Oxford University Cycling Club

Happy Monday everyone! What a glorious bit of sunshine we’ve got coming up. Saturday is our next Super Crit at the home of cycling… Dalton Barracks!

Plenty of cash and British Cycling points available across all races over the day and the weather is looking 🔥 🔥.

We’re still quite short of breaking even (about 40 riders). We need a minimum of 55 on Saturday to run it, if you’re thinking of racing, please enter before the cut off! We’ll make a final decision Thursday am as to whether we run it (based on the numbers).

Enjoy the sunshine 😎

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/321522/ART-Super-stage-race-2

CTT report on Georgia Acton’s brilliant win at BUCS 25 below🏆

The Oxford men’s and women’s teams took home both Varsity shields, with the men also winning the BUCS team prize🤩

REPORT & INTERVIEWS: Acton and Lowden quickest at BUCS 25 Championship

THE BUCS 25-Mile Championship titles were won by Georgia Acton (Oxford) and Will Lowden (Cambridge) at an event organised by Cambridge University Cycling Club - CUCC and staged at Six Mile Bottom in the county.
Acton covered the E33/25 course in 57-54 to take the women’s title by 21 seconds from Loughborough rival Lucy Gadd, who led Loughborough to the team prize with colleague Olivia Kelly taking third in 58-49.
Lowden’s time of 49-57 was comfortably fastest, being 1-22 ahead of runner-up Max Bolton (Oxford), while Josh Knowles (Loughborough) was another five seconds back in third place.
The men’s team – with three counting riders – was Oxford with Bolton being joined by Matthew Coulson and Angus Phillips.
27-year-old Acton from Dorset said afterwards: “It was a really fun race, even if slightly windy. Honestly I didn’t expect to win, but I’m really happy with the result.
“The Cambridge group did a really great job with the organisation and also in handling the delay due to the crash,” she added, referring to an accident unrelated to the event which caused a two-hour delay to the start.
“Everyone did super well, and I’m proud of the whole Oxford team.”
And fastest in the open event, a delighted Lowden said: “It’s quite an undulating course of two 20km laps, almost sporting and definitely not super-fast, but with enough hills to suit me fairly well. It’s also on roads close to Cambridge which I know.
“I aimed to pace conservatively over the two laps. The first eight kilometres were downhill with a tailwind, so I wanted to save something for the headwind and hills in the second half of the lap, which definitely worked well!
“After last year’s BUCS 25 was cancelled due to wind, it was super to be able to race this course!”
In the road bike category, Loughborough’s Lilja Raine took the win in 1-10-17, while in the open category it was George Spooner (Cambridge) whose time of 55-14 gave him the victory.
* All reports are copyright of Cycling Time Trials/Snowdon Sports. Not to be used without permission.
* Archive image of Will Lowden is by Paul Murray.



Results:
Open:
1. Will Lowden (Cambridge) 49.57
2. Max Bolton (Oxford) 51.19
3. Joshua Knowles (Loughborough) 51.24
4. Matthew Coulson (Oxford) 51.29
5. Jasper Raistrick (East Anglia) 53.53
6. Angus Toms (Edinburgh) 54.12
Women:
1. Georgia Acton (Oxford) 57.54
2. Lucy Gadd (Loughborough) 58.15
3. Olivia Kelly (Loughborough) 58.49
4. Eva Callinan (Loughborough) 1:02.30
5. Matilda Gurney (Nottingham) 1:02.50
6. Isabel Ellis (Nottingham) 1:03.39

Great results from MTB varsity last weekend. Oxford finished top of the podium for the men's and women's events, with Lizzy Hayman and Yani Djelil taking gold 🥇

Other podium finishers were Matthew Coulson 🥈and Max Bolton 🥉 as well as Freya Butler 🥉

Well done and thanks for a great day of racing!

⚠️ Race report! ⚠️

OUCC wrapped up another successful weekend of racing last Saturday in Leicestershire for the BUCS hill climb.

Oscar Smith reports from the field...

"On Saturday 4 November, an intrepid group of OUCCians made the journey up to Leicestershire to compete in the BUCS hill climb. Unperturbed by the biblical weather conditions, this hardy bunch of non-fair-weather cyclists trekked up to the Vale of Belvoir to tackle the fiercesome slopes of Terrace Hill. Terrace Hill is to the East Midlands what Mont Ventoux is to Provence, a towering beacon whose savage gradients serve as a magnet attracting mountain goats from far and wide. Heavy expectation weighed upon the shoulders of these courageous OUCC riders, as the success of last year was still fresh in everyone’s minds. Amongst the OUCC contingent was defending champion Matthew Coulson, who was looking to add another BUCS title to his palmarès. Would Coulson (otherwise known as Mathieu van der Coul) triumph again? Only time would tell.

The torrential rain and near-freezing temperatures made for challenging conditions on the day. Some riders chose to wrap up in thermals and rain capes to head out and scout out the climb, whilst others headed out in the car, preferring to do their reconnaissance on four-wheels. Either way, the feedback from this ‘recce’ was clear, this was going to be a hard climb requiring not just raw power, but also tactical knowhow.

Just before the race, OUCC legends Matthew Coulson and Max ‘Maximum’ Bolton, could be heard talking over the critical topics of gearing and pacing strategy. Reigning champion Coulson’s advice was sage: ‘Save something on the lower slopes, then really put the hammer down on the steep section, then go all-out on the final plateau.....

Ultimately, the day was a resounding success for OUCC, coming away with the men's individual prize courtesy of Matthew Coulson, the men’s team prize thanks to the combined efforts of King Coulson, James Driver and Max Bolton, and placing two riders in the top-20 of the women’s competition, with Georgia Acton and Katrina Tse."

A full race report will soon be available on the OUCC website 👀

⚠️ Race Report ⚠️

Freshers' TT is over! We saw lots of new members of the club racing this weekend on a 10 mile TT course near Bicester.

Our fastest freshers were Carl Jolly, with a time of 24:24, and Nicole Schafer, with a time of 28:54.

Thank you to for the photos of the event.

We hope you enjoyed!

⚠️ Race Report ⚠️

OUCC's annual hill climb at Wytham Woods took place on Saturday, joined by CUCC!

Unfortunately Cambridge took both the men's and women's varsity titles.... But there were some stellar performances from both sides, including a women's course record from Phoebe Barker!

Congratulations to all who took part, we hope you enjoyed the event 😊

Get hyped.... the OUCC Michaelmas term card is here 😎

Notice to incoming new members - Membership will be open after Freshers' week. Membership is not required to join the Freshers' rides or the first social. Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Don't forget to come and see us at the Freshers' fair this Wednesday and Thursday 😊🤞

Last but certainly not least.... our touring secretary Angus!

OUCC runs several club trips throughout the year, most notably the spring training camp (Mallorca) and the all-important summer tour (sometimes the Alps, sometimes not).

Luckily you don't have to wait until next year for trips - there will be a provisional trip in Michaelmas (last year MTB and road cyclists joined up for a trip to Wales) and there is of course the infamous reliability ride. But more on that later.

Don't be fooled thinking that OUCC is all about road cycling .... if you happen to like going off road from time to time you won't be alone. Our captains this year are Jake, Lizzi and Tony.

RACE REPORT

Big congratulations to our riders who competed at Streatley Hill Climb this weekend.

finished on the podium with a huge 3rd place 🥉 and finished 8th and 12th respectively.

OUCC also took second in the team prize 🏆 🥈

Shout-out also to Matt Coulson for winning a round of the West Midlands Cyclo-cross League 💪 (sadly no pictures)

Introducing our President, Secretary, and Alumni Officer!

is the big cheese (aka president) for 2023 and will no doubt be ruling with an iron fist as she organises our events and termcards 🫣

is our secretary for the second year running, keep an eye out for our Wytham Woods hill climb at the start of next term which will be organised by him, always a fun event.

Finally is our Alumni Officer, maintaining ties with previous members of OUCC. Earlier this year we celebrated our 150th anniversary, meaning 2023 is even more important when it comes to celebrating the history of the club. 🎉