Here is Stephen’s report of these two events:

“

Hi Tim – Soens report:

Conditions looked to be very good on the morning of the race – cold, but clear and bright with little wind. I was off with the second cats, the third group to be released and although we started going through and off from the start it was really quite civil – most people just waiting for the inevitable to happen. Sure enough after only about ten minutes the elite group swept by with Rapha and Raleigh on the front. From then on my main focus was to avoid crashes which were inevitable in such a huge peloton of widely differing abilities. There were two main crashes that took out a significant proportion of the field, I was fortunate enough to miss both if only narrowly – resorting to the grass verge to avoid the second. Although the pace was kept constantly fast by the Raleigh and Rapha train it was very easy to sit in the group as there wasn’t much wind, I fancied getting my picture taken so I attacked with a Sportscover/Altura guy. The two of us lasted the best part of a quarter of a lap! I did go through the start/finish area on the front however so hopefully someone got a shot of that! As it came to the last few laps it was very difficult not to get totally swamped due to the amount of fresh legs and the size of the bunch. On the last lap I was still only mid pack so with about 1km to go when a gap appeared on the outside I blasted through in the 11 sprocket, my Garmin saying I hit 39.2mph, this moved me right into the top 20 or so places, but no one was willing to let me on a wheel so I just had to try and find a little shelter on the outside. Unfortunately more guys came round in the last 5-600m leaving me firmly boxed in again and finishing mid-pack 54th. It was nice to ride alongside all the domestic pros but without anyone on hand to move you up or hold your position for the sprint with Rapha/Raleigh/Sigma drilling it you have to sprint to move up with the result that you can’t sprint for the line! The average speed was 28.1mph and the race was won by Ed Clancy.

Just to add, I got roped into doing the Varsity hill climb today (Uni of Sheffield vs Sheffield Hallam). It was up Monsal Head. I was first Hallam guy and 3rd overall with a 1:33 which I was rather pleased with! I should have gone up one cog bigger but that was just down to not recce-ing the climb properly. I beat quite a lot of good riders including an elite and a couple of first cats I think so its quite an encouraging sign

second was 1:32, the winner did a pretty special 1:23 so ten seconds back, I was hoping going in just to not embarrass myself so I’m quite happy with that. I think come October when road racing is done for the year and I get a lot of good hill interval training done I can shave that down quite considerably.”