After my disappointing Isle of Man result, I had a chance to bounce back in a bigger race, the Tour of the North-West. We happened to be staying at a place that was about 500m from the Stage 2 course, which was the big one for me as it had a 1km hill every lap. The race was similar to the Isle of Man, except Stage 2 was hilly and Stages 3 and 4 were circuit races.
Stage 1
Stage 1 was a 2.3km prologue, not for me but I had done some specific training towards it. It took place at Morcambe promenade, and when we arrived it was beautiful, sunny, not a cloud to be seen, and I was almost looking forward to it (Because of the weather). Then it started raining, not just ordinary rain, but ‘do your warm up under the car boot’ kind of rain. I didn’t really enjoy the race, I simply don’t like the short distance prologues. I finished 39th, a long way down, but never mind, onto the hills!
Stage 2
This was the one, the hilly stage which was why I had bothered to drive halfway up the country. I was lucky and found myself on the front row at the start, so started the climb at the front rather then at the back. The climb was hard, I knew it was going to be, but at the bottom we found an unexpected problem. We were stopped, getting told that there was no ambulance present in case one of us had an accident. We were stopped for ages, and eventually we got going again. Again I found myself in the front group, which was getting smaller every lap. With a couple of laps to go there were just 8 of us, ranging from places 9-16. I tried to attack, with no success, and then we started the final lap. I struggled up the hill, just hanging onto the group, but I finished 16th, finally a great road national finish!
Stage 3
I was not looking forward to this one, a circuit race in a rain, and not only that, but there were two of them on the same day! I warmed up for the first stage, and as I headed over there I heard there was a 50-minute delay because an U14 had crashed really badly. they had to call an air ambulance for her. It looked like the entire race was going to be cancelled, and when I heard that Stage 3 was going ahead, but not Stage 4, I was almost disappointed. I spent the race at the back of the group, desperately trying not to crash. There was a crash with 2 laps to go, but luckily I was that far back I could brake in time. After being scared out my wits for 14 laps, I crossed the line with the leaders, and finished 16th overall. (Forgetting about the 44th on the stage!)