Looking forward

Well Sunday didn't really go to plan for me as a rear wheel puncture only 30 minutes into the race scuppered my hopes of a good ride.

Just as the race had hit some narrow lanes and I attacked off the front of peleton, bridging across to a pinerello rider who was ahead. Once I made contact, disaster struck as my rear wheel went flat and I had to watch the entire convoy with the exception of the Sigma team Audi speed off down the road. With the change over taking a bit longer than normal so all in all probably had a good 2 - 3 minutes stationary just as the race was really hotting up.

This meant I had to chase back on, whilst this was helped by being behind the team car, it was far from an easy chase as riders were puncturing, crashing and getting dropped all the time, meaning once back in the convoy I had a hell of a job just staying in it let alone move up as cars sped past me in order to catch up with the peleton ahead. Up the hill just as I believe the winning break escaped the main group I had just made contact with the back of the same group. By the time I got to the top of the hill and the front of the group the break was long gone, and so were my legs ruined by the 20 minutes of hard chasing!

A combination of the course and the racing made it too hard to recover any good feeling in my legs and so after 60 miles, knowing that two team mates up the road in breaks (Rob and Matt) and me being unable to do much more than cling to the last wheel in the main group I sat up and let the wheel go in order to end the suffering.

Annoying as I think I could have gone well yesterday (proved I think by the number of good riders that I saw puncture never to see again in the race). C'est la vie! Its a good event and i'll look forward to doing well here next year.

Have bigger things to think about now as next stop for me is Ireland and the biggest weekend of the year, my Wedding!