David Mills at the World Masters Track Championships

 Our number one Welsh rider was in Portugal this week having scored a National Gold in the Team Pursuit. Here's his report

Hiya.

Got back last night after 28 hours driving!!

I qualified for the scratch and points finals (only our age group had heats) and also the sprint which I only entered as I was bored :-) .


hot out of the gate: David Mills gets fired up



The qualification for scratch and points was very competitive, Adrian Adgar won Bronze recently in LVRC champs and he did not get through!!

I was competitive in scratch final, cpl of brits made attacks and we sort of rode as team, no chasing each other, so with 8 to go I attacked and got a decent gap and 3 riders joined me and one rider worked, but 2 kept swinging up so I did 3 turns then had to give up as we would never stay away with 2 riders and 2 passengers with 4 laps to go so that was my lot as the bunch caught us at 35mph!!

In the points we decided to ride as team for any riders who broke. Ian Greenstreet atacked and got a gap, then Courtney Rowe from Wales attacked so we could not chase. When Courtney joined Ian and 4 others I went to front of bunch and did 4 laps on the front so they could lap us ( we did not have GB colours on so no one noticed!) and when riders came past me I sprinted to get between them so after 2 turns I was back on front!!

It worked becuase from holding a 1/2 lap gap, they lapped us within another 5 laps. Then, with 7 to go Courtney asked me to go at front to try to keep pace to stop attacks so I did that and blew completely with 3.5 to go when a scottish rider led him for last 2 laps so he got bronze in a very hard and quality field.

I went much better than I expected and was competitive so happy with that and look forward to next year as I move to 50 age group.

The gold and silver riders were way too strong so none of us would have got gold but due to teamwork got bronze.

The scratch was won easily by a french guy Phillipe Vernier who used to ride for Credit Agricole, I think, very very fast sprinter with endurance!! He celebrated with about 50m to go, the second french guy got silver and he was just as good!!

Glad they got beaten in sprint when they tried to be cocky and lost!!

Starting training for next year in two weeks :-)