I’m Jenson Young, a professional cyclist, living in Hemingfield.

Gralloch UCI World Series, Scotland

I am not afraid to say this was one of my biggest goals of the season and my first time racing a UCI race in the UK.

The build up to this race had been fairly difficult.

Trying to recover from two 200km races in back-to-back weekends, then also trying to train for my next event on May 31 that is 200 mile long (Unbound USA), so finding a balance was difficult and it seemed I had not been as fresh and recovered as I would have liked to have been for Gralloch.

A 111km relatively hilly course on paper suited my strengths perfectly.

I had previously ridden most parts of the course as it had been used for the 2024 national championships, my first ever gravel race, where I finished fifth, so I knew it suited me.

The field was stacked with the some of the top British and international riders including some riders who are at the top of the UK road rankings.

The race started flat out, a 6km climb that split the race to pieces early on, I positioned well and teammate Ben Thomas had ridden clear with another rider up the first climb.

This was a perfect scenario for us both.

I could sit on the chasing group and save my energy for later in the race if we ever caught the leading two riders.

Gravel is a pretty individual sport but having a teammate at times like this definitely helps.

My group of around 25 slowly shrunk as people started to struggle on the challenging terrain.

With a high risk of punctures this took some people out of the group, by around mid distance point, there was six of us left, and the two riders about one minute ahead.

A rare hot day in Scotland would make the race difficult with no team assistance or feeding, meaning I had to start with everything I needed for the full duration.

At 50km in, feeling strong still, one of my 2 1L bottles of water bounced out, it had to be the one I had not yet started.

At 80km in I was completely out of water and at 85km in I lost contact from the front group up a climb.

I knew from the start my legs were heavy and fatigued and I’d done well to keep with the group for this far into the race.

I rode the last 25km on my own, not knowing how far the next riders were behind, I pushed on as hard as I could into the headwind, with the thought of a drink at the finish line keeping me going.

With the last part being pretty uneventful, I rolled across the line in eighth place.

Before the race I would have been pleased with this result, however performance wise and with how I felt during the race I know I’ve got a lot more to give.