Last year I won my first
@britishcycling Elite National Title in the Derny Championships and ever since then, I have been planning my defence of that title to see if I could repeat the feat. This yearโs event was excellently organised and promoted by
@velospeed_coaching so was a bigger and more exciting event
The entrants were stronger this year, featuring multiple past champions, so I knew I would need a better performance to retain the title
I cannot say that my preparations went at all to plan leading up to the event and with 3 weeks to go, I was in a bad place. But I realised that I often pull out some of my best performances with less than ideal preparation. I trained very well for those 3 weeks and managed to yield some great improvements, giving me confidence in the days before the event
The qualifying heats were a shock with how fast everyone was, hitting over 70 kph in the sprint for the line and I only just scraped into the final
The final was run off with a ridiculously fast start. I think that blew everyone up well before half way, but I managed to hold on better than most to come away with the silver medal ๐ฅ Despite getting lapped by the phenomenal
@matty.brennan__ , I am really happy with my performance. Congratulations to him and also
@mgittings for his bronze medal ๐ฅdropping back into the Derny scene with such blistering pace
I am so thankful to my pacer
@philip.taylor.549 for his tips and confidence in me - He is brilliant and reliable which gives me the confidence to just smash it and try to keep up ๐ต
It was amazing to see
@__annamorris engage warp speed to win her first British National Title in her first ever Derny race!
Thank you so much to
@echelon_cycles for providing me with the custom frameset I rode. It might be an old style alloy frame, but I am not drawn in by the marketing hype that only the latest models will do. The bike fit and body position on the bike are the most important factors of performance and this frameset gets those things exactly how I want them
Thanks to
@velotec for the PRO8 suit in the new
@wardperformanceraceteam colours
Bit of time to focus on other things now before I start thinking Dernies again!
