A Rumble in the Hills

After the series of mishaps which plagued the start of my day I began to think maybe I wasn't meant to ride in the Burgess Hill Rumble sportive today. Not only that, my lack of preperation for an event hit a new low and I still now don't know how the hell I managed to make it to the finish line. A week spent boozing nearly every evening with my Brother culminated in a 4am jaunt to the Volks on Friday after a double figure session of shots. Riding high on a bitter wave of self destruction it seemed logical to continue the trend and go out last night as well. Why not. What the hell.

So when I woke this morning at 7:00am to the sound of thunder and realised I'd set my alarm for Monday and not Sunday I guessed it was going to be a challenging day. Already 30 minutes late for registration in Burgess Hill, I fought with the idea of just sacking it off and going back to sleep. But, I'd got things on my mind and the only cure for my woes was to translate them into miles. In a rush and still dazed from 5 hours sleep I left the house without breakfast, forgetting my arm warmers, energy bars, cash card, long sleeve top and sunglasses.

Driving to Burgess Hill through the eye of a lightning storm I did seriously question what the fuck I was doing, straining to see the road ahead in the monsoon downpour. Lightning was striking closer than I've ever seen and water was starting to build up on the roads. Thankfully by the time I arrived in Burgess Hill it had lessed to a normal downpour, but I still sat another 10 minutes in the car pondering whether to turn round and go straight home.

The only thing which stopped me was having so much on my mind. I figured if i did drive back to Brighton I'd end up going for a ride anyway later in the day to get my head straight. So i got out the car, put the bike together and rode the mile or so to the start line. On arrival I realised I'd left my phone and photo ID in the car so couldn't register. Another 2 mile round trip later I was at the start and really wondering if I was meant to ride at all today.

I'd entered the 95 mile Classic Ride organised by SRS-Events. Though the route was good the organisation wasn't up to the standards of the Devil Ride, even down to having no timing chips. I reset my computer and set off pretty much straight away getting into a good group of 5-6 riders who were prepared to work together. The first 30 miles or so were fast and undulating and I felt surprisingly good cruising along at 20mph+. The first major climb of the day wasn't too steep just long and with a nice smooth surface. Once into the Ashdown forest things got a little more challenging, not least the road surfaces. With so much rain the roads were very slippy and there were a few crashes.

The second major climb was like something out of the Devil Ride, a mile long monster with 16% sections where many had to walk due to lack of traction. At the top was a food station and I ransacked its stock of flapjacks and bananas with a crazed look in my eyes, muscles and veins pumped from the intensity of the climb. From then onwards I was flying and left my group, joined and dropped others along the way until 30 miles out I was on my own. With the exception of the devious addition of the climb out of Ardingly I was at top speed for the last section getting me into the finish in 5 hours 45 mins. Here's the full route.

Getting back to the car I reflected on the day and was glad I'd decided to ride regardless. The troubles of the morning had been flogged over the 95 miles and now didn't seem quite so all consuming. The bike is tremendous for this. Unfortunately though, the bike took a bit of a hammering today with so much shit on the roads. It'll need a full service to be ready for roll for next weekends challenge: The Trans Cambrian...

This time I'll try not the spend the whole week drinking, eating takeaways and worrying about stuff I know I can sort out myself. Hopefully.

The joys of searching for a new bike

I own three bikes at the moment - the Trek and Klein above (the Vitus was sold a couple of years ago, but it looked so nice, it would be a crime not to show a photo). The third bike (not pictured, for reasons that will become apparent) is my "city bike" which I bought in Munich from a bike workshop run by long-term unemployed people (e.g. people with learning difficulties). The bike is a bastardised mutant accident waiting to happen. It's a kids steel frame with strange size wheels, 5 speeds and brakes that just emphasise how disturbingly loose all the bearings are. The wheels are the main problem - when I got my first puncture, I took off the tyre to reveal that the shop had stuffed a way bigger old inner tube inside. I bought new tyres recently and because they are non-standard, antique sizes, they cost me EUR 29 - each. The whole bike only cost EUR 25!

So, I'm in the market for a new city bike. I toyed with the idea of an ultra-minimalist single speed. But then thought, ok, well, I'm going to need lights. Plus a rack would be handy. And, if I'm going to cycle to work on it, a chain guard would be practical. Actually, there are a few small inclines on the way to work, so rather than sweating up them on a single speed, a few gears would be nice, just to pootle along... You get the idea - a horrendously practical and uncool city bike, the kind I used to laugh at a few years ago.

Now, I have to swallow my pride and go shopping for "sensible" bikes and wear my blinkers to try to ignore the carbon-fibre fixed wheel courier bikes with custom paint jobs displayed in the window. I'm trying to think of a way to at least salvage a semblance of coolness from the situation - e.g. buying a Moulton or something, but I think it's a lost cause. Any suggestions gratefully appreciated!

Track Bonanza!

Britains massive successes at the Olympics seem to have caused a surge in new memberships of the BCF. Its certainly been an eye opener seeing how many young riders there are getting involved with Track racing at Preston Park and whilst I was visiting GT at Maindy Pool in Cardiff.

Seeing little kids confidently handling their fixed gear bikes was definately inspiring. Though I think I'll be leaving it until next year now, I'm still tending the mental wounds of a 30mph crash riding fixed down Talerddig a month ago.

If you can't get enough of the Olympic track cycling at the moment, tickets are on sale for the Track World Cup in Manchester at the beginning of November. The event is the first of the World cup series where elite riders compete to earn points towards the World Championships. World and Olympic champions will compete in 17 seperate events over the 3 days. I've bagged tickets for the Saturday and Sunday.

The Sunday features a special Japanese Keirin Association invitational Keirin race. Riders from Japan and the rest of the world will be battling it out for a massive cash prize. If its anything like the Japanese Keirin Championships it'll be one of the highlights of the weekend...

The Goodwood Gallop

This week has to have been one of the busiest weeks on the bike I've had since touring in the USA. Devil Ride last Sunday, racing at Dunsfold Tuesday, training Thursday and today my second taste of racing at Goodwood racecourse near Chichester. Thursday's training ride with the fastmen from the club was a blistering 40 mile loop around the Sussex countryside in team time trial fashion. It felt great being able to tear along with some of the most experienced and respected riders from the club and it set me up nicely for the race this morning.

The only slight spanner in the works was my works sports day at Charterhouse school in Godalming on Saturday. The obligatory night out before the sports day was a shot fuelled rampage around Guildford (which from what I can remember just seemed to be a few chain bars in the middle of a dual carraige way). Even with hangovers we managed to dominate the Netball at the sportsday (yes, Netball...) and beat every other office to win the trophy. If road racing doesn't work out its nice to know I've another sport up my sleeve (or should that be blouse?) Hmmm...

I left for Goodwood this morning with one of the other 4th cat riders from the club ready for the 9:30am start. We had about 20 mins to warm up and check out the racecourse which was a world apart from Dunsfold. The shorter 2.3 mile lap was of smooth tarmac and not the potholed patchwork of the aerodrome. After brief instructions from the officials to not wander onto the operational airfield in the middle of the track we set off for 14 windy laps. First few laps went pretty smoothly with no serious breakaway attempts until just past the finish line on the 4th 2 guys managed to get away. We'd been advised that in some of the 4ths only races generally no one takes charge to organise the chase and today was no exception. The 2 guys ended finishing 2 minutes clear of the bunch. I talked about this after the race and both thought that we didn't have the experience to just ride up to the front start the chase, but I guess everyone is thinking the same.

That aside, it was another good day for experience, good and bad. On the good side I was feeling fresher than last Tuesday and managed to position myself into the top 10-15 for the last 5 laps. On the bad side I had my first near crash, touching wheels with a guy in front when a gust of wind took him across my front wheel. The sound of a our Fulcrum zero's slicing together at 25mph is one I want to forget in a hurry. We somehow managed to stay upright and continue, though a few laps later another guy must have hit trouble and was being treated on the side of the racecourse for what looked like a broken collar bone.

100m from the finish was a tyre chicane which added a bit of spice to the final gallop before the sprint for the line. After 13 laps I'd got a good idea of where to be heading into the final straight and which line to take through the chicane before the finish. About 1km from the finish the strongest riders were dragging the bunch along at 30mph into the final bend and I'd used all my remaining strength to stay with them into the chicane. About 35 headed the line in front of me but I managed to overtake a few who blew up in the last 50m. The other Mitre riders did well finishing in the top 20 or so. The last Goodwood race is in October and we've decided to work together and try and get away ourselves...

There aren't many more 4th cat races this season so I'm going to try and make it to as many as possible. Along with the 2 sportives and the cylcocross season coming up it looks busy the next couple of months!

Caerphilly Mountain

After having no plans to ride today, due to assumption weather would be poo, plans changed and persuaded the Ferg to go for a spin. Rather shocked to receive a positive reply from Bertrude to my asking if he had raced today (at 11.25AM) and also having seen the team pursuit boys destroy the WR again excuses seemed weak, and lycra was donned.

Nothing remarkable about the ride except the ascent of Caerphilly Mountain, which is real stinker. I'm not sure exactly how steep (very) / long (not hugely) it is, but I can't think of much steeper (last few hundred metres of galibier?? Porlock Hill??) I had lower gears today and was down to under 6mph at times. Fergus managed it with 1 stop compared to 2 last time, and considering his smallest gear is prob 39x25 that's good going. I'll have to drag Bertrude up there sometime and see what he thinks of the brute.

Great to see Bert having a crack at racing. I didn't actually realise he could physically get out of bed before 11AM on a Sunday :-) Having done a few Handicap races (Abergeveny) many years ago I remember how hard they are, and the horrific rise in pace when the E/1 group catch you. Find a nice 4th Cat only race with a few hills and I reckon he'll be right up there at the business end.

On the new bike front, Colnago seem to have some new models for 2009 so I suspect that's where I'll be looking. The x-bike will do fine over the winter though.

10 to South Africa

One of the better Berlin radio stations is running a competition to send 10 people to South Africa next year to compete in the "Cape Argus Pick'n'Pay Cycle Tour" in Capetown. Last year they sent 10 folks to New York to compete in the marathon and I took a look at lucky selected people and they were all old fogeys like me, including a Johnny Foreigner with a sporting injury - so I'm in with a chance!


I've just got to negotiate the entry form with strange questions, such as "What is the name of your inner pig-dog?" and a section to come clean about my arthritis, but it looks do-able. I just need to find a half-decent photo that will convince them to take me. Any suggestions from my facebook account, or from The Police 1984 tour archive, warmly welcomed...

Chwareon Olympaidd

Just a quick post to highlight this nice article in the BBC's Olympic coverage...

Wales is renowned for rugby union and male voice choirs, but the land of our fathers can now sing about its cycling achievements.

The 'Taffia' in British Cycling's backroom team are responsible for GB's domination at this year's World Cycling Championships and their great haul in China.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/cycling/7533548.stm