British Championships and June

Hi everyone

My big races for over the past two months have been the British Elite & U23 Road Championships in Glasgow, the Beaumont GP Premier and then I rejoined my Spanish team mates of Opel Ibaigane to contest the mountain races of northern Spain. (Next blog for that here)

Setting off at the start

 After completing the 8 day Ras at the end of May (my blog here) I stayed in Scotland to recover and focus my training on my next goal, the British Champs in Glasgow.

Entering this years champs was a bit of unknown for me form wise. Also since the city centre circuit was very much different to what I had been used to racing in Spain, I tried to suit my training towards its short sharp accelerating nature. Having a chest infection and my allergies killing me at the time meant I felt terrible in a couple of Scottish races before it. It was good catching up and seeing friendly faces in them though. Luckily it rained over the weekend which helped me big time.

At the start line in Glasgow Green

It was great that such an important event was only 15 miles from my house and I was able to ride a traffic dodging recon of it...

A front line start made it a bit easier when the race went full pelt half a lap later. As expected, the world tour men turned the gas on and it didn't take long for riders to lose the wheel and gaps to appear.

Short but steep incline of Montrose Street

The world tour men ride away

When Cavendish, Millar and Team Sky rode away, the peleton slowed and more attacks started to get clear.

On the fourth time round through Glasgow Green, I felt strong and I attacked and rode half a lap myself till a group of 6 or 7 joined me. I wished I had gone earlier but my confidence in my ability was low and I didn't want to blow up by attacking earlier like I did the previous two years I have done the British.

But I was feeling good and pressed on with my group for most of the remainder of the race.

I attacked the peleton and rode in one of the chase groups for the rest of the race

I was still fighting it out for an U23 medal. However in the latter part of the race, my legs were cramping prematurely, a sign I hadn't fully got over my allergies and the medal slipped away.

I managed 25^th, one of the last few to get a place as the world tour guys blitzed the race. Proper inspirational seeing their power and ability.

David Millar 

I really liked the course on day. Surprisingly it suited me well. It’s tough, the corners and hills meant there was not much time to recover and was a wearing down process. The support through out the circuit was immense and hearing the home crowd each lap was amazing.

A week later I did the Beaumont GP, I felt stronger and fitter. I attacked many times and made the front split over the Ryals, the main climb of the day, but the UCI teams’ control over the race meant it eventually stayed together to finish in a downhill bunch gallop where I finished 19^th.

Two days later I left for Spain, here's blog for that... 

Thanks for reading

Robbie