Hope Against Cancer Leicestershire SuperTour

This was the first Sportive that I had entered in over a year and chose the 115 mile + 5km run option for the day. The event is put on by ITP events which is the same crew that run the Lincoln Grand Prix Sportive amongst others. This was a warm up for Ironman Wales in September and I fitted tri bars to the road bike in preparation.

HQ was in a village called Sutton Bennington and the route was basically a large squashy loop of Leicestershire. I started with three of my Wheelers buddies but broke away after about 7 miles or so and rode the last of the sportive solo.

The aim of the day was to try and average 15mph as this what I want to achieve as a minimum in Wales. The climbing for the day was supposed to be over 5000 feet too so conditions would be replicated. I started just after 8am with three other Wheelers buddies but we had split off by about mile 7 as the course began to climb and climb. In the initial third of the route it seemed that all we did was climb and I have to say I really started to like it. No rush, just make sure to get up them without building up the old lactic acid was the order of the day.

There were feed stations and I opted to miss the first one, but was ready for the one at 60 miles though. Plenty of cake followed in the three minutes that I allowed myself inside !
The second half of the ride was a little longer than the first as some joker had changed the signs around and I ended up being sent up a hell of a climb to Uppingham and off course. 9 miles in the A47 put me back in the game and I rejoined the official course for the last 20 miles or so. By the end, I had covered 120 miles, done lots and lots of hills (6400ft of climbing! ) and still had a run to do.

It was hot, hot, hot and I didn't really fancy the run, but did it anyway, on what was an out and back around a cone job.

Final results were 7.55 for the ride & 24 minutes for the 5k so a good days training done and dusted.

Local TT catch up

22.07.14 GPdesGents 25.02

The annual club 'grab an older guy', do a 2up and then get lots of time bonus dependant upon age of the riders. I hooked up with my regular partner again whos 49 this year , however, riding against teams with 70 year olds in them meant that although we did well on scratch again, we lost time on 'age-back' and ended up 7th overall.

12.07.14 Lincoln Wheelers Charity 10
A first ride on the Ingham course this year and a test for the new Chinese wheels.The day should have been a fast one as it was very hot and seemed not to be very windy. I was no.58 for the day and had my mate Tricky behind me to keep me on my toes !  The start could have gone better, and I found that I had ridden the first mile in the small ring ! Right, change up and full on time trialling mode.  Made the turn at 24.6 mph average and turned into a head wind !  A very slow slog back to the start and then one gift downhill later saw me finish in a not as well as expected 24.14. A look at the results board helped the heart a little as it was clear it was a slow day for all !

09.07.14 Gainsborough InterClub 10m TT
A load of Lincoln Wheelers rocked up at East Stockwith for an InterClub rumble with our friends trent Valley, Retford, Viking Velo, & Aegir.  It was a windy night on a rectangular course that was hard work for half of it really working hard into the headwind, and then a lovely backwind for most of the return leg to bring the average back up to something reasonable. My eventual time read 23.56 for a SC PB (albeit 9.9miles), and 11th out of 41 riders on the night. Wheelers came 3rd overall.

08.07.14 Lincoln Wheelers 25mile Club Champs
Back on the Bardney course, so a mad rush to leave work to get signed on by 6.30pm. Got there early enough for race no.2 ! Which meant that after I
'd caught Pete who rode at No1, I had nobody to chase down for 20 odd miles ! didn't struggle with the wind and had a lovely little push up the finishing straight and rises to register an overall time of 1.03.08 which is a 25 mile PB.

01.07.14 Lincoln Wheelers Club 10 Champs
Daves first TT which ended with a puncture, but still strange chasing your own brother down ! Rode best ride of the season so far to claim 3rd place on the night with 24.25 finish and some good rider of the season points.

24.06.14 Newton 10TT 24.40
Similar conditions to the week before and where with some rest I suppose I could have improved, I was glad to be only a second slower than the previous week with the 100 still in my legs from two days before !

17.06.14 Newton 10TT 24.39
An after the lords mayor show type performance as although I still felt good, I was a bit behind where I should have been on a night where conditions were favourable for a fast time. 24.39 is not too bad though for a course thats said to be 10.1miles and therefore 20 seconds adrift of an accurate 10 miles.