Post Race Chat – Edmund Bradbury of NFTO

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In his first Premier Calendar level race, Edmund Bradbury of NFTO finished 4th at the Wiltshire Grand Prix

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Post Race Chat – Edmund Bradbury of NFTO

A new face at the sharp end of Elite National Series race for men on Sunday was Edmund Bradbury who joined NFTO for 2015 whilst still a full time student at Cambridge University, studying Neuroscience and Management.

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He’s a time-trial specialist and impressed NFTO management when he came 7th in the National Time Trial championships and broke the University 10 mile TT record, taking 39 seconds off the previous record set by Michael Hutchinson.

During the day at Wilton, several riders mentioned how strong Edmund is (his twitter name unsurprisingly is @Bradberg_watts) and proof of that strength was making the break of four in the first place after a tough race that found many others wanting.

With Edmund in that break were household names in the British domestic scene; Yanto Barker (One Pro Cycling), Mike Northey (Madison Genesis) and Andy Tennant (Team Wiggins) who are all hugely experienced at the level of British National Elite events and UCI ones as well. Tennant for example has won World titles on the track, Northey races in France and Barker was the Star Trophy winner in 2014.

So for Edmund, the Wiltshire Grand Prix was a new experience and an opportunity to show how strong he is on the bike. “I am quite new to road racing” he said after the race, “and this was my first Elite series or prem so I am really chuffed with the result. I feel like I am going well this year and I hope I have got a lot of potential so it was really good to get a result today.”

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His record this season is a good one with three wins in regional events and he was third in the Espoirs Chrono de Nations in 2014. Winner at the hilly Redbridge circuit in lower ranking races (Regional C), Edmund added “I felt good in the race, and was feeling good on the hills towards the end as well. I find it hard on most flat circuits to get the gaps so I enjoyed this race.”

Asked how the split in the break occurred where the group of twenty became four at the front of the race, he says “it went really soft actually. It happened coming down the descent on the last big loop and a few gaps were opening up over the top of the climb. I looked round and I was with another rider and then Yanto turned up a few minutes later and we started working together as a four”.

He was then ‘worked over’ as he was under team orders not to work, more to make sure he helped preserve his place in the four as racing at this level was unknown to him. After a lot of attacks from those in the break with him, he was left with Northey whilst Barker and Tennant powered away.

Edmund threw in some attacks of his own to try and secure a podium place but Mike Northey was too experienced and too fast for that to happen and it was the Kiwi who took third and the final place on the podium.

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Talking to his DS, Dave Povall post race, he explained “You won’t see teams under my direction race like that very often but there was some self preservation for Edmund in it. Firstly, was the group chasing going to come back with Ian Bibby and Rob Partridge when Bibby would have been the key for us then.”

“Secondly, the three guys he was with are so strong, so strong, it was probably the only way he would have gone the distance with those four” Had it been another rider, you would have seen more conventional tactics there”.

Fourth in his first race at this level however was a great achievement and Edmund was one of a number of riders in the NFTO team, Zack May being another, given the opportunity to race the event with the more established riders at this level in the team.

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“It was great for NFTO to give me the opportunity to ride with people who are well established in the scene and great to learn from them. I feel like I am at the bottom of a learning curve at the moment and hopefully I can pick up stuff all the time and hopefully at some stage be able to win these things.”

“The race was hugely motivating for me. It has been a huge opportunity this year working with NFTO. A year ago I would not have imagined I would be in this situation. So I am massively grateful to the team and John (Wood) for putting me in these big races and pay them back with some results”.

 

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