Sun 29.Jun, TMG Horizon Elite/1/2/3 Roadrace, Wing (Leighton Buzzard), 141km, 1,550m Alt

Following the effort of the previous day I was considering to pull out and only last minute decided to drive up to Wing. Still clearly feeling the effort of the previous day I was just hoping to finish this race in the bunch, not getting dropped or giving up. It began totally manic, after two laps I thought there is no way I will stay that through. We must have had an average speed of well above 45km/h when first  small groups of riders broke away. I couldnt believe it, how...while I was just about managing to cling to the rear wheel in front of me, riders managed to peel off at the front, clearly some riders couldn't  follow the wheel they were following. Suddenly a guy ahead of me hits a hole and swerves straight into the field and ditch on the roadside, not without tumbling over his bars twice, frightening sight, but he had a soft landing despite the 50km/h we were doing at the time. Every lap we went through a little village with traffic islands and parked cars at full throttle, although the road was flat we never had less then 55km/h, totally mental. Of course, the hill, quite a legbreaker, not unlike Bletchingley, which I really started feeling from lap 4 out of 7 (because of neutral section we had to get up the hill 8 times). All breakaways except the one that went from lap one got caught back on the final 500m, pretty messy situation, riders being totally fatigued hardly getting up the hill anymore and a slightly fresher field charging up the hill. My final ascent was the same scenario as Bletchingley in May, legs broken, actually had to get off the bike and on the grass after. I got in 22nd of only approx 42 riders who finished the race (of 67 starters). This was the hardest race for me so far this year and with 240km of racing over one weekend will probably take me a week to recover from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHvoBzpSer8#t=283  (look for no 34)

https://flic.kr/p/nSErH6

https://flic.kr/p/obUL6t

https://flic.kr/p/nSDiVK

https://flic.kr/p/o85bp7

https://flic.kr/p/obTAKB

Sat 28.Jun, Portsmouth North East 2/3 RR , Owlesbury, 95km, 1,850m Alt

From the start a group of two or three went up the road, to be followed by another 5 or so later on. After approx half race Will soloed away, followed by a later companion. By that point I started to get involved at the front of the field, trying to disturb the surges that threatened to become chases. Cam who is riding for LMNH come along to ask me if  Will was up the road and I said  "Yes, why t f do you think I am slowing things down...?" It s kind off a weird situation to try sabotage chases with one man on his way to the front made of 8-10 riders in total. The remaining laps went like that, attacks, chases, pull backs, conterattacks, with one lap to go another two tried there luck and it didnt look promising. I was thinking to bridge but hey, there was no way it would stick. The  usual hesitation as the gap expanded, then I had enough of that and had a go myself, that must have broken the remaining field apart as we where then a group of 8, but again only 4-5 doing the work, 3 just hanging at the back. It took me a while to understand that the guys where not doing tactical games, they were just simply on their limits...On the final 2K I went off that group on my own, just to be joined by one fellow to have a bit of a final with at the end. We did do a full out sprint, for place 16 as it later turned out, the two guys ahead of us which we failed to catch got in on 14 and 15th place. So I just missed the points on 16th place - but at least I felt totally smashed up, I gave it all I had.

Have you ever wondered what a breakaway looks like from within the race?

If it works, it looks a bit like this....
http://youtu.be/C-9AniTf2ss

Have you ever wondered what's so special about the "red kite" or the final 1K?

Well, simply spoken the race enters a "slightly" different phase...
http://youtu.be/13BENuYp19w

Is this arrogance?

I kind of like going to my office on a monday morning, legs still feeling the efforts of the weekend, but in a nice pleasant recovering sense of sweet after pain...
While chatting with colleagues about the just ended weekend, what they did, except of lying in the park or drinking coffee and having had pissups under the sun. When being asked just saying I rode my bike for 220km, people usually look a bit astounded but when I say I rode a bikerace it is different, people usually shut up.

21. June, 2014 Surrey League Roadrace, Ditchling Common, Cat 2/3, 10 laps = 105km, 11th place (5 BCF points)

As the third leg of the Bayeux Racing Series (I missed the first two due to illness, earlier this season) everyone was keen to get points in order to qualify for the final timetrial, open to the top 20 of the series, only. On a new and relatively unselective fast course it took to mid race for some serious action to happen. I punctured mid lap 6 and following a rear wheel change tried for one and a half laps to get back on to the peloton. This was quite a gruelling exercise as the neutral service car repeatedly got stuck in traffic, while I easily overtook the queuing cars, he had to wait behind. So it happened that probably 50% of my battle to latch on to the peloton I was on my own and the other 50% in the slipstram of the neutral service car at about 50-60km/h charging around bends but then again being faster than him on the descents. Eventually I got back on with one and a half laps to go. Although my legs still felt relatively fresh,  I must have burned quite a few matches during my pursuit of the field. After a while I learned that  Jamie had gone off the front and had something like 50 seconds, looking like he could make it to the finish. The speed was getting quite high here and there, when we caught up with Jamie who got stopped due to the lead car being stuck in traffic, too. Subsequently the race had to be restarted with one lap to go and Jamie getting awarded back his 35 seconds lead. This amazingly lasted until the final 300m when the Peloton sadly caught up with Jamie, despite LD attempting to hold off any counterattacks. Rob finished it off with class outsprinting everyone as wanting to say "Here you go, you didnt want it any different!" Jamie still hung on to take 4th, Lee got in on 9th and myself on 11th, all together totalling 59 points for the SL team classification.

picture taken by Glyn Durrant, during the pursuit of the peloton after having had to change wheels

Racing Free Weekend

One of the few weekends without racing, unfortunately the weather was rather pittyful...still got 187km into the legs, though.
I went out for a 125K from 11:45 to 15:30 via staple lane area, Shere, Winterfold, Alderbrook lane, Peaslake, Holmbury Hill, Leith Hill, Whitedowns, Ranmore, Boxhill. Basically anywhere west of Dorking totally totally horrendeous conditions. Biblical downpour. East of Dorking and Boxhill suddenly all fine. There where roads totally covered with debris and a meter wide running streams downhill. Especially the Peaslake area very concerning. Without exageration Saturday was worse than any of the most muddy winterdays. If you have one, take your cyclocross bike or better even your mountainbike, because this is not made for summer roadbikes...At the very least double up on innertubes. Still, the temperature was pleasant, so at some point I was imagining doing an offroad trip in the rainforest, that made it kind of exotic..Cautioun on the descents, they were very slippery and breaks on carbon rims had troubles. Then climbing Boxhill in the sun, mud drying up on the skin, a layer of pale matt grey. Charging back north towards Kingston against the wind. Back home, totally chuffed, Traininstressscore of 339pts.

http://www.strava.com/activities/153528900

08.Jun 2014, Paul Simon Homes Roadrace, Witwell in Berkshire

Despite my stomach cramps on sat afternoon (thanks to a strange tasting chicken sandwhich, I believe) I went to Witwell near Luton to join the Paul Simon Home Roadrace. Despite still suffering from severe diarrhoea in the morning (race started 8:30 !!!) the legs felt surprisingly good and as I had rented a car on sat morning I didn't want to let all the "investment" for car and sign-up fee go for the bin. My plan was to sit in first half of the race and if anything left in the tank get active in the second half. I stuck to it. Unfortunately, by halftime of the 120km race there were two breakaways of 5+8 riders, the lead group with 1:30 mins. The speed in the pack was extremely on and off, attack, nobody to follow, chase, stop, again...I then had my first own attempt and quickly got out off sight of the bunch, was soon after joined by a follower. We hung out there for about 5K when for some reason the bunch had decided they didn't like us to get away, either. Maybe we were not quick enough or couldn't hold a minimum average pace to stay away, but as soon as we got caught, nobody was going to overtake us, just locked onto our back wheels. How annoying, chasing just for the sake of getting us.  I had another two of such full hearted attempts and many others did try, too. Nobody made any successful break in the second half of the race but we caught a few who couldn't keep the pace in the front groups, which had by the end whittled down to still 8. Crazy final 2K , rolling up and down like a rollercoaster, having a bottleneck over a bridge then final rise, a ramp over potholes and finish just after the crest on a bend. Not good for bunch sprints.  Got across the line somewhere around position 12-15 of the bunch, so just outside the listed top20. This was my most awful race of the season, in particular as I still had quite a bit left in the tank, not enough in the head though. Really strange experience to race there all on my own, no other Dynamo around. It really makes a big psychological difference to race together and feel like being part of a team, well to me at least...
http://www.velouk.net/2014/06/08/result-paul-simon-homes-rr/

The touching story of a young man's recovery from the deathbed to a role model for human perseverance to live.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/get-inspired/27733036

1. Jun 2014, Neil Gardner Memorial Roadrace, Elite, Cat 1/2/3

Near Cranfield, Berkhire, hosted by Luton CC, 9 laps = 155km; 3h:35mins; hot weather; National Points category B, 17th Place (5 pts)

Approx 1,200m altitude meters, beautiful morning but at 10:00 a.m. temperature feeling quite hot, already. This was National B roadrace with points for the top20 rather than the usual top10 or 15. It attracted a flock of riders totally different from the usual Surrey League peloton.

This was my first Elite race since 1992! (I think) and I had not even ridden this distance in training since the Ride-London-Prudential-100 almost a year ago.

A fully booked peloton of 80 riders, half of those Elites and Cat1 the other half mainly cat2 with a very few selected cat3. Amongst the likes of Pedalheaven and Genesis, Richardson-Trek etc, we were represented by Jamie Francis (cat2), James Local (cat 2 and arguably our strongest rider at the moment) and myself (cat2). 

My plan was simply to survive the race in the bunch and see it as preparation for the German Roadrace Classic in 5 weeks time. The race was not really dominated by any of the Elite teams, the average speed was high, although quite inconsistent throughout. Extremely fast surges, with a few interspersed slow sections where nobody wanted to do any chasing work. Lots of attacking, but even larger breaks got caught back by the super charged up bunch. On flat sections we were usually hitting the 55km/h mark. Somehow the whole course felt like going mostly downhill, but obviously I only imagined this due to the high speeds when in fact there were same uphill meters as downhill. Three riders got away on the last few miles, I think leaving the rest of us for a bunch sprint, but nobody seemed to know. Due to some misinformation I understood we would be going onto a 7 laps minicircuit before the finish, but with 300m to go and me somewhere in the last third of the remaining bunch I realised I must have gotten something wrong and picked up sprinting with everyone around me waggling their tails, already. Managed to make about 10-15 places good in the sprint and got in on 17th , earning my first national BCF points ever and my first 5 points this season. Personally it was a good step in the development of my form. Still not feeling punchy and not getting enough oxygene, but managing now to work with my problems and not against them anymore.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/101948/Neil-Gardner-Memorial-Road-Race---CC-Luton#results

http://www.velouk.net/2014/06/01/report-result-neil-gardner-memorial-rr/