October has been a big month for me. My first full month at University. Meeting and starting to work with some of my new Beeston (BCC) teammates, but my main focus has been the London 3 Day. The biggest race I’d ever done. Racing in front of a large crowd and racing against multiple Olympians, World Champions, and some of the biggest names in Track Cycling. No mean feat, and pretty scary.
It has felt like a long time now since I asked Tony Gibb if I could be involved in the London 3 Day and more importantly, a long time since he said yes! But this week the time had come, and I was super nervous and super excited. This was the big time.
But first I had to get on the start line with as little injury and illness as possible. Not easy when Freshers Flu was going round, the weather was getting colder and wetter, and the training and workload had started ramping up. But I was determined. Nothing was going to stop me being in as good form as I could be. Not even the endless Loughborough rain
During October I had been honing my training towards my big 3 days. Owen Thomas, my coach now of 3 years, had put together a plan to hone me ready for the event. I had been regularly racing at Derby Track League against the Will’s, Will Perrett and Will Tidball and had, had a final sharpener behind the Derny with Charlie Tanfield, Callum Twelves and James Ambrose-Parish. Mixing this in with my trials for the LCA, Loughborough Cycling Academy, which I was thankfully successful with. The legs were feeling good. The cough and cold, however remained sub optimal, but I was all in for the London 3 Day.
The London 3 Day was a resurgence of this type of racing, having been borne out of the 6-day racing that had come back to London in 2015. I had been to the London 6 day back in 2016, aged 10 years old and seen Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins racing against the likes of Yoeri Havik, Kenny de Ketele, and Claudio Imhoff. I watched in awe of these racers. I dared to dream that one day I would be out there on the boards, the music blasting out and me hand slinging riders into the racing line.
And now I am standing here, track centre, in my cabin as Yoeri Havik walks past me and says ‘Hi’. Claudio Imhoff puts his kit in the dryer in front of me. I am here with the absolute greats of six-day racing, and I am going up on the boards to race these guys! This is insane.
We had managed with the support of Skreambikes to secure a spot in the London 3 Day and James and I, previous winners in a couple of Madison events and current National bronze medallists were raring to go and make the best of our opportunities.
As the crowd filtered in and Tall Paul the DJ started to crank up the tunes, the nerves started to build, we were sharing a cabin with Callum Twelves and Charlie Tanfield, Even Charlie was nervous, despite being at the Worlds and the Olympics, Charlie let on he hadn’t ridden a Madison since he was 15! We all were nervous, there would be 32 of us on the track and that included the likes of Elia Viviani and Roger Kluge, nobody wanted to bring these guys down.
So off we went onto the track, first job was to get ourselves into a 16 pair line for the introductions, we were stationed behind the yellow jerseys of Perrett and Tidball, we had the Orange Spots on Black background, looking like Pumpkins ready for Halloween, especially as we had SKREAM emblazoned across our fronts. The crowd was building and we were introduced, so far so good, after everyone had been called, a hand sling from Havik and Wiggins (Ben) and a shot of a gun and we were off. The first, of many, Madison chases. 35 minutes of fast and furious action. We got stuck in. Pushing hard on the front and desperately trying to take a lap, get out of the melee, a bit of safety, settle the nerves. It wasn’t to be we remained in the bunch, hanging on with 3 other pairs to be 4 laps down. This was insane, but we were upright and so was everyone else.
Derny next!
The Derny. The Derny is a small, motorised bicycle with a two stroke petrol engine, It is named after the French Manufacturer who first made them for motor pacing in the 1930’s. The Derny race is basically a motor paced event where you and the derny driver work in tandem, to try and win the race. The Derny pilot takes the wind and brings you up to a speed that they can get the rider to hold. I have done a bit of this with GB and in training on the track but never a race and never with 8 Derny’s on the track.
The Derny pilots were mainly the same guys as back in 2016. I, however, had been given the biggest guy out of all German called Carsten Strassmann – The Grizzly Bear! I was drawn 2nd in line, and we were off for a 40 lap race. Very quickly the noise of the music was drowned out by the roar of the two-stroke. I tucked in and pedalled hard. We moved up over the top and made it into the lead, pushing on we stayed out front, but I knew and sensed the big boys were coming. I pushed hard, ‘Alle, Alle’, Carsten opened a bit more but he could sense my legs were straining. Now underneath a Derny and rider and over the top another Derny and rider came. Sandwiched between a wall of noise from the engine, the crowd, the music and the smell … the strain of every sinew … this would live with me forever, eventually finishing up a tight 5th out of 8. Pretty pleased with my first ever Derny effort and beaten by World Tour Professionals and pretty class acts.
Then the elimination, wow this was properly mad. The chase had, had a rhythm about it. The bunch would race, the front would clip off, a lap would be taken by 2 or 3 pairs, the bunch would settle, it would then go again. But the elimination was just crazy. All in we pushed hard, with six pairs out, we were still in. Hanging on but we were in, James sniping at the back, clipping off Claudio Imhoff and we survived again. I pulled a turn kept us in the hunt, James sniped again taking out Wiggins, we were moving up, this was insane. On the limit I took Consonni’s wheel but Perrett had ramped it up and we just hadn’t got it. Finishing 7th out of 16th. A win for us and we came off beaming, a final chase to come … for tonight …
The Madison Chase.
So back on the track for another Madison Chase. Now we had the hang of the speed and the rhythm we were good to go. The race kicked off, same deal. Bunch, attack, settle, 6 teams had taken a lap in the first 10 minutes, feeling quite fresh we went, following Claudio Imhoff’s wheel we started to bridge the long gap to take the lap. As we worked round the laps, we could see the bunch had eased and we were working well with Campbell Parish and Imhoff but as I went for the change with James, he pulled up and away, completely gassed. I had to tuck in and keep working. Watching the highlights back, Matt White (Sports Director of Jayco Alula) can be heard saying, “he will pay for that” and indeed I was paying for it. Just hanging on desperate to get back into the bunch and the safety of the wheels, but it seemed never ending, clawing to bridge the gap, although seconds it felt like minutes, but back in and a change, breathe, recover, breathe. We were back on the same lap. We were in contention … if only briefly.
The effort was worth it. We sat in and recovered. Then the move I certainly won’t forget. Perrett and Tidball had been off the front with two other teams, I glanced across and could see they were going to make contact with the back of the bunch, so I pushed hard on the pedals, and went. A quick glance and Simone Consonni had gone with me! I had to commit; another glance and I was in the company of Theo Reinhardt the European Madison Champion. This I would remember for ever! Watching back on commentary “Kluge and Reinhardt, Consonni and Viviani, Ambrose-Parish and Gilbank” so cool!
We made it back into the bunch and back on to the same lap. What a moment.
We then just needed to hang on for the next 40 laps. We did just about, Tidball and Perrett taking the win and we ended up one lap down. Putting us in joint 8th position. 11th out of 16th in General Classification. Not a bad showing for our first session in our first ever 3 day.
Then heading home, an hour’s drive away. Recovery and sleep before back for more of the same in Session 2 Saturday afternoon and Session 3 Saturday night.
Back for the Saturday afternoon we had two more Madison Chases, an elimination and a flying lap.
The Flying Lap.
The flying lap is a basically four laps of the velodrome where we head around the very top of the track building speed. We go in tandem before we get thrown in to go as hard as possible for a lap. James built us up and we did a lap, the home crowd cheering us on, we built speed and then just before the home straight James reached out and threw me into the final lap. I pushed as hard as possible, legs burning, lungs burning and a time set of 13.4 for 250m. Not the fastest, not the slowest and again very respectable. Pretty pleased.
We had a break between the sessions and headed to the hotel and were able to kick back with lunch and a coffee and just chat about the racing, talk about plans for the season and just have a good laugh all round, a nice break before we went again
Straight back in after lunch and we went into another Madison chase, again relentless speed and effort. It was mental, the fatigue from effort, stress, excitement was all there in my legs, but no choice I had to push, keep pedalling, no choice really!
Before we knew it we were back in a break with Viviani/Consonni. Standard practice it seemed now! But more laps to go, more changes to make, more fatigue. On and on we went. For now, we stayed in the bunch, surviving and trying as best to recover as and when we could.
Next up was the second Elimination. Similar effort to Day 1 and similarly crazy. We hung on, staying safe in the centre of the bunch to start off, ensuring we didn’t do too much work. Although not massively aware, a lot of the big teams were making an absolute mess of it, we had a chance. James did an amazing job, sniping Dowsett on the line, leaving me to put a big dig in but the first 2 laps of effort and the build-up of fatigue left me flagging and swamped on the line for a respectable 8th. We were doing OK.
Back to the cabin and rest, eat and recover. Wow this was tough. Taking a break I went out and signed a few autographs, had a few photos done and went and chatted to some of the seasoned pro’s and six-day riders, they were very kind and answered lots of questions and helped me understand how it all worked. I had a few comments about, how young I was and how strong I was; so that was cool. Then back to feet up and ready for the final Madison chase of the evening.
The final session was super hard, we were pretty cooked, however hard we tried we had no chance of getting off the front, we sat in as best we could and just tried to survive. This was brutal. Thankfully coming off the track the other riders agreed that it had been exceptionally fast, and they too were pretty done. It didn’t make us feel less tired but gave us a bit of hope. Home again, Recover, rest, repeat.
The last day. Boy, was I tired, the legs felt good but the arms and the shoulders ached. The repeated hand slings, the position, the intensity and tonight we had Madison Chase, elimination and then an hour of Madison Chase. Bring it on!
We did it! We got through Sunday’s sessions, although finishing many laps down we managed to complete the three days, some good results and an enormous amount of experience gained. The racing was phenomenal, it was fast, it was tough, and it was safe. It was amazing to race in front of a crowd of over 3000 and who knows how many at home. It was wonderful to have my family there to see me race, to have friends come and support and to have sponsors in the building watching live what I do.
I cannot thank Tony Gibb enough for giving us the chance to race.
Massive thanks also to Skreambikes https://skreambikes.com for sponsoring us
To Mat at One Life Cycle https://www.teamonelifecycle.com for backing us.
To Jack https://jacklowndes.com and Michael https://www.michaelcedeno.com for the amazing pictures and making us feel ‘pro’ and special
To all the riders for looking after us and helping us learn the art of six-day racing
To James for holding hands! And being a cool partner
To all the sponsors who made this amazing and to
Dad. Top swanney!
Back now to Loughborough and real life. It might take a while.
Should you want to watch any of the racing it is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p73Uh_e3EWY and you can stream it on ITVX or check out https://www.london3day.com/news
3 days now complete who knows 6 days next?
Gilbank Racing 
This was so fabulous to read because we were fortunate enough to be there and now have an even deeper understanding of what we watched and the thrill of re-living it.Keep pedalling, keep writing,All Our Love, G&G. XXXXX
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