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! 

Belgium trip 2015

a few weeks ago I embarked on a journey for 2 weeks away from home.
my first 3 days were on a MTB camp working on my fitness and skills, with other riders from all over wales, the next 10 days would be in Belgium courtesy of welsh cycling.
the first day we spent travelling to Belgium via the euro tunnel, we got in late and it was straight to bed as we had our first race in the morning.
Race 1
the first race was in a small Belgium town in west flanders, I was very nervous as I didn't know what to expect, the whistle went and we were off, it wasn't as fast a start as I though it would have been and people were quite relaxed, attacks went and I was one of them, I dint get chased down and I held the gap for half a lap before being swamped again by the peloton, for the next 2 laps I payed for my efforts and struggled to hold on to the bunch, but while I was struggling 3 of my teammates, rhys britton, sam tillet and james tillet were off the front and for the rest of the race I would experience what it is like to be a domestique helping the team by holding off the peloton from the lead group, on the last lap once we knew the breakaway had enough of a gap, we were allowed to push on and attack for ourelves on the last lap, rhys won with sam 2nd and  james 10th, I amanged to come through comfortably in the bunch in 29th position

Race 2
the 2nd race was again in a small town in the west of flanders, this one involed cobbled sections and a slight rise with some short punchy climbs,at the start we were gearchecked after our last race dominance, once we were gear checked, we were sent to the line, the start wasn't as fast and allowed us to continue to send attacks from team wales, traking it in turns and letting the Belgians chase us down, finally 3 laps in of the 7 a break went with Rhys and sam, we again sat up after this letting the Belgians chase them down, once they had a big enough gap we then carried on between me, james, tomos owens and Matthew Burke throwing the attacks at the Belgians making them chase hard, Rhys managed to take the win, sam bonked massively and ended up getting swarmed by the main peloton on the final lap,i manged to finish 14th in the sprint finish

Race 3
race 3 was again based in a small Belgian town in the west of flanders and this would be my first encounter of the true Belgian cobbles, we rode strong as a team and james managed to pull away with another rider on lap 2,later on in the race the other rider dropped back and we knew james was out there by himself holding a comfortable gap, I sdaly punctured on the 4th lap and if you are so far behind the main peloton on the next lap you get pulled out, which sadly happended to me, james managed to take a great win, doing 60k solo ride by himself and rhys taking the b unch sprint to take 2nd

Race 4
the final race was probably the hardest being in east flanders and very lumpy and very hot, after the commissares sending 3 of our riders back to the car due to the depth of their deep section wheels and having to get them changed just before we started. we rolled out behind the neutralised car and about a mile later the race was on,  a number of attacks went but non of them stuck, it was only with 3 laps to go did a break go including rhys, we held the bunch comfortably before the last lap when the attacks strted coming, Daniel coombe was the first to have a go up one of the short sharp climbs then folowd by sam who counter attacked and opened up a gap, I then had a go with 2k to go over one of the climbs and tried to push all the way to the line but was sadly swamped by the peloton with less than 50metres to go from the line and finished around 11th

days on the cobbles
on the Tuesday we headed over to flanders to ride the famous burges including the oude kwaremont,kreis burg and hotonberg aswell as many others, it was really wet but this didn't dampen our spirits as we rolled out for a fun but demanding day, we did 60 miles around the roads of flanders and was a really great experience, on the Thursday we headed into france to ride the cobbles of Roubaix, in Roubaix we went especially to the arenberg which was my favourite cobbled section of the week  but also le Carrefour de l'abre and gruson, this again was another great day and we all loved it so much we even went back and rode some sectors again

Id like to say a massive thank you to welsh cycling for the opportunity to race abroad and train over the 10 days, also thanks to my team mates for making the experience even better
Rhys Britton
Matthew Burke
Daniel Coombe
Tomos Owens
James Tillet
Sam Tillet
and hopefully I will race and train abroad again sometime in the future