The weather is beginning to change and the road season is officially underway. I've already raced a few TTs, Crits and road races with some decent results. First up the TTs:
Shef Rec 2up
myself and Ollie Hucks travelled to Sheffield to take in the 25 mile flat parcours on a very windy day (50mph gusts). Being small and light these conditions aren't really our 'specialty' but we gave it a crack and came 2nd by just 25 seconds.
BUCS TTT
The next TT was the University Championship 3up team time trial. Being near Bath, this was a fair trek, so we travelled down the day before and did a course recon in the afternoon. The roads were predominantly lanes used for agriculture so they were in very poor condition. I even had a chainring bolt rattle loose and fall out whilst doing the recon, a sense of foreboding perhaps? We had a very strong team with different individual strengths so we were well prepared for the 22 mile course. We started fast and were working very well together, we knew the time checks for different points on the course and so knew we were well up on the course record. Everything was going smoothly and with 4 miles to go we were 1 minute up on the record. Then, the ever recognizable hiss that no cyclist wants to hear came from my back wheel. Puncture! Knowing we had ridden very quickly to that point I decided to carry on riding the punctured wheel, something I now regret after 4 miles on hole ridden tarmac on carbon rims ends up expensive! We still managed 4th place but knew we could have had the win. A disappointing result to say the least.
EMRRL 2/3/4
The first round of the East Midlands road race league was the day after BUCS TTT so I wasn't sure how my legs were going to feel. The race was 57 miles and took in 7 laps of a draggy but overall relatively flat circuit. On the first lap a break of 2 managed to sneak up the road and get 20 seconds on the bunch. On the second lap I, thanks to the help of some friends, was able to roll off the front and bridge to the 2 men up the road. We were working well as a 3 and were able to open a gap of just over 1 minute on the bunch but I could tell the other guys were starting to struggle. By mile 25 both of my breakaway companions had been dropped leaving me solo but with a good gap of 1.5 mins to the bunch. Not being one to shy away from a challenge, I settled in for the 32mile TT that stood between myself and the win. I was holding the gap well for the first 20 miles but with 12 miles to go I began to suffer, my position was deteriorating and my power dropping. Shortly after, a moto then came by my side and told me I only had a 30 second gap. What I wasn't sure of is whether this was to a break or to the bunch. To my delight, on a straight road with 10 miles to go, I looked behind and could see 2 riders in hot pursuit. I instantly backed off as I knew I would be caught by them regardless. Once we were together we worked the remaining 8 miles to the finish and I ended up 2nd in the sprint. I was absolutely spent but happy with the result.
I'm very happy with my form at the moment but it is easy to get carried away and want to race everyday so I'm having to remind myself that we still have another 6 months of the season i.e the whole season left.
The focus for the next month is on Nat B road races, the fields for which are extremely strong making for some very hard racing but hopefully having more experienced riders around me will raise my game. Come back to the blog in 4 weeks time to find out if I get spat.
Shef Rec 2up
myself and Ollie Hucks travelled to Sheffield to take in the 25 mile flat parcours on a very windy day (50mph gusts). Being small and light these conditions aren't really our 'specialty' but we gave it a crack and came 2nd by just 25 seconds.
BUCS TTT
The next TT was the University Championship 3up team time trial. Being near Bath, this was a fair trek, so we travelled down the day before and did a course recon in the afternoon. The roads were predominantly lanes used for agriculture so they were in very poor condition. I even had a chainring bolt rattle loose and fall out whilst doing the recon, a sense of foreboding perhaps? We had a very strong team with different individual strengths so we were well prepared for the 22 mile course. We started fast and were working very well together, we knew the time checks for different points on the course and so knew we were well up on the course record. Everything was going smoothly and with 4 miles to go we were 1 minute up on the record. Then, the ever recognizable hiss that no cyclist wants to hear came from my back wheel. Puncture! Knowing we had ridden very quickly to that point I decided to carry on riding the punctured wheel, something I now regret after 4 miles on hole ridden tarmac on carbon rims ends up expensive! We still managed 4th place but knew we could have had the win. A disappointing result to say the least.
EMRRL 2/3/4
The first round of the East Midlands road race league was the day after BUCS TTT so I wasn't sure how my legs were going to feel. The race was 57 miles and took in 7 laps of a draggy but overall relatively flat circuit. On the first lap a break of 2 managed to sneak up the road and get 20 seconds on the bunch. On the second lap I, thanks to the help of some friends, was able to roll off the front and bridge to the 2 men up the road. We were working well as a 3 and were able to open a gap of just over 1 minute on the bunch but I could tell the other guys were starting to struggle. By mile 25 both of my breakaway companions had been dropped leaving me solo but with a good gap of 1.5 mins to the bunch. Not being one to shy away from a challenge, I settled in for the 32mile TT that stood between myself and the win. I was holding the gap well for the first 20 miles but with 12 miles to go I began to suffer, my position was deteriorating and my power dropping. Shortly after, a moto then came by my side and told me I only had a 30 second gap. What I wasn't sure of is whether this was to a break or to the bunch. To my delight, on a straight road with 10 miles to go, I looked behind and could see 2 riders in hot pursuit. I instantly backed off as I knew I would be caught by them regardless. Once we were together we worked the remaining 8 miles to the finish and I ended up 2nd in the sprint. I was absolutely spent but happy with the result.
I'm very happy with my form at the moment but it is easy to get carried away and want to race everyday so I'm having to remind myself that we still have another 6 months of the season i.e the whole season left.
The focus for the next month is on Nat B road races, the fields for which are extremely strong making for some very hard racing but hopefully having more experienced riders around me will raise my game. Come back to the blog in 4 weeks time to find out if I get spat.
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