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Stood on the top step of the podium on Friday the 14th July when i won an elite crit at Evergem just outside of Ghent beating riders including local National Belgian U23 rider Cocqurt.
After 5 laps of the 44 i got myself in a split of 8 riders but this wasnt really working so i headed down the road with a Bulgarian, this turned out to be a good move as lap after lap we worked well to keep are gap of 30 secs on two chasers including Cocqurt with the bunch at 45 secs. I was pretty strong and getting stronger which was a good sign but the Bulgarain started to suffer and soon i was pulling most of the turns. As we reached the halfway point at 22 to go he cracked and just sat up leaving me out there in the middle of knowhere ploughing round on my own, the team manager told me to ease up and wait for the chasers i wasnt convinced but i did what he said, turned out to be the right move as toghter we pulled out a race winning gap of 50 secs over the rest of the field.

I was still pulling the harder turns and looking at the faces i felt and looked to be the strongest, i weighed up my options and decided that Cocqurt would probably win the sprint, at 4 to go i attacked hard into the headwind stretch took the initative i just kept hamering the pedals for the whole lap before glancing round coming upto the 3 to go point, id pulled out a good 20 secs and i still felt strong, at 2 to go i was still well clear but not daring to think id won, at the bell everyone was going wild but i managed to keep it together. I rounded the last bend well clear had time to milk the applause and throw the hands up to take the biggest win of my career and my first outside of the UK.

On Sunday 16th July i lined up for a 140Km kermis in Aarsele, when i got there the Belgians were taking bets on the race and i was pretty chuffed to be a 7-1 at the start, not bad. Anyhow keeping up recent tradition, i was down the road after 2kms with a Lithuanian and i was to be out there all day, we were caught by 5 chasers two laps in but then 3 of us left the rest after 5 laps to ride to a 1 min 15 second gap. Everything was rosey until about 4 to go when one rider left the other two of us to solo to victory leaving me and a rider from the Sean Kelly Academy team,somehow we managed to hang out there to the end and i beat him in the sprint to the line for second. Another great result.