Oli gets road racing

Hello

With the Olympics no longer on the cards it is now time to turn my full attention to the UK scene. Since the end of May this approach has paid off and have won three races and back in the hunt to take my 9th National XC series title.

The National final and the National Champs in July are both flat fast races, so to get some power in my stick legs I decided to take on a three race in ten day road programme. With the National Road Champs, a National road series and a National criterium series on the cards I was guaranteed a bit of sprinting around and with the road scene in the UK thriving i was also hoping for some coverage too!

Riding for Endura MTB racing has its benefits too as I can hook up with the Endura Racing Road team (UCI continental team) which makes life far more interesting on and off the bike. Riding as part of a
team in large road races is also better as I can play a role and work as part of the team.

National Road Champs 
I was going in at the deep end here with no road racing in 4 months and rocking up at the biggest domestic races alongside Sky riders so what i prob should of done was kept my head down and hid in the bunch, but that's not my style and I got in an early 3 man break after 5 of 113 miles. With 2 Sky riders this ended up being the winning break!

Unfortunately the distance got to me and after 75miles I was dropped by the break and then the bunch and did not finish. But as a result got 30mins TV coverage on the ITV4 programme and some good photos in the press inc the one attached from Cycling Weekly.

National Road Series- Beamont. 
The following weekend the Endura team had more of an attacking plan and I was there to help the team keep their 100% win record.

On the second of 3 big climbs a break of 10 riders went clear, with 6 Endura riders inc myself. Unfortunately 3 teams chased hard to bring us back and the race became a real scrap. I ended up in a second group with 10miles to go and worked till my legs buckled to pull our sprinter and series leader Scott Thwaites back to the front group. It worked and Endura's Russ Downing won, Scott was 4th and I finished 29th in the 31 man front group.

National Criterium Series- Stafford
The mid week National Crit races are always full on, with city centre locations, big crowds and really fast speeds. Whilst I'm not a natural crit rider, being a skinny climber not a powerful sprinter. I can get
round corners and going flat out for an hr is not too different from a mtb race.

The circuit was wet, the cobble were slippery and there were crashes galore. But i scuttled up to near the front as quick as possible and then hung in there for an hour as the Rapha team went flat out, chasing a two man break. For one hour i did not drink or get off the drops and ended up a rather pleased 10th place

Photo attached of the night from Joolze Dymond and a report and photos from Velouk at

http://www.velouk.net/2012/07/04/elite-circuit-series-stafford-grand-prix/

Thanks for the support
Oli