Since my last blog I raced my first season of cyclocross. Put simply I loved every single pedal stroke. I was surprised with my performances finishing on the podium in every race I finished. It was really nice to just have fun racing without any pressure from myself to perform at a high level. With that being said, it was disappointing to not win a race, especially central champs where I was in the lead with 1 other rider for the whole race. I attacked him into the last technical section and was in the lead coming into the final corner when we caught a lapped rider who didn’t see me going round the outside of him and rode into me, opening the door for the rider behind me to come through and win.
Racing cyclocross also meant I had an outlet for my competitiveness which allowed me to focus through the week and get the training I needed to do done and not just doing zwift races every day. I will defiantly race cross again next winter. I have had a solid winters training. I feel fitter than ever and really excited to see what I can achieve in my 1st year of u23. My 2022 plans are to get stuck into as many Nat b road races as I can and improve on my 7th and 10th that I managed last year. I want to win Nat bs this year and get my elite licence. It would be good to have a good result at Victor Belmont because I think the hilly course suits me, also its down the road from my house so I know the roads well and use them allot in training. I am planning to target some nat B stage races because I really enjoyed this format of racing in my youth and junior days. I would also like to have a good showing in the national road series.
I started racing in the middle of January at Oddown winter series. In the first round it ended up in a breakaway of 5 with me and my teammate James Philips in the move. The race had been pretty fast but I had felt comfortable all race. Coming into the final corner I let my self loose the wheel, I could have fought to keep it harder than I did but I was there for the points and knew there were far bigger races coming up so decided to not take any silly risks and give the wheel up. This ment my positioning was bad coming out he final corner. I did a good sprint and came in second, half a bike length behind James Philips who won.
Fast forward 2 weeks and I was back at Oddown for the next round of the winter series. My team mate James Philips and I attacked early in the race and rolled a 2 up time, we lapped the field which was a first for the both of us. We rolled across the line together.
The next weekend was the first race at Dalton. As normal it was windy. After a while a group of 5 of us got up the road and we got a pretty solid gap by the end of the race of about a min 20. With just over a lap to go one of the guys in the break attacked, into the crosswind I attacked to try and close the gap that was by this point pushing out towards 20 seconds. I went all out to try and close the gap, got close but not close enough.
Perfs was the first road race of the year. The conditions were brutal rainy windy and cold. For the first 3 it was going really well, I made all the splits and put in some attacks. On lap 4 it started to rain really hard. I got really wet and cold and froze on the decent. Frustrating that I got my kit choice wrong. I should have worn my winter kit rather than skinsuit and gilet. I am really happy with how I performed and what my level of fitness is at the moment. I am really exited about getting stuck into more races as the season goes on.
