Another season, another blog post...

So, once again, it's been a few months since I've written anything- I'll get good at this eventually, honest!

The last few months have been absolutely hectic, with a fantastic cocktail of training, racing, guiding with Just Pedal, and a new job at Hoops Velo. There have been too many things that I could count as highlights over the last few months, so I'm going to split it into two posts- one about racing, and one about guiding. So here we go...

VC Meudon Ras de Cymru 2014
(L-R) Tom Bowering, Peter Hitt, James Bevan, Albert Ellison

I think the last time I posted something was just before the Ras de Cymru, the five-day stage race in Wales. After a disaster of an individual time trial ("Pace yourself," they said. "You'll go faster," they said), my General Classification chances were scuppered, and I eventually finished 42nd out of 100 starters. I wasn't too happy with that, but considering that in 2013 I couldn't even finish the race I couldn't complain. We finished the week on a high after finishing 4th in the Team General Classification, and two of our riders in the top 20- result!


The upside of my average result at the Ras was an incredible run of form in the following weeks- if anything, it was too good. My first race following the Ras was a Surrey League 2/3 on the notoriously tough Ladies' Mile circuit, and I felt ridiculously strong. I didn't even have to get out of the saddle to ride off the front of the group on the first climb, and ended up riding the first 50km as a time trial. When I was eventually pulled back, I attacked straight away, and was off the front for yet another 30km. After being wound in with 20km to go, I eventually missed the winning break by two bike lengths and had to settle for sixth place.
There was no logic to the way I raced that day, I was just enjoying riding my bike as hard as possible.

After taking 3rd place (from a bunch sprint...) in the next race I entered, I was absolutely determined to get a win. I set my sights on the Surrey League race at Parham Park- a rough circuit with gravel, cattle grids, narrow roads and a reputation for punctures; almost a mini Roubaix.
I put in a few digs on the opening laps, but having been marked as a strong rider by a few teams I wasn't being given much leeway. Eventually I had to ask my teammate Albert to hit the front to catch the breakaway and string out the field- he drilled it on the front of the peloton for a whole lap, and I finally got my chance to go on the offensive. I launched a full on sprint as we crested a climb, and after 6 laps away with Simon McNamara sprinted to my second win of 2014- not bad considering I'd been dropped on that circuit the previous year...

Getting my hands in the air at the finish...

I eventually finished my season on a high after winning a local 25 mile time trial, and repaying Albert for his help at Parham Park by setting him up for a win at the Gravesend Cyclopark. It was tempting to keep racing through November to chase my 1st Cat license, but that's something that can wait until 2015. I've proved to myself a few times this season that I'm heading in the right direction to start winning at a higher level, and hopefully another solid winter of training will put me where I need to be next year.

Thanks to everyone that's made my year what it's been: the management at VC Meudon for giving me another chance after a dismal 2013; my coach, Darrell, for keeping my training on track all year; and last of all, my teammates for another year of laughs and making my results possible.

Cheers guys- time to go and ride my bike in the wet for a few months...

Steep hills, and an even steeper learning curve

With another chunk of the season done and dusted, I figured it was probably time for me to write some stuff. Tada!

The past few weeks have been a steep learning curve for me; having proved to myself that I can comfortably compete for podium positions at a regional level (Cat 2/3 races), I turned my sights to the next step up- E12 races on the National scene. 

As always, throwing myself in at the deep end seemed the best way to go about this new target, and my first Elite race of 2014 was at the South East Road Race League (SERRL) spring stage race. I didn't really have aspirations in the General Classification, so my main objective was to survive the three days- but objectives tend to go out of the window when the racing adrenaline kicks in. That said, so does common sense...

The first road stage was a stark reminder of just how fast Elite racing can be, and it wasn't on the climbs where I was struggling- it was the descents. People often disregard road cycling as a boring, safe alternative to Cross Country or Downhill mountain biking- but descending at over 80 km/h wearing just a thin layer of Lycra, and some puffed up foam on your head for protection is definitely neither boring or safe. Add in that you can't see the road ahead of you because your sight is blocked by some other bloke's arse, and it's downright stupid. I found at pretty quickly that the only way to stay in the bunch is to switch off the bit of your brain that says "no." After that, things got a lot easier.

The rest of the weekend was very much the same- having suffered a mechanical on stage two, I dropped down the GC, but finished with the bunch on every other stage and wound up 33rd of around 60 starters by the end of the three days. Having never completed a stage race before, I was pretty pleased with myself.

With one stage race ticked off, the next was the Condor Three Day in London- three 80km Crit races in three days. With no team support, I knew it would be a tough race; I had to find the balance between controlling the race to a situation that would suit me, and having the legs left to get a result. 

After my bid to win the overall went down the toilet when my breakaway partner on stage two punctured, I went about picking up a few bonus seconds where I could, and eventually finished 11th overall, once again out of around 60 starters. Despite it being a decent result, and clearly a sign of progression, I couldn't help but be slightly disappointed to have finished outside the top 10 when I felt it was a race I could have won. 

On the attack at the Condor Three Day

Back to single day races, and it was time for the Bec CC Road Race down in Kent. I went into the race off the back of a heavy week of training, so I was never expecting much- so when I realised only half of the field made it into the last 60km of the race I was pretty pleased with myself. I eventually got dropped on some super steep climbs with 40km to go, but rode by myself to the finish- that hurt a lot. I think I was actually on track for a top 20 until I turned the wrong way at a junction on the final lap- the marshals had just packed up, and so had my brain. 

Finally, the big target had arrived- the Central Divisional Championships. Having originally planned for and trained for the South East Championships, I received an email two weeks before the event telling me that I lived in the Central region- woops. This meant that once again I would have no team support, and was going into the race having never ridden the course. 

Therefore, the logical thing to do was attack on the first lap. Obviously. Four of us went up the road almost as soon as the neutralised flag came down, and quickly built up a lead- but by the end of lap 5 only two of us were left, and we still had 80km to go. However we still had a three minute advantage over a chasing group, and I was pretty convinced that we could hold on to our lead. However after 120km two riders bridged to us on the hardest part of the course- somehow Henry Latimer held on, but my legs were in pieces. 

Eventually I was forced to pull out- once the adrenaline of being in a winning position had faded, the effects of such a hard race started to take their toll, and I could hardly ride in straight line. However I was seriously pleased with my performance; I'd proved to myself that I could really make a mark on an Elite race. I've had a few people ask why I didn't just sit in and ride to a top 20 at the Divs, and the easiest way to explain my mindset is a quote by the ever invincible Jens Voigt;

"If you go with a break, you can either win or not win. If you don't go for it, you definitely won't win."

In the break at the Divs- my face tells the whole story.

In the breakaways, on the podium...

With my first (slightly short) block of racing out of the way, I can safely say 2014 has got off to a solid start! A few days in Majorca with Just Pedal provided welcome relief from the grim weather in Britain, and helped sharpen me up before my first race of the season.

My race program kicked off properly with the Surrey League race at Dunsfold, with my main objective being to win the morning Cat 3 race, before racing the afternoon Cat 2/3 race in support of my teammates.
However my morning ambitions were brought to a rather sudden stop when I punctured after just an hour of racing. At this point, I was ready to climb in the car and go home- I was pretty annoyed that I could work hard all winter just to have my race ruined by a small stone in my tyre. However a few guys from VC Meudon talked me into signing up for the afternoon race- and it was definitely worth it.
As I didn't have the time or equipment with me to change a tyre on my race bike, I pulled my training bike out of the car and started to warm up on that. It only took me a few seconds to figure out something was wrong- I had changed my position on my race bike while I was out in Majorca, and hadn't had the opportunity to change my training bike to match. After a few minutes tweaking the bike, I got in a speedy warmup and I was ready to race. Then, two and a half hours later, I was crossing the finish line with my hands in the air.
In all honesty, there's not much to write about during the actual race- three riders (including myself) got away, and we just stayed there, always lingering 30-40 seconds ahead of the peloton. It wasn't until the last lap that I really considered we were going to win, and after 100km of riding on the limit there was no way I was finishing second. I clung to Stuart Bettis' (my breakaway partner) wheel on the last kick up to the finish, before putting everything I had into a few pedal strokes to pass him before the line, celebrating with around 60m to go. I was absolutely ecstatic- after the disappointments of 2013, this was exactly how I wanted my year to start.

Taking 2nd place at Hillingdon, sprinting from a 12 man split.

Two more top 10s the following weekend gave me confidence that my fitness was definitely in the right place working towards my next big target- the National TT Series. However, just a few days before the event, my preparations quite literally took a knock when a car drove into the back of me towards the end of a training ride. Over the next 48 hours, my back muscles kept tightening, and although I managed to push through the pain to claim 2nd place in the Beyond Spring Crits, I couldn't repeat the trick in Sunday's time trial. Halfway through, I was forced to sit up as I could no longer sit in the "tuck" position, and after that my average speed just plummeted. I finished a long way down the field, and was absolutely gutted.

However, in a weird way, it's left me even more motivated for my next event, the SERRL Spring Stage Race. I hate to have opportunities taken from me by "bad luck", whether it's puncturing, suffering from injury, or simply missing a winning break in a road race. But from what I've found so far this year, the harder I work, the luckier I seem to get.

Celebrating my first win of 2014 at Dunsfold, after a 100km breakaway.
Photo by www.themomentimages.com

New starts and a cheeky trip to Majorca...

With my winter training almost complete and the new season looming on the near horizon, I figured it was finally time to return to the keyboard and write about what I've been up to- enjoy! 

Having started properly training again at the start of December, I was determined to step up my game and put my poor (and frankly embarrassing) 2013 season behind me. I took up a new, more selfish work ethic- training first, everything else second. Despite the obvious pitfalls of having to skip nights out with friends while they were back from uni, and spending 2 hours in the garage on my turbo trainer on Christmas Day, I was loving it. Progress was immediately obvious from such a regimented routine, and I couldn't wait to get back into racing. However 2013 had the last laugh- on New Year's Eve a car turned across the road in front of me, and I smacked straight into the bonnet at 20mph. 

Thankfully (I can only put it down to dense bones or something like that) I walked/limped/slowly rode away relatively unscathed, albeit slightly shaken up. Crashes then became the theme of the first fortnight of 2014- a pileup at my first round of the Imperial Winter Series (I somehow stayed upright...) meant the race was called off, rapidly followed by two heavy crashes on black ice during training. What did I learn from this? Escape the cold, go to Majorca...

The trip to Majorca had been planned for a while, and it couldn't have come at a better time- while I was gone, the UK was battered by heavy rain and high winds; meanwhile, I was enjoying smooth roads, sunshine and long climbs. 

Majorca is an absolute cyclist paradise, and reminded me just why I love riding my bike- a recovery spin could easily turn into a 3 hour ride around the countryside, just because being on the bike is so enjoyable. The Spanish way of life is fantastic as well; everyone is unbelievably relaxed, and for the whole time I was there I had no run-ins with angry Spanish drivers. 

My favourite aspect of Majorca, though, is the mountains. Whether going up or down, they're incredible- the views are unbelievable, and being able to descend at 75kph without the risk of hitting a pothole is something that just happen in the UK. 

Having put out some of my best training numbers ever, and seeing the sprint finish of a Pro race for the first time at the Challenge Majorca, I came back to the UK absolutely raring to race, and not even shocking weather could put me down. Which was lucky, because that's exactly what we got.

My first race back was at Longcross driver training circuit- a 3.2km loop, with no obstacles or real corners, however a block headwind on the finishing straight would make for challenging racing. The weather changed constantly throughout the race, and I'm pretty sure the only form of precipitation we didn't get was snow. As a result of the inclement weather conditions, a crash involving one of my teammates occurred with a few laps to go. By this point I was riding blind, with spray from other riders covering my glasses- I heard the crash before I saw anything, and moved out of the peloton to keep myself safe. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured, and after a neutralised lap the race was back on. 

As I figured it would, the race came down to a bunch sprint- with my teammate Richard sitting on my wheel, I swung across to the right hand side of the road before winding up my sprint. As I swung over to the left he sped through, narrowly missing out on the win to a Pedal Heaven rider. I hung on for 5th (officially, although I think I was 3rd...), which I was pretty happy with considering the way that the race had finished- I'm not a fan of bunch sprints...

With that out of the way, my next race is at the start of March- but not before another Majorca trip! This time I'll be going with Just Pedal, working as a ride leader. I'm pretty thrilled to be given the opportunity to go back out there, and hope to make the most of it. 

I'm also off to Eastbourne with the VC Meudon RT guys this weekend, which despite the cold and rain should be fun- although I guess that depends on your definition of "fun"...

Anyway, thanks for reading and I shall hopefully write again soon! 

Pete