Race reports

Busy weekend of TTing for me.

First off the Mixed 2UP TT down at Ringwood, New Forest. Been going for an umber of years, quite a flat course, but very bumpy all along. I was riding with a girl from our club, and was confident we could do a good time. At the start line, I said this was the most nervous I'd felt in a long time for a TT, which my partner Kirsty just laughed at. She was in good spirits and she started off quickly with me calling her back off the start as I got into the right gear. Kirsty took the first 1.5 minutes, I took over for a couple then she took the next minute, I accidently went past her due to traffic at this point, and sat on the front, after about a minute, I heard the shout and she was struggling to hold at my slightly increased pace, so I eased it back a bit and this meant I had the front for the rest of the run. :D I had good power and was occasionally checking behind, few wobbly moments due to the cross wind with the 808, but a good run, chasing down the Mixed record of 22:12. We eventually came in 22:51, which bagged us second place on the day and £20 each, which I was very happy with.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1129869395

Then onto this morning and local league event. Legs were a bit draggy, and had a rubbish night sleep, so was happy to get round. 2 laps of 13.1 miles, making it a Marathon! I started off carefully as it is immediately into the first climb, keeping in the tuck all the way up at 265W or so. I thought I was going ok taking the descent well even with its bumpiness, until I got overtaken by my club mate and then another rider in quick succession. I managed to keep these guys in sight for the next 5 or 6 miles, and slowly lost them a bit on the second climb. On the second big descent I got stuck behind a tractor about half way down, this played into my hands as it carried on to the final flat section, so I caught a drag all the way through and powered through to finish. Bagging 5th place in the end.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1130973770

This meant I finished I think 6th overall and helped our club achieve 2nd after the 7 events.

Pretty pooped now following a 200mile week including 100 off road for the South Downs on Monday. No events for a few more weeks, and probably only a few more before Cross season starts!
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Very happy to have gotten an 18 minute 10 now this season, managed an 18:55 on Saturday. Was fairly changeable conditons, with plenty of rain about, but luckily it held off and felt fast.
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Saw this on Strava, looked like a quick day all round! Great ride, what power did you hit for that?

First day back to school for me in CX and boy did it feel like it, got my pressures not quite right, leading to me stacking it once at about 2mph, had not a lot of confidence in the slow stuff and gears went awful after 2 laps of bumps. Think my tyre choice didn't help the situation, bit too nobbly for the dry conditions.

I had also forgotten how to ride until the last 20 minutes, where I managed to put in some good steady laps until the end, remembering I can unclip to help balance myself out, finished 31st about 10 places behind riders I usually finish with, but first few races are always tough with big fields, I'll come into my own when it gets muddy and cold!

One positive is that my running over the summer has paid off as I was noticeably quicker than most on the hurdles/steps, just need to remember how to remount again!
 
Not as much as expected, just 333w. Managed a healthy negative split though, 331w on the way out 340w on the way back. Theres a few roundabouts which drag the average down a touch, but overall felt good. Have made a few changes aero wise recently as well which are obviously working.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Not as much as expected, just 333w. Managed a healthy negative split though, 331w on the way out 340w on the way back. Theres a few roundabouts which drag the average down a touch, but overall felt good. Have made a few changes aero wise recently as well which are obviously working.
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Good stuff. It was the P881R Saturday wasn't it? Definitely the slightly quicker course on the A3, good start and few less lumps on the way back up. Couldn't have asked for better wind I don't think on Saturday!
 
This is probably one more for the racers, but thinking of taking on a coach when I get back from America mid november. Just wondering if anybody but xdcx has used anyone. I know a lot of the theory but think I'm lacking the determination to do it myself, and as I'm tight I'll definitely follow anything I'm actually paying for.
 
Been coached by RST the last year, been ok has definitely made me ride a lot more and I've generally been far more consistent than other years too. Decided to change to Tim Kennaugh for this year though, so will see how that goes.
 
Thanks Thomas, do you mind if I drop you an email asking few more questions, someone like yourself who has seen real progress from this year and has hands on experience is all beneficial.
 
Berger said:
Racing tricycles?
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Trying not to, but the need for a pit bike has become ever more evident this weekend.

So this weekend was the final round of the championship for Wessex held at Southampton Sports Centre, which seems no matter the time of the year is always wet and muddy, even more so after a week of heavy rain, the previous race for V50s with the V50 World Champ in both mens and womens, leading them off running had set the tone for our race, with me being gridded on the third row, and the two rows in front on foot rather than clipped in, with the odd maverick deciding riding off would be sensible.

After a quick call of all bikes on the floor until the whistle goes. Whistle went and off we all go, I made a relatively strong start being able to actually run, heading up the outside I jumped back on at the top of the rise in probably 14th or so place, over the next lap I gapped out behind me running with much stronger guys than I had been most of this year, but was racing at the back end of last season. The lap consisted of a couple of running sections up complete bogs, followed by a nicer dry section lower down, before having to do a bit more running on the back side of the course, and a nice off camber bank that you could bowl into and hop off to run. The following laps led to me picking up a few spots from people having mechanicals,falling off and/or tiring due to the heavy going of the ground.

After 2.5 laps I swapped over to my MTB, which was immediately an interesting ride, as the big knobblie tyres I had on wouldnt shed any of the clay type mud washing out on most corners, I swapped off this after half a lap but I'd lost a bit of time, jumping back on the CX bike I instantly picked up the pace...for all of 200 yards before I took the wrong line and hit a big bump launching me over my handlebars, which somehow everyone managed to miss :D I got up quickly with my shoulder and my undercarriage taking a bit of a battering, remounting and getting going again, I had a little moment to gather myself together and got back on with the job, peeling off the next couple of laps. My bike didn't seem to be clogging up too much so I pushed on for another lap before pitting with 1.5 laps to go. This was a fateful mistake as passing the starting grid my bike locked up and ripped the rear derailleur off, so this meant sorting it out getting the bike on my bruised shoulder and running to collect my MTB.

Jumping on my mtb for the lastt 1.5 laps I rode the bottom drier half of the course nicely, but heading up to the muddy section of the c ourse the MTB completely clogged up, in pretty much the same place the rear derailleur blew up on my CX bike, meaning I had to running with the mtb, after trying to clear some of the mud off it. Getting back to the pits my club mate who'd just finished lent me his bike, unfortunately he must be 3inches taller than me, so could barely reach the pedals. at this point I was happy to finish, so got round the final half a lap finishing with a strong run up the finish straight to finish 16th.

After checking the results I was running a consistent 12th for a lot of the race, which was where I was racing last year, but the blowing up of the rear derailleur has meant I will definitely be on the look out for a second CX bike to enable smooth swaps.

MTB
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Oops

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Shoulder and finger is slight bruised/swollen today after a ropey nights sleep, but glad I finally had a good race this season after being disrupted so much by illness and holiday.
 
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It is great fun, as many breakages and issues as I have had, I still bloody love it. It is the hardest and most rewarding time I spend on the bike. The satisfaction when racing is supplemented by the numbers in our club that race each week, each helping each other with pitting/bikes etc. aswell as putting on the events with course set up etc. It gets you out the house on grim days when you just wouldn't ride outside, and gives you a proper all over workout, and hopefully put me in good stead for the coming TT season.
 
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