Junior National Track Championships

After the Road Nationals it was straight to a training camp in Newport, Wales, in preparation for the National Track champs and also the possibility of European Track Championships. I spent the week doing lots of sprints and intervals.

I stayed over after the camp in the house Dad had rented for 2 weeks. It was called Stable court and was in Dingestow, 20 minutes from Newport. It was very nice and had a tennis court and a lake and had great cycling roads all around. Unfortunately there was not much time to try them.

Track Nationals kicked off with Scratch race on Tuesday. I qualified 4th in my heat in the morning then went home for lunch. The final was much sooner than expected so as I got into the velodrome I just had time to put on my kit and go. I came 4th in the final after getting in a break with 3 other riders. Towards the last 5 laps I was on my knees and the chicken and rice I had eaten only 45 minutes earlier started to feel like a poor decision.

On Wednesday we had pursuit. I spent a long time warming up but come my ride I felt terrible. I felt uncomfortable on the bike and just plain slow and did a pretty duff time of 3.38.

Thursday was the points race. I qualified in the morning by taking a lap. In the afternoon my plan was the same, to take a lap and not go for the sprints. The plan didn't really work out as I didn't have the legs to go solo and no one was letting a group get away. I finished 11th.

All in all it wasn't a bad track nationals but no where near good. Hopefully a bit more specific training next year will prepare me better.

Comments

Lazy Blogging..

Hi guys, I apologize for not updating in a long time. It is always irritating when people have out of date websites. The excuse is that I have been pretty busy, and also quite disheartened about my cycling. But I think I have turned a new stone and now everything's smooth sailing...or riding perhaps. After my race in Singapore I had a couple of local races, and my knee just didn't hold up under pressure. It was buckling under the increased intensity and I was pretty upset after all the work I had done with my physio, and I thought after a good few months I was over it. This kept going on in a weekly cycle. I would train and condition my leg during the week and then be smashed in the races because I just couldn't put any power down. Needless to say my motivation kept declining, along with my fitness, for around 2 months After an awesome family holiday in Morocco (that can come in the next blog) and a serious discussion with my coach, its looking more positive. I think I may...

Summer Travels

July started well with my first half-decent race for months. I took part in the Guildford Town centre Criterium on Wednesday night. A tiny circuit featuring a patchy tarmac descent and a sharp cobbled climb with little in between. As soon as I started I realized there was no way I was going to keep up the sterling track record of cyclefit employees (Warwick) in the race. I got stronger as the race went on though and I didn't crash -always important as my confidence was pretty low. Jon Dibben did a great ride as per usual. I drove home optimistic that my season was turning around with my new pedalling technique (no pun intended). Next up in July was the Cyclefit Etape Trip. Me and Stuart (brother) drove the Clio down to Pau in the Pyrenees and met Jules and Konrad (or Konradiator as he later become known). Due to the efficiency of the French Motorways, we made it there pretty fresh and with only 3 speeding offences (2 in Bordeaux alone). Our first job was the Expo which involved ...

Great Britain Call Up

Well its lucky I didn't stop my training during my mini- meltdown a few ago. I got a call from Max Sciandri the other day offering me the chance to do U23 Paris-Roubaix and a stint in Italy! It will be good to race with the guys again, and hopefully I can do an impressive ride.... Jules and Phil at Cyclefit have been very understanding, and there is lots of discussion as to what equipment to use. Kimberly's Zipp 303's or use the GB Mavics? Look 585 or Look 595? These are the important questions of our time... nothing to do with people called Cameron and Clegg.

Grain of Sand

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