Busy busy busy

Been a while since an update,so here it is.
Good news regarding the Great Britain call up. I had a confirmation e-mail from the selectors not long after my last post confirming I've made the squad. The World championships are in Edinburgh at the start of September. The course looks as if it might suit me with plenty of undulations particularly on the bike.
Race wise since Newlands has been pretty quiet. I fully intended to do the Wrekin streak on the Wednesday and the Llantysilio fell race on the Saturday. However my legs were in a seriously bad shape after the duathlon that I thought I'd done some damage. So I rested with some gentle rides that week instead of racing and went into Sunday feeling very heavy legged.
Sunday 25th April was my first ever road race. A cat 4 only 55km race around a business park in Solihull ! Not exactly the Giro d'italia but you have to start somewhere. I have to admit I didn't have a clue what to expect and went into the race with an open mind. Cat 4 is the bottom step of the ladder,your so called novices and I was expecting to see some old bikes and complete amateurs turn up...how wrong I was. It looked like a scene from Le Tour with lads warming up on rollers and team crews with spare wheels etc. I've seen all this before and started with a group of 70 riders preparing for the 35 lap x 1 mile course. The start was steady and I felt very comfortable,often just sitting in with the pack and chatting to Andy my club mate. It soon became obvious that due to the flat course and the strong wind it was almost impossible for anyone to escape in a break away and a last lap sprint was going to decide proceedings. As predicted after 34 laps we were as we were at the start,still in a huge pack waiting for things to happen. Just before the final lap I was sitting pretty in about 10th waiting for the last lap lunge for the line. The final circuit was a replica of the race in general with a rotating of small groups going from front to back and vice versa. So it turned out that with a 3/4 lap to go I was slightly boxed in over half way down in the pack. I went hammering around the outside into the wind over the next half lap to get myself somewhere near striking distance. I was looking good with about 300 yards to go in about 25th only 30 yards back,but with tired legs and using a lot of energy getting myself back into contention I struggled to find anything for the sprint and cruised in with the main pack. Andy made a slightly better fist of it placing some 30 yards and 20 places ahead to just miss out on the points (top10).
All in all a good experience and I'm now looking forward to my next road race this coming Sunday at the Darley moor racing circuit.