Good Fighters

Pinning on your numbers is something that everyone has to do when you race and I think shows a lot about a person - more than you might think. There are a few rules that I try to keep to.

1. Pin the number on yourself - this way, if your number falls off you can blame no one else other than yourself. To me it shows you can look after yourself. The only time I let people put my number on is when I am wearing I am already wearing my skinsuit and then get my numbers, this only happens when the race is a local crit, so not important. I always make sure that the person that puts the number on is trusted and puts their own numbers on well.

2. Pin the number on the right way round - a simple one, but it can be tricky. Different organisers have different ways of wanting their numbers displayed. Sometimes you have to guess, so go with what the majority are doing. They can’t disqualify everyone. An good example of this is a Scottish Sup6r race where we arrived while the support race was taking place. We noticed one rider with his numbers on the outside of his buttocks attached to his shorts. Massive sails. This was ridiculous, oh how we laughed. When we arrived at HQ and were told where to place numbers, we were told to put our numbers on in this way, we ignored this and put them on the normal way…..we didn’t get disqualified.

3. Make the number as aero as possible - the whole point of pinning your number on correctly is to make sure that it interferes with your ride as little as possible. So to make it as aero as possible make sure you make the number as small as possible (cut or fold away parts of that aren’t needed, but always keep sponsors signs showing, don’t want to upset anyone). Just get the number as flat to your jersey as you can, so it’s not a big sail and you can still get in your pocket!

4. Pin it properly - this is the biggy. If you don’t listen to the other points, listen to this. Pin the number on so that it will stay put and not move in the race. If it falls off, you could win a prime but no one would know who you are. To avoid this from happening use more than 4 pins. I use at least 7 pins per number, more if it is a weird type of number. Added weight = less watts lost from a flapping number. And the main rule is: pin in number, in jersey, out of jersey then back into number.

So those are my 4 basic points on putting a number on….I’m not the best at doing it, but I’m definitely not the worst. Sorry if I sound a bit pretentious, but a psychologist I’m sure could tell you a lot about someone just by looking at a riders numbers. Luckily for me I had people telling me straight away how to pin my number on correctly so I almost always do it right. Make sure you do.

The reason for this rant is at the recent junior national series race, there were far too many juniors with pins coming undone resulting in numbers flapping. Notice how most winners of bike races have their numbers on correctly. One rider nearly lost all his numbers, only way this would be acceptable would be if he had crashed….he hadn’t.

The race was my best result this year, I stayed quietly in the bunch for the first half and let Jonny and Llaurie do their thing then the second half started getting in moves, following anything that looked like it might go anywhere. Not committing due to Laurie being up the road but being there for any splits. The penultimate lap, me and my Dad did a beautiful feed, with me getting the bottle magnificently with admiration from the small crowd. Thanks must go to Brian Barton who showed my Dad how to do it, it was poetry.

The final lap saw me go past the feed (at the top of the main climb) bridging across to a small group of riders who had clipped of the front. There were then 7 of us at that road quite well together to the finish, with one rider going clear on the last KOM but eventually brought back. I chose to ride at the back to see how everyone was feeling and looking at them I felt strong. So did another rider, so I let him to a lot of the work!  The team BMW then came next to me to try and encourage me, I think it encouraged the other riders more though, I didn’t have the legs to ride away from them but was comfortable on the climbs and was able to chase a couple of people and bring them back and get 3rd in our groups sprint coming in 13th. Jonny got 19th and Laurie finished a few mins down having ridden at the front all day and unfortunately blowing in the final kms. This leaves me and Laurie 18th in the national series with Jonny 13th.

Main climb on the steepest part - bridging across to a small group on the last lap.

Photo by Larry Hickmott

Going over the top of the climb trying to find a wheel to sit on!!!

Photo by Charles Whitton - http://www.charleswhittonphotography.com/

The sprint for 11th - I managed 13th, not too shabby for stick like me.

Another Larry Hickmott photo

So we had our first race on Saturday in Gifford. Unfortunately for Stuart he had work commitments but fortunately for me I was called up to race for him. This meant I had a double weekend of racing.

So the first race in Gifford, Dillon virtually got in the break but was spat right back out and came backwards to the bunch, he was later complaining of some knee pain. Really unlucky but its only the first race of the season!! Due to not having anyone in the bunch this meant that we had to do all the work (some help for Leslie Bike Shop I think). Unfortunately my legs weren’t great so I couldn’t do as much work as I wanted, but Laurie and Jonny rode brilliantly, Laurie riding me off his wheel!! Dillon finally got 12th, finishing around 7th in the bunch sprint, tired after having done so much work. Good signs for later in the season.

First race on the bike. It was awesome, first race with race wheels and setting off in the neutralised it felt like a every little bit of acceleration of put in immediately made the bike go faster. Awesome. What I found even more impressive was that because the bike is more comfortable, when you hit pot holes (and there were a lot of pot holes!!) you never felt in danger of losing it, the bike just coped with it.

There are more photos and videos at the team website: http://www.teamherbalifewheelbase.co.uk/index.html

The second race for me, and the first for the rest of lads as was CDNW Treales. This had some very good opposition and meant the race was run off at a fast pace. The race was pan flat with two motorway bridges being the only hills. Jack rode brilliantly and got into the main break, and having been attacked by the four Raliegh riders in the final lap did well to beat the rest of the break and get an amazing 5th with those beating him just clipping off the front. Andy got 12th which was another great ride. It took a while for my legs to wake up and after an hour started to feel much better. Which meant after my initla foray off the front at the beginning I could start to try and split the large bunch. Well that was the idea, in the end in just meant the rest of my team mates got up the road and I was left in the bunch. After these guys got away, the racing stopped as all the team had riders up the road and the were no more places to ride for. (Many of the juniors in this race and raced Eddie Soens the day before and so probably tired like me). Anyway, it was a good team ride and if we can build on it, we should get some even better results!!

Look at this video made by CYCLEFILM, it’s a video of the Team Launch and a brilliant insight to the team and its riders. CHECK IT OUT!!

Just a quick one. We had our team launch on Sunday which meant getting all the new kit and most importantly of all, our new bikes!!! They are sooooo sweet. I didn’t think there’d be much of a difference between my CAAD9 and the SuperSix but I was wrong. It is a lot more comfortable and yet stiffer as well. It’s even noticeably stiffer while sat which was a suprise! I could go on and on about how good its felt, but after the first few races and once I’m properly position on it I’ll say more.

So the team launch, it actually really good. I don’t think there are many people who like their photo being taken, espcially when in lycra on a cold day but it wasn’t that bad. Even the presentation in the evening was alright!! Some dodgy music choices, don’t think Mike Cotty was too impressed!! After laughing about this it was eventually time to go home and play the bike and kit that we got. The BIORACER kit (http://www.bioracer.com/startpage.aspx) is awesome, I really like the skin suit, and the kit bags are fantastic. All ready using it loads for school! (Not my school bag, just to take my cycling stuff to school). We also got some Gore stuff (http://www.gorebikewear.co.uk/remote/Satellite/HomePage), my favourite being the Gore jacket that we all got with some team stitching on it, don’t think its been off my back, (http://www.wheelbase.co.uk/products/gore_cosmo_so_jacket.htm). The best bit about the jacket is the my Dad is really jealous!!!

So I’ve done a few hours on the bike, nothing has changed yet apart from some minor adjustments, but I think I will change to some traditional handlebars as the compact ones for me just don’t seem to go low enough so I don’t feel solid when descending or sprinting. But other than that, not a single criticism. It just awesome.

Different reports on the team launch, along with photos.

http://www.wheelbase.co.uk/wp/?p=1067

http://www.teamherbalifewheelbase.co.uk/launch_2010/team%20_launch.html

http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20100302-Team-Herbalife-Wheelbase-co-uk-s-Team-Launch-0

The team also now has facebook and twitter. Check them out on the team website, http://www.teamherbalifewheelbase.co.uk/

Supersix with Ultegra and Mavic Ksy SL wheels. Saweet

So, the start of the new season is near. This means the finishing touches to the base miles that everyone has piled in over the winter. (Except for the cross riders who have smashed it every week for an hour and in need of some steadier longer miles). So with this 8 members of the team headed to Alicante and from there to a small town called Biar 800m into the mountains.

So we flew in style, from Liverpool. (Yep, Liverpool and style in the same sentence).  Checking in was interesting having never flown with a bike box before, and we had some huge bike boxes from http://www.roofbox.co.uk/ which were brilliant. I had to open mine up to get ride of some CO2 canisters but forgot to take one out and so still had one!! Score. Anyway, we arrived in Alicante and then had no idea how we were getting to the house. A random Spanish lady started talking to us, but she was just crazy. Well, thats what we thought, it turned out that she was actually giving us a lift to the house, except she couldn’t speak English and we couldn’t speak Spanish, despite Irish Stu claiming otherwise.

We arrived in an amazing place, high up in the hills after a 40 minute journey of climbing. The little citroen van struggled. We got there and it was freezing, but dry. The rest of the guys arrived with a van full of the bike boxes and the car we had for the week.

We settled into our rooms. The house was amazing, it was very very old and a maze of corridors and rooms. We were able to stay there for free due to Julian’s (one of the team helpers/managers) wife’s family being part of a Finnish Church that owns the house and lets people of the Church stay for free. It was fantastic. Due to the house being own by Fins, they had their own Sauna. That got fired up straight away and we all piled in. Great times.

I didn’t get involved with the route planning as I didn’t have a clue, so left it to other guys. First day we did 2hrs 20mins, second 4 1/4 hrs, third 1 hr 40min, fourth 4hrs40, fith 3hrs and the last day 4hrs 5mins. The final day, me and Irish Stu went up a climb that start out of the house, to spin the legs. It was a tough climb straight out of the house, and quite steep, but it did rise to 1300m, the highest peak we’d done all week. It was about a 25min climb. Then we rode pretty much straight back, with a pit stop at the supermarket. This wasn’t included in the hours, more just a spin to stop the legs stiffening up on the sardine can called an Easyjet plane. I could go on to explain the routes, but I’m going to be honest, I have no idea. I was breathing out my arse the whole time. I was ill, and so was most of the guys due it being awful weather. On the first morning, I woke up to snow. Not cool. Spain for snow, I could have just stayed at home!!

We got out anyway until we could go out for no longer due to the cold. We also took our time to get out due there being no bike shops with the correct fitting rear mech hanger and so there was a bit of a worry. Luckily Jonny’s Dad, Angus brought his bike and let Lewis ride that bike. Not quite a Supersix but running smoothly and so not really a problem.

The training camp allowed us the first time to try out some new food from Shotz (http://www.assist.co.uk/brands/shotz ) They were brilliant. The Wild Bean gels giving a real kick after of just before some big climbs (like the on we did used by the Vuelta in Stage 9, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY4D-NpxQaY&feature=related). The bars were gone pretty qucikly. They shouldn’t have been left out. I’m looking forward to getting some more!! Nom  nom nom nom!!

We also all went through a lot of Formula 1 Herbalife shake for our recovery, 1 Tub between 8 guys does no go a long way!!! (http://www.targetweight.com/)

Anyway, loads of little stories, but a massive thanks Angus for sitting in the car when he was expecting a few rides for himself on his own bike and could only go out once he’d got his bike back from Lewis who left early. But the biggest thanks must go to Julian and Outi, and most important Outi’s mother who cooked some fantastic food for us every night and morning and made sure we didn’t go hungry. Julian’s family were fantastic and the hospitality was brilliant.

So having come back from Spain I’m having an easy week, then a week to get my legs back into some training ready for the first race of the season. We get all our kit at the team launch on Sunday!! Can’t wait to get all our kit, not looking forward to standing on a stage in front of some random people though. I’ll tell you all about that another time.

So the 2009 season has been over for a good month now, and the reason for no post is school. Its now half term and think its time just for a quick catch up.

So, I left you at Cockerham. Since then I think I had 3 major races, 1. Junior Tour of Wales (the biggest race of the season)! 2. A race in Scotland in the Supersix series 3. Preston Grand Prix.

Junior Tour of Wales - So this is a 3 day, 5 stage road race which is THE junior race to do. The Tour of I

reland is better in terms of length, changing terrain, and experience but Wales is a much tougher race especially when you look at the calibre of the riders. All the best British junior teams were riding, and there were few single entries and many turned away. DAY ONE - Stage 1 was a TT going up the Tumble, a medium gradient first, then downhill and flat follwed by a steep uphill finish. Tri-bars were needed and those on TT bikes had an advantage on the middle section due to it being so fast, but luckily for me the junior gearing really restricted the time difference. With a lot of advice from Matt I paced the ride well and placed 49th (much better than Ireland!). The second half of the day was a road race, this had a steep hill finish with my finishing 44th. My best result in the race. DAY TWO - Stage 3 was a circuit race. The conditions made this the hardest stage as the circuit was very muddy, it was cold and there were many crashes. The first crash nearly happened in the neutralised as people fought their way to the front, I tried this too but didn’t put too mch pressure on this as I did not want to come down. The first cr

ash came on the first bend of the first lap. Someone just lost their wheel and brought a couple of other riders down. I think this caused a minor split with me being the only herbalife rider to make it in the front group. Only just and struggling. Luckily our guest rider Laurie Brooking managed to get across and I eventually popped. On my way backwards I saw Jonny was riding round nearly closing on the front group with two of the Irish riders (I think a few of the Irish riders missed the split). Unfortunately the placings for this race were well off due to the confusion of so many riders dropping out and getting lapped. Stage 4 was a tough stage for me as well. This was becuase my rear gear cable had basicallly disintergrated and so only able to have 3 rear gears only by pulling the cable on the frame. I struggled to stay in contact and was unable to get any mechanical help and so grinded away on finishing (and only) hill. So day two was the best day of racing I’ve had. DAY THREE - the epic day that was day three. We did around 65 miles finishing going up the tumble. A beast of a climb and made harder by the awful rain that day, with the miles upon miles of moors we rode over and George Atkins on a mission. There was little wind so there was no major split but had there been, there would have been riders all over Wales. I hung on till the bottom of the tumble then rode my own pace up it as I was happy just to finish it this year.

I had underestimated how hard doing double days would be. I had done double days in training which were hard but racing double days is twice

as hard. Especially as the weather was so poor. I didn’t really enjoy it at the time but I really looking forward to next year. I must give a massive thanks to Matt Cronshaw who took some time out to take me down, and look after me. His advice was a massive help and without it god knows how badly I would have done!!!

The Scottish race which was part of the supersix series was an important race for the team as we were riding for Ash to try and help him get as many points as possible towards his elite licence. Unfortunately the course did not allow me and Jonny to do this as we were getting dropped on the decent which was 40mph + for about 3 miles and meant we were spinning out on our Junior gearing. Ash managed to get into the main break himself and secured a top 10 despite having a puncture on the last climb (hill finish) which was very impressive.

The peleton in Wales

The last race of the season was Preston Grand Prix. A city centre race and another local one. This was my first elite crit race due to me now being a 2nd cat. It was stupidly fast. Olympic medallist Ed Clancy was riding, Rob Hayles, Dean Downing and Matt!! The race was slightly gridded and I had no hope and after 4 laps blew and lost contact. Then just rode round for half of the race. It was so fast and I have massive respect to Briggs who won on his own, and lapped almost the whole field. It wasn’t even breathing!!

So now my season is done. It half term and I’ve already started training for next season after a 3 week break of no cycling what so ever. Unfortunately it is back to the winter bike. It has been this past week that you really realise just how good the cannondale bike is. So fast all of the time. Can’t wait for next season already. It sounds like its going to be a good one.

In a bit.

Well, since my last epic blog a lot has happened. Really there’s probably a good 4 blogs of writing here. I’m just lazy (riding my bike too much). So, since Smithfield, I’ve race at Ulverston, Dolphinholme and Cockerham in the CDNW league and the usual Tuesday night Crits at Salt Ayre. I’ve even done some timetrials!

Ulverston - Similar race to Smithfield really, although the break of 6 managed to stick. I tried to chase it down on the climb hoping for the bunch to sit on on the penultimate lap but I simply road away. I sat up then but should have kept on going. So for the bunch sprint I managed to get 7th, which I was amazed about considering that I sunddenly found myself at the back of the bunch having got squeezed out and boxed in so went to the back. Then realising that the finish was near thought it was time to go. 2/3 rds of the way up there was a cattle grid. I braked, squeezed in for this then smashed in my highest gear on the uphill finish. I was able to get so far as there was a wind coming from the right meaning everyone was trying to stay on the left and keep sheltered so I had a clear run to the finish.

Dolphinholme - This is my local race, I live literally 2 minutes away with the circuit being my hour’s training loop. This is a hard, technical hilly/draggy course. I was really up for this and again in the 3/4 race so I knew I could do well, hoping for the win. First time up the climb I rode tempo, a mistake as I should have sat in but I was hoping to make it hard for everyone. First lap 2 got away, second time up the climb people started to bridge across and as some were strong riders, this is when I realised I had to bridge. So along with 2 other riders, we bridged acorss on the decent of the climb and the headwind section (the photo). After this I simply sat in the break as the bunch wasn’t chasing. Then the penultimate time up the climb the winner attacked with another guy following. I chased this down with another junior and the final break of 4 rode to the finish. Last time up the climb and I couldn’t keep pace. I was struggling to work in the break and then my chain came off on the climb. It lost me some momentum and I just couldn’t get back on. I came 4th which was a good result on such a tough circuit losing 22seconds to the winner.

Cockerham - This has been my best result so far and I’m really chuffed with it. We decided that it was best to do the E/1/2 race as it would be much better training for the Junior Tour of Wales and with the Premier Calender Richmond GP taking place, along with the Tour of Ireland then the race would not be as strong as it could have been. Don’t get me wrong, it was still flat out! With cross winds, head winds and tail winds, with no hills this race should not suit me. But after the first lap with nearly all 3 from Herbalife nearly getting dropped in the first cross wind section we sorted ourselves out for the next lap. There were a few attacks of the front but nothing stuck due to the wind. Then a group of 15 or so created a break and this looked likely to stay. The peleton chased and when it got within spitting distance Jonny was able to bridge across. This meant for me all I had to do was to sit in and follow any moves that tried to bridge which I did until I got tired and decided to sit in a lap later. Eventually this break came back and so on the lasp lap I was expecting a bunch sprint. I was sitting near the front as much as I could and then an attack went. I followed the wheel and found myself in the break! I did what I could in the break but pretty much just sat in thinking that the bunch would bring us back as it was the last lap. It didn’t happen and I was amazed. A couple of the usual juniors managed to bridge across which was an effort in that wind. Then on the only hill I attacked hoping to get a gap. They were on my wheel immediately. Then I just tried to recover and prepare for the fast downhill sprint in the rain. A car on the turn before the sprint split the break and meant I lost a good 20m before the spint and managed to ride in for 7th which I was massively chuffed with. This meant that i got my second category licence which was a big aim for this year and takes the presssure off for the rest of the season.

My other races at Scale Hall involved 2 11th (one from a puncture on the last lap), and 2 timetrials preparing myself for the tour. With Cockerham being a massive boost of confidence I’m really looking forward to Wales and enjoying the rest of the season and the start of next year already!!!

(Happy Nic?) All photos again from http://www.ilm-photography.co.uk/home.htm with a BC report http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20090816-road-CDNW-Dolphinholme-Road-Race-0

Me on the finish line of Dolpinholme.

Chasing the eventual winner on the main climb

Attacking and stringing the field out to get across to the main break. The first 3 guys in this are the ones who help to bridge across to the break with me.