Last week, I went on my first ever overseas training camp with my team, Tofauti Everyone Active. A week long trip to Mallorca enabled us to not only get in a good week of training, but also gel and bond as a team. Although most of us knew each other from racing, and I’d been on the same team as 2 others from last year, it was good to spend some time together as a group before the start of the season. We learnt about each other’s goals, skills and abilities on and off the bike, and the time allowed us to see a side of each other away from racing. 

Coming into the week, I didn’t know what to expect, having never been on a team training camp before. However, after arriving in our hotel in Alcudia and an easy ride a routine was quickly established. 

The block began with a day of easy riding, down to the famous lighthouse at Cap Formentor and back, just to get the legs moving before the serious training began the day after. Most days would be ride out to the climb, do efforts up the climb and then roll back. Each day was around 3.5-4hrs, and we had a nice mixture of efforts throughout the week, some shorter, intense efforts and some longer ones. 

It was great to ride the famous climbs that I had only ever seen pictures of, like Sa Calobra, Sa Batalla, Col de Sóller and Puig Major, even if we didn’t get time to take it all in on the way up sometimes. My favourite day was the all out effort up Sa Calobra, just because of the fabled nature of the climb, and it’s iconic hairpins. With it being used by so many pro’s and amateurs it is a great marker to see how you compare with other riders and also other juniors, many of whom you may be up against later on in the year. It was also interesting to compare Strava times on the descents with the Challenge Mallorca races, as it shows how fast the pros can really go downhill! 

Generally, it was good weather as expected, although it did rain quite heavily for a while when we were up the top of Sa Batalla, making for some good descending practice in the slippery conditions. 

Getting the warm weather while others were at home in various storms definitely boosted the morale, and really made me saviour the experience of being out in Mallorca. 

I’ll leave you with some stats for the week, but first of all I want to say a big thank you for all those involved at Tofauti Everyone Active and Mallorca cycling for putting it all together. It really was a great experience. 

Also I want to say thank you to Pedal Potential who will also be supporting me this season. 

Stats:

22hrs 40mins

670km

4932m of elevation gain

40 dinner plates

8 cups of coffee

6 energy gels

2 caffeine gels

And lots of fun!

As my first junior season has ended, and we are heading into the dark winter months, I thought now would be a good time to write about what I have learnt during the season about junior racing at UK national and UCI level, and how I can use this knowledge to improve my race craft for the 2022 season.

I feel that many riders overthink becoming junior; longer races on the open road, climbs, stage racing are all new obstacles that first year riders are suddenly faced with. I hold this as my biggest mistake in 2021. I was worried that I would not have the endurance required for these races, so all winter I rode long, slow base miles to help me cope with the 2.5hrs+ durations. I only started intensity once racing resumed, and the intensity was only in the race, so I was immediately on the back foot. Come my first national at Cicle Classic, I was quickly found out, and missed the front splits. I’d say it took around 6 weeks for me to return to my level of results that I had in 2019, which was almost the whole season, leaving 2 races for me to show myself in. This year showed me that being able to push high numbers for short durations is key to arriving to the last hour fresh enough to make a decisive move. Working on intensity all year round, albeit less in winter, like in youth racing is still important at the junior level.

Another thing concerning longer races is the introduction/necessity of the feed zone, where riders take bottles and gels from a loving parent/guardian in the hopes that it prevents them from bonking in the final. Many riders, first and second years, including myself, have got feeding plans wrong this year, leading to rather unfortunate falls from grace. Very quickly, riders learn that taking a bottle every lap is a good idea, unfortunately this creates a very hectic environment in the feed zone, making it a dangerous place to be. I made this mistake in the Tour of Wales, where on the 3rd stage I missed my bottle with carbs in twice. I thought I’d got away with it, as I was feeling fine in the latter part, but as the race hit The Tumble Mountain on the 4th stage, my legs quickly disappeared, and I think this can be attributed to not feeding well the day before, which was a 140k split stage. Fuelling incorrectly on a day like that will likely have a knock on effect.

The third mistake that prevented me from obtaining better results in the 2021 season was a lack of aggression and combativity. This was partly down to a lack of confidence due to succesful attacks being a rarity in youth races, and partly down to me doubting myself in a longer range breakaway. However, with all but one road race/stage not having a breakaway win in this year’s series, attacking riding is key to being a top level junior rider. In the last two national races of the year, I attacked more, and this helped me achieve a better result in the race on both occasions. In La Bernaudeau UCI, I was outfront for over 60 kilometres, meaning I could avoid the carnage in the bunch and take the numerous steep climbs at my own pace, rather than at the lightning speed that the bunch hit them with. Unfortunately here it didn’t work so well, as we were caught with 20k to go, but once caught by the bunch, I was there to help a teammate by giving him a fresh bottle and a gel, before being distanced from the remainder of the peloton, but I still finished inside the top third of the field.

As we go into 2022, I hope to use these in racing to build on a respectable 2021, to obtain high level results as a 2nd year junior to take my cycling to a higher level as an under 23.

Ciao, Nathan

What makes an athlete?

For a while now, cycling has seen multi discipline talents, with riders like Pauline Ferrand – Prevot, Marianne Vos and Elia Viviani competing across different disciplines, often switching multiple times a season, and with large amounts of success. Ferrand – Prevot and Vos have both been world champion on the road and cyclocross, with the former once holding the road, cyclocross and mountain bike world titles at the same time. Viviani meanwhile came from the track, winning many European and National titles, and now balances this with road racing. It is only in the last few years however that cycling has seen atheltes with backgrounds in other sports becoming successful in its professional ranks. In this article, I’ll be detailing examples of these sport switches, and delving into what made these athletes successful in the first place.

A name that immediately springs to mind for most people when sport switches are mentioned is Primoz Roglic. Roglic started off as a ski jumper, a hugely popular sport in Slovenia. He enjoyed success early on in his career, becoming junior world champion at age 17 in 2007, and regularly competed on the world cup circuit in the senior ranks, until a horrific crash in which he landed side first into the hill.

Thankfully, he wasn’t injured, but it put him off ski jumping for good, and he took up cycling aged 21. Roglic’s case is rare; ski jumping is about explosivity, and timing, perhaps more akin to the big burst of power seen in a match sprint, rather than a monument or 3 week tour. But, clearly a natural athlete, endurance never troubled him, and it is now his explosivity that has garnered him many victories on the road. In an interview with Velonews.com, Roglic states that while the two sports are different, the discipline required to carry out “a lot of stretching, yoga, speed work and core training” has put him in good stead, adding that “those skills helped me as a cyclist”. Also, he often cites his mental capacity to focus and be able to take risks, saying “I didn’t fear Ski Jumping enough, so i crashed big”.

Another hugely talented athlete is Remco Evenepoel, skyrocketing to fame at the Innsbruck world junior championships in 2018, soloing off the front after having to gain three minutes on the bunch after a mechanical in the early part of the race, which other nations tried to take advantage of to put him out of contention. Only taking up cycling in 2017, he was a footballer, playing for the youth sides of big clubs PSV Eindhoven and RSC Anderlecht. He also made 6 appearances for the Belgian Youth Teams, scoring one goal in his short career.

A great level of awareness, and the ability to react quickly, aided Evenepoel’s success on the road, quickly learning how to read a race, and make tactical decisions. Also, Evenepoel’s (and his family’s) dedication was nothing short of remarkable, getting up early every morning to drive the 200km journey to Arnhem, and back in the evening after a day of training. Therefore, it didn’t come as a surprise that he often cites his weakened mental state as the reason for leaving football, although this likely conditioned him to be able to cope with cycling’s psychological demands.

Whilst researching for this article, what stood out to me was the mental strength of the athletes, being able to overcome setbacks and find an alternative, where many would have given up. Also, I think this article highlights the importance of doing multiple sports in adolescence, as the transferable skills picked up are shown to create a multi faceted sportsperson, aiding success in any sport or area of life that one goes down.

These two sportsmen are just a handful of sporting crossovers, and shows that they are part of a majority, rather than a minority of successful athletes switching paths to glory.

Why 2020 was my most important year

Like many, my 2020 was mainly spent training, alone, with nothing to aim for in the near future. However, this did not mean that this was a wasted year in any way. Fundamentally, it gave me time to take a look at my life on and off the bike, and focus on improving myself as both an athlete and a person. In this article, I will focus on lockdown onwards, as apart from Icebreakers track omniums in Newport, or Casnewydd, there wasn’t really anything noteworthy occurring.

From a cycling perspective, I looked at many areas of the sport. From training to psychology, I experimented with my approach, as I had the time to make potential mistakes, or adapt to any positive changes.

My first focus was improving my weaknesses, the most significant one being my explosivity and raw power. The times before lockdown on the track, where I was struggling to get on the back of a team pursuit, was when it became apparent that this was a real issue for me. I would be left behind in the last lap of a scratch race, and could barely score in a points, so I knew to be able to improve any other area, I would have to first improve this. This period of time was important, as I learnt how to focus on one aspect of my training, without leaving the others behind, and also the importance of physical and mental recovery, as the required sessions were always maximal, often leaving fatigue in my legs the day after.

Another thing I learnt, is something that is actually very important, yet seemingly insignificant to many people, and that is the question of why. Why do I ride? You may think it odd that I never really knew the answer, but I had always been doing sports, so why had I stuck with cycling, and given up football a long time ago? I think it is the freedom, of being able to go anywhere I like, when I want (okay maybe not exactly synonymous with lockdowns). Riding throughout lockdown made me feel good about myself, as something that was a constant in my life, which is why I believe that my non sporty friends struggled with the social isolation. Riding throughout the spring and summer last year, and in the winter of 2020-21, made me feel in some way superior, as I could see things that non cyclists could not, like the area outside my village.

The last important thing that 2020 taught me was dealing with nerves and pressure. Very strange, in a year of no racing, but this was as a result of trying out for the Great Britain Cycling Team Junior Academy. After a long hiatus, this was a very stressful event. But, I found that training specifically and visualising the day were instrumental in reducing any nerves. As for the pressure side, I decided that there was none. A lot of pressure that youth riders feel comes from themselves. Parents often do not mind whether their child is first or last, as long as the child has fun, an outlook that my parents fortunately have. Youth riders generally don’t have sponsors to please or families to feed. I had a coach from within the pathway at the time, as I was on the Apprentice program, but he didn’t put pressure on me either, so all that was left was myself. My mindset was that I knew what I had done before, and if I didn’t succeed, it wouldn’t be game over for me. In my head, I had already done many Individual Pursuits and Kilos at Manchester Velodrome. Overall, I ended up enjoying the event, however I was not selected to be part of the Academy. Never mind.

Ultimately, a situation is not about what you lose, which in this case was an entire season and my GCSE exams, but what you gain, which was a wealth of experience.

Ciao for now,

Nathan

Hi, I am Nathan Hardy, a first year junior from Bedfordshire riding for Tofauti – Everyone Active (http://tofautieveryoneactive.com/). I have to decided to start this blog as a means to give an insight into the training, thoughts and feelings of a young, aspiring athlete. Expect regular updates on what I’m up to on here, hope you will enjoy hearing more of what I have to say!

I started cycling competitively around the age of 8 years old, just in a few local league cyclo-cross and mountain bike races. At this point I was also playing football, cricket, and doing triathlon, athletics, and cross-country running, which I will cover in more depth another post. It was after this that I joined my first club, Cycle Club Ashwell, a welcoming club based in North East Hertfordshire. That winter, I started to love cyclo-cross, and was competing regularly in Central and Eastern cyclo-cross League races (whichever was closer!). I also had been enjoying riding the grass track at club sessions, and would begin racing on that the summer after.

My first real race season was as a 2nd year u10, in 2014. I enjoyed some success in grass track racing, and a fair amount less in road. Over the following seasons, I gained speed on the road and country, leading me to my 2nd year u14 season in 2018, gaining some good results nationally in cyclo-cross, the best being a 12th place at Ipswich National Trophy, and doing better on the road, coming away with 6th overall in the National Youth Circuit Series, and a 3rd at the National Championships in Scarborough.

It was during the 2018 season when I switched clubs to Welwyn Wheelers, leaving a few of my old friends from CCA behind. This gave me new opportunities to really step my game up, and hopefully lead to bigger and better things.

In 2019, I achieved some strong results as a first year, regularly being in the top 30 of national series races, and had come close a couple of times to a top 10 result, one being 11th on the 3rd stage of the Isle of Man Youth Tour. Highlights included racing the Manchester 6 Day Youth Event, partnering with my good friend Anthony Morris of VC Londres.

I will cover 2020 in another post, as I feel this is dragging on slightly, but thank you for taking the time to read this.

Ciao for now,

Nathan