My next outing between the tape was to Round 11 at the legendary, but no less wet and muddy, Herne Hill Velodrome in SE London a blissful 10 minute cycle from my house. OK, so you don’t ride on the fabled banking, except down it to connect two horrifically muddy sections, but you definitely feel special and connected to the illustrious history of British cycling when you race there. Read More→

Adrenaline, alcohol and love make you say and do (or at least promise to) some pretty daft stuff. Just think about how this trinity of influences has changed the direction of your life over the years, for better or worse. Maybe the scars on your body are the result of amorous encounters but it’s more likely they’re from crashing bikes or doing bonkers stuff on the way home from the pub. Read More→

After a slightly disappointing National Championships weekend, where an early crash dashed my hopes of a top 20 placing, my cyclocross mojo has been restored by my first weekend double!

An icy trip to Bury St Edmunds on Saturday was rewarded by a hard-fought win in the final round of the Elmy Eastern League, where a snowy and undulating course created all sorts of problems for the unwary. My early lead was quickly wiped out by a 2nd lap crash and subsequent mechanical, but I managed to get back to the leaders and eventually shook off a strong challenge by Ross Tricker of XRT-Elmy Cycles to take first place, my third win in the Eastern series. Read More→

The run up to Christmas is always a busy time, but this year has been especially hectic. I’m an artist as well as a cyclo-crosser and, with exhibitions to arrange and paintings to finish and frame, there hasn’t been much time to get out on my bike over the last couple of weeks. The enforced break seems to have suited me though, as Sunday saw my first win since the end of September, when I travelled to Hillingdon for Round 9 of the Central League. Read More→

The mud-fest continues, this time at the 2012 East and South East Regional Championships, staged at Bethlem Royal Hospital in Kent, where the recent rain had turned large chunks of the course into a wheel-sucking swamp. This was my first Regional Championships, and I badly wanted to ride well, but I had my doubts… Read More→

Lining up at round 3 of the Rapha Supercross event at London’s Ally Pally I searched for a reference point to make it somehow familiar and vaguely interesting. In terms of scale it was like a World Cup with an estimated 6000 people turning up to watch God knows what but that’s as far as I got with comparisons to MTB. Read More→

I headed up to Bedford on Sunday to give my new Major Jake a first run out in the Central Cyclo Cross League. After a quick warm up on my Jake the Snake (now having a well-earned rest as my spare bike) I went for a blast on the Major Jake and immediately felt the difference; It just felt so sharp and quick, even in all that mud… Read More→