This month's training has been put on the back-burner as I take my University exams and as a result my race form has suffered slightly. Due to being slightly fresher I've still been able to place well in shorter, more punchy, races but I've been lacking the depth needed to contest the win in bigger races such as Nat B's.
So far, I've raced 3 Regional A races and 1 National B (Thames Velo RR). In the Regional A races I have come 2nd, 5th and another 2nd. It's frustrating that a win has still eluded me thus far this season but I'm hopeful that can be changed in the near future!
Thames Velo Road Race
The Thames Velo RR was on the 12th May and it is, in effect, my 'local' Nat B. It's on a fast rolling circuit which I know extremely well so I was looking forward to smashing it round for 3 hours. In the morning I wasn't feeling great, having raced the day before and having been ill the week prior I wasn't too hopeful of my racing prospects. Despite this, the sun was out and I was on my bike so I was ready for a fun day. From the gun the pace was extremely high causing the bunch to string out and little splits to occur. After just 10 mins of racing a group of 8 had managed to gain a small 20 second gap on the bunch. Sometimes when racing you just 'know' when a move is going to stick and I had that feeling in this instant. Even though the pace was high, I attacked the bunch and bridged solo over to the break. It was an extremely hard effort which took a lot out of me but I was pleased I committed and went with my gut. We quickly pulled out a margin of over 2 minutes and it was evident the winner was going to come from our group. 65 miles in I began to suffer a little but knew we only had 15 miles to go. However, cohesion in our group started to fade as some people were not pulling turns leading to the inevitable attacks to begin. It was at this point where my lack of form showed as my legs didn't have anything to give. I followed a few initial attacks which thinned out our group slightly but after a few hard efforts my legs were toast and another attack from a NoPinz rider was the nail in my coffin. I was inevitably swallowed up by the bunch on the last lap and came home 24th. So close to a good result yet so far. A good learning experience though as it shows I can do the hard bit of the race but I just need to improve in back end to finish the thing off.
I'm optimistic that with a good training block under my belt I can really achieve some solid results in road races so I am eagerly looking forward to the summer.
So far, I've raced 3 Regional A races and 1 National B (Thames Velo RR). In the Regional A races I have come 2nd, 5th and another 2nd. It's frustrating that a win has still eluded me thus far this season but I'm hopeful that can be changed in the near future!
Thames Velo Road Race
The Thames Velo RR was on the 12th May and it is, in effect, my 'local' Nat B. It's on a fast rolling circuit which I know extremely well so I was looking forward to smashing it round for 3 hours. In the morning I wasn't feeling great, having raced the day before and having been ill the week prior I wasn't too hopeful of my racing prospects. Despite this, the sun was out and I was on my bike so I was ready for a fun day. From the gun the pace was extremely high causing the bunch to string out and little splits to occur. After just 10 mins of racing a group of 8 had managed to gain a small 20 second gap on the bunch. Sometimes when racing you just 'know' when a move is going to stick and I had that feeling in this instant. Even though the pace was high, I attacked the bunch and bridged solo over to the break. It was an extremely hard effort which took a lot out of me but I was pleased I committed and went with my gut. We quickly pulled out a margin of over 2 minutes and it was evident the winner was going to come from our group. 65 miles in I began to suffer a little but knew we only had 15 miles to go. However, cohesion in our group started to fade as some people were not pulling turns leading to the inevitable attacks to begin. It was at this point where my lack of form showed as my legs didn't have anything to give. I followed a few initial attacks which thinned out our group slightly but after a few hard efforts my legs were toast and another attack from a NoPinz rider was the nail in my coffin. I was inevitably swallowed up by the bunch on the last lap and came home 24th. So close to a good result yet so far. A good learning experience though as it shows I can do the hard bit of the race but I just need to improve in back end to finish the thing off.
I'm optimistic that with a good training block under my belt I can really achieve some solid results in road races so I am eagerly looking forward to the summer.
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