How long to be a credible Cat 4 or am I just crap (road content)

It is very addictive. You’ll probably find you get quite a bit faster over the first few you do as you learn how to ride them, that gets you hooked. Then it’s just a frustrating battle for a handful of seconds here and there 🙂

Haha yeah I can imagine the frustration of going slower on a previous course too!! Some mistakes were made, mincing around the (blind) corners and not pushing enough downhill. We’ll gloss over riding straight through the middle of that large pothole at one of the marshalled junctions and getting spat onto the other side of the road 😯

I really shouldn’t have sat on the Planet X Exocit…

Well then, that’s me entered for my first National XC race! Here’s hoping I don’t get a complete arse kicking!

Nice work monkeyfudger, now don’t let us down 😉

First properly big open TT for me on the weekend on a fast dual carridgeway course. PB by some margin but it did feel a bit like cheating!

Third go at a cat 4 tomorrow, shall see I’ve figured out how to get some points this time out 🙂

Good luck! Had my first group ride experience in far far too long on Thrursday night actually, chain gang around the local RR circuit, bloody brilliant! You forget how awesome it is riding in a tight group at speed!

Local chaingang tomorrow then into my 3/4 RR on Wednesday night.

Really looking forward to it, I’ve taken the pressure off by being accepted into a 2/3/4 at the weekend where I expect a kicking…

Well that was a bit more fun. Usual boring race around Thruxton so went for it solo with 2 laps to go. Had a decent gap with one lap to go. Almost made it too, got caught just before the last sequence of bends. 10 more watts and I’d have probably made it 🙂

Well done!

I was taking to another Club member yesterday and whilst in the same boat as me, he described the same thing – that rather than hovering mid pack he’s riding top ten and having a go. This is to no avail so far but he describes it as safer, and more fun “racing” for 45 minutes than struggling to keep up for an hour.

Might do a few more of these in August, but I’m seriously thinking about a Cat 4 road race as well.

Thanks Kryton.

Interesting to look at the analysis and see what it takes to succeed at a solo break though. Hovering around the back of the pack I was lapping in about 5:25 which was taking about 210 watts, pretty easy. For a solo lap in 5:17 I averaged over 360 watts (NP of about 380W). I reckon to succeed in that solo break I’d have needed to put out about 370 watts for 12 minutes (~5.2w/kg) at the end of an hours racing. Came pretty close! Pack really accelerates on the last lap and did about 5:03 so staying clear is a big ask round that circuit. Really need 2 or 3 hard workers in a break I reckon.

Anyway I think that’ll be it for me for a while as my Tuesday evenings are no longer free. Focus firmly on testing for the test of the season now.

Have to be prepared to lose if you want to win. Well done!

Back in training but a Strava fitness of 28 🙁 (It was over 70 before the accident). Will definitely be racing in a couple of months 😀 . TT’s before that.

Thanks TiRed. Shame no one came with me, if there had been two of us working I reckon we’d have made it quite easily.

Which TT’s you racing? You doing them on the recumbent? 🙂

Well done fella!! Better to have tried and failed, that’s a good few horses you were throwing down the road 😀 Shame you can’t do another one, people remember the strong man that went off the front and nearly made it, you could get company next time!

Thanks monkeyfudger. A few riders did come over after the race for a chat and said they’d wished they’d tried something, shall keep an eye out for them next time and try and get something going.

Is interesting to put some numbers around it though to see what it would take. Looking at the lap times I think had I tired the same thing a couple of weeks back I might well have made it as the field was smaller and the laps slower. Pack just a bit too big and fast this week. Only my third crack at it so all good experience 🙂

Thruxton was fun last night – and for once I was reasonably placed going into the sprint, a little confusion as we lapped the cat 4 race helped. But the last lap was a bit too hot for me and I was already cooked as we went into the chicane.

A break will work if you can get people to go with you – the top 2 in the cat 3 race were the remainder of an 8 man break I think.

Well done. It’s a gutting feeling getting caught before the finish (it happened to me once with less than 20 metres to go – made even worse by a photo finish taking me from 3rd to 4th and off the podium) but it’s still preferable to ending up in the same position and having fresh legs at the end and not feeling like you’ve given it a real good go.

Back in training but a Strava fitness of 28 (It was over 70 before the accident).

I’m down to 30, from a pre-accident 76 and a one year high of 91

i got my brevet card back yesterday from the last ride i did pre accident, a 300km on the 9th May, seems so long ago 🙁

gary, I’d just crossed the line before you guys finished and was hoping you’d slowed the cat 4 pack a bit in them keeping clear 🙂

The two cat 3 leaders were actually a bit of a problem as I was going about the same speed as them on the same bit of track and was trying to go flat out but not mess with their race, probably cost me a little time.

A break will work if you can get people to go with you

Yes, looking at the numbers I think it would, it’s just getting people to go with you who’ll put some work in that’s the problem. Everyone in the cat 4 race just seems to want to sit in and wait for the sprint.

gary, I’d just crossed the line before you guys finished and was hoping you’d slowed the cat 4 pack a bit in them keeping clear

I think we probably did a bit, from talking to team mates in the cat 4 race there was some confusion about whether they were finishing. And there was also a bit of a mess with us getting into the pit lane.

Yes, looking at the numbers I think it would, it’s just getting people to go with you who’ll put some work in that’s the problem.

I can link you up with some of my team mates who are up for it if you are down there again. The debrief in the pub last night largely revolved around ways to get a break away due to lack of sprint!

I think we probably did a bit, from talking to team mates in the cat 4 race there was some confusion about whether they were finishing. And there was also a bit of a mess with us getting into the pit lane.

Yes, the head of the cat 3 pack went past me just after the finish line then started to cut across me to get into the pits. Had to do a fair bit of shouting.

I can link you up with some of my team mates who are up for it if you are down there again. The debrief in the pub last night largely revolved around ways to get a break away due to lack of sprint!

That’d be cool, though not sure when I’ll be doing it next. Pretty sure from the numbers that had I had just one person willing to work with me we’d have held the pack off last night. And that was a pretty big fast pack for the last lap. Which team are you in?

I’m riding for DHC. We had 3 riders in the cat 4 race yesterday who were all up for trying stuff. One of them did similar to you a couple of races ago and nearly made it – he’d be well up for another bash I’m sure.

Thanks Gary, have emailed you.

Just back from my 3/4 RR, first one away from the circuits…and it was awesome!

Had a little dig early but quickly realised it wasn’t going to happen so sat in and decided to get familiar.

So much smoother than the circuits I’ve done, no hairpin/sprint/interval repeat.

May even have crept into the top 10…

Sorry to re-introduce the twist to CXO agin but – phew what a night. The course last night was a climbers course, 500m in 10 miles and although it was circular and of course went equally down as much as the up, it didn’t feel like it. I felt sick on lap one after the post start sprint effort followed by a climb, and was still rough at 11pm sitting on the sofa! Stats reveal 97% at HR threshold or anaerobic.

15 riders of 87 DNF’d which is attritional for this series indeed, but it looks like (provisionally) I’m 11th vet – quite shocked really as is course didn’t suit me at all whoop! More points!

Nice work Kryton. Was that CX or XC? Worst part of an XC race is definitely the vomit inducing sprint off the line.

XC.

Worst part of an XC race is definitely the vomit inducing sprint off the line.

Yes I thought I’d be used to it, but it never changes. It was a 500m dash up a 12% road circuit hill, across the road circuit then down some grass banks into half a mile of uphill single track at pace, including a 5m grass bank that had everyone standing over the bars to get up it. Double vomit opportunity.

x 5 laps, and thats just the first two minutes.

Well the 2/3/4 went well, expected a kicking but was still alive with 3km to go when my rear derailleur and chain had a big falling out at best part of 30mph. Big lock up with the axle ripped out of the dropouts, no idea how I managed to hang onto it!

First DNF is slightly disappointing, especially as I was making good progress towards the end.

But also very happy to have done much better than I expected.

Bike racing is ace.

was still rough at 11pm sitting on the sofa! Stats reveal 97% at HR threshold or anaerobic.

Well done but you should try 6hrs at 85% – I’m feeling it a week later. Did grace a podium though! 😀

Nice one Adsh, that’s a tough effort!. I did similar BORs recently, and it’s only a few weeks until my target 24 solo.

Nice one Daz. Look forward to hearing all about it…

Cheers Tom, it’s going well 🙂

Blimey. 25th of 77 finishers plus 12 DNF’s and 9th Vet – a top 10 and another 7 BC points! (XCO) I’d had an illness laden start to the year but its getting better every week, not bad on 6-7hrs a week training.

It’ll be interesting how this manifests itself in the end of season (Sept onwards for me) road crits.

Good going Kryton. Sniffing top ten again here as well. Always want to race well July August and September. That’s why I don’t bother much with winter road races.

Tried to use Summer Monkey 6hr to launch into a 2 week speed phase block, a slight rest week last week and now a 1.5/2 week long distance/training camp (not much intensity) followed by a week taper for Bontrager 12hr which is a training event for me.

Summer monkey TSS 300,

Week 1 TSS 450- Z2, Z3 and a light Z5 interval session

Week 2 TSS 685 – Z2, more Z3, 5x15minutes Z4 intervals, 4x5minutes Z5

Week 3 TSS 400 – Z1, 5x15minutes Z4 intervals, 4x5minutes Z5

Week 4 – started with a 4hr Z2/3 ride

I can’t post my TSB chart but suffice to say it lies, feels like week 3 didn’t allow any recovery. Legs were gone after 2 hours today. The Z4 intervals session is a killer that really takes it out of me. Also under quite a lot of stress and not slept well etc

What to do – persevere with a very hard week and have a 2 week taper or rest for 3-4 days restart and stick with a weeks taper or MTFU and stick to the plan?

TSS is not well suited to describing MTB type riding. I wouldn’t fret too much about these numbers as the more MTB riding you do the more your TSS will be underestimated. Use it as a guide for load by all means but it certainly isn’t the be all and end all.

Thanks to inspiration from this thread I did my first road (closed circuit) race in about 4 years, and I bl**dy loved it. A few weeks ago I built up an aluminium TCR with some reasonable deep sections on a fairly tight budget and after a few shakedowns near home I took it to Hillingdon last night. I’ve raced at Hillingdon a lot in the past but not been there in the thick end of 5 years so I entered the 3/4 non ranking race and had a great time. I really enjoyed getting back in the wheels and not wanting to sound in any way condescending the standard of riding at this level at Hillingdon has come on a long way, it used to be a little scary at times but the riders have obviously spent a lot of time honing their skills and the coaches have worked really hard.

The race; I rolled around in the group for a few laps just to find my feet but given that you only get 30mins and 3 I thought I’d better get stuck in, as a previous solo attack started to come back to the group I sent one up the back straight into the wind and got 80 maybe 100metres quite quickly and sat there for a couple of laps knowing it was too early for my current fitness so I slowly edged back to the group and sat in again. A few laps later I had another feeler to see if anyone was prepared to join in and I found myself alone again but I’d not recovered enough from the last go so I was away for about a lap and got sucked back in again. I sat in for a few more laps while there was some aggressive riding on the front by a few of the stronger riders but nothing went away so with what turned out to be 3.5 laps to go I had one last do or die, I quickly gained a decent gap and eeked out a little more but I got caught with about 3/4’s of a lap to go by a guy from Charlotteville but he was a little too strong for me to hang on too, his attacked encouraged a big effort from this really powerful guy who came flying over the top of both of us and he dragged the rest of the bunch up so within about 300m I went from 1st with a reasonable gap to the back of the pack. It was great fun…

Loving that ^^ nice one Adam I start crits again in September, and my first TT and I’m looking forward to both.

Cheers Kryton, it’s nice to go and race with no stress. When I last raced on the road I got caught up with ‘training’ now I just ride how/when I want and help my team mates where I can with their training. While my fitness isn’t what it was I feel a lot less pressure and therefore a lot more enjoyment – good place 🙂

Good to read this page. Nice results there Kryton and a good tale, Adam.

does anyone know if you can use a bike with disc brakes in the 3/4’s at Hillingdon?

I’m guessing that you probably can’t but I thought I’d check just in case.

If it a BC event, no(t yet*).

*maybe