Junior Tour of Wales

Let’s talk about the Tour of Wales… after the climbing and heat training in Spain with 2 strong guys in Louis Bilyard and Santiago Cadavid, I was targeting a good performance at Wales for Team South east.

Stage 1 was a 7.5km individual time trial. I had a good idea of the course from my recons in the morning of the race and from the insights I was given from Louis from when he raced as a junior. I used this to my advantage and went out hard but not 100% and ended up 35th on the stage which was a decent enough ride to start off the race.

Stage 2 was where my hopes of a good GC position were ended unfortunately. I had a puncture in the neutralised lap so I had to have a bike change and that left me off the back chasing. A crash in the peloton ahead neutralised the race which allowed me to be back in the peloton after another bike change due to an issue with the spare bike. I thought my luck had changed until with 5 laps to go my rear skewer broke causing the wheel to come loose which ended any chance of a good result after getting back in as I had to stop to tighten it. I lost 2 minutes 30 seconds on that stage which finished my GC hopes.

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After the disappointment of Stage 2, I had to try and pick myself up ready for stage 3 which was in the afternoon of the same day. A 99.6km parcours with a decent amount of climbing. With how badly stage 2 went, I just wanted to stay in the peloton and not lose anymore time. I stayed in the wheels and managed at top 30 place in 24th which wasn’t the best but I was mildly happy that I picked myself up from the bitter disappointment.

The final stage was a 94.8km stage finishing on the famous Tumble climb. Again I just wanted to finish well and show that I can race with the top riders in the UK. Firstly a massive thank you to Lee Valley Junior team for offering to help me with service and feeds for this stage due to the South East team being needed to be the broomwagon. It was a tough race but I managed a top 50 with 40th on the last day to round off the Tour of Wales.

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Races where nothing seems to go your way often show how riders are under pressure and how they deal with that disappointment afterwards shows their mental strength and the best thing I did was getting back on the start line for stage 3. I’m frustrated I couldn’t show how strong I truly am but it is what it is. We learn from these days and move on.

Huge thank you to the Tour of Wales organisers and commissaires for keeping this great race for juniors going. Thanks once again to Pedal potential for their support and Muchas gracias a mi entrenador, Cesar Neira por ayudarnos a fortalecernos y seguiremos fortaleciéndonos!

Thanks for reading

Lance