The last race in the winter series and I felt ill. Sore throat, headache, cough. You name it I was suffering it. As I watched new team mate Ryan ride his way to a solid 20th in his first ever race, I wondered whether competing was a good idea. Weirdly as I swung myself into the saddle and began to warm up, all of my problems melted away.
The race was fairly fast with hard accelerations and long period of tense slowing off. Many times a break went ahead only to be chased down by another of the favourites for the race. Left to my own devices and under no pressure to work for a team mate, I was able to pick and choose the breaks that I thought were dangerous. Dodging in and out of the pack I was straight on anything that looked like it might get away.
Alas, all our efforts were wasted as the race came down to a bunch sprint. My legs performed but my head did not. As I was coming into the final corner I was squeezed from both sides and at 30mph my head said no. Breaking, I lost valuable speed and ground that I just could not make up. A steady 12th was the result.
