Ben Simmons Blog: Revolution & Mallory Park National Trophy

15th November

Revolution Track Race – Manchester Velodrome

I was asked to help out at the Revolution track race as a Coach/Team Manager along side Kyleigh Manners for Team Slicks. Team Slicks were predominantly Welsh riders apart from Team Captain Craig McClean and one of the Yates brothers.

Team Slicks:

Elite Riders:
Craig McClean (Captain)
Luke Rowe
Sam Harrison
Yates Brother

Future Stars:
Owain Doull
Matt Cross
Robbie Westwood
Amy Hill
Amy Roberts
Rebecca Hunt

We had a strong team and had a good chance of wining the overall team classification.

We had our own allocated area with complimentary energy products and team jerseys, this was where the riders made there home for the night. The racing kicked off with a motor paced scratch race for the senior riders and Luke Rowe scored our first lot of points by finishing 5th.

The next 3 races saw 3 wins by Amy Roberts, Owain Doull and Craig McClean that put Team Slick in to the lead in the overall team competition. For the rest of the night all our rider performed perfectly to score points in every event to which eventually put us in to second place at the end of the night. Owain Doull is now leading the Future Stars individual competition so a very good nights racing for team slicks.

I am now looking forward to the next one in two weeks time where I think we will perform even better and be looking to win the Team Competition for the Overall Series as well as the individual classes.

Photos from the event

16th November

National Trophy Cyclo-cross – Mallory Park

After a long night on my feet at the Revolution, my late night McDonalds and not arriving in my hotel room until 1.30am I finally got my head down to sleep (Note: bad preparation for a race). I arrived at Mallory Park early raring to go the following morning and had a quick look at the course before going out for a two hour spin on the road. The course was very muddy and included lots of off camber grass banks to negotiate but with the weather being dry and windy the course started to dry up. By the time it got to my race the mud was more of a thick clay like consistency, this soon clogged your bike up within half a lap and was the culprit for over 50+ rear mechs/hangers being ripped off bikes. Fortunately I had two bikes to swap between each lap and a super pit crew who had a petrol pressure washer so I had a clean bike when ever I needed it.

My race started fast up a gravel track before hitting the grass sections, I didn’t have a great start but I didn’t have a bad start. By the time we had done half a lap people had already lost their mechs and were running, I kept ploughing through the mud and was inside the top 20. With me being light and having good technical ability the course suited me as I could float over the mud so to speak. By the half way mark I had been changing bike regularly and riding strong slowly picking off riders as they faded. By the last lap I was in a battle to hold off some closing opposition and chasing a rider at the same time. The last few hundred metres came down to a long sprint which I one giving me a finishing position of 15th.

This is one of my strongest rides of the cross season so far and I think this is because the way I have adapted my training to a quality rather than quantity philosophy. Also with the weather now being typical cross weather it is suiting my riding capabilities and am looking forward to the rest of the cross season!

Ben