2 x 50 (+ 25)

A last chance to improve my BBAR standing before the end of season with the last couple of 50 mile time trials, last week in the Team Swift '50' on my 'local' Etwall course on the A50 near Uttoxeter there was a full field of top riders with all top twelve BBAR contenders entered always fast and the competition always seems to bring out the best in riders. This week three in different parts of the country Yorkshire, E Anglia and the S. West so riders could pick and choose but the Swift event came first.

Fi - No 1. Helper

I have a problem with saddle sores after the 12 hour, never this bad before and do no respond to the usual treatment (antiseptic cream and walking like John Wayne!) require a visit to the doctor who confirms ulcers. The nurse is helpful and applies padded waterproof dressing to wound. The next day (Thurs) I'm able to ride for 30m carefully but I don't need to do much in the intervening week as I'm trying to get over the physical (& mental) damage of the 12 hour, Lack of sleep and hot and cold sweats all week leave me feeling a bit of a wreck but come the weekend I'm ready for a battle.

I'll have a McFluffy!

It's a late afternoon event and pretty windy so those with fast times are happy that it's going to be difficult to improve, wind will present the biggest obstacle to a fast ride today I have 1:50:38 to my name over 2 minutes down on my best so I should have a chance to go faster, I start cautiously and my legs feel good but try and hold a bit in reserve for the final push up to the turn, the "concrete mountain" they call it and with the wind it slows me to 58:00 at 25m. The return is a dream, the first 5m back covered in 9:13 but then a tricky leg out to Rocester from the McDonalds roundabout see me outside 22 minute for the next 10m then disaster! avoiding the 'rumble' strip (Ouch!) on the lead up to the Uttoxeter roundabout with 12m to go I puncture, straight down! I wait for Fiona who is out supporting and handing up a bottle to a friend (Mark on a three bottle strategy while most of us make do with one for the whole race) she has stopped to pick up another puncture victim and no space in the car and I want to finish the race anyway. 9:36 and 10:13 my final two 5m splits with the wind taken out of my sails by the puncture but I've done the hard (slow) bit so why not enjoy the fast (hard) bit, time would have given me a seasons best but I have to make do with 1:56:22 one of my chances taken.

Puncture victim (pic by Placid_casual)

When I see the times come in some are spectacular, Julian Jenkinson (UTAG- Yamaha) BBAR leader wins the event with seasons best 1:41:27 Joel Wainman (Swift) who has been consistently fast all season 2nd 1:42:48 and BBAR 2nd settles for 3rd Andy Bason (Pedal Rev) 1:43:06 What must they have done into the wind?

Another week of rest and my sores are much improved and I have the Stone Whs. '25' on the Sat PM, again on the A50 but this time starting at Blyth Br. at the '50' turn, unfortunately the wind has also been mirrored for the day but we have a blindingly fast start and excruciatingly hard finish up the 'mountain' 10:05, 8:31 and 10:04 splits put me at 31.4mph and I'm still above 30mph with 5m to go but nearly 13 minutes for the final 5m give me a final time of 53:12, good enough for 12th place. As I warm down the rain begins to fall, I have asked for an early start as I'm racing on the Sunday and to my disappointment the rain becalms the wind and the late starters gain the benefits, scratch man Barry (Baz) Charlton (Lyme RC) wins in 48:52 with Charles Taylor (S. Pennine) sneaking over 30mph with 49:59 Alf Hilton (Congleton) 3rd in 50:54

Baz (in the rain)


I have chosen the Severn RC '50' on the A419 between Cricklade and Cirencester as I resolve that I'm likely to get a faster morning than the Yorkshire RC event on Saturday afternoon (I'm right) and my attempt to ride both last year ended in a bout of cramp and me missing my target in both. A more selective approach here, I suppose If I really wanted to target this event then I should have not ridden on Saturday afternoon but I'm as fit as I will ever get and most of my racing is predicated on being able to 'back up' your rides I just make sure I have a 20 min warm down after the '25' on the rollers (25 min warm up!)
Sunday morning is colder than of late and a bit breezy from the West across the course but see where that got us last week! start is 5m from the HQ so I just ride there and watch the riders come and go on this two lapper. I'm a late starter (they have collected all the 'fast' men together to avoid bunching and the pacing that marred last years event. I start 'full gas' there will be no further chance, 11 min 5m splits should do it and I'm only 3 seconds shy at the beginning and then 10 seconds inside. A tricky hill up to the far turn drops my average but 40mph payback and 10:57/10:34 sees me bang on 55:00 at 25m. It's not warmed up and a rider crashes on a side road into a turning car, next to a man taking photographs, he is walking wounded but has a bad gash over his eye, the race continues. Lack of concentration costs me 40 seconds and I'm in & out the saddle urging a bit more speed out of the dead conditions and although my style is not altogether laboured I don't seem to have 'it' today, two splits at 11:13 and Adam Topham (High Wycombe) catches me for 5 min at 40m and takes the wind out of my sails, I had not been tracking other riders only Jon Shubert (Verulam) 10 min in front and we are pretty level. Lack of concentration costs me 45 seconds on the penultimate split 11:46 and I only have the final 5m (10:23) to give me 1:51:25 good enough for equal 5th with Shubert. Scott Povey (Warwickshire RC) wins with 1:43:54 on a 'fixed' a near minute in front of Jenkinson 1:44:47 and Topham third 1:45:05
It's been a difficult few weeks and in a way I'm glad its over, a few more races to finish off the season and I can reflect fully on what I got right and wrong. Fate can be a cruel master and if luck is his lady companion is against you then your destiny can be in the balance. In the week when the Pope called for more faith in society you know superstition won't be far behind, you can try to outwit them both but it leaves you precious spare to do your best. It's difficult getting to the end of a season knowing that you didn't get the best out of yourself (or your fitness) , what I have learned is these two impostors have played their part in the things I have achieved so far, and coming to terms with the more negative role they play in sport is something I have not experienced since my comeback, I have the belief that I did my best, I will have to be wary of them in the future.

Team Swift '50' result here

Stone Whs. '25' result here

Severn RC '50' result here

Swift '100' -

Since the aborted 12 hour I'd been suffering from a different type of crisis, not a crisis of form or fitness, No! I was pretty sure I had the condition to do a good ride but that of anxiety. A feeling of inadequacy stemming from things outside my control, you can try and control as many of the factors within your control but what do you do when that's not enough? Back pain, headache, listless and unable to sleep, that's no way to prepare for a performance that's going to define a season
I rode the Nottingham Clarion '25' the intervening week a respectable 57:36 for 4th place on 'B' roads on the Vale of Belvoir, then a broken chain in the midweek '10' on 'fixed' well at least some of my bad luck is disposable but it's still annoying.

So to the Team Swift '100' pretty much the whole of my season was going to rest on this one ride, an overestimation I know but 3:54 my best so far would not get me a place in the BBAR top 10, with the way things are looking, with faster times 'across the board' in '50' '100' and 12Hrs. I would be outside with comparable speed to last year so I had to pull a decent ride to get my campaign back on track. It would be almost unbearable to ride another 12 hr. with nothing at stake, push yourself to the brink once more with no chance to make the grade when you know you are up against real riders with real times in the bank, it's no wonder I'm anxious

The Swift event up in N Yorkshire on the A168 between Disforth and Northallerton (turn) x 3 laps always a good one for me and has provided me with my seasons best the past three years, a good field Hutch (going for Comp record?) almost better than the National. I'm not off until 3.00pm so almost a day to while away (nerves) with all the riding done only the racing to do now, I'd been out in the morning for a customary stroll and got soaked before 2 miles so came home and called it quits.
A bit much wind than everybody would like, the weather these past couple of weeks has been changeable to terrible (ask anybody on a 'staycation' holiday) but to ride a 100 mile time trial at top speed in it another matter. Rain I can deal with, wind well that's why we produce such good sailors, because there's way too much of it on this island we call home, get on with the race, a bottle of fluid and a gel with coffee, bang it all in and see what transpires. It's a fast opening leg so the five mile ride to the start at Rainton Lane enough to be getting on with although there are riders in the lay by going 'nuts' on turbo's! 20:24 for the first 10m the first warning that it's going to be hard the other way but I'm not here to shirk a bit of pain and some grovelling it's a 'hundred' after all, you don't ride these and get off thinking "Nice day to be out on the bike" you race the whole way these days and all that 'aero' gimmickry ameliorates the wind (or that's the theory) the pain was always there - riders love it!

Coming back into the wind does not feel too bad, keep aero but keep relaxed and concentrate only on the next bit of road, then the next bit, the next and so on, don't panic. I have to do this three times so do not blow it on the first lap, keep something in reserve for the next time that will be crucial. At 50 miles I'm 1:51:17 but have done two downwind to one upwind and the second half will be the reverse so not to get too excited. Fi gives me my first bottle, its not a hot day, I will not need much more than this. I catch my four minute man Peter Greenwood (Clayton Velo) and he hangs around a bit too long, I cannot afford to alter my pacing to shed him but a couple of hard efforts on little rises as the second hard lap finishes sees him off. I have a Gel at the end of each lap as a present, use every trick at your disposal, whatever gets you to the end.

Riders are packing, Hutch is gone as he has no need for a slow agonising ride, the pain is relative but I would have liked to see what I do against him, seventeen others along with the fourteen DNS's for this excellent promotion, bit of a pity but when you have a sub 3:50 (3:45 some!) on the books not starting can be easy, stopping once you are into the race more of a battle but those little voices in your head that start as soon as the knot of pain in your chest and legs begins to slowly 'garrote' your senses

I need to be at 80m in three hours to give me 46 minutes for the final twenty, it's looking a possibility, all my splits whether into/with or split with the wind have been 22:30 - 23:00 (26.4mph Av.) as it is I'm bang on but the last climb up onto the moors they call the Cleveland Hills although wind assisted are interminable and provide me with my only split outside 'evens' 24:32 and puts me back, I see current BBAR Nik Bowdler (5 min man) and make him only 2:30 up with 13m to go, Fi gives me hot coffee it goes down a treat. The finish is into the wind (wouldn't you know it) and my legs are pretty much empty, I lever along my bike over every rise past finishing riders, nobody has caught me today, unusual to think that but I cross the line in 3:47:39 that last bit always goes on forever.

I lay down in the lay by (is that why they are called that?) I've never had to work that hard before, back pain and a headache in the correct context! Shows how much it means/how much I want it after a while I can sit up, Fiona is looking on a bit distressed, it's not good for her to see me in this condition, it makes it all look too serious and not just a sport we do for a bit of fun but I've done it and I've got the time to go with it, 4th again on the day (with all the dropouts!) but a credible performance maybe things are looking up!

Nott's Cl. Result

Team Swift '100' Result

BBAR Latest