Feb05

Snow Adventure

by orbiteer on February 5th, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Posted In: Cycling

As I am sure everybody knows it snowed last night. I woke up to two inches of snow, got out of bed and met my brother on the landing. Full of early morning blearyness the conversation was very short.
“Mountainbike?”
“Hell yeah.”
An hour later we were primed and ready. The snow around here was about 10cm deep on average with it getting much deeper in the drifts. Pedalling was many times harder and as a result we covered a short distance in 3 hours. It was a great ride with lots of fantastic views and many falls.

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Feb04

Hillingdon 04/02/12

by orbiteer on February 4th, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Posted In: Cycling

It’s safe to say that my race day did not start well. I punctured in the warm up and then discovered that my spare wheel rubbed on my frame. Luckily some very kind team member’s parents lent me a wheel and I made it up to the start line just as the race rolled away. No stopping I quickly took my jacket off and got on with the race. We had 5 riders today including myself.

The race, as is always the case, started fast and being on unfamiliar tyres i was cautious. Too cautious as it turned out as just as the pace went up again I found myself hanging off the back in danger of being dropped. Fighting my way back to the front through the headwind I saved my race and was able to re-connect with Mark, Sam, Henry and George. For a while everything was calm but then the big players of the series decided it was time for them to leave. A break of six stormed away leaving the rest of the bunch to chase. In the frenetic bursts of speed and decelerations Henry (who had been in a break of his own, George and Sam were dropped leaving Mark and I to fend for ourselves.

The bunch chased well and kept the gap to the break constant but many of us were unhappy that we could not close the gap. With five laps to go I saw my chance as a rider for VC Jubilee , who had being trying to break away all race, attacked just ahead of me.

We worked well together and as I was very tired I let him do most of the work. The laps flew past and on the final lap we had the front six in our sights. I fired up the sprint and we continued to gain on them but just at the wrong moment we were spotted and they burst towards the line. I managed to beat my companion to seventh earning myself 3 ranking points.

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Jan29

North Road Hardriders Route Recce

by orbiteer on January 29th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Posted In: Cycling

Today was an easy ride with the usual team and new recruit George A. Having all raced yesterday we weren’t really looking forward to the hilly 25 mile course. We all did well in the previous years edition and are hoping to repeat the performance.

Last year I won the junior prize and was 20th in the overall standings. This was without the kind sponsorship of Orbit Software and their bike. This year I hope to break into the top ten using the awesome bike that I have been allowed use of. The course is lumpy but not hilly enough that it would be detrimental to use the time trial bike.

The ride went well with a minor set back of two punctures. Surprisingly even with me navigating we did not take one wrong turn. The course is very winding with lots of hidden turns so it was a miracle that we did not get lost.

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Jan28

Hog Hill 28/01/12

by orbiteer on January 28th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
Posted In: Cycling

About 28 of us lined up for the start of the race, we had four riders but we were not the only team riding. A team from Strada Sport, East London Velo and Zappi’s were also present. As a team we had decided to leave the first five laps to others teams. Amazingly it worked and after five laps noone was away and we were all fresh as when we had started. Suddenly after a flurry of attacks George F got away and our presence was needed at the front.

The gap went out from 20 to 30 to 40 seconds and stayed there. The rest of us did a good job of chasing any attempts at bridging the gap. It all looked to be going well but unfortunately fatigue caught up with George, Hen and Mark and suddenly I was the only Welwyn rider left in the race. Three people were away but I was definitely in for some points at the finish. With two laps to go we rounded the hairpin at the bottom of the course and my back wheel slipped out precariously. Looking down I was not able to contain the stream of expletives as I saw my puncture. Even as I ran up the hill to the finish I knew it was too late. A disappointing finish to a fun race.

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Jan14

Hog Hill 14/01/12

by orbiteer on January 14th, 2012 at 4:35 am
Posted In: Cycling

Not many people lined up for my race. In contrast to the 64 of the previous race our 19 did not look like much. Fortunately we were 19 strong riders and the race was fast and punchy. From the off, attacks came thick and fast with none being successful. I did my fair share of chasing as did George. At one we were both away together but the raging peleton chased us down. Then after a particularly hard chase up the hill on the circuit my concentration lapsed and I found myself faced with a large gap to the group. Just as I started to chase, the main attack of the day started to go, which meant that I had to chase for around 20 minutes with a rider from East London Velo, before making contact again. When I did finally make contact I went straight into a break which was again chased down. Eventually, after a seperate three man break had escaped I misjudged my sprint for the line and came in around 15th. It sounds like an excuse but I found that after I had rejoined the group I was having slight breathing difficulties making it difficult for me to perform at the top end.

I am taking a short period off for my A Level modules but I will race again soon.

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