28, 29, 30 August 2010  

Junior Tour of Wales

There’s always a first time for everything but I’ve never had so many firsts in one go! First time riding for Wales, my first ever Junior race, first ever ForGoodnessShake recovery drink and first time in a stage race! Shame it wasn’t a first place finish though… I had a very nervous week prior to the Junior Tour as it was one of my first big races. There was very little from my previous races, which were all seniors, to show the standard I was going to be riding with. With a completely new kettle of fish and the fact that there were 5 stages spread across 3 days made me pretty edgy yet pretty excited. I was heading for something completely new to me in so many ways, a journey I was more than willing to throw myself head first into and give my best shot! 

Day1

Day one included 2 stages, a Time Trial in the morning and a Road Race in the afternoon. Being a part of the Welsh squad I was one of the first people to set off for the time trial. This was quite a scary stage for me as I know that my strength isn’t time trailing but still got a decent time and knew I had done the best I could.

Being the first time I had ridden 2 races in one day I was pretty anxious that I would be very tired for the second stage. Having a team manager and team mechanic to look after us, we had almost nothing to worry about apart from staying off our feet and making sure we ate and drank the right things.

Stage 2 was a good 4 hours away but came round pretty quickly and before we knew it we’d been through the neutralised zone and the race was off! The race was over and done with just as quickly and it was time to chill out at the hotel for a bit. I knew I’d done myself and the team proud as I’d done a pretty hard effort on the front of the pack to help out Sam Harrison close down on the break away up the road and had a good go at Llangynidr mountain. Today was probably the first time in a long long time that I had gone to bed at 10. In fact the last time I remember that happening was when I was about 12 kicking up a fuss about being up later than my bed time on Christmas Eve or something!

Day2

Day two also consisted of 2 stages, this time a Circuit Race and another Road Race. Today I was feeling pretty tired, which was no surprise and thought that today would be the day that finished me off! I felt that the circuit race really made me feel worse for wear but I persisted and made sure I wasn’t dropped from the small group I was with and made it to the end! I didn’t give up and I stayed where I was and thankfully made it to the end.

The afternoon stage was pretty tough, flat and rolling (until the end) and extremely fast paced. I stuck into the end and it was only until the last half a kilometre I had popped. Next time I know to keep my head screwed on and bite the bullet to really push myself right the very end and by that I mean past the finish line! Maybe I should start telling these things to myself BEFORE the race starts! There’s no point in cycling if you’re going to be relaxed about it! Even though it seemed like a pretty rough day I had still managed to hold myself in a good position in the front half of the race field.

Day3 

Having a fairly solid position in the first half of the field I went into this final stage feeling pretty good. Having a good nights sleep and a good breakfast I felt ready for the day to come. Team orders were to help Sam have the race as one bunch till the bottom of the Tumble Mountain. At about 10 miles in a small group went off the front of the main pack and me and team mate Luke Cornish wondered if we were to go after it. Sam having no problems with it let us go. Being up the road and being no threat to the GC it put the pressure off Sam to be there. Having an unfortunate crash over Penderyn Moores, fellow teammate Luke went down with some pretty nasty injuries after having a sheep run out in front of him and a few others. Not being around the sport very long I was surprised to see everyone who stayed upright lift the pace and simply ride away. Skidding to a complete stop I looked at Luke, said sorry and sprinted after the fast moving break. I knew he wanted me to ride on rather than hang around and if I were in his position I would have wanted him to carry on too. Getting to the bottom of the tumble being only a minute and fifteen ahead of the chasing pack I felt pretty confident that we’d held them off long enough to get to the top in a decent top 20 position. As I cracked on giving it everything I had to offer feeling grate I was so shocked to see Sam cruise past me as if I were hardly moving. ‘Go on Sam give it all you got!’ I cheered, like we’d been told, it was a team sport and we were doing this for Sam. Although I wasn’t there to help him in the pack giving him the support I did I knew I felt I had done my job.

After a long weekend I had a pretty long night sleep to recover. It was one amazing experience and a fantastic marker as to where I stand in comparison to some of the best junior cyclists in the UK. Having finished 34^th overall was a brilliant achievement for me and I thought I’d done really well. Maybe next year I’ll get in the top third, I mean I was only one place off! To top off my weekend I have just had some brilliant news that Prendas are going to support me and I am really pleased and proud to be able to wear their products.

See you soon!

Rich

(Richard Seymour, Team Wales.)

The Junior Tour of Wales is promoted by C.C. Blaenau Gwent formerly known as Abertillery Wheelers under Welsh Cycling and British Cycling Regulations.

C.C. Blaenau Gwent are grateful to the many other clubs who assist every year.