Sunday 28 June 2015
Surrey League Dunsfold Roadrace, 7th place
One of those during which you ask yourself "why am I doing this?". Waste of time, trying to get away again and again, being brought back, then a counter attack happens and nobody responds, 2 or 3 trickles follow but they are not being brought back. Why did these suckers bring me back and not them? Anyhow, I was the best loser of the day, won the sprint of the remaining peloton...no conciliation at all.
Thursday 25 June 2015
On Doping
On this sore subject, as some people try to be
funny about it...I bumped into James from Imperial College Hospital Cardiology and we
got talking about Vet racing. He said I won't believe the numbers of patients he
is looking at daily, age group 40+ , myocardial infarction and other heart
problems, who are admitting to having taken epo, amphetamines, growth hormones etc.
Many of them cyclist! I asked him if he is pulling my leg. He remained serious, saying this was also one of his main reasons to stop racing. Its totally bonkers what he continued then, saying of course everyone would do it, why wouldn't you!?
Would you think this was totally exaggerated and he is just a tosser trying to sound knowledgeable and
important?
Am I totally naive in thinking there may be the one or other cheat
out there amongst mostly clean competitors, or is amateur racing really infested with self medicating idiots
because of a lack of testing?
The recently published UCI reports on doping in
amateur sport and a number of articles, even in FT, where similarly dark
sounding. There have been shocking articles in German cycling magazin Tour in
recent times and that let to a pull-out of sponsors and TV channels from the
sport. I suppose in the UK cycling has become a multi-billion industry now and nobody wants that to end too soon.
The question for myself, who has never taken anything and never felt tempted to do so, never went to see Dr Ferrari or Fuentes, as some people I know did back in Germany in the 1990s, is it worth the 20quitt spent on starting fee to race against a field of dopers, if it was?
Nothing is proven and so far speculation alone cannot deter me from racing, even if some people try to paint everything in black. I know that my clubmates don't dope and that is already 5-15% of the peloton clean and being able to win races clean, thats what it is all about.
Wednesday 24 June 2015
On crashing
Something just not working at the moment, pedal touches kerb on the way to work. Maybe I should consider help?
Wednesday 17 June 2015
UCI Amateur Worldchampionships 2015
Got this invitation from the UCI, yesterday:
Dear rider,
Last weekend, you participated in the Tour of Cambridgeshire, a qualifier event for the UCI World Cycling Tour (www.uciworldcyclingtour.com )
We can proudly announce that you have qualified to participate in the UCI Amateur Road World Championships. The World Championships will be held in Aalborg and Hobro, Denmark between 3-6 September 2015. The winner per age group will be the new UCI World Champion in his age category and will receive the official World Champion jersey.
This invitation mail counts as official announcement that you qualified for the Road World Championships.
All information on courses and schedule can be found on www.denmark2015.dk
To participate in the World Championships, riders do need a national year-license (masters/amateur/elite) from a UCI affiliated cycling federation.
We require the wearing of a national jersey to participate in the World Championships.
This is a no-reply email. For further contacts, please use these email addresses :
Kind regards,
Erwin Vervecken
UWCT coordinatorwww.denmark2015.dk
https://www.facebook.com/Denmark2015.dk
UWCT coordinatorwww.denmark2015.dk
https://www.facebook.com/Denmark2015.dk
Tuesday 9 June 2015
Tour of Cambridgeshire, Granfondo, 135km, 3:11h; 5.Place in agegroup, 23rd overall
If you ever wondered what a Granfondo really is, now you can read it from first hand.
In competitive cycling there is Pro-racing, Amateur racing, Sportives (not supposed to be competitive but then they still are somehow) and Granfondos. The thing is, what do you do when you are too old to be a Pro, but too good to retire. Not all pros want to sit back and get fat, some continue riding at different level, in age group veteran and master racing, because it’s the competitive edge that still matters to many. So with no surprise you find lots of ex Pros riding Granfondos. Imagine a race comprising of licenced racers of all age groups and all rider categories, men and women all in one race, all off with one bang (not in timeslots such as Prudential 100) . The first rider across the finish line gets a big fat prize (ToC prize was £1,500 for the winner). That’s a Granfondo. It’s a race – its not a sportive!
Mega-Peloton, 2,000 international licensed racers
The Tour of Cambridgeshire last weekend was the first Granfondo staged in the UK. Run on entirely closed roads, with plenty of NEG motorbikes, lead cars and Shimano neutral service cars. A beautyful early summer day with temperatures soaring close to 30 centigrade. Apparently 2,000 licenced racing cyclists set of as one huge mega peloton from Peterborough Arena, not far from Cambridge. The strong headwinds at the early race must have strung the peloton out to an almost 5km echelon(!!!). Thanks to a hefty pace from the start it shattered into pieces very quickly but Simon, Gavin, Detta and myself were positioned at the front end of business, possibly with about 200 other riders. The race unfolded exactly like any Elite 1/2/3 race, attack after attack, riders peeling off the front, being reeled in again, more attacks, same pattern as usual until a number of people met out in the break and made it stick, for a while at least. You saw our Dynamo jerseys always in the front 30 of the peloton, often part of the escapees, Gavin was off the front for a while, I had my various attempts on my own or chasing and Simon certainly was seeking early opportunities, too. By km 60, 5 riders had managed to build a gap of maybe 30seconds, we could clearly see them and it didn’t look like they would stay away for long. That was the time when massive cramps set into my calves. I usually never get cramps on the bike, just very very rarely, only on hot summer days at the end of long rides. These cramps just returned again and again and after a while I figured the only way to not take a taxi to the finish line was to keep churning a big gear at low cadence with my heels always pushed down as far as possible and by doing so stretching my calves. I still had to respond to accelerations and occasionally join intermediate sprint efforts, but those usually didn’t last for long. Another couple of people escaped and by the time they bridged to the breakaway I stopped counting how many where up the road, it was obvious that they began organising themselves and they soon vanished out of our views. But for me it was just about arriving at the finish, the cramps didn’t let go, they came back again and again. There were some interesting sections along the course, one that went through a flat nature reserve on a straight road for miles and miles that didn’t seem to come to an end, another interesting section when the course let onto the runway of an airport, with the echelon swerving from one side of the runway to the other in one kilometre long pace line, must have been such awesome sight from a helicopter. We raced the entire length of the runway before leaving the airfield again. Along the whole course thousands of supporting spectators on the roadside reminded me in places of images from the Grand depart in Yorkshire last year and I got goose pimples a few times. Getting closer to the finish was then a bit of a drag as the race length was determined before the race as 125km whilst the registration info said 135km. At the end the reality was somewhere around 130km. All 4 of us finished in the first peloton that came in after the lead group, with myself 5. in agegroup (23rd overall) and Simon 15. in age group (52nd overall), Gavin 5. in his agegroup (35th overall).and Detta I think 2nd in her age group (and overall of the Ladies?). Maybe she can put this right if I got it wrong. It was a spectacular event and all 4 of us qualified for the UCI Masters World Championship in Copenhagen in September. Simon, was it a joke with the national jersey being compulsory? I would rather prefer to ride in Dynamo colours..
link to Strava page
In competitive cycling there is Pro-racing, Amateur racing, Sportives (not supposed to be competitive but then they still are somehow) and Granfondos. The thing is, what do you do when you are too old to be a Pro, but too good to retire. Not all pros want to sit back and get fat, some continue riding at different level, in age group veteran and master racing, because it’s the competitive edge that still matters to many. So with no surprise you find lots of ex Pros riding Granfondos. Imagine a race comprising of licenced racers of all age groups and all rider categories, men and women all in one race, all off with one bang (not in timeslots such as Prudential 100) . The first rider across the finish line gets a big fat prize (ToC prize was £1,500 for the winner). That’s a Granfondo. It’s a race – its not a sportive!
Mega-Peloton, 2,000 international licensed racers
The Tour of Cambridgeshire last weekend was the first Granfondo staged in the UK. Run on entirely closed roads, with plenty of NEG motorbikes, lead cars and Shimano neutral service cars. A beautyful early summer day with temperatures soaring close to 30 centigrade. Apparently 2,000 licenced racing cyclists set of as one huge mega peloton from Peterborough Arena, not far from Cambridge. The strong headwinds at the early race must have strung the peloton out to an almost 5km echelon(!!!). Thanks to a hefty pace from the start it shattered into pieces very quickly but Simon, Gavin, Detta and myself were positioned at the front end of business, possibly with about 200 other riders. The race unfolded exactly like any Elite 1/2/3 race, attack after attack, riders peeling off the front, being reeled in again, more attacks, same pattern as usual until a number of people met out in the break and made it stick, for a while at least. You saw our Dynamo jerseys always in the front 30 of the peloton, often part of the escapees, Gavin was off the front for a while, I had my various attempts on my own or chasing and Simon certainly was seeking early opportunities, too. By km 60, 5 riders had managed to build a gap of maybe 30seconds, we could clearly see them and it didn’t look like they would stay away for long. That was the time when massive cramps set into my calves. I usually never get cramps on the bike, just very very rarely, only on hot summer days at the end of long rides. These cramps just returned again and again and after a while I figured the only way to not take a taxi to the finish line was to keep churning a big gear at low cadence with my heels always pushed down as far as possible and by doing so stretching my calves. I still had to respond to accelerations and occasionally join intermediate sprint efforts, but those usually didn’t last for long. Another couple of people escaped and by the time they bridged to the breakaway I stopped counting how many where up the road, it was obvious that they began organising themselves and they soon vanished out of our views. But for me it was just about arriving at the finish, the cramps didn’t let go, they came back again and again. There were some interesting sections along the course, one that went through a flat nature reserve on a straight road for miles and miles that didn’t seem to come to an end, another interesting section when the course let onto the runway of an airport, with the echelon swerving from one side of the runway to the other in one kilometre long pace line, must have been such awesome sight from a helicopter. We raced the entire length of the runway before leaving the airfield again. Along the whole course thousands of supporting spectators on the roadside reminded me in places of images from the Grand depart in Yorkshire last year and I got goose pimples a few times. Getting closer to the finish was then a bit of a drag as the race length was determined before the race as 125km whilst the registration info said 135km. At the end the reality was somewhere around 130km. All 4 of us finished in the first peloton that came in after the lead group, with myself 5. in agegroup (23rd overall) and Simon 15. in age group (52nd overall), Gavin 5. in his agegroup (35th overall).and Detta I think 2nd in her age group (and overall of the Ladies?). Maybe she can put this right if I got it wrong. It was a spectacular event and all 4 of us qualified for the UCI Masters World Championship in Copenhagen in September. Simon, was it a joke with the national jersey being compulsory? I would rather prefer to ride in Dynamo colours..
link to Strava page
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