About Me.



Name: Joseph Armstrong
D.O.B: 24.02.1994
Age: 20 Years Old
Nationality: Great Britain
Home Town: Keswick, Cumbria
Team: Tinkoff Saxo

My first race of the year for the Academy is a Premier Calender race, that we have a big target for us. I managed to get an attack in at the start, to allow my team mates to sit in the bunch and to get into position. However I was caught after a couple of kilometres. Then I sat in the bunch and trie to save energy so that I could help in the finale, and maybe put in a late attack. As I wasn't the team leader I was on bottle duties, which I was worried about as I've never practised carrying bottles whilst riding, but luckily I got through it ok, and didn't crash. Then with 20 kilometres to go I saw my chance and attacked, I managed to hold off the bunch, as my team mates went to the front and sat up to prevent them from chasing. The slightly hilly nature of the course meant that it suited my climbing power. I was able to hold on with a 30 second gap. I couldn't believe I won, so much so that I forgot to celebrate as I crossed the line. My team mates all congratulated me, and Richie Allen managed to get home for 3rd.

Today the plan for me was to take it easy in the early part of the race, and then try to set up Stephen Dent for the win, as he is well suited to this type of race, so we want to make sure we do all we can for him today. We still put a rider in the break, as we saw a large group of 12 riders going away, and we realised we needed someone in it, as there was a chance it may stay away. In the finale I had to go an get a late set of bottles, but I managed to get back to the front. On the final big climb of the day I went to the front and rode hard to shrink the front bunch to 16 riders, with us having 5 in it, so that was a great move for us. Then in the finale the sprint was very hectic, but Alistair Lievers was able to take the sprint with Preidler and Quintana roudning out the podium. I came home 12th, which I'm very happy with as I was here to work for other riders.

Today my role was to see if I could get away with about 75 kilometres to go, so that if Richie or any of our other riders bridged across, then I would be able to work for them and potentially lead them out in the finale. My day started with bottle duty, I am now able to carry 13 bottles at once, which i'm pretty happy with. Then with 150 kilometres to go Richie punctured, so I sat up and waited for him to pace him back on. We were able to get back in pretty quickly and move to the front again. With 80 kilometres to go I made my attack, and bridged to the break, which already had one of our riders in, so we worked together, but we were caught by the main bunch with 6 kilometres to go. In the sprint Richie struggled, with Brad [Dransfield] coming home in 4th place. The race was won by Kenneth Vanbilsen who escaped with 3 kilometres to go, and was just caught on the line by Adam Blythe.

Today my role was to attack late on, and to then see what I can do. We saw early on that the break that went away was pretty big as there was 23 riders in it, so we put two riders in it, but the break was caught leaving us with two riders out front on their own. Behind I went back for a bottle just as we hit the climb, and I was distanced, but I was able to chase back on after 40 kilometres of riding hard on my own. After that I knew that I wouldn't be able to make an attack as I was tired after the big effort, so I decided to sit in and save energy. On the penultimate time up the climb the break had a 3 minute gap, so we knew it wouldn't come back as nobody had the fire power to make the chase. The bunch stayed together until the final climb, then we all went for it. I felt my legs had freshened up quite well after my effort and I was able to fight home for 10th place, which made me very happy as I had to make a big effort to chase back on. In the break Joe Nally lead home Brad Dransfield to take a 1-2 for us, with Graham Briggs taking 3rd.

After missing the first round, in which the team were able to get Richie Allen up for 4th place, as well as taking 2nd in the Team Prize behind Rapha Condor, I'm back to take part in the second round of the series in Durham. The plan was that we wanted to place as many guys as high up as possible, due to the difficult nature of the course we knew that a plan would be difficult to follow. However I wanted to get myself off the front of the bunch early on as I would then be able to ride hard to keep the gap to the finish. As soon as we set off I knew I was on for a good ride as my legs felt magnificient. The first time up the races cobbled climb I followed the attack of 3 riders, and then went straight past them, riding away solo to pull out a decent gap. I managed to take the first sprint of the night, which would be a nice prize for me at the end of the day. I then managed to take the second sprint, lapping the field in the process, which gave me a big confidence boost as the bunch were messing about not chasing or anything. Behind my team mates managed to take 6th and 10th to mean we took over the lead of the team prize, which will give us the jersey for the next round.

The 3rd Round took place at Stoke, which was another hilly course, after my breakaway win in the last round I thought that I wouldn't be alloowed to get away. However Joe Nally attacked with 3 laps to go, and he managed to hold us off. seb Henao came across the line for 2nd, with Rob Power in 3rd. I managed to sprint my way to 12th, meaning I was the third GB rider. However the team prize on the night was won by the Australian national squad, but we were able to hold onto our overall lead ahead of Rapha and Australia.

I then missed Aberystwyth, as we knew that the flat nature of the course would suit different riders on the team. We managed to hold the team lead, by a single point from Australia, who won the team prize on the night, after Caleb Ewan got the win ahead of Richie and Graham Briggs of Rapha.

The next round was Torquay, which was a difficult course, and it was a hard day for us. Herrada attacked on the penultimate lap, and quickly pulled out a lead on us. Behind we tried to chase onto him, but it was to late. In the sprint I didn't do anything spectacular. Al;though the guys managed to take 7th, 8th and 10th, meaning we took the team prize on the night, and extended our lead in the team prize. Luckily I managed to pick up some points to mean I kept my lead in the sprint classification.

The rest of the series didn't suit my skills, so I decided to skip the rest of it, to save energy for the rest of my season. In the final few rounds we lost the lead in the team prize to Rapha and Raleigh, but we were happy with third. We managed to get a win in Canary Wharf for Richie Allen, but that was as good as it got. I also lost my points jersey, but I wasn't to upset about that.

The first stage was a key stage in our eyes as we wanted to try and get the jersey early and then hopefully hold it. However we didn't get the lead out right, and Richie was overtaken just before the line by Adam Blythe.

The second stage went a lot better for us we got the lead out perfect, and Richie was able to take the win ahead of Downing and Bauhaus who went to early. That meant we took over the GC lead, with Richie which was the main aim. Early on my role was to try and get in the break for the KoM points, but NFTO were very controlling and wouldn't let any break go for the first 50 kilometres, in the end I wasn't able to get in the break, which I'm a bit annoyed about as my aim is to get the KoM prize.

The third stage was an average day for us we took the KoM prize for Joe Nally, but we could only manage 3rd an 4th in the sprint, but luckily Richie did enough to keep the lead ahead of Bauhaus. The stage was won by Dillier of the Swiss National team, after he timed his sprint perfectly.

The next stage was anothe rough day for us, but we realised what our problem was, we were leading out to late. This meant that we had to many guys left when Richie launched his sprint, so he was starting it further back than the other guys, meaning he didn't have time to catch them up. Bauhaus won the stage and with it took the jersey off us, but we now know that we can get it back tomorrow if we stick to that plan.

The next day was the "hilly" stage, which was about as hilly as a velodrome! As I thought nothing happened until the final climb, when everyone went for the sprint we managed to get Stephen in 10th place, which we were very happy with as the bunch finished together so Richie can still win the GC, but we knew that it would be more of a sprinters stage than a proper hard stage like it could have been.

On paper today's stage would be harder than yesterdays supposedly hilly stage. We managed to put Joe Nally in the break, but my role was a big thing today as I was going to try and get away in the finale, and it almost worked. I escaped with 7 kilometres to go, and I thought I was going to do it, as I had a 30 second gap, but they caught me with 200 metres to go. Andrea Fedi won the uphill sprint ahead of Adam Blythe and Rick Zabel. Our best placed rider was Alistair in 6th, which was a bit dissappointing but everyone messes up sometimes. We've now got two more stages to fight for the GC lead.

Today is the penultimate stage of a difficult race, and today is another hard day with 4 categorised climbs in the final section, so we decided that we had to make a break for the win. The plan was followed to start with as Joe Nally went in the break to try and take the KoM jersey. My role was to then try and attack in the final few kilometres, but we were unsure as to when it should be so we were just going to see how I felt later on. However we saw the gap to the break was going out, and we knew the break could stay away so Stephen jumped across and managed to get into it after chasing for 20 kilometres, from then on we could see what was going to happen. Joe and Stephen rode hard and the gap pulled out to 3 minutes, then as they crossed the line we knew they'd taken the lead. Then Richie led the bunch home. Stephen and Joe now have a strong lead going into tomorrow, where we are just going to try and control the race.

Today we controlled the race, which tired us all out, so we couldn't lead Richie out, which meant he didn't get the stage win, but he was happy with us getting the overall win, which was our main aim going into this race, and we've achieved it. Sondre Holst Enger won the day as his team led him out perfectly, with Richie coming home 9th.

After my previous planned race in Italy was cancelled due to farmers strike, that means I'm racing the Tour of Korea, which is where you find me now.

Today the first stage was going to be a sprint race, so we knew that we had to work for Richie, my role was to save energy for later in the race, which I'm glad to say I managed easily. In the finale we caught the break with 3 kilometres to go and then Richie took a well timed win, giving us all the jersies on the first stage, which we were very happy with as it's a great start to the week.

The second stage was another great day for us, the sprint was slightly uphill so we decided to ride for Joe Nally, and he was able to take it easily ahead of Grega Bole. I was Joe's final leadout man and I was able to hold onto 3rd on the stage, it meant Richie kept his lead, but he's now on the same time as Joe Nally, so yeah we're all very happy with the result today.

Stage 3 was always going to be the big shake up for the overall, we knew that to have any chance of getting the overall win, we had to get the win on the stage. My role was to save all my energy until the final climb, and to then see what I could do on the final climb. Brad attacked at the first KoM, as that's what he wants from the race, and he pulled out a good gap on the rest of the bunch. With about 80 kiloemtres to go there was a slight rise and Axel Domont and Pawel Cieslik started to go away, luckily Stephen was able to respond and follow the move. However after they went away the bunch sat up and let them go, I was just sat in the bunch open mouthed as they didn't even try to chase. Colombia had some of the best climbers, yet they didn't even chase the gap. We hit the final climb and we were 15 minutes behind Stephen who had now left the other two riders and bridged across to Brad, before setting off alone for the stage win, and with it the overall lead. Behind we weren't able to catch Alex Frame of Giant CT who was in the orginal break, with Joe coming home 6th, just under 15 minutes down. I managed to get 9th 10 seconds behind Joe.

Today the aim was to save energy for tomorrow's team time trial, so we made sure the break wasn't going to gain to much time and then sat back to let the other sprint teams to do the chasing. In the finale Richie was our best placed rider in 21st, but he didn't really go for it fully. Krasnov of Rusvelo won the race ahead of Eric Young of Optum.

Today was the last hard day for us, before we knew we just had to keep the breaks together to win the race, and we did a great ride. We didn't win the stage but we did a great ride to get second, just 7 seconds behind the USA National team. At the first time check we were on the same time as USA and 2 seconds ahead of Rusvelo, however USA were just to fast for us in the last few kilometres. We kept the lead though which is the main thing, but in the last kilometre I made sure to drag the guys home as quick as possible as I knew Craddock would be close to me on the GC, but I managed to hold 8th.

Today we just sat in the bunch and let RusVelo do all the work, which they did, and then they set up Krasnov for the win. We didn't have anyone in the top 20 on today's stage as Richie had suffered a lot yesterday, so didn't have anything for the sprint.

The penultimate stage of this year's Tour of Korea, and we did all we could for Richie but it didn't pay off, as he came home in 5th after a break of 3 managed to hold off the bunch, but we're happy with that, and hopefully we can get a win tomorrow to top off a great race for us.

The final day, but we couldn't quite get the win. Richie came home 2nd, but the main thing was that we kept the lead, which we did, so that's a great result for us as we rode great as a team, and we had a great race. I managed to get myself 9th on GC, after working for other riders all week, so yeah I think I can be happy with that.