BBC Sport’s Phil Sheehan is keeping a 606 diary of his experiences of amateur racing as he attempts to make the step up from 2nd to 1st-Category racing.

Greetings, two-wheeled 606-ers. I hope your training - and racing in some cases – is going well.

In my case, I’m almost completely better after my my close encounter with the tarmac at Hillingdon. My knuckles and the area below my right knee both suffered deep cuts and are still some way off being healed but it’s no big drama. The day after the crash I did a 90-minute training ride because I think, where possible, it’s important to get right back on the bike and avoid moping around the house and feeling sorry for yourself.

I’ve also been off work for a couple of weeks’ leave, getting the miles in and working out some lovely routes around Hertfordshire. Here’s a nice 70-miler to test your legs if you’re local to the area. I reckon that’s a pretty good one for potential Etapists to assess their current form. That took me around four hours to ride at a steady pace, no higher than Zone 2 (75% of maximum heart rate).

Anyway, I’m back racing again. Last weekend I tried two Criterium races in a day, just to see how it felt. The first one was at Milton Keynes, where I chanced it a bit and arrived so close to the start time that I didn’t get to warm up properly. So when an early five-man break went, I spent three laps chasing solo with my legs screaming at me to stop. Very, very frustrating – I was so close to getting onto the break but going quite deep into the red to try to latch on.

In the end, I figured it would be wiser to drop back to the bunch and see if a chase group developed. Alas the quintet stayed away, so I went for Plan B – attack hard on the last lap before the bunch sprint. It almost worked, the bunch was well beaten but one crafty fella reacted well to my jump and pipped me by a fraction to the line. Seventh place in the end, but I was happy with my first race back after crashing.

From Milton Keynes in the morning, I went to ‘Spillingdon’ in the afternoon. The Elite race was last on the bill and my nerves were slightly jangled after witnessing the aftermath of a huge crash in the 3rd Cat/4th Cat race before ours. Some questionable bike handling left a mass of tangled bikes, and one poor soul with a pair of broken wrists and a snapped collarbone. I opted to race conservatively and just see it as extra training.

Last weekend I enjoyed some fine British weather at the Festival Road Race in the Surrey League. Moody clouds greeted the riders at signing-on, and by the time we assembled for the neutralised start we were treated to hailstones, then heavy rain with a side order of strong wind.

I considered jacking it in there and then but figured I may as well see how I felt after the first lap. Answer – pretty good actually. It was slightly terrifying as I could barely see a thing in front of me as we hit almost 40mph on the faster sections. But, after figuring that I could see more without my sunglasses, the next few laps were fine.

I had a dig off the front but sensed a lack of serious commitment to make a break work, so I sheltered in the bunch and gave it some welly on the final climb – result 5th (I swear I pipped the 4th-placed guy at the line, but I won’t cry over spilled milk). A heroic race by the whole bunch as we all finished looking like Paris-Roubaix riders (as the above picture attests)!

I’m feeling pretty confident now and looking forward to the spring calendar. As always with my shift hours, it’s hard to commit to any races too far in advance, but I’m on track for my Cat 1 licence at the moment so I’m happy with that – 60-odd points in the bag, about another 100 to go.

I can’t say the top pros are too happy, though. The whole UCI-ASO spat has entered a seemingly dangerous phase and, as always, the riders are stuck in the middle. It’s difficult to see an amicable conclusion to this latest episode and my own guess is that cycling could go the way of boxing with more than one top body. It’s too depressing for words...