Jack’s Journey To Yellow Jersey

Head over to my Instagram page to see what I have been up to lately…

https://instagram.com/jackbb_cyclist

Round 2 of National Youth Omnium didn’t go to plan at the weekend… Portsmouth got cancelled because of the bad weather forecast but I managed to get a late entry at VCL Herne Hill on Sunday.

Was sitting joint 4th overall after the TT and scratch race but was taken out by another rider in the elimination race. Gutted is an understatement. Definitely sore!

Well done to all riders racing in the awful conditions!

📸

Last weekend I competed in my first National Youth Track Omnium. I went into the event setting my sights high and aiming for a top ten finish... After the 5 races I finished in 8th position out of 28 very strong riders from across the country. Really happy with my result as a first year U14.

Thanks for the great pictures Benson Ho

After 32 events spread over 8 evenings of racing over the last 18 weeks, I won the 2022/2023 Group 3 U12 category of the London Youth Track League Championship, representing Lee Valley Youth Cycling Club.

Well done to everyone that raced especially my team mates Toby who won Group 2 U14 boys category and Becky who came 2nd in the U14/U16 girls category, it’s been an incredible league... can’t wait for 2023/2024!

Thanks to Dan at LYTL and all the British Cycling volunteers who make the league happen.

Thanks to Benson for capturing some awesome photos... photo dump to follow!

🏆 Lee Valley Youth 2022 Club Awards • Awarded Best Newcomer 🏆

London Youth Track League • Round 6 • 05.01.2023

Well that was interesting and certainly exciting! My best results to date at track league!

2nd Scratch
1st Elimination
1st Tempo
1st Unknown Distance

Great night of racing. Making progress... Getting Stronger 💪🏼

📸 Benson Ho

London Youth Track League Christmas Open Meeting...

• 3rd in the 20 lap scratch lap

• Elimination didn’t go my way - came 5th! Didn’t know who was in and who was out with eliminations every lap 🤦🏻‍♂️

• 2nd in the 30 lap points race and won the final sprint 💪🏼

🥉overall

Lucky enough to attend a Cycleball aka Rad Ball coaching session with Felix Young and Jenson Harris this afternoon.

Really hard but so much fun. Nailed The Hank by the end of the session!

What A Night!

UCI Track Champions League final at Lee Valley Velodrome.

Awesome seats but the night was topped off by Abi getting me and some of my LVYCC friends track centre!

Absolutely inspired and reminded numerous times how lucky I am to train there on a weekly basis!

Early start this morning. Excited to be accepted onto the British Cycling Pathway Development session.

Good luck to all my friends taking part the CX Regionals today especially my little sister Alana. Gutted to be missing it but couldn’t say no to more track training!

London Youth Track League • Round 3 • 24.11.2022

Great night of racing which included 16 lap scratch race, reverse win out, 20 lap points race and the longest lap race!

Bagged 2nd, 4th, 2nd and another 2nd!

Second time racing the reverse win out and first time racing the longest lap.

Making progress 💪🏼

📸 Benson Ho

Round 7 Eastern Cross League • Diss CC Suffolk Supercross • 12/11/2022

The first proper CX race of the season - it was a mudfest over at Norfolk Tank Museum in Forncett!

A challenging course with a few technical sections which put my endurance and bike handling skills to the test and there weren’t many places to overtake! It included lots of steep mounds, which if you rode and didn’t make it up resulted in you sliding back to to bottom like snakes and ladders! There were also off cambers, hurdles, huge puddles and lots of technical sections with tight hairpin bends!

Finished 5th in the U14 category overall - 1st place first year U14 💪🏼 Best CX race this season, definitely making progress 💪🏼

📸 Thornton Photography

London Youth Track League • Round 2 • 10.11.2022

Well that was eventful... Nearly taken out by another rider in the elimination race and the unknown distance race! Managed to stay up though and cross the line. Bit shaken up but had a evening of good racing. Feel like I’m making improvements each week 💪🏼

📸 Benson Ho

Round 6 Eastern Cross League • West Suffolk Cross • 05/11/2022

4 laps of the long challenging course at West Stow Country Park which included a long sandpit on a corner, steps and hundles and much more!

It was exciting to be in the youth race with national level cyclocross riders.

Finished 7th in the U14 category overall - 3rd place first year U14 💪🏼

London Youth Track League • Round 1 • 27.10.2022

Great to have some shots of me at the velodrome that aren’t blurry!

📸 Thanks for capturing these Benson Ho

Great to be back competing in the London Youth Track League at Lee Valley Velodrome and excited to be racing for Lee Valley Youth Cycling Club!

Attacking the hurdles at Round 5 of the Eastern Cyclo Cross League put on by VC Revolution at Hilly Fields.

Another super challenging course, completely different to any other course held there before and utilised the other two fields adjacent to the main field... huge laps!

Finished 4th in the U14 category overall - 2nd place first year U14 💪🏼

📸 NE Sports Photography

RTTC Closed Circuit National Time Trial Championships - 12 Year Old Boy’s Winner 🥇🏆

Raced over an 11.7 mile closed circuit at Thruxton Aerodrome Race Circuit.

4 minutes 33 seconds quicker than 2021!

Big thanks to , and Colchester Rovers for all their help with training and encouragement.

Photo dump...

Round 2 of the Eastern Cyclo Cross League put on by Amis Velo at Hilly Fields.

Another super challenging course which included hurdles, a spiral, the oak tree climb and plenty of off cambers!

Finished 6th in the U14 category overall - 4th place first year U14.

Great to be back track training at Lee Valley, getting ready for LYTL.

Round 3 of the Eastern Cyclo Cross League put on by Colchester Rovers at Hilly Hills.

My favourite course yet! See Strava pic attached.

Finished 5th in the U14 category overall - 3rd place first year U14. It’s common knowledge CX is not my favourite discipline but I’m slowly improving 💪🏼

Super excited to announce I will be racing for the esports elite youth team on !

See you on the virtual roads!

Thank you for the opportunity, Jamie Watson for seeing my potential and for the great artwork!

I knew today was going to be tough after my epic road circuit race yesterday.

First CX race of the winter season in the U14’s category on an extremely technical course at Springfield Hall Park - map attached!

Happy to take 5th in the U14’s (3rd first year U14).

Race report written by Dad:

They say you don’t learn anything from winning. Never a truer word spoken today after watching Jack’s performance in round 3 of the Centurion Summer Race Series at the Colchester Northern Gateway circuit.

On lap 2 Jack dropped his chain when reacting to an attack off the front, resulting in him being in last place!
However, he kept calm, got the chain back on, and proceeded to ride hard in an attempt to get back near the front of the race and save his series.

Slowly but surely he picked off rider after rider, and with 2 laps remaining he managed to catch the three riders in the second group on the road.
Time to sit on and recover!

Just before the final corner Jack attacked off the front of the group and got a gap. He then started the long sprint to the line and claimed 3rd place 🥉 for the race, and 1st place 🥇 overall in the series 🏆.

If I’m honest, I wasn’t sure he’d get back to the front of the race (Mum knew he would!), given how far behind he was. The fact he buried himself, caught the second group, and then recovered enough to attack them and claim 3rd place on the podium, just shows how far he’s come mentally in the last year. To say we are proud of how he rode today is a massive understatement! You rode with true grit and class today….. Chapeau Jack 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
💪🏼 NEVER GIVE UP 💪🏼

I’d just like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who clapped, encouraged and cheered Jack on today! You all helped him believe he could do it 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

A big THANK YOU must also go to , .swainston and for organising the Centurion race series again this year 🙌🏼 See you in 2023!





Race pictures to follow.

Bonus of moving into the U14’s... Prize Money!

Joint 1st in the U14 Cycle Club Ashwell Summer CX Series 💪🏼

I took the win at Round #3 of Cycle Club Ashwell Summer CX Race last night!

I was up against a strong field in the youth category being the youngest rider in the field including U16’s.

I had a strong start and settled into 3rd place, rode hard and managed to overtake Thomas the 2nd place rider after 2 laps and gradually pulled away.

Olly Beale in the U16 category had a big lead on me and I kept chasing. Unfortunately for Olly he had a front wheel puncture with 1.5 laps to go. With no pits available he had to run the entire last lap.

I saw the opportunity and closed the gap and overtook him with half a lap to go.

I am really pleased with how I rode.

Back on the boards yesterday morning then across to Ashwell in the afternoon for round #2 of the Summer CX Series taking the win in the Youth Category 🥵😬💪🏼

Last night was Round 1 of the Colchester Rovers Summer Cyclo Cross Series.

I raced in the youth category which included riders aged under 16 and came away with 3rd overall.

Despite the heat it was great to be racing again at Hilly Fields

Shout out to Simon and all the volunteers for the superb event and a tough technical course.

📸

First CX race in the U14 category at Ashwell last night. Came away with 3rd overall despite having an off and winding myself!

Great technical course which included a bomb hole, small and large hurdles, hills, steps, a log, a pump track section and plenty of bends!

Big shout out to Alana for taking part in her first CX race and coming second over all and first girl in the U10 category.

We also had an unexpected guest in none other than Commonwealth Games Team Pursuit Bronze medalist, Sophie Lewis!

Summer CX. Thanks for the great session Simon 🥵

Welwyn Track League... Started off the evening in Youth 2 category before getting moved into Youth 1 with the older riders.

Races included a scratch race, team pursuit, derny race and a handicap race. Came away with a 2nd in the scratch, won the team pursuit and the handicap and 4th in the derny. Great experience, first time racing the kierin!

Ended the evening hugging a dinosaur!

Pictures courtesy of Judith Parry

Colchester Centurion Race #2
- Regional R5 Youth Circuit Racing Series in partnership with Tofauti Everyone Active

Todays win meant a lot to me!

I attacked from the start with Theo Wan. We stayed away from the main field for the first two laps of the race before Harvey Woodruffe successfully bridged the gap to join us.

We all worked really well together, extending our lead over the field.

It all came down to the final lap and I sprinted well to take the win 🥇 with Theo taking 2nd 🥈 and Harvey completing the podium in third place🥉

📸

So yesterday I gave grass track a go and I loved it! I took part in the Plomesgate CC Grass Track Omnium at Bredfield Village Hall.

I took part in 5 events - 1 lap TT, 1 lap handicap, devil race, 3 lap scratch race and an unknown distance race.

Really looking forward to competing in more grass track events soon 😁

That win was for you Grandad

Great week of cycling...

✅ Win at Round 8 of Lotus Car Cycle League
✅ Passed Level 3 Accreditation for Lee Valley Velodrome
✅ Track Training with Welwyn Wheelers

Finished off this morning helping Alana in the track accreditation session at Welwyn Wheelers.

Tuesday saw me win Lotus Cars Cycle Race League 2022 Round 6 at Lotus Test Track and today I secured 3rd place at the LVYCC Spring Series #3 - Regionals Round 4 at the legendary Hog Hill!

Really pleased with how I rode and the progress I am making.

Thank you Welwyn Wheelers for putting on a fab afternoon of events at the Platinum Jubilee Track Meet - loved the racing, prizes and cake!