Apr21

Super Scary Ten

by joshracer on April 21st, 2012 at 9:10 am
Posted In: Cycling, Cycling, Racing

Today at 7:07 in the morning I started on what is the scariest 10 mile TT course I have ever seen. The start is a ski slope of a slip road onto a dual carriageway that sees riders hitting speeds between 40 and 50mph. Couple this with some fairly unpredictable crosswinds and its a challenge before you even start to think about getting a fast time.

I ground my way around the course, hugging the side of the road, in a 21:54. As usual the Orbit Software TT bike was perfect and smooth. The fastest time on the day was a 19:56. As is the way with time trials we will not know the full result until later but we think I came around 14th out of 120 riders.

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Apr14

Antelope TTT 2012

by joshracer on April 14th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Posted In: Cycling, Cycling, Racing

The Antelope three up TTT is my one of my favourite events of the season. Held over a rolling 31 mile course, teams of three slug it out to decide who is the fastest. But for those of you who do not know much about team time trialling there is much more to it than strength. Discipline and technique come into play on all bends, windy straights and pace changes. That is why in the build up to this event Henry, George and I all trained together for many session.

On the start I was nervous but ready. We flew up the feeder straight but as soon as we had got going again I could tell that George was stronger than both Henry and I. In this situation the stronger rider takes a longer turn at the same pace and so this continued all the way round our first lap. By this time Henry was faltering ever so slightly and did some heroic turns on the front considering he had a knee injury and was not feeling to good. George did extra long turns and I managed to do my share of the work. We came across the line with a 1:09:04 which is an average of around 27mph. We came sixth out of 80 teams with the winning time at 1:06:47. With £35 each prize money it was worth the trip.

Here we are overtaking the group set off three minutes ahead of us.

Near the Finish

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Apr12

A Quick Update

by joshracer on April 12th, 2012 at 4:19 am
Posted In: Cycling

Unfortunately over the past week or so I have been ill. I have therefore not raced and instead concentrated on my revision for the exams in June. Whilst I was ill Goerge won his first road race in a sprint at the Chelmer RR with a good deal of teamwork being put in by his brother Henry. Our Academy squad is growing all the time with a new arrival Fraser coming 2nd in his first ever race.

I will be taking part in the Antelope Team Time trial this saturday on the Orbit Software Bike. Then on sunday I will be down in Newport again on my track bike for another session.

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Mar31

Beyond Spring Crits

by joshracer on March 31st, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Posted In: Cycling, Cycling, Racing

Today was one of the days when I just did my job. Rolling in last over the line I was happy in the knowledge that George had placed well in the sprint for 4th. He got points out of it and we got prize money to share which is always a bonus. All the way through the race I was not feeling my best. Chasing breaks and jumping gaps seemed a lot of hard work. The video does quite a lot of the talking and as I am very tired i think I will let it tell the story.

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Mar29

Testing 28/03/12

by joshracer on March 29th, 2012 at 10:32 am
Posted In: Cycling, Cycling, Training, videos

Both Daniel and I went to this event. Every three months we are driven down to Hertforshire University where our lactic threshold and VO2 max are tested. This involves a ramp test which is trying to output an increasing wattage until you can cycle no more. I have blogged about this before but unfortunately was unable to supply a video.

The good news is that now you too can view the pain and suffering that goes on at the university. It is worth watching because right at the end of the video my breath apparatus wire gets caught in my pedal and the mask pulls out and then smacks me in the face.

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