BC South R1 – Azets Spring Classic

The Azets Spring Classic is the opening road race for the first round of the fresh new look for the southern region of British Cycling events. We’re really excited by this format which accomidates for 2/3/4 category riders. Hosted by Poole Wheelers inconjuction with title sponsor Azets Financial.

The fast rolling & breezy course situated just outside of Wool, Dorset dubbed ‘The Monkey World’ course due to its usage of the entrance and road leading to the facility. A 55 mile race which saw the riders take on a net of 162ft of elevation gain during the race and highs of 4.6% the steepest grade. A big Triangle with one particularly sharp corner that meant bunching and surging from the group with long distances on straight roads meant breaks were likely to form but be watched and judged before bridges were made if they weren’t considered strong enough to work, this meant a hard race for anyone trying to get away undetected.

We had 4 strong riders lining up, meaning we could go into the race with more team objects and individual roles. Olly, Joe, Mattia & Dan were all on the start sheet for us. The weekend started for Dan who made the trip up to the store in Swindon from Southhampton for his Bike Fit with Dean, BikeFit Swindon, on his new Giant Propel Advanced race bike. Olly & Joe took the ride down to Poole with Team Owner Stephen to stay the night before and the three met Mattia down at the hotel for the lay over before heading together to the race HQ in Wool, Dorset. A course recce was made which lead to the team objectives and plans made after warming up at the team pit, massive thank you to the Wool Surgery for allowing us to use their car park for our set up. After warm up all the preparations had been underdone, the team chatted the through the course, potential plans and roles for the race.

The flag is dropped… Let’s go racing!

Our four riders were all to be bullish from the neutral zone and fight to get forward placement as they rolled out and from the flag to be as fearless and annoying as possible, whilst following moves was important sending them and being influential was more the mindset. We were described along with Primera Team-Jobs & Reflex Nopinz as “relentless in attacking, fracturing the peloton and forcing riders to dig deep.” Our plans were to pull out the bigger teams in the group, us with four riders and the two other teams mentioned both had teams of 5, safe to say our plans worked as After several attacks from Joe, Olly forced a move that ultimately won the day, getting off in a two up scrabbling teams to make hasty decisions whether to follow or not. Soon enough the 2-up was congregated as a strong 6 break, lasting 4 laps with up to around a 45s gap at times, Mattia a strong Italian ex-pro in his teenage years really was thrown into the British road scene as a baptism of fire, feeling good and positive but finding the experience and the variables too much to handle and after the first lap found himself off the main peloton. Joe & Dan made calculated efforts and observations in the peloton, watching moves and sticking to the plan whilst Olly was up the road.

Unfortunately Olly, leading into the race reported in some illness which we knew we’d have to monitor during the race, but the pace in the lead group exerted too much energy, lasting 2 laps with a Belgium pro and some seriously strong riders meant the Oxford based rider had to pull back to finish the race and ended within the main peloton for his finish. Both Dan and Joe continued to work for position and Joe gave Dan a lead out for him to unwind a short sprint which gave him a 17th position finish earning 14 League points – Joe rode home for a 21st taking 10points & Olly 28th earning us 25 points for the first round.

Fantastic weekend of racing by all, great to see the team making plans, working together & ultimately start getting points on the board. We move to the next one!

Take a Look at the images captured by Peloton Pix, head to the website for the complete gallery – click here!