A small update

Just on the training, mind.

The last three weeks since Rudy Project #1 have been interesting in terms of the ol' power development. I was quite happy with what I managed then, as I'd built on my power at the Chippenham hilly at the start of March. If I could hold that for the rest of this season, I'd not be doing badly.

But there has been no slacking off since then as Ric is determined that we can push through last year's plateau. We haven't changed things since Feb/March either: my absolute training load has gone up slightly with longer sessions but my relative load has started to level off. That means that 'a lot of training' now feels normal, which means I'm fresher for each session, which means I find it easier to increase power from week to week.

This is important in the threshold workouts (the oft used 2 x 20min) as these give a very good idea of what your current 1 hour power (FTP) is. From experience this year, if I can average X watts for a 2x20 session (not counting rest) then I can add a few watts on top of that on race day for an hour.

It also tracks well to tempo power in certain circumstances, but because that's not maximal it's harder to draw a comparison. And longer rides don't seem to change much, although I have added about 10W in the last couple of weeks to my long rides, which is nice. Compared to similar rides I was doing last year, I'm about 25W up. That's good and I am hoping to get near that across all power levels.

What's better is being able to recover from these rides very quickly. And being able to put in hard efforts during the ride without knackering me for the rest of the ride. It's a particular kind of fitness (most would say it's base but I think Alex and Ric of RST refer to it as depth) and it feels amazing as it gives you almost complete control over your body.

Case in point: I did 3hrs on Saturday at a hard endurance pace, down towards the Mendips. In the middle I went up the Burrington Combe climb the fastest I've ever done in training. I turned around at the top, rode down and did it again at exactly the same speed and power as the first time, modulating power according to the changing gradient but still maintaining control over the effort. I got to the top and rode home at pretty much the same power and heart rate as the first part of the ride. Result: fastest Mendips ride I've done on the road bike. Power numbers to match.

Previously if I did this my heart rate would stay high after the climbs, my legs would be shot and my power would drop 20-40W. It's very nice not to have that happen.

Drinking booze at Phil N's birthday for the rest of the day probably wasn't the best recovery option but today's long ride went surprisingly well.

Next up: two mountain time trials, one in Buxton on Friday and the Beacon RC Little Moutain TT on Sunday. Both 1hr30-1hr45 so I won't get an idea of my one hour power just yet.

I move well, don't I?

Thus spake Irma Prunesquallor to her brother Alfred in Titus Groan (or was it Gormenghast?).

This was before she organised a grand party with the stated intention of securing herself a man. Which she did do in the form of Professor Bellgrove.

I kept getting reminded of this quote at last night's dinner party organised by one of the girls at work. She has already got a man (French), who was tasked with cooking for the remaining eight of us. He did a fine job, which is lucky because it is his job.

That left the rest of us (women outnumbering men 3:1, I am spoken for, you do the maths) to make the most of the occasion, which we did until approximately 3am. The combination of strong characters, food and wine was a real assault on the senses, but a hell of a lot of fun. Top marks.

3 hours on the velocipede the today wasn't quite as much fun, but I got through it.

Rudy Project #1


© David Jones

The first round of the Rudy Project time trial series was last weekend in Essex. Twas a 25.5 mile (41km) course on rolling twisting mostly back roads. I stayed in a B&B run by a triathlete who'd broken her hip after crashing on black ice in January. She's a multiple age group winner at world level so is pretty keen to get back into it. But a few more weeks to go before she can ride again.

We had another guest in the form of Michelle King, who went on to win the women's race by 2'30. I was clearly in good company although the next day I didn't end up winning by 2'30. In fact I came third to Matt Bottrill by 3'10. It just goes to show. What, I'm not sure.

I actually had a very decent ride - in power terms it'd be in my top 4 since the start of 2009. Encouragingly, it was nicely up on the Chippenham hilly a few weeks ago, so the training is paying off. I also beat a few riders who I thought would beat me, so that was nice.

But my 56'52 looked positively slow compared to Bottrill's 53'42. He took nearly 6 minutes off the course record and that's a hell of a ride. Second went to Andrew Griffiths in 56'18. He's the U23 national champion so there was no shame in being beaten by him.

Bottrill has improved a lot over the last year, either in power or aero terms or both. I remember in round 4 of the Rudy Project last year I got within 1'30 of him on almost the same power over the same distance. So basically he's opened up another 30W on me, and that is an impossible gap to bridge. And he's not even peaked yet, according to his coach! It'll be interesting to see how he fares against Hutch, come nationals time.

So while I was perfectly happy with my ride, it will change how I focus on the rest of the season.

Here are some short vids of us in action, courtesy of Scott Povey's girlfriend. Scott unfortunately crashed during the race but at least he wasn't badly hurt and ended up finishing 10th in 59'01.


Me, "moving well"


Scott Povey, also moving well


Matt Bottrill, moving well and a hell of a lot faster than the rest of us

It begins

Today was me first race in five months, the Chippenham hilly 24. Always a good way to kick off the season.

Alas my winning streak of three came to and end courtesy of a top quality ride by Douglas Dewey, who broke my course record with a superb 53'49 in unfavourable conditions. I managed second in 54'56, just ahead of Rob Pears (55'09) and Chippenham won the team prize with me, Simon Snowden and Paul Coles, which was nice.

Interestingly, Doug Dewey (who is still an U23) won the first ever 25 that I did back in 2007, the Severn RC 25. Think he did a 56'12 whereas I managed a 1:02ish.

A bit like last year it was freezing again, but once I got to the top of Lyneham Banks it was OK and I felt as though my hands would last the distance. The nasty ENE wind made it hard though, as it was head or head-crosswind for 3/4 of the race and only tailwind for about a quarter. A SW wind makes a world of difference on this course, but it wasn't to be today.

Power outputages were reasonable today, nothing special but I didn't expect that. But also above what I managed for most of last year. I've not done any top end work and I didn't even back off (much) for this race, so hopefully there are some more watts to be had. In the past two years this race has always been my best power of the whole season - something I want to avoid this year.

So it's back to the grindstone before my next race, which will probably be the first round of the Rudy Project at the end of March if I get my entry in in time.

Finally, good luck to Ma with her knee op. Hope you're walking, riding, huntin' shootin' fishin' again soon :-)

Update and bike bits

1) Our phone doesn't work. I blame TalkTalk or the damp.

2) I know we're not done with winter yet but thankfully the second half seems a lot better than the first half. There's been precious little sun in February, so much so that when you do see it you really appreciate it. However it hasn't really got below zero that often and we've been snow-free in the UK's southern quarters.

That means no more early morning roller sessions :-) Instead I've been able to get out on the road for a few hours in the mornings prior to striking a blow for BikeRadar and beyond. This is more than I'd normally do at this time of year (erm, riding wise), however that's what El Coach says and it's easy once someone else takes on that responsibility.

Things appear to be going in the right direction, although it's not quite time to start hitting power PBs in training, it's about doing the work to set things up down the track. I'll make another assessment in about a month (first race in a couple of weeks), but it's Nationals time in June when I'd like to be going well.

I have to go back to the start of '08 for a similar pre-season training load. Then I did a bit of intensity but it was mostly a case of getting the miles in. It took until May before I really started to fire, then did another big mileage block in June and had a really good July-September - definitely the fittest I've been in the last four years, just not as fast because of positional and bike improvements. If I can regain that level of fitness this year, I'll be really quick.

Speaking of the bike, I'm still riding a Spesh Transition but will graduate to a Shiv once the weather gets nice enough :-) To be honest I don't think it'll make a huge amount of difference, but it'll be fun riding it. There will be some reportage on BikeRadar once I get it up and running.

And speaking of equipment, I managed a spate of five punctures in one week a couple of weeks ago. Quelle bad luck, 'cos I was riding four different wheels/tyres. The worst was puncturing at the turnaround of a 65km ride, having a spare with a hole in it and having to ride home on the flat. Most of them were new tyres too, which was annoying. So I scrounged a Panaracer Extreme Duro from a tyre test and so far it's up to scratch. Grippy, rolls pretty well and (fingers crossed) I haven't punctured on it. My other tyres are Hutchinson Fusion IIs, but you can't get these easily any more, so I'll have to upgrade to Fusion IIIs. These are awesome tyres.

What else? For the dark mornings I'm using an Exposure Flare rear light that I bought off the basis of a Cycling Plus lights test. It's a brilliant light, pardon the pun. At 75 lumens it's way brighter than most LED lights, although the technology is improving across the board. On the front I've got a Light and Motion Stella 200, which is not the brightest front light you can get but it's fine for road use. What I like about both these lights is that they'll strap to anywhere on your bike - no mounts required.

Finally I've been using a CycleOps Joule 2.0 for recording power data (and a Garmin Edge 705 on my road bike). The Joule gives you a lot of on-board data during the ride, the most useful being normalised power. But no maps unfortunately. The Garmin leads the way here and the Edge 800 is the new must have toy.

It's February

Thank goodness January is over. Despite spending half of it in Oz, I still find the lack of light when I get back to the UK hard going. February is somewhat better, as the mornings start to get lighter and you don't feel as though you're spending the whole day indoors or in the dark.

Also I managed to get sick with a virus the day after I got back from Oz and that knocked me out for a week. It's happened to me several times now - long haul flights are the worst thing for getting sick.

So my first week back at work consisted of half a day in the office, three days in bed, then a return on Friday. Hardly ideal as January is quite a busy month. Still, things are falling into place and I'm hoping that BikeRadar will have some solid growth this year.

Training has thus been delayed, although I'm back to where I was now. The good thing about doing lots of base work is that you don't lose much if you have time off. The downside is that if you've been riding for many years, as I have, you don't see much in the way of fitness gains. Case in point: I did a 3hr ride today that was almost the same average and normalised power and heart rate as one I did over the same route in early November. And I've done a lot of miles in the intervening period.

The real question is whether this base will lead to a higher peak than previous years when I start to get stuck into some harder work. I'll probably only realise that come June, when my target races are (national 25, 50, 100). But I'll also do some Rudy Projects and a few local events early on to see how I'm going.

Other news: the Chippenham club do has come and gone, and it was a good 'un. We were graced by Sarah and Barney Storey, wot have won many world championships/Olympic golds in para-cycling and swimming. I collected five trophies this year (Liz is not a trophy, despite what she says on facebook). Followed closely by Luke Davies, who managed four. I think Luke raced over 80 times (or was it 100?) last year and did some huge PBs, which is impressive.

Movies: 1) The King's Speech. Very good with Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and a bunch of other good actors/actresses/actuaries. If you haven't seen it then do. 10/10.

2) Black Swan. Natalie Portman, Barbara Hersheybar and a few others. I'd describe it as a ballet-horror fusion with a dash of lesbianism. Liz and I weren't sure if the horror elements really worked. And Portman's portrayal of madness is classically overblown. 6/10.

Finally, happy birthday to my granmother Joan, who is 90! Wish I could be there to celebrate it with youse all.

Snow

Jeez this is late.

The snow came extra early to the UK this year, prompting the usual calls of "why weren't we told?" and "what is the government doing about it?". Clearly what we need is a better global warming policy. Something along the lines of "If we made everything hot all the time it wouldn't snow."

I think I'll stand for PM on that platform. I reckon I'll get a few votes as long as the election is in winter.

Snow does mess up the general flow of things but it's not the end of the world. What is poor is that things like airports get closed for longer periods than is necessary. Heathrow got down to one runway for a few days, which surprises me because if they can figure out how to clear one runway then two shouldn't be a big problem. But there's probably something else, like the planes being frozen to the spot.

All countries in the Northern hemisphere suffer, it's just that some are better at dealing with it than others.

I consider myself a bit lucky that I got out of the UK to sunnier climes down under. The word was "only turn up for your flight if it's been confirmed". Mine was, but still I had to queue outside terminal 3 before being allowed to go and check in. Even after boarding I was still nervous, as we were sitting on the tarmac for quite some time while they de-iced the plane and crammed a few more passengers on. Big sigh of relief when we took off, I tells ya.

Sydney was warm and wet but it beat snow and -5 degrees. I was there for three weeks and caught up with most of my rellos (sorry to those who I missed!) and some of my friends (ditto). This was in between training and trying to sort things out for ma and pa's retirement move. Our attic is full of stuff that we've all dumped there over the years and it was time to do a mega-sift through and turf out anything that didn't have intrinsic value. That was about half of my worldly belongings. But it was nice to rediscover some gems from the past, including my sketchbooks featuring original drawings of the morbid but generally well received grim reaper Christmas cards.

The other things that was interesting to dig up were my old training diaries. I can't believe how many kilometres I used to do! In '99 and '04 I cracked 30,000km for the year and in several other years I got pretty close to that number. In recent years I haven't managed over 20,000km and even that's considered a lot by amateur standards.

I concede it probably wasn't the most effective way of training back then. Alex Simmons, coach and para-cyclist, who runs the excellent Turbo Studio in Randwick among other things, said that even if it wasn't ideal back then, your body doesn't forget all those miles and they've probably helped in recent years.

Training wise, I did do a fair bit more riding in Oz than last year, but not silly miles. Just three weeks of solid riding. I'm paying for it now unfortunately as I seemed to have picked up a virus on the plane. Blurgh.

Movies

I saw a number of movies courtesy of Virgin's in-flight entertainment. Here is my executive summary:

On the way out I went for action movies, starting with Salt (starring a certain Angelina Jolie). It's a spy movie and I can't remember much of it now, but at the time it was worth watching. I then moved onto The Expendables, which featured every 50yr+ action hero you could think of and was directed by Sly Stallone. Utter shite.

The A-Team promised more and almost delivered. I was never a fan of the original so I didn't get into it. It needed a big screen too. I saw something else that was also poor. So I'll give the flight over a 1/4 for movies.

Coming back was better. I started with The Social Network, which was a lot better than you might think. It's based on a book called Accidental Billionaires (thanks Piers - I also read this on the plane) which tracks the creation of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg and his mates at Harvard in 2004. Although it's reportedly not close to being 100% accurate (especially as far as the characterisation is concerned), it does give you an insight into how this site came into being and its incredible growth. Almost 10% of the world's population is now on Facebook and it continues to grow.

One of the reasons it works is that to set up a profile and connect with people you already know, you need to use your own name. No it doesn't force you to do this but few of your friends will recognise you if you don't. So many other social network sites missed this rather crucial element, and turn into cesspools of anonymous hate and stupidity quite quickly.

What it does is retain some of the human element, even if it is just a profile, and that means people aren't afraid of using it. Add a clean, easy to use interface and bang, it's a goer. The fact that Zuckerberg studied both psychology and computer science probably had a lot to do with its success. He understands people a lot better than most programmers - sorry for the stereotype - and realised what they wanted.

Movie number 2 was Scott Pilgrim vs the World. It's based on a series of graphic novels about Scott Pilgrim, a bass player in a band, and his attempts to woo a girl. He gets her and then has to defeat her "seven evil exes" which he does in computer game style. It's Canadian so the humour is offbeat. It also moves very quickly so you'd better be paying attention.

Then I saw The American. This doesn't move quickly. It's got George Clooney in it as an assassin who's trying to get away from it all. He moves to Italy and doesn't manage to get away from it all. It's nicely shot and there's plenty of style but no substance. I kept waiting for something to happen and it didn't, it sort of petered out in a predictable way.

Finally I saw Iron Man 2. Another comic based flick and pretty good. It would be great on a big screen but it still worked on a tiny one. Premise is: Tony Stark (Iron Man) is looking for a cure to his terminal illness at the same time trying to prevent the Baddies and the US Govt from taking over his privately run vigilante operation and its associated weapons. They do and a shootout ensues. I won't give away the winner.

Frozen bilge

It's the best kind because it's easier to avoid. Although it can be slippery.

Right, the cold hard facts: it's been the coldest most widest spreadest snowiest start to the UK winter in approx 17-33 years, depending on your penchant for stats. What this means is that it started snowing all over the shop last week and hasn't really let up, although it might soon. So the north is once again buggered and so is the southeast and Wales. That leaves Cornwall, which has mostly been spared. Bath copped a fair bit too.

On the days that it hasn't snowed it's been really chilly. A couple of mornings where it's been -5 in Bath, colder once you leave the confines of the city. And up in Scotland it's already been as low as -21, and could easily get colder. The record is -27 so I'm keeping an eye on that.

I managed to get out for a few rides after the snow started but this week I've been indoors on the rollers, and am better for it. It's quite nice not to have to wash 4 tonnes of cycling kit after every ride. Shorts and jersey is fine for a 1hr session in the work basement. It is cold down there but after 10mins with no wind blowing over me, I quickly warm up. The main reason is that I'm putting out about 1kW of heat (250W of which goes into the pedals). The body's fuel conversion inefficiency can come in handy sometimes.

Back home, I am rather glad that we got the heating fixed in time. The pipes are quite narrow so it doesn't exactly chuck it out, but we've got a back up fan heater in the living room which is useful. The fact that it looks like a coal oven and even glows, well we'll ignore that.

So even though it's been raining lots in Oz, I'm still looking forward to it in a few weeks.

Onto more important things, we saw two movies recently. Harry Potter 7, Part I, Deathly Hallows. Pretty good all round, some small diversions from the book including a slightly racy Harry/Hermione scene, and a few bits were cut or severely shortened (a good thing).

Liz and I reckon that of the three main stars, Rupert Grint (Ron) has got the brightest future ahead of him. He can do expressions. Daniel Radcliffe hasn't mastered it yet (acting, that is), and Emma Watsername is a little better, although at least she can do a nice sideline flogging Chanel No. 3.

Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory out of Harry Potter IV) has done well though. He's now a useful vampire method actor.

Beowulf was the other movie wot we saw, on telly not on the big screen. It's a bit of an oddity, as they used a motion capture technique to make it semi-animated (real actors turned into 3D animations). Why? To save money I guess.

The outcome is rather disappointing, as by going 3D you lose all the expression that a human being could bring to the role, unless that human being is called Keanu Reeves. So while it gives you more scope to do krazee stunts, it's essentially a waste. OK Angelina Jolie's in it but still...

The storyline is changed somewhat from the original. Yes Beowulf still defeats Grendel with his bare hands, but then it veers wildly off tack by having him being seduced by a beautiful Grendel's mum, instead of slaying her. That's just a gratuitous use of Ms Jolie's talents if you ask me. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Then she ends up siring a dragon, wot kills and is killed by Beowulf at the end.

So yeah it's a nice way of tying it all together but I think it's taking poetic licence a bit far. In actual 8th century fact, Grendel's mum was not easy on the eye (I know, I drew her for a historical piece in 5th class) and the dragon was no relation.

On the other hand, the poem is a bit disjointed. A bit like this blog.

After reading it, I can see how Tolkein was influenced by it*, especially in the Silmarillion.

Finally, I see that arsenic based lifeforms have been discovered outside of parliament (that was a bit of political satire there). There is hope then, although not necessarily for us.

*Beowulf that is, not this blog.

In no particular order

We have hot water and heating again after many months. A good thing, as we're now hurtling towards winter with reckless abandon. I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say it wasn't just a new boiler that was required and good plumbers are in high demand. It's all that central heating bizzo.

The shortest day of the year is just a month away. Thankfully by then I should be headed to Oz on a non-Qantas non-Air China flight. Air China jacked their prices up by nearly £500(!) this year, which is capitalism gone mad I tell you. Although they were still cheaper, I couldn't face Beijing Airport for a measly £200 saving.

Qantas makes me nervous for some reason, so I'm taking an alternative option.

I'm quite looking forward to Oz, although it means I'll miss the Cycling Time Trials Champions Night in January. Bummer, because I think I won a medal for finishing second in the national TT series. But you pays your money...

That said, it had better have stopped raining in Oz by the time I get there. November in the UK is always a bit crap. Apart from the odd sunny day it's grey, stormy, occasionally frosty and there's wet leaves everywhere. I've been out when it was -2 on the bike path but it wasn't so bad as the sun was out. Worse was when I took John, Sam and Kirsty out one day and there were two crashes equalling one broken thumb and a separate case of a ruined pair of knees. All in one 45km ride. Oops.

I've actually been doing a fair bit more than I usually do in November, which I've traditionally treated as a rest month. However because I finished racing at the start of October, everything has been moved forward. It's not been so much hard work as solid amounts of riding. As such I'm still as fit as I was (on average) during the season, although a damn sight slower. Winter cripples your average speed because of the cold and all the gear you have to wear. But as I'm finding out, not your power.

Hopefully I can build on this going into next year. We shall see.

Finally, I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to end on a sad note. I don't think it is, so this is enough.

Journo world's 2010

This...


Photo © Robert Kühnen

...is why I still race. The feeling you get when you cross the line having given it everything and you know it's a winning time.

This...


Photo © Robert Kühnen

...is also nice.

That was the story of the 2010 journo worlds in a nutshell. There's a full report here too.

The full story

The slightly longer version starts with a poorly timed visit of the Ridley factory in Belgium on Thursday, the day before the journo world's kicked off. The visit was necessary for work but it didn't help with my last minute preparation. I had no chance to ride during the day and from past experience this always knocks the edge off me the next day (it did this time too). I don't handle rest particularly well.

Somewhat ironically, we were shown Ridley's latest aero developments, including a non-existent wind tunnel (it's coming) and a super dooper aero fork. And two days later, it turned out my closest rival in the TT was riding a Ridley Dean time trial bike. I suspect it was more coincidence than a Belgian plot to unseat me in the TT. It didn't work anyway.

Friday morning, train to Lierde, sign on and meet the rest of 'Team GB' (matching skinsuits, identical to the ones worn by the real British team. Yes I am both British and Orstrayan, wotcher g'day). Robin Coomber and Ian Osborne, who'd driven over in the Mountain Biking UK van the previous night. We thought we'd squeeze in a couple of laps of the course before the team time trial started later, and a wise decision it was.

20 corners in 10.7km. Bumpy concrete roads, potholed asphalt, speed humps and a few small climbs. That was the course and it was a bit of a shock to the system. The first time around it, my left elbow pad slipped on every bump, so I needed to make some modifications to my bar set up. It wasn't as aero as I would have liked but at least I had no surprises.

The second time around it we sort of worked out a formation but it was a tough course to ride as a team. Very few long straights where you could swap over and lots of corners where you could lose a ton of time. So the plan was: I do most of the work, Robin does a third and the more technical sections, Ian hangs on for dear life.

It almost worked.

Fast forward to just before the start. We got lost on our warm up and had just found the way back when Ian punctured. Argh! I had a spare wheel to lend him but it meant we were a little compromised. Worse still, we didn't have a chance to do the final part of our warm up, which involves going at race pace for a short while. This is to remind your legs what they're about to do. Too late for that. We were off.

I started at the front and got us up to speed on the first downhill bit. From 0-60km/h in 30 seconds. Then Robin took over for the first and tightest corner. I followed, checked that we'd still got Ian, left Robin in front for the next two corners and that was the first kilometre.

Then it was my turn again. Bend, corner, corner, 60km/h, sharp corner at 30, back up to 58, bend, another one, too fast come off tri-bars and slow down too much. Less than 3km and Robin takes over, yelling at Ian to drop back but he doesn't and I take last wheel. Bad idea because Robin pushes it hard on the uphill and Ian slowly loses the wheel until I can come round and pull him back, past Robin, who slots into second. 3.5km. We've already lost the race but we don't know it yet.

Time for me to do a longer turn, not hammering but opening up a bit. It's mostly straight with just one bend in 1.6km, so I can crank the speed up gradually without dropping anyone. Slow from 52 to 38 for one bend, then down to 30 for the next one as we reach Deftinge. I did a race here once. Quite some time ago actually. That means this blog is over six years old.

I digress. We're halfway now and Robin gets back on the front, taking us through the next corner out of Deftinge (that didn't take long). We go through the back of town via a few more corners and onto a tiny road next to a cornfield. Memories of racing over roads like this. I shouldn't have been reminiscing though, I should have taken over from Robin on this bit even though we'd previously agreed he'd do the next section because it was downhill and technical.

Bad idea - I'm much fatter than Robin therefore faster on the downhills. I end up freewheeling and sitting up too much as we rattle along at 48-52km/h. That's it. 3km to go and I come through for the duration. Up a sharp hill at 430W, take the next corner fairly well, then assume the position on the longish drag into the headwind. I'm flat out here and hoping that the others are hanging on.

Corner, bend, hammer, another corner and we're into the finishing straight which goes down then up and up some more. It's block headwind here and I can only hit 52 on the descent. The climb to the finish is long enough to really hurt and I am at this point. Robin comes past near the end, I get out of the saddle to try to hold his wheel but I can't quite, and Ian is barely on mine.

We cross the line in 15'05 and I'm blown. The second half was a lot better than the first but not starting hard enough cost too much time and already I can hear that we're one second behind Team Grinta! who have the quickest time so far. That's disappointing as although they knew the course and had decent riders (Frederik Backelandt, won the U30 TT last year, Roel Van Schalen, who beat me in the TT three years ago and Lorenzo Derycke, who is very strong and had been drafted in especially for this team), we thought we could still beat them.

It didn't matter in the end as Team Belgium 1 came home in 15'00 to win. Dieter Roman (TT winner in 2006), Brett Wauters and Rik Lintermans combined extremely well to get around the course quicker than the rest of us. They had the home advantage and made the most of it, but they deserved it.

It also caused me a few worries for the next day as I now knew how good the Belgians were on their home turf. This was going to take a good ride, unlike last year where I did a relatively crap ride and still won by a minute.

Podium ceremony done, we retired to the Berendries B&B run by the wonderfully friendly and generous Christina and Marc. Highly recommended and I've stayed in a lot of B&Bs. Back to Lierde for the post-race pasta party (which was a good idea on paper) and thence to bed for a proper night's sleep.

The individual

The next day was better. I'd rehearsed the course in my head over and over and had a much better idea of which lines I'd take in the corners. Again it was an afternoon start so we had time to get properly ready.

Ian was off first, in the over 40s category. He did a creditable 15'58 for 5th place, but was a little disappointed as he'd initially been told 15'08 which would have been the winning time. The winner was Dutchman Roel Kerkhof in 15'11, who together with his friend was also staying at our B&B. Journo world's regular and top bloke Julian Bray was 2nd in this category, just 6 seconds behind Kerkhof. Sooo close and I bet there was plenty of post-ride analysis of the corners.

Warm up
Photo © Robert Kühnen

Fred Backelandt rode first in the U40 category and did a really fast time: 14'48! Did the team slow him down yesterday? Luckily neither Robin nor I knew this before we rode, or we would have been worried. In any case I had already decided that I'd need to break 15min to have a good chance.

Robin went 4th last and had a disaster. The bumps made his saddle tilt down about 1km into it and he had to do the rest of it in a very unnatural position. Brilliant ride to finish in 14'58 but it wasn't enough unfortunately. It was worse for Robert Kuehnen, who took some of these photos. He did 16'19 but had to take 30sec out because his rear brake fell off!

I was off last. I saw Guido and Lucien at the start and Grote Jo was somewhere along the parcours too. Excellent to see them and I hope they enjoyed watching.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! And I'm off again.


Photo © Robert Kühnen

This time the tailwind isn't quite as strong so I have to work to hit 60 on the first downhill. Then it's the sharp, tight right hander and I get around it without running into the wall. The next two corners I'm much quicker than the previous day, 3-4km/h. I'm not holding back and not looking behind.

Whenever I see my computer I'm encouraged by the numbers. This is definitely better than yesterday (final average was 23W up) despite working just as 'hard'.

Up to halfway and I can feel that I've gone faster, the corners flowing much more freely. Of course as soon as I think this I muck one up and it's the one into Deftinge. That's a few km/h off and at least a second. I'm a bit more cautious around the next few although I'm still pushing it on the straights in between. I reach the narrow road next to the cornfield and can see I'm catching my minute man. Hmm, when to pass?

I try to get him out of the next corner but I'm not close enough yet, which means he gets the perfect run on the potholed downhill section. I'm up to 54km/h here and close the gap, having to wait a few pedal strokes before I can get round him. Motorbike in my way too (there's one per rider).

I hit the gas again on the sharp uphill, mess up the next corner (argh!) and tackle the second last drag. Again, it's flat out, albeit not as much of a headwind so I can nearly manage 45. Last few corners, could be better but there's no time for that now. I really wind it up on the last descent: 56km/h and that gives me a great run up to the finish. Out of the saddle again, getting every last drop of power out and hit the line at maximum effort.


Photo © Robert Kühnen

A quick look down: 14'31. Plus 5sec for the start. 14'36. That's good.

It's confirmed by the announcer: "Jeff Jones, nieuwe beste tijd! vierteen minuten, zesendeertig seconden!"

Woo hoo, dunnit!

The satisfaction is huge and I high-five Ian just after the line. It's an unbeatable feeling - as you can see from the very first photo. Congrats from Guido and Lucien and it's in the bag. Podium time.

I felt sorry for Frederik though. He was beaten into third by a few hundredths of a second by his compatriot Jonas Heyerick, who was absolutely over the moon with that. Jonas had trained for the last 9 months specifically for this race, losing nearly 20kg, getting properly set up on his bike and kit with professional training help, and had chronicled it all in a column for P Magazine called 'From donkey to racehorse'. He had a busload of supporters too, who were awesome and loud, despite being a bit annoyed that I'd won.

Robin was annoyed with 4th and who knows how close it would have been had his saddle not slipped? But that's part of it unfortunately.

A rather posher reception followed and Ian got abominably drunk.

Kermiskoersen

The road race the next day was a reminder of the kermises I used to ride in Belgium, but without the relentless attacking. Much easier all round, except for the hill which was ridden pretty hard. Five laps, 12km a lap, fewer corners than the TT and a finish that involved a short steepish climb, a quick descent, three fast corners then the finishing straight.

My vague plan was to try and get away, either alone or with a small group. I knew I had little chance of this as the bunch was over 50 strong, had some useful riders in it and some team tactics. Also the last time I got away alone I won by three minutes so I didn't think I would be allowed much room.

That proved correct, although I did have a few stabs at it. The last one was promising as I took a few riders with me who were prepared to work, but the Belgians were vigilant and chased it down.

Mark Koghee rode a great race as he did manage to get away early. He spent most of the race alone in front until the eventual winner Christophe Moec bridged across to him on the last lap, then rode away. Even though Moec was caught by a small group over the top of the climb, he still beat them in the sprint. Chapeau!

I was OK on the climb, as the following video clip by Jo Vandenheulen shows, but was clearly too far back to be in with a shout. Thus I rolled in at the back of the second group in 14th.

Robin, on the other hand, had been looking after himself the whole race and stayed with the leaders on the climb. He can sprint a bit and managed a fine third. Another well done that man!


Eikenmolen - last lap. Moec leads, Robin in 5th, me in 12th. Video by Jo Vandenheulen

And that wraps it up for another year. A good 'un, by all accounts.

PS: Blenheim Palace went poorly. I punctured halfway. Grr.

PPS: I may even post some pics from our Skye/Edinburgh holiday.

The Tour de France is at steak

(ie the big news other than me winning the journo worlds TT - I've got a post on that coming)

Alberto Contador positive for clenbuterol

Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Spain was suspended Thursday after failing a dope test, in the latest drug scandal to hit cycling's most prestigious event.

Read the full story on BikeRadar.com

Alberto Contador blames positive on contaminated meat

Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Spain, who was suspended Thursday after failing a dope test, blamed the positive result on contaminated meat, in an emotional protest of his innocence

Read the full story on BikeRadar.com

Reactions

David Millar: Alberto Contador not treated fairly

Britain's David Millar has leapt to the defence of Tour de France champion Alberto Contador after the Spaniard was suspended for a positive test for banned substance clenbuterol.

Read the full story on BikeRadar.com

Riis believes in Contador's innocence

Dane awaits further investigation in the case

Team Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis has spoken with Alberto Contador about the Spanish rider's positive test for Clenbuterol, and indicated that he believed in Contador's innocence.

Read the full story on Cyclingnews.com

Lemond shocked by Contador positive

American surprised Contador would risk all

Three-time Tour de France winner and strong anti-doping advocate Greg LeMond has reacted with surprise to the news that Alberto Contador (Astana) has tested positive for clenbuterol.

Read the full story on Cyclingnews.com

German TV may drop Tour

Contador's positive only one of a series of doping problems

German broadcasters are once again threatening to drop coverage of the Tour de France, with the news of Alberto Contador's positive test for Clenbuterol only the latest in a series of year-long doping scandals.

Read the full story on Cyclingnews.com

Analysis

Contador: Food contamination or political victim?

Closer look at the lab behind test

When announcing his positive test for clenbuterol Alberto Contador’s press officer stated that he’s been a victim of food contamination, but Cyclingnews understands the Spaniard might also be a victim of political issues surrounding the fight against doping. The International Cycling Union (UCI) confirmed after Contador’s announcement that the traces of clenbuterol found were some 400 times less than the volume World Anti-Doping Agency labs are required to test for.

Read the full story on Cyclingnews.com

The news in brief

Still busy, but it'll calm down in about a month when I go on hols.

I was going to write a blog or two on trying to do the perfect 10 but didn't get round to it.

It's been an aim of mine to get under 21 minutes in the club 10 and although I got close this year, there was no cigar. It's mainly because I needed the perfect combination of power, wind direction and position (I've been mucking about with that a lot) to nail it.

The closest I came was a 21'18 a few weeks ago. Although my power wasn't great, the wind was perfect and I was also using my most aero position. Unfortunately with 2.5 miles to go I got passed by a car (one of about four to pass me all up) just as I was catching the rider in front. The driver couldn't get past that rider in time and I ended up on the brakes. Repeat for the next rider.

In lost time alone it was 10seconds. Maybe a bit more than that for accelerating/decelerating. So close...

In the last club 10 the wind was blowing lightly but the wrong way. I experimented with another position and although I managed a season's best power and had a perfectly smooth run (pacing was horrible though), the position cost me about 10sec and I ended up with ... 21'19.

I'll try to put it all together next season, as I quite enjoy the club 10 course. No traffic assistance, back roads, a few bends and it finishes higher than it starts. Good fun!

Other than that, I'm just winding up for the last bit of the season, which includes a 50, a 25, the journo worlds (TTT, TT, circuit race) and a 20km TT at Blenheim Palace.

I also took part in the British TT championships again, this time in the elite class. Ho ho. It was not with the aim of finishing highly, more to see how I'd go against the likes of proper riders. Brad Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome from Team Sky were all there and were all hungry for the jersey. As was Hutch, but he didn't get a look in. It was pretty special to race against three Tour de France riders,even if I did finish 7'25 down on Wiggo (as did Cadel Evans in the final Tour time trial this year, over a similar distance. Lol.) Results here.

It was a cracking course around Llandeilo in south west Wales - a fast start, gradually downhill with a tailwind, then a short twisty, lumpy section past a castle, then back towards down on a dead uphill drag into the wind. There was a 9% zig zag climb through town which was packed with people. A fantastic atmosphere and one that you just don't get very often, especially in British time trialling. We did two full laps plus another two thirds of a lap for 52.7km.

Unlike last year I had not specifically targeted this race so I was a bit more relaxed about it and managed to enjoy myself. The first lap was solid, the second I went off the boil after hitting a heavy shower on the first half of the course (which had completely dried up by the third lap).

James Wall, who was off a minute behind me, then caught me on the hill through Llandeilo with about 15km to go. I figured he'd ride away from me on the downhill but he didn't and I stayed about 100m behind him for the rest of it. I actually didn't wind it up at the end like normal because I didn't want to overtake him and risk a possible DQ. So I finished quite comfortably, which is rare in a TT. It did cost me a few places but it wasn't too important. Pic here.

Power was decent - average for what I've been doing in training, but a fair bit better than I did for the 5th round of the Rudy Project. And hopefully there's a bit more to come in the next few weeks. We'll see.

Much other stuff happening, all important but far too mundane to write down here.

Going for broke

I hate starting with a definition (oh good, I just avoided it). But going for broke means "To commit or expend all of one's available resources toward achievement of a goal"

To wit, going for a fast time in the WTTA 100 yesterday. I did manage to expend all of my available resources (well, most of them) but despite winning the event, failed to achieve this goal by a long way.

In fact, I would have happily traded the win for a time < 3:42:50, but it was not to be. Why? Because that would have improved my Best All Rounder (BAR) average, which is the average of your best 50, 100 and 12 hour average speeds. An average average, if you like.

The BAR is a strange competition because the main contenders don't necessarily meet each other in the same races. You can take your pick of a number of 50, 100 and 12 hour races, roll the weather dice and hope that you'll do your fastest times. Or you can enter all of them, look at the weather, and take your pick. This is what most serious BAR riders do.

Now, I've already done a 50, 100 and 12, but thought that I could perhaps improve on my 100 and 50 averages. So far no luck. I've just got one more card to play and that'll be it. Depending on how that goes and what the others do, I could end up anywhere between 3rd and 10th in the competition.

But I digress.

I did the WTTA 100 last year and finished second with 3:41:22. This year my best has been 3:42:50 in the BDCA 100. I figured that I could improve on that, being fitter and all, but with the benefit of hindsight I realise that last year the conditions were pretty damn good. There was a west wind which you were mostly sheltered from going up the long drag to the top of the course, but which did help you back down the other way. And it was warm and sunny.

On Sunday, by contrast, we had a nagging noreasterly which absolutely killed your speed on the uphill leg, the sun didn't even dare come out so it didn't get above 15 degrees.

It was slightly annoying because I averaged 12W more than last year (and 10W more than the BDCA 100) and was 7'20 slower! I also paced it extremely badly, but I had a deliberate plan to go for a fast time, which meant I had to stay on target early on. When I looked down at my average power after two laps, I realised that although I was already 2min down on last year's pace, it had cost me 26W more. I was almost riding at 50mile pace, which is not what you want to do when the race is twice that length.

Needless to say things went a little pear shaped after that. I dropped 25W to ride lap 3 at the same power as lap 3 last year (but 2min slower), and lap 4 was 5W lower than the same lap last year, where I also blew up, but 3'40 slower! That's a shocking price to pay for a relatively small power loss. At that speed it should be no more than 20-30sec.

All up that meant the last lap was 65W(!) down on the first two laps but unlike last year I lost even more time because of the long slow uphill section and because it just didn't warm up. Last year the conditions really helped get me home.

I was lucky to get away with the win on Sunday. James Wall, who beat me last year, punctured after about half way and had to stop. I was maybe a minute down on him then (it was hard to tell) but given what happened later he would have comfortably beaten me.

But I wasn't the only one who suffered. Most riders either didn't start, didn't finish, or went 10-15min slower than last year. Neil Davies, who gave me a lift up, was one of these: 4:55 compared to 4:41. But his son Luke managed a 4:43 in his first ever 100 to take the juvenile prize. Bloody good going on a rough day. Chippenham also took the team prize with me, Steve Ayres (4:22:06) and Gordon Scott (4:23:47). Yay team!

I'll chalk it up to experience but I was quite pleased at what I was knocking out for the first two hours, at a seemingly comfortable pace. That average power last year got me a 1:44:05 for 50 miles on the same roads. Yesterday it was more like 1:52, which goes to show how much a difference conditions can make. Also, had I ridden a well-paced race, I could have gotten my time down to 3:45 or so, but that wouldn't have been good enough.

Next up: The British champs in September. I'll not be troubling Wiggo and co but it'll be interesting to see how close I can get to the top pros in 52km.

Killing time

I've just finished a week of holidays (well, time off in lieu) and by god I needed it. I've not had a proper break since January and was running very low on mental energy.

I couldn't believe how much sleep I had during the first few days: I'd have two one hour naps during the day, then sleep for 10hrs! But I seem to have caught up at last.

Racing has resumed too. I did a 50 in Wales last weekend and won it in 1:47:09 by 20seconds or so. This was helped largely by Ceri Pritchard pulling out with, erm, skinsuit issues with 7 miles to go. He was 1'30 up on me at halfway and I doubt he would have lost that over the final 25 miles. But my power was decent, my pacing excellent, and my legs were absolutely wrecked the next day. I blame the Bristol Harbour Festival on the previous day for that :-)

I had a go at the club 10 again, although I probably shouldn't have. I was slower than last week (21'41 vs 21'32), but also 12 watts down b/c I wasn't fresh. I'd gone back to my old position too, and taking into account conditions, I figured the old one was marginally quicker than my experimental one. Dang, so much for 10%.

I did some more testing on Thursday (not ideal as I had a race on Saturday) and thought I'd found another 10%. But no, although I think what I found was marginally quicker than my old position, it's nothing like 10% faster.

The race was round 5 of the Rudy Project, probably the last one I do in the series unless I decide to do the final one in mid October. It was two laps of a lumpy course near Worcester, which looked faster than it actually was.

Actually I tell a lie, Matt Bottrill made it look quick with his time of 1:12:40 for the 33.7 miles (54.2km). Ben had a great race to finish second, especially as we were equal after the first lap.

I was hoping to go a bit faster than I did but a series of mini-disasters put paid to that. First was getting held up by a bus on the first lap for a total of 2'10. The bus was waiting to overtake the rider in front but couldn't because the road was a bit twisty and there were double white lines. That's good driving and should be applauded but it didn't help me. I think this event should be held on a Sunday morning rather than a Saturday afternoon, as it's very easy to get a traffic jam on a single carriageway. I did use the time to chat to another guy who'd punctured and was limping to the finish.

At the end of the lap, the heavens opened and I found myself unable to see through my visor. Oops. So I backed off on the first part of lap 2, which was mostly downhill, then got going again after Martley. That only cost me 10 seconds, but I really didn't want to crash at 60km/h on a wet descent like I did 12 years ago.

The next section was good and I made up my lost time plus an additional 20 seconds, I suspect because the wind had picked up. I lost it on the way home.

Unfortunately again on the busier section to the finish, there were several large agricultural vehicles in front of me, so I had to ease up for another 45 seconds. Luckily they turned off but it was more time lost.

I got to the finish, pretty annoyed with how things had gone and my power output reflected that: it was lower than the 50 last week and the race was half an hour shorter! A combination of doing too much during the week and things not working out on the day.

3rd place was still quite a good result, but I'd rate it as my worst ride of the year. Funnily enough, the 4th place I had in round 4 was probably my best ride.

In terms of the Rudy Project series as a whole, I will now have 289 points while Bottrill will have 297 and is the deserving winner of the series. Depending on what happens in the next few rounds, I should therefore end up 2nd or 3rd overall. The prizemoney is the same (zero) so I'm not too bothered about securing second.

The good thing this year is that there will be quite a few riders who do the full complement of five races. Last year there were just two, and the winner Dean Robson hasn't managed higher than 5th in a round this year. He also rode on Sunday, but after being caught for two minutes by Ben and then nearly four minutes by Matt on the first lap, he pulled out. Interestingly, Matt was two minutes quicker this year than last, despite the conditions being rather bad.

What next? The WTTA 100 this weekend. Oh joy. Then a bit of a gap until the British TT championships, where I have entered the elite category and will be up against the likes of Brad Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, not to mention Hutch and Bottrill. I need to find a bit of form!

Allen keys and star bolts

The title is actually relevant this time, as I've been doing a lot of fiddling with Allen keys and star bolts this month. Or hex keys and Torx bolts if you prefer.

Why? Because I am endeavouring to make my bicycle faster. And that, I've found, is possible as long as you're prepared to do the necessary fiddling. And testing. The latter is important.

It's been helped by a nice new birthday set of USE handlebars, courtesy of Liz, which have done wonders for the front end (hur hur). I've also moved the back end around a bit. Preliminary tests have shown that the whole unit, including me, is between 7-10 percent faster.

Or it would be if I'd done any proper training. I've restarted after taking a bit of time off after the 12hr, and am slowly getting back into the groove. It's patchy but upwardly patchy.

My knees were sore for two weeks after the 12, which is another reason why I moved the saddle back a bit. I think I was a bit too far forward and probably was pedalling slightly too big a gear. For 12 hours. Again, the latter is important.

So I've done a bit of field testing (can't afford a wind tunnel) and now have to see if the numbers stack up in a club race. Tomorrow's Chippenham Club 10 will be perfect to try it out. If my calcs are right, then I've saved between 30-40secs over 10 miles. Which is going to come in handy.

Speaking of that sort of time gap, the Tour de France was another close one this year. Nice to see.

It did appear to come down to who was the best bike handler. Let's see, who fell off? Contador, Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Cadel, Vandevelde, Lance, Menchov(?), Sanchez, Wiggo, oh bugrit they all did. Rule number one: stay on the bike. It's a good one.

Stage 15 was fun. For whatever reason, either pilot error, mechanic error, or gear error, Andy Schleck dropped his chain and basically gave the Tour to Contador on a SRAM Red 53 tooth chainring. Note: the two, despite being on different teams, ride very similar bikes so I don't think the gear is fundamentally at fault.

Contador was already counter attacking when Schleck had his mishap, and although it was considered bad sportsmanship for him not to wait, I'd argue that it was the wrong end of the bike race to be worrying about sportsmanship. Otherwise we'd end up with the fiasco that cost Jan Ullrich the 2003 Tour (this point is subject to debate of course). And we can't be having that in the new dope free nothing to see here cycling.

Think back to when you last dropped your chain in a race and the pack waited for you. You might have gotten a push if you were lucky but if you were on Eddie Salas's wheel going up Bumble Hill in the Wyong Three Day back in the day, and managed to both crash and lose your chain at the same time, you would have had a long lonely ride ahead of you. And another crash coming back down the hill. I speak from personal experience in this matter.

So Contador won.

The 12 hour

Is done and dusted (and won). And it wasn't that bad.

Full blog here on BikeRadar. Warning: lots of words and only four pics.

Here are some more nice pics, wot David Jones sent me:







Photos: © David Jones