Hatherleigh Junior Road Race

Yesterday I raced the latest round of the National Junior Road Race series in Devon. I knew beforehand that warm weather and a very rolling course would make for a tough race. I was also a bit apprehensive as to how I’d feel having finished an 8 day track camp with the Olympic Development Programme (ODP) 2 days beforehand. 

Racing got underway, and attacks soon followed. 10 miles in, myself and 5 fellow ODP riders (Chris Lawless, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Germain Burton, Matt Gibson & Gabriel Cullaigh) managed to breakaway, gaining 45 seconds on the bunch. Unfortunately we were eventually brought back by a strong chase by the bunch.

As we were caught by the bunch, I kept an eye out for the counter attack and managed to get myself in the next break with Jake Kelly, Jake Scott & fellow ODP rider Joe Evans. We worked well together, gaining a lead of 1 minute on the bunch by the halfway point. 

With 40km to go, myself & Joe Evans were the race leaders.

As the course looped round to join the finishing circuit, we were passed by the bunch heading in the opposite direction. The gap didn't seem to be that big, and so I decided to go alone with about 20km to go. I managed to get into a good rhythm for the remaining two and a half laps of the finish circuit, and the gap started to increase.

Despite knowing that the gap had increased, I was still wary that someone could come across at last minute, having been riding on my own for 20km. Fortunately I stayed away & held off the chasing group by just over 2 minutes.

I was very pleased to take the win & build on my 2nd place at the Loughborough Junior RR. My next race will be the Bath Junior RR this Sunday. Huge thanks to my sponsors for their support:

Dolan Bikes - http://dolan-bikes.com/
Mavic - http://www.mavic.com/en
Aminoskin - http://www.aminoskin.com/

Link to the British Cycling report: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20130714-road-Road--Davies-wins-Hatherleigh-Road-Race-0
Photos: Guy Swarbrick