Ingham 10's Round Up

26.08.14  24.04
One of those rides where I thought I had gone well only to find that I was a good 20 seconds off the pace !  Mind you, I am in peak training for Ironman Wales so probably not a surprise. The season seems overloaded right now and a 'fixture' congestion is apparent as I'm chasing various leagues and trophies. I might need to pick and choose what I do going forward !

19.08.14 23.54

Pleasing to be under the 24 again, however, just two days after my efforts at the County 25's, and on what I thought would be the fastest night of the series - I was slightly disappointed with this result !

The wind was a NW, at about 7-8mph so should have been ideal, but there just wasn't either the cadence or the power and as a result a struggled my way through the whole ten miles. This time next week sees a final effort on this course for the year and I am hoping for a better return. In hindsight though, this time last year I would have been giddy with this result !)

12.08.14  24.40

My slowest time on Ingham but also a better ride if that makes any sense. It was going to be a slower night all told in any case because there was a strong 14mph semi head wind on the way back which was more head than semi !!

Coupled with this, I had a moment within 100 metres of starting where I shifted from the bottom ring and the chain jumped ver the top ring - at this moment I gave up and coasted waiting for traffice to pass to turn around. Somehow, the chain caught again and I had a really good ride from thereonin ! By not bothering with what the Garmin said and just pedalling as hard as I could, I actually gained time back and my 6th place on the night was not a disaster !

05.08.14  23.46

This was the first proper night back on the Ingham course and despite the previous nights Aquathon exploits was looking for a reasonable performance. My PB for the course was 24.00 set last year, in fact my slowest ride has been 24.14, so over 4 previous rides I have managed to be pretty consistent.

This was an inter club event with our friends at Trent Valley where the fastest 3 riders on the night from each team would be joined by the best 3 on handicap for a combined total. My brother Dave was riding his first night on his new TT bike and would be aiming for a good handicap score.

The course is a straight out and back - 4.8 miles to a roundabout, and then 5.2 miles back including a nice little downhill finish which makes up for the undulating nature of the course.  From the off, I attacked the first stretch and found that I was holding a steady 25 mph at the roundabout turn. There was an initial headwind on the return leg as the wind came over the exposed part of the ridge but other than that it was just the usual undulations which have more of an upward profile on the return .

I managed to get calf cramp on the smash down the hill, but that didn't matter cos I passed the finish at Cammeringham in just 23.46 - a 14 second PB for the course. Dave rode an excellent 30.06 in his first effort on his TT bike and together both Newhams helped the Wheelers to the overall win on the night in a hotly contested erm…contest !