Brenton Jones blogs about his experience at Ride London Surrey Classic.

“After spending some time back home in Australia for the middle part of the season, my bags were soon packed again, as I headed for the next race on my calendar, Ride London. Arriving just under five days before the race gave us plenty of time to adjust our sleep patterns and fine-tune our training.

The 200km one-day stage race attracted the worlds best, who were all coming straight from the Tour de France or various other European stage races. With guys like Phillip Gilbert, Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins lining up, the experience at this level was invaluable for me.

With the course starting and finishing around Buckingham Palace and the Mall, the crowds were electric and to race through them was simply awesome.

The peloton was strung out in single file for the majority of the first 30km’s, with many riders trying to establish themselves in the early breakaway. Peter Koning tried numerous times to get up the road but everything he went in got brought back. After 35km’s, the early break of five riders was established, but we didn’t get any Drapac riders in the move.

With nobody in the move, it was now all about saving ourselves for the final third of the race. The short but sharp Ranmore climb split the field on the third and final accent and with 65km’s to go, the attacks intensified.

We hit Box Hill at a gradual speed, but this was short-lived when Phillip Gilbert (BMC) went on the attack. The 4km climb was only 4%, but it was enough to reduce the group and create a new leading group off the front.

With only Dylan, Will and I represented in what was left of the main group, we struggled to mix it with the bigger teams with more numbers and horsepower at the front.

After the short but intense series of climbs, I found it difficult to recover enough to follow the big attacks when the final selections were made with only 30km’s to go.

The tough rolling roads back into London strung the bunch out and in the end, we finished three minutes down on the winner, in the main group containing the top sprinters like Cavendish, Viviani and Farrar.

For my first year attempt at this race, I was happy to gain valuable experience and test myself against the worlds best. To identify what I was lacking and what I could improve on will come in very handy for when I return to this race in the future. The course is great and I would like to return next year and improve on my performance.” Read more of Brenton’s blog here.

Until the next race on Brenton’s calendar – the Abu Dhabi Tour on October 8 – Brenton will gain valuable race craft experience living and competing in Belgium.

“To gain new racing experience and learn a different style of racing in Belgium is something I haven’t experienced yet, and I’m looking forward to it!”