Chasing wheels

• Note one: If you are visually impaired it is advisable that you wear your glasses or contact lenses when racing. That way you won't go at corners like a sparrow at a closed patio door and end up forming a close acquaintance with the trees.
• Note two: If you have the lung capacity of a chaffinch there's really not much point pretending otherwise, you'll only overdo it and end up in pain and rattlnig well into the week.
• Note three: I will, by fair means or foul, beat that woman who keeps on finishing ahead of me, before the season is out. Petty rivalries are a helpful motivating factor for cyclists so I apologise in advance for the one I am now beginning with a woman I believe to be Jenn Hopkins, on the grounds she keeps lapping me and doing so with good humour and encouragement.

So it was down to Lancing with Rusty this weekend. Big prize fund, Sean Yates hanging around, bitch of a course. If you weren't going up the hill past the allotments you were being flayed by branches as you came down the hill on wood chippings through the trees.

Going up: Power, slog, gritted teeth. Coming down: balls of titanium to hold your line and avoid the all to solid stuff either side of it.

There was only one serious fall but he was up and walking by the end of the day and reports himself to be a little stiff and sore but not put off.

So why is it a better result? Well I rode harder, and pushed myself and nearly finished in the top 50. I felt more confident hammering through the downhill singletrack and was getting out of the saddle and holding my place up the hill. I'm starting to feel competitive by my own standards again.

I'm stuck for riding opportunities for the next couple of weeks due to work and other commitments but my next race will be a relatively local fixture at Herne Hill. Makes a change to be doing a London League race in a London postcode for once.

Posted by Alex on 28 November 2007, 13:11 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

Winter is here but that apparently is not the sort of thing to stop the hardened cyclocross loon. Not even a freezing gale, hail and a course that turned into muddy hell midway through the race at Brighton's Stanmer Park.

Travelling down with Rusty it looked fresh but not freezing, a notion we were soon disabused of the moment we opened the doors and felt the icy blast. According to Rusty it's fine once you get warmed up. My point that it was getting warmed up that would be the problem fell on deaf ears. He finished 3rd, I finished 74th, so you can see there might be something in his advice.

And to the race: I went off hard, nearly ran into a post as I charged up the inside. Then promptly went backward through the first corner. That cost me too many places as I managed to hold up quite well up the hill and not go right to the back. I need to work on that first section of the race as it seems to be very important to get through the first pinch point as far forward as you can.

There was a nasty headwind across the hill but it was across up the hill and into the real pain of the course which was soft grass that just felt heavy going. A swoop down through the trees and then a horrid, muddy run which had me at a standstill straight away and gasping for air.

I don't like the running bits but I have been talked into running by a friend so will try and improve on this bit. My dismounts and remounts are getting pretty good - I can put a couple of metres into people on a remount and pedal away - and I can skip over the hurdles well but the run-ups really hurt me.

Some nice fast downhill bits that I hammered while it was dry but when the rain started coming down on the third lap they got rather treacherous, as did most of the course. My handling isn't bad and I can chuck the bike about fairly comfortably but I was feeling a bit cocky and lightheaded.

Which is why on about the sixth lap I attempted to throw the bike through the slow infield corners in a BMX/Speedway skid turn to see if I could get though them a bit more aggressively. I couldn't and ended up in a heap, instantly regretting trying to be a smartarse. But, having lost a few places and been lapped by a few more people, I got up and carried on.

Once you've fallen over you end up riding one of two way: like you're made of glass or like you are made of titanium. I went with the latter and thus ensured that on one of the fast downhill corners on my final lap I managed to come a complete cropper and go flying all over the place. The spectator who ran over to check I was OK said it was spectacular, which it certainly felt.

I limped round to the finish and was glad that it was over. Getting changed next to the car in the freezing rain wasn't fun mind.

Sorry this post has fizzled out a bit as I've spent all evening writing it in between doing other stuff that should have been done at the weekend which I neglected (laundry, admin, emails etc).

Posted by Alex on 19 November 2007, 23:11 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

Another genius line from the ever-consistent wit of Bikesnob NYC:

"I hadn't ridden much since the pre-Dunston days, when I was a hairy fixture on the So-Cal crit circuit. (Show me a banana prime and I'll show you a sprint that makes Ale-jet look like a lemur on a tricycle.)" - Fixedgeargallery... of Special Reviewers

He may be in New York, and thus based in the "the colonies", but by jingo the chap can write. If you don't already read it, you almost certainly are missing out.

Meawhile I skived going for a ride other than to the shops on my day off today. I will make it up with a ride tomorrow morning. Richmond Park beckons for a blast in the winter air on the Dolan, subject to sunny conditions and me getting up in time.

Posted by Alex on 12 November 2007, 19:11 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

Yet another cycling injury!, originally uploaded by leguape.

This is from last Saturday, I should have posted it earlier. It's gradually healing up but is still a bit sore around the edges. It's at the scabbed over, not quite healed in the middle stage.

I am of course stuck at work this weekend, missing out on what looks like another nice day for Cyclocross. I've been meaning to write some articles for work recently but just haven't quite found the time or motivation.

Interesting article in the Telegraph about British Cycling setting up a women's professional team around Nicole Cooke:

Nicole Cooke at hub of new British team

Aim is to build towards the Olympics and Worlds next year. All sounds very exciting and would be a great draw for getting more women into the sport, which it would really benefit from.

I'll write something more considered tomorrow when I have the day off.

Posted by Alex on 11 November 2007, 16:11 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

Saturday was the inaugural London Dynamo Club Championships, a 30 lap open race down at Hillingdon. It was an absolute hoot so big thanks to the huge number of people in the club who helped organise it.

There's some great pics on Flicker here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61744043@N00/sets/72157602898492830/

And more here on photobox:

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/6907700

Where you can see me attempting the daring tactic of going a bit blank off the bend and flying across the grass. Note to self: this is not cyclocross. If you skip to pic 49 you can get a rough idea of what happened. I think I looked up as Rob J came past me and drifted across and onto the grass.

I'd just tried to jump across the gap to the break and was nearly there as well but just lost concentration. Couldn't get back on so decided to just have fun and get in the bunch again when it came round. Tried to drag a few people up towards the front and came off the back again.

Then someone went down right in front of me and I sort of rode over them. Unfortunately their bike kicked up under me and I got the chainring through my shin/calf which didn't look too bad until I paid attention to how much blood was pouring down my leg. Hopped off with three laps to go and the medic took a look and patched me up.

Paul Delahunty won it by apparently using the grass, as he is wont to do, the loon. The sprint was a real cavalry charge job that looked fierce from where I was lying by the line. Those sort of finishes terrify me still. That's something I'll need to learn not to bottle this year. 2008 is going to be a points season, not a sportif one.

OK, I didn't place, but I tried to jump off the front and, had I not gone onto the grass, could well have stuck in the bunch I reckon. But sitting in the bunch just isn't the way I ride, patience not being a particular virtue of mine. As Paul C pointed out I've come a long way from him having to give me a push to get back into the bunch in a 4th Cat race at Chertsey.

Thanks again for a fabulous afternoon's racing. I've now got a couple of weeks to recover from injury/not get fat as I'm working next weekend and the next 'cross race isn't until 18th I think.

Posted by Alex on 4 November 2007, 22:11 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

If you are around 31 years old, grew up in Britain and rode bikes as a kid you know what I mean. While nostalgics tends to bang on about the Chopper as the iconic Raleigh bike (it tends to be people who are far to young to have ever owned one when they first hit the market) I would argue that the Raleigh Burner, Mark I and II are by far the most influential bikes that the company ever made.

I used to have one and I still miss it. It was stolen by some drunken idiot back in 1999 or so and never recovered. A classic red and yellow Mark I, less the original padset, long since worn out and lost and with an Aeroyal saddle and some flashy grips. It was basic, tough and more than anything indestructibly rideable.

And now I keep on finding myself eyeing up restored jobs on Ebay and elsewhere and contemplating getting one. But at my age do I really need or want one? I'd look like some sad sack middle-aged Hoxtonite trying to be cool wouldn't I?

But heck they are fun to ride, so if anyone has one that needs a home, I'll have it.

Posted by Alex on 2 November 2007, 00:11 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()