First Season Racing

Not a vast field last night, as you would expect with the mighty England (lol) playing. Around 30-35 odd I reckon?

I think in all there were likely round 8 or so wheelers (and a few doing the time trial Hounslow host!), there were I think around 5 groups in total, some as small as 3, and some of the larger ones nearer 8-10 people. I was in the scratch group with Alex Tinsely of Twickehmam, Peter Hitt of VCM (who won Dunsfold), another VCM I didn’t know and James Local of Dynamo. It didn’t take long before we caught a few groups in front of us. I tried to make sure there were at least a few of us still rolling through to keep the momentum up, there were many reluctant to do so, or were not able to do so. As the laps counted down we gradually caught everyone, I had a few digs to get away, but nobody was willing to give a proper turn when they came over with me. Giving it was meant to be for training I probably did more work than I needed to, including dragging the bunch up the drag at 500w, which I certainly did NOT need to do, but did anyway. It came to 2 laps to go and we were now down to a minute to the front two, our bunch had thinned a bit as a few got distanced, but by and large I think nearly everyone who signed on was now part of this big group.

With one lap to go they still had 40 seconds, which was good going, but a testament to the mucking about in our bunch as nobody was willing to do all that much, too many people wanting a bunch sprint probably, I lifted the pace a couple of times to try and inject some impetus, and Damien attacked on the drag which Colin went with, and we had a gap for a while but again not enough commitment and the course was too quick at this point to allow us much of a gap. At this point I thought we probably would not likely catch the front 2, or if we did, it would be on the line.

As we approached the final corner, which is a horrid thing, sharp left over a broken road surface I was keen to maintain a position near the front, while I didn’t have many doubts I was quicker than the rest in a sprint, all too many times I’d messed things up down to positioning, so I was on the white line, which meant if anyone wanted to come round, they had to go on the other side of the road, and with a car coming, I knew this was not going to happen.

With the line in sight we could see the 2 men just about to cross over, good ride from them, we were fighting for 3rd. VCM had numbers at the front, and Local of Dynamo was also up there. Peter Hitt led it out, early, I got onto the wheel of Pembroke (I think?) and waited til I thought we were close enough, the VCM from the scratch group jumped and got clear, I followed and went through a gap just in front of Local to go clear and take the bunch sprint, I understand VCM had 4 or 5 in the top 10! I think Perhaps Cameron got up for a top 10?

Good fun, woke my legs up a bit after the time trialing I’ve been doing the last few weeks. Good showing from KW, unsure of results at this stage but certainly most of KW were in the sharp end.

http://www.strava.com/activities/155618362

I’ve been a bit slack this last couple of weeks with updates but wanted to quickly mention a couple of events.

I did the Hillingdon GP last week, a National A rated crit that took in around 45 miles of Hillingdon. Which FYI is a LOT of laps!

There were a fair few decent riders present from Pedalheaven notably, it was always going to be a fast race, the weather was decent and hot from the Tour series, Alex Patton and Gruff Lewis were clearly going to be going very well! And they were!

I was unsure of my form for these sorts of races having had a bit of time away from slightly longer intense stuff. I decided to make a day of it and rode up to the circuit, a quick warm up and we were away. The pace was quick, but Hillingdon being pretty flat it never felt too difficult staying near the front of the bunch. I felt pretty good and was keen to try and be active and see if I could make it into one of the moves. A few laps passed and Jamie Pine put in a dig, I decided to go with and we got a gap, I was kind of hoping a couple of people would come over, but it wasn’t to be and we gradually got reeled back in. The race carried on being up and down and eventually a small group got clear that seemed to stay away for some time but Tony Gibbs CSE team rode it down with the help of a few others eventually.

By now I was feeling a bit knackered and again Paton I think attacked and took a couple with him, this ended up being the winning move. I was going to try and sprint for the rest of the places up for grabs but on the run in there was some very erratic stuff, and for 7th place I couldn’t be doing with risking a fall. Good race, nice to see I’ve not lost too much from the time off.

I’ve also been doing a lot of time trials recently, not least because there has been a fair gap in the road racing calendar for local stuff, and I am not so keen to drive the length of the UK for races. So in the last 4 or 5 weeks I’ve done 4 time trials. Two on the H10/8 course in Bentley, the first of which attracted a fairly decent field, Wouter Sybrandy making a comeback and along with local Richard Prebble and also Russell Hampton. I was seeded as almost last man, but I knew that Russ was likely the man to beat. I felt I did a good ride, half decent power, and clocked 20.06 which was a course PB by about 12 seconds, I’d beaten everyone but Hampton who smashed it and did a 19.22 – classy rider. Maybe his mate Dowsett has been giving him a few tips eh?

The second was another crack on this course, similar field with the addition of Stephen Walkling who I knew was a quick rider and had been doing some quick times. This time I felt like it was a tougher day, but I went a bit quicker and did a 20.02, so close to the 19 I would love to do on that course. But will have to wait for another day! But it was enough to get the win from Walkling who did a 20.27.

Next up was this weekend just gone, my legs felt a bit trashed as I had done a bit more crappy commuting than I should have, but Saturdays event was the Kingston Phoenix 10 on our club 10 course, it didn’t look like it was going to be a fast day so hopes of beating my course PB were put to bed when I saw it was a north wind, but with Steve Kane and Steve Irwin riding I was keen to see how I would do. I felt like I rode a pretty poor race, power was down and I never felt like my legs woke up, I managed to clock 20.47 which was 13 seconds ahead of Steve Kane who beat me last year, and a further 20 or so seconds to Steve Irwin who I think did 21.29, so I took the win, and we took the team prize.

Sunday (yesterday) was probably an admin error, an 8.10 start 45 miles away the morning after an 11pm england game…As it happened I made it through to the end of the fast half and was knackered and fell asleep. Sadly I got just about the worst nights sleep ever and woke up with that horrid strained eye feel of when you know you’ve barely rested. I almost stayed in bed, but decided I’d made plans and was going to stick to them. It was the Team Axiom (who host the Tour of the Milburys I won in 2013) 25 on the quick P885/25 Course on the Petersfield stretch of the A3. Again a fairly decent field of 120 riders, Irwin, Walkling, Seb Ader were noteable riders and all seeded, I don’t think Whitewick started.

I was off fairly early and the start of the course is a 40mph downhill towards Petersfield, I was held up by a lorry on the very first roundabout, I thought it was not going to be my day. From there I rode hard and my legs felt OK considering how trashed they felt after the 10 the previous day. I had downed a 500ml can of Relentless just before starting my warm up on the turbo, and its fair to say it id give me a shot in the arm. I was riding at not a million miles from my 10 power, I kept a lid on it for the first half and got to the final turn at a bit under 29 average so knew a 49 was not on the cards today, a bit too early/cold probably. But in the second half I was able to lift the power and rode a few watts shy of my 10 power for the last 25-30 mins to stop the clock in 51.11 which was a pb by 30 seconds. I knew it was a tough day, that was the best power I’ve done for a 25, so thought I stood a chance of being right up there, and all of the main guys had also ridden a 10 the previous days so I wasn’t really at any disadvantage.

I got back to the club house and was milling about when I saw Seb, I asked him what he had done and he said a mid 50, I knew I was beat, so rather than hang around for 90 mins I drove over to my mums. It was only a bit later when I got a tweet from Steve Irwin to say that I had won, and in fact Walkling was 2nd about 15 seconds back, then Irwin, then Ader, turns out Seb had got his times mixed up on his Garmin or similar. I was well pleased with that result. Steve had told me that 40 mins later start time on that course provided a large advantage with warmth and traffic, so I was pleased to hold on to it despite the main guys going off later.

So pleased with how its been going, 3 wins of the last 4 time trials with some good riders in attendance. All rides on Strava as usual! I have the first of the two Richmond Park TT’s next weekend, and then a couple of races at Crystal Palace in attempt to get back into the racing side of things as I’ve missed a fair chunk this season.

http://www.strava.com/athletes/148510

Just over a month since I had to cut my RAS adventure a day short due to Achilles tendinitis and I seem to be back into the swing of things. Achilles tendinitis is an injury so common that googling for information is quite a simple task, every running forum, cycling forum, health forum and whatever else across the internet is laden with threads about how people developed the problem, and indeed how they cured it, if they managed to cure it at all.

Firstly, you’ll know if you have this issue, the symptoms are quite simple in many cases, pain around the Achilles tendon resulting in swelling, a crunchy feeling when you move your foot up and down (known as crepitus), and general pain when trying to walk, or move about. My issue was likely caused by a cocktail of issues which made themselves known and culminated in the severe pain I felt when I tried to ride the last day of the RAS. The issues I spotted when I looked into it were, to be honest, pretty obvious, my saddle was too high, and slightly too far back, so at the bottom of the stroke I was over extending, and instead of pushing down, I was pushing forward and down due to the setback of my saddle. Things I did to rectify included moving my cleats back so the pressure point was fully under the ball of my foot, lowering my saddle slightly, and moving it back forward a touch, I should never have deviated from my Retul fit!!

These were all things that I could have done earlier and likely avoided the issue altogether! Anyway, I went to see a physio and was recommended to follow a well known protocol by a Sweedish Prof, google Alfredson and you’ll find all the info, the idea was to load the tendon and promote collagen regeneration and increase bloodflow for healing as the tendon gets almost no blood hence slow recovery times. The main issue was that I couldn’t resist trying to cycle, and every time I cycled it ended up hurting, it was very infuriating and likely counter productive at times. I think all in all I had around 10 days off the bike, which for me is a long time. It was very annoying given how fit I was feeling going into the RAS. However, slowly, with the heel drops working, I eased the riding back in, and 1 hour a night was about right, then I tried a road race. Idiotic. Within 1 hour of racing it was painful and I had to pull out, which was a real shame as it was a race I usually enjoy (Thames Velo). I gave it another couple of days and then went back out and had no pain, almost like the road race had done something good despite the pain, wierd, that was two weeks ago, since then I’ve been building it back up and increasing the load and volume, and so far so good. Very pleasing given I was told it would be a minimum of 6 weeks, possibly 12 weeks. Its been about 4-5 weeks. And I don’t think I’ve lost TOO much fitness, though I have probably put a few lbs on 😉

With the failed Thanes Velo race behind me, I decided to pull out of the divs last week, and concentrate on getting it better before ruining it again in a 4 hour race. However, I had entered a time trial on the 24th May that I thought I would be OK to ride. The bigger issue was that I’d not ridden my time trial bike since my win at the Sporting 14 way back in Feb! I had one ride on it in the week and it felt alright despite me nearly stacking it in the wet.

The event promised to be a good day out (Farnham RC on H10/8 course), plenty of good riders were on the startsheet, Wouter Sybrandy, coming back from injury himself, Tejvan Pettinger, who I’d beaten into 2nd at the KW 14, Liam Maybank of Twickenham, Richard Prebble as its basically next to his house, and Russell Hampton formerly of Raleigh GAC. On the day sadly Maybank and Pettinger were DNS, the weather was pretty ropey so I expected many not to bother, but of the 100+ field, most had signed on, including a LOT of women as it was part of the SEWETTS series.

As I warmed up Wouter was saying he had no idea what to expect of himself as he’d not ridden his TT bike for 6 months, I too had no idea how it would be, the last time I rode this course was just before xmas I was shite to be honest, owing mainly to illness I clocked a short 21. Richard said as I made my way to the start that he had done a long 20, so it sounded like conditions were reasonable.

I got off to a decent start and realized the wind was not a hindrance on the out leg, which it so often is on this course, I got to the turn at just under 29mph which looked reasonable, I rode pretty cautiously round the turn as I almost came a cropper in the week on the TT bike due to taking a wet corner too fast… On the way back it felt pretty quick, so I gave it as much as I could, which wasn’t much due to the blunting of my fitness, but I could see the avg slowly creeping up towards 30mph, with the finish in sight I was still in the low 19’s and I thought a 19 was on, I buried myself but it just didn’t quite come quick enough, I passed the line in 20.06. I was pretty pleased, I was 12w up on my December effort but still a good 15w down on where I had been before the RAS.

I got back to the HQ and I was pleased to see I was 2nd behind Hampton who had battered everyone and done a 19.22. Impressive. He will hopefully go on and do a ride at the BC champs to make me feel a bit better about being 45 seconds down, probably my biggest losing margin in a 10 ever 😀

http://www.strava.com/activities/144994070

Hillingdon GP next weekend, possibly another outing on this 10 course the week after before a few races and the Richmond Park TT’s.

The RAS Mumhan had finally arrived, after much conversation earlier in the year about whether I could or couldn’t make it, whether I would or would not be staying in my current job long enough to get the time off, and generally how things would all work logistically; it was actually all happening and after a few rider substitutions it was game on for Team Surrey League/Casco!

I drove down to Storrington to meet Tim Bishop and the other guys who kindly organized the whole thing and I suppose was our operations manager for the whole trip and was driving the van, he’d got previous with this race and knew the other riders pretty well so it was great that he was our leader! We also had Mark Storie (aka Brown) who was acting as our driver/mechanic for the trip, which turned out to be a huge boon for the team with last minute changes and bike fixing etc. In the end with Wouter Sybrandy being injured and our sub in Alex Paton hurting his wrist at Tour of the Res, we had a fairly different line up to what was first thought. Myself, Simon and Chris McNamara, Richard Cartland, Stuart Bettis, and we picked up Roy Chamberlain of Corley Cycles en route. It was a good bunch of guys and I quickly realized that between Rich, Si, Chris and Roy, they knew just about everything and everyone there was to know about the amateur/semi pro racing scene. While I had ridden a few races once or twice, I think between Chris and Roy they probably have ridden something like the Les Ingman about 30 times and with Roy casually dropping in that he had raced 14 day stage races like the Tour of Cameroon and the Tour of Serbia I was certainly going to enjoy listening to the stories. He did mention he raced an Irish stage race in 1987, I didn’t pipe up that I was likely in the womb when he was on the bike! No time was wasted and quickly we got going to catch the ferry over to the Emerald Isle from Pembroke dock in Wales, we had two cars, Tim’s van and the Sigma Sport team car from last year which was a nice touch, they even left a couple of gels in there from the glory days!

Once on the ferry we saw there were a fair few other riders also travelling over with kit etc, BH Solidor who we didn’t really speak to, and Felt who we did. Many of the guys from our team (Simon had done 5 RAS I think) and indeed Felt had raced the event many times before so it was interesting hearing about how it had worked out previously, what the weather had done, and what the standard was like. I was prepared for shit weather, after all, one of the stages was as far West as you can go, and is the last bit of land before you hit the East Coast of America, that’s a lot of open sea to blow in crap weather. I had been told to pack full winter gear an prepare for the worst. I duly did and bought a lot of kit that I wouldn’t normally bother with, just to be safe!

Upon arriving over in Ireland we had a stop over in a B&B before a longer drive the next day to stay with our host John Magnan, he had put up the Surrey League teams in the past and was an ex cyclist himself. The amount of silverware in his front room left you under no illusion as to the talent he had as a rider, and a marksman it would seem, his house was packed full of taxidermy, ranging from small animals right up to a moose head which dominated the living room! We got settled in and over one of many carb rich meals talked about the first stage and what it would entail.

To set the scene breifly, the RAS Mumhan is a 4 day event, with 4 stages totalling around 500km. It has the benefit of a rolling road closure and extensive escorting and support. The first stage which was around 75 miles and fairly flat/rolling, the middle two stages were more hilly with a few proper climbs, and at 90 miles each were going to test the legs (Healey Pass was the icing on the cake in that sense), and the final stage was a flat one of 70 miles that finished in the main town with a crit like finishing circuit. The race was a big deal in Ireland and as such the field was mostly Irish, this years edition had 214 riders, 34 team cars in the convoy, a winners list with a few famous names (Russ Downing a couple of years back and our host John in 1975!) and generally it was a big race where the best riders of Ireland, and to a lesser extent Scotland/England all came to test themselves over amazing terrain. We also had a few foreign teams in the mix too.

Stage 1

It was popular opinion among the guys that the first stage was going to be pretty fast, and a bit nervy as everyone found their feet. As you’ll see each year in the tour, half the battle is getting through that first few stages as everyone has fresh legs and is nervous and wants to be at the front of the race to follow the attacks. While I’m under no illusion that this was not the Tour De France, similarity could be drawn in this sense, and with 200 riders the peloton was certainly every bit as big as any world tour race, it was going to be a bit different to getting the front of a 40 man field at Hillingdon!!

We lined up for the roll out and the atmosphere (and weather!) was fantastic, it was a real buzz and great to be part of, the first day saw our team car almost dead last in the convoy, so they likely were not going to see much unless one of us got up the road. When the flag was finally dropped it was indeed pretty quick after the first k of neutral riding, 30 mph or so was common place, the first hour or so was not only fast, but also a fair bit more rolling than the profile had given it credit for, I think the first hour required 300w from me and had an average speed approaching 26mph, which considering the whole first half was slowly climbing up to a peak of around 1000ft told a story of how nippy it was. I managed to stick the pace on the flats without too much bother, which was a relief, and even briefly had a go at getting over to a group that looked promising. I had a quick chat with Rich who mentioned that the toughest bit of the stage was incoming, a stepped hill that had a surface not unlike a section of cobbles! This was tough, obviously for our team of whippets it wasn’t an issue but I had to dig quite deep to get over the top with the front group, and indeed even this 4 or so minute hill had caused a fairly huge split, something like 60-70 people were now in the front group with well over 100 riders getting distanced. The standard was generally accepted by our team to be somewhere between your National B’s and Prem calendars, nearer the former than the latter I expect, they were no walk in the park, however, among the 200 were a fair number of regular club riders (like me, but less fit I should think!) so these splits did become common place over the 4 days, but even so, there were a lot of good riders not making this selection.

The last 25 miles were mostly downhill as the race worked its way back to the start town, it was quick, and keeping position was very tough, you quickly learned that these guys had no issue getting up close and personal and there were more than a few clashes of shoulders as we got closer to the final few k. I thought the finish likely suited me quite well, there were a group of 10 up the road however so it wasn’t life and death to be right up there, but I still wanted to give it a go, Roy said to stay on his wheel with 10k or so to go and he would drag me up to a decent position, which he did. However, keeping that position was easier said than done, with the whole road to use, teams would come up the inside/outside like trains to get their riders into the right place. I was hopping wheels and trying to keep near the front, with 2-3km to go it got properly nervy and a few shouts were heard speeds were now well over 30mph touching 40 on the gentle downhills as we dodged teh gargantuan cateyes. As we approached the final 1km to go it was clear I wasn’t going to be able to maintain the best position with people flying up all over the place, I was likely in the first 3rd at least and gave it a bit of juice up the finish hill and finished 28th I think, with Chris and Simon in similar positions with Rich and Roy not far behind. Stuart who had really jumped in at the deep end of racing given he had never raced an e123 road race in the UK had done a good ride and came in not long behind! When all was said and done this moved us up to 10th team I think, so an improvement on placing of the team car was on the cards for the next day.

It was a hard stage but not silly, effort wise it mostly wasn’t a problem, but the positioning etc was a step up from what I am used to! The whole stage was around 2hrs20mins at 275w average, however as with many of these stages the normalized was well north of 300 which told a story to how many efforts were needed at times to close gaps and stick on wheels.

http://www.strava.com/activities/133060235

Stage 2

This stage was always going to be tough, it had a few tasty climbs, and the only cat 1 climb of the race which was the Healey Pass, at around 3.5 miles at 5-6% average with ramps up near the top it was going to be a big sort out of the bunch. Obviously I knew that my best option for these climbs would be to get as near to the front as possible and allow myself room to slip back down on the climbs and remain in touch over the top. I was fairly confident I had the power to get up there in reasonable time, but there were some proper climbing whippets in this race (Jack Pullar was riding, ex national HC champ for example) so the pace dictated was likely going to be quick. We got off again to a fast and nervy start a couple of minor crashes in the early miles, but with the first cat 3 climb only 12 miles in, and then a couple of miles till the Healey it at least was going to be thinned out pretty quickly which made the rest of the stage feel a lot more manageable. My legs felt good again, and indeed over the 3rd cat climb I felt fine and was moving my way up to prepare for the Healey, when we got to it I asked John from Felt whether we were on it or not, he confirmed we were, I had a quick peak up the road and could see how the road snaked up and hugged the hillside until it went out of sight. It was going to be an unpleasant 12 or so minutes, that was the last I saw of John that day.

As it was, it took around 13 mins to get over this climb with the front group, it was hard, but I was never really in the proper red for the first half, and the only time I really did have to put in some serious effort was towards the end where the pace went up and it got steeper, the last half effort wise was nearer where I would expect it to feel hard at around 420w. The whole climb was a 385w effort for me which is the sort of thing I could likely do for nearly an hour at the minute if it was steady and I was going well. Simon’s near identical time for the climb needed 330w for him, once again I was cursing my weight! Still, we had only gone up there around 80-90 secs slower than Orica Greenedge rider Simon Yates, so we weren’t hanging about and I was pleased to have had the legs to get to the top in touch with the main guys.

As became the theme over the top was almost just as hard as climbing itself, it was splitting and I could see that a big effort was needed over the top and into the first bit of downhill to get into the front group which must have been around 45-50 riders as there were people all over the place. I was going down the hills well, and cursing the slower riders in front of me who were taking the corners as if they were soaking wet (they were bone dry, weather wonderful, again!), eventually after a few overtakes I was firmly in the front group and it was looking promising with everyone else from the team in the same group. I think Stuart had lost contact on the Healey and he later said he went round with John from Felt. As time went on I was just keen to stick with this group, it was possible to do so, though with a few climbs late on it was a tough stage and I knew I needed to keep a bit in reserve for them. At some point during this stage Roy had got off the front with a few others and taken a lump of time and moved himself up into 11th place overall. Meanwhile, with one climb left to go which was basically a main road a bored looking Jack Pullar attacked hard with one of the Felt boys and it really did inject some pace into things and again huge splits occured over the top and people flying downhill a 50mph to get back on was a common sight! As we came into the last 20k attacks were going left right and center. I tried a couple of times and also tried to bridge over to a promising looking bunch solo but it all came together again, in the end a couple had slipped away, and I rolled in with the main bunch towards the front, again in the top 30 or 40 riders overall, which was pleasing.

After this stage I noticed a slight niggle in my Achilles, so was keen to get rest and see how things progressed on that front!

http://www.strava.com/activities/133060277

Stage 3

Today had another 90 miles of tough terrain in store for us to get over. This was billed as a very exposed stage with a couple of really decisive points. We were now right on the coast and even though once again the weather had really helped us out, it was clear that it might still be a bit tricky when we reached the point most people agreed was the likely sorting point – Valentia Island – which was very exposed and had one way on and one way off, an exposed bridge!

We got off to a quick start, and though people were still nervy, it felt a bit safer at this point, we were straight into a climb pretty earlier on and it shelled a lot of people, by this point I knew I was able to ride the hills at the lead group pace, so wasn’t to worried about that side of things, however it became clear that whatever I’d done to my ankle was not getting any better, it was now very painful on every pedal stroke, with 60 or so miles left to ride I was not in a good place mentally or physically!

When we got towards the Island, the winds were stronger, but not silly, god knows what it would be like in crap weather, it was lined out for a bit in the gutter, but nothing too crazy. The climb was indeed a horrid little thing, and I think this person who created this strava segment for it summed it up well haha! http://www.strava.com/segments/7049023?filter=overall, steep at around 12%, but pretty short, the main issue was that it was 5ft wide with grass in the middle. I was going well up there and was having to cross the grass section to overtake pretty frequently, over the top of the climb the pace was set on fire, again, and no sooner had I reached the flat top that I was in the 55/12 again drilling it at 30mph to follow the wheel! This detonated the group as you can imagine and a big split was looking like it was about to happen, I managed to make it over to the front group with a few others and as we flew down back off the island there were groups just coming over the bridge the other way, it had really split the race to bits.

At this point I had no thoughts of contesting anything, just getting to the end, every pedalstroke was pain, after one last climb which myself and Rob Ward of Felt agreed was a horrid surprise after we thought we had done the last one, it was downhill to the finish, sadly in the final run in there was a pile up and Simon went into one of the fallers, he was OK, but his front wheel folded in half! I had to go into a carpark to avoid the crash and because I wasn’t actually involved I didn’t get the same time as the finishers so moved myself a few places up the GC sadly! But I’d been pleased with how I rode considering my pain. Positions had altered slightly and Chris Mac was now in 13th with Roy still in 11th, we were 3rd team, too!

http://www.strava.com/activities/133060228

Stage 4

I think I knew deep down that my ankle was not going to be ride-able, but I made my best effort, took some pills, taped it up, and rode to the start (4 miles) with the other guys for the last stage, I desperately wanted to finish the race. But I got on the bike at the house and the pain immediately was unbearable, 4 miles at 100w and it felt like my foot was being torn off, I didn’t sign on, and I put the bike away, there was no way I could ride without doing serious damage to myself, I was gutted, come this far, and ridden above where I thought I could and I was scuppered by a brand new injury, all this when I had the legs of my life, never have they felt so good day after day. It was a really depressing feeling to be honest.

The other guys were good about it and knew that if it was that bad then it there was no other option. I rode in the team car for this stage which was fun at least. It was a very fast stage, and the main competition was all to play for, the plan was to get one of us up the road to improve team placing to get into the prizes. As it happened Si got unlucky and was caught behind a crash, and it was Chris Mac that got up the road with 3 others, they worked well for the last few laps and pulled out a lead, Chris said to me after that he had planned what he was going to do, and had great legs, we were wishing him the best in the car really hoping he could get into the top 3 for a bit of podium action, I think his plan didn’t quite go as he wanted and he ended up being jumped by the others (who at least one of them were big sprinter types!) to roll in 4th, which was still a great ride. Roy finished safely and kept his 11th overall. And Si came in a bit later and we kept our placing as 3rd team. Stu was having issues with his knee’s and got pulled out when the race reached the finishing circuit. But for someone who had never rode a nat b race in the UK he was still around 100th of over 200 starters, a great showing from him overall. Obviously I was a DNF, but likely would have been around 40th or so with Simon had I finished, which I would have taken before the race. It really was a great thing to do, and you do leave normal life and start living like a cyclist, eat, sleep, ride, repeat, something that must be quite a thing to do for a career!

I’d like to thank all the guys for making the trip great fun and learning a heap about racing, also Surrey League and Casco Europe for making it possible, Tim Bishop for doing a sterling job organizing and driving everyone around! And Mark for being straight to task when it came to sorting the bikes, cleaning them, doing 20 hours behind the wheel, and generally just being a massive help for all of us! And obviously a shout for our host John, who I couldn’t understand most of the time, but he was hospitable and it was great to stay in his place for the duration!

I’m in to see a physio on Friday, so hopefully I won’t be off the bike too long. It has given me confidence that I can go ahead and beat some of my goals for this year, and hopefully I’ll be back on the road soon!

Cheers

After a fairly tame start to the road season owing to my own stupidity (Wally Gimber) and illness again for the first SERRL race, and just plain inexperience the other week at Preston Park, this week saw me return to Hillingdon, over the last couple of years I’ve probably been once or twice a year excluding my first races in the 11/12 winter series and usually been there or thereabouts, but I had never raced a E123. I always liked racing there despite it being quite a frustrating place on occasion.

The main reason I went there this weekend however was that due to my partner running the marathon I had to withdraw from the Les Ingman on the Sunday, and this was about the only other race within the area! I rode up there for the event hosted by Westerly CC, it is only about an hour away, so opted for the training wheels as usually there is glass all over the place on the way there.

Saw a few faces I knew, Philip from VCL, Lewis from PedalHeaven, Tony Gibb of CSE racing (their new team) a couple of others I haven’t raced with but knew anyway, Liam Stones of Raleigh notable as someone to watch after showing he had a very good kick on him last year grabbing a podium at the Tour Series and winning many other events (the following day he went on to win the Porsche Autostrasse Race).

Predictably the race started pretty cagey, with the many people surging and trying to get up the road, I really wasn’t worried about anyone getting away apart from Lewis, Liam, and Gibb, and they did try, and I followed the wheels each time, it just strung the bunch rather than being let to get away. The race was 75 mins long, and with probably half an hour gone after plenty of failed attempts by other riders Liam Stones managed to get clear on his own, he stayed out for 3-4 laps and was holding a 10 or so second gap to the bunch who were on and off with their efforts to chase. Eventually a few of us got to the front in an attempt to bring him back in to touch, Gibb, Lewis and a couple of other riders, this was a lap or so, and going up the long chicane/hill section I noticed when I came through the rider behind let my wheel go, I put in a seated effort and moved clear (sometimes they look less dramatic and obviously attack like that a full sprint!) and set off to chase down Liam. Within half a lap there was already a size-able gap to the bunch and I saw Lewis from PH was approaching on his own, I eased off a touch to let him get on and I could see ahead Liam was waiting for us to bridge.

Once the bridge was made we worked really well together, there was approx 30 mins left of the race and I knew it would be possible to stay away given we were probably 3 of the strongest riders in the bunch anyway, my only issue was getting any draft when I wasn’t on the front, Lewis is a small rider and gets super low, and Liam wasn’t exactly a barn door either! With 20 mins or so gone I felt like I was pulling well still and I noticed Liam missing a few turns here and there, I thought I would likely get done over in the sprint by these two so was trying to hatch a plan, we rode through for the last couple of laps until the penultimate, at this point I attacked them just after Lewis had done a turn up the hill, I think had he not been there I would have gone clear but he was super strong and closed the gap with Liam in his wheel, in hindsight I should have done this more than once as I think it would have worked.

With the bell being rung we had approx 40 secs on the bunch thanks to Lewis’s dad giving us the shout each lap, we slowed to almost a halt as we approached the final corner, everyone looking at each other, a poor mans Flanders, if you like, eventually with 200m to the line or so Lewis opened it up, I was a bit slow to react and could tell right from the get go I probably needed another 25m to get passed Liam (a bit of ‘jump’ work needed) but Lewis was always going to win as he did, so I took 3rd from 3 haha! But it was a pleasing result especially the manner in which we rode the race, it felt like a good workout and I felt comfortable for the whole time, the 30 mins was circa 365-70w which at this point last year I would have managed in a one off effort, but not as part of a 3 up, my turns were around 400w and it felt OK, so I’m hoping my form is coming along well, just in time for a flurry of important events! I rode home after to get in a decent 3 hours for the day.

Head to Ireland for the RAS Mumhan on Thursday, and hopefully will have a decent account to give of the race afterwards!

http://www.strava.com/activities/129458981

Today was the day of the Wally Gimber trophy. A race that has run for the last 55 years straight hosted by Dulwich Paragon who do their fair share and then some for amateur racing I feel as this is one of a number of events they put on.

If you read my last report you might recall I mentioned a total lack of top end and my legs just deserted me. That evening I actually was shivering then breaking into sweats. I pt took 4 days off work to get over whatever virus it was that I had that was clearly present during the second half of the race. The aching neck a tell tale sign of something not being right. With an enforced week off the bike I was glad to have a weekend off racing as it would at least allow me to get some riding done. I’ve felt pretty good since then and this last week I managed to get in some good riding. So while I doubt I’m 100% where I was I think I’m pretty close.

Sadly during the week my Quarq had given up again (Cyclepowermeters doing a sterling job so far of getting it back up and running) so I was racing on Sunday with all the gear but none of it was working! The race had an 11am start which was a good thing given it was some 70 miles away in Kent. I got there with plenty of time, though it would seem everyone else had got there with even more as the car park was jam packed! Quick sign on and get the bike put together I scouted a few faces to see what was what. It was a strong field with presence from most of the big local teams and a smattering of others with the likes of Alex Peters, Jason White and recent north road Hardriders winner Ash Cox making up the numbers. I’d nit ridden the course but was told by Jake Martin while warming up that it was fast and the wind would play a part, he’d raced a few times before here.

With kit ready, and field assembled we had a pretty stern talking to and were told that all the NEG riders would be on the look out for poor riding given the recent fatality at Mountbatten. Fair enough it was too, nobody wants this sort of thing to happen in the sport. We got off to a quick start, the nervy neutral section out of the way and the first time up the only climb of the circuit (nothing to note really, fairly straight forward) proved useful. As it was clear that the way the race would play out would be down to who made it over the top and onto the bunch before it flew at over 40mph down passed Tenterden. The first few laps it was a case of getting up the hill and then burying yourself in the 53/11 to stay in touch down the hill, shortly to be faced with a pretty strong crosswind before the course wound it’s way back to the hill.

The first few laps saw a few minor groups get away and I think there were a couple who had a minute at one point, but it would always be tough for a smaller group with the wind and speed in which the bunch was taking the downhills. After the first few laps, the sunny but chilly weather slowly went, and in came the torrential rain and the temp dropped a deg or so. My clothing choice was soon shown to be totally out of place, shorts, jersey, fingerless mitts. With a couple of laps to go I couldn’t feel my hands, people were pulling out left right and center. Some through choice and others just couldn’t keep touch at high speed with numb hands. I nearly joined them. A bone was tossed (certainly I saw it as such) my way when I learned they had cut a lap off to take the race nearer to 72 miles than 85. With this in mind I was going to at least finish to make it worth the drive. By the last lap the group was small, under 30 I should think with riders losing touch and going backwards all the time. It was at this point with half a lap to go that Jake, Elliot of Rapha and two Trek (I think) riders got a gap. I thought it was a great move and they quickly pulled on the bunch. A combo of not everyone working and a rampant bunch looked like it may bring things together.

By this point I was shivering and praying for the hill just to warm me up, with a quarter of a lap to go and those boys off the front I thought I’d have a dog and jumped up the outside to try and move clear. A few shouts of ‘up up’ and that was the end of that as the bunch got me again. My legs felt good most of the day but I was too cold by this point to really have much left. As the finish approached we swallowed the break and it was going to be a sprint up the short climb to the finish. I was mid field and went to sprint and nothing happened, well, I went backwards is what happened, cold and cramp, I finished just off the back of the main group of 20 or so. Initially I was fairly pleased to have stayed in touch, bit of a shame about the end as on another day I’d have probably finished right up there in that sort of scenario but it wasn’t to be today.

Jason White formerly of Metalktek managed to hold off Will Goulbourne (who battered the Andy Morrison 2/3 last year, talented rider) for the win. With I think Lewis taking 3rd for PedalHeaven.

My attention quickly turned to getting into some warm clothes and as much sugar as I could afford with the shrapnel in my pockets! The race was fast, over 26mph average inc neutral, so likely 26.5 or so without. Nippy. Legs felt good, no result but was pleased to see if managed to at least get over last week. Good training for the wet and windy climate of Ireland anyway where I’ll shortly be heading for the RAS Mumhan. Anyway I’m off to buy some wind proof base layers!

strava

Yesterday was the first road race of the season, after a fairly successful early season with TT’s and training I was keen to get stuck in to the road stuff. Many people always say the first race is the hardest, but in previous years that has not been a mantra I have shared, mainly because I trained the same way with the same intensity all year round. However, this last 6 months have been different, there has been a focus on all durations of power, but the sway has been towards FTP, and there has been improvement in numbers as the time has gone on, but what I’ve perhaps not done all that much of yet is race style efforts which are always the most unpleasant to train and fairly needless for TT’s…

The race was on the Lamberhurst-Frant SERRL course which is fairly tough, it doesn’t have anything mega steep, but it doesn’t really have a moment of flat, its either up or down, and you certainly spend more time going up than you do down! There was a pretty strong field riding today, which given there was another big race on (Jock Wadley) really shows how many people are now of a high standard, teams of note included Pedal Heaven, Catford, Cadence (new team for the Cystal Palace shop), Richardsons Trek and a couple of others in the mix inc Elliot Porter flying the Rapha flag solo.

There were certainly a few riders going well at this point, I’d noticed in my twitter/strava travels that indeed most of the above had done decent stints abroad on training camps and were looking in good shape, sadly this year I’d not had time to get away for a camp like I did last year, job changes and life getting in the way!

When we finally rolled out in the lovely 18-20 degree sun I was about to find out just how well they were going! One of my least favorite parts of this course is the start which sees you led up the finish hill by the lead car before dropping his flag, and being the first lap it always pelts up there at high speed, I wasn’t feeling too bad as we crested and flew down the other side, and at the second hill I was keen to try and maintain a decent position, a bit of a mishap with the road in that it was a solid line, then not, then solid again, I probably was a bit guilty of going up the field when I shouldn’t have!

The race winning move formed on this very first lap with a number of strong riders getting away up the road, I was in no position to be going with that. After the first lap and constant changes of pace and responding to moves I felt the unusual sensation of burning legs, unusual in that normally I wouldn’t have this feeling til much later in the race. A chase group then formed which I probably should have tried to bridge over to and at one point I did attempt to, only to not be helped by the person who had come with so I stopped pushing. It was quickly clear that the front and indeed next group on the road were not going to be seen again by our bunch, which was a bit of a blow but I knew I wasn’t with it today.

At about the half way point I was riding on two lactic acid cylinders for legs, it was quite strange, I was pedaling at nominal pace and barely breathing hard yet my legs were saying no, over and over again. I was tempted to pull over and watch the finish, and said as much to a few people in our group that I knew, but was guilt tripped into carrying on and getting the race miles in. On the last lap I started to feel a bit better as it happened, still not great as my entire body was aching now. We approached the finish hill and I felt like I could probably finish at the front of our group at least which of course when everyone is on transponders is LIFE AND DEATH ;-), so waited for people to go and sprinted round to the line.

The race was won by Rhys Howells who came 2nd to Jake last time I raced here, clearly he has been training well and looked a different rider this time round and apparently won convincingly from Henry Latimer of Catford.

I can conclude that I need more race miles, it was a hard race but not much harder than it was last year where I felt more comfortable, luckily the top end stuff doesn’t take long to come back and with the improvements in FTP I’ve seen (which does take a fair while to improve) when I’ve got a few races in my legs I hope to be going a fair bit better. Strange was that after the race I almost felt a bit feverish, freezing cold, then really hot, I even soaked the bedsheets with sweat, so either I dug very deep, didn’t drink enough, or had an underlying issue, I don’t know which, but the one thing I do know is that it can only get better, I’m also nearly as light as I’ve been without any particular effort to eat super clean.

Next up is probably a crit down at Preston Park given the Peter Young has been cancelled, then the Wally Gimber, I’ll then attempt to put a decent 25 time against my name with a trip to the Welsh course renowned for being quick, I’ll be aiming for sub 50 with the stretch goal of better our club record, we will see.

http://www.strava.com/activities/119101957

A little update on Feb was due I feel. A few events to speak of, more training, lots more rain, and more time on the turbo!

Feb for me was about carrying on training and slackening off a touch around 3 sporting TT’s, the idea was not to be 100% fresh for them but to treat them as half race half training. And I was doing turbo sessions with varying intensity usually the day before the events.

The first of which was Southdown Bikes hilly 34km course. I knew I could do well on such a course, and when I saw the startsheet I was confident of a decent placing. When the day came around I’d had a fairly odd stomach for the previous two days which seemed to just about sort itself out just in time for the race! On the day Wouter Sybrandy who was down to ride did not start which gave me a bit of extra hope that I might be able to get on the top step…

It was a pretty cold day, and as per the year so far it was also pretty windy, I ran a disc and 90mm front wheel and within a couple of miles of the start I was regretting the deep front, I had to come out of the extensions at least twice to stable the bike when going by gaps in the hedge… I felt I was going OK, I got to the dual carriageway section and started to get a good rhythm going, but as with many sporting courses, nothing fast lasts long and true to form I was quickly faced with a 5 or so min climb out of Arundel! I could see my 2 min man ahead but wasn’t making much ground up the hill (he was quite thin!) as I chugged away. Over the top of the hill I was looking forward to the fast finish to drag my avg back up.

It was not long however before all chances of pushing for the top were gone as me and the chap in front were held by a horse box who was stuck behind a rider and had caused a line of traffic behind, I had to slow and nearly came to a halt before the final ramp up before the finish. At this point my head was gone, I rolled in and myself and Chris (my min man) exchanged brief words about how annoying that hold up had been ( I later learned that there was a road closure nearby that was causing heavy traffic on the course) and went back to the HQ, I’d come in 4th by a few seconds to 3rd with 1st and 2nd place some way ahead. On a better day without the hold up I think I could go better on that course, but it truly is a bit hilly to ever really suit me I think.

Next on the agenda among lots of turbo training due to the awful weather (thank god I live on a hill!) was the Kingston Wheelers Sporting 14. This has always been an event I wanted to ride and did enter last year, however, since 2011 where Steve Irwin took the honors, this event has not run due to ice, roadworks, and this year, almost, water!!

The evening before the event the organizer had warned us that there were two patches of standing water on the course and that if you wanted to race, the race would be on, but these hazards were a reality. This put quite a few people off, and I think around a 3rd of the field chose not ride, which is fair enough. With signing on done, it would seem that without Wouter this could be my chance to get another win, and in a home event (after coming 2nd in club road race last year!). There were other good riders that I needed to beat first however : Tejvan Pettinger, hill climb extraordinaire who last year trounced the field again at our club (and nearly any other club event he entered) hill climb, and then won the nationals too. While he is a specialist in anything uphill, he’s also done a sub 50 min 25m TT.. And then a Liam from Twickenham who I race with fairly often and is a very handy tester, I knew these two would be at the sharp end.

After my warm up I noticed I was the only idiot who decided it was OK to wear a skin-suit with aero mitts (it was cold and VERY Windy), and I also noticed that I was one of the few who were running a disc but with a shallow front wheel as it was blowing a gale and I thought it would be better not to go with the 90mm after Southdowns. I got off to a start and felt pretty good, I knew that I needed to be averaging over 25.5mph and nearer 26 to be in with a shot, by the time I’d done the drag and was hurtling towards the main hazard I was over 25 mph avg, so things were looking good. I knew the puddle was going to cover the road and that I might get wet feet…I saw it in the distance and came out of the extensions, and then, well, it was just a bit underwhelming, it was about 3cm deep if that. I saw pics after the event which made it much worse, but then I did go down the middle of the road (good line of sight) where I think it was shallower.

Anyway, with that lap out of the way I was feeling confident, I chugged around another lap (lost my powermeter in the process as the crappy road made the magnet jump off and make a mess of my BB paint!!!) and this time hurtled through the water over 30 mph in the extensions, which again was fine and I wondered why I had not the first time! There was a brief fleeting moment where I thought the course record might be on the cards, but as always I massively under-judged how long the last stretch was, I came in at 31.27 (30.50 was Wouters CR), which I thought might well be enough to win. I got back to the HQ to find I’d managed to better Liams time by around 1.40 and also go 30 secs faster than Tejvan in order to take the win. A good race and a nice one to win.

And lastly, the Redhill CC Sporting 18, I drove all the way there on what promised to be a chilly but glorious day. I got as far as the HQ carpark and was told to turn around as it had been cancelled due to ice. A marshall had slid his car driving out to his post, that was enough to prompt the orgs into cancellation, which was the right call. Two other riders from Redhill on regular club runs went down, broken arm, broken hip, broken vertebrae were all on the list, glad I didn’t ride. But do wonder when people will respect nature and leave it a little longer before they go out? Our club are the same and each time we hear of people going down when they could have waited an extra 90 mins and had a clear run.

Couple of action shots from PJ Wright his site here – I will be purchasing said pics!

As ever, all rides on my http://www.strava.com/athletes/148510

After a long period of silence I thought it was about time I address the coming season, what I’m aiming for, how I might hit those targets and a little insight into what I’ve been up to over the winter…

At the end of last season you might recall I managed to get a half decent result in the Handicap champs, the field was very mixed, as you’d expect, importantly I managed to stick the pace in the first 40 mins with a group of elite racers, I also managed to make a move that ended up being the winning one. It gave me a bit of confidence that I may be able to perform at this level if I can get my head right, and possibly not doubt myself quite as much.

Over the past couple of years my approach has been far from scientific, or even structured, I just rode my bike, sometimes pretty hard, other times not around 10 hours a week observing power figures as I went, sometimes they were good other times not. Last year I often pondered getting a coach to help with my training, perhaps to take the guesswork out of my weekly riding, also to put the time I have at my disposal to better use. I decided to hold off in the end mainly because I ticked most of my goals by mid season and I saw little sense in appointing someone two thirds of the way through the year. However, after my last race I was keen to try and get this sorted, not only to make proper use of my time, but to inject a bit of motivation into my riding as last winter I did get a bit bored off the whole dark/wet thing all the time.

With that in mind, I got talking to my current coach (Xavier, RST) about what I was planning for this season and how we could possibly look to get me there on 10-12 hours a week of riding time, some of which was commuting. One of the reason I looked towards RST was because I had noticed they are quite active on the web, not least about what they can offer, but more importantly for me, the methodology involved in doing so (I basically didn’t think they were talking rubbish like many do).

What I did not want was a coach to tell me I needed to ride 5 hours at 200 watts Saturday and Sunday every week from Nov-Mid Jan, I had already put that ‘train of thought’ to bed, some reasoning – I’m not a pro bike rider, I don’t have 20-30 hours a week to ride a bike, therefore I wouldn’t be training like they do, I needed to get my training done in half that time, which ultimately would involve me doing things that many would say are not what you should be doing in winter, I’m sure you know what that means.

Winter then – there really is no way of getting round the winter period, all 6 months or so of it! It is the time to forget about being fresh for a particular event, but the time to build fitness to better equip yourself for the coming season. This isn’t a common thought pattern in cycling it would seem, if you ask many cyclists what the winter is about, they’ll tell you, at best, its about base miles, at worst they’ll be telling you not to use the big ring for any of your rides but they will mostly advocate you take time off to have a break and just put in the hours. Clearly when you look logically at the way the season works, the only time to improve, or build, is winter, the summer is spent racing, and in order to be in with any sort of shot at winning races you need legs that are not totally fatigued beyond belief which does mean that accumulating stress to drive adaption is limited in the summer as you are trying to keep an element of freshness for the weekend…clearly this isn’t an issue in winter, I can go to the pub with sore legs after all 😉

What I’m planning for the coming season is obviously fairly different to last year, the reasons for that are obvious, I’m now out of the relative safety of 2/3 races given my upgrade to 1st cat and I also want to do a few more time trials and in order to accomplish some of my TT goals I will need to get in the far! Notable differences when stepping up a level (though I’ve obviously done a fair few nat b races now) are of course the standard of riding, but also the distance (75-90 miles as standard), the tactics and inclusion of more teams than individuals.

So I’ll go right ahead and list out some goals that I’ve set myself, I think they’re probably a mix of very challenging through to realistic with some hard work…

1 All time fastest list for 10miles (sub 19) and 25 miles (sub 50). (Which may result in a club record or two)
2. Top 15 (stretch goal of top 10) at national 10 – probably a tough one
3. Win a national B road race/and be at the sharp end in the majority
4. Pending how the races go in first part of the season I may push on and try to get my elite license
5. Try to improve times and placings in East Surrey Hardriders and Redhill 18, race the Kingston Sporting 14 for the first time. As an aside I would love to post a 19 on G10/42 which I don’t think many have ever done, Hutch and Ben Instone not sure of others…
6. Finish Ras Mumhan and be of service to the team!

So there we have it. Though this blog is obviously not correctly named these days it feels like I’ve come a fair distance since I started it as a fat lad with a sprint and a second hand skinsuit (still got that one, owned formerly by Mr Vulpine himself!) to a slightly less fat lad with a sprint and a fairly decent range of fitness. I’ve enjoyed racing and all the highs and lows it gave me in 2013. I feel like if I can keep the training quality up and listen to Xav I will go some way to achieving a fair few of the above. Of course I will be documenting each race as it comes, helps vent my frustration more than anything 😉

Not many changes equipment wise, I bought a new Sram Red Quarq with 55/42 chain set which with right cassette will serve my needs for road and TT bike. I’m also going to give tubs a go, I’ve bought some Zipp 303 Firecrest tubs and am currently ageing some veloflex carbon tubs (see how long they last eh?). I also upgraded to di2 and swapped my s2 frame for a custom green and black s3 which is far easier to keep clean! Reading that back it would seem I have again spent more money than I should of 😉

Cheers!