I was given a short break from racing at the start of April, after many hard races in March, so I cracked on with the training, including a 210km 7 hour ride. Then I (and Josh & Ash) went back to the UK for a week to catch up with some family and friends, which was very nice. Then I returned to Spain on 16th April, in time for my race in Durana, The Basque Country on 21st.
With the race starting at 10 am and being in the Basque Country, this meant I had to get up at 4:30, for a 5am leave from Huesca, so I prepped breakfast and lunch the previous day, to try to make the best of an awkward situation, and had a nap in the team van on the way.
Just before the race started, it started to rain a little and it was cold, so I wrapped-up to keep warm, the rain stopped for the race, and we were off. I also had a little chat with fellow Lewis Balyckyi sponsored rider, Lewis Hartley, on the start-line and a good catch-up.
The race was of a high level, with some of the best teams in the country, such as Caja Rural, Lizarte, Eiser and more… It was 122km, so a bit shorter than most other races here, and included 2 main 6km climbs, after 40km and 100km, with max gradients ramping up to 19%!
The first time up the climb was very hard, there was a technical long descent with multiple hairpins and I managed to move up a little on here just before the climb, avoiding crashes and having lots of fun flying down the hill! Then, I tried to stay with the bunch over the climb, but blew up right near the top, but caught back on to the group with a chasing group.
It was all fairly chilled until we hit the climb again for the second and final time, where I tried to ride more within myself and then got everything out in the last kilometre going over the top of the climb. I was just off the back of the main second group over the top of the climb, drilled it and pedalled as hard as I could, and caught the second main group, to fight for a top 40 finish.
The finish came a kilometer early and after a sudden unexpected turn to the left, so I wasn’t ready and finished mid second group.
I was pleased to finish quite highly, ahead and alongside many great riders, and I was happy that I rode to my current limit, as I have now only just finished my aerobic phase of my training, and I am yet to start the more intense Vo2 max race ready efforts. So there will be a lot more to come.
I am really looking forward to my next race with the team, a 3-stage race on the final weekend of April, including a TTT. Another blog report will be online after this, so I’ll keep you posted…
Elliot Reed Cycling 