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 33rd, I then went on to race the next national trophy round at Derby hoping to improve but I finished in 33rd again and then the next race after that was the Bradford round where I finished in 27th. 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 8th 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 6th 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 6th place senior, 1st 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.
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