Well I suppose not a true aborted start as I have done one race, but certainly my target races have started off aborted due to our nice Spring weather. I was due to take part in the CTT TT Series Round 1 on the 24th March, held in Finchingfield in Essex, but the race had to be postponed due to snow and sub zero temperatures. I am not sure when the race will eventually be held, just hope it isn't on a weekend where I have another important race planned, though I can't say I blame the organiser for that, it wasn't him that caused the weather disruption.
Normally I would be slightly peeved with a postponed/cancelled event, but on this occasion I can't say it bothered me that much. It wasn't because I didn't feel good, in fact even after a tiring week away with work and training I felt pretty good, it was more the fact of racing with temperatures hardly reaching zero degrees, and with a wicked Easterly wind wasn't really what I wanted to do. Also I realised without the racing I didn't have to ease back on the training and I could continue to build fitness for my future even more important events - the BBAR races. This is quite a contrast to last year for me, for the first time I am really concentrating on getting as fit as possible in the available time, and racing less. Hopefully this will yield better results and faster times, mentally it is challenging when I enjoy racing, but the rewards could be bigger.
Training will continue until Round 2 which is in late April, and hopefully during the intervening weeks fitness will improve some more and I will go into this race even fitter, at least the weather should be better by this time, though to be honest the way things have go so far you never know.
Coming back to the weather, never had I trained so much using the turbo trainer in the garage over Winter and into Spring, normally the weather has got warmer by now and I would be doing most of my riding on the road. With the really low temperatures, and my hated for getting too cold means I have resorted to a lot of riding whilst going nowhere, not the most pleasant but by heck it is effective. It is also helping with getting my weight down as well, it will be good to start the racing in earnest some 4-5kgs less than I raced at last year.
Before the next TT Series event, I have a fun 10 miler on the V718 on the 6th April, which is the Team Swift event, not one I will be training for, or even tapering for. This will be the classic training race where I just continue to train normally, and see what happens on the day, hopefully the legs will be fine (and the weather) and I can set a half decent time. It is a long way to go for a 10 mile event, but I am collecting a wheel whilst up there so that is more the reason to do the race if I am honest. It will be good to see what sort of 20 min power I can put out at this stage of the season.
Bastion
Thursday 28 March 2013
Tuesday 26 March 2013
East Surrey Hardriders 2013
Well the 2013 season got under way properly with the East Surrey Hardriders, with being the defending winner from 2012 I thought it was only right to try and defend my win from last year, though to be honest with it being the first real event of 2013 and with a heavy work schedule I wasn't expecting anything special. For me it was more of a test event for the CTT TT Series Round 1 event which would follow a few weeks later.
The forecast wasn't looking great, fairly windy and bloody cold to say the least, racing below 10 degrees is never really pleasant, but with temperatures only being around the 2-3 degrees mark it certainly wasn't pleasant at all.
On the start list we had the normal suspects of Conall Yates and Pete Tadros, Pete being a former winner of the event. Added into the mix was Steve Dennis, Richard Prebble, Dan Sadler and Steve Irwin, so a good quality field. I expected given his recent form and results that Conall was the most likely to win, though I hoped for a top 3 placing, though given the field this might be wishing as well. At least as the previous years winner I got the honour of starting last, normally this would be good as it would have warmed up a bit, but not today, it never really got warmer as the day went on, and only got windier.
Foolishly I had seen riders riding up and down the road whilst I warmed up on the trainer, bared legged. I had been warming up with knee warmers on, but I hate racing with them as they always end up starting to roll down and become annoying. I decided as I got to the start I would also go bare legged (by heck it was cold just waiting to start). I had a bit of a joke with the timekeeper and said I wasn't expecting to do too well, but would still aim to beat the course record (more jokingly than anything else really). Once off the wind chill really started to show, and it wasn't long before they were frozen, so not the wisest move on my behalf.
I settled down into what I thought was a good effort power wise (again first event after winter training, not 100% sure of the power I could sustain for an hour or so), but with the sheer cold, I found it difficult to sustain what I thought should be possible. Felt good pushing on up over the hills, but when the speed went up found it disconcerting to see power dropping off even though I felt I was pushing as hard as I could. I had a thought that I had refitted the chainrings a few days beforehand, and perhaps they were just settling a bit, so I did a few zero offset resets during the race and power seemed more normal for a while.
The outward stretch down the A24 should have been a nice tailwind, though to be honest it never felt that way (maybe the first race at a high intensity was a real shock to the system), and in fact at the bottom end it felt like a headwind. I soon realised as I started the return leg home it had been a tailwind and the last 7 to 8 miles were going to be into a headwind - deep joy. I had hoped to reach Rusper Hill with a 28 mph average, but just fell short of this, with this and the headwind home it wasn't looking like a particularly good ride.
Once up Rusper Hill (in the small ring this year, after near coming to a halt last year in the big ring), I just tried to keep the average speed as high as possible. The road through Rusper and onto Newdigate has some lovely sweeping bends and is constantly up and down. Surprisingly the average speed seemed to be fairly static and even going up slightly on the really fast parts. The East Surrey RC give you a miles to go countdown from 5 miles out, it was here I just really tried to up the effort, whilst trying to calculate what sort of time I could possibly do. Once I got to the 2 miles to go marker I realised that I wasn't going to beat last years time (not really surprising given the cold and the wind), but I could get pretty close to it.
Riding as hard as I could for these last couple of miles, with the burning in the legs and lungs (at least I was warm by this point), I crossed the line with a 1:07:05 and I was very pleased with that, it wasn't a course record as expected but at least I have given my best and I gently cruised back to the car to get out of the cold.
Once back at the car the start timekeeper saw me and made a joke about me being a liar, I asked why and he said I had set the fastest time, I wasn't sure what anyone else had done time wise, but I was a little shocked. Once in the HQ and looking at the result board I saw that I had managed to beat Conall by 19 secs and Pete Tadros by 26 secs. To say I was well chuffed is a slight understatement, I never expected to win, and to win the event 2 years in a row I felt was a pretty good achievement. It was great to get 2013 off properly with a win, and a win at such a classic event. Many thanks to Blake Coxon (the organiser) and the East Surrey RC for putting on another great event.
Photo Courtesy of Mark Hopkins
Next event was to be the CTT TT Series Round 1 (Cancelled by snow and ice), more to follow on that.
The forecast wasn't looking great, fairly windy and bloody cold to say the least, racing below 10 degrees is never really pleasant, but with temperatures only being around the 2-3 degrees mark it certainly wasn't pleasant at all.
On the start list we had the normal suspects of Conall Yates and Pete Tadros, Pete being a former winner of the event. Added into the mix was Steve Dennis, Richard Prebble, Dan Sadler and Steve Irwin, so a good quality field. I expected given his recent form and results that Conall was the most likely to win, though I hoped for a top 3 placing, though given the field this might be wishing as well. At least as the previous years winner I got the honour of starting last, normally this would be good as it would have warmed up a bit, but not today, it never really got warmer as the day went on, and only got windier.
Foolishly I had seen riders riding up and down the road whilst I warmed up on the trainer, bared legged. I had been warming up with knee warmers on, but I hate racing with them as they always end up starting to roll down and become annoying. I decided as I got to the start I would also go bare legged (by heck it was cold just waiting to start). I had a bit of a joke with the timekeeper and said I wasn't expecting to do too well, but would still aim to beat the course record (more jokingly than anything else really). Once off the wind chill really started to show, and it wasn't long before they were frozen, so not the wisest move on my behalf.
I settled down into what I thought was a good effort power wise (again first event after winter training, not 100% sure of the power I could sustain for an hour or so), but with the sheer cold, I found it difficult to sustain what I thought should be possible. Felt good pushing on up over the hills, but when the speed went up found it disconcerting to see power dropping off even though I felt I was pushing as hard as I could. I had a thought that I had refitted the chainrings a few days beforehand, and perhaps they were just settling a bit, so I did a few zero offset resets during the race and power seemed more normal for a while.
The outward stretch down the A24 should have been a nice tailwind, though to be honest it never felt that way (maybe the first race at a high intensity was a real shock to the system), and in fact at the bottom end it felt like a headwind. I soon realised as I started the return leg home it had been a tailwind and the last 7 to 8 miles were going to be into a headwind - deep joy. I had hoped to reach Rusper Hill with a 28 mph average, but just fell short of this, with this and the headwind home it wasn't looking like a particularly good ride.
Once up Rusper Hill (in the small ring this year, after near coming to a halt last year in the big ring), I just tried to keep the average speed as high as possible. The road through Rusper and onto Newdigate has some lovely sweeping bends and is constantly up and down. Surprisingly the average speed seemed to be fairly static and even going up slightly on the really fast parts. The East Surrey RC give you a miles to go countdown from 5 miles out, it was here I just really tried to up the effort, whilst trying to calculate what sort of time I could possibly do. Once I got to the 2 miles to go marker I realised that I wasn't going to beat last years time (not really surprising given the cold and the wind), but I could get pretty close to it.
Riding as hard as I could for these last couple of miles, with the burning in the legs and lungs (at least I was warm by this point), I crossed the line with a 1:07:05 and I was very pleased with that, it wasn't a course record as expected but at least I have given my best and I gently cruised back to the car to get out of the cold.
Once back at the car the start timekeeper saw me and made a joke about me being a liar, I asked why and he said I had set the fastest time, I wasn't sure what anyone else had done time wise, but I was a little shocked. Once in the HQ and looking at the result board I saw that I had managed to beat Conall by 19 secs and Pete Tadros by 26 secs. To say I was well chuffed is a slight understatement, I never expected to win, and to win the event 2 years in a row I felt was a pretty good achievement. It was great to get 2013 off properly with a win, and a win at such a classic event. Many thanks to Blake Coxon (the organiser) and the East Surrey RC for putting on another great event.
Photo Courtesy of Mark Hopkins
1st Steve Berry - Team Swift 1:07:05
2nd Conall Yates - Ingear 1:07:24
3rd Pete Tadros - Ingear 1:07:31
2nd Conall Yates - Ingear 1:07:24
3rd Pete Tadros - Ingear 1:07:31
4th Dan Sadler - RT316 1:09:43
5th Richard Prebble - Node4 Giordana RT 1:10:17
6th Steve Irwin - Kingston Wheelers 1:10:28
Next event was to be the CTT TT Series Round 1 (Cancelled by snow and ice), more to follow on that.
Tuesday 12 March 2013
Start of a New Season
Well 2013 got off to a very early start again with a local "fun" 10 mile TT on New Years Day, I was aiming for a hatrick of wins, and as usual was up against the usual suspects of Conall Yates and Dave Wheeler. This year I didn't have my usual build up of an illness over Christmas which was nice, though it did mean I had a heavy training load instead. Well if you have time off work, you might as well make the best use of it. It did mean I wasn't going into the event as fresh as I have in previous years, but it is only a fun event at the end of the day ;-)
The weather wasn't too bad, fairly warm for the time of year, and the wind didn't seem too bad. I had noticed Conall had done a couple of road races, so he at least had some higher intensity in my legs. For me it was going to be the first full on effort since September, that was going to be a real shock to the system, added to the heavy training load as well. My legs weren't the freshest they could be, so this would also hinder me slightly.
One of the downsides of no higher intensity training, is the slight lack of knowledge of how hard you can push, I had a faint idea, but until you do it for the first time, it is a bit of guesswork, though that can be good, as you just ride to percieved exertion and not worry too much about the power. I was off 20 minutes after Conall, so I knew if I went past the finish before he finished I would have a good idea of what to aim for.
I started off quite hard and then eased back a touch, realising that the starting effort was impossible to keep up for too long, just after I passed the finish line (about 2 miles from the start) I saw Conall a few minutes away. Trying to work out his finishing time whilst going full bore isn't an easy thing to do sometimes, but I have worked out is was around the 22/23 min mark. With a slight tailwind to the turn I was hoping for a good average speed, but slightly disappointed/surprised at the turn with a average speed that seemed slower than ideally I would have liked.
The return leg was slightly uphill as well as being into the wind, but surprisingly it was pretty fast, perhaps I had miscalculated the wind direction. I pushed on as hard as I could and noticed with a few miles to the finish that the actual time was pretty good, and I was hoping I had got the calculation of Conall's time correct. The last mile the wind really was a headwind though, so with as much effort as I could muster I just tried to keep the speed up. I crossed the line with a 21:28, so a 10 second improvment on my own course record, and nearly a minute faster than Conall.
Very surprised at the time gap, and to be honest my time, it just never felt that fast, and with tired legs from training it was a good sign for the new season.
Steve Berry - Team Swift - 21:28
Conall Yates - In Gear RT - 22:26
Tim Stevens - 34 Nomads - 23:07
Next event will be the East Surrey Hardriders (report to follow)
The weather wasn't too bad, fairly warm for the time of year, and the wind didn't seem too bad. I had noticed Conall had done a couple of road races, so he at least had some higher intensity in my legs. For me it was going to be the first full on effort since September, that was going to be a real shock to the system, added to the heavy training load as well. My legs weren't the freshest they could be, so this would also hinder me slightly.
One of the downsides of no higher intensity training, is the slight lack of knowledge of how hard you can push, I had a faint idea, but until you do it for the first time, it is a bit of guesswork, though that can be good, as you just ride to percieved exertion and not worry too much about the power. I was off 20 minutes after Conall, so I knew if I went past the finish before he finished I would have a good idea of what to aim for.
I started off quite hard and then eased back a touch, realising that the starting effort was impossible to keep up for too long, just after I passed the finish line (about 2 miles from the start) I saw Conall a few minutes away. Trying to work out his finishing time whilst going full bore isn't an easy thing to do sometimes, but I have worked out is was around the 22/23 min mark. With a slight tailwind to the turn I was hoping for a good average speed, but slightly disappointed/surprised at the turn with a average speed that seemed slower than ideally I would have liked.
The return leg was slightly uphill as well as being into the wind, but surprisingly it was pretty fast, perhaps I had miscalculated the wind direction. I pushed on as hard as I could and noticed with a few miles to the finish that the actual time was pretty good, and I was hoping I had got the calculation of Conall's time correct. The last mile the wind really was a headwind though, so with as much effort as I could muster I just tried to keep the speed up. I crossed the line with a 21:28, so a 10 second improvment on my own course record, and nearly a minute faster than Conall.
Very surprised at the time gap, and to be honest my time, it just never felt that fast, and with tired legs from training it was a good sign for the new season.
Steve Berry - Team Swift - 21:28
Conall Yates - In Gear RT - 22:26
Tim Stevens - 34 Nomads - 23:07
Next event will be the East Surrey Hardriders (report to follow)
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