Cuckney at the double – 2UP time trial

After Tuesday’s course PB and a couple of good training sessions my attention soon turned to my next race, a 2Up TT on the same course with my mate and fellow Team Bottrill rider Simon Travell. Simon and I are both coached by Dan and are totally familiar with each other’s capabilities on the bike, this makes a 2Up a little less of a step into the unknown as to how things will go and the way in which we planned to race. When you think of a 2UP you automatically think you’ll rocket down the course and blitz any time you can do on your own, this is potentially the case, but doing a 2Up is quite different to a solo effort. To go faster, you’ll need to make the changes slick and each rider needs to ensure they don’t put the other one into the red zone by riding too hard at certain points, the aim is to get both riders to the finish line in the quickest time, not to beat each other up in the process.

Build up

Prior to the race I’d done my typical bit of over analysis and looked at the pairings that would be racing, in total there would be 27 teams racing, looking at individual times using the CTT website I’d counted 7 teams that would most likely be faster, 7 teams around the same pace and the rest potentially slower. I’d predicted we’d come 8^th, time wise it was hard to say due to the potential of bad weather, but as a guide I’d done 21:58 solo so I would have thought something around 21:15 might be possible, but as mentioned that would be reliant on a number of factors.

Race Time

Having missed the opportunity for a practice run on Tuesday we both arrived in plenty of time to do an extended warm up, so we kitted up and set off. Looking at the sky above, there was A LOT of dark clouds around, a soaking seemed inevitable but after a few brief stops we did about 8 miles together and all seemed well as we came back to race HQ. Our start time was 14:20, after a few chats with some of the AMAC boys we made our way up the hill, eventually rolling to the start line with a few minutes to spare. Some familiar faces from B&DCC were on starting duty including Craig Devonshire and Malc and before too long both of us were blasting down the hill in pursuit of a quick time.

The out leg

As we passed both (well marshalled) cross roads, I heard Simon shout something like “we are alive” as we began the climb up the other side, first job complete. The run to the turn is 5.5 miles, we had a slight tailwind helping us and we soon got into a good rhythm, alternating roughly every 45 seconds. The changes felt pretty good, we passed close together and there was no surging or waiting needed. Every time I looked down through my legs I saw Simon’s wheel close to mine (wahey!) and when I was on the rear I felt like I’d been close too, I certainly managed to get some good recoveries in anyway, no doubt helped by the fact Simon seemed to ride his bike arrow straight, I hoped I was doing the same. I had a slight bum clenching moment when a car passed us a little too closely but other than that we were well on track as we averaged close to 29mph, 0.5mph quicker than I’d gone solo on Tuesday. At 5 miles you hit the hit the hill that signals the turn is fast approaching, being slightly better on the inclines I’d purposely got on the front to help us up the hill, this worked ok, the issue we had was another pairing that we had caught was only a few metres in front of us at this point, this would make the already fiddly turn an even greater challenge.

With Simon slightly behind me and a car approaching from the right my plan was to get around the turn then slow a bit  if needed around the other side, I swung wide overtook the other 2 riders taking a brief glance to see where my partner was, he looked to be carrying good speed around the bend and whilst we still had the other 2 riders in between us it looked like we’d be back together ready to attack the home leg. Well, we would have been if instead of those two guys moving out the way they hadn’t decided to try and jump on my wheel, this was really bad form from them and it meant Simon had to really battle to pass them and put in extra effort to get back up behind me. I didn’t want to slow too much and risk my body thinking the pain was over, on reflection maybe I should have knocked it back a fraction more but regardless it was a bit annoying that this team had interfered with our race.

After dropping down the hill we soon got back into rhythm, the extra effort Simon had put in meant we had to just peg it back momentarily and I did a double turn to help. This worked and then each time Simon was back on the front I got my recovery in to allow us push on once more. Approaching the garden centre there were a number of cars pulling in and out but with marshals there they were at least alerted to our presence, a comforting feeling when you’re making yourself as small as possible doing around 29mph. Safely through we now started to wind it up for the finish.

Almost at the finish

Naturally having been able to take lots of recoveries (relative term, you still have to pedal bloody hard) behind Simon I was feeling much stronger at this point than when solo on Tuesday, my memory is a little unclear but I think we both communicated that it was now time to go full gas for the finish. At this point I was really enjoying the team effort we’d put in, the buzz helped to take a fraction of the sting out the legs as we came around the final section and saw the finish line in sight. I was completely turning myself inside out at this point as Simon came up on my right so we could cross the line together, as we crossed the line I hit the stop button, 21:26, first emotion was I’ll take that so pretty happy. We had a few private words about the race but all in all I think we’d both enjoyed it, it was then all about getting back to HQ and seeing how we’d done.

Looking back over the data at the last 2 miles I’d put out 296W, meaning we had averaged  28.9mph for that section which was 3mph quicker than I did solo, proving that we had worked well as we were able keep pushing to the line rather than fading. The last mile we both did 293W, which again shows the joint effort that had gone in to achieving the time we did.

Back at HQ we looked at the laptop to see the times coming in, I think at this point we were in 4^th, Joel and Xavi who had a practice run in the week were in 2nd with a 20:39. The other AMAC team of Bishop and Moore pipped us by 1s doing a 21:26 to our amended 21:27. Roughly 20 minutes later all the times were in, we’d ended up in 8^th (as a I predicted..) the winners doing a 20:14. It would have been nice to get that 7^th, but all in all a great effort between the both of us. Like ourselves most pairings all seemed to have a story that cost them a few seconds but that’s time trialling for you I guess.

A big thanks to the organisers and helpers from B&DCC, any chance of another one before the season ends?

Flight of the Phoenix – Course PB

On Saturday I’m racing a 2UP TT down at my local Cuckney course, the plan last night was to meet up with fellow Team Bottrill rider Simon Travell to get in some practice, sadly Simon couldn’t make it so I decided to race solo at the Sheffield Phoenix club 10 event on the same course. With conditions looking favourable I’d been confident of breaking my existing course PB of 22 minutes 25s so I’d spent some of my lunch break looking at what average speed that would equate to. I figured I’m aim high and look to break the 22 minute barrier, speed needed to do a 21:59 would be 27.29mph, so if I managed 27.3mph the job would be done.

Having grabbed a bite to eat at home and spent a bit of time with my family I headed down to Cuckney arriving about 30 minutes before the start, as I arrived I spotted Joel and Xavi from AMAC racing who’d had the same idea as Simon and myself and were going to get in some practice for Saturday. I purposely signed in after them as they’d go quicker than me and I didn’t want them passing me to disrupt my own goals for the evening. This meant I was actually number 13, it’s bad luck to be superstitious so I pinned my number the right way up, got my kit on and fired up my Garmin. First step as always is to calibrate my power meter, sadly it didn’t want to play ball, so I began my warm up without a power reading.

I rode a couple of miles up the road to get an idea of the conditions and to get my legs working. Whilst my legs were working ok, having stopped again it was clear my power meter wasn’t. No bother I thought, I know what average speed I need to do, I’ll just focus on that. Quite an alien concept as I’m used to looking at the power output when I race but I was actually looking forward to the enforced experiment. Warm up commenced, well, 10 minutes riding around and 5 minutes faffing I turned up at the start line ready to give it the beans.

Start

Skin suit zipped up, Garmin ready, 3,2,1 and off I went down the gift hill at the start, the plan here was to push and make use of the slightly bigger gearing I was now using (52/11 instead of 52/12) and so I did, I exceeded 40mph down the first mile, keeping as aero as I could to maximise the gains. Average speed was obviously way north of 27.3mph at this point, but as I settled in I felt really good, pushing on the inclines, keeping it going on the flat, taking a slightly bigger breath on the descents. I had it in my head to be around 28.5mph average at the turn and as I approached the hill at roughly 5 miles I was on track for this, I flicked the chain up the cassette 5 or 6 notches pushed up the hill and just as important continued to push over the hill as I approached the turn. With a car approaching from the right I timed my effort to allow me to carry the speed through the fiddly “turn”, the second part of the turn is even more fiddly and I was held up slightly, maybe 2 seconds, no more than that. It happens at Cuckney, you just have to accept it, I remained focused getting the bike back up to speed knowing I could take a quick breather as I went back down the hill to begin the run for home.

Push

The return leg was into a slight headwind and is generally slower anyway, I knew my 28.6mph to the turn would slowly creep down, I also didn’t know how many watts I’d put out, had I gone way too hard? No idea, we’d find out later I guess. The objective now was to keep that average speed to 27.3mph or higher and knowing this was now a realistic goal it really kept my head in check. At 7 miles I was averaging 28mph, at 8 miles that was down to 27.6mph, this was going to be close. My legs were naturally tiring but I knew if I could keep it above 27.3mph average with a mile to go I’d have enough in my legs to break 22 minutes, mainly because I knew that the slight downhill sections would help increase the average, add to the fact with a sub 22 on the menu I’d not be letting up.

Comparison to previous PB

Almost there

At 9.6 miles the average speed dropped briefly to 27.3mph, then back up to 27.4mph as I started emptying the tanks fully for those last 700 metres. Looking at the data for the last 0.4 miles I averaged 27.5mph, net result was an average of 27.4mph and a time of 21:58, job well and truly done. I had initially thought that improving my course PB by 26 seconds would be a tall order, but on the flip side I felt that time was in me.

The lack of a power meter was certainly no hindrance on a course I’m familiar with but it would have been nice to see what I put out, regardless of that, the feeling I got when I stopped  my Garmin and saw 21:56 was pretty fulfilling. And even though I knew the official time would be slightly slower, it wasn’t going to be 4 seconds so I had no doubt I’d gone under 22. 21:58 Happy days.

Results sheet

Season goal

At the start of the season I’d set a goal on this course of 21:30, I knew this was a stretch and with 28 seconds to find it’s still a stretch. The season so far has been a bit fragmented but with the training I’m getting from Dan through Matt Bottrill Performance Coaching I know I can find some more time. I don’t think it will be 28 seconds and there’s certainly no money in the pot for go faster bits, but with more than 2 months to go I think there could be another 10 seconds in me, so maybe even a 21:45 if I can nail things. I’ll just have to keep the training going and an eye on the weather and see what happens.

Next stop, Cuckney on Saturday for the 2up.

 

Double Desmond

After a disappointing club 10 a couple of weeks ago where I put out my worst ever power, having finally shaken off all the bugs and coughs I’ve managed to put together two solid weeks training and I’m feeling really good, it’s been sometime since I’ve felt this way. I don’t think it’s any coincidence this has come on the back of getting out on the road rather than being stuck in the turbo shed, long may this weather continue. As Dan said, perhaps on that race my legs hadn’t quite caught up with my head in how I was feeling, you can’t miss training and expect to perform.

This week though I have two races, at the weekend I’m back on the O10/3 in Ranby but last night it was the Matlock Cycling Club’s Grouse Open event just down the road from me in Rowsley. I’ve not done the exact course before but having ridden the roads many times (and a few times in the last couple of weeks) course knowledge was not a problem. As ever though things were not quite straight forward……….

The TT bike has been in the shop since Friday where I was looking to get some work done on the bars, I’d also put on a new cassette that decided it wanted to rattle and wobble about (this meant I also missed an Open race at Mapperley a week ago) so I asked the shop to look at that too. Long story short, the modifications I wanted on the bars weren’t possible and when I got the bike back home, despite the cassette now being firmly attached there is an annoying rattle which is making the drive train less than smooth. It’s a distraction you don’t need, there have been a few dark thoughts, mainly about chainsaws and bikes in dustbins, but I figured what the hell I’ll just race tonight so off I went.

Arriving at HQ there were quite few familiar faces, Paddy Gould, Alex Deck, Matt Ingram and it was also good to meet Eric Grill who I “knew” from the Time Trialling Forum. Conditions were pretty much perfect, warm and no wind, not sure about the air pressure but Matt Sinclair had commented on Twitter earlier this might stop his attempt on the course record of 20 minutes  43 seconds, that wasn’t something I need concern myself with though my time would be outside of that.

Having got kitted up I commenced my warm up, made all the more easier by the warm temperature and then at around 7:40pm I pulled up at the start line to get myself ready. Adam Kenway was just blasting off the line, he’d be pushing for the course record as well. After a brief chat with Matt Sinclair who was starting off a couple of minutes behind me it was the usual, 5,4,3,2,1 and off I went.

Bakewell Blast

I’d targeted a time of 22:15 which is a fraction under an average of 27mph, the plan was to get to the turn in Bakewell at an average of 26mph (first 5 miles is slower than the last) and then get home in 28mph and as I pushed hard on the pedals I was on track to achieve my first objective. Prior to the race I’d reduced the PSI in my tyres a little and this seemed to stop my eyes rattling in my head and help me concentrate a bit more and I felt quite strong as I came into Bakewell. My average speed had dropped to 25.9mph and as I came around the small roundabout that is the turn (excellently marshalled by Matlock’s army of helpers) the lights were on red with a couple of cars queuing but I took a chance on them changing, reduced my power and hoped I would be right, it probably cost me a few seconds but no harm done.

Overall Summary

Comparison to Paddy Gould

Home Run

Having been a little slower than anticipated to the turn I knew I had my work cut out to achieve an average speed of 27mph so it was a case of buckling down and doing what I could. Having got over the lumpy Haddon Hall section the road then descends back down to Rowsley, here I was hitting 30mph+ and my average speed began to grow 26.2, 26.4 and as I swung around past the Grouse & Claret pub I was at 27mph. Despite some very near misses with cramp in both calves my confidence grew and with 1.5 miles to go my legs felt they had enough in them to go full gas, I’d need to as the last 0.5 miles was into a slight incline that would mean I’d be really fighting to keep the speed averaging 27mph.

Holding my best aero position I afforded myself some brief glances at my Garmin, my 3s power constantly over 300W as I smashed myself to pieces in search of the finish line. About 300 metres before the line despite me averaging 310W for the last mile the average speed dropped down to 26.9mph and as I crossed the line my time flashed up as 22:19, 4 seconds over my target but a performance I was happy with. On reflection now I think I could have gone a little bit harder to the turn as clearly I had enough in the tank at the end but with my 22:19 rounded up to 22:22 by the time keeper that was good enough for 10^th place.

Matt Sinclair took the win in a blistering course record time of 20:18, Kenway in 2^nd 20:44 and Paddy Gould in 3^rd with a club record of 21:21. One of my other pre-race targets was to be within a minute of Paddy so that was all but achieved. Another was to get a power PB, I managed that by putting out 289W so all in all a satisfying night and a good confidence booster for Saturday.

Now all I need to do is rectify the mechanicals, nail this week’s training and I should be on for another good performance on Saturday.