace, working in a chain to put more distance between ourselves and the chasers. With 4 laps to go the lead was 1.45. A quick look at our thinning group told me that I was pretty exposed here - only myself and Lo Ji Wen had no teammates. OCBC had 5 riders. Cannasia-Cannondale had 3, Cycleworx had 2.

With a few laps to go yet again an OCBC roder attacked, this time joined by Tim Wilkins of Cannondale-Cannasia, but we were conent to let them hang off the front before reeling them in.

With two laps to go I started the first of many attacks - I put in about 8 attacks over the next two laps, and though I managed to drop about half the riders, the headwinds and the fact that the Singaporeans - Ang especially - really wanted this title meant that I never got more than a few metres away. With a lap to go Lo Ji Wen had disappeared, presumambly tired out from his recent races in Japan and Indoneasia.

Coming into the last 3 kms I attacked again and again, but each time got nowhere. Mindful of my lack of a sprint, I put in one last huge effort with 500 to go - I got 3 metres but they were on me again. Realising that I was in a terrible position now, leading everyone out, I slowed slightly, then herd a massive clatter behind me - I turned to see almost the entire group hit the floor in a bad crash.

Looking to my right I saw only one rider with me - Darren Low of CycleWorx. He had been woking seflessly for his team leader Ang and now, suddenly, he was going to become national champion of Singapore - but I was going to win. I took the last U-turn behind him then found the legs to outsprint him - and as we hit the line we both raised out arms! For once, second place was probably happier than the winner.