Tuesday 20 June 2017

The Tour of Cambridgeshire 2017...

... the biggest Time Trial in the world.

Given the shear size, grandeur and level of professional organisation it is easy to forget that the Tour of Cambridgeshire (ToC) is only in it's third year. Having ridden all three events and seen how Tom Caldwell and his team have grown the event from nothing to what is undoubtedly one of the most popular events on the amateur cycling calendar makes it all the more exciting to be a part of. The inaugural 2015 event was single handedly responsible for sending the biggest team ever to a UCI World Amateur Championships; where Team GB practically took over Denmark! It is therefore no surprise that ToC attracts some of the best Time Triallists in the country, all vying for a coveted place on the team to, this year, go to Albi in August. It is, however, an inclusive qualifying event and there were plenty of people that you don't see setting the TT scene alight for the rest of the season coming along to compete. There is no doubt though that the competition at the sharp end is fierce and those coveted places don't come easily; a reminder that it isn't an automatic right to be able to represent your country at the World Championships. It should come as no surprise that historically the riders doing well at ToC have gone on to do well on the World (Amateur) stage, but like anything in sport it can be beautifully unpredictable!

Impressive start ramp & effects, Peterborough Arena
The opportunity to compete on closed roads in the UK are minimal and this, as well as the impressive warm up and start area has to be the USP for ToC. Having been to two World Championships I can honestly say that the organisation and whole rider experience at ToC is far superior! This year was no different - plenty of turbos to warm up on and helpful mechanics from Rutland Cycles on hand to ensure your bike gets safely mounted onto them. It's these little things that help to take some of the anxiety away with one less thing to have to think about. 

The start sheet had plenty of familiar names on it and across the age groups it was almost possible to pick the top 5 contenders - with the exception of last minute mechanicals and recent form not making an appearance when it mattered. It was nice to see a strong contingent from the Midlands Women's Series competing. 

It was a fairly warm day with the customary headwind on the way out, the beauty of this is thankfully that it generally means there will be a tailwind back towards the Arena. I had decided upon a slightly different race plan this year, which involved using more gears!! I'm not entirely sure that my plan was in fact the right one on the day but I stuck with it all the same. The one major climb that features on both the TT and Road Race course didn't feel as steep as it did last year so this was a mental hurdle out of the way. I was also gaining significantly on the rider who started two places ahead of me and comfortably overtook her half way up - this was an extra boost for the legs!

Seated climbing this year
I had a good descent, stayed nice and aero and capitalised on any free speed that I could muster as it's actually the drag that follows that I find more leg sapping than the major climb! It's the section of the course that follows this that I really enjoy; the opportunity to capitalise on closed roads and take the shortest lines! 

Making the most of the closed roads
I really struggled with the last drag that follows the above fast flowing section. I couldn't find a rhythm and found myself changing gear more times than I'd have liked. My mind started to wander (this is never a good sign!) and I had a bit of a fight with myself to keep pushing on. It was a classic 'if it was easy everyone would be doing it' type moment, however it was only myself that I had to convince of this!! I knew the fast descent would be an opportunity to snatch a moment or two for the legs to recover before the process of emptying the energy tank on the way back to the Arena. Even after riding the course for three years running I still find it hard to judge that fine balance between giving everything and crossing the finish line! I was winding the pace up as much as I thought I could so just had to hope that that would be enough to be reflective of the best i had to give on the day. After last year's fiasco, or poor performance, I was desperate to make the podium this year.



So happy to be on the podium!

My best was good enough for Silver (and a second qualification slot for Albi)! I was thrilled! The demons of last year had been slayed at last. Helen McKay had taken the win, her first at ToC having come 2nd last year, so she was equally elated. However, the ride of the day has to go to fellow Midlands athlete Liz Powell, who not only won her age group but rode the fastest female time of the day!

Smiles all round
Thanks for another great event Tom and team at Golazo Cycling - hopefully see you in Albi in August! 

The highs and lows of 'K33/10'...

After stopping the clock at exactly the same time as Jessica Rhodes-Jones at the Janet Kelly Memorial last year and sharing the trophy, I was keen to go one better this year. I had given myself some time just to keep the legs ticking over rather than starting a block of training and the legs felt good for having done this. I often feel that I'm going into races with fatigued and/or sore legs, or perhaps this is just my brain telling me that is the case! However, on this occasion I woke up feeling good - this rarely happens so it was a very welcome feeling. (Quick, note down the formula so that it can be repeated!!)

Having signed on, collected my number, driven the course to check for any rogue road furniture or pot holes that might have appeared since I last rode the course, it was off to the normal warm-up spot to set up. So far so good... With the turbo set up, Garmin ready to go, my number on and the weather feeling warm everything was looking good for what I hoped would be a decent ride. I jumped on the bike, went to change down a gear and... nothing. I must have missed the button, I'll try again... unquestionably NOTHING. So, due to various issues with trying to achieve a UCI legal set up, when I bought Percy last year the decision was made to have Di2 (electrically operated gears). As distinct from a motor on the bike!! The Di2 runs off a frame mounted battery and generally requires charging no more than 3 times a year, or that was the case last year! Indeed when I checked the battery level indicator the day before it had over 90% charge - which I had deemed more than adequate to warm up and ride a 10 mile time trial on.

The fault finding started with cables - there must be a loose cable... No, this appeared not to be the case (as far as we could see). A quick phone call to Swinnerton Cycles in desperation to see if they could shed any light on the issue; not all that easy when they are 80 miles away! Barney talked Paul through how to try and manually get the chain onto the big ring so that at least I had one reasonable gear. This was easier said than done given the Di2 automatically trims and adjusts the mech as it changes gear. It wouldn't hold on its own so Paul, thinking on his feet, decided to try jamming a spare 2032 (watch) battery to hold the chain on the big ring - I don't recommend trying this at home (let alone for racing)!! Within the space of 5 minutes we had gone from 'OK, we're going home, it's just not our day' to 'come on, we can do this, we've got one gear!' I must admit I was finding it hard to keep my head by this point but with one gear I started my warm-up routine and Paul sped off to HQ to see if anyone might have a spare battery they were prepared to lend me. Unsurprisingly the answer was no but more disappointingly was the general feeling that it was my fault for not preparing properly. Those who know me well will know that in paying attention to the minutei I generally leave no stone upturned. To me, at least, there is a big difference between poor preparation and unforeseen equipment failure.

Trying to concentrate on the job in hand at the start
Having kept a lid on my now shortened, warm-up - knowing that with only one gear it wasn't going to be as well controlled as it would normally be, I was cutting it fine to get down to the start. A late start penalty really would have added fuel to the already well lit fire. Goal number one became get out the saddle and get off the start line safely! The usual performance anxiety nerves vanished as this wasn't a level playing field any more, it had suddenly become a 'try your best with what you've got' scenario and I had no idea how it would pan out as riding a fixed gear TT has never been on my agenda, let alone a gear that I wouldn't have chosen!

I made it safely off the start, goal number one accomplished. I was frantically spinning my legs very quickly as there is a small descent within 200m of the start line. Thankfully the first third of the course is quite rolling, so it flattened out and enabled me to feel like I was actually engaging some power and then climbed. For the first time ever on this course I was out of the saddle, on the base bars, watching my cadence drop and drop some more. Gears make life so much easier!! I started to pick up a cross tailwind on the middle third of the course, so was once again finding that I was trying to ride a far higher cadence than I'm used to. This was only to get worse in the final third when the headwind that had made life somewhat 'easier' for the first section was now a tailwind. I clearly don't do a very good impression of a beautiful smooth Singer sewing machine! With a cadence tipping upwards of 120 rpm I was well and truly out of my comfort zone and this wasn't helped by seeing the power numbers plummeting accordingly. Still, I hadn't gone home, I hadn't bailed... (yet!) and the finish line was creeping ever closer so it would soon be over.

A very pleasant surprise to have secured 3rd place
I snuck back into HQ to give my number in and creep out with my tail between my legs but was pleasantly surprised to see that I had actually made the podium. Somehow I had rescued something from this outing and finished 2 seconds off 2nd place, to take 3rd.

Mascot Penguin with the Charlie Grieg Memorial Trophy
Thankfully, for the next race on K33 - The Charlie Grieg Memorial - I had pre-emptied any battery woes by charging it the night before and leaving the battery off the bike and Swinnerton Cycles kindly lent me a spare battery just to be absolutely sure! The weather wasn't quite as good as it had been for the above race; still a headwind out and tailwind back but a stronger headwind with quite strong cross-wind gusts. There were a few moments where my front wheel was caught and my ability to ride a straight line vanished! I didn't feel that I executed this ride particularly well, my pacing was off in the first third which threw me a bit and I had to stop myself cursing at the traffic at both roundabouts which led to braking and losing all the speed I'd built up. Just the nature of racing on the open road, sometimes you get a good clear run and other times it's decision time - is there room to squeeze up the inside, what is that car doing...?!

Sue Semple 2nd, Fay Barrington 3rd
Despite all of the above, I was pleased to take the win from a strong ride by Sue Semple (Born2Bike) in 2nd. It helped to make amends somewhat for the previous outing on this course. Racing is full of ups and downs, time trialling less than road racing due to the more controlled nature of the event, however there are still those unpredictable things that catch you out. There are a few more items on the pre-race checklist now!


Wednesday 14 June 2017

When less is more

Exactly a week after the ToA I was due to ride A10/19, a fast Midlands course and one of the MWTTS counting events. Having been full of cold for almost the entire week I had sensibly had a whole four days off the bike, five depending on whether you consider a short, little ring leg-spin to check that you can still pedal a ride or not! Despite the fact that I hadn't actually felt well enough to train, so it definitely wasn't a case of lazy-itis, this had played on my mind somewhat. Having watched my TSS (freshness indicator) increase exponentially as my CTL (a measure of fitness) plummeted, I was really equivocal about whether the sensible thing would be to withdraw gracefully. It's a fast course, there were some strong riders on the start sheet and I needed to take maximum points having apparently misinterpreted the MWTTS rules and entered too late for my round 1 win to count. All valid points but ultimately excuses! It was only a cold, four/five days off the bike wasn't going to be season-ending and worst case scenario it would be a good training session - after all I was pontificating about how many of those I'd missed so now was a golden opportunity to bank a good one.

Race number seamlessly in my NoPinz speed pocket, warm up done and I was on my way to the start. It was pretty chilly for an April morning and in my eagerness not to cut it as fine as I sometimes have, I found myself getting chilly while I waited for the three riders in front to go off. One minute seems a comparatively long time when we were set off at 20 second intervals in ToA... Eventually I was off, trying to keep in mind that my heart rate would likely be elevated due to the rest and to keep an eye on my power without panicking that my cardio system was going to spontaneously combust.

... and away from the start I go! Come on legs!!
I knew I had to maximise the opportunity of what is billed as a fast course, so set out with my usual mindset - pedal hard and then pedal a bit harder! I'd not ridden this event before but had driven the course so knew that I had to keep my wits about me at the roundabouts. I had a car on my outside so had to stay wide but having had a glance in his direction he seemed to be aware of my presence so I maintained as much pace as I could heading up on to the dual carriageway. At least I was heading in the right direction, geography and directional awareness is not my strong point!

I could see that my heart rate was starting to climb on the way back and pedalling harder was only adding to this. I decided not to look at it as given how much my legs were starting to hurt it might have set alarm bells off that I was going to blow up ahead of the finish! Paul has often said to me that there would be benefit in blowing up in a race and failing to finish (well crawling the last few [hundred?] metres) so I know just what it really feels like to strike that fine balance between giving absolutely everything and finishing with something still in the tank - I really didn't fancy today being that day. I was nearly at the finish, or was I? That final stretch on the single carriageway was longer than I'd remembered... a whole half a mile longer! That feels like an eternity when you've wound up what is left in your legs for one final push, it was like a slow motion replay, except it was everything I had!

On returning to HQ to return my number and sign myself as safely back in, I was barely through the door before Deb excitedly said 'quick, you've just missed the presentation...' Still in a relatively dazed state I looked at her enquiringly as she said 'you've come 2nd'. Wow, I hadn't expected that!! Although I technically counted as 2nd senior female in the prizes, I had actually finished 3rd overall in a closely fought battle that had seen only 6 seconds between 1st and 3rd place. Top rides by Lauren Creamer, NCC-Group-Kuota-Torelli & Chris Melia, Born2Bike RT for 1st and 2nd (with only 1 second between them)! Thanks to Alastair Semple and Born2Bike for organising a great event.

2nd senior female - thanks for organising Alastair
The moral of the story is that less would appear to be more on some occasions. Whilst it's not an excuse for avoiding hard sessions or being demotivated, I think, certainly in my case, when you're feeling under the weather it can be hard to allow yourself adequate time to recover. When you have a massive will to win and a love to pushing yourself to your limits but just don't feel like training, don't beat yourself up - listen to your body, you can't do much without it and it will all come good in the end!!

Some excellent times in the top 10

Tuesday 13 June 2017

From Ayrshire to Albi...

... via the Craters of Kilmarnock!

Having said that priorities are a little different this year, my key goal was a good qualification spot for the World Masters Time Trial Championships which are being held in Albi, France in August.

This year saw the addition of a Scottish qualifier in the form of the Tour of Ayrshire (ToA) Chrono as well as the now well established Tour of Cambridgeshire (ToC) Chrono, which falls in June. I have historically not done particularly well at ToC, so the opportunity to try not only a different but an early season qualifier was music to my ears! A couple of friends were going up to recce the course as they had family near Kilmarnock, so I joined them. What an eye-opener that turned out to be - let's just say it put a whole new perspective on pot holes, sorry craters! Never have I been so glad to recce a course before as it really was a case of finding the safe line to ride and not the usual fastest racing line! To be honest I was even questioning whether it was a course for a TT bike in that state - did I really want to 'risk' Percy and my race wheels on that course?! Certainly food for thought and a call to the organisers to enquire what the plans were to rectify the surface, which clearly was in need of some attention. 

May as well enjoy the scenery now as I won't notice it come race day!
Having recce'd the course numerous times, perfected the art of dodging the pot holes, craters and gravel, it was just a question of getting some more training under my belt and a race to wake my body up to the new season once again. That first race was to be round 1 of the DB Max/Kinetic One series at Castle Combe; the series that I won last year. Unfortunately this didn't quite go to plan, my Di2 battery had decided to discharge itself on the journey down, so that meant only one gear! A couple of laps of the track in the one gear confirmed that conditions were unbelievable; the usual wind wasn't present & it was pretty much a 'float' night. Perfect... if you had the right gears, or just any gears! With ToA less than two weeks away I really didn't want to take any risks and eventually decided that trying to maintain a cadence of 100+ to put out any decent speed/power really wasn't the best preparation for a key race. Sadly, I gave my apologies and got back in the car, for what was to be a seemingly never-ending journey on the A38 due to M5 overnight closures. Do you ever get that feeling sometimes that these things are sent to try us?!!

Having left no stone upturned in my preparation for ToA, I was confident of giving my best come race day - until that dreaded feeling when you wake up at 02:00 am with a raging sore throat and a temperature that is. In my semi-awake state I just decided that all would be fine when I woke up at a more civilised time... No, definitely going down with an ill timed cold! Bother.

The event car park was miles from the start area, literally, by the time we got there I felt like I'd already done my warm up! The warm up tent was busy but there was room for me on the end, the combination of being full of germs and tucked in the corner of the tent certainly led to my temperature soaring. I was rapidly hatching a Plan B race plan - start easy and see how I felt, do not over cook it in the first half; you've got to get back! 

The rolling section after the main climb
So, my start time came and I'd convinced myself I could only do my best with what I had on the day. I knew where the, by now infamous, pot holes were, that I had to leave something in the tank for the second half of the course and then give the final run home everything I could muster. What would be would be! I stuck to the plan, carried a little more speed than I'd anticipated into the Z bend as there was a slight tailwind here but managed to keep cool and most importantly keep my focus on where I was going! I'm very glad I did as I later heard that one of my friends had badly overcooked this and parted company with his brand new carbon for a race ending crash. It wasn't a course where you could switch off and just think about measuring your power, there was always something coming up, whether it be keeping the legs in check going up a climb, a tight turn or a dodgy patch of road surface. 

Coming out of the bend that caught a few out
With the key sections safely negotiated my focus turned to pressing on to ensure that I was approaching the finish with as much as I had to give. I had been conservative on the first part of the course, feeling under the weather had I been too conservative? If I had I couldn't turn the clock back, I just had to hope I'd done enough... The only results displaying back at Race HQ were the men's but eventually I found the live women's results on the internet - I'd just done it, 6 seconds was the margin between a stripey jumper and the first step of the podium and 2nd place! Phew!

My first stripey jumper!
It was a mixture of relief and excitement rolled into one - mission accomplished, qualification slot achieved in the best way possible in less than ideal conditions. I could enjoy the moment in the knowledge that I could focus on the rest of the season knowing that the most important piece of the jigsaw puzzle - actually qualifying for Albi - was in the bag! 

Thanks to Clair and Alan for putting ToA on my radar and taking me to recce the course, Georgia and Richard for being excellent hosts and Paul for braving a long train journey to Scotland to be race support on the day. Thanks to Harry Walker for my #RevolverWheels, courtesy of my complete faith in the performance of both the Asymm disc and 60 front I didn't have that last minute worry that so many others seemed to be wasting energy on of whether they had the right wheels for the windy weather! Any weather is #Revolver weather!! Thanks also to Paul, Craig & Richard of Swinnerton Cycles who did a great job in ensuring that Percy was race ready after our little false start. 

Lovely looking blue and green race kit this year courtesy of Pro Vision Clothing and the sponsors behind the team: #GJCFurniture #FortressDistribution #TanitaEurope #ProVision

It's time... to face the demons After a bit of a hiatus in having anything much to write (that might be of vague interest to anyone), ou...