Regional Champs and the rest of May!

So May has been pretty good. A few exams and a fair bit of bike riding and some decent weather, it's not been so bad.

In terms of racing, it all kicked off with the 3rd round of the Elveden Road Race series and the weather was very different to the first round, sun was out, no rain etct only for the first lap. Also different was that it was now a 2/3/4 not a 3rds only and that Laura Trott was racing - she's only got 2 Olympic golds or something like that.  After the first lap it was grim, the weather turned for the worst, it started raining, hailing and the wind started howling.  The net effect was a mix of cross winds the Dutch would be scared of and rain the Welsh would struggle to deal with.  With the wind everything split up into smaller groups pretty quickly and riders were being blown across the track.  At one point my mountain bike skills were called upon when I ended up on the slippy mud.  It then occurred to me that my bunch position had been horrendous up to this point and there were about 3 groups ahead of me, and that I should probably attempt to bridge the gap(s).  I jumped solo and rode across the first gap, went straight through the next group and towed a couple of stragglers with me.  Beginning to feel the lactate I flicked the elbow a couple of times.  Alas, they would not come through.  That said, if you're relying on me - i.e. the person least suited to riding in windy conditions in the world (maybe), to pull you through the cross-wind sections you should probably a long hard look in the mirror and harden up.  Then at this point I realised there had actually been 5 groups ahead of me initially.   So I jumped again, and whilst it took a while I got up to the third group, I got there without expending too much energy, particularly considering the amount of wind there was.  I sheltered there for a bit and recovered from my efforts.  The weather had begun to die down a bit and the group wasn't working well together so myself and Matt (who runs Mud Sweat & Gears) worked together to get up to the second group.  It took a while, again we had some people jump on our move and not contribute to the work... *rolls eyes*.  It's kind of annoying when you put in a solid effort, teetering upon the red line, flick your elbow, Matt comes through, does the same, he flicks his elbow and the other riders just look at each other and then you know, that you have to come through to keep it going, expending even more energy unnecessarily.  It's not as if we're getting tactical and racing for the win, we're trying to get up to the next group, it becomes a lot easier if we work together, instead everyone seems to be rather negative and are content to watch others fail if they're failing too.  I don't think its a fitness issue, these guys have 2nd cat licence and can produce a hell of a lot more power than I can, they must be capable of doing at least what I do... Eventually we got up to the 2nd group with Laura Trott in it, only to find out there was a breakaway of 8 a minute and half up the road.  So it was kind of a wasted effort, but good training all the same.

The weather was relatively good at this point, believe it or not.  Yep, that is Laura Trott next to me too...

Matt and I then attempted to bridge up to the leading group, and strung out the group of 12 or so that was there, fortunately a few others contributed to the efforts this time and we brought the gap down to a minute, but we ultimately failed.  The hail picked up again and I lost a contact lens - so I couldn't see much and riding through and off was interesting to say the least.  I was struggling a bit by now but I'd worked out a strategy whereby I'd hit the front just before the corner, take the corner where l'd gain a fair few bike lengths and recover whilst they caught up.  Some may say this would upset the 'smoothness' of the group, but I say some of the other guys should man up and stop braking like it's tight alpine hairpin and you're doing 100kph.  I guess it was kind of useful that most people were intent on cornering like my Nan, or worse still, like Wiggo.  Some others finally started to do some work, so I sat on for a bit and that's pretty much all there is to say about that race...  Unsurprisingly I felt ill all week after this race.

Cold Ollie.

The following weekend were the Eastern Mtb Champs, at Thetford... I'm not a big fan of Thetford - it's flat and un-technical.  I'd tapered off for this race so in terms of 'fitness' and 'freshness' I was in very good shape, but I had a bit of cold, so I couldn't enjoy my full capabilities that day.  Back onto the subject of the course, the irony is I crashed less than a kilometer into my practice lap - I said 'un-technical' didn't I?  I hit the first two loose, dusty corners flat out, both wheels sliding (it was epic) and then ran out of talent in the third corner, I looked in the 'talent bag' and it was well and truly empty...  Some one rear ended me, my chain was off and my right grip wasn't really on the handlebars anymore, my chain guide prevented getting the chain back on. So, a quick run back to base and the team mechanic (Dad) sorted it out and I was off again.  I definitely didn't very nearly crash on the same corner again (ok I did).  I eventually made it round the lap in the end.  The circuit was ridiculously fast and I'd planned where to make my attacks.  

Beetroot downed, gel in and race kit on and off to the start line to be gridded.  The temperature was ramping up and garmins were showing 20 odd degrees, positively tropical for this time of year and a stark contrast to the previous weekend!  Conditions, weather wise were good for me. This time we were gridded behind the Masters which wasn't too great - they're are more of them and there's a greater variance ability in their category.  So when the gun finally went I found myself stuck behind some slower starters and lost a fair bit of time to the two other leading guys in my category, I went into the red a fair bit getting up to them.  Eventually I managed to bridge the gap joining their train just before the end of the first lap.  The race was now on.

Part of the 'train'.

One of the other juniors then dropped of the pace leaving two of us to battle it our for the win.  Which lead to some pretty aggressive track-esque style riding, where we'd slow down to little more than a walking pace and then one of us would attack - the other would stay stuck to the wheel and hang for dear life, this inevitably lead to a few close-calls and use of elbows, in a bid to make it first to the singletrack.  This style of riding was probably far from conducive to fast lap times, and it certainly wasn't economical use of energy. 

Hmm... my shoulders look considerably bigger than the rest of me.

We got down to the final lap and we were still together, I was sure Sean would beat me in a sprint so I knew I had to get away.  So I attacked at the pre-planned places (basically where the trail had an upward gradient)  and I got a gap after my second attack (I may have had a little help...), so I pretty much pedaled hard till I went into the red and held it as long as I could without blowing up catastrophicallly.  I caught up with another rider who towed me a bit and whom then dropped off the pace and said 'you're clear now' so I backed off a little bit, zipped up my jersey and pedaled onto the finish line and then showed off how I can ride my bike hands free (it's really, really hard, I promise...).  

All that was left to do was to put the arms in the air! 

Seeing as this race was one of my goals for the year I was rather pleased to win!  I could now finally focus on my exams.  Unfortunately training has been irregular and a little sparse since then.  I hadn't raced till 4 weeks after this which is a bit disappointing.  

April Update (ok, the last day of march is included too...)

Training has been very low in volume but very high intensity of late, in a bid to make more time for revision and unnecessary procrastination.  Bit of shame really as the sun is starting to make an appearance now from time to time and I'd rather be outside doing a few more hours than 6-8 a week.  Unfortunately there are bigger things in life than riding a bike (i.e. not failing your a-levels) and I'm not about to become one of the guys who pretends he's a pro rider.  When, in reality they don't have a job and ride their bike all day instead.  If you're a junior or u23 with a genuine chance on picking up a pro contract then fair enough, but I fall down on the latter half of that caveat!

Anyway, onto racing....  Scroll down if road racing and disappointment aren't your thing!

Interestingly, I did my first ever proper road race, one that's not a crit.  The Braintree road race, which took place in the lanes of Suffolk.  I was promised it would be a hilly course - it wasn't, but hey everything's relative... Unfortunately it was a bitterly cold day and this meant I was going to struggle, despite it being a 3/4 race and being layered up with two pairs of leg warmers on.  Yep, about 10k from the end, the inevitable happened.  Nasty bit of pain and an immobile left leg, it was cramp time.  I went over the power file and it wasn't anything I wouldn't normally be able to deal with, in any sense but I definitely didn't eat enough either.  Yeah it annoyed me, the finish line was just after a little incline and I was looking forward to jumping at 1100-1200 watts on it, in the bunch sprint and I reckon that would have been fairly successful.  Oh well, onto the next one.

Next up was the Chelmer RR, 2/3/4 and 60 miles - quite possibly the flattest course, ever.

I'll be honest with you, I don't even know why I bothered turning up to this race.  I got dropped within the first half an hour and I was way, way too fatigued to even think about racing, let alone go for some points.  My TSB was -45 on the day of the race, for those of you not familiar with WKO/training peaks that can be roughly translated as 'you're f'ed and need a decent rest spell'.  Again going over the power data it was nothing wouldn't normally be able to deal with, but in the context of how tired I was I wasn't surprised.  Even if I had been rested, it was too flat for me to do any real damage, so it's not a 'biggie'.

I was down to race the national junior Hog Hill GP and then noticed that 117 people had entered and that just had 'broken collar bone and no points' written all over.  So, I did my own club's road race, the Ken Wright Memorial road race - 60 odd miles and a 2/3/4.  The sun was out but temperatures were still quite cold and I didn't wear leg warmers, big mistake.  All went rather merrily up until about 4 lap to go, where I saw one of my teammates (Don't worry Trev, mistakes happen and I honestly don't care that it happened as long as it serves as a moral hazard - don't let it put you off racing either!) go down and the sounds of carbon & asphalt began... so I bunny hopped over one guy's seat post but my rear wheel clipped his bars and I landed awkwardly and ended up in heap with a couple of riders.  No road rash was a bonus and only a couple of bruises, I jumped back on - promptly jumped off again to put my chain back on and to re-align the rear break.  The chase back on was a solo one and took 3 minutes and was done at >5.5w/kg so it was hard.

The power-file revealed that I did indeed, 'go-big'.

I did get back on and looked to move up the group, unfortunately the warm up balm was wearing off and my legs were getting cold.  Guess what... I cramped a lap later.  Again, I went over the power-file and it was within me.  I still think some solid sweet spot & endurance work will be need to make it to the end in good condition, so there's more training to be done!  Also, yet again I didn't eat enough.  I will learn eventually.  It's quite easy, those gels/food in your back pocket - eat them.  Those leg warmers in your kit bag - put them on.

Now, for some nobbly tyre action.

This was my 2nd mtb race of the season and was round 2 of the National Series, I didn't bother doing the 1st round as I lacked the form at that point (see http://oeracing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-road-to-2nd-cat-part-1-and-why.html to find out why).  The race was in depths of Cornwall so Dad and myself drove down on Friday afternoon/evening, so we had plenty of time to get organised and get practice in the next day.  Which revealed that the course was a) gnarly (or whatever the cool kids say) b) pretty fun c) rocky d) had a few climbs and e) I might have cold coming.  I like climbs, I weigh very little and as result go a bit faster than average up them.

Fish-eye = good!
credit: Rob Barker 

The next day brought race day, I was a little nervous and had a bit of a tingly throat.  My warm up went well so I was feeling rather optimistic.  I was gridded on the back row, in a field of roughly 30.  I made sure to charge full gas off the start line in a bid to make up places as early as possible - it worked quite well but there was still some traffic on the singletrack.  We hit the first climb and I began coughing and started going backwards - usually I do most of the going forward on the climbs so clearly I wasn't having a great day.  I took back two places place when a rider hesitated going into a wall ride sort of thing  so I nipped up the inside of them on the off camber bit.  I then lost more places on flat section into a head wind but that's to be expected.

One of the shallower climbs, the headwind made it feel harder!

The 2nd lap brought more sub-standard ascending, but some uncharacteristically good descending.  I even managed to commit to a fairly big (by xc race standards) drop in and overtake a rider who went over the bars on it and not crash into him!  The 3rd lap was generally disappointing, I was on my own, still coughing and struggling with a lower back issue which I though I'd dealt with (grrr!).  Ascending and descending were equally bad and I was looking forward to getting the last lap in.  During said lap my legs finally woke up, I stopped coughing and my back stopped hurting - result!  I concentrated on hammering the climbs and keeping smooth in the descents, but I had one very near miss on the aforementioned drop in - I basically went too slow into it, endo'ed half way down with only one foot clipped in, I survived though.  I rode quite slowly for a while attempting to work out how I survived, then realised I was still racing and put the hammer back down.  Interestingly my 4th lap ended up being my fastest and I reckon I could have kept that pace up all race if I wasn't coughing and such.  That would have put me somewhere in the group of 3 ahead of me.  I managed 16th in the end.  So, I actually exceeded expectations!  I was looking for 20th or thereabouts.

Race data here: http://app.strava.com/activities/51250751#kudos

A video of the race can be found here too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-M2qo4gmKY&feature=youtu.be

So yeah, my next race will be the Eastern XC champs on the 19th of May at Thetford, and I may or may not do a crit in the meantime. My people, who may or may not exist shall confirm at a later date.

It's not been going quite as well as I might have hoped for, but it's not horrendous and I've got some specific fitness issues to deal with, but they'll be dealt with in good time!

As ever, thanks for reading.  Don't forget to follow me on twitter and strava!
Linky:  https://twitter.com/ozza_e and http://app.strava.com/athletes/310670

XC Racing Shenanigans, part uno

Right now I'm rather busy trying to get my History A-Level Coursework done, I didn't believe my teacher said 'this part of the course is designed to make you fail'.  It pains me to say, but he's right.  You basically have to tear apart arguments of other historians, whom are, well let's face it, infinitely more intelligent than myself.  I was also rather busy yesterday watching Wales win the six nations, I know this is a cycling blog but that was an amazing performance from Wales.  Yeah, I'm Welsh, that may go some way to explain why I am so ridiculously pale...

Anyway, I managed to squeeze in a race.  This was my first XC race of the year, and I hadn't finished an XC race since August, so the pressure was on!  This was an Eastern Region race, round 1 of the 8 round series, run rather well by the folks at Mud Sweat and Gears.  We're not exactly blessed with great mountain biking terrain in East Anglia (admittedly we do now have an olympic standard course...) but in the context of East Anglia a great course had been put together.  Nice and flowy, with a bit of mud to make it interesting, plus it held up to the recent bad weather really, really well - I got away with running Racing Ralphs!  Only 25 metres of elevation a lap mind you, it certainly felt like more.

Shenanigans; Silly or high-spirited behavior; mischief.  Sounds about right...

Conditions weren't looking good on the drive over, and I'm not a fan of rain or muddy conditions - luckily the weather held out and the track stayed dry-ish.  Preparations were far from ideal, carb loading consisted of curry and beer and I was too ill to train on Monday and Tuesday so I crammed all of my training in the latter half of the Week.  So believe me when I say I was surprised when I attacked on the second lap after getting a few bike lengths and saw no reply from my competitor and team mate, Will Kearse.  I was pleasantly surprised indeed.  I quickly built a gap and made it stick, by the time I was half through the 3rd lap I knew I had the win and was able to lift off the accelerator a bit and have some fun!  I think I managed to win by a fair margin, a good 8 or 9 minutes, so it was rather nice to take such a big win.   Especially after my poor performances in the winter!  

Stats:  http://app.strava.com/activities/44799772

Podium!

Next for me XC wise is round 2 of the national points series in Cornwall, on the final weekend of April.  In the meantime, I have races on the tarmac, the Braintree and Chelmer RRs. 

So I'm definitely gathering form slowly and starting to look like I have a promising season ahead of me.  I've just jinxed it, haven't I?   Now back to that pesky coursework... Thanks for reading!  

The Road to 2nd Cat - Part 1 and why 'Manning Up' is bad!

34 days.  That's how long it can take you to get over the flu if you keep telling yourself to 'Man up' - I always used this phrase, in a tongue in cheek manner (and because it really annoyed a friend) but it wasn't until I got taken down by a nasty little virus just before Christmas that I put into practice.  Despite the fact I felt terrible I still tried to train, the effect?  I never really got better - just flat-lined, waking up most days with a resting heart rate sometimes in triple figures and often double the usual number isn't great, it's worrying.  Every day losing watt after watt and doing more damage than complete rest.  It got to the stage where I had to put my cycling shoes in a high place and did not exercise at all, whatsoever.  After a week I felt much better far fresher, I still felt weak on the bike, but this was down to being unfit and not being ill.  The damage was already done, I'd lost 40-50 watts from my FTP and lost 4kg and looking like a long lost Shleck brother!

So take it from me, don't tell yourself to man up, go back to bed, and repeat to you are no longer ill.  The time to man up is when you pass under flamme rouge when breaking away and only seconds from a glorious solo victory.  So with my new found knowledge, I decided to sit out of the final Winter Series round at Thetford as I had a cold, I rested till Wednesday and then set a new 5 minute power pb.  See it makes sense!  It's also nice to see that I'm getting some form back.

So first race of 2013 had to be delayed to March - Old skool, I know! A crit a Hog Hill (I think I'm one of the few people who likes the circuit...), a 2/3/4, 1 hour + 3 laps and up to 15 points on offer.  To be honest leading up to the race I would be happy to take a single point - fitness was relatively low and freshness wasn't great (I did a pretty big interval session the day before).  A strong but small field lined up, with plenty of 2nds and fast U23s riding for development teams.  I tried to ride a sensible race, spent a little too much time near the front at the begging but did a fairly good job at finding the balance between conserving energy and doing my bit.  It was a little windy and quite cold, so the conditions weren't in my favour at all.  I'm prone to cramping in cold weather and as I'm a fairly normal size and very light I get really beaten up by the wind.  Unfortunately a rider went up the road with 3 laps to go and stayed away (well he was caught in the final sprint but did just enough to take it).  So as you can imagine I was fairly surprised to find myself in 3rd sport at the crest of the Hoggenberg in the final sprint.  Unfortunately my left leg cramped and I dropped 3 places to 6th - I told you what happens when it gets cold!  However the result was encouraging and it's nice to know I can compete with the 2nd cats, and especially given the disastrous winter I have had.  It was really rather nice to get a solid result and some points of the board - a modest 5!

Me, cramping.

I had a little play on the Hadleigh Farm Olympic mtb course the day after, managed to clean all the sections and saw my team mate take a rather large tumble and break his frame - which Giant won't honour the warranty on!  An XC race bike that can't handle an XC race circuit, bit embarrassing for them if you ask me...  Luckily Ru came away relatively unscathed.  Definitely scared me and I was the next to take it on the A line on triple trouble - seriously got the adrenaline going.  I survived by the way!

Broken Frame.  A very, very broken frame.

Next up was the first of the hugely popular Elveden race series....

Another rather hard interval session preceded the race on the Friday and another power pb recorded - so the legs were tired and feeling rather heavy but I was still looking for some points.

Well what can I say, conditions were a mixture of Welsh and Belgian, it was wet, cold and really rather grim.  To say I was disinterested whilst riding around was an understatement, I wasn't enjoying riding my bike in the slightest - yes I am a 'fair weather' rider.  As you know when it's cold, I cramp.  Guess what, I got cramp - after about 20 minutes too, I was not impressed.  Turns out my team-mate, Ben was also.  So I just sat on the back for most of the race, did some shivering and a lot of ambivalence towards basically everything.  I put in a very half hearted sprint at  the end and nabbed around 10th, I was far from 'firing all cylinders'.  Usually I'm shouting 'A bloc, A bloc, A bloc' rather loudly in my head at the end of a race, alas I simply wasn't feeling it today.  There were plenty of crashes in other categories during the course of the day, luckily we managed to avoid any.  I hope anyone that broke themselves makes a speedy recovery.  Lastly for an inaugural race it was rather well organised, so chapeau to the organisers, but please, some sunshine next time!

Contrary to popular belief, this cycling cap was not used in a rainy Paris-Roubaix...

Oh well, I think I can call it a character building experience or something like that...

So 34pts till 2nd cat, first Eastern region XC race this Sunday coming, and then Braintree RR two weeks after that.

Au revoir until then!
Edit: Looks like I actually came 11th.
Edit: Again, 8th places, so that's 3 points.  32 points till 2nd cat... this'll take some time.

A New Year`s Update.

I haven`t posted on here for a while, not because I`ve not been racing, but simply because I have`t actually finished a race in a while.  It`s been frustrating.  After the Hilly Fields Supacross,
 I was feeling optimistic.  So I did the next eastern cross race the next weekend, at Davy Down. I had the flu jab the day before so I feeling a bit rubbish, but I was slowly but surely picking off riders after a very slow start - then PING, I look behind me to see my jockey wheel fly off into the adjacent river.  Race over, I still got 50 minutes quality training in though and a bent rear chainstay - I thought mech hangers were meant to fail before the frame!?

Next up was the first Thetford Winter Series, it was cold, it was wet, it was muddy. I knew after my warm up this wasn`t going to be good - I had an entire week out the week before doing an internship at law firm in Dublin, this certainly didn`t help. We fragmented pretty quickly and myself and another rider built up a gap pretty quickly, but I wasn`t warming up, in fact I was getting colder, it was grim and just wasn`t fun. So I decided that I`d sit up and pull out (I wasn`t the only one!) at the end of the lap. By this time I was very cold and showing signs of hypothermia, so Dad got me home asap!

I decided not to race at the puncture stricken round 2 at Thetford, and instead get some quality training in - I did a power test the friday before heading down to Surrey for round 2 of the Brass Monkey series, my numbers looked good in the test and I was feeling strong, not racing the previous fortnight at Thetofrd was a good idea.  Plus I prefer the courses at Brass Monkey races, usually pretty fun and quite weatherproof!  

I started a bit too quickly, so I backed off a bit, and settled into a more sustainable pace, I then pushed on a bit, catching up a team-mate and I continued to push on, feeling pretty strong, but riding really slowly - I just had no flow in the singletrack.  Then bam, full lock cramp.  No warning, no twinges, nothing. I'd knew I had damaged my gastrocnemius, so I pulled after the 2nd lap, good job I did, I`d torn the muscle (nothing major though) and took a week out to let heal, it`s still not right but the bruising has gone now at least.  Just shows that I need to do more racing, to get the conditioning I need to avoid cramping. 

I`ve now been ill for most of the Christmas Holidays, which has been far from ideal, I took part in the annual runners v riders race on boxing day, but I was obviously still ill, I did finish though and we cyclists did win!  I took a trip down to Bedgebury on new year`s eve with some team-mates and friends, I was getting better, but I was definitely still ill.  Conditions were dire, but I re-found my `flow`, which was important.  Hopefully, I can find some good health and get some solid training in before the build phase starts.

2013 also brings a new season where I look to get 2nd cat on the road,  and a few wins on the mtb.  Whilst getting into university (avoiding clearing) my I add!   

Amis Velo Supacross

So, since my last update I've made a start with my training, dealt with more university application 'stuff' and have realised A2s levels are a big step up from AS levels; I know I was told but HOW MUCH WORK!?  That'll teach me to take just essay subjects.... Next up is deciding what my focus for the coming season will be - decisions, decisions!

And in advance, sorry for any spelling/grammatical errors.  I've just written a 2000 word essay and the head isn't there anymore!

Anyway, yeah Hilly Fields Supacross (Complete with Belgium-esque name) is about as local as race gets for me, around 3 or 4 miles away from my house and I do occasionally ride in Hilly Fields.  The race was organised by Amis Velo - a great effort if you consider there are only 8 of them, so chapaeu to them! They also managed to put together a fun course!

Leading up to race, I was feeling tired, legs heavy and just generally not great.   It probably didn't help that I had a solid few days of training prior to the race, but I wasn't on the back row!  Obviously the second the whistle blew all the proverbial [naughty word] goes out of the window and you just ride as hard as you possibly can, and you know what, I didn't feel too bad - that top end speed wasn't quite there but the rest of me was and I seemed to riding fairly well and moved up the field pretty quickly.  I reached an equilibrium after about 30 minutes and battled with the same two riders till the end (one got away, the other didn't).  I managed 3rd in the juniors and 19th overall, and suffered for it - believe me I can still feel it in my legs!  For reference I managed to average 188bpm for just over an hour, or 94% of my MHR!

Up the steps!  Thanks to Fergus Muir for the photo.

I was pretty happy with the result and I was even more pleased with the 'supporters club' which grew in size as the race went on (or at least it felt like it) started by my friends/work colleagues from Cycle Revolution. I think simple things like riding things like taking an alternative line to utilize the 'bunny hop' and the foot out and side ways cornering technique were appreciated (I aim to please. No really, I do!) and more importantly made it more fun! Don't worry guys, commically over-size ginger wigs are on the way!

So yeah, I nearly impressed myself and feel as if I'm getting used to this cross stuff! Lastly, thanks to Amis Velo, Ben Paton for patiently teaching the specifics and to anyone who gives up their time to run these events.

 
Race data:  http://app.strava.com/rides/25004359

Oh and don't forget to follow me on twitter! @ozza_e

My First Foray into 'Cross

Ok, so I had heard things about cyclocross... not many good things, I was told: it was going to hurt, you won't be able to ride a cross bike well and you'll probably not make it to the end of your first cross race.. but I still got my 'cross bike (which I broke the first time I rode it) and decided to give some racing ago, after one technique session.

Cyclocross take one!

Rd2 of the Eastern Cross league, at Springfield park saw my first ever cyclocross race - I was gridded on the back row and was feeling optimistic, despite the pan flat course with 3 dismounts!

After the gun went I knew it was necessary to move up quickly, so I set about doing so and made good progress, until I got tangled with another rider... and I lost a considerable amount of places.  So, I get back in the pedals and start picking off riders one by one, trying not to embarrass myself on the dismounts.  Which I got right once and made four places in the process, only to leave the bike in a massive gear and lose all the places bake when remounting!  Amateur, I know...  It was nice to turn the pedals in anger for the first time after my prolonged 'brake' from cycling, over-rested is a term I would use!

Yup, that hurt! I did finish though.

Whilst my finishing position wasn't so great - the fact that I made up 50 places on my starting position certainly makes it sound better!

Race data:  http://app.strava.com/activities/22155685

Cyclocross take two!

A trip to Hog Hill for the Hoggenberg 'cross saw my second cross race, again an Eastern League race.  This course had a couple of small climbs, had far more singletrack, a very interesting spiral and only one dismount!  I was quite looking forward to this, the course was far more fun than the previous weekend but I was feeling tired after doing a series of fitness tests the previous day.  

Yet, as always the courses that are fun to ride, aren't so great to race on, you really needed to be on the front from the gun to place well in this race, guess where I was again?  Yep, the back row.  So, off we went up the Hoggenberg and then into the spiral, I made up a few places before getting caught in bottle-neck.. but I kept plodding along like a trooper and having to stretch by back every time I hit a straight, probably due to the insanely bumpy course, which didn't help much at all!  I decided to back off a bit towards the end as any hope of a good position was well out of the window - but I decided to have a bit of fun, attempting to add some style to the jump half way round the circuit (whoever it was taking the pictures - if you got a decent one please contact me!).  This was one of those races where the bell couldn't come any sonner - and I was glad when the leader lapped me - it meant one last lap!

I made up around 30 places on my starting position and finished mid-pack again.  Whilst there were fewer riders, this was definitely a stronger field, with a few london based riders present.

This is how you carry the bike, right?

Race data: http://app.strava.com/activities/22792096

So, what do I think of 'cross?  Did I enjoy it?  Yeah- in kind of perverse way.  Will I be doing it again?  Definitely, it'll make me stronger... 

Most of all I learnt you need to be able to do 3 things to be strong at 'Cross:

-Be a punchy and powerful rider 

-Be able to ride a 'cross bike well + be good at low speed cornering

-Be able to do the 'cross specific stuff

These three things I am unequivocally not able to do!  Cyclocross is everything I'm weak at, which why I feel I should be keep doing it!  I'm convinced it'll make me far stronger on the mountain bike - particularly on the flatter courses.

My next race will be the local Amis Velo Supacross in Colchester.  Next week marks my return to training with plenty of 'strength and conditioning', now that I've finally sorted all the UCAS stuff!

Thanks for reading!