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.

Pics

Some photos of my recent shenanigins.
Thanks to Rory for the first wan.

Back to racing

Well, last week was definitely not one of my best. Monday started ok with a good core session but after rushing to glasgow on Wednesday evening I only managed two races on the track before throwing up everywhere (shoes, bag, towel, bike etc).
This resulted in an early departure and a disappointed Francis. Thursday and Friday I decided to keep off the bike (again) due to feeling terrible and Saturday I headed out for a gentle mountain bike ride with my dad. Early Sunday morning I packed the car with the cross bike and ventured down to Peebles to meet up with Calum and Ben. Spooky woods on a cyclocross bike is surprisingly fun and after 4 hours of riding we arrived back at Calum's, exhausted.
This week has been a really valuable experience for me, doing a work placement at alpine bikes. I've learnt loads about bike maintenance and got to start at 10 everyday! Following yet another gentle week on the bike this morning my dad and I left sunny Edinburgh to go to a wet, snowy, sleety, dreary car park in strathClyde for the scottish cyclocross championships.
The course was good fun, although I would've preferred a bit more running, and despite a very big, very embarrassing crash in practice I was in relatively high spirits before the start. I was freezing before we set off and down the start straight and through a huge puddle a trend was set of what was to come. Soaking and cold I rode most of the race swapping places with Jamie mason and lost his wheel on the last lap to roll in 6th ( should have been 7th but jack carlin wiped out near the end and couldn't finish).
By the end I was completely frozen, with barely any feeling in my hands and none in my feet. I did enjoy the race though as it was the first time in a long time I felt I was able to push myself without getting too dizzy or nauseous. After a short drive home I unfortunately watched Ireland get beaten by England but I'm still in high spirits with lots of rides planned for next week (with a 7 o'clock start tomorrow morning). Cheers for reading, over and out. X

First picture was the view of our drive over to Motherwell.

Second was a local newspaper running a "feature" on my school.

Track Bicycling

     The past couple weeks have consisted of a few ups and downs. To start the previous week I had three hard days on the rollers/turbo before a slightly more gentle thursday friday due to not feeling 100%. Saturday started early with a mountain bike ride in the snow which was great fun just sliding out all over the place on the local hills. The ride was followed by lots of sledging, coming home and having tea, then more sledging in the dark. Bed then an early start the next day for a track session
    
On the Sunday I had another school of racing so me, Matthias, Ben and Emma huddled into the van and headed for Glasgow. The session started with a classroom style workshop where I learnt loads about the devil as although I'd ridden a few previously I had never studied it in depth. We then headed onto the boards for a variety of drills and despite my first crash on the velodrome I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day.
    
This week has not been quite so successful though with illness being a reocurring theme. Monday and Tuesday I felt slightly under the weather so only managed small sessions but I felt fine during school on Wednesday so headed out to Glasgow again for my first proper taste of track racing. On arrival I found that my usual "competitors" had all entered the B adult category so I was left with racing a slightly smaller youth field. I arrived late and didn't manage a warm up before the scratch where I attacked straight from the gun. Bad idea.    After just two laps I was already blowing and only just stayed out getting pipped into second by Lewis. I felt terrible afterwards but slowly recovered in time for the next race which I managed to win along with the remaining two races that evening.
   
 Since then I've suffered from a cough and other wee bugs but am hoping to recover nicely for next week. Today was good fun in helping my dad out whilst he raced the second off road duathlon and it was nice going to a race without the stress of actually racing for once! Cheers for reading, over and out. x

New Year

     Long time no see. Since the last post I've continued with my training pretty successfully I'd like to think with lots more miles on the road. New year was good fun and I managed to get out early the next day for a steady 50km in the sun and continued the rest of the week with similar rides all week. Saturday's chaingang proved interesting with a big crash just before Ormiston involving a horse and lots of riders down. Thankfully I managed to come out OK but quite a few guys seemed hurt and one had managed to snap his bars in half!
   
     This Monday provided my first visit to the gym in a few years and after an hour of weights and core my body was aching but I managed to get a lot in and it was a fun change to doing core at home. After three very hard weeks I decided to ease off slightly with a gentler week this week. Chaingang this morning was freezing in the snow and hopefully that will all clear up soon so I can get back out on big rides again.
   
     Next week I'll be back to the velodrome for the first time in the new year with another school of racing and having got accreditation 4 I can now start racing on the boards weekly which should be great fun and good training as well. I've also entered the first British round in London at the end of April and the racing season seems just around the corner. Cheers for reading, over and out.

Christmas Bicycling

     Another good week of riding this week with a few mishaps along the way. Starting on Monday a core session at home was all I managed to squeeze in around the festivities but I managed to get a lot of different exercises done. Christmas day involved travelling down to my Nana's in England so unfortunately I didn't get out on the bike again but instead had a very fun, relaxing day. After arriving back relatively late on Wednesday my dad and I headed out for a short hilly road ride around nearby roads (which gave me a chance to test out my new fancy garmin) which wasn't too hard and provided a gentle introduction of pedalling to my legs.
    
     On Thursday I got the car down to Calum's in Peebles and despite initially wanting to go on a long road ride the forecast of snow and strong winds forced us onto the mountain bikes which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We headed out and into a valley from which we slowly climbed out of to join the Glentress black route. As we gradually gained height the snow started falling and building up beside the track and by the top the whole track was covered in deep snow which was great fun to ride in (despite having an aspen on the back). From the radio mast we rode the rest of the black and had lunch before pedalling back up and down brambles.

     Friday I felt slightly under the weather and only managed a gentle 15 minutes on the rollers and Saturday morning I put on every piece of cycling clothing I own and headed out for 9:30. The rain stopped as I arrived so stupidly I took off my rain jacket but soon into the ride the monsoon conditions had returned and I was forced to stop and put the jacket back on. A very long hard chase then took place and I finally caught the bunch going into haddington. Shortly after though I punctured after hitting a pothole and by the time I fixed it my hands were frozen and my morale very low so I headed home, only managing 40km in total. This morning proved more successful though with the junior club run down the coast and back.

     Cheers for reading, feel free to share, over and out x