Forward momentum ... and a gentle slide backwards

It's been 2 weeks since I was last on a proper bike on the road. A combination of work issues and weather have kept me off the roads and on the turbo, public transport and Boris Bikes. Do they count as public transport? I suppose they do really.


The bikes are really, really sturdy and a great way to get around town. I predict that, now they are available for daily hire, the next spell of decent weather will see a rapid rise in usage, meaning that getting space at a docking rack may be tricky. My main station (Waterloo) is particularly badly served for docking racks - there are several, but none of them are located where you really want them. Anyhow, today was my first day back commuting to work on the road bike - after 2 weeks of turbo and Boris Bikes it was good to rediscover the sensation of speedy forward momentum!

The slide backwards refers to my weight - inevitable in the run-up to Christmas really. Two kilos heavier just prior to a two week holiday to India - the slide is only going to go one way. Ho hum...

Wheels on...

I finally got a few moments to myself today, so used the time productively to get tyres and cassette fitted to the new wheels and changed the brake blocks over. I'm really happy with the look of these wheels. All I need now is a day without sub-zero temperatures to give them a test ride. Expect a report in March then!

Touchdown...

My new wheels are with my neighbour, to be collected this evening. I'm excited! In this age when global travel is commonplace I still enjoy being able to track their progress across the Atlantic - in my mind there's still something glamorous about travel...

Wheels, wheels, wheels

It’s that time of year when the mainstay of my cycling activity is solo road riding, commuting and turbo work. Circumstances seem to conspire against me nearly every time I plan a group ride to the extent that, if it keeps up until Feb, I will have forgotten how to draft other riders! Not a bad thing in so far as it means I will be used to pushing a bit harder I suppose.

With a bit more downtime recently I have had the opportunity to spend more time doing non-cycling activities (read: socialising). However, thoughts of cycling are never far from the front of mind and have led me towards the next upgrade decision – wheels. Specifically race wheels.

Let’s be clear – I don’t need another set of wheels. I don’t believe that they will turn me from an eager points-hunter into a rampant points-winner unless I put in the significant training effort and have my fair share of luck. But I do want another set of wheels to race on. They have to look good, they must be clinchers and they need to be fairly light deep sections.

I currently race on two different wheelsets – Mavic Ksyrium SL or Mavic Cosmic Carbones. The Ksyriums are pretty light (approx. 1485g), strong, reliable, pretty stiff and reasonably fast. They’re good for hauling my lardy arse up hills, they’re confidence-inspiring on descents and they are my favourite set of wheels.

The Carbones are a bit more bling (not that much though) and roll a bit faster when up to speed. But they are not very light (approx. 1750g quoted by Mavic, but I think they are actually a bit heavier than this) and they are not particularly stiff. I can really notice this when sprinting or cornering hard – they just feel a bit woolly, a bit spongy. Not terrible, but worse than the Ksyriums.

So I started thinking – should I sell the Carbones and get a lighter set of deep section clinchers? Go for full carbon rims? Go handbuilt rather than factory built? The only two things I knew for sure were that they had to be deep section all-carbon rims (no bonded fairings on alu rims) and they had to be clinchers. I’m in the lucky position of being able to cycle to 3 crit venues and to puncture on tubs on the way there would likely mean missing a race. Since each race I go to involves lots of planning (with both work and family) then the risk of not getting to the start of a race due to punctures has to be minimised. So clincher it is, even though they are going to be slightly heavier and slightly more expensive.

Part One – sell the Carbones? Definitely. They’re in great condition so I should get a decent price for them on eBay (no one in the club was interested in them). They sell tomorrow, so I’ll be interested to see if I get the ‘fair value’ that I have in mind.

Part Two – find new wheels. The contenders: the new Zipp 404 carbon clinchers, Xentis Squad 5.8, Tune Schwartzbrenner 58, Reynolds Assault or DV46, Enve 45 clinchers. Out of contention were Mavics (nothing all-carbon as a clincher) and Campag (I cannot put Campag on a Shimano-equipped bike)! Also out of contention were the ultra-expensive Lightweights.

- Zipps – nice wheels, but out. Too expensive.
- Reynolds DV46 and Enve 45 – tentative maybes. A bit pricey. Not so deep section. Reynolds use DT Swiss 240 hubs, the rear of which does not seem to have a great reputation for building laterally stiff rear wheels in factory built wheels. Could consider a handbuilt version of these, or the Enve 45s.
- Reynolds Assault – cheaper than the rest, but advice and reviews seems to suggest they are a bit flexy. Someone in the club has some and had to have them rebuilt after a series of broken spokes. Not too keen.
- Tune Schwartzbrenners – I just cannot see past the white, painted-on flame graphics. Just horrible!
- Xentis Squad 5.8 – right pricepoint, 58mm rims, DT Swiss 240 hubs so maybe not the stiffest.


I decided on the Xentis Squad 5.8 – hey, it has an active turbulator on the rim to smooth airflow. Yeah, right! But the price was right, the look was right, they were clinchers and they were in stock with Starbike.com in Germany. OK, they were on DT 240 hubs, but that seemed to be the standard for nearly all the factory-built wheels I had seen.

Well, having been stung by my bank on the exchange rate and SWIFT fee, a week later the wheels arrived. They looked visually pretty good overall. The carbon weave for the main deep section surface looked classy. The weight came in within a few grammes of manufacturer stated weight. The finishing around the clincher edge was a little rough but since you don't see it when a tyre is fitted that didn’t bother me. What did bother me was that I couldn't fit a clincher tyre to these wheels! Using fingers and brute force (and lots of talc) I managed to get a GP4000s bead (which I use on all my wheels) to within about 35cm of being on the wheel on one side only. This was with the thinnest rim ribbon fitted. I didn't go down the route of using tyre levers to struggle further as I didn't want to knacker the rim and be unable to send the wheels back. Suffice to say that, having fitted loads of tyres to wheels, if I cannot get at least a foot of tyre bead over the clincher edge in a warm room then I know I won't have a hope on the road.

So back they went, minus postage costs, minus another bank fee to accept a Euro refund payment, minus another chunk to allow the bank to further profit on the exchange rate. Bugger! Turned out to be a rather expensive mistake. I have to say that Starbike were fine to deal with though.

Right, enough messing around, back to the wheel hunt. If it was stiff wheels I was after I thought handbuilt might be the way to go. That meant either a Reynolds or an Enve rim. After looking around again I opted for Wheelbuilder.com in the States – they had been brilliant in dealing with the details from all my emails and had given some good suggestions. Enve rims appealed, both for the method of manufacture (moulded spoke holes rather than drilled) and for the relative rarity value.


So I’m currently awaiting a set of Enve 45 carbon clinchers build onto Chris King R45 hubs with Sapim CX-ray spokes. 20 spoke front, 24 spoke rear, 2 cross rear for (I hope) decent lateral stiffness. A slightly shallower and lighter rim than the Xentis (wheelset should come in at about 1400g) which should be good for crits and road races alike.

I’m awaiting a delivery date now, and the dubious pleasure of taking receipt of both the wheels and the import bill. That’s the hit I’ll have to accept for what will be, let’s face it, a pretty special wheelset.

Phew – this was a long post! Perhaps I’ve spend too much time researching, but it’s been fun!

Summary of the year

I have that ‘end of year’ feel now that the evenings are drawing in and all the serious bike riding is over. It seems like a good time to reflect on the goals I set myself back in Feb of this year. Time to brace myself…

1) Spend next to nothing on bike upgrades. I have all I need - really.
Epic fail. Purchase of a Time NXR Instinct (You can't hang an old bell on a new bicycle) saw to that. Very pleased with it though!

2) Don't injure myself and miss a whole summer of cycling.
Success! No injuries, maybe as a result of ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’. In fact the only injury I suffered happened 2 days ago – my son fell onto my outstretched hand coming down a waterslide at the swimming pool. The same finger I broke over a year ago felt broken again, but xrays showed it was still intact. The pain is probably down to ligament damage, which frankly isn’t any easier to deal with than a fracture.

3) Do a time trial. A '10' will do, on a road bike, in under 24mins.
Urrrmmm…I did the Richmond Park TT, 10.4 miles in 27.09mins (RPTT 2010). It’s a rolling course and most competitors who placed near me have done sub-24min 10’s before. Technically a fail, this one. I just couldn’t face the hassle of a trip out to a dual carriageway for a ten mile effort to find out the truth.

4) Gain double-figure points as a 3rd Cat. Not so easy, judging on past performance!
Fail, fail, fail. Lack of focus, lack of fitness, doing the wrong races, trying to race and do long sportive-type rides, whatever the reason I didn’t achieve. I felt my form improved as the year went on though. There’s always next year...

5) Complete the long route of the Time-Megeve sportive. No time goal.
Fail due to circumstances beyond my control (Gotta love the mountains...). Did a lot of riding over the four days though, so not at all unhappy with this one.

6) Complete La Marmotte sportive in 10hrs 30mins. Hey, I'm heavy and don't go uphill very quickly.
Fail due to mental flakiness and lack of sleep (Marmotte 2010). Very unhappy with my insomnia!

7) Lose another 4kg of bodyweight prior to 6). That will take me to 79kg for a height of 185cm.
Success (although weight has now crept up a little, but not bothered as I know I can loose it again quite easily). If only all goals were this easy!

7) Finish near the front of the bunch in a Palace 3/4 race.
Fail (but an irrelevant one for me). Didn’t get out to Palace enough (I think only 3 times) to feel comfortable there. In fact, scrap that – no one feels comfortable at Palace. Getting round without gurning in pain for 45 minutes and my heart trying to jump up my throat – that’s the goal for next year.

8) Buy a house. The most important goal.
The worst fail, the one that actually bothers me. Not for want of trying either, with multiple bids on multiple houses, but there is so much competition. Still, the year’s not over yet.

Hmm, overall the year doesn't look great. On the other hand it doesn't reflect the fun I've had riding - certain highlights (climbing the Col de Romme in absolute peace, haring down to Brighton and back) more than make up for the disappointment of unattained goals.

Dynamo Club Champs 2010

Last Saturday saw a collection of Dynamos (a gaggle of…? A plethora of…? A bastard of…?) gather at Hillingdon for the annual club championships. The 1hr + 5 laps format caused some concern on the forum in the weeks prior to the race from non-racing members – was it a 1hr pootle followed by 5 laps? What happened if you started your sprint before the 1hr was up? Did the rider who had covered the most distance in the 1hr win, irrespective of the subsequent 5 laps? All very amusing for the regulars who knew that it would typically be a cagey 1hr and 5 laps of frenetic activity.

In fact, for we 3rd and 4th cat riders it was 10 minutes of frenetic activity at the start (“handicap, have to stay away, pant, gasp … ride harder, pant … get off the front, you’re slow … gasp … come through and do a turn you lazy slacker … pant, gasp …”) followed by 50 minutes of reasonably restrained bunch activity and then the 5 laps of free-for-all. Two riders, Mike and Cam, broke away (with about 7 laps to go I think) and stayed away, Mike just squeezing through for the hard-fought win. A great effort considering the rainshowers and the brutal headwind down the finishing straight. I finished in the bunch to round off my spectacularly unsuccessful racing season. Next year, next year…

Tea, cake, more cake was my fuel for the trip to Marlow after the race. I set off thinking I had plenty of time before nightfall. About 90 minutes and several wrong turns later I found myself tearing downhill on a narrow, potholed, tree-covered, totally dark descent somewhere around Hedsor heading towards Bourne End. Not the ideal way to end the day. So I didn't end the day that way - I ended it by drinking far too much wine!

Birthday cards

Another year older and, as usual, a number of cycling-themed cards. Below are my three favourites:

I like the muscular pose of the Champ rider here, especially with the heroic moustache. I’m less sure about the fact that he’s on some sort of Penny Farthing…




A more ’Impressionistic’ view of the sport called, according to the back of the card, “On The Pace”. Good riding position, armwarmers rolled down suggesting that he’s been giving it the beans in a solo breakaway up the climb and hasn’t got the time to roll them up again. Looks like a Provence landscape – Ventoux?




My favourite. Cycling and cake in perfect union. Imagine the joy in labouring up a hill only to find that it’s actually an almond patisserie. Mmmm!

Feeding strategy

Rusper 3rds, Sunday 19th Sept. My last race of a sporadic and spectacularly unsuccessful racing year where I have regularly failed to trouble the finishing judges. I decided the day before to approach it as a workout, try and help any clubmates and definitely not sit around the back of the bunch.

First up was the evening feeding strategy – my pre-birthday celebrations at the bar in The Botanist and then La Poule au Pot consisted of:

Liquids: 1 x Rasberry Collins, 1 x pint Guinness, 2 x glasses St.Emilion, 2 litres tapwater.
Solids: Onion tart, fillet steak with cream/pepper sauce, chips fried in goose fat, spinach in cream, creme brulee.

That’s a quality fuelling strategy - as a result I managed to sleep really well for 6hrs (a pre-race record). I awoke just after a dream that I was late for the start of the race, had left my helmet in the car and was racing back from the start line to get it. But the car was parked at the top of a hill, and the road turned into sand halfway up so pedalling was a bit tricky!

The forecast drizzle failed to materialise on Sunday morning and we were treated to sunny, cool and breezy conditions. Rusper is a pretty nice circuit, with a long draggy climb up to (and past) the finish, a tight lefthander and then a series of long sweeping descents and flats until you reach the draggy hill out of Capel again.

We set off at a steady pace, one Kingston Wheeler going off out front on a solo effort for the first lap. I reckon he was just warming himself up, since he was in a skinsuit with short sleeves and the wind was pretty chilly. Whatever, a lap later he returned to the bunch and a series of attacks started. Robin got into one so Rob and I tried to sit on the front and slow the pace a little, which is tough on a downhill section with the wind behind you! Eventually this break came back too, and as soon as it did Rob decided to jump with a few other useful looking riders. They got a decent gap, no chase went and I took the opportunity to have a mid-race breather in the middle of the pack for 10 minutes or so.

That was it then. The break seemed strong and all we had to do at the front of the bunch was keep the pace high enough to discourage further breaks from the pack, which we managed quite easily, whilst not gaining on the breakaway. I spend a fair amount of time on or near the front hoofing along the usual bumpy, potholed Surrey roads, getting a good workout in the process.

The race was neutralised on the final lap when we hit a traffic jam for a car boot sale! It was quite bizarre waving the breakaway group off with their 2min30 gap and then standing there chatting.

For the remaining lap I tried to stay near the front and keep the pace high until the climb, thus hopefully ensuring a slightly safer finish that avoided all the terrible slowing down, looking, swerving, etc that can happen as everyone prepares to sprint for 7th place. I had no legs left for anything once we hit the climb though, and had to sit up and watch just about the whole bunch come steaming past at the finish. Not a problem for this race, but I really need to work on anaerobic efforts in training a bit more. Not yet though, for my leisure activities now take a distinct swing from cycling to social activities (read: eating and drinking with family and friends). About time!

The first cut is the deepest...

Cutmill 3rds, 12th Sept. I’ll begin with the excuses (so you can guess where this is going).

Body condition: sub-optimal. Tired. Extremely tired, due to a stomach bug during the week, a busy project at work and the usual inability to sleep well the night before a race.

Diet: poor. Biscuits formed a large part of the daily feeding routine. Gin and tonic made a reappearance during the week. I was going to say an unwelcome reappearance, but who would I be kidding?

Race shape: middling. Lack of time resulting in inefficient (i.e. minimal) training. All riding done at that level of either “not hard enough” or “not easy enough”. Body neither trained well nor recovered. Mental state: flabby.

Bike condition: clean, but irritating creaking BB under heavy load and wheels (Mavic Cosmic Carbone) needing spoke adjustment. Too much flex, slight rubbing on brake blocks at high speed. Issues not mechanically serious, but enough to provide irritating noises that act as a continual irritant during a 50 mile race.

Circuit: Cutmill. Never ridden it before, heard it’s pretty tough.

I got dropped, about halfway through. Not on the main climb, and not on the short ‘power’ climb after the sharp left past the long descent of The Sands. No, I waited to get dropped on the flat part of the course with a tailwind. God knows what was going through my mind to switch off there, but switch off I did and instantly regretted it. An AD Cycles guy and I were hurtling along at about 50kph but dangling just out of reach of the back of the bunch. I knew if we didn’t get back on before the left hander into the hill we would be done for. We didn’t quite make it, the service car and the ambulance came past us and we were out. Annoyingly we could still see the bunch about 20 bike lengths ahead as we went up the hill and, as they slowed, I tried to get round the ambulance in a final attempt to get back on, only to be faced with a car flying down the hill the other way. I had to pull back behind the ambulance and come to an almost complete stop to avoid being squashed and the loss of momentum meant I’d had it.

Head down, motivation lost. Do I chuck it all in or carry on? Sod it, I’ll carry on. I continued with the AD Cycles guy for company for the rest of the course, finishing stone-cold last. Plenty of riders DNF’d but there was no way I was going to give up, not again.

JamesM won for Dynamo by getting a gap up the hill on the penultimate lap and making it stick – a great solo effort. Most other Dynamos did well, finishing in the bunch, one other in the top ten. That’s a good result on a very tough course.

I hated Cutmill as a circuit though, not for the hills, but because of the narrow potholed lanes and the high numbers of cars. It’s a really fast circuit in places and it can be quite terrifying hurtling downhill in the bunch at 75kph with cars parked on one side and cars approaching the other way as well. Add into the mix the unpredictability of many riders and it turns into the type of place I’d rate low down in the list of enjoyable experiences!

Surrey League E1234 Handicap, Kirdford circuit, 5th Sept

My first handicap race took place on Sunday on the Kirdford circuit. It’s a great format – try to stay away from the marauding hoards behind whilst trying to catch the group in front! I had the benefit of going off in the second group with about 15 other 3rd Cat vets – the first race I’d done where my age had led to a slight advantage.

Light rain showers before the race made the surface a little greasy on the 10-mile circuit and some of the corners needed to be taken with care. The first three or so laps involved our group trying to work in an effective chaingang, although it became clear early on that we were carrying some ‘baggage’ in the shape of riders who didn’t want to keep the pace high or do too much (or any) work. I can’t really understand this – if you want to be towed round waiting for the E12s to catch up then continue to be towed round to the finish then why enter a handicap?

A Kingston Wheeler (No.19) and I did some long turns on the front, and at times were off the front of the bunch (not breaking away, but trying to keep the pace up) whilst on the long bumpy shallow descent I tried to grab clubmate Robin’s wheel wherever possible and catch a breather. We caught the 4ths up ahead about halfway through the race, then shortly after I sensed a lot of activity behind me in the bunch and lo and behold we had been joined by the chasing E12 bunch. Instantly the pace went up again and the real race began.

My role went from trying to drive the bunch to hanging on, and I found myself slipping futher and further back until I was able to settle and get a bit of a rest behind a Brighton Mitre guy who had been in our original group.

So what happened next? A predictable surge of pace up the hill on the penultimate lap combined with the rider in front of me dropping his bottle (this happens in every bloody race) caused me to slow and swerve, meaning I lost contact with the bunch briefly. I chased back on but the damage had been done – about 12 of us were off the back. We managed to keep the main bunch in sight for a short while but with so few working it meant we never stood much of a chance. The final lap was taken at a reasonable pace but we were loosing a lot of time on the main bunch, especially whenever the road went up, and we ending up rolling over the finish line 4 minutes down on the main bunch.

I enjoyed the race up until the final lap though, and it’s definitely a more interesting format than churning around in a huge bunch where everyone is watching each other. I have two of those types of races coming up though!

Alternative uses for a tyre lever

Rescuing a wedding ring from a plughole.

One of the advantages of cycling is that it keeps you trim and healthy, although sometimes you realise that you’ve lost weight from unexpected parts of your body, such as your fingers. Whilst washing my hands at work my wedding ring flew off my finger, performed a triple roll around the basin (whilst I frantically grabbed for it) then dropped down the open plughole. I suppose work basins don’t have plugs because employers are worried that we’ll all try and flood the building :-/

And the perfect tool to rescue the ring? The trusty old tyre lever…

Park riding

I managed to make the Dynamo park ride again on Saturday for the third time this year! When it works it works really well and results in a good workout. This ride in the second group out didn’t work quite as well – we were fast enough, but not very smooth, we didn’t give a few riders anywhere near enough room (despite lots of shouting within the group) and there were some of the usual “do we overtake or not?” moments with cars. All things that need to be addressed on the road (which we did) – I always think the emphasis should be on ‘smooth’ over erratic pacing but faster overall progress round the park. Having said that, it’s difficult to maintain the smooth through-and-off over rolling terrain when you have 8 riders of slightly varying abilities, but that’s where the effort should be focused on the park ride – we were getting there towards the end, and I was as guilty as anyone else of varying the pace!

There was much talk of racing after the park ride, typically from the 3rd Cat riders as the racing schedule, particularly in the Surrey League, seems to have lumped a quantity of 3rds-only road races towards the end of the season. It’s been a particularly fallow summer for 3rds road races, with the emphasis on the calendar seemingly being spring and autumn. I’ve entered a few road races and may have another go at the Hoggenberg as well. I’m still not off the ground with my plan to score some points and realistically just want to go for a top 10 finish in one race, or at least spend time in a breakaway. With that in mind I opted for a turbo session on the Sunday instead of a road ride. Ouch! Overdid it slightly on the hardest of the 3 minute intervals and had to back off – that never normally happens. I think a combination of slightly tired legs, a mild hangover and extremely humid weather resulted in my HR suddenly spiking and the lungs requesting that I back off, now please, as in immediately, before melting into a pool of salty water. Thank you very much.

We ended the weekend spending a fun evening with the kids watching Jack Black in School of Rock. They thought it was fantastic that a teacher could come in and refuse to teach the class anything other than rock. I think they’ll be disappointed when they get back to school in September!

You can't hang an old bell on a new bicycle

or is it "you can't hang a new bell on an old bicycle"? Anyhow, it's a Dutch phrase I remember having heard once implying that you can't tart something up a bit and expect the overall result to look fantastic. Thinking about it, I'm sure it's the latter phrase.
Well, I've hung old components on a new frame. Or is that hanging a new frame on old components? Whatever, I think the end result is quite good...

Time for change?

It’s been a while since the last update and I’ve been busy with a few things – trying to buy a house, a holiday in Cyprus and a new bike frame.

The house is the most problematic – although the economy is still looking wobbly the demand for family houses in the Wimbledon area is high, with many buyers seemingly in the same position as we are, having sold their houses and househunting from a chain-free position. I’m amazed at the speed with which offers are made and how quickly the asking prices are being exceeded at the moment. The situation seems exacerbated by the limited availability of new houses - a situation that has been building in London (no pun intended) for years - and a reluctance of homeowners to sell until they perceive that the market has risen again, even though it means the house they are wanting to buy will be more expensive. Too many people seeing property as a long-term investment in pure financial terms. I saw a great sketch by the comedian John Bishop (edit: no it wasn't, it was Alun Cochrane) the other day, where he pretended to be talking to a home-owner worried about negative equity and suggested that, as much as the homeowner might be worried about the falling value of the house, they could perhaps “just live in it?” So I have no idea how much longer we’ll be renting for, how likely we are to succeed in bids for houses, how many ‘house investors’ we’ll be up against or how many more family houses are likely to appear on the market over the next few months.

At least I’m feeling fairly relaxed after a week-long holiday in Cyprus. We stayed in a really nice hotel near Paphos on the south-west of the island and enjoyed seven days of great food, hot sunny weather, lovely swimming pools, hot weather, fun, relaxation and hot weather. Did I mention the hot weather? We experienced a Cyprus heatwave, with temperatures reaching 46 degrees on two days! As relaxing as the holiday was, I wouldn’t go back to Cyprus in a hurry – too many low-cost tour operators and unsympathetic construction have turned much of the coastline into a concrete eyesore selling cheap full English breakfasts!

Finally, the new frame. I had it built up in Sigma Sport (they did a great job, very neat in the detailed bits) and I reused most of my old components. I’ll post a pic soon, but for now here is a stock pic of the frame. I’m certainly not keeping this for ‘best’ use – it’s going to be ridden and races as often as I can manage. Speaking of racing, I messed up and am only on the reserve list for the Surrey League 3rds race this weekend at Walliswood. Heavy rain forecast the night before and drizzle on the day will probably make it a puncture-fest so I may just choose to have a lie-in instead!

Screaming Alice

Last night I decided to head down to Palace again for the 3/4 race. No great plans really, just the usual aim to try to finish in the bunch. Dynamo were marshalling the race, so after checking that we did have enough marshalls and I wouldn’t be needed, I signed on at the little desk on the circuit and picked up my numbers. I hadn’t been to Palace since April due to various commitments and had nearly forgotten what a lovely place it is to race – a picturesque, quiet, exciting circuit. Everything seems quite low-key until the racing starts, then your lungs feel like they are going to burst out of your chest!

Unfortunately I didn’t achieve my goal – I spend far too long hanging around at the back. Due to Dynamo marshalling I got yelled at a lot – “Move up Nick”, “Come on, move”, “Stop hanging around at the back”, “Put some effort in, lardarse” (OK, I made the last one up, but they may as well have been shouting that). Elliott kept my spirits up with his horn and constant encouragement after I dropped off the back of the bunch. I lasted 15 laps, then got together with 4 other riders for another 8 laps or so before being pulled out. Not a good performance and the only mitigating factor was that it was a very warm evening (I prefer slightly cooler weather). I hope to get back to Palace at least once more before the series ends – when I do I will not sit at the back of the bunch. Of course, I may have just come back from holiday and be hopelessly out of condition!

The 3/4 race was won by an Agreeables rider, who’s children were very excited to see their dad win (and then lie down on the grass unable to move). Nice to see!

Whilst watching the sprint for the E12 race I saw a small rider in yellow burst out of the pack – it was Germain Burton, who came second. He’s a young guy (14 or 15 I think) but a stunning rider already. His father is Maurice Burton, the owner of De Ver Cycles and former 6 day rider (I googled him to find out) so Germain has obviously benefitted from a strong gene pool. Definitely an exciting talent to watch in the future.

Junior racing

Hog Hill 3rds race, 17th July 2010. Hog Hill in the strong wind is a fun place to be! It was my 4th ever visit to the Hoggenberg, and my third actual race. The first, early last year (Pig in a poke) was a lesson in getting dropped on the hill. The second, in early summer last year, was a lesson in the dangers of warming up (Not to plan). The third, in March this year, was a lesson in who’s wheel to avoid (Hoggenberg). So could I actually finish the race this time?

Yes! The hill didn’t destroy me and I enjoyed the circuit – it was all a bit ‘swirly’ in the bunch with the strong wind creating a large concertina effect out of several of the corners, followed by some bunching as the lead riders hit the headwind sections of the circuit. Notice I said ‘lead riders’? I don’t think I hit the front at any point in the entire race – not a great ride for me, frankly, but finishing in the bunch is better than being dropped or crashing! The pace was high, there were quite a few good junior/youth riders (they made up 6 of the top 10 I think) and no Dynamos got into the top 10. One guy took a fair bit of abuse for dodgy handling - he was wearing a skater's helmet and, whilst being given a rollocking by another rider, got referred to as "Beastie Boy", which made me smile. To be fair the guy was pretty fit and kept with the pace well, but his positioning and erratic movement made the bunch a bit nervous. It's one of the issues you have to expect when racing in the lower ranks, but I wish riders like this would go and do some chaingangs/group rides before actually deciding to race.

That’s the end of the Saturday Hog Hill races and I’m not that unhappy – I’ve only managed to get to two this year but the journey out and back means about 5-6 hours out of the day for a 1hr crit (that always seems to start late). So, nice circuit, shame it’s so far away.

Sunday was the second Richmond Park time trial of the year. I was down as assisting the timekeepers, so it was an early start – out of bed at 04:30 on a Sunday morning – uuurrrgghhh! The park is absolutely stunning in the early morning though, which makes up for some of the pain. I tried to get some decent pictures of the riders but wasn’t able to roam enough, so instead ended up with some disappointing head-on shots which aren’t really worth displaying. Shows I can't multitask - the pressure of calling out rider numbers and taking decent photos proved to be too much! Times for the event seemed similar to the first one, with the top placings listed below:

Juniors
Will Horrocks, Kingston Wheelers, 27:32

Lady TT
Rachel Joyce, Serpentine/London Dynamo, 26:09
Charlotte Blackman, Cyclefit, 27:15
Maryka Sennema, Kingston Wheelers, 27:20

Lady Road
Natalie Creswick, Twickenham CC, 27:28
Rachel Armitage, London Dynamo, 28:14
Elise Sherwell, Pearsons, 28:57

Men TT
Angus Macalister, Norwood Paragon, 23:26
Laurence Harding, www.drag2zero.com, 23:42
Martin Williamson, London Dynamo, 24:09

Men Road
Tim Stevens, 34th Nomads, 25:50
Xavier Disley, University of Birmingham/Cult Racing, 26:13
Tom Gilbey, London Dynamo, 26:26

Good efforts!

Marmotte 2010

Can you ride La Marmotte having had only one hour of sleep due to a dodgy stomach? The short answer, for me, is “No”, but you can have a good go!

The last thing I remembered was looking at my phone display and thinking “Hmm, 04:40, that’s going to make getting up at 05:50 a bit tricky”. I managed it though, and slowly began to feel vaguely human whilst sharing breakfast and the usual pre-ride bike chat with Paul, Mark and John.

The screaming descent of the Alpe is easily the best part of the ride (well, pre-ride really) and in 20 minutes we were down in Bourg d’Oisans and queuing with thousands of other riders for our 07:30 departure slot. There was a palpable nervous tension in the air, along with the smell of a thousand early morning bowels and the sound of several hundred throats being cleared. I’d forgotten what a disgusting sound and smell a large group of cyclists makes! Normally I’d have felt more repelled but in my near-comotose state I felt strangely relaxed. My plan was to ride to the top of the Glandon and stop for a while, prior to descending (back the way I had come) to Bourg and climbing the Alpe with the aim of being in bed by early lunchtime.

Funnily enough I enjoyed the Glandon so much that I descended the ‘neutralised’ section without a second thought and found myself in a large group speeding along the valley floor to the base of the Telegraphe. Right, I thought, that’s it, I’ve committed now!

The Telegraphe seemed much easier this time and I started to enjoy myself. The gradient was consistent and there was plenty of shade to reduce the effect of the (by now) 30 degree heat. No stopping at the top, straight down onto the base of the Galibier.

Hmmm, Galibier, you were as tough as I remember. Not stopping at the top for a breather may have been a mistake, for on the descent I started to feel really sick and lightheaded. As we all descended into the warm valley air on the run back to Bourg I felt close to nodding off, then started shaking and realised that there was no way I was going to attempt the Alpe in this state. Food wasn’t helping, for this wasn’t carb-depleted bonking but sleep deprivation pulling cotton wool down over my head. With a heavy heart I abandoned at Bourg and sat in the shade of a tree for an hour (by now it was 38 degrees) waiting for Mark to come and pick me up. My one consolation was that this year I had cycled the whole of the Alpe climb the day before (only spinning, but still a good climb) so I was, in a way, a two day Marmotte randonneur!

Looking back I’m not that unhappy with my ride bearing in mind that I wasn’t in good shape on the day. I crested the Glandon on the 2hr mark, reached the peak of the Telegraphe around 4hrs 30mins and went over the top of the Galibier at 6hrs 30 mins. I think I was on target to get in well under 10hrs until it all went pear-shaped on the Galibier descent. But finishing’s what matters, and I didn’t. Ho hum…

Epic

After a couple of days of solid training, including a lot of tempo work riding solo, I decided yesterday evening that I was going to take it easy on the sofa. I’d managed to see about 40 minutes of the England-Slovenia match at the office in the afternoon and thought I’d watch either the Germany-Ghana match or try and catch up on a bit of Wimbledon. Wimbledon won – we live literally a stone’s throw from the AELTC and can hear the applause and cheering very clearly if we sit with our windows open. There are also quite a few high-profile players wandering up and down our road, so we feel very much part of the occasion.


I turned on the TV and saw that Court 18 was hosting a match that had, incredibly, already gone to 20 games all in the final set. Mahut and Isner slugged it out in the heat for another few games whilst I thought “actually this is more interesting that the football”. I took a break at about 30-all to get the kids washed and into bed, then my wife and I settled down to catch what must, surely, be the end of the match. “We’ll get some supper at the end of the game” I said. Little did I know!

What an incredible event – I’ve never seen a player look more physically and mentally fatigued than John Isner. I was rooting for him to win, not because he was the underdog in terms of skill, but because he never lay down. Each time I thought “that’s it, he’s crumbled” he would respond with a vicious forehand or a thundering serve to stay in the game. Nicolas Mahut was fantastic as well – to remain so energetic for so long was a real achievement in itself. These guys were performing at their absolute peak, on court all alone, for over seven hours! The pressure must have been immense and it told in their vacant thousand-yard stares and sagging limbs by the end.

Talking of vacant stares and sagging limbs, here’s a recent picture of me climbing the Col des Aravis (at least I think that's where I am, ascending from the western side for the second time that day) on the Time-Megeve sportive. The trick for giving the impression of speed is to unzip the jersey fully so you resemble a Tour rider flying uphill at about 25kph. In reality I was moving at about 10kph!

LBL 2010

Not Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but London to Brighton and back. It’s a fairly regular Dynamo event – each year a group meet up in the Wandsworth Common area and have a blast down to Brighton for breakfast, followed by a more leisurely ride back to London. Setting off at 6am means that we quickly get through the worst of the London road junctions and the front groups from the official L2B BHF ride and enjoy the clear roads for a good pacey ride. This year was no different, although with the brisk Northerly breeze we did manage a slightly improved time – I made our journey down 2hrs 24 minutes, including a 5min puncture stop and an irritating sequence of red lights for the last couple of miles.

Breakfast was at Katz café on the seafront where, as usual, they coped really well with a sudden influx of very hungry cyclists. Over the past four years they have regularly served us quality full English - they’re stars! It is definitely the highlight of the ride and makes the return journey almost bearable.

A slightly more relaxed (although hardly slow) ride back saw us enter the familiar grey suburbs of the southwest of London in good time, allowing me to be back home for lunch at 1pm – perfect. Ten minutes later (after a shower and a quick online donation to the BHF) I was tucking into a great buffet spread with the family.

It’s turning into a good traditional activity for the club and I hope we are not viewed in a poor light for taking advantage of the mainly closed roads. I think we ride really well, we’re very careful passing other riders in the early stages, and anyone who wants to tag on for a while to take advantage of a bit of a draft is welcomed, even if the pace might sometimes sneakily creep up to see how long they can hold on! Each year we make a conscious effort to encourage all the riders to donate to the BHF as some sort of ‘compensation’ and, from what I can tell from chatting on the way down, BHF do pretty well out of us.

A total of just over 110 miles with a large chunk done near threshold - good training for La Marmotte in a couple of weeks.

RPTT 2010

I did my first ever time trial this weekend and a very relaxed affair it was too (aside from the early start). The Richmond Park TTs that the club organised as pilot events last year are taking place again for three Sunday mornings. Yesterday’s was the first of the year and probably one of my more pleasant park rides – the almost complete lack of traffic makes the park seem very chilled early in the morning. Last year I marshalled one of the events and took quite a few pictures. This year I had limited opportunities for looking around because I was in head down, legs burning and heavy breathing mode!

I completed the fairly tough out-and-back course (10.4miles) in 27.09, a bit over the 27mins I was aiming for. The highlight was passing my minute and two minute riders before the halfway point. The low was realising that I’d gone off a bit too fast and mucked up my pacing a bit. Some of the times were spectacular, especially in the RR category (best time by IanP was 24.14). I reckon a 26.30 or so might be possible with better pacing.

The RP TTs are great events for those new to TTs - you don’t need to be affiliated to any club, you don't need a TT bike, and the park will be resurfaced very soon so subsequent times might be even faster. If you haven’t already, check out CTT RP TT for an entry form for the July 18th or August 8th events.

So immediately after burning my legs and lungs early in the morning I opted (perhaps unwisely) to go on the club Surrey Hills ride. I didn’t last too long with the group with my heavy legs, but thankfully Mark dropped back with me and nursed me round the hills. We ended up doing the full ride at a decent enough pace, even though my legs felt absolutely dead by the time I made it back to Wimbledon. I found that I’d developed a raging appetite too – can’t think why!

Gotta love the mountains…

I’ve just got back from our annual club sportive trip, which this year visited the Time-Megeve Mont Blanc. What a great few days – lovely weather, stunning scenery and great climbs, good company and excellent organisation. There was only one major negative which I’ll mention at the end of this piece.

As with any club do, it’s as much about who’s out there as what routes you end up riding, and Dynamo events never disappoint with regards to the company. There were several groups of abilities/stamina levels around which meant most people could take things as easy or as hard as they wanted on each day. I’d decided that I wanted to do a good solid 90-100km per day, with at least one climb per day.

Mission (almost) accomplished. Day 1 saw approx. 90km including ascents of the Col de Romme and the climb back up to Megeve from the valley floor (via the ‘easy’ route). Day 2 was 98km including ascents of the Col des Aravis, the Colombiere (‘easy’ side) and the Megeve climb again, but this time via the difficult (the ‘Bernard Hinault’) route. Day 3 was the sportive during which I opted to do the Medium route (115km, not that there was an option to do the longer route) and ascended the Aravis (again), the Col de la Croix Fry, the small climb back up the Aravis from the other side and then the Col des Saisies (very tough). I didn’t do a great time and felt that my legs were getting pretty wobbly by the four hour mark. Day 4 was an easy day, so we just rode up the Saisies from the other direction and then descended back into Megeve – a total of approx. 55km. Not quite the 90-100km, but to be honest I really didn’t have the legs for another climb by this stage in the trip.

So what was the negative? Well, it was the reason that the long version of the sportive was shut off, and the reason why the finish was a slightly muted affair. A rider in the event died during the ride – initial reports seem to indicate that he was a Swiss rider who, for whatever reason, misjudged his speed on the descent past Saint-Nicolas-la-Chapelle and crashed over the edge. A tragic lesson to us all to take care in the mountains and maintain concentration at all times.

Nearly Time...

First things first...Eelmore again. There's been no chance of any Palace action for the past two weeks due to the installation and subsequent removal of safety barriers for the motor racing. Apparently the safety barriers have raised health and safety issues!

So I made the effort to get out to Eelmore with a different aim in mind - I just wanted a good workout prior to a few days of solid riding (more of that later) so decided to stay at the back of the bunch and do sprint intervals. Eelmore at the back of the bunch as a workout is pretty good - a 10 second sprint every minute or so, repeat x 50. JamesD (fellow 'Mo) did well and bagged around 5th in the sprint. There was some very dodgy handling, a young WindyMilla guy lost it on the top corner and crashed, and another guy nearly lost it at the same point on the final lap. The average pace was 24.5mph for the hour, but average speed at a crit never tells the whole story.

I was glad to finish the race unscathed as I'm off to Megeve with the club for four days of riding, including the Time-Megeve sportive. We've got a few different routes planned for the off days, dependent upon time and legs, so hope to bag quite a few cols and rack up the miles.

If I remember to take some pictures I'll post them here with a ride report in a week or so.

A new low...

SERRL Edenbridge, Sunday 23rd May, 3/4 race. What a beautiful day for a bike race – warm, sunny, a light breeze, plenty of other Dynamos in the field, it should have been a good day. But it wasn’t. My state of mind is the problem at the moment with my racing and I was so far from being committed that I may as well have just sat the race out in the carpark.

The pre-race briefing started with the usual warnings – no straying over the white line, watch out for numerous parked cars on the course, there are loads of potholes, there’s a kids’ fun day which might result in some funny driving and additional pedestrians, etc. All of which makes you realise that road racing in the South East is a bit of an obstacle course.

The Edenbridge course is pretty lumpy – no major hills but enough steep little rises and long false flats to make things interesting. So, mile one, someone drops a bottle up ahead and the guy next to me rides straight over it, spraying me with some sticky energy drink – nice! I can’t remember the last race I was in when someone hasn’t dropped a bottle. Mile 4, and Mark has a puncture. Just as the pace is hotting up a bit, far from ideal. He got a spare wheel from neutral service and chased for the remainder of the first lap but made little headway on the gap. End of lap one and I’ve got most of the hills and roads sorted out in my mind, but I’m really not enjoying myself. Some of the riding is a bit iffy, but not too bad really, so I’m confused – why am I enjoying this so little? Lap two and I have no problems with the pace, but up one of the smaller climbs I take a swig from my bottle and let a small gap open up. Suddenly there’s four of us off the back – no problem, a little dig and we get back on. Then it happens again, and this time my head goes down – it isn’t the legs or the lungs that are hurting, but I don’t feel like trying any more. I’m sick of riding in the bunch and constantly worrying about the riders, the potholes that I can’t see, the oncoming traffic that must be struggling to see us all in the dappled sunlight down some of the lanes. So I let a bigger gap open up and reduce my speed a little futher. That’s it, game over. I wave the neutral service car past. Once the bunch is out of site around the corner I continue at my own pace until I meet another Dynamo who’s been tailed off - he looks very hot and tired. We work together for a bit, just for training really, but I glance back after a couple of minutes and he’s nowhere to be seen. Another few minutes in no-mans land and I can see a small grupetto in the distance of 6 or 7 riders who’ve been dropped by the main bunch. Right, I’ll catch them up if I can, just for the workout prior to going home. A mile or so of work and I’m sitting on the back of them. Elliot is in this group too, so there’s a little company. After a few minutes the rear of the main bunch comes into view. We catch them. I didn’t really want to. Pace seems to have slowed a little as we complete the second lap. But I’ve already given up, I see no point sitting at the back of this bunch for another two laps.

So I do the worst thing, I pack up. It’s the first time I’ve ever voluntarily dropped out of a race and it feels terrible. I need to develop a positive mental attitude towards racing if I’m going to continue…

The Eel

“Most eels prefer to dwell in shallow waters or hide at the bottom layer of the ocean, sometimes in holes. These holes are called eel pits.”

Tonight’s race was a bit of a revelation. I’m pretty much done with Eelmore. Not only does it not really suit me (sprint, coast, corner, sprint, coast) but it is pan-flat and usually allows everyone to hold on in the bunch. Last night was the exception because a group of 7 riders got away and stayed away, but on the whole the race ends in a bunch sprint and in that respect is not unlike Hillingdon (except it is a lot safer). So it is all too easy to sit in my eel pit, hiding in the middle of the bunch and doing very little. Last night I put in one small dig off the front but it was pretty much doomed from the start – two others came across but we had a tiny gap and our legs were burning. The remainder of the bunch (by this stage the race-winning break had got away) were keen to chase down any further breaks, catch them and then slow right down, as is usual in 3/4 races. I don’t know what happened last night, as the pace overall was pretty fast from the off, but looking at the average it seems lower than other races at the same circuit. Irrespective of all that, it felt faster than usual, which might worryingly mean that my fitness is declining at just the wrong time. Either that or I just wasn’t ‘up for it’ – I certainly found myself getting a bit bored and irritated once the break had gone. Oh well, two large glasses of wine afterwards made me feel a bit better…

It’s a shame because Eelmore is a safe circuit, the riding is (generally) of a pretty high standard and the organisation is efficient and very friendly. But I know the difference between turning up with some ambition or turning up to throw another £10 at the organisers, and I have been consistently following the latter option. Maybe I’ll go back later in the season but for now I feel the need for some variety, which I’ll be getting with the Edenbridge SERRL road race this weekend. Well, variety in location in the country anyway, although I’ll probably still be hanging out in the eel pit near the back of the bunch. Have a look for me there and shout at me to move my arse!

Elver race

Eelmore (again) last night. Sometimes I lack the enthusiasm to write a report, so to summarise:

Punctured about halfway through, got a spare wheel, rejoined, finished in the middle of the bunch. Pace felt a little faster but I had the same problem as previous weeks in slipping just a little too far back with 3 laps to go. Annoying. I’m losing patience with the Eelmore circuit and my inability to position myself properly during the end of races. Oh, and the fact that my sprint isn’t that good doesn’t help either.

So second race in a row where I experienced some sort of bike-related problem. I hope this isn’t going to become a pattern.

On a more positive note I managed to pick up a second-hand bike for my daughter on eBay for £10, which I picked up after the race last night. It needs a little TLC, and my daughter also wants the frame painted black. Sounds like I have my work cut out then!

SERRL Lamberhurst race, 9th May 2010

“Hello, taxi please to Wimbledon. What? Seriously, not for 45-50 minutes?”

Not what you want to hear at the end of a party at 10 past midnight the night before a road race! Luckily I hadn’t drunk too much, I thought at 3:30am as I lay in bed desperately trying (and failing) to get to sleep.

“Bzzzzzzzz”.

“Urghh. What? Oh no. 06:50 already? Right, that means it’s time for muesli. Urghh. One more small cup of coffee. Right, gear, bike, bottles, out the door I go. Urghh”.

Describing the lead-up to my arrival at the beginning of my first road race in over a year (Lamberhurst 3/4, 100km) goes some way to excusing my performance. I sucked, big time. Whilst I felt at no point that I was going to get dropped from the main, reasonably pedestrian bunch, I made no attempt to get to the front, did no real work, had no problem on the hills (well, slopes) but equally didn’t make up the places I should have, and retired after 50km with a mechanical. My rear wheel started screaming on one of the descents and it sounded really terminal. My initial reaction was to stop for fear of crashing – I thought the rear axle had collapsed and my wheel was jammed against the frame. I’ve since found out that it is a common issue with Mavic freehubs and it just needs some DIY love. Doh!

The course was good – about 20km per lap, several power climbs, a couple of screaming descents, a decent road surface for the UK after the winter (i.e. loads of potholes and a crap surface but nothing too awful) and excellent marshalling, motorcade and outriding. Good stuff SERRL – very impressive organisation. They even offered some free biscuits at the end (I didn’t take any as I was in self-loathing mode).

I did have the opportunity to watch the final two laps from the comfort of the neutral service car, which was really disheartening somehow. You would see riders in ones and twos slowly going off the back of the bunch, and would start muttering to yourself “come on, come on, stay in there, dig deeper”. Depressingly they usually drifted off the back and we shot past them with a few words of encouragement. One Dulwich Paragon guy was off the back on lap 4 as we went past him in the car but put in a massive effort to get back on over the next couple of km, only to drift off the back again at the next rise – such a shame but, hey, that’s racing I guess.

Anyhow, of my two Dynamo team-mates, Mike came 8th and Mark came nowhere, despite having done loads of work on the front. Next time...

Next road race is Edenbridge in a couple of weeks. Until then more work, more train travel to Bristol, more crits, more eBay bike purchases for the kids (one bike to go) and more sleep!

‘Eel meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when…

I missed Palace this week due to an emergency call to come home (ill children, luckily nothing too serious) so decided to go to Eelmore on Wednesday night instead. Hmmm, more sprinting out of corners. I did at least manage to get the HR up with a 3 lap breakaway with one other Reading rider, but it was doomed from the start – far too early in the race and no one came across to join us. As usual it seemed to be a slightly negative race, albeit fairly safe and well behaved. I found myself near the back with 3 to go, worked my way up, lost my position too easily and didn’t bother with the sprint, coming in near the back of the bunch.

Annoying for two reasons. 1) I should be able to hold my position in the final few laps far better by now, it certainly isn’t a lack of fitness that is the problem. 2) I hate having to scrub off all the speed going into a corner. And I mean all the speed, right down to crawling pace. I’m so wary of the cornering ability of some other riders and of the dodgy lines they take. One bloke was taking a fairly tight line into corners and then, on the way out when he had slowed a bit, taking a great looping sway across the whole track then swaying back in again. Ridiculous, he’d done the hard bit on the way in!

I think something changes in your attitude to risk as you get older, and it certainly doesn’t help bike racing! I have the SERRL road race this weekend (my first RR in over a year) and I can’t say that I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully the lumpy course will split the bunch early on and make for a slightly safer race than the last one I did, where riders were taking insane risks going round blind bends on the wrong side of the road…

Fear and Loathing…

“How long could we maintain? I wondered. How long until one of us starts raving and jabbering…“

Palace, 27th April. 3/4 race. Hard. Very, very hard. Like holding onto the end of a rope attached to a rapidly rising balloon. You have to hold on, but the longer you hold on the worse the fall. That’s how I feel racing at Palace. The longer I maintain contact with the bunch the more it hurts when I let a gap open up and slowly slide backwards, the worse the loathing that sets in as you see them dangle just out of reach around the hairpin, knowing that you’ve already sprinted to chase back on twice on the two previous laps and you don’t have the energy to fail again. And the fear of the blind corner for the first few crowded laps, riding inches from a wheel that might be ridden by someone even more nervous and skittish than you.

So I lasted about half the race in the main bunch, dangled, joined up with a few stragglers, gave up and let the self-loathing start early. There were some really strong riders and some really shocking bike handling. Some Dynamos did pretty well, two did brilliantly, others (like myself) held on as long as possible then called it a day. I felt stronger on the incline than I thought I would and closed a lot of gaps early on, which is something I suppose, but more hesitant on the blind corner, which annoyed me. Great fun overall, predictably I got bitten to death by the bloodsucking insects as the sun went down and, even more predictably, I totally over-ate when I got home (home cooked Thai Green Curry – perfect recovery food)!

After a decent sleep I now hate myself, reckon I’m a terrible rider with no proper stamina and have no hope of ever getting any points as a 3rd Cat. All part of the Palace experience.

Eelmore, 21st April

My first time back at Eelmore for a year or so for the Wednesday night Cycle Kingdom crit run by VC Meudon. Average speed 24.5mph. I hung around at the back of the bunch the whole race – big mistake! Accelerations out of each corner wore the bunch down (we lost a rider each lap on average off the back) and I found it really hard to move up. In the end I treated the race as a sort of sprint interval training session, didn’t get dropped and cruised over the line near the back. A good workout, but nothing more. If I go back again this week I’m sticking near the front – it is so much easier when you don’t have to scrub all your speed off going into the corners.

Then again, I may try Palace on Tuesday instead...

No riding

Nothing. None. Zero. Zipp. Zilch. That’s the amount of riding I did this glorious weekend. The first weekend of full-on sunshine, low winds and dry roads saw me malingering in bed suffering the effects of gastric ‘flu (or as I call it, a touch of the chucks). I don’t think my health has ever been so bad as in the past month – I still have a lingering cough and sniffle and now feel totally depleted of energy. I guess I need to be careful not to overdo the rush back to training and build it up slowly again to avoid any further problems.

In my de-energised state I was able to catch up on the Amstel Gold race on Eurosport on Sunday. I always take an interest in this race as I've cycled so many of the roads during trips to Limburg. It never ceases to amaze me how the road furniture and cyclepaths that make leisure cycling such a pleasure in the region make pro races such a nightmare. The sight of the peloton in full charge dodging lamp posts and badly parked cars meant I had a firm grip on the arm of the sofa at all times! A great power surge up the Cauberg by Gilbert to cap off an interesting final 30km or so of racing.

Still no bloody seatpost clamp for my Isaac (the old one, which wasn’t an Isaac one, cracked the original seatpost when tightened to 4Nm) so I’m stuck on the Tifosi with full-length mudguards! Which means I can’t race until next week – given my health and limited training that’s probably no bad thing though. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch either Palace or Eelmore next week and reaquaint myself with some serious suffering!

Well ... nearly

I’m nearly feeling well again – hoorah! The long, lingering cough/cold/sinus infection seems to finally be on the way out. I’m still feeling a bit rough at night, but I’m enjoying the lovely daytime weather and, thankfully, the rest of the family seem to have recovered as well.

I’m sure recovery was in part hastened by fresh mountain air last week – we spent a week skiing in the Three Valleys (La Tania in France). Well, skiing, drinking and eating cheese! This year it only took me a couple of hours to find my ski legs and I’m pleased to say that the children did even better. In particular twin two (Ravi) finally decided that he enjoyed skiing – it was great to see him bombing down the slopes in a barely controlled snowplough with a huge grin on his face! The last day was our ‘family day’ (no lessons for the kids or my wife) and we skied together all day through trees, over little jumps and around the funpark, which was a kind of fairly tame skier-cross circuit. I learned my lesson from last year too, so I had all my pockets stuffed full with mini-Lion Bars and Werthers Originals for the lifts!

Despite the tiredness from the transfer home and a week-long alcohol and cheese binge I still managed to jump on the turbo the same day – 240W for an hour, and the same the next day, just to get the fitness levels back (skiing seems to help develop leg strength but not particularly cardio fitness). Yesterday was a post-work park interval day – the pain in doing my first interval session in two weeks was offset by the stunning park setting and lovely warm evening weather. Richmond Park is fantastic come 7pm, when the traffic levels drop right down and all you can hear are the sounds of your own laboured breathing and the thumping of your heart! Even the surface seems alright now after months of dodgy loose gravel and flecks of tar. I believe the surface is due to be redone at the end of May, so hopefully the contractors will manage to do the job properly this time, use ‘rounder’ chippings that won’t cause punctures and attempt to at least bed the surface in properly.

I found a couple of road races to enter as well (SERRL) and aim to start racing again at the end of April/beginning of May. Still time to get back to fitness then!

Still ill...

It's been a frustrating week and a half - virtually no cycling, rather unhealthy eating and a return of the runny nose and gasping cough. The mild illness I got over only 4 weeks ago has come back to take another, more serious, bite out of me. I haven't slept more than 4 hours at night for a week now. Each morning when I go and wake the kids up my daughter greets me with "Daddy, the bags under your eyes look even bigger today" - thanks TC! My head is constantly pounding from the coughing and I can feel my chest is straining. Annoyingly the weather has been really beautiful too - sunny and fairly mild. We are off skiing in a few days so I really hope this virus buggers off before then, or at least that the clear mountain air hastens its departure.

I've been using the enforced downtime to run through a couple of cycle-related chores - devising a training plan based around upcoming races and trying to find some decent bibshorts.

The problem I find with racing is the travel to the race itself, particularly since we are a one-car family and my wife usually needs to either pick up the kids or drop them off somewhere, which takes precedence over travelling to a race Now I don't mind cycling out to races assuming there is enough time, but for the majority the distance is a real barrier - so that's Eelmore and most of the Surrey League races discounted unless I can get a lift. Then there's the juggling of work commitments as well - leaving on time to get to Palace, the Hog or Hillingdon is OK if I take my race bike into work, but then I'm constantly worrying about the 'secure' part of the secure bike parking outside the building. My commuting bike has full length mudguards which are a pain to remove, so that isn't really an option. Anyhow, I'm going to try a mix this year of weekend races at Hog Hill (there's not really much else on offer from the Surrey League, which ought to be renamed the Hampshire League) and week-day races at either Palace, Hoggenberg or Eelmore if I can get a lift. So that's all crits then - the opportunity for road racing this year looks pretty slim.

One thing that the effort in setting up a training plan has helped me focus on is the need for longer rides - I have the Time Megeve and La Marmotte coming up this summer and have to remember to focus on the need for tempo-ish long rides as well as the hour-long bursts of intense effort that racing requires.

The second chore was much worse - finding some new bibshorts. In the past I have been really happy with Pearl Izumi Ultrasensor shorts, which have formed the perfect compromise between performance, longevity and cost. A couple of years ago, however, they changed the pad and styling and they no longer figure on my list of suitable choices. The old ones I have all have holes in, are threadbare and have turned a light grey colour, so it is definitely time for new stock. I made the trip to Croydon to go to GB Cycles who in the past have had a great range of stock - nothing! Some Santini Sean Yates style super-short shorts, some Assos super-expensive pairs and that was about it. Evans, CycleSurgery, On Yer Bike, Sigma Sport - likewise, very low stock. So I turned online (always a bit of a gamble with shorts) and went back to Wiggle and some Sugoi numbers - I'll see that they're like when they arrive. The last pair of shorts I purchased online had huge long shoulder straps and seemed to be cut for someone with a massive arse (sprinter's shorts then) and have been consigned to turbo-only duty.

By the time I'm back from skiing I will have had two weeks off the bike (and I'm sure I will be fully loaded with vin rouge, raclette and cakes). My new training plan had better work...!

Hoggenberg

San Fairy Ann 3/4 crit, Hog Hill, Saturday 6th March. My first time back at Hog Hill since my mishap last June. Only my second time actually taking part in a race there. Last time I raced at the Hog I think I lasted about halfway through the race then slowly drifted off the back up the ‘berg! So how was I going to fare this time? Was my fitness better?

In short, yes. I managed 17 of the 20 laps and had no problems on the hill at all. So my recovery after hard efforts is getting better. I had a problem on lap 17 with the rider in front of me though! I’d been sitting near the back for a few laps (I know I shouldn’t have been there) when I noticed the guy immediately in front had a rather flat tyre. I noticed this coming into the fastest corner of the circuit, with the tailwind whipping everyone round the almost 90 degree bend at great speed. Guess where this guy nearly lost his tyre and ended up careering all over the place? Guess which muppet was stuck behind him? Guess who couldn’t quite catch the bunch for another lap and then gave up as they dangled just out of reach? Aaargghh!

On the brighter side we celebrated my wife’s birthday that night with friends, karaoke and Chinese food. Sore heads all round on Sunday! I think my singing is almost as bad as my racing…

Wheelsucker

The plan had been to ride out to Hog Hill and take part in the San Fairy Ann (best cycling club name ever in my book) 3/4 crit on Saturday. But come Friday night the excuses started to appear - I'd been ill all week (only a cold, but a niggly, persistent cold), I was tired and felt out of breath at the top of a flight of stairs, the weather looked pretty grim, no one else I knew was going (not a problem for the race, but it's a long journey there and back with no company) - so I decided to chill out at home, enjoy the red wine and do the park ride on Saturday instead.

The weather lived up to the billing - it rained a few times on Saturday morning, with the park being part-flooded and absolutely filthy. Riding in a group meant a constant spray of muck off the wheel in front, grit in the teeth and small spatterings of tar over all my clothing, my skin and my bike. The sooner they sort out the road surface the better - roll on May.

The café post-ride was a sight. Every time the door swung open another Dynamo rider would enter looking like he'd just finished a cross race (a particularly dirty cross race). It was good to catch up with people, even though we were all cold and shivering. As predicted, a plan started to hatch mid-coffee and several of us decided to continue with a longer ride out into Surrey. Five of us set out - by the time we'd left the warmth of the café we'd lost one, then five minutes later another! Luckily the weather brightened a bit and we remaining three had a fairly gentle run out to Box Hill and back. It was a good leg-stretcher even though the roads were awful- rutted with potholes and mud all over the place.

Still, 70 miles in total for a Saturday, made all the better by a massive bowl of cereal on my return. Simple pleasures. It only took me 30 minutes in the shower to get all the tar off me as well...!

A better day

A better day. Still no points, and I rolled in right at the back, but definitely a better day. The final Hillingdon 3rds race in the winter series was faster paced, which seemed to suit me better. I felt fitter than previously and had very little problem holding my position near the front of the bunch. When I dropped back at the mid-point for a couple of laps to have a breather and some long, steady swigs of energy drink I never doubted I would be able to move back up again easily. With five laps to go I found myself on the front – a bit of canny soft-pedalling allowed me to slip back to 4th or 5th, where I stayed until two laps to go. Then someone decided to force their way through a gap that wasn’t there, cut in from the inside of the hairpin turn and slowly die up the slight incline, boxing me in. Suddenly all my speed was scrubbed off, about 10 riders had stormed by on the other side and I was left looking for a gap to move into and get off this guy’s wheel. By the time I managed to get out from behind him I was mid-pack at best, so held back about 10 metres from the bunch in the final lap to give myself room to avoid any last-minute mishaps.

Frustrating really, but I feel that for once I did nearly everything right. Still, it all happens in the last couple of laps, where I am still failing to get it right!

Goals for 2010...

Having pondered my lack of racing success so far (well, avoiding crashes is some sort of success I guess) I thought that it would be worthwhile setting some goals for the year. So here goes:

1) Spend next to nothing on bike upgrades. I have all I need - really.
2) Don't injure myself and miss a whole summer of cycling.
3) Do a time trial. A '10' will do, on a road bike, in under 24mins.
4) Gain double-figure points as a 3rd Cat. Not so easy, judging on past performance!
5) Complete the long route of the Time-Megeve sportive. No time goal.
6) Complete La Marmotte sportive in 10hrs 30mins. Hey, I'm heavy and don't go uphill very quickly.
7) Lose another 4kg of bodyweight prior to 6). That will take me to 79kg for a height of 185cm.
7) Finish near the front of the bunch in a Palace 3/4 race.
8) Buy a house. The most important goal.

Will I ever break my duck?

Another Hillingdon (the penultimate race of the 09/10 Winter Series) and another null point. There seemed to be more riders in the 3rds on Saturday, but a closer examination of the results shows the numbers were about the same (I didn't look at the results too closely as I knew I was way, way down the list).

45 minutes + 5 laps this week, no crashes, a slightly faster pace and an annoying headwind up the home straight that made for slightly negative racing. I managed to stay in the top 10 spot for the first 15 minutes or so, but then took a breather near the back and found it impossible to move up again - same old story. Last week is the final race and, despite having made less than half the races, I feel I'm getting stronger. I think that's where the frustration is creeping in - on Saturday I finished having felt that I had hardly exerted myself at all.

Despite the frustration I've enjoyed the races for the most part - they're really well attended and well organised events.

In other news, I've now been a crisp-free zone for a month - a real sacrifice because it was my snack of choice!

'Don care

Saturday 23rd January 2010. Hillingdon 3rds. Turned up. Raced. Finished near the back of a (very crowded) bunch. Went home. Photo shows that I must have spent at least a little time on the front – which is the only good thing I can take from the experience!



I missed the race yesterday (30th Jan) due to an excess of cheese the night before! Can't say I was sorry when I heard about the crashes. I went on the turbo instead, then out to Windsor today - plenty of ice about but (luckily) no spills. Oh well, no racing but 60 solid base miles - could be worse...

Snow joke ... uuurrrgggh!

Hillingdon again, 2nd Jan. Failed break, few laps on/near the front, but mainly relaxing at the back. Rolled over the line at the back of bunch. Rubbish. Here's a picture of me relaxing at the back next to a Kingston Wheeler.

Since then - turbo in the snow. Numerous times! Now it's started snowing again. I need some new sessions and some new music...

Hillingdon was cancelled today, predictably - from the photo I saw there looks to be at least 4 inches of snow. Given my form it's probably a good thing - £11 I can spend on pizza instead.