With Sunday’s road race cancelled due to road works I had to change my plans for the weekend. I decided to enter the Rapha London Crit series round 1 at Hog Hill. Initially I wasnt keen on this race because of a number of Elite and 1st Category riders that had entered, but the number of points on offer made up for this.
The race started at 5pm so the light was fading, and as a result the organisers shortened the race to 45 minutes from an hour. There were 25 to 30 riders on the start line, all of whom had the same idea of marking the two Elite Richardson Trek riders. This worked in my favour as I managed to get in a move with 2 others around 20 minutes in. We worked well and established a decent gap to the bunch before we were joined by 8 others who caught us with 5 laps to go. Everyone worked to ensure what was left of the bunch didn’t catch us with a few unsuccessful attacks. With a lap to go I followed an attack that went just before the line, no one else really responded so I knew if I committed it would work. I rode hard and attacked my fellow escapee with 500m to go taking 2nd behind Lewis Bulley of Richardson Trek who had been up the road on his own for most of the race. Simon Alexander from Richardson Trek rounded out the podium.
