I raced Aberystwyth a few years ago with limited success, It was Ben Simmons who stole the day wearing the colours of Welsh Crit champion after a lead group of 3 got away owing to a crash on the neutralised lap. I picked up a single point for 10th despite being on relatively good form and later that night found out I'd got food poisoning. This year was markedly better, the interest from the Tour Series pulled a great crowd even for the 2/3/4 race. Some late alterations to the course due to high wind made for some technical and tight additions to an already twisty circuit.
Not being in the front 2 lines at the start meant you didn't make the cut. Then again not being on the start line 15 minutes before the advertised start time wasn't a great use to NFTO's John Wood and Matt Rowe as the race rolled away without them. The race blew apart from lap one with the leading group of 15 being whittled down to 11 come the final 5 laps. Had the commentator not got involved in the lap count that evening the results would have been very different. Celebrations from one of the West Wales Racing Team turned out to be premature and he was swallowed by the bunch only for the order to be shaken up again before the real finish. I'm kicking myself a little, I watched a perfectly good gap appear and disappear up the left hand side of the bunch on the seafront just before the final corner. I'm honestly not sure if it was lack of will or lack of legs as the previous 40 minute swing fest took it's toll on my upper body so much I'm not sure I could have sprinted at all. So a deserved 11th place is all I'm getting from a frenzied 3 hour drive and a poor warm up.
The Calender for the next 2 months is looking pretty intense. Despite working full time I've managed to wangle 5-days of work during June to compete in the Ras De Cymru, truth be told I'm hitting it in better form than I ever have before and all I have to improve on is near dead last finish from last years sorry attempt. Surrounding the 5-day is my first ever premier calender race in the Grand Prix of Wales which, with any luck, I'll be racing with the new and improved Josh Lawless fresh from Brittany. Along with the British National Circuit race Championships, Welsh Road Race Championships (massive thank you to Hannah Pole for organising the event and congratulation on finding us a new course to ride it on, I know it's hard finding courses now-a-days and we all appreciate it.) and a handful of E/1/2/3 or 2/3/4 races through June. Should be a right laugh.
