What does a club level DS do? A job description.

     Ever wondered what it actually means to volunteer as a sports director for an amateur cycling team?

     Organise the pre-season preparations (Winter-training)

     This means coordinate with the riders what kind of workout their individual coaches have prescribed and set up a schedule that brings them all under one single program. You would say this is impossible? You are right, almost.  We agreed to have one long endurance ride per week, every Sunday morning, from October to February, in order to build team spirit and offer the opportunity to simulate a race situation. The riders ride out as a compact and disciplined group into the Surrey Hills, approx 90mins from West London, to our selected 10K training circuit which includes a 10-15% and 2km long clinb. The squad is riding 5-8 laps in 3 different groups, "full gas", "medium" and "zone2".  The riders chose the group they want to ride with, aligned with the instructions through their individual coaches. The "full gas" group simulates a race, the other groups or more interested in consistency. After the agreed number of laps the groups reassemble again in one single compact unit and ride back to West London. The route varies between direct or undulating, taking more other climbs in, too. The ride usually lasts between 4.5-6hours or 130-160km. Mostly, the rides get concluded with a social coffee stop at the end. This means, for friends and family, you won't be seen back home before 2.00pm, likely significantly later.

     Organise the team-kit for the following season.

     You can only do this, once you have determined who is on the team. You need to order the whole set with the individual sizes for every rider. This is Jerseys, Shorts, hoodies, gloves, socks, bottles and hats.

     Once you got all the stuff, you need to hand it to them. Handing over usually is a great opportunity for a photo shoot.

      Team photo shoot

      Find a photographer that matches the budget. No budget, find one who does it as a favour,   but be aware  that this often brings copyright issues.

      Find a time that suits every rider AND the photographer

      Hope for good weather, as the worst is looking at dull lit team photos for the rest of  the year

      Hand out team-kit and do shoot, with sponsored products (for the sponsors)

       Prepare social media release

       Announce the team on FB, Twitter, Instagram using the team photos and CV's

       Release goals for the new season and key target race events

       New Season Team meeting

       Organise venue, date and agenda

     

      Target Event calendar set-up (pre-season)

 Have a look at my spreadsheet on Google docs. For next season you can assume the  same events (slightly changed dates though), its just the question of adding in a few more  events where there were particularly long gaps. This would mean increasing the radius of  action slightly.

Team set-up (get all the riders details, set-up rider details on BCF website)

Following our discussions the pool of riders will rise to around 20 riders. We all felt that team selection should be more race specific and form specific. This means that the best suited for a specific race should be preferred for entry. Last year, I sent a link to the spreadsheet to all riders before the start of the season and they had to mark the races  the “preferred” racing (green with an “X” and the ones they were available for but not so keen (just green) . They also had to mark dates they were absolutely unavailable (red). For every race I had to make sure to have a full team of 6 + 1 contingency. Really important to remind the riders all the time to update the spreadsheet, ensuring it reflects any changed availabilities or preferences.

Race-Entry (including team selection)

Usually via BCF website, with a few exceptions via RiderHQ. Most importantly, race organisers vary in their approach to deal with entries. Some of them accept entries on first comes first served. Others make a selection for acceptance after an entry closure date. Those often cause the weakest riders being denied/rejected. The most stupid thing is, you as the manager who enters the riders, don’t even get informed if your riders made the selection. You then have to enquire who actually got in and who didn’t. Sometimes this becomes clear only a few days before the race. Don’t expect your team to tell you if they got in or not on their own behalf. The facebook page proved very useful to get feedback from the riders and saved some emailing traffic.

In some cases the acceptance rate is so low that you need to write an email to the organiser or better call them and tell them an amazing story about the riders they rejected, about our wonderful club and how you have seen little Ben’s development since he was four and that he had prepared throughout the entire season to race THIS race…you know what I mean.

You then just have to take account regularly and send an invoice to Wendy to get your money back. I did 3 collective invoices over the year and reimbursement was always spot on, thanks to Wendy’s great support.

Pre-Race preparation and strategy

Every Friday before raceday we had a race-tactic preparation meeting at the “Dynamo”. Important to have ALL racers of the day there. Usually more show up, just to be part of that discussion, give their 2cents, but also, be part of the social energy. I usually printed the route map and profile on an A2 sheet or had handouts for the guys. Sometimes we had a laptop and looked at the course in Google streetview, but technology was not really needed. Just need to know where the important rises and descents are, the important corners and of course, where the break will be going… Start-list should be available, too. Crucial to identify potential strong individuals but also ear-making the important teams in order to develop a race-plan, together with the squad. Everyone who races on that day should know what his job is, before leaving the Dynamo.

Raceday

We have got a bottle cooler box (in nice blue), take riders personal bottles and prepare additional “neutral” bottles, one set with energy/electrolyte mix, the other set with water only. Have gels attached to them with a rubber band or tape. Numbers of bottles required by riders vary EXTREMELY, I was shocked that some riders get on with just the bottles they take from start of the race, others need 5-8 additional bottles…quite concerning sometimes.

Handing the bottles is a bit of an art, particularly if the receiver is not particularly well trained to receive them. So you need to find the best spot for handover, where riders are slow. This sometimes means arguing with the BCF commissar, because some of them are stupendously stubborn and want you to feed your riders in the most dangerous locations. If you ignore the commissar, the team might be DQ’ed, if you find other DS thinking same as you, get organized, speak to the race organizer who then will speak to the commissar and stubbornness sometimes changes to acceptance.

Neutral services are not always a given. If there is a neutral service following the race, make sure they have got out LD set of wheels, clearly labeled as “LONDON DYNAMO” in the boot. Otherwise park the wheels next to you so riders have to make the wheel change at feed stop. If you have enough helpers, someone may be able to follow the race in the convoy, although that again needs a special permission. Rusty and I think Ray know how to obtain this through BCF. After the race the riders come together to get their recovery shake, I usually have them available right there at the finish. Other teams often look rather envious when our FGS bar opens and the Dynamo riders can enjoy a nice recovery shake together, right there.

Post-Race

A good chat after the race is important, was the raceplan executed? How well was it executed? what went well, what didn’t, where were opportunities? Unused ones? If something is to be celebrated, celebrate right there. Those are the moments this is all made for. It is super important that everyone leaves the place satisfied, happy and positive. Everyone needs to get his credit for what he did. It must not leave tainted memories.

In the following days remind the riders to write a race report to be placed and the LD website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

next race

Sponsorship

This would usually be part of the job too, trying to bring in sponsors, keeping the existing ones happy, etc. (Un)fortunately this part of the job is not required at our club, as we try to be independent from commercial sponsorship. Trying to find sponsored, or discounts on products like helmets for the team this year turned out to be an utter waste of time. There is just very little interest to throw any kind of money onto a club based team.

Would you want to join the Squad?

Prospective NatB racers 2017

With the closure of the 2016 race season and all our attention now heading towards the winter training we are also looking beyond, the prospective NatB team for 2017. As you may know, some of our riders will depart, others will get a chance to join. Currently, we are in the process to refine what the NatB team is all about and what it means to the club’s racing scene. More to that in the next newsletter.

If you have ever wondered if it is open to you, then read on, it is open to every member, almost…there are a few “minor” conditions though, to qualify for racing in the LD natB team.

1.       You hold at least a cat2 licence

2.       You have had road racing experience, of at least a few Surrey League 2/3 level road races, ideally with the majority of your points gained there.

3.       You are willing to dedicate at least 7 weekends of your 2017 race season to racing with the team and for club interest.

4.       You are willing to actively take a share in team responsibilities, such as additional 2xtimes team support at the roadside of races and writing the forum race report for 2 races.

5.       You are willing to be racing with the team even if you may be chosen to sacrifice your own ambitions in support of the team’s ambition. This means you have to accept a support rider role, if required from you.

6.       You need to engage with the team throughout the winter training series, which means out of the 18 scheduled winter rides you should cover at least 12 rides.

If you are able to satisfy all these conditions then you qualify perfectly to join the team. In this case read on.

What will you get out of your placement in the team?

1.       You will have the opportunity to race at Elite12 road races against some of the strongest Elites in the country, within the structure of an organised and managed team. Your race entry will be organised and funded by the club.

2.       You will learn and experience what it means to race as a team, understand first hand what you otherwise only get to see on TV in pro-racing.

3.       You will be one of the selected LONDON DYNAMO squad and have a good chance to make it into the club’s hall of fame

4.       You will be integrated into a team of riders who all fulfil the same conditions, committed to you, dedicated to prepare and race the best they can to make their club proud.

5.       You will get access to the NatB team’s private communication platform and enjoy your new friend like a family.

6.       You will be invited to regular pre-race strategy meetings, every Friday before an oncoming race.

7.       You will have direct access to experience and knowledge of the more experienced team members and team support

8.       You will benefit from race support through reserve wheels and bottles/food handed from the road side and recovery nutrition post race.

9.       You will receive post race performance analysis and feedback

10.   You will be integrate part of a great initiative supported by your club, this means you won’t need to volunteer elsewhere.

11.   You will receive a set of club kit to ensure you look like part of the same team

12.   You have made a big step towards racing at highest level, quite a few previous riders developed well enough to be offered contracts by semi-pro teams whilst riding for the NatB team.

The Dulcie Walker NatB Race: Another day out as DS with the team

Directeur sportif - you organize the race-calendar, sign up the squat for the race, ensure you send the team, motivate them the night before the race, drive out there and pin their numbers on, hand them bottles and gels when they need feeding and organize their wheels for the neutral car. Hand them recovery drinks after and of course take as many pictures as possible, for sponsors and spouses. It is fun but also a lot of work.

The fun stops when riders are telling you that they will ride for another team the following year. Great, thanks a lot!

27 August, Surrey League, Parham Park, cat 2/3, 80km

Only my second race this year so far and probably my last race altogether.
My cardio respiratory response has worsened so much that I basically can't go full gas anymore. When I do, i get so deep into the red that I won't recover anymore. Having gone through a whole cycle of medical assessments this summer, including tilt test, Vo2 max exercise test etc, I was told that I am expecting too much and should come to terms with getting older. Holy crapp, is that also the reason why I get stinging pain in the chest and almost faint when I climb three flights of stairs? From feeling super fit and being able to train and race just a year ago to not even be able to train anymore, not to mention racing,  is a bit of an "un-natural" decline which I believe cannot be attributed to progressing aging, alone. Look at the picture, it tells it all, open mouth and feeling shit.

4th Ride-London-Surrey-100, 31.July 2016, 160km mass sportive event

This year an alleged 30,000 or so participants, I was lucky again to be selected through the ballot, although not for the first start group but the third. Bollocks. We had just returned from our fab holiday in good old Germany back home at midnight, then unpacking and rebuilding the bike, so I got to bed at 2:00 a.m. In order to make it in time to the start at 6.05 a.m. at the Olympic Park (28km ride through the entire city) I had had to get up at 4:00 a.m the very latest and leave home by 4:30 the very latest, as the start pens were supposed to close at 5:30.  Of course, I overslept, left home late and had to drill it all the way to the park to have a beating chance to get into my start pen. Despite being late I got in, literally 5mins before the start, rear row of riders. Felt a bit tired, but at least I was properly warmed up and didn't freeze like in previous years. As soon as we had started I realized I made a very very big mistake. Not only that I didn't get anywhere near enough sleep, not the fact that I didn't have a coffee (which I usually must have before anything, otherwise won't function), the worst that should not have happened, shit happened: I didn't go to the toilet! So the pressure built up so much that after more than an hour, just entering the Surrey hills, I had to make a poo-stop at Abinger Hammer. You know what that means, you lose your group, you lose any chances for a good time. The relief on the portaloo was heaven, the wooshing sound of passing follow up groups a total motivation killer. I lost 7:40 through my poo-stop and when I got back on the bike I was totally by myself, no other riders in sight. What was I going to do? Chase on or wait for the next group? So I just rolled a steady pace until I caught some riders who then latched on to my wheel, we caught more riders and soon where a group of like 8 or so riders, some of them getting involved in taking turns. When we got to Leith Hill we caught the splinters of the group ahead of us, dozens of small group and passed so many riders until we got to the core of that peloton. On the final km, up Wimbledon hill we got some good race action, breaking away with two others, charging furiously down and across Putney bridge before getting into the real city. The finale again terrific experience , despite not winning the sprint of that group, at least there was a properly fought finale. This years time was expected crap, with 4:15h possibly around 500th. But still, it was a memorable ride on a beautiful day, getting home with 220km in the saddle.

you can't possibly not have a finale on the Mall

on legendary Box-hill

just passing House of Parliament, 1km to go!

My first race since last October! TMG Horizon Trophy, Buckinghamshire, Elite 1/2/3, 160km

It was not easy. but after 60km into the race I started enjoying it again, until after 140km cramps set in....

Mallorca Camp 2016 (3/3) - When shit happens it usually comes in loads

Day 3 was then the first mountain ride with a larger group. We went up Col de Salva and had another go at Sa Calobra. Unfortunately this turned out to be a rather chilly ride and even on Sa Calobra I did not manage to warm up any more. The downhill back to the Villa was extremely cold and not surprising I felt rather exhausted after this relatively short ride. In the evening at Tolo's I began to feel ill and believe it, ended up with fever and chills and mostly sleepless night. I had man-flu, which in the following days developed into a nasty chestinfection and being back in London there was suspicion it had developed into Pneumonia.
Below are a few shots I took, whilst being a sick tourist on this lovely island.

Mallorca Camp (2/3) - When you think its all Shit then you might begin to realize it really is

Day 2 was meant to be a nice long group ride with both teams, flat and fast for 150km.
Again it was cold, but at least the first 2 hours of the ride we enjoyed a bit of sunshine.
On the return leg for some reason we entered country lanes that seemed to be rather muddy (probably manure) and slippery and ouch, that was that. Slipped in a curve, fell onto my ever so sore knee and hip and elbow that I had fallen on seven times in 2015. Immediately I knew that this was to compromise my stay on Mallorca. My road-rash tends to take about 2-3 weeks to heal, these days.

Mallorca Camp 2016 (1/3) - Finally we found winter, only where we expected it the least...

We arrived on a sunny and blue-skyed Saturday afternoon, a mixed group of 6 Dynamos and 6 Praetorius riders heading for a large villa near Port Pollensa.
Unfortunately, it was too late to get a ride in on the arrival day.
Even more unfortunate, the following day was grey, wet, cold and miserable (even worse than winter in London). Some of us still wanted to get out.
So, this was my first ever proper climb since I quit cycling in 1992: Sa Calobra
it basically means 30-40mins of riding continuously uphill, with hairpins and average 8%
(I loved it so much that I did it 3 times in the first 2 days)

Kentish Killer 2016 - Finding my own rhythm again

You may remember that I finished the Kentish Killer with the fastest time and set a new course record, in 2015. The ride is 112km through the Kentish hills and accumulating 2,300m of vertical elevation. In terms of vertical meters per distance of the ride it is quite an extreme ride, indeed.
So this year initially I just wanted to finish it, as my form really hadn't been materialized whatsoever.
To my surprise I found myself amongst the front 6 riders on the penultimate climb and finished the day with the 3rd best time, some 20sec slower than the young and gifted from my club.
You can visit the ride on my strava page:

KentishKiller2016-strava

So where was the winter? I was waiting with my winter training for the winter to come, but it never arrived...

For the ones of you who might have started to believe that I have passed away, I haven't. Just become a bit older, more lethargic and been confronted with a number of health issues over the winter, which, yes you guessed right, prevented me from any structured training.

Heart issues, respiratory issues and finally being hit by Rheumatism basically made even the Sunday teamride kind of hopeless for me. It was a time of concessions, when increasingly I got dropped not just on the climbs but also on the flat. The message was pretty clear, pulpitations, high heartrate, super high TSS for each of those rides basically meant I was spending it all.
I still enjoyed the sunday rides with the fragments of the team that could be bothered to turn up, but at the end I increasingly felt like an obstacle and didnt want anyone to wait for me.

coffee after the penultimate winterride, Kent

Heat Map - My most frequent rides

Summary 2015 Stats

2015 on Strava - Welcome 2016

http://2015.strava.com/video/7oIv4ey

It has been 7 weeks as the new Sport Director of the London Dynamo NatB Racing Team

The mission of London Dynamo’s E12 Racing is to become the most exemplary club based racing team in the UK. In 2016 twelve committed senior + two junior racers will compete fair and clean in London Dynamo club colours at 14 National B races. Each rider will share responsibilities and agree to make sacrifices for the benefit of something bigger than himself: The TEAM. 
During the winter months the team suffers together on the roads of Surrey and around Windsor, comes spring the team will travel to warmer climates to climb to the top of their power curves and comes March and April, let all critics and pessimists know well in advance, comes the blue black Dynamo express to kick their arse.

Over the period of the past 7 weeks I had organised 7 Sunday training rides, including a motivational program, special guests and surprises here and there. Today we had our winter-ride #007 with the title "From Russia with Love" (yes like the great James Bond movie). This was just inspired by the fact that it was to be the 7th ride of this series and me just travelling to Moscow a few days before. As this was also to be the last Team-ride of 2015, I had prepared a very special treat for the boys, 150km through the hills of Surrey, taking in 10 major climbs accumulating to 2,350m of total elevation.
16 Riders turned up for a pre-christmas ride in 15'C, possible to ride in shorts, even get plenty of sun.

link to strava file

Sad Times: London Dynamo Junior rider admits abuse of EPO

In this interview Gabriel gave a little bit away what drove him onto this path. I am not surprised, considering the publicity of the subject, the literature and media as source for information.

Gabriel is coming to fame, for the wrong reasons obviously, is already considered to be the Millar of the next generation, who knows he might really end up on Ophra, and may write a book...

Cycling weekly

With the new testing regime in amateur sports comes more exposure of abuse, but also publicizes methods and sources, making it first of all thinkable and then available to all.. Just look around, its happening in all endurance and fast-power sports, its like an epidemic. New pills, new methods, some not even meant for human (ab)use. Its crazy.

The Guardian 1

The Guardian 2

This whole testing and penalisation system is just too slow, too sporadic, weak and considerate, almost polite to dopers. Its not doping, it is the dopers who are killing competitive sport, period.

We may very well ask for legalization and abolishment of anti-doping rules or scrap the idea of competitive sport all together, but the "uups-being caught and banned for 2 years" is not a deterrent anymore. Public/social naming and shaming and expulsion should be a deterrent, but not if dopers find ways to capitalize on it and reach celebrity status, ie. selling books of their story, get TV exposure etc.
This is what I think would be a consequential (perhaps hard) line, but in the light of recent revelations may be more effective. Lets face it anyone who does it is a cheat, you are not becoming less of a cheat when you get discovered and punished with a 2 year ban. This would be punishing all the ones that get caught, but not much of a deterrent for the ones that slip through the net.

A) Education: At all levels, yes we do "race smart" intro sessions, and cat 4 accreditation. Doping and its consequence should be part of that briefing. Anyone who wants to compete has to subscribe to the non-PED policy

B) Penalization: Anyone who gets caught, gets banned for life from competition. Anyone who gets banned for life also gets all previous accolades nullified, effectively deleted from the record. That my not be practical for all the local races like Hillingdon and Surrey League, but for races where your name gets engraved on a Trophy it does make a difference. Once the penalty is draconian, one wouldn't need more testing than there is in place now, people would (hopefully) rethink their ill fated choice before its too late.

My Motto for the winter and next season

"If You really want to do something, you'll find a Way. If You don't, you will find an Excuse."
- Jim Rohn -

Ottershaw Roadrace Series, III, Elite/1/2/3, 95km

The third part of this classic autumn series brought us again to the double circuit around Staple hill near Longcross. Again, we had highly motivated race action, also imposed by the Pedal Heaven "Angels", with massive surges of speed and sapping enormous amounts of power. Average speed was again a "mediocre" 41km/h due to phases of rest-bite in-between (thanks for that). Reviewing my data I realized I spent more than 50% of the race above threshold, in the following had to revise my HR max upwards by 10 beats (apparently I held that for a duration of 6mins! at some instant), my cardiologist is probably going to say the race almost killed me. But to take the drama out, I finished in a starkly reduced bunch 17th on the day and 12th place overall in general classification. I really enjoyed these 3 weekends, only that this one overlapped with my wintertraining which had started a week ago, so I got on the bike with aching muscles from Thursday's core workout.

 Strava File

Here we are, at the end of the 2015 Racing Season, lets see how we get over the winter and back in Full swing in April next year.

Ottershaw Roadrace Series, II, Elite/1/2/3, 95km

The second race of this triple series required us to switch after 10 laps on a first circuit to another laps on a second one, with the finish line on top of "Staple Hill".
Whilst getting on a bit better than last week, which may be due to the mental speed surges actually getting back to normal speed at some point, a big question in my mind was what to expect on the second circuit. I didnt know the hill, so was hoping to be still fresh enough to not get dropped there. Clearly my idea of a good day was to finish the race in the peloton, or the main group. Half way through the race I had moments of despair, with a breakaway of five and the peloton fractured in grupettos, but apart from the five out the front it all came back together and so it happened that 3 laps from the end of the race I was often seen amongst the front 10 and only on the climb lost my position. Nonetheless I had not enough left to contest the finale for place 6 and rolled across the finish line in the main field. I felt happy almost as if I had won the race...

Ottershaw Roadrace Series, I, Elite/1/2/3

The Ottershaw series has become kind of an autumn classic, attracting riders who haven't accepted the end of the season yet.

Never before have I raced this late in a season, but the weather was truly exceptional. I underestimated my body clock halfly set on hibernation mode, already. Additionally I was aching from a silly 70km short (but slow?) hillsride the day before. Final excuse, there were a few plonkers not being able to ride wheel and left gaps, I closed down 3 or 4 in succession when the speed started surging to a mental level, there was that gap I tried to close on lap 7 and I had already been above 96% HR max for considerable time, was gulping the air in (not enough) and started feeling dizzy, but that fucking gap (no swearing) just wouldnt come down, maybe 2 bikelengths, i glimpsed 700w on my powermeter and then simply popped, hoping the guys behind me would close it but when I turned around there was an even bigger gap behind me. That was that. After a lap of getting my brain cells getting some oxygene again I found those 3 TCC riders who still had enough motivation to finish the race. I was really really cooked at the end of the day, still had not recovered by the following wednesday even.

Surrey League crit@Cyclopark, 75mins+3laps; 6th place

The first 10 laps where utterly horrible, me peaking at 100% HR max and above(!) every lap on top of the hill, despite the speed not being super fast. I was a bit worried what might happen if the pace was increased. Soon into the race Simon went off the front with two others and I kept slowing the pace of the chasing group for him.
This worked until one of his compatriotes decided to drop back to the peloton and the second one punctured. So Simon was about to be brought back, when 2 other riders bridged over to him. The 3 got to about 45 sec when my other Dynamo mate Jeremy decided to get to them. Unfortunately he took a passenger. Again I was controlling the speed of the bunch successfully and soon Jeremy and co had 20 secs. Thats when I felt better than at the beginning and infused a bit of action, eventually pulled away with two passengers who did not want to work. A sharp acceleration on the hill distanced them and with 5 laps to go I steadily extended my lead on those two chasers and got closer and closer to Jeremy and co ahead of me. It was pretty tough on my own due to the wind and quick turn of the head at the bell revealed my chasers behind where out of sight, so I took it a bit easier, until on the downhill on the other side of the course i could see that I got very close to Jeremy and co, by the finish line I had gotten as close as approx 10sec to them. Happy with my performance on the last 5 laps, despite the sheit 6th place, but who cares!

London Dynamo Clubchamps, Hillingdon

Yes right, after the Barcombe race I got into the car and straight out to Hillingdon. There was a 2hour window for recovery, not much but hey I didnt go there to win, just to be part of it this year. It always so cool, a race with 50riders in same outfit...
The legs didnt feel too bad, good enough for chasing down Ian's attacks, shouting at the young guys to keep the tempo high and riding off the front twice myself. Infact the E1/2 had a difficult time to bring down their 90sec handicap. At some point though I realised it would be better to make sure a NatB rider wins rather than one of the cat 3/4 riders who hardly ever race. So, about 15 laps before the end I stopped pushing the group and awaited my team to roll up to us. Which they did. Jamie, our youngest NatB team rider took his heart in his legs with 3 laps to go and chased a lone breakaway rider who was hovering 15sec ahead of us. He overrollt him and stuck out at the front for the final lap, while I ensured the rest of the group doesnt chase him down. It was enjoyable racing and I was pleased to see a young talented man taking the win.

solo attack for about 2 laps

but then brought back

Surrey League Roadrace cat 2/3; Barcombe Circuit, 120km; 11th place.

First time for me on this course, quite demanding undulating and with an uphill sprint, which I usually like. This one had a curve 100m before the finish though and I defnitely dont like that.
It was an active race, many attempted breakaways, all got caught back. I had been away myself, on one occasion bridged over to a 2-up breakaway but was unlucky with the 2 guys. Another time I took off by myself and was joined by 4 riders, it looked ok but also got pulled back, it came down to an uphill bunch sprint. I was in excellent position at the beginning of the sprint (4th wheel) but didnt have the power to maintain it as some others overrolled my on the final 50m and only held on to 11th place. Nevertheless this still brought valuable points and I was pleased with my engagement in forming the race.

Surrey League, Seale circuit, Road Race, 6thPlace

Having just returned from Germany from a week long cycling in old home territory.  After this weeks quantitiy of riding, with 400TSS yesterday, not the most evident thing to consider racing the day after. Additionally, returning home from Germany past midnight, rebuilding the bike and getting to sleep only at 1:30 a.m. wasnt any good either.So here we go, all excuses upfront.

As expected my legs felt pretty rubbish from the start, with heartrate at 85% I was already breathing heavily and my legs were screaming to go back home and lie on the sofa...

3 laps before the end I was close to giving up, with 5-7 riders up the road no hope to win. I just couldnt do anything about the breakaways, hanging on for dear life instead. With an uphill sprint finish, usually my speciality, i was sure I would not be able to contest and went into the final bent 10th wheel, just to be safe from crashes. I did follow this until we hit the rise to the finish and just gave it a go. To my surprise i flew past the whole lot and won the bunch, for 6th overall, but honestly pretty empty.

Riding on old homesoil in Germany is increasingly becoming a rewarding experience

From 1981 to 1993 this was my "angst berg".  "Rund um den Elm" was one of the major classic road races in Germany and usually took on "Amplebener Hill" 7-10 times before returning to the finish in Braunschweig. Last year I took a delegation of what later became our LD Nat B team to the 100. edition of this race. We were the only clubteam entered amongst Elite teams.
This summer I returned to the Elm and rode the Amplebener quite a few times. It has never become easy, but the "angst" factor has vanished.
Maybe my recently imported Tuscan kit helped...

Hillingdon Crit; 6th Place

After a morning ride into the Hills I decided to do some early afternoon crit racing. Awfull hot day, but went to Hillingdon just to get some points. Could have won the race in bunch sprint if I wouldnt have allowed myself to get boxed. Ended 6th. But the heat and respiration made me feel pretty weak throughout the race, no way I could have sustained a solo attack.

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF "THE BIG BANG"

It has been a challenging year. The accident has had longterm impact on my life. Still problems and pain with the shoulder, still pain radiating from the vertebrae, still getting tired early on and needing a lot more sleep than before. Life is not as it was before, but its the more beautiful. 
The rehab training and later the structured coaching by Rich came to a stop as it just wouldnt go with the job anymore, too much workstress, too many accidents on the bike this year, i basically had times when I crashed again with the wounds from the previous crash just not even completely healed yet. So I took a bit the pace out, reduced the riding, focussed more on work again. Probably through the intense rehab and the focus on the goal to get to previous levels of perfomance  made the vessel overboil a little bit and fatigue set in. Here a photo from a year ago, just noticed I never posted it.

London Prudential 100; 160km;

It has become like an annual ritual, getting up at 3 a.m., riding out to the Olympic Park, which is already 30km in darkest night, signing on at 5.00 and start at 6.00 am. all done and dusted just after 10.00 am, back home for lunch, heading back out to Richmond Park to glimpse the Pros wizzing past at 3 p.m.

Arriving fairly late I joined the rear of my startpen. From the off as expected hight speed, although not as mental as in previous years. By the time we got on the A4 I was amongst the front of the ride and stayed there for the entire race. Did quite a bit of work throughout, got into each climb at the front in order to be able to afford losing positions on the climb, hence never lost contact. The finale was thrilling. Got 4th over the line and 23rd best time in 4:01:26.
Not quite what I aimed for but given my current state a satisfactory result.

Average power just over 200w, NP 256w, best 5mins around 365w

Surrey League Crit@Cyclopark; 7th place

Feeling really shit on the bike, very hot and windy. Felt totally utterly useless, 5 got away, nobody responded and I wasnt able to do anything either. Still managed to pull myself together for a decent sprint at the end and got 7th.
Not sure why I mention this...

German National Roadrace Championships, Hamburg, Masters 2 (40-50ys) 20 laps a 5km = 100km.

Ultimately THE highlight of my season, that what I have been training for since my accident last August. Taking last Friday off work in order to optimize final preparations, go over the bike properly and get everything packed up, headed to Hamburg on Saturday, the hottest day on German record, 40.1 degrees.

By end of Saturday a massive thunderstorm brought a bit of relieve, though. Raceday then felt ok, just 30 C but high humidity, you woul sweat even from sitting in the shade...Our's was the main race, starting at 15.00 when temperatures peaked and thunder could already be heard in the distance. The race was held on fully closed circuit with a 1300m climb to be ascended 20times!!!
I had never done any masters racing in Germany before but now can say, this was quite unlike anything I have ever raced before. 100 super fit pro-looking riders, many of them with a glorious past, some of them ex Pros, ex champs, many of them still elite riders. You could feel that during the race as the peloton rode so tightly packed and each individual so skillful that I always had contact to fellow's shoulders and elbows as the default position. Sudden sverving and change of line (not so pro) as well as Kamikaze dive bombing before curves seemed to be another set of unusual default tactics, fearless, reckless, 100% risk, that's how they do their racing. I was shellshocked and hated it from the start. But being German I soon adopted this kind of style and after having had lost a lot of ground in the first 3 laps I stormed to front of the race after about 4 laps. It turned  out later that I rode that lap faster than anyone else at any other stage of the race and won the KOM on this circuit on Strava. After 7 laps I could feel the field tiring, no suicidal dive bombing anymore, constant high speed so that there were no surprising attacks attempting any breaks. The peloton had been quite decimated.  When I accelerated up the finishing straight in lap 9, nobody followed and I got a bit of a gap. Soon joined by another guy, last year's winner coincidentally, we obviously were meant to be targets but we held the gap for half a lap and got caught on the fast decent on our tenth lap before turning left into the finishing straight again. By that time it had began to drizzle a bit and lots of riders screamed "vorsicht", remanding people to be extra careful, which I was, I promise! I went 5th wheel into the curve, about 40km/h instead of the usual 55km/h. But I had no chance, my front wheel just went, like on ice or....yes right, OIL. It was discovered a few laps later that an oil trace on the road had caused crashes once the road got a little wet. I was unlucky that I rode the curve on the line of the spillage. Whilst I was being treated by the race doctor, another crash happend in the following curve, but with many more down and one rider severely injured. That was also the moment the peloton shattered in pieces and a group of 4 went off the front. Not much to my interest any more as I had sustained quite a lot of roadrash again, most of the skin that had healed already 3 times over the past 3 months had been torn open again, heavy bruising to hip and elbow and possibly damaged ac joint again, can't turn my head to the left and got awfully sore triggerpoints around should and spine. Bike seems ok, shoes damaged though. Family happy I can still limp around. I have never had so many crashes in such short period of time and am seriously contemplating about this..

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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.

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.