My race program kicked off properly with the Surrey League race at Dunsfold, with my main objective being to win the morning Cat 3 race, before racing the afternoon Cat 2/3 race in support of my teammates.
However my morning ambitions were brought to a rather sudden stop when I punctured after just an hour of racing. At this point, I was ready to climb in the car and go home- I was pretty annoyed that I could work hard all winter just to have my race ruined by a small stone in my tyre. However a few guys from VC Meudon talked me into signing up for the afternoon race- and it was definitely worth it.
As I didn't have the time or equipment with me to change a tyre on my race bike, I pulled my training bike out of the car and started to warm up on that. It only took me a few seconds to figure out something was wrong- I had changed my position on my race bike while I was out in Majorca, and hadn't had the opportunity to change my training bike to match. After a few minutes tweaking the bike, I got in a speedy warmup and I was ready to race. Then, two and a half hours later, I was crossing the finish line with my hands in the air.
In all honesty, there's not much to write about during the actual race- three riders (including myself) got away, and we just stayed there, always lingering 30-40 seconds ahead of the peloton. It wasn't until the last lap that I really considered we were going to win, and after 100km of riding on the limit there was no way I was finishing second. I clung to Stuart Bettis' (my breakaway partner) wheel on the last kick up to the finish, before putting everything I had into a few pedal strokes to pass him before the line, celebrating with around 60m to go. I was absolutely ecstatic- after the disappointments of 2013, this was exactly how I wanted my year to start.
Taking 2nd place at Hillingdon, sprinting from a 12 man split. |
However, in a weird way, it's left me even more motivated for my next event, the SERRL Spring Stage Race. I hate to have opportunities taken from me by "bad luck", whether it's puncturing, suffering from injury, or simply missing a winning break in a road race. But from what I've found so far this year, the harder I work, the luckier I seem to get.
Celebrating my first win of 2014 at Dunsfold, after a 100km breakaway. Photo by www.themomentimages.com |