Summertime Spanish racing!

After the hectic stage races it's been back to single day road races recently.

Two weeks ago i raced the Gran Primo Ciclista de San Sebastian around the old formula one circuit in Madrid, a very early start to travel there in around 4 hours.

The race was 50 miles with over 150 riders and surprisingly a very undulating circuit, and very hot!

I tried several times to get away, attacking hard but the speed of the race was very high and all attacks throughout the race were brought back, it came down to the inevitable bunch sprint, I took the wrong line into the final corner which meant I got swamped, downhill sprint so no chance getting back at the front, a bunch finish, a good race though but a schoolboy error cost me.

Last weekend there were no races so it was nice to get some training miles in the legs and enjoy the sun.

Thursday I travelled to my next race, (only 3 hours!) The Vuelta Ciclista Camporrobles, a 68 miler with 216 riders!

The start was like a tour series crit with 5 laps of the town before we headed out to the desert, I stayed upfront to avoid the inevitable crashes that would happen.

I got into the front lead group where we attacked, some testing climbs to come the race was on but then it wasn't, for some reason the race got stopped for 10 minutes, we then resumed without a time gap, but we went for it anyway, getting away straight into a climb after being stopped wasn't fun, I just about hung on in a group of around 10 or so.

We started a very twisty decent, the race was truly on at this point, turning into a bend my bike went from under me, I slid out on some gravel and dust, by the time I sorted myself and the bike out the second group caught me where I stayed to the finish, gutted and with some gravel rash that was disappointing as I felt good and should have got a top placing, that's racing, my form is good, just need it all to come together.