Under 23 Mountain Bike World Championships

Well I have recently got back from the mountain bike world championships that were being held in Saalfelden, Austria. It was my final big race of the year so I was looking forward to it. We travelled to the race the week before and got plenty of time to practice the course. The course consisted of a main climb into a section of woods with loads of off camber sections and exposed roots before dropping down a fast decent into another shorter but steeper climb and finally dropping off a rock and some rock gardens to arrive back at the finish. Other than that the week running into the race was spent doing short rides and resting, mainly watching films and chilling. Race day was a Friday and it was sunny with an afternoon start which meant that it was going to be a hot race and I knew it was going to be a hard race as everyone is on top of their game at worlds. I lined up on the start gridded 84^th which wasn’t the best place to be as it was about 10^th row back and I knew the first couple of laps were going to be hard work trying to overtake.

Soon enough they had counted down and I was ready to go, from the start it was flat out straight into a tarmac climb where I was on the limit trying to get past as many people as possible and managed to get myself into the top 40. The problem with being this far back is as soon as the trail gets tight you have to stand and wait while everyone fits through which means you are losing time on the front of the race. Anyway once I got through I started to move up and was feeling good as I came round the first lap just outside the top 30 but then I started to pay for my earlier efforts and over the next two laps I found myself making mistakes drifting back through the race and struggling to get in a rhythm which wasn’t good. Luckily I managed to settle down mid race and started to come back with my last three lap times all inside the top 20 of the race which brought me up to 32^nd place and that is where I finished. I was hoping to do better but It was my first attempt at the under 23 category and a hard race so I have lots to learn for the future.

So that was my final race of the year of which it has been a busy one starting back in November with the cross season followed by early mountain bike season then a three month road block and finally finishing off back on my mountain bike. There’s been a lot of learning along the way and I’d like to say a massive thanks to everyone that’s helped me out this year especially my coach Phil and the team at BC, family and friends, Boardman Bikes, Braveheart Fund, Mavic and everyone else I have forgot to mention, it is much appreciated! Next up I have some time off followed by the start of cross season in November.

Thanks for reading, Grant.

Evening in Austria

BMC Swiss Cup Basel

I have had 2 big mountain bike races in the past month of my season and the first one was the final round of the BMC Swiss cup in Basel on the 26^th August. I wasn’t sure how the race was going to go as I had previously just finished a three month block on the road and I was unsure how I would fair on my mountain bike again. We headed to the venue the day before to get some practice laps of the course in,  it was a wide start loop with plenty of overtaking available followed by some flat transitions and one main climb and decent with a whole lap taking about 12 minutes it was going to be a fast 8 lap race. There were some big names in the race with 2^nd (Nino Schurter) and 3^rd (Marco Fontana) at Olympic Games there as well as multiple ex-world champions which would make for a cool race! I lined up for the race gridded last but I was hopeful in this race that there would be time to overtake in the start loop and put myself in the race.

Custom number board from mechanics haha.

 I started well and managed to move up and put myself as near to the front as possible and found after the first lap that I was sitting second group with Julien Absalon and Fabien Giger with a front group of 5 slipping away. This was a pretty cool place to be as Absalon is a 2x Olympic gold medallist and multiple world champ so I was rather happy to spend a bit of time on his back wheel and see what I could learn, I was also feeling quite good on my bike. I stayed here until half way through the race when there was an attack from Absalon on the main climb and I couldn’t go so I dropped into no man’s land for a bit until I was caught by the next group of 6 people and I managed to get comfortable in this group. The pace was fast but I was feeling good so I kept towards the front of the group and worked hard through the next couple of laps before we reached the final lap and it all kicked off again on the main climb. I still felt okay and was able to follow the moves and then the finish came to a sprint between six of us for 8^th place and I rolled in 12^th spot which also meant I took 1^st place in Under 23 so it was a good day on my bike. Next up was my final race of the year which was the world championships, being held in Austria.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/swiss-cup-2012-5/results

Thanks Grant

British MTB Championships

Last weekend was a busy one with a couple of races on and it started on Friday night when I headed to a round of the national circuit series in Beverly, Yorkshire. I had raced a couple of rounds of the series so I knew that it would be a hard race and that it would be flat out from the start so I got a good warm up and did some laps of the course which was in the town centre with some cobbles and wet corners. I lined up as near to the front as possible to get the best start which would make it easier earlier in the race and it started well keeping myself towards the front for the first three laps. Then on one of the wet right hander’s I slid out and subsequently rolled around on the floor which wasn’t great but I got up and decided to take a lap out before getting back in the race and getting involved before I put my chain into my spokes as I had bent my rear mech in the crash, so I fixed that and got going again when I decided to swap bikes and as I stopped I was told I couldn’t have more than one lap out which I should have known but since I’ve never had a lap out before in my life I wasn’t quite on it with the rules and found myself out of the race. Lesson learned, end of my night. Then the next day, Saturday morning I headed to British Mountain bike Championships down near London at Wasing Park. They have held a national series race here before so I knew before that the course was flat and most likely fast and that exactly how it was after I did three practice laps on Saturday afternoon. This was the first time I had been on my MTB for the past couple of months as I have been racing a block of road racing and it was great fun good to be blasting through the trails again.  After this I headed back to the hotel got some food then some sleep before race day on Sunday. I got a good warm up in on what turned out to be a hot day which was a nice surprise considering the amount of rain that has been around recently, after the warm up I got to the start and was gridded fifth so I chose the right hand side of the start. The start was flat out and I settled in second wheel for the first part before taking over the front for half a lap where I managed to open up a gap on everyone but team mate Kenta and he then took on the front and I hung on until the end of the first lap before he started to open up a gap on me. I chased for most of the second lap but paid the price for a fast first lap and got caught by second place and then was soon after caught by third place and found myself back down in fourth place. I then spent the next couple of laps in fourth place not riding well at all and seemingly hitting all the roots and holes I could find on the course. Going into the last lap I was still in fourth place but I was on the wheel of third place and I waited till a small climb in the course before putting in an attack to get away which worked and I found myself feeling better than I had earlier in the race so I continued to press on the pedals and began to bring back second place. By about half way through the last lap I had caught second place and it now looked like it was going to be a sprint for second, I knew I couldn’t let it come to a sprint as my sprint isn’t a strong point so I put the power down with about two km to go and opened up a 2/3 second gap which I held all the way to the line to finish in second place 45 seconds behind a fast Kenta Gee and making it a 1-2 for Boardman Team, a good day out.
Cheers for reading.Grant

British Road Race Championships

Last weekend saw the national road race championships taking place in north Yorkshire at Ampleforth. This was my first senior National Championships and I knew it would be a hard race with all the top domestic teams racing as well as Team Sky. The course was hard with three laps of a 20mile loop followed by six laps of a 10mile circuit to total 115 miles of rolling roads and challenging climbs. I lined up for the start with fellow Academy cyclists ready for a long day on the bike. The pace was hard straight away with people attacking everywhere to try and get in the early break, I tried to keep myself near the front out of trouble as the roads were narrow and rough which would make it easy for the race to split to pieces. Then after a couple of laps of the big circuit Endura Racing got on the front and the pace went up greatly as they began to bring back the break so I kept good position to avoid splits on the climbs and the damage behind. Then as we came into the smaller circuits for six laps there was a main climb which was causing a lot of damage and the group gradually got smaller. There was still a break of three away with over 5min including two Sky riders so our group was turning into a race for the under 23 race which was still available. I kept myself involved all the way until the second last time up this climb where the group was about 25 and it split into three group as the attacks started coming thick and fast, I found myself on the back foot here and was unable to follow and get involved so ended up in the third group of 5 until I got to 10miles to go and I had nothing left so it was a lonely ride to the finish for me but happy to have made it crossing the line in 31^st place after a long hard 5hour race. More races coming up over the next couple of weeks will try keep you posted.

Cheers for reading. Grant

 

Nove Mesto/La Bresse World Cups.

It has been a busy couple of weeks with plenty of different races going on. First of I had the third round of the World Cup series in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. It was a good course with lots of short hard climbs and rooty technical sections. The race here did not go well for me, I had a good start and came round the start loop in the top 10 but then unfortunatly went backwards through the race, I couldn't really explain what was up with my performance because I went into the race fit and healthy but I just couldnt respond during the race when people came past me and ended up finishing well down in 65th.

A week later I headed to La Bresse in France for the forth round of the World Cup series. The course here was a different ball game with one major climb to the top of a hill followed by a fast old school decent back to the bottem. I started a bit slower this time and came through safely after the start loop in 28th then tried to work my way through the field, by the 4th lap I had got to 18th but then drifted back in the last lap and finished in 25th which I was quite pleased with after the previous result the week before.

photo thanks to Rockyroads.net

Thanks Grant

UCI World Cup round 2 Houffalize, Belgium

My latest race was last weekend for Round 2 of the UCI World Cup in Houffalize, Belgium. We headed out there early and got some course practice in, the course was new compared to recent years and it had lots of new technical features which livened it up, as well as that there was the usual short hard climbs and false flats . Due to my bad luck at the first round in South Africa I had no UCI points and therefore got a gridding of 96th which meant that I would be on the 12th row at the start so I was expecting some first lap carnage. I warmed up for the race then went to the pens before lining up for the race. The race started well and went straight into a long steep climb which quickly bottlenecked and I spent my time running and trying to overtake, I moved up not to bad and after the start loop I had got to about 50th.  Once I settled down in the race I started to move up well which was easier early on in the race because there was big groups of people but got harder as the race split up. I felt quite good thoughout and found myself in top 30 at about half way through the race, then I kept pressing on to move up on the last two laps and eventually crossed the line in 20th place after 5 laps of the course. I was pleased with this result as my main aim was to try and finish in the top 25 which gives you UCI points so that at the next round I would have a better gridding which will be very helpful. :)

Alfons Benz

So it was a good world cup for me and now my next race is round two of the national series this weekend at Dalby forest.
Thanks for Reading
Grant

UCI World Cup round 1 Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Well the first races of the year finally arrived and we were heading off to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa for the first round of the MTB World Cup. It was an exciting time as I have never been to Africa before and we headed out there on the Wednesday 10days before the World Cup, it was a long couple of days of travel with three flights but we got there midday on Thursday. Once we arrived we had an easy spin before getting on the course Friday. We had a race on Saturday which was part of the Momentum Health Series a South African National round and it was on the same course as the World Cup would be in a week so there were about 80 top elites racing, It was a hard race and I eventually crossed the line in 37^th after 2 hours of racing but it was good preparation for the World Cup in a week’s time. The course was quality with lots of technical features, dusty trails and a fair bit of climbing.

The next week was spent doing some easier rides and plenty of course practice so we were ready for the race on Saturday morning. I lined up for the World Cup on the Saturday with the second last gridding because I had no UCI points so it was going to be a hard race from the back. It was a hot day about 30 degrees and we had 5 laps of the course. I was a bit nervous before the start because it was my first Under 23 World cup after moving up from juniors last year but also fairly excited to get racing after lots of training in the winter. We soon started and the first half lap was a big fight for me  to get past people and try and move up the race with a lot of running and some sly overtaking manoeuvres, but I soon settled down and started getting past people and found myself in the top 10 after lap 1. I then got into a bit of a rhythm and was feeling rather good on my bike and stayed inside the top 10 for the next for next couple of laps with the leading group not too far ahead. Going into the final lap I was in 9^th place in a race with a Belgium for 8^th place, I was feeling good and it was going to be a close finish with us still together with less than half a lap to go. Then some bad news, my race turned for the worst with a puncture that I somehow got on the final climb. I first thought that it could be okay as there was a good gap of about a minute to the next person behind me but it was all downhill to the finish and people soon started to go catch and go past. I started to run with my main aim to try and get some UCI points which you get if you finish inside the top 25 but I eventually crossed the line in 27^th. So it turned into a bad day on the bike even if my legs felt good. Unfortunately looks like I am going to be starting on the back of the grid for a bit longer until I manage to get myself some points.

My Next race is the first round of the national series this weekend at Sherwood Pines.

Thanks for reading

Grant

Support

Very happy that I am continuing to get supported by Boardman Bikes this year and looking forward to a great year on there bikes. http://www.boardmanbikes.com/boardman/boardman_sponsorship_mtb.html

2012 Boardman EM 1.7 Elite Race Bike

Happy to say that I have got support from Mavic this year and that they have provided me with Shoes which will be a great help this year and it is much appreciated.

New Mavic Shoes for 2012 (photo thanks to my sister)

Also thanks to everybody else for there continued support this year, much appreciated!

Training Camps

Hello,
It is a busy time just now, I am currently on a training camp in Majorca where we are doing a lot of training on the road. It has consisted of many hours on the bike but today we got an easier day so here is a photo from the cafe we stopped at. The sun is out! :)

Cheers

Grant

Cyclo-Cross Season 2011/2012

Hello, it has been a while since my last post and I have been busy. Since then I started to race some Cyclo-cross with the first race I headed to being the national trophy series round at Southampton back in November, I was unsure of my form going into the race as I had not done any racing for a couple of months. The race didn’t go the best as I had a crash first lap and as soon as I was off the pace I was chasing to try and get involved in the race but didn’t quite have the legs and finished 33^rd, I then went on to race the next national trophy round at Derby hoping to improve but I finished in 33^rd again and then the next race after that was the Bradford round where I finished in 27^th. So it wasn’t the best of cross seasons up until then for me which could have been down to many things. On the plus side training during that time went well and I spent a lot of time getting stronger ready for the 2012 season and adjusting to my recent move to Manchester which was a change to my lifestyle but has been going well. Any way after that I travelled home for Christmas which allowed me to get some rest from training and do some more race efforts to get ready for the national cross champs which were the first week in January. I did the Christmas cross race at Calendar which went really well; it was a good course and top notch event so thanks to the organisers. So with some other turbo sessions I started to find some form on the cross bike.

Next up was the national cross champs on the 8^th of January which I was looking forward to, we travelled to the race on the Saturday before and got some course practice in before heading to bed early for the race the next day. I warmed up well in the morning and lined up second row at the start ready to go. I had an okay start and was about 6^th wheel but then unfortuantly lost some places due to crash in front of me so I settled down after that and started to chase back the front group. I made it across to the front group of 5 by the end of the first lap so I was in the right place and stayed there for a couple of laps. This group soon slimed down into three of us and it was an okay pace but I lost contact with the front two riders when the attacks started to come. The race was still very close with the two people just 10 seconds ahead of me and another boy that had joined me. It was now getting onto the last lap and I was in the race for bronze medal with the defending champ which turned into a very close sprint which I managed to get so was very pleased with a bronze at under 23 nationals and only 17 seconds down on the winner. J So after that race I then headed to the final national trophy round at Shrewsbury a week later which went well, Because I had got some points at nationals I found myself front row and this meant I could get a much better start and was involved in the race from the gun, I finished the race in 6^th place senior, 1^st Under 23. So that is a quick write up of my full cross season this year unfortunately due to my early season results I wasn’t really able for selection for Cyclo-cross worlds but hopefully one day I will get to do that race.

Since then I have put the cross bike away and have mainly been clocking up miles on the road bike and continued to spend time in the gym. Recently I headed out to Majorca for a weeks training camp with the road academy lads which went well and consisted of lots of hours on the bike. Next up I have a couple more training camps before starting my race season.

Cheers for reading will keep you posted.

Grant.