Double Expresso

Another exciting weekend of racing in wind and rain with the added incentive of a 5 O'clock start on Sunday for the BDCA '25' on the A50 near Uttoxeter, It almost didn't happen as a lorry spoilt its load of coffee beans on the road. A team was clearing up and closed the road as the early starters (me No.6) pondered the scene from the Hilton Cricket Club HQ with images of that bloke from Rising Damp and his lackey with the broom.
The A50 transverses the Midlands so the East wind meant an easy ride to the turn which was just as well with yesterdays ride still in my legs, I have taken my 56 ring off for the 'Hilly' season and only a 52 for my sins but with my new found zest for pedalling I caught my minute man before 10 miles and the remainder of the field just after the turn to be the first man on the road. I have not been using a watch or speedo yet only a heart rate monitor and riding to that but I could not get my pulse above 155 and it showed on the return when it got hard I just went slower and did not feel that I was responding to the battling conditions.
There was a couple of lorries at the 'spill' with 5 miles to go but the carriage was open so I carried onto the finish and then a miserable 20 minute ride to the HQ in the early morning drizzle, I had worn arm and leg warmers for the ride as no chance of a warm up in the delayed start and they were soaked and cold from the spray and the bitter wind. My time of 57.29 good enough for 5th place with the winner being in form James Perkins of the Zenith CC with 52.25 from Bill Moore of Shorter Rochford 54.39 over two minutes behind. Both of these riders won events the previous day Moore recording 21.43 in the Wyre Forest '10' and Perkins did a quite staggering 20.06 in the N&EM VTTA '10' on the A1 at Tuxford that I also rode with a respectable 22.10 but the wind was alot worse.

First RR of the Year - Royal Sutton CC

Based around Yoxall in Staffs the Royal Sutton CC Early Season Road Race on Sunday was my first race not in rain, snow or sleet so a good event apart from getting a spot of cramp with a quarter of the last of the seven lap (64 mile) race and I trailed in a minute down on the bunch. The race of mainly 2nd cat riders was quite animated and a group got away on the second lap, joined by another group the next lap and it was left with those who had missed what would be the winning move to organise a chase, a task we did very badly and never saw the front again. The speed and the wind made solo attacks hard work on the rolling course and although I got in a few promising moves I was happy with my event, a good workout for the legs.


The race was won by Mike Jones of the Paramount CRT from 'Local Supervet' Andy Eagers of the Derby Mercury breaking away from the lead group, and rising star Carl Dyson Cyclebargains.com RT winning the sprint.


I had ridden the CDCLA (don't ask) '10' the previous day on the local Six Hills course, blustery West winds (and yes rain) made the event hard work but I came away with 22.35 for 5th place, the event was won by James Perkins of Zenith CC in an amazing 21.18

Ride to Work - Record

When preparing my 'Ride to Work' feature I said I had never done the ride at anywhere near 19 mph well that all changed this Wednesday when I romped around my morning 35 mile ride at 19.3 mph to beat my all time record of 18.6 mph. On a 49 x 19 fixed gear (675mm diameter wheel equates to a gear of 68.6 inches) giving me 294 revolutions per mile that is an average of 95 revs per minute for the One hour Fifty minutes. Alarmingly I was only at 17.8mph at 11 miles (3428 revs at approx 90 r.p.m.) which means that I went allot faster over the final 25 miles (6859 revs at approx 98 r.p.m). I have to say that dropping down one of the descents I topped out at 33.5 mph which is a whopping 165 r.p.m but I didn't keep it up for long. If you have a hankering for working on your pedalling I can heartily reccommend a 'fixed' for general and recovery rides, have a look at jbarrm.com for working out your gearing and pedalling ratios

Rudy Project TT

As with most of the rest of the country, we were blessed with all the seasons in one afternoon here at Willoughby on the Wolds near the Leicester/Notts border. I was entered in the one lap (just under 15 mile) Veterans event although I would have preferred the two lapper but in the end I felt that I came off OK as the pain endured was just about worth the good result. The circular course was rolling more than hilly but a wickedly cold wind from the North brought driving rain that turned to sleet in the sub zero temperatures
I ended up in 4th place a mere 36 secs behind the winner Colin Griffiths of the Welland Valley from another local rider Ashley Long of the Coalville Wheelers and 3rd the series leader Dave Lund from Symbol Signs CC in the North East only beat me by 10 secs.

The Senior/Espoir 2 lapper was won by 'Veteran' roadman Wayne Randal (Planet X RT) with 1.5.33 a 1.05 beating of top Espoir Pete Williams (Pinarello RT) and Ashley Brown a further 20 secs down in third.

Manchester (So much to answer for)

The brothers Parkinson spent an excellent four days at the World Track Championships in Manchester over the last weekend. The racing was fantastic and the results for Team GB unbelievable as the collective British squad took on the World and beat them convincingly in nearly every discipline. Such a display of riding I may never see again and I can say by the final event we were a little jaded as Victoria Pendleton could only manage a silver in the women's Kerin and we felt a little disappointed. There were so many highlights, to be fair and Wiggins third world pursuit title we watched on the telly as an appetiser. Team Pursuit Gold and World Record, Hoy in the Kerin and Sprint (when he beat Bos the current World Champ you could see him going all the way),the women's pursuit's, Pendleton imperious in the Kerin and Sprint did not look like there was anybody to touch her. And the Pièce de résistance to all us die hard track men the Wiggins/Cavendish Madison won with true grit and style when it looked like the title was slipping away, a magic moment for everybody in the crowd that evening.



Alan and I took our bikes but we were treated to some real Northern weather, a non stop diet of wind and rain. Phil took the smart option and went to the local pool to do some length's and probably stayed drier. I was just getting over a cold so I just about managed to make it up Snake Pass before heading back to the Hotel, to my amazement Alan said he would go on in worsening conditions for a 5hr ride through the Peak District, which did him in for the remainder of the stay.