Season Review Part 2.

Then I started at the University of Aberystwyth. And the second weekend I was there, did the Fibrax-Wrexham RC Open Hill Climb up the Horseshoe Pass in Llangollen. I went into this just as the dreaded ‘Fresher’s Flu’ kicked in, and awoke the morning of the competition with a horrendously thick and catarrhy head. Still after a decent warm up I didn’t feel too bad. I had been seeded 87^th out of 90. I did what I still believe to be a ‘perfect’ ride. Got the pacing spot on, gearing just high enough and emptied myself sprinting for the line. I was pleased my pacing was accurate, as we’d only driven up it the day before and I hadn’t had time to ride it. I placed 3^rd, 17 seconds behind Richard Handley (Team Raleigh-lovely guy) and 6 (I think) seconds behind Dan Evans (Rhos On Sea CC). I was rather surprised at this result if I’m honest, I hadn’t really been able to do any training in the run up what with the craziness of Fresher’s Week and all. However it now seems like I was properly rested coming into it and that my road form was still very much present! Either way, seeing my name 3^rdout of 90 was rather special, as was the medallion and £20 prize money! 

Told you I could gurn.

Trust me when I say this, there was a dog on the roof. Seriously. 

Yeeeahhh.

Things then quietened down for a few weeks. Tried to get into a training routine and failed, largely due to dodgy weather and not lectures getting in the way (or is it the other way round...) Either way, the weekend of my birthday came around and with it a manic few days travelling back home, doing two hill climbs and then getting back to Aber. On Saturday it was the Nelson Wheelers HC up out of Barley near Pendle Hill. I wondered whether this climb really suited me, yes it had a steady gradient but it was rather short as the course record from the previous year was around 4 minutes. I set a time of 3:53.6. And held the new course record for approximately 57 seconds! I ended up 5^th behind Mike Cuming (Twenty 3C Orbea) who set a new course record (he held the previous) of 3:30.2. That was a lot of time to be beaten by over such a short distance. The next day (my birthday incidentally-20 years young!) was the North Lancs RC HC up the Infamous Nick O’Pendle. Interestingly, this event attracted the likes of Tejvan Pettinger (Sri-Chinmoy Cycling Team and a bit of a Legend this year) and Paul Jones (Bristol South CC and fellow competitor at all my Open HCs this year. Also a bit of a Legend...) which tells you something about the nature of this hill. Again, I didn’t pre-ride it due to time constraints more than anything else (seems to be a recurring theme this...) and paid the price subsequently. I posted a time of 4:23.3 which was good enough for 8^th, 50 seconds down on Tejvan (who was if memory serves me correctly 7 seconds off Chris Boardman’s record). On reflection I think forcing myself to ride a higher gear by using a fixed gear would, providing I kept the cadence, yield a significantly quicker time.

Barley HC. Cheers to Paul Jones for these two!

Nick O'Pendle HC. B*tch of a climb. Think my bar tape needed changing no?

So that just left me with another double weekend of competition left, but this was the big one. The BUCS Uni champs on Saturday 29^th and then the Nationals on the Sunday. I remember talking to Jim Henderson at last year’s Southport CC club dinner and asking him if it was a realistic goal to try and ride the Nationals this year. He said it was, but it seemed like such a big step (at that stage I had probably done fewer than 10 competitive events on a bike-not forgetting two hill climb wins of course :D...). I think the weight of what I was undertaking had been lost somewhere in the intervening 11 months (perhaps the fatigue of a long season catching up on me?) but I struggled to really motivate myself for these two last, and admittedly rather large, hurdles. As a result, I kind of got the week in-between my birthday weekend and the Nationals weekend wrong. Where I should have tapered and rested, I did a couple of hard rides and only had one day completely off the bike before the weekend. Not perfect preparation, but with a good long warm up  (which for a change included a ride up the hill) I felt ok for the Uni champs. I was seeded 145^th out of 150 riders and came joint 13^th with two other guys at 6:11.00 with the winner coming in at 5:37.00. This was a bit of a disappointment if I’m honest, as despite not knowing the hill at all, or having any idea of the level of competition, I’d quietly been hoping for at least top 10 and possibly better. Unfortunately in terms of accurate results, times were only recorded to 00.01, whereas normally timed events such as these are done to 00.00.01 which resulted in a huge number of joint placings. Next year I plan to target this event properly, come back and recce it a number of times beforehand and used a fixed gear-as again, I can see big time improvements being made with a carefully selected fixed gear. 

Warming up for the BUCS Uni Champs. Thanks to Colin from the club for the plain skinsuit loan!

So, onto the 2011 National Hill Climb Championships. At 4.44 miles long and an average gradient of 3.2%, this wasn’t exactly a hill, more a ‘slope’, but as people have rightly pointed out this just gave some of the more powerfully built riders a shot at the title. I set a time of 14:44.4 (which works out at an average speed of 18.5mph). I apparently had the fastest halfway split time for much of the race, but as people rightly point out that’s only worth noting if you actually maintain it all the way. Unfortunately I didn’t, but I attribute this more to my lack of aero kit than shoddy pacing!

This is my scary face. Gurn #3?

As you can see, my kit and bike set up was same as before: skinsuit, cotton cap, lightweight handbuilt wheels, lightest tyres and tubes possible, bottle cages and bolts removed, haircut (ok, maybe for next year) which has worked admirably. However, comparing this to the standard of at the very least tri-bars, and often extending to full TT bikes and even disc wheels I began to get a bit suspicious. You know it’s not your average ‘hill’ when deep section wheels and TT helmets massively outnumber lightweight wheels and cotton caps. Not that I’m bitching or making excuses. I got my training wrong, routine was wrong in the weeks leading up and to be honest, I was a bit fed up of all the hassle by the end of it! So that was my first National Championship. Next year I will be back and better prepared, onwards and upwards!

I honestly don’t think there’s any more I could write if I wanted to. Fin.