Review of the Year(s)

2005 Criterium on my 80's Roberts

 This year was my tenth one of racing, I decided to take a broader look back over the last decade see how it progressed

This was the first year that I did not write anything in my diary with regard to targets for the year. 2013 had been a momentous year ending with becoming World Champion. Coaches always say 'Have a target or an objective to build up to' but with the caveat that its "realistic" and "achievable" I've always tried to do this but after such a year. Just what is realistic any more, could I even rest on my Laurels? I pretty much immediately decided to carry on and defend my title and train and race with pretty much the same training and racing plan but my targets evolved over the year

 Dad's Specialized Epic TT style

In August I had covered 100,000 miles in those ten years, before that I was doing about 4000 miles per year trying to shed weight I'd put on over my 30s, in 2005 I made a conscious decision to race if my weight got down below 14st (I'd been up near 18st!) I did just over 8000 miles that first year and raced on my old steel Roberts that Alan had been using and gave me to dip my toe in the water. I then moved on to my dads old carbon Specialized 'Allez' which was nearly 15 years old but seemed to take the pounding and did sterling service as a TT bike (with homemade aero's on upturned bars) on which I completed my first 12 hour ride and my first BBAR campaign. It also stood in as a race bike when the Roberts succumbed to age, fatigue and my pounding weight breaking at the bottom bracket and a training bike when my Roberts winter bike went the same way of its racing sibling. It finally retired a couple of seasons ago when replaced with Titanium frame the result of winning the Planet X 'Old School' TT series in 2010

2006 Riding the final Eastway on the Sigma

My mileage increased year on year eight then nine thousand miles, a big jump up to 13,000 miles for three years as I sought to conquer the BBAR top twelve which I did in 2009 (11th) but I almost went as fast in 2011 (less than 0.07 mph) for 16th when I went over 280 miles in the twelve hour but could not find the consistency at the shorter distances, I think I was just too tired from all the travelling and racing from March through to the end of the season. My mileage had dropped a couple of thousand miles a year in that time as I got more into doing my track racing having surprised myself winning a European title at the first time of asking in 2009. For the last three seasons my mileage has been around the 7-8000 which is about eight hours a week on the bike total! Riding to work, touring, training and racing

2009 European Champion on my trusty Roberts

There's nearly 14,000 miles of racing in that total, five years it was over 2000 and the most 2378 miles in 2007 when I managed seven '100's in the season honing my pacing but It paid off as I won the first of my two CTT National age standard medals. In those ten years I have only won the one 'Open' event, the North Middlesex & Hert's '100' which was over a quarter of a century after my first open win in the 1982 Hertfordshire Whs. '30' (Hertfordshire seems to be good for me maybe I should move there!) I lost an open win by a single second and I missed a bronze in the European Track by less than1/25 of a second! The Breckland 12 was stopped while I was leading, the next year in the same event I did the fifth furthest 12 hour distance for a veteran ever but did not win the vets prize on the day (in fact I was third!) 

My first year I started racing in June and rode 27 events much as I've done these past three seasons with just over thirty. In the middle years that was anywhere between 45-55 and most long distance with 3-8 '50's and '100's where this year only three '50's and a solitary '100' (but in an effort to break the 30mph barrier 21 10s!)

2010 50 miles on Parlee

All in all I had a decent season, I was never going to match my results on the track but 4th in the Points race and 9th in the Scratch race makes me easily the most consistent in my age group (in the World!) over the past three seasons. I came within an ace of improving my '100' time only beaten by bad luck but over the years I have been lucky with mechanical issues probably the worst breaking bearings in wheels during the 12 Hr. (twice!) .This year I did break the club '50' record for the ninth time and joined the 30mph club at ten miles making me the 83rd fastest in the country Oooh! Next years National '10' is on my local evening '10' course at Wolvey so as its very slow maybe I can put local knowledge to good use and climb up the standings a bit.

2011 Breckland 12 Hr 283 miles

In accordance with my decision to start racing later in the season, my yearly mileage balances out a bit more, the first six months are about the same as the second, up until 2010 I was doing the greater part of my riding in the early part of the year building up the miles in my legs. In 2007 I almost did 8000 miles in the first six months and three times I did over 1500 miles a month, the next year I balanced it out a bit better doing over 1200 miles from January. I calculate that to be sixteen to eighteen hours a week, well over two hours a day and when I look at my diary I can see I was not missing many days (three to six a month) compare that to today where I miss three or four a week!. November has been my resting month, mileage has gone down to as little at seventy miles total! But as I have got older I have learned no matter how much I need a complete rest to keep riding, a month (two weeks even) can see me put on a 7-10 pounds and that is hard to shift or at least you have to shift it before you can start training. So these days I just carry on banging out 3-500 miles for six months of the year which affords me the conditioning to start training.

2012 Fixed TT setup

So what should be my target for 2015? I would still like to win a British Masters track title (three at Silver and Bronze) despite winning a European and World title, I still think I can get a medal in the Pursuit, my times are decidedly average despite being one of the fastest starters but with the opening of the Derby velodrome this year maybe now is my opportunity to nail that. And while I'm about that then forming a team to attack the World Masters Team Pursuit event might be fun as well

I creep ever closer to Roger Hammonds club record at ten miles, its now less than a second a mile (or less than 0.23mph faster) away and I would dearly love to update some of those club team records at '10' '25' and '50' with some help, so if anybody feels the inclination to ride a fast event on a fast day then let me know. I'm still not old enough to get up there at National level with the VTTA, I have gradually increased my placing in the National Vets BAR every year to be a firm fixture in the top ten but I'm still about twenty years off winning pace while people like 83 year old Ron Hallam can do a short 25 minute '10'  and Rob Pears only a year younger can get inside 50 minutes for '25' o7ò