April

I started off April with a National B race, the Totnes Vire 2 Day. I was back down in Devon, but this time for some stage racing. Stage 1 was a fast and furious criterium. I raced very offensively and eventually bridged across to the winning break, where I held on for a solid 4th place, just missing out on the bonus seconds. I was happy to be up on GC early on though, which gave me a good advantage. Stage 2 was a short, sharp hill climb where I powered to 2nd place, setting a new 2-minute power PB in the process. This moved me up to 2nd on GC going into the final road race stage. Stage 3 was on a course very similar to the junior national round, so I was familiar with the terrain. I raced well but missed the winning break, which went on to take the overall GC—as expected given how tight things were. I finished 6th overall and was happy with how I raced across the weekend.

Over my birthday weekend, I raced Round 3 of the Junior National Series at Witham Hall. It was a 4-stage event consisting of two time trials, a kermesse-style race, and a road race. In Stage 1, I managed 6th in the flat time trial. I was a bit disappointed, but I clearly just wasn’t aero enough (surprise, surprise!). Stage 2 was unfortunately cancelled due to a crash that took out the majority of the peloton, though I was lucky to avoid it. Stage 3 was an uphill time trial where I placed 4th, just missing out on the podium—but I was definitely happier with that performance compared to Stage 1. The final road race stage was all to play for. I was sitting 6th on GC and really eager to push for a podium. Around midway through, I forced a breakaway, but with riders 1 and 2 on GC having teammates, it was brought back after about 40km. I managed 3rd in the sprint finish and narrowly missed out on the GC podium. Still, I was really happy with how I performed that weekend.

Finally, last weekend I raced the EPZ Omloop van Borsele UCI 1.1 in Holland. It was a pan-flat race, which made for some seriously fast racing, and the narrow, sketchy lanes meant positioning was everything. Fortunately, my positioning was really strong, something I’ve been working on, and I stayed within the top 15 wheels for the whole of the first lap. A bigger team controlled the race well, meaning nothing got away for long. I gave it a go solo off the front in the final 20km, but was brought back after about 8km. If you don’t try, you never know! I rolled in just outside the top half after a pretty knackering day in the saddle.