Grain of Sand

A few exciting things to note this week: 1. I have finished ALL my exams! 2. I got selected for the European Junior Road Race in Belgium 3. I got 7th at Tom Simpson Junior RR and nationals are next weekend! 4. I have got a new retro section below this blog- check it out. The week before Tom Simpson was mixed. It was mainly focused around my mountain bike. I spent Wednesday doing some efforts around bracknell forest before I punctured. Then I spent Thursday doing a 4 hour mtb ride along the ridgeway in Oxfordshire- I managed to break my chain twice! When I hopped back on my road bike it felt very weird due to the different cleats, pedal width, and position. We drove up on Sunday morning (with Pete D). The course was pretty flat so I knew I would have to be aggressive early on and try and force a break. After a lot of attacks and counter attacks one eventually formed (see below). I was suffering soooo bad for most of the race. Not sure why but I have been having to take anti-viral/biotic...

I started my racing career in Virginia U.S.A. when I was 13. We lived over there from 2001-2005 with my Dad's Job and it was a great experience. I was part of the NCVC- see here for there website. Here are a few pictures from when I started. It was pretty hot in the summers. This was a midweek mtb race and the temperatures were probably around 30 degrees. When combined with 100% humidity it made for some uncomfortable riding. This is a picture of me at the start of the same race. I was 13 at the time yet look at my legs! They are more ripped than they are now! This was taken slightly later in my first road race- a circuit around some industrial estate in Maryland. Check out the guy riding a disc wheel! I am just visible in the red and white. Believe it or not this is a picture of me winning a sprint! It wasn't for the win though- I think I finished 5th but I was 13 and it was a 15-18 race.

Its been a while since I last updated. Exams have been pretty full on. Most of them have gone well except for Mechanics 3 and Further Pure 2 which were hell. I've only got one more left on Tuesday but its not an important one, so I'm pretty much focused on cycling now! After my escapades at Margham park I had a week of rest. This is to prepare me for the rest of the season ahead (its a long time till the end of september). Unfortunately it did not coincide with when my exams were so I had to do lots of solid revision. I had planned just to do Smithfield on the weekend and revise on the Sunday but I was so bored of revision I decided to do a mountain bike race down in Pippingford (sussex) too. Smithfield was a massacre. My race day prep was good- much better than most of the pros probably, but I just got blown out the back after 10 or 15 minutes! I could really feel the week of rest in my legs, but in reality I'm not sure I would have lasted much longer with a weeks training...

Just got out of a history exam so having a little break. Had an odp training camp last week and then last weekend had 2 mtb races. I punctured on saturday in the junior national series but got 4th on Saturday in the 50k marathon race. Here is a picture below.