NatWest Island Games.

It was nice to have a break from Belgium, and spend a couple of days at home in the Isle of Man, before heading out to the NatWest Island Games in Jersey. Surprisingly I was
welcomed back to the Island with hot sunny weather, which isn't normally the case on the Rock. But after sitting in Dublin airport for 6+ hours I wasn't really bothered about the weather, I just wanted to jump in my own bed. That wasn't the case though, as the team and I had to finish packing the van on it's journey to Jersey the next morning. When my Dad and I finally got home, my dog didn't recognise me, I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing... I took it as good thing. Lying on the table was a freshly prepared roast dinner, that made my day. Let's just say that I had the best nights sleep in a long time.

 After catching up with the family the next day, it was time to jet off to Jersey for the Games. Waking up at 7am on a Friday seemed like a lie in compared to 5:30am travelling home to the IOM on Wednesday. The journey to Jersey was only an hour, due to it being a direct flight. I didn't know what jersey was going to be like, turned out it was cool little place. The racing kicked off on the Sunday, so I only had a day to set up my TT bike, which was not ideal at all really. I found a set up that I thought was comfortable, but turned out on the day that it wasn't comfortable whatsoever. With the rest of the team doing great rides, we gained team gold, I was disappointed with my personal result, but I couldn't of done anything about it apart from riding the TT bike more, which was also borrowed. I put that behind me and concentrated on the two races to come. We went for a recce of the Road Race the following day. I hadn't seen a proper climb in 3 months, so it was a bit of a shock when I saw the one we would be going up eight times. But that wasn't going to stop me giving it my best. Due to not riding my Road bike either for a while, I had bad luck from the off, with my spoke breaking on the first lap, my seat dropping a few laps later and chain slipping off in the sprint nearly throwing me over the front of my bike. Apart from that, the legs were good and another strong team effort, gained us another team Gold medal.

Road Race

I was hoping that my luck would change for the Criterium on the Thursday. With the seat back at the right height, spare wheels on, I was ready for the Criterium. The course wasn't too technical but technical enough. From the word go, The whole team were going full gas to try and split things up to make it more select and less dangerous group. Throughout the race it was full gas, it didn't slow up at all really which suited me being in Belgium. Things kicked off on the second to last lap with a Saaremaa rider up the road, Team mate for the week Nathan Draper went to chase down the rider, but two Saaremaa riders were blocking the road so no one could chase, he tried to push them a side to get through nearly pushing him into the barriers. There was a gap for me to get through while one of them was concentrating on Nathan, but the other Team mate glanced over at the last second while going through and forced me literally in the barrier. To be honest, I don't know how I saved it but somehow did. I used my anger to an advantage by attacking to catch the rider up the road. When I had caught him two riders attacked over the top of me which was slightly painful, but jumped back in the wheels for the final. With the two still up the road on the final corner I thought it was all over for the win and even a podium, but I just gave it everything to the line and past the rider who put me in the barriers for bronze. That put a smile on my face for a brief moment, Then myself and Nathan had a word with the Saaremaa team about where they should go... He ended up with a 30 second penalty in the end as a Commissaire saw the situation.

All in all it was a great trip with the Manx, big thanks to everyone who was involved, especially Andrew Roche, Gary Mazzone and Scott Morgan.

Next big race for me is  Ronde Van Vlaams-Brabant which is on the 22nd July, it's a four day stage race. Can't wait to get stuck in!


Thanks for Reading.