Ever since I started racing in 2007 the National Champs was always a race that I thought would be an amazing achievement to win. Having just started riding I never really seriously thought it would be possible to win it one day. The riders who did were way up there, thirty seconds to a minute faster than me on the same tracks! Each year I got faster and faster and my goals started getting higher and higher too. In 2009 I raced my first full national points series in the youth category, at that point I was trying to get podiums at every race but I still wasn’t fast enough to go for the win at the champs. Over the next couple of years I worked my way up through the ranks and went from being a top 5 rider to winning nationals by the end of 2010. The possibility of wearing that champs jersey was getting closer as the gap in race times got smaller.
2011 was my first year in Juniors and the first year that winning the National Champs was a main goal of mine. I missed out on winning in my first year at Llangollen after crashing within yards of the finish line! So after that disappointment I came into the 2012 at Moelfre hungrier than ever to get the job done.
Moelfre had always been kind to me and I had enjoyed real success there, though the race wasn’t easy by any means. After seeding I was lying in third, two seconds back, after making a big mistake on one of the top turns. Maybe sitting in third took a bit of pressure off, as in my race run I stayed cool, hit all of my lines and gave it everything on the pedalling section. I crossed the line and went into first position with two riders left to come down.
It was a strange time waiting for the next two riders to come, when the last rider finally crossed the line with a slower time than me I was so happy. It was a great feeling to have pulled off something that I had been working so hard for over the years.
Having the red, white and blue jersey forever is a cool feeling, it’s something I feel proud to be able to show people when they’re at my house. At the British Cycling Awards in Birmingham I was presented with the National Champs trophy and it was pretty amazing to look and see some top names like Gee Atherton, Josh Bryceland and Brendan Fairclough who have all won it in the past and gone onto achieve great things in the sport. I think it would pretty awesome to follow in their footsteps as I move into the Elite category in 2013. Each year as I get faster and race times get closer, my aims and goals keep on getting higher. It’s the only way to race.
