And so it begins

The day had finally come and the first race of the season was about to start.

It seemed to have come around so fast and it was a mad rush to get a bike sorted for me to race,I hadn't touched a tt bike since the last race of last year so I was considering just bashing down the course on my road bike, luckily for me I didn't have to,Andy sorted me out with the loan of the very impressive boardman 9.4 . As it was just a run out we didn't change much on the bike and made do with pretty much the set up we had apart from a few adjustments to the bars, I wanted to try my new wheels so it ment I was running without a power meter as I'm running with just my training powertap,and we went with the standard 53t chainring and 172.5mm cranks .

We managed to get a position I was comfortable with but nothing as strong as I would normally have for racing in but it would get me out there and that was the aim.

Race day weather had been looking terrible all week but there was a outside chance it would not come in till later in the day but this wasn't to be.

I got to the hq early as I always do,it was freezing cold but looked to be staying dry and the wind was fairly light so it was a case of getting cold but I was happy to live with that as long as the storm stayed back.

I got my skinsuit on and the number in my NoPinz speed pocket without the usual hassle of pinning myself to death and covering my number in double sided tape and I was ready to go.

Warming up it was very calm and a day that had the chance of being awful was starting to look up so I warmed up feeling very confident watching a few riders on there last mile looking fast in the conditions.

I rolled up to the start and started taking off the extra kit I had on for warm up and a few spots of rain started to drop, still hopeful I carried on getting ready as my minute man went out.

It was almost like someone flicked a switch, everything went dark and I could see the pusher offer desperately hoping my start time would come faster so they could all run for cover. The strong wind seemed to hold back the rain slightly to start ,with a few bursts and nothing more, I just kept telling myself a hour and you'll be back in the car nice and warm.

I went out trying to keep it steady, not having a power meter I knew it would of been very easy to smash the first few miles and pay for it later.

The course was part of the A38 with two loops off it and back, I caught my minute man just before coming on to the first loop but knowing it was a sharp turn and very greasy on the road I thought I would wait till the turn was done before getting past,little did I know he would go into it at full speed in the drops and then have to do a emergency skid and somehow manage to keep it up right ( great save  ) . I shouted I was going on his outside and off I went the next corner was a fast but tight corner and as I approached I could see a ambulance on the corner,lights flashing but I convinced myself it was for someone living in the few houses on the corner ( later found out it was a great little rider with a ton of bad luck but luckily he was ok ,get well soon mate )  .

I had already decided with the temp just getting above 1 at 11am there was no way I was taking the back loop like a mad man, A / I was on a bike that wasn't mine and there was no way I was risking dumping it on a minor race in February, B / after being ill for a week there was no way I was risking crashing as well .

I took the first few corners very steady getting up off the drops and scrubbing off speed just to be safe, the rain was getting heavier and the wind really picking up now and I was only just finishing my first loop, I got to where the course re joined the A38 and had the moment of thinking shall I just turn right and get back to the hq before it got to bad, I've rode the course before and my avg speed wasn't to bad even though I was taking any kink in the road very steady so I cracked on hoping it wouldn't get any worse.

As I got onto my second loop rider traffic was building up as conditions got worse and I came to a hard part of the course as I came up on a selection of two other riders all trying to navigate themselves around the complex parts of the course. 

About half way through the second loop is when the storm really kicked in ,the wind was really driving and the sections that where more open where really fighting against you, with the rain smashing down the potholes that seem to be multiplying on a crazy scale on that course where becoming very hard to spot and I hit one hard just before coming to the end of the second loop, I skidded to a halt on the side of the road as I was sure something had gone ping , a quick look and all seemed ok so off it was onto the last section which was about 8 miles to the finish.

The calm conditions where a distance memory and this was just a case of holding on now and getting back ,I looked at my avg speed and it was dropping and with a very tough last 6 miles coming into a block headwind it wasn't going to get better, I was hoping that I could pull something back on the run to the turn and just bury it back but I only gained a very small bit to the turn. The return leg was going to be horrible, I know the road well I train on it loads and the wind on the way back is sometimes like trying to ride through treacle, add driving rain and just under 2 degrees and it's enough to make you cry . I found a tad of motivation to get home as I past a guy who had gone out a long time before me and knowing I would be back before him at least made me feel as if someone had it worse than me at least .

Heart rate was climbing fast trying to push on through, the flo 90 was doing all it could , you could feel the wind really pushing against it but it felt stable and controlled and just drifted you slightly giving you the chance to correct your line( well that's how it felt anyway I was probably all over the road like someone had just pushed a wheel along and it was wobbling away on its own down the road ) position was all over the place,I stayed in the extensions but my head was up like a meerkat desperately trying to spot out potholes and just generally see where I was going, I spent the last 3 miles in the middle of my lane ,teeth gritted I think cars where to scared to beep at me for being out so far as I looked like I might chew through their bumper.

I crossed the line shaking my head wondering what the F had just happened ,body shaking as I was so cold and wet just rolling back to the hq.

I got back and luckily Andy had dropped by and took the bike from me giving me chance to bumble some clothes out the car and rush inside to try and get dry, I spent the next 30 mins shivering under a heater in the hq wondering how far down the list I had finished , I knew it was going to be bad news as I was over 3 mins slower than when I rode the course last year. I had somehow scraped 2nd well beaten but just happy to be back, the garmin file told a good story ,hr was good and even but the speed drop off was crazy,it was great to be back on a bike and racing again I think if I'm truly honest it done me good , gave me a real battering on the bike and was a tough way to get back into it , I think if I had rocked up ,perfect set up and on great form and won the race it would of not motivated me as much as having a mare did, I feel now I've got something to fight for and prove, my race calendar doesn't hit the important races until August and as much as I would like to hit every race on great form it's just not going to happen if I want to train to be better for the big races. It's a hard one to grasp for me as I want to go out and destroy it every race and show what I can do but it's great to have Matt holding me back and keeping me focused on the bigger picture, people always used to say to me be a hero in February / March and you will die off times the big races come, and I understand that now and see if your training and building racing takes a back seat and you have to use it as a test bed for those future targets.

I'm going to race more locally this year which is good as it's not taking a whole day out with travelling and planning the days eating etc etc, I can get up go out race and get back and recover for the following sessions training.

The R10/22a next on the 8th and a pretty straight forward course, fingers crossed the tte will be ready and il be back in a set up I'm very happy with.

Huge thanks to bike science this week for getting me out there racing in a week when all the customer boardman tte bikes came in so it was really manic but they made time to get me sorted .

So onwards and upwards I think I'm pretty much over the illness now as well so can really focus on getting the training back to normal after having to drop some key sessions .

Ps if anyone's interested I'm on the cyclingtimetrialpodcast with Mark Florence in a few Sunday's times  , I did question mark why on earth he wanted to get me on there but he suggested it might interest his listeners so sorry if it's crap, and how on earth are you supposed to follow on from Matt bottrills podcast from last week.

looking back at the setup from pretty much exactly a year ago

 

 

seems crazy it was pretty much a year ago that photo was taken and I'm soon to be back on the same course , be great to com pair the pics and the race .

i said i would so lets go through that set up and what and why has changed.

i look at it and don't really think it was a case of it wasn't a strong position and i did get some good times in it ,but the more i look at it the details and changes are vast and get smaller and smaller .

start from the top, rider and clothing , i found the giro a good helmet but in my position looking up the road was hard as the tail really flattens off and the tail piece meant i couldn't stay aero and look up the road which is just asking for trouble , the javelin sorts this problem nicely .

The skinsuit was on its first outing and only seemed to bag a tiny bit around the elbow and neck ,plus the neck was to high and tight so i had to have it undone a tad which wouldn't of helped ,as for the rider i think i was about 83Kg there and I'm 77kg now so a good 6kg of unneeded weight gone :), overshoes the renowned smart aero.

the bike itself has obviously changed from the P4 to the Boardman TTE , which has lead to some component changes but alot of that is through choice as much as forced through bike change ( i.e tt has inter grated bars and brakes etc).

wheels firstly, the rear is a powertap G3 built into a 32 spoke cyclops rim , its my training wheel and weights a ton , it has the very smart Raltech disc cover on which used to rub the super wide rear stay of the p4 due to the large bulge in the cover but not always , a great piece of kit mind for using a training wheel for racing, standard bearings and a shimano 11-23 ,tyres used front and back where the 23mm conti supersonics .front wheel was a old hed jet which was pretty good but a bit scary as soon as the slightest bit of wind came along .

cranks and chainring where the FSA neopro in a 180mm  really cool cranks but i remember i massively overtightened them a few times being hamfisted and they would hardly spin ( love making life harder for myself ) ive been trying to get a set in 170mm but just cant find them anywhere. And a 56t osymetric .

ive always ran just a single ring so that wont change this year, was running a sram rival rear mech with token standard 11t jockey wheels but thatnks to David at Prologue performance im replacing that with something very special.

the adamo saddle stays as its mint but the 3t ventus bars have made way for a fully intergrated front, i never liked the fussy area as i called it of cables that used to go to the brake and back into the frame for the gears and rear brake so its great to clear this area up ,   the sram R2C shifters stay as i think they are great , I'm not running Di2 either this .

the more i look the more i spot out tiny things ,  before i forget someone was asking about front brakes on tt bikes i used a standard shimano 105 front brake with nokon cable, it was a great fit on the P4 and with the nokon you could pretty much get the cable out the way , i looked at the tririg etc but couldn't justify it over what i had tbh.

so that's pretty much this time last years set up, just from me and equipment changes i think I've saved 7kg plus on overall weight and can spot of immediate savings over everything from better fitting skinsuit with the nopinz speedpocket etc etc

just need to get out and ride now, found out today we have a date for aero testing at newport velodrome which will be awesome and a good chance to get some solid data.

 things seem to move along so fast in racing its pretty refreshing to go back over old stuff and  look at what you've changed and try and spot out the improvements or maybe even find something you might need to go back to ;)

 

 

Where am I really , and the first race of many

Illness never seems to pick a good time and boom there it was just as things where getting to the point I get to finally race, two ways of looking at it, one - it's the first time I've been ill all winter so it's a bonus since we have been pushing me hard and building strongly , two - I get to plan a stronger comeback when I'm fully better and do some of the bits I just haven't found time to do.

First race is ment to be Sunday the 22nd on the lumpy U17 , a course that doesn't suit me really but a good test course and a good time to see where I am.

Where am I is a great question , we have been changing so much it's hard to tell until we finally get out there and get racing , the training has been going great it's something that is in the back of my mind really as I know if I hit the sessions set that side is very well covered so it's a good place to be on that , 

New bike , which we haven't had any setup time on so will be really good to get some ride time in and really start hitting training on the tte.

So as for where I am it's a pretty unknown , we know what I can do in training , what the potential is but it's still got to be all put together , but this is what early season racing is all about ,finding my feet and getting everything in place for the rest of the season.

So my flo cycling front wheel made its trip over the water safely and I'm very impressed with it , it's very obvious that a lot has gone into the wheel , it has a shape that really shows how the newer wheels have moved on , the bulge mid way down the rim smooths off to a rounded inner rim , gone are the harsh sharp edges , the hub is pretty minimal and the bearings very smooth and spins brilliantly , the coolest bit is something I think was just done as a design choice which is the black braking surface which looks really smart and I prefer that over a carbon surface that can be a tad jumpy in the wet , 

The veloflex record 22mm clinchers fits perfectly on the rim and gives a very smooth transaction between tyre and rim, I really want to test the new specialized turbo cotton 24mm but I think the veloflex will take some serious beating .

I'm writing thinking there are a million things I'm forgetting, seems so much is going on at the moment and I'm super keen to just get my head down and race , nutrition with jwnutrition is going great , today it's at 77.5kg which is the lowest I've been at since I started racing 3 years ago and I've never felt better, we are recovering better and hitting sessions stronger , I'm still making a few mistakes with nutrition but Ive improved massively from where I was and getting better all the time.

Fingers crossed that the TTE is here Wednesday which will give us basically 3 days to get it set up and tested before Sunday's race but I'm sure we can get it sorted ( again fingers crossed ) using Di2 will be pretty cool but I will be running it with mechanical shifting for a few reasons which I will go into when we are fully set up , will be a race without a power meter as well as I'm waiting to sort hopefully a set of Rotor  power cranks , so the first race will be a crazy one but hey I will just go out and give it everything and see what happens :) 

The mission now is to get better and try not to miss anymore training , this is probably the busiest week of the winter coming up,so much to sort and get ready , you wouldn't think I've had about 4 months to get ready for the first race :) 

To superstitious to write a 13th blog