Race reports

I normally race a few hundred milers each year, lazy year this year, but a couple of weekends ago I was scheduled to race on the Sunday. On the Friday my wife decided she wanted to race, so I rode the course sticking with her.

Her first mountain bike century and she loved it. :)
 
daveski said:
Nice work Gavin.

I managed 21:04 on the V718 course. 5 seconds short :(

Still another 43 seconds knocked off my PB
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Gah, 4 seconds is a pain but you've got to be pleased with that anyway.

Thomas. PLease. said:
Managed another win today :D

3/4 race at hillingdon, will write up for the blog soon, but basically solo'd away for the last 20 minutes to win. Pretty satisfying!
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Great work.
 
So as I posted the other day I finally got an entry into a TT on the fast V718 course up near Hull.

I was off at 15:45 and I left home with loads of time, getting to the HQ about 13:45! I spoke to a few of the organisers and competitors before driving the course then getting changed and going for a warm up.

The course is similar to the one on the A50 I've done but the turn is much faster, the distance between the roundabouts is very small on this course so you're back on the A63 before you know it. The return leg is a mile longer than the outward and there's a slight drag on the way to the finish, just when you don't need it!

It was a very calm day but still felt like a headwind at times, especially when descending off the slip road into the A63 after the turn.

Caught my minute guy in 3 miles and his minute guy in 7 and finished in 21:04.

That's the Beeston CC club record for an open 10 although I am sure it will be beaten next year if someone else gets an entry onto that course!

There was a chap taking photos and I have purchased this but still waiting for the download links to come through via email.

Now I bought this bike off a mate earlier in the year and I've been fast everytime I've used it but from looking at this photo my position is terrible!

I do push myself back onto the saddle when I feel myself moving forward but is there anything I can do to make the bike fit me better or should I be looking at a new one?

TT_zpsa6caf0ed.png


I've posted the same question on the TT forum - http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=104337
 
I reckon you can make it fit but you'll need an adjustable cockpit and a layback post if the saddle is all the way back. Sometimes longer is better than lower.

It's worth experimenting with pad width too. Sometimes having them set wider makes it easier to sink your head between your shoulders and narrow your front profile. Some people find the opposite though.
 
daveski said:
My main worry with adjusting stuff is being slower! I'm clearly quick on the bike and don't want to lose that.
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Do you have a powermeter? You can use it for some fairly rough drag calculations as Thomas has suggested. It's probably not reliable at all but I also like to benchmark people on Strava with powermeters who've done similar times to see how my power output compares.

There's a lot of trial and error involved though if you don't have access to a wind tunnel... I made a few changes before I happened upon my current setup which seems to be relatively fast for me. Based on a video from the weekend, I think my head position needs a tweak and I need to swap out my s-bends for j-bends. It wouldn't surprise me to change that though and go slower!

I am also giving away a fair amount of power though in TT position, I reckon about 20-25w down on road bike power for a 10 or 25. I'm going to try and train in TT position over winter to hopefully bridge that gap as much as possible. I think it's a fair trade off between aero and power though based on my times.
 
Windy scratch race today, 36.5km and 300m elevation, three U turns and one CAT 4 climb. With poor numbers due to masters nationals being on it was a combined A and B grade, with only one other true A grade rider whose had a couple of weeks off it would have been a slow bunch ride.

So I attacked after 1km, and rode away solo for the whole race, winning by two and a half minutes. I fully expected to be caught after ten km or so as if they got rolling well on the downhill high speed sections they could take loads of time. I just kept pushing the pedals round riding off feel, came home with an average speed of 38.5kmh over 56 minutes of effort, pretty good solo on a roadie. With the U turns I could keep an eye on the gap and see how it was every 10km or so, but once it was past 20 seconds I didn't bother looking behind anymore.

Very pleased with that, I've had a full 5 days off due to work and came down with a bit of a sore throat/cough on Thursday which is lingering a little. Got another few weeks of less riding so will lose a bit of form, got to get my Tour of Bright entry in on Monday which will be the start of December so I hope to bounce back to this level for then. I'll need to do 41-42kmh in the TT (13.5km) there, so I'll have to buy some clip on bars and get practicing!
 
Heres my write up summised from my clubs Facebook page.

My report from todays Eden Veranda cx event will be short. Mainly because I've no idea what happened for 50 mins of 56 riding!


It was my first event so didn't really know what to expect, I started about half way up, and made up a few places on the uphill start, went hard for first lap and had few battles, about 20 mins in I realised I'd gone out too hard and reeled back my effort to recover.

About 5 mins later my front qr worked its way loose so quick stop and on my way again. Gave away a few places and slowly made these up by the end.
Other than that I don't really remember anything else! Really enjoyed it though. Can't wait til the next one now.

https://www.strava.com/activities/406217496

A picture says a thousand words so I'll leave my hr stats to show how hard that was.

LgGa2yGmumx_v2Tb2YEFwPG8gUWEQ31rb8aMCyIGmhzSXeqjIVLkCvJMKufyP53arKmjDlAr6jtj-nPqcWa1AQVkio94IJfLKEYHeAh30W-jOnJuCDgNnSP18C0m3c-XQKgtyLFX1JcWutDly2paKCLFt45yd3yUS3ltqvhoDrNDzn7ywJj79Ksh41-QLz98Ip1RoDkWv2I0TcmX3hA-ePvlayx9K8wCH4o9bZ9kXuGVbwCkukXdy9XYK6MvP5BJaAPmQFZ42g6FqR4n9VNUpCMxAE2TWjp73atTawLMtbSt5aAEQrLpD_gOeSKURK2INDGbseK29IYT2OWaBXfVnLs_noQgicqbGNq8CWLXmhC9XmfOTo9DXFdCekGSFccsITDmhKK0a5I17Jjy9o7V7PuFiUBjfN4Vh281041np024dM0kUm8ibdrBoV3P3EnOacjKcMurEn5JBIEJuNPtAr6QJ4CEt74FdX4xng9nHKialIZqIXccLHuU42ET_f2Zt-d7QslOFhgGop-xkgc_WYL7CMrvsBu_AhK1RQ=w362-h643-no
 
Round 5 (my second race) in the wessex CX League yesterday. After the first I had decided to redo my bar tape to get a bit more padding and change to one of these posh canyon vcls seat posts to try to take some punishment away from my undercarriage!

Race started well in a very big field made up a fair few places and kept making them up for the first lap or so. Unfortunately I hadn't learnt my lesson and had gone out for too hard again. Pace eased back on the 3rd and 4th laps (altho not by much) had a few offs on the 3rd lap. One going up a bank getting my line slightly wrong and washing my front wheel out on a tight left. Settled in and dug deep for the last couple of laps only getting lapped about 6 minutes before the end which I was happier with.

Finally finished with a 41st (again) out of 77 this time though.

Few more lessons learnt. As I had overdressed (cloudy all the way up and sun came out for the start) and saddle was slightly too high. But still good fun. Roll on next week!

http://www.strava.com/activities/415653681
 
Friday night track league kicked off again on Friday (funny that). I was interested to see how I went with a decent block of training behind me. As a result I was riding 48x14 or 92" rather than 88" or 90" as I've ridden in the past.

12 lap course des primes: fast from the off, took about 6 laps to work up through the field then I clipped off the front to take a lap before settling back in to the bunch (you need to finish the race to pick up any points).

25 laps points race (sprints every 5): WIN! I never contest the first sprint as it's usually someone who goes balls out to win it then blows and is never seen again, so I settled in to the bunch and got through the first 5 laps easily enough. The pace started to drop on about lap 8 so I took the opportunity to attack off the front and got about half a lap on the field, and rode tempo to hold the gap and take the points. After that, I just looked to consolidate my position and sprinted from the bunch to take 2nd on the penultimate lap. Things dropped off with a couple of laps to go so I went on the attack again and was caught before the line, but still held on for fourth giving me the win by 1 point. :D

Elimination: rubbish start, got eliminated first after I was stuck below the bunch and didn't move back and round quick enough. I either tend to do very well or very badly in these, but starting position is crucial. If you're third or fourth wheel you can get pretty deep into the race without having to do much at all.

1km scratch: went for it from 750m but I was undergeared and soon got shot out the back, so nothing here

20 lap scratch: this went out quick but settled into a very sedate pace. I got a bit bored so thought I'd try a couple of digs. On the first one, three other riders bridged across but weren't prepared to do enough work to keep us away. On the final one, I got away about 3 laps out but was caught with a lap to go. I was spinning like mad and couldn't keep it going but hopefully the track legs will come back.

Aiming to race every fortnight or so to keep the VO2 lights on over winter, as the rest of my riding is going to be mainly tempo/threshold till the spring as I'm focusing more on TTs next year. I don't really have any interest in road racing at the moment. I'd love to try cross but already have five bikes and the season clashes with track! It looks immense fun though. :(
 
Quite like the track league format, lots of little events so you can either target one or two or ride hard across the board depending on how you feel on the night. I think my strengths lie in longer events but I still like the format.
 
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