May

The month has been quiet on the racing side, as I have been finishing off coursework and completing exams.

I have been doing the local crit league over at Tameside where I have had quite a productive month getting my first win of the season, and on the other hand my first crash. The racing is great. It usually attracts top level riders from the local area making for a good workout.

During this month I have also had 2 rounds of the national junior series. The first one was the Cadence RR in south wales. This race was quite a weird one. The pace went out of the main bunch after the breakaway had gone as the riders in it were from the bigger teams meaning they weren't going to chase it back. I was trying to save my energy for the final climb. in the 4th lap out of 7 I got into a move that was going on the flat part with 2 km to go before the climb. As we had been pushing on the flat we were not going as hard up the climb as the bunch. As we got to the steepest part the pace went out the breakaway but the bunch was sprinting pretty maximal to close the gap to us. As they were sprinting up to us they had their heads down and rode straight into the back of us. It took me a while to figure out what had actually happened because one minute I was going up the climb and the next i was on the floor under a heap of bikes. It took me some time to sort my bike out and get going again. By this time the convoy had gone past and the remanence of the bunch was up the road. As there had been crashes earlier on I had group behind me still on the course. I surfed those until the end of the race.

The second one was the Yorkshire classic. This was going to be a tough race with just shy of 2000m of elevation gain in 120km. The pace was relentless from the start with moves constantly going. I was wasting a bit too much energy but the elastic was sure to snap soon. I got in a dangerous move going over the top of the final climb on the lap, with the right teams in it. However, it eventually got brought back a few km later. Then following lap the pace went right out of the group before the climb of Bulmer Bank. I knew it was going to go pretty full gas up the climb. but I was out of position before the bottom. I had to go full gas up the climb to hang on to the coat tails of the group. Riders were getting distanced and gaps were starting to open up. As I was almost on the limit putting the digs in to close the gaps were starting to take their toll on me. In the "crosswind" section of the course there were gaps all over the place I tried to put on last dig in to get onto the reduced bunch but I just couldn't get there. I got out the saddle to push on over the top and my quads started to cramp up quite badly, so I had to back off quite a lot. I found a group to ride with and rode with them for a lap or so until the cramp intensified. I had to stop after 5 laps.

It b has been a bit of an up and down month for me. But this is part of racing and there is still half of the season left. In the near future I have the Welsh Champs ( crit, road race and TT) and then in a couple of weeks I go to Spain for the remainder of the season.

As always a massive thanks to Pedal Potential, Cycle Service Course and Withington Physiotherapy for their continued support.