Dan Halksworth - Rutt 2-Day Cat 2/3/4
April 09, 2015
Over the weekend I went away for my second successive weekend to race the Rutt in Devon. It was a two stage race with a TT in the morning followed by a 64km road race.
Going in to the race I felt confident with my form and hoping that after last weekends puncture i could get a little luck. The course was flat which I was a little disappointed with. Racing in Dartmoor you would think you would have a few hills to contend with but some how they managed to find the three flattest roads! Steve my coach gave me some power markers to work on during the TT and after the first few minutes I was feeling pretty good so just aimed for more than what he wanted knowing that if i could get a good result it would push me up to 3rd cat. It paid off and I got the win by 4 seconds in 10 minutes and 18 seconds. I was happy with the result but it made me a marked man for the road race especially having to wear the tour series leaders Jersey. There were numerous attacks in the first few laps but it seemed no one wanted to work so I pushed the tempo when I went to the front meaning we slowing clawed in to the leaders time. Going in to the last lap it was one big group but with 5 km to go, and finding myself boxed in a group of 5, i got away heading in to the last corner. With a big crash on that corner and getting caught behind it i was always going to find it hard to get the result I was looking for but I managed to get on to the back of the chasing group that managed to get around the corner unscathed. Resting on the back for 30 seconds I decided to kick past them but had nothing left in the legs and rolled in top 15 with a top ten overall for the weekend.
It was a good weekend and after a few cheeky comments about my sporting history the positive comments at the end made it a good weekend. Thanks to Velo Sport Jersey, Pedal Power and Davies and Ingram for the support this season.