Edinburgh University Cycling Club

Right on the heels of EUCC’s incredibly performance at BUCS DH in Rheola, five riders headed south to Newport ready to race BUCS Track. With only one previous session on the track together to get teams and tactics sorted, BUCS was really going to be a baptism of fire for the five.

Time on the track is highly sought after, especially with the upcoming Olympics, so racing was quick fire rounds with little chance to cool down between races. First off was the 4km Individual Pursuit qualifiers, a simple rider against the clock affair for five minutes of pain. All riders, Iain Cook, Angus Elliot, Andy Leith and Rich Teague, put in a good performance, getting their legs spinning and used to the track again. Chris Hutchens took on the Kilo for Edinburgh, four laps as fast as you can. Legs were obviously tired from the BUCS Downhill held earlier in the afternoon but Chris still put in a stellar performance showing everyone Edinburgh meant business.

Last race of the day was the Team Sprint qualifiers, consisting of Chris, Rich and Angus in first, second and third positions respectively the team had only one previous attempt at a sprint before without much success. Posting an incredible time of 55.015s the team placed themselves in the bronze medal ride-offs.

Rich leads Angus out for the final lap of the team sprint.

Sprint qualifiers started 9am sharp on the Sunday morning. Chris and Iain both took to the boards to set some Flying 200 qualifying times with Iain progressing through to the first knockout heat, unfortunately being knocked out by Kenny Ayre, the eventual Silver medallist.

With little chance to recover the Team Pursuit was underway. Consisting of Iain Cook, Chris Hutchens, Andy Leith and Rich Teague the pursuit team had a similar lack of track time as the Team Sprint squad. Despite a fast start the team were caught by UCLAN and Rich fell back. Through an absolutely phenomenal ride Andy pulled his way back onto the line and the three remaining riders defied belief and posted a 05:08 time ranking them third in qualifiers. Due to time constraints there was no Bronze medal ride off and, to Edinburgh’s delight, Bronze was awarded to them.

A short break for lunch let the riders recover before the Team Sprint ride-offs. Filled with confidence the team were riding against University of Exeter, the same as in the qualifiers. Unfortunately Edinburgh were pipped to the post by Exeter and narrowly missed out on another podium position. Although no medal was won it just underlines the talent in the team if they can make the Bronze ride-offs with so minimal practice.

Final race of the day was the Points with Iain Cook representing Edinburgh. 40km on the clock with sprints every 10 laps made racers really work hard for their points. Despite a weekend of hard racing Iain managed to place an incredibly 6th. Over half of the initial racers had to pull out, underlining just how tough this final race of the day was.

With all the racing over and an exceptional performance from all riders a long drive back to Edinburgh awaited.

The success at both the Downhill and Track really highlights the depth of talent and sportsmanship within the club currently. All the results should place Edinburgh at the top spot of the BUCS league with a few more races still to take place. Help keep us at the top and come race BUCS!

Last weekend was a fantastic weekend for EUCC. Both the mountain bike Downhill and Track BUCS events took place in south Wales. The downhill venue was situated at the edge of the Brecon Beacons. Warm weather gripped the country and as a result, dry, dusty trails lead to some fast and exiting racing.

It all began on Thursday the 22^nd of March where the team of 11 strong riders made the big trip down to south Wales. Team spirits were high whilst packing up the vans for the journey south. The sun was shining, the bikes were prepped, and everybody was amped for racing. Everybody jumped into the mini-van full of energy and banter, however this slowly wound down as we all realised just how long the trip to south Wales was going to take us.

Team Edinburgh at the top of the Track in Rheola

A small Tesco somewhere in the middle of Wales was unfortunate enough to have been graced by our presence during the later stage of our journey. We were shopping for weekend food supplies but very quickly became distracted upon entering the shop. One of the team came to the conclusion that all eleven of us should wear matching white vests decorated with our own Welsh names in honour of the trip to ‘the Valley’s’. We all left Tesco’s sporting our flash new vests thinking we looked the dog’s danglies. Each was decorated with various alterations to the name Jones….Jones Jones, Catherine Zeta Jones, Leek Jones, Tom Jones….After suffering some strange and possibly sympathetic looks from the locals we soon realised we might have looked a bit weird.

We eventually made it to the accommodation, which we shared with Heriot Watt University’s downhill team. The tension was tight between the two teams and some friendly banter and rivalry was had between the two sides. For the last 4 years or so we have engaged in some close competition with the opposing university and both sides were looking forward to seeing who would win the unofficial varsity for another year running.

Dominic Schweizer mid air in the finishing arena.

The next day began with glorious sunshine. After a short drive to the venue we started the morning by having a team walk of the track to familiarise ourselves with the race course and recognise the important riding lines.  Despite being around 3 to 3.30 minutes long, the track was very physical. The top third of the track was a rollercoaster of berms, corners and very loose fast rocky straights. Many riders suffered bloody shins as large rocks were spat up when riding over the loose rocks at speed. The middle section was more technical with off camber and heavily rutted single track through a tight, muddy, and rooty forest. It took a lot of focus to stay on the race line whilst riding at speed. The bottom section was a very fast section where much of the crowd stood and cheered at the side of the track. By this point the hands were aching and barely able to grip onto the bars. Practice on the course was very short with most riders only getting about 3 or 4 runs in. Despite this, most of the team were really happy with the racetrack and had a great time riding it.

Adam Ramsay making light work of the top rock garden

Come race day, an un-characteristically dry Rheola meant that track times were a lot faster than normal. Emyr Davies from the University of Wales Institute claimed the victory in the men’s category and the title of BUCS champion for a second year running. Only 1 tenth of a second back was Jack Reading from Mancherter University who took second place. The third spot was taken by Scott Laughland from Heriot Watt University. Chris Hutchens from the University of Edinburgh put in a solid run for 4^th place. The top 5 was rounded off by Allan Findlay from the University of Dundee.  The women’s Championship field was very small this year however the title was rightfully claimed by world cup regular Jess Stone who retained the title of BUCS champion for another year.

The team results were unknown prior to the podium presentation and anticipation was very high amongst the large crowd of university students. The high calibre racing meant that team results were going to be very close this year.  To our delight, the University of Edinburgh came away with the team Gold. The Edinburgh team erupted in cheers when we were announced as the 2012 BUCS champions. Combined times from Chris Hutchens, Joe Taylor and Calum McRitchie left Edinburgh 4 seconds ahead of any other university team. In addition, fantastic results from the rest of the Edinburgh team helped push opposing riders down the results list to aid our team gold. The University of Cardiff Institute took second place whilst Dundee University took the third step on the podium.

EUCC on the top step as BUCS champions!

For the last three years Team Edinburgh has always been on the podium in the downhill team event but always a fraction of a second off the gold. This year, we are ecstatic to have finally claimed the gold. The entire team rode exceptionally well and we are glad everybody had such a good time. The club is delighted to have earned valuable BUCS points that will help us with our goal of topping the BUCS Cycling league table for 2012, but also for that all important mission of getting the University of Edinburgh to the top of the overall BUCS league table.  We would like to thank the EUCC members but also the University of Edinburgh Sports Union, Centre for Sports & Exercise, Alpine Bikes, The Bike Chain and Bikebus Glentress for making it all happen. We would also like to thank BUCS Cycling and the track marshals for hosting a great weekend despite some hiccups. The University of Edinburgh will see you at next years BUCS Downhill in 2013!

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New EUCC video for your viewing pleasure. Warning….. this may make you feel even worse about being stuck inside on such a nice day!

The club is holding its AGM on Wednesday 28th March in Lecture Theatre 3 in Appleton Tower. This is your opportunity to come along and have a say in how the club is run, or step forward and run for a committee position next year.

A brief overview of the committee roles can be found here. If you’re wanting to run for a position then have a chat with the current office bearer to see what it’s all about and then find someone to put you forward on the day.

We hope to see a big turn out, if you’ve any problems with the club you want to voice, any praise you want to sing or if you just want to make sure the club’s future is in the right hands then come along!

On the evening of 1st March 5 EUCC riders headed to Glasgow to race the Rollapaluza Scottish qualifiers. Rollapaluza is the true test for the King of Spin, how fast can you ride 500m on rollers? Not only do you need to have the power to get up to speed, you need to be able to spin. Fast. With the top guys averaging over 200rpm and putting out powers of over 1000W this wasn’t for the faint hearted.

Andy waiting for the go.

 To start, all racers had to put a best time down for the 500m with the top 16 out of the 49 competitors going through. Everyone put in an incredible performance with 4 out of 5 making it through to the quarter finals.

Qualifying Times

• Chris Hutchens, 21:51, 211rpm, 2nd
• Iain Cook, 22:57, 201rpm, 7th
• Richard Teague, 22:89, 198rpm, 9th
• Andy Leith, 23:43, 194rpm, 13th
• Joe Taylor, 25:50, 178rpm, 35th

From then on it was head to head knock out rounds. All four sailed through to the quarter finals where it became tougher. Rich was knocked out by last year’s National Champion, Kenny Ayre, Iain was knocked out by Chris and Andy put up an incredible fight but was just pipped to the post by David Griffiths. Chris then faced Fergus McCarroll in the semi-final to fight for the major final place.

In the final Chris faced National Champ Kenny. To mix things up it was over 1000m, a lung busting distance but unfortunately the counter stopped 750m in so a stop was called. With their legs screaming, the two faced off over 500m with Kenny narrowly pipping Chris to the post. An astounding effort by Chris placed him second overall and an invite to the National Final in London.

For more info on Rollapaluza check out their website: http://www.rollapaluza.com/.

Just spotted this beauty of a video edit advertising riding in  Fjørå, Norway. Club trip?! Oooft.

Be sure to check out the latest instalments from EUCC TV!

Rheola, South Wales, is playing host to the biggest race in the BUCS calendar, BUCS DH. For the last few years Edinburgh has been one of the highest performing clubs in the mountain bike events with the top spot just eluding us. This year that’s all going to change! We have a limit of 18 riders to take down so sign up quickly. A total cost of £90 will cover entry, practice uplift on the Friday, transport and accommodation. Get signed up quickly!

If you’re still in two minds about it then check out the footage from the last few years. It’s an adrenalin fuelled weekend where nothing is taken seriously. You’ll be racing in front of the biggest and wildest crowds and will experience some hilarious inter-uni banter.

For more information check out the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/173594496086054/.