55th Eddie Soens and WMBS RD1 Llandgla

After a long winter of training the season has finally kicked with a double weekend of racing, on the Saturday, I headed to Aintree race circuit for my first road race of the year, with a big field anticipated and I was anxious to see how I would go with it being totally different to the mtb races that I'm used too
the start was quick and attacks began to fly off the front from the start with every move being reeled back in including a few of my own  that I launched on my Raleigh militis, however, it soon became apparent you would need a strong bunch of riders to stay away, my group set off 3 minutes ahead of the elites and we held them off for 12 laps before being caught and the attacks really began to kick off with riders from pedal heaven constantly sending riders off the front to try and stay away and I had a few goes myself in putting a few digs in as well as following some wheels off he front, but it wasn't until around 10 laps to go when the move that went would stick, and sadly I didn't go as I had been pushed further down the group, I continued to have a few more goes when I got close to the front to try and get another move to go to chase down the group of 18 riders ahead but everything would come back together, the final few laps became frantic as everyone wanted to be at the front, with 2 laps to go I was within the top 10 but all of  sudden going onto the final lap I found myself boxed in down in about 40th, I found little gaps and moved up quick before the final corner where if you were near the back it most probably wouldn't end well, I sprant in finishing well within the main group finishing 18th in my bunch who were sprinting for 19th which meant I finished 36th O/A and 4th junior which I was happy with especially being my first proper road race I've done in the uk.

 

On Sunday I went to my local trails for the first round of the welsh mountain bike series, the course was quite hard offering not much rest throughout the whole course with the descents being really fatiguing, again it was another frantic start and I had a good start allowing me to move through the experts and leach onto the leading elite with a group of 4 of us getting away including an elite, and expert and 2 juniors including me, we hit the single track together and not many gaps opened, it was only on the second lap when gaps began to open as attacks up the main climb began to go off the front but the descent allowed it to come back together again, on the third lap they managed to drop me on a short climb but before the start of the 4th I had managed to close the small gap of about 10seconds to two of the riders ahead, including Chris Rothwell, the junior I was battling with for the top spot and the expert rider Rob Rogers, but I could feel myself beginning to fade especially after yesterday and halfway round the 4th lap a gap opened to them that I wouldn't be able to close back, I pushed on hard for the 5th and final lap trying to at least keep the gap to a minimal and to make sure that my second place was secure, I was happy with this result finishing behind a strong rider and also giving me an indication to how I will go against the junior field at the xc nationals this year, next week I will be down in south wales for the cadence road race the first of the national junior road races this year,

 

more pictures to follow soon too.
I'd just like to say massive thank you to Graham Weigh cycles for supporting me for this year supplying me with all the equipment I will need for this season!

Welsh Cyclocross champs 2015

On Sunday I headed to Eirias park, for the welsh CX championship, it was a wet day and the course was muddy and wet and was being ripped up even in practise, being ankle deep in mud and was starting to get unrideable each lap I went round.
I warmed up and headed to the start for the race in my new junior catergory, racing with the men, I was gridded on the front row which helped allowing me to avoid the mass bottle neck into the tight right hand corner up a running section, Joe Barnwell (MTRT) quickly opened up a gap that would stick for the whole race with me and Tyler Brennan (The Bulls) trying to chase back through the thick gloopy mud, I held Tyler for two laps and we kept the gap to Joe tight but as the course got worse I didn't have the power to push through the mud and keep with him, Joe then continued to open up the gap while I kept Tyler within 20seconds, towards the end of the race was when two bikes came in really handy as the course deteriated and the bikes began to clog up( massive thanks to Mark Baker for letting me borrow his bike as a spare).
I continued to plod through the ever thickening mud hoping to close the gap to Tyler but it was just to big and I had to settle for 3rd in what was probably the most demanding and gruelling race I had ever done.
Thanks to my dad for being my pit crew for the race and graham weigh cycles for the support.
pictures to follow soon...

Great Orme Road Race 2015

Last weekend I headed to Llandudno for the race around the great orme, this race is very hilly and has a fast descent back down to the foot of the climb, the youth race would do 3 complete laps of the orme and after signing on at 8 o clock we were all ready on the start line at 9 o clock, we were set off and the first mile of the race was neutralised,  but after that the attacks started coming thick and fast with many riders going out the back on the first part of the climb, a fairly big group still made it to the top of the orme together and all descended hitting speeds of up to 43MPH in some places on the climb , after the descent it was a short piece of road through the streets of Llandudno before we hit the foot of the climb again, this time not so many attacks came and we all road through and off up to the final 800m when the attacks started to come on the steeper slopes, I did have a go myself but like all the other attacks the were swiftly brought back in, this time the group had whittled down to around 25 of us again descending of speeds of 40MPH +, we came through the start finish straight and the bell rang loud, and again not many attacks came and everyone was trying to save themselves for the last part of the climb to make an attack, and everyone had the same plan, as we came round the to see the summit it ramps up and many attacks came one after another with myself having ago too, the grouped whittled down again to around 20 and we all raced down the back of the orme as quick as we could go on our restricted gears, when we hit the flat it turned into a track sprint that would very slowly increase and we came closer to the line , we came round the final corner at around 15MPH and I decided to go early passed the grand hotel on the slight slopes of the orme, I held them off but we hit the last corner and they were on my wheel and I ended up getting swarmed by the sprinting group with 50m to go, I came across the line 11th which was a good result but I could have been higher if I had waited for the sprint finish. this is a really great event and look forward to it next year as a junior.
Thanks to Marsh Tracks for all the support this year and a massive thanks to my parents who have given up their time travelling me round the country this MTB and road season as it would not be possible to do what I do with out them. 

Inter Regionals 2015

last weekend I was representing wales in the inter regional MTB event 2015.
I woke up early morning on Friday to be picked up by our coach to take us down to Essex, Hadleigh farm where the event was.
on the Friday we had a skills competition which involved doing many different skills including bunny hops, wheelies and side hops under pressure and against the clock, I finished 5th overall and only picking up 1 time penalty for hitting a post.

on Saturday we had the handicap race in the morning which was done on the number of time penalties you had accumulated from yesterday and each one being 10seconds, this meant I started 10seconds behind the 3 people that managed to clear the course,
I had a good start and  was working well in a group but I had been ill for a few days before and it was affecting me abit, people were coming past me and I just wasn't able to attack ad stay with them, in the end I came through 10th

in the afternoon we had dirt crits which involved a series of heats of races that lasted around 2minutes in duration, my first heat went well and I managed to qualify coming through 2nd, my next heat didn't go as well and just missed out on qualifying after missing my pedal at the start and coming in 8th while only the top 7 go through to the next round, this meant I went through to the B final, I had a good start and went through into the bottle neck in 5th, I struggled to get past on the descent and had to try and move up on the flat, after  a sprint finish I managed to claim 3rd in my final heat

the Sunday was our final day and it kicked off with a team relay in the morning which team wales won last year and we would hope to do the same again this year, I had the first leg of the relay and I had a good start coming through 2nd on the short 5minute course handing over to Megan James to take on the second leg of the race, Megan came through 3rd and first girl before then handing over to Katie hesdon who would take the third leg of the tea relay for us she came through 4th and then handed over to Solomon kerfoot robson for the 4th and final leg of the race, sol managed to make up some ground after some teams had decided to use their 2 boys first, he and harry yates came through together and after a hard battle harry sprinted past sol and he couldn't react, we held on to 2nd and we all did a great team effort

in the afternoon it was the main event which was the XCO race, after a good warm up and feeling abit better I was ready for the final event, I had a good start sitting within the top 5 and already 8 of us had managed to get away from the rest o the filed on lap 1 which was very unusual to have a big group like this all still together after one lap, we all stayed together for the next lap tackling all the Olympic descents and climb and I was feeling comfortable and strong, however, on lap 3 disaster struck on the oak tree drop with my chain dropping, I quickly stopped and tried to get it back on as quickly as possible, but the leading group had gone and 2 others had past me, over the next lap I managed to work my way back to the duo that had past me while I had dropped my chain and try to chase back on the lead group, but again on the 4th my chain dropped again on Deane's drop and I had to stop and put it back on again, while I was doing this another big group past me and I couldn't get back onto them for the next 2 remaining laps, I started to blow up after having to constantly chase for the majority of the race due to my own silly mistakes, after dropping my chain twice and bonking I came across the line 18th which was not the result I had hoped for in my final MTB race as an U16 but it was still an amazing weekend and a big thanks to welsh cycling for allowing me the chance to represent my country. I now look forward to next years MTB season and cant wait to get racing again on the MTB

Ruthin MTB Marathon

a couple of weeks ago I did the local MTB marathon I ruthin just down the road from where I live on the all natural trails around the clwydian range, we rolled out at 10 o clock through the streets of ruthin before hitting the Blwch Penbarres which is a very steep and long hill up to the car park of moel famau, a group went off the front and I was just off the back of them, once we had reached the top of the blwch we then headed onto the fire road which would take us into the Clwyd's and around moel famau, we then continued to climb and descend along the fire road before going onto the banks of moel famau on many fast flowing grass descents that were really fun. once we had done the loop around moel famau we ten went onto a short section of road and then because I was doing the 75km we did a loop around moel Arthur before stopping at the first feed station, my bottle topped up of torq and we were off again onto the next part of the course which took us in and out of cilcain before climbing back to moel famau on a steep hill again, but was totally worth it for the really fun technical descent and then heading over to loggerheads  and stopping at the 2 feed and going on our way back into ruthin, at this point I was starting to feel the pace I had gone off at and was struggling to keep it, so I made the decision to miss the second part of the 75km loop and follow the 50km loop back home, there was one final climb up to the Clwyd gate before having almost all descent for the final 7km. it was a really great event and look forward to doing it again next year!