LVRC race 29th May

A hot headed affair this one. Got caught in a huge crash that forced me onto the grass. Tim punctured and had to run back for a spare wheel.
Then finally we got moving. Both Tim and myself doing more than our share of work in the chasing group.
Sadly I was put out by a packed rider just after the hour, but I didn't end up hurt like the others he took out.
Very happy with our efforts - 'Die trying'

Tim in the office

Ready to roll

Colchester Utd, turbos, Amy, racing, lactic, wind & cobwebs

No excuse for an Amy piccy needed

Well I've just concluded a good week of riding after my longest period off the bike in years.
It all started with a trip to Colchester United for a works 5 a side tournament. Now footy and cycling aren't the best of bedfellows, so I took care to take care! Though sadly I woke the next day with stiff legs. Not a brilliant way to be with a crit coming up a day later.
So there's only one thing for it, a nice easy hour on the tubos with the lovely Ms Winehouse for comapany - total babe. She did it, she eased my pains.
Tuesday, the day of the race went as good as it could at work - not always the case. I managed to get down several litres of electrolyte drink, and half a litre of caffeine enhanced energy drink on the way to the race.
The race itself was an LVRC race on the full circuit at the National Bowl. The full circuit suits me as it has several tough corners, something that suits cyclocrosser like myself. Anyhow the race was a fast but controlled affair, as is often the case when the 'old' boys are racing. I managed to finish in the main bunch, and only had one incident when a lapped rider from the 'A/B' race fell back and took my line, leaving me to chase hard to avoid being shelled out. Overall I'm pretty happy. I actually feel more worried about backing it up with another ride this week.
I took a day out the following day. And rode Thursday with Nick-No-Balance. This was meant to be an easy affair, but my legs were heavy with lactic and I struggled round the two hour ride.
The next ride was Saturday. My first ride of 2012 in the sun and in shorts! again this was meant to be steady, long but steady. Going out I felt great cruising over 23mph. Turning for the very long stint to Redbourn I found out why - headwind. I had a battle on my hands just to keep going. The wind was ferocious. Sections I'd normally blast in the 53 ring had me grovelling in my climbing gears. By Ivinghoe Beacon I was actually swearing out loud at the weather. I was also dreading the long uphill return leg, and spent the remainder of the ride making calculations on what roads to take so I could take advantage of a tailwind out of Redbourn. Of course being as brilliant as I am it worked, and I had a long 'no chain' ride all the way back.
Still it hadn't done much to alleviate the lactic issue! Therefore I decided to take steadiest option on our Sunday club ride, a nice sunny ride to Stony for coffee. We stopped off at Costa in Stony and met the medium pace group as agreed. Costa was an interesting interlude as I was getting eyed up by a middle aged woman checking out my package. Looking down I could see that the padding in my shorts had slipped, but rather than adjust  myself I left it so and gave her a wink on the way out.
Going home in the sun was a treat. Then I noticed something. 'Iain, no offense mate, I'm not saying we're going slow, but you've got a cobweb on ya back' he actually did. Piss taking ****ing spider.
So all ready for Tuesdays crit, and no pressure even with most the club on marshaling duties for the day.

The Globe Sportive

Okay so we're all doing this on Sunday. What time are we meeting? No problem, meet at 8.00am. 'It starts at 8.00am' Okay then 7.45am. 'Thought it was 7.30am'. 'That's what I thought'. Let's call it 7.45am. Deal.
We arrived at the start just in time to watch everyone leaving! After signing on we finally set off at gone 8.30am. Three of us are doing the 60 miles and the rest of the club are riding the 25 miler. The three of us doing the 60 set off just ahead, that's Tim, Paul and myself.
Settling into the ride is pretty easy, it's nippy but the wind is non existent so we can press on without working the legs. Both Tim and myself are racing two days later so we have to keep it in the pants all day.
The route is unknown to us, but we predict hills. I don't know Pete who has organized this ride all that well, but I do know he is old skool and isn't going to ponce about with main roads - that suits me just fine.
Actually I saw Pete sweeping up near Eggington and nearly missed my marker!
So as predicted we set off for the Brickhills. First up was an easy warm up on the Three Locks climb (you missed a classic up Braggenham Lane Pete) Once over the top it's a fast section to Aspley Woods with a long trudge up to the start of the Bow Brickhill climb. It's a bugger of a climb, but I once raced up it on a fixed wheel during a club hill climb so any gears make it easier in my mind.
The next section covers some of my favorite local riding through Aspley Woods and Stockgrove Park, narrow twisty forest lined lanes. It's at Stockgrove that we meet Toni and Rob. Toni is on her first organized ride and looked comfortable, Rob looked freezing.
Next up was 'Paris Roubaix Hill' It's on this climb that Paul takes off leaving Tim and myself to knock out some easy miles with tailwind assistance. It's on this section after PR Hill that we drop all the riders that had been tailing us, and in the distance I can see Paul turn back to Eggington.
It gives us time to reflect on the fact that this is about the longest two team jerseys have ever rode together without a gap?
Back to the ride. somehow we catch Paul who in turn has caught two 'Team Sky' riders on full blown TT machines.But as we near they notice and hunker down into their Tri Bars and pull away. Yeah I'd be pissed if two old boys on training bikes had caught me riding hardware like that.
Next we meander through the villages, past the 25 cut off and to the start of Bison Hill. Rather disappointingly Bison Hill was pretty easy today, probably due to keeping the pace steady. From here we go through Studham  and descend Pedley Hill. At the bottom of Pedley Hill we catch up with Tony. Tony informs us that Paul has stopped off at the café for some protein. He could have waited for cake at the finish (there's a private joke in there) We ride with Tony up the next climb to Deer Leap, through Ashridge and down Toms Hill into Aldbury. I'm sure I heard a little 'Parp; when he realized he needed his brakes on the fast gravely bend at the bottom - reminded me of a young Alex Zulle the way he went down there.
We parted company near Stocks Country Club and settled into a steady 2 up just to eat up the remaining few flat miles. All that was left were Slapton, Eaton Bray and Totternhoe and you ended up at the front door of event HQ.
It was a thoroughly good ride. The company was great during the ride and it was great to see club riders at the start and finish. The coffee and cake was also very welcome, though I didn't have any cake....why?

Red and green should never be seen

Chairman &Tim on Bow Brickhill

Feeling full of beans on Bison Hill

I'll pencil this one in for next year as well, so thanks Globe RC.

Earth Wind & Mire

Riding has been a bit of a bummer since the imperial ton I rode last week. It's been a busy period at work, and I've felt tired on top of that. My legs feels like they're finishing a ride when I've only just set off and my breathing has been hard. I've now concluded that I've been ill or fighting off illness.
Another downer was the cancellation of my first race of the year. I was to have been racing at Weekley Woods near Kettering, but there had been an illegal rave on the land and the party goers have destroyed the place. It just means that now I'd have to go straight into the road season without a settling in race.
Furthermore the only chance I got to even look at my bike over the weekend was on a day of gale force winds and driving rain. Still I decided to go out. I drove myself to Stockgrove for an easy XC session, but arriving there it soon became clear it wasn't worth the effort and possibly even dangerous. So I had a token spin and went home.
My next ride was a two hour evening XC session with Nick. Again the ride was bloody hard, but after an hour I started to feel my old self again and didn't want to go home. That said I knew I was million miles from ready for the racing next week.
We had a great ride, one of those rides where you don't realize how hard every part of your body is working to stay upright and keep going in a straight line.
Just how hard the going was that night, was the fact that Nicks rear mech was ripped straight out of the frame!
Next on my get ready to race agenda is a 1 1/2 hour resistance turbo session, steady. And a 100km at the weekend again at under normal pace. Hopefully this will get me fresh for the first race rather than tired or ill..
However feeling like this I think my arse is going to be royally served back to me on a plate come Tuesday night.
I just have to remember that from now on I have eight solid months of racing ahead of me. Road and XC, then the cross season.
Still this sign cheered me right up Tuesday night, very So-Cal.

The 'F' word

Tour De Romandie 2012

Congrats Wiggo, now get yer fricking haircut

1st Hundred of the year

I had intended to do the first 100 miler of the year last week, but that went pear shaped. So I made the decision to get up early and get off out.
However before I did the ton I'd completed the penultimate week of my turbo training plan, hard sessions on both Friday and Saturday. And I had decided to skip training on Monday's as training five days in a row was proving tough.
Before the ride I'd made several mental notes. One was to take it easy, this was with London-Paris-London in mind. The other was to weigh the bike and myself down with kit.
So I set off at 7.20am wearing a full rain jacket, not because it was raining but because it was so cold. I also rode most of the first hour with my fists clenched to stop my fingers freezing.
The route was my old 100km Redbourne loop, but with extra loops chucked in - forming a clover leaf route.
Out through Wing, Stewkley, Cublington and Wingrave the route was standard. But when in Cheddington instead of going straight on I took a right and took off for the Crong. This was the first extra loop taking in Cholesbury, Wiggington, Tring, and the Wilstead reservoirs before arriving back at my turn off point to get back on track. From there it was to Pitstone, but instead of heading for Toms Hill I went out again heading back up on another road to Wiggington. There I did a loop just touching Chesham before heading towards Northchurch on the A41 to pick up the road that would take me up and over Ivinghoe Beacon. From there near Deer Leap it's back on track, but instead of turning towards Bridens Camp I went straight on into Hemel and promptly got not lost just confused. I finally found my back to the A4146 which isn't a nice road to be on and was made all the worse by getting a puncture.
With the puncture sorted I climbed up to Bridens Camp and too the reverse route into Redbourne. Redbourne was a sort of turning point as I was heading back ready to do another leg of the ride.
I had dreadful headwind all the way back to Studham. And I couldn't take my planned route from there due to an accident and a closed road. I shot down past the golf course and into Dagnall to start the second climb of the Beacon. Once over the top I turned right to descend Toms Hill into Aldbury and back towards Tring. At Tring station I turned once again towards Pitstone and made my third ascent of the Beacon....well semi ascent! just missing the final section of the climb off.
From there I rode through Ivinghoe Aston and out to 'Train Robbers Bridge' and into Ledburn. Just pulling into Ledburn my rear tyre gave way again. That was both my spares gone, and I was about two miles from home. A quick look on the clock and I'd just gone over 100 miles.
I had been thinking of doing another fifty miles, but two punctures and being near home was too much of a temptation. So home it was.
I was pretty happy with my sub six hour time, seeing as I was solo and it had been very windy. I might try a bit further on the lighter bike and without mudguards next month?

The Crong looking very Holy

Thought of the day - how the hell did Tommy Godwin manage twice that a day every day for a year?

New bike new shoes

I thought it was about time I ventured out with the new combo. The new combo being the TCR Advancd and Mavic shoes.
I had planned to ride the Evans 90 today, with the option of bailing and doing the 62 but I was talked into doing the club run. They miss my whinging if I'm not there.
Anyway the Giant was noticeably different from the off. Stiffer and lighter and made of top end Torray T800 carbon. Not surprising I guess compared to the heavier and flexi Airborne. So it was a shame about the wind!
During the ride I was happy to ride as much as possible off the front, really to test the set up, but I had forgotten to fit the computer so I had no idea how we were going.
Our ride took us out Buckingham way with the intention of riding into the headwind so we could get the payback when we turned around. Regardless of the wind the pace was good and we had time to go for village signs, well not me. Then after a long tough stint into the wind my clubmates went for another sign, this time taking the group with them. As I couldn't respond I fell back and sat with Andy who was tired from Saturdays effort and was only able to ride in the small ring. For some reason no one waited, I caught up and explained that we had a man off the back and fell back to ride with them, but still no one waited. Feeling a bit miffed by this and not doing my long one I had a massive flounce and went my own way.
Group communication needs working at if we are to sprint off at random points.
Anyway by then a small group of four was returning to Leighton and after a short while we had a nice little line going and slowly built the speed up, until we had it going full tilt in the drops.

Giant TCR Advanced just built

Once home I swapped bikes and had a good stint on the turbos listening to Amy Winehouse. I tried to work out why we have trouble keeping our rides tight. I have some thoughts, but I'll save those for the next meeting.