A week Training in Tenerife

Saturday 6th of December:

I got into Tenerife mid afternoon and made my way to the hotel fairly sharp to get the bike built up and out for a short spin to make sure everything was dialled in for the week ahead. The weather was good and looked good for the week ahead. I did a short climb up to San Miguel just above my resort of Golf Del Sur

Garmin Data 6th December

Sunday 7th December:

Last year when I was in Tenerife I never made my way to the north of the Island so that was top of the list for excursions for the week and I plotted a route to Gumer which is quite far north. The road to Gumer was fairly rolling and meandering I would cover about 70km to get to that point. From there I went over the Volcano from the north side into the crater and down through Vilaflor back towards the resort.

Garmin Data 7th Decmeber

Ride Moving Time: 7 hours
Distance:103 miles
Climbing:13,300ft
TSS:300
Average Power/Normalized:203/238

Monday 8th December:

Given the big day before I decided to stick around the south face of the volcano and do a few of the climbs on offer there. There is a pretty nice cafe in Vilaflor to hang out at when not chewing bar tape.

Garmin Data 8th December

Ride Moving Time: 4hours 20mins
Distance: 60 miles
Climbing: 9,000ft
TSS: 200
Average Power/Normalized: 203/244

Tuesday 9th December:

I did the same ride as Sunday but in the opposite direction. Had a nice cross tailwind home from Gumer which made life a bit more pleasant.

Garmin Data 9th December

Ride Moving Time:7 hours
Distance:103
Climbing:13,200ft
TSS:280
Average Power/Normalized:186/229

Wednesday 10th December

Vilaflor hill repeats. I did the climb up to Vilaflor from Arona, Grandilla and San Miguel.

Garmin Data 10th December

Ride Moving Time: 4 hours
Distance: 60 miles
Climbing: 7,000ft
TSS:213.9
Average Power/Normalized:206/260

Thursday 11th December:

The Masca loop in my opinion is one of the hardest rides on the island. You can do a nice run along the coast as I did and then get to work on the first big climb of the day up to Santiago del Teide. The next climb the Erjos pass will drop you down into a totally other world. The Masca region and Buenavista are much greener and more lush than anywhere else that I have seen on the island. The climb starting from Buenavista back to Santiago through the Masca region is absolute savagery.

Garmin Data 11th December

Ride Moving Time: 6.5 hours
Distance: 100 miles
Climbing: 12,500ft
TSS: 336
Average Power/Normalized: 210/260

Friday 12th December:

With all my big island exploring rides done I wanted to do a few hill repeats and that around the south of the island. The climb from Vilaflor to the top was also high up on the list as I did a test on this last year so fancied seeing how I would fair against my time from last year.

Garmin Data 12th December

Ride Moving Time: 6 hours
Distance:85 miles
Climbing: 12,500ft
TSS: 260
Average Power/Normalized: 195/242

Saturday 13th December:
Training Over and Flight at 3pm, A nice easy coffee run along the coast was a good way to spin the legs out before the 4 hour flight.

Weekly Totals:
Total Moving Ride Time: 33 hours
Total TSS: 1650
Total Distance: 520 miles
Total Vertical Accent: 70, 000 ft

The Race To The Top

With legs now absolutely in bits after 5 days training I decided not to go on a big epic island loop that would see me racing the sunset for home.

Some of you may have watched the Wiggins documentary that shows him training in Tenerife. To recap... there is some great footage of Shane Sutton, head coach pacing him up the climb on a scooter. Wiggins narrating "it feels like your head is under water and all you want to do is pull the plug, but you can't ". He is making the analogy of the suffocating feeling of trying to peddle hard at such a high altitude.

I set off to have a run at the same accent this morning.

It's a good steady two hour ride to reach the starting point of Vilaflor a small town the last of which you go through on your way to the top of the south face and the highest village on the island.

The legs were well warmed up as I was riding into Vilaflor some 1400m or so above sea level. I lit up going through the start of the town to make sure I would get the longest of the strava segments and not some half assed one that people create cause they didn't start at the bottom.

In mind I was thinking it would take about 40 minutes. 5 minutes in my legs were struggling sore from the compounded stress of the previous days, I knocked it back a bit from 350 to 330 Watts. Sreaming down one after the other the British cycling squad, they shot past on the other side of the road, would have been fun to turn round and join them for a few hours.

About half way I'm fighting to maintain the effort, unsure if it's the legs just not feeling good or the lack of oxygen at 1800m. I knock it down a gear thinking that will help but it was akin to giving a gambling addict more money in a casino to help him win his way back to even! Getting out of the saddle didn't offer much to the cause either a few sprightly turns of the cranks, then left chasing lactic acid  for the next few minutes.

A rider in the distance acted like a target and coming up from the last switch back turn I was out of the saddle sprinting to catch him, I passed him just over the top at 2100m, "wanker" he probably said to himself.

I pulled into the right and slumped over the bars gasping for air,  a friendly voice asked the wanker  "are you okay?"

Biting off more than you can chew

Day 1 of the Tenerife training camp started well with warm weather and a nice breeze.

The plan was to climb up to a town called San Miguel and then contour around the volcano to a town near the north of the Island called Guimer, from there I would climb north west to the main road that would take me up to the summit of Teide (the volcano that dominates the island ).

I reached Guimer in good time and stopped for coffee and lunch. I then set off immediately into the climb of 10 miles to the main road up to Teide. What I didn't account for was flat out I was doing 8mph! Gels being deployed in rappid succession. It took me over an hour to reach the main road by that time I had went through the four gels I had packed. At this point I was at about 1500m. I dialed in a landmark of Teide that I knew of and got back 15 miles as the crow flys. Normally that would be fine but at 8mph and in thin air you get a bit concerned about running out of day light. With constant switch backs it was probably more like 20 miles.

I set off again not wasting any time. It was now about 2.40pm with light till about 6:20.

The thin air made for tough work. Your pushing hard but you heart rate is right up there but power not so much, that and my low sugar supply. A God send was finding a Snickers duo in my bag that was left over from a mountain bike trip with bunter!

I stopped at a spring for water and accidentally put my foot in a puddle, foot soaked! Not normally an issue but at 2km up and about to do some descending those toes are gonna get nippy!

I really was against the clock and you start to get a bit worried but the road was plenty busy with tourists and I knew of a few hotels along the way if it got too much.

Dropping into the crater from 2400m my wet toes were freezing! I pulled over and In my bag I had the makings of an overshoe from a neck buff! It was now pretty cold and I put the arm and leg warmers on. I was well prepared with gear which was good, was just lacking sugar in a big way and the hunger knock had already kicked in.

I reached the centre of the crater at 5pm and went straight into the shop in search of sugar loaded fuel. A tin of Pepsi and lemonade with two chocolate donuts did the trick!

I got back on the bike and set off out of the crater. I was now on familiar roads which was comforting. Once I climbed out of the crater I had 23 miles to home and 30 minutes to do it in!

It really is a case of just tapping the brakes once and a while,  I was dropping from 2300m to sea level and the pedals wouldn't need a tap!

I pulled into the resort about 15 miss past sunset. It was now dark but the street lighting was good and there was no cars so it was home safe and sound but well and truly shattered!

Of all the bike rides I have done this was easily the hardest day in the saddle. My Garmin read 14,000 feet of climbing which is the exact equivalent of riding a bike half way up Everest!

2015 has begun

I'm sitting on a plane bound for Tenerife for a week of big miles and even bigger climbs in the sun.

After the final event of 2014 I headed for Magaluff on a stag do. Having not done much drinking I was not long feeling the buzz as the first pints of the day were issued. It was a great trip plenty of laughter and Rab well and truly sent on his way.

I didn't really take much time off training after my last event and to be honest it was more due to missing really hard training rides which I enjoy more than the racing. You can't always do them during the racing season as you can't damage the legs too much if you have events on.

My training rides are pretty savage. They take in much of the routes and climbs that Stephen Gallager, former RAS winner and ex Professional rider used to do. Riding these roads you have no choice but to put out big efforts otherwise your going backwards!

When you head off to do a weeks training it's real important that you go there fit,  that way you will be able to get the most out of it. Tenerife is very demanding,  I certainly wouldn't advise it to anyone wanting to go and do base training, a 4000m volcano doesn't lend itself to those that aren't fit. For me I don't build a base or foundation over winter,  that sort of riding bores me to tears. For me the base training was done in 2012 when I was an A4 that didn't score a single point, but still I trained well throughout that season. Cycling is a funny one, there really is that hysteria over training hard over the winter. The looks I get from various club runs on a Sunday as we pass each other going in opposite directions are funny. Them wearing more winter clothing than a man on his way to the North Pole and me with the gloves and arm warmers already removed and stuffed into the back pocket due to overheating, blasting along solo at twice their rate. So yea I don't build a foundation over winter, I start work on the extension.

So why am I in Tenerife? My aims of the week are to train hard and relax in the evening. Work has been pretty mad the last couple of months so switching off from that will be much needed, and I've found few better stress relief  methods than what the bike and 400 Watts provides.

2014 Cycling Highlights

Anaclone GP 

The Ulster season opened with the Anaclone GP a race that I hadn't competed in before and one that I was looking forward to with good confidence. I had said to the Orchard guys on the day before that race that I was going to win it, and it certainly sounded like a bold/arrogant statement given the field which included some very high quality A1 riders. With the A3 handicap though I didn't even think about the A1's as I never thought they would make it across in time. Marc McClure whom I didn't know at the time and myself had a brief chat at the front of the bunch. We made the escape without too much difficulty and started to work well together, almost immediately. No flicking elbows or yelling to come through good 50/50 turns from both of us. Thomas Martin and another team mate were hot on our tails for the 2nd last lap, we were holding them well given we weren't on the same team which was testament to how well we were sharing the effort. on the final lap we had a slender advantage with the Caldwell guys almost making the catch. I jumped for the finish it was a big effort for around 6 mins but managed to pull it off. Marc got second which I was glad to see given how well we worked, and kudos to Thomas given the handicap and other A1 racers on the day what a ride he put in.

Phoenix gp

This race was allot of fun, I started at the back of the field and someone put the hammer down into the tail wind off the start, I couldn't get clipped in and spend the first few mins chasing to get back on, when I rejoined just as the bunch had turned into the cross wind. The whole field echeloned onto the other side of the road I thought here we go again another dangerous race. The Commissioners trying in vain to get the riders to race on their own side of the road. I was annoyed at riders for being on the other side of the road and I wasn't prepared to hang out there myself I decided then and there to absolutely destroy the bunch in the tail wind, I made my way to the front by nuts corner and put the hammer down going past the start finish line I had 80 A3's all struggling to hold the wheels as I was churning out 380 watts, around 12 made the selection and for the rest it was race over after 20 minutes we wouldn't be seen again. I split the group again 2 laps before the finish and then on the last lap I went full gas from nuts corner dropping the remaining 5, a few worked their way across to me but I just kept on full gas thinking I could ride them off my wheel, I didn't and I probably gave Ryan Reilly the best lead out he's ever had. Have to say though I really enjoyed keeping it pinned at all times.

The March Void

The entire of March racing was not what I had hoped, after a run in with a car my right leg was left worse for wear. I had worked hard for my fitness over the winter and wasn't going to let it all evaporate. I was into the pool the next week with a float between my legs. Cycling training resumed 2 weeks later with some light miles. I missed the red hand trophy which I was keen to ride in.

PJ Logan 

One of the best circuits on the calendar and where I had my first points and race win as an A4 in 2013. I was returning with high hopes. A solid 80 miles in the legs from the day before as I couldn't afford not to train given. On the last lap I made a big move, Jake Grey (an under 16) who had special permission to ride that day the only one able to go with me, some good turns from both of us and we were gone. I just pipped Jake on the like for the win.

John Beggs

The Following week saw me take to the line in the John Beggs. A highly competitive field with An Post present among others. The small group of A2's all rode well together and we all had a good chance going into the final two laps. Liam Dolan had escaped off the front going onto the final lap and I managed to bridge over and past him, I expected him to be busted and was surprised when he came back through after the decent at full gas, from then on the A1's didn't have a hope the turns we did down the final straight were unreal and looking at the power we were putting out I knew we weren't going to be caught. We definitely both deserved to win that race and would have been great to cross the line together. That was a good day for Orchard all round with Lee Clarke lifting silver in the A4 race.

Tour of the Mournes

After having won the day before in the John Beggs I had only one plan here to get up the road and ride the bike hard as I wanted to get some good training out of this race. I did exactly that and managed 8th place with pretty tired legs, given the day before I was more than happy with that result. Now just a few points from A1.

Tour of the North 

A great weekends riding with Glenn, Lee and Lindsay. Can't say I overly enjoyed the TON the style of racing didn't suit me so much. Stage 2 gave me a chance to show I was one of the strongest riders, placing 8th in the short non Aero TT.

Tour of Ulster

I hadn't originally planned to race the TOU, after the TON the plan was to ramp up my TT training. Joe at Velo Cafe Magasin contacted me and offered me a ride, after the TON I knew I could do with some bunch racing practice. IT was a funny race got in a few breaks and had a few punctures which was good learning for getting back into the bunch etc. I'd seen a cycling Ulster team at both TON and TOU and that's maybe something that I'd like to do.

Grouchos GP

I still hadn't made my mind up if I wanted to do the Newry 3 day or Ulster 10 TT at this point so I said to the Orchard guys I would ride for them and keep the race together and stop anything getting up the road that we had no interest in, and I did exactly that. It was a strong field with most of the top ulster juniors there, and it wasn't going to be an easy race to control but I was able to keep it together until about 40 miles in when my rear skewer came undone. I was able to get back into the bunch again, and made my way back up to the front and assumed my role again to pull in the small break that slipped off while I had the mechanical. Unfortunately we didn't get a man in the points but never the less I enjoyed playing the team role and its probably my strongest position as I love just going full gas and not having to race tactically.

Noel Taggert

After having won an A1/2 race with a handicap, I electing not to take my handicap with the a2's and start with the A1's to be honest it was probably easier as numbers in A1 was twice that of the A2's. I forced the first big split of the day. Swinnard, Murphy and a few others made it over to me, we had a good gap but a few in the break not riding through and it all fell to pieces, there was certainly more than enough fire power for that to go clear to the end. I jumped across to the next move with Sean McKenna, Alex Donald and Paul Mulligan. We built a strong lead but with two laps to go Mckenna and Mulligan got word Swinnard and Murphy were on their way over so it was left for Alex and myself to do the riding, we finished 3rd and 4th. It would have been nice to win that one but it was always going to be hard given the team cards being played. 

This would see an end to my road racing as I put full focus on Time Trialing.

Irish National Championships 

I won't go into too much detail as I put up a fairly verbose writeup in another blog post on this. Looking back at my first National Champs I feel I did myself justice against some of Irelands Pro riders and international U23 riders, keeping in mind I started the season as an A3 to go faster than the likes of Felix English an established professional and not be a million miles away from even the likes of Martin Irvine was really encouraging given I work full time and create my own training plans and all the rest, it validated that I was getting some of what I have been doing correct in terms of training in order to compete at that level. 

Ulster 50 Mile TT

The first of the Ulster Championships. I went into this with pretty much an Ulster TT medal guarenteed given the level I knew I was riding at which was great, and I knew I could try and go for the fastest Ulster rider on the day to claim my first Ulster Gold cycling medal. I paced the ride really well and did everything right in terms of how I rode the event I knew when I crossed the line I had given myself every chance. To get the win was great and I was really pleased to get my first Ulster TT medal which happened to be the best one.

Ulster 25 Mile TT

Really the blue ribbon event of the TT calendar is the 25 mile TT. The 25 is as much about strength, pacing and keeping your head, unlike a 10 which can be a little more forgiving if you get the pacing wrong a 25 will really find you out if you screw that up. Perhaps not the strongest field but Daniel Stewart the defending champion was enough to validate the the win and provide good competition. I didn't have my best ride but was able to get away with it and nicked a second Ulster Gold by a small margin.

Ulster 10 TT

I was in good shape to go fast at the Ulster 10, but got everything wrong on the day. I had a solid warm up inside the hall while it lashed with rain outside. I got my start time confused and left myself with a mad dash to the start line, which I drove to. As I got out of the car I got "1 minute" from the timer, that's 1 minute to get bike off car, wheels on bike, helmet on etc. It was a rolling start as I reached the line, turning my Garmin on someway towards toome. No brakes on bike, and awful pacing saw wasted seconds, shame as I had brilliant legs. I was never going to threaten Marcus but I could and should have been closer to his mark.

Ernie Magwood

The final round was the day before the Ulster TT. A top field with Marcus and Colm and the two Johns. I put in a time of 19.10, which I'm fairly sure is up there with some of the quickest times recorded in Ireland for a 10. I would secure second overall in the series which I was pleased with.

Ulster 100

Probably my favorite event. The 100 TT is physically probably the hardest event in my opinion on the Irish calendar. No wheels to follow or hiding places no real luck to aid you either. It's a test of physical and mental ability and any rider that does it come the end have such a sense of achievement no matter their placing. Marcus set a new Irish record and I got close to the old one. Great help from Glenn on the day supporting me.

The 100 wrapped up the season. One which saw me starting in late February as an A3 rider and finishing as an A1 rider. I won 3 races along the way and a few other points which wasn't bad given I only raced in about 10 + the stage races. A two time Ulster champion and various other open TT wins including the prestigious Ernie Magwood memorial, which not mentioned above I was very pleased to win given it's history and how tough John Heverin has made it to win. 

Above all the results I physically improved by around 6% over last year which win or loose is the achievement I am most pleased with. 

Expect the Unexpected

One of the most over used slogans used by the DOE in a bid to curb lethal accidents on the roads. As we draw closer to Christmas a period when many road deaths happen, I await the DOE's next instalment in their bid to try to reduce the statistics of road deaths via way of graphic images of car accidents culminating in "Expect the Unexpected".

The recent death of a young boy aged 8 on a walk to school as a motorist ploughed into him, his 5 siblings and mother in a scene not dissimilar to that of the advert of some guy wiping out 20+ kids in similar fashion on TV. Whose at fault? The driver is the obvious choice he hit them, he didn't expect the unexpected.

Another tragic incident that was on the news not so long ago was a motorcyclist that died after a collision with a car at 100mph. The driver of the car got 200 hours community service for pulling out in front of the motorcyclist who happened to be filming himself 'doing the ton' and overtaking cars and vans at speeds only fit for the manx TT. His mother allowed the police to show the footage to the general public she claimed her son "bought the GoPro to film other road users to highlight traffic safety" nobody had told her that GoPros were made with the purpose for recording yourself doing extreme things and no doubt the motorcyclist was looking forward to getting home to watching his footage of him ripping it up on busy afternoon at full tilt. If a motorcycle is travelling towards you at 100mph+  with a reaction time of a 1/3 of a second the bike has already travelled 50 meters before you even begin to react to it, and that doesn't take into account braking distances and all the rest! neither car or motorcyclist had any chance of avoiding that one, and personally I was shocked the driver faced punishment for his part. Neither motorcyclist nor car expected the unexpected.

How can we expect the unexpected? cause that's just it, its the unexpected. The DOE needs to seriously consider alternative approaches to curbing the deaths of all road users. Wasting Tax payers money on these adverts that don't do anything to cut the death rate. What about speed checks? a hair dryer in a 30 mph zone picking up a car doing 32 mph isn't great either. On the rural roads where one can legally do 60 mph is where people are getting the short end of the stick. 60 mph is too fast in most situations to react when the unexpected happens, and a head on collision between two vehicles at 60 is the equivalent of driving into a wall at 120 mph.

A rural speed limit of 40-45 mph would be a good start, that would save lives. It gives the driver time to slow down when they come across the unexpected and the person they hit a much greater chance of survival.

By the end of the year I will have covered the best part of 13,000 miles on my bicycle and I can tell you on a number of occasions I have been disturbingly close to being another tally to the grim statistic of road deaths. I have been literally missed by inches from cars and lorries misjudging my speed and their own. If I recorded half of it and showed it to my mother she would lock up my bikes and throw away the key. She has already lived through the death of a loved one, which was one too many.

The unexpected will happen you can't and won't plan for it no matter what the adverts tell you. What you can do is make the unexpected a little less worse for the person at the bad end of it. Some people will think I am missing the point and that's what expecting the unexpected is all about. How many of us sit on the motorway and look at our speed and think I'm doing 70 I'm good, and if the speed limit was 80 or 90 we would feel no different. Take that same analogy to rural roads and we look at our speed limit and think I am doing 60, I am legally allowed to do this speed all is well. We will continue to push the boundaries to the rules that are set out in front of us.

I doubt anything in regards to rules of the road will change and my daily death dodge will continue, but I can drive my car slower and will make the effort to do so and I encourage everyone else to.

Unlike most people I don't believe in the promise of an afterlife, and I'm fine with that. Life to me is precious as I believe the one I have now is all we get. I want to spend as much time doing the things I enjoy and spending time with the great people in my life. All being well I will die of a heart attack aged 80 pushing my pacemaker too hard up over Spelga on a Sunday afternoon. I don't wish to be the unexpected.

If a particular driver had been going a little slower, I may have had a chance to get to know my father.

Ulster 100 TT Championships

DUCT TAPE!

Sunday the 14th of September saw the running of the anual Ulster 100 mile TT Championships, once again hosted by the Ballymoney cycling club. 

28 Riders descended on the woodgreen course on a calm and sunny September morning. Setting off in good time with Glenn on route to Antrim progress was slowed due to multiple road closures which took the mind of any hint of nerves before the event as we sped through the maze of backroads and farm tracks around glenavey.

Last to sign on as is now somewhat of a tradition would see me take number 28, I was well out of the way of any of the other favourites for the event which was fine I always planned to concentrate on my own effort and I would be out of the way of any distractions of other peoples pacing.

On chatting to a few of the pre race favourites as they got ready to set off Glenn had noticed a number of them had duct taped round the numbers to make them a little more aero, he told me I should do that and if I didn't I would be annoyed if I lost out by a few seconds. 

My start was controlled and I settled into the effort quickly. I made good progress through other riders and had passed a few by the First 10 mile mark which was somewhere in the low 21's.

The 100 is a pretty straight forward affair,If ur not thirsty drink, If you don't need a gell have one, If you feel your going too hard you probably are. 

When I neared the end of my first bottle I realised the change might not be so straight forward. I had removed the bar tape from the side bars, my sweaty palms on smooth carbon was a recipe for disaster! Approaching Glenn on the hill I nervously gripped the slick side bar as tight as I could as I snatched a bottle from him, success panic over for an hour until the ordeal would have to be repeated! 

With the bottle Glenn had attached a zipvit gel to the payload. I squeezed the gloupy muck into my mouth and then spent 30mins trying to suppress the urge to be sick...

At 70 miles we scheduled another reloading of ammunition and provisions, I told Glenn under no circumstances give me the second zipvit gel even the sight of it would cause a projectile vomit reflex! 

On the run in to the feedzone i reached down my arm practicaly seized from holding the aero position for so long dispatched with 

an empty bottle where my car was parked, just as I threw the bottle a spectator walked over the verge, time slowed down briefly as I willed the airborne bottle to not hit them! My telepathic powers were useless and the bottle hit them square on! I later found the pperson I had hit and apologized. 

I picked up my rations for the final hour and the run for home, the time trial was now reaching the business end of things. I picked up Christie on the opposite side of the carriage way and matched his pace with my lift in effort. I was feeling good and was able to squeeze gently on the throttle a little more with each mile ticked off.

Glenn was screaming on encouragement it was a good lift and I responded with more speed. With just 10 miles to go I was flying the last 5 miles passed quickly and I finished super strong.

Looking at my time I was pleased I couldn't recall the record but I knew I was close to it and no matter What I could be happy with How everything went. 

We got back to the race HQ news filtering in that Marcus had won with a new Irish records ride, this was always expected from the Commonwealth games man. My time was good enough for the Ulster silver and 3rd by a single second to visiting rider Bryan McCrystal. Wow one second over 100 miles yep should have put some duct tape on the number Glenn and I joked! 

Funny some might get a complex over a second I'm looking at it more as the 20 mins I've improved to give Bryan a run for his money. For those not in the cycling know Bryan is one of the strongest domestic riders in Ireland hes had some high profile wins and beat a large number of pros including Dan Martin at this years national champs.

That's it season over. 2x Ulster Champion and medals in the 10 and 100 with 7th in the National champs. Yep I made up for not a single TT Ulster medal last year and then some: ).

Ulster 100 mile TT data http://connect.garmin.com/activity/590353158 well done Marcus Christie who set a new all time 100 TT record today, no shame taking the ulster silver medal to that. Bryan McCrystal coming up to do another great ride also glad he doesn't count in the Ulster results loosing the silver by a second would have been hard to take!to be 1 second slower than Bryan I can sleep ok with that. John Madden a great ride also setting a new vets record. Well done everyone that took part.Great job by Ballymoney Cycling Club, and Gordon Parker and wife. Special thanks to Glenn Dunwoody who helped me get a result today.

Results

Split Times

Photos

Totally rung out at the finish, lifting the pace considerably for the final hour took its toll!

Some pre time trial banter with Joe!

Glen hooked his garmin up to my power meter etc so he was able to see how I was doing through the ride. I wondered how he knew exactly the right time to shout encouragement from the car! Pretty impressive how far the ANT+ signal from the power meter actually travels. 

Pushing hard over the finish line

Ulster 25 TT Championships

Ulster 25 TT Championships

Today Bann Valley hosted the Ulster 25 mile time trial championships on their club 25 course. A few weeks back when I heard a little more about the course I wasn't so excited. The course runs through a small town on the outward leg and passes back through on the return leg. The gradient of the hill into and out of the town were of some concern, not so much for how hard it would be to pedal up but the speeds we get up to going down, and the possibility of run-ins with vehicles.

When signing on I asked what the score was with marshalling in Kilrea. You need to have a little idea if traffic is going to be warned of cyclists. When we are pushing hard we get these bikes up to 50mph at times, cars don't expect bikes to be going this sort of rate, so you have to be extra careful when going through towns, but in a race situation all your thinking about is going as fast as possible 'win it or bin it' attitude, and all common sense left back at home!

The Competition

The field unfortunately didn't look to be as strong as it has in the past couple of years. With no John Heverin or Madden, among others for me I felt it would be a two horse race between myself and Daniel Stewart. Daniel was last years 25 Champion, which he won with a much stronger field than we had today, and was good to see him there to defend his title.

There was another race to be won within the race and that was for the team prize. The team prize consists of the aggregate times of your three fastest riders. Six clubs featured in for this, Orchard for the first time. Richard Timmins who has improved steadily all year and was always going to go under the hour, Neil Stratton and Matthew Killops neither of which had done a 25 TT stepped up to try and get the club into the prizes. I felt we had a good chance but knew it would be fairly close for the top 3 places.

A lack of course Knowledge

I didn't ride or drive the course before hand so got a quick brief from a rider that had. Not ideal but it was better than not knowing anything even if I hadn't felt my way around the road on the bike before. Other riders again very good at informing of any little bits to watch out for.

I had a bit of a cold at the beginning of the week so hadn't been on the bike so much.I got a spin out at Dromara 16 mile TT on Thursday and had surprisingly good legs so thought they would go quite well today. Unfortunately they weren't quite on song. I had a pacing strategy that was pretty conservative by what I've been capable of doing in the last number of weeks, but it would certainly give me a chance if I could stick to it.

Wind in the sails

We had a nice tail wind for the outward leg and the bike was shifting along well. My heart rate was reading high for the effort I was putting out, this was a little concerning, but I ignored it and stuck to the plan.

Kilrea Part 1 

Heading into Kilrea for the first time I was met with a tough climb, a motorhome and car nipped past me just before I got to the first roundabout. The next roundabout was busy but well marshalled. Unfortunately my motorhome driver wasn't in the same kind of hurry that I was and rolled down the hill at about 25mph (I wanted to be doing 40!) as soon as he hit the national speed limit sign he floored it, I sprinted to try and get some sort of draft to give me back what he cost me but I think I ended up just putting an unnecessary effort into the legs that I would pay for later on, he sped off. The whole affair didn't cost me much perhaps 2 or 3 seconds so I got over it pretty quick and got back down to business.

From there on things were fairly un-eventful, traffic wasn't too bad, the road surface was good and any riders I came upon didn't have cars behind them which can cause issues with overtaking etc.

Homeward bound

The halfway point was a nice wide dead turn in the road, again well marshalled. Somehow I still managed to nearly cycle into the verge trying to take a faster wide arc turn. As soon as I settled back into the saddle and attempted to get to work on the 12.5 miles still to go. I was struggling to push the gear I had planned to, it was beginning to frustrate me. I had an idea in my head what sort of power I would need to do to win and I wasn't hitting the numbers. You start trying to alter your cadence to shift some lactic, but still keep the power up. A sticky gel provided some sort of band aid to affairs in hope it might give a little energy boost later on. 4 miles down the road and all the gel had done for me was leave a horrible aftertaste in my sahara dry mouth. I generally elect not to carry a water bottle on a 25 these days as its not really worth it for just a sip here and there. You tell yourself its faster not to carry one aerodynamically, but at times today in the hot humid conditions I'd have traded my bike for a quick thirst quenching sip of something,  anything! washing the sticky out of date tasting cola aftermath of the gel out of my mouth alone would have been heaven!

Kilrea Part 2

Heading back into Kilrea I had a nice clear run at the sharp hill which was good as I got about halfway up before I had to throw it into the wee ring and get out of the saddle! I was taking up the full of the road and if any vehicles were behind me they weren't getting past until I got out of the town, I wanted a nice fast run out which I got.

Finish

The last 5 miles were pretty flat on a nice surface, I was able to lift the effort a little but nowhere near where I had planned to be, but kept it steady and the form good. I crossed the line in 54.08 by my clock. I didn't think it would be enough.

Maybe not a two horse race!

I rolled back to the carpark. Obviously not knowing how anyone else has done at this point as is the nature of time trialing. I was informed Stephen Colbert had done a time in the 54's also. I had actually missed Stephens name when I glanced over the sign on list. News was filtering in Daniel had also done a low 54, so it looked like it was going to be fairly close between the three of us.

When the results were checked over I had managed to go quickest by a whisker with a 54.09, Stephen with 54.14, and Daniel with 54.15. There is every chance they might have had some traffic issues of their own, I hope not as nobody likes to win due to misfortune.

The rest of the Orchard lads rolled in and times were encouraging, we might have done well in the team competition. When all was counted up we managed to get the silver medals with Phoenix first, we weren't too far away from the gold medals and an encouraging result given Phoneix boasts a member roster around ten times that of our own!

Some More results from the day, well done to all the 2014 champions. (will update when the official results are posted)

• Darrell Erwin - 1st Handcycle
• Eileen Burns - 1st Lady
• Des Woods - 1st Vet Mens
• Diarmuid Logan - 1st Junior
• Laura Maxwell - 1st Junior Lady
• Phoenix - 1st team

Many thanks to Bann Valley who hosted a very good championships and made the course as safe as possible for all competing today. Thanks to Time keepers, photographers and other helpers involved much appreciated.

Great report and photographs by Bronagh Kirk:

http://www.bronaghkirk.co.uk/news/ulster-25-mile-time-trial-championship/

Garmin Data for the ride was:
Average Power: 342
Normalized: 344
Avg Heart Rate: 161
Avg Speed: 27.7mph
Distance: 25miles

Full details:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/544900717

Matthew Killops, Richard Timmins, Myself, Neil Stratton

Great photo by Bronagh Kirk

Orchard Express

Stephen Colbert, Myself, Daniel Stewart

Ulster TT Medal at last

Ulster 50 mile TT Championship

It was an early start to get down to the Woodgreen velodrome. Signed on as per usual pretty much last, I was down in good time and set the bike up on the turbo, and then went for a dander about and had a bit of banter with various people about the paddock. Great to see Bran McKinney out again, without his injury issues he would have been a contender today. 

Where does the time go?

I looked at my clock and it read 9:10am where does the time go I'm off in 15 minutes!! I ripped the skinsuit on and pulled the bike off the turbo trainer and threw the disc wheel on, a warmup wasn't going to happen in the short time frame I had to eat my now customary snickers feast and load up with enough fluid to see me through 2 hours in the July heat.

I made my way down to the starting point throwing in a couple of sprints to try and shock my legs into life! before I knew it I was on the start line with Gordon counting me down from 30 seconds! 

And I'm off!

I usually know within the first minute or so if I have good legs or not, BAD LEGS! Its going to be a long day I thought to myself! I'm looking down at my power and thinking thank god its not a 10, I'd be last! My heart rate wasn't reacting at all I was throwing out 350 watts and it was sitting at a leisurely 130BPM! is 3 minutes into a 50 too soon to deploy a caffeine gel I thought to myself, that might get the cardio vascular system activated...

The first twenty miles where a real struggle couldn't get my heart rate up at all, I settled into a 330w average, for the legs it was a real struggle but I was hardly out of breath I could have held a conversation with someone next to me, for some reason my heart and lungs didn't want to play ball, the legs where doing everything and had to be consciously turned round. With myself not just firing on all cylinders I concentrated on making everything else good, i.e my pacing and my position on the bike. I never looked to the other side of the road I just concentrated everything on myself and the effort that I was putting out.

Time for your Rations

We only have one bottle cage on the TT bikes so your running with a 700ml bottle and a few gels and those have to be duly rationed out over the portion of the course. I choose to have mine during the trips around the roundabouts it stops me forgetting which is easy to do when your so concentrated on turning the legs with some sort of rhythm.

My milage clock now read 15 miles to go the wind had picked up and the course started to feel slow. Thankfully my heart rate and lungs were working a little better and I started to find everything a little less of a struggle. I was able to open the taps a bit more, but still being careful not to get too carried away. 

The last 10 miles I really started to push on and was able to lift the pace more and more as I got towards the finish! 3 miles to go and I let the flood gates open and the legs started to respond nicely! The finish line sits at the top of a short drag, which is absolutely brutal after you have been hammering it for 50 miles, you have no choice but to empty yourself up it as every second counts in this game!

The scores are on the board

By the time I had done a short cool down and made my way back to see how my time stacked up against everyone else, John Heverin was just finishing he also gave all on the last hill and looked to finish very strong. 

Colm Cassidy had made the long trip up to do the event, as he isn't from Ulster he wasn't eligible for the championship so I knew it would be John Heverin, John Madden and myself shooting it out for the top spots. 

47.44 2014 Ulster TT Champion

Maurice gave me a pat on the back indicating I had the fastest time of the Ulster men with 47.44.  The two Johns not very far off my time and were both very quick to congratulate me, not only great testers but great sports. The bar his been set high by those two and if you take a look back through time trialing in Ulster over the last number of years those are two names you will see most of the time occupying the top spots. To get the best out of ourselves it takes having great competition and they certainly bring that in droves.

Colm Cassidy Posted the fastest time of the day, given he was 4 seconds off winning the Elite National Championships the other week was great to have him along, conditions a bit tougher today than last year and I'm sure on a better day he would have pushed the all time record for 50 miles set last year pretty close, well done Colm great effort.

Well done to John Madden also who picks up the Vets prize, Eileen Burns who won the women's prize and Ballymoney who won the Team Prize.

Some Photos by Alicja Černák Thanks

John Madden, Myself, Colm Cassidy, John Heverin

Some Photos by Josh Murray

Thanks Marryland Wheelers

Great event run by Maryland Wheelers, the marshalling at the roundabouts was brilliant so thank you to those that stood out this morning to keep us safe. As always great time keeping by Gordon Parker and thanks to all others that were involved.

For the data junkies here are the stats:

Click to view full data on Garmin Connect

Distance: 50 Miles
Average speed: 27.8mph
Average Heart Rate: 151 BPM (Low even by my standards!)
Average Power: 329W

Irish National TT Champs 2014

National TT Champs 2014

The morning started with making the bike UCI compliant, I tried to re-create the UCI jig and came to the conclusion the bars were 60mm too long so it was out with the saw to shorten them. The saddle looked to be ok for the 50mm behind the bottom bracket so that stayed as was. I got down in good time for once and into sign on where I was faced with the dreaded jig.. rolled the bike over to it and handed it to the guys in blue shirts. I was stood over at the wall and measured for height and was 5mm off the 190cm mark which would have allowed a further 50mm of front bar length! The bike passed the check and I could have had an extra 10mm of bar, so I cut a little too much off (or else their jig was wrong I'm actually thinking it was the latter as they were not too fussy about the centre of the bottom bracket point?). I asked was a flashing rear light required they said no but I elected to keep this on., with the very poor visibility it seamed like a good idea, I wasn't too concerned about the few seconds that might be saved by taking it off.

My cut TT bars to make the bike legal/dangerous

It was back out into the lashing rain and off to drive the course to get some sort of feel for it. I noted a few of the more technical areas of the course.

I waited until around 40 minutes before my start time then I pulled out the bike and got onto the turbo. I knew instantly the shorter bar length was going to be an issue I simply hadn't anything to grip the shifters were now what I was holding and when in anything toward the bottom of the cassette I had nothing in the right hand but a fist full of air.


I reported to the start hut 10 minutes prior to launch time where again the bike was re-checked to make sure it was still legal, which it was. I had a fairly early start time with the familiar club colours of a Newry wheeler in front of me. Behind me was another Ulster rider Mike Millar who looked to have had even a bigger nightmare with bike set-up than me, he was essentially left with no breaks (I think due to some 10cm rule of components having to fall between) and a bike that had the turning circle of a bus, due to how he had to move the bars to be within the parameters of the rules.

Mike and I discussing how we are going to ride our UCI legal bikes

Enjoying the Irish weather

7:39:00 And I'm Off!

I set off well and made the catch of my minute man around the 5 mile mark, pushed through deploying a gel as I came out of the first roundabout. We both took it pretty slow taking no chances in the wet. legs were feeling fine but I was struggling with the new position if I moved the hands back to get a better grip my knees where hitting my elbows, and forward to a more powerful position I was essentially holding bugger all and had little control of the bike.

Setting off on my first national TT

Pushing back towards the starting village I was coming across a fair bit of traffic, slower riders with support vehicles in my way and it was an issue on a couple of occasions the cars not moving or pulling over in good time.

Trying to stay relaxed

Coming back through the start village after passing 5 or so other riders I was a bit cautious and knocked the speed back maybe too much to safely negotiate a roundabout, visibility was pretty poor at this point as the visor was heavily steamed up which meant I had to stick the head up into the wind a little too much.

Back through the Vilage

I had good pace up the big drag which led into a very fast downhill to a dead stop turn in the middle of the road. A 55 chainring was missing from my setup with the fast down hill sections i was struggling for enough gears when the pace was up. into the dead turn and back up the climb which was being treated as a finish line almost as the run back into the finish line and start village was only a few miles off the top.

Over the top of the climb I pushed hard onto the finish and put out 390 for the final 6mins of the time trial the finish came about a mile too soon as I was expecting a 23 mile course it worked out a little more like 22. Finishing with an average of around 360 watts. I had targeted around 370 but the new position cost me the most of this and also some of the technical aspects of the course to a certain extent where I took it a little easier to not bin the bike with the wet roads.

Sean Rowe capturing me race towards the finish line

Finished!

After I finished I popped into the registration hall where a TV monitor was setup with timings. I was top of the board effectively the leader for now which was quite cool. My score weathered the next number of riders well and then the big guns started to roll though and I started to slip down the pecking order!

Leader for now!

When all the chips were down and results in I wasn't far away from some pretty good riders. I think if I hadn't have had to saw the bars the extra 10 watts over the duration probably would have seen me dip into the 46's, but I know that's there and I am sure I will tap into those reserves at another event.

Final Results Top 15

All in all it was a positive experience lots to take away from it and not bad for a cyclist that started out 2014 as an A3 rider.

Final word of thanks to the Lake side wheelers who had the course well marshalled and put on a great event. Plenty of people out giving encouragement which was cool. The electronic chip timing was also a great job. And also mum who came along to give support and capture a few photos.

The Official Results:

In grey are those that are Under 23 and don't form part of the senior results but a time trials is a time trial so for me I was 10th and not 7th. Riders that I have underlined are full time athletes.

Ryan Mullen (An Post-Chainreaction) 44:09

Michael Hutchinson (InGear) 44:55

Colm Cassidy (UCD CC) 44:59

Martyn Irvine (Unitedhealthcare) 45:09

Matt Brammeier (Synergy Baku) 46:11

Ian Richardson (UCD CC) 46:46

Sean Hahessy (Carrick Iverk Produce) 46:53

Daniel Stewart (East Antrim Audi) 47:10

Connor McConvey (Synergy Baku) 47:16

Sean McIntyre (Orchard CC) 47:30

Felix English (Rapha Condor) 47:31

Conor McIlwaine (Terra Footwear) 48:05

Colm Quinn (Cuchulainn CC) 48:45

Neill Delahaye (DID Dunboyne) 48:47

Dylan Foley (Aquablue) 48:52