Tour of Britain
The time has come for another update and I am pleased to report that the last half of the season and start of my 2012 Olympic campaign has started with a bang.
The start of what was to become a prosperous few months began with the Richmond GP. This race is part of the British premier calendar and is considered one of the real blue ribbon events. It has a long history and some very good names that have been victorious in the race. The race is over a testing 100 mile course taking in a famously tough climb in the Yorkshire Dales called Buttertubs Pass. The rest of the circuit is not exactly flat either and ends with three finishing circuits of over 10 miles each, finishing on and uphill cobbled road through the town of Richmond.
My efforts were concentrated on making sure I got into the early moves, and not being what you call a natural climber, I made an extra effort to make sure I was in an early breakaway. Tactically I knew this would enable me to climb up Buttertubs at my own pace. As it happened I got into the move with some of the best climbers, however luckily I was climbing well and comfortable with the pace that was being set. I won the King of the Mountains (KOM) classification for this climb (in fact I managed to win all three of the KOM classifications and the overall competition). After Buttertubs we now had a healthy lead of about 3 minutes.
As the race progressed so my confidence was growing, my breakaway companions seemed to be suffering more and more which only drove me further. At about 10km our group’s lead had been cut to about 20 seconds on the main peloton! At this point I believed that we were going to be caught, however we worked hard and with the peloton sitting up slightly we pulled the gap back out to over a minute.
All that was left now was for me to take the bull by the horns and take the win! I had a bit of pressure on me but knowing I was the best sprinter in the group I left it to the last 200 m kicked hard and got a gap over them and went over the line as the winner, with my arms flying proudly and victoriously in the air.
Confidence was therefore high for my next target race, The Tour Of Britain. I started well, however on the third day I crashed heavily. Sadly for me this was at a critical point in the day’s stage, just before it hit a Crosswind section (an exposed area of road were the wind comes across from your left or right side), which makes riding difficult, especially when you are in a packed peloton. As a measure of how severe the crash was, I managed to snap a hawthorn tree in half and smash my helmet to pieces. I got back on my bike and finished the day, but really struggled for the next few days with a sore back and bruising. My race wasn’t made any easier by crashing again on the penultimate day!
My own ambitions for the race were over, but I still had plenty to ride for, helping out my teammates as much as possible. In particular Jonathan Tiernan Locke, who had ridden brilliantly in the King of the Mountain competition and eventually won it as well as coming sixth in the overall classification. My own team Rapha Condor Sharp also being in the mix for the team competition; in the end we came a credible fifth out of the fifteen teams.
The race wasn’t as successful as I would have liked, however it still did what I needed it to, which was give me a good block of endurance work before returning to the track for the European Championships which was my next target.
I was very fortunate to be spotlighted by British Cycling and have my riding statistics from each day published and commented upon by David Bailey a specialist sports Physioligist at I-Performance. What follows are the links to each day's statistics and his commentary upon them, which hopefully shows just how gruelling 8 days in the saddle can be. Especially when, as you will see, you argue with trees!
Day 1 Click Here
Day 2 Click Here
Day 3 Click Here
Day 4 Click Here
Day 5 Click Here
Day 6 Click Here
Day 7 Click Here
Day 8 Click Here
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