| Quick Links to 08 Race Progress: | Tom Stockdale | James Stout |
I raced on Thursday 24 July, the day of my 16th birthday, at Castle Combe, which is a handicap E,1,2,3,4 race.
The race came together with 8 laps to go (2 miles a lap) and a breakaway of 9 riders went away so I got across to it with my brother.
The breakaway went on to have 1/2 a lap at the finish. There were 2 riders away from the 11 then I attacked in the last 200 metres and got caught right at the line by 4 riders but came 7th and Ben came 4th.
Then on Sunday 27 July I did my first ever road race which was the 1st chard wheelers road race, it was 60 miles and had a field of 70 riders.
After 8 miles of racing a breakaway of 2 got away then 1 mile later a group of 7 got away, I was in this group of 7 riders.
After about 30 miles of through and off one rider got dropped so our group was down to 6. About 5 miles from the finish we caught the 2 riders in front and at this point I was starting to fancy my chances as there was a small hill with 2 miles to go.
Just before this hill it was still our breakaway of 8 riders and all of a sudden my tire went flat and I had got a puncture. I was really annoyed as there was no neutral service so I carried on riding with the puncture and in the last 100 metres when everyone started sprinting I had to sit up because I couldn’t sprint with my puncture.
I was annoyed about it but at the same time I was very happy with doing 51 miles in a small breakaway in my first ever road race and keeping up. The bunch finished 5 minutes behind our group.
On the 29th of March I raced at lemington spa doing 2 youth races and coming 1st in both.
On the 27th of April I went back to castle combe but this time I raced in the 3rd and 4th category adult race and with 12 miles to go I got in a breakaway with one other rider and the breakaway stayed away and I came 2nd behind the person I was with in the sprint with the bunch finishing just seconds after us.
On the 17th May I travelled to Hillingdon for the Hillingdon GP and came 1st in the youth race.
Then on the 25th of May I went to do my 10 mile National Time Trial Championships, after doing a good time of 21:56 on a club time trial just a few weeks before I knew I stood a good chance. When we got there we were told that the start had been delayed by 30 minutes due to the bad weather, but I was still very enthusiastic about the race. I got to the start line feeling really good and set off. When I got back I was anxious to see my time as I didn’t know what time I had done. We got to the HQ and saw my time was 21:01 and that I had won. I was very happy with my result and it means now I am U16 National TT Champion.
This means that my form so far has put me up to 15 wins already this season and hoping to add more to the list.
I won a Criterium at Hillingdon the other week - conditions were wet and I attacked with 3 laps to go, then again with 21/2 to go and did the rest on my own.
Sunday 13th April was Thames Velo Road Race - I dragged a break away only to get jumped for the prime, then I went on a massive solo effort for about 40 sec on the bunch but got caught with 3k to go.
Photos (by Anthony Snyman, Thames Velo): http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mike.inder/ThamesVeloRoadRace34WJ