The last thing I mentioned was becoming BUCS 10 mile TT champion, which I was really happy with, however there was no time to rest on my laurels as the weekend after was the BUCS 25 mile TT in Cambridge. Obviously I wanted to win this one as well but knew I'd come under a lot of pressure from the previous week's second place Ciara Horne and also from the returning Claire Galloway.
Somewhat ironically the course used for the 25 in Cambridge is significantly hillier than the course used for the 10 in Oxford. It's a really hard course, 2 laps of a circuit that is almost always pitching up and down, and that features a number of tricky corners - it's a hard course to get right and I was glad to have had the luxury of practicing on it in training.
I was pleased with how my race went, I was able to push myself really hard and get the most I could out of myself. Again it was close between me and Ciara with us being more or less level after the first lap (I was a handful of seconds up), however I'd paced it well and saved plenty of gas to go harder on the second lap so managed to improve my margin to 23 secs by the end. However, Claire Galloway had been on an absolute charge during her race, catching almost all the riders who started ahead of her, and in the end she soundly beat me and Ciara (by 1:18 and 1:41 respectively) so I would be forced to settle for silver. It's not what I'd hoped for but it was an astounding ride by Claire and there was nothing I could have done about it. I didn't even have another 18 secs in me, let alone a minute and 18 secs.
Myself and Cambridge's star ironman triathlete Lucy Gossage (who was 4th in the individual) did enough to earn Cambridge gold in the team award, and Cambridge's second team of Anna Railton and Jenny Haskell (6th and 7th in the individual competition) did enough to take team bronze as well - all in all another great day for Cambridge in the BUCS time trials. Cue more gratuitous medal photos:
And another: (Lucy had gone home, or possibly for a run, by this point so I claimed both team gold medals!)
And one of Jenny and Anna getting their team bronze:
That was the last of the BUCS time trials for the year and the end of quite a stressful period of racing. However I was back in action again the following Sunday at the Welsh CA 25 mile time trial championships near Resolven. This was really an event of convenience: I had to be home that weekend for family reasons and the course is drivable from my parents' homes in the west midlands. I needed to get another 25 in before the National champs and I wanted to improve my seeding time for the Nationals so the Welsh event being on a very fast course was helpful.
Given the reputation of the Welsh course it had attracted a high quality field, including many of my rivals for Nationals, all looking for a fast time. The day turned out to be quite windy with a block head-wind for most of the first 16 miles (until the turn) making really fast times not possible. I still did a 56:01 which knocked 2:58 off my previous best and gave me a convincing win in the women's competition against quality opposition, so I was happy with how I rode. I was even happier with my prize ... A HAT WITH A DRAGON ON IT, YES! I also apparently have a plaque and a trophy to come later in the year at the Welsh CA BAR lunch - exciting stuff. I think this is the first non-Oxbridge related cycling trophy I've won, normally at open events it's a cheque for a tenner or a pair of cycling socks. I would also like to say thanks to the organiser for a very smoothly organised event. They were so efficient with doing the prize presentation that I nearly missed it as I was still warming down on the trainer. Go on, you know you want to see a picture of me with my dragon hat (btw the dragon is called Dafydd):
The weekend just gone I was meant to do the E2/10, a fast ten course in Cambridge, meaning a weekend of little travelling for once. The week hadn't gone to plan with life doing its best to try and disrupt my training for the National 10. The race continued the theme of the week and didn't go to plan. Five minutes before my start-time the heavens opened. I started the race, headed up the slip road to join the main A11 carriageway (some of you can see where this is going already), hammered it for 2 minutes down the A11 in howling wind and driving rain with road spray everywhere before realising this was a stupid idea. I promptly got off at the next exit. Just when I was having one of those moments when you wonder if you've just been a bit of a wimp and made the wrong decision I happened across a male rider who had made the same decision as me. He explained that he liked racing but valued his life more and that the conditions were too dangerous. His skinsuit said Army CU; okay so I'm definitely not being a wimp and that was definitely the right call! I went home and took out my aggression on the turbo trainer instead.
Next on the agenda is a trip to Glasgow this weekend for the BUCS track championships, followed by the National 10 mile TT championships in Norfolk the week after. I've not done any specific training for the track as I've been focusing all my efforts on the National 10, however my form is good so I'm hoping to still do decent rides in the individual and team pursuits. Hopefully a blog update will follow next week!
