My first year in Elite

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BY: Stephen Steven Hodge

Published: 4th September, 2013

My first year in Elite

Four years ago whilst sat around at the end of a soggy bottom race it was suggested to me that I should get a license and see how far up the rankings I could go. Initially I poopooed the idea, writing it off on the pretence that it would cause me to take cycling too serious.  Fast forward to today and I’m sat here reflecting upon my first year in Elite.

So how did I get here?

It all started in the lowest category of sport riding for my local bike shop Cogs Bikes. My first year of racing was probably my most fruitful result wise with a scatting of great results in nationals and not getting off the podium in the local series’. Seeing me ranked 3^rd overall in Sport saw me graduate to Expert. 

With my move to Expert I upped my training and combined both my fun and race bikes together in the form of a 29inch wheeled Yeti Bigtop, finding myself riding for Shred Yeti National trust I also found myself to have a fellow team mate of Veteran rider Brendon Murphy to offer each other support at the nationals and lift shares. My year in Expert found me in consistently in the top 10 of the National series and again not off the podium in the local series as well as a notable South West Champs title. With a sold finish to the year I found myself ranked 4^th overall in Expert, which saw me again graduate this time to the top category of Elite.

With Elite saw a little more attention from my then employers of Silverfish (bicycle distributors) who saw me as an opportunity to help promote their brands on the national cross country race scene. With my previous team mate from Shred of Brendon Murphy and a then unheard of rider Dexter Hurlock we teamed together to form Mondraker Racing UK. This being the season which has just finished.

So how did my season go?

Well on paper if you look at my Elite ranking it looks pretty good currently being 14^th with only a handful of races left in the UK it looks like I’m pretty safe to stay within the top 20 of Elite riders. But personally I think this season has easily been my worse. I started off struggling to find any form before finally starting to find my legs I then decided to crack a rib which shattered any form for a good month.  My key races of the year were going to be Hopton, Margam and the Welsh Champs (also in Margam). First up were the Welsh Champs where I initially found myself comfortable in 2^nd behind Lee Williams apparently gaining on him (according to my very bios parents) until the middle of the race where I punctured and out of contention. My next major race was the nationals at Hopton where I had no problems what so ever and laid down a great result of 26/54 IIRC. My next key race was the Nationals at Margam where I was hoping to get my best restult of the year… sadly this wasn’t to be with a snapped chain on the start line putting me right out the back.  From then on my season just didn’t pick up and have finished quite deflated.

Oh Cry me a river!

Yeah I know my blog posts generally do seem to consist of me whining! So here’s some reflection… what went wrong? Well I feel some mechanicals can’t be avoided such as my pucture in the Welsh round, however other’s can such as my snapped chain (I probably shouldn’t have tripled tapped whilst trying to accelerate). But one of my main faults all season has been distinct lack of aggression, my best result being at hopton where aggression wasn’t quite as important seeing as a great climb was all you needed to get a good position. So how do I get more aggressive? I tried inspirational music but this didn’t work. I think my main problems were lack of upper body strength… I’ve a physique which more like Chris Froome than Nino Shurter. With no upper body strength I’ve not had the power to push my bike and body through the tough courses such as the Cornish and the Olympic rounds all I’ve relied upon is my technical ability which has seen me through the sections but just holding on not pushing through. Secondly I feel the talent in the local races have improved drastically meaning what was previously an easy win or podium for myself is now a struggle to get into the top 5 which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good to have competition bad that it means I don’t have an easy confidence boost before racing national. Oh and finally I feel I’ve raced too much 14 races in 8 months!

There’s an obvious two fixes here improve my upper body strength and select a handful of races to do rather than as many as possible! Next year I’m really pleased to see Margam and Hopton on the calander as well as 2 new venues on the national series to make things interesting. With no current South West series listed the risk of me over racing has hopefully been minimised… but we’ll see, racing is quite fun after all!