May 17, 2011 (London, England) – After a knee injury in the Newcastle four day and three weeks off the bike I was anxious to get back to racing, and the Hillingdon Grand Prix was a good place to start. With 53 laps of a closed circuit including a few tight horseshoe bends the course was fun and interesting and we had seven riders all keyed up to make it a hard, fast race.

The team started hitting it from the line, with Phil smashing a few laps solo to set the tone for the rest of the race. After Phil was brought back the next laps were a flurry of Raleigh attacks and counters, which kept the pace pegged and sent heart rates skyrocketing. Eventually a four-man move snapped off the front with me and Phil, plus Yanto Barker (Pendragon) and Tom Barras (Cycle Premier). Tom was sitting on at Gibbs’ request, but the three of us managed to carve out a good gap over the field.

Will Bjergfelt (Motorpoint) managed to get across the gap solo and then we just put our heads down and smashed around the course for 40 laps. I spent a good deal of time marking Tom while Phil selflessly railed it on the front to keep us clear. We could look back and see the rest of the Raleigh riders patrolling the front of the group, marking the occasional suicide move and stifling any chase behind. Awesome teamwork.

With just a few laps to go Jamie had almost bridged solo and when Yanto saw that he attacked. Phil and I chased him back and as soon as we did Phil launched a perfectly timed counter that looked like it could go the distance. I sat on while the other riders struggled to drag him back, and in the lull right after they finally did Jamie made contact and attacked over the top. He too got chased back and it was down to a sprint.

Phil and Jamie did a wicked turn on the front to take me into the last corner in perfect position and when Tom jumped I was quickly onto his wheel. But when I stood up to sprint my legs locked up. I was cramping so badly I must have looked like the tin man trying to sprint and I could only manage second.

I was particularly impressed by the team effort on the day. Team Raleigh’s tactics were perfect, and if I hadn’t been coming off of an injury we’d have had the win by a mile. But hey, it’s just good to be back racing.

Big thanks to Pete and Ben for their fantastic work keeping the rigs in tip top shpae and a shoutout to our new Soigneur Andrew. It takes a lot of work to keep a team like this running so smoothly.

Full results and more here.

Results (brief)

1. Tom Barras (Cyclepremier.com-Metaltek) 2:02:00
2. Ryan Parnes (Team Raleigh)
3. William Bjergfelt (Motorpoint)
4. Yanto Barker (Pendragon-Le Col-Colnago)
5. Jamie Sparling (Team Raleigh)