TA Mids 50

A very first ride on the super fast Etwall course as this Trike event was being run in conjunction with the BDCA 50 event. HQ was easy to find and the whole trip from Lincoln was about an hour and forty, I hadn't realised that the course was so close to me.

Once signed on, I met with the rest of the Trikies, and then made my way to the start on the outskirts of Etwall.

Bad start ! One set off, I failed to follow the left turn sign at the first roundabout and within 100 metres I had gone the wrong way ! One circle of said roundabout later and I was down in the bars and going for it down the A516. After a mile or so, I was on the fabled A50, but with a headwind of c.10mph, I couldn't see what the fuss had been about. I was cranking along at an average of 22 something but it didn't feel special. First roundabout negotiated, and then after 12 miles or so, the road becomes draggy as you start the slog up concrete mountain. I always felt that I was on the lower slope as I expected to see a wall of concrete that I never saw, and smiled when I realised I was already up the top and ready to make the turn home. My ave. was 21.6 ish.

 

Woooosh ! It was super fast all the way down and I literally span out ! My average climbed and I was very comfortable holding 26/27mph. Halfway through the return leg, there is a seven mile intermission, where you get sent up a SC to Rochester, and apart from having to sit up behind a tractor for a mile, this was still reasonably quick and when I got back on the A50, my average was already 22.6mph.

It was a case of just hammering the final 12 miles or so, staying hydrated, chewing jelly babies. Who says I can't multi-task. I loved the second half of that course and can now see why its a favourite, 

2.09.19, a new PB and a Lincoln Wheelers club record. I also trousered the Handicap on the day :) 

Next up is the 100 in South Wales next week.

TLI Grantham Road Race

This was my second TLI road race of the season, and my second time doing the Grantham Road Race - a quick re-cap of last year was to get dropped at the end of lap one, riding two laps solo, and then getting lost on the way back to HQ !

So, plenty to improve on then !

I turned up and signed on to the very large group two and inevitably it was that group that got split into two - so the line up for the night was group 1, and then groups 2A, mine 2B, 3 and then 4 !

We set off a minute behind group 2A, and I very nearly got dropped leaving the start at the Cricket Club. Got into the train though and made my way to the front to start taking turns. This worked well for the first couple of miles and then I found I was taking longer and longer turns on the front. The last one of these was a couple of miles and the game was up, we were to just wait for group 3 to catch us, which they did after 12 miles. Sitting on the back of group 3 and then 4 when it passed was a learning experience - reacting to every little break, and trying to keep on the end of the elastic so that it didn't snap. I worked very hard on the uphills not to lose touch and was in the pelton with 1km to go.

There was just the one big hill to go and I attacked it going for the finish - one crash between the Wheelers later though, and I sat up and went back to check if the guy who had veered into the hedgerow was OK. That was my race over for this year but it didn't matter - I had gotten out of it more than I'd expected !  :)

Wheelers Summer TT Season 2015

08.09.15 LW Autumn 5    13.07

OK, so I technically quit midweek racing back in july, but was to ride back to back Trike events the coming weekend, so decided to chuck one in last minute. 13.07 chasing down Pete & Dave also on Trikes made it an interesting ride. Was dying by the end, must have been far too keen at the start !

11.07.15  LW Charity 10    23.19

I quit midweek riding this week as racing two or three times a week just doesn't suit me. Recovery race number one would be todays Charity 10 which is run on our very own Ingham C10/28 course. Last years effort was a 24.14 and my course PB was 23.46 from last year so this would be a good litmus test as to where I was. Wind was an alsmost direct cross wind to the course of 12/13 mph from the West so not the quickest or worse conditions. First leg out to the roundabout was fast enough and I reached the turn averaging 25.6mph or so, so happy with that. lost some time on the way back, but still going along reasonably well. Crossed the line in 23.19 (new Wheelers course PB). Found my back brake rubbing again so could have lost time on the return. Either way happy with the ride as it represents progress.

07.07.15 25 Champs  1.13.34

Just two days after the 100, I was daft enough to attempt a 25 and it ended badly :(.
Started well enough averaging 25.7 to the first turn, but as soon as there was any headwind or climbing, there was nothing in the tank. Empty and after a final rotten 10 miles or so, I crawled over the line almost dead last on the night. lesson learnt.

30.06.15 10 Champs 26.28

Having taken the Wheelers record at the weekend for the Trike 50, I thought it would be a good idea to ride it at the 10 Champs. On a windier night with a westerly-ish 10/11mph wind, I never felt fully on top of it and finished with a 26 minute ride. Previous course trike PB from last years inaugural trike ride of 27.43 was smashed !

23.06.15 Newton 10m - 23.29

This was the Inter club with Lincoln Tri club which had been organised following some facebook smackdown chatter. 59 riders on the night, and the busiest I've seen the car park. I had some organisational duties to attend to, so ended up going last at no.59.

Like the week before the was little wind albeit more of it. The first stretch was as fast as the previous week, and I was going along at just over 26mph. One uphill grovel took that to 25.7 and then unlike the previous week - a stronger headwind, took the bite out of the average and I came home 8 seconds slower than the week before. It is good though, to be consistently a whole minute quicker on this course than the same time last year.

8th on the night, and the Wheelers took the Inter Club crown.

16.06.15 Newton 10m  - 23.21

Wow, not too much wind around, and a lovely evening for time trialling. My first club time trial of the year. I had a good long warm up and then hit the road. Settled into a good tap, and kept an average of 26mph for the first 4/5 miles. There was a drag halfway through and it dropped under, but with an excellent carrot to chase, I managed my club PB of 23.21 on a course which is actually 10.1 miles.

Previous best last year on this course was 24.39 !

12.05.15 Lottery 2up
Thorney 10 course and strong easterly wind which made the first stretch hard work, the middle stretch side work and a nice bit of backwind on the way home. Pleasing as did 9 of the 10 miles on the front albeit my partner accuused me of killing him and we slowed down a lot. There was lots in the tank and I felt really good. 25.07 was also quicker than 2 years ago when I was dragged round for 9 miles - funny how fortunes change when you stick at something eh ?

LRRA 50

County 50 Champs is basically what the LRRA 50 is all about. I have ridden it in the previous two years, having a bad ride the first time around, and then a very good ride of 2.08 last year.

This year I was going off at no.77 of a field of 80 so there was every chance that I could have ended up last on the course and that all the cake at the HQ might have gone by the time I got back !! ( That obviously would have been a disaster ! )

There was good news and bad news when I signed on at the Village Hall in Osbournby - the good news being that it was finally a day of light winds, the doubly bad news was that it was going to rain all the way through AND the course had been changed due to roadworks - we now had to negotiate the 6 mile undulating climb to Grantham twice, and the course had been extended to 50.35 miles. This would be my third soggy 50 miler in the last 4 weekends, so I felt calm about the whole thing.

I took a chance and went with a disc wheel with tub after a lot of self doubting as I needed to finish today for both the short & long distance county all round competitions and I fretted a little about pucturing, but in the end figured that any puncture in the rain would probably be a race ender so took the quickest set up possible.

2.17 and I was off, doing a sort of reverse of the C10/10 course and boy did I feel good. In a stark contrast to the same morning when I really didn't feel like racing, just a few hours later and I was enjoying the opening stages, making my way up to the Sleaford roundabout where I made at least 10 seconds on my minute man, and then promptly lost them queuing in traffic at the roundabout !

Hammering down the return leg, I was maintaining good speed, and looking forward to the first climb to Spittlegate. On the first ascent, I could see my minute man getting closer, and I could gauge my effort not to lose touch with him, which helped enormously. I caught him by the roundabout and then had a good six miles or so to hammer back down the the Osbournby roundabout where I clocked an average speed of 24.5 mph. I deliberately re-set my Garmin at this point as half the race had elapsed at this 25 mile point.

Overall, I wanted 24 mph so knew I need to hold 23.5 over the second half of the course to do this. Firstly, though, I would need to do the whole climb to Spittlegate again, and I can tell you that second time around, it f'in hurt - a lot !! I was relieved to hit the roundabout again, and the opportunity to make up some lost average speed ground on the six downhill miles to the roundabout.

My position was beginning to get to me, and I was re-adjusting my seating a lot, and shaking the hurt out of the tops of my arms. Back at the roundabout at 23.9mph and just the reverse C10/10 bit to do. Happy not to be climbing the whole way and knowing that I was not too far from the finish, I really put eveything I had into this stretch. By Sleaford roundabout I'd kept 23.9, and by the finish I had improved it to 24.

2nd Wheeler on the day, a new PB, a tenner for being in the fastest team of three for the day ! A good days work.

Outlaw Half Relay

Today, I popped over to Holme PierrePont to take part in the Outlaw Half Triathlon that I completed last year. This year, with giving up the old swimming, I entered as part of a relay team, which would consist of my mate Bob on the swim, and my brother Dave on the run. I had the easy part of riding 56.7 miles and eating Jelly Babies !

This is how we got on, on a cold , wet, and windy day in Nottingham :

Swim 32.24 - Bob had completed Ironman Lanzarote just last Saturday, so this was a warm up for him in distance. from the first wave of the day, Bob cranked out a fast swim to put me on the bike well up the field.

Bike - 2.29.40 - Right, Jelly Baby munching time ! Already wet, there was nothing to do, but try and get around as quickly as possible. It started well, and I was quickly down in the bars taking places around the lake and moving my way up the field. Out onto the A52 and my average was above 24mph.

I knew the Northern loop would be quickest so decided to make hay whilst the sun didn't shine, battling hard against the elements, and making sure I didn't daydream or take my foot off the gas. I rode Oxton Bank very well and overtook a couple of relay teams in the process. Back through Southwell, and over the ripples to Lowdham Island. I think my average was 23.5 at this point, but I was soaked through and still cold !

The Southern Loop was harder, however, knowing I didn't have to run, coupled with tangling with a guy from TFN , kept me honest and as I passed through Car Colston, a lady was giving out positions - I was 11th, and the guy from TFN was 10th !!! I had never battled at the front of a race before, and was enjoying the feeling. I planned to take back that 10th place to put Dave in a good position and had managed it by the time we rolled back into HPP.

Run - 2.55.44 - we had set Dave a target of 3 hours and in his first Half Marathon he nailed it - I was made up for him and the team when we finished overall in a time of 6.00.39.

My performance today is going in the smile bank !!

TLI Brattleby Road Race

 TLI season has started again in Lincolnshire and the first of the races that I could make was the daunting Brattleby Road Race laid on by Velo Club Lincoln. It's a c.30 mile affair which takes in 9 climbs of Brattleby Hill - a 1km climb rising to 38m - a real leg tester !

I'd always avoided this one because of the climbing, but as I seemed to be a climbing a little better this year I decided to chuck it into the training mix. Six Wheelers lined up on the night and I chose Group 2 as my nest for the evening.

It was wet and a little windy, so pleased to get under way at just past 7, where I took ages to clip in but once I had, I managed to get on the back of the Group and sit there ready for the first assault of THAT hill !  Turn left, wind a bit and there it was, I just kept my position and to be honest it wasn't that bad - in fact, at the top, I hit the front to do some work. Down the hill, again, and low and behold I made it up a second time - easy innit ?

My formula then was to save energy at the bottom, work hard up the climb, and then sit in the group on the bottom leg - this seemed to work really well. At the top of the 5th climb, something annoyed me so I attacked and led the race for ooh 300 metres or so, but that just meant another attack came and I followed that one breaking my no work rule on the bottom - group 3 caught us up the 6th climb and that was it - I was shelled along with others and coasted around that last 3 laps !

4th Wheeler on the night - and I FINISHED BRATTLEBY ROAD RACE !! V.happy.

Bruce Kingsford TA National 50

Same routine as the Stockton 50 a couple of weeks ago - up very very early, but this time it was a 2.5 hour trip over to Shrewsbury to arrive at 7.15am and my first attempt at one of the TA's National Trophies. This would be a tough ask as there were two World Champions racing and you don't become a Champ without being extremely fast ! 

My plan for the day was simple - try and be the fastest non World Champion ! 

The course was a revised version of the D50/3 which is single carriage undulating track and was a dog leg, out and back, out and back again affair with roundabouts every 5 miles or so to break up the ride and give some legs to aim for.

I would have no idea how I was doing as well, as I'd forgotten to switch the Garmin unit onto the Trike so would be riding the 50 miles blind. With the weather predicting rain all the way through, it could have shaped up to be a bit of a damp squib, but a bento box full of Jelly Babies was the silver lining as lined up for a wet start at 8.26. 

Don't go off too fast, don't go off too fast - oh FFS - I got very giddy straight from the line and I suppose that's the problem with not knowing how fast you are going. I felt like it wasn't fast enough so kept pushing. We had been sent off three minutes apart, so I couldn't see anyone in front of me and that didn't help things. Managed to catch my three minute man before the second roundabout at 13 miles and the caught up with Pete a little bit after. On the return leg from the roundabout I could get a time stamp on the rest of the riders and knew already that the World Champs were far and away faster than anyone else. I was doing well and had built up some time advantage in the battle of the non-champs though!  My round-a-bouting was better, but still painful for the watching marshalls !! The effects of starting too fast were yet to kick in and I made consistent progress in the middle twenty miles or so. 

So round Prees roundabout for the last time and a trek down to Tern Hill roundabout at c 42 miles or so. There is a climb up to Tern Hill and that is where my legs decided that they'd had quite enough and left me ! Turn right (gingerly) and then the final seven miles or so into a head wind that had whipped up somewhat - It had turned into one of those rides that I agonisingly waited for the finish flag that never came ! 

2.18.10 over the eventual finish line and third fastest of the day behind the Champs. For a guess paced 50 I am over the moon with the time and have another 50 race miles in the legs ready for next Sundays Outlaw Half relay leg - game on !