A very sunny and bright Sunday at the end of June saw the 3rd of 5 rounds of the Southern Pedal On series held at Wasing Park which Is a Favourite venue of mine as its reasonably local and does quite suit my riding style. I arrived at 10am for my dad's race which was the open race at 11.30, this gave me time to do a good lap and a 1/2 before my race kicked off at just after 2pm after the Elites. My race started as a mass group along the road and fireroad before myself entering the first bit of singletrack in the lead to make an early break from the chasing pack of riders. I made a slight mistake after the first minor drop though loosing my front wheel with Michael Guildford taking up the lead up the first short climb. I got clipped back in and went back on the hunt for the lead where I never looked back pulling a big gap almost instantly on the rest of the field. I knew in my mind if I continued to ride the pace I was I would soon be greeted by the sight of the back end of the Elite field. My predictions were right passing many good Elite riders including Tim Dunford, George Budd and more. I continued to ride hard recovering where I could out on course, then in the distance during lap 3 I saw a pedal on jersey in the distance surrounded by all other team Jerseys ie cannondale, hargroves and Beeline. I continued to ride hard and caught the main group of 5 riders. After this I was astonished as to how I made up so much time on such quick elite riders!?. Anyhow I was on a mission to catch the leader of the Elite race which was Steve James and was told by Steve Jones he was only up the fireroad which he was and just about in sight. But it wasn't until lap 5 where I managed to bridge the gap to Steve where we rode together until around 1/2 way through the last lap. At this point I thought it was time to continue at the earlier pace and build a good gap back to 2nd in my race which ended up being National ranked 1st rider Lee Gratton at over 4minutes adrift.
This has been by far my best result of my Career lapping significantly faster than some very big names and I hope I can carry my form into the National at Margam Park 1 week after the Southern.
After this result I am a little confused as which category to enter but In my opinion for Regional races I should ride Elite to push me that bit further and at National events still ride Expert until next year when I move up to Elite. Next race for me now is the National Points Series R4 at Margam Park in Wales, cant wait for another good race.
Results are here - http://timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/EVENTREPORT.aspx?eventid=180WasingPark30/06/2013#Expert%20Male
Video of the Expert race is on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=407795112672161
I am also in the Elite video on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUa9XyZnRak
A Massive Thanks once again to my sponsors at Aw Cycles for the Rapid Whyte 29er Race bike, High 5 Nutrition and race kit. This all makes doing the job at hand much more enjoyable and possible.
Check out there online website where you can shop online and get delivered to your door.
http://www.awcycles.co.uk/
Also a big thanks to Strada Handbuilt wheels for a nice pair of Carbon 19er wheels to make one fast bike from Aw Cycles even faster.
Visit there site and get in touch if there are any specific requirements you wish to have in your wheels.
http://www.stradawheels.co.uk/
Pedal Heaven Series R10 - 26th of June - 1st Cat 3/4
Wednesday the 26th of June saw the 10th round of the Pedal Heaven Series at Eelmore driving school. My main man Keiran Blackburn took me to the race with a friend also coming along to watch. I was still riding the 3/4 cat race as this was still only my 2nd road race, this time I was more aware of what was needed to win a road race. I stayed up the front of the Peloton for the whole race which payed dividends as there were many crashes during the race with all riders behind going down with them. I knew who to look out for if it came down to a sprint also and made the most of this following Mike Smith of Cycleworks into the final corner. He looked over his shoulder to see where I was and I was right on his shoulder with around 300meters to go, I could feel the peloton coming up behind so had no time to play cat and mouse so had to get my head down and sprint for the line. I thought I had a gap on the whole field but with around 50meters to go I felt a rider creeping up my right side so had to kick again and eventually won the sprint by around 1.5 bike lengths to Noah Banner another Young U23 rider. From my memory this was the first occasion where I have made money out of riding my bike! Cant complain at that.
The only pictures are online on Facebook here is the link - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.626281547382687.1073741841.131714706839376&type=1
No comments:
Post a Comment