Oktoberfest Team Event

The last team event of the year was upon us over Ashton court in Bristol where a short course of around 25mins takes place. The course has been developed to take away all the bumps and dirt to give a clean gravel singletrack which would be awesome to train on over the winter months but for racing becomes a different kettle of fish! Due to the designated specific track there are few overtaking places and when there is a place to pass it is hard to get through them quick enough to avoid any disturbance to other riders.

This year we had our work cut out even more with the additional competition of 4 Pro riders, two riders from Rapha containing Tour of Britain king of the mountains winner John Tiernan Locke and 2riders from Sigma Sport Specialized.

Our usual end of year chill out just became a full on race as within the first lap we were down by a minute and a half and towards the half way mark we were down at a further 3 ½ minutes. At this time we were thinking were in for a beating, however as we ticked into the half way mark I come in from my lap to be told we were gaining on them and the gap was closing. This gave us an extra boost to chase down the pros and within the next few hours we managed to catch up with them, overtake them and start putting some distance between us taking it to 3 ½ minutes up!

With an hour and a half to go we did another time check and found out we were 9 minutes ahead but as with these races it wasn’t enough time incase a mechanical happened. With this in mind we still pressed on and coming into the last half an hour way we were debating whether our rider presently out would get back in time for us to do another lap.

I anxiously waited just incase we could squeeze another lap out but it was looking very tight, until Ben came in with less than 25 minutes to go which meant I had to do a very quick lap to get in before the cut off time. With my legs stinging I nailed myself around and managed to get in with 10seconds to spare giving us a lap up on our Pro team rivals to take the Male team of 4 Win.

It was the toughest team race we’ve had and really enjoyed the tough competition to keep us on our toes!

Now time for off season and to take a few weeks off the bike and relax!

Final Round BMBS Newnham Park

The season took a long break over the summer with few races around and not in my calendar. Towards the end of the school summer holidays the one but last team event of the year took place, Torq12:12 in which our male team of 4 took the win by a lap. We did have a scare towards the end of the race when one of the riders had a mechanical and had to run the last section of the course loosing us around 10-15minutes, however we were lucky enough to have enough of a time gap back to 2nd not to loose our winning position which we held from the start.

3 weeks later the final National Series took place in Newnham Park which always provides an excellent course and tough sections to make you feel the pain. Going into this event my legs were a little bit tired and needed a few more days rest from the hard interval training I had been doing to get myself up to the same form that I had at this year’s National Champs!

However arriving late on friday evening due to unable to get time off work, we had no chance to pre ride the course. This meant we had to get up early in the morning and do a light pre ride but nothing major so as not to tire the legs out from the race in 3hrs time.

After fuelling up with some breakfast, we got our cycleops turbos out and got ready to warm up. I was called up to the line in 14th position which has been my highest gridding all year where I started 47th in the first national round in Sherwood pines. This pretty much resembles my year having a slow start to the season and getting quicker and better as the year has gone on, climbing my way up into that top 10 position.

With the race underway I managed to get a good start before a huge crash behind me occurred as I just escaped with someone, or a flying bike, touching my rear wheel. I got myself into around 12th position but my legs weren’t to be. They weren’t as fresh as they have felt before and they just felt heavy so I knew it wasn’t going to be a nice race for the legs. With a couple of laps gone I was still finding the legs having difficulty progressing on and was just staying in my new position of 14th in which I was happy with considering my legs felt rubbish! This was the story of the whole race really as I just managed to spin and cruise around keeping myself in 14th position not loosing any time from the guys in front but not gaining any. I managed to make my time up on the technical sections where I caught a lot of riders back up as they struggled to ride the course and just plodded behind them up the climbs which was frustrating as I knew I can climb so much quicker than I did in that race.

So with the final round of the National series done and dusted I took a happy 14th position, considering the legs were rubbish, my mind was set on a top 10 without a doubt if the legs were feeling good but it was just one of those days. Season wise is almost over for me, just a team event to do at the Oktoberfest in Bristol in a couple of weeks and then time for a good winters rest and plenty of massages off Marie Kellett, Sports Therapist, who has helped me out so much over the year with my leg problems.

Huge thanks to all my sponsors this year as I wouldn’t have been able to achieve anything without them! Chou!

P.s Heres a few videos put together from my mum whos taken all my pic and vids not long but just a few snap shots from this years races!

Olympic Test Event

With the opportunity of a lifetime, thanks to Martyn Salt, I was invited to race the Olympic Test Event at Hadleigh Farm. With over 5,000 spectators I could imagine the atmosphere being huge.

My brother and I headed over to the course at Hadleigh early Friday morning to pick up our training number and get some practice laps in both on Friday and Saturday. The course was mainly all man made with boulders mixed in along with long grass climbs and swooping descents.

With the high standard of riders and my first International experience I wasn’t expecting a good result but just to get the experience and have a good fight for positions.

At 2pm on Sunday with temperatures reaching 26degrees the gun went and we were off, starting on the last row being gridded 43^rd it was going to be a battle to try and move up the field.

After the 3^rd corner of the small 0.5km start loop a few riders went down in a crash just in front of me, luckily I managed to hop around them and chase for a higher position.

After fighting with elbows, stopping, starting and queuing, we waited at the top of the descents due to a high number of us trying to get onto one singletrack. After making my way up to approx 38^th, I suffered a crash damaging my knee and loosing valuable positions.

After a minute my knee stopped hurting and I could eventually push on and start chasing back I only managed to get back to my starting position of 43^rd before coming under the 80% cut off time and finishing after 4 laps.

Although I had really good legs, the start was so fast and being gridded on the last row doesn’t help if you don’t move up a few positions before the first singletrack.

However I was there for the experience and atmosphere which was amazing. So many people were cheering me on which made me push harder than ever, so a big thanks to everyone for rooting me on! The atmosphere is going to be huge when there is going to be over 20,000 spectators for the actual Olympics.

Now its time to take a break from racing and chill out taking it easy before racing the Team Event at Torq 12:12.

Bontrager 24/12

On Saturday morning my brother and I drove down to Plymouth to take on the Bontrager 24/12 Male team of 4 with our fellow Torq Riders.

As the lap was too long for a pre ride we went off the video that was published up the week before the event, which was actually perfect as when ii did race round i roughly knew where i was going or what was coming up!

From the start our secret weapon Dan McConnell from Torq Australia took the challenge of the 1^st lap and brought us into the lead from the off with a good margin back to 2nd!

By the time i went out we had at least a 3minute gap back to second. The first climb of the course was a stinger to go straight into but actually worked as a good warm up into the lap before heading through the wooded singletrack.

The course was well designed and really good with long climbs and sweet singletrack! The best part was always the final downhill singletrack as for one it was the end of the lap but 2, it was flat out, fast and flowing with a fireroad at the top to gather your speed into it.

By the time we were half way through we had a 25minute lead on second but we continued to push hard averaging 40minute laps. Although by night time there was a lot of Dew around which made the course really slippery and after an almost big crash that i narrowly managed to stay up on, I decided to take the rest easy as it wasn’t worth risking crashing just for sake a few extra minutes.

So by the time 12am came we had a lap up over our rivals and took the Bontrager 24/12 Male Team of 4 Win. Overall a good weekend for the team with the result and good team banter which always makes it more enjoyable!
Unfortunately got no photos for this one but will have for the next one!

Next Blog: Olympic Test Event

National XC Championships

The main race of the year arrived this weekend with a trip up to Richmond in North Yorkshire for the National Cross Country Championship, where I was expecting to have a good result providing the course would suit me and my cold (again) would be clear.

I had two previous races in the weeks before this race, with the 3^rd round of British Mountain Bike Series in Margam Park where I got 7^th elite and 2^nd U23 which I was absolutely stoked with and knew I had great form coming. Along with this I did a road race down south on the 10^th July, a week before the Nationals, where After making loads of attacks and pulling through strong on the front I managed to form a breakaway taking away 7 riders with a group of 10 up the front. Still in my breakaway I continued to ride hard and pull the breakaway with me just to get the legs ready for the XC Champs. After battling away over 60miles I managed to finish 15^th in a top field of racers with my brother taking 9^th Position.

On Saturday we faced a long 5hr drive up north, with my cold still lingering around, to reach our destination in the afternoon ready to pre ride the course. The rain had cleared for us as we arrived and a couple of practice laps were in order.

As we started our practice laps I was starting to enjoy the course and legs were feeling good considering I hadn’t touched my bike all week. The first lap was a bit sketchy with a lot of riders crashing and holding up everyone but by the time I did the 2^nd lap I had a clear lap and really enjoyed the course as I managed to ride every section. So that was me done ready to head back to the camper and fuel up and rest the legs for the Big day!

Race day arrived with the rain starting at 5am in the morning which didn’t make getting up appealing as we all had a lazy morning since our race wasn’t until 2:30pm.

After a good breakfast and warm up on the Cycleops Turbo we headed to the start and took my place 4^th on the grid.

From an awsome start to riders passing me

With the Elites off first we waited 3minutes before the whistle went to set our race off.

The whistle went and I was off managing to tear the start up and taking the lead from the gun! As we got to the end of the field before the 1^st turn 5 riders passed me as we went into the first climb!

The pace was high and full gas as we sprinted over the top. After the first descent and 2^nd climb I was in 7^th place and lost a lot of positions! I nailed it down the next downhill and sprinted up the other side to get back into 5^th position with a good gap to Seb Batchelor in 4^th. By the time we hit the last section of fireroad of the course there was a good 15meter gap between myself and Seb, so I put in a massive effort dragging 6^th and 7^th with me to try and close the gap down on Seb.

Passing the race arena I managed to bridge the gap to Seb on the first climb and passing him over the top and took 4^th position down the 1^st descent before attacking the 2^nd climb to put in a 5meter gap back to Seb. I managed to keep the gap all the way until the last bit of fireroad where Seb caught me.

Pulling away from Seb(5th)

Over the 3^rd lap Seb and I rode really hard dropping 6^th and 7^th off our wheels and riding flat out to try and chase down the podium positions.

Into the race arena with one lap to go we saw 2^nd and 3^rd place 50 yards or so in front which made us step up a gear and chase them down. By the time we went down the slippery fern descent we were all in view of each other with 2^nd just before the top of the climb, 3^rd place half way up then Seb and I at the bottom with a small gap between us!

Video of me behind Seb with 2nd&3rd on the hill

The last lap was flat out chasing really hard knowing a podium position could be mine! We entered the final fireroad with less than a minute between 2^nd place and me. Heading up the final headwind fireroad there was approx 10meter gap between each of us to the take the next position in front! Our bikes were swinging and the power was put down but as we entered the arena those positions were our finishing positions with a 10meter gap between us all with 2^nd place less than a minute in front and 30 seconds to 3^rd!

Absolute amazing race, was so close and really happy but gutted at the same time not to get that podium spot especially being so close!

However a good positive was that I managed to catch up to 15^th position in the Elite race and if I added the 3minutes that the elites went off in front of us I would have placed around 8^th position, so a real good performance for me!

Next up I take my form to the Bontrager 24/12 Team event, should be interesting!

Follow me on Twitter @Siony_LillEars

BMBS Margam Park

The long awaited weekend quickly came upon us as our team once again headed off to Margam Park for the 4^th Round of the British Mountain Bike Series!

The start with Ant in front and myself on his wheel in 15th position

This was my main event I’ve been looking forward to all year as it is a tough gruelling proper mountain bike course, the way they should all be!

Leading up to the event I didn’t have the best preparation with a cold for over a week and working from 7am till 10pm at night all week, hence I took a well deserved rest from all the hard training I’ve been putting in from my delayed start to the year with training!

On Saturday my brother, Ant and I did a couple of practice laps in the rain to find an amazing course, which was wet and muddy which made it technical along with being hilly and awsome downhills! However we knew the course would dry up for our race as we were expecting 25degrees! (actually turned out to be 28 degrees)

Anthony and I after the first Lap!

Race day came and I started 18^th on the grid with my brother at 22^nd! Once again the cycleops turbo was set up to warm the legs up although we didn’t stay on too long as we were sweating like someone poor water over us!

Bros smashing the climb up!

The start didn’t go to well for me as we hit the tarmac so I decided to go out the outside on the grass and take the non race line! It worked as I moved up into 15^th position before making my way up to 12^th before the 1^st major climb!

How the chute should be riden! Flat Out!

By the time I got around to the top of the final climb I was in 9^th position before my brother chased us down and went straight in front to take the lead on the downhill! We dominated the downhill dropping a few off our wheels and took away 2 others! We stayed on the front of the group pushing the pace and dropping the rest of the guys on the technical course and opened the gap further by sharing the load on the hills!

Boyler Train about to up to the pace and drop the others

For the next 3 laps there was a Boyler Train on the go as we flew around and even moving up into 6^th position taking over Paul Oldham who now was behind us!

Paul Oldham chasing me back slowly at the end

As we went into the 4^th lap Paul put a huge attack in behind as he stormed right past without us even getting chance to get on his wheel!

Anthony and I with Chris

Half way round that lap Ant’s chain came off as I pushed on with one of the other guys as we came through the finish area going into our last lap in 7^th and 8^th!

On Chris's Wheel about to attack

With tiring legs and plenty of hills to go I was ready to give it my all and drain the legs in one last lap!

A quarter way round the final lap I was touching wheels with Chris on the descent before he suffered a minor mechanical. I saw my opportunity and attacked as I pressed hard with my legs screaming to stop!

I never looked back until I got to the final climb of which I saw that I was all clear and ready to enjoy the final descent with a massive grin on my face!

Me coming to the end of the final lap

Down into the finish arena I had a warm welcome and took a Very Happy 7^th place and 2^nd U23.

Anthony managed to sort his chain out and only losing one place and came in 9^th place giving the Torq Performance Team 2 top 10’s!

Next up is the National Champs in 3 weeks time which may or may not favour me, depending on the course!

(Photos taken from my mum)

BMBS Round 3 - Wasing Park

This weekend saw the full Torq Performance Team head to Wasing park for the 3^rd round of BMBS. This type of course doesn’t suit me very well as it is too flat and not enough technical sections to make my time up over the others!

However I tried to make sure that whatever happened was that I nailed myself really hard at the start to make sure I got myself into a good position and onto someone’s wheel and just cling on and stick to them like glue. On the start line I gridded up behind the legend Nick Craig and thought I would use him as my target.

Off the start I did just that! Managing to cling to his wheel and stayed with him until half way round the first lap where he got in front of another rider and I got held up before squeezing past too late as the gap was already 10 meters or so!

I kept pushing on hard and managed to get up to 22^nd position and attaching myself to Gareth Montgomerie’s wheel and doing sufficient turns we created our own group before being joined by 2 others! Over the next 5 laps we stayed together as a group before upping the pace and dropping one of the riders off the back!

Going into the last lap we were down to 3 of us before Gareth stalled as he tried to fix his gears.

Myself and Simon Ernest saw the opportunity to push on hard as Simon opened a small gap on myself before catching Tom Bell who was in front. Simon kept the power on dropping Tom as I was 10 meters or so behind. I pushed hard through the singletrack and using my strengths on the technical side to bridge the gap down I pulled it down to 4 bike lengths as we entered the arena. I pushed hard on the pedals as standing up hurt too much but only managed to get the gap down to 2 bike lengths by the finish line to take a really happy 21^st position and 2mins50 off my Team mate Ben Thomas who finished 12^th.

           After I rolled in a pigs bath to wash my arms and face : )
Overall I am really happy with my performance and still got a lot of work to do to get myself up there, but hopefully the light will shine more after a proper mountain bike course takes place in Margam Park in 2 weeks time!

Bristol Bikefest

On Saturday morning our Torq team headed off to Bristol for the Bristol Bikefest in hope of another Team victory to add to the set of results this year.

After signing on we discussed who should take up the run on the ritual le mans type running start. My Brother, Anthony, decided to take the challenge up and make sure we got a good start to our first team event of the year.

After a good running start we were into the top 20 as Anthony headed off into the woods to face some very bumpy and rocky singletrack.

By the end of his lap he crossed the line in 3^rd position overall, behind our Torq pair rider James lister, and speeding into the transition area to pass the next lap over to myself to nail for one solid 22minute lap.

The lap consisted of a few short steep climbs that gave a nasty sting into the legs and the rest offering lots of flowing gravel singletrack before heading back into a strong headwind before entering the arena.

After nailing myself to keep our great position we managed to move up and come into the arena with our other pair rider James Gleave on my wheel to come in 1^st overall and 1^st in our Mixed team consisting of myself, Matt Hart, Anthony and Lydia Gould

About 7 hours into the 12Hour race we were about 11-12mins up on our closest rival and a lap up back to 3^rd position. However as the saying goes, it’s never over until the fat lady sings, we hit disaster as one of our members faced a destructive mechanical forcing him to run the rest of the lap loosing our time advantage and position to fall back into 2^nd place but still managing to do really well limiting the huge time deficit we could have gone to as he ran flat out into the transition area with his bike on his shoulder.

Realising what happened and what was at stake I exited the arena blitzing into the singletrack chasing down our rivals only to find them a quarter of the way round. The gears dropped and I sprinted as hard as I could to chase him down only to catch him on the 1^st fire road climb. However as I was approaching I decided to keep the pressure on and go straight past him keeping the pace high so he wouldn’t be able to jump on my wheel. Luckily it worked and we took the lead once again only to come through the arena with 20 to 30 seconds now only keeping us in the lead.

As we rotated our turns between us we pushed ourselves harder and faster than we did in previous laps, draining our body and keeping us into the 22 minute a lap region making sure we opened up a significant gap incase anything happened again.

After a painful number of laps and coming into the final hour of the race we had no idea how far we were in front apart from a few hours previously where we were told that the gap was 5minutes.

The updated result we attained from one of our team members was that we were 2 minutes up in the last hour, only to mishear that we were actually 2 minutes off catching 2^nd place to take a lap up. This made us push harder once again to try and take that lap but our time ran out at the end to be just under a minute off taking the lap and giving us the 12Hour Mixed team Bikefest title.

Welsh XC Champs

After finally getting stuck into some hard training over the long break since the last race in Dalby forest, I headed off to the Welsh XC Champs in Builth Wells. When we arrived we got told that our laps had been reduced down from 6laps to 5 laps due to the intense tough course that lay ahead. Anthony and I thought we better do a practice lap since we got there early enough to roll round and see what these steep sharp climbs were all about. Noticeably we knew these climbs from previous races and rides up here so it wasn’t a complete shock to see them. After a good warm up on our Cycleops Turbo Trainer, we headed for the start line with my legs feeling a bit on the restless side. As the whistle went I shot off from the start to take the lead going into the first climb, but a quarter way up Jonny Pugh took over the pace making. Shortly after, Lee Williams put the pace down, overtook us and the race was now up another gear. As we got to the top of the 1^st climb we headed across to a sweet downhill taking us back through the arena before shooting up the steep climbs. Entering the steep climbs we had formed a group of 4 containing Lee, Anthony, Jonny and myself which stayed together for the first lap. After that Lee opened up the gap with Anthony hot on his wheels only for his cleat to come loose and lost Lee’s wheel.

Jonny and I was taking it turns trying to increase the gap from all the chasers and trying to limit the gap to Lee. After a few attempts of pushing the pace hard and flying down the downhills, we still entered the final lap joined at the hip. Exiting the Arena for the final time Jonny was sitting tight on my wheel as I decided to try and up the pace on the climbs and push on to see if Jonny would crack which opened small gaps but not enough to get away.

However come to the last steep climb I put in a hard effort and opened the smallest gap but by the top Jonny was right on my wheel.

After smashing the final downhill trying to open the gap, Jonny was sitting on my wheel ready for the sprint out of the single-track. With cramp kicking in and tired legs, I entered the arena keeping the pace high to limit the jump Jonny was about to make. Sprinting off the grass onto the gravel road my front wheel washed out but somehow I managed to stop myself falling and we began sprinting side by side to the finish line as I took one final lunge to the line and winning the sprint by a tyres width to take a very happy 2^nd position in the seniors and 1^st U23.