Summer women’s round up
Lucy Harris tackling some tough climbs in the Alps
Lucy Havard on her huge tour of East Anglia
Emma enjoying a proper English summer on the Suffolk Coast
Lucy Havard smashed it on her first 25m TT
Elspeth speeding along on her way to a 10m TT PB
Anne-Marie also PBing at her local 10m TT
Ffion’s eager for the XC season to start so she can get back to more of this!
Extraordinary Full Blue awarded to Ffion James
Congratulations to Ffion James (Girton) who has been awarded an extraordinary Full Blue for her magnificent racing efforts whilst at Cambridge.
Alongside her degree in Natural Sciences, whilst at Cambridge Ffion has represented Great Britain multiple times in cyclocross, including at prestigious World Cup events and the European Championships. In the 2019/20 season, Ffion’s most impressive results included winning the elite National Trophy series in cyclocross, as well as finishing 2nd in the U-23 category at the UK National Cross Country Championships, directly behind a multiple world champion.
Whilst representing Cambridge, Ffion won MTB Varsity 2018 (by quite some margin) and led Girton to a huge win at 2019 Cuppers. She was also part of the team that took a magnificent bronze at the 2018 BUCS Team Time Trial championships, and placed 7th at the BUCS 10 Mile championships in 2019 (on a borrowed bike quite a few sizes too big!).
Throughout her time in CUCC, Ffion has also given back a huge amount in her role on the committee, inspiring newcomers to race as the Women’s Captain in 2018/19 and being one half of the fantastic Social Secretary team in 2019/20.
Alas, this recognition of Ffion’s achievements in representing CUCC has come at the very end of her studies, but the club looks forward to following her undoubted success in all the years to come.
Chapeau Ffion!
Lent Term Racing Round-up
With the sun shining relentlessly outside and the roads beautifully dry and clear, CUCC should be celebrating another rampant BUCS campaign and the start of the fair weather race season. Instead, the boredom of being stuck at home has forced some people to insane measures including Everesting attempts, alpine passes on a TT bike – and worst of all – attempting to change a pressfit bottom bracket yourself. So in an attempt to distract from this madness, here’s a long-awaited roundup of CUCC’s racing activity from Lent term before it passes from living memory and into folklore.
Time Trialling
First up was the notorious Ely Hardriders TT, incorporating 25 miles of some of the “most beautiful” countryside the Fens have to offer. Those daft enough to insist on racing this early in the season, however, were spared by the weather gods, as Storm Ciara forced the event to be called off. Quite incredibly the weather still didn’t look as grim as it has done in recent years when its been run!
Next up was the North Road Hardriders just north of London, with an exciting course featuring several U-turns in the road just to keep it interesting. A great showing for CUCC saw Elspeth run away with the women’s event, whilst Rob, Jack B, John, and Jack K came home 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th in the mens’ classification. The three racing first-claim for CUCC – Rob, Jack K and Elspeth – also did well enough to see CUCC take home the team prize.
Elspeth at the start of her winning effort at North Road Hardriders
Then it was down to second-hand car dealer country for the Hainault Hilly 50km in Essex. Another great weekend for the light blues with Jack B in 2nd, Ali in 3rd (despite somehow puncturing in the car on the drive down) and Jack K 4th (including a meaty late start penalty for forgetting his rear light). Dave made his long-awaited bike racing debut, taking a 62-tooth 1x setup to an event with the word “Hilly” in the name, and Andy Salkeld got round with a power PB!
Jack K trying to make up for his late start at Hainault Hilly…
The last weekend of racing before the world went mad featured the West Suffolk Wheelers sporting 21 miler (which Jack won), and also our local 25 on the Lee Valley E1 course. CUCC fielded a strong 7-rider lineup including Euan, Dave, Dan, James Q, along with Ollie Moseley and Tom Bishop. Euan got a cheeky top 10 (5th) and CUCC took the team prize! Dave in particular was thrilled with his ride.
Road racing
The road racing season got going nice and early with some incredibly grim and choppy crits at Hog Hill through Jan and Feb. These saw some CUCC members making their racing debuts, including Anne-Marie, Robbie, Ollie Fox, Alex Bartram and Sam Massey and who all put in some very strong rides! Further mentions go to Ffion and Craig who each won a 2/3/4, and a Will Weatherill-Ollie Fox 1-2 in a 4th cat race.
Next was the start of the actual road races, with the Crest CC road race just outside Cambridge. Very strong rides from Craig and Jack B (ably assisted by a cheeky first lap move from alumnus Toby Parnell) put them in the early break, and Craig stuck it out to take the win! Craig doubled this up a week later with a win at the BRRT Spring Classic, and also netted a phenomenal 2nd at the prestigious Betty Pharoah Nat B.
Finally before the curtains dropped was the Ike Saul memorial, with Jack B getting up the road with (not actually very) recent (any more) alumnus Felix Barker. Felix stuck it out to the finish where he was unfortunate to finish 4th in a 3-up sprint for the line (not a typo).
And that’s pretty much a wrap! Hopefully some more updates to come soon once we can start making the most of the increase in training volume that the current situation has allowed…