With a good winter of training so far I had itchy feet to see where I’m at.
Annoyingly this week wasn’t great training. I had a total motivational block with the change in the weather so I relied heavily on zwift racing to get my intensity in: and when my Garmin told me my condition was -11 this morning I don’t think it was fibbing 🤣
Anyway, I was there on time and so warming up at Abingdon with a trademark huge wind blowing, I did a little test to work out my solo speed.
At a guess, my threshold is 340w so I rode up and downwind at 340w. Up was 18mph and down was 28. Averaged out, that meant 23mph solo laps. Not fast enough!
Goal then was to make the breakaway if one occurred.
As the early races finished up, I ditched my coat and lined up with the cat 3’s. Chip timing is a great addition since my last race here and the ART guys did a great job of organising.
We were off! And reality hits 🤣 Riding with others is soooo annoying 🤣 They were pacing exactly wrong for the conditions. Surging flat out downwind because it felt fun and then grinding to a halt in the headwind.
Switching that alone around would have made the race far closer to the E12 27mph. (We did 25.5 and the 4ths did 24).
Attacks were going but the race wasn’t hard enough yet.
Slowly fatigue built up and I sensed it was time at around 30mins. My power was 370np for this spell of 7 mins as I jumped on every move that was going. I’m definitely not used to Vo2 max 🤣
But it stayed together.
Then boom! Huge attack just as I was welding a gap shut.
I couldn’t follow and indeed nearly got dropped as the bunch surged after them but two were clear and three more behind them.
The rest of the race was dull. Nobody could get away. I tried four times with three laps to go but got brought back each time.
Then finally I bugged out of the sprint as usual as it doesn’t remotely interest me. I’m only here for the breaks 😀
Good fun but I sense I’d have had more to give if my week had been better organised.
And as for the break? If I’d have made it in when they attacked, I’d have probably been dropped anyway. The winner did 394w!!!!!!! for 27minutes 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Fair play my son.
Sounds like a tough one. Great effort by you. Live and learn. You will soon learn who to follow rather than chasing doomed break attempts.
Keep posting the reports. I almost miss road racing/crits.
I miss racing more than ever. Sounds like a hard ride but I was only there for the breaks too. “You have to be able to do SOMETHING in a race”. Sitting in for a sprint will get you points but not admirers.
Thanks guys. Yes I’m tempted to do a good number of West Thames at Hillingdon I think.
I need to get comfy with the idea of going all-in and risking getting dropped. I know I can hide in the bunch at 220w and I know I don’t want to sprint so all that’s left is being more aggressive in between 😀
Ooof. Just reading the Strava comments about the Wally Gimber road race 😱
Sounds like British Cycling and the local councils needs to sort their act/the roads out.
Hope they’re all okay.
Anybody racing at Hillingdon tomorrow? Local chainy numbers look a bit thin so I reckon I’ll go and give rd1 of West Thames a crack.
Best of luck 💪🏻
Marshalled at Harvey Hadden in Nottingham on Saturday, couple of support races for the paracycling event. Cracking day, great atmosphere among the paracyclists
I did my first circuit race in years on Sunday.
Oulton Park motor racing circuit so something a bit different from the normal. There was a round of the BC National Youth Series going on but they tacked an adult handicap race on in the afternoon so I signed up to that - bearing in mind here that I've not raced since before Covid and was expecting a kicking!
3/4 group lined up, maybe 35 of us and set off. Cool, quite windy, grey and the far side of the circuit - with all the chicanes and corners - was quite damp.
Three minutes later the 2nd cat group (about 12-15 of them) set off and a further 3 minutes back was the E/1 group who would have to do a 3-up TTT to catch.
I lasted a whole lap in the bunch - my plan of sitting at the back failed miserably as the first of the damp corners split the bunch due to variances in cornering ability plus the standard braking in/accelerating out concertina effect.
Rode round until the 2's caught me, lasted 2 laps with them. Lack of bunch riding and that intensity was my downfall.
Rode round with one other guy for a bit then the 3/4 group lapped us, unfortunately at exactly the moment that the groups came together. I'd just got tucked back into the (much reduced) 3/4 group when the combined E/1/2 lot also reached us and went through us like we were standing still. The bunch exploded - the E/1 keen to push on without the encumbrance of any 3rds cluttering the place up and it became some fragmented chase groups. I lasted about half a lap, went out the back and my legs fell off completely.
It really was a wake up to be racing at that intensity again as well as the close quarter riding. I used to be able to do that stuff without a second thought (and there were guys in the bunch quite casually riding along chatting about who was going to make a move, who to follow etc) - I was hanging on for grim death at pretty much 100% just to stay in contact. 😳
Awesome! Well done mate! For better or worse there’s nothing quite like it 😀
No mega write up tonight I’m afraid 🤣
Round one of West Thames and it was great to be back. Nerves were just nicely elevated, well that and the multiple coffees were adding to the buzz 🤣
Biggish race tonight, at least 50 I’d say. It was windy too with a strong NE making the start-finish straight to round past the bus stops a tough section.
I started quite near the front but with everyone fresh, I slowly drifted back.
Then I basically spent 40 minutes in the washing machine. Moving forward, then drifting back.
I was really chuffed with how I navigated the bunch. I’m averaging 12hrs training a week for 2023 and it meant I felt so comfy on the bike. I’m fairly sure I even bent my elbows 😉
Our race was over 27mph despite the wind and what that means is that it is mind bogglingly insanely hard to hit the front solo 🤣
So the bunch would slow, I’d be on the gas, moving up, want to launch and then realise that 27mph+ 12mph headwinds mean about 10,000 watts are needed to carry on out into no-man’s land. Whilst ‘go till you blow’ or ‘he who dares wins Rodderz!’ sound exciting in the car, it’s actually akin to holding your finger in a flame.
Ie stupid 🤣
Of course it’s not if you make it work but I’m self-calibrated enough to know what’s sustainable and what’s not.
So I bottled it about 5 times.
And soon the end was nigh and I bottle my fleeting and one last chance to move up too and then roll in just behind the remaining leaders but ahead of many stragglers.
But that was awesome! For at least 30 mins I was totally in the zone. No data on my headunit, just me and the Orro playing bikes in perfect harmony.
It sounds trite or like a cop out but I know my limits- I’m never getting to cat 2 so finding an hour of single-minded peace where I can’t worry or think about anything other than riding fast on my bike is £20 of therapy well spent IMO.
Enjoyed that 😃
Wow! Just watching the footage back and realised I had a puncture on lap 5 🤣 (rear camera covered in jizz!)
Running the 32mm GP5k’s and it sealed itself up lovely 🤣
I uploaded the full race raw for now