What a season it has been!! After a slow start, being ill, having my exams and getting a new coach, I got back on track and had a long season of intense racing throughout the extended summer, due to my exams finishing my school term early. In fact, immediately after my exams I headed straight out to Belgium for a weekend’s racing, where to my dismay the, now, world champion had turned up to race. But we will get into the details of the season later. But I have to say I couldn’t have done it without the help of Trainsharp and Alex, my coach. Click Read More to find the season in numbers.
The season in numbers:
6 wins – 3 in Belgium – 3 in Britain
Top 10s = 14
Top 5s = 12
8 British Races
16 races abroad, including three UCI races two of which I completed
4 time trials
2 stage races – Vuelta a Pamplona & Assen Junior Tour
2 guest rides
In 308 rides I:
Raced 2,558.7 kilometres
Rode a total distance of 12,512.4 kilometres (7774.84 Miles)
In 440 hours 28 minutes giving me an average speed of: 28.41 km/h (17.65 mph)
With 101,981 metres (334583.33 ft) gained in elevation
Quickest 10 Mile (16km) Time Trial: 19:43 totalling and average speed: 48.974 km/h (30.43 mph)
So in the first paragraph I briefly talked about the Junior World Champion, Remco Evenepoel, coming to race. At the time I was in awe of him and how strong he was last year in the junior category in Belgium. Ever since that day I have worked in the hope I would race him again and rectify the mistakes I made on the day. Now that never happened, unfortunately, but his efforts in that race and my passion of analysing races allows me to identify what was so good about him, and how he utilised his talent to storm to countless race wins in the 2018. Now much like Remco, I have utilised the information I gained from watching races like the world championships and my own experiences racing him to aim to improve myself as an athlete to make next year better than this year.
I haven’t mentioned Time Trials much in the history of this blog which has surpassed its one year anniversary. But I did 4 time trials this year… 3 Cycling Time Trials events and a time trial abroad. My first time trial of the year was in April where I did a time of 21 minutes 33 seconds coming fourth behind some big TT hitters, namely Pat Wright.
The next event was qualifying round for the GHS National Youth Finals which were held in September. I completed the course in 22 minutes 41 seconds. 43 seconds slower than my quickest time on that course, which incidentally is the same time as Sam Henning’s back in the day. But this time was after challenging horse vehicles for space on the road, granted they do give slipstream but they are also very slow.
The final one in Britain was the GHS Final, which was mentioned earlier. This was a bloody fast course and I completed it in 19 minutes 43 seconds, 13 or so seconds behind the winner. I blame those 13 seconds on the difference in bikes between myself and the winner. Ehem, Scott Foil.
Now, and the final…final comment of 2018 was the Time trial in Assen, where I came 7th. Again due to my deductions made from analysing Remco’s techniques I was able to better identify why the other 6 riders beat me. Now I am not going to feed you all the answers, you have to figure it out yourself. And that is where I am going to finish the 2018 blogs, leaving you with the hint of intrigue over what it is that Remco has and what I am working towards.
Roll on 2019 with bigger and better things!
Over ‘n’ out for the final time this year.
