Overdue Update

So... I think I've left too long between posts to detail every race and venture I've had so while I'm sitting in my hotel room in Majorca; I'll summarise what's been going on since September...

Well, I've had a whole cross season, that's what's been going on! I've had seven wins in the Junior eastern league, and won the overall as a first year which I'm mega happy with, and I've had a handful of podium places in the Senior races which has given me a needed confidence boost for next season. As far as National races have gone; I've been disappointed. In the week run up to the first round in Abergavenny I ended up in hospital in Belgium after a really heavy crash at Ruddervoorde Superprestige in Belgium and didn't ride between then and Abergavenny. Despite that, i finished 8th, and 3rd first year so realistically it was a good result. After that i became quite ill, and due to not really letting myself recover properly, i spent most of my time from the start of October until December trying to compensate for lost training and worked myself into a bottomless pit of fatigue. 

In that fatigue though I raced for the Rapha/Great Britain Development team at the final round of the Rapha Supercross series at Alexandra Palace in London. It was a great experience and I can't thank Konrad Manning at Rapha enough for sorting it out for our team and providing us with race and warm up kit. 

Still, during that dismal 2 and a half month period, I managed another 8th and 9th at national trophy races where i was also 3rd first year in both. In mid December i took some time to really recover and try to salvage a decent ride at the National Championships at Bradford in January. January came, and it all seemed to pay off. I got a great start and was sitting comfortably in the top 5 when the thing which can pretty much sum up my season perfectly happened; i crashed. I lost my front wheel on a descent and while i was on the floor another rider went into my back and my kidneys were hurting quite a bit. When i eventually got back up, I was in 13th. The last bit of the race was a huge case of just making the best of a bad job. I finished 10th in the end, again not happy but realistically a decent result. 

Something that did brighten my season up however was a package from Quest Sportswear, the manufacturers of my Team Custom Kit, who sent me a few bits of their own kit to keep me comfortable training through the winter. 

I've had a couple of weeks off since the Nationals, which is lucky as the weather has been bloody dreadful, and have now started training for the road season with a week here in Alcúdia with my team thanks to our sponsor Pollensa Cycling Amigos (PCA). I flew out yesterday from Stanstead pretty early which has left me for dead as I'm bad at waking up and doing things within the following few hours. The flight went pretty quick for me, although I'm not sure the lady next to me is able to say the same because i spent a large majority of the flight laughing at the film 'Step Brothers'. I'm fond of travelling by myself, it's more hassle-free than travelling with my family as collectively, we're much like a herd of Zebras; we're bad at going to airports and trying to get on a plane. 

I'm planning on doing a road season from March until late June where it'll get a bit hit and miss, as I'm planning on heading off for another training period to prepare for the Cyclocross season. 

So far Majorca has been great, I have a two-person room in a four star hotel all to myself. I feel like the boy from Home Alone. The weather is better than England, but it's still a bit nippy and really windy. One thing i can't fathom though; why do shops here seem to sell shaving foam, but no razors?

A huge thanks to those who has supported me and those who have made this season possible;

-Ciclos Uno 

-Pollensa Cycling Amigos

-Windwave/Colnago

-Quest Sportswear

-Ivan Burch

-Kevin and Roger Barker

-Paul Sparks

-Helen and Stefan Wyman

Follow me on Twitter: @seanmdunlea

Another win!

I went crazy the other night and had a Nandos with my new college buddies. Toffee frozen yogurt and Coke isn't that great FYI.

I'm going to start this post a bit differently to normal, upon request of Mrs Wyman... 

Since my my last post about my first race and first win of the season, a lot has happened! I started at Writtle College, studying Sport, Fitness, and Development, I went on a bloomin' tough training weekend in Derbyshire, and I've won another race... As well as seeing my first real 'Cat Lady' on one of my rides into college every morning. 

Riding into college has opened my eyes to a lot of things really, as well as opening up my legs for a lot more abuse in the evenings. I've realised how peaceful it can be early in the morning, how much the cold air wakes you up... And how people *love* to stop and chat with each other in ludicrously stupid places like footbridges, gateways, and yep; bike paths. On a different note altogether, the 'cross season is here, which means I won't be able to go out to parties, or pretty much any other social event that occurs in the evenings leading up to races. I don't think they understand why I'm missing said events in order to ride (hopefully fast) around cold, muddy fields. But that's commitment I guess, and it sorts the real cyclists from the weekend warriors. 

I'm struggling with writing about my life, sorry Helen. So here's my take on my last couple of races:

On the 15th I did the opening round of the Wessex league. The course was hard and the heat was unrelenting. There were some pretty good riders there in my race, Matt Hargroves and a few of his team-mates, so I was hoping to do a good ride to get a look at where abouts I am in terms of national junior levels. I was gridded 2nd row, pretty good considering I'm a completely unranked rider in the Wessex league. 

Seeing as it was still early season I wasn't expecting fireworks, but to say I rode sh..Crap is an understatement. After the re-start (which occurred after the start loop was a bit hard to follow), I got into about 4th, and steadily worked my way back to 9th overall by the end of the race. I had a couple of lie downs on the course, and my legs felt unusable. I finished in 9th senior, and 4th junior, which wasn't really too bad I suppose!

The day after (16th), was my home race at Springfield park. Literally within 500 meters of my house. I know that because it's so close, that my strava record of my training lap won't show up correctly because it was within my 500 meter privacy zone. The course there suits me anyway, it's so euro in the way it's all watchable from one point, and it's FAST. The three sets of stairs a lap adds to list of good things to say about this course (Which my team, Ciclos Uno pioneered in 2007).

I got front row gridding, and from the gun I was in the top 3 with Tim Guy (Iceni Velo) and Canadian Hayden Wood. For the first 15 minutes of the race it was all so compact, the first 10 riders were all strung out in a line, so we put the power on and narrowed it down to us 3 leading, with Paul Sheers (ViCiOUS VELO) dangling on to the back of us. About midway through the race, Tim made a huge effort and put a gap between us and Paul which would grow to over a minute by the end of the race. 

In the final 200 meters or so of the last lap, I let Haydens and Tims attacks go, and rolled over the line as third placed Senior rider, and first Junior, 14 seconds down on the Hayden, who won. Felt pretty chuffed with myself. 

I've got a pretty busy couple of months coming up, Superprestiges, National Series, Rapha Supercrosses, and hopefully European Championships. As per usual, thanks to Trevor, Ewan and Jane at Ciclos Uno, and Windwave for the support, which I couldn't do without! 

A bien tot.

(See 'Media' page)

First year, first race, first win.

Yesterday was my first race of the 2012/2013 'cross season. This season I've moved up an age category into the Junior U18 category, which opens up so many opportunities like national selection, UCI points and so on. I was pretty nervous going into the race yesterday as mainly it was my first race back, but also because I'd be the youngest in the race once again, as the Eastern League puts Juniors in with the Seniors. I was also pretty cautious about another Junior rider, a second year, Cameron Toms, as he'd beaten me when we raced together in the U16 category a couple of years ago. 

The course was tough, unrelenting with the number of short, sharp hills that it featured; not exactly a cross course but hard nonetheless. When the gridding was called, the first row was filled with the normal big hitters of the league, one being Cameron. I was awaiting my gridding, before being told that as I'm a first year I wouldn't be gridded, and must start at the back, surprisingly.

From the start I was hell bent on getting to the front of the race, which I did so surprisingly quickly and smoothly. I got into about 9th/10th place overall, with Cameron in my sights and made a swift effort to get on to his wheel. I recovered a bit before attacking again, and getting away from him and the remainder of the group, putting me in about 6th place. On the third lap i suffered a puncture, an impressive one at that, but thankfully didn't lose much time. After retrieving my new bike I settled in with a few remaining riders from a previous group, which soon whittled itself down so it was only me and Paul Sheers of ViCiOUS VELO. 

On the last lap I made an attack and managed to stay away from Paul to take 7th place in the Seniors race, and to win the Juniors race. 

Until mid October, my race schedule looks like this;-

16/09/12 - Eastern League 2, Springfield Chelmsford

29/09/12 - Eastern League 3, Ashwell

07/10/12 - Superprestige 1, Ruddervoorde, Belgium

14/10/12 - British National Series 1, Abergavenny, Wales

Thanks to Ciclos Uno and Windwave for their support.

Ciao.