What a battle

Well, I have managed to win three races in the last week, brings my yearly total to 4, same as last year, just need to keep winning, starting from this friday, as I will be in Abergavenny for a round of the National Criterium series and at present I am hovering in tenth place overall, which is not good for me, have missed 3 rounds though so can catch up a little I hope.
Legs need a massage as they feel tight after tonights race at Crystal Palace, been racing but haven't been able to do any sort of recovery ride between to loosen my legs, still managed another win tonight, this time we had a larger field and more attacking riding, maybe the sunshine encourages more people to have a go.
I sat in at the back to see if anyone would make the most of my absence by escaping the bunch, no just lots of chasing each other down, so I decided to sit on the front and hold a steady fast pace, to see if people would attack me, which they duly did but I always had a free ride back as the elastic never broke, eventually a group got away without me, let them get a reasonable lead before bridging across which I did, allowed myself a few laps to do this which meant I was able to collect a couple of riders who had been dropped and tow them back to the break, I think we had about 11 away which is to many so needed another selection, This time it came from Matt Seaton and Sam Humpherson who used the fact that we were about to lap the threes and four race and sneak away in the confusion, so I set about helping them, which meant a big effort was required to get away from the group and ride up to the two in front, when I went past Matt he went "Oh no" but got my wheel and we were the same three away as a last week, except Sam went a bit quick and on some strange racing line that meant he went off onto the grass, the next lap Sam was not to be seen, he explained he just didn't have the legs tonight so sat up to be caught by the remains of the breakaway, Matt and I had 12 laps out of the 37 left to complete, so bring on the pain as we piled on the effort to stay away, sharing the turns evenly, so when it came down to the last lap I could have attacked but went for the long windup, which to be honest is risking it all in spite of the sprint I can do when needed, just thought it would be more fair this way tonight, I still had Matt on my wheel right up to the line because as I checked he was glued to it, but my legs proved strong enough to not have to get out of the saddle, couldn't if I wanted to at that point anyway. Matt said he tried to sprint past but couldn't and that was my intention anyway, so for anyone watching it was a close finish.
The battle started when I got home as my wife had been to Blockbuster and rented two DVD's and was just about to hit play when I walked through the door, asked what she was about to watch and said can she wait while I have a quick shower, so sat down with my dinner and commenced to watch another Clint Eastwood directed film, this being Letters from Iwo Jima. I am well and truly battered know after watching that, my wife gave up over some of the scenes, but emotional or what, maybe because I was tired already it affected me more.
Anyway about to try some SIS Nocte night time recovery drink that came free with a shop copy of 220 triathlon magazine, I pilferred this as I opened the mail at work today, no doubt Jules will have me up for this as he will read this post as well, product testing is all I can say, Nighty night....

Sutton Town Centre races

Nice day out for me today, meet Sam in Herne Hill at 1:15pm and rode out to Sutton so as to watch the womans National Circuit race series and then for me to partake in the Elite invitational race at 3:45pm.
We set up outside Starbucks on the finish straight right in the middle of the shopping area, all barricaded off for the races. We watched the progress of the race while drinking coffee and eating chocolate muffins. After the finish of the womans race I went and signed on then proceded to warm up on the course, our race was only to be a very short 30 minutes plus 5 laps.
Small but good field had assembled in the sunshine so with the drop of the flag we were racing, tried to ease into it but attacks from the gun had the field stretched with one rider away already, going to be intense and that was what it proved to be. I did my best to regain the solo rider, took me longer than I hoped but it did also seperate 3 of us away from the field, so we had 4 in total away, put some digs in but actually found the circuit challenging, well OK my legs not as strong as I thought so had to ride more tactically aware.
We for the most part were keeping close tabs on each other so at times the pace dropped right back, that actually allowed a chasing rider to catch us and in the confusion I told him to ride on past as the others in the break thought he was a lapped rider regaining a lap, once they realised the chase was back on, which was not so good for said rider as we blitzted past him on the climb and he had no response at all, with 6 laps to go I attacked, thought I had done enough so when I got counter attacked I was actually dropped by my break away companions, with 3 laps left I had regained after some discomfort chasing, sat on until the last lap were again I tried just past the finish line but legs failed me so led down the hill in front, so when Ross Muir took my postion with 2 corners to go I was releaved as it is a long uphill drag to the line and I did not want to missjudge my sprint, or have to do to much, like try to get round 3 riders on such a narrow finish staight.
About opposite Starbucks I luanched into my sprint to be unchalleged to the line, gave a quick glance over my shoulder before lifting my arms into the air to savior the victory of the race. Well pleased with my form once again.
Spent the rest of the afternoon with other riders and hangers on at Starbucks, chatting in the late afternoon sun, while the last of the days races was run off.
I won a nice cut glass trophy and recieved two medals(not sure why I got two, but what the heck) and a nice small bunch of flowers that I presented to my wife once home as she was unable to come and watch today.
Had a nice easy ride back home taking about 40 minutes and then finished by doing my stretches before watching the Tour de France highlights on ITV4 at 7pm.

Crystal Palace report

Crystal Palace once again, this time I was going to win, pulled my white Rocket 7's out of their hiding place in my wardrobe this morning, nice sunny day so already had the day mapped out in my mind. During the day I needed to get my race bike cleaned up and change my tires on my zipp 404's, as well as doing all my normal work as well, all went well except for the eating food part as it got busy in the afternoon, managed to get a sandwich at 5.30pm, a little late as I was well hungry. at least I got my bike all cleaned up, find I have to clean my bike about 3 times as it is easy to smear the dirt about on my white HSG carbon Serotta. Used a new polish, brings up a very nice shine. Also polish my Zipp rims, changed the Michelin Pro grip tires I put on for the Smithfield Nocturne, very grippy tires but do cut up quickly, felt new Pro2 tires in black should be fine for the rest of the season, if it rains in a race I will adjust the tire pressure before the start.90psi in the wet, in the dry about 105psi unless it is a circuit like Hillindon and I may go to 120psi.
Anyway it took an hour to get my bike ready, so after switching my frame fit pump and filled up my drink bottle with Born energy drink I was out of the shop at 6:20pm riding to Cyrstal palace with all the commuters, oh there is some bad riders out they.
Picked up a few other riders on the way, just gentle spinning along, nice and hot for once.Plenty of riders had signed up tonight, Our race got under with 35 laps to do and me at the very back, by the end of the first lap I had moved up to 5th to see that Ben Pochee had already fled the field so I went after him, caught him in a lap and we settled into building up a lead with me trying not to do to much, after a few laps we could see that 5 riders had got away from the bunch and were trying to catch us, Ben asked if we should wait up for them, I said let them catch us as the main field was not that far behind them, it took them maybe two laps longer than they expected to bridge as it looked as if they had caught us but no one had actually made the junction so we hovered at about 5 bike lengths for a while until Sam made contact, we all worked together with me doing some strong pulls on the climb.
about half way through the race I buried it on the climb to see if we could get a smaller selection, was expecting maybe 1 or 2 riders to get dropped but managed to drop 4, so had with me Sam from London Dynamo and Matt Seaton rider for Rapha Condor, I did some hard pulls to make the break count then slowly allowed Sam and Matt set the pace, still I did the top of the climb and the headwind along the finish straight, we gradually increased our lead, and even lapped the main bunch. I was trying to set it up for Sam to win but in the end Matt had the better of Sam so I made sure Matt wasn't getting First, wasn't a sprint just a very quick windup for the line, didn't help that we caught the main bunch again while going for the line, no victory salute, just don't feel compelled to, need more emotion and bigger event to get me going.
So only my 2nd win this year, both at Crystal Palace, feel good, no more antibiotics since last friday has helped as well.
On Sunday I am racing in the E,1,2 Invitation race at the Sutton Town centre races at 15.45, there is a day of racing starting at 10am for riders under 10, then progressing up to the Elite National Reynolds/Michelin Woman's road race series at 13.45, shall be a good day out, heard that it is a short circuit with some cobbles, looking forward to it.

Big week, not!!

Made it through the week, today I went out at 9.30 with Sam, took him round the route I did last sunday, just this time my legs realy felt it, was struggling alot from Crowshurst back up Tandridge to the top of the North downs, Sam had to ease up for me, did do one big effort off the top of the downs back towards London at 32 mp/h, but that was me cooked, just followed Sams wheel untill Corkscrew Hill then we eased back and cruised over Crystal Palace hill down College road were Sam got takin out by a car 4 weeks ago to Dulwich park and the cafe in the centre, sat in the sun having a nice coffee looking at all the mums and kids on the parks trike zipping about, amazed there are not more crashes with kids on bikes, scooters, trikes and skate boards using the paths.
That is the biggest week for me since Mallorca in April, that is really scary in its self as that is only 13 hours. That a few years ago would have been the least I was doing. Oh well doing OK on the little I do.
Watched an exciting stage of the Tour today, 1st stage in the Pyrenees, good to see lots of attacking riding.
Hamilton finally had a bad day at the office, only say the end of the Grand Prix, but the weather had a big effect it seems.

Amoxicillin

Been taken these capsules 3 times a day since monday, it's a 5 day course of antibiotics for my gum where my tooth was removed on monday. Hadn't noticed anything until late yesterday when I felt more tired than normal, but that could also be the mundane task involved in doing a stock take at work. Still on the ride to Cyrstal Palace to take part in the racing on tuesday night I felt weak.
Although that in itself isn't a suprise as I can seem asleep before racers to others looking at me. My way of staying calm and saving energy until required. So moving on, the race was a normal affair with a bunch of riders letting riders attack then chase them down, then look at who was next and do it again, I felt strong so any lull in procedings I would go and up the pace again, mainly on the climb. Also for no reason I thought I would race in 53x15 all night, or untill either the finish sprint or if I felt like really lifting the pace, in the end it was only in the sprint for the line that I changed up 2 gears and found out quickley my legs were not ready, slightly annoying for me as I sort of expected to win no matter what, especially as I had felt the same all night and nearly rode away from the break away group with 3 laps to go, unfortuntally this also was the sprint for the line in the 3/4s bunch which I had just gone past when they then raggedly sprinted past bringing back my break away companions at the same time to me.
I just lacking that extra little punch,kick whatever you call it that you normally can use once in a race, ie the sprint for the line, although saying that the person in front is still in front, no excuses, so 2nd for me again.
This brings me to today, slept well last night and had a lay in to 9:30am as it was my day off work. Went to the post office, was struggling with the glare of the outdoors let alone the bright sunshine, had me squinting my eyes. When I got home at 11:00am I was wiped out so lay down fully clothed on top of the bed as I thought a brief nap would sort me out. 3 1/2 hours later and still tired I awoke, that Amoxicillin and hard exercise don't go together I guess. Managed a ride at 5:00pm of 1 1/2 hours.
Thats that, need sleep!!!

Teething Trouble

Well after my friday excursion I managed to do two days of training, first weekend that I have done any training since I was in Mallorca in April. Scary as I think alot of people expect me to be riding all the time, I can only do what I can fit in without getting overly tired so tend to ride hard then rest and repeat. Works OK for me as it dosn't take long for me to sharpen up my form.
But saying that, not doing anything longer than 1 1/2 hours in a ride tends to knot my leg muscles after a while, so good to get out on Saturday and do 3 laps of Richmond Park, again thats the first time in 5 months I have used the park to queitly get some laps in. Must admit I could'nt resist overtaking a bunch of disorganised Triathletes coming down the hill towards Robin Hood gate. I think this upset them as once there all got on the flat they all tried going flat out at once but not as a group, laughable, allowed them all to go past me then stuck it in the big ring and started winding it up nice and smoothly, just to tease anyone if they had the sense to get my wheel for an easy tow, of course no one did so I just kept going up to 35-37 miles an hour(have no computer on my race bike but know from my gearing and leg speed roughly how fast I am going). never saw them again even though I went back down to gentle pace for my last lap.
So that was Saturday, on Sunday I managed 3 1/2 hours exploring the surrey lanes, round Bletchingley, Lingford,Crowhurst,Tandridge area, came across 3 London Dynamos marshelling on the corner outside Lingford for the Southern Counties road Race champs, talked for ten minutes then rode round the course and then home, legs feel really good.
So managed to ignore my tooth for most of the weekend, gum swelling went down on sunday, but pain came back.Today I was at the dentist, and after an x-ray, the result was that the tooth had cracked below the gum line across the tooth opposed to down through the tooth, I mean, when it went on Thursday while eating a choclate hobnob it was enough to reveberate through my head.
End result is that tooth with nice route canel work had to be removed which required surgery, I said no time like the present and away we went, 1 hour later the dentist had removed my tooth, well what was left of it as far as I could see it was in 6 pieces, and stiched my gum up as he had to cut the nerves with a scapel and cut into the gum to get at the tooth. he said he wanted to leave as much bone in my mouth(nice of him) so that we can insert a screw in two weeks time, this is called an implant then six months time have it crowned, only £1400.00.
Scary thing is I have the same gap on the other side of jaw from last year, but sort of forgot to have finished, mind sort of blanked out the cost and what was involved, so by the end of the year my teeth a likely to have cost me £3000.00 (great!!!!)
No pain know, was very sore an hour after even with pain killers, also hungry.
So bring on Cystal Palace Tuesday night.

Friday the 13th.

This Blog is mainly about racing, but sometimes things happen like my journey yesterday to get to a round of the National Criterium series in Blackpool, Race start was at 8pm, So I left London at 11.30 aiming to allow 4-5 hours on the M40, M6 to get to Blackpool with time to spare in an ideal world that would be easy!
All seemed well until the rain came down just before Birmingham, got unto the M5 and then just came to a halt, by 4pm I had got onto the M6, at this point I should have been near Manchester, from then on traffic was stop, start. At this point I took an A road, in fact the A54, of course driving and map reading can not be safely done ,so I went on my inbuilt compass, which quickly meant I had no idea were I was, kept pressing on, which lead me to a big moment on a wet corner, lost the back end on my Citreon Xantia estate, not reknowed for it's handling to start with and having no power to speak off, I had a big moment of opposite lock, kept it on my side of the road which probable pleased the the 4wd coming the other way. Heart stopping, cosidering I wasn't going fast, cheap tyres on wet roads.
Managed to rejoin the motorway further up, traffic was still the same so needing the little boys room I stopped at the next services which was Charnock Richard on the M6, at this point I realised that it was not going to happan as it was 7:15pm at this point and still 55 miles to go.
Really pissed off to get this far and not race, called a few people to vent my frustration, then went and had dinner, well toasted Panini with Italian sausage and Almond Crosiant and a Cappacino for a whopping £9.60, at least it all tasted good.
At this point after 30 minutes rest I was seriously thinking of staying in a hotel, as I was knackered. In the end I could'nt face doing any driving the next day, so headed back up to the next junction in the plan I would come back on the M61 and cut across on the M62 and then join the A1 back down to London(did this the week before,took 4 hours). The moment I saw the stationary traffic on the M61 I kept going round the roundabout back the way I had come to rejoin the M6. 5 hours later I was back at home, rain was mega heavy but traffic kept flowing which was the main thing. So 13 hours after setting off, I was back were I started. What a waste of a day, when I woke up I felt I should stay at home, but I knew that would not go done well with my sponsors, so I kept on trucking, back that up that I cracked another tooth on thursday at work and know my gum is swollen beyound the tooth so cannot chew on that side.
All I can say, the race was wet, the circuit looked crap from what I could make of it on Google Earth, and the fact that lots of riders punctured and there was not the normal lap out you normally get in a criterium to affect a wheel change and not lose a lap. So not bothered in the end.Thats me all spent, cheers

Guildford Town Centre race

Last night was the Guildford Town centre race, This is the race I have won for the last two years, I tryed as hard as I could but having only just recovered from a headcold I had lost a little of my top end, legs were strong though.
This most be one of the UK's hardest circuits at only 600m and three corners you could think what could be that hard, well add in the cobbles on the High street and the narrow paved Market Street leading onto the High Street, you get no rest anywere after climbing to the start finish line to do it all again on average every 50seconds per lap.
I had a slow start for me on this circuit, about 25 place so had a bit of work to do, but I was moving up 2-3 places per lap using the 2nd corner as my passing place by running round the outside of the bunch by not braking at all.
I really felt the effort required on this course tonight. best to stay as smooth as possable, found myself in a group of 7 leading the race. Had 3 PCA Plowman Craven riders, Tony Gibb,James Millard and Gordon McCauley, Jamie Newall(Evens cycles)Ross Muir from Rapha Condor, Wouter Sybrandy (Agiskover) .
I didn't have the legs to attack like normal but was able to put some hard efforts in just in case someone wasn't paying attention and let a gap go, but that wasn't happening with ~PCA marking my everymove, in the end when Gordon attacked with 10 laps I was hoping to bridge across, but as I have said I did not have the the top end I needed to sustain such an effort, so after 3 laps chasing and holding the gap at 8 seconds I was spent, so sat up and then tagged onto the back of the group. Jamie then did a couple of fierce laps, nearly had me dropped off going up the High Street .
With 2 laps to go I made my way to the front for one fast and furious last lap in the hope no-one would attempt to get by me, but I guess racing makes people do things so I was boxed out into the 2nd corner just as we caught the bunch, well what remained a lap down or two, Tony tried to ride through them with Ross on his wheel, I let them as I turned hard left and railed up the left side of the High Street unopposed to take 2nd place, getting past all of the lapped riders in the process, Totally cooked, had to ignore the commentator to do an extra warm down lap to get my breath back.
Have to thank the orginsers and sponsors for getting this race on the calander again, thank you!
Seemed to recover quickly which is a good sign and legs feel fine today as well, all good for Fridays race in Blackpool, long drive, 5 hours or so.
Must go to bed, later.