Hmmmm

Almost YTOS.

     The week after my last post I headed south to Middlesbrough (sp?) once more for another crit/devil combo. My dad and I left a slightly overcast Edinburgh and the further we travelled, the worse the weather got and driving into the car park we were greeted with 2 degree temperature and heavy sleet. I rode the devil and was quite disappointed after being called out, stopping and then being told I was still in leaving me 4th and out of points. For the crit I felt horrific and decided to sit in for most of the race just following moves. Rian was on a lone attack for the majority and I let the others chase him down before I came out the last corner in 4th wheel and managed to sprint to 1st place which felt really good as a time trial win is nice but the feeling of outsprinting a bunch to the line is hard to beat.

     A few dips with poorliness have only slightly halted my training and especially in the last week I have really upped my riding. I even attempted the Red Bull Hill Chasers yesterday but my below par qualification run meant I didn't qualify for the finals in the evening unfortunately. It was great to get out in the sun this morning for a few hours before coming home to watch the Tour of Flanders (Ronde Van Vlaanderen). Now I'll ease up the volume of riding in preparation for the Youth Tour of Scotland starting this coming Friday. My expectations are not extremely high although I'm confident I can get involved with the front end of the race and hopefully get in some moves and make a difference to the race.

     I'll try and get a post up next Monday evening with the outcome to the tour and hopefully the tone will be positive. Cheers for reading, over and out. x

The last picture is Ben not me.

Some proper racing

     Long time no see.

            Since my last post I've stepped up my riding and feel I have achieved a fair bit. At half term, Ben and I went down to peebles to stay with Calum for a couple hard days riding on the road. A big loop via st marys loch to Moffat and back over the beeftub (which is a lot further than I remembered) left me knackered after day 1 and after waking up to snow the following day we were left at a loss as to what to do. Neither me nor Ben had brought mountain bikes but a cunning plan off putting cross tyres on my bike and Ben and Calum on Calum's two cross bikes we were able to go out for two and a half hours in the snow around Cardrona and glentress. After the ride it really made me think why I even bother having a road and mountain bike, when I can ride 115km on the road one day, then swap tyres over and smash around Glentress the next day on the same bike.

           That evening Ben and I headed to Glasgow to race track league before retiring home. Since then I have ridden my first ever Madison session on the track ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtxigEaRT6U ) and had another week or so off the bike with illness. Last Saturday was the first road race of the season at Ingliston and despite feeling under the weather I managed to complete the time trial and crit finishing 6th in both. Today was the second in the series and after a much better warm up I managed to win the time trial ( 7 seconds faster than last week in sub 2 minute race) just pipping Grant Martin who had decided to ride across the grass on the last straight. The crit followed and despite the pace being quite slow I enjoyed it and finished third behind Rory and Grant (the winner).

          Tomorrow I'm off to Middlesborough for another crit and the season definitely feels as if it's in full swing already. Cheers for reading, over and out. x

Thanks to John and Phil (I think, sorry if I'm wrong) for the photos and Ryan here's your shoutout.