04/04/2026
March racing round up
With the cycling race season now in full swing March saw several coached athletes get their season underway with a mix of road, crit and time trial racing.
First up Chris Dunn. Chris has worked super hard all winter attempting to build his fitness ready to attack the early season races, despite a little setback in early February Chris has showed some good early season form in the BMCR crit races with a couple of podiums in his age cat. His power is increasing nicely with each successive race and his 2nd best 1 hour power in his last outing. Chris will be the first to acknowledge there are a few technical aspects to focus on, particularly cornering and positioning to stay in contact with any splits in the bunch, power and fitness are just one of many aspects of bike racing. I’m keen to see how this aspect of Chirs’s racing develops over the rest of the season along with his power. Chris’s next race will be on the road, the 1st round of the Percy Stallard series in Lincoln.
Louise Robinson dipped her toe in to see what the form was like with an early season 10 down in Medway, Kent. A solid first outing with first female and fastest ever female on the course. Anyone who knows Louise will tell you she works super hard and the progression looks good ahead of her key target events. One of them being the National Circuit Champs which is being hosted by her own club – Shaftesbury CC. Watch this space.
Oliver Curd now racing for Richardson’s DAS started his season with the Portsdown Classic back in February, I think he did too much work too soon in that race and ultimately, he missed the decisive move. That said he put out some very good numbers which was encouraging for the races that followed. And with that Olly put in a stellar performance in the 42nd edition of the Jock Wadley, winning from a bunch sprint and his first National B win. This despite not having the best winter, largely due to illness Olly has a bundle of natural talent and that shows as he still managed to win a local prestigious race which is notoriously hard. The race typically attracts some of the best domestic riders looking for an early season result. Olly has his sights set high this year following his move with the focus being National A’s and some stage racing.
Charlie Crawt, is someone else who has been working diligently over the winter in preparation for the 2026 season. The Jock Wadley didn’t quite pan out how he would have liked, let’s just say trying to race that event and needing the toilet is far from ideal. The Walley Gimber a couple of weeks later resulted in not one but two punctures. He chased back on after the first puncture which is testament to his strength but by the second time the neutral service has run out of wheels. Kennel Hill would surely be mechanical and incident free, and so it was although this race really does test where that early season form is. Despite not making the final selection Charlie still had a good performance and to finish in the top half is still a very good result, with many other riders being pulled or dropping out.
Will Barham. A little over a year ago Will had a nasty crash whilst he was in France, getting taken out by a car driver no less. With 3 months off the bike Will has largely been on the comeback trail for the best part of 2025. A lot of hard work has been done over the winter, and Will has made some very good progress, to the point he is now in better shape than before the crash. Will had a good outing at the Jock Wadley P44 in what was effectively a strong 80 rider field. I’m expecting a good result soon as he continues to improve.
Lisa Hurrell took part in both the Maldon and Hainault Hilly TT’s. These are testing courses which require, pacing, power and pretty good bike handling to get the most out of yourself. Despite being a little disappointed with her result in the Maldon event a week later Lisa set a course PB at the Hainault Hilly to really kick start her season.
Marc and Phil Brant also took part in the Maldon and Hainault Hilly TT’s. Unfortunately, Phil punctured at the Maldon but put in a great follow up performance at the Hainault event. Marc had two solid outings, despite going wrong at the Maldon he set a course PB by nearly 40 seconds. The Hainault didn’t’ unfortunately result in another PB but given Marc’s primary focus is a half ironman later in the year it’s hard to excel at one discipline when you are working on two others.
David Carey started his season with the Lea Valley 25, and by his own admission was a little disappointed with this performance. Several factors played into this. A hard day at work the day before, paced the effort too conservatively, at least that’s my opinion and did it on the wrong bike, not his proper race bike?
Two weeks later he’s setting a course PB on the Maldon Hilly TT and then another solid performance in the Hainault Hilly with far better power numbers and speed.
One thing I’ve noticed, and I think Dave would acknowledge this is that his ability to sustain and lift his effort towards the end a TT has improved. I put this down to the increase in volume but in particular the long ride – 3+ hours which Dave would historically shy away from.
There’s always something to be learned from your racing, usually more so when the result is less than optimal.
As I still race myself it’s a helpful reminder how important it is to not only have the fitness but also the right thought processes and tactical awareness to realise that fitness potential into some kind of result, or at the very least a performance you can be happy with.
It’s easier for me to elaborate from my own perspective so here are my thoughts from the races I’ve taken part in during March
Jock Wadley – This is always a hard race being an early season opener with everyone super keen. It’s not my favourite circuit but racing here helps give a good indication if your winter has been productive, in that if I can get round without being dropped and I finish quite strongly without flopping over the line.
I felt pretty good in this race and put in a few efforts to test where I was at.
However, with it eventually coming down to a bunch sprint I held back on the assumption that I know I’m not in any way a sprinter. That said the takeaway from this one is that after 3 hours of hard racing you can still end up in a good finishing position with a mediocre sprint. If only I’d have been a bit further up the bunch I think I could have been at least 10 places higher as I felt like I was gaining on most riders toward the finish line. Final one min power over 500w which after 3 hours of hard racing I was quite pleased with from these old legs. Ending up P33, 10 places higher than last year.
Key takeaway – Back yourself always.
Walley Gimber – I’ve never actually done this race, but I’ve heard a lot about it and generally it’s considered to be a tough course which does a lot of damage. With that in my mind I approached this race with the intention to keep as much powder dry as possible for the first half. However, in the end I was far too conservative in this race thinking the course was harder than it was, in the main bunch it was quite comfortable and in hindsight that should have been the signal to push on which some did and were rewarded for their efforts
I felt I had good legs on this day but didn’t put them to the test early enough. I was quite annoyed with myself as usually I’m quite aggressive and didn’t race with my usual instinct. I ended up coming in with what was left of the main bunch – P36.
Key takeaway – follow your natural instinct and be prepared to alter
the strategy mid race.
Kennel Hill Classic, I was really looking forward to this race having raced it the first time the previous year. It’s a hard course with nearly 5000ft of elevation over the 121k race distance. It’s a great location right next to Goodwood racecourse.
This was going to be a hard race regardless of how the race played out tactically. The hill really does the damage on this circuit.
I was far more assertive in this race but despite this didn’t end up making the final selection. Instead, me and the rest of what remained of the bunch got gapped as we crested the hill at the start of lap 5 of the 7-lap race.
I was trying to keep those ahead in relatively close contact whilst also trying to go for a bottle. In hindsight i should have gone super deep and not bothered with the bottle. My thinking at the time was that with the number of riders we still had we would work to bridge what was a 10-15s gap. But at this point many of the fuel tanks were clearly empty and no one was interested.
So, myself, Charlie C and one other rider extracted ourselves from what was left of the bunch in the hope we might get across. But alas no joy. That said we didn’t get pulled from the race and I’d like to think we finished strongly.
P29 for me and P31 for Charlie.
Key Takeaway – If in doubt get across to the break, get the bottle next lap.
Good luck to everyone for the rest of the season and I look forward to see what everyone can do in April and beyond.
