RTTC Junior National 10 Mile TT Championship - 21/5/11

So the time had come for my first National event of the year, the National 10 Mile Time Trial Championships, promoted by Hartlepool CC on the T102 course near Middlesborough. We headed off on the 4 hour journey at around 7 oclock to allow plenty of time before my start time at 2.20, arriving at about 11.30. We drove the course and found that this event had the worlds longest turn consisting of 2 90 degree sharp left handers, a drag up over a bride then a sweeping left hander back onto the dual carriageway, I figured the event could be won or lost there!! The wind had been howling all morning and it soon became apparent that the longer outward leg would be a block headwind, and the shorter return leg would be a flying tailwind, not ideal but the same for everybody!!

When we stopped in the service station along the course to grab lunch, it was a nice surprise to see Bradley Wiggins, the hot favourite for the mens event and pro rider, getting his bike out of his car. I went over and had a chat with him for 10 minutes or so, before he wished me luck and declared he was off to ride the course 3 times, oh how the pros do it differently!! Really nice down to earth guy though.

Me & Brad.

I started all my pre-race prep nice and early, and began warming up about 40 minutes before my start time, felt like my legs were working okay on the turbo, and by the time I rocked up to the start I was feeling warmed up and ready to go.

I started quickly down the slightly sheltered slip road, quickly getting up to 25mph, but when I joined the dual carriageway my speed considerably dropped and with a couple of drags up to the turn it all meant that my 5 mile split was 13.42, an average speed of 21.9mph.

 At the 5 mile mark

I sped round the turn in pretty good time with the rider just before me in my sights, I rejoined the dual carriageway and soon overtook the rider in front of me, Hannah Barnes of Motorpoint who would go on to take the Junior Womens title, well done to her. I sped home with a brilliant tailwind and the second 5 miles took a mere 9 minutes and 42 seconds, averaging 31mph all the way back, with a top speed of 39.7mph over the finish line!!

Pushing on down the DC!

I rolled back to the finish HQ wondering how I had placed and how other riders had got on. When I got back to HQ it turned out I was 4th fastest thus far in a time of 23.24, but with a lot of quick guys still to come in I knew I would be hard pushed to crack the top 10. I ended up in 15th place, but a lot closer to a top 10 placing than it first seemed, 13 seconds slower than 10th place. The win went to Ryan Mullen of Planet X in an astonishing time of 21.33, 37 seconds ahead of Alex Royle in second, last years champion Oli Rossi rounded off the podium a further 17 seconds down.

Overall I was very pleased with my performance, and happy to show I can compete highly at National events. The ride has also given me the confidence to push on and aim for top 10 in the National 25, which takes place on June 5th in Cornwall!

In the Womens event, Julia Shaw was run very close by Laura Trott of 100% ME, but in the end Shaw, riding for drag2zero.com won in a time of 22.53, followed by Trott in 2nd with 22.57, 3rd place went to Hannah Mayho of 100% ME, in 23.28.

The mens event went to Bradley Wiggins in a phenomenal time of 19.14, worth noting his 5 mile time of 11.01, meant that he averaged 27.2mph into a block headwind... enough said. The comp record holder Michael Hutchinson took 2nd in 19.55, with Joe Perrett rounding off the podium in 20.26.

No events planned before the National 25, but I will probably do a few club TTs, and maybe a midweek crit somewhere..

Until then.

Ciao.

Reading CC Road Race - 15th May

Today I did a road race promoted by Reading Cycling Club, it was held on the Great Milton circuit, the same as the Thames Velo road race earlier in the year. The race was to be 60 miles, a lot longer than any other race I had done before, it was also including 2nd cat riders, so the race itself would be faster, longer, and tougher!!

On the start line we held a minutes silence in memory of the late Wouter Weylandt, a fantastic young rider who was tragically taken from us in a stage of this years Giro D'Italia, a great mark of respect to Wouter. The race itself did not start well for me personally, as after less than a mile I heard a crunch and noticed my front mech grinding on my chain, the mech had somehow bent out of shape and was rubbing on the chain making the worlds most annoying sound... I had no choice but to continue on ignoring the horrible sound of rubbing metal!! The race continued at high speed through various villages and along the long straight road up to the climb of Clare Hill, I was near the back of the bunch the first time up the hill and having not felt great for the first few miles I struggled up and got blown out of the back, I spent the next 2-3 miles trying to bridge the gap back to the bunch with one other guy and eventually made it, on my own, I dropped the other guy with a huge dig to make the last few metres back on.

The next lap was all about resting and recovering, I did this pretty well and just stayed out of trouble in the middle of the peloton. A break of 8 got away during the 2nd lap, but I didn't have the legs to go with them at that point so just watched them ride away. As we approached the climb for the 2nd time, I found myself in a much better position and felt slightly stronger, having warmed up fully now. I made it over the top near the front of the group, then disaster... I slipped my chain off and couldn't get it back on, I pulled over and struggled to get the chain back onto my chainring. The neutral service car stopped and helped me sort it out, and then quickly paced me back up to the main group... averaging 33mph behind a car is always fun!!

I caught back onto the group around the start of the 3rd lap and started to feel a lot stronger from then on. I led the group over the hill for the 3rd time and was feeling good! I stayed on or near the front for the remainder of the race, and felt good right to the end!! Worth noting is that I managed to get through the feed-zone unscathed, photographic evidence is below!! Thanks to Henry Peacock got passing up the bottle.

Grabbing on to a bottle!!

The last lap consisted of me jumping on to every move that went away, and always getting brought back... I was still feeling strong though and doing my fair share of the work on the front. The breakaway was still up the road and looked to be staying away, so it was down to a sprint for the minor placings.

With 2k to go I was up near the front hovering about 3rd wheel, but I judged it wrongly and heading into 1k to go I found myself on the front... That was my sprint out of the window... I decided to try a lead-out for my team mate Gunther who I knew was sitting behind me. It worked well but I left him with a little too far to go and he could only manage 5th/6th in the sprint and 14th overall. My race did not end there as I had a personal battle to finish with a friend of mine Harry Strudley from Team AW Cycles... It was close as we both lunged for the line, as yet it is unclear who took this epic battle for 40th place...

Epic contest with Harry...

In general I am happy with my race, especially after the 2 early mechanicals. I felt strong in the latter stages of the race which bodes well for future longer races. I still need to work on my position towards the end of races, but I am getting there!!

Race Stats are 60.5 miles at 25.7mph with over 2000ft of climbing and a top speed of 39.7mph!!

National 10 next Saturday...

Ciao.

MK Bowl - 12th May

Went to the MK Bowl this Thursday for a 3/4 circuit race, mainly to be used as training, but as always I was looking to get a decent result. The race started with half an hour on an inside loop of the bowl before extending out around the bowl for the second half, with the second half being much more technical.

The race itself started slow for a couple of laps before people started shooting off the front, including team-mate Cameron Foster, I kept myself near the front, and having seen Cameron attack off the front for a second time, I also sprinted off the front to try and bridge the gap to Cam. I looked behind to see another rider bridging across behind me, Lucy Garner of the Motorpoint Ladies Team. 3 Juniors in a break off the front and we thought we had a decent gap at one point, although it was probably only about a quarter of a lap in reality, and despite working well together we were never destined to stay away and got caught after around 7 or 8 laps on our own.

Myself, Cam & Lucy pushing on.

Nothing much happened after this and the race seemed to be heading for a sprint, on the final lap I made up ground to get up near the front of the bunch, and onto the final climb to the line I started sprinting slightly too late and lost a few more placings than I should have. I ended up 14th out of about 35-40 riders, Cameron got 10th so gets a solitary point for the team!

My proper race for this week is on Sunday, the Reading CC Road Race, on the Great Milton circuit. 60 miles/100km and a cat 2/3/4 race, so I am really psyched up for that!!

Ciao.

Didcot Phoenix 25 Mile TT - Sunday 8th May

Sunday morning saw the first 25 mile time trial of the season for me, it had rained heavily overnight, and I woke up to find it was quite wet on the ground, and the trees were blowing in the wind. Not ideal conditions when going for a new PB! However with the power gains I had made over the winter, I was confident that I could beat my previous PB of 58:21. The course was the H25/17 which goes along the A420 towards Faringdon from Cumnor, then retraces back to Cumnor, it is a mix of single carriageway and dual carriageway roads, and is gently rolling the whole way through, overall not a superfast course, but by now means completely slow.

I started off at 08.17, and when I started off down the slip road I soon got up to speed and found myself flying down the road. My average speed was soon up at around 28mph thanks to the rapid downhill start, as the miles rolled by, my average speed settled down to around 27mph, not bad considering this was a slight cross-headwind on the way out, I soon caught my minute man, and my 2 minute man the legendary John Woodburn, and by the time I reached the turn roundabout I had passed 5 riders. I reached the turn at just over 13 miles in 30:07, 4th fastest to the turn and only 4 seconds slower than the 3rd placed rider on the road. I soon felt the effects of my fast outward leg because I started to feel the lactic acid build up in my legs, luckily I managed to carry on at a steady pace. With 3 miles to go, Steve Golla of La Fuga passed me, I managed to keep him in my sights till the finish and after pushing up the final climb to the finish, I found I had recored a time of 56:48.

I was very happy with this as I was aiming for a long 57, so I achieved my goal and came 4th overall in the event, whilst also taking 1st junior. Steve Golla won the event in 53:21, with Danny Axford taking second in 54:00. Overall I am very pleased with my new PB, and I now want to get on a superfast course and go for a 54 or 53!!

Things are looking good for the national championships, and if I can hold my form I am on course for some good results!

Ciao.

Busy week!!

Hey all,

Racing started this weekend with a 41 miles road race near Milton Keynes, the Andy Morrison Memorial, run over a short 2.5 mile course that we were to cover 18 times. The course consisted of one long downhill with a tailwind... one long uphill drag with a headwind, and a straight to finish. Race started rapidly and I stayed tucked nicely into the peloton for the first half of the race, choosing not to contest any of the prime sprints. About halfway through the race a break of 2 got away from the bunch, and would go on to stay away for the victory. The bunch never got organised with the chase, so it came down to a sprint for 3rd place. Coming down the downhill section for the final time with 2 miles to go, I found myself at the front of the group, not a bad thing on a fast descent, but we then hit the drag with the headwind, bad position, bad time to be on the front. I had no choice but to drag the bunch along as I could see the break of 2 about 30 seconds up the road. With about 1.5 miles to go I realised I was not going to have enough energy to contest the sprint, so I went for a flyer off the front, got a small gap but that lasted all of about half a mile before the peloton wound it up. I ended up rolling in near the front of the main bunch, with team-mate Gunther Zechmann taking 6th place, and closet Zappi Mike Betts bagging a top 10 to boot. Not a bad race, and legs are starting to feel stronger with each road race!

 Leading the bunch onto the downhill section.

Monday morning saw a return to the ridiculously early mornings, only known to the testers of this world, time trials will always fascinate me with their choice of starting at 7am... hey ho. This was a 10-mile open event on the H10/181 course in Witney, Oxfordshire. A blustery day meant that no fast times were expected on the day, however with the addition of my new 60mm deep front wheel, I was hoping to match my time of 22.01 from 3 weeks previous on the same course. I turned up to the start to find my minute man was a DNS, nobody to aim for.. great, it so happens that I caught my 2 minute man at the turn anyway! The conditions were windy on the way out, windy on the way back. Not ideal. I finished with a time of 22.10, which after seeing the times of others, I was not at all dissapointed with. Chris Ball won the event in 22.20, a good minute slower than the event 3 weeks prior to this one, so I definately went faster relative to that event!

Tuesday night I rode over to Sutton Courteney for a handicapped training ride, going off with a guy on his TT bike, I expected a working over, we pushed hard to get round and caught/dropped all those in front of us by the 1 mile to go mark. I easily did him in the sprint. A good training session!

Tonight I did the Didcot Phoenix club 10 on CC241, a potentially fast single carriageway course... but containing no less than 11 roundabouts! I took the win in this event by 7 seconds, recording a time of 22.20, very happy with that and pleased to take my first win of the season!

First 25 this weekend, looking forward to that and aiming to knock a good minute off by current pb of 58.21.
Until then.

Ciao.