Racing ups and downs and the race that never was!

Racing season has been going for a few months now and this latest blog brings you all up to speed with how things have gone since the end of March through to June so a big chunk of the season and it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster as can happen in racing some really positive races and others that were effected by mechanicals or just not feeling great.

Fat Creations Road Race was a Nat B road race at the end of March and after the Calpe training camp I felt really positive going into the race, legs felt good and even was in a bridging group with Alexander Richardson but just worked a bit too hard and couldn’t stay with that group as I just wasn’t feeling great.

April saw the return of local club VC Deal‘s race training session which they have kindly allowed me to join as an honorary member and so they are a great session to have a workout. It’s also the start of my first club Thanet RC‘s 10 mile Timetrials at Betteshanger Country Park and so as a 2nd Claim member I enjoy giving the TT bike a blast around the circuit and it’s great to test out some tweaks Body Rocket have suggested for my positioning and aerodynamics and since our new Kalas team kit arrived try out my Vorteq Kalas skinsuit. We’ve not really had a “quick” evening yet this season as it’s been cold or windy for quite a few, there always was a reason the park was called Fowlmead originally mainly as the weather is often foul!

Stars of the South West Under 23 saw me heading to Tiverton, Devon and having not raced this round last year it was a course I wasn’t familiar with but we drove the long lap the day before and had done my pre race activation ride at the hotel. On the day we thought we were in for a very wet race but the forecast wasn’t as bad as I had feared. Mum helped with bottles in the feed zone and despite the front splitting up the large lap size meant that small groups were all over the circuit but I stayed in a group and I finished 29th disappointed if I am honest.

Next race was the first Nat A of my season and was The East Cleveland Classic at Saltburn-by-the-Sea I went up the day before and with Ollie, Jamie and Cam 3 of my teammates for the race we did a recon of the course. It was a tough hilly course and despite doing all I could I couldn’t finish I had been struggling during the run up to this race with my breathing and despite the GP prescribing a new preventative inhaler to treat my asthma the mix of high pollen levels and the breathing issues and a hamstring pull to add to the mix meant after 3 laps I was off the main group and despite not being last I knew next lap round I would be pulled so I helped mum in the feed zone get bottles to the remaining 3 riders we had in the race and so helped play a part in the team effort to get Harry Mac and Ollie Hucks 7th and 11th place respectively.

With the struggles to control my asthma along with either a bit of a cold or hayfever making it worse I pulled my entry for PB Performance Road Race in Colville a race I really enjoyed last year and that I had performed well but to soften the blow of not going to do a 3-4 hour long road race, I did head to Redbridge and the Hoggenberg and do the first round of the Hub Velo and 6am Cycling Spring crits on the 20th April and was happy to have come 3rd in that E,1,2,3 Nat B Crit. A nice return to the podium.

The next race in my calendar was set to be the Cicle classic, I was excited to race this, I hadn’t entered it as a youth or a junior but had been practicing offroad around Betteshanger and even had mountain bikers staring as a Specialized Tarmac SL8 S-works rides past them on the mountain bike trails on road tyres! I met with the team the day before and Jamie, Harry and I went off to ride some of the off road sectors and I was pleased that they weren’t as bad and the routes I had practiced on. Mum had been to the team manager meeting and bagged number 10 in the convoy a TAAP record by all accounts as we have been last in the past! We ate at the local pizza restaurant and talked tactics and tried to ignore the weather forecasts for the Sunday.

Sunday came and we had breakfast and headed to the HQ for the Sunday and it was pouring and had been raining from around 10pm the previous evening. When the lads and I rolled out to the Market Square to sign on first at 10am we were told by organisers that they were delaying the start so we went back to the cars to try and stay dry. The start time came and went, the delayed start time came and went too and at around 1pm the mutterings started that the race had been cancelled! Photos of the sectors popped up on Facebook thanks Larry at VeloUK for sharing that showed over a foot of water in places. It was a real disappointment but looking at the conditions it was the best decision for the safety of the riders. I’ll just have the story of saying I was a rider at the Cicle that never was! Fingers crossed maybe next year?

Having missed the previous round of the National Under 23 series as a family we decided not to head to Yorkshire for the 5th May as another long journey and hotel stay would be another extra expense so instead I did the Hub Velo Crit at Redbridge and it was a quick race far faster than 2 weeks before and having 3 teammates in the race we had a plan to get Harvey in the break which worked but unfortunately on the day Harvey didn’t have the legs so that left us with an break of 3 ahead with 35+ seconds on us in the chasing group and so we worked together trying to get a gap on the chasers but Ally got 5th, I got 11th and Harry got 13th? so a bit disappointing as we’d worked hard on a plan but in racing you need to have a plan B I guess was a lesson we learned.

I’ve had a few days riding around in the Surrey Hills, the roads are lovely, even did a cheeky mid week Crit at Hillingdon which I don’t usually do thanks in the main to the ULEZ charge that means race costs increase by £12.50 to get my car into London and I even had a ride out or rather got a kicking riding out with Tom Portsmouth riding around Surrey it was great to catch up on how he’s doing on a UCI Continental team, just looking for a similar break. Unfortunately after deciding to cut off and head back to Dorking at a point as far away as it could be I dragged myself back from the ride with Tom fighting “The Bonk” and I must have had some farm wash off splash up on me or my bottles as I ended up spending 3 days really ill with norovirus symptoms (definitely not pleasant but I was finally feeling better almost 2 weeks later!).

The next race should have been Lincoln but with such a strong TAAP team this year unfortunately I wasn’t selected, which was a bit of a downer as I’d targeted this race with Henry my coach but accepted the decision and rather than another long weekend up North I had planned to do the BEC Road Race in Tunbridge Wells on Sunday but thanks to feeling poorly I had to pull out of that race too, I guess it was lucky I wasn’t supposed to be doing Lincoln although I wouldn’t have gone for a mad long ride if I had of been tapering for Lincoln!

First open TT of the season was the Medway Velo TT on the 19th May, it was supposed to be a 25 and a proper hit out ahead of the Nationals in June but roadworks on the course meant it was shortened to a 10 mile TT. It was my first race effort after being ill and although I thought I was feeling better, soon realised from my heart rate and power that I wasn’t feeling right. I dug in and came 6th overall but was disappointed with how weak I still felt.

I took a couple of days to continue to recover and finally by 27th May I felt better for the Pedal Pushers of Grantham Nat B this was 133km and for most of those kms (I did drop off the pack on the final lap as I just ran out of energy marking moves) I felt good in the bunch and racing well with 9 TAAP riders at this race though what could have been a benefit actually made getting a result harder as we were looked at to mark everything and chase everything and unfortunately missed getting a rider in the winning break but as a team result it’s a sign of the standards we expect of ourselves and each other that we were disappointed with getting 2 riders in the top 10 as we’d hoped for more.

The next Thanet RC 10 mile TT was a road bike TT and despite time-trialling from around 9 years old I hadn’t done a 10 mile TT on a road bike but gave it a go and despite some riders not realising it was a road bike TT and coming along on full TT bikes I still managed to win the event overall on my road bike! I also used the opportunity to get mum to take some photos of me on the Giant Propel that has the BodyRocket system on that I was doing some testing with, it’s Kristian Blummenfelt‘s bike that he won Gold in the triathlon on at the Tokyo Olympics so it certainly raised a few eyebrows when I was doing some data runs that week to compare Ekoi helmets, Kalas skinsuits and to aero shoe cover or not all interesting data numbers for the boffins at BodyRocket to calculate.

June saw some good training as my body finally felt over the Norovirus and could put in some normal higher volume weeks and a few Crits thrown in too Lee Valley Youth Cycling Club had a Nat B Crit at Redbridge which was a pretty tough race I came 13th but the numbers in the sprint and through the race were looking more like me. I must have been knackered after though as I managed to start the drive home without the bike in the car! Thanks Alfie and his mum for noticing it and guarding it while I span round to collect it! I have a feeling it’ll take a while before I’m allowed to forget that one! A couple of the Miche West Thames League races at Hillingdon saw a 12th (JAP fellow TAAP teammate came 2nd) and 4th this week showed me that my power is there and the long rides I’d done with my re-found discipline have helped me get back to fitness, hopefully ready for the Nationals Next week.

Thanks to Team Sponsor Clunkers in Dorking for saving the day today after the race at Hillingdon I loaded the bike in the car and then looked at it this morning and noticed my saddle rails had cracked they lent me a test saddle! It was good to have a chat to George Sales who works there!

Here’s to seeing how I do at the Irish Nationals organised by Newcastle West Cycling Club Limerick, it’ll be my first experience of racing in Ireland but I am looking forward to it and know it’ll be a challenging few days and a long way to travel but I hope that I can learn a lot from the experience and do my best on the day and see where that places me against some fierce competition.

Thanks as always for checking in and thanks to those who subscribe.