Coalville Wheelers 10

Another year and another trip over to the folks at Coalville Wheelers to ride my first proper time trial of the year. I had invested my training into a couple of turbo sessions a week, but hadn't felt totally brilliant for a couple of weeks because my running mileage had reached the 10 mile mark in readiness for next weeks half marathon.

The weather was as windy as last year and with some added rain forecast. On the upside it was a warmer day than the rest of the week with 10 degrees seen on the thermometer. New for this years race was my disk wheel, but other than that it was like for like for last years. I signed on and got busy getting ready - just to be back at a TT was a real buzz, and I had missed that feeling for the last 4 months.

As the weather was wet, I dispensed with much of a warm up, choosing to do maybe a mile or so going up and down the road outside of the clubhouse. I was trying to replicate last years preparation - all calculated to see if I was any better.

All too soon I was queuing for the start as 2:17pm cam around very quickly, and the shortly after that I was away on my 2017 season !

The first 3 miles were very fast, with a cross backwind, and a course profile of flat or downhill. A cross wind almost caught me out and I had a bit of a wobble - I was happy that the tri spoke was safely bagged up in the car and I had chosen the trusty Planet X 52 front as the day's eapon of choice.

After this lovely part - a left turn and straight into the 3-4 miles of uphill grovel. I thought i rode it better than last year and remembering the course, knew to drop into the bottom ring. My power figures fluctuated all over the place, but I tried to keep them at a sensible level. I felt like I was going along just fine and surely a bit ahead of the previous years effort.

The last couple of miles had back wind support again and I picked the speed up again, there were a couple of short hard climbs, but enjoyed the last bit to finish very fast and strongly for a 48 second improvement on the previous year. 25.37 - really happy and the improvement I wanted.

Next up - CC Breckland 10 in a couple of weeks.

NP 317w
AP 304w
Temp : 10c
Wind : Gusty 20mph SW
Pos 39/82
Course A10/34

Rauceby Ripper 2016

By'eck ! I've just seen that it's been nearly 10 months since the last time I wore the colours of my running club (Lincoln and District Runners) at the Lincoln 10k. That was my last running race - I've not been injured since then, however, a busy time trial schedule has meant that running races have been put on the back burner.

This race though is a personal fave of mine and the reason why I've been busy doing some parkruns out at Gainsborough. I had previously finished the Ripper a couple of times - 2013 82nd, and then in 2014 an improvement to 42nd. This years race was going to be extra muddy, and with heavy rain forecast and strong winds - a real war of attrition type race was expected.

I lined up ready for my 10.30 start, and the weather had held off. Sure it was wet underfoot and very windy, but at least it was miraculously dry so far. I went off at the start, far too fast and registered a 7.16 first mile, which is uphill through the estate. It was good to be back for sure, so I didn't care that my heart was trying to jump out of my chest.

Onto the main road for a very short section and then a right turn into the muddy farmtracks. Every footfall demanded respect and it was a puzzle for sure picking a line through the mayhem. Out and around the fields, and I was pleased to have chosen trail shoes as they gave more confidence in the slippy mud. I only nearly lost a shoe once, and seemed to be knocking out steady paced sub 8 minute miles.

I was enjoying myself through the grimacing as the wind was a killer and occasionally we saw some sideward rain. This is an honest cross country race so what would you expect ?

The notorious wooded section came along at mile 7, and was not as boggy as I expected. I liked this section as I made lots of ground on the runners around me and when I emerged I knew it was for the final effort as I was a mile from the finish.

One fast mile later, and I was hurtling to the finish line, still with a grimace, but finishing with the kind of satisfaction only a hard race can give you. 1.08.15 and 30th place this year - not bad after such a while away... I'll take that !
                                                                                         

Wheelers Winter Double

To end 2015 and kick off 2016, I took part in the Wheelers Winter Double - a 7.7 mile time trial held at 11am on both Boxing Day and then New Years Day :

Boxing Day 19.22
Smaller field as it was also a fancy dress event, the wind had gotten up and was at 23mph and SW'ish'erly when I went off. The Wheeler course is triangular, so it was a case of side, severe head, and then a bit of back. Used the 52mm front instead of the new tri spoke and felt I rode the sections OK.Chain shipped on the line and I lost 20secs though. 19.22 on the day and 1st place - can't be bad !

New Years Day 18.56
Behaved well at a New Years Eve party in Wisbech the night before - mind you , full of diet coke so only managed a couple of hours sleep. As the wind was a SSE 12mph affair, chose both to use the tri spoke and warm up in the sex shop car park prior to the event !

With the change in wind direction, the course became backwind, side, head. Rode what I thought was very well until the A57 where I struggled with both cadence and the wind.

18.56 and 2nd place - good start to the year I'd say !

Rossington Cyclocross

Finally, after all the weeks of racing, and indeed, the past year or so, of being told each course was a testers course, we were presented with a testers course !

This was a new course so nobody knew what to expect. The youtube clip of the previous course had shown at least four mins of wooded single track section, and I hoped for something that suited me better to be honest. 

well, I certainly got that in the shape of a course that was almost entirely flat, was exposed to the wind, and had long sections where tapping out a persistent effort paid dividend.  My usual stuttering start of the Vets race, coupled with a tentative first lap whilst I felt the course out, meant that I had plenty of energy left in the tank when I started to make my move from lap 2 onward. The riders had strung out and I had worked out that the race was going to be shaped by how well I rode the very long uphill drag section of the track. everything else was flat and I knew we would all be much the same on that, but the key was going to be that hill, plus the couple of bad headwind sections and that was where I concentrated my real efforts on. 

No charity this week, and when I managed to get past a team mate, the moment they moved in my wheel, I shifted across the track so that they didn't get a tow - pretty ruthless, but a race is a race not a charity ride. 

Back to 40 minutes this week, so I knew it was only going to be a five lap affair, and felt as I finished that I had paced it just about right. At that moment, I immediately retired for the season because as good as it has been - I am after all a tester, and next week marks a return to road riding and getting road fit for the TT season which starts in February - there is a little matter of a Boxing Day & New Years TT to negotiate first.

Regionals

Regional Cyclocross Champs took place over in Shropshire on a miserable wet day. We arrived early in the morning as our first rider was off at 11.15, whereas my own race would not start until 2.15 - ample opportunity to cheer on at the earlier race, and get some time on the course. 

The course, of course, was a really fun one in the dry. Lots of ups and downs, tight turns, mud, off cambers and a huge dip to bomb down and then a lovely longish grovelly climb to get back up.

By the time my race came about though, it had been raining on and off, and the well used track had become a bit of as quagmire. It still looked like fun, but it was going to take lots of effort not to fall off. I was surprised to be gridded, and this put me further up the field at the start than I was comfortable with - preferring the idea of starting at the back and then feeling my way into the race. 

No matter though because I went backward almost from the very start, and what unfolded felt very much like a slow bicycle race on ice ! Mud accumulated very quickly so the bike felt really heavy. I was fine in a straight line but any deviation from this resulted in a battle to stay upright. 

The massive drop I mentioned took an age whilst I went down with the brakes on whilst others litellay raced down it - the climb up the other side was good though. A special mention to the cross cambers which were treacherous !  

In just over an hour I managed to negotiate 6 laps whereas the winner did 9 - still, not last, but a large amount of bike cleaning needed afterward ! 

Winterton Cyclocross

Winterton Cyclocross had been my best performance during the 2014 season, and when it was declared to be the Club Cross Champs race for 2015 I positively whooped for joy !

Coupled with that, it had rained progressively over the past few days which meant that the course was going to be very boggy in places, and a real power test. Anyone who shrugged front line duty on club outings into a headwind was surely going to be found out today.

We had a later start time than usual, as we lined up with the seniors for their HOUR LONG !!! race rather than our usual 40 mins Vet race.
12 Wheelers lined up along the back of the grid and once everyone else had been set on their way, we waited 30 seconds and were set off ourselves.

I got a reasonable start and worked very hard on the first couple of laps. The ground was boggy and very muddy in places but the worst of it was the wind - it was blowing a hoolie, and with sweeping rain, hailstones at times, and generally just a bit grim, it was a hard, hard race. At one point I had made my way up to a surprise 3rd Wheeler position, but couldn't hold it and fell back to 5th. All my good work done in the first 3 laps, the final 2 or 3 spent, tapping away and making sure I wasn't being caught.

A very muddy and drenched and freezing and elated Andy made it across the line after an hours racing to claim good club points in our Rider Of The Season Competition.

RAF Cranwell Cyclocross

I was well up for a good race today and as I made my way around the long lap of the course at RAF Cranwell, I didn't see anything that concerned me too much. In fact, there were some long straights, hard ground, a bomb hole, and some twisty tight wooded sections - three offs though - an up and down a bank off, a jump over a plank and run uphill off, and finally a single hurdle off. Gotta say, one of the courses on the calendar more suited to testers !

12.00 was our start time and i was a fair way back in the old gridding - but got a decent enough start this week and found a few places early. First off, shouldered the bike and made my way up the hill, made some more places and then recovered well in the wooded section. In parts of this I was quick, however, one section was a twisty effort where the organisers were being either devils or just had to use up their tape allocation and I was so slow through this part of the course, I held riders up !

First three laps OK, without incident, and even the tree roots not putting me off. Lap four would be the last lap though and I struggled to get the bike up the bank, and the run uphill had become a very tired jog !

All that being said, I was happy again, and enjoying a good course. 3rd Wheeler in the race and a good 50 minute workout. You can't get better value for a tenner !