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