A breakthrough race - Junior Tour of Wales 2023

The Junior Tour of Wales is the most prestigious race for juniors in the UK. It's the one everyone wants to get a result at and for good reason. G, Dowsett, Dunbar all launched their careers at this race and thus it attracts eyes from teams on the continent.

After a surprise visit from my coach I was really excited for the weekend, my fitness was at an all time high thanks to months of illness and injury free training and following a successful chain of results my confidence was building. Overall, my objective was to pick up a few nice stage results and get as far up on GC as possible.

Stage 1 - Prologue (8.8km | 228m)

Last year, I admit, I 'ballsed this up'. It's a super tricky pacing strategy whereby you need to be all but empty with 6km to go! Essentially it's 2 hill climbs with an awkward rolling/descent in the middle.

Thankfully, I'd learnt my lesson this year and hit my numbers. Despite some slight visor trouble (fogging up and going blind at 70kph) I was pleased with how I started my tour. On the day, I was 4th overall and well up there in the GC contention. All to play for.

Stage 2 - Summit Finish on the Black Mountain (118km | 1313m)

The goal of this stage was simple. Stay up front and get in the break - aiming for a stage win. However, with Wales having the yellow jersey the team decided to control strongly and weren't letting any contestable break get away. Having identified this I decided to sit in and save the legs for what would be a hard and fast summit finish on the Black Mountain, which averages 6% for 5.5km.

In the run up to the base, the road turns narrow and twisty, it was here while the bunch was frantically positioning itself where I was seen to have crossed a dashed white line. For this, despite inconsistencies, I was handed a 30 second penalty.

Regardless, I climbed well and the legs felt really good, sitting in the wheels and conserving energy in a dwindling peloton. Coming out of the final hairpin, I sensed a slight lull in a hard pace and went for it - punching hard and then getting low while turning a big gear. The gap formed early and continued to build until the line. It had worked! My 2nd win of the season and the biggest one of my career so far!

Stage 3 & 4 (The survival bit)

Sunday lays host to 2 flat stages. First around Pembrey and second a 100km road stage on a fast and flowing course in the afternoon. My goal was to stay out of trouble on stage 3 and stay vigilant for bonus seconds on stage 4, with lap primes available. The first objective was met having navigated Pembrey and thus it was onto the afternoon.

After a diversion and longer than planned neutral, the racing started just 15km prior to the first set of bonus seconds, making it a frantic set of racing. I moved up staying calm and with 4km to the prime jumped across to a break forming out front, then sprinting for 3rd place and 3 bonus seconds for the GC. With a lot of GC favourites in the group this was soon brought back and a group got away with no major GC threats given the nature of stage 5. This was ideal for me as it enabled me to sit in without worrying too much about bonus seconds as long as the gap was controlled. My NP of the stage was just 245 Watts, mission accomplished!

Stage 5 (Rumble on the Tumble)(110km | 1579m)

D-Day. This is the day that GC is decided and is what the Tour is known for, finishing up the infamous Tumble Mountain (4.7km @ 8.4%). It's not straight forward however, with 2 KOMs prior to that. Having sat in early on I moved up in anticipation of the second climb, having identified this as the hardest climb prior to the Tumble. Thankfully, it did kick off with the 2nd on GC, Tomas Pattinson attacking and dragging Liam O Brian, Seb Grindley, Ryan Williams and myself over the top. It made sense for me to push this on both for GC and the stage and the gap inflated quickly to 20 seconds before gradually growing to over a minute and a half.

Despite some missed turns the group was cohesive and we controlled the gap overall, keeping on top of nutrition with an eye of what was to come. We came into the base of the climb together and Tomos, Liam and I rolled turns together. Having been out front for close to 50km at this point, I was unsure how the legs would feel. However, in general I get better later into a race and under fatigue so was confident that once I got into the climb they would come back to me.

I could see some fatigue on the faces of those around me and thus with 2.7km to go I pulled through seated but hard and managed to get a slight gap on the remaining break. I settled into my rhythm and to my delight the gap continued to grow. With just under a kilometre to go I knew the win was in the bag but had to keep the pedals turning for the GC. Coming across the line 17 seconds in front of the lead of the break and moving into 3rd on GC and 2nd in the mountains classification. A slight shame about the penalty which cost me the overall win but a great weekend nonetheless.

Thank you to everyone who have supported my this year. In particular, friends, family, Zappi Juniors, Pedal Potential, WindWave, Colnago and my coach Pablo, we have worked together for close to 6 years now!

Next Up: Trofeo Buffoni UCI 1.1

Photos from John Pierce, Graffika Photography and Carl Downing.