By Matt Davison

Botty 10, 1pm, a Saturday in early March, what else could it be but cuppers? The weather had looked miserable all week, with rain and strong winds forecast, and the unlucky riders in the first half of the race had to endure a hailstorm. This, however, had mostly cleared by the second half of the race leaving only a bit of a crosswind.

With the keen racers safely away in Newport for BUCS track, so once everyone made it to the start line (In classic CUCC fashion about 1/3 of riders missed their starts…) cuppers was anyone’s race for the taking. This lead to some very strong performances across the board (full results here here). Lucas Beghein took the men’s TT bike category, sneaking under 23 minutes with a 22:58. Maddie Angwin carried on her winning streak from Ely Hardriders, winning the women’s race despite a missed start in 26:28. The road bike categories were won by Francis Schofield (also on a post-Ely winning spree) in 23:39, and Freya Taylor, on her TT debut, in 31:33.

Inspired by the new CTT road bike category, the scoring system was adjusted for this year. The fastest rider in each category, road and TT bike, for open and female, was awarded 8 points, then 7 points were awarded for the next rider, decreasing by 1 until a minimum of 1 point was won by every rider that competed.

The overall win was taken by St John’s, with a team of Maddie Angwin, Naomi Jennings and Josh Kershaw. Trinity came in a close second and Kings third.

The day concluded with hot dogs and snacks in the Bottisham village hall, and a slow spin back into town. Thanks to Louis for organising a great event, and on to the rest of the race season! Photos from the day can be found here, with thanks to Nordin Catic.

By Sam Fitzgerald

On the 18^th of February it was the mountain bikers of CUCC who found themselves in the unfamiliar position of waking up to race. This peculiar breed of cyclist appears out of the woodwork once a year for the legendary Mountain Bike Varsity. Whilst Cambridge Mountain biking has been a bastion of success in recent years, having won the last 5 men’s and women’s titles, all good things must come to an end. It was Oxford who appeared out of the mist to claim victory.

On this particular morning the heavens were unsteady, tormented as the rain flowed out of the sky, perhaps foreshadowing things to come. The MTBers set off for Frimley, Surrey. Some extra last-minute practice was provided for the drivers on the way down as they were forced to navigate unruly puddles and accidents alike. Upon arrival the focus quickly shifted to reconning the course. Every muddy patch, slick root and sharp corner memorised, the riders headed for the start line.

Oxford and Cambridge fight for position on the start line

Sprint. The riders were off. A 50-meter dash, before the course split into three before a sharp right hander before a drop. The technical course took its toll very quickly with Sam Fitzgerald (Cambridge) slamming on the brakes to take the hard right. Yet, Matthew Coulson, unable to react in time, was forced to grab a handful of front brake, launching himself through the air. This maneuver proved successful for Sam, however, parachuting him up the order into second place. Though it was Oxford’s Max Bolton who started with flying colours opening an early lead over the first climb of the day. As the race progressed Cambridge’s hopes of winning looked ever more strained. Yani Angelo Djelil, of Oxford powered past the podium, taking the lead going into the second lap. Meanwhile, fueled by adrenaline Matthew Coulson fought through the field into second place. Cambridge valiantly fought on, assembling all their ducks into a row from 4^th to 8^th into the last lap. Will Lowden led the Cambridge train to the line, closely followed by Sam Fitzgerald and Ilya Kaysin, but it was not enough to prevent an Oxford 1,2,3.  In the Women’s it was Oxford’s Elizabeth Hayman who sent it from start to finish. A fitting Victory after consecutive podiums. Behind, Oxford’s Freya Butler started strong, however, a silver lining for Cambridge, Charlotte Lampe left everything out on the course and had a late surge to take silver. Abigail Cox rounded out the Cambridge women’s team in 4^th.

Charlotte Lampe storming up a late climb.

Overall, whilst the result may have disappointed all involved should be proud of their performance and spirit, in a race with some of the toughest conditions seen in years. Now sights are set on 2025, where you can be certain of more thrills, more spills, and much more great racing. Come on you Light Blues!

All smiles from both Oxford and Cambridge at the finish.

By Maddie Angwin

BUCS TTT. 5 teams. 1 sketchy course.

I’ll spare the typical details of the inevitably early drive over to Castle Combe and the rubbish weather as they seem to be a staple of CUCC’s racing experience. The course, however, is worthy of some explanation. Tales of its sketchiness proceeded it. We had already heard of Rob Walkers encounter with a bush a few years back and Jack Kellam’s team getting lost twice in the same race, therefore hopes of all our teams surviving to the finish line were low.

Off first for CUCC were the road bike team of Matt Davison, Tim Bodey and Lucas Beighein, wearing an eclectic mix of skinsuits which really showed that style is CUCC’s … forte. Whist Tim Bodey’s pride in his white ‘skinner’ is unparalleled, the team’s time of 56:28 was extremely impressive given their one training session and putting them comfortably near the top of the road bike category.

Up next the ‘low riders’ team of Luke Andrews, Jacob Lewis and Matt Rizzo-Naudi sped round the course in 53:37 and without disassembling Luke’s headset, fixing Jacob’s bike or stopping at the café mid-ride, an impressive feat indeed.

The ‘tall bois’ team of Joe Adlam-Cook, Tom Wade and Harry Weedon put down the watts to get round the course in 50:29. However, Joe decided to take his time on a short magical mystery tour at one of the junctions just to ensure that they got the most from their TTT experience. A great race from the team but unfortunately, they narrowly missed out on the podium, coming 4^th by one second.

On the women’s side the runner (Phoebe Barker) and the rowers (Jo Matthews and Imogen Grant) united to make a team of big hitters. Playing to their strengths they decided to have Phoebe on the front for all the hills, Jo for the downhills and Imogen for the flat sections. Whilst not typical for a TTT this method worked extremely well for them (except for Jo’s brief encounter with the verge) as they came away with a 56:48 and 1^st on the podium!

Setting off three minutes after Oxford’s first team, Miranda “went on a rampage” Clements, Zoe “please Miranda slow” Burrell and Maddie “Ease Miranda, EASE” Angwin put in a strong effort to claim 2^nd with a time of 58:01, making the podium (majority) Cambridge Blue (with an unfortunate but unavoidable tint of Loughborough purple).

The strong performance by Phoebe, Jo and Imogen paired with Joe, Tom and Harry’s wattage gave Cambridge a combined time of 1h47, resulting in Cambridge winning the fastest overall team medal.

It was a great day out. Zero crashes. Three podiums. Twelve medals. Back for Matt and Joes birthday bash.

Despite BUCS being the main goal for most of our riders, CUCC have been dominated open races across the country!

The weekend before BUCS TTT, John Mulvey won the West Suffolk Wheelers & Tri Club sporting 21 mile Time Trial by almost 4 minutes! Also at the race was Hans Verschueren in 16^th. Seb Dickson also fancied a bit of road racing, and won the Paul Simon Homes RR, soloing to the win.

A very aero Seb on his way to victory in the Medway Velo

Whilst we had a few riders in action at the TTT, we had Nick Grogan competing in the Manchester & District TTA 10 Mile TT, coming 51^st in a 25:05. Also in action was Max Vesty at the Harrogate Nova CC 15m TT, recording a 36:07 to come 20^th, whilst Euan Tebbutt came 18^th at the Coalville Wheelers CC 10, in a time of 24:26.

Jack winning the Ilkley CC open 10

The day after, we had six riders in action and recorded two wins! Seb Dickson won the Medway Velo Club 21.9m TT, with a winning margin of 36 seconds, whilst Jack Brown won the Ilkely CC 10 up in Yorkshire, with his 24:12 being over a minute quicker than his nearest rival! Toby Cowell rounded out the Ilkley podium with a 25:20 on a really windy and hilly course, with Max Vesty recording a top 15 too. Rob Walker was down in Wessex, looking to start off a successful defence of his Espoir title at the National TT series. He recorded a strong 5^th overall, and 2^nd Espoir. Away from TTing, John was racing the Wally Gimber Nat B with the Activeedge Race Team, coming 14^th, whilst Women’s Captain Ffion came 6^th at the 1^st round of the National MTB XC Elite Series.

John Mulvey in action at the Chelmer CC Hardriders (photo thanks to Davey Jones)

Anne-Marie Bowring was our sole representative at the 10 put on by the University of Bristol Cycling Club, once again PBing with a 30:06. Lucas He put in a storming performance at the Orwell Velo 20m TT, coming in 2^nd in quite a strong field! We had 4 riders at the Chelmer CC Hardriders just south of Cambridge. Seb was the quickest CUCC rider of the day, coming 3^rd, with John Mulvey in 7^th, Tom Bishop in 26^th and Ben Ferris in 41^st. Jack continued his fine form, taking his 3^rd victory over 10 miles in 2019 at the Stretford Wheelers 10 in Cheshire.

Tom Bishop at the Chelmer CC Hardriders (photo thanks to Davey Jones)

It would appear there’s no better way to spend Mother’s day than with a few TTs! Jack Kellam visited his local ski slope that is the R25/3h in his quest for a PB. He came 8^th in a classically competitive field for the fastest 25 course in the country, and rode a 52:13. James Quigley took a visit to his home club’s event, the City RC (Hull) 15 mile TT, riding a 40:05 with clip ons.

At the Lewis Balyckyi Crit Series in Preston, Will Weatherill recorded his first ever points, with 9^th in the 3/4 race.

Ben Ferris at the Chelmer CC Hardriders (photo thanks to Davey Jones)

Dan O’riordan rode in the Kingston Phoenix RC 10 on the 6^th April, coming 36^th with a 24:02. Also that day saw the on-form Lucas He also PB over 25 miles at the Lea Valley 25 along the E2/25, riding a rapid 50:28.

The very day after the BUCS 10, Rob travelled up to Worcester to ride in the 2^nd round of the Sigma Sport Classic Series, coming 6^th in a strong field, and with some quite tired legs I imagine!

Lucas He on his shiny new P3

A small contingent of CUCC riders also decided to pay homage to the mighty R25/3h, with the 25m Club Record (48:45 set by Michael Hutchinson in 1999) being the goal of the day. It looked like sub-optimal conditions for the course, with the wind facing in the completely wrong direction. Despite the mechanical help of alumni Felix Barker, Seb was 44 seconds late to his start due to an ill-timed puncture, but still recorded a mid 50, with Craig Rogers riding a 52:36 in his first ever 25-mile TT. A straight seed at the end of the event made for some interesting riding, meaning Toby was Jack’s minute man, with the two’s PB being separated by 6 seconds before the race! Also racing was Scott Davies of Team Dimension Data, although his efforts on a training camp in Gran Canaria seemed to have taken their toll. A quite frankly stupid descent gets the course going, with some riders going in excess of 50mph on the skis. At the end of the 25 miles (finishing at the bottom of the big hill), Jack had taken the club record (set when he was just 3 months old) by 24 seconds, recording a 48:21 and also finished 2^nd on the day to Chris Fennell, with Toby also riding home with a 50:16.

Women’s Captain Ffion

Ffion was also in action at the ‘Battle on the Beach’ in South Wales, coming 2^nd despite an unfortunate crash on the first lap, and getting to within touching distance of the race leader near the end!

Next up sees CUCC continuing to race at Open TTs, Road Races and MTB races, before Varsity at the start of term!

After a fairly solid start to the season, with a host of open victories under our belt, we were itching to get started with our 2019 BUCS Time Trial campaign. Hoping to repeat the success from last year (including topping the BUCS cycling table and a national TTT title), we were somewhat confident in continuing our domination. However, the best-laid plans….

Men’s A Team on the start line

Saturday 23^rd March – BUCS TTT

With a host of new talent coming into the club, we had 3 men’s teams and 1 women’s entered to race round the quite rolling 22 mile course in the Cotswold hills. A north-easterly wind meant for some fast conditions, with our course record from 2018 looking under threat, but hopefully only from our A team!

The first bit of bad news came when an unfortunate last-minute virus caused us to have to pull our Women’s team from the event, but we were still hopeful of bringing home a raft of BUCS points regardless.

Our first team off on the day consisted of a squad of freshers (Jack Kellam 1^st year PhD, Lucas He and Toby Antippas both 1st year Natscis). A late arrival meant that they couldn’t recce the course before-hand, meaning the team took two wrong turns, and as a result lost about 90 seconds. Coming home in a still respectable 50:54 in 17^th place, still beating lots of other A teams. Who knows what could’ve been!

The next team off the line was our Men’s B team, consisting of a trio of northerners; ever impressive fresher Craig Rogers (on his lovely Cervelo P3), Men’s Race Captain Jack Brown, and the ever rapid Toby Cowell. Things seemed to be going to plan, but then Toby’s nose decided to spontaneously start bleeding, leading to a very red skinsuit and a load of breathing struggles. They came home in a very creditable 5^th place (only 4 seconds off 4^th) in a time of 47:43, beating all but 4 uni A teams. With a few more years yet to come, it’s looking positive for the future!

After a short briefing to the A team, consisting of veterans Seb Dickson, John Mulvey and joined by President Rob Walker. Our guys were on for a storming time when an unfortunate racing incident from Rob meant we only finished with two riders. Unfortunately, it’s an example of how unpredictable bike racing can be, but we’ll be back again with a vengeance next year!

Seb Dickson, Jack Brown and John Mulvey on the Men’s Team podium

Saturday 6^th April – BUCS 10

Putting a disappointing day behind us from the TTT, we collected ourselves and targeted the next event; BUCS 10. With a load of success at previous editions of this race, we were hoping we could once again go well and get back on top. We had a squad of 12 set out to sunny Oxford, on the 10-mile version of the course than had brought us much success at Varsity last year.

We had a few riders off early doors, with Tom Adams our first rider home in a new PB of 23:29. The ever-keen Anne-Marie Bowring set off just two minutes behind Tom, and also set a new PB of 28:28 (on a road bike with clip-ons!).

Next off came Rob Walker, hoping to set a strong early marker. A 20:44 was recorded, a good time despite a turbulent week of training leading up to the event. After a rapid rise to the very top of the CUCC racing squad, Toby Cowell then set the quickest early time for us, recording a 20:21, showing us that conditions were quite difficult out on the course.

Our very own Welshman Jack Kellam was next off, improving on his previous 10m PB set at Cuppers by over a minute, recording a 21:07. The theme of tropical students then continued, with Flora (hailing from slighty-less-sunny-than-Wales Australia) recording a 25:04. This was narrowly short of coming top-20 overall, but a great ride none the less!

A slight bit of number trouble ensued for Freshers’ TT victor Toby Antippas (pinning number 66 upside down, and only realising 2 minutes before his start), but regardless he came home with a 20:46, also a PB in only his second 10-mile TT! Then came Men’s Race Captain Jack, who after a strong run of form in open events up in Yorkshire, recorded a 19:56, to sit provisional joint 2^nd on the day.

After impressing at the TTT, fresher Craig Rogers did a new PB of a 21:36, coming to the realisation that he much prefers riding uphill and not along dual carriageways. Women’s captain and cyclocross star Ffion James then set a 23:29, which ended up being the 7^th fastest time of the day, not bad considering it was the first ride on the TT bike she borrowed days before!

Only two more CUCC riders were yet to ride, in the ever-ancient pairing of Seb Dickson and John Mulvey. An ill-timed car puncture added even more pressure than normal to Seb, but despite this he brought home the fastest CUCC time of the day with a 19:36, narrowly missing out on the Bronze medal by 4 seconds. John followed behind to record a 19:49, good enough to get 7^th on the day.

At the end of the day, we had Seb, John and Jack bringing home the Team Silver with a combined time of 59:21, agonizingly close to the 59:15 that a strong Nottingham team recorded to win Gold. Flora and Ffion’s combined time got them 5^th Women’s team on the day, gaining CUCC some of those precious BUCS points. 7 of our 12-strong squad also recorded PB’s. Well done all!

The CUCC Squad, L-R
Jack Kellam, Flora Harpley-Green, Ffion James, John Mulvey, Seb Dickson, Jack Brown, Craig Rogers, Toby Cowell, Tom Adams, Toby Antippas, Anne-Marie Bowring

Women’s Results

Men’s Results