East Mids DivsWell from the title you can clearly see that I was in for a shock. Expecting it to be flat, I was really looking forward to it. But driving round the course with Mick before, what a mistake we had made! It was probably one of the hardest courses I've ridden on.
I got a bit carried away at the start because I felt quite good, so on the first lap we were going down this hill and I thought "I can go down hill faster than this", so went steaming off the front and round a nice tight corner, then as I headed up the hill, was joined by Dave Clark (who went on to win it, with a massive lead over everyone else, *coughmotorinhisbikecough*). I then sat in for most of the race, due to it being real hard and on every downhill was spinning out, but quite shocked myself with my climbing, managing to roll off the front with Clarkie a few times up the finishing climb, where you needed you ice axe to get up, it was pretty steep!
I then started to suffer with the heat and climbs and had to sit in, trying to save as much as possible, missing out on the last two chase moves. I attempted to go across to the second chase group and made good head way, until I hit the head wind and full on found reverse! So then sat in and saved everything for the last time up the climb and the finish. I rolled nicely on the wheels and was second wheel as we hit the steep part of the climb with 500m to go, so put in a massive attack and gassed it up, pulling my mate, Tom Lowe, away, he came round me at the top, I was really suffering and didn't think I was going to be able to come round him. Until I heard him give out a squeak as he started to park up! So jumped him and finished 17th and first junior (even though I think there was only one other). Fairly happy with that considering the course, heat and the massive spinning out. Cannot wait for next years now!
Thursday Mallory 27th May
Well, my legs felt pretty rubbish to say the least! There were less of the local elites and 1st in the race, due to the Tour Series being on. Which made it a pretty open race and therefore FAST! I did a few attacks early on, but all they did was waste some effort and almost send me out the back! So I sat in for pretty much the rest of the race, knowing that I didn't have the legs to attack, and just saved everything for the sprint. A break of 5 got up the road, but it never really looked liked it was staying away, due to the wind and how early it went. So sat in, rolled threw a few times to help bring it back, got in little chase group with James Cambridge, which was far too hard! Matt was looking pretty strong and with 5 to go jumped across to the break! What a beast! And then got straight to smashing it on the front! Giving me even more of an excuse to sit in, muhahaha. But the break split and Matt came back with 2 to go. There was only 3 left up the road now, with about 10 secs, I was positioning myself now for the sprint and with half a lap to go, Matt saw that I was 4th wheel, so he got on the front and drove it, trying to catch the rest of the break. As we hit the hill I just gave it everything and caught everyone in the break, winning the bunch sprint and finishing 2nd :D Only about a bike length of the winner! So really happy with that ride. Nice £20 in the bank as well.
Not much racing for June, due to my A-levels, So may not be posting for a while, because of revision. Speaking of which, I best get down to some more!
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