Chasing wheels

Yes, in this weekend's Observer Sport Monthly. On her Trek road bike. There's a peek at it on Cycling Weekly's Tuesday comment piece:

Pendleton poses nude and the demise of the Archer

Their take on it seems to be that she can make her own choices and has done so. It's a line they take in reference to Richard Williams in the Guardian who questions why she has to strip off under the strapline "Pendleton gets dragged into a vicious cycle":

"Victoria Pendleton is a terrific athlete and an impressive woman but a world champion track cyclist, even a drop-dead gorgeous one, should have no need to broaden her appeal by stripping off for next Sunday's Observer Sports Magazine."

Cycling Weekly seems to in some way endorse this view saying that:

"It's just that it's hard to imagine the editor of OSM pitching the idea of a nude shoot with Chris Hoy or Bradley Wiggins or many other male athletes. "

The comment piece ends with "... there is a nagging regret that female sports stars are still being asked to strip off".

Which would all be a fair comment to make but for one thing: the shot is a very, very obvious homage to a very,very well known cycling image which also features a world class athlete, at the top of the sport of cycling, naked on a Trek bike.

Are we really expected to believe that both Lionel Birnie and Richard Williams wrote their articles and got them past the editor's desk without anyone even so much as raising a hand to point out that the image is in every way a visual tribute to

Annie Leibovitz's iconic portrait of Lance Armstrong

which was done for Vanity Fair and which echoes her most iconic image of a naked John Lennon next to Yoko Ono.

A Google image search for "Leibovitz Armstrong Portrait" puts the two images right next to each other. Would it have been so difficult for these two writers to have spotted the connection between the Pendleton portrait and Armstrong's and seen the significance of the visual message being conveyed?

If either Lionel or Richard would care to respond I am happy to publish their response as right of reply.

Posted by Alex on 26 February 2008, 18:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

That is the observation from Ian Paine as to where I went wrong on Sunday. He's absolutely right. The mistake I made was to allow myself to drift down the field in the final laps.

It's frustrating but I know where I went wrong in the second Surrey League London Dynamo Beginners Series Race which means I can and will improve. I'd better start doing so soon because not scoring points is starting to frustrate me.

My first mistake was to ignore my own observations about the head and cross wind down the straight and first bend and trying to force a break with a clubmate with about 4 laps to go. That put my heartrate right through the ceiling and left me gasping and battling to stay in the bunch. I went back through the group faster than a greased pig out of a butcher's shop.

Stay in the bunch I did, whereas in previous races I've slid off the back of the bunch, which counts as a personal victory. However, it left me with a long way to go to get back to the business end of the race. By the bell I was mid-bunch but failed to work my way up into the first third which is where I needed to be over the lumps at the back of the course.

My speed over the downhill bits got me up a few places but not enough to to contemplate the sprint. Let's face it, if you're forty places back off the last corner with about 1km to the line there's not much point in burying yourself for 12= again. So I sat up a bit and coasted in to the line.

Actually I had a good reason other than lack of personal pride in my finish: getting home to my girlfriend's for lunch in one piece. I've not been doing big miles so far this year and wasn't entirely certain how my body would cope. Acton to Chertsey (20 miles/33km, race (24 miles/38km) and then Chertsey to the far side of Islington (35 miles/56km), counts as a bit of a long one for someone who hasn't even done the Surrey Hills since some time before Christmas.

The good news is that I made it in one piece, managed lunch and didn't pass out on the sofa. The bad news is that my legs hurt like hell for the rest of the day and then I had to ride back to Acton in the rain which means I have to clean the bike this week. Not that it's not due a wash and check.

Really the good news is that I was moving a lot more determinedly and powerfully, barring a small fade round Hampton Court on the way back. Add up the the distance and how I feel and divide by the time of year and it's all gravy (onion to go with sausage and mash) for where I would like to be come July.

Posted by Alex on 25 February 2008, 20:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

There are many places you can finish in a race but for a lowly 4th cat in a Regional C+ race but I've come to the conclusion that 12= is about the worst of them. guess where I finished on Sunday in the Surrey League Beginners' Race?

It's not quite "dans les et cetera" or "in the bunch", it's much less dignified than that. It says you were outside the points but not quite so far back as to be a straggler. It says "You really shouldn't bother contesting this result because it doesn't matter". It is the ultimate in failing to make it count.

I can tell you exactly where my race fell apart: lap six, on the back straight when i got a twinge of cramp in my left calf. I haven't had cramp for bloody ages so goodness knows why it appeared on Sunday. Up to then I was feeling pretty good and riding fairly well, perhaps a few places further back than I would have liked but well enough positioned to move through in the final two laps.

Coming off the final bend I got a bit boxed but was in the lead group at least and ready to kick up a gear. When I did, there was nothing there. I tried to dig a bit deeper but got nothing back, so decided there was no point sprinting when it would gain me nothing and rolled over the line.

It wasn't a bad start to the season but it left me feeling a bit frustrated. Not as frustrated as watching Warrick Spence effortlessly ghosting through the bunch. He's so classy it hurts to watch when you are as lumpy a rider as I am. If you get a chance this year to see him racing make sure you stand facing the exit from a corner with a view through it. What you'll see when he comes through is someone who makes cornering look beautiful.

Anyway my lungs are still recovering from the freezing cold conditions which never suit me so I might do a little riding tomorrow before work if I feel up to it. I really might have to consider getting a trainer, probably the Tacx Flow, as I'm really not getting out on the bike enough.

Posted by Alex on 19 February 2008, 21:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

A busy weekend with two days of racing, none of which went quite as well as it could. First a quick hello to Paul, a reader who races and who I met on Saturday at Hillingdon. It's good to know there's someone out there reading and finding it useful.

Now to Hillingdon, first race of 2008 for me. January was plagued by illness and holidays and I'm slightly amazed to find I failed to get out and race once in the entire month. I only realised this as we were lining up on a beautiful day - bright sunshine, relatively little wind and dry.

The traditional advice would be "Don't try anything, just sit in and finish in the bunch", but tradition and good advice are rarely to be found anywhere near where I am in a race. So guess who decided an ill-thought-out attempt to bridge up to a two man break in the later stages of the race? I'd managed to close down a couple of breaks earlier in the race and wasn't feeling too bad when I started out across the gap. Halfway there and I was feeling strong. One look over my shoulder later and I was sitting up and waiting for the bunch having decided I wasn't getting anywhere.

At this point I should have just slid back into the pack and admitted I wasn't back to full fitness. Instead, I found myself going out the back rather fast and the taste of blood rising in my throat. Knowing I had another race on Sunday and that my fitness isn't where it should be I packed. No point getting ill again trying to get fit.

Sunday was the London Cyclocross League Team Championship and I was in the B Team, hoping to be more than just making up the numbers. The journey out was simple enough: train from Liverpool St to Romford and a gentle enough ride up to Hainault Forest Country Park. So far so good, helped by unseasonal mild weather which meant not too much mud.

Then things went badly wrong. On a warm-up lap something went clunk into a corner and my rear mech hanger snapped. In and of itself, not a disaster. Except that as it snapped it wrapped the mech itself up into the back wheel, bending it into shapes that I'm fairly certain a rear derailleur isn't meant to be. The positives would be that I can probably recycle the jockey wheels and possibly a couple of other parts. Unless of course I can find a way to replace just the cage bit - unlikely.

Luckily for me Russ had a spare bike and with a little adjustment for my size I could still ride. And ride I did, right into last place of the finishers, 4 laps down. It was such a poor performance I don't even plan to shame myself by describing it.

After the race I managed to cobble together a chainline that would allow me to get back to the station and home again. It worked, albeit very slowly, a fact driven home this morning as I limped across town being passed by everyone and their three-legged dog.

Next weekend marks a year since my first proper race so I'll be making the trip down to Chertsey again for the London Dynamo Beginners Series. If you are looking for a place to dip your toe into the waters of racing then I can't recommend it enough - it's a nice wide circuit and there's plenty of riders on hand to introduce you to riding in a bunch. Come on down, you know you want to.

Posted by Alex on 11 February 2008, 15:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

Sheldon Brown is a name every cyclist should know. His website, at www.sheldonbrown.com/ is an encyclopedia of anything useful you might wish to know about bicycle mechanics and history.

Sadly he passed away this week, to much sadness among cyclists who have relied on his practical wisdom to resolve and explain technical issues which the manuals rarely manage to do so clearly and with so much enthusiasm for their topic.

I've relied on his online gear calculator on numerous occasions when trying to figure out what casette to buy and what the advantages are of a compact as opposed to a triple and so on. His site is full of those sort of things that others fail to break down to the simple level of the end user. Hopefully it will remain long after his passing.

Posted by Alex on 5 February 2008, 15:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

Since reading January's Procycling magazine, which was guest edited by Greg Lemond, I have become fascinated by the argument in favour of training less. Less purely in terms of time spent out on the bike but more in terms of the intensity required.

So more intervals and few slow slogs around the countryside. According to Lemond's methodology those long rides just result in the sort of chemical build up that inhibits proper improvement and which leads to depressive episodes. Obviously I should be quoting properly here but it's a Sunday evening, I've been working all weekend and I've no idea where I put my copy of the mag.

As a training method it suits me fine as I've never really enjoyed the Sunday rides with the battle to not be last up the hill and the having to write down the whole of the day for recovering, napping and cleaning after the ride. I've always enjoyed going out for an hour or two at most and blasting round in spurts of effort, in effect ad hoc intervals. Perhaps if I'm more disciplined about it I might show some improvement, perhaps I might even get a turbo trainer (Tacx Flow I think).

Next weekend I'm looking forward to a double-header of racing: Saturday's 4th Cat circuit race down at Hillingdon, my first of the year; and Sunday's final cyclocross race of the season at Hainault Forest Country Park. I may be a little tired and sore by Monday but I do enjoy my racing.

I got my new 2008 licence through the post this week so I am intent on making best use of it and getting it upgraded to a 3rd Cat one before the Spring Classics come round. that gives me about 2 months to either get in a break or to nail a couple of finishes in the bunch sprint.

Best start training seriously again then and getting down to a race weight. I'm currently hovering around 75kg, which is a good place to be starting from, certainly better than the 79kg or so I started at last year.

Posted by Alex on 3 February 2008, 22:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()