Zephanie Blasi (Reno Wheelmen/Kenda) had fantastic results in the recent NORBA MTB events in the Pro women's class. Taking 14th in the STXC, and 15th in the XC, having previously been in the top 10, until an untimely puncture occurred. Great riding!
(Zephs page)

Daniel Lloyd (Flanders-afin.com) had a great ride in the British National Road Race Championship on 27th June 2004, finishing 11th overall behind winner Roger Hammond (Mr Bookmaker-Palmans). Dan had also put in some great rides recently in the Olympia Tour and the Three Day De Panne finishing top 30 on one of the stages in this UCI 2.2 race. Great work Dan, keep it up!

(pictures ^©2004 by Larry Hickmott/British Cycling 2004)

Dan's race report-
National Championships 2004 - Celtic Manor Resort, Newport.

This is the race I've been thinking about and preparing for over the last 6 weeks - the big domestic race of the season, and the only chance of the year to compete against all the nations best riders, as domestic and continental based riders fight it out for the right to wear the coveted national champions jersey for the following year.

I've been working with Ric over the past few weeks towards this, my first major goal since we began working together just over a month ago. I've already been noticing improvements since I started training with my Power Tap wheel, and Ric has been putting me through my paces. I can only assume that having near death experiences whilst training on a bike must benefit you, or at least that's what I'm telling myself as I have to spend a 4th hour at >250 watts!

The race went well for me, it's always a hard one to play out tactically, as unlike my races over on the continent, there isn't very much team tactics going on. The fact that it was held over a brutal course where there is barely a metre of flat places slightly more emphasis on pure physical condition, but at the same time you still have to remain alert and vigilant from km 0, and make sure you go after all the main moves.

A group of 25 formed half way around the second large circuit (of three), with all the main contenders (myself included) contained within the group. It stayed pretty much that way until the end of the third lap, by which time the group was down to around 20. The seven finishing circuits are incredible, with one long and steep climb per lap, and numerous short sharp hills spread around the rest of the lap. The course is so brutal that riders were almost immediately spread over the road in groups of no more than 3. I myself was still in contention with around 5 laps remaining, until the likes of Burrows and Hammond put the hammer down and I was forced to go at my own pace. I had a couple of nightmare laps where I thought my legs were going to drop off, but I came good towards the end, picking off a couple of riders and finishing in 11th place. Another great ride by Hammond gave him the win, but he wasn't quite so dominating this year, beating young Amore e Vita rider Tom Southam by just a handful of seconds.

So that's it for another year, I was hoping to get a top 10, but it just eluded me on the day. I'm determined that I am going to win this race one day though - I want that jersey!

Now I'm going to have a short mental and physical break, before building towards my next objectives for the last half of the season.

-Dan Lloyd