As there were no races for first category riders this weekend in the South/South-East Region I decided it would be a fun change to compete in the Kent Hill Climb Championships this morning, my second ever one, my first being a knackering one going up a big hill in the Peak District in the BUCS Hill Champioships. This one was not quite so big being Kent, but hard nonetheless and it was Hollingbourne Hill, a decieving little climb that gets steeper and steeper as you go up the climb with the steepest part averaging 12.5% lasting about 1-1.2km. Up I went though as the thirty-first rider achieving a time of 3mins 27secs dead. I eventually came fourth after I led for quite a while, I was beaten into third by 0.01 seconds, gutting and the winning time was 3mins12secs. I felt really good until I went halfway up the climb and hit the steepest part, where with a good tunrout cheering me on I decided to knock into a bigger gear and really take the hill by the horns. Unfortunately the hill won. As the hill eased off towards the top I died with the last 100metres being some of the most painful of my life. Up until that point I was on for a time of around 3.15 which would have nabbed me second, but I paid for the effort of going mad on the steepest part of the hill. Nevermeind, lesson learned and the that's the first time I have ever been up that hill too, at least I came away £25 better off though.

Will let you know how I get on in my next race next Sunday, stay safe till then.

Well tonight was the last race of the Tursday evening SERRL Series and the last of the evening criteriums in the whole of the South therefore it was going to gurantee a great turnout, with even a certain Tim Butt popping over to compete having only arrived that day, fresh from two weeks cycling in the Algarve with Tri Training Harder, what a hard life he leads... lol. Anyway back to the race, as tonight it was just me, Phil and Malcolm representing our team and with a lot of good riders and some with team mates also there, we decided on the relevant team tactics beforehand, taking it in turns to each inflitrate a break. Fortunately that happened to be me, originally I was in a break of three, never more than 12 seconds from the peloton, however, after about 8mins our our break grew to seven and with almost all the major teams and players represented we then pulled away from the peloton, inching our advantage, by the end to around the 30second mark. With 5 laps to go, there were a couple of attacks launched, but nothing too serious until I launched one on the bell with a lap to go, I did this as many in the break were all good sprinters and with seven of us in the break it meant everyone had plenty of time to recover between their turns on the front saving legs. I also saw it pay handsomely to Robert Moore, who after a similar attack two weeks ago, held on for the win. My attack ultimately failed as Adam Coterriel from Zappis Pro Cycling attentively covered me, if he hadn't, well I reckon I might have been able to hold it all the way to the line. As it was, my roll of the dice didn't come off and I was well beaten in the sprint by all my breakaway companions. Nevermind, but at least I've only got 99 points till I get my elite license (I think) and a big thanks has to go to Malcolm and Phil who sacrificed their own chances of getting their first cat. license today, by working for me when I got away. Not too bad though considering that I have been in so much pain all week after Sunday and haven't even touched the bike since then. What I am in desperate need of is a massge or 30. Anyway now to concentrate on Sunday and hopefully win, it is the Kent Hill Climb Championships, held on Hollingbourne Hill, between Maidstone and Ashford, there's a bit of prize money and I'm keen to do really well on it and test myself against the clock and on such a climb, it will be really interesting to see how I go.

I will let you all know how I get on in there afterwards, but before I sign off I just got to say a massive thanks to everyone at SERRL for all the hard work they have put in all season both in the Summer Series and Evening Series, without them I couldn't have done as well as I have done this season.

Also to let everyone know I came fourth overall in the SERRL Summer Road Race Series and second overall in the SERRL Thursday Evening Series, not too shabby considering this is my first proper season as a roadie. On another note I will be racing Tim Butt on Sunday 7th, which should be interesting as this time it's on his turf, let battle commence...

Today was the day of the South East Road Racing League's own championships and the last in their Summer Series on a tough, undulating 85 mile course, just south of Tunbridge Wells, the weather and the field would only make it tougher, as though the number of athletes competing was only around 50-60, it had a lot of talent in it. There were to be 6 laps with a hill-top finish and here goes my re-telling of the event. We decided at the beginning that both e and Malcolm Davies were to be the team's protected riders out of the 5 of us with me looking into any good breaks that developed. The first two laps,  got into a couple of little moves and one quite big one with 6 of us away however nothing stuck, but towards the end of the second lap both Allan Ridler, the eventual winner, of Pedal Heaven and William Pratt of Dulwich Paragon then struck it out alone, within a couple of miles they had managed to pull out a lead of a minute. Halfway round the third lap Paul Pickup from Pedal Heaven attacked pulling out a 30 second plus advantage, I then decided this was the time to go as by this point the two leaders had made their advantage over the peloton go up to around the 1 minute 30 mark. So I bridged across to the Paul Pickup and then for the next lap two-up time-trialled it closing the gap to a minute to the two leaders, but nothing more and us holding an advantage back to the peloton of around 45 secs to a minute. A third of the way round, Chris McNamara, also of Pedal Heaven and Andy Betts of Felt-Colbrones bridged across to me and Paul where we worked well together as a unit, but never seriously denting Allan and William's lead. However, at the bell for the last lap we picked up William Pratt, his legs having blown and Allan Ridler then decided to fly the coop and solo. Due to this, Chris and Paul decided to sit up as they did not want to help chase down a team mate leaving me and Andy Betts to do all the work. However this backed fired as with about 5 miles remaining we were caught by the peloton who had over the previous 7 miles close a gap of a minute to us. Allan was still up the road and managed to hold on for a great solo win, but the rest of the bunch was now approaching the bottom of the 1500m long ascent to the finish, at which, just after we started the climb, Malcolm Davies decided to attack, managing to hold on and grab second place. Wishing not to aid the capture of Malcolm and being a bit knackered from being in 99% of the day's moves I attacked with about 1km to go, at which point the peloton decided to try and chase me down, but I managed to hold them off for third. A cracking day from the riders at Aprire with the team tactics working to perfection, just a shame one of us couldn't win, but there's always next year. Great domestique duties from Phil Dempsey, Josh Parkin and Fabio Amati, special thanks probably has to go to the latter for sheltering me once I was caught by the peloton with 5 miles to go.

I am now officially knackered, but what a way for us at Aprire to finish this so called Summer off hey.

Now I'm off to play fifa and drink Tuborg like a proper geezer with some of the boys, I will let you know how my next race goes on Thursday. Cheers

Today's ride was a Saturday crit down at Cyclpark, lasting an hour and half, it was sunny and windy, perfect conditions for a hard race, however unlike Thursday night, this afternoon did not go according to plan. Eventually after 50mins three riders got away never to be seen again with neither me nor Phil in the break, with about 15mins to go another 2 got away with both me and Phil again, unable to follow and so I got second in the bunch kick coming 7th. Not too bad, but hopefully tomorrow me and Phil can go better.

I tried a few attacks and so did Phil, but to no avail, but that's bike racing for you, you can't win/ do well in them all. I did try to save myself as best as I could for tomorrow, but I was feeling Thursday night's effort a lot in today's race so fingers crossed I have good legs tomorrow.

If anyone's interested Phil is the team manager and owner of Aprire Bicycles who make beautiful, made-to-measure carbon fibre bikes, fortunately I'm on the team and am riding their top of the range Vincenza model with an Ultegra groupset on Reynolds Assaults as my wheel of choice. Check out the website here http://www.aprirebicycles.com/

On another note, not only is Belgium a great place to race, but a town called Edegem in East Flanders is also where one of the greatest DJs on Earth comes from, Netsky. Just another little incentive to go over there to race if ever there was one, here's one of Netsky's biggest tracks, I absolutely adored this tune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fE9Ai7kzl8

Anyway better go and recuperate as best I can for tomorrow's 85mile road race, the South East Road Racing League's Championships, I will let you know how it goes, wish me luck :).

I just quickly want to mention how far Bradley Wiggins has gone up in my estimation with his well-timed and addressed thoughts on women's cycling, (in particular road) and what he would do and may very well will do. Here's the link by the way, if you haven't been able to watch it yet, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19668083.

Further to his point and too many commentators on the state of women's cycling, I can totally testify to the their point that women's cycling is arguably more exciting than the men's, it is also shorter on all the formats, be it road races, time trials etc.. so is less time-consuming and more action-packed in those hours for the viewing public, but they are not just poor relations to men's cycling, they are in a different family all together.

A lot of commentators have said that women's cycling should seek their own sponsors and be self-supporting, even Lizzie Armistead, the silver-medalist at the women's road race agrees with this view, women teams should not be a side project or completely attached to the men's teams and racing, but be on it's own, free-standing. Now, who I am to disagree with on the top women riders in the world and a patron of the women's peloton, but disagree I shall. I disagree at least for the short and medium term anyway. For I believe that for women's cycling to truly progress why not get the benefit of working with the male side of the sport? The UCI have decided, as to not deter sponsors for creating teams in this tough economic climate, to allow men's teams to be created with no pressures for an equivalent attached women's one. Now, this is rubbish because top women's teams operate on the fraction of the budget that men's do and when they can operate on £15 million of investment, is an extra million or less, (as the they would just be using the existing set-up for the men in terms of coaches etc...) that much of an ask, especially when minimum wage for woman road cyclist is several grand less on each stage on the levels of professionalism (something, for what it's worth, I find completely outrageous and shocking, no glass ceiling, but an actual fully legal, concrete one). If the most successful  women's team is having to fold, the likes of Nicole Cooke struggling to get a place on a team and the likes of Emma Pooley contemplating retirement, surely the UCI should think that clearly women's cycling is not going in the right direction.

However what makes gets me as that a lot of people who have viced their opinions on this subject seem to agree, not necessarily with the way the UCI are doing it, but for women's cycling to be independent even in the short-term as well as the future. I agree it should be independent, but when you look as the most recent success stories in women's cycling, both in terms of teams and races (the women's road calendar has been horrendously slashed this year, quite simply tragic), you will see that it was done as a partnership with the men's side of sport. HTC (under it various guises) was a huge success story in women's cycling as well as men's, the GP Plouay and the Tour of Flanders; where the women's races are held in conjuncture with the men's have proved massive success stories as they get the same exposure as the men. Likewise the World Championships and the Olympics, both are treated and covered with just the same amount of enthusiasm and attention as the men's.

This is why women's cycling, at least for the next five years, should be in league with the male side of sport also, for the women's side can only gain, they will not lose any independence as they could, as they do now, hold their own independent races if organisers were willing. Cycling has a shared history and will have a shared future, so why not, at least for now have a shared present? Women's cycling won't be indebted to the men because of the shared passion and love for the sport and for sport unites us all, so until women's cycling is in ruder health they should be able to benefit from men's cycling better position so that we are able to to seriously talk about a shared heritage and both in equal terms.

By all means please give your thoughts on any of the subjects that I will mention in my posts in the future. Would love it actually.

I have to say ignore the posting times, they are exactly 8 hours behind for some reason. On another note, I was watching Full Metal Jacket last night and what a film it is.

Just to say I will update my blog with some personal stats when I get the time, probably over the next few days, but for now I will just be posting. By the way, the blog is mostly about my cycling, but also will contain the odd subject not necessarily related to cycling or sport.

Having said this, what a way to open my blog with my fifth win of the season tonight in the SERRL Thursday Evening League. After 15mins smashed a gap with Elliot Porter and Robert Moore, both of whom are class time-trialists; with us three away putting in massive turns each and the wind up, as usual at Cyclopark, the 20 second gap we built up was always likely to succeed. And succeed it did, with all three of us working well as a unit up until the bell lap at which point Robert attacked, I easily followed his wheel and Elliot followed mine with him then leading us out for the sprint, which I took pretty comfortably I have to say... Anyway a great win and a further 30 points in the bag, it's funny, but I was planning to take tonight relatively easily because of a big road race on Sunday, but you know what they say about best laid plans and all that ;).

Thanks to all the support tonight and I will let you know how I'e done at the races I'm doing this weekend as soon as I can.

This is the first blog of what I hope to be many more informative and interesting ones. The aim of the blog is pretty simple; to entertain, but it is also to provide myself and well deserving others some free publicity. I wish that all of you enjoy it and that this experience will be great for all. Thanks.