So the 2009 season has been over for a good month now, and the reason for no post is school. Its now half term and think its time just for a quick catch up.
So, I left you at Cockerham. Since then I think I had 3 major races, 1. Junior Tour of Wales (the biggest race of the season)! 2. A race in Scotland in the Supersix series 3. Preston Grand Prix.
Junior Tour of Wales - So this is a 3 day, 5 stage road race which is THE junior race to do. The Tour of I
reland is better in terms of length, changing terrain, and experience but Wales is a much tougher race especially when you look at the calibre of the riders. All the best British junior teams were riding, and there were few single entries and many turned away. DAY ONE – Stage 1 was a TT going up the Tumble, a medium gradient first, then downhill and flat follwed by a steep uphill finish. Tri-bars were needed and those on TT bikes had an advantage on the middle section due to it being so fast, but luckily for me the junior gearing really restricted the time difference. With a lot of advice from Matt I paced the ride well and placed 49th (much better than Ireland!). The second half of the day was a road race, this had a steep hill finish with my finishing 44th. My best result in the race. DAY TWO – Stage 3 was a circuit race. The conditions made this the hardest stage as the circuit was very muddy, it was cold and there were many crashes. The first crash nearly happened in the neutralised as people fought their way to the front, I tried this too but didn’t put too mch pressure on this as I did not want to come down. The first cr
ash came on the first bend of the first lap. Someone just lost their wheel and brought a couple of other riders down. I think this caused a minor split with me being the only herbalife rider to make it in the front group. Only just and struggling. Luckily our guest rider Laurie Brooking managed to get across and I eventually popped. On my way backwards I saw Jonny was riding round nearly closing on the front group with two of the Irish riders (I think a few of the Irish riders missed the split). Unfortunately the placings for this race were well off due to the confusion of so many riders dropping out and getting lapped. Stage 4 was a tough stage for me as well. This was becuase my rear gear cable had basicallly disintergrated and so only able to have 3 rear gears only by pulling the cable on the frame. I struggled to stay in contact and was unable to get any mechanical help and so grinded away on finishing (and only) hill. So day two was the best day of racing I’ve had. DAY THREE – the epic day that was day three. We did around 65 miles finishing going up the tumble. A beast of a climb and made harder by the awful rain that day, with the miles upon miles of moors we rode over and George Atkins on a mission. There was little wind so there was no major split but had there been, there would have been riders all over Wales. I hung on till the bottom of the tumble then rode my own pace up it as I was happy just to finish it this year.
I had underestimated how hard doing double days would be. I had done double days in training which were hard but racing double days is twice
as hard. Especially as the weather was so poor. I didn’t really enjoy it at the time but I really looking forward to next year. I must give a massive thanks to Matt Cronshaw who took some time out to take me down, and look after me. His advice was a massive help and without it god knows how badly I would have done!!!
The Scottish race which was part of the supersix series was an important race for the team as we were riding for Ash to try and help him get as many points as possible towards his elite licence. Unfortunately the course did not allow me and Jonny to do this as we were getting dropped on the decent which was 40mph + for about 3 miles and meant we were spinning out on our Junior gearing. Ash managed to get into the main break himself and secured a top 10 despite having a puncture on the last climb (hill finish) which was very impressive.
- Wales TT
- The Circuit race, look how muddy it is!!
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- The peleton in Wales
The last race of the season was Preston Grand Prix. A city centre race and another local one. This was my first elite crit race due to me now being a 2nd cat. It was stupidly fast. Olympic medallist Ed Clancy was riding, Rob Hayles, Dean Downing and Matt!! The race was slightly gridded and I had no hope and after 4 laps blew and lost contact. Then just rode round for half of the race. It was so fast and I have massive respect to Briggs who won on his own, and lapped almost the whole field. It wasn’t even breathing!!
So now my season is done. It half term and I’ve already started training for next season after a 3 week break of no cycling what so ever. Unfortunately it is back to the winter bike. It has been this past week that you really realise just how good the cannondale bike is. So fast all of the time. Can’t wait for next season already. It sounds like its going to be a good one.
In a bit.
Tags: Junior National Series
