It was one of those weekends. I raced the Ribble Valley CRC
Open 25mile Time Trial on Saturday and the Kent Valley Circuit of Wild Boar
Fell on Sunday. I PB'd in one and PW'd in the other.
It was the first double weekend of the year for me (and
actually thinking about it, the first time I've ever done two 'proper' races
back to back), timed rather nicely just before coming back to University. I'd
only done one '25' previously (last July on what was I believe the third outing
of the then newly constructed ProjectAero) and got round in 58:07. I was pretty pleased
with that at the time, the course had loads of roundabouts and stuff, I paced
it conservatively and I had the nose of the saddle attempting to enter me the
whole way round. The riding position was a 'work in progress', let's leave it
at that.
So I was looking forward to having a proper go at another
one, especially coming off the back of 2nd in the 28m Circuit of Pendle and
14th in the 50m Circuit of the Dales. I nailed the 28miler, and spent the first
20miles of the COTD yo-yo-ing between 'oh crap, too quick...going to blow' to 'oh
crap, too slow...never going to finish at this rate'. All experience! Saturday's event round Cockerham on the Fylde in Lancashire was
a 'SpoCo', as in part of a 'Sporting Course' series of events that are designed
to offer 'interesting' and 'challenging' events for those that are not content
just battering up and down motor-sorry, dual carriageways. It was 2 laps
of a rolling, twisty exposed circuit with a couple of 'lumps' (if I say 'hills'
or anything more I'd get properly laughed at by my mates down here in
Wales...but to us North Westerners they would be classed as hills ;)) And it
was windy. No other way of putting it. One exposed stretch (bearing in mind
this is near the coast, where exposed=Exposed) had me riding along
at a comfortable, if jaunty, 45 degree bank according to my Photographer/Mechanic/DS
a.k.a Dad.
That basically meant a roughly four sided circuit went something
along the lines of: horrendous crosswind, horrendous headwind, reeeeeeaaaaaaly
fast tailwind, confusing muddlewind. I got the pacing bob on, surfed my red
line rather perfectly and finished in 57 minutes and 46 seconds (I think,
results still aren't up) as can be viewed here: http://app.strava.com/activities/48616974. Job done, I was pretty chuffed until I saw a few people clocking 55s and 56s.
That is really really fast. I mean, that's fast on a 'normal' course, but a
Sporting Course?! I think I got 5th or 6th, which is nothing special but
probably means prize money :D
Coming off the back of a PB I was confident (ish) of doing
well on Sunday: 28.something Yorkshire miles roughly climbing up to Garsdale
Head from Sedbergh, dropping down Mallerstang, then climbing back up and
descending once again to Sedbergh for the final third or so. I hadn't factored
in the weather though. Oh boy. It started raining as I was finishing my warm up
and didn't really improve from then on! Looking at the wind speed data from
Shap (not that far away), at 11am there was a steady wind speed of 34mph and
gusts of 53mph. I can believe that. I'd chosen my shallow section Alu front
wheel but opted to keep the disc in. One of those decisions was a good
one...picture a 70kg rider (67 when I'm off the cake) riding with a disc wheel
on a course reaching over 1000ft at the most exposed bits. I'm a 2nd Cat road
rider primarily and like to think I'm more towards the Fabian end of the Bike
Handling Spectrum than the Pissed-Man-On-Wobbly-Way-Home-From-Pub end (in my
head at least), but you would have been forgiven for thinking it was my first
time on a bike.
'What's that guy with
the funny hat doing up here on a day like this? Why does he keep swearing
loudly and weaving from one side of the road to the other? Why's he tilting his
head right back? Oh look, he's swearing even louder now...'
That was the other slight problem. I have a visor on my
helmet. Much, much, much rain on the outside and inside plus steam from sweary
shouting didn't do much for visibility. Luckily at times the crosswind was so
strong it actually wiped the rain droplets off both sides, which was nice! I
can't really say much more about Sunday. It was truly and utterly horrendous
(and trust me, I winter in Wales so know bad weather). I genuinely feared for
my safety on numerous occasions, it really is the worst feeling thinking you
have control of a bike doing 40+mph downhill only to hear and then feel a
massive gust of wind and realising it will do with you what it wishes...
There was a great sense of camaraderie though, there were about
5 or 6 of us bunched up for the last third or so of the course...I remember
thinking 'Well at least now if I blow away somebody will notice.' But
seriously, back at the HQ warming up with tea and cake I think we all shared an
immense feeling of, well, survival. We pitted ourselves against the elements,
and in a way we all won. Actually, Ian Stott won. But he's just a Monster. He
finished soon after me, and we were comparing chamois pads for levels of
brownness...or in other words discussing how 'fun' riding with discs had been.
He agreed that he too had just 'cruised' most of it and tried to stay upright.
Still put 8 minutes or whatever into me though the fiend. Strava stalk my ride and then look at him taking the KOMs: http://app.strava.com/activities/48767061
Everyone finished, nobody got hurt. I learned a lot. An
AWFUL lot. Luckily the BUCS Student 10mile TT champs on Saturday is just going
to be a case of 'here's a dual carriageway, ride fast'...phew.
Some Pics.
(I rode it last Wednesday in the Sun as well as on Sunday in the Apocalypse)
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| Not Epic. Composed. |
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| Epic. Cursing the Weather Gods. |
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| Not Epic. Lovely in fact. |
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| Epic. Shit Scary in fact. |
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| That is my 'What the hell did I just do' and 'How the hell did I survive' face. |
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| Just to prove I didn't just go and get wet on my own. |
I've just realised the photos really don't do it justice. So you'll have to trust my account. People believe Apple are giving away thousands of iPhone 5s on Facebook FOR FREE because they are 'unsealed'; so this is looking rather credible by all accounts....
