After a fantastic start to the season, putting in some good performances, there was always going to be some bad luck along the way.
At the Milbrook Classic for Men on Monday 7th May, I was feeling fantastic... and punctured with 3k to go. Bugger.
At the Bath Cycle Races Round 2, I got dropped because despite knowing the course didn't suit me... I went anyway... and only lasted 10 minutes. I don't like corners, bugger. My team-mate Alec won it though, so it's not all bad!
The Tour of the Milburys was my first stage race of the year and went slightly better, but still not great. Stage 1 was a 4 mile prologue time trial, mostly it was gently uphill with a few false flats. I opted for my time trial bike, but used deep section wheels rather than my disc wheel which is heavy and very flexy. This turned out to be a good choice as I spent a lot of time on the TT bars, but also the lighter wheel aided the climbing sections. I ended up covering the course in 11:03, my target was 11 minutes so I was happy. It turned out to be a great time on the day and I was joint second place with Mike Simpson from GS Henley, while my team-mate Alec had a stormer to take the win in 10:39, putting him in the yellow jersey going into stage 2.
Stage 2 was based on a tough 8 mile circuit with some rolling sections and one very slow long drag. The team were looking to protect Alec, and I agreed to sacrifice my own GC placing to help him out. We let a lone rider, Ed Clemens (VC10) go up the road early on, and he pulled out a 2 minute advantage, and on his own we knew that it was no danger, and it helped us as he swallowed up the time bonuses on offer at the finish line. Eventually I got away while maring a rider from High Wycombe CCRT, we bridged across to Ed and stayed away for a few miles, in which time I took the sprint for a time bonus. By the time we got reeled back there was about 25 miles gone, more futile attacks came and went but nothing stuck until Danny Axford launched a fierce attack with just under 3 laps to go, we missed this move and by the time we hit the front they had about 20s advantage. Rob and I were chasing on the front, but due to his earlier efforts marking on the front, Rob couldn't keep the chase up, which left me chasing on the front more or less on my own, I held the gap for a few miles but eventually the break got away and put over a minute into the bunch. I kept chasing hard but was tiring rapidly, Alec came to help at the front as things were starting to get desperate, we both pushed ourselves above and beyond the limit of our legs, and consequently we both got shelled out of the peloton. We rolled in over 3 minutes down on the bunch, losing our GC placings having gambled on trying to maintain the lead. It was dissapointing, but I always prefer to ride aggressively and go for victory rather than sitting in, racing negatively and settling for a top 10 in these small Regional A races. My legs were performing, but the tactics didn't come off this time, we tried out hardest though!
I tried to race again on Sunday, even though I woke up with a stinking cold, coughing and dribbling from my nose. Bad idea. I lasted 10 miles hanging on the back, before I headed straight on at one of the left hand bends, straight past the marshalls and back to my car. I don't want to make my cold worse in the lead up to the National 10 next Sunday. I have since been resting and recovering... Not 100% yet but I am hoping it won't affect me too much for the national.
Until Sunday! Ciao.
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