Salt Ayre Round 2 & CDNW Leauge Event 4

on 22nd april me and an old border city mate travelled down to the salt ayre crit in lancaster for round 2 of the league. for me it was the first race of the year without leg warmers so a cause for celebration. the race itself went really well, previously my success in crits has been limited often finishing in the bunch tending to sit out the sketchy sprints on the narrow course. however this one went rather differently, on the second lap of the race, about a minute and a half in a breakaway of ten riders managed to get off the front of the chasing pack, we timetrialled through, everyone seemed willing to work because as long as the breakaway stuck we
were all guaranteed a point. with around 45 minutes gone we lapped the main group. and instead of letting up continued to keep the pressure on increasing our lead to almost a lap and a half. the towards the end everyone gets a bit edgy and an attack to early for the finish led to me being beaten in the sprint, i ended up finishing 5th, 5 more points to add to the tally.

this weekend i was at old hutton, for round 4 of the cdnw race incorporating the westmorland tankard. the course is a hilly one with 2 main climbs and no long flat sections, brilliant. the first three laps of the six lap race were business as usual, working as little as possible, just keeping breaks under control. however with 3 laps to go on the smaller climb of the course 2 strong looking riders got away, i decided this was a break to follow so set off in pursuit, after working as a 3 for a while we were joined by a fourth rider, and all worked together, with 2 laps to go the group was whittled down to 2 riders, me included, after keeping the pressure on for the rest of the lap i finally managed to drop the other rider going up the climb to take the bell, leaving me to time trial round the next lap on my own, taking my first win of the season. and winning the westmorland tankard trophy, more silverware. it also added 15 points to my tally so i only need 2 more now before i move up to a 2nd cat.

this weekend ill be heading over to the north east to do the stan robson memorial trophy, this is a e,1,2,3, race so im expecting a grim 80 miles.