Another Racer’s Blog, this time from Scott Howieson. These are, as you know, my FAVOURITE blogs.

 

This year’s road racing season started with getting selected to ride for West of Scotland in the Youth Tour of Scotland in April.

It’s a national event that takes place over 3 days with four stages. We stayed at Strathallan, without our parents for the weekend, which was great fun. I came 18th overall and was pleased with this result as it was the first time I’d competed at a national level.

I’ve taken part in most of the local Crit races throughout this season too, as well as track champs, omniums and a few TT’s, which again has progressed my racing skills. I was lucky enough to get selected for the North West Youth Tour in May, but didn’t do so well in this, but I’m blaming a technical issue with my bike for that!! It was another 3 day event but not as much fun as the Scottish Youth Tour, as we didn’t all stay together in Dorms this time, but another great experience to learn from.

As a family we went to France for 4 weeks in the summer to do lots of climbing in the mountains. I did the three sides to Mt Ventoux in one day, which was a real challenge, but helped to build up my endurance. I also managed to go up Alpe D’Huez in 53mins (think my mum was half an hour slower than me and the fastest pro on strava is only 10 mins quicker)!

On our return from France we went straight to the national track champs in Newport. I hadn’t been on the track since the Scottish track champs, at the beginning of the summer holidays, where I’d had a bad crash so I didn’t do as well at the nationals as I’d hoped to do but I’m looking forward to getting back to the track when the road races have finished.

We left the track champs in Wales and travelled to Ireland for the Errigal Youth Tour. Another 3 day event with 4 stages. This was great fun. The Irish were so friendly and we stayed at an outdoor centre, where we could swim in the lake after each race…just like having an ice bath! I came 9th overall in the tour and placed 3rd in the stage 4 Crit race.

On our return we went to Scarborough for the last of the national Crit races. This was another strong field with more than 100 riders competing on a particularly hard course. There’s an extremely steep hill in this circuit, which we had to climb 6 times, so my time in France helped me here! I didn’t win but I went from sitting near the back of the Peloton, on the first 6 laps, which were on the flat section of the course, to moving through the field in each of the laps we climbed the steep section of the course and eventually finished 18th.

There are a couple of Crit races left before the season finishes. The first is the last in the Scottish Crit series, which will be held in Kilmarnock and then the Scottish Circuit Youth Road Race Championship at Ingliston, where my first Youth race was two years ago, so it will hopefully be a nice way to round off my Youth cycling.

All that’s left for me now is to try and join a Junior team so I can continue to progress all areas of cycling. It’s been great being part of the Riderz family and I will always be grateful for the support and encouragement I’ve received from my fellow cyclists and coaches during my time with the club. I would particularly like to thank Edd Shackley for all the support and advice he’s provided to me over the past 12 months.

 

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