On Sunday I competed in Gent-Wevelgem u19, this was my first race outside of the UK as well as being the first time I had ridden for GB. We met up on the Friday and arrived later that evening ready for a recce the next day.
Then it was race day, we had an early start (05:30) and quickly had our breakfasts in our rooms. It was a cold morning and the Sun was only rising as we begun. I had learnt my lesson from getting far too cold in Hatherleigh so opted to wear more than usual; racing in both leg and arm warmers.
We had the first 15km under neutral conditions and instantly I noticed that out there in Belgium it was a lot sketchierwith a big fight for the front of the peloton. Ultimately this lead to me crashing 2x in the neutral followed by a chase back on through the convey.
The proper race then started. As a team we were told to cover moves so I took it upon myself to be the aggressor. In the first half of the race I found myself off the front solo for 17km, I was hoping to survive until after the first few climbs and a group bridge up to me but this did not happen. I was caught before we hit the base of the Baneberg and used this period to rest.
The next section of importance was the plug streets; 3 narrow gravel sectors. I positioned myself well through these and was always in the first 5 wheels along with my teammate Noah. On the exit a small break formed with me an Italian, French and Dutchman. I thought this was a really promising looking move but at the base of the Kemmelberg we were caught by a charging peloton. By this point I was absolutely cooked and didn't have much more to give. I crawled up the Kemmelberg with the hope that it might slow down again before the finish.
Video of the ascent of the Kemmelberg; https://twitter.com/YoungPeloton/status/1509090963825864714?s=20&t=fK3SDv1VWi5Y2dMRjMx5MA
I recovered well on the descent and made it back on for the final 15km. At this point I was doing whatever I could for the team as I had no longer got the legs for the win. I, along with my GB teammates attacked and counter-attacked one another until one of us got into a move that would stick. In this case it was Jed Smithson but it could have been any one of us. We were then happy with the composition of the front 4 as Jed has a good sprint on him for the final.
The last 10km were then about making sure no one else bridged across which we were successful in doing. At 3.5km to go Noah and I seized an opportunity to roll off the front and got an advantage over the peloton. From all my attacking and crashing earlier I had almost nothing left so gave what I could for Noah before dropping off with 800m to go. In the end Jed was just off the win in 3rd place, Noah held on for 5th and almost straight away after being caught I was involved in a nasty crash!
After this I was sent to A&E for stitches and dressing followed by a long journey home...
In conclusion it was a eventful day out, filled with attacks and crashes. I have taken lots of confidence from this as it was racing against the best of the best and I felt comfortable. In the future I would like to try and save my energy for the ending as I know I could win/podium if I play my cards right but for this one, I was happy to work for the team and give them free-rides. I'm happy to say I done this to the best of my ability as we placed as the first Nation meaning we have our car at the front of the convoy for Paris-Roubaix.
I'll take a week or two to recover from my head injury but hope to come back firing on all cylinders in three weeks for the infamous Paris-Roubaix!
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