Oliver Smee

Aspiring Professional Cyclist • Cycling Coach

[oliversmee]

Coaching is GO!

Finally got round to properly setting myself up as a cycling coach. After my time at Writtle so far, I’ve decided it is what I want to pursue and after my time as a competitive cyclist, focus all my energy on and turn into my full time job!

I love the science of training, how the body reacts to training at different intensities, the unknowns of what causes fatigue and how to balance it. I’ve always been overly obsessive about my own training (which is why I don’t coach myself!).

Being able to nurture other riders talent and help people climb that hard ladder of reaching their ultimate goal really does fill me with purpose. It makes me proud when I see a rider working hard and completing workouts, and finding the motivation to work hard for the goal even when life gets in the way.

If you’re interested in knowing how coaching could benefit you or would like a general chat, get in touch with me at [email protected] or head over to my facebook at www.facebook.com/osmeecyclingperformance and check out my website http://www.cyclingperformancecoaching.co.uk/.

Exciting times ahead, fully in to proper training and buzzing for 2019 with CSCA Propete 200 en France. 

[oliversmee]

Back into training, 2019 plans & my hack for this winter!

Hello all! 

I’ll start off with a summary of what i’ve been up to since my off season break... I finished my season on 30th September at the Writtle OnForm road race with what was probably the best riding i’ve ever done in a race (although not the best result). I’ve been trying to crack the code to the breakaway all year but been pretty unsuccessful in getting anything to stick and end up the way I wanted. However this day was different, bridging to a good move that went in the first 5km I ended up riding all day in the break. 

Unfortunately I probably did a little to much work and didn’t have any legs to follow the winner in the last few hundred meters, but I was pretty glad to finish ahead of the bunch and end my season on a high.

I had two weeks off the bike after that (well, i rode a bit but only a little i promise!). After which I was mega keen to get training again. Me and a mate they call Jimmy the Blade decided to ride from York to Edinburgh over three days, stopping in hostels on the way and taking a route which took us through the best of the north pennines and northumberland, before crossing the scottish border and descending in to Edinburgh. 

Day 1 was York > Langdon Beck Youth Hostel. A day of constant headwind and a lot of climbing in the second half, you can see the Strava here. 

Day 2 was Langdon Beck > Wooler, a sleepy town just before the scottish boarder. I particularly enjoyed this day, northumberland is the most beautiful place i’ve ever ridden, so will definitely be revisiting! Strava here, and not to mention a quick catch up with the one and only Jobber on route!

Day 3 was Wooler > Edinburgh. When we set off I decided that technically, as Wooler was of higher elevation than Edinburgh, it must be all downhill that day, right? Wrong. We climbed over the moors and past Whiteadder Reservoir (including me having a funny moment and having to stop to down a packet of refreshers, much to James’s amusement) before descending into Edinburgh. that downhill was the only time I made friends with my 25kg bike with panniers. Strava here. 

Touring wasn’t really how I expected it to be, probably because I spent the majority of the time being halfwheeled by James, or sat staring at his activated glutes (in joke). But after spending 15hrs riding with panniers, I now have a lot of respect for those who choose to tour with them often, they’re a handful! 

I knew James pretty well from racing with him in 2017 at the Tour of Sussex, but I felt like I got to know him a lot better on this trip - what a guy he is. Never have I met a guy who would halfwheel me and put me in a box every day, but be such a legend and general nice guy that I couldn’t be mad at him! Hopefully we will plan another trip before we both leave the UK, lifelong friendship formed - I hope!

Anyway, talking about leaving the UK.. My plans for next year!

I leave Team OnForm in 2019 after racing for them for the last two years. I’ve developed a lot as a rider, I can’t even remember how I was getting round races in 2017! Simon Howes has always been a genuine guy with me, I don’t really know how he deals with everything he does, he’s a guy with not a minute spare for himself, completely selfless guy.

So a big thanks to him for the opportunities over the past couple of years, I don’t feel like I got as much out of the team as i could have done - due to racing the majority of the past couple years in France. But even when I was there, I knew i had support and I was pretty blessed to be able to ride the ToS both years! Thanks Simon for believing in me. 

2017/2018 Team OnForm > 2019 CSCA Proprete 2000 DN3

I’ll be racing in the DN3 next year with a Guadeloupe based team who are doing most their races in France (Gwada is a French overseas region for those who didn’t know).

My main goals will be the Tour des Ecureuils & Tour des Trois Valleé. Two stage races I did this year which I’m pretty confident I can get a good result in next year, hopefully with a few more watts available. 

I recently went over to France to visit the Carr family and to view where i’ll be living next year. Unfortunately its out of the lovely Limoux town, but not too far away. Theres a great view of Pic du Nore from the living room and its not too far to ride to work on those days where I feel like it. I’m massively grateful to Rupert for allowing me to work for him again in 2019, to fund my season and life in France.

The Winter Hack

Well. My winter bikes are never really hacks, as I refuse to ride something thats not suitable for a lot of riding to be done on, and being an avid mechanic all my stuff must work! 

Frame: Dolan Preffisio 45cm

Groupset: Shimano 105 5800 (Quarq crank)

Bars: Pro LT ergo 38cm

Stem: Planet X 80mm

Saddle: Specialised Romin Evo

Seatpost: Velo Orange Grand Cru long setback

Mudguards: Madison Commute

Wheels: Shimano R500 (bodged to fit 11speed)

Pedals: Shimano 105 5800

Bottle Cages: Unbranded, Elite bottle mount (because the frames too small for seat tube mount!)

Bar Tape: Lizard Skins

Tyres: Michelin Pro 4 Endurance 25mm

Chain: KMC 11.93

Cassette: Shimano 105 5800 11 - 32 

Saddlebag: Castelli XL

So far it’s been pretty nice. The geometry is set up the same to the mm of my race bike, so you can’t even tell the difference between them until you get out the saddle and realise how floppy it is! But that’s the way a winter bike should be (please note: Putting SKS RaceBlades on your summer bike does NOT make it a winter bike!)

Until next time.

[oliversmee]

[oliversmee]

2018 season coming to a close.

My first blog post for a while, as usually lots has been going on and the blog hasn’t been my top priority for a while, like I always say I should write more!

2018 season like every season cycling for me has been a season of mostly downs and lots of lessons, but of course there have been ups and highs, that inconsistency is what makes cycling so great I think, the way that one day you can wake up with brick like legs, and the next you can float around a race without even trying.

My season started off very well, at the Culture Vélo training camp, I was flying to be honest and probably going the best i’ve gone all season! Maybe a bit too eager... The season kicked off and I got some decent results in harder French races which in previous years I didn’t finish, I’m certainly getting much stronger year upon year.

My blight of illness late April really knocked me, I was off the bike and mentally fatigued for a while after that and I never really feel like I got my racing head or legs back this year until the last couple of weeks. 

Returning to the UK in July, I was ready again and feeling good to knock the local league races, however spending so much time in France racing ‘get round’ races kind of sapped my race knowledge and I found myself in difficult positions where I didn’t know what to do, or I would do something stupid like close a gap with everyone on my wheel...

I had a couple of short breaks once back in the UK, mostly just from the mental fatigue of trying to race from February to October without any mid season break, a mistake I won’t make again! Last weekend I managed to get it right again and got in the winning break at the Upton RR, a fast flat circuit which I didn’t assume I would do well on, but I timed the move right and it paid off, I came 6th from the break of 10.

Soon it will be time for that off season break i’ve been waiting for for months now. I’m going on a small 3 day touring trip with a friend before I hang the wheels up and have a proper off season 2 week break, something i’ve not really done before. 

I often think back to why I started riding in the first place, a lot of my friends got a road bike after seeing a race and thinking to themselves; “That looks fun, I wanna go!”. I was quite different from this. Struggling a lot with stress through my GCSE’s, I discovered the bike instead of discovering revision before my final exams, it was a release and a way to escape. 

Because of the way I got into cycling, I always enjoy training. Sometimes a lot more than I enjoy racing (If i’m not racing too well). This is mainly the reason I’ve never really had a lot of time off the bike especially at the end of the year, but after such a mentally sapping year this year I think I will benefit from completely forgetting about the bike for a while!

Plans for next year are coming into place. Unfortunately the Limoux house won’t be available for next year, however i’ve found some other accommodation owned by a British lady about 15mins away which seems ideal for me. In terms of teams i’m hoping to join a French DN1 team as a reserve. I think this could be a good move for me, as it means there is no pressure to perform in hard DN1 races but I can still race as a 2nd cat in the smaller races out there and hopefully step up my game. My thinking was that If i’m going well, at least i’ll have the chance to give the DN1 a go!

So yeah that’s about it really! Still the same drive and I still want to go out to France while I can. People keep mentioning proper work to me and I understand their point of view, but I enjoy the work I do when i’m in France and hopefully (depending on how bad Brexit goes!) I will be able to keep doing it every year. 

Oh, uni!

Well, I finished my foundation 2 years degree at Writtle with a 2:1, not too shabby! The third year is to top up to the full Honours Sports Performance degree. Which I will be going back to hopefully in 2019. I wanted a break from education this winter so I could a) Go back out to France earlier, b) Spend a little more time over winter with my poor girlfriend who has to deal with me being away in the summer and c) Use the awesome roads of the Peak District for some quality training!

Ok that really is about all for now anyway. A few more races left for me this year so I can keep my 2nd cat and then a much needed break. Thanks for reading!

[oliversmee]

Racing updates & France

A fair bit has happened since my last blog post. I was going mega well for a while during and after the training camp with Culture Vélo, producing my best numbers by a long way. I raced a few cat 1 races when I first arrived here in France and surprised myself showing a massive improvement over last year. 

With a couple 2nd cat races out the way I knew where my legs and condition were at and was going into some harder races with a lot of confidence. competing in Trophée des Bastides cat 1 finishing comfortably in the depleted main group, something I would not have been able to do last year when I was here, I then went on to finish 28th at Cintegabelle cat 1 showing more racing improvement every week. 

The confidence was high going into the first target race of the year at Route des Vignobles, a 2 stage cat 2 I did last year. Finishing 20th in the TT on my humble TT bike converted CAAD, I was pretty surprised from my performance on the flat and windy course against a lot of guys who had full TT setups with discs and the lot. 

We had Ollie Jones in yellow and Harry Thompson in green from the TT where they showed the French how much us Brits love a good time trial! So the second stage I tried to help them both out as much as I could, despite feeling a little worse for wear.

A couple days after I fell pretty ill. Ending up spending a day in hospital having various tests I turned out to have a bad case of sinusitis. Antibiotics for the next week and a half it was then. 

Getting ill for the 4th time this year was a bit of a psychological blow. Time off the bike just meant I had more time to worry about de-training, but it wasn’t too long until I was able to get some decent rides in again. It’s been about 3 weeks of training now since I was ill and the form is finally on the up again. 

Last weekend was a fairly standard cat 2 race, my first race for 4 weeks so I was unsure of where the legs would be. A pretty grim and wet day, me and Harry had a good race and we both rode pretty aggressively. Unfortunately mis-timing the break we were stuck in a limbo, but on the last lap thanks to Harry’s turns on the front we nearly brought the break back. A mad leadout out of the last corner from Harry meant I was 10m off the back of the break up the finishing climb, however being ill had taken that little bit of top end out of me which I needed to finish the race off properly. 

I finished 15th in the end, which is my first top 20 in a race out here so I can’t complain too much. A massive thanks goes out to Joe Clark as always for the coaching and helping me to gain back some strength after illness, completing the first good intervals yesterday since being ill shows some form coming back. 

A shout out to Ollie and Harry too for some stellar riding since we’ve been based here. I’ve learnt a lot of lessons from you guys too in racing and Harry was yet to miss a break since Sunday’s race. 

Thanks also to Rupert for allowing me some time off work to recovery from illness.

Getting closer and closer to the stage races I want to do well in, im really buckling down with training and getting into the frame of mind for hard work. 

Until next time. 

[oliversmee]

2018 in full swing...

The training is done, the grim winter miles have been put in. Time to kick the season into action now!

I was reading David Millar’s book “The Racer” and he always says about how much he hated January. The stress of moving from home to training camp over and over, the worry about “am I doing the right training?”, “am I doing enough training?”. I like January, I like the training and the anticipation of the season getting closer, but then again i’m sure it changes a bit if you’re pro, i’m not trying to compare myself to him!

Bar Ollie whos away for the first round of the DN3, we are all moved into the house now. Me, Harry, Simon, Connor and Ben all arrived today at the small but cosy, 3 story house in the sleepy town of Limoux. It’s a nice place, perfect for cyclists thats for sure! 

We got back off the training camp in Lloret de Mar yesterday. An awesome experience with the Culture Velo riders and staff, it was great to have some dedicated guys and girls to train with and the who set up seemed endlessly professional, with meetings to discuss the days training every evening. Of course, the language was a bit of a struggle, but we had learnt the basics before hand and a lot of the guys could speak enough English for us to bridge the gap between the two native tongues. 

The camp was pretty much perfect in my eyes, except for the first day where I missed my group due to a misunderstanding about bottles! 

Nevertheless, we cracked on with a nice 5hr day the day after littered with some great climbs and a lot of attacking, then an openers ride followed by a race on the Wednesday, followed by a hill TT and a well needed recovery ride before the last 5hr ride of the camp with the Juniors.

The race was ok, it was a social race by Girona called “Peratallada”. A flat and mentally windy uninspiring circuit, pretty much the definition of my worst nightmare! Being the first race of the year my bunch skills were less than ideal. I struggled to move up and hold position in the 150+ rider bunch but soon found myself in the chase group on the first lap. It was my first real taste of the dreaded echelons as to which featured pretty much all day. 

Unfortunately the chase group me, Ollie and Harry found ourselves in decided to park up on the headwind section and it all came back together. That was about as much action as my race had and I spend the rest of it fighting for position coming into the crosswind. Being so small I knew they would be detrimental to my race if I got them wrong, and unfortunately coming into the last lap of the circuit I found myself the wrong end of a split and didn’t quite have the strength to get back on, ultimately finishing behind the bunch. 

My lessons in echelons were eventful then. At Least that’s a new skill learned, and I didn’t have any massive expectations going into the race as it was. But you have to start the year somewhere.

Next weekend is my first important race of the year, a 2nd cat race over Narbonne way featuring a climb each lap, so that’s where the focus is for now. After a few days rest post training camp, i’m getting back into the flow of training now. 

Thanks for reading.

[oliversmee]

Hello 2018... Training camps, Snow, Colds and January Training.

Finally its January, and winter feels like its been here forever already. With 2 colds and a chesty cough my winter didn’t start off quite as planned! Oh well, theres plenty of time left, and now its January, the time for important focused training is finally here. 

It was nice to start training again in Writtle. The flat, easy roads mean that being out of breath while carrying that bit of winter ‘chub’ is optional, dragging a sandbag-like body up the climbs is not a necessary in Essex. This means bashing out those longer winter miles is made easy, especially when sitting in a group and you can just freewheel for 4 hrs. 

However, I soon paid the price for my winter laziness when I came back home for Christmas to Derbyshire. The 36/28 started to be a regular feature on my rides as I tried to turn myself back into some kind of goat, I soon got back into the rhythm of the hills round here and could utilize them in training again. 

Winter weather hasn’t been too bad so far. Aside from the small snow storm in Essex at the start of December where I forced myself to do 3hr on the turbo, its not been all that bad. I really don’t mind the cold, I just can’t stand the ice. Coming back home meant that i’d have to ride the busier roads for a while before Christmas as the temperature was around -3ºC, but it soon cleared up and we had a pretty mild Christmas. 

I caught the dreaded cold off the guys at uni and spent 2 days in bed binge watching Stranger Things from start to finish before coming home for the holidays, I was getting back into training and then caught another illness of some form from my parents which disrupted things again. However, that’s well on its way out now so normal service resumes; wake up, eat, train, eat, nap, procrastinate about uni work, eat, sleep. 

It would be nice to go on training camp for January, being such an important time of the year I can see the attraction to Majorcan weather at this time of the year. However, i’m not fortunate this year to go on the 2 pre season training camps I did last year. My first training camp away this year will be in February where i’m lucky enough to be staying with Culture Velo, a french team, in Girona for 10 days. The training camp will be important in establishing a good bond with the team and getting to know the riders and the language before guest riding for them in some races throughout 2018, which i’m really lucky to be able to do and absolutely buzzing for!

So, coming in to January training is going great. I can feel myself making gainz every week, especially from the gym work i’ve been doing. It’s nice to be doing intervals again to break up rides and i’m feeling strong already. The condition is lacking a bit but that’s no surprise for this time of year, and it gives plenty of room for improvement over the coming months. 

This winter has been a little different from my previous years, it’s the first winter i’ve been coached with training which i’ve found really helpful. Having structure in rides has really helped the miles go by quicker than those 4hr endurance rides where you’re just pedaling all day, and for sure I feel stronger doing less hours and more specificity.

That’s all for now then, a couple more weeks at home training hard before I go back to uni and start riding up North Hill 100 times a week!

Thanks for reading.

[oliversmee]

Hill climbs and 2017 season wrap up!

I’ve not posted a blog post for a while, so heres a wrap up of everything that happened this year in my cycling.

Of course the most memorable bit from this years racing was going to France for the start of the year, but i’ve spoke a lot about that already so i’ll start with the other bits i’ve probably missed!

I’ve not said much about them but i’ve been doing hill climbs over the past few weekends to end my season of racing this year, with it being my first time having a go at them I didn’t really have any expectations, I just wanted to lay down some solid times on courses for me to aim to beat in years to come if I do the hill climb season again.

The hill climbs were totally new to me and with it being such a short effort it was really hard at first to judge how hard to go! With climbs being from 15 minutes long to less than 2 minutes long, I soon realised there is an art to pacing these weird races.

In the last few weeks I have done a few cross races just for a bit of fun, i’ve not really got much cross experience so the idea was just to expand my skills and enjoy it a bit more so I wasn’t taking it too seriously. As the weekends went by and I started to get closer to the hill climbs I stopped with the cross to focus more on some shorter intense riding. Having Joe as my coach who is really experienced in hill climbs really helped me to train for them, he knew exactly what training to give me and I was ready in no time.

I then did the following hill climbs pretty much every weekend through September and October;

Long Hill:              15:41/10th

Pea Royd Lane:      2:57/16th

Mill Lane:                2:58/15th

Monsal Head:         1:45/57th

Essex Roads:          2:22/9th

Whiteleaf:                4:18/5th

Holly Lane:              4:10/13th

Riber:                       4:17/20th

Bank Road:              2:17/23rd

BUCS Pea Royd:     2:53/38th

The BUCS was my aim really, however I didn’t really achieve the result I wanted. With the climb being on Pea Royd lane, I had the advantage that I had already raced the climb a few weeks before, and I was glad to beat my time by 4 seconds even on a slower day. But hopefully I will get another crack at it next year and be up there with the best.

Currently i’m in my rest week from riding but the plans for the 2018 season are unfolding already, there are lots of exciting prospects for the future and everything is coming together nicely. I look forward to announcing my plans for next year once they are finalised.

Its been a pretty successful year for me in terms of my results and the way I was racing races by the end of the year. I took a noticeable step up and felt so much better in races than I ever had, I’d like to thank all the following people for their help and support this year.

Team OnForm

Perkins Garages

Ellmore Clothing

Safe Guard UK

Bianchi UK

Twenty3c

TEC Components

Breakaway Digital

BORG Wheels

Simon Howes, for your help in my progression this year

Rupert & Dawn Carr, for your hospitality when I was living in France

Mark Walker & Writtle University College, for giving me the opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise

My parents, for always having my back and giving me the best advice when I don’t know what to do

Joe Clark & Cima Cycling, for the coaching and planning that was vital to my racing and training this year

Izzy, for putting up with me not always being around, supporting me and believing in me

Everyone else, who has supported me this year and believed in me, it always helps so much and I wish I could thank everyone but I would run out of space!

Apportez l'année prochaine.

[oliversmee]

[oliversmee]

[oliversmee]

A bit of a catch up.

Wow its been a while since I last did a blog post! I told myself i’d do these every month when I started this blog... As if.

Anyway. Cycling has been very good since I got back from getting my head kicked in in France. I got my 2nd cat finally a few weeks ago after a year and a half worrying about it. 

It was all in my head. Everything that went wrong last year and this year when I was abroad was all a confidence thing. Once I got back and was racing easy 3/4 races I realised how well I could race races. 

It started with a 2nd place at a Harvey Haddon crit, yeah I know its nothing to shout about at all, but when you’ve gone a year and a half with basically no results it really is a motivational kick up the arse. So much so that I decided to race a 3/4 road race the night after, I found my real passion for racing again and was so excited to get back stuck in to racing aggressively. Anyway, I got a 4th the next night, not good but not bad and it was still points towards my 2nd cat.

I did the same thing the next week, although I won the Harvey Haddon crit (my first win at anything so it was a big deal) and then a 2nd at the road race the next night. This meant i’d finally got that 2nd cat.

So i’d gone from getting 24 points in 2016 in 6 months of racing to getting 38 points in 2 weeks. Yeah, quite a vast improvement to say the least. And the funny thing about it was is it didn’t all feel down to the training and the hard times I had abroad, it felt like a cause of a rapid increase in confidence and determination. Attacking in these races, I’d go and be bought back then go again without even thinking about it. I unlocked a new level of pain in the legs and felt I could push myself so much more, I regained that awesome feeling of looking over your shoulder in a race, seeing everyone suffering on your wheel, and you can smile at them and attack! So much fun.

Anyway results aside, #crossiscoming. 

Yeah, i’m no cross rider, i’ve done one cross race in my time cycling, but I absolutely loved it. That motivated me again to try and do it this year properly and achieve something at my level. 

With the hill climbs coming up too, i’ve set myself some big goals for the hill climb season and with my coach being one of the best at them, I have the confidence I can achieve these goals! I’ll be doing cross on the Saturday’s and Hill Climbs on the Sunday’s, its going to be hard work but so much fun!

Cross for me I wont be taking 100% seriously seems as I have little experience with it, but i’ve been working on my skills recently and can see an improvement, I think I could have the right physical attributes to be a half decent cross rider if I keep at it!

So yeah thats it for now. All exciting and fast paced race wise, racing 2 or 3 times a week on the road now and loving every minute of it. Can’t wait to stay competitive throughout the winter!

No rest for the wicked.

[oliversmee]

My time in France

Well here I am, back in the rather autumnal feeling UK.

After getting back from my trip to France a week ago today, i’ve had plenty of time to reflect on my time out there. I can’t believe how much I learnt out racing in Europe, not only did I learn about my racing and training but also a lot about myself I didn’t know before going away.

From my experience, everything out there is exaggerated compared to in the UK. When I say this I mean in racing, when its hard its VERY hard and when its easy its VERY easy (in between very hard bits of a race for example). The level out there is so much higher also, probably due to it being a bigger area and a sport lots of people start doing from when they are quite young. Its much more common than in the UK to be racing from below the age of 12.

The terrain is always difficult, to the French a flat road race with 10 laps of the same circuit with no wind is not a race. When it went uphill it was flat out, when it went downhill it was scary and if you had a flat road, there would almost always been a crosswind! Many times I found myself battling with others to stay on a wheel as the real strong guys would turn the pace up in the cross wind and start echelons.

I didn’t do as well out there as I had planned and hoped to, but any athlete would always want more in that situation. Having little experience it would be hard to make accurate goals before I had gone. However, I did surprise myself a few times as I soon found my confidence and was on the attack. I think now coming back to the UK will boost my confidence still as I have pretty much unlocked a new level of flat out ha!

It was great to be able to stay with the Carr family, I was very well looked after and it was a pleasure to work for them also. They were very understanding of the commitments of a cyclist such as training regimes and the habits in the build up to a race. I wouldn’t hesitate to go back and do it all over again!

Now back home its time to focus on getting some BC points. Having missed out the easy opportunities to get points such as mid week races etc, I have some catching up to do now. My next race starts tomorrow at the 5 stage Tour of Sussex, a cat 2 race I have high hopes and confidence for and I cant wait to hopefully be battling it out for the win.

Again a massive thanks to all the support i’ve received from my family, friends and Team OnForm while I was out there learning the hard way. I’m sure all the hard training and racing will soon pay off!

[oliversmee]

[oliversmee]

About me

I started cycling in mid 2013 when I was 15. I had little knowledge of cycling, I had never really watched it on TV or been friends with anyone else who rode a bike as such. The only connection I had with cycling was that of my stepdad always being a cyclist.

With bikes always around in the house, I was curious and one day “borrowed” the bike my stepdad had originally built up for my mum to use. She never really rode it as “the tires were too skinny” so i took the liberty of trying it out for myself, I was hooked.

I continued to ride just because I felt like it ever since, I made so many friends quickly through cycling and would go on the local club run every Saturday or Sunday with Belper BC, and by the time I reached my GCSEs in 2014, I was doing far much more riding than I was revising!

After a while, I soon got into racing. I would watch the tour with my stepdad, completely unaware of what was going on due to no previous interesting in racing, I was spellbound to how long the stages were and how the riders would fight day after day for victory. I completed in a local RR on the Windley circuit at the end of 2014, unknown to me that it was a rather hard race to attempt as a first race! I was dropped pretty much after the first lap but continued to ride, I was quite disappointed but didn’t let it put me off having another go.

The next year I decided to take racing more seriously and tried to race twice every week. I quickly learnt the basic skills of racing and was gaining experience and eventually some minor results. At the start of 2016, I raced the Windley race again and came 3rd. As this was the first race I ever did I was very pleased and the result meant a lot to me. However my season was overshadowed due to a lack in confidence after a crash in April. This affected me negatively for a while but in time soon proved to be a worthwhile lesson.

At the time of writing this I am living in France with a friend from University I met on the Cycling Performance Degree. Im here racing and training from March - June. I’m hoping i’ll gain valuable lessons through racing abroad and in much harder races.

Thanks

I have to thank my mum, dad and stepdad for enabling me to follow my dream and for getting me into cycling in the first place, my girlfriend Izzy for always supporting me and reminding me i'm always getting better, my first club Belper BC for teaching me the basic skills of cycling and the love for the sport, Paul and Louise Bennett in 2016 for helping me progress and keeping me on track, Cycle Team OnForm and Simon Howes for helping me persue my best season yet in 2017 and onwards, The Carr family for letting me live with them in France to race and train and work. There are many more thanks to give but i'd be here forever writing them down, you know who you are.

[oliversmee]

[oliversmee]

Round up of France so far...

So it’s been just over 5 weeks since I arrived in warm, humid, sunny France… It’s rained here more than in the UK for the last week.

Aside from being close to hypothermia for the past 7 days (I exaggerate mildly), my experience here has been full of mostly ups but some downs also. I’ve learnt so much in the past 5 weeks, probably more than I learnt throughout the whole of 2016. The races are hard, the training is good, the roads are quiet and there’s lots of smelly cheeses. But I’ve been slowly and quietly making progress within the racing, going from finishing 20 minutes down on my own (somehow still not last) in the first race I did here, to finishing just outside the top 20 in last weekends race.

I know it doesn’t sound amazing and I’m certainly not a unit yet, but I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunities out here, I’m feeling the improvements already from racing harder races with some real talent in them and already benefitting from being coached by Cima Cycling.

So far I’ve been working Monday - Friday from 8am - 12pm then training after, still training around 15hrs a week. I’m lucky to be living with a mate from uni and his family who are looking after me, I even have my own space in a properly swanky caravan.

More racing to come this bank holiday Monday, after a real positive race last weekend I’m looking forward to getting stuck in again, also the buzz of my team bike being on its way to me which will be a real motivator!

Was great to see my parents and Izzy last weekend as they came to stay for a couple days, it was great to have them on the side of the road and thanks to them for the continued support! (However Steve you need to improve your feed skills!)

Thanks to Twenty3c, Bianchi and TEC for sorting the bike for me and Team OnForm for the continued support especially Simon for keeping check on me 👌. Also Ellmore clothing for keeping me comfy out training in the ever changing Pyrenean weather!

[oliversmee]

Living in France

The next few months mark a once in a lift time chance for me to live and race (and work) in France with friend from uni, Simon. I jumped at the chance to live abroad as have wanted to for some time and will relish the experience gained from racing in mainland Europe. 

I’ll still be racing for Team OnForm over here and sporting the team colours in races. Simon Howes and the team have been super supportive and encouraging towards me going and I’m keen to return to England a lot stronger and with some descent results from my first experiences abroad.

Cheers!