First Race 2009

Sunday I rode my first race of the year at Nieul, just out side Limoges. It’s a hard course, 8 laps of 6.5km with 150m climbing each lap. It didn’t go so great, but as mentioned in previous posts I wasn’t expecting too much. It was a fine day and it was the first race of the season, hence there was a lot of riders out - around 60 in my cat. For most it was probably the first ride of the year in shorts so there were a lot of untanned legs. Not only white mine were also unshaven! 

The race started fast, unfortunately I was quite near the back and had to fight frequent accelerations, riders were soon going off the back. I held on until the 4th lap when I was dropped on the longest climb of the circuit. If I had a plan, should this happen, its was to wait for the 4th cats to catch me the ride with them. For the remaining 4 laps I either rode on my own of with 1 or 2 others, the 4th cats never arrived.

Stats for thought – if I go out training alone I normally average about 300 meters climbing per hour. On a good run out with the club this may increase to about 370m/hr. On this ride it was 575m/hr and it would have been hired if I’d held the pace, so quite a lot higher than I’m conditioned too.

The race was a good benchmark in otherways, so to speak, if anything I think I fared better than expected considering the disruptions to my training schedule recently. My body needed a good kick, just like if a car is driven around town all the time it does the car good to get it out on some fast roads and have a bit of a burn up, to clean out the engine. I certainly got a good kick, can’t wait for the next week its the annual ROC cyclo race, hopefully I’ll manage a few more laps before being dropped.

Paris-Nice 2009 round up

I’ve enjoyed following this race over the last week, sometimes via the TV, other times by newspaper or the internet. A good field of riders, a historic race, some gutsy riding and a dash of controversy just to give in a bit of colour.

In summary the 2007 Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador, was the favourite after winning the prologue, albeit some would question how. Contador the lightweight, Spanish climber and a little below top form beat Olympic pursuit champion and time trialist specialist Bradley Wiggins, who had specifically trained to win this event, by seven seconds.

Contador held on to the yellow jersey for most of the week only to lose is in the closing kilometers of the penultimate stage to Luis León Sánchez losing three minutes overall. Contador needed help off his bike he tried so hard. In the final stage he gave it all. Attacking on the days first big climb it didn’t work for long. In the final kilometers two riders escaped and Contador gave chase. He gave it all on the last day to regain the golden fleece he’d lost but to no avail.

Luis León Sánchez won the general classification,  Fränk Schleck was second, then Sylvain Chavanel followed in fourth by Contador. Maybe he was a little under form after all…….

After Blighty!

I like England, miss it at times, it has its faults but after a week in ‘Blighty’ I’m pleased to be back on French soil.  Spent most of the time with the family and my inlaws but managed a weekend back in my old stopping ground Gloucestershire to catch up with family and friends. Had a few beers, a couple more, told a few lies and generally had a good laugh.  Also ate a heap of food I’d missed – fish and chips, pork pies, Cadburys cream eggs, amongst loads of other things – well my doctor says I’ve got exceptionally low cholesterol so I thought I better do something about it, wouldn’t you?

Now back on French soil, now back to work, but at least back on the bike. I’m really really excited about racing on the bike this Sunday. I don’t know why cause I’m somewhat below par. This time last year I was really fired up, wanted a podium finish, but on reflection probably over trained. This year its different, I’m excited but relaxed, for Sunday I’ve no expectations, I just want a benchmark, just want to learn, just want the thrill.  

Picked up the race calender today from my unofficial trainer and mentor. The calender, this Sundays benchmark and a bit of planning I can set some goals for the season.

La Forme Rentre

We’ve had some fantastic weather the last few days and I’ve been able to push a few kilometres through the pedals. 80kms on Wednesday and 105 on the club ride today. To top things off I feel I’ve shaken off the chesty cough and hopefully the last of the flu symptoms which have severly hampered and setback my training over the last few weeks.

The flu really knocked the stuffing out of me. I’ve even lost a couple of kilos too. Unfortunately, I think the loss might be in the form of some muscle mass rather than body fat so no power to weight ratio gain!

Well the long awaited race season technically starts tomorrow. But for me it will be a couple of weeks time as I’m back in the UK for a week so probably wont get a race in until around the 14/15th of March. I feel my form is now returning so I’m just going to try and build on that with some more interval training.

I’ve not set any goals as yet, hopefully once back from the UK when I’ve had a look at the race calender I can begin setting a few. But, alas, I don’t think I’ll be on top form for this years club race, on the 22nd of March. It will probably end up being a preparation training race while I build my form, but I’ll give it a good go!  One of this years general goals will be to focus on races which are relatively short 1.5-2 hours rather than cyclosportives whichtendto be 4-5 hours in comparison. Last year I tried to do both and it didn’t work. There is an added benefit, races are abundant locally and relatively cheap compared to cyclosportives which aren’t.

Flu recovery not over yet

Today I had to pick my partner Helen up from the airport. As I had not been able to get out much the last fortnight as I either had or was recovering from flu, I decided I would cycle the circa 50Km route back from the airport. So after a quick hello and all the romantic stuff I leave her in the safe hands of my daughter who can remind the former what side of the road to drive on etc., well Claudia is only 11 but is already fully qualified and well versed in back seat driving!   

Leaving the airport is all down hill, my average speed was soon well above 30km/h and this speed that kind of motivates you to try and maintain the average. I headed down to ’Pont du Gabie’, an old bridge across the river Vienne and took the scenic river route back toward Saint Junien.

From the pont I started to struggle, although the Flu has gone It has left me with a chesty cough. I also seemed to lack any energy, despite being relatively motivated it just wasn’t happening. The average speed continued to fall until I reached home with an average speed below 25km/h.

It kind of got me concerned now, the last few months I’ve been following a training plan and I feel now its all blown out the water. Maybe it just means I’ve got to go back a few weeks in the training plan and build again from there. Oh well I guess that means I ain’t goin’ to be on form for the local club race, still theres a few weeks left!