NPS 1: Thetford On the 7th April we travelled to Suffolk for the first National race of the year, it was very fast and I came home second less than a second behind the winner, I was a bit disappointed with the result as I had made a break on the second lap and got a good gap on all the other riders only to be held up by some slower riders in the Junior race allowing my competitors to catch up. Oh well I will just have to try harder in round 2.

Justin was on the cover of Cycling Weekly this week. Riding his Felt F2 and clad in Castelli's finest threads.

You might see more or the lanky boy Hoy over the next few weeks. Even getting his name in the results and picking up his 7th win of the year this week and holding his own in the British cycling Elite rankings currently 13th.

After paying the price I think for a very harsh early season, the form has started to come and I got my two wins of the season. Get in! Talk about buses all arriving at once. The races were local handicapped event, but with some big regional names on the block.

In the first one I knew I felt good from the start, putting in a lot of work pulling back the groups. On the last lap, once I saw we were going to catch all the groups I sat at the back and found all the big names doing the same. Once the catch had taken place I followed the double attack of Rich Cartland and Matt Higgins from the Corley team. This stretched the legs a little but I could feel my legs could do more. I got caught in a little traffic with about 3km to go, but by 1km to go I was moving in the right direction.

200metres to go and I let rip with the ultimate sprint, bam! No one knew what had hit them and I had won my first race of the year…roll on some more.

The second one came after a bit of a rest, so I didn’t know whether or not the form was there, luckily it was there in a big way and I spent most of the race on the front or off the front. Unlike most races where I do this though, I finished on the front with another well timed sprint

The more unfortunate thing is that now hitting good form, I go right into my A-level exams, so unfortunately cycling has to take a back seat for a while. But once they are over, it’ll be back to the big time and kicking some more ass!

Richie, Justin & Alastair made the road trip out to Edenbridge in Kent on Sunday 6th May. With a large field of most of the countries top elite riders including Rob Hayles and the entire PCA-Evans team, the Toachim house grand prix with £1000 first prize was going to be hotly contested.

The race started at a fast pace with attacks coming from the gun. With 12 PCA riders there was always one up the road with loads of others getting in the way. Towards the end of the first lap Justin attacked and got across to the front group, soon after, Richie had made it across with a small group.

Now with two felt riders in the front group as well as 8 of the PCA team we were always made to chase, Justin made a big jump with half the race gone to try and bridge the gap to a small group off the front, but was stuck in no mans land for 5 miles. Then, once back in the 2nd group, his left leg cramped up on a climb. That was the end for Justin... wimp.

Richie on the other hand was just getting going with three weeks of training in Majorca in his legs. He managed to put the hammer down in the last 12 miles and rode across to the front group who had been a minute up the road. He then felt the need to ride straight past them, but was chased down by a small group. Then he found himself away with 2 PCA riders on the last climb, they attacked him but Richie, not making it that easy for them, pushed it all the way to the line and took 3rd place. Nice one.

A fantastic ride by the MTB elite rider who will be doing more road stuff now!

The weekend started with a 50 mile Road Race/Criterium for Juzy and Alastair. Great fun, a field of about 50 of the strongest local riders around and Alastair lined up at the start. Luckily no one suspected a midlands monkey and Alastair managed to sneak away in the early break of 15. This decreased to 12 as people managed to puncture or die. The break worked well and held a minute lead for the majority until the end when it was brought down rapidly.

A small attack got off the front with about 3/4 mile to go. Unfortunately Alastair wasn't involved in this and led out the break sprint. Some cheeky sod felt the need to come round him and push him further down the finishing roster.

Justin, although with a cold comparable to the temperature of the artic, rode well attempting to ride across to the break. In the end he had to be content with walking all over the bunch sprint. This meant Alastair came in 6th with Justin in 13th. Not bad.

Alastairs Blog - The Rutland – what am I doing?

Sunday 29^th of April, a date I’d had marked on my calendar ages ago. But now it was here and I wondered why I had looked forward to it so much. My first ever premier calendar road race was probably one of the toughest and definitely had the biggest field, 160 starters. Unfortunately the rest of the felt team didn’t get a start after an unprecedented amount of entries. I entered in February, before I had even become a felt team member, and I was still a reserve!! Luckily I think they let any reserves that turned up ride.

The start was very hectic, with so many riders spread across the road one little flinch could exaggerate itself. Luckily there were cars stopped on the one side of the road so the race was made more interesting by having to dodge them now and again. I think someone ran into the back of a motorbike marshal once and there were a couple of crashes. I decided I would get as close to the front as possible, so at the end of the neutralised section I was in the first 10 riders. Just another 100 miles to go. I managed to stay in and around the front for the first lap of the reservoir, just the time when it was least necessary. I was even at the head of the race for about 5 seconds.

After the fast rolling around Rutland water, we headed for the rough stuff, punctures everywhere, but I was apparently lucky. A, what I thought was a reliable source told me it was rolling but not too bad. Ye right. The roads shot down steeply with a dead turn at the bottom, followed by a full on sprint up the next climb. It was relentless; I thought surely other people’s legs are hurting as much as mine, apparently not. The bunch splintered all over the place and I had to chase back up a couple of times really feeling the strain. My brain started to turn against me with my legs already protesting profusely, “why are you doing this” it said. “Just stop and the pain will go”. In a few more minutes it wouldn’t need to worry. On the back of the bunch going up the one of the steepest climbs, the guy in front decided it wasn’t his day and started to go backwards, NNNOOOoooooo!!! You fool keep going! But he didn’t and that was that. I lasted 110 out of the 160km and was one of the last to be dropped and not finish, about 90 riders had dropped out before me so I didn’t feel so bad. I just felt like I had missed out on something by not finishing. Oh well, there’s plenty more editions of that race for me to win, roll on next year.

 You can see Ali last man on the bunch above.

Racing season is well under way and I’m starting to wonder why I started. After having little luck in the road races up to this point, I decided to have a crack at a time trial on the Saturday. 10 miles of sheer delight. To warm up for it I did a local 5km TT round a track on the Friday night. I was pleased to win it by a healthy margin and it made me feel good about the up coming TT.

Luckily I was blessed with a Felt B2, one of the nicest looking bikes on the planet. I flew out the first leg with a big tail wind, keeping it constantly above 30mph. Then I turned round at the island and BAM, headwind. I put my head down and grinded away at the pedals and got a rhythm going. Finished the 10 with a 21:21 and 5^th place out of the 80 starters. A PB (not hard considering I’ve only ever done 4 TT’s by choice) and my first prize money of the season. Whupee.

On to Sunday, Roger Martin memorial race. 86 miles of pain. Luckily Ian Wilkinson (winner of the 2007 girvan), Rob Hayles (legend) and Matt Stephens (former national champ) turned up, so I knew it wouldn’t be that hard. Me and Petey Boy were the Felt contingent of the peloton and we planned to ride off the front from the gun and stay away. After failing to attempt this, we decided we would try and make the break. After failing to attempt this we decided we would try and finish. Unfortunately Pete had a painful back and pulled out. So it was left to me to bring home the bacon. After the big break had gone, I got away in a small group of about 8 with 5 laps to go. Someone seemed to drop off every lap and by the finish there were only 4 of us. Apparently I finished 19^th according to the result man and if so that means first points of the season. Get in!

Now time to let my legs recover before next weeks pain train. The Rutland-Melton Classic. Ouch.

Tom Rides the Archer

Tom being a local to the roads of the Archer decided he would give it a go. After suffering the large climbs of the first 130Km's he made it to the finishing circuit just for the group he was in to be pulled out he was credited with a finish but no placing. This is one of the hardest races in the UK and attracts international riders.

See the picture right from Londoncyclesport.com of Tom on Whiteleaf hill.