On Sunday, myself, Neil and Jack converged on Balfron High School for the SC RR champs.

Covering 120k and ascending Duke’s Pass in the rain, then tackling 3 laps of a tough circuit before a ride to the finish, it would prove to be a pretty attritional day, and a course built for a worthy winner.

We started in the wet, with an almost straight and gradually descending approach to Duke’s.

This meant that the whole bunch stayed together until the foot of the climb- I know this as I was sat dead last, slippy roads in a big bunch are not my most comfortable place to be.

Duke’s Pass came after only about 10km, and it proved to be a pretty brutal filter of who was going to be in the race, and who was not.

Jack and myself made it over in the front group, with Jack slipping off the front for the descent so as best to tackle it safely and picking the lines he wanted.

I however employed my own tactic of nearly wetting myself and losing a lot of places going down.

It resulted in my losing contact with the front group and getting caught by the demon descenders who had been dropped on the climb.

We chased for the rest of the race but never saw the front again.

Jack rode amazingly and proved his strength with an attack late in the race, getting caught with only about 600m to go I believe.

My group caught Neil with about 5km to go, who has unfortunately been pulled out on the last of the circuit laps and was riding back.

I rolled in at the back of my group, the uphill “sprint” that ensued was a bit too much for my legs!

All in all a good day out save for my shoddy descending skills, but a great result for Jack and a good learning experience for all 3 of us.

I liberated this photo from the press room, who have done a thorough race report with pictures of the winner and the sprint for the line.

Go check that out if you want more details from what happened at the front, because I don’t have them!

Cheers all