"I have to work on that" - Cameron Mason second in Gullegem but left lamenting another bad start

On an incredibly muddy day in Gullegem, Cameron Mason returned to form somewhat after a quiet few weeks, taking home a second-placed finish behind Michael Vanthourenhout.

“I didn't have the best start, but that didn't matter much here," Mason reviewed in his post-race interview. “I recovered, figured out what the right lines were and worked my way back to the front. The moment I came to the front, Michael already had a gap. But that is for a reason. He was clearly the strongest today. I think the gap held steady, around twenty-five seconds.”

Despite being able to fight his way back through the field to second on Saturday afternoon, the British national champion is well aware his starts are a clear weak point of his ever-improving racing. "There's a reason I didn't start well. I'm just not very good at that. I can't just start better, I have to work on that," he admits. "I'm going to do that. Hopefully that will help me in the future.”

Nevertheless, second place is a good boost to Mason's confidence. “It feels good to be riding for a podium place again, after not really being myself the past month. It felt a lot better today,” he concludes. “It's nice that you can suffer, that you can go as deep as you want to go. In some other races, I reached my limit too early. Today I let it happen to me. That's a nice feeling. Now on to tomorrow's World Cup (in Zonhoven, ed.) and next week's national championship.”