The Ras

A couple of years ago I raced the Junior Tour of Ireland and really enjoyed the experience. When I saw that the Ras was on the Wales Racing Academy Calendar for 2018 I was well happy! The Ras certainly didn't disappoint....

The Ras is an eight day international Stage race around Southern Ireland. (By the way, the locals pronounce it like 'Sauce' but replacing 'S' with an 'R'..). This epic race began in 1953 and has a worldwide reputation of being a gruelling challenge in the International calendar. This year the race began in Drogheda and each day we raced to a different town or village staying in various hotels along the way. Varying from basic 3 man rooms, to some mint hotels. In Bantry I had a double room with a balcony overlooking the sea! Some of the scenery along the way was stunning too so I'm told; I just wish Id had the opportunity to admire it!

Racing for Wales Racing Academy were Sam and James Tillett, Dan Combe, Will Roberts and myself. We were supported by the A Team - Manager, Rob, Archie on spanners and Jodie our Soigneur.

It was a truly international line up with teams from Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, USA, GB and of course Ireland.

The first 2 days were flat sprint stages. However, a breakaway stayed away on the first stage with a swiss rider taking the win. This swiss rider stayed in yellow until the last stage. Stage 3 was the first GC test with 2 notable climbs in it. The swiss team were incredibly strong and controlled the race and this formed the pattern for the rest of the week. During this stage the race split and thankfully I was in the front split so moved up to 21st on GC. The next few days were undulating but controlled once again which meant each stage ended with a sprint finish. Throughout these days the lads did a brilliant job with getting in moves and protecting my GC position.

The penultimate stage was the toughest of the race. This is where I really needed to make my move to shoot myself up the GC. Early on in the stage a dangerous move went and I missed it. The lads then did a super strong chase to put me in a position to bridge across to the break. I managed to do so. This looked to be the move of the day which would stick . However,again the Swiss team split the race and brought a group of riders across to us. We had another crack up the climb to split the Group but sadly it wasn't to be...

Moving into the last stage what we thought was going to be a fairly simple day turned into a fight at the end. There was a massive turnaround of the GC standings with a Delta (Netherlands)rider snatching the overall from the Swiss by just 1 second! I ended up 13th on GC which I'm pretty happy with. I had a good crack at trying to gain a few more positions on the penultimate stage but it didn't quite pay off...

All in all I had an excellent week away with the Team. The organisation of this race was class and transfers between stages were next to nothing which made it easy going for both riders and staff. I would love to do the Ras again. I was super proud of how the lads helped me throughout the race. I'm now looking forward to travelling with the Team to Belgium in the next week or so.

I'll keep you updated.

Spring Cup Series / Team Launch

Team launch

I'm finally able to write about my 2018 team as we've now officially been launched. So to start off with, I have to give a massive thanks to our supporters/sponsors without whom our season of racing wouldn't be possible. It's probably a good idea to mention at this point who I'm actually racing for....Wales Racing Academy. We have a team of 7 riders headed up by Ex-Pro Rob Partridge, who is providing invaluable experience to aid our progression in the sport. I see this as a great stepping stone in my ambitions to become a professional bike rider. I'm already feeling the benefits of a solid and consistent winter of training under the wings of Rob. I don't like going too nerdy on numbers as its not really my style but to numerically put it, compared to May last year, I have improved my FTP (functional threshold power) by 55watts. To put it in non-numerical terms, in all ways I feel in a lot better place to get stuck into bike racing than I did last season. This brings me on to the next paragraph nicely.

Team Launch

Spring Cup Series

4 days after I returned from Australia I was on the road again. I was straight back into racing at the Cicle Classic in Rutland. This is a bit of a crazy race with many gravel sectors which makes the racing both exciting but unpredictable. In the Saturday recce I had 2 punctures and I was praying that this didn't happen during the race! I wanted to get myself up the road to try and avoid the dog fight and inevitable carnage that would unfold on the gravel sectors. Very early on in the race I attacked  and was joined by another 3 riders and thus the break was formed. It was a long and wearing day out hacking away with only 3 out of the 4 of us working. At one point we had a gap of almost 4 minutes but sadly we got caught by the bunch with 30km to go. By this point I had used up all of my coals and was running on fumes. My day was done but I took it as a bit of success getting the Academy's name out there and spending around 130km up the road.

In the Break for 130km at Cicle Classic

In the Break for 130km at Cicle Classic

In the Break for 130km at Cicle Classic

The Next race on the Calendar the following weekend was Klondike GP in Guisborough, North Yorkshire. This was a deceptively challenging course with no real flat, just up and down, little rises all day, with 2 key climbs on each lap. I rode this race a bit more conservatively than the last because it was more 'my cup of tea' with the nature of the course. To cut a long story short, with about an hours worth of racing to go, the break was caught and the front of the race ignited up the short hairpin climb of Saltburn. A group split over the top of this then continued to splinter all the way to the run in. I ended up finishing in 13th which I was pretty pleased with.

The final race in the Spring Cup series was Lincoln GP. This race is famous for its short steep cobbled climb in the run in to the finish. I was looking forward to the race but it didn't quite go to plan for me for a few reasons. Mainly I made a few tactical errors that made me use up a lot more energy than was ideal. Also my legs weren't entirely 'there' after a hard block of training in the week leading up to this. (This training was in preparation for my first big goal of the year which is the Ras in Ireland - an 8 day stage race). So in the end,

I just rolled in with the main bunch. That's racing!

Cobbles at Lincoln GP

Onwards to the Ras.....I shall keep you posted.


Pete