Ogmore Valley Wheelers 25m TT

My very first trip over to Wales - its a near seven hour round trip, so to make life easier I travelled down on Saturday and camped overnight at the Parc Cwm Darran near Bargoed in the pop up Palace!

Up nice and early and even had time to take in a nice walk before packing up and heading over to the HQ in Hirwaun. A nicely run event with everything laid out easily, there are a lot of organisers that could learn from these folks (me included !).

Plenty or warming up and out to the industrial estate for the start of the time trial. The course is the super fast R25/3H which features a gift hill between miles 2 &5, and is an out and back dual carriageway job.

Nicely warmed up I perfectly time rocking up for my 10.37 start and was soon hurtling away heading towards the A365 on the rolling single carriage first part - controlled things really well, keeping on top of my cadence and effort. The first half mile of dual carriageway is slightly uphill, but it was soon time to go over the top and down the mountain ! It went a bit wrong here, when my chain jumped and nestled itself between the 12 and the frame, which meant a pit stop to get off and free it off. Disappointing to say the least but I kept my cool and concentrated on my power target and a decent cadence.  I lost time and my section out to the turn was my slowest of the race in comparison to me peers. The turn at seven sisters is a grind up and over on a long looping slip road and a couple of roundabouts - care really has to be taken here as it is very easy to take the wrong slip. Back on the road back, it climbs slightly and although it would have been ace to have a backwind, it was nice enough to get a slight cross head only. My power kept jumping and I now know its my cadence zeroing out every now and again and I have to learn to manage that as I've been backing off without any need to.

By McDonalds roundabout I was still in good shape and enjoyed a strong last couple of miles to finish with a 55.30 on the day which was probably more of a mid 54 when the stop is accounted for.

Would dearly love to ride the course again this year - an overall positive experience !

Getting the pacing wrong...

Sleaford Wheelers Charity 10 

The plan was a simple one - go over to a course I know well. Implement the three C's ! (Composed, Controlled & Consistent), win an Easter Egg in the raffle - come home.

Sounds like a good plan then - so....who shall we send ? How about a numpty !!!

All of the above went a little bit out of the window and I don't really know why. My finishing time of 22:58 was a course PB for me by 59 seconds and I should be over the moon - from the outside looking in you would say that time was a very good result on a day that had 18mph crosswind on the course - but it hides the ugly truth - my power control today was piss poor !

I had enjoyed a decent warm up and was aware that although there was a strong crosswind, it was going to still be a resonably quick day. At that point I estimated that I would do well to achieve a 23 with a quick ride to the turn and then a slog on the return. Once I had started though, I was almost immediately aware that the outleg would not be as greasy fast as I had figured it would be - this probably made me panic a little bit and as such my power reading was through the roof, then... when I tried to bring it down, I must have eased off too much as it swung wildly either side of the 300W I was aiming for.

This meant that I got to the turn quickly, but I was too much in front of where I should have been and boy did it hurt on the return. In comparison to other riders around me in the results, I was up at the turn, but lost more on the return leg which was 10W down overall on my outleg.

The last two miles were painful, but I kept a lid on it and in a way happy that my time began with a 22. It is progression, but I came away thinking how much better it could have been.

It's a 25 next week, and a first trip to the R25/3H course in South Wales

Wind 18mph WNW
Temp 15c
NP 296W

A trio of sportives...

So following the middlemarkers I embarked on a period of more training and absolutely no racing for a few weeks. To keep things interesting, I entered a few sportives to pass the time as I found that I got on better with other riders on the road, the security of knowing where the heck I was going and most importantly, throwing in some good climbing.

26th March, Cheshire Cat - 62 miles

I headed over to Cheshire on a very nice Sunday to tackle the medium route 62 miler. In terms of climbing, it was not the most severe of tests, but it did throw in Mow Cop which is one of Britain's top 100 climbs and can only be described as a mile long climb with a wall of concrete at the end of it. Nice experience apart from hitting a pothole on a descent and totalling my phone which was sitting in nicely in my bento box up until that point. This was after I had managed to achieve a secret ambition of mine of making it up Mow Cop. Andy 1 Climbing 0

1st April - Tour Of Flanders Sportive - 87 miles

Staying over at the in laws, I was given licence to bob off for the day and tackle the famous cobbled climbs of the tour of flanders. Three very famous sections and plenty of tarmac and cobble climbs to tackle. Took the cyclo cross bike with the same set up as last years Roubaix adventure and did just fine. The weather threatened rain all day but thankfully stayed dry throughout. I had little problem with two of the climbs , making it up Oude Kwaremont & the Pateburg, however, the Koppenburg defeated me purely losing the front wheel on the steep section when forced to take a muddy line - otherwise I'd have sorted that one as well. One of the most pleasurable experiences on a bike I've ever had.

7th April - Tour Of The Wolds Sportive - 52 miles

Back in blighty, and another lovely day, and a trip out to the wolds which are local to me, to do a quick 52 miler at training pace. No pressure, just concentrated on keeping a level pace and let myself go on some of the climbs - nothing famous mind, just honest Lincolnshire hills. One of the first back and came 4th - it's not a race though, you just get a time, a category and a finishing position - yeah right !