Great year for James

2019 was a big year for young oxonian James Lloyd. Moving up from youth into junior category he was racing seniors for the first time, typically in fields of 40-60+ riders and sometimes 100 odd!

James had two key objectives for the year – to get his cat 2 road race licence and to discover where his strengths lay for future focus. Once he got accustomed to the big and sometimes aggressive fields he achieved the cat 2 comfortably – sealed with a win at castle Combe.

Focus wise he tried a variety of regional. national and international level road, circuit, cross, hill climb and TTs – discovering in the process that he was at the sharp end particularly in shorter TTs. Training specifically for his last big race of the year at the national circuit champs he claimed the silver medal and closed the gap to the winner who had also won the national TTs. Answer found!

Closing out the year we pitched up at the DPCC boxing day TT – finishing a minute clear of the field in abysmal cold and wet conditions. His dad wimped out and sat in the nice warm van.

For 2020 James is no longer a first claim Oxonian – he has joined JRC Shutt Ridley race team where he joins a strong junior squad of 12 riders. Season targets are pretty ambitious – podiums in national TT & Pursuit and see if he can grab the attention of the GB squad or the bigger teams when he moves up to U23 in 2021. 2020 has thus started with James (and Mike – dad) getting velodrome accredited – and yet another bike…

In fact with the addition of a team Ridley James now has 10 bikes… N+1 is being stretched to the absolute limit according to his mum!

James wants to say thanks to Oxonian for support in 2019 and is looking forward to doing as many of the local TTs as possible.

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