After spending the Winter training in the Isle of Man, on the 8th February it was time to pack my bags and head to Italy with the first racing on the horizon. The first few days were spent doing the boring stuff… settling in to the new house, setting up my bike, finding the local shops etc. Then it was my first training camp with the team. Here I met the rest of my team mates and got a better understanding for the team. It was quite a contrast to last year; here we were preparing our own bottles/ cleaning bikes/ making jam brioches for the training whereas last year almost everything would be done for us. Almost everything was the opposite… staying in a luxury hotel in the South of Spain vs sharing bunk beds in our team house and having pasta parties in the evening - first World problems ey!
This may come across as seeming like I was not impressed but actually I enjoyed the experience. I gained closer bonds with my team mates and felt part of a friendly, funny environment. Additionally with this I have found there is more freedom within the team. The ability to do what’s best for you from time to time and not have someone monitoring your every action. The only problem I have with the living environment is the lack of Wi-Fi and service! I am currently sat in a McDonald’s uploading this blog haha!
By the end of the week I had wracked up lots of hours and laughs, ending the camp satisfied with what had been a solid week of training with a lot of load in my legs ready for the coming races.
The Race:
Just one week on from this was the teams and my first race; Coppa San Geo - 100° edition. With it being the first Italian National Race of the year and its 100th edition there was lots of prestige to it. Adding to this, it was our “local” race so it was of great importance for us to do a strong to impress the sponsors of the team like Drali (our bike manufacturer) and DMT.
Here were the details of the race:
157km with 2x 10.7km laps, 5x 12.1km laps (including Zette climb), 6x 8.6km laps (including Cisano cobbled climb) - In conclusion a race which gets narrower and more hilly towards the end; AKA HARDER AND HARDER!
Before the race my tactics were given to me. “This is not your style of race, your race will come later in the year. For this race we want you to get out front and put on a show for the crowds and our sponsors” OWTTE. I took this onboard and set off with the ambition to honour this.
A fairly relaxed start meant I was able to attack and establish a gap relatively easily after just 2.5km. So far so good? Yes and no… I had done arguably the hardest part but also a long headwind lay ahead of me. After plucking away for an hour or so and extending my gap over the peloton, eventually, to my joy 3 other riders caught up to me at the 50km marker. This made us a quadrant out front. With the addition of the other riders I took the opportunity to pull some softer turns and recover from the efforts of the early part of the race. It’s quite a paradox when you are out front by yourself; knowing you have a long way to go so pacing it/ feeling like you are not going to deep and later logging onto TrainingPeaks and seeing that you have seamlessly pushed really big numbers during this time.
The 3 other riders and I grew out our gap as we completed laps of the 2nd circuit with the Zette climb. I could sense they were slowing and tiring at this point. In my head I wanted to wait for the final circuit with roughly 50km to go to make my move and attempt to go to the line solo from there. However, prematurely the pace was getting slower and slower and it felt more like dragging around dead-weight rather than having a helping hand. With 70km to go and roughly less than 2hours to go we received communication that the time gap was 7minutes. With the others not contributing at all now, I took the opportunity to attack on the Zette climb. With the fatigue of the other riders this didn’t require too much of a burst and I could quickly settle back into a rhythm.
Now I was channeling my inner Remco Evenepoel. 70km left. Me vs A fully Cooperative Peloton stressing that they have given me too much leeway. I set a conservative but hard pace, judging it to make it to the line with nothing left to give. I wasn’t getting much information about the time gap and had now hit the final circuit of Cisano. With each lap the pain in my legs were getting sorer and sorer but it was made manageable by all the crowds screaming “DAI DAI DAI” and “WALKER” - by this point I had became a fan favourite being the underdog that could snatch the victory. Unfortunately for me, I am not Remco Evenepoel but Zachary Walker. Much to my despair I was caught on the final lap on the Cisano cobbled climb by 12 escapees that had broken from the peloton. After so long out front and being caught so late in the race I was a little disappointed. Mentally and physically I broke at this point. Loosing an exponential amount of time in the final 5kms after they caught me and ultimately being passed also by the peloton. It was all or nothing so for me hanging on to the 13th was as good as finishing 50th or 150th.
After crossing the line and heading back to the team van my initial reaction was to apologies for not pulling it off. However, I was met with lots of encouragement and gratitude. They were happy I had put on a great show for the fans and sponsors. If just a few details had changed such as there not being full cooperation between teams in the peloton or my team mate not crashing out of the 12man escapee group (and hence being able to disrupt relays) etc it could’ve been a different story.
There were lots of positives to take from this race. Primarily that it shown some hard work in the Winter had paid off. It gave me and the directors of the team great confidence for future races in the year which I will be targeting like the Giro Next Gen. Secondly I had earned the respect from the rest of the rest of the riders/staff on the team; not that I hadn’t already got it but more of a confirmation with the various comments of “your strong ey.” And lastly a surplus of photos to choose from for my social media!
If interested here is a link to the livestream of the race (YouTube). Coverage starts about 2hrs into the race.
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