A few words from Tom Martin who absolutely crushed it at The National Road Championships 2024.

 

As always the national road championship is set to be one of the hardest races of the year and this year was no different. 

 

It’s one of the only opportunities you get as a British based rider to race against the world tour teams so I was keen to show myself.

 

I love racing hard and on the front foot, so with just 20km into the race after a series of attacks from some proper hitters I attacked into the narrow tail wind section taking Connor Swift of Ineos and Sam Watson from Grupama FDJ with me. We quickly formed into a strong group with Jake Stewart of Israel, Joshua Tarling of Ineos and Ollie wood of Saint piran also joining.

 

With me being the only none professional rider at the front of the race I used this to my advantage to try avoid riding the front as much as possible.

On the first accent of the Saltburn Bank a number of world tour riders came across so we now had a big group of world class riders and me at the front of the race.

 

Our group slowed due to their being a lack of cooperation, allowing some more guys to get across. A few big names slipped off so I went in pursuit, I crossed the gap on my own.

 

Again I was at the front of the race with only world tour riders, I had to pinch myself.

At this point I also had to commit and ride with the pro’s.

 

Attacks were going and I just had to be tactical with only going with groups when they had a numerical advantage over myself. Leaning on the other guys to do the work and when I needed to like I did several times just commit to get across to make sure I stayed in the fight.

 

Eventually a group of 5 broke clear including Ethan Hayter.

 

Coming into the final 30km the front 5 had built up a good advantage however I was still racing for a top 10, chasing in a group with Ben Swift, Dom Jackson and a Jumbo visma rider. 

At this point my stomach wouldn’t keep any food down so was struggling. 

 

I cracked on the final lap, 8km from the finish however I crawled around to finish 16th.

 

I was very happy with my performance to race against the world’s best and represent wheelbase at the front of the race.

 

No regrets with how I raced.