Bardney Cyclocross

This would be the very last event in the Lincs Cyclocross League and is their Handicap race. This meant that today would be more about the performance and less about the finishing position.

It was cold, and there had been a hard frost the night before, the recent bad winds had abated though and it was a pretty windless day on Bardney Fen !

There must have been less than 30 of us Vets that made the trip to Bardney and again I found myself gridded onto the fourth row - not that it makes much difference because I quickly fell backward places during the opening sprint - and then I started to make them back up again, so that was OK.

The course is split into two halves really - a faster first half which is out into flatland and a quick up and down a bank to contend with, and a second half of more technical lumpy ground, with some off camber work and a down and up ditch effort.

Lap 1 saw me learn the course and lap two saw me moving up the field a little bit. Lap three was my best lap and I fought tooth and nail with a fella from Arrow Cycles. There were two lads in front of us, but neither of us worked together and as a result never got close enough to them.

I started to fade on lap four , but again managed to avoid being lapped which meant that I had lap 5 to attend to. I was literally hanging out of my arse on this last lap (technical term), but enjoying it at the same time. That was it, the last race of the season and nine months of doing other stuff until it starts again in September.

Winter Double

Boxing Day 26.37 (trike)
New Years Day 19.32

The Lincoln Wheelers Winter Double is historically a two race series that takes place on Boxing Day and New Years Day - two days of the year that a good race is the perfect antidote to seasonal excesses !

Boxing Day this year was to be a fancy dress affair for which I dessed all 70's like and rode the trike, and New Years Day was to be all serious ! This is how my Winter Double unfolded :

Boxing Day - I went off at No.1 knowing that the trike would be slow compared to some of the field. My flared trousers flapped in the wind and my leather jacket looked like a bat cape ! It was hard work and the 12 weeks that I had put in on the turbo seemed to have had no effect at all. A struggle round and a time of 26.37 in the end. I think I'll stick to skinsuits !

New Years Day - A very windy day at c.20mph whereas Boxing Day had been a gentler 8. This made the course backwind, headwind and then crosswind. I started well enough and got to the Torsksey turn with an average of around 25.5mph. The 3 mile stretch along the A1133 into headwind killed this stone dead and the average dropped to around 22.9 by the end of it. I battled the crosswind along the A57 and managed to get to around 23.5mph by the end. I did notice that I span the pedals better than last year and overall probably pleased with the time. 19.37 at the line - I think theres more to come as the year progresses.

GB Qualification

This weekend has been fabulous !

Yesterday I received notification that I'd been selected for GB to take part in the European Long Distance Duathlon champs in Horst, Holland on 12 April next year.

The distances are 15k run / 60k bike / 7.5k run and I'm delighted to have got in. There's going to be some really hard training going on between now and April....

Winter Parkruns

20.12.14 Lincoln 22.15

Not the massive effort of last week but a comfortable 70% effort in preparation for the days drinking marathon that was to start at 12.

Nice sunny winters day and level pacing of 7.05/7.09/7.08.

14.12.14 Lincoln 21.05

This was a showdown with another UKNetrunner and concluded the match up that we had throughout the year.

Boultham Park was frosted over and it was very cold in fact slippery in places. We both went off hard and my rival established an early lead, even though I posted a 6.42 first lap. On the 2nd lap, I had knocked that gap down to c.10 secs, but only made up a further 3 secs on the final lap.

21.05 Overall, and the 2nd fastest 5k of my life !

Stockport 10 2014

It's the Stockie 10, brought to you from the Woodbank Stadium , home of the world famous Stockport Harriers !

Or, thats what club commentator 'Tom Potson' would have you believe !

It's a very long drive from Lincoln to Stockport, however, it is worth it for a cracking event, from the pre match prep, and then right through to the marvellous goody bag at the finish.

In true Stockport tradition, the weather was miserable, and we got wet waiting for the start, but soon after we were away ! The race can be summed up in 3 parts :

Part One - Miles 1 - 3, ran well, miled at 7.17, 7.20 and then 7.47 as stitch started to kick in
Part Two - Miles 4 - 7 , got really bad stitch, ran slower, stopped , walked, ran slower, walked, eventually got going again, but it wasn't pretty and the overall race had to be written off.
Part Three - Miles 8-10 - Got going again and had some argy with another competitor who decided to race me for the last two miles home - that worked for mile 9, but for the last mile I kicked for a fast last one and didn't see him again.

Overall, happy with 5 of the 10 miles, but not disappointed, as even stitch could not dampen such a great event !

Nottingham Off Road Duathlon

The final event in the three race One Step Beyond 'Midlands Off Road' Duathlon series which had been ongoing since early October. With finishes at the Clumber & Sherwood Pines events, I headed to Holme Pierre Pont standing 12th in my age group and hoping to sneak up a few places with a positive result.

The course would be a 5km run which would be mostly off road, the bike was two laps of HPP lake and all off road, capped off with a single lap 2.5km effort.

With a good result seen at Winterton last week I was raring to go and have a final blast on the cross bike. Our start would be 9.30am and we were pre-warned to turn up early as there had been a lot of rain and this meant that the usual car park was too boggy to use ! ( This was clearly not a good sign for the course! )

Run 1 24.51
It's been a while since I've run a near 25 minute 5k, but the truth was I couldn't have gone any faster ! Some of the course was boggy, the normal road shoes on it was as slippery as shite, and there was one part where I just had to stop as was sliding all over the shop ! Mile splits were 7.40, 7.32 & ?.
NB Think the course might have been long.

Bike 49.58
Sub 50 get in ! After a slow T1 @ 1.48, it was a joy to get out on the bike and lap up the muddiest course of the year so far. I've come on in leaps and bounds over the past few months of crossing and enjoyed this part immensely ! I didn't get overtaken and took bags of places back following the first run. Seemed to go on forever, and was surprised that it was less than 50 minutes, Back into T2 with a smile on my face !

Run 2 12.56
Saw 7.47 as a mile split during this 2nd run and thought to myself that's not too shabby being as it hurt ! Had a sticky point back at the slippy as shit section and have a nice selection of bramble scraches as a bonus race memento. Happy to finish strongly for a good placing and just outside a 1.30 finish - that will be the dance with the bramble bush for you !

Winterton Cyclocross

My last Cyclocross race of the Lincs Cyclocross league in 2014. I had a good ride last week at Nettleham and looked forward all week to getting back on the Cannondale which can only mean one thing - I must be starting to really enjoy racing Cross !

The showground at Winterton was todays venue and it had been raining for a good 6 hours beforehand. The course was not too technical, a lot of grass riding, one mound and one off over two boards - it was definately one for the testers. What made the course hard and slow though was the saturated ground from the rainfall. The top half of the course was rideable and had drained well, however, the bottom half was a real quagmire and you could sink into the ruts very easily.

Again, our Vets race was a 40 minute affair and I estimated I would need to clear 5 laps. On signing on I had been told to highlight my name to say I was here, and this also meant that I was gridded for the first time ever. From my new *cough* elevated starting position, I knew I had to ride very fast from the very start and not my usual casual getting into it slowly strategy. From the off, I went for it and found that I made some good places early, when the field settled down, I tried to keep working hard and snatching places where I could.  The course was boggy and some times the speeds must have been very low. I know that some guys ran some sections quicker than we rode them - indeed I tried this strategy myself but found no difference.

Something amazing happened on my last lap - I had one ! This was because for the first time I had not been lapped by the leaders - it also meant that I had one last lap of boggy misery to negotiate !

So a good finish to the Cyclocross season - next year I'll concentrate solely on the league and try not to get distracted by the running events :-)