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Catch Up!

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. They were too fast! I was supposed to be helping Warrick Spence as his 'domestique' however I decided vocal support from the barriers was far more effective. Pete D and Dan Mclay both got dropped which made me feel better as they are both good at crits. 

I got back at 12:30 and had a history revision session Sunday morning at 9:00- ouch! I went in for that then went straight to the mountain bike race with my parents. Unfortunately Smithfield had not fired my legs up as planned, and I went slow on my mountain bike as well. Slow climbing combined with bad technical skills makes for slow lap times! I wasn't too concerned though given my preparation and how bad I felt during the race.

The following week was my heavy exam week. Big exams on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Basically it meant that my training was pretty limited which frustrated me, as I had just taken a full rest week. Even more frustrating was that when I did go training my legs felt rubbish!

I was very excited about the weekend coming up though. Me, Steve James, Luke Gray, and Kenta Gallagher were flying over to Germany (near Stuttgart) to do a big German mountain bike race. I flew over late Thursday by myself due to exams, and had a blast in Terminal 5. I went to Wagamamas followed by the sushi bar then bought a load of cycling magazines- next time I am trying the fish bar. On Friday we did some practice on the course, and the second run around Luke Gray managed to fall off and smash his pelvis right in front of me! I didn't see how he fell as I was focusing on descending myself- but he did not look good on the ground. Hopefully his recovery will not be too painful. The course involved 2 long steep fireroad climb and 2 descents- one quite technical by my standards. We did a similar course recce on the Saturday. I think I might have got a bit too enthusiastic on the climbs.

The race itself was good. I only came 30th, but I got everything out so I was happy. I was shelling time on the technical sections, and my climbing wasn't great so I wasn't able to stay with the top guys. But I will keep working on it. Kenta did a great ride coming 4th- despite moaning about how bad he was the whole trip. We stayed to watch the Elites race in the afternoon (along with 15,000 Germans!). I had no idea you could ride the technical sections that quick! I also got Sven Nys and Jose Hermida's signatures!

Here is a picture of the mens race- that climb was steep!


There was also a German equivalant of my Dad at the race who took a video of his son. There is also a short clip of me climbing ahead of him in ODP kit.


To finish off this epic post; I am doing the Tom Simpson memorial race tomorrow up in Yorkshire. Its supposed to be flat so I am not sure what my tactics will be yet. I am a bit apprehensive as I haven't ridden a road race in ages and haven't done a long road ride for a while either. We'll see!

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