Race Report – Louie moves to 2nd Cat with Velopark win
My main goal was to come out of the week with a Cat 2 licence. I was on 28 points and needed to get 12 to get it. On the Tuesday I went up to Westpoint and raced in the 2/3 race where I spent most of the race in the bunch and ended up sprinting to 12th place. But was good to hear at the end of the race that Matt L had taken the win!
On the Thursday I went down to the VeloPark for the first race of the SWLaw series. My goal was to gain them vital points. It was around 15 mins into the race when Harrison W attacked, I knew this was a perfect opportunity to get away. I was boxed in when he attacked meaning he had a large gap by the time I found space. But I wasn’t going to let this opportunity go that easy, so I attacked to bridge the gap with another rider from the Royal Navy Team who followed me. We made it to Harrisons group where we all started to work well and pull a bigger lead of around 3-40 seconds on the main group. It stayed the same for the whole race. It was down to a sprint, and anyone who knows me knows I’m not the biggest of riders meaning my sprint is very limited plus the fact I was on junior gears. I ended up taking the win meaning that I gained 10 points to add to my 28 bringing me up to 38 points. Only 2 more needed for the Cat 2 licence.
Saturday saw the first day of the Totnes Vire stage race where I raced in the ¾ support race. Only needing 2 more points I was aiming for a top 10 in this race as I was fairly tired from the previous races that week. The race was calm apart from the odd attacks which didn’t stick, so I decided to sit in and save my energy for the finish. It was looking like it was going to be another sprint finish for this one so going into the last lap I moved up into top 5 wheels and sat on. I was over taking by the same guy who I beat on Thursday from the Royal Navy Team. I ended up in 3rd place which I wasn’t really expecting with the legs I had and from another sprint finish. This meant I gained the 2 points plus a few more meaning I got my cat 2 licence. Overall a great weeks racing for me and I am now looking forward to my last cat 3 race on Sunday at the John Andrews RR in Somerton.
