Taylor Johnstone: Cinq...Quatre...Trois...Deux...Une, Allez!!

Cycling Team Tomacc 2015

First race of a new season can usually feel like a dive into the unknown. Months of rest and progressive training had left me feeling confident I was in good enough condition to start off strongly.

The race was in Tournai, a small town in Wallonie region of Belgium, close to the French border. We arrived an hour and a half before the start, giving us plenty of time to sign on and prepare ourselves for the race. The circuit was 16.8 km, some rolling roads and plenty of exposure to the wind, it was definitely going to be a hard race!
Start 2.30pm. As we waited for the instruction from the commissaire, I had a slight feeling of disbelief that a new race season was about to get underway. It doesn't feel all that long ago since I was lining up at my last race of 2014, at the start of October. I was nervous, but equally excited to test my condition and start with a positive result.

First race number of 2015!

Cinq minutes...Trois minutes...Une minute...Allez! We were off, a pack of 122 riders diving for the first right hand corner into the narrow streets of town. Each rider as excited as the next, all eager to get themselves to the front with the aim of staying out of danger or to launch an attack.
I'd started near the back of the bunch, steadily making my way to the front within the first 15km, as soon as I'd got there I jumped off the front to a group of fifteen at 10 seconds, an effort that was harder than I'd expected and didn't come to much, as the peloton caught us shortly after. I recovered, held my position at the front, waiting for a lull to make another move.
This lull occurred around 3 km later, just past the finish line. I attacked on the outside of the peloton as we approached the tight right hander into the narrow roads. At this point there were 4 riders spread out, dangling off the front over 10 seconds. I rode past all of them and pushed on to maintain momentum, flicked my elbow and looked back to see the damage, we were away. It was seven of us against a 115 rider peloton, we worked well together initially, pulling out a gap of 30 seconds in no time.

In the break, first race of the season.

Due to the nature of the course and the weather conditions, it was really tough to increase our advantage out front, with long, open roads and strong winds, we were always in sight and constantly working hard to maintain the time gap. Kilometre after kilometre the gap remained, "trente seconds".

I was feeling strong and also confident that I had a chance of winning, or at least getting on the podium. However, approaching the final 25 km of the race three riders were coming across to us and a larger group of fifteen not far behind them were also getting closer. This situation led to an attack on the toughest section of the circuit from Pierre Drancourt (Ex Bouygues Telecom Pro), despite feeling good earlier, I didn't have the legs to follow anymore and unfortunately lost contact with the front five. I then jumped in with a fast moving group of three coming across, worked with those guys for a lap before finally getting dropped by them with 3 km to go. I kept pushing though, not far from the finish and with a group of 15 getting close, I was determined to hold my position at the very least, but with a strong headwind all the way to the finish it was going to be a pretty hard task with only a handful of seconds advantage. I was caught and followed a couple of attacks approaching the final kilometer, but the group came in together and I finished 18th.

It was a pretty disappointing result for me after spending over 90 km out front in a promising break and feeling strong, however, that's bike racing. On reflection, there are definitely some positives to take from the race though, it's a promising sign to feel like I've jumped straight back into where I left off at the end of last season. It makes me even more confident for the rest of the season now, this is only the beginning.

My next race is on Saturday in Geluwe, another kermesse in West Flanders, pretty local to us, so really looking forward to getting stuck in again!!

A couple of photo's below of team presentation from Friday night, was a great night, excited to see the success and improvements made with the team this year!