First weekend back on the bike

This weekend I was back on my bike after being ill and after initially expecting to be going like a sack of potatoes it actually turned out that I hadn't lost all that much form. Obviously will take a week or two to get back to where I was but still I was feeling nowhere near as bad as I was expecting!

On Saturday the team had a Newport session planned for the evening which meant I could have a lie in Saturday morning before the mind numbing travel up to welshland. Fortunately it proved not to be too bad as I had the very entertaining company of Will Kemp and Drew and Trevor Holmes in the team van. The session went pretty well and it was clear that Will was the strongest even though he probably lost about 80% of the power he put through the pedals by being rather, to put it politely, 'unsmooth'. It was good to see all the guys who were only riding the track for the second time, and Tom Redwood who was riding it for the first time, getting stuck in and apart from the odd hairy moment it all went really well. On the way home Trevor took us to for a cheeky sweet chilli chicken deli in a certain dubious restaurant with golden arches, but it turned out to be the perfect recovery food, probably because it was either that or go hungry though.

Despite the bad looking weather prediction from Will Kemp's mate who apparently is always 'hot on the weather' it turned out to be a pretty nice day for a ride today. It was one of the first days in over a month that it was actually good cycling conditions, and you could tell as there were loads of riders out on the roads today. I set off aiming to meet team mates Tom Laker , Drew Holmes, Will Kemp and also Sigma rider Tom Copeland in Ditchling for 10:30. However, my ride started pretty badly as after only 10 minutes riding the rear derailleur snapped off on my winter bike. Luckily my dad wasn't doing anything this morning as was able to drive me over my race bike which brought me a lot of stick from the other riders for 'riding carbon on the roads in January' but to be honest I didn't have much choice. Once we had met in Ditchling Tom C lead us along to Ditchling Beacon which we preceded to climb. Will Kemp decided that he wasn't even going to try to follow Tom C's hot pace, from what I've heard Will has been riding with Tom a lot lately so clearly knew all about the pain that was in store for us who tried to follow. Drew lost the wheels about half way up and I was dispatched about three quarters of the way up which I was pretty happy about to be honest after being ill. Tom L did a solid job and stayed with Tom C all the way to the top of the climb and he seemed to do it fairly comfortably, it must be something about the name.
After this Tom C tested our physical and technical skills all the way to Lewes where we met the McNamara Brothers, Paul Barnard and a few others for a few more hours of pain. After this Tom L, Drew and myself decided it was time for a coffee stop and the others kept going as the likes of Will and Tom C were planning on doing 5/6 hours, whereas us youg'uns only had four ours set by our separate coaches. After our Coffee we started heading back and after about 15 minutes I departed from Tom and Drew to face the very slow crawl home back to Brighton against the huge headwind. By the time I got home I was WRECKED but was pretty happy with my first weekend back on the bike and I'm looking forward to getting back on a training plan for some more pain.

Here are some photos of our ride courtesy of The Cycling Teacher (Will Kemp) who most inappropriately decided it would by a good idea to start taking pictures on his phone on the section of road with the strongest cross winds. Nice one Will.

Photos of the Newport Session will be up soon.

Road bike 2011

As promised yesterday here are pictures of my road bike, complete with new wheels, for this season.



Frame: Specialized Tarmac SL

Groupset: Shimano Ultegra 6700

Race Wheels: Reynolds Assault 2010
Tyres: Continental Sprinter Tubular Tyres
Seatpost: Some Carbon Ting From The Depths Of The Garage
Saddle: Fizik Arione

Handle Bars: 3T Rotundo Pro

Bar Tape: Black Fizik Microtex Soft Touch With Logo

Stem: ITM Millenium

Headset: Cane Creek

Cranks: FSA Carbon Pro Team Issue

Computer: Blackburn Delphi 4.0

Pedal: SPD SL (the shit model)

Omg Omg Omg Omg I have NEW WHEEEEELS (and a huge debt)

Initially I was going to name this post 'Christmas Again' like team mate Charlie Fawke did when his new wheels turned up yesterday, but then I thought actually I am going to be moneyless and in debt to 'mummy and daddy' for the next few months because of these damn, but still wonderful, beautiful and magnificent, wheels. Anyway, these are the wheels:

I will put pictures of my completed road bike for this season up tomorrow.

Back on the bike

(In the words of http://charliefawkeridersblog.blogspot.com/) 'Sooooooooo', pretty much got over the illness now, but I'm going to leave it a few days before I ride again just make sure I am properly over it. I'm riding at Newport with the team on Saturday for a two hour session which will be pretty good and hopefully my new Deda Newton Shallow bars and orange Lizard Skins bar tape will arrive in time for me to use. It will be good to get back on the boards after the disappointment of having to miss the Madison at Newport last weekend. I am also looking forward to see team track star Will Kemp's new track machine, as if he wasn't enough of a machine before, and as long as Drew Holmes makes it further than the first banking this time then it will be good a trip!

On Sunday I'm going for a training ride with team mates Tom Laker (lakerman) and Drew. It will be good to get out on the roads again; my last decent long road ride was over two weeks ago now! I think I'm going to be out on the roads of Sussex a lot over the rest of January and then on into February in the run up to the season proper, hopefully the weather won't be too cruel to me.

This training will hopefully prepare me for the first round of the Junior National Series for 2011 which is the Cadence Road Race in Abergevenny. I had an absolute mare in the race last year as I got dropped on the first real big climb about half way through the race, but this year I have had a much stronger winter and I've got a whole year of road racing before me now so I expect to get a much better performance. Earlier today Team Manager Dan Bennett let us know that he has booked accommodation for most of the rounds of the National Series which is good to know. He also gave us a list containing information on every round of the series for this year. I immediately noticed that out of the seven rounds this year two are crits, one more than last year. The new crit which has been added has taken the place of a road race. This annoyed me as being a Junior, and therefore allowed to race on the road for the first time, I was hoping that we would have more road races this year not less. I am also frustrated that the race is way up north in Newcastle, we may have to bring u23 rider Matt Pilkington with us as I don't think any of the juniors on the team can speak the language up north. Seriously though, there are no rounds of the series in the Southern half of the country, except for Bristol but that basically counts as Wales and it's still a pretty decent drive for most people. Last year one out of the seven rounds, the Somerset Road Race, was in the south but that race has been discontinued for this year meaning that this season there are no rounds in the southern half of the country meaning for anybody living in the south-east the closest rounds are at least 3 hours in the car. However, as long as I can get to every round with enough time to prepare well I won't be complaining too much, just thinking about each round is making me increasingly excited for the 2011 season to get underway.

Tough course for first round of the Junior Nat Series, The Cadence Road Race.

Ongoing Illness

Just got back from leaving the house for the first time in a week to go to the doctors about my flu type condition. The doctor said my illness is nothing serious but I need lots of rest and lots of fluids which is pretty annoying as it has now been 8 days since I've ridden my bike and I'm getting seriously bored of Pro Cycling Manager (PCM), I know it's hard to believe! I actually attempted to fill some of my time today with some college work but soon came to my senses and turned back on PCM, now in my 5th season with my Katusha.

At least, on the bright side, I have lost quite a lot of weight during this spell of illness and have lost some of puppy fat. Although I must emphasise the word 'some'. I'm no Will Kemp but I'm certainly not as skinny as Michael 'the chicken' Rasmussen yet!

New wheels for this season

For this season me and team mate Charlie Fawke (chizzle fizzle) will be riding Reynolds Assault wheels which we've both purchased on ebay all the way from the US and A. I did a lot of research before buying them and from what I've read in reviews and forums it seems were getting a lot of wheel for the amount of money were paying. So providing they don't get stuck in customs we should be able to ride them for our first road race of the season which is the Perfs Pedal Race on 13th February.



I've now had to drop out of the team training session in Burgess Hill tomorrow, because of my illness, as well as having to cancel the trip to sheepland for the Welsh Open Madison Champs which I would be riding in at the time of writing if it weren't for being ill! It's quite depressing not being able to ride, but I've been filling my time wisely today watching the FA Cup 3rd round on the tele whilst cleaning my road bike with baby whipes, inside the house of course, as I've been advised by coach Mr. Stuart Blunt to avoid going outside when at all possible. I haven't left the house for over 3 days now so I would say I'm following his advice pretty well!

New track bike for 2011 season

Illness is still keeping me home bound and unable to train so I thought I would put up some pictures of my new track bike for this season.

I got the frame through Mark Turner of SIS for next to nothing for the quality of the frame and of course ITS ORANGE!!!!!!!!!!

When it turned up I was worried that it was going to be too small and as you can see from the picture I have a lot of seat post showing. The fact that the frame took about 6 month to arrive from when I ordered it, and the fact that it came all the way from Taiwan, increased to my worry about the size, but I used it at Newport a few weeks ago and it was fine. It felt a lot better than my track frame from last season - a slightly controversial pink Visp frame which brought lots of attention for all the wrong reasons, especially with me coming from Brighton.

I was meant to be racing the new frame for the first time at the Welsh Open Madison Champs in Newport tomorrow with team mate and fellow Brighton lad Jack Oliver-Blaney but illness on both sides has caused us to not go which is frustrating as we were both looking forward to our first track race of 2011.

2011 track bike, courtesy of just one of Sir Mark Turner's many many world wide contacts.

 I am planning on buying Deda Newton Shallow bars for my new frame as the ones which are currently on it I have been using for about 6 years and I've never really thought they were that comfortable.  The main reason for the decision of the Deda bars in particular is because I like the shallow profile of them.

2011 track bars-Deda Newton Shallow.

I am also planning on buying the Orange Lizard Skins bar tape for the new Deda Newtons as, lets face it, I will jump at any opportunity to add another piece of orange to go with my team kit. It was quite expensive as far as bar tape goes and knowing me I will probably crash and ruin it on its first outing in a couple of weekends time at the team's second Newport track session this winter. That is providing I have got over the man flu by then!

Orange Lizard Skins Bar Tape for 2011 track bike.

bare blogger and ting

After endless criticism from team mates Charlie Fawke and Drew Holmes about creating my own blog to increase my own, and the team's, 'professional image' I have finally conceded and taken the giant first step into the world of blogging. Actually, the reason I've made it now is because I am experiencing early January swine flu (I've got a sore throat) meaning I'm currently off college at home with not a lot to do and it seems a far more appealing way to spend my time as opposed to doing the college work which is supposed to be how I am filling my day, but obviously that doesn’t sound as 'professional'.

This season I will be riding in my 2nd and final year as a Junior for the renamed Progressive Cycle Coaching Development Squad. Although it's a bit of a mouthful, it is a far more appropriate team name than the previous sponsor, OneLife, as Progressive Cycle Coaching is the company of our team manager and cycle coaching guru Dan Bennett.

My Junior team mates this season will be Charlie Fawke, Jack Oliver-Blaney, Tom Laker, Tom Moore and LEWNOZ who will all, hopefully, be racing with me all over the country at the Junior National Road Race series, in Belgium and in local races, such as Serrl events and track league, where we will be joined by the U23 team which consists of Will Kemp, Drew Holmes, Jay Bowtell, George Pearle, Henry Bird, Tom Redwood and northern star Matt Pilkington. As well as these races with the team I will also be doing the Junior Track Champs in August, the Junior Madison Champs with Jack Ob in September and probably lots more races which are not yet on my calender.