First Season Racing

Where to begin…Well, being British maybe the weather is a good starting point, amazingly, despite racing through the winter, today was the first race I’ve done in the wet, and what an intro it was to wet weather cycling…

I’ve been riding quite a lot of late, trying to improve up the hills, which is tough work, but I’ve been getting better over the last month. I was feeling pretty good, then went on Holiday for a week and did nothing, came back and my legs felt very weird after the first ride! Like they’d never done any work before. That first ride was a week ago today, so I thought the best thing to do would be to ride myself back into some kind of form. Which resulted in me doing a fair few miles in the passed week, and despite them feeling like they’d been attacked with a lump hammer on Thursday evening, a day off on Friday and a gentle day yesterday saw me in pretty good shape this morning, I felt good. And yesterday’s spin was good too (shame I couldn’t quite do the same 20 second effort at today’s finish that I managed fresh in the Park yesterday, but there we are) I’ve recently got a powermeter, so I can see what I’ve been doing, see where the effort is, and I suppose most importantly, see where I can improve things.

As with most things cycling, its the weight that is the issue as opposed to the power in my case, still, today would be a good test of that as the circuit is a tough one. I’d asked a few wheelers who had ridden it in the past what they thought about it, the general opinion was that it was hard, and not that different in difficulty to Bletchingley, which if you’ve read back is where I got dropped like a stone 20 miles in a few months ago. And actually one chap (who went on to be the clubs most successful rider of late by making 1st cat) said it was the hardest course in the Surrey League. Great!

So as I said, we all know the weather has been total rubbish for about 2 months now (thankfully I got my fill of sun on Holiday, but still!), and predictably today looked no different on the forecast. I woke up and it was raining, I drove to the race, and it was raining, and you can tell where this is going, it was an on-going theme. I arrived nice and early to sign on and find somewhere to park etc. I caught up with Francis, who rides for Vo2, and thankfully for the rest of us made 1st cat the other week, so he was just marshaling. He told me to watch number 78, and that was about it (William Pratt of Dulwich – in hindsight it was a good call from Francis, not that I could do anything about it…).

So we set off in the pissing rain, there were 3 other wheelers, Stephen who’s recently done the RAS and found his wings (also won a Surrey League race about 8 weeks ago), Andy Lack, who soloed his way to amateur stardom a couple of weeks back in an SERRL race, and Seamus who is or resident Irish hard man, rides with an average cadence of 6, and doesn’t seem to show any effort whatsoever, also rides what can only be described as the most lairy bike I’ve seen, flames and all! So I was in god company, if not slightly lacking in numbers compared to Dulwich who had a good 6+ riders including the above who has had very good results of late.

We roll down to the start of the race and the roads are sodden, its not pleasant, but being July its not really that cold, so I don’t mind too much, but the crap from the road in your face made it quite hard to see. We got going and I felt ok, first time up the climb was fine too, but I could tell that doing it 5 times would takes its toll (maybe it was 4? either way). There were a couple of rampy parts that could easily generate a split, and there were also points for people to get back on with fast downhills.

Nothing much happened for the first lap or two, a few people tried to get off the front, but nothing stuck, I was watching the Dulwich rider, and he indeed was right near the front, so it was clear that he wanted to do something this race. On lap two I think, he went, and went on his own, which was strange really, as it was not so blistering that people couldn’t have bridged, but I don’t think anyone wanted it. Probably thought he’d get brought back (you can guess where this is going)… So we cracked on and at times the rain was torrential, worse than being in the car on a waterlogged m25. A crash happened almost straight away, I THINK his wheel came out, or maybe he hit some traffic calming measures and it was forced out, either way, it made me think about how dangerous it could be today. About half way through and I’m still feeling decent despite being soaked, another crash had just happened in front of me and I managed to dodge his falling bike to make it round, each time this happened we got distanced and had to chase back to re-gain position, not ideal. Still, things are going OK, I’m able to keep the pace up the hills, and as usual am able to cruise downhill faster than nearly anyone else which is nice when you need to get a decent position back.

Then probably 2/3’rds of the way through Andy Lack has a dig, and he gets a gap, I think he might be able to do something, so try and get to the front to slow things down, but people swarm, and before too long he’s back with us again (I’m probably not doing Andy’s break full justice here, I have a hazy memory of most of the race). The pace is going up, we enter the last 12 mile lap of the circuit, by now William Pratt has about 3 mins on the bunch and is clearly going to win in a fantastic solo effort on a hard course in shit weather, he is clearly a very strong rider, not long for cat 2 I doubt. Then Seamus has a go off the front, this was a fairly short lived move as the bunch were just going too quick now really, so with Seamus back in the bunch, we approached the downhill section before the climbs, I was feeling quite good, so went for it, got a gap, not a huge one, but I was away from the bunch, kept drilling on, but the hills soon came, and my lungs were not having it (couldn’t get my heartrate up at all today, even at the end I was 3 bpm down on max)  and slowly but surely they reeled me in after maybe 5 mins of being on my own (5 minutes haha, sounds utterly pitiful when you think of the rides some people do on their own to victory etc) and I settled back in to the front of the bunch. With the hills out of the way there is a good 3 or so miles of fast section which is downhill and has a couple of rollers before the final kick up to the finish, Seamus is on the front drilling it along, and I’m 3rd wheel, I eventually go through after trying to get a drink for about 30 secs and sit on the front to keep the pace decent as we head into the last 1.5km… Now given this finish probably suits me quite well, you’d be well within your rights to ask me WTF I was dong on the front a mile from the end, to be honest, I don’t know either, it just felt right , even thought it clearly wasn’t…

We approach the final ramp and I’m still on the front, as we make our way up, we catch a rider, maybe a dropped rider, not sure (we learn that there are two more up the road now, I must admit I never saw them go), so I prepare for the inevitable as the whole bunch fresh from sitting in wheels like I should have been comes round me to leave me in 30th position. They come, and I let about 4 riders or so come through then put a dig in to make the wheel (I’m suffering by this point) and I keep the wheel, putting in a big effort, breathing like a mad man, I am gaining on some people, but there are others also approaching, we cross the line which is much closer than I thought it was, and I think I may have scraped a 10th if I’m lucky (so 7th or so within the bunch), Stephen I think pipped me at the last minute, but other than that it was just a mass of bodies!

Given my positioning the whole day and that it in hindsight despite all the negatives, weather etc etc, it did actually suit me at the finish , if I could get there, so a bit of a shame to not place a bit higher, but that’s what will happen when you do a turn and then try to win too, its very difficult to do that, and I must learn from it.

On the other hand, this course was very similar to Bletchingley, the pace was quite high, and not only did I not get dropped, I managed to be amongst the top few for most of the race, so the improvement is coming, just need to work on a few things and try to drop another couple of kg and I might be able to do something at this level if the stars align. Pleasing progress for the season, its been quite a rollercoster from 45 min crits to 3 hour slogs in the rain, but I am enjoying it and despite having to be a bit more conscious of binge eating/drinking its certainly great fun!

Race stats then :

Distance – 66 miles
Avg Speed – 23.5 mph
Average power – 221 Watts
Normalised power 280 Watts
Max Power – 1130
Max HR – 193

Races thick and fast all the way through till September/October time now, next week down in Kirdford for Brighton Mitre’s race!

So, not really a race as such, as the essence of time trialing of course is to race against only the clock (and indeed yourself if yo have previous times).

Richmond Park needs no introduction, most cyclists anywhere near the SE have ridden it, and for those outside the SE they will have been bored to tears with the endless threads on it on various forums, so will know it just as well!

I never really thought of doing anything like this until fairly recently, I was always under the impression that my best asset in cycling was my short burst power, which to an extent is true, but I’d done some decent solo efforts of varying distance over the past few weeks, so the idea to do something like this took shape. Most recently I managed to get into the park and do 3 fast UN-hindered laps, this gave me a bit of a shot in the arm, I knew I’d not be too far away from some of the faster times out there, but I managed to pace it well and come away with a pretty decent time of 49.17, for the distance which is 20.1 miles. Obviously this is not official, and means nothing more than a indicator of where you are at.

Anyway, at some point I’d entered the first of these TT’s as they fill up pretty fast. The way they work is that there are category’s for road bikes and TT, a road bike must not have deep wheels, tri bars, and the rider must wear a normal helmet. The course is a sporting course (not pan flat) and is 10.4 miles long, with one 180 deg turn on a small roundabout. The category I was going to go with was road, which meant taking off my Zipps and making sure it was all legal. There were 45 names on the start-sheet for the road categorie, and I only knew a few, which were all from KW so I knew who I would be close to time wise, and who would likely beat me based on me riding with him.

Being a first timer, and having never done a TT before, I was un-seeded and therefore set off first, this meant that my star-time was 6.07am. Lucky I live close then! On the morning it was a bit cold but wasn’t anywhere near as windy as the day before which would have made it hard work. I had an idea on pacing, and had put down some time splits from Jim Ley’s 2nd place time of 26.01 a couple of years ago. I knew that if I could be near those, then I’d do a decent time (even though the conditions could have been totally different, Jim says they were similar as it happens).

I set off 15th I think, I quickly got up to speed and settled into the drops to get as low as possible, I was going well along the straight flat section from Robin Hood to Roehampton, and caught my next man just after the first roundabout (the first of 5/6 as it happens). By the time I got to the top of the only notable hill (Sawyers Hill for those that know it) I was ahead of Jim’s split, so was going ok. Down the long shallow downhill towards Kingston I tried to keep it as quick as possible, and passed a couple more riders down this stretch before the 180 turn, which due to it being a tiny roundabout was going to sap the speed in a big way – 28 mph – 12mph. Back up to speed for the long drag back to Richmond Gate, I think at this point there was a tailwind of small proportion, by the time I’d got back up to Richmond Gate I was still about 10-15 secs ahead of Jim’s split. Back down Sawyers I knew this is where I could get some speed up, and I made sure to stay above 30 most of the way back down to Roehampton Gate. Now was the headwind it seemed, it felt a bit like hard work to be honest. I grinded my way down to the final little ramp up to the finish and at this point was about 20 secs in front of the splits, put in a big effort up the hill but felt like I was going nowhere, and crossed the line, glanced down and saw 25.39, which got turned into 25.43 as I started the garmin a bit late, I then collapsed on a bench for a few mins 🙂

Given I went out so early, it was a long wait for others to slowly come through, a lot of 27’s, a few 26’s when we got to the sharp end of the field, Alex came into the carpark (who was the one person I thought I’d not be able to beat) and had given it a big effort, we waited for a while, he said he’d done around 26, eventually it came in and he’d done 25.53 so just 10 secs behind. We then got ready to get on the podium and bugger off back to bed, however it was then that news got back one of the fast TT guys (Xavier Disley) had switched to the road category, such was his reptation that to organizer had actually penned his name into 1st place before he had even finished (cheers for the confidence boost!). He came in, and also had given it a big effort, we waited for a few mins, turns out he did a 26.11 (I think?) which put him into 3rd spot.

A good day had by KW with 4 people accross the categories on the podium! Couple of snaps below, wish I could hold the flat back position for a few hours, but for 25 mins it was fine and felt very aero.

Alex, Xav and I on the podium –

After a decent couple of weeks on the bike, there seemed to be a lack of races locally, so thought I’d go with the tried and trusted up at Hillingdon, which meant I could have many many beers at a BBQ that Sat night!

It has obviously been pretty hit and miss weather wise of late, and after having been blown to a stop on Millbank a few times I was really hoping it would subside somewhat. Woke up the Saturday and had a look out the window, thought to myself ‘that tree isn’t normally horizontal’, balls, it was still stupidly windy.

Anyway, I spent the morning messing about with tyres as I didn’t want to risk deep rims due to the wind, and possible poor riding, so put my shallow rims on, and then had a bout of OCD and cleaned every inch of them and the cassette with baby wipes…3 hours later I was ready to roll. The headwind was a joke, and getting to the track was hard enough! Came across Francis Cade at the lights, so I knew at least who would be a good rider to follow as he’s been smashing it into the rest of the 2nds/3rds in the Surrey League, and is as good a crit racer as he is road, so that was one task made easier. The vo2 lads had a couple riding, there was one other wheeler – Track Beast John Coolahan who is an accomplished trackie and then the usual mix of people.

The race got underway and I saw Francis go straight from the gun (that was the last the bunch saw of him), I was planning to actually be a bit aggressive in this race instead of the bore fest that is sitting in waiting for a sprint as I was during the winter series, so about 2 laps in I put in a big effort and got clear, and a few others came with and before we knew it we were away from the bunch and it was all going well. There was probably about 5 of us, and I was happy to do turns, but did notice that each time we went up the home straight it was getting slower. I was really struggling to keep the pace when a Colbornes rider (Chris Spence) came through, he was a lot stronger than the rest of us by the looks of it and really made it hard work, but he was right to make it hard as we needed to stay away!

I think we were away for about 10-15 laps or so before we got caught, mainly down to fatigue I think, the wind was really taking it out of our small group on the bottom straight. John said that Francis had 4 others with him, and that it was touch and go, as the gap had not really come down on them, and we never really gained on them as a chasing bunch.

Had about 3 laps sitting in, and realized my fitness has come a long way, sitting in was EASY, but I needed a breather after the effort. So was mid pack recovering and another group went, John was in it this time, so I tried to move to the front to chase down any would be breaks, and felt I did a good job of this, it was like interval training!

Anyway, they did work well together, and I think they had 6 or so in total, and it was clear with 5 laps to go (from the 35 we did in total) we would not catch them, I was happy to just roll in, but then thought that I hadn’t had a flat sprint for ages, and also mistakenly thought the points went to 15th place (they didn’t, 10th was the last points placing) so I kept in position and drove hard on the last lap to stay in the right place, probably in the top ten coming round the last corner. I got boxed a tiny bit on the corner by someone who was going a bit slow after what was probably a big turn so after going round him, I found myself in a good position with nobody really in front but about 5 ahead of me on the left – they were taking the wind and my line was ok – a chap opened up and went quite hard, right from the early part of the straight, I went too (too early) and was about equal to him for what felt like ages, we quickly moved ahead of the rest, and I realized there was still another 50 meters to go, so got back in the saddle stuck it down to the 11 and tucked right over the bars in what must have looked like a descending position and just went and the extra gear and aero advantage of getting my frame out of the wind meant I went clear of this chap and won the bunch gallop by a bike probably.

Francis and co stayed away and he took 2nd, mega ride from him and the others in that group. John got 8th, and he said it was as hard as anything he’s ever done on the track.Which I tended to agree with when I threw up in my mouth (banana soreen just before a race is a no no)!

So was a good workout, got to work on my fitness as there were times when I couldn’t do my turn to the full speed it needed to be (could have done with the deep rims after all! 20 watts would have helped!), can easily stick the pace with some decent 2nds in the mix, and probably can score points at this level if I can stay in a break or it comes to a sprint as although I’ve not really worked on the sprint it still seems to be decent enough.

Want to get back to Hillingdon this Tuesday then again next Saturday in the absence of any local road races, good training too, then a weeks sunning in Turkey followed by a packed July full of 2/3 road races!

Race was 34mi, avg 25.5 mph (felt faster, but the wind killed it a bit)

Well, this week has been great for obvious reasons! Sun!

Sadly though with sun come beer, and I drank every day last week in one shape or form, which isn’t ideal, but meh, I’ve thought long and hard, and I’ve decided I’m just not up to going pro despite the many contracts landing on my doormat 😉 So a beer here and there won’t hurt.

Had a couple of weeks off racing, mainly as there hasn’t been much about, I didn’t fancy paying £50 to enter the divs, and there were not any crits on so the last two weekends I’ve been training with the fast guys from the club. 2 100 mile rides both very quick pace and some good hills too. So I don’t feel like I’ve been neglecting my training. This week I also made sure I got in some decent riding and did a few hill repeats for the first time (although only little ones) and a few hard efforts in the park on the way back from work, given its so nice out there, seems a shame not to try and beat a few of the Richmond Park pro’s up one of the hills!

It was obvious today was going to be tough, the heat being the main factor, and also that the only time I’d ridden at 2nd cat level before (despite being one now) was at Bletchingly, which despite all the other guys claims of it being the hardest course around, didn’t ease my mind, as I got dropped like a stone in that race, as I posted back then, so the pace worried me slightly.

A good KW turn out as per, with around 6 of us today, including a recent convert to road racing (Pete M) who has shown massive promise, in weighing next to nothing yet having the power of a good 75kg+ rider. Lucky bugger 😀

I got there nice and early, and signed on, and we trundled over to the start line, which was down over the a24, down the finishing hill (which you only do once on the last lap, not a massive fan of that) and then onto the Henfold Hill course. I’d been told that the course was fairly rolling and only had one notable rise. Which was a fair call, but there were two rises and both were as small and almost a non entity. The thing that made them an entity (more the first one as it did ramp up a bit for a few meters) was that my chain was skipping in the small ring, so maybe the mech isn’t aligned or the tension isn’t being taken out of the chain… Anyway, long and short of it was that I had to use the big ring for the whole ride.

A lap in and I feel quite comfortable, and I’m keeping up and not feeling to bad, only slight niggle is the big ring thing and also whether I’ll have enough drink to last me as it was properly warm. I think on the second lap a group of a couple got away. Not sure who, but there were some very strong riders there today, so I think it was a small group of these maybe 5 or so that made the first dig, and got away. Then possibly a lap or so later, another split happened. Now at first they were so close that I was confident I would bridge over solo if needs be, but someone told me Andy Edwards was in the bunch, so we let them build up a lead. Fast forward a few mins, Andy is back in the main bunch and says he hasn’t the legs today to stick with them, which is fair enough as there were some super strong riders out there. So this got me thinking about bridging over, I made one attempt which was quickly chased down by the bunch, and then a lap or so later Pete had just started to go and they let him, I stormed up the outside and told him to grab my wheel, I thought with 20 or so up the road they would let us get away, but no, they didn’t, we got a gap and then I could see them sprinting to chase us down. Which is a shame as I think at that point we would have got over.

The concencus was that we could catch them and a few of us started doing turns to help bring it back, but the heat and the wind which was there, although not anywhere near as strong as yesterday made it bloodty hard work. The time gaps were increasing each time we went by the lap board, so what was once 30 secs was I think a minute by the end of things.

So last laps rolls by, I still feel pretty decent, so do a bit on the front, make sure I’m in a decent position just so I can maybe have another solo dig later on, we roll round to near the finish, and obviously the finish being off the circuit I got a bit caught out. I went hard up the outside and went by the bunch, to the front, only to see another 400 m of hill till the line. At this point I just carried it on to the line, probably in the top 15 of that bunch, not that it matters as the winners etc had already come through well before with I think a super fast Node 4 TT man winning, and second claim KW Francis Cade of vo2 taking second to get well on his way to 1st cat!! Someone also managed to crash at the finish line and it looked pretty horrible, face to the floor etc..

So in all I’m happy with it as I managed to stick the pace, which despite my initial thoughts of it being similar to a 3rds race, it wasn’t it was quite a bit quicker with over 26mph avg speed for the whole race. I felt I had the legs to do more, but it didn’t work out today. So it all looks good for the next few 2/3’s pace wise.

I’m racing again next weekend, but given the finish is the top of Leith Hill, and I’m 13 stone, its fair to say I will be bloody lucky or have to be in a break to get anywhere near the top. But its all good training eh?

Race stats then, 54 mi, 26.1 mph, top speed 45 mph

Initially I was really looking forward to this as it seemed the course would be OK for me (still not a flat finish (are any of the SL races?) but not too bad and plenty of fast downhills. However it quickly became something I was dreading due to an odd series of events. A work five a side tournament had been put in on the Friday, and for various reasons, it wasn’t something I could duck out of. Added to that given we got to the semi’s and lost to a dominant Sony Music team we went out to celebrate…I didn’t sleep that night and was at Dalston Junction at 5.45 am waiting for a train home. Needless to say I was buggered yesterday. To top it off my partner was having a girls dinner party so I had to leave the house and wasn’t allowed back till they’d gone…Bed at 2am then.

So woke up this morning, and I must say, I’ve felt better, legs battered from 6 games of football, and tired as hell. Still it was a lovely day, what did I have to lose?

We lined up, and there was a good contingent from KW there today, 6 of us I think. And each of those 6 had the legs to win it I would say. We got going and I felt it straight away, we got onto the long drag which the finish line is in the middle of and my HR was through the roof, so much so that I got gapped the first time up it and spent a lot of the first lap right near the back. Second time round it was slightly better, and I could tell my body was just waking up, this time Damien went off the front on the climb with a couple of other guys to form the first and only break of the race.

A few laps passed and I was starting to feel a bit better, my back was aching a touch by 30-40 miles, must get that sorted. In the second to last lap, we went round the worst corner on the course, a pothole ridden gravel covered corner, I stupidly didn’t knock it into the small ring quick enough, and the result of my faffing with the shifters was that I dropped my chain right at the beginning of a climb that went into the fast downhill section. Brilliant. I thought I’d snapped it to be honest, anyway, I got the chain on, took me a bit more time than I’d have liked though, 35 secs according to my race file!!! I chased hard, a motorbike waited for me, I was hoping he was going to let me draft, but he didn’t, he stayed about 20 ft in front of me the whole time. Luckily it was the fast down section that was coming, and I’d sen the whole race that I go downhill quicker than nearly anyone, without really trying (combo of the bike, my weight, and what not) so I managed to catch back on to the group quite fast. I went straight up the outside of the bunch and got back into the top 15 riders.

Bell lap came and the break which was still only a couple of riders as I don’t think anyone bridged were within sight at times, but they did a great job of eeeking out every last bit of effort and we didn’t catch them till the very end as it happens! We came down the first fast sections, through the horrid corner. The pace was higher, but I was comfortable, if not a little bit achey. We came onto another corner which was a bit dicey, I was on the left about 10 back. All of a sudden I see the group move over, and then the clatter of bikes as a few blokes go down (more on this later)…

I was in a great position coming down the last of the hills into the wet little flooded lane (wish I had bought my glasses!!) however the corner there was also a bit tough to take, and someone cut me up and I lost my top 10 position, and got shoved back into the upper teens probably. We drove hard through the little lane, and approached the final climb, I actually now felt ok, and was ready. I hit the slope in probably 10th wheel or so, followed a Dynamo who’d been going well, so I was happy with my position. As I drove on and the pace went up, lots of people went backwards, at this point I think the eventual top 3 made their move, I wanted to go with it, but sadly said Dynamo wasn’t quite as quick up the slope as I wanted to be, so after I’d gone round him and coming to the crest I was5th or 6th and I kept digging, onto the short flat before the line and I shifted down the block and got back on the pace, I was nowhere near the front lot now, but had a few bikes over the people behind from the looks of it. So I came in either 5th or 6th depending who you ask, I’ll know later. Robin came 3rd, and Stephen won it! Funny as he had said “stick in there Rob, this finish will suit you well” he was right, but I couldn’t get there today.

That crash sadly bought down a clubmate (Ed) and his bike was fucked, its hard to think of a better way to describe it. The top tube was mangled and snapped totally in two places (s works SL3 frame), he later came by and his arm and shoulder were not in great shape. But for a law type, he’s pretty tough (cake is for pussies apparently) so he shrugged the cuts off, but was probably a little upset about his bike 😦

So in summary, I was in hindsight happy with the result despite conditions of my body, and a rather hilly course (for a fat knacker like me), avg speed was 22.5 mph, and top speed of 47 mph or so. I’m also now officially a Category 2 racer! Which was pleasing. So onwards, now to get my head kicked in my people with a lot more talent than me 🙂

I’d been looking forward to this race, the course looked good, and it wasn’t too hilly, or too flat. The week has been decent, had a nice warm up ride yesterday and a few hard commutes in the week with the powertap. I felt quite positive. Although the race was a 3/4/w/j there were over 50 3rd cat riders out of the 80, not many if any women, and a few decent jnrs, so not an easy race even if it looked like it could be on paper, especially as I said with a field of 80!!

My first racing outings led me to think that I would be more suited to pan flat courses, but the more I race undulating courses and such (not proper hilly 😛 ) I am tending to prefer a little hill or two to make things interesting. I had only put this course into Bikeroute Toaster so could see it wasn’t totally flat, but there wasn’t much in the way of hills.

So I got up there in good time, lovely part of the world, and being half 7 there was nobody stupid enough to be on the roads as they were all sleeping 🙂 got up there with plenty of time, signed on, had a quick natter with my 3 teammates who were also good prospects for the race as they have all been riding strong of late, so it was exciting!

We set off and as usual I found the first few miles hard going, I really must start warming up for these things! The pace was quick, though, and it seemed that there were plenty of strong riders around. Being a fairly flat part of the world the wind was ever present, and did mean that getting away with a small group or on your own was always going to be tough. The section where the HQ was, should, in theory be a 35mph+ 2 miles, but with a stonking headwind it certainly wasn’t anything like that!

First time up the ‘climb’ (its not much really, similar to Dark Hill in Richmond Park, but with another little ramp after) was easy enough, and it was easily a big ring job, nothing like the 25% beast in Milland the other week. The course then shot downhill with a slight tailwind, this made for interesting riding, and on the first lap a chap from Zappi’s hit a nasty bit of road (there were a few holes out there) and ended up on his back in a ditch, he looked OK, but hope it wasn’t too serious. So yes, that part of the course was fast, I found out that this was my best chance of moving up the bunch as I seem to go downhill like a stone.

So the usual middle bit of the race ensued, stuff happened, but nothing of note, the long and short of it was that anything that tried to get away was brought back, or they ran out of steam in the wind. The prime was interesting, it was the second time over the line, and I was actually on the front (as I was later…) up towards the line, and probably could have contended it, but decided to save my legs a bit for the main event in a laps time, but its interesting to see what people will do for a pair of legwarmers!!

The bell went for the last lap then, normally the sound of the bell does just inject a bit of pace into the race, so I was keen to see what would happen, and most importantly, I was keen to sort my position out as it wasn’t great. So by the time we were a quarter of the way through the last 15 mile lap I was in the top few again, and at this point a few people went, nothing looked too serious, so nobody chased at first. We then approached the hill, now as we said it wasn’t too tough, but after 35 fast miles (which isn’t a lot either, but for us mere mortals) it was certainly going to split the pack a bit more than it had done previously…at this point a couple chipped off the front, and one lone guy followed. I led the pack up the hill, and towards the top really put an effort in to tire some legs as mine felt alright. As it happened I got a gap and joined forces with the chaser. However we both knew the bunch was just behind us, and in the fast 35-40 mph section we were not going far, so we joined back into the bunch. For some reason though I joined back to the bunch and was almost immediately back on the front, so as we came up the last long road to the finish I was sat on the front for what seemed like a long time, however, we were catching the break, so given I felt OK I just kept on.

Eventually after flicking the elbow a few times and nobody coming through I really sat up and had a drink, eventually someone took up the helm, by this point we had caught the lone two, and it was shaping into a bunch sprint, initially it looked like there were probably 10 in contention, of which I was one. We came to the 1km to go and the pace went up, I got into a good wheel and carried on, probably 500-600m to go I put in a real dig, now it was strong enough to string things out, but not strong enough to go clear (which might have been the problem with the efforts in this last lap, as looking at the speed at the line I know I’m capable of plenty more) so I dragged the bunch with me as we came to the line, I tried to shake the AW cycles chap from my wheel but he was stuck like glue. Eventually with my legs burning and my HR at max he came round, another then tried to come round, but I wasn’t about to let two come by, so I put in my last and final effort…

The AW cycles chap held on for the win, I managed to stay about half a bike away from the other chap, but someone had come up the outside at pace to take 2nd, and I took 3rd in the end. So a good race, some nice goodies for placing. I learn every time I race, but this time I don’t know what more I could have done really, perhaps done a bit less on the last lap, but then potentially I would have been in a mid bunch position as it was hard to actually move up due to the field size and plenty of cars. So all in all a good race, I did plenty of work, still placed and know that I’m able to ride at the sharp end of 3rd cat as I’ve top 10’d the last 3 road races. Which is probably a good thing really as I’m now not far from going to 2nd cat, and the gulf between a good 3rd and a good 2nd is huge so I really need to keep upping my game!

Next race is likley a crit, as the next RR is is the 13th of May!

Been a good week on the bike. Got some good miles in, and have ridden most days, and hard. This week I had tried to get into a Roadrace, but they were either full or too far away, so having not raced at Hillingdon for a few months I thought I’d go up there for a blast.

It was a 3/4 that ran on its own, so it potentially could have a massive field! I went up and met Jason there (he came 2nd there midweek) and another wheeler, there was a line of people out the door when we got there (an hour early) so we knew the field was going to be epic. We signed on, and were delayed a bit by some junior racing. I noticed just before heading out onto the track that a bloke wandered past us with number 81 on his back, so there were well over 80 people in this race. Which for somewhere like Hillingdon is massive, the limit is 100 riders, but I’ve only ever seen this amount when the fields are separated by half a lap, never one big bunch!

Anyway, we rolled up to the line, and got the race talk. This week I’d borrowed a clubmates powertap wheel to do some investigation into my power, and where I might be able to improve. So it was always going to be an interesting race for me, as I was keen to see what my numbers would be in the inevitable bunch sprint etc!

We got off, and to be fair with a couple of exceptions, the riding was OK, a few hairy moments, but for the amount of people it was not too bad. Jason and I tried to move up to the front, but it was hard work as the sheer number of people made it tough to get a look in. One team from Jersey (they had come over in a bus and were racing both races, and probably tomorrow too! Hardcore.) were driving well on the front. And about half way through the race a few digs went in. I’m not totally sure when it happened but 4 blokes got away from the pack, it was always tough to tell what was happening as there were a lot of lapped and dropped riders around, but still.

Time went quite fast today, and before I knew it I looked down at my garmin and we had done nearly 22 miles, and I’d not seen the lap board, sure enough it had been out and there were 3 to go. I set about trying to get close to the front, and made my way up as we crossed the line with 3 to go. Round to the fast downhill section I found myself actually on the front. So I carried on round at pace as I wanted to string it out a bit if we were going to sprint. I noticed that a gap had started to form by the time we hit the home straight (where the headwind was lurking, it had been killing the bunch all race, slowing to about 20 mph sometimes!) so I put a big effort in. I gained on the bunch and went clear, I kept digging and before I knew it I was clear of the pack by some distance. One other chap had come with me, a young rider from the Jersey team I think.

We had 1.5 laps to make it stick then, I was on the front a lot of the time for that 2nd to last lap, I waved him through when we went through for the bell lap, he came by me, panting, I was at a new Max hr so I was panting too! I let him carry us round the fast downhill and he waved me by on the 2nd to last straight by the clubhouse…Obviously at this point I thought we were leading as I had no idea about the break, so knowing I had the power advantage I drove hard into the wind (900w according to the wheel) and he was gone, I crossed the line arms aloft like a chopper thinking I’d won it.

Got back to the clubhouse and Jason broke the news that there were 4 up the road haha! Still, it was a good race, and I was pleased with my effort for those last 5 mins. The race not only had a huge field, but it was quite fast too, averaging just under 26 mph for the duration. Most pleasing was that the two laps I was away were the 2nd and 3rd fastest of the race for me with the highest power output too.

So now that leaves me needing around 15 points till I upgrade and am forced to ride with the seriously fast people, my season goal of Cat 2 is getting closer!

After last weeks poor show I was keen to try and have a good race today. Done some decent miles during the week, and am back to full health (which helps!)

Today’s race was down in Petersfield, where I have actually lived and worked in the past, so I am familiar with the area, but I was never into cycling back then, so it was a different kind of blast from the past. Todays race was the 3rd cat only, I still fairly sure on a flat race I could cope fine in a 2/3 but with hills in the mix, I thought for now best to see how I get on in my own category – there were 3 other wheelers racing today, strong guys too, we had a good team.

Early start today, 7.45 out the door, had some spectators, my parents and my girlfriend were watching today which was nice. The course is fairly spectator friendly, mainly because there is a 25% hill just before the finish line every lap!! It isn’t very long, but its certainly enough to make you glad you stuck a big block on the back when you see people doing their chains and spokes all over the shop 😀

The race kicked off, the first half of the circuit is downhill really, so we got into our stride at a gentle pace, when the car lets us race it was a fair way from the hill, and we carried on at a decent lick round towards it. I was feeling ok for the first few laps, there was no doubt the hill was hard work, I’m so glad I did change the cassette as I think I would have broken something on a 39/25 (probably the chain), and it allowed me (a fairly average climber at best) to stay in contention most laps because I could spin up it seated. This was nice in two ways, one because it saved my legs, and two, the hill was very damp and whenever I got out of the saddle my rear tyre would spin fairly easily, so seated was the way forward (and indeed up! it was bloody steep!)

After a few laps a couple of things happened, mainly I could feel my slight aching back coming back to haunt me, so a bikefit is the nest step.Firstly a teammate had got away, Colin went quite hard and got a gap, but it didn’t last that long with a rapid bunch and the hill rapidly approaching we swallowed him back up.Another teammate, Damien mentioned that the break that I had barely noticed slipping away had got a minute on us! And that we should do some work, sadly I thought that if I put major effort in then my back might not last the course. Damien did put a few digs in, as did Robin.

As the race went on the hill was hurting more and more people, Robin got away for a decent period, but the same eventually happened to him on the penultimate lap, after the hill on that lap the bunch was smashed apart really, and a pack of 7 maybe got clear, in this were Robin and Damien, we were trying to work to get away, but a combination of the bunch gaining and others not wanting to work meant that as we came into the fast downhill section we were all back together again.

I had noticed that on the downhill I was finding it very easy to move up the bunch, probably because I was heavier and had an aero bike, but this gave me the idea (a foolish one!) to go for it on my own, so I sprinted off the front, and quickly got a good gap, at its best it was probably 20 secs, it was at this point that I saw the break of 2/3 riders who had been gone all race. They looked a bit tired (as anyone would be), so instead of bridging to them I sat up and let the bunch catch me on the other fast section. By this time we were flying down the back of the circuit, I was over 40 mph a number of times, and peaked at 48mph at some point, so it was not for the faint hearted. We came into the start of the hill much quicker than before too…

After the first drag up towards the ‘wall’ it was a high pace, higher than the other laps, I was thinking that I could possibly make up some places as I was about 20 back, but the thought in the back of my mind was that the climber types would rip it up so I’d be a bunch finisher, so I did try to move up, but wanted to conserve my energy – my only chance of gaining chances was on the hill, it was steep, but short enough to be a power hill which helped me. Coming up to the hill I had to pass someone who had obviously forgotten the hill was there and was in totally the wrong gear, I could see Damien and Robin shooting off up the hill, but they are both far quicker up hill than I regardless of power, so I kept churning, as it ramped up, so did I putting in some big efforts, at the crest of the hill I even for some reason made an odd roar/grunt as the effort was so much (sorry for anyone I scared), I came over the top of the hill in 5th place (the front 4 were well gone by this point) the clang of people switching back to big ring was in my ear, I could see people behind me, so I just gritted my teeth and pushed as hard as my lactic ridden body would allow, it was enough to keep me out the front of all but one chap, who did very well to come round me at the last minute (S.Gerrans would be proud 😉 ) to pip me into 6th – having looked at the data I still got back up to 36 mph for that, so fair play to him. I was elated, as I had not expected to get anything on a course like this. I rode down the way and collapsed on a verge with exhaustion, knackered.

Turns out Robin got 3rd, Damien 4th, and me letting the 3/4/5 down got 6th. A great Wheelers result, and a strong showing from all concerned. I’m pleased with my form, and am just waiting for some slightly flatter finishes again and hopefully I can maybe bag a win this season? Half way to 2nd Cat now, so lets hope it happens before then, as the standard goes up a vast amount when you start getting the 2nd’s in there!

Race stats – 48 miles – 22 MPH avg – Max speed 47.8 mph

Next Race – 22nd of April Thames Velo RR (but I might do some crits before then, so will update as and when)

Happy riding!

An eventful week really. I was away last weekend, and after a good training ride on Saturday morning, my plan was to go away for two days to Cotswolds to relax, come back and do some good training and some commutes etc to get me ready for what would obviously be the hardest race I’ve entered. That was the plan…

What actually happened is I caught something whilst in the Wolds and didn’t sleep Saturday or Sunday night, and felt terrible till Tuesday, then the sleeping came back but my stiff neck, and kidney pain didn’t go away untill Yesterday really. I managed to ride in twice, and despite feeling ok, it was clear my neck wasn’t enjoying it, so not sure what virus it could have been that leaves you with aching kidneys and neck. Very odd.

Anyway, that’s the excuses out the way 😉 got to the course quite early, signed on etc etc, saw a couple of the other guys, two of which I know are fantastic climbers, and there’s plenty of names on the startlist that ring a bell too from results they have had and what not. The course is touted as one of, if not the toughest in the Surrey league, with one side of it being mostly downhill at 40mph + and the other having three nasty little climbs before a long drag back to the downhills again.

So we set off and by fiddling around with the garmin I find myself at the back of the pack from the start (idiot!) but make it back and am feeling OK by the time we come round to the climbs the first time, we go up the first which is just a short punchy thing, HR goes sky high, and seems not to come down for a while which is worrying, we go up the second and third and I’m feeling it, we actually stopped dead on the last climb on the first lap for some reason, and a gap opened up, so myself and 4/5 others had to get back on which actually was more effort than it should have been, this meant that when we were coming through the HQ after the first lap I was blowing, and was off the back by a few bikes, thankfully due to being fat and having a very aero bike I managed to get back on to the bunch  on the downhills (doing 50 mph in the process).

Second round up the hills and its apparent I’m not going to finish in the bunch, if at all, my back is cramping very badly and although my HR has settled, power to the pedals wasn’t coming due to the aching back. So I hope this is an after effect of this illness, otherwise its clear my position is totally wrong, but although I had some slight twinges on my last race, it was NOTHING like this. Think I might raise the bars a tiny bit to see what happens… Anyway, this time is the same, I fight hard to stay in touch, and I’m in touch (just) till we come up through the HQ up the long false flat (well, its a hill, no false about it!) and I can feel the power ebbing away and the group pulling ahead, I want to try and get back on but its not happening. I think possibly I can get back on on the downhill, but this time I had become too distant, and that, 20 miles in was the end of that. I then did a lap on my own, and even at a fairly sedate pace the aches are pretty bad, so instead of doing another couple of laps, as I really didn’t want to drive all the way out there to do 30 miles I had to cal it a day and rolled back into the HQ and drove home. Pretty pissed off as I’d like to think on a normal day I’d at least have had a bunch finish on that course (I’ll never win there, its not for sprinters, that’s for sure), but today wasn’t that day.

Some positives to take from it I guess were that I now know where Godstone Shell is, and they have fuel, but only at pumps 7/8…mums the word 😉

Next race is a 3rd only down in Petersfield Hants, nice course, 25% wall at the finish…joy, that’s next weekend, so will report back.

My first road race! So I thought I’d write about it while I kill some time and have it vaguely fresh in my mind.

As you may know I bought a new bike last week so this week has been spent making sure it runs properly, and everything works out as the last thing I needed was a broken bike for the race. So with the last minute stuf finally done midweek (indexing, standard woe) I was ready to roll.

I’d done both chain-gang rides last week, and only commuted 3 times, also notably I didn’t play any football, I feel this helped keep my legs pretty fresh as I was going well on both the chain-gang sessions. I also hit an all time low weight of 81.9 kg (or 12.12 in on money), so it was looking positive for this weekend. Had to get up pretty early as although I’ve cycled to Dunsfold a few times, its actually quite a way from here, 30 miles or so.

Got down there with plenty of time to spare, made sure everything was ok, met all the guys from the club etc etc. The weather was absoloutley perfect, and at 1pm or so, its about as nice as I’ve seen it for cycling.

A sold out field started off, and the pace was pretty hot right from the get go. Obviously I have not raced on the road before and although I preferred it, there were still moments when you kind of wish the cars could be banned from the roads for a day 😉 but the marshals on the bikes and in the cars did a great job, really good.

So it was fairly nicely paced for the first 5 laps or so, a few people went, and I wasn’t well positioned to be honest, I couldn’t see how many were up the road, or even who they were. I noticed a few attempts by riders to bridge, both from my club and others. It got to about 2.5 laps to go, or around 15 miles to go, we’d ben racing for just over and hour and a half and I caught the odd glimpse of the group up the road, it had gotten quite large. I was pretty sure non of my team were in it, and I’ve overheard a few riders say that we wouldn’t catch them over the next half an hour, so that was it, I’d made my mind up that I was going to bridge the gap…

I went off the front hard not long before one of the slight downhill sections, I gained a gap straight away, then proceeded to go about getting over, now I knew this was going to be hard, but my HR data shows just how hard it was, I have a max of 194 according to my data, and for 7 minutes my HR was above 180, and for 6 of those it was above 185. So without using all these fancy online training tools, you can see that it was a BIG effort, and along the way I passed a few others, one of which got my wheel and I dragged him over too.

When I had got over to the bunch the bunch behind were out of sight most of the time, so I thought that most of the hard work had been done. I tried to work with some of the guys, and one of the La Fuga riders was helping out, but in the main I have to say I didn’t think most riders were interested in helping. I sat on the front for a bit, waved through, and nobody came, so I carried on, looked round and the bunch were in sight. So I think we stayed away for a total of 20-25 minutes, I have no doubts that if we had worked better together, or at all, we would have been a lot harder to catch.

So when we were caught I was conscious to stay near the front as I think it was on the last lap with about 5 miles to go. Jason came through and I got his wheel, we were probably in the top 12-15. We rode fast, and there were moments when I thought it could all go wrong. I lent on a guy that came into me at probably nearly 40 mph, its not as easy as Cav makes it look. Still, we got through ok, came down the fast section toward the hill, flying at this point, well over 30 mph…

We hit the hill and all I had in my mind was not to go too hard, as there was 200 meters or so on the top after the hill, I was spinning away, and then got boxed in as there were two cars on the other side of the road (annoying), I got to the top of the hill in probably the high teens, realized I’d done a bit more than I should have as my HR was already nearing the 190 mark again, so started sprinting, went past a few people, and lunged for the line!

Jason had come 2nd, a massive coup for him, as he had been riding well most of the day position wise, and obviously had done the hill perfectly, I came 9th, which I’m happy with given my race efforts, and another wheeler also came in the top 5. So I think we did really well. I’m looking forward to the next one already, sadly its not quite as flat, but the slopes today felt fine, and I was spinning away nicely, so I am interested to do a hilly course, its a 2/3 though, so I might be riding on my own 😉

Race stats –

51 miles – Avg HR of 165/ max 190 (shame I couldn’t eek out the other 4/5)  – avg sped 24 mph – max sped 41 mph