The event consisted of a 7 mile undulating team time trial on Saturday morning, a 53 mile undulating road stage on Saturday afternoon, then a killer 45 mile hilly stage on Sunday morning.

Team Time Trial... Full TT equipment was permissable in this event which put non-local and lower budget teams such as ourselves at a disadvantage on road bikes. However we had practiced twice in the week leading up and were reasonably slick and well-drilled. Chris B's experience had him in a Director Sportif role and had us making time where it was most effective to do so.

This showed when we achieved a very respectable time of 17:41, 8th place out of 14 teams - only seconds behind and in front of those with full TT equipment. The hilly nature of the TT course suited Chris S and he suprised himself by how well he was going. Most teams were within +/- 20 seconds apart from Cwm Carn Paragon who were some way ahead at 16:31, comfortably in the yellow jersey.

Stage 1...

This was an undulating 55 mile distance which was made up of two 20+ mile laps of a beautiful coastal road circuit then back onto a lengthened variation of the morning's TTT circuit to finish.

The pace was very high for the first lap and more akin to a 2/3 sprint race, at one point we came across sheep on both sides of the road which was alarming in a peleton travelling at 30mph to say the least! There were also cattle grids to contend with, but these were generally on straights so not as bad as we expected.

Shortly after the second lap, approaching a time bonus prime, there was a crash and a carbon crunch in the middle of the pack that left 4-5 guys on the floor. I very narrowly avoided it but had to unclip to get around before chasing back onto the pack.

Taking the hint I moved forward and started getting more active at the front, 6-7 guys had broken away a minute ahead. Seeing a lone Cardiff Ajax rider dangling 15 seconds in front of the peleton I jumped and rode across to him, from there we worked together and bridged to the breakaway where we were riding through and off. A few miles later another bridge group of 4 joined us including Gary from the Surrey League team.

As the end of the second lap neared Cardiff Ajax rider jumped ahead and I joined him, we got a 50m gap and I took the cash prime but weren't making significant headway so soft pedalled on the downhill until the break caught us. The yellow jersey then moved to the front and began powering the break along as he was keen to increase his advantage over the peleton. During this time the two Chris's had been busy sitting at the front of the peleton, regulating the pace so as to give me the best chance of a good finish.

With 5 miles to go, as we reached the turnaround roundabout and started heading back the other way up a long draggy climb the Cwm Carn rider in yellow moved over as if to let someone else take a turn and I hit the gas and took the climb at 9/10ths. I got a gap of 50m to start with, which the break held, kept it up until they started faltering and the gap had increased to over 100m by the summit. Over the top I went up to 10/10ths and into my TT body position honed at the club time trials, sat at approx 190bpm (edge of my sustainable limit) and screamed down the hill at a scary 45mph.

I seemed to have the wind behind me as the speed was barely dropping below 30mph most of the way to the finish. At one mile to go I started to crack and was in a bit of a state weaving all over the road for the last kilometre, but everytime I looked back there was no-one in sight and rounding the last curve finally got eyes on the finish and made it home. The breakaway came in a minute and one second later, the peleton another minute behind.

Stage 2

The time gain from yesterday had put me in 3rd on GC, 14 seconds behind the yellow jersey and 9 seconds behind the other Cwm Carn rider in second. Dan Pearson, a pre-race favourite recently crowned Welsh National Youth Champion, was 45 seconds behind in 4th.

The weather was absolutely atrocious, driving rain, 20mph winds with standing water all over the roads. Eleven riders didn't even bother signing on. Chris B's Director Sportif advice of the day was "if you're gonna pack, do it early because the broom wagon's gonna be full!" Race strategy went into overdrive, the RedhillCC team were prepared to donate wheels if I punctured and tow me back into the pack, pro style.

Cwm Carn had taken note of yesterdays result and I had their riders shadowing me at all times. The major crunch point was the time bonus prime 17 miles in on the nastiest hill of the course. 20/15/10 bonus seconds were the prizes for 1st/2nd/3rd over the top respectively, enough to change the yellow jersey on the road.

As we approached and the hill reared up in front of us the tension in the peleton was terrific. Hiding toward the rear third I moved up ready for action and Cwm Carn started shouting. A rider made a move off the front and I jumped onto the back of him, pulling away I looked behind to see the yellow jersey welded to my rear wheel.

Busting both lungs up the evil rain-soaked gradient we went head to head until eventually I was beaten into second place. Couldn't quite do it, and thus lost 5 seconds with the lesser time bonus of 15 seconds. On the upside I was now second on the road. On the downside I knew I didn't have yesterdays form and was suffering the rest of the race.

Dan Pearson attacked on the next descent which the bunch let go, unwilling to take risks in the slippy conditions. Dom was the Redhill rider of the day and went to the front doing endless fast turns that began shelling riders out of the back at a rapid rate. I wanted to tell him to slow down as I was almost getting dropped but we had to maintain the pace with a rider out front. Suprisingly, Cwm Carn kept their riders on me and were happy to let Pearson stay out. Their second placed rider tried a few attacks which Dom instantly chased down, this proved crucial later.

With around 10 miles to go a race car came alongside letting us know Pearson was 2 minutes 30 up the road! Cwm Carn had thrown a major clanger and rushed to the front to chase. We donated Dom to the cause too. It was too late however and Pearson took a well earned victory and the GC by winning the stage with two minutes in hand. My legs were jelly at the end and it was all I could do to limit my losses to Cwm Carn's second man by sticking as close as possible at the finish. I rolled over the line 9th, 5 seconds behind him.

The result...

GC:
1 23 Dan Pearson Port Talbot Wheelers J - 04:35:52
2 33 Darran Carpenter Cwmcarn Paragon - 04:36:51
3 15 Maurice Brennan Redhill Cycling Club - 04:37:15
4 36 Andrew Butcher Cwmcarn Paragon - 04:37:16
5 56 Rowan Marshall Team Cyclemart - 04:38:23

Thanks to the team's tireless efforts I held onto 3rd in the GC by 1 second, very tight, literally every second counted. Also picked up 2nd overall in the points competition, and RedhillCC came 5th in the overall team classification. By the end of the weekend Redhill were well known in South Wales!

Full results: http://www.cardiffjif.com/attachments/237_L/'étape%20Results%20(Final).pdf

Thanks for a great team!

(Photos used with kind permission from A&A Sports Photography).