Road Racing and BUCS 10 TT, May-Jun 2026

I’ve been really enjoying getting properly stuck into the road racing scene in the past few months. I kicked it off with two Nat B road races, coming 7th and then 5th the following weekend. Although neither race had a big result to shout about - that elusive podium was still evading me - I gained a lot of confidence in both of those races.

Enough confidence to enter my first Nat A race - Lincoln. I’d been on holiday cycling in Mallorca the week of the race, and the combination of legs like melted cheese and a front brake which had got a bad case of plane-induced air in it made it a bit of a (sketchy) baptism of fire. But I made it round nonetheless, even after having to chicken out of every descent for risk of going sideways. With the amount of chasing I had to do off the back of my mechanical issues, p44 was a massive result for me on such a ridiculously iconic course with such quick girls.

After Lincoln, I did a few more Nat Bs. Here, the learning from the other races and the confidence I gained from them finally started to pay off. I was second in BUCS road race, a Nat B albeit with a small field. Then the following week I took home the West Midlands Regional Championship trophy, coming second overall in the Nat B race by a bike throw on the line (which haunts me slightly). Two silver medals in a fortnight - followed by another tight 4th at a Nat B crit this weekend - hopefully shows an upward trajectory. Fingers crossed for a National level win soon!

I really want to do myself justice in the Nat As coming up. I’m unfortunately away for the next few Road Races, but I’ll give the crits a shot and see what I can do.

On the side, the final BUCS time trial went pretty well, too. I took a bronze medal home from BUCS 10 even with some suboptimal pacing and tapering. I’d never have imagined this time a year ago that I’d take home an individual BUCS medal, let alone one of every colour in every individual road event. Pretty gassed with that!

Freya Taylor