I would firstly like to begin this blog by saying a massive thank you to Pedal Potential for your continued support this year! Your help means so much to me and my family so THANK YOU! I hope I can get some great results this year to show for it!!
Now for the blog...
Last weekend I took part in my first Elite/Sub23 major championships of the year: The Spanish omnium and madison championships, that took place in Palma, Mallorca.
Saturday consisted of the omnium which was spread right across the day. My races got progressively better as the day went on.
Some careless mistakes were made in the scratch, where I expended too much energy into solo attacks which left me with nothing for the sprint
A pretty average tempo placing 7th despite gaining a lap but so had everyone else.
The elimination is usually the race I place best in while also being my favourite of the omnium, so after lunch its always a great race to get back into the mode. Following some close calls at the beginning, I was able to position myself well at the front and got a 4th place. I reckon I could have maybe done a few things different towards the end but that is always easy to say.
Going into the points I had more or less lost belief of getting onto the podium or becoming Under23 champion because I was quite far out of contention in 7th, 26 points behind the first Under23. However something I will definitely take away from this championships is to never loose hope because anything is possible. During the race I was able to take a lap while also gaining points along the way and in total get 29 points, coming back into contention. But a communication issue (the big screens weren’t working and I didn’t know how many points I had) led to me finishing the race 2nd under 23, 2 points behind the first under23 and second overall positions.
It was a bittersweet result and hard pill to swallow as I hadn’t expected to be going for gold but then to have come so close...
On Sunday came the madison, where I raced with my regional teammate Eva Anguela. We were the only complete under23 pairing but Going into the race I had a good feeling. The omnium left me motivated and raring to go as I still felt something to prove. I would say Eva and I are a great pairing because she is better in the sprints and I am better at the endurance. We had a great race but it all came down to the last sprint where we had the points to loose. In the end the other team of Tania Calvo and Naia Almondarain beat us to it and won by 3 points. Yet again a really close one and to think we were leading.
Never the less, it was a great experience so I would like to thank the Madrid Federation for taking us and to all the people who supported me.
I was especially blessed by my parents making the journey from the UK, my coach Cesar and Veronica travelling from Madrid and then also Alasdair who came to support me on his holiday. The support definitely gave me the motivation I needed to go faster!
I had never been to Mallorca before so I decided to stay an extra day after the race to explore. It is such a beautiful island and I hope I can go back at some point but for longer.
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