In the photo: Adam Naguib

Written by Adam.

TMB Development attacked this race with a team of four and although not the largest group at the event, we knew we had the legs to make things happen as we wanted.  As anticipated, the initial throes of the race saw the breakaway establish almost immediately, with a group of five being established after three or four miles.  The group off the front comprised of five riders from five teams, with the three most represented teams in the race (including TMB Dev) accounted for.  With the break’s cast of characters set and with strong support back in the main field acting as back-up to ensure that the break’s composition, as it was, was retained, the move out front was able to establish and maintain its gap.

The break stayed strong until about 20 miles to go in the 73 mile event, at which point one rider reached the end of his resources and had to ride it in on the back of our quintet.  Although losing an engine wasn’t ideal, at this point the remaining four of us were able to take on the extra burden and get us to the end- the damage had already been done.  The race ends on a 200m uphill sprint.  I felt good and believed that the sprint worked in my favor so was happy to ride it to the line.  The sprint saw me well placed and as we wound up and the initial jump came I launched.  Although my kick was good a strong sprinter who had been in our group shot round at 100 m to go, taking a convincing win by a few bike-lengths.  One other racer also managed to get ahead in the moments before the line finally approached, leaving us with third place on the day.

The team again was able to dictate our terms.  Although not the victory that we have been seeking, a great team effort means that TMB Dev finished the final road race of the 2017 with lots of positives and another podium but more importantly a strong team with which to build for 2018.