Life In The Saddle

Most will probably find this a little monotonous, but this is a through-and-off practice along the Military Road with Wightlink-LCM Systems Cycle Race Team. Watch the numbers drop as the speed and intensity increase...

When you turn up to a race and find out that the race before yours on the same circuit had 25 punctures, it doesn't bode well. When your race briefing includes a warning of a cattle grid on the course, and a warning of deer on the course, it rather adds to the trepidation. Oh, it was raining as well.  Anyway, enough complaining, today Sambo and James came with me to the last of our Surrey League races in West Sussex.  It was an exciting one... The course took us through a deer park, and some rough road surfaces, and was composed of 12 laps of the 3.5 mile circuit. On the fourth lap I launched an attack, with Jimbo slowing the pace momentarily on the front, I kicked off the front. Bringing a bit of my mountain bike experience back into play I went on the worst section of road. The attack worked, two riders came with me and we were opening up a good gap on the main field. It was tough going, the course didn't give much let up, you were either holding on flying over the...

Today Sam and I travelled to Bletchingly in Surrey for my second Surrey League road race this season. It would be fair to say it was a hot and hard day out. The first lap of the race was eventful, with a horse bolting in front of the peloton, which stopped us for a good five minutes until the rider had picked herself up (unhurt), and caught up with it. We chased down a small break that had gone from the off, and it all came back together. In the second lap of six, things started to heat up (temperature wise as well). Sam hit one of the many large potholes on the circuit and punctured; unfortunately ending his race. That left me as the only Wightlink-LCM Systems rider in the race, with the task of trying to compete against several large mainland teams. (Bit of deja-vu from the Redhill RR started!). Breakaway attempts started going off the front of the pack thick and fast. I sat in the front four riders consistently, and desperate not to miss the break, tried to jump into every gro...

Yesterday I travelled to Leigh in Surrey to do the Redhill E.1.2 road race. I knew it was going to be tough. It was. I was the only Wightlink-LCM Systems rider in the race, lining up against big teams such as Felt-Colbournes, Pedal Heaven and Orbea Twenty3c. Looking at the start list I was a little bit nervous; this was set to be a quick race, and with temperatures close to 27°C it was going to be pretty damn hot too. Adding to my nerves was the fact that for the last week I really haven't been feeling on top form; The South Downs Way Challenge last weekend seemed to take it out of me; partly because of the long day, but also the sheer amount of time in the saddle. Leading up to the South Downs Way ride I had also been focussing my attention on endurance rides, not high intensity, and in the last week I have largely been doing recovery rides rather than hard sessions. The result was that I both felt tired, and knew that I didn't have great top-end power at all; proven by a r...

This afternoon we were back in Winchester for the second Omega circuits Criterium race at the Winchester Park and Ride. I came away with a similar result to last week, with a provisional 7th or 8th place; a result which I was reasonably satisfied with, but left me looking forward to doing more road races and less Crit's. Once again the race started at a brutal pace, with the first few laps averaging well over 27mph. Starts like this were always something I struggled with when I was mountain bike racing, and things don't seem to have changed; I was flagging a bit for the first few laps to say the least. As things settled down I managed to get myself back up to the main peloton with a few hard efforts. Unfortunately, I paid for those efforts, because as soon as I caught onto the back of the peloton a group of three went off the front, and with it the pace of the peloton itself accelerated to chase them. The acceleration spat me back out the back of the main field, which was q...

This afternoon the Wightlink-LCM Systems race team travelled to a car park in Winchester to race... Yes, we literally were racing round the South Winchester Park and Ride; on a tight, short and wind-swept course. After finishing exams this week I've had a few nights of celebrations and it would be fair to say that "some" alcohol was consumed. That, plus the fact that I haven't raced for 6 weeks, meant I was slightly unsure how my body was going to function in a short, sharp E.1.2. Criterium race. Anyway, here's how it panned out... The race was composed of one hour plus five laps of the short circuit that took just two minutes to complete a loop. That adds up to a lot of laps.  The race started incredibly quickly. Too quick for me. The first three laps were the fastest of the whole race, and I missed the break that went off the front in the second of those laps. Partly it was because my legs just weren't ready for that shock after 6 weeks of ...

I travelled to Loughborough this morning to take part in a 54 mile road race run by Loughborough Uni on the same course as the BUCS road race that I competed in last year. This was a Cat 2.3.4. race, whilst the BUCS race was an E.1.2.3. BUCS last year was only my second road race ever, and I was pleased to finish it (only 24 of the 80 starters did!), but with this race being on a circuit that suited me, with a less high-level field, and with a years extra experience, I was hoping for a half decent result. Unfortunately a few things weren't in my favour... The course comprises of five laps of a fairly exposed and rolling circuit; finishing each lap with an ascent of Harby hill; a long climb that ramps up to a 16 percent gradient at the end. To be honest, it is a very similar circuit to the Milland Hill RR I did a month ago... Tough! Today there was a strong headwind on one side of the box shaped course as well; which further added to the attrition rate (only around 30 of the 80...

If you live in the South of England and looked out the window yesterday evening, you'd probably think that that you would be mad to get on a bike and race. Thinking of getting on a bike and racing in that weather when you didn't feel 100% was another kind of mad... idiotic might be a better word. Anyway that's what I did last night at Portsmouth Mountbatten Track. I rode to the ferry, not feeling great. I got on the ferry soaked. I got even more soaked cycling to the track, then I sat around in the track room wondering what I was doing and thinking that I probably shouldn't race as I didn't feel great. But I did... and unsurprisingly felt like a bag of spanners. There was nothing there. No power. No strength. Just a high heart rate and a disturbing amount of vomit in my mouth. My legs were like blocks of lead. I haven't been feeling great for a few days; with an eye infection and a sore chest, I didn't feel particularly ill, just drained like my body was...

I was told that Milland Hill was a tough circuit, nothing quite prepared me for the 25 percent gradient though, nor for the fact that we had to go up it eight times. The 65 mile race was composed of eight and a half laps of the 7.5 mile circuit; a circuit of false flats, finished with a gradient that even by Isle of Wight standards was a vicious encounter. The race started out fast, with a break of two riders getting off early. It was clear from the outset that despite there being a few large teams in the race, there were not many riders that were willing to work. As a result I seemed to find myself on the front a fair bit for the first two laps; working with a select group of others to help reel back the breakaway. Our hard work paid off, as the two escapees were brought back into the main bunch towards the end of lap two. For most of lap three I sat back in and tried to regain a bit of strength, following the wheels of Jimbo and Si, who made up our three man Isle of Wight...

Follow every move and one of them had better work. That was the motto I adopted in today's race over at the Portsmouth Mountbatten track: it was a tactic that hurt like hell for a lot of the one hour race. I was kicking myself a bit after I let a break of five riders get away last week in my first Elite, 1st and 2nd Category race over at Portsmouth. So this week I was determined to make sure I made the split. As a result, from the start I tried to stick near the front of the main peloton, and with assaults going left, right and centre I was working hard (probably too hard) to make sure I either pulled a fair few of them back, or made sure I was in them. Eventually a group of nine riders were sat on the front of the peloton and the pace began to lift, James Ebdon my team-mate, was sat the tenth rider back and knowing the field well he recognised that we might be a good mix of riders to do something in a break. As a result, when the pace lifted James eased a little and let...

My first race of 2013 was at the Portsmouth Mountbatten track; Elite, 1st and 2nd Cat. racing in torrential rain, strong winds and freezing temperatures.... Ideal! Getting the legs moving took a bit of doing; a few warm up laps before the race was not enough to prepare me for the onslaught that was about to happen. Nor was my choice of skin-suit, arm warmers and leg warmers a wise choice; I should have been wearing an Arctic jacket. The race started much as I expected it to; straight in with the attacks, and they didn't stop coming. Break after break went off the front, I latched onto quite a few, and chased down quite a few; probably too many to be honest, I have yet to know who are the workers and will make a break work, so I found myself chasing down a few that probably in retrospect were doomed to fail. After seeing my heart rate rocket a few times I sat in for a while, not wanting to finish myself off and not be able to finish the 1hr +5 laps race. Unfortunately I s...

Thanks to Jack Elton-Walters, one of my team mates from the Isle of Wight, who has put together this fantastic post to mark the launch of the new Wightlink-LCM Systems Cycle Race Team; which I unfortunately was not able to attend as I am mid-term at university at present. The team is a group of young, enthusiastic riders, who are looking forward to an exciting 2013 with some fantastic local support... What is now the Wightlink-LCM Systems Cycle Race Team has had several names and quite a few personnel changes, but with the founders and key members remaining throughout. Started in 1995 and believed to be the single longest continuous sponsorship deal with Wightlink, the team was at its previous prime in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but is undergoing a rejuvenation with new riders, new sponsors, new kit and renewed big ambitions. The 2013 Season Targets and events are varied this year depending on each team member’s race category and personal goals, but all will...

Last week I gave a summary of my " 2012 Season Objectives: What did I tick off? ", it's now time to look forward to 2013 and see what's on the cards, and what I would like to achieve both on and off the bike next year. On the bike Objective #1: 1st Cat Road Race Licence (or maintain 2nd Cat) On the road, this will be my main objective for next year. I went from 4th to 2nd Category this year and hope to make the big jump up to 1st Cat next year. I realize it will be a big step, and with final year university studies, the prospect of getting a job and other commitments I know it will be a big ask; but it would be amazing to get there, or at very least maintain my 2nd Cat licence.  Objective #2: Do a hill climb season After this year's rather poor performance in the BUCS Hill Climb , I'm keen to make amends. I would like something to extend my season a bit, and the hill climb season seems like the perfect fit. I'll aim to put in ...

Perplexed, annoyed and relieved. Those three words seem rather juxtaposed, but that’s kind of how I felt about my result from Saturday’s BUCS hill climb championship at Curbar Gap. I came in with a time of 06:28, which was 21 seconds slower than last year, and a long way off the pace of the best riders, who were clocking in times around the 05:50 mark. I say perplexed and annoyed because I’m not really sure what went wrong. I’ve had a strong season and have been going reasonably well on the hills if the CRC Mountain Bike Marathon and the Seven Hills Killer was anything to gauge it by. Rather than being overly disappointed with my result, it was more a case of confusion, much the same as when you get a piece of coursework back that you think was good, and then it turned out to be a C grade. So I tried to pin it down on the long drive back from the Peak District. It could have been expectation; last year it was such an unknown of how I would do, and as a result there w...

We travelled up to Wiltshire yesterday to take part in the Cricklade Kermesse, and it proved to be one beast of a race. 15 laps of a fast circuit, then a finish on the narrow, downhill High Street with crowds of spectators. My target for the race was the 'King Of The Mountains' classification; on 5 laps there was an uphill sprint up Common Hill, with the first three taking points. From the start it was pretty evident that the race was going to be FAST, and tight corners were going to make it quite technical at times. By the second lap people were jostling for position for the KOM classification, trying to be near the front for the climb. I did that, but in fact ended up on the front...not so good. I ended up just taking 3rd on that one and gaining one point. The pace kept on climbing, with the average speed for the race in the region of 28mph. Breaks were trying to go off the front, but there wasn't really any chance of them keeping clear for that long, as people pulled...

It's been a long time coming, but last night saw me take another top podium spot at Portsmouth Track during a hard but rewarding race. It had dried out nicely by the evening, after the day's torrential downpours, and whilst a strong wind promised to make for an interesting race, there was a full field of 40 riders present on the start line of what was to be my last 3.4 Category race. Several breaks went in the first part of the race; a few of them I was in, the rest the team and myself did a good job of chasing down and controlling. When a break I was in got reeled back in about 25 minutes into the 40 mins + 3 laps race I was just about ready to sit up and coast along in the pack for a bit. Fat chance! As the break was absorbed, I saw we had left one rider just off the front with a few metres gap. It was the same rider that had gone with me in the race a few months back when we had a successful two man break, and I had won and then been disqualified for celebrating ( Report...

Good race last night, just glad I made the start line, as I've started work down at the sailing club now and it makes getting over to Portsmouth a bit tricky. The legs didn't feel great from the off, not sure why, but I was struggling. I've put in a fair few miles in the last week and I think that I overdid it a few days ago and was still feeling the effects. Anyway, I was having to work hard to pull a few attacks back throughout the race and the legs were feeling the strain. It amazes me how different each race over at the track is, this one seemed to be a 'to-and-fro' i.e. a break would go, the pack would wait a while to see how it was working, then a few individuals in the pack would decide that enough was enough and pull the break back. It seemed that Wightlink Race Team did a lot of work to pull back break after break throughout this race, which at least proves that we are all getting stronger! I say that the race was a 'to-and-fro', but I got it ...

After last week's horrific DQ I was back to try and take revenge at Pompey track on Wednesday evening, in what proved to be an interesting race. For the first ten minutes or so I rode in the pack, warming up and getting a feel for the track and who was riding. Once again there was a strong headwind on one side of the track, which promised to make a break difficult. At about ten minutes into the forty minute race I got in a break of about six riders and we began to work well together. I thought it could work and for about twenty minutes we stayed away from the bunch; but certain riders in the group weren't pulling their weight and as the workers in the group began to catch onto that fact they too tried to take shorter turns on the front and as a result the pace of the group slowed. The peloton kept chasing and the hopes of staying away were gradually lost as we were reeled back in. For a few minutes I sat back in the pack. Then Robbie, one of the lads from the Island, cam...

First road race in a while last night - over in the New Forest for the Sotonia CC Heath Race. A good field of 40 riders, a reasonably strong wind and a rare sunny evening (for July?!) looked set to make for an interesting race. The course was made up of five laps of the six mile circuit, with a few rolling hills and some fast wooded descents. Jimbo got in an early break during the first lap, but it was pulled back in by the second time we rolled through the line. Then almost immediately another attack of three riders went off the front. Unfortunately Wightlink RT didn't manage to get anyone in that break, and to our annoyance it was the one that stuck! During lap three I did some hard efforts on the front, desperately trying to reel the break back in. However, as the big teams Cannondale, VC. St. Raph. and Andover Wheelers had riders in the break there weren't many riders willing to work to pull the escapees back in. After five minutes or so sat on the front trying to pull ...

Think I've calmed down enough now to write a blog on Wednesday's race. Which was possibly one of the most gutting experiences of my life. My first race back at Portsmouth Mountbatten Track after exams and sickness didn't start that well. The legs didn't feel like they were there for the first ten minutes of the race, I wasn't surprised given the lack of preparation that I have had in the past month. However, by fifteen minutes in something was coming, I was active on the front chasing down breaks and I was able to ride in the wheels fairly well, dodging the brutal headwind that was hitting us on one side of the track. The majority of the race was fairly standard; a few breaks went off the front, but we chased them down reasonably well. The only thing that I did note was that the bunch really wasn't working very well together, certainly compared to the E.1.2.3 BUCS Road Race that I did back in May (the last race I rode). There was a select group that was work...