Bulking up my Wardrobe |

I finally managed to win another leader’s jersey! I’ve only had one other in my cycling career, the leader’s jersey from the Magalies Adventure Mountainbike Stage Race back home, so it was cool to get another one in my closest.

Over the past weekend, the team raced the French Broad Classic in Asheville which also doubled up as the next stop in the SRS series. I decided to register for the omnium, and as I explained last week this involved me doing the Mercx style TT on the Friday.

Considering it was my first TT in a good few years it went off pretty well. I was a bit disappointed that I had to take off my bad ass helmet cover that I had created the evening before! It was a work of art!

Getting ready to start my TT.

Image Credit: French Broad Cycling Classic

Badass homemade aero helmet cover.

With the helmet cover disappointment behind me we lined up for the 100k road race the next morning. Although 100km may not sound too far we would be taking in close to 2000m of ascent on the day and this would make the course selective, perfect!

The attacks came thick and fast early on and I made sure to cover anything that looked dangerous. Nothing seemed to stick as some guys had interests in the omnium for the weekend; along with SRS overall points to think about, it meant that the absolute right combination had to go off the front for anything to stay.

Eventually a soft move went clear some 50km in and we were represented by Dilly and Chase. Chase managed to hang on to the tail end of the surviving members of the break to take 9^th in the day in a tough finishing course with two big climbs nearing the finish.

In the main peloton, matters heated up and boys were getting popped like popcorn. A small group of just over 10 riders went over the first major climb and swelled as guys re-joined on the decent. With Brian in the KOM jersey and Junior Mint in the Leader’s jersey I had to try and set them up as best as possible going into the final climb which was also where the finish line was. What a better way to do it than launching a number of attacks off the front forcing the opposition to chase me down? The flip side of this was that when we hit the final climb I was toasted and limped home.

Having a dig off the front.

Image Credit: Ash Smit

Chase celebrating his top 10, who knows what he will do when he wins a race?!

The last day of the omnium was a fast technical 7 corner crit with a 180 degree turn into the finishing straight. There would be more than 100 riders on the course and thus hanging out at the front of the race was critical.

I had a surprise in store on the day as Ash borrowed a car from good friends of ours Clive and Cris and drove up to watch the race with her sister who has been out visiting. It was awesome to have my super supporter/photographer/soigneur girlfriend there!

With J.Lo still wearing the sprinters jersey and the mid race points prime approaching I had a dig to take the points away from the other guys and got 2^nd with Winston down the road. It looked as though for a second we may be able to get a group going through the gaps created by the sprint but we were pulled back a short while after.

With the high speed it didn’t look as if a move would go clear, so I started to position myself for the run in to the finale. Without even knowing it I was wrong, two guys had indeed managed to sneak off the front and as we kicked around the 180 degree corner into the finish this confused me slightly to see them just ahead of us. Anyway, Chase did a great job of dropping me off into the final corner and I managed to get 3^rd in the bunch kick and 5^th on the day and with that I had netted a chunk of points to move into the PEZ Cycling News sprinters jersey for the SRS series, gotta keep it in the team!

All in all it was a great weekend of hard racing and one that I really enjoyed. Really wish there were more road races, with more selective courses.

At least J.Lo and I can hit the town wearing the same jerseys now… #badass