James Davey Racing | Blog: 2015

2015 Race Season Closure

Just coming to the end of my three week break/recovery after a pretty hectic 2015 Season.

I ended my season on the deck at the infamous Piccolo Lombardia race...hitting the ground at nearly 70kph resulted in a badly smashed up arm and severe road rash to my leg :(

A seriously tough race, contested by all the top Eurpoean U23 development teams (AG2R, Lotto Soudal, BMC, Rabbobank etc) made even more difficult due to the cold and wet conditions, around the impossibly beautiful landscape of Lake Como in northern Italy.

I was mixing it up at the sharp end of things for most of the race but ran short of energy on the last climb and had to make up time on the descent where I crashed after taking one to many risks.

A real shame as the previous race Ruota D'Oro, another UCI 1.2 I had really good legs and got in the top 30 out of a field of 250 riders.

Really enjoyed my late season 6 week spell of racing in Italy, the style of racing really suits me and I'm looking forward to returning there next year.

80 Coppa Collecchio, Nr Parma, Italy

Not a great race for me....Was feeling great and started well but not too far into the race my seat decided it had had enough and parted company with the seat post....

Of course this happened in the tightest most technical part of the route so I had to continuously stand up for around 20mins before I could drop back to the team car.

Let's just say various 'undorthodox' solutions were tried whilst I clung to the side of the car and teammate Callum wielded the 'magic spanner' but all to no avail so in the end we stopped and I changed over to Knoxy's spare bike which was way too big, so the day went from bad to much worse....chased back on....another bike change.....chased back on.....another bike change....chased back on....legs now screwed and got dropped on the final circuit :(

Oh well at least I got plenty of 'moving up through the convoy' experience...some days it just ain't your day! On to the next race....this Sunday, stay tuned... :)

26 Trofeo S.C. Corsanico, Pisa, Italy

Yesterday was my second attempt at Italian Elite National road racing and I'm super happy to report that after 4+ hours of intense racing I got my best result to date coming home in 13th from a field of 150 riders.

The course was pretty strange with the main climbs and insane descents being separated by a huge 80km section of flat.

Now feeling much better and with my form staring to return I was aggressive and active from the start and got involved in most of the breakaways throughout the race.

I probably did a little too much work towards the end of the race....My teammate Callum was in the front break and I was marking the chasing group but getting frequently hassled to contribute. Riders were showing their annoyance by trying to put me out the back by letting wheels go and forcing me to chase on so I decided it was probably better to take my turn although this definitely affected my finishing ability on the day.

Having said that it's a huge learning curve and getting 13th in my second crack at top flight italian racing in only my second season of road racing is pretty damn sweet!

Huge thanks to Flavio Zappi for all his help so far and for giving me this incredible opportunity to race for his team.

Giro del Valdarno 2015, Florence, Italy

Debuted at my first race in Italy yesterday, racing for Zappi's Pro Cycling at the Giro del Valdarno 2015 in the Tuscan hills near Florence.

A hilly 4+ hours of racing 160km in 30deg heat after a brief bout of illness was certainly tough, so I was pleased to get around and ended up with a fairly respectable top 30 place (out of 180 riders) - 2nd Zappi rider home.

Looking forward to the next one this weekend where I should hopefully be fully recovered, feeling a lot stronger and playing my A game :)

South West Divisional Road Race Champs 2015

Pretty happy to take 3rd spot on the podium at the weekend. Good racing with some tough competition - full report to follow soon....

2015 Team Launch at The London Bike Show

Yesterday saw the 2015 Velosure Starley Primal team launch which was held at the London Bike Show. A really great, well supported event hosted by Sky Sport's cycling guru Ant McCrossan.

I'm really looking forward to racing hard for this team and in final preparation for the seasons' racing we are all off to the team training camp today.