The race organisers had kindly ordered fab sunny and warm weather for the race which meant breaking out the new MDCC skin suit before heading over to the rider briefing and then down the start line.
The first 1.5k was a neutralised rolling start but I still positioned myself well towards the front and as soon as the flag dropped the attacks off the front began - the pace was pretty quick and I really wished I had had time for a decent warm up!
After the first lap things settled down but a few riders had got around 30s up the road. I continued to ride towards the front of the main bunch until the end of lap 2 when I made a gap on a tight corner to form a chasing group of 3 riders.
We worked together for a bit but the gap to the leaders wasn't really coming down so I decided to bridge across to the front group on the main climb.
This created a group of five riders comprising of two Falco riders, two Bikeshed - UEX riders and me, with all of us working pretty well together to maintain a solid gap to the bunch.
This continued until lap 4 when one of the Falco riders dropped off and lap 5 when we lost one of the Bikeshed riders, leaving just three of us out the front ahead of a rapidly closing bunch. We continued to work hard to keep our advantage until the finished straight where the other two riders eased off waiting for the sprint.
I decided to have a go early and, with the element of surprise, hold them off until the line. Didn't quite work as I got jumped towards the line but was nice to have a go and still take a respectable 3rd place - stoked!
Great fun race - looking forward to the next one next weekend :)