Polka Dots in Bretagne

Tour de Bretagne

So last week saw me off to France to race what is one of Wales Racing Academy’s highest level races of our season, the tour de Bretagne. All of us were pretty nervous but really excited to be exposed to such a high level of competition. There was an element of heading into the unknown against this competition.

Personally, I was really up for just getting stuck in and seeing what I could achieve as I was happy with my condition going into the race.

tour de Bretagne in brief

This is a 7 day UCI 2.2 stage race. With the list of teams entered incredibly strong being either hardened, continental level or the cream of the crop world tour development teams. The tour was also aired on french national TV.

Heading into the first stage, the weather was pretty inclement with pouring rain and a fairly strong wind off the sea. My goal of the day here was to get up the road which I succeeded in very early on. I was brought back after around an hour but later in the stage I claimed some first category mountain points which put me in the polka dot jersey.  I was really pleased with this! 

Then onto stage 2 with the weather still being pretty grim I managed to some how slope off into the break of the day. This enabled me to gain plenty of valuable mountain points to distance myself from my rivals in the KOM competition. This was a long day out front with my 2 break away companions. We lasted out front for 150km so it was a taxing day on the legs.

Heading into the remaining stages of the tour now I was in a tricky situation as I was only 8 secs back on the general classification and I had a big white and red target on my back so wasn’t allowed much leeway to go on the attack.

 This made gaining points to retain my jersey pretty tricky. I tried my best to pick up some minor points where I could but with riders sloping up the road gaining the maximum points, this was a tough ask. And after 4 days in the jersey, I was dethroned. Just to add, on the day I lost the jersey, me and the rest of the team did everything in our power to keep the jersey and to bring back danger men. It was a super tough ask and eventually we were done over. It was a little gutting but we did everything in our power to hold it. I was made up with how selfless the lads were for me so the favour will definitely be re-paid further into the season.

The last few days I tried to ride very aggressively again to gain points back to re-gain the jersey but it just didn’t happen. I came home second in the King of the mountains jersey just 6 points off the eventual winner. On the last day I had a pretty unfortunate mechanical putting me out of any contention of the dying embers of the race. 

I pressed on hard to the finish to complete what was on the whole a great weeks racing in Brittany. Now onwards to the next races with the form hopefully being furthered by

racing at such a high level.

It was great to have plenty of support for us welsh boys roadside from both Bretagne residents and Welsh alike. Also got to add a big thanks to everyone who messaged me support throughout the week I really appreciated it!

Totnes and Klondike

Racing season is now well under way. The last two weekends have been spent on the road. First up was Totnes - 2 day stage Race followed by Klondike the first National Series race of the year.

Totnes
After a pretty savage hill-climb up Haytor I finished in the bridesmaids slot to Steve Lampier of St Piran by the narrowest of margins (2 tenths of a second...). The next 2 days, me and the team tried hard to gain an inch on 'Lamps' but it wasn't to be. I finished up 2nd on GC after the 3 races. Teammate Josh took a 2nd in the crit and a 3rd in the final stage. Good weekend riding by all of the team. This set me up nicely going into Klondike the following weekend.

Klondike
It was an attritional but controlled day for the most part until the last hour when a flurry of attacks occurred. The first attack occurred up the Saltburn bank which was a short but punchy kick off the seafront. This split the race to bits!  From then on in there was a constant wave of attacks whittling down the field until there was a select few remaining to contest the win. I remained with the leaders through the series of big moves until my legs completely fell over with about 14k to go. It was survival mode until the finish when I rolled in 24th. There were positives and negatives to take from this race. Digging so deep to stay with the moves until I was no longer able. I was disappointed not to be able to stay with these riders to get a result. This will have done the legs some good. Onwards now to the upcoming races.

Next up is the Tour of Bretagne which I'm very much looking forward to. The Race starts on 25th April and it's 7 tough stages with the highest level of U23s and conti riders in Europe competing.

Kicking off 2019 'bit late...'

Sorry guys it’s been far too long since I’ve kept you in the loop of what I’m up to. I’ll kick things off from the start of 2019 where I headed off to Girona to get some good consistent training in the bank to take into the rest of the season. I had a great time out there riding with a good group of lads and I had a fair bit off fun off the bike there too. On a rest day, I had a super cool day out in Barcelona looking round the Sagrada Famila. Massive thanks has to go to Sophie for putting up with me in Girona and making the stay ace. 

I got back to Wales in early February to what was a ‘mini heatwave’....well for the U.K. anyway. It was good to get training with the Wales Racing Academy boys once again with some grippy weekly group rides where Rob tested us, whatever the weather! So I managed to continue some good quality training heading into the first few Nat B’s of the year. My legs were feeling good in these but I was a bit race rusty. 

Last weekend saw the Betty Pharaoh Memorial Road Race which had a stacked field of conti riders along with other strong guys. I was real chuffed to come away with 2nd place to Connor Swift, the current national road race champion,especially on local roads. 

I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season with the team as we’ve got a great European race calendar that’s been put together. 

Promise I’ll keep the updates more frequent from now onwards into the race season.

End of Road Season round-up

Since the last blog I've been here, there and everywhere....

My last race in the UK was The Ryedale GP in Yorkshire. All the elements were thrown at us on this day - just atrocious conditions. I spent the majority of the day riding between the break and the bunch with good mate Reece Wood and Lawrence Carpenter. Reece and I were discussing in the race how  different this was to where we started our year together in Sunny Girona.! However, frustratingly we were reeled in by Canyon....I finished this race a little disappointed as my legs had felt good.

After a tough Training camp with the Academy and the Wales Juniors I headed to Pembrey to wish Phil Jones MBE and James Golding good luck as they set off on the first leg of the 'Tour of Britain 1 Day Ahead' Challenge. I was accompanied by my teammate Ranggar Roberts and Rob Partridge. It was good to support their cause and to be in Pembrey 1 day ahead of the Tour of Britain.

A week later, I headed out to the last race of the season - The Olympias Tour in The Netherlands. It was an International Race with 10 Nationalities competing including The Wales Racing Academy.

To be honest with you, I cant tell you too much about this race as I spent most of it chewing my bar tape in the ferocious crosswinds edging nearer and nearer to the gutter... The parkours didn't suit me personally but I was out there mostly to help support Rhys and Joe in the mental 'bunch kicks'. All in all, it was a successful race for the team with a rider in the top 20 in 5 out of 7 stages. For me personally, I was most pleased with my stage 5A result getting away with a select group and getting 13th on the stage. However, right at the back end of the race I came down with a cold so wasn't feeling 100% and ended up DNFing on the last stage. A bit of a downer to end the season on. This race although not suited to my dynamic as a rider, I took a fair few lessons from it to roll into 2019.

On that note, this is my 2018 road season finito. It's been a smooth year on the whole with only a few rough patches. I am very ready for a bit of 'down' time now before the build into next season.

I'd once again like to thank the Academy for the fantastic calendar they have provided us with. Also a big thanks has to go to Rob who has been Epic in getting me in shape and keeping me on track during the year.

Geraint's homecoming/ Welsh Champs

I'm on track, actually getting the blogs out ahead of schedule for once!

Photo by Huw Fairclough

 Last week I was fortunate enough to be involved in the Geraint Thomas 'home coming'. This was pretty special and I was super happy about being approached to be part of the day. I didn't know what to expect with regards to turn-out as I wasn't sure how knowledgeable the general public would be about Geraint's Tour de France achievements. I was blown away by the 8000 odd people that showed up in Cardiff to welcome G home. It was nice to see how widely recognised G has made the sport of cycling in both Wales and the UK. From my position, personally, it's very inspirational and shows what's possible when you put the hard yards in. This was proven even more so after riding with G a few weeks prior to the Tour when he had to diet so hard whilst training in order to get down to the weight needed to ride the Tour. He wasn't even going in as the leader then; its just crazy to see the difference now. He's definitely the highest achieving Welsh Sportsman in my opinion.

Photo by Huw Fairclough

In other news, personally, I have been doing a fair few local TT's and the local Llandow circuit race. I am happy to keep up my 100% record at Llandow this season (be it only racing here twice....). These local races are just good for the confidence and the condition ahead of the last push to the end of this season with Rydale and The Olympias Tour on the horizon.

 On the weekend I raced the welsh championships up in mid-Wales with the Time Trial on Saturday and the Road Race on Sunday. Both days featured fairly rolling courses which I enjoyed. Thanks to Will Pring, the organizer and his team, for putting on these events as they provided great racing on both days. I was happy with my performance on Saturday in the TT coming away with 4th place behind some solid TT specialists. Big well done to George Evans winning convincingly. Then Sunday proved to be an exciting Road Race with plenty of attacks and groups getting up the road. Once again I was happy with my performance. With 2 laps remaining I bridged across to the winning move with Gruff Lewis. Then helped to wear the group down on the last climb to try to play to my strengths.

Photo by Gary Main

I attacked right at the end within the last 1km only to get caught on the line and pushed down to 3rd place (it needed a photo-finish to establish who had won 2nd.......).

 All in all, I'm really happy with my race and it bodes well once again for the remainder of the season.

I shall update you once again after the last few races are finished.

Summer roundup

I appreciate it's been a little while since the last update. There has been plenty of racing including crits, time trials and a few National Road series. To start off with, after the Belgium racing we headed back up to the north east of England yet again for the Tour of the Reservoir. This was a bit of a disappointing race for me. It had been one of my targets but just didn't go to plan with 2 crashes and still carrying fatigue from Belgium. I felt a bit 'down' after this race but my morale quickly improved when Rob told us he had managed to get us a ride in Omloop Het Neiwsblad - a cobbled classic! With my legs feeling a bit more recovered I managed to get round the pounding of the cobbles and a pretty hot race in 51st place. This race was just a great experience to be a part of, even though I'm not exactly suited to cobbles...

Omloop Het Niewsblad

Next up, the team had a couple of weeks of criterium racing. I enjoyed racing these a fair bit as I just like railing corners (but not necessarily the horrible repeated kicks out of them...). My favourite crit out of these was Abergavenny. I have been racing at the annual Abergavenny Crits since my Youth days and the Town knows how to put on a fantastic Event. It's always a great atmosphere and I superseded my expectations in this Crit bagging a top 25.

Stockton Crit

Abergavenny 2010...

Abergavenny 2014.... 

 Another race that I really enjoyed over the last month was the local Llandow where I was pretty happy to take home the win. It was good to get stuck into such a short aggressive race. Then after this, it was back up to the North East yet again for a bit of a bizarre/cut short Stockton GP. It was a good race however trying to support teammate, Will in getting 13th, his best National result.

In recent weeks we've all had a good solid block of training including Time Trials. I've been very happy taking a few wins in these. It's just a good morale boost. It's also been great to be able to get some solid hours in on some great home roads to set up the last part of the season. The biggest ride of which was an epic 200+km loop including most of South Wales most iconic climbs.

I'm now looking forward to the racing in the coming weeks with Welsh champs and Rydale on the Horizon.

Finally I can't not mention this really....but a massive congratulations has to go to Geraint Thomas for a phenomenal and truly inspiring performance in winning the Tour de France...…..

Belgium Kermesse racing

On 5 June I travelled to Belgium with Wales Racing Academy for a bit of Kermesse Racing. On the trip were six riders, DS Rob Partridge and big Sam our soigneur. We were staying in a hostel in Nokere along with 3 Australians and an American rider.

The Academy had a heavy schedule with 7 races over the 9 day trip. However, on our easy rides we had the opportunity to check out some of the cobbled bergs from Flanders such as the Kwaremont. This was pretty cool.

Kermesse races are super popular in Belgium where you can find a race practically every day.Races are usually 90-140K. The race is a set distance and number of laps over an established Course. Very often though not always the Kermesse is held on the same day as a town festival. There is usually prize money for the top 20 finishers and often special prizes awarded during certain laps known as primes.

There are so many differences racing in Belgium and they become apparent even before the start. Locals bet on these races.... Before our first race the locals wanted to know whether we were a safe bet for their money! Our odds changed during the trip as I'll explain a little more in a minute. Other differences were closed roads, no parked cars, people lining the streets in towns, techno blasting over the PA system.... Overall a good atmosphere.

The courses on the whole were as flat as you can get with 90 degree turns and also cobbles - classic Belgium. These races are fast and the riders know how to fight for their position. Average speeds of 26- 30mph are the norm. Considering that sometimes the bunch was braking to about 15mph into corners, that average is high! Also in kermesse racing if you're out of contention, you're out of the race. A race official will wave a bulk of the field off the course before the riders finish the full distance.

It's fair to say that I'm not best suited to kermesse racing being small and better suited to lumpy terrain. I needed to be a fair few kgs heavier to be more competitive. In contrast, teammate Willo took home 2 wins and a second place. This was a great feeling for the Academy to get our first win after a lot of hard work over the season. After Will's first podium the locals were not able to get such a good return on us boys! It was also good to see James get two top 10s in the process of working for Will and also getting a 2nd place in the final race. This was the icing on the cake for the team.

Personally, although not best suited to this style of race I got stuck in aggressively and managed three top 20s. It was good to take myself out of my comfort zone to work on my weaknesses. I felt like I improved race by race.

Now home in Wales, I'm looking forward to racing the Tour of the Reservoir next weekend.


Pete