Mallorca Sun

With the first third of the season completed now is a good time to get some sunny miles in the legs & reflect on my early season ready for the big races ahead.

Its fair to say that my form has been patchy and the early season highlight has been 7th place at the Drummond Trophy, an 80 mile 9 man break including teammate Tom Stewart and Tour of Reservoir winner Evan Oliphant(Team Raleigh).

Lincoln GP

The Premier Calendars have been a big step up for me and I had personally hoped for better rides in them but a few weeks in Mallorca should bring me good legs and get me focused for the next four Premier Calender races and the National road and track champs, so watch this space.

This weekend I will be riding the North West Regional Champs on the Fylde coast then I'll be in the hills of Mallorca.
I'll keep you posted.

Sam

Learning Curve

The weekend saw the team ride the first Premier Calender of the year. A serious learning curve for me with 130 starters and all the top UK teams but all good racing in the legs for the rest of the season.

Stage 1

Saturday morning we met the team at race HQ in Blanchland, Northumberland for the first stage of, the Tour of Reservoir. 

A later start at 11:50 meant a good warm up and a relaxed morning but that was soon turned around as the "neutralised" section was full on on both days. The first stage started with a 3 mile uphill section onto the moors, I was too far back and struggled to move up through the group. Up on the moors we hit a very strong crosswind and the group was lined out, gaps opened up and a 14 man group was away.

Sportscover were represented though, Tom Stewart had made the break after a recent string of top ten results and a win, he is on top form at the minute and definitely turned a few heads after sprinting to 4th, just missing out on a podium place decided by a photo finish.

I ended up in no mans land chasing the second group on my own for a lap when I was caught by the group behind and finished with the peloton well down on the leaders.

Stage 1 - 4th Place

Basically the same thing happened on Sunday in the neutralised section with few crashes thrown in as well, whoever made it to the front stayed there and once again a very strong crosswind section made gaps open up and a crash saw the race split for good.

Tom was once again on top form and had made the break and in the sprint came 5th securing his position as 4th overall by just 1 second, for a full time university student going up against full time pros Tom's definitely capable of winning these in the near future.

Stage 2 - 5th Place

This weekend myself and Tom are racing the Nigel Meason 2 Day near Northampton, a 3 mile time trial followed by a 63 mile road race on the Saturday and a 73 mile road race on Sunday. 

Photos courtesy of Larry Hickmott

Sam