peel park round 5

Round 5 Bradford peel park

Rain, what else can I say, typical cross weather, it was chucking it down all day, eased at times but not for long, the course was a mud bath and I loved it, I wasn’t feeling %100 having had a 6 hour exam on the fri left me feeling tired and illness loaming in the family household I wasn’t quite on it,

I got gridded and had been practicing my starts, but as the gun went, I couldn’t clip in again, once it was clipped on, most likely clogged with all the mud, I moved up the places, going past riders throwing themselves on to the floor more or less, I got myself into third, and on the long straight, bike just washed out I went sliding along the ground and ended up back into 6^th, i then got back to 4^th, but had another few offs which caused me to lose some vital time, and a nice off on the last lap landed me into 5^th place over all, bike changes were constant as people were just snapping mechs everywhere, but my Forme bikes have a huge amount of mud clearance making it ideal!

So an easy week is in order to make sure I’m over everything and some good strong training provided by Dan Fleeman at FormeaCoaching will have me in top form to fight for that national jersey. Thanks to my pit crew and  cycle shack/Formecoaching/Forme/USE/Acclerade/KASK

 

Koksijde and Derby

Koksijde and Derby

 

With a much looked forward to weekend, but a long one at that, racing both days, Saturday and Sunday, with a lot of road miles in-between. On the Friday, we I spent the afternoon practicing on the Koksijde Junior world cup course, as I was there as part of team GB, the course was very dry and the files were the tyre of choice, spending around 2 hours on the course I felt confident that it was going to be a good but hard race, it will always be the most sandiest course I have ever ridden on, requiring a whole new level of bike handling skills, which I found out were essential after going over the bars a couple of times.

In the morning I was feeling confident and strong, I was gridded at the back due to the lack of UCI points, but this was all expected, on the starting straight, the pace was manic, a moved up a fair amount and on the First corner someone went down, slid across, and took my straight out, I go flying over the bars and get ran over a couple of times, (NOT NICE) I run back to the bike, and by this time I’m in dead last, and my saddle Is snapped in half, but the bike is just rideable, so I hop on a dive into the pits to swap bikes, still in dead last, over the next 35 mins, all I’m doing, is getting to groups and going past them, so from 85^th, I rode to 42^nd so not too bad,

Got back to the GB van and showered, and we were off back to the UK to get to derby ready for the national trophy, a long 5 hour trip that was.

With a good night’s rest under my belt I was ready to go again,

The course was long, windy and slippy in places, so was going to be a course for groups, I was feeling strong today but not on it due to racing the day before and travelling all day yesterday, I had a good warm up and was ready to go, gridded second, on first row, and a long straight ahead of me, the gun goes and what happens, my foot doesn’t clip in, second time. No luck. Third time lucky and by this time I’ve lost a fair amount of places, so I put the gas on, and get passed a load of riders, and get myself into the chasing group of the two riders ahead, a groups with around 10 riders and throughout the whole race attacks were coming from left right and centre and I kept my self in the top three of that group so I could go with any moves, and on the last lap, some riders crashed which I managed to avoid, and some of the other riders put there foot down going into the wind, I sheltered behind them and once it came to the last 700 meters or so through a set of technical corners and cambers I made my move and comfortably took 3^rd so not a bad day at all,

Big thanks to all my sponsors  cycleshack/FormeCoaching/Forme/USE/Kask/Accelerade 

 

Southampton

today i was feeling strong, the course was slippy in places but not to bad and was the same as last year, but it was frozen solid last year,

surprisingly it was very warm, had a poor start just didn't manage to get my foot in on time and lost some vital time so had to dig deep to get to the front but by this time hugo had gone of the front and was away, and me and mosses were let to fight it out, with constant attacks from each other, i was feeling the pace, i did a big effort and almost got away, then moses attacked and managed to get around 10 seconds on me by the end of the race, so i was feeling pretty gutted as it was very close, so i lost out on my yellow jersey,

National trophy round 3

Today was the second round of the national trophy at Leicester Leys.

The course was fast and slippy in places with some very nice fast swooping corners, the ideal course for me coming from the MTB side of the sport. I was on the front row and by the first corner I was in 3rd wheel feeling comfortable, then found myself on the front. For half a lap i had Adam Martin on my wheel but after a couple of efforts out of the corners i got the gap and slowly started to pull away. Once I was in the lead I was never threatened and continued to slowly pull away from the rest of the field. 

Someone told me with the current order of the people behind me and that I’d be in the yellow jersey (leading the series overall) if it stayed the same. That just spurred me on even more but with three laps to go I wasn’t taking any risks which could jeopardise my position, just kept the speed up and the corners smooth. There was a sand pit and a steep climb which kept me on my toes, but with a lap to go and seconds to spare I knew the win was in the bag! 

The feeling of knowing that the yellow jersey was going to be on my shoulders made any pain go away, but writing this I can tell you the pain is now here and walking up that stairs is somewhat difficult.   

So thats my first National win, What can I say really; it feels fantastic and even better that I’m sat in the yellow series jersey,

I’d like to say thanks from all the support from all the sponsors, Cycle Shack, Forme Coaching, Forme Bikes, USE, Acclerade, Skoda, Kask and to all the people cheering me on.

 

National Trophy Round 1

After some good solid performances at the regional cross rounds I was hoping for a good results at South Shields, the weather was somewhat grey and windy, so it was your typical cross weather, The course consistent of 180 degree turns, a set of tall hurdles you had to leap over and a nice sand pit to keep things interesting.

I got a decent start putting myself into top 6 for the first corner and then boxed someone into placing myself now in 5^th, then an attack went half way through the first lap and two got away and I had to get round two other rides to bridge across. Three of us were then away and clear from the rest, it soon split so I was in a chasing group as a ride had gone  and attack and got away, and he finished 37 secs in front of me by the end  I lost out to second on the last lap when the rider I was with attack with 1km and I couldn’t get back to him and finished 3 seconds down on him, so I was happy with getting 3^rd place on the first national round and hope to build and do better for the next one.  Thanks to all my sponsors

Forme/Kask/JuiceLubes/CycleShack/Accerlerade/USE

Round 3

With the national trophy fast approaching, with my form slowly getting there I was hoping for a good performance with two weeks to go before the first national trophy. The course was a local one to me which provided me with some local knowledge so it was said.

I was gridded first, and my plan was to see how quick I could go for the first few laps to replicate what the trophy would be like, as your starts are a decisive part in your overall.

The gun went and I spirited as fast as I could and rode away from everyone, 500m and I was in the first part of single track, but then I went wrong the tape had been pulled down so I went onto another piece on single track instead of going back on to the fireroad, once I had realised I was wrong I turned back round to find myself half down in the vets, I stepped up the pace again to chase back to the front, I ploughed through the vets, and got within 15 secs off first after a couple laps of chasing, I unwilling decided to have a sit down on a bit of concrete sliding long my right leg snapping my chain as well. I hoped back up and started to run the half lap to the pits. By the time I reached the pits I was a fair way down, but got back on a fresh bike, and chased like a bat out of hell,  and on the last lap I got into 3^rd n 2^nd jnr, just 10 seconds off 2^nd place by the end.

 So a unlucky race for me, but I was happy with my form and had some great support from cycleshack as well as some fantastic sponsors, Kask/Accerlade/juiceLubes/USE/Forme/FormeCoaching