2012 Review of the Year

And so we get to the end of the year, relax and take things easy, well I've already hit the deck to make up for not having had a spill this year, a slow motion 'sack of spuds' landing that saw me come off the looser to the tarmac as that big o'l floor came up and hit me in the face! Trying to perform a forward roll I banged my head and shoulder in the manoeuvre but my thumb that I think I dislocated hurt the most and has taken the longest to recover

Ouch!

Considering I did not start racing until the beginning of June I still managed 32 events compared to 45 the past two seasons but only 660 miles of racing compared to the 1500-2000 of recent years gives a better indication of the reduced nature of my racing programme. Out went most of the long distance stuff with only one 100 finished and so no BBAR for the first time in 6 years, my training had a similarly curtailed look with a mere 4200 miles covered in the first 6 months, mostly rides to work and not a ride over 100 miles until late March.
My provisional plan for the season was to ride all my races on a fixed wheel, I don't think I missed much early on as the weather was fowl and my first event Nottingham Clarion '50' like an early season event in terrible conditions and I though my 'year of fixed'  would go out there and then but the conditions were just too dangerous for single speed. From here though I was (mostly) on my pursuit bike, and I tinkered with the gear from the mid 90's to 102".and managing a respectable 1:53 in the Finsbury '50' by the middle of the month
What with changes to the VTTA 'Standards' (the first time since their inception in 1946) to allow the younger Vets to be more competitive in taking Standard awards on open events and having reached my 50's I now passed over into another age group for age related racing on the road and track. The focus of my season would not come until the end of my season I still had the British Masters Championships at Newport at the end of June and my results on limited condition were impressive 2nd (Pursuit) 3rd (Points Race) and 4th (Scratch race) were evidence that I was already more competitive now although I was beaten in all three events by another 'graduate' from my old pre fifty group the Ex Pro Footballer Trevor Burke but I was slightly vexed to learn that he had not passed the age of consent  but was racing as a quirk of the UCI rule that allows riders to race in 'The season of their birth' with the events that were to come later in the year another reason to wonder at the logic of our governing body.

UCI and a Pork Pie

With a bit of speed in my legs I banged out two short 53 minute '25's in quick succession racing mainly locally but we are blessed with some of the fastest in the country I was trying to keep my travelling away to a minimum to keep Fiona happy! On what I can only describe as the best day I have raced on for quite some time I rode one of the events of the season outside a championship, the Shaftsbury '50' provided me with a new personnel best  and a club record 1:47:40, only 12 seconds off my previous best but on 106" fixed. I was almost certain I would have gone faster on gears but I made it a rule only to take one bike to an event to stop me from vacillating. However after riding to London at 20.12mph average as my tribute to the start of the Olympics and packing in a few miles watching the opening road events I took a further 1:27 off my '50' record on my local A50 based event, my 1:46:13 was done on gears this time and my twelfth breaking of this club record all told, the first time 16 August 1981 (2:01:46) at 19 years of age
I was not expecting to do any personnel bests this year with the way my programme was laid out, I was still planning to have a crack at Roger Hammond's '10' record but I only rode two open events at this distance and came up 17 seconds slower than my best and more than half a minute off the record. This ride was also on gears so maybe I should have stuck to my principals for once, this was the day when Michael Hutchinson broke the competition record so I cannot say I did not have the right day and he has been trying to break Bradley Wiggins record for a few seasons now and took 12 seconds off the record set in 2006. I seem to find myself more than 2:30  behind competition record, I was only 2 minutes behind the last time I rode on the day competition record was broken by Dave Lloyd 5 September 1981
My season came to a close with my major objective to get on the podium at the World Masters Track at Manchester in October,  I'd come a close with 4th the previous day in the 15Km Points race  but I then managed a bronze medal in my last event the 10Km Scratch race, so as I came to a slow standstill after the event knowing I had achieved my target but also that my season ended there, I was best European finisher in both races.
Even though I only just scraped a full compliment of distances for the VTTA National three distance BAR (25,50,100) I was placed 7th in the country (up from 40th)and topped my Notts & East Midlands group, this is against the changes to the 'Standards' that have shaken the standings up a bit but 78 year old Derek Hodkins was one place behind me while a 41 year old made 4th place and it was won by the impressive 60 year old Phil Greenwood (Clayton Velo) so with such a spread of ages in the top flight it seems like after all the arguments they were set about right