Two Days To Go

With two days now until the National Road Champs I'm feeling quite good. I have been riding into work each day this week in the sun topping up the tan and fitting my training in when I get home.

On Tuesday evening I rode at one of my local ten mile time trials in Hapton near Burnley. Two roundabouts at either end with a long drag in between makes for a good training session, only my second time riding it also on my road bike(no TT bike yet) and I was 35 seconds quicker, only 22 seconds behind the winner.

Here is my first and second go at the time trial;

Hapton TT 1

Hapton TT 2

Friday ill be riding into work again then Saturday we are travelling up to Glasgow to stay the night before Sundays race.

Sam

A Different League! National Champs

The rider list was announced on Friday for the National Road Race Championship next weekend in Glasgow.

Cavendish, Millar, Dowsett, Stannard and many more will all be riding the 115 mile race. Its quite daunting seeing my name on the same start sheet but the race also contains fifty U23 riders, so its also a race within a race.

I am aiming to give it my best shot and also learn a lot as the next month of racing is one big race after another. Its a tough period but it ll be a good chance to see where I stand.

Ill be giving you a regular taste of my training & how the racing is going.

Yesterday I met up with my teammate Joe Moses for a short ride and I then went on to add a few extra miles, below is the data from the ride.

Garmin Connect Data

Today I went out for some hilly miles with efforts, rest day Monday!

Sundays Ride

Sam

Stannington Defence

This morning I should have had a number 1 on the back of my jersey for the first time to defend my win of the Stannington RR Trophy from last year, but sadly the race had been cancelled so it wasn't to be.
It also left me with a big hole in my race programme & the best part of a month without any races to ride.

I'd hinted in my last update that my form had been hard to find & the move up to Premier Calender events was a big step up, I have taken time to refocus and adjust my training and I'm ready to go again for the 2nd half of the season.
Two weeks in Mallorca with some solid training in the mountains and the sun on my back(almost everyday) should see me in good form, I have also been using my team sponsored PowerTap for training and in some local time trials which makes my training much more accurate.

At the top of Randa

Today though I went out with fellow Colner and Olympic champ Steven Burke for a decent 4 hours round the Dales and Settle. Saturday was a tough day of efforts so it was good to have a 'catch up' this morning.
My club, Cycle Sport Pendle have been busy getting ready for the prospect of a brand new purpose built facility in Pendle, it will be called the Steven Burke Sports Hub and will be the base of cricket, football and a cycle racing track.

My next races coming up are the National Champs(U23) in Glasgow followed by a month of Premier Calender races, it'll be tough but I'll be there to learn and improve and also help my teammates.

Sam