North West Youth and Junior Tour

This bank holiday weekend was the North West Youth and Junior Tour. This was my first stage race since the Youth Tour of Scotland and the first racing individually. (As the Tour of Scotland was in regional teams)

Stage one was a 3.8 km Time Trial on Morecambe Promenade. I pushed as hard as I could but I lost 30 seconds to the stage winner which has hard to take but I held my head high and went to the course for stage 2 with Lee Valley Youth rider Callum Biggs.

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Stage 2 was a very tough day with a 3.6 km course and a sharp climb in it, in addition to 35 degree heat. I held on to the leading group for as long as I could, but eventually I cracked and fell behind into the following groups. I tried to take on as much fluid as possible in the heat. Unfortunately I lost some time to the leaders and when I knew i could keep people behind me and I couldn’t catch anyone I sat at my own pace to limit my time losses and to save my legs slightly for the final stage.

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The 3rd and Final stage was a 70 min Crit round Lancaster University. The course was challenging with roundabouts and speed bumps to negotiate. I tried to stay mid group and toward the front for most of the race and I was feeling comfortable staying near the front. I managed to pick the correct side of the road for the sprint finish but sadly I was too far back to challenge for top places but I did get my best result of the whole tour.

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In the end, I finished 51st on GC. I set myself the goal of beating my GC placing of the Tour of Scotland of 66th so I achieved my goal. I would like to say thank you to all the organisers and the commissaires for giving up their time to make this race such a sucsess. Thank you to N-Fuse for sponsoring the event. Well done to all the VCL riders too who were racing as well.

My next target is a race in Belgium this Saturday and beyond that the Brands Hatch National so please stay tuned as there is a lot more to come.