It seems again that I have been neglecting this blog of late, I haven't stopped racing, just stopped writing about them! Firstly, after my win in the Noel Jones I stupidly continued training through without a rest day... Hence I was knackered for a week afterwards! I raced Portsmouth again that Wednesday, really tired legs meant I clung on to the end and mustered a small sprint at the end, ended up in 12th place which I was happy with considering the state of my body!
AW Cycles 10 Mile TT... this was horrific, conditions changed so badly for the last 40 riders, I was in the last 40 riders. Long story short... it hailed, wind speed doubled... I was frozen... and I ended up 10th, not the result I wanted but hey ho, that is the fickle nature of the time trial!!
The Gerry Hughes road race in Worcestershire came around far too quickly and I was still not back at 100% for the race, nevertheless with 3 other team-mates in the race I was hoping to help pull something out of the bag for the boys! It was a flat course, with a couple of rolling sections but nothing too hard, the wind however made it a brutal race! The finish was going to be a block headwind sprint for the line! Things kicked off immediately, and my team-mate Alec got in the first break that soon pulled out a healthy gap. Commence the rest of us marshalling the bunch and chasing down all of the attempts to get across... Freddie, John and myself were doing a great job in this department... until I accidently dropped the bunch whilst chasing down a break. A large group of 15 got away, including me, and everyone was working hard to pull away from the bunch, we quickly pulled back the early break and Alec unfortunately was spent so could not stay at the head of the race, leaving me alone with lots of team-mates in the break. My legs were still feeling heavy but I was trying to break off the front, knowing I lack a huge sprint at the moment, however I couldn't get away, and ended up taking 7th place. A good result considering my legs and the team worked really well together, good signs!
Another local club TT came and went... 2nd place after a 75 mile morning ride, great training and another top 3!
I took a couple of easy days and by the time I got to Portsmouth for the penultimate round of the series I was feeling a lot better. Rested and ready to smash it! It was super windy so I opted for normal wheels rather than deep sections, I was also racing for the first time on my new Giant TCR Advanced II! A beautiful machine kindly supplied by Avon Valley Cyclery in Bath! It handled fatastically in the wind this week. The race started fast with a group of 11 taking a lap on the bunch within 8 minutes of the start, I was in this group and felt pretty comfortable taking the lap. There was soon another attack from Simon Brooks (VC St Raphael), I followed him off the front and we soon pulled out a third of a lap, working hard for 5 minutes before Jon Dibben (Hargroves) bridged across and the three of us pulled out to half a lap ahead. We were held by a chasing bunch for 30 agonisingly painful minutes, before thanks to a few hard pushes from Dibben and myself, we finally took a second lap. Dibben attacked again with 7 laps to go, Brooks went with him and I was boxed in on the inside, so missed the move. I chased hard right to the end but ended up half a lap down on the 2 guys, who had taken a third lap on the main field by the end. So a strong 3rd place, my best result in a National B race ever and enough to move me up to 3rd place overall in the series with one race remaining.
Next up was the Reading CC Road Race, a VERY wet and VERY windy affair... 50mph gusts and standing water throughout the course surely meant a very attritional race was on the cards! I was feeling really good and attacked on the second time down the crosswind section, Nick Baker (Zappi's) and I pulled out a minute very quickly on this section and were flying round the course, well out of sight of the peloton, which was losing riders by the minute! Unforunately Nick punctured after about 8 miles off the front, and with no service he didn't get a spare wheel until he passed his roadside support, by which time the bunch had swallowed him back up. Nevertheless I carried on and went round another lap by myself, cresting the climb to take the only sprint prime of the day, and with another 25 miles to go in the race, the bunch had closed the gap to 45 seconds, I made the decision to sit up and wait, a slightly negative decision but I didn't fancy my chances against the bunch for 25 miles. I was still feeling good though and ready to go again on the final lap, however I didn't get the chance, 30 seconds after I rejoined the bunch.. I punctured. No service. Game over. Bollocks. A great shame as I reckon I could have pulled a result out, nevertheless the team did not dissapoint as Alec took off with 20 miles to go and put a staggering 6 minutes into the bunch by himself, and taking a fine win in a tough race!!
The final round of the Ray Martin Memorial League at Portsmouth was a dissapointment for me, nobody took a lap and the bunch were marking the strong riders out of the race... My legs weren't 100% so I didn't get in any significant breaks, and ended up drifting back during the bunch sprint and coming in 14th place. I did manage to hold on to 3rd place in the overall league, taking home £75 for my troubles. Pretty happy with how the 5 race series went, I love the track at Portsmouth and will be back soon for sure!
Final race for this blog is the Andy Morrison Memorial Road Race, this was in Cranfield, Bedfordshire. The circuit was a 2.5 mile triangle with a descent, a drag (headwind) and a flat (tailwind). A rider from London Dynamo attacked early and stayed away by himself all race (WHAT..?) although he did get caught by one guy who had attacked with 5 laps to go. All told there were 3 riders out front at the end, but despite my best efforts to get out of the bunch, I wasn't one of them. I had attacked a lot and always pulled a decent gap, but the bunch seemed to love chasing me down today, and also enjoyed sitting on my wheel in a break doing no work... nevermind! With 1.5 laps to go Ed Clemens (VC10) attacked, and I went after him, with some nob from Team Corley Cycles stuck to my wheel offering no help with the workload. I have very little time for people that don't do their turns on the front. We caught Ed after one lap, by which point there was just over 1km to go, sadly the bunch had caught us again too, so it was a sprint! I settled into bunch in the top 5 riders, I'm not known for having a huge kick in a sprint so I went for a long one, starting my sprint with about 5-600m to go, I pushed my speed up over 35mph leading out the whole bunch, but knowing if I held the pace high I could hold them off. One guy came past so I ended up crossing the line in 5th. Happy with that after a tough attacking race, I just wish more people were willing to help in a breakaway!!
I now have 98 points on my licence, so just under halfway to moving up to 1st category... I aim to be there by the end of July, which is definitely do-able if I hold my current form!
I will try to stay on top of my race reports from now on as I know it is pretty dull reading about 10 on the trot! Thanks for reading though!
Ciao.
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