Last night I looked at the TT bike and thought “nah, it’ll be slower on the hill climb” so chose to prep the S-Works road bike. I looked at the 11T DA cassette and thought “nah, I’ll not need go fast enough for that” and kept the 12T on. Turns out I could’ve done with both. Damn. My normalised power was 20W up on the 10mi TT I did on 18/09. The tailwind on the way out meant that at my preferred cadence I ran out of gears on the Wendover bypass. I averaged ~47kph/30mph to the turn-around. The average after the turn was 36kph – the wind made a big difference!

Perhaps being on the road bike meant I paid less attention to the power meter and just punished myself? Whatever, it was fast and almost a new PB. I was pretty annoyed afterwards that I didn’t bother with the holder at the start and was mucking around pushing 2-up clubmates back together mid-race (shhh!). So, once again, note to myself: If you’re going to bother entering a race then race properly!

Followed up the 10 with a hill climb up Longdown and got a second place overall. I was a long way off first place (the winner has won it 4 times though I was only a second slower than him last year when I didn’t ride the 10 first).

24:24

Last night I looked at the TT bike and thought “nah, it’ll be slower on the hill climb” so chose to prep the S-Works road bike instead.

I looked at the 11T DA cassette and thought “nah, I’ll not go fast enough for that” and kept the 12T cassette on. Turns out I could’ve done with both. Damn!

My normalised power was 20W up on the 10mi TT I did on 18/09/2011. The tailwind on the way out meant that at my preferred cadence I ran out of gears on the Wendover bypass. I was averaging ~47kph/30mph at the turn-around. The average after the turn-around dropped to a meagre 36kph – the wind made a difference!

I probably should’ve made use of the holder at the start and perhaps not got involved in the err ‘Willesden 3-up’ 🙂

Using the road bike meant I paid less attention to the power meter, so perhaps rode more to my body’s limit than a pre-determined best guess? Anyway, a good lesson in preparation that I will ignore like the other hundred lessons in preparation I’ve ignored in the past. The ‘green army’ headed to Deep Mill Diner where those who had planned to do the hill climb had a coffee and those that were perhaps talked into doing the hill climb had breakfast.. 😉

The hill climb over Longdown (Cadsdean Road) was a fairly standard affair for me with the only things worth noting: sort gears out before starting! Crunch Bang Crack Pop Click Snap Etc. and if you want to perform well.. don’t do a 10mi TT beforehand!

I came in 2nd place with a 2:44 I think, way off Dom’s first place 2:15. Apparently I was only a second slower than him last year with a 2:47 which means he has basically got a lot faster going up hills. But it also means I am marginally faster up hills which is nice. Maybe doing thousands of kilometres during the season works for me? *bins turbo trainer* Yeeess!!!

Thanks for the photography Ron

2:01, 3rd overall, 1st Willesden

With thanks to the lovely man Digger, for not encouraging me to stay for drinks too much, I managed to get up on time and make it through the thick fog to the bottom of Windsor Hill. Without too much time to spare before the start I didn’t bother riding up the hill pre-race. I know it well enough now anyway. Tony, riding his first hill climb (I wonder if he’ll be back for more?) and his daughter Kirsten let me use their car to stow all my warm kit. Cheers guys! A brief roll around the block (I’d call it a warm-up but think it actually made me colder) and then back to the start line ready to roll.

Little ring, smallish sprocket so I don’t have to use the front derailler or spin too fast off the line and get my HR high too early. 30.. 15.. clip in.. 10.. 5.. go!

Using my light-weight Ksyrium ES’s instead of the Zipp 404 Powertap wheels meant the bike was probably >500g lighter but I had no power for pacing the effort. With this in mind I tried to ride conservatively early on the hill, knowing it ramped a lot near the end. Around the first corner I was already going for easier gears as the all-too-familiar rapid and heavy breathing kicked in. Dropped another gear here and then as it kicked I climbed out of the saddle to get some more speed into the ascent.

Seeing the finish is a nice bonus here and I was out of the saddle again to impress the fans 🙂 I heard some cheering going on (thanks Gladys and Ron) and crossed the line, gasping for air. Considering I could barely move after having done these previously, I was happy to roll down the road for 30s and then have enough in the tank to turn around and cheer on Tony and Kirsten and the last rider off, 29. I’m not sure what happened to Pete – he was going to be my main opposition for the club HC trophy this year.

In the end, I came in 3rd overall doing a 2:01, which oddly enough is 1 second faster than I did on this course 2 years ago. I was sure I was going to be a lot slower, owing to all the LSD I’d been doing (that’s Long Slow Distance not Lysergic Acid Diethylamide). Pretty happy with that – though I reckon it’s down to that 500g and not my (relatively poor) training lead up. 2nd did a 2:00 and the winner, Joe Holloway(?) did a 1:44. Not sure of the Savage duo’s times, they’ll appear on the blog soon, no doubt. Thanks for the gels Gladys. Found a quid on the way home too. Bonus. 🙂

Welcome to Dopeology, a website about reported instances of doping in European professional road cycling. Make no mistake, this is an enormous subject. That’s why our story begins as recently as 1980, while the history of doping in professional cycling actually began over a century earlier.

Dopeology builds a topology of the densely interconnected network of doping, by listing the people, substances, techniques and events involved as recorded by reliable press sources. The purpose of the exercise is simply to organise and present the data in a logical way rather than to make any judgements about what has happened over the years.

The data on Dopeology is divided into just a few categories: People, Teams and Products, combinations of which go together to form doping-related Incidents. Every incident is supported by published sources, all but a handful of which are accessible online.

www.dopeology.org

59:44 Under the hour, finally!

Okay, it’s not like I train for 10s and 25s but I’ve been close before (1:00:04 was my previous PB) so it was only a matter of time. I didn’t think it would happen on this course though. The HCC114 is bit bumpy north-south-north-south with no real gift sections except perhaps the Wendover bypass downhill. My PB for this course on the TT bike was 1:02:11 last year.

I think the main problem with my TTing is that until this year I’ve never trained on the TT bike. It was strictly for the TTs and maybe the odd turbo session. Having spent the last 8 months riding for hours and hours and hours on this bike is obviously paying off (two PBs in two weeks) even though I’m not really doing any specific short distance training – at least until this week I wasn’t.

A smaller breakfast was on the cards this morning due to the unknown start time forcing me to be there before the first rider off time of 8.30am. Espresso and a single Vegemite (food of champions.. and me) toast. Nibbled on a Powerbar riding out. Caffeine and gel 15min before the start. Set off a bit fast, wanting to catch Ray and John, the other two Willesden CC riders and Westerley’s Rolly, who I’d cycled some of the way to the start with. Paid for that exuberance at the Wendover turn-around when the speed sunk but at least I kept the power up.

Half way through the race my left leg started going numb, like pins and needles. Unlike last week I’d done my shoes up this time so stopped and undid them a little bit thinking that might’ve been the cause. Shuffled about on the saddle too. I guess it helped a bit but still something that needs addressing. Glutes were hurting again too.

Still heading south and held up by a 4×4 waiting to go past another rider for a bit. It might’ve cost me some time but the rest was welcome. Shardeloes RAB turn-around and then back up past the finish line – which is unfortunately on the other side of the road. I was looking at the distance and time and thinking to myself “something is wrong, there’s no way I’m this slow, I’ll never get near the hour”. It took me some time to work out that we didn’t go all the way back down the Wendover bypass but actually turned around at the start of it. “Oh, sweet, so I might actually be able to get near the hour”. After the turn-around with this new goal in mind it was hammer time. This is where everything hurts and you have to push harder. I knew the finish line was coming up soon but where?! Dig dig dig! “There it is!” Go go go! 59-something!!! Woo!!! Finally cracked the hour. Grovel back to the HQ and then wait to have it confirmed (my last three race times/distances have been wrong so I wasn’t getting too excited just yet). Ate cake, had a coffee and… confirmed! Yes!

2010-05-30 WLC 25mi TT HCC114

2009-04-19 WLC 25 mile TT HCC114

westerleycc.blogspot.com – Interclub Sunday 25 September result

www.willesdencyclingclub.co.uk – hippy under the hour

After training for and competing in a 12hr and 24hr this felt a bit odd. The ride out was 40k, the ride back 40k but the race was only 16k – something’s wrong! 🙂

I decided to use the 24hr TT bike rather than the road bike as I couldn’t be bothered with wheel swaps – Iain and Brent from Oz had arrived Sat night so working on bikes wasn’t an option anyway. Also didn’t bother with my S80 front wheel or overshoes. The Willesden skinsuit saw its first use this year though and the Kask ‘sperm hat’ was good to go.

At the start I found the two Richo’s had found something better to do Sunday morning so I had a double gap in front of me. As soon as I hit the road I realised I’d not done up my shoes properly so I quickly tightened the straps and started properly (that’s what all stop/start is at the start, Scherrit). I was trying to hold around 330-350W I guess or at least trying to to wander into 400W+ too often.

I couldn’t believe I was a quarter of the way through already. Flying down the Wendover bypass I regretted still having the 50T big ring on. At the turn-around I spiked the effort trying to get some draft from a truck that had got there before me. It was too far in front though so the effort was somewhat wasted. The grind up here is usually horrible and once again it didn’t disappoint.

Up to RAB and into the trees I couldn’t see properly because my glasses had fogged up and I’d dripped loads of sweat all over them. I had to pull them down. The effort increased here as it was the homeward stretch. Back past the start so almost onto the finish line and I ramp it up a lot. Proper pain time now as I grovel towards the line as fast as possible. Feel the burn! (insert your choice of sporting cliche here).

A few minutes riding down the road to catch my breath and I head to the HQ. Chatted to some of the other riders and eventually looked at the time 23:08. Nice! That’s a PB by almost 2 minutes. I was only 10 seconds down from Pete and give him some stick about pies. Looking at my PT data later on though I’m sure I did a 24:08 and they’ve messed up either the start time or got my number wrong. So, I’m going to keep the 24:08 time (probably the right one given Peter was loads faster than me normally) and it’s still a PB anyway. Next time I’ll tighten my shoes up first and make it into the 23s officially. 🙂

I’ve been looking at buying a car so that next year I’ll be able to drive to different courses instead of always riding out to the West London races. We’ll see how that goes though.

240.603mi officially, 256mi actual

Since a great time was had riding the National 24 hour and knowing the Kent 12 was organised by the same people (Esther and co. I believe) I was keen to have a go at a 12hr and set a marker at this distance. Whatever happened would be a PB, right 🙂

Unbelievably Malwina and Scherrit were again willing to form ‘Team Foreigners’, get up at stupid o’clock (before 4am! urgh!) drive us out to Kent, hand up food/drink, wrench and cheer. They are the nicest, most enthusiastic two nutters I could hope to have following me around. Thanks guys!

Up before 4am the three of us loaded the car with bikes (the Planet-X TT, Kinesis road bike spare and Scherrit’s roadie), food and drink for rider and crew, race clothing and then headed to the M25/M26 making rapid progress towards Bethersden via Ashford. We arrived in good time, grabbed my numbers (arms and lower back) changed into the same Assos and Grupetto kit as I used during the 24hr. Mal and Scherrit prepped the bike, filling the Speedfil with Go and the Profile pack with Powergels. It was a very short ride to start. I had a caffeine gel and remember wishing Chris (clubman) well as he left. I told the holder not to bother even though he was worried I might knock his teeth out if I only lost by a second 🙂

The plan was to hold 24hr pace for the first 6 hours and then try to add 10W onto that and see how it was going before trying to add another 10W, etc. I found out afterwards there were lots of course changes made due to last minute road works. This was fine for me, since I had no idea how to navigate the course anyway – as I managed to prove by following a rider the wrong way (left instead of over some large orbital thing) and missing an entire section of the course. This was confirmed when the very distinctive low-cadence rider 55 went past me.. for the second time. I was not a happy chappy – to screw up the course so early really pissed me off.

Onto the Camber circuit, heading towards the coast (I’d ridden here before on an LFGSS Camber Sands ride!) and man was that wind buffeting me around with the 404 on the front! My upbringing was flat, windy roads around Sunraysia so I hoped, sadistically, it would make everyone else miserable and slow down while I got low, hung on and held my pace. I noticed what looked like a broken seat-mount bottle cage after turning away from the coast road – just after hitting a large pothole – so I could make a good guess as to why it detached!

The team were up at the top of the Camber circuit so I stopped for a leak and a massive rant about getting lost. With that off my chest and my Speedfil topped up I carried on for another lap. My glutes (butt muscles), which never really give me any grief were in a world of pain – yet it had only been 2-3 hours of cycling – something was wrong. I thought my saddle might have moved or maybe I had changed my position on the bike too much due to the high wind.

On the next loop I stopped again and downed an Ibuprofen and maybe a Paracetamol with a can of V I think (the early start made me quite drowsy early on). It felt like I’d pulled a muscle on both sides of my butt cheeks. I was trying to massage them but until the drugs kicked in I was grimacing with the pain. The team thought I was talking about saddle sores or something and they were puzzled as to how I could ride a 24hr and be sore after only 2-3 hours! No, my muscles were sore not my undercarriage!

I think there were about five laps of the Camber circuit. I was stopped at traffic lights on one of these but generally felt I was doing ok, especially since the glute pain had died down.

Eventually, Scherrit let me know we were transferring and so it was a right turn heading north along a large road for a while and then up a kind of off-ramp thing and back around heading south and onto the Ivychurch circuit, I think.

Probably around here is when it started to rain (Mal says it was later). The roads became quite slippery but nothing too treacherous and I had to lose the clear glasses to see properly. Apparently I had been sounding and looking pretty miserable (no way, me?) so I got quite a nice surprise to see Mal jumping up and down like a mental with the Aussie flag draped over her shoulders. It gave me a real boost, I had a quick moment thinking about Cadel’s fantastic Tour win for Australia and my mood lifted substantially.. until I arrived at a T-junction that was devoid of marshalls or signs. “Ahh crap!!!”. I decided to take the natural road progression, right. After a few kilometres I called my team – “where the &%&$ am I? Where the ^”%$ am I supposed to be?!” hoping they’d be able to see my GPS position on the map. Unfortunately they couldn’t work out where I was so I took the time to have another ‘natural break’ and continued..

At New Romney, coming across another junction devoid of race marshalls or signs I knew I’d made the wrong choice and so turned around. Chris had made the same mistake but I was too far behind to catch him up and tell him. Finally I made it to a sign that said Newchurch, the village Mal had told me to head for. This little debacle had cost me probably half an hour, maybe 16k/10 miles. I was ^?$”ing furious. I think when I finally got to my team I stopped and had another colourful rant before taking on more supplies and continuing. Argh, time trialling sucks some times!

Once I’d got everything off my chest Mal says I did 4 solid laps, fast, focused and without any stupid stops. I think the smaller circuit helped here as you get to chase down riders more frequently and even a little comment here and there between riders helps take your mind of the effort. Apparently Mal was thinking about handing me up a pint, as they were parked up outside The Bell Inn. I’m glad it wasn’t offered to me otherwise I might have just stopped at the pub – Go and V would have to do. The marshals arrived at the pub and directed us right, away from it, bound for the finishing circuit.

Apparently the finishing circuit was changed – again I have no idea I just rode where they pointed me. There were maybe 4 hours to go and each lap of the circuit was taking around 30 minutes to complete. Mal and Scherrit were parked atop a short rise, still armed with the Aussie flag. The sun had come out now. I remember trying to signal that I wanted sunglasses before I got to the team, riding no hands up the hill with my fingers around my eyes to indicate glasses – Mal already had them out so it was a wasted gesture. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take the glasses and the bottle+gel so I ended up running low on fuel that lap and was desperate for a refill the next time around, caning the gel immediately and the whole Powerbar shortly after.

Really moving now, knowing the end was near. I knew I’d lost mileage with the detours but thought I might be able to scrape over the 400k mark if I smashed myself. Mal says she watched me just ride past 4 or 5 people going up the hill. I wasn’t controlling my power output now but riding more like it was a 25 and not the end of a 12hr. I really wanted to hurt myself in the closing stages of this race – it feels good. I remember one of the faster guys (maybe VE Elan) went past me and got maybe 500m down the road before I decided I’d chase him down. It’d turned into commuter racing, ie. using every rider as a target before moving onto the next one. I went past the team once more and then hunted down the final time keeper. I wasn’t sure of the time so I kept riding briefly until Mal and Scherrit passed in the car and told me I could stop.

The Powertap had stopped recording with 30min to go (stupid ^$?$^$% piece of $%^$&) even though it’s supposed to do 15 hours in 1 second mode so the final push failed to record. Luckily the on-screen speedo keeps running so Scherrit took down the finishing values: 415k, 11hr 44min, 236Wavg, 33.4kph avg. So, unofficially I’d beaten 400k/250mi but of course due to getting lost this was brought back down to 240mi/386k. Officially, 5th place, unofficially it would have been my first TT podium finish as I’d come in at least 3rd, possibly 2nd place.

In many ways this was a harder event than the 24 hour. The pace was higher, the weather was much worse, lack of hills actually meant being stuck in the one position for longer, I’d not trained as much, my muscles didn’t work properly, the 4am start made me noticeably tired and got lost, twice. But after all that it was still great fun to do and once again proved that I am sick in the head for actually enjoying this stuff 🙂

Picture > 1000 words, no?

www.kca12hour.org.uk – Provisional Results

www.mapmyride.com – Brenzett – Camber Circuit and IvyChurch

Nick Wilson’s Photos

Cycle Racing Plus Photos

Megan Marshall’s event photos from www.rywheelers.org

www.timetriallingforum.co.uk – pre race chat

www.timetriallingforum.co.uk – post race chat