European Road Race Championships

After my trip to the Basque country I headed to Italy to take part in the European road race championships. We arrived there to 40 degrees which was rather hot and took a bit of adapting but we got there on Tuesday so plenty of time before the race on Saturday. The race consisted of 8 laps round a relatively hilly loop with about 160 starters from 33 different nations. We spent the week running into the race doing some easy rides and a couple of laps of the course so we could get used to it. On race day we didn’t have to get up to early as it was an afternoon race but we spent the morning getting sorted and ready. It was going to be a very hot race about 35 degrees which meant we would have to take on a lot of water to survive the 110km. We headed to the sign on then headed to the start, I ended up arriving there late as I was trying to dodge the sun but luckily enough there was a gridding order in alphabetical order which meant I ended up about third row. The start isn’t usually to important but it started in to a climb and decent so I wanted to avoid any of the carnage that might unfold first couple of laps. So once everyone was lined up off we went and I moved up and kept myself towards the front of the race the first couple of laps with a small break of 5 going up the road. As it was a hot day and the level of the race the tactics for the race were just to watch and wait and that’s what I did, there were no big splits so I just kept myself hidden in the bunch and saved my legs. At about half way in the race I looked back to see that the bunch had shrunk in size due to the course and heat and there was about 60 left and the break had now been reeled back in. So it was still anyone’s game. All the action started to kick off in the final two laps of the circuit. I ended up having a problem at the top of the decent with my chain getting wrapped round the cranks so had to stop and fix that before chasing back on the decent which meant I was off the road a couple of times trying to make the corners as I didn’t plan on getting dropped because of a mechanical, although after about 10min I was back in the race. As we went into the last lap there was a break of five that was just up the road and as we hit the climb it was time to make a move. People were spread out all over the climb but a group of 6 started to get away and I then attacked from the peloton which was getting small by now and managed to move myself into this group, so as we went over the top of the climb there was a group of three leading then another group of three just ahead of our group of about seven then the bunch further behind. Our group wasn’t going to work because people had team mates up the road so there was lots of attacking but I just followed the wheels then the sprint started to begin about 500m to go and with 300 to go I got past two people and crossed the line in 12th place. I was pleased with my result as it was my first championship event on the road and I had been involved in the race, it was a great experience. The downside of me taking part in this race was the fact that I would miss National MTB Championships next day on Sunday in Yorkshire but it wasn’t possible for me to get back and I chose to race the bigger event. Thanks for reading, Grant.