First Victory of the season and other races in June

 June has been a successful month for me, managing to get my arms in the air for the first time this season at the Yorkshire Regional Junior Championships. As well as this, I raced the Junior Cicle Classic, Crimson Performance RR, Ilkley Town Centre Grand Prix and also the Spokes Junior kingdom Classic up in Scotland.

Yorkshire Champ

  

   The First weekend of the month saw me win the Regional Champs in York on a challenging and grippy circuit which tackled the short but steep climb of Bulmer Bank every lap. I managed to make a selection on the climb the first time up it to thin the race out slightly before an attack from my teammate saw it thin even more which created the group that would go to the line. After some all-out racing, we took the last half lap pretty steady as there was little chance of us being caught by the chasers. This was before a sprint to the line occurred which I managed to win! I was really happy with this result as it showed that I was in a good all round shape and also managed to win a race that’s important to me as a proud Yorkshireman.

Sprint for the line

   The week after saw me tackle the infamous dirt sectors of the junior Cicle Classic as part of the British National Junior Road Series. I finished 24^th in this race after being in the front split all day but just not having the legs to do anything in the small bunch sprint that occurred after failing to get away earlier in the race. This ride however was again pleasing however as in a really tough race where a lot of power was needed, I held my own and was consistently at the front which was key on the thin country roads that this parcours runs over.

Yorkshire Champs

     Unfortunately after this good block of racing I had a real bad time out at the Crimson performance Road Race in the Lake District as I struggled with stomach ache throughout the long 120km National B Road Race. This was disappointing as the race was run over a tough circuit which should’ve suited me but I still managed to stick the race out and get round for 21^st, I had just hoped for better. I put this race behind me and managed to get some good results over the last week with 9^th in both the National A crit of Ilkley GP and overall at the Junior Kingdom Classic in Scotland with a 7^th and 14^th on the two stages up there.

  

  Ilkley was a real fun hit out with some explosive and fast racing last Wednesday evening. A crash in front of me unfortunately prevented me getting in to the winning break and after repeatedly trying I was unable to either get away or bring the front riders back. This was frustrating as after trying repeatedly to get away, I then ended up missing the attack that managed to take the final spot on the podium but I was still pleased to finish 2^nd in the bunch sprint and 9^th on the day.

  

   Spokes was equally as good where I firstly took 7^th on the stage 1 summit finish on the same time as 5^th & 6^th after a small sprint occurred from the main group at the top. I had planned to just conserve as much energy as possible to then try and have the best possible legs for key climb to the line, but in doing so a small group of 4 riders were able to stay away as they were just given a little too much going into the final climb. This was still a good result however and left things all to play for on the next stage. Onstage 2 I decided to play things differently and was aggressive from the off, trying to get in moves to put pressure on the riders ahead of me. This resulted in me going away in a 2-up with my teammate Alex for a short while but it came to nothing. After being pretty tired after this I missed a split that occurred just before the final climb at 20km to go but thankfully I managed to bridge across on the climb to join this select group before the finish. We were about to catch the days break in the final 10km when a crash occurred in the group on a fast sector of road meaning that we lost time and momentum which unfortunately allowed the break to stay away and frustratingly left our group challenging for the minor placings. This also moved me down to 9^th on GC.

Representing Yorkshire at Cicle

 

Ilkley GP

June has been an extremely successful month for me and I am excited for a big block of International stage racing coming up in July in the Basque and Valromey tours. As well as this I will be racing the Bath RC Junior National round as well as the National Junior Championships in late July. Thanks to all who support me as always!