Warming up for the 82 mile race I wasn’t feeling tip top. Still ready to race but I was planning on racing conservatively, biding my time and even if I missed the break, getting into a chasing move towards the end. After getting my head kicked in by John Archibald and Alex Luhrs last week at Anderside Classic I did NOT want to repeat a full day breakaway. To ensure this didn’t happen, I sat towards the back third of the bunch as we set off.
Quite quickly a small group attacked and were brought back. While staying conservative, I did want to be slightly towards the front as it’s a little bit safer and easier to sit in the wheels. I got an opportunity to move up when John Archibald went casually around the group to the front. Just as he moved around my good pal Kieran Savage attacked on his own.
I was literally towards the front for maybe 5-10 seconds when John attacked. I knew how strong he was, so followed him immediately. We scooped up Kieran quickly and when I checked behind no one else had followed us. This move was exactly not what I wanted to do but now I was in this situation I decided to commit. I pulled strong, hard turns to establish the gap. John is such a powerhouse though, he was pulling humongous turns and the gap to the bunch just went out more and more.
We hadn’t been away for long when I spotted a chasing group quite close behind. I knew our effort was unsustainable and it would be extreme for us to hang on alone until the end. I was quite pleased when I saw them and knew it would make our day much easier. But of course I may not place as high.
However we were too strong for this group and they never made it to us; well one rider did. For the second week in a row I was joined in a long range break away by Alex Luhrs. He’d managed to bridge by himself. He’s also a powerhouse and once he teamed up with John, the time difference to the main group only went up.
We had a motorbike sit behind us and would intermittently give us time gaps, keeping us updated. Once the gap was over a minute I had to keep mentally fortified. An 80 mile break would require an unreal effort from me so I didn’t think about it. I just tried to make it a game to see how much energy I could save. I made a call not to check my bike computer except for one value, my average power. I ignored time spent riding, distance rode etc and just focused on the all important average. I can hold around 290-300w maximum for 3 hours, I’ve never done that much before but I’m sure I’d be capable to do that. For the first 20 minutes of the break I did 338 Watts and for the first hour I did 305 Watts. Those are pretty big numbers for me and I was very worried that I was going to blow and get dropped from the break.
To counter this, I kept on top of both hydration and nutrition. I ate quite a lot of food and several gels and even managed to make two trips to the team car to get more water bottles. It was actually quite easy to get more bottles, I could simply put my arm up alerting the car, which would then come forward and give me a new one. In all it would take about a minute.
From what I’ve heard since, there was no concerted chase effort and from my point of view the gap only ever went up. First one minute, then two and as we approached the final lap we were so far ahead of the rest of the race, the radio was out of range so we didn’t accurately know the time gap.
We were still all together as a quad but I could see the Ribble riders plotting to outclass us. Each time one of them pulled off they would have a quick discussion. Once I cottoned on to it, I spoke to Kieran to let him know we were about to get attacked soon.
Sure enough as we entered the final lap Alex attacked. I did the effort to close him down quickly and effectively but I was falling right into their trap. I was zugzwanged really and as soon as the gap was closed, actually slightly before I looked behind anticipating John to attack. Which he did. Once again exactly as the week before, I did an effort to close the gap to no avail.
It was such a deja vu; John just rode away from us. Within the next couple of kilometres Alex attacked again. I didn’t have the legs to follow immediately but had a quick discussion with Kieran and we agreed to pull minute long turns. While initially he got a gap, we worked smartly together and held the gap at about 10-15 seconds. We did not let the gap extend and gradually reeled him back in over the next few kilometers.
As soon as we caught him I attacked. I was hoping he would blow up and get dropped but he’s too strong and just sat on. Annoyingly he now refused to pull turns, allowing him to rest while Kieran and I worked. This was actually quite annoying because I was pretty fatigued by now and beginning to cramp up. He was already a better sprinter than me and by letting him rest it was just increasing his chances of beating me.
Regardless we worked to hold off the rest until the end and as we hit 1 kilometer to go I was in second wheel ready to sprint. We played a few games trying not to blink first but as we hit just under 200m to go Kieran mashed his gears and I went for it. I gave it my best sprint but just couldn’t hold it to the line. First Alex came around me and then with 20 meters to go, Kieran passed me.
I blinked first and blew it. My first real chance for a National B podium but 4th is my best result to date. An 80 mile break was humongous and I was really pleased that we won. We actually won by 4 minutes which is a huge gap, something like 3 kilometers.
While I may not have been the strongest there, I was smart. I followed the right move at the right time and worked cleverly whilst there. I tried to be as “fresh” as I could be to chase attacks in the last lap and then sprint at the end. I was definitely carried to the end by the Ribble riders but I had the form to help establish the gap, maintain the lead and then chase moves and sprint at the end. So something is going well!
Quite quickly a small group attacked and were brought back. While staying conservative, I did want to be slightly towards the front as it’s a little bit safer and easier to sit in the wheels. I got an opportunity to move up when John Archibald went casually around the group to the front. Just as he moved around my good pal Kieran Savage attacked on his own.
I was literally towards the front for maybe 5-10 seconds when John attacked. I knew how strong he was, so followed him immediately. We scooped up Kieran quickly and when I checked behind no one else had followed us. This move was exactly not what I wanted to do but now I was in this situation I decided to commit. I pulled strong, hard turns to establish the gap. John is such a powerhouse though, he was pulling humongous turns and the gap to the bunch just went out more and more.
We hadn’t been away for long when I spotted a chasing group quite close behind. I knew our effort was unsustainable and it would be extreme for us to hang on alone until the end. I was quite pleased when I saw them and knew it would make our day much easier. But of course I may not place as high.
However we were too strong for this group and they never made it to us; well one rider did. For the second week in a row I was joined in a long range break away by Alex Luhrs. He’d managed to bridge by himself. He’s also a powerhouse and once he teamed up with John, the time difference to the main group only went up.
We had a motorbike sit behind us and would intermittently give us time gaps, keeping us updated. Once the gap was over a minute I had to keep mentally fortified. An 80 mile break would require an unreal effort from me so I didn’t think about it. I just tried to make it a game to see how much energy I could save. I made a call not to check my bike computer except for one value, my average power. I ignored time spent riding, distance rode etc and just focused on the all important average. I can hold around 290-300w maximum for 3 hours, I’ve never done that much before but I’m sure I’d be capable to do that. For the first 20 minutes of the break I did 338 Watts and for the first hour I did 305 Watts. Those are pretty big numbers for me and I was very worried that I was going to blow and get dropped from the break.
To counter this, I kept on top of both hydration and nutrition. I ate quite a lot of food and several gels and even managed to make two trips to the team car to get more water bottles. It was actually quite easy to get more bottles, I could simply put my arm up alerting the car, which would then come forward and give me a new one. In all it would take about a minute.
From what I’ve heard since, there was no concerted chase effort and from my point of view the gap only ever went up. First one minute, then two and as we approached the final lap we were so far ahead of the rest of the race, the radio was out of range so we didn’t accurately know the time gap.
We were still all together as a quad but I could see the Ribble riders plotting to outclass us. Each time one of them pulled off they would have a quick discussion. Once I cottoned on to it, I spoke to Kieran to let him know we were about to get attacked soon.
Sure enough as we entered the final lap Alex attacked. I did the effort to close him down quickly and effectively but I was falling right into their trap. I was zugzwanged really and as soon as the gap was closed, actually slightly before I looked behind anticipating John to attack. Which he did. Once again exactly as the week before, I did an effort to close the gap to no avail.
It was such a deja vu; John just rode away from us. Within the next couple of kilometres Alex attacked again. I didn’t have the legs to follow immediately but had a quick discussion with Kieran and we agreed to pull minute long turns. While initially he got a gap, we worked smartly together and held the gap at about 10-15 seconds. We did not let the gap extend and gradually reeled him back in over the next few kilometers.
As soon as we caught him I attacked. I was hoping he would blow up and get dropped but he’s too strong and just sat on. Annoyingly he now refused to pull turns, allowing him to rest while Kieran and I worked. This was actually quite annoying because I was pretty fatigued by now and beginning to cramp up. He was already a better sprinter than me and by letting him rest it was just increasing his chances of beating me.
Regardless we worked to hold off the rest until the end and as we hit 1 kilometer to go I was in second wheel ready to sprint. We played a few games trying not to blink first but as we hit just under 200m to go Kieran mashed his gears and I went for it. I gave it my best sprint but just couldn’t hold it to the line. First Alex came around me and then with 20 meters to go, Kieran passed me.
I blinked first and blew it. My first real chance for a National B podium but 4th is my best result to date. An 80 mile break was humongous and I was really pleased that we won. We actually won by 4 minutes which is a huge gap, something like 3 kilometers.
While I may not have been the strongest there, I was smart. I followed the right move at the right time and worked cleverly whilst there. I tried to be as “fresh” as I could be to chase attacks in the last lap and then sprint at the end. I was definitely carried to the end by the Ribble riders but I had the form to help establish the gap, maintain the lead and then chase moves and sprint at the end. So something is going well!