I Love Summer, Hetton Park National Series 2011 19th June

The 19^th June saw the top juniors in the country heading to Hetton Park (Sunderland) for yet again another round of the Junior National Series). Riding For The Progressive Cycle Coaching Development Squad was; Myself, Brock Duncumb-Rogers (http://brockduncumbrogers.blogspot.com/) & Tom Moore. Taking us all the way up the country was coach and team manager Dan Bennett (http://www.progressivecyclecoaching.co.uk). The circuit we were racing on turned out to be very exciting and was made a lot more interesting by the weather! The race consisted of 45 laps which made up 81KM. There were also sprint primes on the 15^th and 30^th lap just to spice things up a bit.

As I mentioned the weather played a big part in the race, it was absolutely pouring it down and there was lots of spray due to surface water on the track and there were a few large puddles which had grown since the beginning of the race. This left riders with the dilemma of keeping glasses on and not being able to see due to water on the lenses and them fogging up or taking glasses off and having grit and anything else that was flying around going in them. Brock opted for the latter which he paid the price for later on in the day. He pulled the biggest piece of dirt possible out of his eye in the service station, it looked like a slug... ouch!

Back to the race though; The start of the race saw some attacks up the climb but nothing was coming of them as it was too hard to stay away because nobody was working and the conditions were harsh too with the crosswinds in places. Unfortunately I punctured after 8 or so laps on my rear Tub which was frustrating but I was granted a lap out for a wheel change. The regular junior gearing however is a 52/14 but I was given a 15up cassette which put me at a disadvantage to everyone else with a smaller gear which would affect my race later significantly.

Unfortunately there was a crash on the decent with 2 laps to go which Tom Moore was caught in and came down and is now savagely cut up all up his left hand side. This split things up a little bit. The two remaining laps which followed saw a bit of messing around in the bunch with the pace coming right down and a few random attacks which I was able to cover. The last time up the hill Matt Holmes (OPD) attacked heavily but luckily Josh Papworth (ODP) chased him down and brought the bunch with him.

Coming into the last part of the circuit I was in the best possible position and attacked out of the corner and was leading by a few bike lengths with 100M to go as you can see in the photo. Annoyingly I span out way before everybody on what seemed tiny gear and Chris Latham (ODP) managed to get the win. You can also see by the photo how everyone came round me. I was devastated at the end knowing I would have won if I had the right gear. However i still finished 13^th which gives me 11 National Points and my first Series Points of the year. Brock got 4^th which was a really good ride so well done lad!

Next weekend there is another National Series race on Saturday which is another crit so I will be racing in that! The team will also be racing on Sunday in a SERRL event and I too will be there searching for a Win! The weekend should give me some good last minute training and form before the National Junior Championships the weekend after.

Other news: I will be arriving in the south of France in exactly two weeks for some Nocturne racing and a road race! I am very excited about this and also getting in some good training in the sun (a massive contrast to this weekend) before coming back up the country and into Belgium for a race and then heading home and resting up for a week before yet again another National Series (Bath Road Race)... a busy few weeks but I am enjoying myself greatly.

Finally i would like to thank Dan Bennett for taking us up to Sunderland this weekend and
British Cycling North East Region for putting on the race!

SERRL 3 Day

I will be posting a blog later in the week when i have some energy... but I thought that I would post a few pictures up from the race... There are LOADS more to come though!

The Next Few Weeks

The majority of the team are having this weekend off from racing as it is becoming clear that there are some tired legs out there in the peloton. After that I have a hectic few weeks

My Schedule is as follows:

22nd May - Central Divisional road race championshios Elite,1,2

28th, 29th, 30th May - SERRL 3 Day Stage Race

5th June - SERRL (to be confirmed)

12th June - SERRL Biddenden

18th June - Hetton Park Junior National Series Crit (Newcastle)

25th June - CC Giro Curborough National Series Crit (Birmingham)

3rd July - Junior National Road Race Championships (Newcastle)

4th July - Extended Endurance and Climbing Training Period (South of France)

Wouter Weylandt

Cycling lost a talented rider today in the Giro, I thought I would do a blog tribute to the team and all of Weylandt's friends and family.

Isle of Man Junior Tour (national series) 2011

The junior Isle of Man tour is held over three days with a prologue time trial, and two road stages. The race is also part of the Junior National series (a series of races where the top riders come from all over the country to race in and fight for the title). This year representing the team was myself (http://charliefawkeridersblog.blogspot.com/), Tom Laker (http://lakertom.blogspot.com/) and Brock Duncumb-Rogers (http://brockduncumbrogers.blogspot.com/).

Tom Laker and I travelled up on Wednesday 26^th April after a night of racing at Goodwood the previous evening where ‘Goodwood Star’ Brock Duncumb-Rogers managed to get a 2^nd place in the Elite race and Drew Holmes (http://www.drewholmescycling.co.uk/) getting 4^th, both very good rides may I add.

Me and Tom Laker were fortunate to ride both road race circuits on Thursday which gave us that extra bit of extra knowledge that some riders may not have.

Friday’s Prologue was a 1.3km dash along the Sea front, literally within metres of the water, it was just up and a hairpin around a corner then i dash back to the line. There isn’t much more to say apart from the sea ‘breeze’ was off the scale!

Saturday’s circuit was particularly challenging with quite a hard climb in it which followed a rolling decent. This road was really the definition of rolling before getting to the bottom where there was a much welcomed switchback onto the coast road. And of course being a junior race everybody likes to break as late as possible and see who can pull off the best skid so that corner was often carnage! The coast road was particularly hard with strong crosswinds before turning left into a town with some ‘kermesse like corners’ before another hard stretch of road with high winds before hitting the climb again!

Sunday: The circuit used for this race was extremely quick, but still windy. In general it was flatter apart from the climb which was nowhere near as challenging. The hardest part of the circuit which we learnt on race day was over the top of the climb, the short decent before a 90 degree left hander and then a slight uphill kick which was hard if you were sitting to hard back.

Race Time

The Prologue Was very hard as the winds had picked up and we all were set off at about half past 8. After a good noisy warm up we were all ready to go (Brocks rollers are very loud) I finished the Ride in 13^th with 1.46, Brock was 23^rd and Tom Laker 36^th.

Stage 2 was the first road race (hilly one) the race panned out to be so hard with all of us being in good positions throughout. I felt really good for the majority of the race. 11 laps of the circuit however took it’s tole on me! Tom Laker was dropped from the race. Brock was also dropped after getting into a move with Jon Dibben and Owain Doull. I managed to stay in the bunch (what was left of it) for the whole race but the last time up the hill I had nothing left to give and just managed to beat Josh Papworth (ODP). The General Classification after Stage two was as follows:

Charlie Fawke: 35^th @4:54

Brock Duncumb Rogers: 43^rd @ 40:23

Tom Laker: 55^th @ 1:12:25

Stage Three was a fast race. The race started off at great speed and it didn’t do to well considering we had raced twice already that weekend and my legs were hurting from Saturday’s stage and I know I wasn’t the only one with that feeling! Unfortunately Tom Laker didn’t finish the race. Brock was away on his own on the last lap until 2K to go which would have got him third. Matt Holmes and Owain Doull were away on their own from the gun and got 1^st and 2^ndand the rest was a bunch sprint. The race was 6 laps then peeling off onto the coast road for the finish. 200m before peeling off there was a savage crash which me and Brock got caught up behind but we still were on a bunch finish.

Overall it was a good weekend I think and we are all getting stronger in the national levelled races. I would personally like to thank Tom Lakers Grandparents for taking me for the weekend and On Behalf of Brock I would like to thank his parents for taking him and helping us on the side of the road. Everyone’s help was much appreciated!

Final GC:

Charlie Fawke: 33rd @4:23

(I wrote this for the team website)

Thanks for Reading, Charlie

The Endless frustration known as bike racing

So these last few weeks of racing have ended in total frustration and disappointment and I can’t do anything about it. I haven’t blogged for quite a while as I haven’t really had much to write about with terrible results and what not.

As a sufferer of Hay-fever which results in me needing a ventolin accuhaler due to the carnage it puts my chest through these last few weeks have been pretty rubbish! With the pollen count being high it has been affecting my performance greatly.

Les Ingman

I rode this race last weekend and we had a strong team put out for it with myself, Tom Moore, Drew Holmes, Tom Laker, Brock, Matt ‘Northern Star’ Pilkington and Henry Bird. This race didn’t end too well for me only lasting the thick end of 20k’s before chucking up all over myself... which wasn’t pleasant to be honest! However Matt went on to get 12^th and a strong performance from Brock and Tom Laker.

Surrey League Milland Hill:

Saturday 23^rd April The team was at Milland Hill an 8 lap road race which resulted in us hitting the 25% hill 9 times (there is no typo here there is actually a 25% Climb) I was feeling strong in the race but I missed 2 bottles on consecutive laps and the heat killed me leaving me de-hydrated even though I drunk a ridiculous amount before the race and started with 2 full bottles. I had to abandon the race annoyingly with 2 laps to go due to cramp. It was a shame really as I felt good for the first time in a while and would have got a good finish if I managed to get the feed!

Belgium Erpe

Sunday 24^th April took the Junior team over to Erpe Supporting was my mum, dad, brother, Trevor Holmes and Joe Mcgill (@joe_mcgill) It was the first time in a long while where I felt good before a race. However I suffered a puncture in the warm up and then punctured on the first lap of 16... A course that suited me to the ground... the frustration in my head is so high at the minute but my luck should change soon.

It’s only a few more weeks until my Hay-fever goes so after that I will be back to my normal racing ways.

I’m also using the Hillingdon Summer series as training. I have been riding those races very aggressively so the results are soon to come rolling in and I will be racking up the points after a few more weeks of tight chests, sneezing and sick!

Cheers for Supporting and Reading

Adios

Twitter

Follow me on Twitter people:

@charliefawke

Thats Bike Racing for ya!

Without intention to copy Mr Kemp’s blog which was posted a while back where he talked about how someone can ride a good race but still come absolutely no where. This is generally frustrating and occurs to even the greatest riders. For example, at the Gent-Wevelgem with Ian Stannard (Team SKY). The man put out a brilliant ride and was caught with seconds to go and gave him the final placing of 35^th overall.

Comparing at the total opposite end of the scale was a Hillingdon race that Myself, Brock (http://brockduncumbrogers.blogspot.com/) Tom Laker http://lakertom.blogspot.com/) Drew Holmes (http://www.drewholmescycling.co.uk) and Tom Moore took part in. The Beyond Crits 2,3,4 race had a reasonable sized field in it this week but in recent weeks the circuit had been filled with over 100 riders. I think I rode the race pretty well and my positioning seemed pretty spot on as I rarely dropped bellow top 10/15 in the bunch. Unfortunately when it came to the bunch sprint I was squeezed out and finished just out of the top 20. The frustration after the race in my head was at a high rate. It often seems unfair that in doing so much work and on paper riding a race to near perfection nothing goes right when its needed most.

Looking forward the Hillingdon ‘summer’ series starts today but by looking out of the window summer is not the first thing that springs to mind. I will be doing that race most Tuesdays now as part of my training.

This weekend is the second of the Junior National Series, The Tour of Bristol is a 2 day event. The race should be challenging due to the nature of the courses being used. You can see more info on this by clicking the link http://www.bristol-cycling.com/section.php?xSec=477. I will be racing in this event with Brock, Tom Laker and Tom Moore.

Hard Seshhhh

I've recently started training on power. Click photo to enlarge

Pain And Suffering Lasts Forever if your a Racing Cyclist

I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks due to being pretty busy with racing training. Since last posting on here I’ve had a weekend of Racing in Belgium and the Cadence Junior National Series. I’ve also had my 18^th Birthday in there also.

Cadence was last weekend. A circuit which on paper should have suited me with a lot of flat and descending with a power climb thrown in there too. The race started at 10:30, the 100 Rider field rolled out pretty much on time with the best riders from Britain on the start sheet. I started the race feeling pretty good and comfortable with the speed although it was quick. The first time we hit the hill the lap board showed us 7 laps to go. It was a bit of a lung opener which was good as I needed it! For the next 3 laps I felt pretty strong on the climbs and taking on bars and gels but I hadn’t drunk enough and I paid the price for that later on in the race. On the 4^th lap over the top of the hill the bunch split in half after an attack from Dante Carpenter (ASFRA Racing) as he smashed it over the top. Thankfully myself Tom Laker and Brock were in the front half of the split and some good riders were in the 2^nd group behind us but nobody in the front group was willing to push on due to being knackered from the attack in the first place. So the 2^nd half of the split was driven back on by Jon Dibben (Hargroves Cycles) and Chris Latham (Planet X). With 2 laps to go there was an attack by Oliver Rossi (PCA) which I managed to jump on and follow but it came to nothing. I felt pretty tired for the remainder of the lap and unfortunately got dropped with one lap to go which was severely annoying! It was due from not drinking enough. Clearly 2 bottles isn’t enough for a 3 hour race and i’m stupid for not drinking anymore but it was so hard to take a bottle on the course. The next National Series is in 2 weeks time (Tour of Bristol)

The first Belgium trip of the year for me was this weekend. Saturdays race was in Wervick (Excuse me if its spelt wrong) The field seemed pretty British with 15 of us riding from all over the country. It was probably the hardest race I have done this year with all of the cornering and a headwind drag which burned on the quads every time. I finished the race in the bunch. It’s the best ride I have done in Belgium in my life even though it’s not the best result I’ve ever had.

Sunday was Junior Wevelgem. I did the race last year and finished 22^nd. I felt pretty bad after yesterdays efforts and was finished after 9 laps of the race. Im pretty happy with how the weekend went as it was very hard. I knew i wasn’t going to get a result out there this weekend so i was there for the experience and learning and even more so a hard training session.

This weekend I will be returning to Hillingdon for my first race of the season there (excluding pre season races) the race is a cat 2,3,4 and im looking forward to having a race that I will do well in. I’ll blog soon.

Cheers

Also I threw in a photo that my dad took of Tom Boonen after he won the Gent Wevelgem 2011... I should probably also mention he shook his hand as he was pretty excited about that!

Acclimatising To Pain

With another weekend coming to an end this meant another training week finished and a race. This week I finished my two week power/speed block before resting up next week before cadence (more on that one later on). This week involved a roller session, hill reps, an hour of power (a long effort with sprints every two minutes) and a sprint session. Also Saturday was Trevor’s Birthday ride.

I picked up my completed race bike on Thursday and there is a picture on here for anyone who hasn’t seen it at races or on Facebook.

Friday: Rest day ended up with me having to take a trip to the doctors due to a lump on the back of my head. It turned out to be a lymph node. These are a tinny bean-shaped gland, located in many different areas of the body. The main locations are the neck, under the arms, and in the groin. The body has over 300 filtering selected white blood cells and foreign elements. These are indicators of when you are going to be ill I was told. The Doctor then went on to say that there is a possibility that I may be ill within the next 5 days. With the first of the national series coming up next weekend you can understand my frustration. I continued to do everything in my power over the weekend to keep well by taking in more protein than normal, keeping extra warm and getting lots of rest and sleep.

Saturday was Trevor’s birthday ride as I mentioned above which was around the Bolney area and surrounding districts. Representing the team on this ride was myself, Jack Oliver-Blaney, Brock and some bloke called Drew. The route was about 50 miles and was a good ride although we didn’t intend for it to be as hard as it was. It was a good ride and also was followed by some brilliant cake! Also it was good to see some people who I haven’t seen from camp that were there riding.

Saturday Night was spent at the Duncumb-Rogers house. After a good dinner we watched Take me out. I didn’t understand what was going on but Brock being easily amused was having a brilliant time! We managed to get a good load of sleep in turning the lights out early.

Sunday: Race Day. Will Kemp stepped out of this event due to continuous illness so representing us was Tom Laker, Drew, Brock, Tom Redwood (making his road racing debut) and myself. I woke up feeling so good and the Lymph Node had disappeared which was good. I felt full of energy before the race which was good I was just hoping my legs would be working after the previous days ride. The race started off pretty good and it took most of us a lap or so to get into it. Tom Laker managed to be in his trade mark position on the second lap... on the floor after somebody went down in front of him leaving him nowhere to go and Taylor pulling off a pretty heroic skid whilst I was shouting in my head ‘’NOT THE BIKEEEE’’. Who said its safer at the front and less likely to crash aye? That just left me Drew and Brock in the bunch as Tom Redwood was out the back by this stage. Dulwich had 11 riders representing them today sending them on meaningless attacks however their blocking was working. I was putting in some pretty big turns on the front as was Drew as we were trying for Brock with the win. The last lap the bunch was all together which made it relatively sketchy. My legs were pretty dead by this period but I was still pushing on hard trying to get a good position. 3 people managed to get away however without too many people noticing. The finishing road which the sprint was on didn’t go to well with some oncoming traffic getting in the way of my positioning on the outside of the bunch so I was out of the sprint. Brock got blocked in on the inside which left Drew. He then went on to finish 4^th overall and win the bunch sprint. Me and Brock rolled in comfortably with the pack please with the teams efforts.

Looking back onto this time last year I would never have been able to perform nowhere near as well as I did today so it’s a big improvement. My bike and I felt fantastic throughout the race. This race has put me on a good set up for the First of the Nationals next weekend. On the menu this week is a lot of rest, a lot of pasta, and a lot of sleep before the 4 man strong junior team travels to Wales on Saturday morning.

I’d like to say thanks to the people helping us on the side of the road today and the race organisers.

Motions of a Snail

Just a quick post to explain the weekend as such team mates are pestering me as to whether I will be writing a blog or not on the race. As I also proposed a race report from my personal point of view on every race that I participate in. This week was a SERRL E,1,2,3 race on the undulating course which was marshalled very well by the organisers so a big thanks to them on that matter. Unfortunately I didn’t ride as well as i would have liked to but at the same time my result was of no surprise to myself due to my lack of speed fitness. The race started pretty quickly with some early attacks but it wasn’t until ex team rider and now Professional Tom Copeland had a dig until everything kicked off on the second time up the brutal climb. This left me in a congregation of rider just off touch of the main field which grew till at least 10 including Will Kemp and Tom Laker. The pace in this bunch was still high and I couldn’t hack it and dropped off. I finished the race somewhere in the 20’s (results only up to 20^th place) with a fair few riders pulling out including Elites and First cats. Looking on to next week’s race which is on a circuit I have performed well on and the race is only 2,3 and 4’s so I should be fit to go for a good place. This will be my last race before the National Junior Series begins. I also have another hard week of training on the menu with a lot of speed work. It’s only a matter of time before I am back to full race fitness like I was last season. I’m feeling fitter and faster by the session so I will look forward to transfer this into racing.

Cycling Weekly

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/routes/south/517853/sussex-with-the-pccds.html

For those who didn't see the magazine article.

Ups and Downs

The thing with a blogging cyclist is that there is often a desire to tell everyone how well you are doing and all of the good things that are happening to you at the current time. This season I will be reporting every race that I do however badly or well I go. Unfortunately the first race of the season on Saturday at Hog Hill went as bad as a race could possibly go. Me, Drew, Matt and Henry rode in the Elites at the circuit. The weather was the worst I had ever raced in as far as I can remember. Starting the race cold even though I had followed my normal warm up procedures left me dropped after 5 laps. The reasons for this I have been told by my coach are that my body is simply not ready for the strain when a lot of pressure is being put down. This all makes sense to me now even though the race was frustrating as still recovering from the Spanish training camp and changing my training style from long endurance rides to power and speed work. You can see from the picture how bad the weather was. This was the attack that pushed me over the limit just before I was dropped as you can see from the gap.

Sunday was the last of the squad training rides of the winter calendar. We was on the hill reps course we used last winter and the whole ride I felt strong fighting hard to make every pedal turn count. I blew up with about 1 mile to go as my legs had nothing left in them what so ever.

Finally, Today I started the first session on power and speed. It was a hill repeat session which involved me going up and down a hill I use in the Hatch End area. The session was very hard as at the minute every pedal stroke is counting to my future in the sport. There was plenty of pain going through my legs especially in my quads!

I’m racing in the first of the SERRL’s summer series events on Sunday on the Lamberhurst/Frant circuit. It’s an E/1/2/3 race and is 125KMS. Alongside me racing will be; Tom Laker, Brock Duncumb-Rogers, Drew Holmes and Will Kemp.

The Season Begins Tomorrow!

Well I know the last few posts have been on stuff that has came for me but I thought i'd put one out seeing as my frame has finally came and i'm pretty excited. It's getting built up next week and hopefully i will be able to use it for SERRL 's Frant race next weekend. This weekend will be the last time i race on my Specialized hopefully before giving it to my brother to use for the season. I'm Racing in the Elite race at Hog Hill on Saturday and we're scheduled for 30 laps. I've never done a race that long there so this should be interesting. It's also the last squad training day of the winter on Sunday. Ill write my reports of the weekends events on Monday.

Bits and Pieces

So on my return from Spain it appeared that it was Christmas again in my room with 5 boxes of cycling goodies. As there has been some confusion with the frame supplier I have opted for the non aero frameset which is supposedly stiffer and it is lighter. But with these changes it has had a knock-on effect with everything else nearly. The frame I was originally getting uses a BB30 bottom bracket whereas the non aero model uses a normal bottom bracket (English Threaded). So i have sent back the bearings and Chain set to be changed so that won’t take too long however I will have to wait a few weeks for the frame to be made and then shipped over to me before being built up.

Back for a while

I have been back from sunny Spain for a little over one day and i must say the weather over here is pretty depressing! It was a really good week and i feel that it will benefit me hugely. The climbing we did out there was off the scale and could never be replicated around my usual training grounds. Some of the routes we did were fantastic I’ve included some of the profiles of routes we did in this post. Sorry I couldn’t get my scanner working so the photos aren’t fantastic but you can work out the severity of some of the climbs! The following few days I will be feeling pretty tired and this week will be a reduced training week with a gym session and Saturday The whole team (apart from Tom Moore who has recently crashed and broken his collar bone sadly) will be heading down to Hog Hill to race. We also have our last winter squad training session on Sunday so 4 hours will be on the menu. The season is basically here now so this last big push beforehand will benefit me massively! I also returned home on Saturday to several boxes of Equipment for my 2011 season all that I need to wait for now is the frame which is still going to be 2-3 weeks but it will be ready for the first national series of the year which is Cadence.

España So far

Well myself and Drew have been here for a few days now. So far the weather has been pretty nice until today where it rained, we only had a recovery spin for a couple of hours on the flats so it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. Saturdays ride was about 30 miles or so after we´d thrown our stuff into the rooms. Sunday was a very hilly 125K route including a 25K climb thrown in. Most of the riding about here is up climbs as we are surrounded by mountains. Monday was less with only 95K´s of riding but there was a cheeky cat 2 Vuelta climb thrown in there which was very tough. The weather for the remainder of the week seems to be looking good so we will continue to pound in the miles up all the climbs and top the tan up even more!

Flippers

Haven't really had anything to blog for a few days so I thought i'd post my new shoes i'm going to be using for the 2011 season. These just arrived at my door, they're really comfortable. My last pair of shoes were the S-Works road shoes and they lasted me a long time... lets hope these last just as long. Spain is getting ever closer, 9 days in fact and yesterday it was 18 degrees in the shade at 5PM which compared to the conditions I have been used to training in over the winter it's going to be tropical...

Adios

No More 'Real Coke!!!!'

Well another good weekend with the team has nowcome to an end and I won’t be seeing them for a few weeks now (apart from Drew as we’re going Spain). Saturdays race at Hillingdon seemed to Pan out well with LEWNOZ getting 2^nd in his event and Northern Start Matt Pilkzzz getting 2^nd to Lewis Atkins by half a wheel. I thought that I rode the race well considering how long I haven’t raced for. I was more just sitting in and blocking once the break of 8 riders (including Northern Star) had got away. For the bunch sprint there was still some minor points up for grabs so I thought I’d try my luck. Sitting about 7^th wheel behind a 4 man (and I use the word ‘man’ very loosely there) Welwyn ‘lead-out’ (once again using the word lead-out loosely) and then they just completely got in the way and that’s why children shouldn’t be riding elite races! The positioning then went mashed up and it turned into a bit of a free for all and I followed the Irish Legend Felix English through a gap where he provided his Cyclo-X skills... I probably came in the top 20 at least possibly top 15 but I will have to wait for the results to come out for that to be clarified. Sunday’s team ride and Photo Shoot was a good ride which totalled at a little over 130K and the team seemed to be strong. So with all that mileage done and a tad over 900 shots taken I was well up for a bottle of coke... but there was none left... as you can sense my devastation and sheer loss I’m going to have to cut this post there...

Adios Peoples

Catch Up Session

It's been a few days since I wrote anything on here so I decided to write something seeing as today I am having a much needed rest day! I'm on my second hard week since coming back from some rest. It's taking some time to shake my legs up but they seem to be coming along nicely. I am doing a lot of endurance work with efforts incorporated which isn't always fun seeing as both legs are screaming at me. One of the main reasons for writing this post is to talk about the weekend. This weekend the Team are doing a Hillingdon Winter Series race as part of our winter training calender just to see how everyone is doing and whereabouts are legs our at the moment so I'm looking forward to having the whole team at my home circuit and if everyone is feeling as strong as they seem then it should be a good race especially with the amount of us being there it should be easy to control the race. Although my season is still about a month away I thought I would thrown in some information about the first National Series of the year which is the Cadence Junior Road Race 2011. I did the race last year and i took quite a beating but i'm now a year stronger and I have brilliant stack of winter training behind me as well as a new frame of mind and a different support group. The Team riders doing this event are Tom Laker, Brock Duncumb-Rogers, Jack Oliver- Blaney, Lewis Norris and Tom Moore. Out of the 6 man squad only me and Brock have ridden the race before so hopefully we will be able to help those who haven't done the event not to make the mistakes that we did. The profile for the race is bellow. Sunday is also another big day for the team as we have a Cycling Weekly photo shoot for their 'ride of the week' section which is usually a double page spread so keep an eye out for us in there...

Ill post an update of the weekends activities/banter next week! Adios

Weekend of Pain?

So another weekend has come and gone now, and a hard one was yet again on the schedule with 9 hours of riding with some sweet spots. The ride time for Saturday was supposed to be 4 hours and Sunday with 5 hours. Instead the Saturday’s ride turned out to be 6 hours long and just over 100 very hilly miles! Fortunately I was not alone during the whole process starting my ride into surrey with Tanveer Mann and Lawrence Carpenter before meeting Tom Laker and Dante Carpenter in the cafe at the foot of Box Hill where myself, Tanveer and Lawrence enjoyed a quick break after riding two hours to meet the boys. Once the coffee had been chugged down the 5 of us set of into surrey with Dante taking us on a nice loop and it was tremendously hilly. With me having next to no knowledge of surreys roads apart from the route to Box it was nice to be on different roads and with a good sized bunch of people for a good speed. In true style sprinting for every place sign it was definitely challenging on the legs. After about an hour and three quarters with Lakerman and Dazza they left us at the bottom of White-down and me and Lawrence managed to get up it fine but by this time Tanveer ‘s legs were fatigued. Once we hit the top I got home in about 2 hours taking me up to 6 hours of riding and a quality training session with some good lads. Sunday came and this meant I only had to do 3 hours but other people weren’t about so I did it on my own in Richmond Park. It takes me about an hour to get there and then an hour home so I fit in 3 laps and surprisingly my legs didn’t feel too bad until about 10k from my house!

Night Rider

Well it’s been a hard couple of days with a 3 and a 4 hour ride back to back with some pretty hard efforts in. I spent the majority of yesterday with Jake Martin and in the ride included two 15 minute efforts which I did on my own before meeting him. Once with him we met some Kingston Riders and they were about to start 10 sets of 40 seconds on 40 seconds off which we also did and they burnt me big time. Today’s ride was 4 hours or so and the weather was very nice to be out in. I was with Lawrence Carpenter and we rode out into the outskirts of Surrey which was pleasant with a few little climbs before finishing the ride off in the dark at Richmond Park. The pictures on this post are from today. I’m happy to say

I have a rest day tomorrow and it has came at the perfect time because right now my legs feel pretty bad!

Busy Busy Busy

Okay so it’s been a good few days since i have wrote anything on here but I was saving a post to be as epic as the likes of Tom Lakerman’s and Brocks... hopefully it will be! The team and I have had a busy few days with a hectic Newport session on Saturday night which was a three hour leg mashing session. As there were no more than 15 of us on the track the session had no time wasted as we was on the track for 90% of the three hours. The session was taken by Scott again who is a top track coach and gave us all a quality work-out. During the session we had a good half hour warm up which then followed by some standing starts. Then we went on to doing some individual efforts up at the top of the track (where it’s dusty and all of the spiders and cobwebs are according to Drew) which was hard as the bunch was controlling your speed and I was lucky enough to have Brock beneath me on one occasion and he managed to give me a cheeky smile before ripping my legs to bits. After a quick 10 minutes rest which gave us enough time for a ‘wicked yes’. The team then got back onto the track for the final efforts with a lower group on the black and the higher group on the blue at high speed. Obviously in Progressive Cycle Coaching Development Squad Style everything we did turned out to be a race. So every time Scott gave us 10 to go it was game on. I felt pretty strong and I feel that the juniors came out on top over the under 23’s with Brock and Myself managing to shred it in the last 10 laps or so! We still have another session yet which has been promised to be even harder still so I’m looking forward to that a lot. Another thing some of the team will be looking forward to is racing on the track this year as one of the targets will be the track nationals for the juniors! I’m now going into another block of training after my recovery week so that will be hard. There are a few key dates coming up in this block. We have the first race as a team of the season coming up on the 29^th January at Hillingdon which should be a good one providing everyone rides as well as they did at the track! We also have a Cycling Weekly photo shoot for their ‘ride of the week’ section in the magazine on the 20^th January. That should be pretty fun although we are doing our ride on the hardest circuit we use! And then looking further ahead I’m off to Spain on a training camp on February 12^th. There’s also another Newport Session which is to be confirmed so it’s a busy few weeks with plenty of hard hours on the bike!

Christmas Again

In true blog fashion I will be starting the blog in SOOOOO, my wheels literally have just came about 15 minutes ago which is strange because its nearly 8 o'clock. It really does feel like my new bike is starting to all come together. I'm yet to ride them obviously but they look good and the reviews for them are fantastic. unfortunately Brock's haven't been delivered yet so he will have to stare at the photo for one more day :)

Rain, Wind & Mud

So the weather seems to of timed itself pretty well this week as lets be honest its been pretty terrible! I'm currently on a a recovery week which me and my legs are happy about because last week finished quite an intensive block of high mileage and efforts with a great deal of turbo work! It's now Wednesday and i'm due my first outing of the week on the road. Nothing overly stressful on my legs in terms of mileage but with 15 telecoms involved it still had some pretty high intensity intervals! I came home soaked and ridiculously muddy my white oversocks had turned grey and my legs were soaked due to going through a deep puddle despite of un-clipping and lifting them up. It was pretty windy in the more exposed parts of the route i went on today and windy in general at the best of times but it's all good... not long till i'm in Spain on some good dry roads.

New Season, New Look

So the season is getting close now and as well as changing the bike i wanted a slight change of image, so I opted to get myself some Oakley Jawbones. They came this morning and I think that they look really nice and they have such a comfy fit which is good! I'm currently saving money to take out to Spain but after the training camp I'm looking to get some money for new shoes!

9 Hours

So this weekend resulted in me riding a total of 9 hours... It was pretty hard with a good ride on the Saturday out to box hill then back again into London before returning home which was 5 hours dead funnily enough. Sunday was a team ride with loads of banter... Quote of The Day was ''I just broke my cleat...Thats what she said'' you probably had to be there. Also the new phrase L.A.D Positive was created my Tizzle Hizzle also known as Laker man also known as Tom Laker. The ride was just a fraction short of four hours with us being joined 2 and a half hours in by Josh, Doug and Tom Copeland who are all strong riders and with pretty knackered legs already having Tom (Sigma Sport) smashing it up the climbs, well it felt like smashing it at the time but for him was probably taking it easy but as a full time pro it was good for him to come out with us, it was also good to catch up with josh because I haven't seen him in person for quite a while. Comoros I plan to sleep and eat a lot and then a half hour or so spin on the roller...

Thats about it? As The Irish Legend Felix English would say, Ciao ;)

The Weekend

So the first proper weekend of 2011 for training and it should be pretty hard, with a good 85 - 90 miles tomorrow morning with Lawrence Carpenter (Rapha Condor). Sunday we have yet again another squad ride which i'm looking forward to a lot because its another chance for everyone to be together ,and its great getting to know the new riders more. So it's another 4 hours on the menu for Sunday!

Weathers Killing Me Again

So the weather has once again got me onto the turbo for a 2 hour session. With it pouring down with rain and some sleet around its only sensible to stay in the garage to avoid being ill, which would be so bad at this time of the year as it would kill at least a week of training! The session i did was really hard with a 20 minute effort and Telekom 40's 15 of them. A proper burn out but after 2 hours I was dead!!! I cant wait to get to Spain, not long now though.

Wednesday

So Wednesdays actions resulted in a early turbo session. well i had to get up at 5:45 which by my standards and with my current sleeping pattern was horrible. It was telekom forties 40 seconds on 20 seconds off and 15 of them which killed me. After school i headed down to the gym for 2 hours or so to work on some last minute core and upper body strength before going to Spain in a few weeks and before the racing starts!

New Year

Okay just bringing to attention that I have my first race with the Team at Hillingdon in 25 days time! this is quite a scary thought when i come to think of it. Ive still got a good 3 weeks of training before this though which is quality and during the three weeks there is another team training ride and a team session at Newport which will be good for all the lads to train together to see where we are plus its fun and will be a hard session. Also before then i will be putting my bike together which is going to be really good and should get me a few placings over. Until then the training is more on my mind before i jet off to Spain to ride the climbs in some heat hopefully for a week with Drew Holmes which i'm looking forward to and having my coach on hand for a whole week will really help too. Also it's back to sixth form tomorrow but before that happens i have a morning turbo session before a full set of lessons followed by a savage gym session!