March summary/First Race-First Podium

Since returning to England from a mildly warmer Majorca, I've done my first 3 races of the road season, first podium of the road season and my first 2 crashes of the road season.

March was a heavy month for me compared to what I'm used to, but it lead nicely to my first race of the season at Hog Hill on the 2nd of March. I've never really done a full road season before, and have relatively little knowledge of how to race in senior races and finishing at the front so everything i did on this day was pure experimentation. As the race started and progressed i showed my true cyclocross rider panache and spent the vast majority of the race on the front chasing everybody who went away, and if there was nobody away I'd just try and string it out for some reason. In hindsight i can't think of a valid reason why I'd do these things, it's just natural to me...

Photo: Nick White @RubbishJumper

It was really cold, but then which day of 2013 hasn't been? The race wasn't long at all, it was only 36km, so in terms of length it suited me. I felt fresh towards the end of the race so I just tried my best to stay relaxed and wait for the sprint. On one of the final corners though, the rider in front of me clipped a pedal on the floor and nearly lost it which dropped me back a few places. Leading up to the start of the Hoggenberg ascent to the finish, i was sitting in third wheel, ready to jump. I waited for other riders to start their sprint before I risked it, which paid off as i was able to maintain that third and grab my first ever Senior Road Race podium. I think i surprised myself more than anyone else as it's the first time I've done a road race at Hog Hill without being dropped, if this was twitter I'd hashtag 'winning'.

Photo: Nick White @RubbishJumper

After my confidence boost at Hog Hill, i had a tough week at college leading up to my second race trying to get assignments finished and handed in which I did mostly successfully. The said race was the opening round of the Elveden circuit races on the 9th of March. I love this circuit, its held on closed farm road and has a really cool feel to it. The weather on the day was significantly less than dismal. I've done over 5 full cyclocross seasons in my life and NEVER have I been so cold after a race as I was at Elveden. The race was tough for me, I felt able to ride consistently but couldn't get away. I did a few full out digs on the front but never got anywhere. There were a lot of people riding dangerously, and crashes were coming more often than not so given the weather conditions I decided to take a back seat in the sprint finish and just try and finish without crashing.

Photo: Nigel Goodenough (http://www.flickr.com/photos/77900181@N06/)

If only it were that simple. As the bunch was heading down the finish straight at over 55kph, I noticed something odd about a rider a few meters in front of me; his rear wheel was up in the air. I knew then that i was going to crash so I tried to utilise the skills i've garnered through cross to make it as least painful as possible. Soon enough the crash was road-wide and I went into a rider already down, and flipped over the handlebars. Thankfully, and remarkably I was able to get up and roll across the finish line with nothing worse than a sore knee. I did see a few riders on the floor waiting for the on site ambulance to arrive, and I wish them a very speedy recovery.

Photo: Nigel Goodenough (http://www.flickr.com/photos/77900181@N06/)

After Elveden I picked up a patience testing cold and took a week and a half off the bike to try and get race fit again for my third race of the season, which was two days ago on the 29th of March. Leading up to this race I had been training 3 days in a row in a last ditch attempt to get back up to speed and even took my MTB out for a spin in the snow. Did it work? I don't really know. I crashed before the start of the race and picked up my first road rash of the season, and had a twinge in my left knee as a result which made me cautious during the race.

I sat in really comfortably, and surprised myself once again on the infamous Hoggenberg climb each lap, but come the finish i just didn't have anything left. Over the summit of the climb leading into the bell lap I put a small dig in to try and get a small group away. It folded, and I was compensating for that for the remainder of the last lap. I ended up rolling over the line in the bunch.

This has been the coldest spree of races I've done, but thankfully I've got the kind people at Quest Sportswear keeping me kitted out and warm. Watch this space for some exciting stuff regarding my sponsorship from Quest over the next couple of months.

As for my programme now, I've got a really exciting month or two coming up. I'm hopefully racing the Prologue Paris-Roubaix in Compiegne nocturne criterium on the 6th of April (this coming Saturday), and will be jetting off again to Majorca for a weeks training with Pollensa Cycling Amigos on the 20th. I'll be doing my first race in Belgium of the road season in Bredene on the 2nd of June.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to my generous sponsors for keeping me in one piece!

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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.

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