May

Not a lot to post about recently as I haven't raced since the end of April. This is due to a number of factors but it is primarily due to exams and a lingering cold. I keep telling myself (and other people) that I am not fussed about my first year exams but sub-consciously I can't let myself get a bad grade.  It also puts my head in a bad place when I am out training as I think to myself I should be revising, This means that I have trained half as much as I would like.

Low mileage for the last 3 weeks left me with shocking legs in the race today and I was disappointing to finish around 20th. I am taking the result as the kick up the arse I needed to get out on my bike, train hard and realize my full potential. 

I only have 2 exams left next week and then I will be able to focus my summer around achieving the goals I set earlier in the year. 

Stats

Whilst studying an accounting degree I was always going to have to share some statistics for my year so far and here goes.

January-April:
Distance- 3350 Miles
Time- 192 Hours
Rides- 97
Climbing- 181,316 feet
Average Speed- 17.44mph
Points- 24

So to summarize I have cycled up Everest 6 and a quarter times, spent 8 days in the saddle and cycled from Land's End to John o'Groats 3.83 times all in the last three months.

As for April:

Distance- 777 Miles
Time- 42 Hours
Rides- 28
Climbing- 52,906 feet
Average Speed- 18.5mph
Points- 13

April was my first full month of racing so I will use this as comparison with the next few months and fingers crossed there will be another statistic for the amount of wins I have had this year!

BUCS 25 & Out of the Saddle RR

Last weekend was the first time I have competed on both Saturday and Sunday this year. Saturday was a 25 mile time-trial in Cambridge which was part of BUCS. I went into the race with no real expectations as I knew I didn't have the equipment to be in the top 10. This left me with the only real goal of a PB which realistically I could have achieved riding a BMX round the course. Ok that might be a slight exaggeration but even so I smashed my PB by 12 minutes and finished frustratingly close to a sub 1 hour time, 01:00:15 by my watch. This leaves me with a solid benchmark to beat over the coming season. 

After a quick removal of my clip-on TT bars and a nights sleep I was ready to compete in the Out of the Saddle road race. I decided to ride over to the race to give me a chance to spin the legs out and get a few extra miles in. It also gave me a good chance to assess the conditions which were: a. Cold and b. Windy. I knew the conditions were going to be hard enough to blow the race to pieces so I looked for the early break. Eventually I bridged across to a break which swelled to 15 or so riders with another 2 up the road. I then stupidly missed the split in the break I was in so only ended up with 11th place. Another top 15 but still no top 10 this season which I am gutted about. 

Overall I feel I can take a lot of positives from the weekend, PB in the time-trial, competitive in the road race and more importantly my legs felt OK both days. So onto the next weekend of racing which is in a fortnight and I will make sure my season does improve at some point! 

Beeston Road Race

Sunday saw me take part in my second 2/3/4 road race of the season. It was a relatively flat course, benign conditions meaning the chances of a breakaway were slim to say the least. My team mate, Andy, worked hard to attack early on but his efforts were in vain as the bunch were in the mood to chase everything down. I left my efforts until half way through, again the bunch allowed me to get a gap of 30 seconds or so before frustratingly chasing me down.
Everyone was gearing up for the sprint and I had positioned myself wheel. However not knowing the course I opened up the sprint very early which blew the race apart. It left me and 6 riders effectively off the front one of which was Andy. He managed a very respectable 3rd place and I held on for a top 10, or so I though until the organizer left me of the results!
Fingers crossed the result will be corrected and I will maintain my run of top 15 results this season. Next for me is the BUCS 25 Mile time-trial and the Out of The Saddle Road Race.

BUCS 50km TTT and Sheffrec RR

As mentioned in my previous post this weekend I was competing Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I road in my second BUCS event for the university. BUCS is an inter-university competition, I competed in cyclo-cross before Christmas finishing 11th and this weekend was the team time-trail. I was riding with a teammate of mine Andrew Nichols and another student Nick Latimer. It was a shocking day for time-trialling  with high winds and rain making it very hard going.
We started very well with us all taking strong turns on the front and the pace kept high. However I began to struggle after 15km or so as I wasn't getting the full benefit of the slipstream whilst on my road bike. I missed a few turns whilst trying to get my heart rate back out of the red and was able to contribute more on the second lap of the course. We posted a time of 1 Hour 12 Minutes 27 seconds (average: 25.7mph) meaning we finished 5th in the BUCS event and 13th overall out of 60 riders.
Sunday was the Sheffrec RR which was held in very high winds near Rotherham. I rode out the event and my legs felt good which was a surprise after yesterdays effort. I was 5th reserve and when I turned up and 5 people had already pulled out so I was in the race. I finished my warm up and the race was quickly underway. Unfortunately it was just as quickly over for me after having a puncture within 2 miles! It was my first puncture of the season but hopefully my last as I have now bought a new set of tires.
Next week is the BUCS 10 mile time-trial and the Beeston RR which I am looking forward too.

Thanks for reading!

Varsity

Varsity is held every year and is a sport competition held between local universities, in my case Sheffield University v Sheffield Hallam. The competition involves all sports and there are 5 cycling disciplines to compete in. Being a road cyclist I chose to compete in the hill climb and the 20km time-trial, in the future I may also compete in the mountain bike event as well.
The first event is a favorite of mine, the hill climb, which was held at Monsal head. I knew I had a great chance of victory and had support from friends of my course (Becky & Will) to spur me on. I was one of the last riders off which meant I knew the time I was looking to beat was 1 minute and 39 seconds. Having completed the effort I was asked 'Did you set of at the correct time?'. I knew this was going to go one way or the other and after the times were read out my time of 1 minute and 23 seconds had secured victory in the event by 10 seconds. I was very happy with my time and will look to improve it during the hill climb season in October when the infamous Monsal hill climb is held.
The next event, held a month later due to snow delays, was the time trial. This season I am trying to improve my time-trialing as it a useful skill to have and can be key to success in road races. We rode out to the start of the race and I told myself to use it as a hard training session as I was just riding my road bike, this makes a significant difference compared to riding a time-trial bike which can knock minutes off your time. I really enjoyed riding the course which was very hilly compared to what I had ridden in the past. My time, 31min 30sec ,was good enough to secure 4th place in the event and 26 seconds off the winner Tom Stewart. I stupidly did not warm-up properly which caused a slow start and I could not make up the lost time in the latter half of the course.
Varsity was great fun to compete in and the cycling team completed a 5-0 whitewash against Hallam whilst Sheffield University were crowned Varsity champions. This was a great results for the sports teams and I hope to be part of several more victories in the future.

Photos

Startline of the Jock Wadley











After the Jock Wadley