Dan Halksworth - Tom Hawkins Spring Classic - Cat 2/3
May 05, 2015
So on the weekend I was back in action over the water at the Tom Hawkins Spring Classic. This was my first Cat 2/3 race so was a little nervous. Im currently chasing points to get my Cat 2 licence so I can enter British TT champs so I needed a good result. My race plan was not to show any cards until the last few laps of the 110km circuit. First lap a two man break got away which was frustrating as they stayed away for the whole race. The course was ideal for a break with lots of blind spots. After a few laps of them being away I decided to to chase them down and took another guy with me. We are working well together and the gap was dropping until my bike buddy punctured. It all of a sudden got a lot harder. I looked back and ref that was with me told me a small group was chasing me down so i sat up and waited for them. It wasn’t the most organised group and so the two up front started to pull away a little more. The heavens opened and the course got pretty dangerous. The lanes were full of mud and the last km before the finish was going to be really tricky so I had a plan for the end. On the last lap everyone started to sit up and miss turns so I tried to up the pace and make them work for it. Knowing that my sprint might not get me the points I needed I went really hard off the front with about 4km to go. The group behind me weren’t catching so I put my head down. Last half km I could see that out of the 9 a few were getting close. 300m before the finish it kicked up and then plateau up so again I dug deep and put my head down only to get pipped on the finish line for 3rd place. A little disappointed but I have a lot more points towards my next licence! Looking forward to this weekends race in Essex.
Massive thank you to Velo Sport for the travel grant and to Davies and Ingram for the ongoing support. I wouldn’t be away racing without the two of them.