Review of the year

It was good to catch up at the dinner and see some of the new and old guard (in 'civvies' of course) I was out with the A's on the Saturday for a relaxed run out through Kent to Westerham. These are my thoughts on my racing year, hits and misses I always start with targets for the year but invariably they move along the way, I'd put in a full winter of training all through November and December, turbo twice a week and two or three other rides to try and get a flying start (or not loose too much of my form from the year before). I even went up to Manchester track for a 3 hour evening session, getting back after midnight on January 3rd this set the standard for the year, I'd never been able to hit 'form' until mid season so my target was to get going alot quicker and match the other fast men from the off.

My target for the year was the BBAR and with my list of events for the year I could make a claim for the 'best allrounder', track, road, crits, time trial (in all its forms) but NO cross NO hill climb NO sportive NO mountain bike well mabe not such an all rounder as I first thought but if you judge by sucess there were a few notables

With only three outings on the track came three medals, Bronze and Silver in the National Masters and GOLD in the Euro masters not a bad return although 4th and 6th in the Pursuit less successful but theres no doubt where I need to concerntrate for the future. Fewer outings on the road but I won a Crit (and a 2nd) This gives me 130 points for the year and a 2nd cat licence

I have to say I obliterated the opposition in the Planet X OldSkool series, there was not a great deal of opposition and only a few managed the whole series (2 x 10 & 2 x 25) but my times 21:46 (still my 2nd fastest of the year) 22:15, 55:51 and 1:00:14 gave me a clear margin over the next rider Gavin Hinxman (Welland Valley). The series involved alot of travel for these events in Hull, Maidstone, Bedford and Petersfield, this last one on a Monday evening saw me getting back to Leicester after midnight. Three wins and a second place was my most lucrative events of the year and a bike to come from Planet X as the overall winner, I became an instant celebrity through the 'New' Testing Times fanzine which sprung out of the 'Testing' communitys need for a paper to cover the sport.
I didn't manage to win an 'Open' time trial this year (OldSkool excepted) as most of my rides were in fast events with full fields and all the top riders, a tough task to win under those conditions, the same riders win every week and although I made the top 5 on several occasions the win eluded. My best ride of the year was the 12 Hour by far, I concerntrated on this like I concerntrated on the '100' last year but when you put all your eggs in one basket you leave as little to chance as possible, I did an early Twelve so I had the chance to do another and although conditions for the Elmet were far from ideal building up to do another just did not appeal as I'd moved my perception of what I could acheve and I would wait another year to do another!
I was particularly pleased with my '100' rides 3:46:20 only 25 secs off a PB and then 3:47 and 3:52 in the National Championships on a slower course but still gave me a compact set of times after several years of trying. Because I did the OldSkool series I did not do so well over the shorter distances and my fastest '10' 21.23 one of my slowest of the past few years but I did get to ride the National '10' for the first time 22:05 for 68th place (4th in age cat) on the Shefford course which took me back to all those events I rode on the Bath road in younger days.

My '50' time was again the weak link in my BBAR effort although I did a PB by 20 seconds I only made my position on my '100' and 12 Hr. rides, the '50' influences your MPH because it is the fastest event and the total MPH is an average of the three. It has always been my favourite distance and I guess I've not paid enough attention to the event as the riders all around me in the BBAR were 3 or 4 minutes faster and I know I should be up there too.

Got an invite to the Cycling Time Trials dinner in Nottingham, as I had done for the past two years being an Age Champion (in the National 12) but I promised myself I would'nt go unless I got in the top 10 of the BBAR but as they seem to always select the top 12 for inclusion I felt I'd done enough to justify going for the first time. Then last week I got an invite to the British Cycling 50th Gala dinner in Manchester (G Mex!) as befitting my status of European Masters Champ,
BC will be establishing their Hall of Fame covering the last 50 years, I hav'nt decided what to do on this as it looks like a scarily big and corporate 'do' and I'm not sure that I'm into that.