Kentish Killer 2015, Sportive, 115km, 2,200m climbing in the hills of Kent

As the first sportive (with exception of London-100) I have ever done, I wasn't quite sure if to take it somehow competitively or just as a group training ride. The answer was presented to me after the first 10km when some clubmates descended furiously and vanished out of sight. At the second climb another clubmate attacked and rode off alone. It did feel like a clubride as all some 50 Dynamos were given the same startslot and we started together. So the story goes that an almost crash made me decide to ride at the front and see if we could get back to our escapees. When we railed them back in, us had shrunk to a group of mere 6-8 riders. Hill after hill the group dropped riders and eventually with 4 hills to go we were a group of three, with last years winner Ben Burns and winner of the year before, Lee Davies. We had a steady pace, worked in equal parts, a really good training ride. Then we lost Lee at the 4th last climb and finally Ben had to let me go and the 3rd last climb. I thought there was only one climb left, but a really steep one followed unexpectedly. I had no idea where I was, there were no riders before or behind me, the photographer at the last climb hadn't even set up his kit yet, so unexpectedly early the first rider came along.
Apparently my finishing time was the fastest ever recorded on this rather hilly course. Surprisingly I was still feeling fresh at the end and still had gas in the tank.
This was a good end of winter wakener and to me proof that the efforts to recover from my August accident injuries started to pay back. 276w normalized power and 375 TSS for the ones interested in numbers.

Imperial Winter Series, Hillingdon, cat 2/3, 1h+5laps (50km), criterium.

Following the tribute to Akis event I had originally planned to get back home. A group of Dynamos around Tom, our eventual winner of the whole series, discussed race tactics and were running short of man count, in other words I got persuaded to sign up to the race. I had not done any fast circuit racing (crit) since 2013 and didn't expect much except to get shelled. Maybe I could chase down the one or other breakaway and then retire, that was the idea. Just some work I should be able to do to help. Throughout the race I felt surprisingly fresh and even bridged over to a break and stayed away for 2 laps and a bit. It all got down to bunch sprint with me taking 10th place overall but 3rd place amongst cat3 riders, as this race consisted of a cat2 and a cat3 races run in parallel but with separate point awards. Happy start into the new season.

Tribute to Akis, memorial ride before Imperial Winterseries cat4 race.

Saying goodbye to Akis - at the Hillingdon Imperial Winterseries where he just raced the week before and was going to race today. Credits to Huw Williams who took those memorable pictures.

Akis Kollaros - taken away from us on 02 Feb 2015

With deep sadness I am writing having lost my friend of recent days, Akis Kollaros who's life was taken away through a road accident. He was on his bike riding through Homerton, East London, when a Lorry took a left-turn, the rest is still being investigated by police.

Akis and I got to know each others after both of us got injured at a similar time, though through different causes and at different events. Akis broke both his elbows and his jaw during a bike race at cyclopark and had various un-nice experiences to share during his recovery. I had five broken ribs, vertebrae, skull and collapsed lung when our own family dog ran into me during a family holiday. We started meeting for coffees at Rapha's in Soho and kind of therapeuted each others throughout our rehabilitation process. It was during one of our conversations that he kindly offered to bring me in contact with his coach, who we had shared since. I will never forget how he told me about his mother: "I have the best mother in the world", who came all the way from Greece to look after her son when he got injured and could hardly do anything with his two broken elbows. Unbelievably he already started training on the turbotrainer less than two weeks after the accident, telling enough of his passion for cycling.

This Friday 30th we met at Rapha's again, this time also with Simon, who Akis was going to go for training camp on Mallorca,  in a few weeks time. Akis was in excellent spirits, looking forward to his first race since his racecrash at the Hillingdon Winterseries #7 the next day. We also realized that we would be riding the Kentish Killer sportive in two weeks time, together.

It was only this Sunday 01 Feb. that for the first time we arranged to go for a longer ride into the Surrey Hills, together. We started with a group of 12 Dynamos and went together until after the first climb at Staple Lane the group decided to head home while Akis myself and Lilly decided to go for a longer loop and went our own way. We had a fantastic morning out and at the end of the ride everyone headed for home, cold, exhausted, but happy and satisfied after such beautiful ride.

That's my last memory of Akis Kollaros, who at the age of 34 was just at the beginning of enjoying the rewards for transforming himself from a 70+kg overweight lazy potato into a 50+ kg super lean endurance athlete. He was very excited about this season, which was meant to be his breakthrough. He had just returned from Cyprus where he trained and visited family.

With total devastation I received the news about his death,  this afternoon. After having walked half way from Battersea to Richmond, sometimes thinking, sometimes crying, sometimes just being empty headed, I still feel like being in a state of shock.

A lovely person who will be missed by many - Akis is no more. My prayers and condolences go to his mother, his father and other family and close friends.

Hackney news column