I arrived to the HQ 90 minutes before the start of my race, I signed on, pinned on my numbers and got got myself warmed up. I put 70 psi in both of my tires as I felt grip round the tight 900m circuit was going to be more important than straight line speed. This was my third time racing at Ixworth, in 2016 I had finished 5th in the U16 race and in 2018 I had finished 2nd in the 2/3 so I was confident I knew the circuit and how to get a good result.
Learning from a mistake I had made a few weeks ago at the Active Fakenham Crits I arrived 20 minutes early to the rider’s pen at the expense of a slightly shorter warm-up in the hope of securing a spot on the front row of the start line, I knew that good positioning would be as important as good legs. The neutral lap was cagey as everyone tried to get in a good position for the start of the race, as we crossed the line for the first time I found myself I found myself around 15th, I knew that I had to move up to get myself on the right side of any splits or follow any dangerous moves off the front of the race.
I spent the first 10 minutes fighting for a better position which was hard due to the high pace being set by the riders at the front of the race. A dangerous attack made early on by Dougal Toms (Exeter University) and Kieran Jarvis (Team OnForm) gained a slight lead over the bunch but was never allowed to get out of sight, it was brought back within 2 laps and immediately counter attacked by Seb Herrod (Strada-Sport). I spotted an opportunity a lap later to get involved in the action and launched an attack down the back straight which was followed by Kieran, we caught Seb and had a lead of a few seconds but were brought back by a lack of cooperation between us and a strong chase from the 20 strong peloton. The attacks continued throughout the race but never gained more than 10 seconds on the bunch, it was very clear that it would be all together for the last lap.
We were averaging 1 minute 20 per lap so with 45 minutes of racing gone we were shown 5 laps to go on the lap board, some unsuccessful last ditch attempts to get away were made keeping the pace high enough to stop most riders moving up and swamping the front. As I had been towards the front for most of the race I thought that the bunch had been whittled down to 7 or 8, so I was surprised to see close to 20 riders still in contention and all trying to move up for the last few laps. With 2 laps to go a surge of riders began to move up forcing me to lose my position in the top 5, I was 10th wheel as we took the bell for the last lap and thinking that my chances of a podium were gone however. The final corner was less than 100m before the finish line so baring a crash the winner would be the first one round the corner. I took the inside line on the penultimate corner moved me into a great position to launch my sprint down the back straight, as I was coming from 5th or 6th wheel I had more speed than the other riders giving me the lead into the last corner which I held to line to take the win, 1 better than my 2nd place last year!
Sean Purser
