First Blog- July so far

I have set up this blog site to help anyone who is interested in seeing how I am doing with my cycling and what kind of stuff I am up to.

This last month of July has been good for racing but also pretty relaxing. I took part in the European Junior Road Race Championships held in Arona, Italy. I arrived Thursday 3rd for the Race on the 6th. The weather for the 2 days preceding the race was beautiful at around 30 degrees however come the Sunday, the heavens opened.

4 hours of heavy rain and thunderstorms coincided with our 9 am start time and as we were lining up, we were all already soaked and shivering. We started at the back so I spent the first half lap moving to the front. It was pretty crazy as most people couldn't see (I was alright with my new glasses), and were swerving everywhere. The course had a big climb in and as we hit it my legs started to feel pretty poor. To add to my problems my back brake pulled through making the technical descents interesting for the rest of the race.

With just my front brake I was losing time on the descents and having to chase back on on the flat. I managed to get to the front a few times but didn't have the legs to do much. Coming into the last lap of the 130 k race, I was still in the severely reduced peleton however I managed to skip my chain on the last climb so I had to chase back on. I watched a ukrainian go straight into a ravine in front of me so I kept it steady knowing I was out of the race.

Luke Rowe did a great ride coming 2nd (a frenchman won it) with some help from Mark. I was pretty useless and the other guys all crashed out or had mechanicals. I ended up 60th, 3 minutes down on the leaders.

For the next week I got to have a desperately needed rest week which I spent fixing bikes and catching up on schoolwork I had to do. I also started driving now that I am 17 in my tasteful Nissan Micra.

I did Hillingdon on Tuesday 15th after doing a long training ride in the morning. I felt ok though and managed to get away in the closing laps with 7 other guys. I was planning on counter- attacking Colin Roshier's move however he never came back and I came 3rd in the sprint. At least 4th is an improvement of 45th that I got last time I rode.

This weekend I am doing a race over in Belgium. I am not sure which one but it will be in West Flanders. The following weekend I will be over in Germany for the Junior Rundfahrt stage race with the GB team (http://www.international-eniedersachsen-rundfahrt.com/html/rundfahrt_2006.html). Then its Belgium again and the National Road Race Championships which is one of my main goals.

This evening though I have got a 18.2 mile time trial down in Chertsey which should be painful!

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