Video from Leadville 100 2012

Oh how I suffered.

Been very quiet on the blog front

Got lots to say I just have to write it.

24hrs of Exposure to a bad stomach
Ras du Cymru nightmare
Urban Hill Climb Vid
Colorado adventures
The Rattle Snake
Snapping my Scott Scale
Leadville 100 Epic



All needs to be written about or videos edited.

Hillingdon Chipper World Champs 1st of May 2012

Just a bit of fun with the edit. My GoPro2 facing backwards from under my saddle in a Tuesday night 3/4 race.

Left My Legs in Newcastleton - Circuit Race Report

That was one painful race for me 

So I'm in London this weekend working as I have a lot to do on my project. Managed to nip out for a long lunch and race at Hillingdon. Nice tailwind out from Central London to give me a pleasant warm up. Legs felt pretty good considering I'm recovering from a 24hr Solo. The race was a different matter. I though I'd sit in an try and help my team mates Amrit and Ralph out a bit. Well I was useless as expected. Shouldn't have bothered. Would have been better going for a quick spin. During the race I thought I'd test out how bad I really was. Legs gave up the moment I showed my nose to the wind. I popped off the front in an attempt to bridge to break not that far up the road. It was something I would have been able to do easily two weeks ago. Didn't do much in the race really just hung in there.

I did try and take my mate Alex up to the front but we were stopped by a near crash. Always a bit sketchy in a 3/4 circuit race

Ralph had a good attack on his own. shame no one went with him. After a break of 4 and then two went away he got 2nd in the bunch sprint after leading it out from the final bend. The lad is getting stronger. Amrit had another solid ride. I just rolled in at the back of the bunch.

Big rest this week. I don't thing I will be racing at the Chipper World Cup Round 2 at Hillingdon on Tuesday night. Never Say Never though. I'll probably ride (knowing me)

BC Report

UK Cyclesport Pics

1st Road Race of the Season

Abergavenny Handicap E1234JW On April Fool's Day
With only 6 days to go until 24hrs of Exposure I felt I needed to test my legs once more. Give them a good work out in race conditions.

Three groups. 4ths, 3rds & Scratch Group containing the Elites, 1st and 2nd cats.

I was off in group 2 as I've dropped down to a 3rd cat. We started off well and I tried to contribute as much as possible so we could try and catch the group ahead that had been given 5 mins (Oh and fend off the group behind that were given 2mins). Bearing in mind I have done this race quite a few times and ridden the course more times than I've had hot dinners I still almost managed to mess it all up. I did a big big turn on the front after the downhill forgetting there was a short steep climb afterwards. My recovery is pretty good at the mo so I knew I could do a big un and slot in say 10 riders back and be fine. The climb almost sent me out the back. doh!

Rolling along the duel carriageway 

I was fine of course but it was daft to put myself in that situation. It's been a while since I did my last road race. As the race pulled off the undulating road onto the flat duel carriageway the race then became really quick. It was windless and warm and doing turns on the front wasn't that hard. We were tapping out a nice 32mph pace. Yet again I was doing plenty of work down the front when I noticed I was getting little help.
Next thing I know the scratch group come thundering past. Up went the pace. Not too high thank god.
Apparently the scratch group had been really flying from the start. We were very surprised to see them so soon as we were not hanging about.
I tried to stay in the top 15 or so riders as not to miss a break. Of the better riders the Metaltek - Scott boys were obviously going to try something and they did. I was right at where the bunch split. the rider in front of me couldn't quite hack the increase in pace and he left a big gap. I was lucky to be able to nip across the 4 or 5 bike length gap to a group of about 8. We were going at quite a pace. I was just about comfortable with it. I made sure I did my turns well. We were not away that long. Just a few miles I was a bit gutted as I think we could have caught and pasted the 1st group easy with the riders.
On the same point on the 2nd lap where the Scratch group caught us we caught the 1st group. I don't think we took them by surprised as we'd been sat behind them for a while. Anyway we were all one big group on the road now. The Jif lot were down the front messing about and I thought at one point they were serious with a move so I joined them. They sat up. Then I got up to a small break with some quicker riders in it only for that to fall apart after I'd done a few turns. No one seemed to want to get away. Somewhere on the back road two of the quicker juniors got away. I missed the move where they got away. Saw a few other attempts and made sure I was part of them or got them back. Back onto the duel carriageway we had the break at about 10 seconds for quite a while. There was no need to bring them back just yet. As we neared the end of the race I had a small did which killed my legs and sent me back in the bunch. This was a bad move as I was now about 4th wheel. With the small drag to the finish I guess I managed to get past enough riders to roll over the line for around 20th (ish)

The race was won by Dale Appleby of Metaltek - Scott. Bloody good ride concidering it was his 1st ride on the road since breaking his collarbone.
I was very happy with the legs. All felt good. Bring on the next race.

Best thing is I had some tan lines from this race. (My legs couldn't have been whiter at the start)

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/78493/Abergavenny-Spring-Handicap-Road-Race
http://app.strava.com/rides/6081230

So the big question is? Weather?

Will it Snow?

Will it Rain?

It might be Dry

Then again it might not.

It is what it is I guess.

Will it be cold.

Probably

This means I will be taking all my different tyres and all my cycling clothes. Even all the Assos 851 winter kit that I put away a few weeks ago thinking I'd never be wearing that again until Autumn.
I remember racing at Easter a few years ago when it snowed in Surrey. I was doing a road stage race and it was snowing but not sticking on the road.
We raced in very bitter conditions and about 2/3 of the way through the race I had snow building up on my head tube where it was catching on my brake calliper. That race ended well for me as I got 3rd on the stage and 2nd overall.
Snow in Scotland might just top that. I've always said I'm not tough enough for the Strathpuffer 24hr race.
Lets hope I'm tough enough for this weekend.

I'm bloody glad I bought myself some Goretex shorts

My War Against Road Rash

3M Tegaderm Hydrocolloid Dressing

These massive 13cm x 15cm Hydrocolloid Dressings should do the trick of getting me healed up and back on the bike in no time. I currently have a load of smaller ones from Boot The Chemist stuck together like a patchwork quilt on my thigh. They are leaking and I am having to put a big pad over the top to catch the Oozing stuff. Less than ideal yeah? So tomorrow I have some of these bad boys coming in the post.
With a bit of luck a quick change of dressing and I will be OK. The dead leg seems to be going and I'm now just suffering from the nasty plasters pulling on the hairs.

Onward!!