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7/30/2021 0 Comments July Race Round-upFinally, as the month draws to a close, its time to reflect on the past month of racing, training and travelling! My month of Racing kicked off in the Basque Country, then Belgium and I will be ending the month with a race here in the UK! I kicked the month of racing off on the 1st July at Bizkaiko XXVI Itzulia (Tour Of The Basque Country) The race is deemed prestigious and always attracts some of the worlds best climbers. In the past the likes of Jonathan Castroviejo, Mikel Landa and Remco Evenepoel took part in the race. I Think It is fair to say that I was going to be a bit out of my depth on the climbs, but I was ready and excited to get racing regardless of the outcome. The first stage was set to be a bit more of a punchy one but wasn't marked by anyone as a particularly difficult stage as if you look back on the past years it rarely split and usually ended in a bunch sprint. The first 10km consisted of one longer climb and then a descent onto the days circuit where we would do two laps. I knew I was going pretty well after the first climb so I sat in the front few places of the group with the idea of getting in a move. After studying the circuit before hand we had marked a potential key moment in the race where splits could occur. It was a tough climb, maybe five minutes in length, the road was super narrow and it led onto a techy descent. Sure enough the group split to pieces here but with all of my team mates still in the front group we were in an ideal position. The next climb was also pretty steep and had a KOM sprint on the top, here i managed to chip off the front with a few other riders but we were caught on top of the final climb of the circuit. The final climb was similar to the previous, approximately 1.5km on a dual carriageway and roughly 12%. From this point it was basically false flat descent until the finish line. Whilst descending the other riders were trying to rest up a little and so my team mate Yanis chipped off the front. I stayed in the wheels watching for chasers and followed one of the Spanish lads who was wanting to get across. I imagined the peloton would be all over this considering we already had yanis up the road but we managed to get a decent gap but I continued to play the game and not aid this rider in bridging the gap to yanis. Once we were together we didn't look back. it was the perfect scenario, two of us in the breakaway and due to us already living together we knew each others strengths weaknesses etc which helped a lot in the distribution of work load. We agreed that I would pull for Yanis due to his bigger capabilities on the climbs but if I was to make it over the final climb Yanis was going to work for me. To my surprise I got over the climb and picked up some KOM points in the process. However at this point the chase group were closing fast and our 2 minute gap had been brought down to just 30 seconds with 8km to go. We buried ourselves to keep it alive, and that was when bad luck struck, I hit a pothole which caused my chain to bounce off the cassette and jam in between my frame. I was absolutely gutted but tried not to stress and pull it out whilst continuing to ride which i did but I had lost too much time to the breakaway which had just got a pair of fresh legs in there in the form of the newly crowned Spanish national road and time trial champion so i ended up sitting up and waiting for the chasing group of 10 riders which included two of my team mates. In the end, the group of 10 never made it back to the front and finished 6 seconds short. Luckily for us Yanis picked up the win, I won the sprint for fourth and my two team mates were 5th and 7th. All in all a good day out despite my bad luck ! Going into stage 2 we held 4 jerseys in the team but it was all still to play for in the coming days! Stage 2 was one of two really hilly stages, with 95km and 1800m of elevation on the cards it was always going to be a tough day out and the efforts of the day before really did me no favours. I think I suffered from start to finish. I battled cramps for the final 30km, but managed to catch the yellow jersey group just as we entered the finish town after a big solo chase on the descents and the flat run in to the finish. In the end I finished 2 minutes down on the leaders and lost my lead in the sprints classification to someone in the breakaway. Although a tough day out for the jersey wearers of the team, the other two managed to get up there for 2nd place and a top 10 on the stage which was great! Day 3 of the tour consisted of a shorter race in the morning and a TT in the afternoon. With the fatigue setting in after a super tough stage 1 and 2 for me I switched my focus from stage wins to the blue Sprinters jersey and aiding my team mates on their ambitions for the race. Stage 3 was very short at just 65km. There were two intermediate sprints during this stage one at 7km and the second at 14km into the race so it was necessary that I was warmed up well to take these which I did very comfortably. This stage was possibly the easiest of the tour on paper but with just one difficulty in the form of a 4km climb this was ridden at the max by the favourites and I was distanced the final time up it. However after a great team performance in shutting down moves we managed to pick up our second stage win in three days and regained two jerseys back into the team. My jersey being the sprint jersey and yanis leading the points classification. From here it was all about recovery ahead of the time trial, Maximising recovery was essential due to the tough finish of the race. The 7.5km course started of into a false flat followed by a small technical descent onto a dual carriageway and finished up a brutal 15% street with the max gradient being around 20%. I went off well and had one of the fastest times but I had nothing to give on the climb, I was empty so just tried to hold on as best as I could and ended up 17th in that which may not look the best on paper but was a result I was reasonably happy with! The 4th and final day was going to be a tough one for us! With lots of goals to achieve our plan had to be executed perfectly! The stage was 100km with 1900m of climbing. The sprints were situated at the bottom of the descents of one of the climbs so for me it was essential that I was still in the group at the top of the climbs to set me up for the sprints. The team did a great job shutting down any attacks ensuring I got maximum points in the first two sprints which cemented my victory in the sprint classification. I was really grateful for the work they did for me to bring home this jersey. As soon as that was done the teams focus switched to the GC and getting Robin Donze up there fighting for the win! Unfortunately I was distanced on the penultimate climb but from what I was told the lads did a great job but just weren't able to make anything stick. Robin ended 5th on the stage and took 5th on GC too ! All in all a succesful 4 days for the team coming away with the Sprint Jersey, two stage wins, a second place, numerous top tens, 2nd Team GC, 5th Rider GC From the Mountains of The Basque Country we headed home for a few days of rest before heading out to the flat lands of Flanders for Menen-kemmel-Menen UCI 1.1 Personally I came into this race aiming for nothing other than the win. I was a big favourite for the race which is something i haven't had to deal with before on an international stage. Personally I didnt feel any pressure as I had confidence in myself and in my team. The race was 130km pan flat around a very twisty 10km circuit. I rode aggressively from the get go along with my team mates. We aimed to have a rider in every move. Me and Yanis knew we were on a bad day though due to having our second Vaccine just a few days prior to the race it was far from the ideal preparation. In the end my team mate Max Cushway had a great ride to get into the winning break on a course not suited to him and ended up 5th! I ended up 16th from a small group of 4 that was in between the main breakaway and the peloton. On paper its not a bad result but it wasn't the result I was there for which left me a little disappointed in my performance! After my race in Belgium I had a gap in my race Calendar, so I made the decision to head home for a couple of weeks to spend time with my family and friends. I hadn't been home since Christmas so it was great to be back! Since being back home I have been trying to keep my circle to the minimum but I have been able to get out with my club (Lancashire Road Club) from time to time which has been great fun! Its always a good laugh getting out with those lads and has been one thing I've missed whilst training out in France! I have done a few races whilst back home which was nice but the form hasn't been quite where i would have liked, but it is understandable due to the training I am doing at the moment. As these races aren't my goals for the season I chose to continue to train as I would normally. That being said it has been nice giving the Lancashire Road club Kit a run out, most recently being at the ELITE Cycle Racing National B road race. I ended up 1st junior and 23rd in the elites. I finished in the second group just in between the peloton and the main breakaway. I was pretty happy with that due to the 47kph average speed. On junior gears it gets tough riding at those speeds after 120km haha!
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