The good, the bad and the downright unlucky

Since my last blog it's been a funny old few weeks; I've had 3 2nd places (all be it midweek crits) one of which by 0.015 seconds, two more punctures and a wonky saddle. That said May started off surprisingly well, I say surprisingly well but I've been doing efforts it training till I'm dizzy and dumb so it's about time I got a decent result in a Nat B. I headed down to Milton Keynes Friday 2nd May early afternoon for stage 1 of the Phil Corley 3 day; a crit round Milton Keynes Bowl. I did my best to stay near the front as there were 80+ guys starting and I'd never ridden the circuit so I didn't want to risk it in case there were any splits. As it happens the sheer pace (26.6mph ave) and nature of the circuit (twisty as fook!) resulted in the peloton effectively splitting in two, I finished 9th and more importantly didn't lose any time. Garmin File.

Afterwards I headed over towards Bedford to stay with a sponsor and good friend from Exsa who's family had kindly agreed to put up with me for the weekend. The next day was a split day; roughly a 100km road race in the morning then an 8km TTT in the afternoon. The morning RR went well, I made the break early on with around 8 others and that then swelled to 15, the two big teams; Corley and Pedal Heaven, both had 3 guys so it was happy days. That said they weren't massively keen on driving it and as you'd imagine there were a fair few getting a free ride, despite my attempts to physically push them into line. In hindsight I probably should have sat on too but you know what it's like; "If I don't work it'll all be over and we'll be doomed!!" so naturally I kept taping through. As expected a lad who hadn't put his nose in the wind all race attacked with 1 to go (4km) and snook the win. I crossed the line 4th in the break to take 5th for the stage, could be worse I could've sat on all morning and rolled 13th! Garmin File.

Stage 2

Stage 3 saw myself and my composite team from BikeBox Alan take to the startline at 2:30 for 2 laps (8km) of the morning's RR course. We'd never ridden together as a team, let alone a TTT as a group, so all things considered I was pleasantly surprised to see we clocked the 3rd fastest time. This put me 6th on GC going into the final road stage on Sunday, just 17 seconds off the yellow jersey. Garmin File. 

The final stage was a grim affair, I think when I packed my kit bag in the morning I forget to pack my legs. 135km of hot, rolling, grippy racing with a chaotic bunch kick to boot, marvellous! The result was that after finishing 15th in the mad dash for the line behind Jacob Tipper (AGAIN!) I managed to hold onto 6th on GC which I was more than happy with. At one point with a strong break of 8 or so up the road with a couple of minutes and my feeble inability to press hard on the pedals that my GC place was all but gone but alas Corley did a super job of pulling it all back together, cheers boyz. Garmin File.

Afterwards I collected my dosh and headed back to the Haynes household for a shower, meal and some more cookies before driving back up North. All in all a great weekend racing in the sun. Lately however it's been a little hit and miss; good legs but a bad head meant a disappointing 21st in the Old Hutton CDNW, and a good head but bad legs meant another less than satisfying result in the John May Mem (somewhere top 20). NW Champs were going fairly well, a brutal race round the Oakenclough RR circuit (as hilly as it sounds) saw the big boys break away early but I was in a group of 6 behind and on for a top 10 until all the air inside my tyre decided it didn't want to be there anymore, race over. On the upside training is going well and I've got some good races coming up; the Shrewsbury Grand Prix this Sunday (followed by a reunion with my good friend Christopher Wilkinson), then Bole Hill RR (or as I call it, the Oh Good Grief RR) the following Sunday. After that it's the Holme Valley 2-day where I'm looking for a good ride then it off to Belgium! Happy days!! 

I should hopefully get another post bashed out before then, 'oh goodie' I hear you murmur, as ever thanks for reading and there's a few photos from the last months antics below, cheers,

Tom

Old Hutton RR, trying to chase Pros (bad head).

Dave (BikeBox Manager):
 "you've got a big stem so they'll fit on there" cheers mate.

Shiny new lace ups courtesy of Ste and G Cummings, heroes.

Out training.

I take him out most Wednesdays just to get him out the house.

Jodrell Bank Cafe stop with the strong jongens.
(lad on right just won a round of the feckin' Tour Series ha! Baller)

NW Champs.