Heading into this round, I wanted another performance like my ride the week before. The course was horrible, it was really bumpy in places and felt more like a Paris-Roubaix. Apart from this, the course was ok, but the bumps took up so much of the course it felt like it was bumpy the entire way round! Luckily the course was dry, and there was a road on the start/finish straight which I tried to recover on. My biggest mistake of the day was that I didn’t warm up properly, so on the start line I wan’t in a position to go my hardest (I didn’t know this at the time!). I was gridded on the front row, after my two other performances, so at least that went to plan.
My start didn’t go to plan (After reading the previous paragraph I think you thought this was going happen), and I was a long way down heading into the first corner. After dying going over the bumps for the first time, I was dropped, and this was going to make my race a whole lot harder. I was slowly catching other riders, but on the penultimate lap disaster struck, I got a nasty blister on my left hand. I could see 2nd place about 10 seconds ahead of me, but every time I went over a bump my hand started really hurting. I couldn’t keep up a pace needed to catch 2nd, and I dropped further back. I finished 3rd U16 and 5th Overall, but further behind the leader then I’d have liked.