Outlaw 2015 - Relay

Following on from the half at the end of May, I managed to get me-sen a nice spot in the Sleaford Tri3 mens relay team for the full Outlaw event.
Our swimmer would do 3.8k, I would ride 180k and then hand over to our runner for a full marathon. Doing it solo is a very long days as I found out in 2013, however, to me, it was a 112 mile time trial in training for the ESCA 100 in tow weeks time, and the 12 hour a week later.

It kind of went like this :
After our swimmer had knocked out a 1.07 (153rd) and we had had a really swift transition, I was let loose on the bike course with a sub 5 target in mind. We were in 89th place overall and in 18th place for the Relays. There was little in the way of wind and I knew I had to maintain an average speed of 22.5mph if I was to go under the 5.

I set off on a real charge taking 55 places in the first 16 miles of the bike. It felt good and I was easily averaging 23mph and loving the southern loop of the course. Jumping on the pedals like Contador when climbing a rise, and racing through the feed stations the Southern loop was dispatched swiftly. i made my way up past Lowdham on the Northern loop and all was well, even climbing Oxton Bank in good order. First 57 miles done in an average of  22.8 mph so on target.

Right, re-set the Garmin, go through Southwell, turn a steep left, and then headwind. he wind had gotten up ahead of the weather front of rain, and turned it cold. My legs began to stiffen up, and the enjoyable ride turned into hard work. the second half average was bobbing along at a disappointing 21.2 mph and it was slow progress and draggy. then it began to rain down on the Southern loop. people were catching me  and although I was in 25th place, I found myself having to take pace in a paceline.

I was wet through when I finished the bike - strongly I might add as I picked up a bit, and had moved the team up to 25th overall, and 11th team - bike split 5.08.59.

Our runner had a stormer, and we finished in 9.16.37 - 8th overall, and 6th team on the day.

VTTA North Mids 25

Saturday tea-times used to be Basil Brush and then that fella that fixed shit for ya that no-one talks about now, but everyone had the theme tune on their mobiles a few years back !

No, tea time yesterday involved lycra, three wheels, nut cream and lashings of start oil !

It was the VTTA North Mids event on the A1 and I was riding the big pink trike at no64. A similar event was cancelled at the start of June due to crosswinds, but this event despite 14mph cross winds did go ahead. the wind had been a worry, but it had dropped through the day and the night looked to be OK.

The HQ was at Sutton On Trent, and not too far from the start. The course was a simple up and down the A1 job. Going on at Sutton On trent and coming off and through Long Bennington, before looping round and re-joining the carriageway North. I was chasing the clubs record of 1.04.28 and had a good weeks training behind me going in to it. I would also be trying out my new Aeroshell helmet and wondered how I would get on with it. Overall though, I was looking forward to the event.

Start time came around quite quickly, and I was soon haring along and ready to join the Southbound carriageway. It felt quick, there wasn't too much traffic, but there was cross head which, when there was little in the way of shelter, knocked the speed off a little. There were rises in the road, but nowt like the T502 or Bingham courses and I was able to tap it out going up them. In fact, I got to the Long Benno turn in approx 22.7mph and knew that a good ride was on the books.

I didn't know if there would be a cross bcak push on the way back, but soon smiled when the approach loop to the Northbound carriageway yielded that unmistakeable push. It was now a 12 mile go for the line whilst nervously waiting for the speedo to creep above the record 23.3mph.

It was a great second leg and I managed to leave the A1 with an avg of 23.6, and a short sprint later had taken the record by nearly a minute.

1.03.35 on a not quick day - might be back next year for an improvement.

TA Fliss Beard National 100

I've just had a very long drive back from South Wales where I competed at the Trike Associations National 100 Champs using the R100/8a course - Raglan-Abergavenney-Mitchell Troy on the A40.

I stayed at Newent Golf & Lodges last night, and managed to arrive in good time so that I had time to drive the course and hide a couple of bottles in the hedgerows. the course looked fast when I drove it and really looked forward to riding it as I was confident of a good crack at the clubs 100 mile trike record.

With a low Southerly wind, I was optimistic when I lined up at no.6 at just past 7. I would have 5 Trikies in front of me, and this would help me chase down the 21.1 mph average I would need to maintain over the 100.6 mile course.

7.06 and I'm off. Maybe I went too hard, but the first 6 miles was rolling SC and I was happily keeping above evens knowing that when I got on the DC, I would be even faster. One turn later onto the Dual Carriageway and uurghh ! Slow as you like (for a DC), a real grovel with some faster bits granted - a bit of a let down to be fair. (They had a float day on the Stockton 100 as well, how does that work ?). Half a lap on the DC, and then up a ramp from Raglan onto another SC section, this was the hardest but fun part of the course - I was fast through here despite the climbing and it broke up the dual carriageway monotony.

First of four laps done in 21.1 miles so bang on what I needed, lap 2 got even better 21.2 mph so I was ahead of record pace at that point. Same at 57 miles, but then it started to hurt and I dropped to a 20.4 mph average for the third lap - this increased to 20.5 for the last effort, which threatened to be a wet one, but was just a quick shower thankfully.

I think 4.51.04 and the win on the day. It really really hurt though - a 100 on a Trike is worth a 12 hr on a regular bike - or at least thats how it feels !

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.