What a mad one I was on today. My legs finally came good; I've shed last week's illness and freshened up for my first big goal of the year. We were treated to scorching temperatures for this year's Lancaster Grand Prix. Boy was it hot. I love a sunny ride but racing 139 other guys over 100 miles and 2700m of climbing on near enough 30 degrees isn't quite the same.
I've been prepping hard for this race and my big goal was a top 30 placing. The course is 10 laps, each with 3 climbs of varying difficulty. They are closely spaced with very little time for recovery. It's just hard all day, you are either climbing or positioning for the next climb. The key section is the KOM climb which comes straight after a steep descent, if you are out of position here you waste so much energy chasing back over the top.
As usual I was towards the back for the first lap and a strong breakaway group got away. The peloton let them get a bit of a gap before chasing but the pace was pretty high. Starts at these major races are always technical with too many fresh riders fighting for position and it's not my favourite thing. Often it's a case of getting past the first 30 minutes before settling down to race properly.
I manged to use my teammate Hefin to bring me to the front for the KOM climb on the second lap. It was great actually, I was really well positioned and was able to cruise up there with limited stress. I'm pretty sure I crested in 3rd place, so my positioning that lap was pretty good!
We carried on like this for another lap, I slipped back a few places and saw Wiv Sungod assemble en masse at the base of the KOM climb and knew it was game on. They shredded the climb and the peloton capitulated. I was about 40th place or so but the group started to splinter and the leaders were getting away.
I saw the gap go, knew that was the move and absolutely spanked it across to catch them. I couldn't miss that move. I had to pull out an effort of 525W for 90 seconds here but I caught the back of them just before the top. The pace didn't relent there however. Wiv Sungod kept hammering the front and we were fully lined out. Weaker riders in front of me started to lose the wheel with the pace so I jumped around them and made it right to the front for the descent.
When I checked back there were about 25 people left! I was all lined up to take a bottle from Louise at the top of this climb when my teammate Jacques yeeted across the road and took it from me! I was fuming (and thirsty) but managed to get one from Kathy further on. He didn't even know what he'd done until after ahah!
We hit the feed zone climb proper with Wiv Sungod maintaining a high pace. Right as we crested Jake Scott and another Sungod rider got away. This was now the start of 2 infernal laps of attacks. My legs felt amazing and I knew I was fit enough to get into a chase group, it was just a matter of finding the right one.
I honestly tried so hard for over 2 laps. I kept positioned right at the front, followed moves, attacked, got into various chase groups but nothing was working. One in particular included me, Toby Barnes, Josh Whitehead, Finn Crocket and a Saint Piran rider. We were riding absolutely nails but someone chased us back. I honestly thought that was the move. Probably the top 3 strongest riders left in my group and we were riding SO HARD. There was no way I could do that for 2 more hours but we only had a 40 second gap to close to the leaders. We even got a 30 second gap on the group behind but still got caught.
This cost me a lot of energy, after 50 minutes averaging over 270W I needed to rest or I was going to blow. Typically, this was when the actual chase group got away (including all the riders just mentioned excluding me). I saw it go, but was too far back and I just couldn't jump across quick enough.
Once they went it was the death knell for our group fighting for the win. We just didn't have the firepower to bring anyone ahead back and a lot of riders were on their last legs. Irritatingly I still felt mint so kept plugging away trying to get into a chase group. There were only 15 up the road and if I could get away I might be able to get into that elusive top 20.
We ticked off lap after lap and then with 3 to go, Jacques attacked and nobody went with him. I did not envy him one bit. He was dangling out there just 15 seconds ahead in no mans land. Even guys from other teams were laughing with me about his peril. All credit to him however, we eased chasing, he pressed on and actually held on for 16th place. Unreal!
Jacques being out there solo gave me an excuse not to assist with the chase. I just patrolled at the front, I did not want a "soft" attack to get away with me not in it. As we approached the KOM climb with just over 2 laps to go, I spoke to a couple of guys I knew were strong and said "let rail this climb, get a chase group, work together and ride it home". I had various responses which can be boiled down to "I would if I could".
Alas, as we hit the climb, I rode it hard at over 400W but by the top I had distanced everyone and had no one strong enough to commit to working with me. A couple caught me but it didn't pan out as I hoped and it signified our group was going to have to sprint it out at the end. I think each of these harder efforts ended up thinning riders from our group. From what started at approximately 40-50 (after some dropped riders caught back up) there were 15 left at the end.
On the last lap I tried again to get away. I thought I'd hit the nail on the head with one move. I got way with a Wheelbase rider and we got a small gap. I was riding hard but when he pulled turns he was clearly absolutely gassed and we got reeled back in after a couple of minutes. I think they sensed the danger and chased me back.
We hit the KOM for the final time and it was all or nothing. I went really hard, hit over 500W for the first 30 seconds and held on to crest in second place just behind Adam Mitchell. It was lined out and riders were getting spat but on the flat section after the climb we didn't have the legs to sustain the pace and quite a few riders got back in.
Now it was time to sprint. I knew positioning was key, it's quite a narrow technical finish and is hard to overtake so it's important to start at the front. I got a bit boxed and then thought it was the first right turn when it was the second so lost my position at the front.
When the sprint kicked off with 200m to go, I was heavily boxed in and just had to follow. I actually hit 970W in my sprint which is great after nearly four hours, but I was squeezed out of a really good placing with poor positioning. Still, I was fighting for 17th place and finished 29th, my best ever Prem placing. Even more impressive when there were only 34 finishers. It was an insane day but I'm just so pleased I was able to race so well. Slightly miffed to not get into the move that caught the breakaway but I had the fitness to be able to try.
Big shout out to the team today for giving me so many bottles. I took one pretty much every lap and I swear that's why I could cope with the sizzling sun. A highlight was taking one from the team car which had been in the cool box. I wasn't expecting it to be quite as cold and got that freeze shock one gets when they jump into cold water when I poured it on my head.
It was also great to have spectators shower us with a hose. It was very refreshing and appreciated.
Isle of Mann Grand Prix next weekend, lets hope my legs are as good as today.
Salty
Bonus by the Numbers It was a big day in all with 285TSS, 3300kJ, a normalised power of 300W for the entire race but 320W for the first 2 hours. The actual peak efforts weren't monumental (560W for 60s, 370W for 5 minutes, 320W for 10 minutes)but it was the repetition of these efforts which made the difference, and don't forget I was trying to conserve energy. I did however spent 43 minutes at over 400W including 14 minutes over 500w!