Tour da Malta

22nd March – 25th March - a four day stage event

I left home in a taxi at 4am on a cold Tuesday morning to make the trip to Malta myself. For me this trip was a lot of firsts. First time flying to a race abroad; first time flying abroad on my own; first stage race of the year. Very exciting but definitely a few nerves.

All was going well…..up until, well, check-in actually!! I had over packed my bike box. In the effort to save on luggage I was only taking a bike case not a suitcase as well. Lo and behold I had over packed my bike by a small 8kg taking it to 32kg (very poor planning – Oops!). I asked what the penalties were thinking in my head I’ll just pay a bit extra to put this through. It turned out the cost was irrelevant as the max weight was 32kg. So adrenalin kicked in at 5am and I set about re-packing stuff into my hand luggage which really didn’t belong in hand luggage.

Now carrying 8kg extra in my hand luggage the rest of the journey was rather smooth thankfully. I met my teammate David Reece at the hotel at about 1pm, and headed out for a spin on the bike.

The rest of the team arrived later and everyone got around to the general business of introducing themselves, settling in and acclimatizing to the heat after time spent in the cold UK. The following day we headed out to the TT course for a recon ride – a quick ride of it then back to the hotel for the race briefing.

Stage 1; TT – 12km – Flat, Slippery

This was the stage I was most nervous for. I stood a good chance of doing well and between the team, the people around me and especially myself, the pressure was on to pull in a good result. We turned up and the heavens opened and the course became every wet. Unfortunately Maltese roads are really slippery when wet. The course was up and down a main road between 2 dead turns. 5 laps of this course made up the course making for 10 total dead turns with wet manhole covers and a total of 10 straights.

I turned up early as I always do for a TT. I found myself a turbo (the previous day I had been chatting to some other competitors and angled for the possibility of using their turbo if it was free – a bit of innocent charm paid off). My team mates were somewhat perplexed – ‘where was that in your luggage?’. This gave me a half decent warm up in between having to dive inside a car to get out of the horrendous rain.

My TT start time came round and off I went. The plan was to ride at around 380 – 420 watts on the straights and sprint out the corners, but try to control it on the first 1-2 laps. All 5 laps went past, quite painful and the power was a little bit low, the average lower due to the dead turns. I finished in 19:53 mm:ss. I headed over to the timing board to see how I had got on. The second fastest time of the day 20:23 - I had WON by 30 seconds. Wow!

I found myself standing on top of a podium with a bottle of bubbly – never done this before but managed to emulate somewhat of a ‘Lewis Hamilton’. My family were really keen to know the result. Rather than text them a message, I sent them the video of the podium.

Stage 2; Road Race 88km – Hilly

I was in the leader’s Red jersey for stage 2 after my result on stage 1. The day was 10 laps of an 8.8km circuit with a 5 minute climb in it. As a team we wanted to try to keep the attacks down on the climb as I can deal with the high power but struggle with the large accelerations.

We knew who to watch as a team and the plan was solid. The first time up the climb Josh Housley set a high pace and by the top 40 riders had been shelled off the back leaving a group of 20 with 5 TBW riders in it. One Italian had escaped on the climb and would never be seen again, he pulled out 1 minute a lap for the next 9 laps. All a bit odd.

Over the following 7 laps Josh Housley continued to set the pace slowly reducing the chasing group down to a group of only 7. This is when the attack came from another Brit, Will Corden, and Josh Housley followed. They were able to get a gap and kept pushing. The group I was in was now made up of just 3 riders - James Mckay, myself and another Italian. James and I couldn’t get anything working until the Italian was dropped as he was disrupting any of our plans. He was replaced by a Schils rider a lap later to vary the group once more. This then took us to the end. Coming up to the finish our group splintered and I rolled in for 7th on the stage. A race that really didn’t fall out well for me but experience added to the bank. James was a true soldier out there for me and a big thank you.

Jersey gone (although I did get to keep it for my wardrobe). I was now 4th on GC behind the out and out winner of the race (by over 8 mins), Will Corden, and Josh Housley. The top 3 of this stage had taken over from me.

Stage 3 – 68km –Flat; Not Slippery

This was similar to stage 1 in its flat terrain but on a much bigger scale. Our plan was to get James Ambrose-Parish the win. What we needed to do was make sure the race finished in a fast bunch sprint. As a team we therefore set about making sure nothing got away. Chase down, sit on, irritate anyone in a move than was trying to get away, repeat, repeat. We did this well for 13 of the 15 laps.

For the last 2 laps we got into a lead-out train we were flying and making other teams to pain. On the last dead turn the group had all become a bit swamped, and it was a mess coming into the last 1km. James Ambrose-Parish wa

s flying solo. I was on the inside going well, in about 5th wheel. I found a gap with about 100 meters go and went for it, getting up to 2nd wheel before looking over to see James Ambrose-Parish come up the other side with just 50meters to go and beat the rider into second. I took 3rd. I normally struggle on sprint races so was very pleased with this result.

Stage 4 – Very Short!

Stage 4 cancelled due to extremely high winds. The general classifications at the end of stage 3 would stand for the overall. I got 4th and Josh Housley got 3rd. A very good team result for TBW.

The days following…

As a team we enjoyed the island. Riding around it and having a good time getting to know it before heading home in drips and drapes. I headed home last which meant I had to hang around in Malta for 12 hours by myself, not the best but a good book sufficed.

All in All…

We did great as a team and I was clearly very satisfied myself with a 1st, 7th and 2nd for the stages giving me 4th overall. The team got a 1st place (stage 3); a 3rd and a 5th (stage 2) and a 3rd and 5th overall. All very satisfying.