Introduction
I am a 19 year old cyclist from Colchester who is currently studying at the University of Sheffield but more on this later. I will start by explaining why I haven't had a blog until this point, this is for several reasons. Firstly I make myself annoyed at reading fellow cyclists blogs about their 'heroics' in 4th cat circuit races and I felt that until I was competitive at a decent level I wouldn't start blogging.
The second reason links into the first, when it comes to competition, for me its 1st or nothing. Until now my ultra-competitive attitude has led me to a lot of disappointment from racing (I've only ever won one race and ironically it was a 4th cat race at hog hill). This season I have tried to accept that some days you just are not strong enough to win particularly when riding elite races. However there is still some element of disappointment when rolling across the line in 13th, even if it happens to be alongside some of the best riders in the country! I will also continue to analyse each race to see if there was anything I could have done to win and make sure I do not make the same mistakes.
The final reason I will explain is to do with time. Until now I haven't had a great deal of it free as it has been filled with far to many commitments. It was difficult enough to find enough time to ride my bike so to consider writing about it would be mad. Starting university last September has led to me loosing a lot of commitments and the only things I need to worry about now are: Cycling, my degree and socialising and for now it will remain in that order of importance.
Winter
In the past I have ridden a full season of cyclo-cross during the winter and then gone onto riding road from March. This was great fun but at the same time I wasn't getting in the crucial 'base miles' that form the foundation for a good season. However this year was different, just one cyclo-cross race and the rest of my time cycling spent slowly riding round the peaks enjoying the scenery. This led to me completing 216 Hours between October and February which included a week off for illness and more than enough snow to forcing me onto the dreaded turbo trainer.
Racing
Onto the important stuff, racing. My season was initially scheduled to start at the Crest RR back home in the East but unfortunately my Easter break hadn't started. Instead this left me with the Jock Wadley as my first race of the season, a slightly different matter to a 60 mile 2/3/4 race. I managed to get onto the reserves after a battle with my own club (yes I can't get into my own clubs race!!). As it turns out waking up to a strong wind, snow and freezing cold conditions meant I was almost guaranteed a ride as 4th reserve.
Stood being the lead car about to start inside I couldn't have been happier. I love racing in shocking conditions as I find it makes the race a lot more predictable. We got rolling and I already got a sense of who was there to race and who wanted to be tucked up in bed. We left the neutral zone and straight away the attacks were coming, one after the other, relentless attacks until eventually a break of 10 or so riders got away. Before I knew it I was sat on the back of the second break on the road and the race for the other riders was effectively over.
Eventually the second break caught up to the first group on the road and that left us with a group of about 20 riders with 3 minute gap. The gap continued to grow despite the relatively sedate pace (easy for me to say, I took about 2 turns on the front). I knew the break would not just trundle round and sure enough the attacks came again. Three riders got away and I was left in the break just hanging on and trying to stay warm. With two laps to go the pace was upped and it left me riding alone for the last lap having been dropped but I hung on for a respectable 13th.
Throughout the day I had incredible support from people from my club and I took great pleasure in seeing people's 'what the f**k is he doing in the break' faces on the way round. I have also had great support from Russell Ford (Glade CC) since August, he has coaching me and making sure I am doing the right sort of training for the time of year. He gave me the loudest shout of the day minutes before I was dropped and it probably should not be repeated, he was happy with my performance to say the least.
Thank you for reading and I will try and get you up to date with the rest of my season tomorrow!
James
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