by Freya Taylor

Following on from promising performances in the hill climbs and track early in the year, the CUCC women hit their stride with the time trials and road races later in the year.

First up was the team time trial, held near Bath at Castle Combe circuit. For the first time, CUCC fielded 3 womens’ teams, more than any other university. Our womens’ 1st team of Sannah, Tegan and Freya T stormed to a bronze medal against fierce competition. The womens’ second and third teams both performed admirably, beating multiple universities’ first teams to set impressive times.

The annual 25 mile time trial, held on home roads was also a success for Cambridge women. Flo Studdert-Kennedy, after a switch from her usual mountain bike set up, took a brilliant bronze in the road bike category in 1:13. In the TT category, Freya T (8th), Freya S (13th), Nina (14th), Susanne (16th), and Tegan (19th) rounded out a solid set of results on the day. The 10 mile time trial followed, again bringing more medals for CUCC women. Lottie Gill, in 25:33, was awarded a gold medal in the road bike category, while Lucy and Freya T together took bronze in the women’s TT team category.

The final BUCS events of the year were the crit and the road race. Our only competitor in the crit was Lucy, who faced a long and flat race down in Devon, walking away with a very respectable 5th place. Her form continued into the road race the next day, where she and Freya T faced an attritional circuit and, despite some drama, took 6th and 12th respectively.

by Tom Hale

It was a crisp Sunday morning in March; there was a strong breeze and sapphire sky over Castle Combe race circuit. The rapturous beauty of the landscape was abruptly shattered, however, by the arrival of two CUCC extra-long wheelbase vans, two cars, and Will Dad’s Land Rover. After long deliberations on tactics followed by a brisk recce of the circuit, the men’s first team (Will Lowden, Tom Hale, and Mantas Baksys) were off. With Loughborough’s coach and his iPad cheering them on (or maybe he was timing them… we’ll never know), the boys set a blisteringly fast first three laps. However, like RAAC concrete, the cracks soon began to appear. The carefully drafted (pardon the pun) plan of action was soon out the window, or more accurately, blown away by the crosswinds. Could they hang on to a podium finish? The answer, ultimately no: only a minute separated the top four teams with the CUCCs at the frustrating end of this, only 5 seconds off third. However, the second (Sam Kimber, Cobi Allen, and Arthur Morris) and third (Jamie Maxen, Evan Burgess, and Sam Fitzgerald) teams both put in big shifts to secure three CUCC spots in the top 10, which even Jamie’s rubbing rear wheel could not prevent.

The Rumble in the Jungle, the Lionesses Euros Final, Greg LeMond. Everyone loves a good comeback story. Would Sunday 6th April be the day that the four spectators on the side of the A1304 witness another inductee into this catalogue of epic resurgences? Could the CUCCs bounce back from their agonising fourth place at BUCS TTT and take on the giants of Loughborough, Nottingham, and Oxford in the BUCS 25 mile TT? Everything looked golden when CUCC’s Will Lowden caught his minute man and avid BUCS medal collector Matt Coulson on the first lap. Indeed, Will’s seriously impressive 49:57 was enough to win individual gold by well over a minute! Tom Hale and Mantas Baksys made up the rest of the CUCC first team, separated by only 1 second on the day. This was enough for CUCC to bag team silver, beaten only by Oxford who therefore took home the men’s Varsity trophy. The CUCCs, however, were not finished yet… Having heard rumours that BUCS now do a road bike category, George Spooner had been allured back to Cambridge for a PhD. The many late evenings in the lab were not for nothing – George out-aero’d the rest of the field to deservedly win gold, with Ben Proctor putting in a shift for bronze.

History has a funny way of repeating itself; this time, we only had to wait three weeks. BUCS 10 mile TT panned out in much the same way as BUCS 25 (minus the car crash). Like a lion and its prey, nothing could get between Will and his individual gold medal, not even the horse on the course. After a last-minute realisation that having a GatorSkin counteracts the aero benefit of the club disc wheel, Tom Hale and Evan Burgess completed the rest of the team who took home the team silver. El Presidente, with his CDA of a 50p coin, capped off the day by powering to silver in the road bike category.

Sad that the BUCS TT season was now over and he’d now be forced to ride a road bike, Will began preparations for the BUCS Road Race weekend by modifying his Boardman TT bike until it would just about pass as a road bike. The AirBnB was booked, chains and legs waxed, and Di2 uncharged. A five-hour drive later, the team were in Devon staring longingly at the inviting waters of the hotel swimming pool, their stomachs full of Will’s mum’s delicious homemade bolognaise. Before they could even dip their toes in, however, there was business to do. First on the agenda, the crit. With three riders up the road in an early break at RNAS Merryfield, there were several attacks out of the bunch, but nothing would stick until Jamie snuck away in the last lap to bag fourth. Just behind, George secured the bunch sprint W for sixth.

A long sleep and obscene amount of food later, the boys were back on the start line for the road race. The first few kilometres were nervy and saw several casualties, including Will and Tom’s aero water bottles, Will’s bike computer, and a rider from Bath, to whom we wish all the best. Will soon found himself in the 8-man breakaway but just as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared: a dropped chain (and no, he wasn’t riding SRAM, there were just that many potholes). Back in the bunch Will found his four fellow CUCCs, but not for long … an unlucky puncture and dropped chain at the start of the second and final lap reduced Cobi and Jamie to the grupetto. With CUCC’s hopes now resting on the shoulders of Will, George, and Tom, could they pull off a miracle? For a few minutes, they were allowed to hope; Tom had made it into a chasing group of three with 15 km to go. Cramp – 6 km out. It was now George’s turn to give it a whack … and whack it he did. Riding away from the bunch on the final uphill, George secured the final top 10 spot remaining after the break and two-man chase, with Will just behind in 15th.

Altogether then, 2024-25 was a season CUCC can be proud of, not just because of the medals won (let’s forget about BUCS track): the depth of participation, type 2 fun, and banter on the roadside mean it most certainly does not suck to CUCC.

by Will Lowden

The 2024 British Universities Road Race Championships took place in South Yorkshire on Sunday the 19^th of May, with racing held around the Upper Denby circuit; an 8.3-mile loop with and undulating parcours involving 190m of elevation per lap, 140m of which was undertaken in a single climb. [Insert joke about Cambridge being flat]

With the women’s racing starting early, a strong gang of 9 CUCCers set out the Saturday afternoon before the race, wending their way northward toward Shefield to stay the night in a rather classy Airbnb (Thank you Lucy), located around a 30-minute drive from the race HQ. The evening meal involved the traditional carb loading of pasta, followed soon after by classic bedtime activities, such as; comparing cassette sizes, tasting your friend’s carb drink mix, and musical renditions of Northern classics, including ‘Hendos, ‘Oyl int road’ and ‘No oven no pie’.

The day of the race dawned bright and sunny and, with breakfast at 6:30, our female racers (and Will) set off at 7 to the race HQ for the women’s race roll-out at 9. Bravely, the men decided to lie in till later. Navigation appeared to be the first university challenge of the day with which to test the brains of Cambridge, with Sannah and Lucy initially driving to the previous year’s race HQ. Thankfully, the second team of Phoebe and Will passed the test – it turns out that vet placements are also handy for learning how to use google maps!

At 9am, the Women’s 26 rider strong peloton rolled out and, facing 6.5 laps (90km) of the challenging Denby circuit in the heat, the racing started conservatively. Over the next 4 laps, the peloton was slowly thinned out however, all the Cambridge racers remained in the mix. With 2 laps to go, Jessett (Loughborough) and Bond (Shefield) attacked, breaking clear of the main group. A chase ensued, and the resultant hot pace set simmered the bunch down to just 12, with strong riding from Phoebe, Sannah and Lucy ensuring they made the cut. Over the course of the next lap, the breakaway lead climbed to 1.5 minutes and with such a margin, the positions of first and second seemed unassailable; it was now a race for third place. The final kilometre of the circuit involved a cheeky kick to the line, averaging 5% in the final 300m. Phoebe put in an excellent final effort, providing a lead-out for Sannah prior to the final sprint for the line and, after a fast and exhilarating sprint, the CUCC results consisted of 4^th place for Sannah, followed by 13^th for Phoebe and 14^th for Lucy. Great results all round and special a congrats to Phoebe for smashing her first road race! However, the celebrations would have to wait as it was now the turn of the CUCC men to race…

The men’s race took place on the same circuit, this time tackling 9.5 laps (133km) and involving a larger bunch, at 78 riders. Following the roll-out at 2pm, with almost 2000m of climbing on the cards, the racing obviously started conservatively at full gas from the flag, with riders jostling for position before the first 90-degree bend into a 13% kicker. Sensibly, most CUCC riders remained within the relative calm of the fold except for Will, who decided to control the race from the front. Two riders attempted to ride clear, but this was not helpful to ‘l’objectif’ and was quickly closed down. The pace remained high at >45kph for the next 15 kilometres, before a break formed off the front, consisting of five riders including Lowden. The quintet worked well together and by half a lap, had established a gap of 30 seconds, eventually rising to over 3 minutes by lap 5. Meanwhile in the peloton behind, the atmosphere was as tense as a brewing summer storm cloud and, with pacing as mercurial as the air masses which encompass those towering colossus, many riders were inevitably caught out in the emerging splits. With the pace in the peloton remaining high, it was a curious choice of time indeed for Joe ‘tubular’ AC to test his tyres against a pothole. The pothole won.

After lap six, four riders launched an attack off the front of the peloton, attempting to bridge to the group of (now four) riders further up the road, reducing the deficit to just 30 seconds by the bell. With 3 km to go, the two groups merged, and an attack was launched up the final climb by Hurdle, with Morgan, Smith, and Lowden quick to join. The finishing 500m came down to a four-way battle, with Smith launching an early sprint, followed by Morgan, who came around to claim the win, leaving Smith second and Lowden third. The racing behind continued, with the peloton now divided into multiple gruppettos strung out along the course; mulppettos, if you will. Both Matt Rizzo and Joe AC put on a solid show, placing 12^th and 15^th respectively and Tom Wade pulled out all the stops to finish just inside the time cut in 31^st. Unfortunately, both Tom Hale and Craig were caught the wrong side of the split, resulting in a ride on the broom waggon.

All in all, a successful weekend away racing, leaving the woes of exam season behind. Much fun was had by all, despite the hard racing, and the team came away raring to go for the summer of racing ahead!

The full results for the BUCS 2024 road race championships are available here