The Final Cut

Well I got an email from Andy at Phian last night and I think we've cracked it, the design for my race wheels seems to be complete. Any opinions feel free to leave a comment, but I think they're nicer than some factory wheels you can buy.

Agonising Wait

My frame is still not here. It was meant to be here on Tuesday and it is now Friday, and I probably won't have it until Tuesday next week. A month waiting for the frame when I should really have had the whole bike by now and be racing on it. So much for that idea.

The shop begginning with an "R" in Preston which you can probably guess, even refused to compensate me in any way for the huge cock-up on their part. I think a call to trading standards may be in order to see if I am entitled to anything.

I'll keep you posted.

Wheely Good?

Right, I want everyone's opinions. The designs of my new Phian wheels have come through. They're not final so here are the 2 designs I've been sent. What do you think?

Just One Disaster After Another

On Tuesday we met Jonny, the new kid on the block, and tonight we did a group ride, the 4 main youngsters in the club. It started off well, it got better, we climbed some hills, did some work, then climbing into Caistor Jonny's front mech twisted, so after a few minutes with an Allen key I got him on the road again.

We thought this was all of our bad luck and carried on. Then about half an hour later we were set on the way home, and had made it onto the drag, and Jonny somehow managed to physically wrap his chain around his crank arm. After some moaning about how oily his chain was, I managed to fix it, and we were on our way again.....or were we? Dan got clipped in, rode onto the opposite side of the road, shouted "my chain is off" and a split second later so was he. This was rather amusing so we won't count this too much as misfortune.

A couple of miles later, Jonny's chain was off again, fortunately not in a bad way, and 20 seconds later we were moving yet again.

At the end of the drag we had our customary sprint, which I won as I tend to, but managed to ping a spoke, which has pretty much written off yet another wheel. Dan managed the same thing a few days ago.

So to summarise:

1 front mech mechanical

2 chain problems, 1 of which very difficult

1 crash

2 wheels written off

Kharma? Perhaps, but what on earth for?

Ups and Downs

Cycling is full of ups and downs. My old bike is dying, but I'm getting a new one. My new frame arrived today, but it's the wrong size. So much for getting the bike ready for a couple of races before the season finishes. The replacement frame should be here on tuesday though, and I'm going to try and arrange it with Rourkies to book my frame in for spraying and building the moment it arrives so as not to waste any precious time. I may still be able to get a race on it before I leave for uni again.

Dan's bike is taking a little longer than previously expected too, but he's been told Saturday at the latest, so he should be riding it on the Sunday club run all being well.

A Graduation?

Well as you know I recently inherited an apprentice, Danny, who is doing very well. He's got a long way to come obviously but he's learnt the basics and is always improving. Is it time for him to flee the nest so to speak?

Probably not, he needs to learn a lot more, is the answer. But tonight I believe I have received a new apprentice who we believe to be called Jonny. He came to watch the tail end of the time trial at Fonaby tonight, stayed around for a chat, then he, Danny and I rode back to town together.

We imparted a bit of knowledge, or as much as one can do in 10 minutes, and Jonny is keen to come out for a proper ride with us.
It's good that we have a couple more youngsters coming to the club, and that Joe and I are here to help them through learning the ropes, and now Danny is able to impart some knowledge and talk more about being a new rider in the club. It will definitely benefit the both of them and we look forward to seeing them progress through the ranks and eventually reach the pinnacle of physical condition and racing with the best in the club.

Damp? That's Absurd!

Well three words describe my feelings about time trials: horrible, horrible and horrible. The course may well be slightly in my favour if I was trained up for time trials, so went all out from the line as I always do, rode conservatively up the hill, then blitzed it down the drag and after last turn. Needless to say in the last few kilometres I was dying: the curse of the non-tt specialist. I don't understand the concept of sitting at a constant wattage and cadence for 20 minutes when you can draft behind people and sprint, which seems so much more fun. Let's face it, Mark Cavendish can't time trial for his life, and I am the same.

I don't care though, as today I did do a 23 minute without being warmed up or trained up for the event, and was on a standard road bike that is falling apart. This was the least of my worries however, as when waiting on the start line for my number to be called, the heaven's decided to open. And open they did, with some flair I must say. Torrential downpour started, with a dash of hail stones thrown in for good measure. With the marvellous road surfaces of West Lindsey district council, the road collected the majority of this water in large pools, meaning I was constantly weaving around the road to keep on the slightly safer part, even if it meant riding like a Frenchman (on the other side of the road).

I shall not be riding my new bike in the wet and dirt I assure you, and I shall bring a bag to time trials in future so that I can carry overshoes if neccessary, and I might even race in my wonderful race cape rather than let Joe drive away with it as the rain started. Lesson learned, be over-prepared for time trials or else!

Quit Complaining

Well this title could be aimed at numerous people: the Wiggins fans who wanted him on the podium even though he did an amazing ride at the Tour anyway, Alberto Contador for moaning about Lance and his team during the Tour, but I guess it could also be aimed at myself!

To explain, last night I went for a ride with Joe and Dan, it was quite nice and it didn't rain on us which is never a bad thing. On the way back we stopped at the clubhouse for a chat, then to see what it was like, Dan wanted a go on my bike for a few minutes since we have the same pedals.

Fine I thought, how bad can his brakeless contraption be? Quite shocking in fact is the answer. The hoods are strangely low on the bars which was weird for starters. The transmission was what got me though: You pedalled and the frame is so sloppy that you hardly moved forwards. This is the last time I complain about power transfer on my own bike, it's a world better than the Carrera. The handling is pretty poor too, the steel forks make going round corners an arduous task. They don't feel terribly planted on the road and cornering feels rather dangerous compared to my precise carbon forks and taught alloy frame. The bike holds its speed reasonably well, mostly due to its vast weight and how much inertia it must have once it gets rolling. The only positive thing I can say about this bike is that due to its sloppy handling and power transfer, and huge saddle, it is rather comfortable. Well it must be, the bike practically folds itself in two when you go over a bump!

Now I have compared my delapidated bike with Danny's, I have a new frame of reference for all bikes I test in the future. "How does it compare to a £320 Carrera Virtuoso from Halfrauds?" (deliberate mis-spelling of course)

Back By Popular Demand

Well I guess I should apologise for not giving you your regular dose of blog, but I won't. After a bit of an off-period which I randomly get mid-season due to weather and stuff, I have been back on the bike. Or at least I was until Thursday, when a dog had other ideas for my day.

It was a nice club ride, a steady one with the older chaps, but allowed Dan and I to get some sprints in early on to open up the legs a bit. I reckon we did more hills on that ride than we do on a Sunday with scratch riders.

On the way back from a café just outside Louth, we were somewhere just past Manby, the group had just turned a corner and I was sitting back wheel and in front of me was Dan. A lady was on the floor doing some gardening with her dog near her. The dog, not on a leash, decided he would run out into the middle of the group, right in front of Dan. Dan braked and swerved and missed the dog. I hit Dan, then proceeded to hit the Dog side on. It travelled a metre or so before hitting the ground and I went over, hit my wrist on my bars, doing a fair bit of damage to the wrist. Dan rolled on a little then keeled over and hit the ground.

Turns out the dog and the woman were both fine, my wrist was out of commission so I rode home one-handed, and Dan ripped his bar tape. After repairing my tyre we were on our way again.

Over the past week Dan has been ordering and receiving components for his new bike. To date, he now has everything, and the bike has been sent to be properly cabled up and tuned.

My new bike however is taking slightly longer. The frame should be with me next week, the rest of it is on order and will be here by the time the frame has been sprayed up. It will probably be 2 weeks when all is done and the bike is ready to ride. A bit late on in the season but I'll get a bit of use out of it before the cold and wet comes once again.

Just to wet your appetite here is what the new frame should look like:

For reference, this is Dan's Blog, with pictures of new components and some nice tales of the road.

An Update

Firstly I apologise for not writing anything lately, but this is simply because not a lot has been going on. Actually that's a lie, I've done a bit. I did a Lincs League road race which went very well, up until the second to last corner when some idiot chopped me up and I lost a lot of places, and then the same thing happened in the sprint. Nevermind.

I did a smaller club road race last week too, which didn't go great because I hadn't been feeling well for a while and it definitely showed. I pulled a bit on the front but then on the second lap round was forced to draft or get dropped. So to make up for it I pulled from the last turn up to a few hundred metres from the line, just to say I did something, which I did: Joe Moore managed to launch himself from my pull and finished first from our scratch group. Unfortunately we didn't manage to catch group 1, which meant my apprentice Danny came second in the sprint from his breakaway group, which I was delighted about.

A quick update on the tyres, as I have now both trained and raced on them in very wet conditions and I must say there were brilliant. Naturally you don't lean as much in the wet but I didn't find myself having to restrict my movement, I was able to ride relatively normal on them even in slippery conditions, so the Continental Attack/Force tyres definitely get the thumbs up from me after ticking all the important boxes with ease.

To end on a high note, I did a club ride on Sunday, after a 3 hour ride on Saturday in the blistering heat we had, and it went very well. On the way back we came across the wolds (hills are never a bad thing). After trying to launch a little attack up one hill I was marked out by Big Ed thanks to a warning from Grommett, but on a much bigger hill when we had some good speed, I went for it, and dessimated the group, whilst climbing in a stunningly large gear of about 53x14. Coming into Waltham there is a nice flat straight road so I thought why not have a sprint? So I did. That also went well. So a few minutes later I did another one at Toll Bar. Again it went well. It was a good ride, had everything I wanted, hills and sprints. Can't complain.

Product REVIEW ~ Continental GP Attack & Force Tyres

I tear came to my eye as I found that one of my Schwalbe Stelvio clinchers had a gash in the sidewall, leading to the tube protruding from it. They were a great set of tyres, and I'd go as far to say they were the best road tyres I had seen and used. I had previously used Bontrager tyres but they weren't terrible supple or grippy. The schwalbe's were a different story altogether, they were supple, easy to put on and take off, good grip, especially on the corners owing to their totally separate cornering compound.

But...on to the new tyres. I had been reccomended the Continental GP4000 tyres by my friend Mat, but since a pair of them would in fact come to more than the twin pack of the even better Attack and Force combination tyres, I thought I would save a bit of money and get a better tyre out of it too. And a better tyre I got!

The tyres are different to one another in most respects, with the exception of the same Black Chilli compound used in them. The front tyre, where most grip is needed, is a thin 22mm thick as opposed to the standard 23mm, and has a specific grooved pattern on to increase grip further. Whereas the rear tyre is unusually wide at 24mm and is made for prolonged life to prevent wear.

To start with, obviously, you have to put them on, which is a feat in itself. You'd think for someone doing a complex degree that putting the tyre on with the tread the right way round would be easy, except there is no diagram on the box showing you which way or where to find out which way round to put the tyres on. After studying the way the tread goes and trying to reach a logical conclusion as to the way they should go (I was right by the way), I found that there is in fact a little tiny arrow with the word "rotation" next to it, pointing which way on the tyres go. So I set about putting them on. They weren't quite as supple as my outgoing Schwalbe tyres but since they were brand new I imagine they will get better after a few miles if I have to change a tube.

Now for the ride. I had the fear that with a narrower front tyre I would lose a little control and that the wheel would be a little more inclined to drift. I couldn't have been more wrong. Continental have got this tyre absolutely right. The grip on the corners is as much as my old tyres, and that's without pushing them, which I am a bit weary to do on the first ride, so they may prove to be even better. They are narrow, and therefore offer a noticably lower rolling resistance compared to any other standard tyre.

The rear tyre, being 24mm, I expected to have a high rolling resistance and be a little sluggish on the road. However I noticed no difference between it and my outgoing tyre. In fact it may have an even lower rolling resistance.

The rear tyre helps the bike feel well planted on the road without offering a new source of friction, whereas the front tyre is grippy and so lively that it is a delight to tip into a corner.

When I've got some more miles into them, and some more varied surfaces and some nice descents and bends which is where cheaper tyres tend to give in, I will report back. I have a race on Wednesday so we shall see how they fare in that...

Another Day Another Dollar

I only got 60 odd miles in yesterday on the club ride, and apart from regular training not a great deal else has happened so stay tuned as I'm about to give you lucky people a new product review!...

Night Rider

Well what can I say, its 10pm and I've only just walked in the door from my second ride of the day, totalling 90 miles today. And the funny thing is, I felt better on the second ride than I did on the first and after both I'm still not too tired either; I'm fine, other than being a little bruised and battered from an accident involving Joe and myself at thirty-something miles an hour.

The fact that its still light enough to ride at 10pm is my favourite thing. It means getting two rides a day in is easier simply due to the length of the day itself. I've done two or three 2 ride days this week and it I feel in quite good form. I just need to do more intervals now as I have 5 days to a league race and 10 days to the Fulstow race, which is irritatingly flat, and as such is not my sort of race.

For more information on today's night ride check out Dan's blog.

Climbing Practice

After two hard days training with some 150 miles covered I decided to take the day off today as my legs didn't feel at their best this morning. The weather was good which was a shame but it would only have damaged my legs by over training if I went out.

Fortunately I got rid of the family for a week today so I can live like a cyclist - eat when I want to and get up at sensible hours. I may be cycling out to Clumber Park where they are staying for a week - cycling amusingly. I can cycle down one day, then cycle back the next day.

Tomorrow however I plan on doing some climbing specific training. I have devised a circuit with some nice climbs and I'll do it 4 or 5 times, making a total ride of 60 to 70 miles with the 10 mile ride there and back. I won't put a time constraint on myself as there is no average speed to aim for. The idea is simply to push as hard as I can on the climbs and relax and recover on the flats.

climbing practice Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

To check out the details such as the elevation graph click HERE.

Tan Lines

Today, as you may know, was a very sunny and warm day, and although I still had last year's tan lines, they have been brough on in earnest now.

A cyclist's badge of honour, if you've got the tan lines to show off you command a certain respect amongst riders. So check these out:

A New Job?

Well this weather isn't great is it? It's so changeable that you cant go out in the sun for long before getting soaked. It does kind of put you off training.

I think I'm pretty much going to write off this season's racing because my bike is dying and hopefully I'll be getting a job in the next week or so, meaning by the end of the season I should be on a new bike, although not being able to race on it this year will be disappointing. I will probably be working more days than not so my training is bound to suffer, but this is what has to happen to get a new bike unfortunately.
Due to my injury right before the start of the season I'm at a big disadvantage to my competitors, so I'm going to keep some good base fitness up and get a solid off season in ready to take the 2010 season by storm! This doesn't mean I won't be racing at all this season, I've got to keep some good results coming through, and despite my original intentions I will be doing a couple of time trials.

For now though, I'm about to set upon making my TT bars more comfortable so get ready for a nice tutorial.

The Apprentice(s) - Cycling Style

After my trip to the club on Monday night, myself and Joe have been tasked with training up some youngsters. So today one of them came out for a ride, and I bought Lewis out with us, another newbie to road cycling. The four of us went out, despite heavy rain, and actually had a good time. I guess it's nice to be able to get out on the bike with a group of younger guys!

We only did 40 miles ish but with two beginners that's not to be sniffed at. We deliberately went up some big climbs, and Dan seemed to take to them like a duck to water, which is great for me as a climber to have someone else to compete against.

I made sure we also put some sprint efforts in too, which turned out to be a great idea. Not only did it mean I got more out of the ride, but the others did too. The highlight definitely had to be coming from Caistor to Limber on a nice bit of road. We were trundling along at a reasonable pace, then I saw Lewis put a bit of effort in. I shouted for everyone to draft off him, and coincidentally we were in the right order too. Lewis picked up the pace a bit, then Dan took over and drove it a bit more, then Joe popped out and did his time trialling thing, and I burst out from behind him and put down a hell of a sprint. This is just how racing in a team should be!

Out on the TT bars

Against all my plans for the season of not doing any time trials, today I found myself doing a training ride with the dreaded tt bars on. As they are just TT bars fixed to my road bike they were not the right height: they could've done with being significantly lower, and also a different shape. As you can see below my TT bars curve upwards and join at the top meaning although this does allow for a number of possible positions, it does not allow for the one I want.

To solve this problem over the course of the next week I shall be taking a hack saw to my current TT bars and attempting to turn them into to straight bars, and find some way of making them a lot lower than the current set up permits.

Stay tuned for a tutorial on how to turn annoying TT bars into useful and comfortable aero bars.

Back Into The Swing

After a disappointing race on Wednesday, where I bonked out due to arriving just minutes before it started and not getting a warm-up, and a severe lack of training over the past two weeks due to exams and assignments, I came home to a great club ride. There were several people missing due to an LVRC race and a local charity bikeathon. However a new younger guy called Adam turned up which was good, glad to have some more youngsters to take on the ex-pros.

We racked out a good 80 miles, with an over 20mph average speed. I put a fair few sprints in there too, which turned it into a good training ride: just what I needed to get back off an annoying break from training.

I'm going to be doing some intervals tomorrow I think. They're horrible but neccessary to get me back upto speed.

Still Got It

I thought after a week of only 2 training rides I'd be a bit crap to be frank, but I was on pretty good form today. I did the Tunstall Wheelers club run, without Stu or Adam for nefarious reasons, but there were still 5 or 6 of us out on this very windy day. I soon regretted wearing a single layer, but it wasn't too bad once you got moving.

I was riding pretty well today, putting down some good pace, especially on the hills...as always. Mat unfortunately nearly died trying to race up a hill whilst having a panic attack, so when we got to the top he was slumped over his bars. A few puffs of his happy gas (inhaler) soon sorted that though, and we were on our way once again.

On the way home I detoured via Mat's and Adam's house to admire Mat's new steed, a custom Rourke steel frame, with SRAM Red groupset. Very expensive, worth every penny though!

Now to get myself something similar.....

Check out my big ring!

The ever-wrong weather forecast said today it would be nice in the morning and rain by lunch time, so I figured I'd get up early and get some miles in while its nice, especially since i've trained once in the past week due to important assignments and an exam, as well as the rain. Obviously I wasnt quite on top form but noticeably better on some big hills than I was straight after the injury, so I won't complain.

I headed out towards Cheadle from Stoke then up towards the Peak District, through Leek then back by Rudyard Reservoir and through some more beautiful countryside. I do believe I set off a speed camera somewhere near Leek whilst doing 40 in a 30 zone, but brakes are for emergencies, not to spoil my fun!

There were plenty of big hills, just how I like it. Favourite moment of the day: overtaking a guy climbing up a big hill, him struggling in his tiny gears and me churning a 53x21 gear, leaving him in the dust.

This is what I do.

You Don't Win No Silver - You Only Lose The Gold

Today was the second lincs league race of the season, unfortunately I missed the first one, but I think I made up for it today.

It was a smallish course so we did 6 laps I think, I lost count. I knew from the outset we had to ride fast to annoy the faster riders who expected us to go slow, so I pretty much controlled most of the race, sitting on or near the front, directing the motion of the group.

On each lap there was a nice climb, not terribly long but when you do it over and over it takes it out of you. I made sure that at the corner before the climb I was near the front of the group, then stormed up the hill in my usual attacking manner. By the last lap it was feeling tough, and a Boston Wheelers rider decided to attack. This is when it becomes apparent that a brain is definitely neccessary for road racing: I had to make a split second decision whether to fall back and conserve my energy for the final sprint or to use up some power now to get at the front. I decided to put down the power, then I sat on the other rider's wheel around the top corner and up to the 200 metre to go sign, when I leaped out into my powerful sprint to the line. 

The guy who won I think was a slow group rider who was actually faster than he should have been, but coming second just seconds after him didn't make my performance any the less impressive.

My legs burnt incredibly during and just after the sprint, so me and Joe (who broke out of the peloton to steal third just after me), span out the lactic acid then headed back to find the parents. I rode up to my Dad and basically fell on him as I couldn't really stand at that point.

After recovering on the ride down back to the race HQ, we hung around for a few minutes, handed in our numbers - I was 38 - and headed off home.

Happy Birthday Ride

A cyclist can ask little more than to have an enjoyable club ride run at a fast pace with some nice hills for his birthday, and thats just what I got. The weather could've come a bit earlier, the afternoon was great but the morning was a bit overcast and the arm and leg warmers had to come out.

My family came back from a week away that afternoon, earlier than expected, they were back already when I got in just after 1pm. Unfortunately this meant I didn't get to rest like I'm meant to after a hard training ride, but we did go out for dinner which I guess made up for it a bit. I did also get to watch most of the Amstel Gold race on Eurosport too, which turned out to be quite a good race. The dutch races are always a bit crazy: big pelotons around small country lanes and sharp corners, very dangerous and exciting.

A birthday well spent I think :)

Blowing A Tube

This afternoon I went out for a climbing training ride with Joe Moore. It's definitely taking me 20 miles to warm up now, but after I do my climbing is second to none, and I'm even beating TT man Joe up the big hills. I am going to up my training though I think, there's little over a month to the BUCS national road race and I plan on finishing in the top third at least the first time I race it. The climbing is going well, but that top end speed work needs doing now, along with a bit more endurance too.

On the way home I went to pay a visit to the Grandfather so now I have a bunch of stuff to research for him but its not a trouble: other than training I have very little to do right now. Although I have to fix the puncture I got with 100 metres to go to reach my front door!

Getting In Focus

I'm confident I've got a good base of fitness and strength now to make the training more focused, so to celebrate this I went out today and did a load of intervals which I can say confidently that no cyclist actually enjoys doing. Why do we do it then you ask? Because it builds top end speed and power and also makes your body recover faster from bursts of power in a race situation.

I did 10 minutes of 30mph+ intervals of 30 seconds high gear high cadence, 30 seconds low gear low cadence. Following that I did a few big hills and attacked each one, and on the fast road home I pushed it again. After a less than 30 mile ride I felt like I had ridden more than 50 miles. I must be doing something right then surely?

Going Strong

My second club ride of the season with Lindsey Roads, and despite a relatively poor turnout, it is Easter Sunday and weather wasn't looking great, it turned out to be a good ride. Average speed was over 20mph and considering there were a fair few hills thats not a bad effort. I attacked and won every big climb, some I won by a stangely large amount; either I'm in good form or everyone else has given up competing against my climbing.

After a quick café stop for the oldies we got moving again and the pace didn't slip much. There was a plan to do some through and off but we just set a reasonably high pace in the group as only 5 of us had survived thus far. Unfortunately there wasn't a spring at the usual place coming into Tetney so I thought I'd have a sprint myself on the way from Holten-le-Clay to Toll Bar just to give the legs a good burn out before getting home.

75 miles in total today, of fast flats and attacking on big climbs. Now I'm in my living room watching Paris-Roubaix on Eurosport. This is how Easter day should be.

A Hard Day's Work

What was supposed to be an overcast day turned out to be pretty nice, so in the morning my brother and I went for a mountain bike ride for about an hour and a half, which I was expecting was going to be a piece of cake, until he decided it was a good way to get tired and not do homework later on. So after he put down a cracking pace into the wind that even some road riders would be envious of, I could actually feel my legs. Not that any of this is a bad thing, its a good bit of power training for me and it gets my brother fit.

We came home, made some bacon and watched some Blackadder over lunch, then I headed out for hard training with Joe Moore, a fellow Lindsey rider and good friend. Joe wanted to go and find some hills to work on his climbing, which in Lincolnshire isn't always the easiest of things to do. However we managed to find some good hills, a couple of killers, and as always with me and Joe, it always turned into a competition, meaning we push eachother harder than we would in individual training, which is always good. On the flats we did a few hard efforts and sprints, or I did. It was just what I need to get my training back to normal, hard climbing and sprints, good focused training. And now in true cyclist style I've come home, had a hearty meal, and am playing Pro Evo on the playstation.

Back to Lindsey

Well I'm officially back in Grimsby now I've done a club ride. I was a little confused as to why the meeting place had changed from The Trawl to Nun's Corner, and it turns out there is still a group going from the trawl but thats the old men who want to go slow and spend an hour at the café, whereas I turned up for the fast group ride which should have gone to the café too but we ended up carrying straight on towards home, not that I'm complaining, it was a good ride and my legs burnt a little towards the end, but I still contested the sprint.

It was a beautiful day, and I felt sorry for those who turned up in winter kit thinking that it would stay cold, when I turned up in 1 thin layer of summer kit, meaning that after half an hour of riding I was comfortably warm. I think by the end of the day I actually got a bit of a tan going on; it builds up quick now anyway, so my arms and legs are getting their fantastic cyclist's tan lines already, just imagine what they'll be like by August...

How to Remove Oil From Your Carpet

Well today was a bit of a lazy day to be honest, I guess I am slightly ashamed. I had my last physio appointment today and have now officially been signed off by my physio in Stoke, and only need to see the one back home if my leg gets worse, which hopefully it won't.

On the plus side, I'm going home tomorrow - which reminds me I really should start packing! Also I've found the best combination to remove oil marks from a carpet with no ill effects to the textile. It requires spraying some Flash multisurface cleaner and leaving it to marinade for a little while, followed by a bit of a spray of the wonderful bike cleaner Muc-Off. Leave it for a minute then give it a rub with a floorcloth then leave to dissipate and hey presto! you've got yourself one clean carpet! Now what cleaning products can I use to repair a broken shelf?

Race 1 of 2009 - Bill Jinks Memorial

So I just got in from my first road race of 2009, and considering I've just come back from injury and haven't trained properly for a while it went pretty well. For the first 2 laps (each one being just under 10 miles) I sat in the bunch, then on a big hill where the peloton began to slow each time I got a little annoyed so flicked up a few gears and sped up to the front, where in the third lap 3 of us broke away and gained about a 5 second lead on the peloton. Unfortunately we couldn't keep it up against the powerful peloton determined to stop us getting away. This expense of energy meant that a lap later I almost felt like retiring from the race as I had no energy left whatsoever. But after some water and a quick energy gel I felt a bit better, but still not good enough to take the front of the group again. On the final straight, after being subjected to being pushed off the road onto the verge and very nearly coming off, and losing half a dozen places or more, I came across the line 30th, which all things considering isn't too bad in an 80+ rider race.I have taken away that thirst for racing that I may have lost a little over the off-season, and have realised that without training I'm an OK racer, but now I'm going to be doing nothing but training and racing for 5 months: it's time to take on the Lincolnshire League!

Miserable Climate

How stupid is british weather? I wake up this morning and it's raining heavily, then for about half an hour we get a rest from the water, until yet again the heavens opened for most of the day. Such a shame since I need to get some miles in quite badly before Sunday's race. I did manage to get an hour of ultimate frisbee in yesterday and today, so a bit of running at least. I still need to get my rear mech sorted on my road bike, it's not liking top gear, which is kind of important for a sprinter no? I'm going to be putting my new smaller 11-23 cassette on for the race too.

I'm going to try and get out tomorrow, although I haven't seen the weather forecast so that may put me off. I spent a long time yesterday stripping and cleaning the bike so going out in the wet and dirt is not an attractive option.

I'm glad that in a little while I'll be back in beautiful Lincolnshire and in full training swing with my home club, Lindsey Roads, which will be nice since I haven't seen a lot of them since the end of summer last year as I was ill most of christmas break so didn't get out on any club runs. I've got 7 weeks now though until the BUCS national road race so I'm going to have to make a cunning mixture of endurance training and high intensity speed training. We'll see how that goes I guess...

Yawn

For some reason today I'm pretty tired. It can't be lack of sleep from the weekend catching up with me surely? I've slept plenty since then, although last night was a late night writing an HRM essay. Today was meant to be a pretty full day at uni so i wasn't expecting to get any real exercise done at all, but it turns out that after my physio appointment where once again I was ultrasounded and sent on my way (this guy only ever seems to do this, but hey, it works), I went for a couple of hours of badminton with a couple of mates and some French girls. Can't complain. I wasn't prepared for it though so I ended up playing in jeans which meant I got rather hot and sweaty. It was evidently a good bit of cardio though. Unfortunately I haven't been on the bike since sunday but I'll remedy that tonight with an hour on the turbo trainer to make sure the legs still spin in preparation for my first road race of the season on Sunday.

I'm quite happy now at the thought that in little over a week I could be home and in full training swing with my old training buddy Joe Moore and hopefully Dan will be coming home soon too so we'll have a good little group going, not to mention the ever fun club rides at weekends, and hopefully in evenings since the clocks will be going forward at the weekend, meaning more daylight, but let's just hope the weather holds out too.

A fantastic but not-so-successful trip for me

Well I've just got back from the BUCS weekend in Dorset and we couldn't have asked for better weather, apart from at night perhaps, where on a hill with clear skies it dropped into minus numbers, but got a nice tan during the day however.

DAY 1

Went to get the van at 8.30 and didnt get it till before 9, so it was gone 10 by the time we had got to Stafford, picked Alastair and all his kit up, and got on the move. We got to the UK Bike Park at about 3pm, which wasnt too bad timing to be fair. We set up straight away for fear of it getting dark early, 

then headed out to walk the courses and we all got a little practice in.

We drove into Blandford for tea (fish & chips) then came back and went to the party tent for a while, until it got a bit too cold to bare, then we turned in.

DAY 2

After a cold and not so comfortable night we woke up strangely early at about 6am, and was out of bed and in the van with the heater on eating breakfast by half past. At about 7am we wondered out to walk the downhill course again before morning training started.

Unfortunately the vast majority of the cross country track was not marked out yet meaning we weren't able to actually do any practice laps until about 3pm on Saturday.

The afternoon saw the Downhill Championship events which for those not experienced at descending on big bikes with big suspension looks rather daunting. George was first out of our pair to go down and felt good about his time, and looked much more competent at traversing the Rock Garden than a lot of the entrants we had seen. His second lap was very a similar time, making a good consistent set of runs, and only 30 seconds off the podium time. Alastair put a slightly faster time down with around 10 seconds faster than 

George, yet still a long way off the podium where the Elite ranked riders stood.

After our guys had done their runs, Dan and I headed out onto the cross country course which was finally taped out. However it wasn't as we expected! It was in fact a bit of cross country, followed by 

a lot of technical downhill work then a massive climb up the ruined uplift track. On the first time round Dan came off pretty quickly and I didn't realise for some time after. He had come off over his handlebars and his bike had gone sideways, bending his saddle rails and brake lever. This would ultimately put him out of the race on sunday. I went for a full lap (or as close as i could get to it without crossing the bottom of the downhill course we had to go on). There were a couple of other cross country riders i had near me who i stuck with all the way round as we tried to 

figure out the best lines for all the turns; I still maintain that they dont exist and you are in fact meant to fall off for the audience's enjoyment. My leg that put me out for weeks didn't quite like the uphill part but I thought I should put up with it as long as possible.

The evening brought along probably the most entertaining part of the weekend: the FourCross race. This is Alastair's speciality and it showed believe you me. The course for this was unfortunately just a very short straight and not the full course with the bend in it so we didn't get as much as a spectacle as we'd all have hoped. The event saw quite a lot of carnage, mostly at the same jump on the course, and whilst a few bikes were written off most riders emerged unscathed. After a few practice runs (in the dark with pathetic little 

floodlights) the proper racing began in a knock out form, the top 2 of each round go through to the next. Alastair blitzed his first couple of runs and kept his form in the others. And then the final, which was a little understated as no-one knew that was actually it, but it was certainly the fastest of the races. Alastair disappeared out of the gate and took the lead quickly but on the second to last lap he was just overtaken by the local elite ranked rider (who isn't a student) Steve Atkins. This does mean though, that Alastair is the current best 4X riding student in the country, and we're proud to have him.

DAY 3

Again we found ourselves waking up relatively early and cold, so followed the same procedure as the previous day: get in van, heater on, have breakfast. Once it warmed up a little we headed out back onto the cross country course so i could show dan how to descend the tricky downhill course (which I wasn't completely competent at either, probably down to lack of a full suspension downhill bike).

 After just a few sections his mind was made up that he couldn't ride the full course with a hole 

in his leg. After a short rest I went around again and came off for about the third time, second in that place. I went round the course thinking my leg wasn't too bad, even after the long slog up the uplift track, but I was mistaken and the next slide down the downhill made me think twice about ruining my season on the road for the sake of a crazy mountain bike race, so after a gallant attempt to get back up the uplift track, I decided I'd had enough and threw in the towel for the weekend.

We're now all at home, reasonably tanned, thinking it was great fun and how perhaps we all could have done better, but an enjoyable weekend that we wont easily forget will mean the lessons learned on the tracks these days will stay with us, and for me, giving up in a race will never be an option again.......see you at my road race next week.

Ready To Go

After a bit of packing I'm finally just about ready to go, with the exception of cold food in the fridge and my paperwork (bain of my life) and electronics which I'll charge overnight. I won't go into a rather boring list of what I have and haven't packed but suffice to say my cupboards and shelves are emptier than they were this morning.

I've collected it all and chucked it all in the living room where Dan will be sleeping tonight so it

 should all be ready to put in the back of the van in the morning for a quick getaway. I'm sure however, that in the morning, half way to stafford, I'll come up with something probably quite vital which I have forgotten and will have to make a snap decision whether to go back quickly 

or do without it for the weekend (most likely the latter of the two).

Currently I find myself waiting for Dan to arrive and for Courtney to pop round with her satnav I'm borrowing for the weekend. I bet she's forgotten, but if you're reading this at a later date Courtney, and you hadn't forgotten, I apologise and love you really and sorry I couldn't fix your TV.

So anyway, this actually is my last post before I leave for BUCS so I'll see you in a few days all being well and I'm not stranded in a hospital somewhere on the south coast.

Panic!

I've spent the past day and a half in a constant state of panic as one member going to BUCS tells me he hasnt paid and has no money; a bit scary considering we've booked and paid for so much already. I finally heard back a little earlier that he now has some money and will be coming after all. My heart is still racing! And I'm going to get enough of that this weekend!

Another physio appointment today, just walked in, got leg zapped by ultrasound then sent packing. I'm back again on Tuesday so hopefully this weekend of riding wont aggrevate it too much. If it does 3 of us and a van are going to be stranded in Dorset!

I'm now on the hunt for last minute disposable barbeques, not an easy thing to find in march. I've received a tip off of a local shop which may sell them so fingers crossed and I'll go hunt them down in a few minutes.

I'll be picking up our van in the morning at 8.30 and hopefully heading straight off to Dorset (via Stafford). Should prove to be a good weekend of racing and camping. Wish us all luck! And I'll fill you in on the details when we get back.

The Jerseys Have Arrived!

Guess what! Well you've probably got it by the title anyway, but the Staffordshire University Cycling Club jerseys have finally arrived. George and I ventured into the hells of Longton this morning to pick them up from Pro-Vision after their long flight from a top secret location somewhere in Europe.

As I type this I am in fact wearing my jersey, I'm that happy to finally have it! This is what they look like. Pretty sweet huh? :D

Think I better go and do a spot of training now while the weather looks nice.

Too Busy To Train?

Well my tuesdays are busier than my mondays and don't particularly lend themselves to training. On top of a 9-4 day at uni I have to write my part of a 20 minute presentation on Rewards Systems in International Businesses as I have lost a weekend's worth of work due to BUCS MTB this weekend (not that I'm complaining about going in the slightest).

I had another physio appointment today too, limiting my time to get lunch, but it went very quick all the same. I went in after only having to wait 2 or 3 minutes, sat down on the table, got my knee fried by ultrasound for a few minutes and was sent on my way. I'll be back on thursday anyway for my last appointment before BUCS so am hoping to be fully functioning, even if not in top form through lack of training recently.

I think i'll try and get half an hour gentle on the turbo tonight just to make sure the legs will still spin. Oh, and I'm meant to be turning up to a social for the Ultimate Frisbee club, the thing that got me injured in the first place! That's going to be more of a case of show my face then leave sharpish before I get dragged into anything, then come back and do a bit more work. I've also got a Critical Reasoning thing to do (most stupid module ever and a waste of my time and money frankly, an opinion shared by the majority of my fellow business students).

On the plus side, guess what! The cycling club jerseys are finally arriving! After months waiting for people to pay and waiting for them to come over from Europe they're finally coming. I'll have them in the morning so expect an elated post tomorrow.

Monday Is A Rest Day

After the fun and frolicks of yesterday's club ride and somehow waking up at 06:55 today, i figured it'd be a rest day to let my legs completely recover so i'll get a nice ride in tomorrow hopefully.

So instead I met up with George Woodward and we ventured up to the Lyme Valley Park and its dirt BMX track suited quite nicely for 4X riding which George should be competing in at nationals this weekend so all practice is welcomed.

After a first run of about 19 seconds around the track we gradually got George's time down to about 17.5 seconds, an 8% decrease in time round the track: not bad for an hour or so's work.

Back from Injury

Well today was my first ride back after an injury which put me out for 3 weeks. Its still not better but the cycling will aid the healing process by increasing blood flow to the ligament in question.

It was 65 miles through Staffordshire and Cheshire with Tunstall Wheelers/Brian Rourke Cycles who we ride with each week. I did quite a lot of work on the front and contested and won a good number of climbs, as well as being led out by Stu Clark for a couple of sprints (which actually aggrevated my injury so I didn't do any more after that).

I've now come back, had a delightful (sense the sarcasm) recovery drink and a cold shower on the legs so at least theyre not burning any more.

I had been annoyed at the past couple of weeks being mainly beautiful weather and not being allowed to train, but after seeing the physio on friday he said i could ride so long as I didn't push myself too hard. I pushed obviously, but was cautious I promise! So when I saw Adam yesterday we arranged to do the club ride this week, and I texted Stu (who didn't reply till 30 mins before it started) who came along too. The beautiful weather clearly attracted a lot of people to come out as there were a lot of other cyclists about, including the Sigma Sport/Specialized team who we saw just going through Crewe.

Let's hope tomorrow is as nice and i can find time between lectures to get out! Also the club jerseys are due tomorrow and they better be here as we've been waiting for ages and British University National Mountain Bike Championships are next weekend so expect a nice blog about that when I get back.

Intro

Well, I'm Joe White obviously, and I'm the Chairman/Captain whatever you want to call it of Staffordshire University Cycling Club. I'm based in Stoke-On-Trent in Staffordshire. 

I'm just getting back on the bike after an injury which put me out for nearly 3 weeks so I figured I'd celebrate my return and the start of the season by making this blog.

This is page is the definitive place for me to put all my cycling history as it's made and any other bits and bobs bike related I can think of.