Race report – w/e August 23

Belgian adventures part 2 and weekend preview

After an earlier successful stay in Flanders, the team returned with a bigger group of juniors and U16 riders for a full weekend’s racing: juniors Joe, James and Mikey and U16s Cody, Rosie and Jaime, plus guest rider Eva.

The weekend began on the Friday afternoon with a warm-up ride, with a twist on the usual Flanders spin alongside the local canal, this one included a ferry ride ON the canal, just for the hell of it. The serious business began on the Saturday afternoon, with Cody and the juniors racing at Puurs Sint Amands. A nice get-round for Cody in the U16 race, then the team rode strongly until it all went horribly wrong with a massive smash in the peloton on the final lap, with all 3 involved.

Minor cuts and bruises for Joe and James, but unfortunately a heavier fall for Mikey which put a premature close to his weekend. Meanwhile Eva, Rosie and Jaime were racing the first round of the Vermarc Cycling Project race at Rotselaar, where Jaime made it round in the group while Eva had a puncture and wheel change.

On Sunday afternoon, the boys were in action in Westouter, where Cody made it into a break of 3 in the U17 race before sitting up and going back to the bunch, with enough gas to finish 20th and get in the prize money. James and Joe were in good form for their race, until James’s chain came off at the end of the race – but another couple of strong finishes. The girls were riding round two of the VCP at Kortenaken, a hillier course for the 52km, with Eva running in 6th and in the prize money, and Jaime again finishing in the bunch. Lots of learning, and plenty of laughs along the way.

Back in the UK, Phoebe was riding the final round of the U16 national series at Wyke, had a very active race for 6th, her best place this season in the series, also earning the combativity prize.

Looking ahead, this weekend sees one of the UK’s biggest junior races, the John Richards Junior Tour, formerly known as the Junior Tour of Wales. The course in mid-Wales looks pretty brutal over Saturday to Monday, and the drought has ended so it’s going to be very wet by the looks of it… Sadly Mikey misses out after his Belgian crash, but the Academy fields Joe, James, Xander and new rider Joel Davidson, plus a guest rider from SW Ireland, Tony Keneally.