Cyclo-Cross Welsh Championships - Bargoed, South Wales

After driving through freezing fog from Northampton to South Wales, Ben arrived at a very sunny, very cold and icy Parc Cwm Darran near Bargoed, in plenty of time for a practice lap ahead of his first Cyclo-Cross Junior Welsh Championship bid.

Having won the Welsh National title at Youth level last year Ben was keen to try and repeat the feat in his first season as a Junior. However, he wasn’t going to get it all his own way. There was stiff competition with Matthew Jones, winner of last weeks Welsh series, and Sam Harrison, Young Sports Personality of the Year contender, racing after a clean sweep of wins in the Manchester Velodrome the day before amongst the field.

The ground was hard and slippery and Juniors, Vets and Women were all to race together, it was important to get a good start and on the gun there was jostling for position on the opening tarmac climb. Ben sat in 5th position and two places behind Harrison as they came to a slippery tight bend onto a wooden bridge. Ben just overcooked it in trying to take a place and lost the rear of the bike momentarily, putting him off his rhythm and in the wrong gear. The steep loose climb immediately after the bridge saw Ben relegated several positions, and he had to start overtaking manoeuvres on the next piece of singletrack to make up the lost time.

By the end of the first lap Sam Harrison and eventual Veteran winner Ian Jeremiah had opened up a gap on the rest of the field and continued to hold about a minute over the chasing riders for much of the race. Ben had caught back up to Matthew Jones and together they were chasing down Ross Porter in third place overall. Ben put in a few attacks on the main climbs and eventually forged a gap over Jones and was hot on the wheel of Porter. A couple of crashes put paid to Jones’s challenge though he fought back bravely to take a well deserved 3rd place and the last podium spot. Having overtaken Porter, Ben continued to chase Harrison and with two laps to go it seemed that Harrison may have expended too much energy early on. He dropped off of the leader and Ben, finishing strongly was making real inroads to his lead. Going into the last lap Ben had reduced the gap to only 20 seconds and could see his target. Unfortunately on the last lap an altercation with a backmarker forced him off course and into a fence and with it any chance Ben had of catching Sam and getting the win. Ben came home to take second place just 15 seconds adrift of the new Junior Welsh Champion.

Afterwards Ben was not too disappointed; he had ridden well, he felt good and was very pleased with the way his new Cannondale Cross bike performed.