Chasing wheels

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 ()

• 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 ()

They say that the 'cross season doesn't start in earnest until you come home caked in mud. In which case, as of Sunday: IT IS ON!

Sunday was the offroad circuit at Penshurst which was muddy in every way imaginable. From gloopy-strength-sapping treacle to shimmering-slippery slime, almost every form was represented on the course. It got everywhere, even threatening ingress to internal organs (not including grime swallowed by accident while gasping for air).

Fortunately there was a pond just past the finish area which saw most people dunking their bikes in an attempt to clean them. I managed to give mine a relatively though clean but, even so, I still manged to deposit a solid centimetre of mud in the bottom of the bath when I came to give the bike a proper clean at home.

Still, I could have been the poor folk trying to read the filth-encrusted numbers on the back of riders and figure out the results. As usual at least one London Dynamo has failed to register on the sheet. That it was Huw, a man so big that his road bike is often mistake for a farm gate, would seem somewhat strange. So far this year it's been Jason's job to go missing from the results list but he wasn't there this week so I guess Huw bagged the short straw.

As for the race? Well I was quite glad to be lapped for the second time just before the finish. I was running out of usuable brake pad and energy although after a couple of nervous laps I had got the hang of the course and was handling the downhill bits reasonably well - James from Rapha Condor thought I was when he was trying to get round me on one lap.

(Image from Londoncyclesport.com)

The uphills were a bit more of a struggle but I did manage to hold my position fairly well over the course of the race. Of course, holding your position isn't much of a claim when the vast majority of people are ahead of you on the road.

What I'm more than happy with is my dismounts and remounts which allowed me to pull out gaps on a couple of riders around me when it looked like they were coming back at me. Then again when you are performing them at such low speed it's not hard to get them right.

The aim now is to start working my way up and to finish a race without being lapped before the end of the season. It's a relatively ambitious aim given that the tally so far has been three, three and two laps down on the winner.

Posted by Alex on 30 October 2007, 19:10 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

Lydden Hill. Well there's definitely a hill there, that much I can be sure of. And it hurts like hell. Race two of my season was tough but not as much of a shock to the system as last week's.

Got a lift there with Jason and a lift back with Rusty to a venue that is practical coastal. So much for it being a London league!

I'm hoping their form will rub off on me: they both finished in the top 12 while I limped in about four places from the back in 50-something. I would have finished a bit higher hopefully but for going backwards up the hill on the first lap and then getting knocked off by someone falling into me.

I tell a lie, I think I was already as far back as I could be when I got shunted. I came off fairly safely and managed not to do any damage to the bike. Other bloke came off a bit worse, luckily on a relatively soft bit.

I have, however, got a whacking great bruise on the back of my right calf and a stiff left shoulder. I guess these are just the traditional hazards of 'cross.

My favourite cycling blogger, Bike Snob NYC, has been offering his 'cross advice, all of which seems to fit with my way of thinking:

'Cross My Heart and Hope to Die: A BSNYC Cyclocross Primer

So time to nurse my wounds and prepare for next week's battle. I'm already feeling much better about it and a bit fitter. Now I just need to conquer my fear of coming off and attack the course a bit more.

Posted by Alex on 22 October 2007, 19:10 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

One race into my cyclocross season in the London League and, despite riding convincingly towards the laterne rouge end of the race, I really enjoyed it. In fact I'm rather hooked and can't wait to get cracking again next weekend. I might even remember to do my legs for it.

I've even written a brief incitement to cyclocross on the BBC's 606 (well it's one way to shift my out-of-date Worlds article from the index):

Read my article, entitled "What to do with winter?"

Definitely felt like a one hour pelt round a muddy field near my threshold amounts to much better winter training than slogging round the Surrey Hills of a Sunday. I probably worked as hard in that one hour as I do in five in the Hills. Distance I can handle by gritting my teeth and getting on with it but it's always been building that top-end power that I've struggled with. Cyclocross feels like it is ideal for targetting that.

The atmosphere is really friendly compared to on the road and you don't worry so much about falling off as mud isn't going to give you road rash like the tarmac does. Will write more when I get a moment - I'm on late shifts this week which is a bind.

Posted by Alex on 16 October 2007, 18:10 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

The finished Dolan Cyclocross build, originally uploaded by leguape.

At last, after many hours of tinkering, crying and wailing it is ready for riding. Woolsey's of Acton sorted the headset star nut this morning but otherwise all the fitting and maintenance has been done by me.

It's the first bike I have ever built up from parts myself so I'm rather proud of it. Or will be until something comes loose and I'm cursing loudly.

I rode it across Acton Park's grassy bits earlier to christen it before I put the bar tape on. The position is 10mm shorter in the stem than my usual as I've seen a slightly more shorter position recommended for cross. I say this as if it was choice rather than having a stem that fitted that length to hand.

Can't wait to get down to Rainham tomorrow and see how I fare in my first race.

Posted by Alex on 13 October 2007, 15:10 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

This is how far I've got with building up my cyclocross bike:

Just need to buy some hangers for front and rear brake cables, a wrench or two for the bottom bracket and cranks and get the star nut done and it will be ready to ride. Hopefully should have all but the last of those done by tomorrow. I'll nip down Woolsey's of Acton to get the last of those done on Friday morning.

It's been interesting doing the building for myself. I've acquired a whole bunch of tools and realised it is actually not as complicated as I feared. I won't know how well it has gone until I come to ride it but I'm fairly confident I've got most things in the right place. No doubt I'll be screaming and stamping my feet tomorrow night as I attempt to get the drivetrain to run smoothly.

In the end I have bowed to Brendan's wisdom and gone with the SRAM Rival groupset. Unlike the Merckx there are no stray Force compenents in the mix this time. The rest of the components have come from the old Giant frame which I'm not quite ready to part with yet and purchases covered by ebaying stuff:

There's a Dolan cyclocross frame in the post, some Empella FrogLeg cantilever brakes and Continental Twister tyres. I've stripped down the Trek 1000 for a Sora triple groupset, bar and stem. Yes, it looks like cyclocross is on.

I've ended up buying tools to free cranks and get bottom brackets out as well as cables. In fact the only thing I've forgotten to get is bar tape and a front cable hanger for the brake. Those I can hopefully pick up before the weekend. I also might need some new shoes and pedals.

If I'm all set I'll be taking on a course which I think has a rather terrifying descent on it. Which is all relatively nothing compared to my profligate spending in the last week. Still I'm shifting a bunch of stuff on Ebay, mostly Shimano 105 parts to make space for the SRAM Rival groupset I've got in a corner. I'm rather tempted to use the SRAM on the cyclocross bike and then shift it onto the Giant frame once the season is over.

It seems a bit of a waste though to stick a good groupset on a bike that's going to get filthy. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. After all, groupsets can be swapped fairly easily and I have been concerned that I don't have space for four bikes fully built up in the flat. It would also mean I could stick the same wheels on all my road/cross bikes as and when I like. It's only an extra bottom bracket I'd need to ease the task and it means I can sell a few more bits to cover the costs.

Looks like I've just talked myself into a revised plan.

Posted by Alex on 2 October 2007, 00:10 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

Argh, it's an itch I can't scratch - I've been caught up in the rush to try cyclocross and I'm trying to resist buying another bike. I can't afford it (I've just impulse bought a new SRAM Rival groupset for my other road bike) but I really fancy having a crack at the wintery fun.

An hour thrashing around an offroad course on a road bike sounds like an ideal way to keep the enthusiasm and fitness going over the winter. Quite a few people I've ridden with this season are giving it a try and they're all raving about it. The getting a bit filthy, improving your bike handling, falling off and having fun are just the sort of thing I enjoy.

I missed out on a frame on Ebay by 15 quid at the weekend which would have persuaded me into it. Now I can't find one anywhere. Ideally it's a hack job - spend as little as possible to get up and running - so I'm now tihnking of looking for a 700c hybrid frame with V-brakes that I can cannabalise. The V-brake bosses should allow me to get cantilever brakes on if I need to and the 700c spacing should allow me to swap on a pair of road wheels. With a bit of luck it will have an 8-speed block and I can thrown my Sora shifters at it and an old bar.

It's going to be a disaster isn't it?

Posted by Alex on 24 September 2007, 20:09 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()