Category: Racing

My 2 points

Last Thursday myself & Adam were the only 2 of the BSCC gang stupid enough to brave the wind & the rain up at Castle Combe for the second in the summer circuit series. I thought I’d ridden in bad conditions before but this was something else. The wind was unbearable.

20130514-011808.jpg

The race is for cat 3 & 4 riders, my first as a cat 3 & our first race with cat 3 riders this year. The bunch split early on, the pace was pretty fast & the crosswinds even faster. The front pack got smaller & smaller over the first half of the race.

20130514-011950.jpg

The conditions got the better of Adam & he was back with the second group, I hung on the the back of the lead group, literally hung on with everything I had. A 3 man break left us in their dust (water) & about 12 of us raced the remainder of the 17 lap race together, battling with the elements.

20130514-012647.jpg

The bell went for the last lap & to my surprise I was still in contention. Sprint finish time & I fought the finish line headwind, coming 5th in the bunch sprint so 8th in the race. Another couple of points in the bag for me. Fingers crossed the sun shines for our next race.

I won a race

This week us Cat 4 warriors took on the battleground that is Ilton for the first Team Tor circuit race of the year. Conditions were a whole lot nicer than our last visit, with full visibility in the evening sun. This report isn’t as lengthy as my usual ones, but it gives a brief overview of my best race so far.

20130504-121709.jpg

Ed & Adam rode strong at the front of the pack throughout the race, with Ed keeping the pace high especially towards the end with a couple of solo breaks.

20130504-121754.jpg

Myself & Mark sat in the bunch most of the race, I had a pop at the intermediate sprint lap, maybe got a top 5 in that.

20130504-121909.jpg

Coming into the last lap & Mark hopped onto my wheel, we bossed it through & around the bunch all the way to the last turn. It seems some riders got a little sketchy when they saw the red & gold train steaming through.

20130504-121950.jpg

I looked back & Mark was no longer on my wheel, I realised I was the first of the BSCC boys coming in to the final straight, so I did what any aspiring sprinter would do & put in a final effort for the last hundred metres to pull away from the bunch, and turns out nobody else kept up. I’d won the race!

20130506-071526.jpg

Words can’t describe how happy I am with this, hence the short-ish report. A massive thanks to Ed, Mark & Adam for all their help & motivation through this race. I’ll be a Cat 3 rider next time I race, sh*t just got (a little more) real.

First circuit of the year

2 weeks ago myself, Ed & our friends Mark & Adam took part in our first circuit race of the season. It was Ed & Adam’s first race on road bikes & they were understandably nervous about what lay ahead of them but we were all pretty excited about the first race, especially after the fun I had last year.

20130426-114411.jpg

The conditions for the race were without a doubt horrible. It rained the whole way down to Ilton & this put a downer on the whole situation. We kitted up & got on our bikes for some sort of warm up about 10 minutes before race start.

20130426-114452.jpg

The first half of the race was pretty messy (for myself at least) with my only goal being to stay towards the front of the bunch & finish with the masses & I’d be happy. I kept towards the front for the most part, which I was happy with, but any plan to ride as a team seemed like an impossibility in the conditions with the number of riders (around 60).

20130426-114519.jpg

Coming in to the last lap & I felt like I had a little something left in my legs, a 4 man break had gone earlier in the race but 2 riders had dropped off this & I managed to bridge to them. We rode as a 3 man group for the first half of the last lap, I eventually got boxed in by these 2 riders, with the main group catching us soon after. I knew I had to get out of this situation or my race would be over. I managed to squeeze through a handlebar-width gap & got on to the front of the bunch, not ideal but it was better than being trapped. After a short time killing myself on the front the bunch caught up. Luckily at the front of this group was Mark, who had Ed right on his wheel, I tagged onto the back of Ed’s wheel & we rode the last couple of corners in a train, as a team, after an hour of us each riding on our own. After some amazing riding from Mark, coming in to the last corner I broke away from Ed’s wheel. I came out of the last corner in front of everyone, the 2 man break was just crossing the line, but I knew if I kept up the speed I had I could possibly have a chance of doing well in the sprint finish.

20130426-114542.jpg

I actually got out of the saddle & pedalled almost certainly harder than I ever have before. Crossing the line with a feeling of elation & desperation. I say I crossed the line but due to the conditions I don’t even know where the line was. Anyway, 4 days passed & the results were posted online. Turns out I had won the bunch sprint & come in 3rd place after the 2 man break. Result. 7 points in the first race of the year. I’ll take that. All thanks to the brand new BSCC skinsuit no doubt.

20130426-114833.jpg

New beginnings

This weekend sees myself & Ed take on our first circuit race of the season. It will be Ed’s first ever road bike race & my first race in what will hopefully be a full season of circuit racing. We’ll be racing alongside a couple of other Bristol South boys & we’ll all be sporting the awesome new BSCC kit, designed by our good friend Ade Ridley. Here’s a peek at how great this new kit really is:

20130410-092927.jpg

My first race (of the year)

Wednesday evening saw the first of many Bristol South midweek time trials. It was to be my first TT of the year, I was reluctant as to whether I was going to race or not, but as the opener is only a 5.2 mile out & back I couldn’t not do. I opted for racing on the geared road bike, rather than the fixed gear TT build I rode last year. This was firstly because I had a 20 mile ride planned before the race, and secondly because I hadn’t bothered to get a bike together.

20130405-091036.jpg

I had no idea whether the gears (without TT extensions) would make me faster than last year or not. I dug out my time from last year & was aiming for a PB. When we arrived at the meet point it was apparent it would be a hard night for everyone as the headwind on the way out was next level, and average speeds on the way back were 3-4mph faster. Mad on such a flat course. My time came along, I battled the wind on the way out with my average speed being less than 20mph, I was not happy with this so knew I needed to up that drastically on the way back. Luckily that crazy headwind was now a major tailwind giving everyone a physical & mental boost on the way back. I spent most of the time in My biggest gear & out of the saddle, I felt super human for those 7 minutes. I chased down our good friend Adam who set off a minute before me on his first ever TT, and I managed to catch him literally just before the finish line.

20130405-091609.jpg

I put in a time of 14:20, not a PB but decent in the conditions. Ed bagged himself a 12:28 in his new red garms. A big shout out goes to Adam, Dan, Cuff & Hana who were all riding their first ever TT is the least favourable conditions. Here’s to many sunny races this summer!

20130405-091837.jpg

Nateby / Pilling

Venturing to a race by train seems like a good punk rock DIY way to do things.

However after a day in the gutter even a short 6 mile ride back to the station really tests you to the core.

As we came on the final straight towards the finish a rider from Liverpool turned to me and said ‘Imagine if this was Milan – San Remo, only 200 K to go’, well that 6 miles felt like 200 K.

Was it worth it?  Of course it was, a lot of hard work paid off and a team mate took the win.

Triple Peaks Challenge 2013

You may or may not have noticed that I spent the past few weeks making the most of the sun down under in New Zealand. After a couple of weeks riding in the amazing climate on road I put myself forward to take part in the Triple Peaks Challenge, an off-road duathlon taking in 3 of the biggest hills in the Hawke’s Bay area. I was to ride the (mountain) bike leg while 2 of my brothers ran the on foot sections. My part was to be a 21km (13 mile) climb & descent of Mt Kahuranaki, while the runners each had a 13km attack of Mt Erin & Te Mata Peak.

20130316-070616.jpg

The runners set off at 6:55am, it was still dark out but the early start would avoid the intensity of the midday sun (for most competitors). The first leg finished with a river crossing (one of many through the course), and we were pretty happy when our runner came through in around 4th position, all I had to do was keep a decent place in the bike & we’d have a half decent chance of doing ok.

20130316-070849.jpg

Next up was my bike leg, I haven’t ridden, let alone raced a mountain bike for well over a year, so attacking a 2,000ft climb from the off wasn’t going to be a fun occasion. The first stretch was on road, I was fortunate enough to have borrowed a bike with front & rear lockable suspension, so I turned the bike fully rigid & dragged myself up the road drag. This went on for 2 miles, which is a long enough climb for my liking, and then came the off road…

20130316-071303.jpg

I don’t have a clue how to climb off road, and using gears isn’t a speciality of mine either, so I stuck with the middle ring & used a couple of the easier gears on the cassette, I found a cope-able cadence & stuck with it, I had no idea how long the climb would be, but I could see the peak of the hill a long way off & knew the pain wouldn’t be over till I reached it. It turns out the total climb was 5.5 miles, and took me just under 50 minutes to complete. The biggest climb I had ever done, and I was stoked to have over taken a large number of riders on the way up (some people doing the entire race on a bike).

20130316-071620.jpg

I assumed the way back down would be the easiest part, it wasn’t. The 7 mile ‘descent’ was so steep in parts you weren’t able to ride down it, and so undulating that there were sections to steep to ride up, it was mostly across farmers’ fields & paddocks, any hardly resembled a descent at all. This made the second half more of a technical challenge than the first, which wasn’t a bad thing, just not what I was expecting. The flat drags were long, the ditches were deep & the waist height river crossing was cold. I managed to keep a high place in the bike section & was one of the first riders at the hand over, disasters averted, I was pretty stoked.

20130316-071956.jpg

The final run was a steeper one than the first, I’ve ridden up Te Mata Peak & that was hard, so I couldn’t imagine running it. My 17 year old brother had never run that far in his life, he was unsure if he would complete it, we had faith in him & his couple of training runs in the days leading up to the race paid off as he appeared out of the woodland section fairly highly placed. He only had a couple of miles to go & looked to be putting in a very good time. We drove to the finish to await his arrival & to our surprise he came in just seconds before a close competitor. Giving us second place in the team event with a total time of 4:27:43, with just a 4 second gap between us & 3rd place. Needless to say, I’m super happy & a little shocked at how well we did. I’m not sure if I’ll do anything like this again, but I’ve proved to myself something I didn’t realise before – I can actually ride a mountain bike up a hill without it killing me.

20130316-072434.jpg

Saighton

When its minus two degrees Celsius and snowing this is how you (I) layer up for a road race (roughly divided by body zone);

  • Two pairs of socks sandwiching a cling film wrap layer for the feet, shoes with water proof overshoes.
  • Knee warmers, under shorts and thermal bib tights.
  • Two base layers, a water resistant wind proof long sleeve jersey and a club jersey.
  • Buff, merino skull cap, skid lid and vented clear lensed bins.
  • Surgical gloves with waterproof wind proof gloves on top.

 Then you nearly get dropped because someone drills it in a crosswind, but you cling on and get boxed in during a bunch sprint. 

Pimbo

I lifted this picture from somewhere on the internet, apologies for no credit (contact us if you want it…)

The glamour of UK racing.  20 laps around a two and a bit mile loop around an industrial estate of the bohemian new town of Skelmersdale.  Who thought you could have this much fun in a place where most people dread putting in another twelve hour shift on a Sunday.  It was nice to be back surfing wheels and getting my legs ripped off by powerful testers.