March started well, I had now fully recovered from my silly crash in Tenerife which set me back 2 weeks, as I had done some serious damage to my ACL's and quads. But with the amazing help from the team at Withington Physiotherapy I came back stronger than before the crash. Now my eyes were now set on the first block of racing for the season.
The first race was a local race down at Darley Moor. A surprisingly large field of 80 riders lined up on a bleak winters morning. The start was ferocious with many attacks on the first lap alone. Coming up the drag on the first lap I decided to stretch my legs a bit and push the pace as the weeks training was prevalent in my legs, I trying to fire them into life. After my move was brought back, it was countered straight away. This was to be the main cause for concern throughout the race. I was hoping the race would settle down so I could launch a big attack but the race was too fast to bother wasting matches. The laps were rattled off rapidly and by the time I knew it was the bell lap. I had gotten into a good position coming into the home straight for the final time. I had to fight hard to hold my position in 5th wheel. Going down the back straight I got swamped after exiting the main corner on the circuit, I had to burn a few matches then, to get back towards the front of the group. Into the final corner I channelled my inner Tom Pidcock and flew round the last corner, I was gaining on the front of the group but a rider fading moved over into my line and boxed me in on the outside and that was my sprint over. I rolled in 14th. I was disappointed with the result as I knew I had lots left in the tank. However, I can take a lot of positives from this race and build on it for future bigger races on the horizon. We managed nearly 46kph average for the race which is crazy considering it is just a local race.
After another positive weeks training I was looking forward to racing. Again at Darley moor it was gearing up to be another fast race. But as we all know with the amazing weather in the UK anything can happen!! I woke up on Thursday to see snow, and lots of it. I was still apprehensive though. As the minutes went by (and I mean minutes) the snow just seemed to vanish. However as Darley Moor is quite high up, due to its history of being a ww2 airbase the snow never shifted. As the race had been cancelled, it was to be a weekend of zwift.
The 3rd and final race of this block was a Regional A Crit. The field was pretty small with only 30 riders. The first few laps were very nervy with everyone testing each other with small attacks. After this first wave had died down a big attack came from the back of the group. With no one responding, it looked like the move could have stuck. However some cohesion in the chasing group meant after 3 laps he was brought back. I then countered this move when the speed had reduced in the main group. I pulled out a sizeable lead over the bunch and was left to dangle. I looked back and saw 1
rider bridging across, it took them half a lap to catch up to me. We then started working together to try and hold the bunch off, but the chase from behind was too strong and we brought back just a lap later. I needed a minute to catch my breath as the attack was quite demanding. But by the time I had caught my breath another move had flown off the front. This time no one responded at all. It took us about a lap to get a chase going but they group of 3 up the road had got 30 seconds already. The gap yo-yoed between 10 and 20 seconds for the remainder for the race. So I settled in for the bunch sprint. With 1 lap to go I was in 10th position. I held this until the final corner where I moved up to 5th wheel. As soon as we exited the final corner I started my sprint. As I kicked, I gained 10 metres on the riders around me, as we came out the final chicane another rider gapped me. I jumped on his wheel and went all out to the line. I ended up 3rd in the sprint.
Overall, it was a positive block of racing. I am now fully recovered from the injuries I had sustained from the crash in Tenerife. Legs are feeling good, which bodes well for the Junior Cicle classic in 6 days. I will do another post separate to this one all about my race at the Cicle classic.
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