A lot to catch up on

To say the last month and a bit has been hectic, would be an understatement. On Tuesday, I did (hopefully!) my last ever exam of medical school. Barring any hiccups, come results day on 22nd June, I’ll be able to call myself Dr. Thomas Key. Mad. I haven’t quite had the time to reflect on actually making it to the end of the road with university yet, but its been a trial of perseverance and resilience and at this time 18 months ago I didn’t think I’d be here for sure. But the most important thing is that I am, and I’ve proved to myself I have a bit more metal than I give myself credit for.

On the cycling front, its been utterly enjoyable. And when you’re enjoying the bike, you inevitably get results. I’ve been racing more than ever before and consistently getting results. Over the past month and a bit, I’ve achieved 4 top 5’s in races, despite being on limited training and having the extra stress of finals. So here’s a quick race report of those, now that I’ve got the time! It’s a bit of a boring read probably so I’ll try and liven it up with some pictures.

1. Goodwood circuits – 4th.

My first ever race at Goodwood somehow, despite having lived in either Eastbourne or Southampton for the last however many years of my life! And boy do I regret that! I really enjoy the circuit, its wide, not too technical and actually somehow seems to reward hard work unlike some other motor circuits. It’s not a hard course at all, but the guys that turn up week in week out are determined to split the race up, meaning the racing is on from the gun, rarely averaging less than about 46 km/hr. Its my kind of fun.

Going in to the last couple of laps, a break of 4 was out front. With me not wanting to necessarily sprint for 5th place, I set about trying to bridge across. Luckily, Stanley Kennet of Spirit-Tifosi was already half way across, so I went all in to get across to the 4 in the break. We then set about driving hard all the way to the line. I attacked again on the last lap and took Stanley with me but a hard chase from the 4 others brought it back for a 6 man sprint. Tired from the effort, I rolled over 4th, but happy with my nights work!

2. Thruxton circuits – 5th

My first and probably last 2/3 category race at Thruxton. Having won the first round, which was an E/1/2 category round, I had confidence that I could rip apart a 2/3 race. Especially with Matt Downie and Jules Lockwood also riding for Primera that night. However I had forgot one thing… 2/3 racing can be the most negative and boring racing in the world. There were loads of teams there determined to end the race in a sprint. Its boring, it doesn’t reward hard work and ultimately, those that win these races never feature in the E/1/2 races where they can’t sit safely in the middle of the pack waiting for the sprint.

On the flip side however, its racing and if thats the tactics, its up to me to rock the boat or beat them at their own game. As a team we worked well together all evening, attacking and counter-attacking. At one point we had me and Matt in a 5 man break that looked promising, but with the mindset of the bunch, it chased hard and brought it all back together. Thinking with my head, I had to sit in for the last couple of laps, and despite not having the raw power required to win sprints, the hard run up to the final straight at Thruxton rewards strength and I came home 5th, not too far off a top 3. More points, more results, but I was definitely hoping for more!

3. Sandie Radford memorial road race – 2nd

What a race. All I will ever remember is Matt bridging across to me and giggling as he got across. A team 1-2 and not just any 1-2, we finished a minute ahead of third. It was a domination.

Yes, it’s not the most prestigious or ‘elite’ race, but its a good marker for those who are local to the new forest, a relatively flat race with a steep sharp climb to the finish after just 41 miles. Our team had 5 riding, and having won the previous 2 years and being the local ‘hitter’ team had all the pressure on us. The only problem was despite being billed as the obvious winners, there were a few pretty good riders there for us to get rid of first. Sotonia had a strong outfit and have been going from strength to strength recently, and ex-Primera rider Oscar Hutchings was racing for VC-Equipe Flix.

I jokingly said to Matt the day before that we’d rip it to pieces in the crosswind section. I’ve always found crosswind racing absolutely awesome to watch. Watching Bob Jungels rip the Giro to pieces was epic and I’ve always wanted to do the same. Well here was my opportunity. Just 10km into the race, me and Matt hit the front and did some DAMAGE. Well… mainly he did. Within a KM the race was down to 10 riders with no one able to follow Matt’s wheel. He was off solo with me comfortably sitting on the chase group. Inevitably, he was brought back, but it tired the chasers. Coming through the same section again, Matt with his herculean strength went again. He took a few with him and I was stupidly out of position and having to jump across wheels. Riders were popping all over the place. Making up the last 10 meters to Matt was excruciating, but once I was there, we were gone. Me, Matt, Oscar, Rowan Horner and James Peckham. We were pulling hard and pulling out a lead.

With 20km to go, Matt jumped. He was chased back. This was my chance. The classic 1-2. I dug deep and pulled out a gap on a slight rise. I was leading the race, now what!! I just had to put my head down and dig deep. I held the 3 chasers plus Matt at around 20s for 10km, thinking if nothing else Matt was in a perfect position to counter. I didn’t look back for a while but when I did, Matt was only 20m off my wheel. I thought they’d brought me back, but when I looked again… It was just Matt. I couldn’t see the other 3! He’d jumped them and they’d basically given up. I was happy to have Matt with me to share the work and in all honesty I was pretty spent. Still worried about the chasers, I gave my all to riding with Matt as a 2-up, and had nothing left for the last climb. Being mega strong, he rode off to take the solo win and I crawled up the climb to still comfortably take 2nd. Mega race-mega tactics and what an awesome feeling.

4. Surrey league Kirdford road race – 5th.

The very next day, I had the opposite. The worlds most boring race. Perhaps even more boring than Thruxton! I rolled round the flatlands of Surrey, trying to blank out the stupid posters with Jeremy Hunt’s smug mug on for 110km, and sprinted for 5th. The less said about the race the better to be honest, but it was another top 5 and I was happy with that on tired legs!

Also over the last month, I’ve had a few other decent rides. I rode a season PB of 20.09 for 10 miles at the a3crg… 10 mile TT, a good sign of things to come, got 10th at the Tour of the Milbury’s prologue before having the second stage ruined by an untimely puncture and took 8th at the one race at Mountbatten I did. It’s all about the consistency!

More than anything though, the team have been an absolute joy to race with. Matt is SUPER strong, and hopefully will land himself a contract with a pro team in the near future. Jason also won at the TLI Moreton races and Jules.. well he’s an absolute animal. I hope I’m still as strong as him when I can claim a bus pass. I can only thank Primera Sports, Teamjobs recruitment, Ellis Jones solicitors and VW breeze for their continued sponsorship, giving me these opportunities to follow my passion. Thanks guys. I’m continuing to work with BikestrongUK as well and the coaching has been second to none. It really does make a difference!

Next up is the Beachy Head classic this Sunday, followed by a few TT’s to get stuck in to. Oh and doing this doctoring thing….

Thanks for reading!

The winning formula

Finally. After having a goal of winning an E/1/2 circuit race for the last three seasons, I was starting to think it may never happen. Yes, a midweek circuit race isn’t exactly the Tour de France, but for those of us that are racing on limited time to train and knowing that they are never going to make a living out of cycling, well, it kind of is. I probably got as much of a buzz out of winning at Thruxton on Tuesday as Cavendish does winning in the Tour, or Valverde does winning on the Mur de Huy (well, actually he’s probably quite bored of that now). It’s all about perspective and my goals are not the same as those aspiring much much higher in the sport.

It got me thinking, how come I’ve now got the win, why not last year, why not the year before that? I’m not training more, if anything I’m doing less hours. But looking back on it, I am going so so much better at this level of racing than I have ever done before. I should have made the break at Castle Combe, and once we established a gap on Tuesday at Thruxton I was super comfortable, doing some big turns and even opening up my sprint from way way out. So what has changed… Well, I’ve put it down to three things in particular;

1. A superb coach and some focus to my training

Before this winter, I’d never worked with a coach. As many of you now know I’ve been working with BikestrongUK for about 6 months now. Initially I was sceptical about coaching, I was a cat 2 rider with a 19 minute 10 mile TT under their belt, surely I knew how to train? How wrong was I. Mike at BikestrongUK has transformed my riding. We’ve done a lot of work on ‘change of pace’ and sprinting, as beforehand despite having a decent FTP I was struggling with every little surge and sprint, which over the course of a race nailed my legs. Now, I feel more springy, more ready to attack and more able to make other peoples legs hurt. And it feels great. Not only that, but one of the big things is now being coached through the season. Beforehand, I think I probably trained okay through the winter, but that’s when it’s easy. There’s no races to be peaking for or midweek TT’s to take into account. I got to summer and it all sort of fell down, I wanted to peak for everything and always be on top of my game, but that meant I would lose fitness and then get demotivated and take a while off racing whilst I built that back up again. Being coached through the racing has been an absolute gamechanger, knowing when to rest and when to put the hard sessions in has been invaluable and meant that I’ve kept the gains coming throughout the first quarter of the season. Honestly, it’s absolutely great.

2. Being part of a great team

Primera-Teamjobs are absolutely all I can ask for. A great bunch of guys with awesome sponsors behind them that mean we’re motivated and always ready to give it our best for each other. We are a relatively small team in terms of numbers, so aren’t perhaps as visible at races as other teams and clubs around the South, but that just adds to the close-knit team that we’ve developed. It’s been incredibly motivating turning up to races knowing we’ve got a decent team and are there to do the business. The kit is absolutely fantastic and looks the bees knees which just adds to the excitement and the shop is incredible when it comes to looking after us. It’s really shown me that when you turn up to a race with a smile on your face, you can make those legs hurt that much more and I honestly have never enjoyed racing as much as I do now. So thank you to everyone involved with the team and long may it continue!

3. A weapon of  a bike

Someone once said ‘It’s not about the bike’. And yes, I guess, to them, it wasn’t. It was more a case of it being about EPO and testosterone and HGH… But then again maybe if Lance had a Venge Vias he wouldn’t have needed all those…

Just a couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough for Primera Sports to offer me a bike to race on for the rest of the year. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity. Having been racing on a repaired carbon frame built up by myself from several 2nd hand bits, it was an absolute no-brainer. And my god is it fast. Like seriously fast. The whole bike has aerodynamics in mind, from the brakes hidden away to almost zero external cabling. All these things add up to make an absolutely incredible machine.

Yes… You can’t make someone fast just by sticking a fast bike under their bum, but Specialized have tried their absolute best to do that with this. It’s an amazing bit of kit and Primera might just have trouble getting it back off me at the end of the year. To anyone thinking about that upgrade. Just go for it. You will absolutely not be disappointed.

So through all this combined, and with a rather large dose of encouragement and support from Yasmin, I’ve been absolutely loving riding and racing my bike these last couple of months. Long may it continue and I hope I can push on forwards with this vain of form. Initially that means hoping for a good result on Sunday at the Stockbridge Down road race, but more long term, smashing some more TT PB’s and getting some more wins under my belt for the team!

Here’s to hopefully some good legs on Sunday

TJ

 

Getting stuck in

There’s been a lack of blogs recently, but a lot going on. I’m now into the very last stages of my medical degree, which means that between fitting in lots of bike racing, attending my last placement as a student (hopefully!) and revising furiously (that’s what I’m telling myself anyway… I need to up my game a bit!) there’s not been much time for writing about my cycling. So, as a revision break, I thought I’d round up a few recent results.

Off the back of an amazing 6 day training camp in Mallorca, combined with a snazzy new bike, the legs have been feeling pretty motivated and I can honestly say I’ve never enjoyed racing this much, even if the results haven’t quite started to flow in. Over the past few weeks I’ve been regularly trying to get at least 1 local club TT in a week, as I know that the added competition of a stopwatch timing you means I can push myself that 5% harder. It’s good training first and foremost, but also is a good release of my inner competitor and nice to be using my good form to get good results, rather than just feeling good whilst training, which achieves little…

First up was a 10 mile TT on the HCC175 near Farnham. This course has become a bit of a nemesis of mine, having recorded a time of 20.00 to 20.59 countless times now, but never quite cracking the 30 mile barrier. It was a similar story once again, with 20.34 on a breezy cold morning, taking 2nd place behind Matthew Charlton. A little disappointing, but taking into account the weather and the fact that earlier in the year I was more than a minute behind Matt, it was all positive steps. The following day was the final round of the south district Spring Cup, a series of sporting TT’s with seperate road and TT bike categories. Freshly equipped with a Specialized Venge Vias I was keen to see what I could do over the 22.5 mile course based around South Harting. The simple answer… the bike is a work of art. It’s rapid. It’s freaking awesome. And I was 2nd again. Bum. I shoulda, coulda, woulda won. But I punctured just 2-3km from the end and had t roll in super slow, losing around a minute in the process and coming 2nd by just 13 seconds. Once again though… positive steps.

Motivated by my now rather annoying run of 2nd places in TT’s, I rocked up the North Hampshire RC 10 mile TT on the Bentley A31 course. With good legs, I recorded 21.02 to win by 25 seconds. Eventually. A win. Woohoo. It may only be a small club event but they all count and I was happy to get the first one under my belt. I was only 3 seconds off my course PB in some less than ideal conditions.

Moving on, I was back on the Venge and lining up at the Easter world championships at Castle Combe on Good Friday. Long story short, I felt great, won the first prime, used up my legs a bit early, had to recover and missed the move of the day and then felt disappointed all the way home as I knew I was strong enough to be in the break of 11 that stayed away to the end. It was a tactical misjudgement, which is I suppose better than just not being fit enough, but I hope to bounce back and show them who’s boss next time around.

Then last but not least, I raced the …a3crg 25 mile TT on the relatively new p884b course based along the A3 near Petersfield. On paper it should be a fast one, if not the fastest in the south. I imagine it is… but having started at 08.32 on a Sunday morning, in about 6 degrees, it wasn’t quite as fast as promised. The 53.19 I recorded was okay, but nothing special. I was hoping to dip under my 52.49 PB but considering the conditions and being top 15 in a  quality field, I can’t beat myself up about it too much. However it was my first 25 in 2 years and I’m going to have to find another one to enter in the not too distant future I feel, as I would like to target the national 25 mile TT champs in August and may need to lower my PB in order to guarantee a ride. A good motivator and more reason to keep on racing as many TT’s as possible. The winner on the day recorded a 48 minute time, which is ridiculously rapid in that weather and something I need to close in towards. An action plan of something along the lines of ‘noPinz, aero socks and most importantly aero testing’ is needed.

So that’s a round up of the racing I’ve been doing. Overall its gone well, picking up a TT win, several 2nd places and taking the first prime at Combe. But what I need to do now is start turning these promising results into good results. Top 10’s or maybe better at the E12 circuit races and have the belief in myself that I can be up there in the E12 road races. The training is still going absolutely brilliantly with BikestrongUK, who have had me doing probably less training than before but the quality is superb, meaning I am still getting stronger despite having less and less time to train around medicine. A win win.

Next up is Thruxton tonight, followed by a TT on Thursday and the Stockbridge Down road race on Sunday. A well thought of race with big entries from Bike Channel – Canyon, One Pro Cycling among others that should be a real challenge. Once again, a huge thank you to the team sponsors, Primera Sports and Teamjobs recruitment, alongside Ellis Jones solicitors and VW Breeze. I massively appreciate all of your help in making me realise my ambition to be able to take it to some of the full time racers in this race alongside a full time degree! So thank you! (And of course the biggest thank you goes to chief soigneur… Yasmin Jameel, who’s numbering skills are now verging on mastery. Maybe I don’t need that NoPinz after all.)

Next up I’ll be writing a bit more about that very special piece of kit under my feet, and a report on the next week of racing. Thanks for reading!

TJ

Non-stop racing

Last weekend saw me doing my best to squeeze as many races into a weekend as possible. I essentially did my own mini stage race, and had great fun in doing so. Off the back of my last post, where I described how my mood and motivation had been low, I decided that seeing as I was enjoying racing, but no training as much, why not cram them in so they double up as both? So over the 2 days, I raced in 3 races, all relatively short, but intense efforts, and great fun!

Race 1 

Farnham RC club 10 mile TT – 2nd place 

First up was a windy affair near Bentley. A low key 10 mile TT hosted by Farnham RC. I’d never done the 10 mile course before, but had raced the 25 mile variant a couple of times, so knew the course was relatively fast and I could record an okay time. It was much needed after a really disappointing performance at the Test Valley 2 day TT’s and was hopefully a confidence booster. The weather tried to contrive against this however, with a block headwind for the first 5 miles resulting in a relatively slow time of just 21.55. A little disappointing at first, but reflecting afterwards, I was only 30s off the win, to a rider that had easily beaten me by a minute at the Test Valley 10. I was also using some shallow section wheels because of the wind, and quite quickly I realised that I had made a massive gain in the last 2 weeks, just from not neglecting my TT bike quite as much and the result became a massive positive.

Race 2

Hillingdon 2/3/4 circuit race – Back of the bunch

Later that day, I took to the start at HIllingdon race circuit. I was unsure how the morning TT would affect the legs, but with a couple of races I am targeting this year featuring double days, it was a good opportunity to test recovery and fuelling strategies. Surprisingly, the legs felt good, and I spent the whole hour attacking, attacking and attacking some more. Such is the way though, that one of the counter attacks to my moves was the one that stuck, and with last weeks crash still on my mind, I preferred to sit up on the last lap than risk more skin, kit and bike pieces sprinting for 6th place. A good decision really, but once again I took heart in how strong my legs were feeling. I was perhaps a couple of percent off making the counter move and sticking in the break, and in hindsight perhaps that was due to the morning TT, but I will never truly know!

Race 3 

Sotonia Leg Loosener TT – 8th

On Sunday morning, I took on perhaps the hardest of the 3 races. A rather sporting 14.5 mile TT around the North of the New Forest. It was an absolute cracker of a course, and once again I took heart in the position on the TT bike getting more and more comfortable by the day, but fatigue was setting in. Perhaps shown by the measly average heart rate of 158bpm. I’m pretty sure some people on the cardio ward in the hospital run at that whilst laying down…

As a result, I was a little off the pace in 8th place, only a handful of seconds off the top 5 but a massive way away from challenging the winner of the event, Oscar Hutchings, who flew round the course over 2 minutes faster. Chapeau and fair play and all that. But it all adds to the motivation to sort myself out and start challenging at the pointy end of the times again.

So that’s just a quick summary of what I got up to. Not massively interesting I know but I wanted to get back focusing on the racing after the rather downbeat theme of the last post. For those of you interested, obviously these issues don’t go away overnight, but the massive support shown to me and response from the last post has been heartwarming and really helps through the tough times. I couldn’t ask to be racing with a better bunch of guys than those at Primera-Teamjobs and the support from the team is incredible.

Next up is another club TT on Saturday, followed by a rather exciting week next week… Stay tuned!

 

 

Crashing down to Earth

Crashing. That’s a given in cycling. But it doesn’t help when it also describes your mental health. When you fall off a bike, you jump back on and frantically chase back to the race. Unless you physically can’t get back on the bike, you persevere. It’s just what cyclists do. But when you fall off the mental health wagon, it makes even the worst road rash seem trivial. Physical pain hurts yes, but it has nothing on the pain of constantly fighting your mind to try and hide away the dark thoughts, whilst simultaneously having to try 100 times harder to motivate yourself to do anything with your life. The energy and desire to do anything slips away and you start to rely on others around you to keep you afloat.

So, yes, I’ve crashed in more than one way over the last few weeks since Perfs. I’ve blogged before about trying to live with depression and its effect on my cycling and I’m more than happy to be completely open about my health. I’m not blogging about it for sympathy, or as an excuse, but hope that by talking about it, others in the same situation, with the same troubles, know that they are not alone in their fight. 1 in 4 people will meet depression head first at some point in their life. That’s a hell of a lot of people that don’t talk about it…

Back in October I got restarted on anti-depressants. I had a pretty bad time of it in November and December, but once the medication was subsequently changed and upped, I was coping well. I was loving life as such. Medicine was going well. I smashed some exams (if I do say so myself) and life was pretty hunky-dory. Unfortunately in the past few weeks, things have taken a bit of a nose dive. Rarely do I have a good day, where my thoughts aren’t ina  dark cloud, or I have a real motivation and can-do attitude. For the most part, I get away with it, the state of affairs hidden to only me, and my lifesaver, who takes the brunt of the frustration and tears, Yasmin. But as the dark cloud grows, it starts to be harder to hide and spills over into my ‘outside’ life. A big thing that it stops is my ability to train. The lack of energy and motivation really make things hard. Couple that with the fact that training requires a certain desire to hurt yourself… And when you’re struggling enough as it is without adding that pain in your lungs and legs, its extremely hard to do. It’s meant my training has been less than ideal, and I’ve put on a  little weight comfort eating. The result is I’m not quite where I want to be when the w/kg comes into play.

Tonight I had a bit of a new low. I was on the rollers, and I just felt drained. I hadn’t done much all day and had had 2 rest days at the start of the week, so should have been pretty fresh. But I couldn’t motivate myself, and all of a sudden I just felt a wave of sadness hit me and started to cry. Not ideal when the next interval is a VO2 effort. Needless to say it was a fruitless task and I climbed off. The feeling of failure just adding to the numb, deep feeling of sadness.

So here I am,  at my laptop, writing it all down. Because thats what makes it better for me. Blogging about it means that I can open up, talk about all my feelings, but to a faceless crowd. It’s not a one on one counselling session, but an open book to try and put into words how I feel. And writing about it is liberating. Talking means I’m beating it and it won’t define me. I can beat it and will beat it. So there.

As if a metaphor for my current state of affairs, I haven’t had much luck recently in racing either. I travelled to Wales last weekend, only to get caught up in a crash on a completely straight piece of road. I went down hard, but actually got off pretty lightly. Unfortunately I crashed at just the wrong place on the course, and after chasing on a descent, I turned into a block headwind. I slowly watched the bunch ahead slowly pulling away from me as the attacks flew. It wasn’t just me either, Matt and Ed on the team both punctured, ending their races. When it rains it pours, surely the luck of the team will turn soon!

So onto the next race I go, with Hillingdon this Saturday and the Sotonia sporting TT on Sunday. I’m hoping for a decent result in both, but I’d rather come last than crash again to be honest, I’m not sure my body will forgive me a 3rd crash in a month!

I won’t apologise for the grim read. If you made it this far you probably don’t mind reading it anyway, and if you’re reading and suffering with depression too, stay strong and make sure you don’t let it define what you can do.

Thanks for reading

I’ll be posting hopefully a somewhat nicer and happier read at the end of the weekend, reporting back on potentially a couple of decent results!

TJ

Perfs 2017

It was cold, it was fast, it was tough, but thankfully short too and I got round.

In case you missed it last Sunday I raced the Perfs Pedal, the season opening national road race that takes place on Portsdown Hill, just outside of Portsmouth. I distinctly remember perhaps 3 years ago when I was really getting into racing, that this race was the true litmus test for all us riders in the south. Get round Perfs in the bunch and don’t get dropped, and you can call yourself a proper cyclist.

It felt absolutely amazing to be turning up for once however, not by myself or with a lone team mate, but with a team of 5 of us from Primera-Teamjobs, all focussed and ambitious about the race. We knew if we played our cards just right, a goood result could be on the cards. There was one slight problem though, the 6 strong riders from BIKE channel-Canyon that were also racing, keen to impress on their first outing for Britain’s newest continental ranked team.

Everyone knew that they were going to go hard up the first climb, trying to force a split early on in the race. However, it’s one thing knowing they’re going to do it and a complete other beast to be able to do anything about it. Up Boarhunt hill, only about 5km in to the race they had 6 on the front, drilling it at 20+mph up the slope that touches 10% at its steepest. I felt okay, it was a hard pace but not unbelievable. I knew I had to stay in touch though if I had any chance of giving a helping hand to our leader, Matt Downie, to make the split and get in the move of the day. The climb itself is not too hard, but going over the top, the pace was still ferocious and we turned into a long head crosswind section that completely ripped the field to shreds. I was too far back, having to close gaps that were opening up just to stay in contact. After a hard 10 minutes of racing it finally settled down, with a group of 12 or so out front (which unfortunately Matt had just missed by a matter of meters) and about 40 of us left in a decimated bunch.

Over the rest of the race, I had to take a bit of recovery, but on the 4th and 5th laps tried to lend a helping hand to Matt to instigate a couple of moves to try and form a second chasing group. However the bunch was in no mood for letting us go and we had to, in the end, settle with finishing in the bunch. Ed, still just 17, was our best placed finisher, with a wicked kick at the end to take home 21st, with me and Matt rolling in 40th and 35th respectively.

So, enough of the race report, what did I take away from my first experience of racing the big boys for the new team?

1. The teams strong and ready to take it to everyone in 2017.

We didn’t quite get what we wanted out of Perfs, we were secretly hoping for a bit of an upset, but it’s just one race, on one day, in February. There’s plenty more to come and as a team we rode strongly. It was great to be a part of and has really upped the motivation reserves for getting stuck in to the races to come.

2. I’ve managed to improve my climbing!

I felt pretty at home when the road went up. Fairly obvious really, seeing as I’m hitting the season at 74kg, not the 83kg I was this time last year, and have been working hard on short punchy type efforts with my coach at Bikestrong UK. I’m under no illusion I am now suddenly Chris Froome, but its a positive step forward.

3. The quailty of riders is only improving

I was massively surprised to look round on about the 3rd lap and realise there were still 40-50 of us in the bunch. The racing had been super hard and it justshows that there is some real quality in depth now of riders in the South.We had 3 riders in there, but there were also a number of riders from Morvelo, Latchem-Sunwise, Venta and Sotonia. A credit to these teams and clubs in the regionand a positive sign of things to come.

4. I need to keep working on my tactical awareness

I was caught out on the first lap, a bit too far back and on the wrong side of the bunch in terms of the wind. Its small things like this that add up and meant that I didnt quite contribute as much as I could to the race.

Overall however, the race was fun, a great experience and has me raring to go again. Next week see’s a road bike TT on a similar course, which should be a similarly lung busting experience, then its on to a couple of circuit races and building back up for the Betty Pharoah road race in South Wales on 12 March. I can’t wait to show evveryone what I’m capable of!

A big thanks to the team for showing faith in me this year and having me on board. I couldn’t have asked for better sponsors or a better bunch of guys to be racing with. Some real positive vibes for 2017 and I think a lot of wins are going to be taken by us!

Over and out

TJ

 

Soigneur memoirs

So we’re getting a bit bored of training posts now and seeing as the season is about to kick off this Sunday I thought I’d do a light-hearted post about being an amateur soigneur and chief assistant coach (aka girlfriend that really knows sweet nothing about cycling) so here it goes!

 

He arrives home, covered in a slick layer of saliva, sweat and dirt, collapsing onto the nearest chair picking up his garmin and laptop.

“Hey!” “How was your ride?” I inquire.

No response.

The stravasphere has him now…

Strava: I was told that to put all your rides up on here and invest thought into ride names, kudo’s and strava fwends was somewhat chopper. Yet “if it ain’t on strava, it didn’t happen” and from what I hear, holding a KOM is pretty big dog.

Here are some other terms that I’ve learnt:

Wheelsucker: someone with their nose nestled in between another cyclists butt cheeks and is essentially being pulled along behind, unwilling to work.

Chopper: you can’t ride a bike, you don’t even look good on the bike. You really should take up running, or swimming…or both.

Half wheeling: remember a person in school that always had to come first? This is them.

Bonking: running out of both physical and mental energy stores to the point of grimacing with severe head bobbing.

Paniagua: Riding on just bread (pan) and water (agua)… without the input of any Italian doctors.

*Insert only cycling joke I know*

You’re having coffee (preferably a double espresso) in a café:

“How does a cyclist take his sugar?”

Wait for no one to answer. Then proceed to pick up a tube packet of sugar, hold it between 2 fingers and flick the top.

(As one would do getting the air bubbles out of a syringe…)

Anyway, where was I…

n + 1: The law of “you can never have enough bikes” coupled with the constant yearning for a better bike than currently owned.

Being Euro: is being the epitome of style, sexy and class on a bike.

Important things to note (which I may have learnt the hard way!):

• When asked who your favourite cyclist is, Marcel Kittel is not the correct answer.

 

• When asked if you want to watch the tour highlights. You say: “Again? Yes! Maybe not Carlton Kirby this time though.”

 

• When asked if you think he looks lean, the answer is ALWAYS yes. And occasionally add (in an Australian accent) “mate, you’re soo leean I could wash my clothes on your abs!”.

 

• If you ever notice a 4^th cat tat, subtly wipe it away, from skin and memory. It never happened.

 

• Weekends are graded on millage.

For example: “what are you up to this weekend?”

“Just a cheeky 50”

• Also, rides are sometimes cheeky. I’m led to believe it’s the same sort of cheeky fun that they serve at nandos.

 

• Bottles would appear to get frisky and mate at night. They’re everywhere. You’re bound to open a kitchen cupboard and have one fall on your face about 1/day.

 

• Chamois cream. After plunging his hand into his shorts while in a semi squat position and moving it around with a strange, almost confused look on his face, this traditionally ends with him pretending to wipe his hand on my face. I’ve grown wise to this.

 

• Not that important right? “Cant’ go too wrong with cycling socks.” Is something no cyclist ever said. Colour, length, design and appropriately combined with all other kit: they run the show. Get the socks wrong and the whole outfit is ruined. You might as well be standing there in full on team sky kit. I’d need a clean piece of white paper, a tape measure and a leg with a defined calf to explain my understanding of the sock doping theory.

 

Having now been fully immersed into the cycling world and absorbed what feels like a degrees worth of vocabulary, I think I’ve finally worked out where I sit amongst it all.

My role: Is essentially motivator. To hold up bits of scrap paper against the kitchen window when he’s outside on the rollers saying “keep going, think of the win, you can do this”. Or standing outside, chatting for the last half hour of a tough sesh. Getting up at 6 on Saturday and making pre-ride porridge, then getting up at 6 on Sunday for travelling/racing. And just being there to listen and share in the aches, moans, groans, triumphs, progression and excitement. To be unfalteringly supportive.

And then there’s race day. My favourite bit! This starts with getting bits out of the car, setting up the rollers. And then there’s pinning.

Pinning. Easy right?

No no, no no no. Anyone would think it could give you 60 seconds! But I’m getting better…I’m on a streak of 2 races for completely flat numbers!

And then along with shouting whatever comes to mind, I have one other job to do at the road side.

Rules of the hydration station:

1. Never ever run. You just look like a numpty. If you stand in the same place each lap, they’ll know where you are, let them come to you.
2. Be prepared. Have the bottles ready and held out for them to see. NB their preference for water or jizz juice (the cocaine consistency, powder energy drink stuff… I don’t actually know what consistency cocaine is though, honest!), if in doubt give them the sugar.
3. Stand at the top of an incline.
4. Do not allow thirsty thieves of the peloton to steal bottles from you.

And then finally, being there at the end with a hug and beer. There’s so much more to winning a race then who had the best legs on the day. Listening to the race breakdown, allows an informal debrief and always be positive- the lessons of this race will be the winnings of the next! And that’s pretty much my job done. Easy really 🙂

 

Thank you for reading!

 

National Track Champs (an honest review!)

Over the past couple of weekends, I had the mad idea of doing a lot of driving, not having enough sleep and testing myself against some of the very best track riders in the country. It was painful, it didn’t quite go fully to plan and I’m lusting after an early night and a lie in, but despite all this, I had a great time, having immense fun and getting in a lot of intensity on the bike before the season opener next weekend at Perfs Pedal.

First up was the Welsh national track championships. Yes, I’m not Welsh, I know that. But they were running an ‘open’ team pursuit alongside and as I was riding for a British Cycling South region composite team we entered it as a warm up race before the nationals. To say it didn’t all go swimmingly is probably an understatement. I’ve ridden plenty of track in the past and so had the other riders, but we’d had a whole one training session together on the boards the week before. We were pretty choppy, definitely not smooth and recorded a fairly disappointing time of 4 minutes 40 seconds. Now, from an outside point of view, an average speed of over 30 mph for 4km sounds fast, but when you’ve ridden almost a second faster per lap before, its never nice to go backwards. However, I had a great time, not taking things quite as seriously as I have before on the track and therefore just having some fun. Something that is sometimes overlooked in the sport. And in the end, we actually finished 2nd, with only a Welsh composite team ahead of us, result!!!!!

Next up was the UK national champs in Manchester. I was again racing for the BC South team but also had entered the scratch race, meaning it was the first time I could get out in Primera-Teamjobs colours, with the brand new kit I’d picked up the day before. Which, to be honest, is absolutely incredible. The new Sidi shot shoes are a level above what I’ve ever used before and the Drag2Zero suit just feels fast when you put it on. That’s not even mentioning the rest of the kit we were lucky to be given. Back to the racing though, and the Team Pursuit went slightly better than the week before, recording a time of 4 minutes 37 seconds. I was pulling big 2-3 lap turns but just couldn’t drag everyone round quicker. We rode incredibly well as a team though, considering the little time we’d had together and to be honest, I couldn’t grumble about that part. In the end, we finished up 8th. Not all that bad. It wasn’t last!

The scratch race was a biggy for me. I’d decided if I made the trip then I wanted to make the most of it, but as it turned out, I screwed it up tactically. It was ran with 2 heats where the top 14 from each headed through to the final, the last event of the championships. I knew in my head I just needed to sit in for the sprint, but excitement got the better of me, and I attacked with 5 laps to go. Inevitably, I was caught by the GB lads, and got swallowed by the bunch sprint, finishing at the back as I had nothing left for the sprint. A massive disappointment, but taking positives from it, the fact that I could even attack at the end of a scratch race with the nations best can only be a good indicator of the legs turning well.

Following that weekend, the last of 3 big weekends was the national omnium championships in Derby. In hindsight, it was perhaps a push too much. I’d had a super busy week, including an exam on the Friday afternoon and a 15 hour day on the Thursday, so training had been a bit hit and miss and tiredness was building. However, I was excited to once again test myself against the best after the disappointment of the national scratch race, so I packed the car, headed up to the midlands on the Friday night and thankfully stayed at a mates house only 20 minutes away from the velodrome (thanks George!). On to the racing, and once again we were split into 2 groups, who raced the first 3 races together, then the top 12 from each went through to the final points race. That was the aim of the day!

In the end, it didn’t go perfectly, the legs were good, but the head was tired. I caught myself yawning in the warm up and my eyes genuinely just wanted to shut and go to sleep. It meant I wasn’t quite at the peak of my performance to say the least! Despite that, I still got 14th, 16th and 12th in the first 3 races, but as it was, it was 3 places off being part of the final points race. A disappointment but also perhaps a blessing in disguise as it meant I didn’t fall asleep on the long drive home. The signs were still there that I’m making improvements though, with accelerations proving easier (something my coach has been working on) but once again the lack of track time was my undoing, and perhaps a slight lack of courage (whether that was sensible or not though is another thing!). For some of the guys I was racing against, this was their job, and if they failed, they could get chucked. Some silly risks were being taken and to be honest, it didn’t mean enough to me to potentially end up triple immobilised in the back of an ambulance. Some of the riding was pretty tetchy and to be honest, some riders took it too far.

So overall, the omnium champs were a bit disappointing, but I honestly believe if I had more sleep and less work, I would have been in the mix and got in the final points race to race it out for the stripes. I must be doing something right considering I have less than half the time to train than a lot of those I was racing against, if that! So credit where credits due to my coach, Mike at Bikestrong UK. (http://bikestrong.co.uk – check em out, the best investment I’ve ever made in my cycling!)

Onwards, I’m racing Perfs Pedal next week, the traditional road race season opener, and will be pitching my legs up against the likes of Bike Channel-Canyon to name just one team racing! Its an exciting time ahead!

Once again, a massive thank you to the sponsors that make having all this great kit happen, Primera Sports, Teamjobs, Ellis Jones solicitors and Breeze VW! And to Jason for lending me a track bike!

Exciting times are around the corner

After reviewing the ups and downs of 2016, its fairly obvious what this post is going to contain. Writing down your goals and sharing them make them more accountable and means your more likely to acheive them, or at least give it 100% failing to complete them! So, here are my goals for 2017;

1. Balance racing with medicine

For the last few years I have been balancing racing my bike with undertaking my medicine degree, and by and large its gone well. However there have been times when they have both been detrimental as well. Looking back, the main problem has been not racing enough, but not necessarily the training. I have got stronger year on year but perhaps don’t have the results to show for it. Therefore in 2017 I want to race a hell of a lot more, and try to keep doing it around times when I’m stressed or have exams. Rather than dropping a race but carrying on training, why not race but drop the training session? It’s something to try and hopefully if I hit the season in the form of my life it will be much easier to maintain that form and get some results for Primera-Teamjobs! (Oh and make sure I pass my finals…)

2. Win a road race

This has been seemingly a perrenial target on my goals for the year and as of yet I haven’t acheived it. I’ve had many top 10s but have always just been that couple of percent off the win. Hopefully however, now I’m getting some proper coaching I can really focus on my weaknesses and don’t have an excuse to not work on my sprinting anymore! I also need to be more clever when picking the races I want to target so that they play to my strengths. At the moment, that is my threshold power so something over more rolling terrain where a break can form would be perfect. Let’s wait and see!

3. Break the 19 minute barrier

It seemed to take forever to get under that magical 20 minute barrier last year, but when I did, I got more than 2/3rds of the way to breaking the 19 minute barrier as well. This is a big target for me but also I hope a realistic one that means I won’t be driving all the way to Hull just to blast up the M62 or whatever they use for that ridiculous course! I’m hoping either the A3crg events on the A3 or the events held near Tring on the F11/10 course will bring this one home!

4. Improve at a national level

2016 gave me my first taste of time trialling at a national level at the 10 mile TT championship. This one is simple, improve on my 40th place from this year. Easy peasy right.

5. Forget about the excuses

Sometimes I can definitely look for excuses in my performances, and to be honest, who doesn’t. In cycling, there’s always new products coming out claiming to save you x watts or make you x seconds quicker over an hour. It can get overwhelming. I quite often got down in 2016 as I wasn’t on a level playing field in terms of kit compared to the guys I’m racing with.

Now, this is partly solved by the fact that the team are providing some fantastic kit for next year from the likes of Sidi, Endura and Kask, but at the same time I’m not fooling myself that I will still be turning up to races on the ‘Frankenbike’ that has a mad mix of parts on and some £80 wheels (for now, I might get lucky!)

I can’t afford a £2000 pair of wheels, not many people can. So I just need to man up and get on with it. More positivity is needed and with a can do attitude and not having a defeatist mindset already on the start line I believe I can prove that it doesn’t really matter what you race on, you can still win!!! Mind over matter and all that. And that victory will be all that bit sweeter.

6. Have fun

Above all, I want to have an amazing season racing for Primera-Teamjobs. So far, its been an absolute pleasure riding with the other guys on the team and I can’t wait to pull the kit on once we have the team launch in January. I’ve got a really good feeling about 2017 and think it is definitely going to be the best by far, shared with a bunch of really good riders, but also good friends.

Once again, Merry Christmas!

TJ

The ‘not so highs’ of 2016

Well following on from a short post about the biggest positives of 2016, I thought I’d also share some of my lower moments from the year. Over the last 12 months, my life has taken a lot of twists and turns and sometimes the bike has been a burden, sometimes a saving grace, however for this I want to purely focus on sporting acheivements and perhaps get a bit more personal another time. So, here goes, along with some positive points about how I’m going to improve for 2017.

1. Not racing enough

At points this season I was absolutely loving riding my bike, smashing training sessions and races alike. At others, I was stuck in a rut and not really that motivated. I realised towards the end of the year that this neatly coincided with racing, whether that was something like the Tour of Sussex or a local midweek club TT. Racing is basically the reason I get on the rollers at 8pm after a long day, so what’s the point if I’m not utilising the fitness I’ve earnt?

In 2017 – I’m kicking off racing early at the national track champs, then Perfs Pedal. Following this I want to make a real effort to try and race at least once every 2 weeks. At points this may be more and I have to be realistic at times and realise around exams I will have to make sacrifices for my studies. But the key message, use what i’ve earnt in winter!

2. Not structuring my training well

Most people know roughly how to train. You do some long rides, you do some intervals, longer ones for the TT’s and shorter ones for more intense races like crits. But I never really knew what I was doing, and quite honestly I would just do what I fancied on any particular day, without having a plan at all. I was awful at knowing when to rest and when to push hard and this resulted in some fairly inconsistent performances

In 2017 – Well, I’ve got this one sorted already with Bikestrong! So far, so very good and hopefully it translates to much better consistency in the coming year!

3. BUCS 3up TTT

This was more a real disappointment than anything else. We were on a good day and I punctured after hitting a huge pothole, not much more to say about that one! Was a crap time as I wasn’t having a huge deal of racing at that point of the year and we were potentially on to a medal.

In 2017 – Bit redundant for this one. Not ride it? Get my eyes checked? One of those that you just have to take on the chin.

4. BUCS track champs

Now this is a funny one. I don’t really know where this sits if I am at all honest. I wanted to put it in the highs of 2016, but also the lows, as it was such a brutally topsy turvy weekend. On the one hand, looking at it objectively, I came away with 3 silver medals, in the individual pursuit, team pursuit and points race. If someone had offered me that at the start of the weekend, in all honesty I would have bitten their hand off, but it was the manner of the defeats that was heartbreaking, after all, 2nd place is for the first loser. Perhaps I’m being overly critical, I surpassed my expectations posting a 4.44 individual pursuit and being able to take a lap and lead the points race for 119/120 laps. And, I gave it my all, but it will always be a ‘what if’ kind of feeling asssociated with it.

In 2017 – I don’t want to beat myself up about past results. I think perhaps putting less emphasis on one event or race and racing more, will mean I will get the chance to bounce back from results like this before I let them get me down.

Finishing up, I just wanted to add a slight bit of positivity as well. A positivity sandwich of sorts. As since my last post I’ve thought of loads of other positives for the year on top of the ones I mentioned. Honourable mentions go to;

1. Revolve 24 – It was a cool event and I won a shed load of stuff, whats not to like?
2. Signing for Primera – Teamjobs – A positive and fruitful year hopefully awaits! It’s a great bunch of guys I’m racing with and only adds to the motivation fuel!
3. Getting coached properly – With thanks to Bikestrong once again. It really has been fantastic so far!

And that’s a wrap. I just want to finish with a massive thank you to everyone who has supported my cycling in 2016, from those who read my blog to the University club to my family and obviously to Yasmin, the worlds best assistant coach/soigneur who is as always so so tolerant of my cycling and it wouldn’t be possible to try and push on to the next level without her!

Merry Christmas!