Crystal Palace 12th July

Crystal Palace, in my book the most technically demanding crit in the south, possibly even the country. It is great fun and draws riders from across London. I have wanted to win the e12 cat race all this season, and after two second places in two attempts I felt it was about time I made it happen. The legs where good tonight and I was in a super aggressive mood, after watching one of my favorite riders Philipe Gilbert absolutely ripping it up in Le Tour.

The race started pretty aggressively, on what turned out to be a really cold evening, with everyone wanting to be in the break. After about ten laps two riders where dangling of the front, Jake Martin of Pendragon Le Col made the move across and after a few moments I decided I too needed to be in that move. One rider came with me, sitting on my wheel then kicking through, this got me angry and I kicked hard out of the hairpin and dropped him, soon making it across to the group ahead. We hung just ahead of the peloton for a few laps, before pulling away from the bunch.

With six laps to go, Jake Martin had put a few digs in but to no avail. I tried once and was marked pretty tightly, however It felt like the group may soon snap. I tried again and pulled away from the group, with a strong headwind bam in your face out of the hairpin, it was going to be a tough ride to the finish but I wanted to finish alone.

Four laps later and another rider had joined the break, I could see him working very hard to pull me back but I put my head down and really suffered on the last couple of laps, I preserved my lead and sprinted into the line with a nice amount of time to spare, felt good to get a win at the Palace, cant wait for my up and coming races.

Inter Regional Road Championships

Thursday morning; ten hour train journey up north for the Inter Regional Road Championships in Perth, Scotland. The event consisting of a Team Time Trial, an individual road race and a team road race.

The team time trial went very badly, we started fast and everything was looking good, however within a couple of kms we where a rider down, this wasnt too much of a problem as the course would suit anyone going fast and hard, three men or four. We slowed slighty over the next km, waiting for our third rider over the main climb of the day, however on the twisting damp descent my team mate punctured and crashed, race over. The two of us remaining rolled in the last few kms, saving our legs for the two days too come. The time was taken when our third rider eventually crossed the line, we where dead last by a minute.

However I stood by my saying, Morgen is een andere dag, tomorrow is another day, and looked onwards. Saturday came and with it some Scottish Sunshine in the morning for the girls race, the course was pretty interesting, with some fast downhill tailwind sections. There was plenty of gravel on the course and a nice bit of wind, this would all make for a very interesting race. However the scottish weather had other ideas, as we started to ready ourselves for the race, the rain started to get heavier and heavier. Soon the inevitable, a crash, it was big and bad and according to a few that saw it, one of the worst they had ever seen. Part of the problem was that the crash occurred in the first five riders in the bunch, although our speed wasnt super high, so I guess it could have been worse. I am still very impressed with Matt Hargroves, who rode along a grass verge at speed, just next to me, to avoid the crash. The combination of a the crash and some stupidly deep standing water on the course meant the race was abandoned the next lap, great! So far I had made the ten hour journey up to scotland for pretty little, however we had one more race to come.

Sunday, dark clouds, rain, this is Scotland for sure. The race had been lengthened, an extra seven km, that would hopefully split the group. Todays race was a team road race, with a Tour Series style count back to decide who won todays prize, along with the overall inter regional trophy. The road race consisted of a lot of marking, teams not wanting to give eachother an inch. This meant pretty much free reign for some, an early move went and my team mate made the break. This was good news as I didnt really have a chance to get in an early attack, being watched by quiet a few riders. There where alot of counter attacks, about 45km worth, with super high speeds, the racing was fantastic. I eventually managed to get away with Germain, leading him out in the sprint and watching him pip me for fourth as my legs tied themselves in a knot. It was a great race and I was pleased with how I felt, on the countback we placed second, one point of first, by far the teams best performance that weekend, atleast we had ended on a high!

This weekend I paid homage to Bradley Wiggins, for his early exit from the tour, sporting long black Rapha Merino socks (although the weather was also awful!) They are a really great product when in bad weather and at pretty much any other time, keeping your feet warm whilst offering the high wicking properties that makes Merino such a great material to wear. Poor Bradley exited the tour with a broken collar bone, I felt really gutted for him as it was defiantly gonna be London boy Wiggo's year, he is a huge fan of long black socks, so what better way..!

I would like to thanks the organisers for putting on what was, on the whole, a brilliant event. I think it will really help any rider to be part of races like these, learning about team tactics, aswell as racing on closed roads. I really hope they can continue to hold the Inter Regional Road Championships in the future, and maybe introduce a Junior event so I can still be part of it next year!

Thanks to Lisa Brambani and Andrew Harper for the photos.

Moorslede and Torhout

I have managed to get a little behind on the blogging front, not sure what my excuse is, other than some really solid weeks training and racing I havent been up to all that much.

Last weekend I raced another two kermesse races in Belgium, my third weekend worth of racing, in Flanders, in a row! I was hoping for another win or two, however along with the usual array of Belgian talent, I would also be racing against another six british riders, including my good friend, the current British champion Germain Burton.

The race just outside of Moorslede was to be contested in warm and sunny conditions, the course had a long dragging climb on it, with a tailwind blowing the riders up it at a very brisk pace all race. Another rider I had my eye on, Piet Allegeart, who had recently beaten me at the North West Youth Tour, was defiantly the home favorite, wearing "number 1" as the provincial champion.

An early break went in the race, attacks where hard and fast early but once the break had established the group calmed down for a short few kilometers, however this being belgium the guys watching eachother soon stepped on the gas again, I tried a few times out of some tight corners and into a slight crosswind. However the group was very reluctant to split. Finally with two laps to go I managed to split the tiring bunch, Germain and Alegeart came with me, along with Cil De Smaels who had beaten me a few weeks earlier in Woesten. We tanked along, sweeping up a rider in no mans land, however there way still a great deal of ground to make up on the early break. With five kilometers to go I decided I would make my move, taking a chance to make it across to the break solo, I pressed on hard, and was soon out of touch from the group behind. With a kilometer to go I caught the lead group, trying to go straight past but to no avail. Down to the sprint and I took it on with two hundred and fifty to go as the group behind closed in, I had it, fourth win in Belgium. Although I have to say I wasnt too sure if someone else was still up the road so there was no victory celebration today! The podium photo can be seen in my post a few days ago.



Today was much of the same, the course suited me even more, with a steeper climb and tough headwind to split it up. However with quiet a few riders from yesterdays race word defiantly gets around pretty quick, I was a marked man to say the least. An early break went again, I tried to be in every move but anything I was with would be shut down immediately. Its frustrating but there is nothing you can really do in that type of situation, other than wait for the race to get hard enough that people simply cant follow.

The main difference between today and yesterday was that the early break got way too large a gap, one team pretty much shut down the race for those in the bunch and this meant by the time I had broken away I was looking into the face of a two minute gap. I broke away with four riders, Germain was with me again and we started to make some headway, quickly distancing the bunch. I went solo up the climb with about six km to go and held of the three behind for fifth on the day, not fantastic but I was very pleased with how my legs where and my ability to ride on my own ahead of others. Another fantastic weekends racing.

European Youth Olympics

I am very exited and amazed to be able to announce that I will be representing Great Britain at the European Youth Olympics, held in Trabzon, Turkey in 2011!

The full article can be seen here; http://www.olympics.org.uk/News/eb70b2-sixty-four-youth-selected-to-team-gb

It is going to be a huge learning cuve, but we have a very strong team and I am literally counting down the days until we leave. This will be my first time representing Great Britain and I am really thankful to everyone who has made this opportunity possible.

However before then we have the small matter of the British National Circuit Championships in Bradford on the 25 of July.

I have just got home from a very sunny and reasonably successful weekend in Flanders, however I will talk about that in a full post sometime in the next few days. This weekend I started (and finished!) David Millars Autobiography racing through the dark, it was a really inspiring read, at times it got pretty tough with some of the detail about his past, but it is an absolutely brilliant read, infact I want to do a full post on my thoughts from the book in the future too, although I may have to read it again first! It was great to come home today and see that David had been on the podium at the tour, the book gives a real sense of how bad he felt his own life had become during a tough phase in his life, however his openness and willingness to share his mistakes is great, especially for someone looking to make it to the pro ranks, I can only say I am glad I am going into a new era of the sport, as to say what he went through was tough would be a huge understatement.

Its brilliant to see Millar, on the podium with his team mates, a team he helped set up and a team that set a standard not only for clean cycling, but for sport worldwide. Below is my podium picture from this weekend, from saturday, in Moorslede, not quiet as glamorous but hopefully I will get there one day! Chapeau David Millar, I loved your book.

A big thankyou to my Granny Jeannie for the book!