This weekend I had 2 EN (elite national races)
On Friday we took around a 3 hour trip to the the Centre region of France. Did a little training ride ready for Saturday and ate and slept plus got team helmets finally.
The Race was 150KMs on the cards with around, the first 50km flat then the rest was supposed to be "rolling hills"
I was feeling really good after good training and motor-pacing through the week. I was told before the race, Kieran don't ride in the first 50K and just follow moves. But I got to excited and was jumping around a bit and wasting precious energy that I could have used later on.....
So any way around the 40K mark some pressure started coming in the cross wind, I was a little way back but didnt panic I just waited for a little wave of riders to try and bridge the gap then bunched it down the gutter and got across.
After this it was pretty steady, but slowly the hills started coming and they wernt rolling really. With attacks coming on the climbs and across the tops of climbs etc the group soon got shredded to bits! I was starting to feel all the changes in pace, and I couldn't keep following moves on the climbs. I tried to get up the road a little to get a gap before some of the climbs.....But they kept coming. Eventual @110km once the front group was only 10 or less. I couldn't go with any more changes in speed on the climbs...and dropped the hand break big time ( I couldn't stay with and of the chase groups)
So ended up finally getting caught by the main group on the finish circuit after 30km solo...
Sundays Race....
I was told to Race hard for the first few laps to keep our best climber and freshest rider in good group position as long as possible. I did the best I could with the wind and tough climbs. After 65km when the pace ramped up to single file on the climb that was me. (80km in the bank)
Kudos to Sam Lindsay rolling a top 20 on a really tough day and tough course!
KH
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