It is a delight when our membership maintains their cycling activity after moving on from the club and, even more so when they keep us updated on their exploits. We have news of 5 past members who have maintained cycling as a central part of their lives, and we would like to share some of their news since they progressed from the club.
- Felix English
- Brock Duncumb Rogers
- Izzy Stone
- Joe Hill
- Isaac Wright
Felix English
Through January and February this year Felix was, as he described it, “fighting for dear life to stay in the race for Olympic qualification!” On the way he qualified, with his teammate Mark Downey, to ride the madison at the World Championships in Berlin gaining crucial qualification points for the Olympics. Finishing 10th for Ireland in this final race of the Olympic qualification cycle was enough to secure the final spot for the Olympic Games Madison event, which was due to be held last August.
Felix is based on the island of Majorca in Spain, when Covid struck, and Spain went into a severe lockdown, Felix couldn’t even train outdoors. Less than ideal from a training perspective, this period actually ended up having a silver lining.
The constant travelling associated with his job, especially when chasing Olympic points, and the chance to spend a prolonged period at home meant he had a full rest. With regular gym work and training Felix now feels fitter than ever.
The halt of racing also gave him time to work on a new venture, Angry Pablo, a cycling and casual clothing brand although currently a small brand he hopes that the plans he has laid out could to something quite special. You can see his range of kit here: www.angrypablo.cc
Brock Duncumb Rogers
Brock used to race with Felix English and against the likes of Simon and Adam Yates, Tao Geoghan-Hart and Hugh Carthy. Brock, although on the British Cycling Talent Team, did not pursue a racing career and studied at Cardiff University where he gained a Masters Degree in International Planning. With a specialism in sustainable transport, and a Level 2 Cycle Coaching Award sponsored by PPYCC, Brock began work for Sustrans, the cycling and walking charity, promoting and leading work-based cycle schemes. Now based on the Isle of Wight with a new employer he is facilitating cycling initiatives for key workers on the island. The image below shows Brock alongside a bus poster for one of his campaigns. Cleverly he got his girlfriend, Dani, to model so that he can see her whenever he goes out on the island.
Izzy Stone
Izzy is in her third full season racing in Belgium supported by the Dave Raynard fund. After racing with the Belgian team Isorex she moved up the hierarchy to ILLi Bikes cycling team. When the pandemic struck Izzy returned home and then returned to Belgium as it eased at the end of July. Unfortunately, a curtailed racing season allowed few racing opportunities and Izzy achieved two top 15 finishes with only six races completed. It has been a tough year for all, one that no one saw coming. Izzy is now in the UK in winter training, preparation for the 2021 season. Izzy has held the fastest lap of Preston Park for a female rider since 2016 (43 seconds). In the image you can see Izzy, still riding in the red and black of PPYCC.
Joe Hill
I was looking forward to this season and get my Elite category racing licence; sadly, that didn’t happen. Active Edge Race Team from last year became Upshift Nutrition this year so I have new colours (orange) and new kit to train in. (https://www.facebook.com/upshiftnutritionrt/).
At the beginning of the year, I did some Zwift racing on my Wahoo turbo which got me motivated. It was good to see Simon Yates and Estaban Chaves in some of those. I’ve been keeping to a training regime all year on the road too, but there’s been no racing to focus on so it’s mostly endurance.
I’m still living in Brighton and working in Evans Cycles, which was mad at the beginning of lock down, there was so much demand for cycling and we couldn’t get enough bikes to sell.
More recently, I did the Red Bull 25 Hour time Laps on Zwift with the team. We finished 3rd in the U25 category (Upshift Creek Without a Paddle). We should have won but we messed up part of the race as we hadn’t read the rules properly! The previous year I recorded the joint fastest lap time with Pavel Sivakov, the Ineos rider.
I did some ‘modelling’ for Morvelo a few weeks ago too so check out the website and Facebook pages. I am ooking forward to getting some proper racing in again next year
Isaac Wright
We bumped into Isaac at the track on the day of the Club Championships, he had just completed a two-week isolation due to returning from Belgium
Isaac spends the summer living and racing in Belgium
If you follow him on Strava you can see that he sometimes trains in Belgium with Izzy Stone
With the pandemic he was only able to race three times this year
Isaac is currently back home in Brighton and lives near the Preston Park velodrome
