Keeping the training going all through the ‘cross season and then extending it into a few duathlon and road races kept me out of trouble – eventually the racing caught up with me so I took April and May off and just focused on riding purely for fun – come June I was excited to get back into the swing of things…
Having not done a single TT through the first part of the season I stuck my name down for our club Tuesday night. Not a biggie and I was never going to be in contention on a road bike, but I thrashed out a fairly decent time into a bonkers headwind. More importantly I’d met up with a load of good friends that I haven’t seen enough of over the last month or two.
The following day was the one I’ve been looking forward to – Round 3 of the Beastway series is at Redbridge and I’d gone well there last year. It would be a good test of where I was compared with a bunch of riders that I know well. Yesterday’s stormy winds had given way to perfect early summer sun and plenty of decent riders were about. The pace was pretty quick for the first lap which I spent in a nice group of five of us. I was forth wheel for a bit but I could see some riders getting twitchy so I moved up to escape with Will Hayter.
We spent a couple of laps together and gained quite a nice gap before my lack of training saw me yo-yoing off the back. Will rode really well keeping an eye on staying just out of harm’s way for the rest of the race! As the race wore on the sun started to dip and after an hour and a half of flat out XC racing I was pleased to be over the line in 3rd place.
The week after I did the local TT again – this time on a course that was new to me. Another 10 miler, but with some tight corners and a decent downhill at the end. I took a minute off the previous week’s time and moved a couple of places up on the board, again on the road bike. Really need to build myself a TT bike.
Then to finish this block of racing off I grabbed the mountain bike out again and did the 2nd round of the Cyclopark XC Series. Another nice evening for racing made for a big field of riders. Really awesome local grassroots racing with no bullshit. The organisers did a great job to get the best out of the course, but the thing that really impressed me was how great all the lapped riders were, all of them racing as hard as they could but allowing faster riders to get past.
Like up at Redbridge we got quite a nice group together at the front. For such a small track there were some pretty good technical bits and a few rollers that needed some respect and it took me a lap or two to be really comfortable, but when it came it was incredible – I’ve never felt so relaxed in a race. Everything just suddenly started to flow and I was hitting all the lines that I knew would be fast. I’m not sure I was going that quick but it felt good and I ended up 3rd again, a minute or so down on Gary Record.
Not many photos unfortunately except three from Phil Moran and John’s one from Cyclopark!
Results;
10th – SDW TT Rd.10
3rd – Beastway Rd.3 (2nd in cat.)
7th – SDW TT Rd.11
3rd – Cyclopark XC Rd.2
Glen rides for the Southborough & District Wheelers. He races Mountain bikes in the UK National XC Points and Eastern XC Series, Road bikes in the Surrey, South-East and Eastern Leagues, TT in the South East Region and ‘Cross in the LCCA League. He receives personal support from Helly Hansen, The Velo House, Scott Bikes and THE.ÆIGHT.BICYCLE.CØMPANY.
Glen runs The Velo House with Olly and Matt, a coffee shop, workshop and bike shop welcoming all cyclists and even well behaved non-cyclists. We’re based at 5 St.Johns Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN4 9TN – 01892 554 505 – glen@thevelohouse.com.