This weekend was the National Road Championships which concluded of a TT, Road Race and a Crit. The races were held in Hamiltonsbawn and Markethill by Orchard CC so a big thank you to them.

The weekend started off with a TT on Saturday morning, the course was tough with a strong wind and a few challenging climbs. I had a good result in the TT getting a silver, I’m happy with my performance in this event and I was ready to tackle the Road Race in the afternoon.

The Road Race was on Saturday afternoon and I was feeling good and ready to go. I really targeted this event this year and was going for gold. The 1st 3 quarters of a lap was completed and the group was still together after lots of attacks but no body could stay away. This is were luck turned against me and I got a front wheel puncture. It took time for the neutral service to get me a wheel and get it into the bike, this made me loose around a minute from the bunch. I though my race was done at this point and weeks of training was all wanted because of a little bad luck so it was hard to keep my head in the game but I just rode as hard as I could and after about 4 miles flat out riding I found myself back in the bunch which really surprised me. After this i just sat in the wheels trying to recover for the sprint finish. Once we got to 200m from the line i just went to the barrier and kicked I squeezed all the energy I had left to get a 4th place on the line. I’m really happy with this to recover from what could have been really bad to just being a wheel length of a medal. Its annoying to have missed such a good opportunity of a huge result but this is racing and a still had a Crit to prove myself.

Just like that it was Sunday morning and time for the Crit in the town centre of Markethill. It was a technical course as it was really short but has 5 corners and it was only 400m long, it had a challenging 180 hairpin which split the field and a slight drag up to the finish. It was a fast start and the rider who won the TT and Road Race attacked into a corner and he was gone, This was my biggest mistake of the race no expecting him to do that and couldn’t jump to his wheel. He was gone and won the race solo lapping the field. I was now focused on 2nd place and in made another mistake late on in the race which cost me 2nd and I had to sprint for 3rd but I won the sprint and secured the medal.

Just like that the 2022 road season is complete. I’m slightly gutted about this weekend as i felt it was a real opportunity to prove myself at national level and it all just slipped away in a few pedal strokes. I would like to thank everyone who has made this season possible and now I will start to prepare and look forward to the cross season.