my weekly race log

she dates another teammate, you letch! ;)

Haha! Do you all take it in turns to ride behind her in a chain gang? (Yes I am being horribly sexist but I bet you do)

what are you implying sir?

http://bicycling.com/blogs/alloverthemap/2009/04/20/in-the-eye-of-the-battenkill/

Cutty what are the photos (that aren't showing up)on ur team's site's blog of? It doesn't sound good.

there arent any real photos of the crash as far as i know. my teammate was involved in the crash in the video on the bicycling.com blog above.

"Climbing halfway across Meeting House Cuttler and I lead the charge, the field shatters behind"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_t51SYgxZ3Xw/Se_l0mTF9DI/AAAAAAAACNU/qOB2HUuL1qE/s1600-h/IMG_0291.JPG

this weekend, the tour de ephrata:

http://allthatisgoodmaps.googlepages.com/gmTdEphrata.html

racing the p/1/2/3

:/

So how did it go? Did you shatter any fields?

i did not shatter anything. got dropped from the road race.

it was pretty much the best of the best elite teams in the northeast in the p/1/2/3 race. great experience. i've got the fitness but not the tactics to hang in these races yet. i'll just keep racing them.

best result of the weekend was getting 10th in the TTT (out of 20 teams).

Another ten-mile time trial yesterday, on the same course as a fortnight ago. Smashed my previous time and got 28.17, finishing 61st out of 80, which is progress.

awesome!

Another time trial, this time (rather oddly) 10.2 miles. The extra 0.2 miles is just so that the timekeepers can be based in a layby instead of on a tiny grass verge at the side of the road. This means the course isn't really going to attract people who are only interested in getting the perfect '10' (or '25' or '50' or whatever) - the course is too long and it's another 'sporting' (i.e. not flat and fast) one.

I managed 28.32, with an average speed that equates to 27.58 for 10 miles. I'm pretty pleased with that: I'm getting faster every time I race. Great weather today - warm and sunny - but there was a tailwind on the way out which turned into a vicious headwind on the return. Somehow I didn't realise this until the turn, despite the fact that I did the first half at 24mph, which is hugely better than I've ever managed over the full distance.

in action
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3397/3559798425_157def37d3.jpg

gs bagnpump!

I live in fear of punctures. It'd be a long walk back to the HQ in cleats.

are your legs shaved! kudos!

i did the rapha gentlemen's race today. 120 miles. one of the most "epic" (lol) rides i've ever done. there should be a big expose up on the rapha site with photos and video soon, i'll post.

are your legs shaved! kudos!

No, it just looks that way in the photo because it was so sunny (so no kudos). Did my second Tuesday evening time trial on the Hog Hill circuit tonight: a slight improvement (I got 28.40 this week and 28.53 last week, both weeks I came bang in the middle of the field, 14th out of about 30). I seem to be better at climbing than most, but can't grind it out on the flat like some people do.

you should work on your aero position

get some clip on aero bars

I would do, but I've got the wrong type of handlebars: they're not round, they're kind of flattened.

Actually, maybe I could?
I've got these bars: http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article/mps/uan/2291
They're actually round for about an inch either side of where the stem clamps onto the middle of the bars - is that enough space to mount clip-ons onto? I've got the computer mounted there at the moment, but I could probably move that somewhere else (not sure where).

Maybe I could use these?
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Profile_T2_Plus_Clip_On_Aero_Bar_Extension/5360020749/
They're two individual extensions (instead of a one-piece job), so presumably they could be fitted really close to the clamp.

yup

spectated at the st paul crit last night, will spectate again at the uptown crit (block from my house!) tomorrow

first bike race i have actually watched, v v fast, but i didn't know who was who or really what the hell was going on. the only local contender blew it and went down HARD in the final turn, with like 50 yards of sprinting to go

showed up shortly after the women's race, fitness chix evvvvvvvvvvvverywhere

Did that 10.2-mile time trial again on Saturday and took 20 seconds off my previous time. Average speed now up to 21.7mph.

Very happy. Did that 10.2 mile time trial again (it's a monthly series) and knocked nearly a minute off my time doing my fastest race ever: 27.19 at 22.4mph (which gives an actual 10-mile time of 26.47, nearly 30 seconds faster than my PB from way back in 1990). Those aero bars have definitely made a difference.

I'm racing again tomorrow morning, doing my first 25-mile time trial since 1991.

faster and faster

i'm gonna get so bad at bikes when i'm in africa

when i'm in africa

wait, waht?!!

goin to africa, brb

lol

What a weekend! Despite the far from ideal preparation (racing yesterday and only getting four hours sleep on the floor (for reasons I won't bother going into) before getting up at 5.45am for my 8.10am start from Chelmsford) I managed to smash through a near-two-decade old personal best for the second day running. My old PB for 25 miles was 1:12.57, today I did 1:10.45 (21.2mph) even with a savage crosswind. I even won the handicap competition and had to stick around for a prize presentation. Then I went home and watched the Contador-Wiggins show. I really must get some sleep soon.

Holy crap that's fantastic!!

Unbelievable today! As a one-off I entered a 10-mile time trial on one of the faster courses (which means taking your life into your hands on a dual carriageway with cars and lorries steaming past at 70mph and slip roads and giant roundabouts to contend with) and knocked nearly three minutes off my PB. I did it in 24:24 (average speed 24.6mph), so much faster than anything else I've ever done that it's on another planet.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2336/2488103782_400191990d.jpg?v=0

XD @ 420

haha. 420 is lucky.

After a summer of time trialling, the aero bars have come off and I returned to road racing (or circuit racing, to be more accurate) this weekend. Got my best result ever*: I finished 7th (from 20 finishers, not sure how many starters, plus there were also 7 women simultaneously doing a separate race and I beat all of them).

This was a very short race (just over half an hour) and we set off at an insane speed. I did the first two laps at well over 24mph, which is crazy considering the 1-in-8 hill you have to climb every lap. I was determined not to get dropped by the bunch this time (and certainly not to get lapped), but within three laps there was no bunch to speak of: the whole field had been blasted to pieces. There was a group of about five ahead of me and then I was in a 'chasing' group of four behind them and everyone else had disappeared miles behind us. I say 'chasing', because we weren't chasing, just losing ground on them (as our pace settled down to a more manageable 21.5mph). For a while they were a tantalising 50 yards or so ahead of us, but there wasn't much I could do: I was sat in second place in a line of four and frankly needed to stay on that wheel - if I'd launched myself and bridged across I would have blown up as soon as I made contact and then ended up in a worse position. I suppose we could have worked together to chase, but I think we were all already at or above our limits anyway - there was no sharing the work: the strongest bloke stayed on the front nearly all the time, I sat in second most of the time, and two others sat behind me.

At some point I blasted up the hill and shook off two of our group and then went with the strong man (and still let him do 90% of the work!). Then we caught two riders who had been dropped from the leading group and raced around aiming for fifth place. I was nearly dying for the last three laps - my heart seemed to be beating at 900bpm and I couldn't get enough air. Several times I lost contact and then dug in and sprinted back up to the wheel in front and then tried to recover once I was on the back of the line again. The finishing line is at the top of the 1-in-8 hill, so it wasn't a 'normal' sprint. The strongman had dropped the rest of our group on the final lap, so there were three of us going for 6th place. I lost contact with the guy in front, then the guy behind me came flying off my wheel and disappeared, but then I kicked as hard as I could and caught and passed the guy who had been in front of me. Then I spent about three minutes lying on the ground waiting for my heart to recover.

Next week (on bank holiday Monday) I'm doing another one, but twice the distance and with 3rd cat riders (I'm 4th cat) - I doubt I'll even finish, but hopefully it will be a good learning experience.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncyclesport/3849119350/
This is me shaking it up a bit on the hill about halfway through the race (I went on the inside of the bend, where the climb is steepest, but it's over more quickly, so if you go hard the suffering is over sooner).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncyclesport/3849119350/sizes/m/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncyclesport/3849119350/sizes/m/
Maybe this will work

Is that image showing? It isn't for me. On the rather small off-chance anyone wants to see some more photos, I've found some more professional ones:
Grimly determinedly staying seated on the climb when everyone else got out the saddle
Giving up on that approach in a world of pain later on
Half-dead on the left just after crossing the line
Some old bloke winning a marrow for coming last

plus there were also 7 women simultaneously doing a separate race and I beat all of them

lol

this is all awesome. very psyched with all the racing you've been doing!

yeah great job

im super jealz that they don't have that style of racing anywhere in a 90 minute radius of where I live.

we're spoiled here in NYC with central park and prospect park being minutes away.

most weekends in the summer you have to choose which race you'd rather do

no there's racing here but it's all like hella stage racing and huge fields.

i would enjoy a smaller field and a 40-60 mile distance, not 100-150 miles elbow to elbow.