English
Location: Ogmore Vale, South Wales.
22nd May 2011
I was woken up by the sound of the wind and rain smashing against my window and thought to my self that this race was going to be interesting. I had checked out the course a few days before as I heard rumors that the circuit had a tough climb and technical descent and to my delight the rumors were true. The course had and out and back loop before starting the 7 laps of the circuit which then had a 4km rolling loop to the finish line.
The rain had cleared up by the time I got to the race but it was still really windy and the roads were taking their time to dry up. The race started with 64 riders and had a short neutralised section but as soon as the flag was dropped riders started to attack immediately. I was remaining calm knowing that this was a 120km race over a super tough circuit and was tucking in the peleton to avoid working in the wind.
There was then a surge in speed due to Team UK Youth the only full team racing smashing it up on the front. This caused the peleton to line out in the cross wind and splits began to appear. Before I knew it there were 8 or so riders off the front with the big Swede Magnus Backstead driving it on the front for his team mates. I began to chase in a small group but riders started to get lazy and sat on us whilst the riders up the road were gaining time on us. By the time we hit the climb to start the circuit they had around 5 minute lead and knew it was pretty much game over.
I wasn’t going to give up that easily though with 90km still to go and decided attack up the climb with a few of the stronger riders to start a chase group. 5 of us managed to get away Myself, Anthony O’Boyle, Dan Peason, Owain Doull and James Hansell. We worked well each taking equal turns after a few quite words with some of the mentioned riders and were in pursuit of the leaders. The next time we went over the climb we dropped a rider straight away (James Hansell) and that left four of us chasing in the tough windy conditions.
By the next lap me and Anthony O’Boyle (Aka Boyler) dropped the other two riders and were riding a two up but with the time gap decreasing every lap we were motivated to chase. We started to see the break away riders on the climb and the gap had closed down to just over a minute! I was beginning to suffer but not as much as Boyler as I dropped him up the climb through the feed zone. I was in lone pursuit and shut the gap down to 20 seconds but the break away started to attack each other so their pace increased and my tank was begging to get empty. I had so much support from the spectators with encouragement and regular time checks but they started to pull away from me.
The last lap I knew I had lost my chance of getting across to the race winning break and had to ride around knowing I was going to have to settle for 7th place whilst the main peleton was 7 minutes behind me. The last 4km to the finish felt like a treadmill (never ending) and every incline felt like an alpine climb…my legs were destroyed and so was my back. I made it to the finish and collapsed on the grass. That was one of the toughest races I have ever done!
I finished in 7th place in a race that I was aiming to win so I was not best pleased with the result but done a good ride considering all the factors. The race shows that I have some good form and who knows if I was in the break I may have had a good chance of winning but poor positioning in the peleton was a costly mistake. There was only 22 finishers and just goes to show how tough the circuit was and also the windy conditions.
The report from the event can be found HERE
Photos from the event can be found HERE
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