hiya everyone,

right The North West Youth Tour. What a great weekend, great weather, great racing and some laughs along the way.
When we finally made it to blackpool after what should have been a two hour journey that ended up being more like a four hour job, we arrived at the travelodge, everyone else was already there apart from the tanfields who were their usual trick of waiting till late on to set off.

Our room was massive and as jakey was "ill" mum had stayed at home and so there was only me dad and ben which ment loads of space. we got all of our kit and the bikes with room to spare. after a quick chat downstairs we went to bed.
we woke up early the next morning and had breakfast in the room loaded the van and made our way into blackpool seafront.
there was two stages on the saturday, starting with a time trial featuring a cobbled climb for everyone above the u10 category, i really liked this and probably would have gone a bit faster had the finish been clearly marked, i wasn't to badly effected as many made the same mistake. after the time trial i was lying 11th and thirty seconds down on jake ragan who rode my spare bike, because he broke his chain on the start. it was just about the hardest my dolce has ever been pushed !!
ben was also 11th in his time trial and toby t was 10th not sure where emma b and joe m were but tom mein was winning as per !

the second stage was a circuit race on the same course as the time trials, it was just under full race distance.
Ben and Toby finshed the day holding their positions in the GC, Tom increased his lead, again. Emma b, Joe m and Matt w had good races, maintaining there positions.
in my race the wind had got up and changed direction to a cross wind for the whole course. some early attacks went in which split the race into three groups, i was lucky enough to of been in the right position in the break and was with the leaders. Unfortunately Charlie and Alex Hopper missed the break. There were riders all over the place and our front group put a couple of minutes into the chasing groups. I moved up into 10th in GC.

The next day dawned warm and bright with not a cloud in the sky I new it was going to be a warm one and there wasnt a lot of wind. We arrived at Salt Ayre to find a dead pan flat circuit where you could pedal all the corners i new this was a day for the sprinters not my cup of tea!!!! First out were the D's and E's the group set out at a good pace and they all stayed together Tom won and Ben was 3rd he was buzzing!
In the C's things were much the same it all stayed together and there was not a lot of change.
It was the same story in my race to with some attacks going in but they were all brought back quickly.
It made for pretty boring day really all though Ben was pleased cos he moved up in GC. There were two stages over the same format both with similar outcomes.

The third day was athe excellent Preston circuit only one stage here today. Preston for anyone who hasnt been is owned and managed I believe by Preston University so everything is immaculate no dogs or walkers!!!! its a mile in length with a couple of small rises just to catch you out if your not paying attention.
First out was the U16 boys as there was dutch team over and they had to get back to newcastle for the ferry. A dutch rider took the GC from Jon Dibben.
Next up was the D's and E's our Ben had another cracking ride and had a sprint for 2nd just being edged by the pink jersey winner Jess Tom was well clear.
the c's were next which I think stayed together but Grace Garner had the race sewn up by this point.
next up was me charlie and Alex the race stayed together for a bit then a few attcks went in from riders trying to improve their position Jake Ragan was quite happy to sit in and watch what was going on just covering his main rivals.

On one of the preem laps I had a go from about 400 metres and caught a few of the riders out I evntually got caught close to the line and got 4th in the preem. not long after there was a crash bringing a few riders down I got caught up in it but chased hard and got back to the group without having to take a lap out. things settled down and it ended with the usual mad dash which I was pleased to finnish up in the top 10. My efforts resulted in me moving up into 9th about 5 seconds off being 5th so not too bad if only I had done better in the TT. See the BC website or the CDNW site for the full results.

I have just got back from Croft where I raced the adults race again beating my dad again.......come on old man where are your legs!!!!!!! I got first Junior winning £5 and finnishing in the top 10 I think.

Well Im about done and ready for bed so I'll say night and see ya all on Saturday.