By Louis Rose-Davies, U16 Slipstreamer
“The trip up to Hetton was long and boring, I had to stay awake in case my Mum crashed into the car in front (like my Dad did on the way to the Northwest tour last year)! Eventually we got to the hotel and tried to check in to the hotel room. The receptionist thought we were a bit weird because we brought my bike and wheels into the room. I had a big meal in the restaurant, pizza and garlic bread. After watching Britain’s Got Talent and Blow The Whistle I went to bed!
Louis on his way to 2nd!
The next morning I was ready to race. After a good breakfast we packed the car and set off to the destination. At the race lots of people were already there with their gazebo’s up. After gear check and sign on I got changed. I pinned my number on to my skin-suit whilst watching the Under 16 girls race. Thirty minutes before the race I jumped on the rollers and started to warm up. I did 20 mins on the rollers and got to the line 10 minutes early.
Unfortunately I was at the back of the field for the start. There was one neutral lap behind a motorbike, but he was going very slowly which made the group very compact and tight. But I still managed to get near the front. When the race started for real, there were a few attacks which did not succeed. The miles ticked along until an attack went which succeeded and a small group of riders were away. (3 I think). The peloton did not want to chase, so the breakaway stayed at around 18 seconds.
In the last few laps, I was concerned that if we did not catch them and it was a sprint I would not do that well (as I am not the best sprinter in the world). So with two laps to go I attacked before the hill in search of the break. I risked a possible bad result, as, if the peloton caught me I would not have enough energy to do well in the sprint; however with about half a lap to go I got to the breakaway. I was very tired but still attacked again. This did not work, so I tried to rest and hoped the sprint would go well. In the sprint I kicked from a long way out and in the last 100 metres a boy caught me up and I had nothing left to get in front of him.
So I got second. I was very happy with the result as it was very unexpected as my goal was top ten.”