The Big Chainring - Cycling News

2013-02-22T10:40:00.002Z

SERRL Series Round 2 - Benenden

2012-03-13T18:42:00.002Z

With a massive contrast in weather conditions to the previous round, the Toachim riders were looking forward to racing in the sun again! Four riders took to the start, Stephen Swindley, Martin O'Grady, Ciaran O'Grady and the Team Toachim boss; Andrew Wills.

A last-minute change of course meant that the circuit was a lot hillier than expected, which made the race tough. It was extremely difficult to escape from the peloton, with many Team Toachim riders attacking off the front throughout the race.

The course featured several climbs, and several fast descents that kept the pace high all through the race. We worked well as a team, and would be ready to follow any dangerous riders that attacked, as well as counter-attacking another Team Toachim rider's breakaway being caught. This meant that there was rarely a moment where a Team Toachim jersey wasn't in the action at the front of the race.

A 2 man break got away on the last lap however, and contained eventual race winner Hugo Humphreys from Leeds Uni CC, but Team Toachim kept an eye on things and finished well, with Stephen Swindley and Martin O'Grady finishing 10th and 11th respectively. Ciaran O'Grady and Andrew Wills were caught up in a crash in the lead up to the sprint. Andrew was flung into the verge, which was relatively soft so there were no injuries and he finished in 31st position.

Ciaran's back wheel was caught by the crash as he was moving up for the sprint, so was brought to a stand-still before he could get moving again, by which time the front of the peloton had already gone. He caught back a few places and finished in 16th position.

3 riders in the top 20 and 1 outside due to a crash, a good result for a good day's racing!

Results:

Name	Last name	Club/Team	BC Category	Finish Position
Hugo	Humphreys	Leeds Uni CC	2 U23	1
Paul	Sewell	Bigfoot CC	2	2
Phil	Starr	Python rt	2	3
Dan	Mitchell	Redhill CC	3	4
Scott	Webb	PMR@cing	3	5
joe	norledge	velo 29, OTR, VANKRU	2nd	6
harold	evans	VO2 development team	2	7
Kelvin	Hatch	San fairy ann	4	8
Simon	Collins	Dulwich Paragon	4	9
Stephen	Swindley	Team Toachim	3 U23	10
Martin	O'Grady	Team Toachim	2	11
sean	ORegan		3v	12
Robbie	Hayton	Bigfoot CC	3	13
Michael	Barnes			14
David	Shilland	Bigfoot CC	4	15
Ciaran	O'Grady	Team Toachim	3 - U23	16
Harry	Godding	PM Racing	3J	17
Matthew	Hinchelwood	ViCiOUS VELO	3	18
Ross	Bryan	ACTiV Cycles	3	19
Matthew	Hull	San Fairy Ann CC	4	20
Chris	Taylor	Colour Tech RT	3 v	21
James	Wood	Catford CC	3J	22
David	Webborn	London Dynamo CC	2	23
Drew	Holmes			24
Andrew	Colvin	Bigfoot CC	3	25
Derek	Wiles	n/a	3	26
Jack	Edwards	PMR@cing	2J	27
Philip	Murrell	Finsbury Park CC	2	28
Keith	Lea	Addiscombe CC	3V	29
Lee	Rowe	Finchley RT	2	30
Andrew	Wills	Team Toachim	3V	31
francis	cade	VO2 Development Team	2	32
jason	guibarra	medway velo	4	33
Ian	Leeding	Norwood Paragon CC	3V	34
Richard	Bayfield	London Phoenix	3	35
Michael	Brown	V02 development Squad	4	36
Steve	Kane	Brighton Excelsior	3	37
Sam	Bradford	VC Elan	3-U23	38
simon	tovey	Private	4	39 @ 1 Lap
Huck	Garip		4v	40 @ 2 laps
Phil	Hoffman	San Fairy Ann CC	4	41 @ 2 Laps

SERRL Series Round 1 - Lamberhurst

2012-03-13T16:59:00.001Z

"Get through a whole Cyclocross season without a really rainy race, and then your first Road Race of the year turns into a washout! Typical" - Martin O'Grady

Rain was the order of the day as Team Toachim riders Martin O'Grady, Ciaran O'Grady, Craig Joy and Stephen Swindley rolled out for the first round of the SERRL Summer Series. Being an E/1/2/3 race there were lots of big names that we would be competing against. Martin was not phased at all by them, and was quick at getting into the action and joining a good quality breakaway early on.

After being pulled back and getting into another break, he unfortunately punctured and was forced to abandon the race. Craig Joy, Stephen Swindley and Ciaran O'Grady kept an eye on things in the peloton, with Craig and Ciaran even attempting to bridge across to Martin at one point!

Unfortunately the conditions would get the better of Craig and Stephen, who abandoned the race with a few laps to go. Ciaran was dropped from the select peloton with 2 laps to go, but kept riding to the finish, and finished in a respectable 23rd position!

The course itself is a tough course even at the best of times, and then when you couple that with the horrendous weather, it makes racing super hard. It was a good learning experience for some of our riders and we are all keen to keep racing aggressively as the season progresses!

Keep an eye out for us at SERRL races throughout the season; as well as Luke Ryan competing up around Liverpool, where he is studying at University.

Results:

1 Stephen Adams Cycle Premier RT

2 Lewis Atkins Twenty3c.co.uk-Orbea

3 Wouter Sybrandy IG - Sigma Sport

4 James Moss NODE4 - Giordana Racing

5 Nicolas Hutchings CS Grupetto

6 Chris McNamara Pedal Heaven RT

7 Allan Ridler Pedal Heaven

8 Paul Pickup Pedal Heaven

9 Chris Morrison London Dynamo cc

10 Francis Cade VO2 Development Team

11 David Creeggan Pedal Heaven RT

12 Phil Starr Python RT

13 Nicholas Baker Zappis CC

14 John Heaton-Armstrong Felt-Colbornes RT

15 Anthony Moye Velo29

16 Pete Wager Felt-Colbornes RT

17 Joe Norledge Velo 29

18 Lawrence Carpenter V02 Development

19 Tao Geoghegan Hart Cycling Club Hackney

20 Mark McCullagh Dulwich Paragon

21 Robin Kirk Kingston wheelers

22 Zappi Flavio Zappis CC

23 Ciaran O'Grady Team Toachim

24 Keith Henderson Condor Cycles

25 Steven Smith Clay Cross RT

26 Phil Dempsey Aprire RT

(out of over 80 starters)

DNF Martin O'Grady Team Toachim

DNF Craig Joy Team Toachim

DNF Stephen Swindley Team Toachim

SERRL Winter League Round 5

2012-01-15T22:18:00.000Z

The 5th round of the SERRL Winter League at the new Cyclopark at Gravesend delivered some good results for Team Toachim which is a great sign for the rest of the 2012 road racing season.

Toachim riders Craig Joy, Martin O'Grady and Ciaran O'Grady were eagerly anticipating their first road race of 2012, and were determined to show off the Toachim jersey at the front of both the E/1/2 race and the 3/4 race. Craig and Martin were racing in the E/1/2, and Ciaran was still stuck as a 3rd category rider after scoring 38 points in 2011, needing 40 points to move up to 2nd category.

On arrival at the circuit, the weather was cold with a medium strength wind but couple that with the new circuit which has several sharp corners and two major gradient increases a lap, a tough race was to be expected! The biggest discussion of the day was what kit to wear for the race... skinsuit one minute...long-sleeved jersey and leg warmers the next, so a major thank you to our amazing sponsor and also great rider, Andrew Wills, for giving us the luxury to have enough kit for any eventuality!

The racing in the E/1/2 race was very aggressive, with Craig attacking from the gun in true Cyclocross form, and spending most of the race out in a breakaway, where he also picked up one of the Sprint Prime prizes. Martin was doing a great team job back in the peloton, keeping an eye on any moves that went away. Craig ended up finishing 3rd, and Martin crossed the line in a solid 6th.

Ciaran was the only Toachim rider in the 3/4 race, and was extremely keen to grab some points and be on his way to his 2nd category license. After seeing Craig's attack from the gun, Ciaran spent the first lap of the race out in front, being aggressive! With 5 laps to go, Ciaran was caught behind a crash on one of the circuit's corners, but managed to work back to the front split, only for the whole race to come together again. So after many attacks and catching the E/1/2 race... twice... a group of 3 riders had snuck away on the last lap, leaving Ciaran to try and put in a monumental effort to try and catch them on the finish straight. The group were about 350m in front as he started the start finish straight, but managed to pull them back to within 50m at the top of the finish straight. So close yet no win.

Altogether, today's racing was a great start to 2012 with aggressive racing and good results. Stay tuned for more race reports and behind-the-scenes looks at the way the team is run and the various goings-on throughout the year.

Results: (Top-10 riders)

1/2:
1 Ben Moores (Norwood Paragon CC)
2 David Murrell (London Phoenix CC)
3 Craig Joy (Team Toachim)
4 Jason Edwards (GB MS Tina)
5 Jason Nind (Wigmore CC)
6 Martin O’Grady (Team Toachim)
7 Stoyico Bussarov (WyndyMilla)
8 Ashley Holding (GB MS Tina)
9 Marco Coppola (Gemini BC)
10 Chris Dick (London Phoenix)
Veterans: Jason Edwards.

3/4:
1 Mark McCullagh (Dulwich Paragon)
2 Matt Barlow (Essex Roads CC)
3 Peter St Amour (Addiscombe CC)
4 Ciaran O’Grady (Team Toachim)
5 Mark Northover (The Cycle Studio)
6 James Wood (Team Darenth)
7 Dan Mitchell (Redhill CC)
8 Jez McCann (VC Elan)
9 Sebastian Dickson (Thanet RC)
10 Tom Smith (CC Hackney)

Veterans: Mark McCullagh. Under-23s: Ciaran O’Grady. Youth: Jez McCann.

London Cyclocross League Round 12!

2012-01-05T23:01:00.002Z

The 12th round of the London Cyclocross League was a good day for Team Toachim, with some good performances by all three cyclocross riders on the team. The course was extremely bumpy, probably more akin to Paris-Roubaix than to cyclocross racing, and was a very different setting to the last time we raced here; under about 20cm of snow and ice last year. Following a puncture of a tubular tyre in the previous week, Ciaran was racing on Michelin Mud2's, but was confident that the course was not going to be a very technical course.

All 3 cyclocross riders on the team; Craig Joy, Martin O'Grady and Ciaran O'Grady, had been doing a lot of hard winter training over the Christmas break, so we were all eager to get racing again.

Ciaran was gridded on the front row, next to many-time london league round winnerMatt Webber and national level rider Simon Richardson, with Craig and Martin a few rows behind. Ex-national Champion Jody Crawforth had lined up on the start line, and was going to be tough to beat as he would be reaching his top form going into the National Championships and World Championships. The start was furiously fast, and Ciaran slipped his pedal in the initial surge, but luckily so had Taylor Johnstone, so the two worked back up towards the front riders.

Shortly after, a group of four riders formed behind the leading three, containing Ciaran, Taylor, Harry Franklin and Andrew Nichols. The racing was hard, with the bumpy surface meaning a big gear was needed to keep the bike going smoothly, with a smattering of technical bits to break up the long straights. Being in a group ment that Ciaran was able to use the other riders to determine a good pace to set, instead of going too fast in one section and suffer in the next section.

Craig and Martin were in one of the chasing groups behind the group Ciaran was in, and were battling with riders like Jon Lyons and Mick Bell and were being very aggressive throughout the race.

Ciaran crossed the line in 7th place, a good result for him, especially after a bout of illness over Christmas, while Craig and Martin finished inside the top-20 riders, which bodes well for the London League Team Championships during February.

The Team Championships was one of our main goals of the season as a team, we have successfully faught our way to becoming one of the top teams in the London League series, and hopefully a win at this event will give us a result and title to prove this!

Here is a video from the race, taken by the superb John Mullineaux, who operates http://www.ukcyclesport.com/

Position	Name	Team name
1	Mr Jody Crawforth	Hargroves Cycles-Specialized-Trant-Next-Elliott's
2	Mr Simon Richardson	Sigma Sport Specialized Cycling Team
3	Mr Matthew Webber	London Phoenix CC
4	Master Harry Franklin	Hargroves Cycles-Specialized-Trant-Next-Elliott's
5	Mr Taylor Johnstone	Team De ver
6	Mr Andrew Nichols	Ciclos Uno
7	Mr Ciaran O'Grady	Team Toachim
8	Mr Sylvain Garde	Addiscombe CC
9	Mr Paul Sheers	ViCious Velo
10	Mr Michael Bell	London Fire Brigade CC

London Cyclocross League Round 9!

2011-11-22T16:10:00.000Z

On Sunday 20th of November Team Toachim hit The 9th Round of the London Cyclocross League with full force, Craig Joy, Ciaran and Martin O'Grady. The course was extremely bumpy with a few technical sections, but with the dry weather it wasn't as slippery as last year's edition, but the fog had rolled in before the start and conditions were cold and slightly damp.

Ciaran was gridded on the front row, with Craig gridded directly behind and Martin directly behind that! All was good from the start, with Craig benefiting from Ciaran's strong start, and Martin following up behind. Ciaran quickly broke away with Sigma Sport's Sylvian Garde and formed a leading group for the first half of the race as they fought to stay away from the chasing group, with long-time Cyclocross maestro Darren Barclay storming at the head of that group

Craig and Martin were racing in the same group together, but as Craig was still recovering from his illness he was put under pressure to stay in the group and dropped off the pace from time to time. This also meant that he could take the technical sections at his own pace, which was very beneficial for him as he has been working hard on his technical skills in the Team Toachim cyclocross training sessions during the week.

Meanwhile at the head of the race, Ciaran was putting Sylvian under pressure and the two were storming ahead from the field, but not away from Arctic Premier RT rider Darren Barclay, who had managed to get away from the chasing group, and quickly joined Ciaran and Sylvian at the front of the race. Ciaran was starting to fade as a result of riding a very aggressive race but managed to hold on to the leading group for another few laps.

Ciaran put in one last-ditch attack from this group but was brought back by Sylvian and Darren, but Jules Birks and Paul Sheers. At the finish Paul eventually managed to get away from Ciaran and take 3rd place, with Ciaran rolling in 4th place, another result which he is extremely pleased with. Craig Joy finished in 17th place overall, so he adds another top-20 placing to his palmares from his first ever Cyclocross season!

Not all was smooth sailing for Team Toachim, as Martin O'Grady had crashed hard, hitting his head, mid-way through the race and was not able to continue. This was a shame as he was riding very strongly and was pleased with how his race went up until that point. We are reminded that Martin's power doesn't quite match his technical ability! He was not badly injured, just very dazed, a fat lip and a grazed cheek.

Craig Joy will be the only Team Toachim rider racing at Penshurst next weekend, as Martin and Ciaran are not racing that weekend. For Ciaran O'Grady, his winter training for the 2012 Road Season will start that weekend, so a great base level of endurance should be with him through the whole season!

Results (Top 20)

Seniors

1 Sen 43 Darren   Barclay   Arctic RT   00:55:31   9 laps
2 Sen 12 Sylvain   Garde   La Fuga Sigma Sport   00:55:38   9 laps
3 Sen 16 Paul   Sheers   Vicious Velo   00:56:18   9 laps
4 Sen 5 Ciaran   O’Grady   Team Toachim   00:56:30   9 laps
5 Sen 30 Taylor   Johnstone   Team De Ver   00:56:40   9 laps
6 Sen 44 J   Birks   VCL   00:57:04   9 laps
7 Vet 209 Mick   Bell   L.F. BCC   00:57:29   9 laps
8 Vet 176 Jon   Lyons      00:57:52   9 laps
9 Sen 17 Russell   Short   London Dynamo   00:58:06   9 laps
10 Jun 103 Jack   Finch   LC Deal   00:58:08   9 laps
11 Sen 19 Philip   Gowinski   VCL   00:58:13   9 laps
12 Jun 109 Chris   McGovern   Sutton CC   00:58:17   9 laps
13 Sen 15 Dan   Stevens   Neon Digital   00:58:29   9 laps
14 Sen 23 Jared   Spier   La Fuga Sigma Sport   00:58:31   9 laps
15 Sen 22 Ben   Spurrier   Vicious Velo   00:58:54   9 laps
16 Sen 41 Phil   Lenney   Activ Cycles Folkstone   00:59:19   9 laps
17 Sen 4 Craig   Joy   Team Toachim   00:59:22   9 laps
18 Sen 9 Stuart   Nisbett   Crawley Wheelers   00:59:30   9 laps
19 Sen 6 David   Rees   Dulwich Paragon   00:59:44   9 laps
20 Vet 201 Russell   Jones   Brixton Cycles   00:59:57   9 laps

London Cyclocross League Round 8!

2011-11-17T20:16:00.000Z

The newly designed course at Brighton was a massive improvement on the previous year's course, which was a nightmare and not a cyclocross course. There was a lot of climbing in this version though, so I knew that racing would be tough and a selection would be made very early on in the race.

So when I was gridded on the first row, I was fully prepared to see what would happen if I went all-out from the start for the first half a lap to see who would join me and make the race. This worked, as I was first into the first corner but then I found that there was a gap of about 5 bike lengths between me and 2nd place...erm? Well I wanted to capitalise on this, so I kept the pace as high as I could and was soon joined by Matthew Webber and Sylvain Garde. This turned into a nice group until on the second lap, I was an idiot and turned too soon after a descent thinking that the course turned sooner than I thought! This made me loose contact to Webber, but I was joined by Garde and we tried to make contact to Webber.

The two of us worked well together, but Garde dropped me on one of the climbs, as he put the pressure on to secure second place, as Webber had gained a race-winning lead if he didn't crash or have a mechanical. This left me chasing on my own, and I had to make sure not to ease up too much, which made the rest of the race super hard as I wanted to keep my third position. I managed to hold off the rest of the field and claim my first Cyclocross podium ever, and best result of the season so far. I was extremely happy with this result, and all my results this season.

I am currently sitting at 3rd place in the overall standings of the London Cyclocross League, a placing that I want to hold to the end of the season which would round off my best Cyclocross season to date!

Mattie's race was good, as he was still recovering from his crash where he injured his ribs, and he was involved in a race-long battle with 3 other veterans, which made for great viewing by all who came out to see the race!

The next race will be Round 9 of the London Cyclocross League at Gunpowder Park on the 20th of November, which will be a tough race as it should draw a bigger field of strong riders, so a good result there would be a definite goal of mine!

Results (Top 20)

Seniors

1 33 Matthew Webber London Phoenix S (1) 8 0:58:18

2 18 Sylvain Garde Addiscombe Cc S (2) 8 + 0:01:21

3 20 Ciaran O’Grady Team Toachim S (3) 8 + 0:02:26

4 17 Phil Lenney Activ Cycles S (4) 8 + 0:03:00

5 2 Taylor Johnstone Team Dever S (5) 8 + 0:03:02

6 21 Stuart Spies London Dynamo S (6) 8 + 0:03:45

7 104 Jack Finch Vc Deal J (1) 8 + 0:03:58

8 27 Phillip Glowinski Vc Londres S (8) 8 + 0:04:02

9 22 Chris Dick London Phoenix S (9) 8 + 0:04:04

10 103 Chris McGovern Sutton Cycling Club J (2) 8 + 0:04:11

11 8 Simon Bird Dulwich Paragon Cc S (11) 8 + 0:04:16

12 32 Stuart Nisbett Crawley Wheelers S (12) 8 + 0:04:21

13 3 Mark Smith Crawley Wheelers S (13) 8 + 0:04:31

14 38 Dan Braid Sigma Sport S (14) 8 + 0:06:10

15 41 David Rees Dulwich Paragon Cc S (15) 8 + 0:06:12

16 15 Glen Whittington Unattached S (16) 8 + 0:06:22

17 188 Russell Jones London Phoenix V (1) 8 + 0:06:51

18 9 James Wilson La Fuga Sigmasport S (18) 8 + 0:06:54

19 39 Ben Lewis Fpcc S (19) 8 + 0:06:56
20 176 Martin O’Grady Team Toachim V+ (2) 8 + 0:07:06

...

99 196 Matthew Levett Cycling Weekly Rt V (49) 0 Dnf

National Inter-Area Team Cyclocross Championships!

2011-11-09T00:17:00.000Z

On 6th November we headed up to Milton Keynes for the National Inter-Area Team Cyclocross Championships, for which we had been selected to ride in the Senior team and Veteran teams respectively. Both of us were so pleased to have been selected to represent London at the Championships, where we were hoping to come away with a medal in the overall classifications, where the area with the lowest total rider placing would be the winner.

The Vet's race kicked off first, with Martin getting a good start, being around the top-30 out of a field of 66 riders, he was able to hold his position relatively well, even though the course wasn't really suited to him as he wasn't able to get out of the saddle properly as he's injured his ribs and obliques in a training accident. Despite this, he rode strongly where he could and ended up coming in 33rd overall, and the London team improved on last year's result and achieved 8th place overall.

The Senior race set off with a furious pace, and there was a lot of fighting for position along the first road section. Once we got onto the course properly it was extremely difficult to gain serious places as whenever you were going full-gas you could bet your life that the person in front of you was doing exactly the same thing and so on. I managed to latch onto a rider who was riding strongly in the top-30's as the race started to split up and used his pace to make sure that I was riding fast enough on the power sections and didn't drop off the pace. This got a bit tricky towards the final laps as the rider started to fade so I had to make my move and eventually out-sprinted a group of 5 riders to finish 30th overall, a result that I'm extremely happy with as this was a National-level race and the level was so much higher than Regional level. As a team, the London area managed to claim the second spot on the podium with a strong performance from all the London riders, especially Jamie Newall who finished well inside the top-10.

Altogether the race was a brilliant experience and I will use this as a stepping stone and a massive confidence booster over the winter and into the road racing season next year. Stay tuned for some great results!

Results (shortened)

Seniors:

Senior & Junior
1 Steve James Central A 59 34
2 Luke Grivell-Mellor West Midlands A at 0-05
3 Alex Welburn West Midlands A at 0-10
4 Lee Williams Wales A at 0-42
5 Jamie Newall London A
6 Adam Martin North East A
7 Jack Clarkson Yorkshire A
8 Joe Kirkham East Midlands A
9 Crispin Doyle South/West A
10 Tom Payton West Midlands A
11 Robert Burns West Midlands A
12 Stephen Adams London A
13 Lee Westwood West Midlands A
14 Jim Bryan East Midlands A
15 William Worrall Wales A
16 Dieter Droger Yorkshire A
17 Andrew Nichols Eastern A
18 Peter Kench South/Western A
19 Sylvain Garde London A
20 Matt Woods South/West B
21 Matthew Webber London A
22 Ben Sumner Central A
23 Harry Franklin London B
24 Charles Coleman South/West B
25 Ian Taylor Yorkshire A
26 Neil Hayward West Midlands A
27 Ryan Bevis Wales A
28 Andrew Stuart East Midlands A
29 Aron Marshall East Midlands A
30 Ciaran O'Grady London A
...
72 Simon Douglas Central C

1 WEST MIDLANDS A 26
2 LONDON A 57

...
12 CENTRAL C 250

Veterans:

1 Chris Young Yorkshire A 41 49
2 Darren Atkins West Midlands A at 0-00
3 Noel Clough Yorkshire A at 0-15
4 Matt Denby Yorkshire A at 0-22
5 Greg Simcock Eastern A
6 Sean Williams South/Wessex A
7 Steve Knight West Midlands A
8 Mick Bell London A
9 Keith Sheridan South/Western A
10 Mike Young Yorkshire A
11 Pete Harris East Midlands A
12 Richard Binks Yorkshire B
13 Philip Roach West Midlands A
14 Dave Phillips South/Western C
15 Dave McMullen Central A
16 Gavin Rumbles Central A
17 Will Girvan South/Wessex A
18 Harvey Levann East Midlands A
19 Martin Carter Eastern A
20 Jonathan Watson Yorkshire B
21 Greg Slater West Midlands A
22 Russell Jones London A
23 Pete Smith Central A
24 Mick Davies West Midlands B
25 Clive Harrison Eastern A
26 Jason Hawkins West Midlands B
27 Malcolm Cross South/Wessex A
28 Mick Rowson Yorkshire B
29 Gary Strickland East Midlands A
30 Chris Green East Midlands A
31 Lorenzo Buratti West Midlands B
32 Pete Hutchinson South/Western B
33 Martin O'Grady London A
...
66 Jamie Brady North East B

1 YORKSHIRE A 8
2 WEST MIDLANDS A 22
3 EASTERN A 49
4 SOUTH/WESSEX 50
5 CENTRAL A 54
6 EAST MIDLANDS A 58
7 YORKSHIRE B 60
8 LONDON 63

...
17 NORTH EAST B 186

London Cyclocross League Round 7!

2011-11-01T23:38:00.000Z

Two Team Toachim riders took to the start line last Sunday along with a staggering 180+ other riders. Martin O'Grady was injured whilst training during the week and was forced not to race, but instead to help out in the pit area.

Craig Joy and Ciaran O'Grady were both gridded on the 2nd row of the start, and got off to a good start. Once the field was sorted out, Ciaran found himself battling with Jules Birks for 6th position, a battle which would go on for the whole race until Jules finally out-sprinted Ciaran in the last few metres of the race.

Craig was battling with Evans Cycle's Matt Spurgin throughout the race but was finally bested by him when Craig crashed in the last lap on one of the technical parts of the course.

The Team Toachim boys will be racing again this Sunday at Round 8 of the London Cyclocross League at Brighton.

Results (Top 20)

1 12 Nick Jones Corley Cycles S
2 47 Michael Smith Corley Cycles S
3 54 Matt Webber London Phoenix S
4 15 Sylvain Garde La Fuga Sigma RT S @ 1.27
5 21 Gary Record Biketarts S @ 1.57
6 32 Jules Birks VC Londres S @ 2.40
7 9 Ciaran O'Grady Team Toachim S @ 2.49
8 46 Liam Story Corley Cycles S @ 3.02
9 50 Stuart Spies London Dynamo S @ 3.12
10 179 Gavin Rumbles CC Luton V @ 3.19
11 88 Phil Lenny Active S @ 4.16
12 2 Chris McGovern Sutton CC J @ 4.24
13 13 Mark Smith Crawley Whlrs S @ 4.55
14 63 Matt Spurgin Evans Cycles S s/t
15 10 Craig Joy Team Toachim S @ 5.20
16 944 Pete Smith MI Racing Jewsons V s/t
17 52 Chris Dick London Phoenix S @ 5.27
18 43 Dan Braid La Fuga Sigma RT S @ 5.35
19 14 Josh Parkin Arctic RT J @ 6m
20 74 Phil Moore KMP S s/t

My most successful race, if not the best result...

2011-10-24T13:48:00.000+01:00

Sunday 16th of October was the 6th Round of the London Cyclocross League, at Fowlmead Country Park, Deal. The course conditions on the day were dry and extremely fast, with a few technical sections and a lot of places where a rider's fitness would be tested.

I was gridded 2nd row again, and again managed to get a brilliant start, being 3rd into the first sections. This was a massive boost to my race, as an unstressful start allows you to concentrate on racing, rather than on how bad your start was.

From here I focused on keeping on the pace in about the 3rd rider position, which worked well for a while until Jack Finch crashed in one of the technical sections, sending him over the handlebars, with me narrowly avoiding him and chasing back the leading rider, James Duguid. I rode with him at the front of the race for a few laps, keeping the pace high enough to be a disincentive for attacks from the 10-or-so riders who were in our group.

About 4 laps into the race, I decided to put the pressure on at the front of the race, riding all sections fast and hoping that this would cause some riders to make mistakes and fall off the pace. It worked, our ten man group was whittled down to a group of six, with two more riders chasing closely behind. In hindsight, this was a mistake, as I used up precious energy that would prove to be fateful in the final few laps.

But for the time being, I was enjoying riding at the front of a London League race, which is not something that a lot of riders can say they have done, because the pace is so furiously high in a cyclocross race, and in order to do so you need to be super strong. It also meant that I was able to tackle the technical sections as fast as I wanted to, without riders infront of me making mistakes and loosing their speed going through technical sections.

As the race progressed into the final few laps however, I began to feel my legs becoming heavy and not responding to the kicks required in cyclocross racing. This caused me to fall down the placings to 7th, with Mick Bell to form a group of two chasing riders. I wanted to pressure him in the last lap, to see if I could force him to make a mistake and give me a gap. He was super strong however, and was able to match the pace I was setting in the final lap.

He was able to out-sprint me in the final straight, which was a bit of a dissappointment with regards to the result, but I felt that my race had been one of the best I've ever ridden, I managed to lead the race and ride aggressively, which was something that had always eluded me in previous years; I just didn't have the strength to get up to the front, and my starts always proved to be lacking, leaving me chasing with a lot of energy spent already.

I have been selected to ride for the South-East in the Inter-Area Team Championships in Milton Keynes on the 6th of November, which is a massive privelage and will be a great experience, and I hope to perform well and make the South-East director and my coach while I was at VC Deal-ACTiV, Richard Wood, proud.

A race report from the first round of the SERRL Winter Series will be up shortly.

Two races, Two 5th places.

2011-10-10T20:28:00.001+01:00

On the 25th of September I was racing down in Brighton at the new venue which was by far the best cyclocross course I have ever raced on. The course was fast and had enough corners in to make sure that it wasn't an off-road road course. It was PROPER cyclocross, as it should be.

Gridded 2nd row, I placed myself behind Jack Finch, a known fsat-man, and I managed to get a flying start and get into the first corner in around 6th place. The field immediately split behind a front group of seven riders, with the two other Toachim riders keeping an eye on things in the chasing group. The pace in the leading group was fierce, corners were taken at maximum speed and eventually Jack Finch broke away on his own. Seeing this, I decided to up the pace into a technical section... only to brake to hard and have my front wheel loose traction and slide out... great.

So there I was chasing for 6th place, but I managed to catch the rider infront of me, who I attacked shortly after and managed to retain my position to the finish.

One of my pre-season's goal's checked off!

I skipped the next round in Herne Hill becasue to me, that is not a cyclocross course, never has, never will be.

So bring on the following round, on the 9th of October, at Chainhurst. I had ridden this course in a previous season and knew it had a good balance of technical and power sections. When I was gridded on the front row it was mentally a huge boost, and a good start lead me to be 3rd into the first corner. I slipped back a bit as the first lap came to a close, but maintained a good position with two Sigma Sport riders.

The three of us rode a hard pace, until I slid out in a rather impressive manner on a wet corner, which gave the two team mates a gap which they extended. It was a short while before I met one of them again, as he had crashed in a technical section, but he passed me again with a massive turn of speed.

I rolled in 5th again, which doubled up one of my pre-season goals. I'm extremely happy with this and hope to be able to achieve a similar position next weekend, on my home turf of Fowlmead. Bring it on!

Tot Ziens.

It's Been A While....

2011-05-16T21:08:00.004+01:00

Things have been very busy lately, training volume has been increasing over the past few months in preparation to get stuck into my racing season. I will be racing this coming Sunday, at the South East of England Championships which is an Elite/1st/2nd/3rd category race so it should be hard, especially with a distance of 140+km on hilly terrain and rough roads!

I am looking forward to riding for the team, as we have several riders who should be able to challenge for the top positions, so I will be riding to support them as well as I can.

I hope to be able to get back into updating this website as often as I possibly can! A big thanks to those who keep checking in!!!

Here's some music for you, one of the latest additions to VeloBeats' offerings:
VeloBeats May 2011 Maglia Rosa by VeloBeats

Tot Ziens!!!

Update on the Progress

2011-03-17T22:38:00.005Z

So training has been steadily increasing over the past few weeks, and the weather has been having a merry fit whilst deciding whether or not to move from winter into spring...

I'll be racing in two weeks time at a local circuit race, and annother the following weekend, before looking at doing some full length road races as to not stress the knee too soon.

It was my birthday last Saturday, so there was not any on-the-bike training done, but I had some good core strength sessions over the weekend. I am really looking forward to getting as fit as I was last year, and I can certainly feel improvements with how I feel on the bike, the gears are starting to go round easier!!!

Some tunes for the weekend; VeloBeat's Milan-San Dubstep Mix!

VeloBeats Milan-San Dubstep by VeloBeats

Tot Ziens.

New Kit, Sponsors and Keeping the Training Up!

2011-03-02T16:39:00.008Z

This weekend was the presentation and photoshoot of the Toachim House Racing Team, which I am extremely happy to be a part of for 2011. A massive thankyou goes to Andrew Wills, who owns Toachim House Veterinary Surgery in Faversham, and makes the team possible each year.

As the team has aquired new sponsors and suppliers, I am stocked up with goodies from TORQ Energy and Nutrition products, as well as kit from M.S. Tina, new team kit bags, support from Downland Cycles, eyewear from Eye Level Optical, and photos from Dave Hayward Photography.

Training over the weekend was interesting, I had planned to do 2 hours training on both Saturday and Sunday, but disaster struck on Saturday!

Mattie and I rode out to Grove Ferry to meet up with a training group, and no sooner had we met up with them and rode a few kilometers...a spoke in Mattie's wheel broke and he was unable to ride with the close tolerances of his frame. I immediatley surrendered my rear wheel and rode the damaged wheel home. However, in doing so I think I've found the reason for Mattie's gradual destruction of all the wheels he owns...he pumps his tyres insanely hard. I may only be 55kilograms, but I pump my tyres to 6-7bar unless I'm on a circuit with brilliantly smooth roads. I've tried the super-hard tyre mentality and I was not impressed at all, not only is comfort and control reduced, there is not a massive amount of increase in efficiency.

Sunday's ride was a much greater success. After the presentation and photoshoot, most of the team set off for a 2hr training ride from the Toachim House Veterinary Practice. It was brilliant to ride with the whole team in training, as usually we only meet at races, but only occasionally whilst out training.

I felt compelled to get some shots during the ride on my Blackberry, so there I was, riding no-handed going uphill, trying to take a steady shot of the team training. Ah...and then I took it a bit further.

The team will be racing this Sunday, at the 125km Elite/1/2/3 race at Lamberhurst. I will not be racing in this, as I have still got to build up my training volume to that level, so I'm having a training weekend instead.

Music Feature:

Felguk - Side By Side
Felguk - Side By Side by NebO

Tot Ziens.

Upping the Kilometers

2011-02-14T22:54:00.007Z

So the training on the road bike is steadily increasing using my mountainbike pedals and shoes, which will allow me to make a much smoother transition onto the road bike than the disaster last year. I'm still yet to complete my first four hour training session, but I feel that this goal can wait for annother while as the road season is long enough to enter the racing with little form and build as the season progresses.

Mattie and I had a two hour training session on Sunday morning, with the first hour and twenty minutes being into a fierce headwind which made going very tough to start off. Once we turned and headed home we had a beautiful tailwind, which allowed us to easily reach speeds of 50km/h and a maximum of a quite nice 64km/h.

I am visiting Italy this weekend, for a non-bike related trip, but I will no doubt be investigating Italian roads and training-scapes!

Today's Tune:
LIVE-MIX-FEB by WLF.

Happy St.Valentine's Day!

Tot Ziens.

Annother Win for Mattie!

2011-02-10T16:16:00.008Z

Sunday 6th February saw the second last Winter Series race at the Fowlmead Racing Circuit. Three Toachim House Racing Team riders lined up to start the race: Andrew Wills, Martin and Ciaran O'Grady. Martin was a clear favourite to win the race as the dominating performance he displayed at the previous race certainly showed he had great form. As usual, the circuit at Fowlmead was as windy as the Tour of Qatar being exposed on high ground near the coast, which made the going tough and racing hard.

After the initial flurry of attacks that are near obligatory in circuit racing, a group of four riders established a break, including Toachim's Martin O'Grady. This left Andrew Wills and Ciaran O'Grady to make sure that the break was successful by covering attacks and increasing the time gap further. These were the same tactics that Toachim employed at the previous race, in which Martin was in a solo breakaway, and they seemed to work well enough for this level of racing.

The break of four soon had established a winning lead, as the peloton was too small to organise an effective chase along with the disruption by Toachim riders to prevent their team-mate being brought back. So the breakaway lined up for a sprint, with Martin leading from the front with 300m to go and showing another superb display of his racing quality by taking the win. Bear in mind that Martin is the oldest member of Team Toachim, at 50 years old he certainly puts a lot of younger riders to shame! We hope that the early successes of Team Toachim will carry forward throughout the 2011 racing season.

I will be reporting back regularly on racing, training and team news in the next few weeks, including the presentation of the Toachim House Racing Team.

I would also like to take a moment to inform you of some audio entertainment for when you're riding or getting motivated for races. A good friend of mine, Joe Burrows a.k.a. WLF. , who produces mixes that keep me 'psyched' before races and make the training time pass quicker. His tracks are available and can be downloaded here.

VeloBeats is another source that I rely on for music for my cycling. Owner John Braynard set about to create tracks that would suit cycling training i.e. fast-paced euro beats. His tracks can be found on the VeloBeats website, where they can be downloaded in the same manner as WLF.'s.

Photographs copyright:

Dave Hayward Photography

Tot Ziens.

Trying Something New

2011-02-05T18:41:00.004Z

I've had a stroke of genius this afternoon whilst training; instead of racing on a 'heavy' aluminiun cyclocross bike in the road race tomorrow, why not put my mountainbike pedals on my road bike? So I've swapped pedals and am planning on racing on my nice carbon-fibre SRAM-equipped Giant TCR with Mavic Ksyrium ES wheels. Sounds fast.

Over the past month or so, I've been gradually transferring training time onto my road bike, but it's so gradual that I'm only up to about an hour of training at one time. My thinking is that the only difference between the bikes now are the pedals and cleats, which are easily swapped out, thus allowing me to race on my road bike.

Well that's the plan anyway...

Tot Ziens.

Long time, No update...

2011-02-05T16:36:00.006Z

Well it's been a few weeks since I've posted something, due to academic and personal committments. The Cyclocross racing season is nearly over, with only one more possible race for me to do. My schoolwork and examinations the past few weeks have made training and writing time hard to come by, but at least that means I won't burn out by May due to too much training and racing early on in the year.

Tomorrow I am racing the South East Road Race League; Winter Series at a local circuit. The weather has been extremely windy the past few days so it will definitley be a very hard race. I will post a race report up hopefully as soon after the race as I can.

Tot Ziens.

Mountain-Cross Racing?!

2011-01-23T21:52:00.009Z

On Sunday was my most successful race of the 2011 Cyclocross season, placing 10th in the London League at a rather technical course at Wilmington School, Dartford.

I didn't have a great preparation in the few days leading up to the race, as Thursday I had my longest training ride since May, Friday and Saturday were busy days with an exam and then Mattie's birthday dinner at Oxford. Oh Boy. So before the race itself I was not too sure how I would fare, my legs felt okay on the practice laps and a few efforts managed to get a decent speed out of them. The course was an extremely technical course for a Cyclocross race, which I have no problem with, but the course was far too narrow to be safe. This is Cyclocross, not Mountainbiking...

The Belgian for Cyclocross is "Veldrijden", which literally translated means "Field Riding", and should be exactly that. Any conntinental Cyclocross fan or racer would be able to see that today's course is not fitting for a race, and I'm quite pleased there were no riders from Belgium or France over today. Do not get me wrong, I love a technical Cyclocross course, but when a mistake is made on a proper cross course you have plenty of room to correct yourself, or at least crash 'safely' and not end up merging into one being with a tree or disappearing into thorn bushes never to be seen again. The UCI Cyclocross handbook is available to download from their website...with course regulations.

Anway, enough of me ranting on about a Mountainbike course! I managed to work my way to 10th place by really drilling myself into the ground when the course allowed me to, and then inevitably slowing during the technical sections. The ground had plenty of grip to run my FMB SSC tubulars soft, but not as low as I would on a really wet day, which meant that they were extremely fast along the straights.

After the race, my legs did not feel like they had just done an hour at maximum effort, which is either a good sign...or obviously the course prohibited me from going full gas! ;)

The course did not suit Mattie well, the technical sections required skills that would come with riding off-road over time, which he has not fully developed yet. He certainly is improving his skills, but also his knowledge of how to ride in low-traction situations and conditions. He achieved 17th position overall, and 4th veteran.

Photographs copyright:
Dave Hayward Photography

Tot Ziens.

First Pavé Article!

2011-01-21T17:42:00.004Z

Today my first article was published on Pavé, a website offering an in-depth view into the world of Professional Cycling. I'm really happy with the article and how it reads, I spent a lot of time making sure the content was factual by cross-checking it using many different sources. The topic of the article is the UCI's (International Cycling Union) controversial new ruling that extends the ban on radio communication during races.

You can read my article here:

Will the UCI Kill the Radio Star?

Tot Ziens.

One day like this...

2011-01-20T22:03:00.005Z

10800 seconds. Today was my longest training ride since my knee injury, and it felt good.

Last night I had been searching for some new training roads to make a decent 3 hour training route, which was a great success. The roads I had picked delved much deeper into true Kentish 'countryside' than my usual training rides, the experience of riding on roads that are unknown to you is one that I will never get tired of. Okay, I did manage to loose my way a few times and had to resort to checking where I was on my Blackberry, but that's the whole joy of finding new training roads surely?

My route contained short and steep climbs, longer climbs, flat sections with guaranteed headwinds, windy descents...pretty much a perfect route for me. The amount of new hills that I found really surprised me, there must have been double the total altitude climbed compared to my usual training route. As South-East Kent is only a stone throw away from Belgium and Northern France, the terrain is remarkably similar; relatively flat with extremely steep climbs, albeit they aren't cobbled, but not every Belgian climb is cobbled!

The end of my 2010/11 Cyclocross season is looming, with my last league race on this Sunday and then a possible race at the London Team Championships in a few weeks. The steady changeover to my road bike started two weeks ago, but I'm still only doing a maximum of 1 hour on it, that's what you call gradual implementation! Hopefully I will be able to make a smooth transition onto the road bike, and compete for the whole road season with Team Toachim.

Things are slowly being updated on the Team Toachim Website, including 'Rider Profiles' with likes and dislikes etc. so keep an eye on that for the future, especially when the road season fully kicks in.

Tot Ziens.

SERRL Winter Series - 16th January 2011

2011-01-17T18:00:00.014Z

On Sunday, Team Toachim arrived at Fowlmead Racing Circuit with a 3 man team, with Andrew Wills, Martin and Ciaran O'Grady.

The weather had decided to cooperate considerably by the time the race was underway, a near cloud-less sky and a strong wind, The wind made some sections of the circuit extremely tough for most riders.

Ciaran O'Grady attacked from the gun, and spent the first lap and a half on his own, but was soon caught by 2 other riders to form a small breakaway. The peleton soon caught the break and square one was reached.

Martin took the initiative and attacked shortly afterwards, with no-one able to follow this move. Ciaran spotted the chance for a lone breakaway to succeed and set about disrupting any formation of a chase. He marked attempts to bridge across to Martin, but would not help to bride the gap in an attempt to secure a win for Team Toachim.

Martin was soon well out of sight of the peleton and a win was looking sure, bar a puncture or mechanical. With 4 laps to go, Ciaran was feeling all the efforts he had made in marking all the moves and dropped back in the peleton to recover. At this moment, a group of six riders broke away with Andrew Wills a few seconds behind. Unfortunatley, Andrew didn't bridge the gap and joined Ciaran to create a group with two other riders. Ciaran tried to improve the results for Team Toachim by attacking with 2 laps to go, but the wind was not making it easy for him to stay away solo and the group worked their way back up to him before the finish.

The final result was extremely pleasing, Team Toachim came out of the race with a win and a solid display of ability to control a race.

The team will be racing the few remaining Winter Series races at Fowlmead Racing Circuit, with the O'Grady's competing in the remaining London Cyclocross League races as well.

Tot Ziens.

Photographs copyright:
Dave Hayward Photography

Indoor training? I must be mad

2011-01-17T12:54:00.004Z

With the weather deteriorating for the past week, I was not looking forward to training outside, but was determined to stay away from the turbo trainer as the restriction of movement does not sit well with my knee.

However, on Monday, I had quite a nice surprise.

The previous few weeks I had been pestering my dad for an early birthday present in the form of a set of rollers from Chainreaction Cycles that were on sale at a very tempting price. He gave me no indication of any possibility of purchasing them and left me resigned to getting cold and wet during training for annother week.

Little did I know, he had ordered them before the sale offer price ended, so on Monday afternoon he arrived home with a delievery. I was shocked, I had convinced myself that he wasn't going to get them, so I was quite happy! Of course, I set them up immediatley and planned a quick training session so I could see how they were.

I didn't fall off, which really surprised me, as most of the reviews I have read of rollers in general stated that they are difficult to learn to ride on to begin with. I'm sure they just don't know how to ride a bike properly. The rollers required me to concentrate for the first ten minutes, after that I was already confident in taking both hands of the bars and changing the channel on the TV. Super!

So this has been my training for the past week, indoors on the rollers whilst watching whatever is on the TV or a cycling DVD. It also gives me a great chance to transfer training time onto the road bike, so building up the total time on the road bike should be much easier.

A race report from my road race on Sunday will be up soon, as well as a short summary of the Cyclocross World Cup.

Tot Ziens!

A little bit of news

2011-01-12T18:09:00.001Z

It has certainly been a while since I last posted some personal cycling news, so here some is!

I've been able to get some much better training in now that the knee seems to be improving, and I will be testing the knee this Sunday at a local winter series road race so that should be fun! It would be nice to get some points towards my next category license, but I'm not too worried about it as I'd be happy just to be back racing my bike on the road again.

The transition onto the road bike is going well, especially with the purchase of some really great rollers from Tacx. For example, today I rode 1hr 30mins on the cyclocross bike on the rollers, then swapped for the road bike for annother 30mins as my legs were warmed up and there would be less chance of an injury occurring. All seems good so far!

This weekend I will try and report on some of the cyclocross races going on, such as the World Cup in France. There will also be a report on the Fowlmead Winter Series road race on Sunday.

Tot Ziens!
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

2011 Belgian National Cyclocross Championships

2011-01-09T23:18:00.007Z

Belgian National Cyclocross Championships - Last 2 Laps

Niels Albert claimed his first Belgian Cyclocross Champion's jersey today, after a dominant show of form at the fast, sandy course at Antwerp.

The early lead went to Kevin Pauwels, which obviously worried Albert, as the soon-to-be champion attacked and bridged across to Pauwels. Sven Nys, on seeing Albert make the junction, tried to bridge across to the two but the engine wasn't firing today. He admitted today he had an 'off day', and abandoned the race with a few laps to go, disappointing the 19,000 spectators who had attended expecting to see a Nys-Albert battle on an epic stage.

Albert soon caused Pauwels to make mistakes and loose contact, and so the young rider from Baal rode the last six laps in the lead, and extending it even further.

Meanwhile, the race for the two remaining podium spots was being hotly contested. Bart Aernouts, Kevin Pauwels and Bart Wellens were in a group and were trying to battle eachother for a podium finish. It was clear that Pauwels and Wellens wanted to stack the remnants of the podium with Fidea-Telenet jerseys as they attacked together, trying to break Aernouts' hold on them. This state of warfare between the three riders lasted until the last lap, when the Rabobank rider started to loose contact on Wellens and Pauwels. Wellens eventually broke away from Pauwels to claim a well-deserved second place, to which he was clearly very happy with.

Full Results:

1	Niels Albert (BKCP – Powerplus)	59:47:00
2	Bart Wellens (Telenet Fidea Cycling Team)	0:00:23
3	Kevin Wauwels (Telenet Fidea Cycling Team)	0:00:27
4	Bart Aernouts (Rabo-Giant Offroad Team)	0:00:42
5	Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor)	0:01:05
6	Sven Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Revor)	0:01:16
7	Kenneth Van Compernolle (Style & Concept)	0:01:50
8	Dieter Vanthourenhout (BKCP – Powerplus)	0:01:56
9	Rob Peeters (Telenet Fidea Cycling Team)	0:02:02
10	Jan Denuwelaere (Style & Concept)	0:02:56
11	Jan Verstraeten (KDL cycling team)	0:03:26
12	Tom Van Den Bosch (AA Drink/ Leontien.nl)	0:05:59
13	Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen – Mercator)

More reports on other National Championships will be coming soon.

Tot Ziens.