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 !

Lincoln Cyclocross

Up early doors and out of the door by 7am - late for setting up our very own cyclocross race at Police Headquarters at Nettleham. It was a partially mild day, but very windy and the tape we used to mark out the course was getting blown to buggery all over the shop !

Despite quite a lot of rain last night, the course was surprisingly dry and didn't look like it was going to cut up easily like last years version. Speaking of last year, we had one mound to ride up and down, this year though we had three, and although I initially bobbed myself trying to get up the third of these, I practised and got it right on the fourth attempt on the warm up - the rest of the course feeling OK and similar to last years routes although not a lot for the tester.

By the time the start came along, I'd been on site already for 5 hours and just wanted to get some racing done. We all congregated near the start, and then the gridding began - I think I ended up on the 5th row, but matter not, because I wasn't forecful enough and fell backwards because I'm bad at holding my position. want to come by me ? Sure no problem, I'll just move aside for you and let you through !!

First lap, fell off at that third mound I told you about and watched loads come past me. I then spent the next part of the lap, blowing out my arse trying desperately to make places up on a couple of the other Wheelers - at first, I thought it was working, but after three laps, it was obvious that I wasn't gaining and was in danger of falling further back through the field.

Thankfully, us old boys only have to race 40 minutes, so I was pleased to hear the bell for the final lap where I just gave it everything. Took one Wheeler place, but to be honest, this one won't go down as one of my better outings.

Next week, a new course, RAF Cranwell

Ostlers Plantation Cyclocross

So, following on from the Scunthorpe race a couple of weeks ago, I really wasn't feeling very optimistic about riding yet another Forest course, complete with fire roads and pine trails. In fact, this one had been described as..

 ''One massive long straight fire road a load of single track, some lethal twisty stuff with wet leaves on concrete, two massive whoops, an earth bank on the side of a building and a fallen tree as the dismount .....all good stuff!!

OK, so I read that and all I saw was massive and lethal ! The rest of the description being a blur! Still, another Sunday and another opportunity to win some points in the Wheelers Cross League, so loaded up the bike in the A-team van and then rocked on up at Woodhall super early to avoid the parade for remembrance sunday going on at the same time. mega early arrival then, but plenty of time to relax and ride the course. 

My description would be.... one long time trial straight, a bit of single track, multiple earth mounds to roll through, one log to get off and jump, and a squeeky bum time, muddy undulating section toward the end. I seemed to get on well on the warm up, and there wasn't anything that made me pull up or bottle out of - so, if I could just keep my wits about me, I could navigate the course quite well. 

Gridded again for the main course, but don't know why I bother, as even trying as hard as I could, I couldn't keep my place in the field and slipped backward again - however, crucially got ahead of a few wheelers going into the first whoop and whilst they decided to take each other out, this let me ride off and get some space between me and that particular battle. I had my own to take care of and slowly picked my way up the order. The course turned out to be brilliant, and although I crapped my pants at the arse end section a few times, I failed to blow up this week and kept my effort going til the very end. 

It felt like a breakthrough, albeit with no Wheelers in close proximity this week, maybe the pressure was off early on, leading to a less edgy performance. 

Next weeks action is our very own Nettleham course !