Feeling Grumpy

Me not looking too comfortable!

Another weekend racing, this time in Aberveganny for the GP of Wales.



I travelled up on Saturday night with Wouter and stayed for my first time in a travelodge. Where we watched holland go out of euro 2008. Wouter tried to cheer himself up by getting a dessert from the closeby Little Chef only to find the services had closed up for the night, you could tell poor Wouter just felt like he needed a break at that point nothing was going his way. At least he got the double bed in the room whilst I made do with the sofa bed, and a bad nights kip on what was possibly the spongiest mattress in the world! Not sure my first experience in a travelodge will tempt me back... at least it wasn't too expensive at 50 quid.

Sunday morning the usual rituals pre race, including with me panicking last minute trying to adjust my rear mech on the start line and in the process nearly taking out some riders who had come all the way from hungary as I failed to check behind me as I jumped off the bike in the start pen as I got to the team car.... Whoops, sorry about that...

The race... blimey that was hard... It was quite unlike me I dropped out with 40k to ride... My normal fighting spirit seems to have temporarily been mislaid. Could it be the lack of sleep recently or the knowledge that i'm not really going as well as I wanted to after having a month of easy riding after my injury at the ras... However once off my bike was great to see team leader Matt going well all day riding on the front and breaking away all the time... Spectatating and handing out bottles certainly had an appeal over racing on a course like that!

The Fonz (Russell Downing) again seems head and shoulders above the rest winning again for the umpteenth time this season. Very Impressive! At least he looks like he's trying this time :)

First race in a little while

Didn't race the beaumont last weekend took instead a much needed rest, sounds like the Sigma team had a good ride there with Wouter riding in the break most of the race and Rob making the final selection of 4 but being dropped off after his efforts put to get there.

On thursday evening I did a SL handicap race out near Gatwick on a pretty good course with a little hill on each lap. Keith set our scratch group of five some eternity after everyone had left. Within 2 miles we were down to four when George Brent (Addiscombe cc) found the pace up the hill a bit much, another couple of miles later we lost my team mate Gary Dodd which was a bit of a dissapointment. So that left Chris Moores (Norwood Paragon), Andy Betts (Twickenham CC) and myself to rided through and off for an hour.

A good workout, although did get a bit tactical with a lap to go after we'd caught the other groups with everyone bar the race winner Burdeau (agiskoviner) who was busy time trialling to victory. I finished 3rd after losing out to Chris Moores in the sprint.

In the car on the way home Gary discussed that possibly his bio-rhythm wasn't right that day - and was talking about the near future when he was certain that he would be able to buy an implant to tell him whether or not he was going to have a good day out on his bike or not. Something like that would certainly save money as a 80 mile round trip to Gatwick to race midweek seems a pretty costly evening out with Petrol costs like they are.

Friday morning I met up with Dan Lloyd who lives nearby in Sunbury and rides for the An Post team. I met him at the Ras a month ago and have met up for a couple of very nice cake and coffee rides since then. However friday Dan had other ideas thanks to his coach Hunter Allen, and set about ensuring I was pretty tired for the afternoon. Was good fun though, and these couple of good hard training sessions have left me feeling a bit more prepared for this weekends GP of Wales.

Gary comes up trumps! (again)

On Sunday I rode the SE divisional champs for the 3rd time.

2 years ago I raced the SE champs on a course round Goodwood in what was one of my first road races. I cramped up and pulled out around half distance unable to stay with the pace of the peleton up a hill. My now team mate Gary Dodd went on to win.

Last year on a pretty hilly course around Ardingley. In a sprint from a small group of riders who had got away relatively early in the race, Rob Enslin (aw cycles) won, Gary Dodd got the silver, and I won the bronze medal. This was result was one of the highlights of my season last year.

This years SE champs was held on the same course as the Wally Gimber race I did earlier in the year. In march this course can feel tough mainly due to the cold and wind, but on sunday neither the finish hill or drag on the far side of the course seemed to offer many opportunities to break away.

However with one lap to go I attacked at the bottom of the hill to try and split things. I saw Steve Calland (norwood paragon) go with me and he was quickly able to attach himself to my rear wheel. Unfortunately having only just spent a few miles alone just off the front of the main group wasting energy in a futile attempt to get away, my legs hadn't recovered and didn't co-operate with the order to go hard. As a result after an initial jump my legs went into Park mode and promptly stopped moving. Steve said after the race he thought that I might have just been making a dummy attack, no such luck although I certainly felt like a dummy when I started going backwards so quickly.

A shout from Gary for me to get my act together kicked me back into action as team mate Simon Lawn was busy setting the pace for a breakaway group over the top of the hill. Over the top I was able to recover a bit and helped drive the pace down the hill to try and keep this group away from the peleton who were still very close.

After my previous attempt up the climb and with the finish fast approaching I didn't think I wasn't gonna have the legs for a sprint, and so was worried when Gary said he also wasn't feeling too good. Both Chris McNamara and a London Dynamo rider (Richard Hoult) were looking particularly strong in that group, so I put in a few attacks to try and tire them out a bit more and hopefully give Gary a bit of an opportunity to sit on and recover. My attacks were a bit limp though and certainly didn't take anyone by surprise as I had been well watched all race.

Up the finish Gary suddenly found his legs and blasted up the hill away from everyone, fantastic considering he wasn't feeling too strong. He claims it was energy gel assisted, and that with half a lap to go he genuinely was feeling bad and had quickly gulped down two energy gels. I got a bit blocked in after starting the finish hill near the back and finished 4th. Wondered if I too would have found a Dodd like sprint had I also gulped the two energy gels I had carried around in my pockets all day but neglected to use.

I have next weekend off racing (although am working) and then over the following three weekends I am entered for the Beaumont Trophy, the GP of Wales and then the Road Race National Championships.

After that I'm attempting the Marmotte again, and after last years dissapointing failure to finish it hopefully will at least make it to the top of the Alpe.

The next race i'm hoping to do in the SE should be the London Dynamo Summer Road Race, normally held on a hillier course so should make it a bit better suited to me than sundays race. It was unusual being so closely marked by so many riders all race on sunday. Apparently Chris Moores informed me at one point in the race I had nearly caused a crash when I attacked from mid way down the pack as 15 or so riders all went to get my wheel.