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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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….

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!

Pos	Name	Team	Time
5	Jack Brown Toby Cowell Craig Rogers	Uni of Cam B	47:43
17	Toby Antippas Lucas He Jack Kellam	Uni of Cam C	50:54
DNF	Seb Dickson John Mulvey Rob Walker	Uni of Cam A	(49:52)

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!

 

Women’s Results

Pos	Name	Time
7	Ffion James	23:29 (pb)
23	Flora Harpley-Green	25:04 (pb)
43	Anne-Marie Bowring	28:28 (pb)

Men’s Results

 

Pos	Name	Time
4	Seb Dickson	19:36
7	John Mulvey	19:49
8=	Jack Brown	19:56
18	Toby Cowell	20:21
27	Rob Walker	20:44
28	Toby Antippas	20:46 (pb)
34	Jack Kellam	21:07 (pb)
45	Craig Rogers	21:36 (pb)
69	Tom Adams	23:29 (pb)