[Closed] So I want to try road racing + build a bike specifically for this

Unless you are near to front when they open up the gates at MK it's always going to be a struggle to keep with the leaders, gets me every time.

Interesting there were fisticuffs at the end i'll have to see if I can find out more.

Congratulations on the imminent arrival Tom and good luck with it all! My wife has 4 ponies so I could race three times a week and still retain the moral high ground 😆

Congrats Tom!!

For those of you who haven't met CH when he's not racing:
[img] [/img]

Looking forward to watching tomorrow's racing, it's going to be a bit of a mixed bag: really hot with the chance of rain/thunderstorms. May bring my camera too.

there were fisticuffs at the end

Someone won't be making it to 3rd cat if it's reported. It's a [url= https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/British-Cycling-Disciplinary-Home ]very serious infringement[/url]. I know someone who was banned for a season. Another rider is banned for four years (don't headbutt the comm!)

Had a little verbal at our [url= https://www.strava.com/activities/1004536397 ]Vets V50[/url] on Wednesday. I set off at a rocket pace; laps 2-4 were all bang on 2:00 😈 . Sadly on a still night, despite lots of attacking, it came down to a sprint, and I'd done far too much work for that. May have garnered a point.

I'm trying to find a peak power testing protocol but can't remember where I saw it or the exact specifics, but it was something like;

From a standstill sprint as hard as you can for 40 secs.
The source then gave some reference points for ability ie max >1000 and average over the 40 secs >700 equals pretty good, or something.

But I can't remember where I saw it, anybody know of it?

It's hugely weight dependent.

If you were Domenico Pozzovivo, those numbers would be awesome to the point of people praising the explosively of your manliness. At 80Kg, you'd be more likely to be needing to reply to those "This one weird trick" spam emails. 😉

That's not me Nath! I'd never be seen on the shooting field without my Tie on 😆

Haha @CH

Okay I'm sold on Z1 recovery rides, I'm fortunate to live near Hillingdon circuit and it's dead during the day so although boring it's perfect for zoning out.

So 25mile Z1 ride out on the training/cx/commuter: https://www.strava.com/activities/1006645100

Got back, drank a load of water and ate an energy bar then did this: https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=7564

😯

Watching CH - currently half way through the race and this just happened:

[img] [/img]

Go CH!!!

And? And?

Finished a 2/3 RR with a bunch sprint today. Blocked to keep team mate away for a few laps and chased down numerous counter attacks. Sadly four of our six riders punctured, but we got a third place 😀

Go CH!
I even detect a hint of elbow bend 🙂

So what happened...? The suspense is killing me! #Go CH!

When I spotted a FB post from Big Events saying “E123 and Cat3 full but Cat4 places still available!” my heart skipped a beat! This wasn’t on my radar at all. Blundering through the BC website, I looked expectantly and yes! It was at Hillingdon.

I pencilled it in as a C race instead of my interval medley (which was supposed to be race-specific by now anyway) and got myself entered. How exciting!

The by now predictable text banter with Nath began and my dilemma was actually a nice one to have. Sit in for possible points, or play around and get some training benefit.

It surely has to be a sign of how far I’ve come that I now lose fitness in a race if I sit in. What used to take me a mammoth effort to achieve is now relatively simple. The problem is I’m still stuck beneath the next rung of the ladder- which is making a decisive move.

I managed to get out last night for a leg spin and bunged in a couple of sprints and a couple of 90 second threshold efforts. The second one actually dented my confidence somewhat. 315w in my best impression of an aero position was only good for 23/24mph into a slight headwind. Relating this back to Zwift and the wonderment about where people compare to real life- it highlights a pretty basic point (and one Zwift ignore by not having live Average speed I think)- that Watts and W/kg are lovely metrics for some things but out in real life, it’s only actually speed that matters!

Arriving nice and early, I watched the end of the Cat 3 race and saw Johnny do his usual trick of attacking too much and finishing in the bunch. Knowing how powerful he is relative to myself, it made me certain that points for me are an irrelevance right now. I don’t have Cat3 power so learning to race has to be my number one priority.
Which also confirmed my thoughts that trying something, indeed anything, was the only option today.

Nath arrived and seemed bemused by my timings! I have a good routine now and like to do each step at the same slot relative to my start time. I left him and Johnny to watch the E123 finish and retreated to the carpark to prepare.

A nice sedate warm up with Nath and then back to the car once more to switch jerseys and pop a gel before a final few laps.
Alice and the Commissaire did their speeches and we were off!

The headwind was even worse than during warmup. The forecast was 18mph with gusts and it felt like it too! After negotiating Brian’s and the climb, we hit the full force just in time for the kink- resulting in much bunching up, weaving and swerving each lap.

The first two laps were a bit potent power wise at around 300w but I soon settled in and started to chill out. Laps 4 and 5 were down to 235 and 240w respectively and that for a 2mph faster lap speed!
I had roughly settled on a plan. I needed to try something. Either a bridge to another move or a solo effort. I planned to do these at 20 and 40mins and then sit in for the sprint.

As it was, I was finding it tough to get to the front. I mean, I wasn’t taking any wind but still, it was a very fair bunch today I’d say, in that we were pretty evenly matched. The wind helped of course!
Lap 10, I averaged just 190w! In the same way as everyone else finding it hard when it’s hard, I knew everyone else would be finding it easy so time to apply some hurt!

Luckily, a slot opened up without too much effort and I found myself in the wind almost by accident then just kept the power on. Wattages in the 4 and 5 hundred gave me a gap and apparently (I barely looked behind) it got out to about 3 seconds at one point. After about a lap, which turned out to be 320ish watts average, I knew I wasn’t fast enough. Whatever the root course is irrelevant really- I don’t have the solo pace and that’s that. Anyway, I had hoped another solo entrepreneur would have bridged over to me and shouted ‘GOGOGO!’ for some through and off but it clearly wasn’t happening.

I soft pedalled a bit and it seemed to take an age to get caught but wasn’t long in reality and London Dynamo launched a counter almost straight away. This was good as it gave me some more training rather than sitting in. It soon settled down though and I drifted to the back for some refreshments as it was a little warm!

Soon after, another attack was launched from well back on the left-hand side of the bunch as we flew down the wind on the start finish straight. I began to follow the move before most of the pack had even twigged but then had a brainwave and just bellowed: “UPUPUPUP!!” which got people surging before the breaking duo had even passed the lead riders. What could have been a two-lap chase was instead a half-lap dampener! Smarter not harder lol

Anyway, the sprint was a’coming and the race went by really quickly this afternoon. There was a few attempts to string things out and the final five laps were actually by far the quickest of the race-whereas often there are a couple of slow ones in there as people empty their bottles, fumble with gels and stare at each other.

Everything came back together and my attempts to move up with three and two to go, got me pretty much nowhere! Ah well, last lap then and I played to my strengths by accelerating through Brian’s, carrying my momentum up the hill and shouting at people not to cut at the kink. They didn’t have to oblige of course but they were head-down, guns out at this point so didn’t have time to realise my bluff and gave me a nice gap.

I continued moving up down the hill and for once, my efforts seemed to be getting me there.

At this point, I’d like to quickly reflect on my plan. What is the point of periodised training? Why go through all the faff and hassle? Isn’t it all a bit overblown for Cat4 racing? Well this is why. My peak powers at all the different durations were fairly unremarkable this race. But what was different was my stamina. The nose-diving fitness score on Strava has been worrying the past ten days but the rocketing Form score is the point! By trusting my plan, it had delivered what it promised. A peak when it said there should be one!

Thruxton the other night was a B race following an R+R week rather than a peak week and to be honest, the result was a little bit ‘meh!’. But this Peak week (of basically just rest and a race) has really delivered.

So, past the club house then and the legs weren’t fading and the mind wasn’t addled by the effort. I felt as strong as I ever have at this point. I was right in the bunch so decided to carry on drafting a little longer. As the 200m mark went under my wheels, I pushed harder and there was a good 1100w kick!! That’s never happened at this stage before either! I kept pushing as hard as I could, now back in the saddle and accelerated right over the line.

The top 15 was just 0.5 seconds apart and I got my new best finish of 14th!

Could I have got a point if I hadn’t attacked? Not sure. Nath says yes- I have no idea, but that was epic! The composure, control and confidence I now have is just incredible and makes the racing much more enjoyable.

Such a shame Big Events aren’t back there until October- I really enjoyed that!

Nath- you could have bigged up the picture a little better- it looks like I'm getting lapped 😆

Haha.

Nice write up!!

No one thought you were being lapped!!!

Well done though, that was an epic achievement - doesn't that tick off some more of TiRed's racing list?!

Slow motion vid: [url=

1. Buy a race license and enter a race
2. Not get dropped
3. Finish mid pack
4. Finish top third
5. Work on the front
6. Contest the sprint
7. Bridge to a break
8. Attack
9. Contest the points
10. Win!

I still don't know how many I deserve. 1,2,3,5,6,8 are fair I reckon??

Getting there. You aren't expected to do them all in the same race though!

Lol!
I really want number 7. I just never seem to be in the right place to try as the bunch are generally already attempting to bring the break back at a pace too high for me to get clear of.

Getting there. You aren't expected to do them all in the same race though!

Another update from me.... ORRL #4 at Arncott yesterday.
Think I need to work on my explosiveness as I thought I was sitting well around halfway in the pack (I know TiRed says top third, next time!) However around 2/3 of the way round the first lap (7 and a bit laps, 55m) I found myself off the back with 4 or 5 others and didn't even see it happening..stuck out 5 laps together but ultimately it was nice training miles at a reasonable pace.
Outlasted a couple of guys I stopped with at the first road round so I'm claiming that as a (very) small win. Looking forward to the next flatter round which may suit me a little more and also the criteria following that, will be my first. May try and see if I can get a cat4 a thruxton before that to get settled in.
Cheers for the thread guys, very motivating!

Well done Leigh2612! It can be a mystery what's going on a few rows forward in a Crit sometimes- let alone strung out on the road I imagine!

I have that race on the 17th pencilled in as a possibility but I won't know until nearer the time.

So I started my formal training plan yesterday, like all good plans it started out with doing nothing... welll a Z1 spin up 😆

I'm at target weight now so I've stopped the -500 calorie deficit per day so I'm hoping that will help energy levels.

First test is on 24th June so I guess that'll be the first indicator.

Hillingdon Tuesday nights aren't off the table either as on Tuesdays my plan indicates 2.5 hours with 5x6-12 min intervals up to zone 5a (189bpm or circa 350w), but they will be a C priority race.

First A priority races are Hillingdon on Saturday 12/19/26 August.

So this 'Bridge across to a break' thing..... How close do I have to get to tick it off 😆

Grrrr! Stupid TinyPic!!!

Have to join them 😆

No luck with three photo hosting sites so stuff it! I'll have to explain instead 😆

@Nath- Yeah, kind of thought that was the case. Ah well 😀

[img] [/img]

They were a little further away than I thought 😆

Sorry CH, that definitely doesnt count.

Yup, sorry that doesn't count 😆

Also, judging from the size of that 'break', are you sure its a break and not the peleton?! 😛

Well what another lovely evening for racing! The forecast wasn’t that good but actually the weather was great.

There were loads of friendly faces their too. Ben from NRC, Matthew from TFC and Chris from Southampton.
Matthew and Chris were both on their second Crits and did awesomely well! Great to see.

My goals for tonight were simple. EITHER bridge to a break, or get a point from the sprint. My plan was simple too. Sit in nice and tight and lazy for 9 laps and then surf my way through the bunch for a sprint finish UNLESS the opportunity for a break attempt arose, in which case go for it full gas.

The overriding theme though was commitment. In the first instance, I had to be 100% committed to being lazy and if a chance for a breakaway occurred- I had to be willing to sacrifice my race for it. Limping home last if needed.

Prep was chilled but thorough. Everything done when needed and I was feeling excited in a manageable way.
All that remained was to clip my visor on at the start line, pop my last gel and press start on the Garmin. And then……

So last week, the Comm had a go about my number being in the exact same place as everyone else’s. This week, I moved it up to where he was suggesting it should have been and the other Comm told me off and made some random lady move it down for me to exactly where I had had it every other race!!! I was absolutely livid! And subsequently forgot my gel and my visor! Thank god I pressed Start still or I think I’d be banned from BC for life now!

Matthew was next to me on the line and joked that the new position was going to cost me 10w. I replied that on the contrary, it had just given me 100 extra ‘Anger Watts’!!

Off we went and I have no idea what I was doing. I was probably doing 400w but just seething about the Comm still. Time to calm down and focus. Not easy with the amount of Sugar I had crammed in during the proceeding couple of hours.
I was hyper aware though and spotted Craig (the solo artist from the other week) ride straight off the front.
Bugger- I had suspected he might do that. He was trying harder in warmup than last week and positioned himself on the front row.

Shortly after, two guys bridged across. (See Strava Flyby for graphics) As they steadily edged away, I tried to see who they were. One was a Heart Evolution guy with three team mates still with us. One was Craig of course- with a team mate back with us I think. And the last one (haven’t checked) seemed to have a team kit similar to a couple of guy still with us.

I knew they were gone for the duration. This straight away reduced the appeal of the sprint.
Right- go hard or go home!

Heart Evolution and a few others shut the front down as we passed the start finish line and I made up easy places, drifted off to one side and sprinted my little heart out!! 1240w followed by a sustained effort and I knew I was actually clear for once! Pedalling right through the top chicane (which nobody at Thruxton seems to do despite it being nothing for a bicycle) this was it 4th place or last!!!

As the view down the circuit opened up, I couldn’t quite believe how far out they had already got! They were killing it. My adrenaline subsided and I resigned myself to my destiny.
Now hide fast and recover!!! Trouble was we were approaching the climb and I was about to get punished. Of course, I had the luxury of slipping room and I used every last place, cresting the start/finish rise at 180bpm.
The pace stayed higher than usual for a couple of laps and I just tried to survive but slowly we got on top of things.

Every time I saw Chris and Matthew- they were in textbook positions and when I asked them if they were ok, they both smiled and nodded.
Ben was there too, mid to rear of the bunch, saving his matches.

With three to go, the pace lifted a bit and a few guys punted it off the front. It was obvious they weren’t going anywhere this week so I just used any slipping room I had to stick with the bunch and then made up places as they slowed again.

Two to go and Matthew was true to his word. He took some wind and moved up the outside, settling into top five of the bunch.
The pace on this lap felt high and as we hit the bell lap, I mentally assessed things. Legs were ok. HR was back to normal (in fact, looking at Strava- I recovered better than I felt I think) and look- there’s Ben! Let’s follow him to a top five ( I guess actually top 8 including the 3 guys away) bunch sprint!

Well, I had never realised how hard it is to follow someone before! It took so much concentration to follow his moves without cutting anyone up but I managed it. I even got a better run than him at the top of the circuit and eased off to let him back in front at the Apex.

The pace lifted down the hill and I resisted the urge to look at numbers or second guess my effort and just concentrated on Ben.
Into the hill and the pack veered wildy as it often does here. Hey!!! What the heck are you doing man! Ben set off way too early- totally unlike him.

I decided to ride the bunch and let them chase him and then two people touched bars in front and I had to flick the brake to avoid.
That was it really- end of move. Anyway, keep calm and carry on, I steeled myself for the post chicane sprint- the leaders weren’t a million miles away and could yet take themselves out I suppose.

Doh! There’s Matthew, 15 yards in front!! I mean, I’m pleased for him, he rode a smart race but there’s Team TFC banter on the line here!!!
I sprinted as best I could and it was ok actually! 617w average for 300m and 1037w max but he was looking over his shoulder and just held me off to finish one place better!

With hindsight, I should have played the sprint game it seems. The extra freshness would have possibly, maybe, potentially helped me avoid the pinch in the bunch but who knows. It is so dependent on luck at the moment- there are fifteen guys with very similar abilities fighting it out for, well 7 places tonight. Ok, if I roll the dice enough times, I might get that point. But instead I’ve got the glow of actually racing. Of being out there in the wind for a moment of glory and I’m happy with that.

No Crits now until two weeks’ time and that’s dependant on work. Time to dust off the peaked helmet……

Fifeandy- there was only 3!!!

Nice write up as always!!

I knew you couldn't sit in though 😆

The three guys who stayed away averaged 26mph for the entire race and were all around the 300w mark.

Craig basically rode at 30mph for half a mile off of the start line to make the initial break.

The other two needed 35mph efforts to bridge and they all did 27mph for the first few laps!

That sprint is suddenly sounding more dead cert 😆

Doh! Just noticed the 'there' not 'their' spelling mistake. Stupid boy!

I'm impressed 🙂 Not necessarily with the result but with the effort, the thought processes and the in-race changes of plan etc. Sure, as you say, you can sit in there and battle for sprints to win the elusive point, but damn that's got to be getting dull... So sod it, you went for it... it failed, but you went for it anyway. Top job 🙂

Bridging is always very, very hard. You have to ride at a sustained pace FASTER than a bunch for a long period. It helps with team mates to slow the peloton a little. If a break goes, try and go early, don't leave it to establish and try not to drag the peloton with you. Attack from about three bike lengths back. Try not to change down, as the gears will make a noise that alerts the rest of the bunch (hup hup!)

Well done. Most of my bridging attempts end in vain, the ones that have succeeded have tended to meet an exhausted rider who then falls back! Rarely I make it to a bunch and sit in for a quick recovery and we stay away. Very rarely.

Fifeandy- there was only 3!!!

Sorry, my bad, since we were talking about bridging to a break I kinda assumed that would be the group you were closest to 😆

Speaking of breaks, launched my own at the local APR last night, small hill and I blew things to bits, had to sit up and wait a bit for a couple more to come to me as I didn't much fancy 2mi solo on the flat into a 20mph headwind!
I fear next week i'll have to go with the fast group (full of cat2/3's) and cling on as best I can.

Yeah, it looks better on the proper flyby. I stayed away for the best part of a mile 😉

Well Done CH and Fifeandy, always fun to be active in a race

[b]Shrewsbury GP - 28th May[/b]

My 1st Town Centre Crit, and its fair to say that it didn't go entirely to plan 🙄

Pre-race nerves had me pretty much on the loo all morning, and then halfway down the M54 I realised that I'd left my Garmin at home. Thoughts of going back to get were quickly ditched in favour of getting to Shrewbury with plenty of time to spare.

Arrived in Shrewsbury 30 minutes before 4th Cat sign-on opened, and wandered up to the main square, only to find that they were running late and juniors were still signing on with only 5 minutes before their scheduled start. Got in the queue anyway, and eventually signed on about 45 minutes before the scheduled start time. By the time I'd got back to my car, pinned my numbers on, set up the bike, and gulped down some energy drink it was 5 minutes to go. Rode up to the holding area, only to wait there for another 30 minutes.

So, 30 minutes late, with no warm up of any kind, we set of behind the lead car for the neutralised lap. Unfortunately, the lead car set a pace that would have been suitable for the E/1/2 race, but was basically race pace for us. As a result, the riders at the front got nicely motorpaced, while the rest of the field got totally strung out, with me about 2/3rds back. When the flag dropped there was probably about 20-30 seconds gap between the front and back of the field (the car also did this for the 2/3/4 race, as well as causing a big crash at the start).

So, with any hope of a decent results already in the bin, I settled in to chase down as may riders as possible (just like avery race in the cx season), and ended up towing around a group of 4-6 riders for most of the race. Going into the final lap I made a big effort to break clear of them on the 2 climbs, and succeeded in shelling all but 1 of them, who came around me on the finish straight when I found myself in too small a gear coming out of the the final corner. Finished 33rd out of 60 starters/53 finishers.

Lessons learned for town centre crits:
1. There is not enough time to park, sign on and then go back to the car to get ready. Next time I'm taking all my stuff (bike, Race bag, and rollers) so that I have time to warm up, and can keep track of any changes to the schedule
2. The neutralised lap will be quicker than you expect
3. Cars are not suitable for leading out town centre crits on narrow roads - in the 2/3/4 race the car stopped suddenly in the neutal lap, causing a massive crash, that ended one of my team mates race before it had started, and also snapped his rear shifter clean off (see picks below)
4. You need to be prepared to bin it in the corners if you want to do well
5. It's loads of fun racing in front of a big crowd, and I'd totally recommend entering next year 😀

Some pics:

[URL] https://www.flickr.com/photos/paramountcrt/34606157930/in/album-72157682243944791/ [/URL]

?oh=d9ac405cbe442a07c168d4d41ff23d96&oe=59ABC65E

?oh=11d00870a1df91745ff52889fa3fef19&oe=599D3943

[img][URL= http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee437/John_Dyer77/IMG_0175_zpse6dbiz6i.jp g" target="_blank">http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee437/John_Dyer77/IMG_0175_zpse6dbiz6i.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL][/img]

[img] [/img]

I went down to try the mountain bike track at Redbridge (Hogg Hill) earlier and stayed to watch this evenings road bike racing as some of my clubmates were helping out and one of our guys was also in the 3/4 race (and it looked like he got points).

I was pretty impressed by the speed, especially given how hilly the circuit is - but was also surprised by just how many punctures there were. Also very surprised by just how high end some of the bikes were, including a very nice Ti Moots as well as a Dogma.

Dogmas are pocket change for crazy inflated london salaries aren't they?

Dogmas are pocket change for crazy inflated london salaries aren't they?

Sadly not for my crazy inflated London salary!

It does look exciting jd77 but I do quite enjoy having nice grass margins for bail out options 😆

I've got withdrawal symptoms today!

Yeah the sound of someone smashing into those metal barriers will be carried with me to the grave, alongside the smell and noise of a doctor drilling through my hands bones, grim!

Week 1 of the training plan done! Today was definitely a testing my mental fortitude, 4 hours alone on a bike with just music. My regular Sunday jaunt now occurring on Saturdays. Must keep the end goal in sight, I think it will help mentally when I can book them on BC website.

306 miles / 16 hours is a fair old whack.

I was pretty impressed by the speed, especially given how hilly the circuit is

One of my teammates did the e12 race last Thursday and the bunch did 43kph for the first 30 minutes before he got dropped. That's crazy fast for Hog Hill.

One of my teammates did the e12 race last Thursday and the bunch did 43kph for the first 30 minutes before he got dropped. That's crazy fast for Hog Hill.

They were definitely not hanging around. A guy on a Team Wiggins Dogma was off the front for most of the race and was pushing things on. He came 3rd in the end although it seemed quite odd as with a couple of laps to go he seemed to deliberately slow down to let the pack catch him.

[img] [/img]

I think I was being sarcastic with my aero pose here 😆

Ha! Love it.

You should've been in that position for that TT a couple of weeks back. 😈 😉

Does anyone know what's happening with next years Winter Series yet? Have BC found anyone to take it over??

Winter series will return with a new promoter. Mark hasn't said who yet.

Cool! Thanks. That's good news. My Saturday availablilty isn't as good as last years sadly but I'd like to do some again.

Imperial aren't doing it anymore?!

What happened?!

So it’s the end of an era for the Imperial Winter series, the event that was started 20 years ago by Doug and developed over the last 12 with Lucy and Rich. We’ve thought long and hard and believe that it’s time to handover to someone new who will bring fresh ideas and make it different if not necessarily better! We’re rightly proud of what we have developed particularly the 4th cat races and continuing to support the women’s events when numbers were low. It’s has also provided the platform for sponsors to raise their profile for new products and emerging services: but in most cases it’s just because they love the sport!

So just a quick update, 12 days into my plan and I've managed to keep it up thus far.

FTP remains unchanged at 316w, but I feel this is low now?! Strava is estimating it at 324w.

My 3 weeks of builds look a little like this, I have built in some variation along the way such as some Tuesday races at Hillingdon:

[B]Monday[/B] - Rest or 1 Hour light cycle

[B]Tuesday[/B] - 6x 12 mins at 320w with 3 mins rest in between and then a 45min-1hr light session to ease the legs (my HRM was freaking out on this, low battery):
[img] [/img]

[B]Wednesday[/B] - 3 hours light cycling split throughout the day

[B]Thursday[/B] - 1hr pyramid intervals and a 1hr leg spin
[IMG] [/IMG]

[B]Friday [/B]- 1 hour of 15 secs sprints with 5 mins rest inbetween
[img] [/img]

[B]Saturday [/B]- 3 hours at a moderate to quick pace with random efforts (52.5 miles) [url] https://www.strava.com/activities/1018831992 [/url]

[B]Sunday[/B] - 4 hours gentle spin (c.75 miles) [url] https://www.strava.com/activities/1020798106 [/url]

So yeah that's me for a while, hopefully I can keep it up!!

My least favourite are Tuesday's as it's 1:45 of pain and Sunday as it's a bit of a test of my mental fortitude bashing out 4 hours...
Hopefully it'll be worth it and I'll get some more points on my Cat 3 licence this year 🙂

On the front next Tuesday for the E123 then?

Haha no @Tired - when I get to my peak weeks I will potentially venture up. 3s or 3/4s until then!

Good luck Nath! You and Jonny should be a good influence on each other 😆
I pity the rest of the bunch with you two riding 😀

I've got a squeak, it's ruddy annoying and I can't figure it out... other than:

1) The gold chain is going, turns out I've down 2,048 miles on it and it's way past .75 - luckily not at .1 just yet.

2) The non drive side bearing looks like it's gone too, it's a weird bottom bracket, but looking at it I just need to bash the bearing out and replace with another MR2437-2RS one?!

[img] [/img]

As you can see it's not been very effective:
[img] [/img]

Hopefully replacing both will solve the squeak!

How bad are my bearings?

This bad:

New bearings should arrive tomorrow but I'll only have a 90 min window to replace, not sure I'm going to risk it yet...

Also looks like I'm stuck with a 11-23 cassette as it's chewed the freehub body up so much that I can only remove half of the cassette... so a steel replacement body is on order....and I'll take a hammer to the old one to remove the cassette lol.

Tense stuff! There's a theme developing in this thread with pre-race bearing issues 😀

Anyway, good luck with the race! Let's have some pre race nitty gritty....
Plan?
Expectations?
Predicted result?

I'm getting nervous now. My HR goes up just thinking about it! The one guy in last time's succesful break who hasn't moved up to Cat 3 isn't racing tomorrow so I don't really have a mark.
This is my last race for a while so I would like to try something again- even if it's just a few solo efforts for 'fun'!
Matthew from TFC has said he'll play, so I could even initially go solo and see if he can get across.
The forecast is for light winds so the pace could be too high anyway- in which case I'll happily sit in.

On reflection, other than a touch of bad luck in the bunch I was in, I put in a good last lap showing- I don't think I would have placed any more than one higher if I hadn't tried my early effort.

Plan - warm up for 10 mins near the back, work myself to the front and then attack. The race is taking over my 6x12 min 320w intervals so it needs to be tough to build my fatigue lol. May try organise something with Johnny.

Expectations - I pull the bunch along for my workout lol

Result - top half, would be nice to grab a cheeky point or two, depends on numbers though...

Not really put that much thought into it as I've got an interview beforehand 😆

Nathb those bearings sound like you have put them in a tumble dryer! Shouldnt take too long to replace if you have the tools. Good luck with the race and dont forget to put a report up here.

@blader - Yep! I could hear it on the turbo trainer but thought it was the tyre against the turbo as I couldn't hear it out on the road.

I have the right tools, it's whether or not to gamble the time... I suppose I've cycled on them this far 😆

Almost got my M2 workout: https://www.strava.com/activities/1035050112

The good:
- Worked hard at the back for the first 10-15 mins, helped a couple of guys get back into the bunch.
- Moved up and built my confidence riding in a pack, I still like being on the outside though...
- Cadence is up to an average of 96 = speed drills have been working.

The bad:
- More people turned up than I was expecting.
- Couldn't keep my HR down, maybe less coffee beforehand?
- By god it was sketchy as fudge!!
- Some arrogant fools taking stupid & pointless risks such as purposely overtaking on the grass!?!
- Johnny and I were in a good position with 2/3 laps to go. Plan was for me to launch an attack with him on my wheel, well that was until we got pushed out onto the grass next to the clubhouse - a knock on effect from someone's sketchy cornering. And that was that, too busy to get back up towards the front.

Sat up towards the end to avoid any potential crashes.

Expectations were high for this evening and the pressure was on. This was set to be my last race for a while.

When I first constructed my plan to try and raise my game, I knew pushing this far into June would be touch and go. It’s one of the critical months of my year at work and the luck of the weather largely decides how easy or tough things are.

Thankfully, with the dry spring and early summer continuing, things are generally good and there was nothing to stop me getting away for a few hours. The obligatory ‘what if’s’ did flash through my mind but to be honest, getting home for this evenings rounds would be the least of my worries if I broke a bone! It would be wrong to call this a premonition mind you as I get the same thoughts every race!

My prep was mixed. I was trying to carry through my good form from two weeks ago by doing a race intensity effort every 72hours (either Zwift or XC) with plenty of rest and a bit of endurance in between. Whilst not 100% specific, they all got the HR into the right sort of zones- although the brutal KISS pursuit race on Saturday was a bit fruitier than I was expecting!

The race bike felt like when I used to get into my 306 after a 12hr shift driving tractors as a student- light, nimble and speedy!
Warmup was sedate until 19:30 when I whizzed back to switch Jerseys and then ramped it up for ten minutes.

I even avoided too much confrontation with the Comms on the start light and slinked into the middle of the bunch.

Matt was here, hopefully carrying good fitness from his big weekend ride and Ben was also here. He had clocked 134miles on the Dragon Ride at 16.5mph so his F+F would both be through the roof!

I had of course done my over-blown research on the entrants and the field was around the same size as usual but the successful break-artists from the last few weeks were missing- mostly because they are now Cat 3’s. This left all the top dog spots to be filled.

Setting off, I felt awful! That’s not just artistic license to give myself a chance to enhance my epic finish either! I had been knackered all day at work and even a crafty afternoon nap from 3-4 hadn’t touched it.

The system was fully primed with sugar and caffeine now though so I knew it was as good as it was going to get.

The pace felt zippier than some races but probably wasn’t yet. I don’t really know what happened on the first lap as I had drifted to the back and couldn’t see.

At this point I laughed out loud at my hopes of getting in a break- I was currently just trying not to get dropped.
Lap two was even worse as the first attempts started pinging off the front. Again, I smiled at the thought of trying to bridge- this lap was 291w just trying to follow the bunch.

That pretty much set the tone for the race. Attack, chase, attack, chase, chase, chase etc.

Why is it, wherever I race, the crisp, fresh-looking guys in plain Rapha seem to love their solo break attempts! It must be for the Photographer I reckon because they are never anywhere to be seen at the sprint.
I joke of course, fair play to them for having a go.

A few laps in and Matt was on the prowl. He came past with intent. Sadly, I was still waiting for the afterburners to light up so could only watch initially.
He moved expertly through the bunch and launched across to the two man break that was hanging just 50m off of the front. Kudos for the move! Finding a surge from somewhere, I followed the wheel of the guy who was following Matt.

Now with hindsight, this is stupid!! I realise as I write this that I should have covered the front of the bunch and defended him but I wasn’t really thinking straight at this point and thus blew both of our chances. A lesson learned perhaps.

Anyway, whatever gap there was before was now a strung-out train of riders linking everyone back together. As Matt’s fuel light came on and he was running on fumes, a couple of guys finally started pulling and I swung in front of him to try and keep him in the move but sadly the hill had arrived and it was all back together.

Now time to cling on! I’m not sure if it was this lap or the next but at one point, I very nearly lost the wheel up past the finish line and had to put a huge sprint in to catch back on- hitting 1900w in the process! A shame I couldn’t have unleased THAT at the end!

The more I race there, the more a few things niggle me about Thruxton. But the timing of the races is a big issue. The only time I saw a good break get away with about 8 riders clear and looking focussed, was just before we got lapped by the Cat 3’s. And the Motorcycle Comm pretty much shut their move down to ensure the Cat 3 break could get past unhindered.
I’m not saying it ultimately changed the outcome of the race, but it did spoil a good chance of something other than a bunch sprint getting rewarded.

I reckon doing the Cat4 race earlier with the Juniors and then the Woman’s race later with the Cat 3’s would be a far better format.

I kind of hit my lowest ebb at this point. I was still working hard and knew my only chance was a sprint. I started to consider the last lap and a plan formed in my mind. Basically, every lap of this race, we had been reeling in moves up the hill and had pretty much gone full gas. My HR was always 180 by the end of the pit wall. This told me that there was absolutely no point in forcing a move-up on the last lap. It didn’t matter if I hit the base of the final climb (such as it is but you get the point) in last place- if I went any harder than usual, I wouldn’t have a sprint.

Instead, I had to surf. I had been Nathing all race and leaving big gaps at times but it was time to focus and concentrate on holding a tight wheel at all times.

Thinking back to last time, I knew the right-hand side would be a better option. The bunch favours the left and tends to box you in. The pace stayed high from three laps to go this week. I had no answer other than to push the pedals around and follow the best wheel I could.

As we hit the bell, the pace rose further then stopped, then surged again as a few people tried a long distance flier. The plan stayed the same though, sit in and be patient.

At around this point, instead of the panic that I was expecting, a serene calmness descended. This was it. This was the moment. This was the culmination of the year’s racing. All together with all to play for. I looked ahead and tried to gauge where the points finished. With this imaginary line in my head, I knew I had to be up to that kind of region as we tipped into the chicane and after that, it was time to channel every last ounce of energy I had devoted to this since December, into my final sprint. I felt up for it! I felt ready to rip this carbon Chinese frame into pieces! I was 100% focussed on my goal.

Into the climb and I surfed gently up the right hand side. Everything felt good. My plan was coming together and I was moving up for little effort.
Guys in front were drilling it and just towing us up the slope. My imaginary line of the front 10 places came nearer and with just 80m until the chicane, I was nearly there and felt like I was floating on air.

A quick interlude at this point to say that I am well aware that this also sounds like artistic license. A realisation of my chosen narrative if you like. The old ‘I felt shit, had a cold, missed the bus, blew a tube and still rode away to victory’ routine. But I tell you- whether I could have pulled it off remains forever an unknown but it almost doesn’t matter- the feeling I had at that moment was as good as that illusive point is going to feel I’m sure.

Anyway, back to the final 500m. Ben was well placed as usual, but along with the guys around him, they were coming back to me and the guy I was surfing. I also had a great line through the chicane eyed up and was as ready as I was ever going to be.

I loaded the dice into the shaker, closed my eyes, shook as hard as I could and tipped them out onto the table. I needed two sixes to pull this sprint off.

The first dice rolled just a few moments and landed. A One!!!! Shit. At this point, the closest moment to a crash yet at Truxton played out. Ben and another guy collided and as always, the counter-steer took hold and seemed to suck them towards each other.
They were going down and hard it seemed. But no! They held it up. The guys in front seemed to accelerate away as all of us behind braced ourselves.

It was back on though and the other dice was still spinning wildly!!!! I could yet get a point with a single 6 perhaps!
We all re-accelerated towards the chicane and I will say that the sun was awful. That’s all I’m going to say however as I don’t know who reads this. As I stood up and began my assault on the grand finale, the sound of bikes scraping down the road hit my ears and two shapes fell across the Apex in front. My perfect line was now blocked and a good 6-8 riders on the inside were already through, meaning at least 15-20 riders were away. As I took to the rumble strips, I realised one rider was Ben so I pulled over to give him a hand.

The Commissaire ran over from his car and immediately started questioning for blame but sadly the sun means I have no answers to give.

And that’s it for now. No points but another great evening. Yes. it was a bit negative and yes the crash was a little senseless but the passion remains and I can’t wait to get back into it again.
Needless to say, another plan has been written and my sights are set on Big Events at Hillingdon in October.

Well done Nath! That was a quick race! Shame about the riding standard. Hopefully if you do a few more with the same faces, you'll get a handle on who's safe and who's not.
Did you enjoy it? Did it light a fire under your training plan or make you want to set light to it?? 😆

Nice write up as always CH 🙂

Yeah I enjoyed it, achieved my objectives for the evening bar the lead out with johnny. My legs felt heavy last night and I'm not sure I'm in a rush to do it again just yet....

Looking forward to having new bearings installed in my bottom bracket!!

So my plan has taken a bit of a hit this week as I had 6/7 interviews lined up I was madly preparing for. Also woke up feeling a bit ill on Wednesday morning so only managed to get 1 out of the 3 hours done.

This evening I was interviewing until late and so only managed 1hr 20 of the 2 hours, but got the main bit in. Tomorrow is only 1 hour so I think I can manage that!!

The racing bike is out of commission until the new BB shows up: [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/will-this-tool-save-the-day-bottom-bracket-bearings-issue ]BOTTOM BRACKET[/url] So I'll be using the commuter on Saturday and hopefully testing the new BB on Sunday.

I'm in high spirits as next week is a R&R week which works out brilliantly for me as I start a new job next week!!!! 😆

(which is a bloody good job as it's just cost me £75 for a new BB and £60 for a new free hub body!!!!)

Congratulations on the new job! Now you can get back to concentrating on entertaining us with tales of racing! 🙂

Congrats on the job nath.

Let us know if the BB is good. Those wheels manufacturing ones look like a good idea.

Thanks guys!

Focus is the training plan until august, maybe Zwift races 😆

Will do mrblobby, I've got high hopes for it 🙄

New BB fitted, absolute doddle - didn't even need to use the press fit.

Unfortunely neither of my 16 notch tools were big enough to get around the BB and tighten it properly so it's as tight as I can get it using hand and *ahem* a screwdriver lol. So need to find a 48.5mm 16 notch tool asap.

Took a lot of trial and error on the spacers front, it's moved the chainset closer to the frame so I've used a spacer on that side for the first time (I've got bad tape wrapped around the chainstay hence knowing it had moved closer, it's on my to do list to change it to vinyl wrap).

Now the best bit: I didn't think changing the BB would make much of a difference, but by god it feels so much smoother!! Not saying it's any better than if I'd just been able to fit new bearings in the old BB but angular bearings seem to be so much smoother?

First crit at Dalton today...ORRL#6.
(Disclaimer, this write up will be rubbish compared to the above!)
It was 20+° by 0930 according to weather apps, it was scorching, and fairly still, a bit of a treat given the open airfield.
Field was about 60 or so 2/3/4. I was in the first third by the time everyone had kicked off. First 2 or 3 laps were pretty intense!
Around halfway/ 30 mins for some reason I was off the back on the mileish back straight but pulled it back in. Think this is a combination of focus and needing to work on corners, as a short sprint usually had me back in and I could skip up places fairly easily in the bunch. I can't really remember the order or events but there were 2 crashes fairly close to me, I think both times I was in the middle of the pack (I know TiRed! Sorry), had to take evasive action for one but got back in touch.
Also on the long back straight I found myself to the left of 2 or 3 others on the front, the break was a bit closer than it had been previous and I felt good so put a little charge in. Took a few others with me who I think made it onto the break, then ran out of power so back to the bunch for me. A couple of hairy close calls here and there with people shifting in front of me unexpectedly but all avoided disaster.
On a right after the long straight I must have upset someone, I was in space so pedalled round the outside going slightly wider then someone cut right back inside across the front of me, I think I shat it and said wooah/ bloody hell! Or similar and copped a mouthful about outside lines or something. Not entirely sure what message I was supposed to take away but had we touched it would certainly have been the pair of us bouncing down the road...!
I really enjoyed it though and was pleased to finish my first crit in the bunch. Hoping to get some cat4 crits in before too long....!

Awesome Leigh! Sounds brill. What was the course like? I saw the map and it looked pretty technical in places.

Most of the corners were a case of briefly stop pedalling rather then any complex moves. Probably the tightest would have been the right turn before the left/left then finish straight. There was a couple of bits of contact there I think and a crash maybe 2 laps from the end.
Otherwise they were all pretty quick...the right after the back straight caught a couple out as the signs/ arrows and tape made it quite tight, quite late.
Think I forgot to say also, they announced an hour +2. I'm sure we did an hour +3, I was super gutted when I thought we were done and had to do another lap!!!

I was tempted to go but then got harangued into waiting in for a tumble drier whilst the wife and son went pony riding.
I'm glad I didn't if it was 2/3/4 🙂 What sort of speed was it?

Gratuitous strava link..
www.strava.com/activities/1040514549/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-US&v=1497697829

Surrey League 3rd cat road race this morning in 25C. Ideal preparation included a 140 km ride yesterday and a base of 360 km for the week. So I was already feeling a little tired. Risotto and malt loaf last night. Bircher porridge this morning and more malt loaf.

It's nine laps of the Dunsfold road circuit. First was fast, and it kind of stayed that way. Two got away and the bunch chased. Reverse race: so back third, then mid third and finally front third for the last three laps.

Jelly babies and four SIS gels, 750ml of SIS fuel and another 750ml of electrolyte. All going fine until a rider hit the back of my frame, stayed up ok but rattled. Best bike too as the Ultegra shifter on the Propel is poorly.

There is is short kicker that has the chance to shred the bunch and it did it's job on some laps. Last lap, feeling good - jelly baby and gel high. One km to go and my left quad has a cramp as we readied for the climb. So I rolled in at the back of the bunch. Must try and drink more salt I think, as I cramped at about the same distance in the Tour of Cambridgeshire.

Average powerpod power was 220 Watts and NP was 280 for just over two hours of racing. The giant snickers ice cream bar made an effective recovery bar. Well peanuts have protein, no? Rest day tomorrow.

Wore my #****cancer socks because I last spoke to my mother exactly one year ago today.

Races sound good Leigh & TiRed.

I've never got cramp during a race, but it's pretty much guaranteed to strike a few hours after a hard effort. Not sure it's salt as I've had salty lunches (bread) and still got it. I think it's a case of not stretching properly?

I took the racing bike out today with the new BB fitted, with tape in the bottom to check if it had moved - correct tool is in the post. It hasn't and what a HUGE difference, the way I can describe is previously cycling through mud but now on the road... hopefully I've got a few free watts out of it! No creaking or funny noises either!

I shouldn't have gone as far as I did today, I had to make an emergency stop at a garage for 1.5L of water and a can of coke (my first can of coke in years). To put how silly I was in perspective I weighed myself post breakfast and came in at 70.3kg. I drank 3L of water, a can of coke while cycling. Plus for lunch I had 4 vegan sausages on 4 slices of high density seeded bread and protein shake. Weighed myself again: 69.2kg! 😳

Found a nice route though, well when the toffs aren't playing polo: https://www.strava.com/activities/1042656064

So that's the end of week 3 of my Build 1, next week is a rest week and a FTP on Saturday. The numbers:

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Not sure why my estimated FTP has gone down to 304, it's currently 316 and until recently was predicting 325:

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