hi people
ive just got back from 10 days racing in Belgium staying at Tim Harris' house near Antwerp with my team mates, Andrew griffiths, Sam Webster, Ben Plain and Alice Monger- Godfrey. Here is a brief run through of my races: (as i am a junior we are restricted to only 3 a week)
saturday: tessederno: a very hot race made even harder that i had no one to hand me up a bottle and so ran out of fluid with 15km to go. i finished about 35th out of 70 just in the bunch. my team mates did an interclub where they finished 7th, 12th, 19th
sunday: not sure where the race was! but was on a short lap of about 3km. the break went early and as usual i was near the middle of the bunch so couldnt react in time. 8 riders got away including my team mate andrew. Ben dropped out after his chain destroyed itself! me and sam as with all but 8 riders were pulled out with me finishing 37th and sam 35th. andrew rode well for a 4th place.
wednesday: a very fast and flat race where my team mate ben got in a break after just a few km only to be brought back with 15km to go. it was a mass bunch sprint of about 60 riders with Sam getting 3rd, andrew 5th, myself sitting up (i felt bad in the race) about 45th and Ben about 50th.
saturday: probably my favourite course a hilly 11km loop for 94km. 120 starters only 60 finishers! it was a hard race. with a big hill which suited me. I attacked up it a few times and was always near the front up the climb feeling really strong yet tactially im still far from good. Andrew attacked on the flat with 20km to go and with 3 others stayed away (just) with sam and me finishing in the bunch in 23rd and 40th place. unfortunately Ben punctured 6 miles in a had to abandon.
sunday: the quickest race of the 10 days with speeds averaging 42km/h on a relatively short 77km loop. andrew didnt ride due to having to drive us home. Sam and Ben got in the very late break of 20 which i missed not due to lack of strength just positioning and stupidity. sam got 10th, ben 11th and i came 3rd in the bunch sprint for 23rd out 0f 70 riders but for some reason im not on the results!
all in all it was a good experience and i know tactially i need to improve but i have told that will come with experience as i am still compared to my team mates pretty new to the sport. still hopefully its given us all good form for the national rr next week.
race in Brugges, Belgium tommorow
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hey Kogan
nice riding mate. and you are going well, those races are much harder than the UK ones, and alot more attacking.
nice riding mate. and you are going well, those races are much harder than the UK ones, and alot more attacking.
J EURO
cheers Jay cee, yes the races are alot harder i still think i needed maybe to be a bit more conservative at the start and not attack erratically. maybe i need to do it like the junior belgium champ who in one race i was in soloed off the front with 30km to go and won with a 40 sec lead! hopefully still these sort of races will put me in good stead for the national rr next weekend and the tour of wales the following weekend,
cheers for the support
Daniel Kogan
cheers for the support
Daniel Kogan
Daniel
you are doing the best prep. for the Nationals. Good luck in them.
JC
you are doing the best prep. for the Nationals. Good luck in them.
JC
J EURO
hi
well its been an up and down few weeks. firstly i became ill and had to miss the national rr! it took me a while to recover and although i recovered i didnt have the best junior tour of wales, finished 17th out of 110 but felt under par. I went to belgium yesterday for probably my last race there of the season there.
heres a run down of what happened...
first lap and the race as usual went off quickly. the race was in a town called Mesen and it was an undulating 84km made up of 12, 7km laps. first lap and i decided to attack and got a small gap with a bodysol rider but we unfortunately were brought back. i tried to get a in few more moves and attacked up the slight drag numerously for the early part of the race. with 25km done though a break managed to form with 20 riders, luckily one of them was me and another my team mate. Although in the break, i felt really bad and my legs had no jump. then the inveitable happened with around 6 laps to go the break split in two and i didnt quite have the legs to get in the first half of it. 11 riders got away including my team mate and i spent the next lap or two blocking and distrubing the chase. then with 3 laps to go i attacked up the hill and took 3 riders away with me. yet they werent at all strong so for the next 20km i rode on the front with the others taking small turns. on the last lap we managed to catch 2 riders who had been dropped from the front group and the 5 of us raced to the line. unfortunately i managed to get myself on the front and had to settle for 4th place out of our group. I managed 13th overall, whilst my team mate got 6th. i was 3 mins behind the winner who soloed for the last lap of the race. still 13th is my best result in belgium, i just wish i felt stronger as the race the day before seemed to have taken its toll on my legs.
anyway roll on next season hopefully i can spend a few months out there or some time in spain where i can do what i like best ... climb hills!
well its been an up and down few weeks. firstly i became ill and had to miss the national rr! it took me a while to recover and although i recovered i didnt have the best junior tour of wales, finished 17th out of 110 but felt under par. I went to belgium yesterday for probably my last race there of the season there.
heres a run down of what happened...
first lap and the race as usual went off quickly. the race was in a town called Mesen and it was an undulating 84km made up of 12, 7km laps. first lap and i decided to attack and got a small gap with a bodysol rider but we unfortunately were brought back. i tried to get a in few more moves and attacked up the slight drag numerously for the early part of the race. with 25km done though a break managed to form with 20 riders, luckily one of them was me and another my team mate. Although in the break, i felt really bad and my legs had no jump. then the inveitable happened with around 6 laps to go the break split in two and i didnt quite have the legs to get in the first half of it. 11 riders got away including my team mate and i spent the next lap or two blocking and distrubing the chase. then with 3 laps to go i attacked up the hill and took 3 riders away with me. yet they werent at all strong so for the next 20km i rode on the front with the others taking small turns. on the last lap we managed to catch 2 riders who had been dropped from the front group and the 5 of us raced to the line. unfortunately i managed to get myself on the front and had to settle for 4th place out of our group. I managed 13th overall, whilst my team mate got 6th. i was 3 mins behind the winner who soloed for the last lap of the race. still 13th is my best result in belgium, i just wish i felt stronger as the race the day before seemed to have taken its toll on my legs.
anyway roll on next season hopefully i can spend a few months out there or some time in spain where i can do what i like best ... climb hills!
