Phew thats over!
Got back last night from my weekend in Scotland where I was riding the Girvan premier calender stage race.
With wintry conditions hitting the country, the race was affected by a change of course for the last day with snow sitting on the top of the highest roads. However all things being considered , the race got pretty lucky with the weather with it staying cold but clear all weekend. The sigma team were struck down by a bug which meant that from 7 starters only myself, Mike and Alex finished.
In the racing I was caught out on the first 3 stages by splits in the peleton by positioning myself too close to the back, but managed to get something positive from the weekend on the last stage.
I had climbed the last major climb on the first stage with the front group (of around 20) so still didn't feel I was going badly, but got caught out when the field split in crosswinds in the last few miles of the stage, and lost 30s to the stage winner.
2nd stage was a crit, and again I got caught out again by a split in the peleton on a pretty technical course. I ended up riding into the wind for most of the 40 minute stage trying to limit my losses and keep myself in contention for a possible GC position, tiring!
3rd stage was the longest @ about 90 miles, with half distance covered the race split on a slightly downhill section. I was only a few riders back when it split but couldn't get across the gap which was initially about 200m, the speed at this point in the race averaged 50 km/h for 4 minutes with just about all the main contenders and their teams up in the front and riding hard. The next two hours were spent crawling towards girvan across the moors into a headwind, just sat in and ate and recovered and felt miserable knowing that any position on the general would be gone now.
On the 4th and final stage managed my best result with a 7th place on the stage. I'd climbed the main climb starting about 40th place and reaching the front group of 12 by the top after making my way through quite a few riders heading backwards rapidly particularly on the steeper early sections.
I then had a go at breaking away trying to follow Tom Southam (Halfords) another non GC threat had a go with 20 miles to go. My legs were already starting to slow at this point, and when Kristian House who was only a minute down on GC came across I knew I had to try and save my legs to get over the last climb of the day. Up this final climb Oliphant (PCA) absolutely ripped it up, bringing only himself and the yellow jersey (Russ Downing) across to the front group. On the run as I wasn't being marked I tried jumping away a few times however ended up missing the four man stage winning move. Did manage to get away in a two man break chasing group but blew up with 2 miles to go and crawled to the line getting half swamped by the big hitters as they wound it up for the sprint. Did get myself in their sprint photo through so a bit more publicity :)
Good experience, but a bit of an eye opener about what I need to work on to compete with the top guys, particularly in terms of tactics and positioning in the pack. Hopefully will come out of it a bit stronger. Racing the tour of the reservoir next weekend so will need to recover quickly.
Tuesday 25 March 2008
Tuesday 18 March 2008
My win @ the hounslow road race
Doh! computer just crashed after i'd written an updated report of my win.
Probably a bit long though anyway..
Basically... PCA seem to be a bit bitter about losing a race they would have been expected to win. http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/NEWS_Hard_Day_in_Hounslow_for_Plowman_Craven_RT_article_198359.html
I thought it was a good idea of the organisor to limit all the teams to 6 riders and so provide a more level playing field where no one team could dominate the race through numbers alone.
Just a couple of things to add to my report:
Its weird how things change over a long race... Mid race I was speaking to Sam (sigma mechanic) and telling him how rubbish I was feeling... Cramping up in the cold and thinking of peeling off and heading off to HQ to get warm, an hour later crossing the line first!
After I had jumped across to the break I went through to the front and was greeted by Gibb shouting at me "go through easy" at this point my power meter said 450 watts so not exactly sprinting. Either he was feeling a bit rubbish or wanted to stall things so a team mate could get across. Needless to say I kept riding hard till I wanted to ease off.
When I jumped at the end I was suprised no-one tried to follow immediately. It was the first attack from within the break, and normally they are the one marked down. Once i'd got that gap up the hill it was just a case of hurting myself for the next 3 miles, something i seem to find myself doing a fair bit in races recently.
From looking at my powermeter file my solo lap at the end was the fastest of the race over the finishing circuit, so obviously i'd saved my energy for the right point today, and despite my lack of celebration in the photo once I'd realised I was the winner I was pretty chuffed as you can imagine. Next stop is the Girvan... Weather forecast looks dodgy! But i've had some good practise in this past weekend so im really looking forward to it.
Probably a bit long though anyway..
Basically... PCA seem to be a bit bitter about losing a race they would have been expected to win. http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/NEWS_Hard_Day_in_Hounslow_for_Plowman_Craven_RT_article_198359.html
I thought it was a good idea of the organisor to limit all the teams to 6 riders and so provide a more level playing field where no one team could dominate the race through numbers alone.
Just a couple of things to add to my report:
Its weird how things change over a long race... Mid race I was speaking to Sam (sigma mechanic) and telling him how rubbish I was feeling... Cramping up in the cold and thinking of peeling off and heading off to HQ to get warm, an hour later crossing the line first!
After I had jumped across to the break I went through to the front and was greeted by Gibb shouting at me "go through easy" at this point my power meter said 450 watts so not exactly sprinting. Either he was feeling a bit rubbish or wanted to stall things so a team mate could get across. Needless to say I kept riding hard till I wanted to ease off.
When I jumped at the end I was suprised no-one tried to follow immediately. It was the first attack from within the break, and normally they are the one marked down. Once i'd got that gap up the hill it was just a case of hurting myself for the next 3 miles, something i seem to find myself doing a fair bit in races recently.
From looking at my powermeter file my solo lap at the end was the fastest of the race over the finishing circuit, so obviously i'd saved my energy for the right point today, and despite my lack of celebration in the photo once I'd realised I was the winner I was pretty chuffed as you can imagine. Next stop is the Girvan... Weather forecast looks dodgy! But i've had some good practise in this past weekend so im really looking forward to it.
Sunday 16 March 2008
Four Sigma Sport riders (Gary Dodd, Steve Golla, Wouter Sybrandy and myself Andrew Bye) signed on as part of a good quality field for the 85 mile Hounslow Road Race on Sunday 16th March on a course around Chobham held in wet and windy conditions.
A small break got away early on in the race, and the main group behind was neutralised over the first 50 miles, this was despite plenty of efforts from the Sigma riders to try and spark life into the race and form a chase group. After 50 miles the course moved onto to a smaller finishing circuit that included Staple Hill that was to be ascended 7 times before the finish. 10 miles to go a small group formed off the front of the main pack which included the pre-race favourite Tony Gibb (PCA). Gary put in a strong attack to get across but was well marked, I used his attack to help me jump across to the break, and after one more rider got across the elastic between the group and the bunch snapped. I put in a few hard turns to help establish a gap but then settled into a comfortable pace once it became clear that the winner would come from this break. With one lap to go I attacked at the bottom of the short climb and didn't look back until I got to the top at which point the rest of the group were just about out of sight. I continued to ride hard to the finish, and put a fair bit of distance to the rest of the break.
In the run in to the finish Sigma Riders Steve and Wouter jumped away from the pack, whilst Gary sprinted in with the pack to finish 12th, placing the whole of the 4 man team in the top 12 - a really great result for the team on a challenging day for bike racing!
Steve missed out on the post race photo as he had to rush off home. Nice photo of us in our smart casual clothing, Wouter will have to remember to look at the camera next time. I also had to rush off as was working in the afternoon, thankfully my work is very understanding as I was a little late!
Monday 10 March 2008
A last minute call up
Friday afternoon 4pm following some last minute negotiations my plans for the weekend undertook a big change.
Originally I was down to ride the Jock Wadley race, but with Rob (Sharman) and Neil (Swithenbank) out of action for the Bikeline I was called up as a late replacement to help strengthen the squad for the seasons first premier. Was a bit of a mission to organise everything so last minute and am indebted to many people, particularly Cat and Andrew from the Pavillion who gave up there Saturday afternoons so that I might have some fun in Wales.
And so after very little sleep on friday night I set off to make the 4 hour drive up to North Wales, this was after being woken up by a noisy neighbour at 4am which meant I left even earlier than planned and so I was actually one of the first to arrive.
Met up with the rest of the team again and then after much fussing with a kit bag filled to the brim with clothes (i'd packed for all weathers not knowing what to expect) got myself out to warm up for the first stage a short 1 mile prologue.
OUCH! A real lung opener. Up a drag and into a nasty headwind I nearly stalled halfway up when started to run out of steam and was hit by a gust. Was wrenching the pedals a bit out of the saddle. Not at all like stage winner Wilkinson (SIS) who seemed to be firmly seated and piling out the power!
I finished 17th and came away with a new power pb for 3 minutes, and was temporarily at least first sigma on GC. As reward for this Matt adopted role of domestique and quickly repinned my numbers on my jersey for me so that I didn't have to haul my own mini parachutes around with me. Good tip gained = use the pin to grab as much of the number as possible to keep it snug, and never only use 4 pins for the corners.
The afternoons stage was short, rapid and made extremely dangerous by howling cross winds and pretty heavy traffic on the course. Matt with both his experience and talent was revelling in these conditions and managed to get into most decisive break in terms of the general classification of the whole weekend. Me on the other hand I was happy to finish the stage in one piece, me and fellow South East racer Rob Enslin (awcycles) seemed equally shellshocked as we crossed the line at the rear end of a group that had shelled out 20 in the last lap with some riders apparently deliberately sitting up to make gaps appear.
Saturday evening was spent at the Stephens family house and included refuelling on pasta and pizza Fondant fancies and a delicious lemon sponge (all expertly dished up by Chef Matt) and entertainment in the form of Indiana Jones (chosen by Matts young lad Josh). Matt showed me his torture (turbo) room which Andrea (Matts wife) reassures us is definately audible from the living room.
Sunday felt a lot better after a good nights kip. The first 2 hours were spent with the whole of the Rapha team setting a fast pace on the front. This provided everyone else in the pack with a recovery ride interspersed with the odd uncomfortable dip into the red as crosswinds and hills gave rapha opportunities to try and split the main group.
It looked like it was gonna come down to the 10 minute climb with 40k to ride to split things up. Up that climb me, James and Matt were all fortunately excellently placed at the bottom and got rode well enough to all get into the front group.
Dan, Alex and Mike were a bit caught out as the race was on over the first steep half of the climb. In good company though as top riders such as Malcolm Elliott and Kristian House were with them. Apparently on the 80 km/h descent off the hill Dan says he saw Elliott riding with just one hand on the bars and taking the opportunity to have a pee whilst everyone else was gripping their handlebars so tight they were leaving nail marks in their bar tape.
On the run in to the finish, I felt good and helped keep the pace up to prevent anyone else getting back to the group. At the finish Matt delivered another great result for the team 4th for the stage (to match his from the saturday afternoon) and also finished in 6th in the overall.
I was pleased to have finished in 12th, which means my first premier points! This was only my second race at this level and feel I was can be competitive at the end of the race, and hope I have a bit more to get out of myself with better preperation.
James was also well placed overall just out the points in 21st. However was an all round good performance for the whole Sigma team who can all take positives from their rides. It was great for me to get an opportunity to ride with such a slick outfit but more importantly was that we all seemed to really enjoy the weekend. My weekend was finished off with what can only be described as a bucket full of hot chocolate at costa coffee so big I needed help lifting it off the tray.
Originally I was down to ride the Jock Wadley race, but with Rob (Sharman) and Neil (Swithenbank) out of action for the Bikeline I was called up as a late replacement to help strengthen the squad for the seasons first premier. Was a bit of a mission to organise everything so last minute and am indebted to many people, particularly Cat and Andrew from the Pavillion who gave up there Saturday afternoons so that I might have some fun in Wales.
And so after very little sleep on friday night I set off to make the 4 hour drive up to North Wales, this was after being woken up by a noisy neighbour at 4am which meant I left even earlier than planned and so I was actually one of the first to arrive.
Met up with the rest of the team again and then after much fussing with a kit bag filled to the brim with clothes (i'd packed for all weathers not knowing what to expect) got myself out to warm up for the first stage a short 1 mile prologue.
OUCH! A real lung opener. Up a drag and into a nasty headwind I nearly stalled halfway up when started to run out of steam and was hit by a gust. Was wrenching the pedals a bit out of the saddle. Not at all like stage winner Wilkinson (SIS) who seemed to be firmly seated and piling out the power!
I finished 17th and came away with a new power pb for 3 minutes, and was temporarily at least first sigma on GC. As reward for this Matt adopted role of domestique and quickly repinned my numbers on my jersey for me so that I didn't have to haul my own mini parachutes around with me. Good tip gained = use the pin to grab as much of the number as possible to keep it snug, and never only use 4 pins for the corners.
The afternoons stage was short, rapid and made extremely dangerous by howling cross winds and pretty heavy traffic on the course. Matt with both his experience and talent was revelling in these conditions and managed to get into most decisive break in terms of the general classification of the whole weekend. Me on the other hand I was happy to finish the stage in one piece, me and fellow South East racer Rob Enslin (awcycles) seemed equally shellshocked as we crossed the line at the rear end of a group that had shelled out 20 in the last lap with some riders apparently deliberately sitting up to make gaps appear.
Saturday evening was spent at the Stephens family house and included refuelling on pasta and pizza Fondant fancies and a delicious lemon sponge (all expertly dished up by Chef Matt) and entertainment in the form of Indiana Jones (chosen by Matts young lad Josh). Matt showed me his torture (turbo) room which Andrea (Matts wife) reassures us is definately audible from the living room.
Sunday felt a lot better after a good nights kip. The first 2 hours were spent with the whole of the Rapha team setting a fast pace on the front. This provided everyone else in the pack with a recovery ride interspersed with the odd uncomfortable dip into the red as crosswinds and hills gave rapha opportunities to try and split the main group.
It looked like it was gonna come down to the 10 minute climb with 40k to ride to split things up. Up that climb me, James and Matt were all fortunately excellently placed at the bottom and got rode well enough to all get into the front group.
Dan, Alex and Mike were a bit caught out as the race was on over the first steep half of the climb. In good company though as top riders such as Malcolm Elliott and Kristian House were with them. Apparently on the 80 km/h descent off the hill Dan says he saw Elliott riding with just one hand on the bars and taking the opportunity to have a pee whilst everyone else was gripping their handlebars so tight they were leaving nail marks in their bar tape.
On the run in to the finish, I felt good and helped keep the pace up to prevent anyone else getting back to the group. At the finish Matt delivered another great result for the team 4th for the stage (to match his from the saturday afternoon) and also finished in 6th in the overall.
I was pleased to have finished in 12th, which means my first premier points! This was only my second race at this level and feel I was can be competitive at the end of the race, and hope I have a bit more to get out of myself with better preperation.
James was also well placed overall just out the points in 21st. However was an all round good performance for the whole Sigma team who can all take positives from their rides. It was great for me to get an opportunity to ride with such a slick outfit but more importantly was that we all seemed to really enjoy the weekend. My weekend was finished off with what can only be described as a bucket full of hot chocolate at costa coffee so big I needed help lifting it off the tray.
Sunday 2 March 2008
Andrew Bye Wins!
Todays race at the Wally Gimber...
Andrew Bye Wins! (Most Elegant rider)
Maybe it was because I looked that good in my sigma kit?
Apparently though it may well have been because I was riding with my knees so close together , which I only noticed i'd had been doing after the race as i've now got a big scratch on my right thigh from rubbing against my bike frame.
In the actual race:
PCA set about controlling the race from the start and managed to get a couple of riders in the winning break and took first through Simon Gaywood, and then set about sitting on anything else that moved that they didn't like the look of. Yawn... Yawn...
2 out of the 5 Sigma riders Gary and Simon suffered misfortune in this race, with Gary dropping out after a mechanical problem on the hill and Simon coming off at some point in the race in what must have been a pretty nasty crash. From this crash he was left with lots of swelling around his jaw (leaving him looking a bit like David Coulthard - i.e. very square jaw) and a completely destroyed helmet.
Managing to do a bit better was Wouter who got away with 1.5 laps to ride and duely caught the second break on the road, and came 3rd out of this group in the sprint for the finish.
I attempted to join him in by attacking before the short finishing hill with 1lap to ride with Alex Kirk (Shavedlegs.co.uk) and Gareth McCulloch (Medway Velo). Sadly this chase wasn't successful not helped too much by me losing my chain at the top of the hill which had required a kindly given push from my breakaway companions in order to help me get it back on.
In the final sprint up the hill I was overtaken by the fast moving Dan Duguid who won the finish from the bunch in which I was left to battle it out with the Sigma mechanic Sam (London Dynamo) for 3rd place (14th place overall) who commented that this was the second time i've just pipped him to the finish.
Andrew Bye Wins! (Most Elegant rider)
Maybe it was because I looked that good in my sigma kit?
Apparently though it may well have been because I was riding with my knees so close together , which I only noticed i'd had been doing after the race as i've now got a big scratch on my right thigh from rubbing against my bike frame.
In the actual race:
PCA set about controlling the race from the start and managed to get a couple of riders in the winning break and took first through Simon Gaywood, and then set about sitting on anything else that moved that they didn't like the look of. Yawn... Yawn...
2 out of the 5 Sigma riders Gary and Simon suffered misfortune in this race, with Gary dropping out after a mechanical problem on the hill and Simon coming off at some point in the race in what must have been a pretty nasty crash. From this crash he was left with lots of swelling around his jaw (leaving him looking a bit like David Coulthard - i.e. very square jaw) and a completely destroyed helmet.
Managing to do a bit better was Wouter who got away with 1.5 laps to ride and duely caught the second break on the road, and came 3rd out of this group in the sprint for the finish.
I attempted to join him in by attacking before the short finishing hill with 1lap to ride with Alex Kirk (Shavedlegs.co.uk) and Gareth McCulloch (Medway Velo). Sadly this chase wasn't successful not helped too much by me losing my chain at the top of the hill which had required a kindly given push from my breakaway companions in order to help me get it back on.
In the final sprint up the hill I was overtaken by the fast moving Dan Duguid who won the finish from the bunch in which I was left to battle it out with the Sigma mechanic Sam (London Dynamo) for 3rd place (14th place overall) who commented that this was the second time i've just pipped him to the finish.
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