June race roundup

There's been a lot going on since I last had time to update this, so here's a few races together to get things up to date.

11 June 2014 - Forza Cycles Summer Series, Llandow

Another first, as I finally got round to riding a criterium. Llandow is a small motor racing circuit about 15 miles from Cardiff where criteriums are held more or less every Wednesday evening all summer. On a beautiful summer's day I elected to ride the hour or so there, race, and then ride back. Fortunately there was a tailwind on the way home to help my tired legs!

For the race itself about 40 cat 3s and 4s took the start. I'd had the chance to warm up on the circuit and take note of a couple of tricky bends on the circuit, but I didn't really know what to expect as we set off. The pace was high but manageable (most of the time), with peaks and troughs in speed as riders tried to escape off the front of the bunch, were reeled in, and then everyone relaxes for a moment, before someone else has a go and the speed shoots up again. I made a few half-hearted moves myself, mostly as a consequence of trying to stay near the front of the pack, but also chasing down the odd attack, or in one case, finding that I had inadvertantly accelerated away and (briefly) joined a breakaway.

After 30 minutes of a 45 minute race, the sprints out of corners every lap were beginning to take their toll and I stopped mucking about and sat in the bunch, just aiming to make it to the finish with the main bunch. It was at that point that there was a crash at the tight chicane which I got caught behind, coming almost to a standstill. I've learned enough about road racing to know that it would be a hard chase back to the bunch, so I immediately went full gas and was quickly joined by James, another Ajax rider in the same predicament. After 2 miles of working together it became obvious we couldn't make it back across the gap, and we sat up and pulled off the circuit with a handful of laps to go.

13 June 2014 - Cardiff Ajax Friday Night Time Trial

Another summer evening ride out into the vale, and two Friday nights in a row of blasting down the A48 and back. A little less wind saw me improve to 19 minutes dead along the 7.4 mile course. I will have to keep going back until I get a time in the mid 18s....

17 June 2014 - Pembrey Circuit Series round 3 (cat 4 only and 2/3/4)

A whole six days since my first criterium, I thought I'd give a second one a go. And indeed a third: I was eligible for both races, and having made a long trip down the M4 I thought I may as well get my money's worth and see how long I could hang on in the second race.

About 25 riders lined up for the cat 4 only race. Krzyzstof was there early to watch before racing the 2/3/4, and gave me some of his usual blunt advice - just attack from the off. Well, why not I thought, and without even waiting for the bunch to form up, rode away from everyone as the flag dropped and quickly settled down into my time trial pace. Within a lap and a half I was joined by another rider, then another bridged and the three of us took our turns for several laps before being caught by the bunch. I sat in for a while then, but went along for the ride any time anyone else attacked. Nobody managed to get away from the bunch though. I gave it one last go with a few laps to go, but nobody came with me and I wasn't strong enough to make a solo effort work. On the final lap my positioning was all wrong - I tried to follow a half-hearted attack but only managed to drag the rest of the bunch with me and effectively led out the sprint, rolling in at the back of the bunch.

I had all of five minutes turnaround from the end of one race to the start of the next, with a much larger and stronger field. Predictably, I lasted all of a lap and a half with the main bunch, having burned all my matches in the earlier race. I just could not match the accelerations out of corners, and I don't think I would have even had I been riding on fresh legs. Still, it was all good experience and good training - I just need a little more brains and a little less misplaced enthusiasm.

25 June 2014 - Western Cyclocross League round 7 (Odd Down cycling circuit)

Having flirted with circuit racing, next week's midweek race was more familiar territory - another trip across the Severn Bridge for a evening cyclocross race.

Unlike May's race at Warmley, this was a proper summer cyclocross race under sunny summer skies. Bone-dry conditions like these can become like dusty criteriums, but the organisers had come up with a cracking course to keep things interesting. Odd Down is a purpose-built cycling facility with a mile-long road racing circuit and a BMX track, and yes, you've guessed it, the course took in elements of both, linked by some fast singletrack which included a short but quite technical (for a 'cross race) descent and sharp climb.

The lap was simple really - bury myself on the open grass and tarmac circuit section, rest on the BMX track and singletrack, bury myself on the climb again. It was one of those 'cross races that seemed to settle down relatively quickly - by half distance I was on my own, trying in vain to catch the rider in front who I could see on the more open sections of the course, but mostly just managing my effort and picking off back-markers. If I had to sum up my race performance in a word, it would be 'satisfactory'. Nothing went wrong, I wasn't losing loads of time anywhere on the course, but neither was I particularly strong anywhere. I probably could have started a bit harder - this was partly a product of bad preparation before the start; I'd rolled round but not done a flying lap, and so approached some of the more technical sections with a little trepidation on lap one. I think subconsciously I didn't want to be too far up the field and under too much pressure to begin with.

8 June 2014: Bristol Bikefest (6 hour mixed pairs), Ashton Court

Another race in a similar format to Erlestoke - how many laps of an XC course can you complete in a set time limit, either on your own or as part of a pairs or team relay.

With Angela back to fitness we were racing as a pair as planned, with no last minute changes to solo this time. Things did not quite start as planned though as I overslept and picked Angela up 45 minutes late! We still managed to get to Ashton Court with an hour to spare and managed to get everything done in time to make the start.

I was out first and, along with everyone else, had to complete a short run to my bike before riding up a fireroad climb and across the start line. This format is designed to spread everyone out on the first lap, a necessity at Ashton Court as it features lots of tight singletrack and it's crucial to not get stuck in too much traffic (I have had to stop and queue before on lap one in previous years). With that in mind, I ran fairly hard, collected my bike and then went up the climb at 100% to be as far up as I could into the first singletrack section. I know the course pretty well but I hadn't ridden it for a couple of years, and overnight rain had left it slippery in places so I took my time to being with as I relearned the lines.

I'd agree with Angela that to begin with I would do double laps and she would do singles. This gave me plenty of time to learn the course as I did four out of our first five laps! The overnight moisture disappeared and the course got grippier as the morning turned into afternoon. After two stints of around an hour each, with just half an hour in between to refuel and rehydrate, we switched to doing single laps each, to my relief as I'm not sure I could have kept up those efforts. Things were made more complicated in the last hour by the return of the rain; a couple of ten minute showers were enough to soak the course through again, and although the surface is hard and does not really get muddy, rocky sections were made slippery and treacherous. Angela did the last lap for us and she got the worst of the wet conditions; fortunately we were under no pressure from behind by this point and she made her way safely round to secure us 4th place in our category. Not bad but not quite the podium!

6 June 2014: Ajax Friday night time trial

After a few days off the bike due to travelling with work, what better way to wake my legs up than with a short time trial.

What used to be our club 10 mile course has become a 7.4 mile course since some traffic lights were installed at one of the junctions. It's pretty rolling and mostly uphill out, and downhill on the return leg, but with a short sharp up before the line just to finish you off.

It was a pleasant summer evening and it was good to see over twenty names on the start sheet. I managed a mid-pack time of 19.47, a minute and a half off my best time last year. I sincerely hope this down to the breezy conditions and not my lack of power! The only way to know for sure is to keep coming back and (hopefully) improve my time.

28 May 2014: Western Summer Cyclocross League round 3: Warmley Park, Bristol

First ‘cross race of the year and we’re still only in May. Although more rain in the runup to the race meant this was muddy enough to feel like the ‘cross season proper.

When I’ve raced this series in the past there was barely a couple of dozen riders, so it was good to pull into a packed carpark and line up with what must have been over 50 others. Cyclocross does seem like it has benefited in particular from the cycling boom in the UK, although for a middle of the pack rider like me, it does mean I find myself further down the (bigger) field than I used to five years ago!

The first row was gridded so I got myself a spot on the second row, on the very outside. Unfortunately the guy I was behind got the worst start of anyone on the front row, or possibly even the whole race, and I had no space to get round him so his terrible start became my problem and I slotted in well down the pack. There was a fair amount of climbing per lap for a ‘cross course so I killed myself uphill on the first lap and managed to pick some people off. As we started a descent all this work was undone as the rider in front of me crashed on a fast and slippery (like everywhere) descent. His bike landed directly in my path, and there was nowhere for me to go, nothing to do but scrub off as much speed as possible before I hit it, and brace myself to hit the deck. Somehow, I rode over the rear of the poor guy’s bike – right over the top of his rear mech I reckon – but stayed upright, albeit off course and halfway into a hedge by the time I came to a stop. By the time I has extricated myself, checked the downed rider was OK and set off again, most of the race was long gone.

Find a happy place. Photo by Richard Lewton

I was now racing for nothing but the hell of it, but mixed fortunes continued. I steadily picked a few people off until a lap with terrible stitch pegged me back, and when that cleared the bike started playing up, with ominous-sounding and increasingly frequent chainsuck. It took me a while to work out that it was chainsuck, but then the solution was obvious – ride everything in big ring, which meant some grinding up the slippery climbs but at least I was able to keep moving. As corners cut up and got slippier I also managed to have a couple of minor offs by myself to add to the earlier travails.

I’ve no idea where I placed in the end (if anyone knows where the results of this series are published, I’d love to know!). Overall it was a stark and fun reminder of the muddy, chaotic hell that makes a good cyclocross race.

24 May 2014: Erlestoke 12 (6 hour solo category)

First race since the end of March, but with a slight change to the intended plan. I was supposed to be racing in the 6 hour race as part of a mixed pair with Angela. However, she managed to crack a rib in a crash the weekend before. She maintained to me that she would be fine until the afternoon before the race, when I prepping bikes and packing kit, I got the phone call I’d half expected saying she wasn’t going to be fit to race. So the obvious option was for me to switch to the solo category – not that big a deal as I’ve done plenty of long solo races in the past, albeit normally with more than 24 hours notice.

Angela still wanted to come along and pit for me, which turned out to be a big help as the weather was pretty sketchy. On the two-hour drive over to the venue, it rained more or less continuously. Although it didn’t rain during the race, the damage to the course was already done, and at best it was wet and slippery, and at worst it was the sort of thick mud that sticks to everything and clogs up your bike. Not knowing the course I’d had to rely on the internet as a source of information regarding conditions – various forum posters ensured me it never got that muddy, even in the wet. Based on this I’d started the race on all-rounder tyres; if I’d known what conditions were going to be like I would have opted for full mud tyres. Oh well, don’t believe everything you read on the internet.

Despite the mud it was a good course with plenty of fun singletrack – just not the bits where I had no choice but to push a mud-clogged bike up unrideable climbs. The first two 7 mile laps took me over an hour each, but conditions slowly got a bit better as the weather stayed dry and the sun occasionally made an appearance. After three laps I switched to the 29er, something that with hindsight I probably should have done earlier rather than spend three hours hauling round a bike with bad clearances and several kilos of mud stuck to it. On a fresh bike in drying conditions, I rode more of the course and went faster for the last two laps. I even managed to catch and overtake another soloist, who I’d been to-ing and fro-ing with all afternoon, in the last few 100 metres. I managed to come home 13th out of 50 or so starter overall.
An unplanned marathon rather than a series of sprints then, but good training nonetheless, and all the riding sideways in mud is good skills practice for ‘cross!