Surrey League Crowhurst 2/3 Road Race

"So whats the plan then", asked Sylv. "Er... how about we stay up front and see what happens", I replied, ever so wisely ;-) Well that's the short version. I probably rambled on about breakaways and keeping an eye on London Dynamos and that ex-rower bloke but hey, whatever! Now apparently yesterday the weather was predicted to be rainy, windy and cold. At the race briefing small hard white stony stuff fell briefly from the heavens. I won't lie to you - I got a bit scared. Anyways no inclement weather materialised so if you DNSd. HA... shame on you!

At 1.30pm I along with 58 other blokes and Danielle King from Vision 1 Racing (Nicole Cooke's Team) - I didn't know that, thanks Michelle - started riding our bikes quite fast. Oh...and the race circuit - 9 laps of a 6 mile flattish loop.

Now have you ever raced and said to yourself I'm gonna move up on the next lap and this maneovere seems to become a real long drawn out and very fatiguing affair? No? Well you're better than me cause that pretty much describes how things typically happen in my first few races of the season.

To prevent this problem occurring you could put yourself in a good position during the neutralised section - so thats what I did. The phalanx of orange jerseys that threatened to engulf the entire peleton in last weeks Road Race was disappointingly not present this time. Yes, the In Gear juniors were I was told racing in many different places. Nevertheless they still had a few members racing and it was there not so youngish veteran leader of the pack Jason Salter that began to animate the race as soon as the flag dropped.

In my experience flat fast circuits don't tend to be a good breeding ground for breakaways but surprise surprise I found myself in the first meaningful break after only 3 laps. A Dynamo rider set the tone with a gap of 50 metres on the bunch. While Sylv stood guard at the front I decided to burn my first match of the day. We touched base with my match burning rather brightly and despite a slight buffeting from the head wind I immediately shot to the front to give my breakaway partner a chance to stop panting. I think Justin Callaway (DHCyclesport.co.uk) bridged across soon after and he was then followed by the junior rider that came 2nd in the race Sam Allen (awcycles.co.uk.). A few minutes later there were six of us in total and through n' off was almost executed to perfection. Did our gap ever get up 30 seconds who knows? I know when I looked back I couldn't see the bunch. Surprise!... the bastards rolled through like an express train.

Now Sam Allen and Craig Stevenson (boneshakersbikes.com) and a couple of others were dangling a few feet ahead of the bunch in a seemingly innocuous position. Typically with the break caught the bunch eased up and we all became indifferent to the small group of soft peddling chancers that formed 40 metres ahead of us. Chapeau to them cause I'm guessing once they were briefly out of sight they must of absolutely drilled it cause we didn't ever get close to them again.

I tried again to initiate a chase group and a few of us briefly had the break at around 30 seconds at one pint. Someone from from Dulwich Paragon kept shouting "Push", "Push", "Push", like a demented mid wife. I must admit I resented his tone of voice and style of persuasion and all he succeeded in doing was pissing everyone off, I'm sure. So with groups rhythm broken we said, "Hello" to the Bunch again.

Now you get a lot of time to look around and see who's who in bunch racing. I'd heard about the phenomenon that is ex rower Angus MacAlister (Norwood Paragon) but was yet to see him in the flesh. At 6ft 5inches + he rode like an ugly duckling. He was pedaling a big gear at a commuter paced cadence and whenever he tried to jump away he resembled and old Mercedes Diesel Estate trying to get going up a hill.

As my Dad would say though, 'he's clearly not big for nothing'. After a few more breakaway attempts from the very bouncy Jason Salter (In Gear), 1 or 2 Dynamo riders and yours truly the big guy took advantage of the weary bunch in the few remaining laps. It wasn't exactly effortless the way he pulled away and he wouldn't get any 'style' awards but then there wasn't any shoulder rolling swaggering nonsense either. The big man seemed perched in front of us all for a minute, almost daring us mortals to bridge across. Too late. The Mercedes engine was now well fired up, he crested one of the lumpy bits and wasn't seen again until we crossed the finish line.

So that was that then. Well no not quite. The ever present Dave "smooth like butter" Kennett (Norwood Paragon) gave it some and was chased down; Hal (ACC) stayed true to his word and came to the front third of the bunch in the latter stages and then London Dynamos launched a misfiring sprint train for their rider number 55. Martin Garratt (London Dynamo) the only guy with skinnier legs in the race than me was at the head of the train initially but they either started too early or weren't strong enough cause their 'sprint man' was already 2nd wheel with around 2k's to go.

To counter this problem some of the recovering Dynamo riders jumped in front again to save 'sprint man' from going to early. So there we were then 1k to go and I'm 3rd wheel - Danielle King was on my wheel and Sylvain "Racer-boy" Garde was behind her.

We hit the 200 metre to go point and I did a pretty good boomerang impression while, most importantly, Sylv got the bunch sprint. OK so I'd be lying if we planned it like that but it worked out pretty good. Sylv may well recall he did me a similar indirect favour two and half years ago, at Palace, which got me up to 2nd cat for the first time.

S. L. Kingston Wheelers RC 2/3 Race

Ignore the blatant London Dynamo slant, Stuart Spies pretty much hits all the right notes in terms of sentiment with a brilliantly witty report...

Ok so a bit of a race report from Dunsfold...because we actually have something to report!

Turning up to the start of the 2,3 at Dunsfold was a pretty intimidating affair, I think knowing the legs were iffy and the Prebble, Hurd factor were on the start sheet was reason enough but I just felt there were way too many serious looking candidates rolling around. Five hundred inGear guys were layering on the secret potions and DHC seemed to have a full compliment of shouldn't-you-be-a-first-cat cats stretching and eyeballing everyone that walked in.

The race set off at what I thought was a pretty upbeat nuetralised section, I was in the big ring flat out! Anyway after getting black flagged and told off by the Com for white line crossing we got down to the business of racing....oh wait first we got the crashing out the way, three riders down and flat spots for everyone else...Lord this is lap 1!?

Lap 2, Simmonds decided this was all too sketchy for a tester and headed off up the road with a geriatric inGear rider on his wheel. I was yelling at Cam for various reasons and clearly had a bit too much testosterone going through the system when I jumped on the wheel of a DHC rider who shot off up the road, Cam followed along with a dulwich chap and before I knew it we had a pretty serious gap...oh shit!

Pain and suffering and Stuart swearing at Cam, swearing at DHC and basically everything and everyone that we went passed, DHC was huffing and puffing and we soon realised that maybe this little fella was not meant to BE the break merely set things up for Mr Hurd...you may know him from such films as 'I won the Gimber' After a lifetime we caught Rich and the little inGear chap and coach Simmonds set about trying to whip the recruits into shape.

Clearly Dulwich, inGear and DHC didn't need to do too much but it would have been nice if they did something! In fairness Dulwich was actually working but I was still yelling at DHC, Dulwich was yelling at me, Rich was the soothing calm and Cam was being shouted at by everyone. That said Cam was listening and not decimating himself on every turn, nothing like having your very own breakaway coach on board to maintain order!

The gap grew to 3minutes, thanks in no small part to the boys in blue controlling the bunch and Rob Hurds new buddy for life Dave Streule, who was all over the Hurds moves like a bad rash! Nice one guys!

With three to go I was missing turns, mis-firing and couldn't even swear at DHC anymore?? Rich and Cam put the boot in and shat us out in no mans land dragging the poor Dulwich rider along for the only to crucify him somewhere around 1 to go I think. I found out what three minutes feels like as I waited and waited for the bunch. When they finally arrived I needed a push from Toks just to find a wheel to cling to...pure misery! I must be honest the brain shut off at this point, I could make out Dave, Torkel and Jason up front and somewhere in the middle Matt B and Tony Smedleys new bike!

The bunch was starting to get organised and it was looking worrying for Rich and Cam, a few guys were jumping off the front and the gap was down to about a minute on the final lap. We entered the final sweeps and that bastard bitch of a hill for the finish and as I crawled to the line I decided if we hadn't won the race I'd kill someone...thankfully.......wait for it........Dynamo 1,2!!

Yeah baby, Cam, Rich we salute you! A very well deserved win for Cam and a stupidly big effort from Rich for second, testers, you gotta love em!

Beyond Mountain Bikes: Hillingdon 2,3,4 Race

Unlike Tuesday evenings with the big boys - 2,3,4's races are generally steady-eddie affairs. The sprinkling of 2nd cats and strong 3rd's can't quite deliver the goods so these races aren't the seamless speed procession that Elite and 1st cat riders make them. Nevertheless the challenge for non sprinters such as your truly remains. How the heck do you get a good placing or shock horror bag a win?

Today's lovely spring afternoon meant an impressive 97 riders on the start line. If you've read reports from me before you'll know too many riders create concentration problems so it wasn't till the 20th of the 35 laps that I made my way into the top 15positions. Things had been non eventful up until that point. The big Pole, Rafal Radiej got clear for a couple of laps and a Stuart Spears (London Dynamo) and a couple of Finchley RT boys also got lively but alas there were no meaningful liaisons. The promotors tried to energise the bunch by making preems available every 10 laps. However, without a threatening headwind and Hillingdon being a showground for flatlanders this race had 'bunch finish with possible crash written all over it'

With 13 laps to go I made a bid for freedom and was joined half a lap later by another dude. We took turns briefly before a guy from Team Quest joined us. We were all hovered up by the bunch on lap 10 and I took a breather I saw Mark Wilmot (Team Quest) just get pipped for the final preem. I couldn't quite get away again for a few laps because it was quite difficult getting back up front. Not helped by a few riders whose bunch skills were a bit rusty to say the least.

Finally on lap 6 Brian Taylor (VCL)and a couple of others pulled clear of the bunch and held us at a few seconds. Two laps later I jumped away on the drag and bridged up to Brian. I gave him a look -implication being, do you fancy 10 mins + @ around 350watts? I'm guessing he preferred not to join me so away I went. A quick glance back a lap later and things were looking promising - bunch not insight and know one chasing. Hmmm! Hold that thought. With 2 and half laps to go I could see Stuart Spears from London Dynamo coming across. I thought about easing up but didn't SS caught me a lap later and the bunch caught me just before the bell. Game over for me. More good training and YES the vibes are good!

Arsenal - Eastcote - Arsenal

Yesterday evening should've been a night in with Kylie (Turbo Trainer) but then I remembered that one of my clients couldn't receive emails so I decided to deliver their report by hand. A cold but brisk 36 mile round trip ensued at 10pm. Being that it was very late at night some cars seemed to misjudge my approaching speed at junctions so on a occasions I had to squeeze the life out of both brakes. Some of those 'I'm feeling fitter' vibes began to appear. Hmmm! Surrey League 2/3 RR this Sunday and Hillingdon Crit this Saturday will hopefully confirm that the vibes are good.

Arsenal - Luton - Arsenal

Yet another chance to get some miles in but it nearly never happened. Having had a weekend off it was tempting to take a third day off the bike. Why? Well once I've had a significant break from training (yes even two days) I seem to walk a tight rope of - "more time off" or "ride hard an test ya fitness". After fighting off the -sofa-is-nice demons I got out to Regent Park on Monday evening and rode hard for an hour.

This set me up nicely for my 4 hour round trip to Luton on Tuesday Morning. As I said before all the sections along the A1081 which were free of roundabouts and traffics were hit as hard as I could manage. In a masochistic sense I even enjoyed getting slightly giddy from the pain of suffering between St Albans and Harpenden.

Spotlight on...Michelle Le Brun

Name:
Michelle Le Brun

Club:
Addiscombe CC


How long have you been racing?:
For just over a year. I started at the Imperial Racing Team Winter Races at Hillingdon with the 4th Cat men last year. I then tried my hand at a 100k mens 3rd and 4ths road race and then thankfully moved on to the womens races for the rest of 2008

What types of races do you do?
Mostly circuit and road racing. Though I would love to give track a go, as I think I may have a decent sprint on me that has as yet been undiscovered.

Where do you race?
Last year was mostly in the South East plus I did some European sportives and British sportives. This year though, I will need to do more travelling around the UK if I am to achieve my main goal.


Describe a typical training session:
I have just come off the phase of my training which has seen the largest time block at about 20 hours a week. During this period I was regularly doing three sessions a day. Session one would be doing an hour low HR on the rollers first thing in the morning (I never saw 6am so many times before). Then in my lunch break I would go out for about an hour and a half in total, fitting in half an hour of phosphate sprints in the middle. This means doing 10 seconds of full on eyeballs out sprinting with about 3 minutes rest in between. In the evening I may have done a big gear session for an hour on the turbo, using increasingly hard gears for 4 minute blocks with a specified break in between.

What are your goals this year?
To get my 1st Cat licence. To get quick enough to ride in the ACC Training Group ride on our club run on a Saturday morning.

What have been your best races so far?
There have been two. Coming first in my first ever women's road race and going from 4th Cat to 3rd Cat in one heady hour; also coming 4th in the Regionals in May 2008, whilst racing with some really strong SE women. One of the best things I did last year was La Marmotte sportive in the French Alps, getting a gold medal.

Surrey League Festival RC 2/3 Road Race

With slightly sore legs from Saturday's Hog Hill adventure I arrived at the HQ and was immediately buoyed by the fact my mate George Brent (Addiscombe CC) had won the morning 3rd cat race. I most certainly wouldn't be winning the 2/3 race but if I finished with the bunch it would be good training. The race got away at a good but not too hectic pace neverthess however after 20 minutes a fellow 2nd cat who has already amassed 78 points in the winter series began riding backwards. Oh dear!

We were on gently rolling 12 mile course and were racing just short of 6 laps.
I spent most of my time in the back half of the bunch which after a three laps and horrendous headwinds had split. The rain came down and so did the number of riders. I was a little tentative not having done many 70 mile rides but managed to get the legs working well in the final 3rd of the race. By this point it was too late to make any difference on the top 20 placings; and my efforts to organise a chase just ended with myself and Simon from Dulwich Paragon tiring ourselves out and getting dropped off from the final 10 man group with around 4 miles to go. When your completely shattered, soaking wet and freezing cold 2nd from last place doesn't tend to matter. Bring on the next race :-)

Hog Hill: San Fairy Ann CC Crits 2

Dudes you missed it. Some of South East's top 1st and Elite cat riders - Sigma Sport, Wayne Coombs, J.H-A + Fit For were handing out reality checks to newbie 2nd cats at Hog Hill last Saturday. I received mine on lap five. You know its gonna be one of those races when you start burning matches just to stay in touch on your second lap. There after you're recovery at the top of the Hoggenburg is continually compromised so the "the-get-ready-to-be-dropped-clock" starts ticking.

A slightly dicey moment between female Pro Leda Cox and another rider on the 4th lap bought me a stay of excecution (as we all sprinted around her) but who was I fooling. Another attack just before the climb again on the 5th and I'd burnt my final match so inevitably I had to say goodbye to the "bad guys"... A comfortable small ring spin up the climb and I went into solo training mode. Two laps later I caught up with Cosmo from Dulwich Paragon and we began a two-up. The John Heaton-Armstrong lead break lapped us about fifteen minutes later and John was kind enough to shout "Go Addiscombe" as he cruised by with consumate ease. With 13 laps gone we were finally caught by the main bunch and I jumped on simply for more bunch practise before ducking out on the 20th lap. Hmmm! its nice to be back racing;-)

Spotlight on - Phil "The Animal" Sheehan

Name:
Phil Sheehan

Who do you race for?
Finchley Racing Team.



How long have you been racing?
Had a brief taste in 2004, encouraged by my good friend Toks. My first race was at Hillingdon and thought I'd won it, but didn't realise there was one more lap to go so my attack came a lap too early :-) I ended up ninth and could barely walk for three days afterwards.

I got to 3rd Cat very quickly and then resumed in 2005 guided by the late, great John Ibbotson. I got to 2nd Cat that year and have been a Cat 2 ever since.

What type of races do you do?
To use Facebook parlance, it's been a case of "Random Play" up until this year. I work very irregular hours and days and more often than not I don't know what shifts I'm doing more than two or three weeks hence, so I've always just raced crits and any EOL road races I can manage. This has made setting goals difficult. This season's a bit different as I now have a baby daughter and it's spurred me on to train efficiently, book specific days off work and pre-enter a number of road races between now and July, when I go to cover the Tour de France for the BBC, and generally pull my socks up.

Basically, I'm avoiding doing too many chippers and concentrating more on quality road races in the Eastern region.

Where do you race?
All over the shop before - from Portsmouth to Milton Keynes. It was always a case of quantity over quality before. This season it'll be mostly Eastern Road Race League events.

Briefly describe a typical training session.
Well, I'm a fully paid-up powermeter afficionado these days so my bread-and-butter is 2hrs sweetspot on the road and threshold work on the turbo. That said, I don't have what I'd call a typical training session as I mix things up a bit. All I'll say is that before I had a powermeter I'd be vague with my objectives and just ride, ride, ride. Now it's more about nailing key sessions and ensuring plenty of rest so I can tackle the next key session as best I can... not always easy when you're a new father. This season I've worked specifically on improving my ability to ride harder for longer. In previous years I'd just ride a couple of hours or more and chuck in a few short hard intervals or sprints, but never really had a good handle on how I was doing or what potential I had.

What are your goals this year?
First and foremost, enjoy my racing - whatever takes me away from my wife and daughter needs to be worthwhile. Secondly is to place well in my target races and be strong in the month of May for the Divisional Championship. Third, and this one is for Toks, is to win a race - I owe you one, mate! Fourth, try and get to 5w/kg.

What have been your best races so far?
Tough question. I've lost count of the races where I've been close-but-no-cigar. Racing is a beautiful, bittersweet thing - you can do well and feel a sense of achievement and still be left with the gnawing "what if" feeling in the back of your mind that keeps you coming back for more. Most satisfying race, I suppose had to be with my new teammates in the ERRL last year, where we attacked and attacked and attacked. Eventually we snapped the will of the bunch and got two of our guys into a three-man break on the final lap. They stayed away - just - placing first and third. I then took fourth with a sprint from a long way out.
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Inspiration

The Aerobic Monster that is...Jens Voight



Underated English Pro Rider Dave Clark wins the overall in the 2009 Tour Of Cameroun


One of my all time favourite cycling forum posts: Chilling With The Pro's

Regents Park: Inner Ring

Ok so if all goes well I'll be putting numbers on my back this weekend. I hope to do San Fairy Ann CC Crits at Hog Hill and Surrey League race at Kirdford. I won't taper for either of these races I will use them as training. Training this afternoon consisted of a set of 2 x 20 in Regents Park followed by half an hour of tempo riding. The lack of cold air meant I wasn't gasping too much (slight asthmatic probs). Race Pace efforts are always hard work - slowly but surely though...

Brownie Points up for grabs

Fellas be honest. When was the last time you spent a significant amount of time with your partner doing something that you'd really rather not do? So... we're talking shopping in John Lewis for soft-furnishings; laying down bathroom floor tiles at her mother's house when you could be watching a TDF highlights; hunting for baby clothes for her Aunt in Next or going to watch Sex in the City movie and missing the Crystal Palace mid week crit (thank God it rained!) Now I should point out that none of this testosterone-blocking nonsense can be attributed to the lovely Stephanie G.

But! - oh yes there has to be a but - a month ago she suggested that we do a 70 mile sportiv. What in early March?...Together?. No! No! No!...lets pretend she didn't say it. At the time I was overcome emasculation anxiety and I secretly hoped she'd suffer Sportive Amnesia till at least May. No such luck she reminded me about it constantly and in the end I relented...

So imagine, me (AdeMerckx) pegged at a 13mph average while lots of blokes ride blithely past. Arrgghhhh!!!!!!Ok so it wasn't that bad - but these Sportiv things are surely meant for the summer, right?. Who wants to be riding for six hours on a late winter/early spring afternoon? Go on the Addiscombe Forum to see reports from me (Toks) and Stephanie.