The Club Run

Once upon a time (3-4 years ago!) the ACC club run was my main weekly ride. Since those heady days my riding focus has narrowed to mainly Road Racing and the odd Sportive; so getting out on the club run is sadly now a rare thing. I don't think I'm alone. I think a lot Road Racers eventually move away from club runs and spend their group rides in races or on chain gangs. Yesterday reminded me what a valuable learning ground the 'club run' is especially when it comes to group riding etiquette. From sitting on wheels, not half wheeling, thru and off, calling out hazards (those funny hand signals) its all there and shouldn't be overlooked. So yesterdays effort amounted to 70 miles of mostly comfortable/social riding - forty of which were spent with my favourite bunch of cyclists - Addiscombe CC

Spotlight on...Stuart Spies

Name:
Stuart Spies

What club do you race for?
London Dynamo


How long have you been racing?
The minute I got my BMX, everything was a target! So on and off since I was about 8! I lived opposite a BMX track some mine dumps and a moto x course so road cycling took a little while to take hold, one viewing of Delgado’s drug fuelled rampage at The Tour and I was hooked! Thought my riding days were over though after landing in the UK 7 years ago but thankfully discovered Eastway and the rest is history, literally!

Where do you race?
Anywhere they’ll let me! I’ve crossed the Alps twice with Transalp, I’ve stupidly done the Norwegian answer to the IronMan, I’ve followed the trail of the Conquistadores in Central America with La Ruta and I’ve taken on the Lesotho Highlands with the Rhodes Challenge (oh ok so they’re not very high it just sounds adventurous) But of all of that you just cant beat South London and Palace baby!!

What type of races do you do?
Everything, fast and flat out crits, multi day mtb enduro’s even the odd dabble with the underbelly of cycling that is triathlon but that’s only when I lose a bet! I’d like to say cross but one race doesn’t really count does it?

Describe your typical training session?
Mostly guesswork! I love the social aspect of the club and equally the none structured mayhem of mates on the trails so short attention span allowing its usually Intervals Tuesday, Club pain and speed Wed, Thursday rolling recovery (look Wednesday is hard) Fri lazy commute Sat Club and Coffee or Race, Sunday 120 odd (that’s kms) or a Vik Chaudhuri 7 hours mtb epic (mostly done in terror) or race of course, Monday heavenly rest!

What are your goals for the year?
This year I want the damn 1st cat already and a win would be the cherry on top!

Have you got any training advice?
If the plan is to race, Intervals are the only answer; honestly you can ride 500miles a week if you never know how hard you can push you will morph into a spotif rider before anyone can save you.

What have been your best races so far?
Its not been pretty this year, the big multi day races will always stand out like La Ruta, so hard, but you finish along the Caribbean coast line of Costa Rica it’s a test of will that beast but a stunning way to end three days of masochism. Any finish in the top ten of an E12 I’m happy or any race where our plan works and a mate wins or does well in (I claim lots of reflected glory from it)

How to drown your girlfriend

Well...you could attempt to hold her head under the water at your local swimming baths and wait for her lungs to fill up with the chlorinated blue liquid, or simpler still, push her into the Thames whilst you're on a romantic boat cruise. This kind of sociopathic behaviour will rightly loose you you're girlfriend and ensure you do a very lengthy jail term for attempted murder. However, a totally legal method of limiting the amount of oxygen she can absorb and deliver to crucial body parts can be performed if you both have bikes. Simple. She sits on your wheel (assuming she's not Nicole Cooke et al) while you trundle along at close to 20mph around Regent's Park for lap after lap. She'll possible mutter unspeakables under her breath about you and look really breathless (not in a good way!) when you have to stop at the traffic lights.

The template for this rather risky couple behaviour was set by Chris Baldwin from Eagle RC. If you've seen his girlfriend Liz Chittenden (Eagle RC) racing at Hog Hill race you'll know how successful dragging your partner around at above club run pace can be. Liz having started as a complete novice race has become a Cat 2 racer in less than three months.

Steph's doesn't have Liz's Triathlon background but still has lofty aims which I'm not at liberty to mention. Indeed she actually puts more pressure on herself in terms of cycling goals than I ever would. Nevertheless our joint training sessions went well and she put in a gallant effort whilst I put her through that threshold training malarkey that I keep banging on about. I don't ever recall seeing so many people on bikes at Regents Park on a spring evening so for close to and ninety minutes it was great fun. At least I think it was, right Steph?

Sweet Spot training: Regents Park

After blasting around for close to sixty minutes on my lonesome I hooked up with Stephano, Simon and a few other Regents Park Week Enders. We had a lively group of six going for about thirty minutes. One of the guys in the group was called Jamie and he told me he reads this blog. Oooh... I think I even blushed a bit. Good luck at Hillingdon Jamie!

Pro Training

Guys I've been troubled by an interview I read in Cycling Weekly about last years Premier Calender Winner Russell Downing In the article he basically said he trained harder than the races. WTF! In essence he batters himself for close to four hours day after day. Yikes that's too scary for words...But I've always wanted to try and see what that would feel like. Duh! So on Saturday I raced as hard as I could from Highbury to Potters Bar and back via the hillyest route possible...Hmmm! It hurt loads and I didn't like it. In fact it was two and half hours of pain I can do without. In fact I'd rather pay an entry fee to get that sort of pain. Thanks Russ

Spotlight on...Douglas 'Snoop Doug' Shaw

Name:
Snoop Doug (Yarrrr) aka Cap’n Snoop
aka Douglas Shaw

Who do you race for?
Addiscombe CC

What type of races do you do?
Apart from my one foray into road racing at the ACC Road Race at Beastway a few years back when I got spat out the back of the bunch like a heavy cold after a mere 300 yards, it’s time trialling for me. I occasionally threaten to return to the world of RR but I hear there’s no cake afterwards? Shocking.

How long have you been racing?
I raced my first club 10 TT in September 2004, just squeaked evens with a 29.26. I then went off on an 18 month intensive pizza fuelled training camp returning to set a new world record slowest time in the ACC Open 25 in April 2006. At the end of the 2006 season I started working (a bit) harder, steadily improving until an injury forced me off the bike after the SCCU 100 TT last year. I’m slowly coming back.

Where do you race?
Dual carriageways in Surrey and Sussex. Sad but true.

Briefly describe a typical training session:
Having developed an allergy to my turbo trainer (medically proven) I mainly use my commute to/from work as training. That, and cake plus beer of course. I’m trying to make my cycling and training, fun again. I fell out of love with my bike after last Summer and though we’re talking again, we’re not rushing things.

What are your Goals for this year?
A personal best at every distance I take part in. There’s more detail but hey, you gotta have a coupla secrets dontcha? I really enjoy seeing new faces on the circuit too so I guess a goal of mine is to keep encouraging new riders to try time trialling.

Have you got any training Tips?
Nope. Have you? I followed a regular, tough training regime of turbo intervals through winter 2007. Haven’t been back there since May 2007 when I hurt myself. Not on the turbo, digging the garden (shame). I’m too busy getting back to enjoying my riding right now to spoil it all with training.

What have been your best races so far?
Once I’d stopped crying, I kind of enjoyed my first 100 mile TT. I entered the event as a personal challenge and to prove to myself and others that pretty much anything is possible. In 2008 I set a personal best in every race I rode bar one. Weirdly, it was that one race, a 25, that I felt I rode the best of all. I was focussed, and rode as intelligently, and hard as I could, the tank was empty at the finish. That’s the one I keep in my mind as a motivator.

I'm Tom Boonen

Ok I'm clearly not. But I've been somewhat inspired since last Sunday's Paris Roubais so I've pretty much ridden at close to 85%-90% of my maximum effort on back to back days for an hour and a half each time. I'm, convinced that a diet of 90 minutes hard riding will sustain you through crits and most shortish Road Races. No soft peddalling or sitting on wheels allowed though. We'll see if in time what I'm proposing bares fruit. Oh and I'm all cleated up so things are a lot more smoother and I can eek out a bit more power on the mountain bike. Who know perhaps I'll take my new steed on the ACC club run this weekend

To be fair I don't have to look to the Pro's for inspiration. My mate Sylvain Garde rode brilliantly in the Surrey League Easter 3 Dayer (Cats 1,2,3)and got an impressive 6th on GC. A fantastic effort especially since he was riding without team mates. Ride safely dudes!

Check out Sylv in Yellow - As we old school Hip Hoppers say - He gets Mad Props!!!!

Er...back to the training

I had a great week off the bike hanging out with my son who lives near Sheffield with his Mum, stepdad, 2 brothers (age 9 years and 9 weeks). I did actually plan on a few turbo sessions but with no bike that didn't happen. So here we go again then - its time to get on with the business of trying to be decent 2nd cat rider. Unlike Taylor Phinney I failed to choose cyclocentric parents so it means having to train bloody hard if I want to be competitive. Yeah I know thats the case for most of us, however there is just one problem at the moment - I still don't have my road bike.

My bike and new frame were picked up on friday evening and promptly returned this morning(saturday) - head set not sitting in head tube properly! After trying to fix the problem myself I popped into Jean Claude's workshop and he spent thirty minutes trying out various headset etc. His verdict - faulty frame!

In an attempt to hang on to the 12 weeks of fitness I took out JC's mountain bike this morning and gave it my best for 90 minutes around Regents Park. They've resurfaced the rough bits of road near the front entrance of the Zoo which is nice. However it was still a hard ride for me made even harder riding in trainers. More of the same tommorrow me thinks

Spotlight on...Hal Bransby

Name:

Hal Bransby

Who do you race for?

Addiscombe CC


How long have you been racing?

This is the beginning of my third season racing.

What type of races do you do?

Crit Racing at Crystal Palace is the mainstay of my racing, I have done a few of the Surrey League road races and hope to do more of them this year. I also ride about 5 sportives each year and like to have a good bash at these events even though its not really racing it is a good excuse to blast round some of the UK's most senic area.


Briefly describe a typical training session -

The main focus of my training is on the Club run with the training group on Saturday morning, its a good enviroment to measure my performance against my peers and develop some speed. During spring I put in some longer rides down to the coast to get the miles in riding solo to build staminar. I also ride a one day a (30 mile tound trip) week to work in the spring and autum. Also not really training but I think useful, everyday year round I ride 2 miles accross London between the office and the train station which altough not much does help to warm and and warm down the muscels twice a day 5 days a week. During the summer racing is training.

What are your Goals for this year?

Maintain my second cat licence that I got last year.
ie get a top 10 placing in the E12 at Palace or some decent placings in the Surrey League.
I would like to do some more quick sportive times
Also to ride 200 miles in one day.


What have been your best races so far?

Best race so far was my last race as a 3/4 at Palace, there was 4 of us away in a break with a good lead all working well as a group, on the last lap it all went tactical watching each other, then a sprint for the line perfect.
Or the Tour of the Black Mountains with Jess Allen and Sharon Laws riding in our group for almost the whole ride, they would leave Keith and I standing on the climbs but we were able to catch the up again on the flats and re-group, though they were probably taking it easy pre Bejing.

Season so far...

One of my main goals this year was to try and get top 10 position in my club (Addiscombe CC) Road Race promotion at Bletchingly. Apart from getting dropped at Hog Hill (Redbridge Cycle Circuit) in the first race of the season things were going well. My form seemed to be moving in the right direction - bunch finisher; getting into a breakaway and finishing; making numerous attacks as well as being in a breakaway yet finishing comfortably.

Life as you know is not meant to one great big smooth transition. Plans are there to be derailed and trodden on. This time last week (31/03) I did 70-80 miles, Highbury - Pryton (Oxfordshire) and back. I took a few days off and did a feisty 30 minutes on Friday ( 03/04) in prep for the Bletchingly race. Uh Uh!! I'd heard a slight creaking at the end of Tuesday's long ride which I ignored. Big Mistake. Now the creaking sound was probably audible to other commuters.

Jean Claude checked out the bike and located a crack near the top tube. Too risky to race with and too late (Friday afternoon) to arrange for a replacement since I was going up to Sheffield and wouldn't be back till close to midnight. Lots of industrial language was used at the point of discovery. Aarrrgghhhh!!!!I half thought about using JC's bike but didn't fancy it in such a tough race. C'est la Vie.

In the race Slvain Garde, from ACC, did a great ride and grabbed a very respectful 8th position. The race was won by Steve Calland from Norwood Paragon. Apparently it was to be expected - nuff said (Sandbagger!)

Since its the school holidays I'm spending some quality time with my 13 year old son. He's pretty good on the acoustic guitar so we spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon in a music shop in Charing Cross Road checking out... guitars of course! A brief visit to Covent Garden to watch some street entertainers and then some food in Giraffe. Pretty cool day

I feel a little bit edgy having not ridden for a few day so it'll be good to get up and running again once the replacement frame arrives in the next couple of days. In the meanwhile I've borrowed JC's pimped up hybrid mountain bike.

My next goal will be top ten in the Smithfield Nocturne or top 15 in a Welsh Stage Race at the beginning of July. On the way I will be a regular visitor to the sufferfest known as Crystal Palace with the odd Road Race here and there. Happy training peeps