After an uneventful first couple of months to the season due to illness I am pleased to say I've had my first result. I'm out in France at the moment, riding in the the Alps just below Grenoble. After around 2 months pretty much out of training, and with no real racing to speak of, I came out here hoping to be able to actually ride up the hills, because riding here is the reason I ride, its what I am good at.
The day after arriving we decided to ride from Alp D'Huez (where we are staying, 1800metres above sea level) to Vaujany, and then back again to sign on for the next days race...so quite a long ride and lots of climbing, but it was ace to be back on the bike and my lungs weren't feeling all that bad - although staying at altitude is making things like walking around quite difficult! The next day was the Vaujany (a cyclosportif which is the first part of the Trophee de L'Osians we are doing out here). The one I did was 109km, including three cols and lots of climbing! I decided to take it really easy, trying hard to not let my competitive edge show, just get back into riding and enjoy the day. I was really looking forward to the ride on the start line.
I did take it easy, just spinning (as much as I could with the 11/25 I've got out here, forgot to bring the 13/26) and actually stopping to eat at food stops, making sure I drank enough and applied the necessary suncream. When I finished I was just so happy to have completed what is probably the hardest ride I have ever done, 109km in 6hours and lots of hills. I deliriously asked the people at the pasta party for some food and then sat around talking to other riders. We decided to stay for the prize giving to show our support to the winners and watch the many cups being handed out, only for me to hear "Third in the Women's Category, Ware, Victoria". I'd come 3rd!
So, I was really pleased with my ride, so enjoyable and ace to be climbing in proper hills again...and a cup to take home too!
Monday, 30 June 2008
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Mountain Mayhem Success for Keswick Bikes Riders
KMB Keswick Mountain Bikes team sucess at the world renowned 24hr Mountain Mayhem mountain bike event last weekend in Herefordshire. The cross country style race started at 2pm on Saturday and involved completing as many laps of the 14km cousre as possible. The Keswick Mens and Womens teams competed in a relay, doubling up for some of the night laps to allow other members to rest. Heavy rain overnight made the course slow and sticky, but luckily by the late morning the couse had dried. In a very hotly contested competition, the KMB womens team won their Catagory by a mere 46 seconds and the Mens team were on the podium with a magnificent 2nd. The team members were: Emily Brooks, Cheryl Frost, Alice Crook and Caroline Flanagan for the women and Andy Wrigley, Chris Hope, Ben Bardsley and Phil Davies for the men.
Friday, 13 June 2008
National 25 Mile Time Trial Championships
Ali and Richard at the National 25 Mile Time Trial Championships.
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Recent (or not-so recent) results
It's been quite some time since I last wrote an update, so I shall try and fill you in as best I can!
Fred Whitton: (it has been a long time since I last posted!)
For my first time doing the Whitton, I was really pleased with my performance. 20th overall was way beyond what I had expected, and my target time of 7hours was well destroyed with the 6.23.40 that i managed. It was a hard day; yes, but I will definately be back next year as long as other racing compitment don't clash, this time with a target of top 15 (fingers crossed).
National 10:
With a round trip of over 12hours, the national 10 was always going to be a tough one. I wasn't expecting much, as I tend to go better over the longer distances, but set off with the intension of a new personal best and a sub. 23min time. The day was excelent. It had rained during the morning, but by the time I started, the roads had dried out and it felt fast. VERY fast! i managed a time of 22.20, which gave me a new pb and a sub 23min time, so my targets where achieved. Job well done. However, it also placed me 2nd fastest 16year old which was a great bonus.
GHS district championship/qualifying:
The start sheet showed that to qualify, all i had to do was be the fastest 16year old, so I had intended on jsut doing that as I had the National 25 the following day. After warming-up and getting to the start line I suddenly realised... "I won this overall last year. I can't give up my title!" So the plan changed. All out, and win. This i achieved, with a time of 18.03 for the 8.5mile course. Another medal and more KMB publicity.
National 25:
The national 25 was held near Peterbrough this year, on a rounderbout infested course (17 in total) covering two laps, with another two short sections added for the start and finish. I was seaded 4th fastest and was off in the 2min seperated group of riders. This made me rather nervous as I'd never been in this position before for a National event! I didn't have the best of days, my legs feeling unable to push as hard as i wanted them too, but I still won the 16year old catagory. The moral was high after yesterday which helped a lot, and I just kept going, crossing the line dissapointed with the time, yet pleased with another win.
Inbetween these bigger races, I've been doing the usual time trials with VC Cumbria. I managed a new PB for 25miles, with a 58.19, knocking another 31 seconds off on a horrible, windy night so things are looking good. Last tuesday, I set another PB for the bass lake circuit with a 38.01 placing me 4th fastest on the night. Overall, I am currently 3rd in the league!
As of tomorrow, I am off to a 3day race near Preston, so I'll try to get my "other" racing legs back into action on the twisy circuits. More of a training race than a goal, but I'll see how I get on and get a report in, Hopefully sooner than this one was!
Fred Whitton: (it has been a long time since I last posted!)
For my first time doing the Whitton, I was really pleased with my performance. 20th overall was way beyond what I had expected, and my target time of 7hours was well destroyed with the 6.23.40 that i managed. It was a hard day; yes, but I will definately be back next year as long as other racing compitment don't clash, this time with a target of top 15 (fingers crossed).
National 10:
With a round trip of over 12hours, the national 10 was always going to be a tough one. I wasn't expecting much, as I tend to go better over the longer distances, but set off with the intension of a new personal best and a sub. 23min time. The day was excelent. It had rained during the morning, but by the time I started, the roads had dried out and it felt fast. VERY fast! i managed a time of 22.20, which gave me a new pb and a sub 23min time, so my targets where achieved. Job well done. However, it also placed me 2nd fastest 16year old which was a great bonus.
GHS district championship/qualifying:
The start sheet showed that to qualify, all i had to do was be the fastest 16year old, so I had intended on jsut doing that as I had the National 25 the following day. After warming-up and getting to the start line I suddenly realised... "I won this overall last year. I can't give up my title!" So the plan changed. All out, and win. This i achieved, with a time of 18.03 for the 8.5mile course. Another medal and more KMB publicity.
National 25:
The national 25 was held near Peterbrough this year, on a rounderbout infested course (17 in total) covering two laps, with another two short sections added for the start and finish. I was seaded 4th fastest and was off in the 2min seperated group of riders. This made me rather nervous as I'd never been in this position before for a National event! I didn't have the best of days, my legs feeling unable to push as hard as i wanted them too, but I still won the 16year old catagory. The moral was high after yesterday which helped a lot, and I just kept going, crossing the line dissapointed with the time, yet pleased with another win.
Inbetween these bigger races, I've been doing the usual time trials with VC Cumbria. I managed a new PB for 25miles, with a 58.19, knocking another 31 seconds off on a horrible, windy night so things are looking good. Last tuesday, I set another PB for the bass lake circuit with a 38.01 placing me 4th fastest on the night. Overall, I am currently 3rd in the league!
As of tomorrow, I am off to a 3day race near Preston, so I'll try to get my "other" racing legs back into action on the twisy circuits. More of a training race than a goal, but I'll see how I get on and get a report in, Hopefully sooner than this one was!
Thursday, 5 June 2008
10 Under the Ben
I haven’t written a report for a while – mainly because there hasn’t been a lot to write about for my last few events. For example:
Fred Whitton – Punctured descending Kirkstone which resulted in a lonely ride!
Keswick National Trailquests – Man flu so had to miss both events.
Ruthin Merida – Broken rear derailleur so had to pull out.
Surely my luck had to change.
The next event on our race schedule was the 10 under the Ben – A fantastic event just outside Fort William where approximately 1000 riders test their endurance by seeing how many laps of a very demanding 10 mile course they can complete in 10 hours. Riders can compete as solo, pairs, trios or quads. Both Andy and I competed in it last year as solo riders, which proved to be one of the hardest events either of us had done. The heat was intense, our pacing strategy was flawed and our bodies were punished. After completing 10 laps we were all for giving up cycling. Strangely enough though, after a good nights sleep and a fry up the next morning there was talk of returning in 2008 for another crack!
Sure enough it was factored into our Trans Alp training and we entered as solo riders again. During the week leading up to the event, for some reason I suddenly decided that riding the event solo was a bad idea. Ten hours of beasting ourselves probably wouldn’t be the best thing for us at this stage and would take a long time to recover from. Perhaps riding as a pair would be better – only 5 hours of pain and it’s just like doing 6 long intervals. Andy wasn’t convinced as he thought it was a soft option (always one to take on the option with most suffering!) but I managed to talk him round and we changed our entry to the pairs category.
The day was reminiscent of 2007 – hot and still but this year even drier. I took the first lap, which involved an extra loop to split the riders up. I got a good start and was with the top 5 as we started the main circuit. Two miles later I ‘burped’ some air out of my tubeless tyre, which shortly after rolled off my rim on a corner. I couldn’t believe it – not more bad luck! I frantically stuck a tube in and tried to make up as much lost time as possible. I completed my lap in a disappointing time and handed over to Andy to start clawing back places. As the laps passed by we rode well and put in consistent laps. Other teams were tiring apart from the leaders who set a blistering pace. By about lap 9 we had moved to second place and were still going strong. However, on lap 10 misfortune passed on to Andy and he was also cursed with a blow out. After sticking a tube in, he then snapped the head off the valve when frantically pumping it up. After much faffing, a typical 52 min lap tuned into a 65 min lap and we had moved to 3rd place. We chased hard but with only 2 laps more we couldn’t reel second place back in and finished in 3rd place. Overall, a pleasing result, and some great training prior to the Trans Alp. Next event – Mountain Mayhem.
Fred Whitton – Punctured descending Kirkstone which resulted in a lonely ride!
Keswick National Trailquests – Man flu so had to miss both events.
Ruthin Merida – Broken rear derailleur so had to pull out.
Surely my luck had to change.
The next event on our race schedule was the 10 under the Ben – A fantastic event just outside Fort William where approximately 1000 riders test their endurance by seeing how many laps of a very demanding 10 mile course they can complete in 10 hours. Riders can compete as solo, pairs, trios or quads. Both Andy and I competed in it last year as solo riders, which proved to be one of the hardest events either of us had done. The heat was intense, our pacing strategy was flawed and our bodies were punished. After completing 10 laps we were all for giving up cycling. Strangely enough though, after a good nights sleep and a fry up the next morning there was talk of returning in 2008 for another crack!
Sure enough it was factored into our Trans Alp training and we entered as solo riders again. During the week leading up to the event, for some reason I suddenly decided that riding the event solo was a bad idea. Ten hours of beasting ourselves probably wouldn’t be the best thing for us at this stage and would take a long time to recover from. Perhaps riding as a pair would be better – only 5 hours of pain and it’s just like doing 6 long intervals. Andy wasn’t convinced as he thought it was a soft option (always one to take on the option with most suffering!) but I managed to talk him round and we changed our entry to the pairs category.
The day was reminiscent of 2007 – hot and still but this year even drier. I took the first lap, which involved an extra loop to split the riders up. I got a good start and was with the top 5 as we started the main circuit. Two miles later I ‘burped’ some air out of my tubeless tyre, which shortly after rolled off my rim on a corner. I couldn’t believe it – not more bad luck! I frantically stuck a tube in and tried to make up as much lost time as possible. I completed my lap in a disappointing time and handed over to Andy to start clawing back places. As the laps passed by we rode well and put in consistent laps. Other teams were tiring apart from the leaders who set a blistering pace. By about lap 9 we had moved to second place and were still going strong. However, on lap 10 misfortune passed on to Andy and he was also cursed with a blow out. After sticking a tube in, he then snapped the head off the valve when frantically pumping it up. After much faffing, a typical 52 min lap tuned into a 65 min lap and we had moved to 3rd place. We chased hard but with only 2 laps more we couldn’t reel second place back in and finished in 3rd place. Overall, a pleasing result, and some great training prior to the Trans Alp. Next event – Mountain Mayhem.
Sunday, 1 June 2008
grass track
bank holiday weekend was spent pursuing another cycling interest, grass track, on sunday the action was at bitts park in carlisle with the womens national 400m championships, and the mens 800m series, with other events. the 800m was a success for me coming second in my heat to former national champion ben elliott although with two going through to the final i was happy with this. the result was repeated in the final with myself and ben elliot riding away from the rest of the field, and i was beat in the sprint. the next event was the 500m scratch race, this proved too short a distance for me to be able to cope with and finished 3rd in my heat failing to make the final. event 3 was the 1500m in which i won my heat by a fair distance, this was repeated in the final, with me winning the heat in a sprint finish. confidence riding high from the win i entered the 5000m a bit too enthusiastically and eventually blew up with 3 laps to go, lesson learned from spending far too much time on the front i decided to sit in on the devil and ended up pushed to the back of the field where i was beaten in a few laps and taken out.
mondays racing at richmond for me didnt involve the 400m as this wasnt really my distance, instead i decided to focus on the national 8000m series, after an incredibly fast and hard race due to the excellent track the group split, with 5 riders breaking away, i was left on my own to ride round, after chasing hard for several laps i realised catching them was impossible and settled to keeping the chasing riders at a safe distance, eventually finishing 6th and leaving me confident about the national championships in a few weeks time, after missing the northwest road champs due to illness/work commitments im itching to get back to road racing, im sick of going round in circles.....
mondays racing at richmond for me didnt involve the 400m as this wasnt really my distance, instead i decided to focus on the national 8000m series, after an incredibly fast and hard race due to the excellent track the group split, with 5 riders breaking away, i was left on my own to ride round, after chasing hard for several laps i realised catching them was impossible and settled to keeping the chasing riders at a safe distance, eventually finishing 6th and leaving me confident about the national championships in a few weeks time, after missing the northwest road champs due to illness/work commitments im itching to get back to road racing, im sick of going round in circles.....
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