First Season Racing

Because I can predict the future, Lance may live to regret that statement when he gets busted for EPO and admits it on Oprah…

I haven’t raced for a couple of weeks, but have been getting out, but I’ve also almost built a new bike, so I thought I would share what I’ve done and why I’ve done it…

Awaiting other bits… Here we go then Cervelo S2, made up almost totally of second hand bits, but looks pretty fresh to my eye. Worth shopping around as I think off retail of all the new parts I saved over 50 % over all. And when you consider the frame, wheels and group were over £3500 new it certainly shows what can be done! Spec: 2010 Cervelo S2 (carbon version of the S1 for those that don’t know) Zipp 404 Alu Clinchers (one of the heavier sets of zipps about, but at 1650g they are not too bad) Ultegra 6700 group – KMC Gold lightweight chain 😉 3T Bar + Stem GP4000S LOOK Keo Max 2 pedals Weight – 7.2kg

Its been 2 and a bit months since my first post on the subject. Its been a good thing to have done I think. I’ve raced 7 times, won twice, crashed once, finished in the top 10 three times and finished in the bunch once and came 10th in the series. So its been a fairly mixed bag and its certainly opened my eyes to a few things.

Mostly its been a bit of an up and down, its quite annoying to go from winning to not, I would much rather it had happened the other way around, but in the main there have been good reasons for it, and usually they were positioning or timing. Which I’ve now come to appreciate are probably the most important things in Hillingdon races (and probably other similar circuits) . So lets hope what I’ve learned I can take in to the road race season, I’m hoping to race most weeks over the season, which should teach me a lot more, and empty my bank account at the same time! Hillingdon will still be something I’ll do every now and again as I can go from work, but I want to concentrate my efforts on the longer stuff. And I’m excited to see what I can do this season, not to mention ride in the warm again! I probably did about 1000 miles ALL winter last year, whereas I did just under 1k in Jan this year, so it does feel like I’ve not seen the sun or warmth for ages and ages!

The last 5 months or so have been probably the months that I have started to take cycling a bit more seriously, I’ve started to drink a bit less, try not to smoke too much, and watch what I eat, so its been quite interesting to see how I’ve improved over that time. Mostly though the improvement was down to riding the bike, I’ve averaged about 200 miles a week since October, and that has been mixed up hugely, mostly commuting, but I’ve tried to plan them, also done a good few hilly rides, and plenty of fast chain gangs. So there has been no easy way out as such, and I’ve taken winter at a nice pace. Of late I seem to have re-found my passion for a bit of football, which although great, doesn’t bode well for cycling as the knocks and muscles you strain and pull that cycling doesn’t use at all certainly have an impact when you get back on the bike. So will have to strike a balance!

I’ll keep updating this as I go through the year, I’m now a 3rd cat with 15 points, so 25 to go this year before I am a cat 2 rider. That is still the aim, and I hope to take some points in road races, obviously we will see how that pans out as 25 fast and frantic miles is a far cry from 60 round the roads, but I’m hopeful that I’ve put in some good work so far, and with the on-going training other members in the club are undertaking it makes it a bit easier to get out there and do some miles with like minded folk and I’ll be able to get some results on the road.

With regards to equipment, its also on the cards to buy a new bike for racing at some point and relegate mine to training and commuting, and having recently strapped on a HRM for the first time, no doubt my training will get more geeky as time goes on. But I have got this far without any of that, so riding the bike will still be my main focus, but its nice to have nice stuff right? 😉

First race is on the 11th of March and its our club race, so lets hope its a good one!

Back after a week break, mainly because my other goal for this season is to be able to hold my own in a 3rd cat road race, Hillingdon is great fun, but its NOTHING like riding 60 miles of Surrey lanes and ending with  sprint up a hill or similar!

So last weekends riding was mainly built around a 100 mile ride down to check out a Surrey :League circuit down in Milland (hants/sussex), it was a hard ride and with over 6000ft of climbing at over 18mph average it wasn’t easy. And although I felt fine after, it had a bit more of an effect that I thought and my legs have felt a bit off all week. But I still managed to get a decent training ride in mid week along with a few commutes.

Today was an alright day for racing, headwind from the north bringing a bit of a bite to the air but otherwise fine. Went up solo this week and met a couple of the other guys up there, decent showing from the KW lot again, really pleasing to see so many people in the same mindset as myself.

The race went off and it was evident that the pace down the back straight was going to be high all race, my bike felt good, for once, I’d put a new chain on it earlier and it was a world of difference! The pack was moving well together, not too many silly moves either. I felt pretty good, just moved up and down the pack for the first 25 mins or so seeing who was looking good. My eye was on Dom Clegg who positioned himself perfectly the whole race, and also last weeks winner Peter Hudson, there were a few familiar faces about, a few riders who were not very popular with the majority for their riding, but all in all, not too bad at all! I was thinking maybe people had just learned more race skills as there were not any spills last week either!

I made sure I was in the right place this week, and at one point I was in about 3rd or 4th wheel with Dominic as we and a couple of other guys strung the group out a fair bit, I was certain a break was going to form, but it didn’t really, I wasn’t up for killing myself with 20 mins to go and the bunch still looking strong.

We passed the 4ths just before our 5 lap board came out, however one 4th rider had broken clear of his field and was in front of ours, the checkered flag was being waved and in a moment of confusion I thought it was being waved for our race, so me and another rider both sprinted for the line haha! Imagine my embarrassment when the race carried on!

With 3 laps to go I made sure I was in a decent position in the front quarter of the field, it stayed like this with a few lone efforts but nothing stuck. Last lap bell went, and I was in a great position, probably 6th or 7th rider front the front, we came onto the back straight at a high pace (I’d imagine around 31 mph or so. My speedo is broken so don’t know) and I was pleased that so far I’d done everything I wanted to do, then something happened that ultimately made the race a good workout, and also cost me a result due to my decision process.

Jason (from KW) flew down the outside alone and went for it, he looked fast and passed the rest of us at pace, I thought that I would get on his wheel and tow us round for a 1-2, so I put in a big dig to catch him and get on his wheel, it quickly became apparent that although we had gone clear by a few bike lengths, it wasn’t going to be enough. Coming up the final straight into the wind I passed Jason giving it everything, and could feel the lactic getting too much, I was hurting, big time, I was leading probably until about 20 meters to go, at which point the rest of the guys (who I should have been with haha) made their sprints, and I think Peter Hudson won again. I might have scraped a top 10, but not hopeful.

So the positives I took from today were that I was a lot more confident in the corners and the bunch, it really helped when needing to get into a good position, I also now know that I should just sit in and make the best of a sprint, the effort required today to go clear and stay clear would have been vast and certainly beyond me. I’m confident I would have contested the sprint had I not been so rash, but that is now a mistake I won’t make again, so its all good learning!

Congrats to Peter for two in a row, and to Dom for making 2nd cat.

Hoping to have one last win in the winter series before the road race season starts, although I’m keeping an eye on my diary for summer Tuesday evenings as I think a crit in the sun with no wind would be great!

Race 4 – Winter series Jan 7th

I’ve got into the habit of putting a new post on as soon as I get home from the race, as otherwise I find I give duff info as my memory is terrible!

My cycling this week was really dictated by the snapping of my frame last week. I didn’t hang around and promptly snapped up a Raleigh Avanti frame from Bikeradar, cheap enough, looked OK, near me, in my size (ish 58 vs my last bike that was a 56) so I picked it up on Bank holiday. I was excited to get it all up and running, but those plans were soon scuppered after I ruined the gear cables taking them out of my old bike and also found the seat post was a different size. Balls.

So that led to a week of commuting, on this…

To be fair it wasn’t that bad, its heavy, flexy, and obviously made for women but it still got me the 18 miles to work in a little over an hour, for three days, into gale force winds…!

A couple of days later and a few irate twitter rants about Wiggle and their ‘priority’ dispatch, I finally got the final bits and went about building the Raleigh. It was a bit of a pain in the ass with indexing etc, but got there in the end, about 11pm last night after a few glasses of wine… So that meant I had not ridden this bike at all before this morning which makes my eventual result a little more pleasing, a few blasts up and down the road got the rough setup right. The shifting still isn’t perfect and today I needed sometimes to shift down to and shift up one to get the gear I wanted, annoying to say the least…

Anyway, onto the racing, you know, the point of my ramblings! Today I cycled up to Hillingdon alone, and I managed to remember the way, so that was a good start. I arrived pretty early, and met up with some guys who were in the 4ths race, and also two chaps (well one young chap) that were in the 3rds with me!

We got out and as per it was windy as sin and pretty chilly, despite being 9 deg or thereabouts! We lined up and I was just thinking to myself that I wanted to stay on my bike this week as despite the sterling job my girlfriend had done stitching my skinsuit back together I wasn’t keen on the whole bike building nonsense. So would today be different?

I started the race and felt good, a slight dull ache in the legs from the commuting, but it was fading as I was getting warmed up, right from the off there was a lot of erratic movement from some of the riders, and I was trying to be as vocal as possible to let riders know I was on their left etc, and actually it worked well, when someone knows you where you are they are certainly less likely to swerve across your wheel!

I sat mid group for the first 35 mins, and then something starting to raise concerns on my bike. Every time I would stand up to pedal, or put any power down the rear wheel would hit the brake blocks, and it was rubbing fairly constantly, despite me opening the callipers.

For those who saw me at the back, I got dropped from the main bunch twice and passed the 4ths probably 5 seconds back on the last person, this probably happened for about 5 laps, I was close to calling it a day to be honest. I slogged on however and thought instead of a sprint my only chance might be a long beak, I knew something wasn’t right, I was putting effort in and people were still going by me, that doesn’t normally happen quite to the extent it did today, I knew something wasn’t right. So I stopped, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop in the last 5 so stopped just before the last lap board, I had a look at the front wheel, it was fine, had a look at the back, it seemed fine, I lifted the rear to spin the wheel and to my horror the wheel almost fell out of the frame, the quick release had come apart and it was only in the frame by the weight I was putting on it, so at any moment my rear wheel could have come out of the frame, it would have been a huge crash if it had done that at 28 mph!

After being told “you should make sure it doesn’t do that” by someone by the start line (one of the most inane comments I’ve ever been witness to) I waited for the group and got back on the track, I soft pedalled round the corner to let them catch me as it would have been totally unfair to blast it with my man made break!

The pace hotted up, and the riding got worse, a particular gentleman was riding VERY aggressively, at one point going on the grass in order to get by me and then cut back in and also generally being a complete nightmare, I hope not to see or race with him again! With about two laps to go we were going round the long sweeping bend after the finish line and someone caused a pileup, I saw him wobbling and slowing, I think his tyre might have gone and instead of turning the corner he obviously had no control and went across two or three others causing a crash. I hope everyone is OK!

With one lap to go the pace really hotted up, Nick Baker from Zappi’s (who had looked god for most of the race and gone on small breaks a couple of times) looking strong and clearly the man to follow when it came down to it, I felt OK, and now the bike was fixed I was keeping up no problem and had half an eye on what he and co at the front were up to

Sadly the next big event was a negative one; we got to the corner of last weeks smash, the combination of (and also the 1st race) the pace, the natural want to cut in, and the wind, caused a big pile up, as with the first race I ever did, I missed it by inches, literally inches (I heard plenty of swearing so someone had obviously done something silly), I had to go on the grass for about 20 meters to avoid it, I thought the bike was going to fall apart as it rattled me to death!

This really put paid to my hopes of winning as Baker et all had got up the road, and when I got back onto tarmac by the clubhouse, they were round the corner and on the way up the hill! Anyway, I thought I’d suffer a little and put a dig in, I started this dig before the last corner and so probably a good 400-500 m from the line and I could see I was gaining on everyone, and was passing people left right and center, I knew I couldn’t win as there was no space even if I did get to them, but I kept pushing and I reckon I probably went from 25-30th place by the clubhouse to possibly scraping a top 10/12 on the line.

I was pleased with that as it re-affirmed that I was quicker than most when I really wanted to go for it, and more importantly I stayed on my bike! I will be really happy if I got in the points this week as it looked impossible at one point. Not sure who won but I’d imagine Nick was up there as he looked like he had the legs on most people.

All in all a pretty different race for me, getting dropped from a bunch was an eye opener (obviously I know why now!), avoiding two crashes by a few inches was a bit of a rush, in a macabre sense, and I felt like I got a good work out, especially when I was trying to chase back on when I was geting dropped.

4 more races to go, still in two minds whether to do anymore as it seems the chance of coming a cropper is VERY high, but result depending today (series points depending really) I might keep plugging away to try and get to the highest position I can for the series.

Hope everyone is OK after the spills and the bikes aren’t as fooked as mine was!

Race 3 Hillingdon 31st Dec

This week has been an eventful one, I’ve had less time on the bike than I should have done really. Commuting early in the week, I had a great chaingang ride on the Tuesday setting some new personal best times on the course which is always nice.

Sadly Thursday evening in the gym saw me trap a nerve or pull a muscle in my neck, which I’ve done before, doing the same exercises (dumbbell shoulder press) so I think I’ll stay away from that in future as it was bloody painful and until I got on the bike today (first time since Weds) it was probably to painful to do anything! Anyway, the important thing is that I felt ok, and had rested legs, but had not managed to get a spin in yesterday which is not the norm, and upon getting on my bike it showed, 18 mph felt hard to maintain on the flat…just what I need then, a 12 mile cycle to Hillingdon followed by a race at a level I’ve never ridden at before.

Cycled up with another couple of guys from KW, we had about 15 riders riding today, so a great show for the club, most of which were in the 4ths race, but there was two others riding with me in the 3rds. So it was a nice mixed day for the club and its growing at such a rate that I think by March and our club race I reckon we’ll have a field totally made up of KW members.

There was 40 riders pre-signed to race, so I imagine by the time we got to the startline we probably had filled up, or at least had between 40-50 racing. I was nervous as obviously winning a Cat 4 race is good, but I didn’t know whether I was up to the task of 3rds, especially given my time off the bike! Still, too late now, as they say, and I jostle my way into the starting pack.

The pace was fine as it turns out, similar to the 4ths really, the wind was a little higher than last week, which is always a pain. It was fairly un-eventful for the first 30 mins, I mean, a couple of people had tried to get away, I often pondered following, but more often than not opted to sit back, knowing we would probably catch them. At 30 mins in a few guys went off hard, I chased and got on, and that then seemed to fizzle out, mainly due to people slowing down so much on the ‘hilly’ part of the circuit, there was a few shouty moments where people obviously wanting to stay away clashed with those that wanted to do bugger all…

Fast forward to the last lap, pace is up, and a Redhill chap goes on his own, I was seriously deliberating following, but thought I’d have nothing left if we did get caught, so again sat in. Round the last corner onto the straight by the clubhouse, the pace was high, over 30 mph, I was in an ok position, probably top 15-20, nearer 20 than 15, though… We go round the last corner, and I can see my Redhill is still up the road, I think to myself that he’s got it in the bag, and concentrate on my own race.

A few guys go, I follow the man on the Felt (flashiest bike there, must be a good wheel right?) and he did go well, to his credit, at this point I’m probably 8 back, and have already got over the fact I am not going to win. So I keep digging and notice I’m gaining on everyone, a bit like last week, but not quite as dramatic, and Redhill is actually looking like he will get caught after all…Then something wonderful happens, my Cav moment if you like, at 35 mph 4 riders back,  I break off Mr Felt, and a lovely gap opens up between two riders, I think to myself that I’ve seen people go through these gaps at full chat, I’ve got confidence in my bike handling, so I go, and I pass through it without incident, or anyone shouting at me (it wasn’t dangerous move, but people love a shout) nothing is ahead but the line, I’m really pedaling hard and my cheap bike is flexing around like its made of cheese. We pass Redhill probably 15 meters from the line, a chap to my left is neck and neck with me, I dig in a bit more and feel myself edging away from him, I lunge for the line and take what I think is the win by about half a bike… A quick Murray style fist pump and a few congratulations from other riders and there we have it. I’ve won my second race (I think, can never be sure till the pics 😉 ) at Cat 3 level!

Three pics here show the gap closed, I do feel sorry for Mr Redhill though, was winning till the last 10 foot!

Over the moon with the result, and now looking forward to having a week or so off before having a couple more cold jaunts to Hillingdon before I prepare for the actual season, and my clubs road race!!

Here we are, one week after I put pen to paper (in a virtual way) I wake up after on race day after a week of 170 miles mixed riding, mostly commuting, and the midweek chain gang. Its 0c outside, my garden is covered in frost and I’ll be honest, I’m not that keen to go outside and fetch the bike for its much needed maintenance!

Two hours later the bike has had the treatment it needed, I’ve picked tiny bits of flint from the tyres to make sure I don’t flat, and I’ve checked my my club mate that he’s still on to meet me for the gentle ride up to Hillingdon. I set off and realise that I’ve dressed well enough and its not too bad, I’m not a big fan of full tights, so you’ll see my almost always wearing shorts and knee warmers, or 3/4’s, much to the dismay of other commuters in the morning as they question my sanity.

We arrive at Hillingdon circuit a good 40 mins early, which is ideal, my mouth is on the floor at all the bike porn, its like Richmond Park on a sunny day! We sign on, sort out a locker, get our stuff together and hit the track for a couple of laps, its a good day, low wind, clean and dry track and my legs are feeling decent. After a few laps of gentle pacing, we line up, and I am scanning peoples numbers to see whether the guy I’m next to on a Tour level spec Cervelo is really a 4th cat rider, he has an SRM crank? Apparently he is a 4th cat. So now I’m nervous, I’m well used to people having all the gear and little idea, but an SRM crank made me think he meant business!

The way Hillingdon works is that the 3rds and 4ths are on the track at the same time, but are staggered starts, so off the 3rds went, half a lap (or more like 3/4’s really, which was an issue later) later we were off. Pace was fine, 23-26 mph with the odd bit of 28 or so on the downhill, plenty of shelter made this fairly easy though, I was conscious not to do too much (or even any) work on the front, as there was one goal here, win. Cocky as it sounds, I came to win, and I wasn’t about to tow the bunch round and be happy with 22nd in the bunch or similar. About 20 minutes in the first crash takes place (the rumors are true!), I don’t see it but I’m told it takes a couple of riders out, it did feel cramped at times, and truth be told there was some woeful bike handling on show. I was plenty vocal enough about this if it was occurring in front of me, or even near me.

Pace is still fine, I take the front for half a lap and keep it steady, just to get a taste. With roughly 15 mins to go before the bell goes, I hear a shriek and some metal on metal noise as one of my clubmates (a lady) has a tumble with another guy, its starting to make me a bit nervous now as I didn’t want to be coming off, so I tried to hold my line as best I could and stay out of trouble, but some riders were intent on riding like idiots it seemed.

As mentioned earlier the 3rd cat issue was one that meant they were not far enough ahead of us and our race met the back of theirs, we were not allowed to go through, and thus were subjected to a fair number of laps of subdued racing, nevermind, its all about the last 3 laps anyway I think to myself (like an ebay auction as I put it afterwards). Thus far nobody had tried anything special, and at this level it would be caught fairly quickly one would imagine, so I suppose nobody was too keen on a break! With three laps to go, we’re starting to pick up the pace, and as we go round one of the longer sweeping corners a huge crash happens in front of me, inches, I manage to avoid the riders that go down by going on the grass, at this point a lovely person shouted attack and some riders did indeed up the pace on the front, on the grass at this point, I was starting to panic, I needed to be in the mix!

I mange to get myself back into the main pack with some proper turns in the wind for the final lap, we pull down the 2nd to last straight, and a break goes, two riders, they look initially strong, I’m in two minds, do I leave it and risk not catching it with the main bunch or do I go and join them? What did do is probably the worst of everything, I made to go for the break, realized I wasn’t going to catch it without using a ton of energy , so then sat up and waited to be caught by the group again. Must have looked like a total idiot. Still, I had enough in the tank to slink back and stay at the front of the group, we go round the crash corner and two other riders go for it, I decide to wait until the last straight (which is about 400 meters from corner to finish line)

Tucked in, giving it everything, I fly past the two riders out front probably going 6 mph faster than they are (roughly 33 mph), I can see the finish but am feeling the lactic also, with gritted teeth I dig in and go for the line, I can sense someone coming up, I glance and see another Wheeler, its Jason (the guy I travelled up with) he’s approaching fast and I’m fading (that’s what happens when you don’t do a normal sprint like Jason did, you run out of energy before the line!) I am sure he is going to make it, but by about a bike I cross the line, hands semi aloft, having reached a max speed of 34 mph up the hill to win my first race! Jason is 2nd, and 3rd place is some 25 bike lengths back, a Dynamo.

Things I’ve learned from this :

• The training has worked (Jason has been doing it too)
• Other riders cannot be trusted to hold their lines
• I have a good sprint and probably will have the beating of guys at a slightly higher level with it

So on to Cat 3, I’ll probably do a few more Winter Series races to see how I fare, and then prepare for the warm season, my goal of getting to 2nd cat this season just got closer, at least I can now justify splurging on some Zipps and a new bike 😉

I’ve been uming and arring about racing for the last 3 months, its taken some gentle persuasion, a lot of suffering and a late burst of confidence to finally spur me into pinning on a number and getting involved in the little known sport of cycle racing!

I’ll start with some background, as how one comes to be on the start line of a cycle race is a story that I’m sure has many different versions, here’s mine!

Cycling for me has been an active hobby for almost exactly two years. 2 years ago to the week, I got my first road bike, a lovely BMC courtesy of the cycle scheme, at the time I had been commuting to work on a mountain bike for a couple of months, 3 miles each way, hardly earth shattering but it was something, it was a daily ride to keep me interested. Any-who, I picked up the bike, put some clipless pedals on, donned all my new gear that was necessary to ride a road bike over a mountain bike and off I went. It was a lot faster, hugely so, to the point where I was disgusted at people who suggested they were going to buy a new mountain bike knowing full well it would be used on road most of the time. I thought I was king of the world for a bit, until I was passed by a group of club riders one Sunday morning on my way to town, they made me look slow, and fat. And I was.

It was really a good mate of mine that got me into club cycling, he was fairly new to it as well, but had been gong out for about 8 months or so beforehand, and to me was my go to for all things cycling. I hadn’t known about the scene that existed right on my doorstep (literally); Kingston Wheelers are a huge cycling club, with over 400 members from all over London, they would meet about 200 yards from my flat each Sunday and go off riding. I never knew this in 3 years of living here. Anyway, long story short, he came round, helped me sort out everything I’d need and we embarked on the ‘beginners club run’ a nice route of some 37 miles around Box Hill. Upon my return, my legs were burning, I was hungry and felt like I’d done 200 miles, more importantly I was hooked. We’d averaged a meager 15.8 mph for the ride, which as you’ll see in later posts is a far cry from the demands of amateur cycle racing or even fast club riding.

I’m not really built like a cyclist, I’m no Lance Armstrong, or even Mark Cavendish, for the last 4 years I’ve been concentrating on doing as many heavy weights as possible and doing as little cardio as is possible to get away with. The result of that was a chubby but not fat man, that weighed nearly 100kg @ 6,1 ft who could deadlift 180 kg, squat 165kg and bench 120 kg. Not bad, not amazing. But I was happy, and people could see I had been to the gym and it was nice to be noticed as doing something that not everyone can do.

So that year passed, I got into cycling more, and went out more often on a Sunday, but maintained my weights as I was conscious I didn’t want to actually ever look like your typical cyclist! Then something happened that would change things. I moved jobs from 3 miles down the road to 11. I also got a new bike, a nice Carbon Ribble, which I still have currently, this commute was the start of a body change, and also the new beginning of my cycling journey!

That summer, I was out most weekends on the club rides, slowly getting faster, now tackling longer rides, and hillier routes. I also did a 45 mile time trial from Kingston to Brighton! 20.3 mph average… not too bad for a big lad! The next big change really all came about when I got a bit ill, my weight had been falling pretty rapidly from the commuting anyway, but this illness knocked another 5 lbs off me and before I knew it by September I was coming in at13 stone 12 lbs. Which was down from my Jan 4th weight of 15.9! The weight stayed off, too.

The other big change was joining the chain gang ride, this consisted of a 23 mile loop at night on a Tuesday at threshold pace. I was nervous and sought much advice before going on my first one, I was told I would be OK, and might be able to hack it if I stayed tight to the group. So the first ride came along, I got involved, and off we went, bang, straight to 25 mph, then to 28, then back down to 26 and that is where it stayed for the first 10 miles give or take, I was huffing and puffing and was very near to dropping off as I couldn’t hold it!

A roundabout about 12 miles in split us and that was it I was dropped along with one other, we carried on a hard pace back to the start of the ride where the others were waiting having finished before us. 22.3 mph average. It was unknown to me to go this fast. Anyway, fast forward 8 weeks, I’m now knocking on the door of my weight beginning with a 12 for the first time in probably 8 years, and I’m doing these rides each week without too much issue, fastest one yet was a 24 mph average over the loop. These rides have put me in great stead for the winter racing I was about to embark upon, I knew that not many people had the breadth of club to be able to ride with riders that were so strong, and so much of a motivation to get better, so I was in a good place.

Approx 7 days ago, I got the debit card out, bought a silver membership to BC and sorted my race license, I then signed up to my first race, a 4th cat only at Hillingdon, where we had just done a skills days, so I knew the course, I had also won the mock race, which had some pretty tasty riders in, so I was confident…Was I too confident…….time would tell.