Tagged: hamilton wheelers

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.

Snow day

So today myself & Ed were supposed to be in London for the Nocturne Crit as part of the London Bike Show, but due to being right in the middle of a whole load of snow we decided not to risk the drive up, instead I got the cyclocross bike out & had a whole lot of fun in the snow whilst everyone else was building snowmen & sliding down hills. I made a little video to mark the occasion:

Goodbye, my friend

This week has been an emotional one here at Hamilton Towers, as Christian, one third of the HW family has moved north to the big bad city of Manchester. He will be sorely missed by myself, Ed & the entire population of Bristol. We are looking forward to his tales (and the odd blog post) from life up North, and wish him all the luck in the world with his life up there, especially in the road races we know he’ll be smashing it in. We’re certain to see him back in Bristol throughout the year though, hopefully for future Hamilton Wheelers events & some of his favourite road races which he’ll make the trip down for. Don’t think of this as the end, but the start of the Hamilton Wheelers world takeover!

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Have a wheelie good Christmas!

2012 has been an amazing year for us Hamilton Wheelers, the bristol riding scene & cycling in general. We can’t thank you enough for all the support you’ve given us, and have no fear, we’ve loads more exciting plans for 2013. But for now, give yourself a break, eat a lot of food, have a lot of fun & we’ll see you out on the road soon!

Hamilton Wheelers TV

In this day & age a website without a TV station would be as strange as a TV station without a website, that’s why here at Hamilton Wheelers we’ve started up a Vimeo channel. Right now we don’t plan on producing any epics or 12-part series, but we do have a GoPro & will put together riding videos for your entertainment every now & again.

Recently myself & Ed went for a little evening ride around the local area & took the camera along to grab some shots, we thought we’d finally post that for you all to see as it was a lot of fun. I also took the GoPro out on a cyclocross ride, there’s not a lot to it, but it’s at the bottom of this post too. Stay tuned to HWTV as we’ll probably put together various other videos soon.

Time Trialling Round Up

Last year I sampled Time Trialling, it was a mere sip from the cup, a total of about four races I think.

This year I decided to give it a bit more of a proper go.

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I built a fixed TT bike and rode between one and three TTs a week from April through to July.

My fastest time for a 10 on the floatiest of float days was a 22.13 this was over two minutes faster than my best time of last year 24.24, on the same course, the U7B.

The Dolan is now on its way to London, probably to have a set of two inch wide riser bars attached and be used to travel between coffee shops at warp speed.

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There is another bike due to arrive very soon, which will be used for circuit racing and possibly road racing next year. I’m getting it now so I can try and learn how to change gear!

Riding fixed on 110.9 gear inches AKA 1 week 3 TTs

Last week I attached a 13 tooth cog to my bike. This combined with my 55 tooth chainring gave me 110.9 gear inches.

I was scared and excited, would I go really fast? or more likely, be unable to turn this almost proper time trialling gear.

I ended up riding three TTs.

Tuesday: VC Bristol/Kingswood Tri
Wednesday: BSCC
Thursday: Dursley RC

I hit pb’s for two of the three, only missing a third pb, by 5 seconds with a gruesome headwind. I was really happy with the weeks racing and felt good on the bigger gear. I need to keep riding it to increase strength though.

All through the week I was wondering how I was feeling so good and not getting tired. It subsequently hit me this Monday morning when I woke up feeling like crap!

I’m hoping to feel better to ride the Inter Club TT tomorrow night.

Even after attending three events I failed to take a single photo.

I would really like these wheels.

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Inter Club TT Pt2 – Head Wind Vengeance

Last week on Wednesday evening, the second part of the Inter Club TT battle took place.

Most of the BSCC TT big boys, were absent due to holidays. This meant a win was looking unlikely.

I’d headed up with Kieran who’s more accustomed to road racing, but more than able at smashing out a TT!

We pedalled around to warm up and noticed instantly the massive head wind. Oh dear I thought, last time I rode here, the wind destroyed me and my time!

Although it was to be a head wind on the return leg this week. I opted to just ride as hard as possible from the off with the tail wind, and hang on for the return. Something that I’m sure I’ve heard PJ mention.

Well, it worked! Although not a pb, I was really happy with my time of 23.29. It was also the first outing with my disc fitted which may of helped getting back through the wind. Averaging 28.6mph to the turn showed how strong the wind was, as this dropped to 25.5 by the time I’d crossed the line!

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