Since the Wadley I raced three more times and rode a 2-up time-trial with a team mate of mine. The 25mile time-trial was the week after the Wadley. I am a fan of time-trialing but have always lacked the equipment to get the times I should and for that reason I have not competed in as many time-trials as I would like. However this weekend I couldn't get to any road races so I decided to ride the time-trial as a bit of training on my road bike. Apart from being on the brink of seeing my breakfast again on the way round we completed a respectable time of 59-36 which also happened to be a course record!
Next on the calender was two races at hog hill over the Easter weekend. The first was on the Friday and was my first ever elite race round the circuit. I rode conservatively as I had no idea how my legs would cope in a breakaway round there so I elected to sit in and save myself for a sprint. Having said that my natural racing instinct kicked in and I ended up in a few breaks which came to nothing. 8 got away and I think I finished 11th/12th however I am still waiting for the organizer to confirm the result.
Next race was on the Monday after and was in memory of Alan Rosner. He was a fantastic man for the sport of cycling and the development of youngsters , he will be sorely missed. The field for the elite race was a lot better than on the Friday with several elite and 1st cat riders. I had the choice to ride the 2/3/4 but I felt that seeing one of my aims for this year is to become a 1st cat I should probably ride the main race. The race had a very quick start and eventually a break of 9 was established which settled the pace. I simply didn't have the legs to make the break which was disappointing but I knew there was still a result in it for me. 5 laps to go and a group of 5 of us got away. We established a healthy lead and I finished a close second in the sprint for the line to pick up 11th place.
The last race I have competed in was the Chelmer RR which was held last Sunday. It is probably the flattest road race course in England but I still wanted a result seeing as it was my first 2/3/4 of the year. I knew that the flat course and lack of wind meant it would be difficult to establish a break but before I knew it a group of 15 riders or so was away. A team mate and I made it into the break along with all the riders who I thought would be up there. The break was established with 30 miles to go but the gap over the bunch only grew to 50 seconds. There was around ten riders working in the break and another 5 or so just sat on which stopped everyone committing to the break. I tried to attack the break when I saw the bunch was closing on us to see if I could provoke anyone to work. Unfortunately not, everyone continued to just sit there and the break was brought back with around 8 miles to go. The sprint came and it was carnage as expected, I managed to fight my way up there but with my legs spent after the break I only managed another 13th!
So that is my season so far, nothing special but consistency and importantly I was competitive in the hard races. This week I will be competing in a 20km TT, a 25 mile 3-up TT and hopefully a ride in the Sheffrec RR which I am currently 5th reserve in.
Thanks for reading, James
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