Time Flies By in the Yellow and Green 

Acht Van Bladel

June finished off with a trip to the Netherlands for the Acht Van Bladel UCI 2.1 stage race. Four stages over three days, with a few cobbled secteurs in the mix. I had raced this last year and loved it, mainly due to the lack of hills! 

The first stage was on the Friday evening, a 95km race with a few repeats of two long secteurs. It was a somewhat uneventful stage for a large portion of it, the only notable thing that happened to me was getting caught behind a crash and the usual long chase to get back on. Even that wasn’t that bad, as other crashes happened further up the road, meaning there was a big enough group chasing back on for me to sit at the back and save my legs. When the groups came back together, I was then able to focus on moving up to the front, ready for the inevitable sprint finish. The run in to the line was very tight and technical, with a 90-degree left with 300m to go. It wasn’t really about the sprint; it was positioning into those final few turns. I was further back than I wanted to be, but still finished a respectable 36^th out of the 160 starters. Now it was time to fuel and recover before Stage 2. 

Stage 2 was a point to point, with a few laps of a starting circuit around Lierop, before a long and fairly straight smash back to the finishing circuit in Bladel. The most eventful part of the stage was having to stop at a level crossing for a train to pass. Other than that, it was a pretty sedate stage, except from the usual crashes and insane sprints out of every corner. I finished 29^th, so very happy with my first UCI top 30! 

The next day saw another stage starting and finishing in Bladel, before an 8km Time Trial to finish off the weekend. Again, pan flat and with a dusting of cobbles to shake things up. The best thing to do is be at the front for as long as possible, especially coming onto the finish. I made sure I was somewhere near the front, and ended up 29^th again. Another top 30.  

I had run out of legs after the hard three previous stage, so during my time trial I just focussed on staying aero and giving what I had left. Thankfully it was a short one, so there wasn’t enough time for the wheels to completely fall off. I got round the course in just over 11 minutes, leaving me in 39^th on the stage and 34^th overall. My best ever result in a UCI! 

Junior Tour of Ireland

After this I set my sights on the Junior Tour of Ireland, a six-day stage race in Ennis, County Clare. Last year it rained on almost every stage, so hopefully we’d have better weather this year.  

The first stage was a 60km evening stage, with a cat 2 climb halfway round. The roads were pretty wide, and it was very easy to move up to the front. I made sure I was up there at the start of the climb, so I could slowly drift backwards on the way up. I was only just in contact over the top, with Ethan Storti looking after me. We moved back up to the front on the descent, and with 15km to go from the final hairpin, it was a long straight run in to the finish.

We had discussed starting a lead out from this corner to make sure all of our riders were in the right place coming into the final roundabout 5km out from the finish. As well as this, we wanted the stage win, and with that the yellow jersey. We all got up to the front and kept the pace high enough to stop any breakaways from escaping. In the last 3km, our riders pulled their final turns and then dropped away, leaving me with Reece and Ethan to guide me to the line in the last 500m. Reece did an incredible job to get the sprint up to speed, especially as he is one of the lighter riders, so a bunch finish will never suit him. Then with 300m to go, Ethan took over until with 200m to go his chain fell off. This worked out quite well as I was uhming and ahhing as to whether to come off his wheel then or leave it a bit later. The decision was made for me. Thankfully riders from other teams had opened up really early and I had a wheel to sit on until 100m to go, I came round and put my nose in the wind for the first time. From there, it was just maximum power all the way to the line. I came across the line with my arms in the air as winner of the first stage of the Quanta Capital Junior Tour of Ireland, and with that the yellow, green, and blue jerseys. This one meant a lot, as it showed what we could do when we worked as a team. 

The American team Hot Tubes finished 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th, so they were looking after my green and blue jerseys for the day, as well as the white jersey they’d won. This meant we all had targets on our backs and escaping the bunch would be difficult. It also meant bringing back any breakaways would be left to us and Hot Tubes. This made it difficult when the main breakaway for the day went up the road and contained four Hot Tubes riders, and one of ours. Not great and a lack of experience from the team, and some conflicting goals, meant that I lost my yellow jersey that day by four minutes, and my green jersey as well. Luckily, Tom finished 6^th on the stage, meaning we still had a rider in the top ten, and some hope of success in the General Classification.  

The next day was the Queen stage, containing four categorised climbs. Not easy but I navigated the first two climbs. I then made sure to get on the front and work hard putting Tom in the right place. He was up near the front coming into the main climb, the only Cat 1 of the race. That was the point I went backwards quite rapidly, but I was pleased to have done my job. I rolled in about ten minutes back and found out we had three riders in the top ten that day. 

Stage Four looked a lot flatter only containing two major climbs, the last summit was 40km from the finish meaning I had plenty of time to get myself back at the front. I spent the first 60km making sure Tom was in the right place on the crosswindy coastal road before taking my time up the climb and then getting back in on the descent. It was remarked that my skills when required in the convoy were quite good. It was a quick run into the finish and I knew whose wheel I wanted to be on. I found Ethan and let him guide me through until the final roundabout where I jumped on the back of the Canadian train. I started sprinting with 200m to go and saw a gap. However, before I got through it, it closed again with me squished in the middle. I had to get going again and rolled across the line in 7^th place and was happy to see fellow Englishman Nick Makin had taken the win from his breakaway.  

Stage Five was another hilly one. There was a flat 35km run in before six categorised climbs in the last 75km. Again, I sat on the front and guided Tom through the first flat section. We made sure to be near the front, as it rained for the first thirty minutes and the roads were very slippery. Our plan for the team was to take the fight to Hot Tubes which involved our climbers, Reece and Paul going as hard as they could up every climb and making Hot Tubes respond as they had done all race. This meant the back to back Cat 2 opening climbs saw me join the large grupetto, where I stayed all race with Ethan and Tom Pruett. We had a good laugh and rolled in comfortably in the time limit. Onto the next stage. 

Stage Six was a shorter stage which involved laps of a finishing circuit, which on paper looked flat but with day six legs and draggy roads, it proved anything but. I hung onto the bunch for as long as I could but with a lap to go my legs tightened up and I rolled in a little way off the back. After the finish there was a podium presentation where we found out Tom had finished third on GC, Charlie third on the stage, and us third in the Team Classification. Not bad for a small club from East London racing against professional American riders. 

Now, the focus was onto track nationals at the start of August, and then Fixed42 in Berlin. I will cover these in next month’s blog. Thank you very much for reading, and see you soon.  

Thanks go as always to the sponsors and the helpers of me and our team. A big shout out to this guy 👉 Ethan Storti also, what a wing man!

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