Gap year for me following my off last year, will be avoiding this thread as much as possible as I’ll be missing it too much…

Have a good season folks!

I didn’t race at all in 2018 in spite of having occasional thoughts of “ooh, that looks good, I might enter…”

Anyway, was down in London the other week so I nipped up to Lee Valley on Saturday 19th for the 2nd & 3rd cat race. It was bloody freezing and the velodrome next to the circuit funnels all the wind right around a corner so the entire back straight was into a headwind. Only about 20 riders in the race so it was pretty calm. A few early digs, nothing stuck and then with only about 10 minutes to go a slight gap opened up mid-bunch as someone just let a wheel go by a few metres. That was all it took, the bunch split and naturally, having spent most of the previous 35 minutes in the top 5-8 riders, I was behind this split. 🙁

We nearly caught it at one point but then they started winding up for the sprint and by this time It was down to 10 riders in front, me and 2 others in a little group and then a gap to the final group of about 6. I ended up 12th which considering how little racing I’ve done recently, the fact I’ve never raced on that circuit before and the presence of several 2nd Cat riders (I’m a 3rd cat…) was actually about what I expected.

Plus I got 2nd overall on one of the Lee valley strava segments which given it’s been ridden nearly 10000 times isn’t too shabby. Must have been that daft attack I launched!

I tried a couple of Castle Coombe 3/4 summer series, with 100 riders in each. I do quite fancy having a go at a Cat 4 with smaller numbers.

First race coming up on Saturday since 2017 and a big gap off riding due to first child arriving.

4th cat crit at Abingdon, pending snow I guess. FTP sat at 305w and weighing in a bit heavy at 84kg. Just hoping I will be able to hang on to the bunch and stay upright!

Lordy, I somehow managed to miss that entire 2018 thread. I have some catching up to do! I rode past Hillingdon this morning on my way to work. Was bloody cold!

@pedroball – try Odd Down (Bath) much smaller fields.

I forgot to mention my number one goal for racing this year:

Remember that this is my chosen leisure pursuit and just *enjoy* riding a bike as fast as I can.

If, by the end of 2019 I can be back to where I was before my crash at the end of October 2018, I will be a very, very happy man.

That is, cycling with my new club, getting my track accreditation, able to keep up with the club ride. Those sorts of things…

Yeah our local crit circuits are the same, frantic for 45 minutes…road races are much nicer

Oh wow, that’s brilliant! Well done indeed

Back in London for a bit so rode up to Hillingdon for the Full Gass Winter Series race.

Quite a big group – probably 45 or so as there was no race over at Lee Valley and the weather was lovely. Racing clockwise and there was a block headwind down the back straight. The first few laps were pretty steady, everyone just sort of wondering who would commit to any sort of attack. Suddenly it went, 6 of us in a break but it lasted all of about 3 laps before being shut down. I went back to mid-bunch to recover and meanwhile another break went, this one looked a lot more organised and it lasted about 8-10 laps before being brough back. By this point it was about 7 laps to go so it became quite cagey, the group bunching up a lot and suddenly 2 guys disappeared up the road. That made the bunch even less inclined to be organised, no-one wanting to commit to sitting in the wind to haul it back.

Eventually it became clear it was going to come to a bunch sprint for 3rd place downwards and the pace just naturally started going up which brought a corresponding increase in the occassional wafts of carbon brake smell and yells of “hold your line!”.

I hate bunch sprints anyway, I’m no sprinter at the best of times so I just allowed myself to drift backwards to allow the ones who thought they were sprinters to battle it out. One minor incident as someone’s Di2 rear mech disintegrated at 250m to go which caused a reaction in the bunch of people swerving but basically it was all alright. I drifted over the line right at the bcak of the bunch. Fast race – average 27.5mph

That’s a brilliant write up ! fantastic ! thank you.

Brilliant, sounds like an amazing experience!

In case anyone’s interested here are some ramblings about the Tour OF Rhodes at the weekend and what it takes to not make the time cut…

Overall I’m really pleased with how the racing went. With a mix of UCI Conti, National Teams and packed full of riders who are on the ascendancy in Professional careers I never expected to be competing but it would have been nice to make it around the whole tour (missed the time cut on Day 2 by a couple of mins).

On Day 1 I dropped my chain on the first climb (about 48 mins in) which required me to come to a complete stop to unwrap it from the BB and then required a huge effort to catch the grupetto, 12mins at 382w normalized, 359 average and HR avg of 188. Basically I did a 10TT effort (and some) followed by another 2 hours of riding. Once I’d had a chance to recover (after the descent and back on flat terrain) I was at the front of the group driving the pace on with the riders from the Conti’ teams who’d found themselves in the group from bad luck or having specific roles on the way to the climb. I think if I’d not dropped my chain I’d have had enough to stay with the peloton at least until the finishing circuit when the sprint trains formed. Woulda, coulda, shoulda…

Day 2 saw an even tougher climb at a similar distance into the race as on Day 1. I held the pack reasonably comfortably until a couple of km from the top, my numbers were pretty similar to one of my team mates who made it to the top with the pack, my weight unfortunately is not and I probably lose out to him by 5kg. At this level I think weight is the key thing, especially on the sustained climbs. The effort to catch the group on Day 1 may have had some impact but if I’d been at my ‘race weight’ I’d have had a greater chance of surviving even the steeper bit of the climb here too. Having been ahead of all my team mates I was slowly picked off by them in the last 2k and then my team car came past me too. Sticky bottle not enough, I was told there were loads of riders behind me so I sat up a bit, conserved energy and let the groupetto catch me on the descent. The groupetto was weaker than the previous day and was left frustrated by their inability to make it up the climbs at any sort of pace. Relative to them it was obvious that I was stronger, especially up any incline but not strong enough to ride on my own for the remaining 100k of the day.

It’d have been nice to have the chance to ride the final day as it sounded like it was an easier day albeit longer.

At this level it seems that in each stage, or each race, theirs a decisive moment that splits the peloton. A pressure point where Critical Power over the specific duration is key and which in Rhodes was always on the climbs so weight was a real penalty. Less punchy than UK racing but with a real knock out blow each race is probably a fair summary.

An incredible experience though, and phenomenal for training both physically and as a reminder of how hard I can push myself and what I’m currently capable of, the number of power bests or top 10 and 20 efforts I did amazed me. Hopefully we’ll be invited back next year, lighter and with a full year of structured training under my belt. If not I’ll console myself with the fact that semi-pro cyclists in their twenties have a way to go before they can match my beers/kg a the post race parties.

quiet on the racing front this year.

I’m thinking about trying a 4th Cat debut at Lea Valley sometime in the next few weeks. I’m not in great shape, with FTP about 30 watts down on last year due to time off the bike, but figured if I don’t get on with it, it’ll be another year wasted.

I’m 40 in July, presumably I can try Masters then too? (although I’ve been told that’s generally harder)

Only other racing experience is a duathlon, but I’ve done a fair bit of group riding so hopefully wont kill anyone.

I lined up at the Full Gas Cat 4 race at Lee Valley two weeks ago. It had been wet all day but was drying up. Quite a big field – highest number I saw was 45 I think.

A few clubs with 2 or 3 riders lots of guys on their own. There were quite a few first timers like me. The pace was fairly quick – we settled into a 40 to 41kph average and stayed as a pretty tight bunch. A few half hearted attacks but nothing stuck. It was a nervous atmosphere. Lots of shouting and a bit too much swerving. One or two light wheel touches but thankfully no crashes.
I found the pace ok so was practicing moving around the pack, trying different lines into the corners. I remembered some of what crosshair and nath talked about making up places with good lines and this was definitely true in this inexperienced group that seemed more interested in holding the draft.

I started the final lap at the front and stayed in the first three for the next half mile or so. Coming into the back straight, a few riders jumped up the outside and into the home straight I was a bit boxed in. My brain didn’t properly engage and I realised a few seconds after everyone had started to spring that I wasn’t! Concentrated hard on holding my line and put in about 10 seconds of hard work and made a sort of half-hearted attempt at a throw to cross the line in 8th and my first 2 points. Only a few metres behind the winner and pretty pleased overall. 55 minutes racing at 260W average.

One week later I decided to go in the E1234 Masters race. About 35 lined up. Very different atmosphere. No “hold your line!” shouting or weaving around. Three laps in, 2 riders jumped off the front and held about 20 second advantage. The shape of the track meant that they were out of sight and pretty much forgotten for the next few laps. The pace felt much higher – 47kph for a few laps – the group was more strung out and there were more little attacks. Some of these lasted a lap or two but were pulled back in. The pack weren’t working well together though and most of the work was done by relatively few people. I got involved and spent a bit too much time at the front chasing the attacks down.

After about half an hour this was starting to take its toll on me and it was getting harder to hold the wheel. I put in a big effort to get back on to the chase group and spent too much time at >500W. A few minutes later I started to lose the wheel and the rest of the pack shot past me so fast I couldn’t tag back on to the back. I was really caught out and spent the next lap about 20 metres behind killing myself to get back on but it wasn’t happening. Demoralised, I ending up climbing off with a few laps to go. A bit annoyed now I didn’t stick with it and try to TT back on. The breakaway held on to take the win – the winner averaging 333W for the race. I averaged 281 – a step up from the previous week. Two really good learning experiences though. A couple of weeks off now then back to it.

I’m equal parts astonished and demoralised at the power level you need just to stick with the group at Cat 4 racing

I know that one. I tried Abingdon and Thruxton, at the time I was about 280w FTP according to Zwift, it was embarrassing how bad I was. Really really.