This weekend was a double header, I’ve been feeling better after the illness which is good, and got a bit of riding in over the week. The first of the two races I’d entered was a rare 1/2/3 event at Hillingdon. 50 miles of it no less!
I rocked up and didn’t expect to see the jerseys I did to be honest, Pedalheaven, One Pro, Sportgrub Kuota, all teams that will be battling it out in the Tour series this year, and indeed the premier uk elite races. Granted this was open to them as 1st cat riders (though certainly they won’t be for long!), however it would make the race interesting perhaps!
We got started the pace was alright, it was not a big field with only about 45-50 riders, but after about ten mins those somehow got going together, I think perhaps my position wasn’t great at this point as it was so soon in the race, I also questioned momentarily how they might look to stay out front for another 2 hours given the wind on the day. They hovered at around 20 seconds for a fairly long time, I tried to bridge over but couldn’t get away without a load following, a theme that would continue that whole race. It was clear at about the half way point that it was done, nobody was interested in getting something together to bring it back, my legs felt a bit pants too oddly, the only thing that helped was a prime that meant the bunch sped up, we got them back in sight, in hindsight after the prime I should have attacked again and tried for the bridge, but I genuinely thought that when back in sight we’d catch them. We didn’t. It was clear then it was going to be them and us, so in the last 10 laps a lot of attacks went and knowing I might be one of the better sprinters I closed the ones down that looked promising, I’m sure they hated me for it, but there we are.
On the last lap the usual melee of Hillingdon sprints came to the fore. I managed to get round the corner without issue, George Gori of Nuun jumped first, I jumped after him but got boxed in by a Handsling rider who moved ever so slightly (not his fault really) so that left George and his lead-out man just out of reach, I was 3rd in the sprint and 7th overall. Annoying. These mega early breaks seem to be common place now.
First Season Racing 
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