Today was ‘The Sid Latchford Memorial’ 22 mile hilly promoted by the Hemel Hempstead CC. (course F11/22)
It is run on roads around Bagnall, Ivinghoe, Bison Hill and Dunstable Downs. There are two main climbs of Bison Hill and Invinghoe hill. It is good course, with a fair balance between flattish roads, and testing hills.
On a good day, I can cycle from Oxford to Ivinghoe (about 40 miles), so I have done these climbs on a couple of occasions, but some roads were still new.
The weather forecast correctly predicted rain and strong wind; I was surprised at the lack of DNS for the race. It would have been easy to look at the forecast and stay in bed, rather than put the clocks forward an hour and go and get a good soaking.
When it’s raining, I don’t bother with a ‘warm up’ because I just get very cold. I got there late and sat in the car until 5 minutes to go. I was going to try a No Pinz wallet, but I didn’t have time and my skinsuit had got wet getting it out of the car. My warm-up consisted of riding 200m to the start and reluctantly taking off waterproof. Once I got racing, it was a bit better, but it was a tough day on the bike – pools of standing water, roughish road surface and gusting winds.
Over the years I’ve gleaned a few bits from Cycling Weekly’s training advice. One thing they always seem to go on about is ‘core strength’ i.e. making the lower and middle body stronger to hold a good position when cycling. I’ve never paid too much attention to this aspect of cycling. I’ve always leaned to the more ‘Obree’ approach of relying on just riding the bike. However, after having spent quite a few hours on the bike in the past few weeks, I’ve felt ‘core strength’ really is important. Last week, I did two big rides – one very hilly on a road bike, and another four hour ride on my time trial bike. On both rides, the most difficult thing was the pain in lower back and neck.
In Cycling Weekly this week, they said the most common reason for abandoning the ‘Race Across America RAAM)’ was discomfort in the back and neck, and if riders had a second chance, they would have done more core strength training to improve their chances of staying on the bike.
Another thing which I noticed last week, was watching a recent time trial in the Criterium Dauphine. Contador looked all over the place – wiggling from one side to the other. (Contador would probably benefit from using a Kask Bambino – his aero helmet always seemed to be pointing to the stars creating a lot of drag) A smooth position, where riders can hold their body constant is generally considered more efficient.
Carlton Bank is located in the Cleveland hills, north east England. It is on the north west edge of the North York Moors. From the top of Carlton Bank you get great views over the surrounding countryside.
View from Carlton Bank
It is used as a venue for a hill climb by Cleveland Wheelers and also the National hill climb championship in 1996.
It is relatively steady as you climb out of Teesdale, but once across the cattle grid in the middle of the climb, it becomes very steep – like most North York Moor climbs. It is a good 25% in places before you finally crest the climb on to Cringle Moor. There is a sheer drop down one side – which makes it a popular spot with hang-gliders.
So far this season has had a bigger training load than previous years. This wasn’t really a conscious decision, it just kind of happened. Quite often in previous seasons, I’ve taken 1 or 2 months off due to injury / accident / other reasons. There’s no major harm in taking 4-5 weeks off – you just take longer to get to your peak form. But, this year, I’ve been able to have more time to train and no major breaks off the bike. I think two weeks in hilly Croatia helped quite a bit.
Chinnor Hill good for training.
I’ve quite enjoyed this winter’s training. The higher load and mileage gives a good sense of fitness. When you get used to a higher training load, you feel recovery can be quicker. I don’t think I could have managed this kind of training load, when I started cycling – it can take several years to keep building up a base aerobic fitness and basic muscle strength. But, very unscientifically – progressively higher training loads, do seem to help make you go faster. Perhaps there is a bit of good luck in getting the right kind of training load too.
At this time of the season, I’m conscious of not getting carried away too early. There is still a long time to go to the last weekend in October. But, I can get easily ‘bored’ of just doing steady rides. By February I was itching to get back into going up hills fast. I enjoy hilly rides in the Chilterns more than anything. Going along the Chiltern ridge going up whichever hill you fancy (and hasn’t got traffic works). There are plenty of good hills to choose from – Whiteleaf, Kop Hill, Aston Hill (A40) Kingston Blount, Chinnor, Britwell Hill and more.
Still, the hilly interval rides have a different feel to September / October. I’m not training to exhaustion or really pushing it. There is often a thought in the mind, to hold back a little. Allow room for greater intensity later in the year. But, I’m looking forward to Buxton Mountain time trial in a couple of weeks, so this week has been a bit heavier than usual.
Sweet Spot
Another type of training which is good for time trials is to ride in the ‘sweet spot’ (I often call it the sweat spot – more from lack of ability to spell properly than offering a redefinition of training terminology) One definition of the sweet spot is moderately hard – perhaps 10-15% less than what you could maintain in a 25 mile TT. 85% of your FTP (Functional threshold Power). Perhaps there are different definitions, but for me it requires quite a bit of concentration to keep a weighted power output around 240-250 watts (compared to a current FTP of roughly 305)
I’m slowly working through the 100 greatest climbs. Today is Rowsley Bar a few miles south east of Bakewell in the Peak District. I have only ridden the top half of the climb because when I visited the road was closed! It is a great view from the top, but it is at the bottom where the climb is tough. There are many other climbs nearby, such as Beeley Moor.
“The new course started quite steadily, then went into some woods and around a couple of vicious hairpin bends, rumoured to be 1:4 at the apex. The half-way point marked the end of the hardest section and was followed by a long section of false flat, before a tricky sting in the tail where the road kicked up again for the final 400 metres or so. All was on a minor road which was closed to traffic.”
A while back – whilst in York, , I saw an advert encouraging people to cycle to work. – ‘It only takes 15 minutes to cycle to work – give it a try.’
So inspired by York’s cycling campaign here are 10 good reasons to commute by bike.
1. Save Money
A good bike may cost £200-£400. But, it can last for years. You will save petrol, car parking / bus fares. It can easily add up. In Oxford it would cost £9 to park all day – if you can find somewhere to park. Bike maintenance is likely to be nothing more than a few inner tubes, and new chain and cassette every 3,000 miles. When you take your bike for a service, generally you don’t have to worry about spending hundreds of pounds like for a car.
2. Health
Cycling is an excellent way to get low impact exercise. If you do very little exercise, cycling will improve your aerobic fitness and help to avoid heart related health problems. If you don’t have time (or the money) to go to a gym, why not try cycling to work / shops. People may worry that cycling is perceived as a dangerous activity. But, the health benefits of lower obesity / lower heart disease e.t.c. far outweigh the risk of accidents. See: How How safe is cycling? – Cycling Statistics
3. Save Time
For many short distance commutes through town, cycling can be quicker than driving or getting the bus. Many of our car journeys are less than 3 miles. If you try cycling, the time is often much quicker, especially in city centres. In commuting periods, you often get traffic jams and cyclists can both help reduce congestion and get there quicker. For me, getting to centre of Oxford, cycling is 5 minutes quicker than driving and 15 minutes quicker than the bus.
Also, a bike is more reliable than public transport, less likely to turn up late. Fate is in your own hands.
I’ve been using the Shimano Dura Ace di2 for a couple of months now, so I thought, after extensive testing, I would give a review.
Overall, I’m very impressed. It is very good and makes a difference over mechanical shifting. It is very expensive, and initially I was regretting spending the money on Dura Ace, when I could have saved a £1,000 and got Ultegra, but now I’m glad I ‘bit the bullet’.
For many years in cycling, ‘electronic gears’ got a bad press. When electronic gears were first introduced, they were often reported as ‘freezing in big races’ and this put me off electronic for a long time. But, Di2 seems to be very durable.
Dura Ace Di2 – 56*21
Durability
I’ve been using for a couple of months, without any issues, but to get a better perspective I asked my mechanic friends at Beeline. Mark said they have seen a lot of people use Shimano Di2, and it has been excellent for durability and easy of maintenance. He said it was a lot more reliable than other electronic gears. Mark said many people just ride their bike all year and get it serviced once a year. He said Di2 was good for those riders who didn’t want to do anything but just ride and recharge their batteries. He seemed quite enthusiastic about Di2 and would recommend it as the best groupset.
The RTTC Classic series is a series of six national CTT events which make a national time trial series. The series counts the combined score from your four best events. The events have been chosen to include some of the major time trial ‘classic’ events – on non standard distance over a variety of terrain. The aim is to give an added focus to riding ‘sporting’ non-standard distances.
Personally I like the time trial series, because it makes a nice change to do interesting courses, rather than just look for ‘fast’ dual carriageway courses. With threats of more A roads becoming mini motorways, many feel these kinds of sporting courses are more likely to be the future of timetrialling.
In addition, my enthusiasm for sporting courses is also encouraged by the rather self-interested motive of doing better on any race that goes up hill!
Today was a 22 mile circuit (K48/23) around Utoxeter and Weston – an event very well managed and promoted by Stafford Road Club. It includes 422m of ascent in 22 miles. There’s no major hills, just a few short sharp shocks. Overall, the course is reasonably fast, with a ‘relatively’ good road surface (actually very good for UK) and opportunities for some quick sections too.
Hartside Fell is long steady climb in the north Pennines. It is one of the longest continual climbs in England – rising 400m over 5 miles. It will be used as a summit finish in this years Tour of Britain, stage 5.
I rode Hartside on May 4 – after Kent Valley R.C. Shap hill climb. There was a nice tailwind on that day. As it is an exposed climb, a tailwind makes it much more enjoyable. Would be hardwork into headwind. The good news is that the prevailing wind is a westerley (tailwind).
There’s no real secret to the climb, it’s just a steady 5% all the way to the top. Perhaps slightly steeper on final hairpin.
You get a lot of motorbikes in this part of the world whizzing past you on the way up.
BTW: if you want a real test, Great Dun Fell is about 10 miles south.
Lake district in the distanceThe long winding roadsnow markers
After years of prevaricating, I got around to buying a Workstand to be able to work on my bike. I was reluctant to buy a work stand because:
I’m not very good at bike maintenance and tend to prefer to take it into bike shops. I was reluctant to purchase when with many jobs it’s easier to take into a shop.
I don’t have much space in my conservatory. I have so many bikes, there isn’t really room for a work stand.
On the other hand, I thought buying a workstand may have the following benefits:
It may make me better at bike maintenance – it’s hard enough adjusting gears without using one hand to hold bike up and the other hand to adjust gears.
It’s inconvenient having to take bike to a bikeshop all the time.
It might make it easier to clean the bike.
After looking online at different options, I choose the Lifeline Professional Workstand from Wiggle. It had the following advantages
At £72 it seemed quite cheap. I didn’t want to get a higher end workstand, when I wasn’t sure how much I would use it.
It could be folded up quite small and conveniently put away in a corner.
It had reasonably good reviews.
How to set up
To set up, it was fairly quick and intuitive, there are a couple of quick release levers which can quite quickly move the stand from compact to set up.
