Noel Jones Memorial Road Race - April 15th

When my alarm clock starts buzzing at 5am on a Sunday morning, when most normal 19 year olds are just getting in from a night out, it can only mean one thing... Race day! I travelled over to Wales with my team-mate Rob, and although it was a clear blue morning the temperature was a chilly 3 degrees when we arrived. We signed on, changed, and rode a lap of the circuit to warm up... Despite having ridden the circuit last year, it was a lot more rolling than I thought with a fair few draggy sections before the final 1 kilometre climb to the finish, a perfect breakaway course. Riding for the team today was Rob, Matt and me, joined by John and Mark from the club.

The race started steadily with nobody willing to start the work on the front, and taking advantage of this, 2 riders soon made an early move and went up the road, Scott Easter (Felt-Colbornes) and Charles Coleman (Cadence-Cannondale) quickly gained a sizeable gap, and once they were joined by a third rider from NFTO Racing they pushed hard to pull out over a minute on the bunch. Rob countered this move by jumping away with a couple of guys, and I moved across to him soon after, we didn't stay out for long but it signalled early, our intent for the race.

Early chase group containing both Rob and I.

The next couple of laps passed without much entertainment, but the bunch were so un-interested that the break had pulled out a gap to 2 minutes, Rob and I were both trying our luck off the front, but none of the strong riders wanted to come out to play. With just over 2 laps to go, the break had pushed the gap up to 2 and a half minutes, and I started to worry so I rolled back to the bunch and grabbed Matt and John who started working with me on the front to bring down the gap, little did we know Rob had just jumped off the front with 2 others... whoops, we brought back our own team-mate, sorry Rob! The gap came down to 2 minutes, and when 2 riders drifted off the front, I bridged across on the finish hill and we got a gap on the bunch.

Bridging the gap

We were soon joined by a couple of other riders, forming a strong 5-man break and as we started working smoothly together, we got a time gap of 1m50s, then 1m20s, then 50s and by the time we went up the finish hill for the penultimate time, there was just one rider left up the road at 20 seconds.

Penultimate lap

We caught the final rider, Scott Easter with 8 miles to go and he joined our group. The 6 of us continued to chaingang for another 4 miles before Daniel Davies (Wallis CHH RT) and I attacked the group with 4 miles to go... This was a futile attack as we couldn't gain a big enough gap. By this time we had over a minute on the peloton, and it was clear that people were thinking about the finish by missing turns on the front. Davies went on the attack again with 2 miles to go, pulling out a decent gap, and he held it to the bottom of the hill, but couldn't maintain it to the finish. Karl Hine (Cadence Cannondale) made his move with 500m to go by passing everyone on the outside, I stayed on his wheel as we surged ahead of our breakaway companions.

I bided my time until 100m to go, when I attacked Karl on the right hand-side and pulled out a good few bike lengths to cross the line first and take the win! My first Road Race win of the year, and I was over the moon!

Rob had to settle for around 15th after riding a very strong race, Matt paid the price of not drinking with bad cramps and had to pull out, and John finished in the main bunch.

Presentation with Team Sky Neo-Pro Luke Rowe

Video Highlights - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4aOtB8xuEM

It felt fantastic to take the win in a tough race on a fantastic course, my first ever win in a road race on the open roads, and yet another win for Dream Cycling. I've now got about 60 points and I'm moving in the right direction in terms of tactics, strength, and points towards my 1st category licence! Now looking forward to getting more out of my good form at the moment when I head to Portsmouth on Wednesday!

Ciao!

Update

I've had a few races since my last blog, with varying degrees of success. I won't bore you with long drawn out reports from each race but here is a short summary from each!!

Wednesday 28th March - Newbury RC 10 Mile TT
Won this event on course H10/3A in a time of 21:24, very ver pleased with this as put serious time into some strong riders and took the win by 40 seconds from Pete Weir (Banjo Cycles), with Ian Greenstreet (Newbury RC) a further 10 seconds back.

Sunday 1st April - Ham Hill Road Race
Got in the first break of the day that only managed to stay away for 15 miles, team-mate Alec Baskaya got into the main break of the day to take a well earned 8th, meanwhile I finished in the bunch. Legs felt good for this race, just didn't go with the right break! Such is life!

Wednesday 4th April - Ray Martin Memorial League Round 1
Portsmouth is usually a happy hunting ground for me as it suits me attacking, powerful style of riding. Today I attacked far too much for my own good, but nothing I forged managed to stick. A group of 4 managed to take a lap on the bunch so the sprint was for 5th place. Due mainly to good positioning and timing I managed to take 8th in the race so a few more points towards the cat 1 licence!

Friday 6th April - Castle Combe Easter Classic
Our first race with all the team present in 2012 kit was a great occasion and a great race. Okay so none of us placed in the points, but we made our presence felt with Alec and myself prominent in various breaks, while Fred and Rob stuck it near the front for the whole race. 45 miles with an average speed over 27 mph, so a fairly rapid race!! Good to race as a team and looking forward to getting some results with the boys!

Sunday 8th April - RTTC Rudy Project Round 2
One of my main aims for the year is to win the Espoir (Under 23) category in the Rudy Project Time Trial Series. So I may have been the only Espoir on the startsheet for this particular event... But I am confident I could have given any under-23 a run for their money on Sunday. The course was a technical one with various sharp bends, long drags, and wet roads to make it more interesting. I paced my ride badly, riding the last 5 miles with little energy left in the tank, but still managed a respectable 45:19 for the 20 mile course, taking 4th overall, 3m40s down on multiple national champion, Michael Hutchinson (In-Gear Quickvit RT). Very happy with that, and I am now sitting joint 1st in the standings for the espoir series... A lead I don't intend to relinquish to anybody!

Wednesday 11th April - Ray Martin Memorial League Round 2
Once again I arrived at Portmsouth keen to impress, and gain a few more points towards my first cat licence. The 20 minute hailstorm put a slight 'dampener' on things, but nevertheless it was mainly dry by the start of the race. We started fast as is often the case at Mountbatten, and before long I found myself in an early break with Justin Hoy (Felt) and a strong rider from Primera-Specialized. We pulled out around 15 seconds on the bunch and held it for about 10 minutes, before the hard-working pack reeled us back in. More attacks came and went but the decisive move came after around 25 minutes when I, along with 4 others gapped the peloton, soon to be joined by 4 more riders, creating a 9-strong break that worked hard for 20 minutes to eventually lap the field and rejoin the bunch. My tactic was get in, get out, meaning I attacked again as soon as we passed the bunch. This caused a large split of about half the field, however as 5-laps to go was signalled it all came back together for the sprint. I was way too far back with 2 to go, but made good ground and ended up sprinting in about 8th, but some riders in front of me were lapped so I think I was about 5th/6th in the race. Great to get into the winning break and really good to feel some form in my legs. More points, more recognition and most importantly GREAT FUN!

Next race is the Noel Jones Memorial RR on Sunday with the boys from the team, I may also do a local TT tomorrow evening if my legs hold up after the morning ride!

Ciao.