A busy month of July

 July has been a very busy month for me and an enjoyable one also having raced in Spain, France and Britain over the four weeks. The month started in the Bizkaiko Itzulia Tour (Jr Tour of the Basque Country), a race that I really enjoyed last year and one that I had been very much looking forward to this season. Unfortunately, after a positive stat on stage 1 managing to gain time on the peloton things didn’t continue in this way as I suffered with a bit of illness which lead to me not progressing in this four day stage race as I would have liked. I finished this race in 14^th overall which although not terrible, wasn’t what I was hoping to achieve.

Basque Country

    My team of HMT Hospitals Giant then went on to the Valromey Jr UCI 2.1 Tour in the French alps immediately after this which was by far the biggest and hardest race that I had ever done. This race was extremely well organised with a publicity caravan as well as one of the most difficult parcours in the Junior calendar. I finished this race in 22^nd overall after mistakes were made such as missing the main break on stage 1 and then losing time in the Time Trial, an area that I need to improve further in order to perform better in these varied stage races. I did however manage to pick up a 7^th place on Stage 2, taking 4^th from the bunch sprint after a real hilly and hard day out in the Alps. The final stage of the Valromey Tour contained 4x Category 1 climbs where I was pleased to stay in the lead split which certainly boosted my confidence knowing that I could climb with the best riders in Europe on the most difficult of Parcours also.

  

     I then came home after this big bloc of racing on the continent and went straight into the Bath RC National series round near Milton Keynes. Unfortunately I was still a little fatigued from this long journey I believe so didn’t have the legs to really attack the race as I would have liked, but nevertheless I still gave it a good go and was pleased with the process of how I raced.

   

Family support

    My month of racing in July finished yesterday with the National Junior Championships in Bassingham near Lincoln on an extremely flat course in some drizzly weather. This race was a little frustrating as I felt as though I had some good legs but ultimately missed the break leaving me in no position to fight for a good result. I didn’t give up however and continued giving it everything until the end to make the day a good session still in the run up to some more big races in August.

  

   My next races coming up in August are the Jr Vuelta a Pamplona in Spain, La Philippe Gilbert Jrs in Belgium and the Jr Tour of Wales in Britain.

  

   

 Thanks to everyone for all the support as always!