my weekly race log

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.

also!!!! reasonable climbs instead of fucking crippling sadistic walls.

no cat 4 race would be 100-150 miles!

what i'm saying about the park races is they are short and fast. circuit racing more than road racing.

most 4s races are sub 1 hr crits or 45-65 mi circuit races in CO.

at least thats my recollection

Yes, in Britain hardly any road races are more than 100 miles. The elite events for the top amateurs and the domestic pros (i.e. the ones riding for low-budget British teams and racing mostly in this country) are usually about 80 miles or so. For 3rd or 4th cats it would be about 35-60 miles on the open road, or crits of a minimum of 40 mins to a maximum of 1 hour + 5 laps (so probably between 15 and 30 miles). The only time you'd get something as long as 150 miles (if ever) would be in the Tour of Britain, which is mostly for the continental pros.

Personally, I've never raced more than 25 miles, and the furthest I've ridden is 85 miles, so a 150-mile race doesn't even bear contemplating.

You get sportives that are a lot longer, but of course, a sportive isn't a race :)

my races average around 75-80 miles these days.

(in the pro/1/2 field)

Mark - I'm doing a 100-mile sportive in late September - not sure if this was a good idea!
http://www.essexsportive.com/

Cutty - how are you finding it (racing at that level)?

it's really difficult. but i'm having more fun than ever. no longer is there the stress of getting more upgrade points and moving up in the ranks--so the races are generally more enjoyable for me.

on the other hand, i'm racing against the strongest elite racers in the northeast. everyone is as strong as me, most are stronger. so i pretty much just hold on tight and pray i don't get dropped.

i haven't really been posting about my racing in the p/1/2s because it's mostly uneventful. i've had some top 20 finishes, i've gotten into some early breakaways (the field is usually likely to let a new cat 2 like me go off the front for a while), and i've gotten dropped.

but i'm racing with the big boys and that's most of the fun. i'm a 30 year old lawyer, yknow?

i'm curious how i will do next year with another winter of training under my belt.

Jamie, I may possibly be doing that one - I have a (female, very powerful) friend who lives in Essex and if she can deal with the hills we might be entering. After the Black Mountains I am rather less scared of hills! (NB this lack of fear gradually dissipates so by late September I'll be bricking it again)

Well, keep in touch and we could end up riding together (at least for part of it). I'm supposed to be doing with an Australian bloke from my cycling club, but he hasn't entered yet and I haven't heard from him for a fortnight - I think he might be doing some event in the Pyrenees at the moment.

By the way - I don't think there'll be any hills on that sportive to be even remotely worried about.

but i'm racing with the big boys and that's most of the fun. i'm a 30 year old lawyer, yknow?

^^^ this is a good attitude

yeah, thanks. it's a personal accomplishment for me to have gotten this far in only two seasons of racing. and i'm not burnt out yet. i love the sport and i love being fit and fast!

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.

Ouch. Well, it was a good learning experience, I suppose. Very hard: this was the furthest I've raced (50km/31 miles), in easily the biggest field (68 starters), against 3rd cat riders for the first time. Unlike the 4th cat races I've done, which tend to get splintered into several groups, this basically stayed together as one big bunch most of the time (with a group of 4 or 5 off the front for a while). The pace was very fast for me (over 24mph), but I managed to keep myself in the bunch (albeit very near to or actually at the back nearly all the time) for the first 5 laps (1 lap = 2km). This often involved sprinting hard just to keep in touch and then suddenly everyone would all squash together and slow down for no apparent reason.

On the 6th lap a gap opened and even when I sprinted I just couldn't close it. The bunch pulled away from me on the hill and I was left to ride the next 6 or 7 laps on my own (which I did at a much gentler pace). The only rider behind me was so far behind (one or two minutes) that there didn't seem much point waiting for him. Eventually the bunch lapped me and I upped my pace and got back into the middle of them. This time I stuck with them for about three laps before getting spat out the back. I pootled around a bit more and eventually they lapped me a second time. Again, I sprinted as hard as I could and kept with them for a lap and a half before I just couldn't hack it.

Then came THE FOOLISH INCIDENT. I had a look at my computer on the main descent (I was on my own again) to check my speed (I normally try to force myself to hit 35mph before I start freewheeling) and saw I'd done just under 25 miles. I wondered how my time would compare to my 25-mile time trial, so I pressed the button on the computer to get to the right display. Then I looked up and realised I was just about to run out of road (there was a 180-degree bend, but I was still going forwards at about 30mph). I braked, skidded, then went off the road and tumbled over and over into a load of thistles.

I was cut up, with a fair bit of blood on my right leg, but nothing serious. I'm sore now in various places (both knees took a whack), but nothing's broken. Amazingly, the bike seemed to be more or less OK as well (only the handlebars had been knocked out of line). After about 30 seconds I got back on the bike and tried to finish the race. I managed another lap and a half with blood all over me and thistles covering my back and hanging from my gloves, but then my legs started to cramp up. There was only one more lap to go (if you're lapped you finish when the leaders finish), but I decided against continuing - I'd done enough damage already.

OH NO. sometimes after you crash, your adrenaline is so high you can catch back on.

lesson learned though, right?! don't look at your computer in a race!

!!!!!

lesson learned though, right?! don't look at your computer in a race!

B-b-but I was on my own - what could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, lesson learned alright.

84 mile road race, got 7th. my best result so far in the elite peloton. upgrade points towards my cat 1 ;)

Excellent!
I've been ill and had to miss my race yesterday - couldn't even ride to the end of my street.

i'm climbing really really well right now. seems the same thing is happening to me that happened last year, my peak fitness happens in august-september after the entire season is nearly over!

cutty how long did it take you to go from guy with a bike to cat 1???