BUCS Track Race Report 2023

By Race Captain Luke Andrews

Last weekend (4/5th March) held the first BUCS event of 2023 (although notably the second most prestigious event of the weekend sharing the date with CUCC’s own cuppers, which I’m told is soon to join the World Tour). The University Track Cycling Championships were held at the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome of Wales.

Mere days after first stepping foot in a velodrome, 7 starry-eyed roadies-turned-trackies made the arduous journey across the country to take part in the event (with some minor detours to acquire some last minute free-speed along the way in the form of shiny track wheels). Late Friday night the crew arrived in Cardiff, just in time to boil a month’s supply of pasta, watch some GCN to remind the squad what a ‘velodrome‘ and ‘lock-ring’ were, and double check none of the wheels had punctured after Tim’s adventurous​ van driving.

The Team at BUCS Track (Tim Welsh, Tom Wade, Jo Matthews, Miranda Clements, Joe Adlam-Cook, Luke Andrews, Matt Rizzo-Naudi)


Saturday saw a blizzard early of races with the Men’s Kilo TT and Team Pursuit, and the Womens Individual Pursuit all before lunchtime. The scene could have easily been confused for the University Sprocket and Wheel Changing Championships with the speed at which CUCC’s seemingly only 14 tooth cog was shuffled around the squad. Tom Wade started the day by putting in a blistering Kilo time, so fast in-fact, that he overtook his opponent without even noticing, and the commissaires could only manage to give him an estimated time due to the time-dilation they experienced. Tim Welsh and Joe Adlam-Cook followed this effort up with equally impressive four lappers, coming in 23rd and 13th respectively.

Next inline was Jo Matthews in the Women’s Individual Pursuit. Taking to the track with absolute focus, she smashed out an astounding 4:08 with more left in the tank, putting a comfortable 7 seconds into her Oxfordshire opponent. This netted a 7th place finish out of 15 competitors, an impressive result and even more so with just 2 previous sessions on a velodrome. Finally, the Men’s Team Pursuit, a complex, technical and strategic race where teamwork and free speed are key. With a collection of begged and borrowed wheels and helmets to maximise both speed and style points, Joe Adlam-Cook, Matt Rizzo-Naudi, Tom Wade and Tim Welsh took to the track for qualifying. Smooth changes and big numbers followed, bringing the team home with a time of 4:37.5, just 2 seconds outside the bronze-medal match. No doubt these roadies-turned-trackies will be back with a vengeance and a hunger for the taste of BUCS silverware.

Big Watts (Matt Rizzo-Naudi, Tom Wade, Tim Welsh, Joe Adlam-Cook, Luke Andrews)

After a spicy morning of riding, the bikes were packed and the team headed back to refuel and reset before Sunday’s racing, winding down and disconnecting from cycling by watching the extended highlights of both the Men’s and Women’s Strada Bianca in full, and binging cycle-speedway videos from the 1990’s.
Sunday saw a delayed arrival after navigating through the Newport Half-Marathon, mostly spent looking on at the attendees and wondering why they weren’t using bikes instead. Racing kicked off with the Women’s 500 TT, which saw Miranda Clements lay down the watts with a stylish 40.5, netting 18th place in the event.

Cycling Machine (Miranda Clements)

Men’s Individual Pursuit followed soon after, the final test for Matt Rizzo-Naudi and Luke Andrews after hundreds of seconds of aero and position testing. This came to a tee with equally impressive times and pain faces, with Luke coming in 14th and Matt blowing the track to pieces with a 4:41, good enough for an outrageous 7th place. Soon after came the Women’s Team Sprint, where Miranda and Jo teamed up for a flying 500, blitzing round in time of 40.8, less than a second off of the bronze medal race. The final even of CUCC’s weekend was the Men’s points race, with Joe Adlam-Cook taking the bullet and racing 100 laps at maximum effort. He stayed with the bunch and collected sprint points to come home a cool 8th position in a hotly contested race, and most impressively stayed upright throughout!

Joe Adlam-Cook laying down the watts

Unfortunately, BUCS were unable to take any photos of this day’s racing, as they were too distracted by the sight of Tim Welsh on a Sunday rollers session and a blurry CUCCet Hat.

A special thanks goes to alumus Jack Kellam for providing shelter for the weekend and speedy lids, Rob Walker and Gabe Fowden for generously lending the club their wheels, and Southampton University for kindly lending their wheels as well.

Cuppers 2023 Race Report

By Matt Davison

Saturday (04/03) saw one of the first major races of the season. With a harsh, technical course, favouring a solo effort, some of cycling’s biggest names lined up to test themselves for the coming season. The race was, of course, the cuppers 10 mile TT.

The conditions were, as usual, miserable. Despite the cold (both inside and outside the race HQ), 25 budding time trialists lined up to compete. Some 24 of these riders would go on to finish the race—a testament to the complexity of an out and back course. Continuing the tradition of a ‘Sam’ getting lost on the course, Sam Fitzgerald followed in the footsteps of Sam Lewin and went on a magical mystery tour towards Six Mile Bottom, setting a 10 mile TT record of 14 miles. Thankfully the mysterious Craig Rogers appeared to show the way back to the HQ. 

Harry Weedon sending it to the finish line

The overall event was won by Emmanuel College, reflecting the talent (and sheer number) of their cyclists. With a special mention to Tim Bodey for being the highest ranking Emma member with a time of 24:34, and of course to Alban Wales for his 840 watts per kilo*.

The race also saw some seriously impressive individual times. The men’s race was won with a solid 22:58 from our very own boy wonder Harry Weedon, representing Peterhouse. The women’s race was won for the second year in a row by Zoe Burrel (Murray Edwards) with an equally impressive 25:37. 

Zoe Burrell looking strong at Cuppers

Abi Cox, from Emmanuel, and Renzo Casale, racing for ‘Bath University College Cambridge’, took the road bike competition in times of 23:47 and 31:19 respectively, proving that you don’t need a TT bike to be rapid.

The town/mountain bike competition was once again won by Ilya Kaysin (Sidney Sussex), in a time of 28:35. 

Ilya Kaysin smiling on his way to victory

The event concluded with food, the prize giving, and a frankly alarming number of people using gloves on their feet to keep warm.

Many thanks should be given to Ben Proctor, for organising and running the event (and taking it upon himself to kick off the event two days early with his own, untimed, effort on the course—what a way to spend a Thursday afternoon). The full results can be found here.

*Research pending on how he managed to achieve this rare phenomenon

Cuppers 2023 competitors

Ely Hardriders Race Report 2023

Race report by Maddie Angwin

Defying all odds, thirteen CUCC riders made it to the Ely Hardrider’s course on Sunday without any crashes. A remarkable feat in the club’s history. Despite promises of snow in the two-week forecast, the weather turned out to be surprisingly pleasant by Hardriders standards. Very little wind and no rain – it looked set to be fairly perfect conditions for the course. However, it would not be in the nature of Hardriders to be easy, and it was the roads rather than the weather which proved a challenge for our riders this year. Extremely greasy corners would see four of our riders ‘take a little mid race nap’, with a further five non-CUCC riders inspired by this trailblazing recovery practice. However, the awful road conditions and associated CUCCup’s didn’t get in the way of our riders with Joe Adlam-Cook taking home second with a time of 57 minutes 46 seconds despite his mid race power nap. A strong performance from Tom Wade (1 hour 19 seconds) and Matt Rizzo-Naudi (1 hour 55 seconds) won the men’s TT bike category with two of the three riders staying rubber side down – a doubly impressive achievement.

Jacob Lewis at Ely Hardriders

The men’s road bike category saw equal success (and fewer stacks) with Quadzilla (Tim Welsh) winning the course with a time of 1 hour 1 minute 24 seconds. Colin Krawchuk (1 hour 2 minutes and 23 seconds) and Matt Davison (1 hour 4 minutes 35 seconds) both whipped round the course to win the team road bike victory as well. 

Men’s Road Bike Team Victory (left to right: Colin Krawchuk, Tim Welsh, Matt Davison)

On the women’s side Miranda Clements smashed her first 25-mile TT putting in a time of 1 hour 8 minutes and 20 seconds and winning the women’s road bike category. Nadja Nolte came second with a time of 1 hour 9 minutes and 36 seconds, whilst Maddie Angwin came second in the TT category with a time of 1 hour 9 minutes 56 seconds. Great results all round for the team and equally impressive cake consumption afterwards. The full results can be found here.  

A team effort (left to right: Jacob Lewis, Matt Rizzo-Naudi, Maddie Angwin, Colin Krawchuk, Matt Davison, Harry Weedon, Miranda Clements, Joe Adlam-Cook, Louis Stewart, Tim Welsh, Nadja Nolte, Tom Wade)

Varsity and BUCS 25 2022

A report of the Varsity Road race and BUCS 25 event by Women’s captain Zoe Burell

On Sunday 3rd of April, while most eyes were focused on the Cambridge-Oxford boat race, BUCS 25-mile TT returned to the roads of Cambridgeshire. With one-hundred-one students competing from universities across the country, it looked set to be an exciting race on CUCC’s home turf. Furthermore, with Oxford able to attend this year, BUCS 25 doubled up as the cycling varsity match. Cambridge came prepared for the challenge putting forward a strong team of eighteen men and four women.

The day started with the women, the first rider off for Cambridge was Maddie Angwin. Completing her first 25 mile TT, although, with a couple of hilly TTs under her belt (helpful on the last brutal straight of the Botty triangle), Maddie put out an impressive time of 1:09:34. Next up was Phoebe Barker who despite being on a road bike set-up put down the power and achieved an absolutely rapid time of 1:04:31. Experienced racer Charlotte Brass, was Cambridge’s third rider completed the course in 1:11:47. Zoe Burrell was the final rider of the women’s team narrowly making her start, she finished with a time of 1:04:11. This gave the women’s team a competitive time of 2:08:42, just 3 seconds off a podium position. There was also individual success for Maddie, Phoebe and Zoe who also achieved their half blue!

Maddie Angwin taking on Botty Triangle (@kanelssmith)

Next off were the men! Ryan Gilfeather, Neil Ibata and Jacob Lewis were looking speedy, finishing their two laps of the course with times of 1:08:55, 1:04:39 and 1:01:37 respectively. Joe Lunn, one of our two events secretaries, carried out an impressive juggling act. When Joe wasn’t at HQ helping to organise the event he was smashing the course, finishing with a time of 1:00:10. Time differences were tight between Luke McCarron (59:33), Matt Rizzo-Naudi (59:28) and Tom Wade (59:23), they completed the course with just 10 seconds between them! Going faster still was Jack Shuttleworth (59:11), Fabio Albertani (58:51), Tim Welsh (58:20), Luke Andrews (57:55) and Tom Hale (56:29).

The Cambridge men’s B team this year were well equipped with new TT bikes making an inaugural appearance for Joe Adlam-Cook and James Cummins who achieved times of 56:03 and 55:49 respectively. The team was completed by Jack Kellam who flew round, completing the course in 54:37, this gave the trio a team time of 2:46:29.

 

Matt R-N on the overtake! (@kanelssmith)

Even faster were Joris Wistok, George Spooner and Theo Weinberger who made up the men’s A team. Joris zipped round the course with an impressive time of 54:03 just three seconds off George Spooner’s time of 54:00. George had already had considerable success in BUCS events this season coming second overall in the Hill Climb late last year and had spent the evening before organising the delivery of a huge pile of skinsuits for all those racing. Fastest rider for Cambridge was Theo Weinberger with an undeniably quick time of 53:19 placing him an impressive 10th in the individual results. We won’t mention that was just eight seconds slower than brother and Oxford student Harvey Weinberger! This together gave the men a collective team time of 2:41:22, just two seconds off 3rd place on the men’s team podium!

As the day came to a close and the award ceremony was completed, there was Varsity Dinner to look forward to and Varsity results to announce. Unfortunately, this year it was not to be with Oxford taking all of the wins in the Varsity match, their super strong team of both men and women putting down some amazing rides across the board. Despite this, I am sure all involved would agree that it was a fantastic day with great results and an amazing atmosphere. It would not have been possible without the huge effort from all the volunteers, in particular James Quigley and Joe Lunn whose unparalleled organisation skills saw that the day was a smooth success!

CUCC Alumni Dinner 2022

On Saturday 19th February, CUCC held another fantastic Alumni Dinner at Jesus College, Cambridge. Despite the best efforts of Storm Eunice and National Rail, 47 attendees, including alumni from the 1980s up until the 2020s, and the current CUCC Committee, made it along for a delightful evening of good food and reminiscing.

The evening started off by sharing images of CUCC throughout the years and a great game of “that’s me!” (with bonus points for being in an ugly skinsuit or on Spinergy wheels) as everyone filtered in undeterred by the wind. The Head Butler then took great pleasure in breaking up all the conversation and greetings between long-lost friends with the gong to commence the meal.

Plenty of stories from CUCC’s past were shared over the three courses, and as someone relatively new to the club, it was great to hear that not much has changed in the last few decades; we still love to sprint for the Cambridge town sign and dish out the pain on each other on Sunday morning ride, but we are all still united by a passion for bikes!

I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone that came along to the dinner and for making the evening so wonderful, and to this year’s committee for everything they do to help make CUCC happen. To all those who enjoyed the evening so much that they enquired, we intend the Alumni Dinner to be an annual occasion and hope to see you again next year, if not before.

 

Matt Bryan

CUCC General Secretary 2021-2022

CUCC Alumni Dinner 2022

Back Row: Tim Johns, Miranda Robbins, Graham Couchman, Andrew Brown, George Gekov, Joe Adlam-Cook, Michael Hutchinson, Joris Witstok, Jake Stuchbury-Wass, Gabriel Fowden, Jali Packer, Dougal Toms, Ethan Tebbutt, Stephen Chen, Dan Cox, Peter Robinson, Eliott Lindsay, James Cummins, Nathan Parker, Jack Brown, Matt Rizzo-Naudi, Becca Parkin, Matt Bryan

Middle Row: Mickie Couchman, Maria Waldhoer, Rob Selby, Sue Selby, Bekah Nash, Charlotte Brass, Lukaz Weilguny, Zoe Burrell, Maddie Angwin, George Spooner, Seb Dickson, Alex Petter, Lavinia Delfini, Joe Lunn, Matt Davison, Nick Grogan, Rob Walker

Front Row: Reg Legaac, Phoebe Barker, Charlotte Dalton, Elspeth Grace

Off Left:  Robbie Blythe, Ffion James

 

Freshers’ TT 2021 Report

Freshers’ TT – Saturday 9th October 2021

RESULTS

Starting off CUCC’s riding and racing for this academic year was our Annual Freshers’ Time Trial with 44 racers of all levels of experience willing to test their mettle against our 9.5km TT loop from Newton. Our events secs had clearly put the work into setting it all up, booking some beautiful weather and multiple flyovers from a Lancaster Bomber (we think – we’re cyclists, not plane spotters) for what turned out to be an excellent day of racing.

We had some excellent pain faces today seen in the photos from our favourite photographer  Nordin (@nordincatic), however questions were raised about how seriously some riders took the no TT equipment rule with rumours from the marshals about there maybe even being an 80mm deep wheel present at the event! Due to some traffic lights on the course this year, we had to run a marginally shorter route but the results were as impressive as ever with some rapid times in both the men’s and women’s categories.

We had some blistering times in the women’s category with our podium all within a minute of the fastest time. Rosie Wallace recorded an speedy 15:57 to win first place with Clara Dunbavin not far behind at 16:17 and Charlotte Wilde seconds after that at 16:32. The rest of the women’s field of 8 all also put out amazing times in what has been a very competitive start of CUCC’s racing calendar.

In the hotly contested men’s category there were some amazing times with the top 5 riders all recording sub 14-minute times and none more than 10 seconds apart. Sam Lewin put out the fastest time of the day with an eye-watering 13:21 with Jack Shuttleworth close behind at 13:28 followed shortly by Luke Andrews at 13:35. The remainder of the 36 riders out today weren’t far behind with some positions decided by literally a second and very good times all around.

Thanks all for coming to the TT as its always great to see so much interest in trying cycling/racing and we hope to see all these new faces out on the road (and in the pub)!

Varsity 2021 Race Report

It had been a long time coming, but more than two years after the last event, on the 11th July the Cycling Varsity match finally returned. Oxf*rd had been unable to make BUCS 25 earlier in the year, so instead of the standard Bottisham circuit, this year’s time trial was instead hosted on the E1/25d course starting just outside of Ugley near Saffron Walden.

 

Unfortunately, some temporary traffic lights on the Friday evening put the event at risk! But thanks to the incredible generosity and effort of the Essex Roads CC organisers, when the lights disappeared at the last minute, we were still able to run a full 25 mile event – albeit with only Oxf*rd and Cambridge riders competing.

 

We were blessed with some good sunny, still conditions on the rolling out and back course which promised some fast times. With only varsity riders involved, once competitors were out on course, there was an even more spirited atmosphere than usual, with plenty of chances to shout encouragement to teammates being passed on the course!

 

All in all, CUCC had 15 riders taking part, looking to win the Women’s event for the first time in 6 years, and defend our long-held Men’s trophy. Having not competed against O*ford in a number of years, it was all to play for, with no real knowledge of what to expect from the opposition!

Elspeth Grace, Rebekah Nash and Zoe Burrell

The women’s event was a close run affair, with Elspeth Grace (2nd, 1:01:26), Zoe Burrell (4th, 1:02:12) and Rebekah Nash (5th, 1:04:06) narrowly missing out by 1 minute and 13 seconds from the Oxford women’s side, led home by Anna Murgatroyd, who won the overall in 1:00:04.

Jack Kellam

Euan Tebbutt

Jack Brown

With some strong rides from Jack Brown (2nd, 53:03), Jack Kellam (3rd, 53:29) and Euan Tebbutt (who recovered from a minor “sit down” to finish 4th in 54:49) the men’s squad was able to hold onto the trophy with a combined time of 2:41:31, enough to beat Oxf*rd’s effort of 2:43:50, despite a fast ride from Matthew Coulson, who won overall with a 52:26.

 

As a result of their performances, half-blues have therefore been awarded to the top three riders from the men’s and women’s events! Congratulations also go to Jack Brown, who earns another Full Blue, having already completed the remaining criteria earlier this season.

Women's Results:

Position Competitor Time
2 Elspeth Grace 01:01:26
4 Zoe Burrell 01:02:12
5 Rebekah Nash 01:04:06

Men's Results:

Position Competitor Time
2 Jack Brown 00:53:03
3 Jack Kellam 00:53:29
4 Euan Tebbutt 00:54:59
5 Timothy Welsh 00:55:32
8 Fabio Albertani 00:56:18
8 Joris Witstok 00:56:18
11 Joseph Adlam-Cook 00:56:52
12 Tom Hale 00:56:54
13 Sam Massey 00:57:17
15 Joe Lunn 01:00:48
16 Tom Wade 01:02:14
17 Matt Bryan 01:07:25

National 24 Hour TT Report

This past weekend Tim Welsh was representing Cambridge University Cycling Club in the National 24 hour TT championships put on by the Mersey Roads cycling club. It was set to be an absolute scorcher, with the Met Office warning that it could be the hottest weekend of the year so far with no clouds and high humidity. Undeterred, Tim took to the start line along with 63 other competitors (11 out of the original 75 started chose not to even start the day). The course for the 24hrs was quite complicated, to ensure that riders were on different routes that were safer for different parts of the day and to make things more simple for the timekeepers at the finish. The majority of the course centred around the Prees Heath roundabout which was part of the main day circuit and the night circuit. After his start time at 13:26, Tim started the leg of the race to get to the main circuits (which of course required climbing directly uphill for the first 10 miles).

Tim gives a double thumbs up before heading to the start line

He's started! only 23 hours 59 minutes and 30 seconds to go

Within 15 minutes of the start, tragedy struck. Tim hit a pothole and the clamp on his right aero bar (clip-ons on his road bike) entirely snapped. With the aerobar now dangling from his handlebars it took a few moments to gather his thoughts. Luckily he had packed some gaffa tape, so he phoned his support crew who gave him hand ups of strips of gaffa tape which he used the wrap the bars together. Somehow, he managed to get the setup reasonably stable and carried on with gaffa taped bars for the first 7 hours until he took his first stop and had the bars and mount cable-tied more solidly.

 

Despite the bumpy start, Tim was getting on very well. The heat was getting to everyone, with loads of people (including multiple previous champions) deciding to pull out within the first day section. Tim however, was doing great. His support crew – Julia, Alex, and Steve – did everything they could to keep him fed and cool, handing up bottles full of electrolytes and sugar every 18 miles and ice packs to put down his skinsuit. His heart rate was skyrocketing the first 6 hours in the heat, but he felt good and carried on – managing to cover the first 112.45 miles in 5th place with a speed of 22.49mph.

Constant hand ups of bottles, gels, rice cakes, energy bars, and even gaffa tape and lights meant that stoppage could be minimised and Tim could keep rolling

Even though the day was scorching, the night temperatures got down to 13°C and Tim had to put on an extra layer to keep warm

After the first 112.45 miles on relatively busy A roads, the race moved onto the more relaxed Quina Brook circuit, which featured a bit more rolling terrain and even some nice little lanes through some local farms. Tim fared well on this section of the course, fuelling often with rice cakes and energy bars, and even managed to creep up into 3rd place overall before moving onto the night section.

Running a race through the night is a difficult task, and it requires a course that is reasonably smooth but also had little traffic. The night section for this race was a slightly mixed bag for Tim. He of course had no problem in the dark, probably due to his countless audax rides he has done through the night in much worse conditions on much smaller roads, but there were certainly more lorries than would have been desirable. That being said, Tim was still rolling well – covering the first dark 50 night miles in 2:15 (22.2mph). Things slowed a little bit from there, but never significantly. Around 2 am, Tim’s stomach started to tense up a bit – maybe due to the rapid ingestion of caffeine pills chased with an energy drink and antacids, or maybe due to not having enough solid food in the early hours of the morning – but this caused him to take a 35 minute stop to involuntarily empty the contents of his stomach and try to collect himself and recover. Being a stubborn person, Tim carried on for the remaining 3 hours on the night circuit, albeit at a slightly slower pace.

Giving it the beans during the final hour on the finishing circuit

A few minutes lying in a chair were required before any additional motion was possible

Around 7 am, Tim was one of the last riders to be moved back onto the Quina Brook circuit, where the first lap he still was moving relatively slow (by his self-imposed standards). After one lap around Quina, he took another short break to get some more solid food in, cover his legs in deep heat, and swap the clear visor for the sun visor on his aero helmet. After that break, things started to perk up. Tim started picking up the pace again and was looking a lot better than he was at 3 am. After completing 5 more laps of Quina, Tim was one of the first riders to move towards to finish circuit near Wrexham.

This was Tim’s first time ever riding in Wales, something he hoped to have done already in the 3 years he’s been in the UK, but nevertheless, at least this was a notable first ride to do in Wales. The race crossed into Wales on the A525, and of course, as soon as the “Croeso i Gymru” sign appeared the roads turned into a vertical wall (or so it felt). The rest of the commute over to the finish circuit was equally hilly and draining, or maybe it was just the previous 21hrs and 420+ miles in the legs. After the transit over, Tim made it onto the finishing circuit in 6th place with ~430 miles covered in the first 21:20.

The finishing circuit was an 8.18 mile lap around the lovely Wrexham Industrial Estate, with 4 timekeepers spaced out around the circuit to mark riders once they finish their 24 hours. Something obviously ticked for Tim in the final 2.5 hours, because all the tiredness and soreness seemed to drop away and he went full gas and even managed to consistently get negative splits across the 7 finishing laps he completed! Because of the shorter circuit, it also meant there were more supporters dotted out around the lap, and they were clearly excited by the speed Tim was moving as it seemed like pretty much every group of people screamed at him as he passed. In the last 3 hours, Tim didn’t manage to eat any solid food, but the carb drinks, countless gels, and most importantly the yells of support pushed him on.

It was truly a team effort and would not have been the same without great supporters (left to right: Steve, Alex, Tim, Julia)

Going into the last hour, Tim was determined to squeeze out every last bit of energy he could and was out of the saddle sprinting up every climb, and tucking into his most aero position to hit up to 30mph on the straight and flat sections. The final lap was his fastest one of all, averaging over 23.5mph – not bad for the end of a 24-hour ride!

In the end, Tim eked out 487.70 miles, securing him 4th place in the nation (3rd male). His original goal was to beat the Cambridge University record of 442.66 miles, and he absolutely smashed it. For his first TT over 100 miles, Tim and all of us at CUCC are pretty pleased with the result – especially on such a hot day where only 37 of the original 64 finished. Also a massive thank you has to go out to Julia, Alex, and Steve who were an absolutely stellar support team, they did everything they could to keep the pedals turning for Tim and it wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Tim is recovering and as always is already scheming for his next massive ride (although maybe it’ll be at a more relaxed pace). Onwards!

BUCS 25 Report

After another long hiatus from racing, on Sunday 18th April, we were finally back in action as hosts for this year's BUCS 25. Sadly, with Oxford unable to compete this year, it wasn't to be the Varsity match – but with a full start sheet of 120 riders, including plenty of 'hitters' desperate to get some early season racing under their belt, there was still plenty up for grabs.

The club had a strong squad out with over 20 members pinning on numbers, and plenty racing in their first ‘open’. After a long winter of training that had seen many new members flogging themselves in the weekly team time trials on Zwift, it was exciting to see how many would go – especially having lost a number of racing stalwarts in the last couple of years.

With sunny conditions on the local E33/25 course, fast times were expected, and so it proved: the days when a 52 or a sub-hour ride could win the men’s and women’s competitions respectively are now long gone!

Women's Captain Anne-Marie Bowring speeding around Botty triangle (1:09:29)

Clare Jackson on her way to 23rd place (1:06:29)

With Jack Kellam’s Citroën parked up on a grassy verge for a socially-distanced basecamp, our early riders made their way over to the race course, ready to swap out wheels, pin on numbers and warm up for their efforts. Ottoline Martin (1:16:16, 36th) was first rider off, followed by Anne-Marie Bowring (1:09:29, 29th), Clare Jackson and Zoe Burrell also in the women’s field. With the latter two having only been on their new TT bikes for under a week, their eventual finishing times of 1:06:29 (Clare, 23rd) and 1:04:41 (Zoe, 19th) were super impressive, and a sign of their really exciting potential.

Anna Harrison (1:02:46, 15th) and Rebekah Nash (1:03:11, 16th) followed shortly after, putting in super rides to help support one of our strongest all-round performances in the women’s field for a few seasons. This was capped by Elspeth Grace, whose transformation from cyclo-crosser to top-tier tester now appears all but complete. With a time of 1:00:54 that would have readily netted a podium in years recently past, Elspeth finished 8th in a very strong field – keep an eye out at national events later this year. 

The final podium saw Francesca Hall (Loughborough) take the win with a flying 56:35, followed by Lucy Gadd (Southampton) in 58:44, and Tamsin Miller (Exeter) in 59:44.

Zoe Burrell posting a time of 1:04:41 to land in the top 20

General Secretary Elspeth Grace on her way to a top-10 classification in a strong field (1:00:54)

In the men’s event, first Cambridge rider off was Joris Witstok on his lovely Cervélo/Spinergy road bike TT set-up, who showed that #JorisWatts on Zwift translated effectively into reality, flying round to finish 40th in a 57:19. Tom Hale followed, starting early so he could hand over his TT bike to his UCL-based brother. In his first proper 25, Tom smashed a 55:30 that would place him 26th and as 3rd Cambridge rider overall.

George Spooner then headed out on his road bike, gurning round Botty to a very fast 55:52. One of the rides of the day, though, goes to Joe Adlam-Cook who – undeterred by a last minute snapped rear cable – rode a bodged, 1x single speed set-up for 25 miles, still finishing with a 1:01:47.

Tom Hale is third fastest among CUCC riders in his first proper 25 (55:30)

Men’s Ride Captain George Spooner putting up a fast 55:52 on his road bike

The two Sams – Massey and Gerrard – were also riding their first opens, and finished next to each other in the final standings, the latter (57:52, 49th) narrowly squeezing out the former (58:05, 50th). The triathletes followed, with Fabio Albertani finding a space on the start sheet to ride a creditable 58:17, before Luke McCarron put in a solid ride of 57:51. Our audax and ultra-distance specialist Tim Welsh was up next, and turned up the intensity for a very strong 57:24 (42nd) on a road bike and tri-bars set-up.

We were then into the squeaky end of the startsheet. Despite a healthy dose of last minute stress – it wouldn’t be CUCC at BUCS without it – a rapid wheel and cassette swap saw Jack Brown make his start time. Clearly unfatigued from racing a 25 on the same course the day before, and claiming not to have done an interval session in 18 months, Jack stormed to a 52:19 that placed him 8th (and a time that would have at least secured a podium in years past).

Jack Kellam and Toby Antippas followed with a 55:40 and 1:03:17 respectively, but it was Euan Tebbutt on his new P5 super bike that put in the star performance with 54:11 that saw him finish 19th.

Euan Tebbutt and his new P5 fly into the top 20 (54:11)

President Jack Brown reaching the top 10 on his second consecutive day of E33/25 TTs (52:19)

Having stacked the podium in 2019, the men’s squad couldn’t quite repeat the feat two years later. The win was taken by George Peden (Leeds) with a 50:34, with Frederik Scheske (Exeter) and Sebastian Garry (Nottingham) coming 2nd and 3rd with 50:56 and 51:09 respectively. The top 7 all finished with times that would have comfortably won the event in previous years, showing quite how high the standard has risen in UK time trialling over the last few years.

Although the club weren’t quite able to match the results that we’ve become accustomed to in BUCS events over recent years, it was hard to come away with anything other than massive encouragement from the strength and breadth of new talent in the club, many of whom (including plenty who were unlucky to not get starts) are certainly going to be up in the sharp end of results sheets in the months and years to come.

A final, but incredibly important thanks go to Events Secretary James Quigley for putting on the event in really difficult circumstances, as well as everyone who helped out in marshalling and timekeeping: James’ dad, and Elspeth’s parents in particular! It was clear how grateful other universities were that we’d provided the opportunity for racing to return, and at quite how smoothly the day went by.

With Varsity still to come at a later date this year, and the season only just getting underway, keep your eyes peeled for CUCC skinsuits at time trials around the country!

(Image credit: Kane Smith and CUCC's very own Nordin Ćatić)

CUCC Hill Climb Report

Last weekend saw CUCC return to our local and beloved Hill Climb course with a healthy turnout of over 30 determined riders eager to test themselves up the deceptive climb. Consisting of a gentle slope followed up shortly by a sharply increasing gradient before a final sprint to the finish over the top, the hill can be tricky to pace despite Cambridge’s flat reputation and is still a tough one on the legs.

Some taking it easier than others

Tim Welsh giving it the beans (1:51)

Luckily the conditions on the day were excellent, with plenty of sunshine and even a slight tailwind! A notable improvement from the conditions at our previous event, the Freshers’ TT, as those who were there I’m sure would attest.

In the women’s field, the competition was so close we had a draw for 1st place! Elspeth Grace and Mathilde Pauls both smashing out an impressive 2 minutes and 1 second. Hot on their heels was Zoe Burrel, showing off some great multi-disciplinary talent by following up on her 2nd place at the Freshers’ Time Trial and securing the next podium spot only 3 seconds behind. And the final podium spot went to Anne-Marie Bowring with a time of 2 minutes and 17 seconds; excellent efforts all around!

Mathilde Pauls (2:01)

Elspeth Grace (2:01)

Anne-Marie Bowring (2:17)

Likewise, in the men’s field the competition was well and truly on with only 2 and 1 seconds separating 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Euan Tebbut charged to victory this year with a time of 1:40, just ahead of Ollie Moseley with a 1:42 and Joe Adlam-Cook, once again taking the title of fastest fresher, with a time of 1:43. Off the podium there was no lack of rapid times either with time differences between places often being just a single second showing every watt/kilogram counted. Unfortunately, our hill climb specialists George and Craig, who both put in stellar performances at the National HC recently, couldn’t be there this time as they tired themselves out on their – admittedly quite long (70 miles) and scenic – ride over to the course.

Ollie Moseley (1:42)

Joe Adlam-Cook (1:43)

Euan Tebbut (1:40)

James Quigley, our events secretary, concludes: "Special thanks to Elspeth and Euan who not only competed (and did rather well!) but also helped do timekeeping for portions of the event. And thank you to everyone who came to compete for making the event as fun and successful as it was, I hope everyone had a great time, or at least as much as possible when doing a hill climb!"

Naturally, credits are also in order for James himself, who has managed to organise two great club races this term, despite limitations and a premature end to club rides and other activities, as the club moves to alternatives like riding in pairs and on virtual platforms.