In this weeks video I bring you along to show how I achieved my second place at the British national gravel championships last month in North Yorkshire. It was a tough course in Dalby forest with very little place for rest it meant it certainly was a battle for who still had good legs in the last part of the race.
This was was last gravel race before the world championships on October 12th in the Netherlands and shows good signs of where my form is at ahead of it.
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Hello everyone. Welcome back
to another video, another week, another gravel race. I am currently sat
in my brother’s driveway. I am in Leeds at the moment. Um the car is all packed once
again as this weekend I am taking part in the British National Gravel Champs which is in
North Yorkshire. Uh it’s currently Friday, day before the race. Um I stayed the night
last night in Leeds at my brother’s place and today this morning I’m heading up to Dolby
where the race is. Going to do my usual wrecky, check out the course, sign on um all ahead of
the big race tomorrow. So I’m going to try and as always in these videos take you along the
way uh and try and show you much as possible about the gravel racing. Um, and I’ll give you
more info and details on it in coming clips. So, I’ve got about an hour and a half drive to Dolby.
So, I’m going to head off now. Uh, and maybe stop at Little on the way to get some supplies and
check out the course for tomorrow. [Music] So, I’ve just arrived at Dolby Forest, hour and
a well nearly 2-hour drive from my stop off at Little. got some stuff for later. Um, I’m a bit
annoyed with myself because the weather right now currently is bloody miserable. Um, it’s
supposed to be sunny right now and I’m pretty sure it was sunny this morning. So, if I’d got
my act together more this morning, I would have um probably dodged a lot of this. So, basically,
I’m going to go and do my ride, race prep ride now, but it’s going to be miserable because it’s
pissing it down my brain. Um, I’m going to get very muddy. So, going to go do that. It’s nearly
2:00 now as well, so it’s already quite late. So, um, yeah, this should be fun. Go sign on. Um, and
yeah, then work out my plans for the rest of the day. Um, it’s also pretty cold. I’m not used to
this. So, go do my pre-race ride, get changed, um, and then get warm again. I think
[Music] this is going to be fun. [Music] You said we going wrong.
We’ve all become the same. We dress the same ways only our accents change. [Music] So have a nice day. Have a nice day. So
I’m just currently riding back from the recon to the car. Cleaned my bike. I’m dirty. Signed
on. Got it all in here. the number and that. Um, I’ve been a bit annoyed with myself today
logistically. I’ve been really poor at planning and I could have definitely done this whole today
and afternoon and morning a lot better. So, better today than tomorrow. Um, but yeah, coursewise very
interesting. Luckily, the rain had stopped after about 45 minutes, so I was able to get a bit of a
ride in in the dry, but it’s muddy out there. Um, fairly simple course compared to what I’ve been
riding the last couple of weeks. Lots of long climbs, big fire roads the whole way, nothing
mental. So, going to cruise back to the car and then warm up and get ready for tomorrow. Now,
good morning. It has just gone 6:00 on race day at the British National Gravel Champs. I’ve just
woken up in my Airbnb. Uh got my bike over there. Um the race starts at 10:00 today, so I got a bit
of time, but I’ve got a fair few things to still sort out. Um so I’m going to have some breakfast
and do that now. I’ve got to sort things out like my bottles for the day. Um but yeah, I slept all
right. Um bit tired, but couple of coffees and that will sort me out. Uh looks like it’s going
to probably be a wet race. Well, it’s rained the last couple of hours. Um and it should be
dry from now on, but the course I reckon, still going to be wet, so that’s going to make
it interesting. Um and yeah, time to get racing. You wanted the worst. You got the
worst. The one, the onlybody [Music] outside. [Music] Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get
up. Get up. Get up. I like this. I like this. Just try this. Theility.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] Do you want to survive? It’s keeping me
alive with these ass beats until I die. Fill it with tension dimension. I’m only
suspension. Just watch the ground move the sound. It ain’t fake when the girls
get naked. Don’t call her to come back. We bring that beat back. And we make sure
that John kept them beat back. A lyrical rampage. Burning your headset. Open your
mind. My eyes ain’t dead yet. I want you to stand up and put them hands up. I bring
it on down as you put my band up like this. Just like this. Come on. Get
up. Get up. Get up. Get up. This world through your vein triggering the neck pump in the brain. I came to show you the
biscuit when the greatestion [Music] with him. He caught up with me after
two laps and I’d been on my own for ages and I thought, “Fuck yeah, I got a long way to
go here.” and he was pulling hard. Yeah, I was like, I’m going to have to out of
nowhere on the last lap and I was like [Music] taking the silver. Second
place for Sportsbridge, Axel Amors, it’s Jack Reed. [Music] And
then in first place, [Music] we are going to do first place
is Dylan Hakali for Leveta CC. So Oscar, our wonderful metal girl. [Music] [Music] So ladies and gentlemen, can we
get one more round of applause? If you can take the photo. We’ll do one photo
in a second on the central podium. But this is Richard Jones, Jack Reed, and Dylan
Humber Kelly, your new national champion. And then we’ll go up onto
the center. Fouryear men. Thank you very much. We’ll be
back in a couple of seconds time. [Music] So, it is now um been a week since the race since
I got back. Well, over a week, but a week since I’ve been back in France. I wanted to uh give some
time and time for me to reflect on this race since it um before recording this final pit here for
this video. uh just to really, you know, let it try and sink in and realize what I’ve achieved. Um
and yeah, I have felt a bit weird with all of it. I think it’s yeah, it’s the best career result I
probably ever had, maybe other than some results I got when I was a junior. Um but definitely
in the last two years, it yeah, second place at a national championships. um is a big thing
yet I have felt quite weird about the result um you know big win but after it and everything
it I didn’t really feel much from it um I think in this current modern day of cycling you know
you live like a robot or as I always say a monk you know you get up you ride your bike you train
you recover and then you do that on repeat and it’s always working towards them goals and that is
all I’ve known and all I do know pretty much 365 24/7. So then when you train and train and train
and you get a big result like this it just sort of I couldn’t quite compute and haven’t computed
since you know what I’ve actually achieved. Maybe it might take longer in months time, two months
time I might reflect on this result and go that’s a a great result. I should really be happy with
that. And I am. But just these emotions I have maybe had in the past I haven’t had with this
uh result. However, saying that, I’m incredibly lucky. And what made it special for me was having
not only my coach there, Tobin, who watched it, um, but both my mom and dad, because every time
I’ve ever got a result in cycling, most time in France here, I’ve always done it on my own or I’ve
been with my team. Um, and you know, at the end of the day, I come back to this house here on my own.
Um, and it’s not quite the same. So it was really special for me to have them there to celebrate it
and to watch it all happen. Um which was yeah the best most important thing for me. Um because you
know you never know when the next result’s going to come. Um so to have my family there is amazing.
And it’s not like I’m angry I didn’t win. I think I couldn’t have done really anything more to
win it. Um, the rider that ended up winning it went on the first lap cuz I didn’t really know
the field that well. I was expecting people to start chasing and no one did. Um, so at the end
of the day, I thought half a lap into the first lap. I thought if no one starts chasing now, it’s
going to be game over. So, I ended up attacking um and spent two laps trying to chase him down
on my own, but also knowing it’s a long game with the gravel stuff. Uh and then got caught by
a rider. We worked together well. Um but you know, we we were never able to catch him up and luckily
I still had a lot of energy left towards the end of the the race to to get that second place. Um,
so I don’t think any any other way really other than following that initial move when he went um
would have been the only way I might have been able to win it. Um, but nevertheless, I think it
shows good signs for the coming weeks with the World Champs in mind. Obviously, the World Champs
is going to be a different beast distance-wise, number of riders doing it. Um, but my main thing
is my fitness is there and I think this the weekend just gone with this race showed that. So,
yeah, 3 weeks to go to the World Champs. I’ve got a couple more races on the road with my team. Uh,
and then it’s, yeah, focusing on the last big race of the year. So, I hope you guys have enjoyed this
video. Please give it a thumbs up. If you haven’t already, subscribe to my channel down below. Um,
and I will see you guys in the next one. [Music]
1 Comment
Congrats 🎉 for the podium! Well deserved!