Big Al

Ok time for a long and rambling report to bore you all, you have been warned
 
Didnt start off great as i was away warming up (in sight of the start line so i could watch for riders lining up) however i didnt realise the race briefing and gridding had started elsewhere so i was late and almost missed the rollcall. Got a bit better after the start - first half of the race  i felt comfortable, some of the riding was chaotic because the bunch was big and the roads were wide followed by a couple of pinch points - particularly going into the pedestrianised section which then turned into a steep cobbled climb, which surprisingly i seemed to go up pretty well. There was a good atmosphere here as there were a crowd of Dutch tourists sitting having a beer at the top and cheering everyone on, Stirlings very own 'Dutch Corner'. About half way through the race there was a crash - going round a corner into a descent a rider lost control and went into a verge / wall and bounced back out with his bike flying across and taking someone else out - had to slam the brakes on, coming to a standstill along with half the field but fortunately avoided the deck. This however caused a split, 11 riders in front and drilling it because they had the gap. Knew i had to close the gap so went hard from here but no-one came with me about 2 laps to get back on but i was the only one that managed to do so and once back found the smaller group more relaxing and safe. Anyway onto the last lap, wanted to be towards the front for the final climb, so moved up just after the bell and found myself with 3 others off the front with a small gap, they eased off presumably wanting to save themselves for the sprint so i attacked. It only lasted about 90 seconds but it felt much longer! The winner caught me at the top of the final climb, then down onto the final straight for the sprint i tried to get on the guys wheel but nothing left and was going backwards at this point - after that another 2 riders caught me with about 5 metres to go. Which made for a hugely deflating crossing of the line. At least i managed to hold off the rest of the group - if the 3 that should have committed when we had the chance had caught me i'd have been wanting to jump off the castle wall
Anyway great event overall, Over 300 racing from under 8s to elites. I'm not sure of the results but from what i watched the Jets were doing good. I missed the elite womens race but hopefully you managed to get your gears working ok Emma!
 

Breaking news: Iain takes fourth place and cat three status in Stirling!
 
Full details to follow. 
 

Cool, dry conditions with a bit of a breeze that didn't really bite until the last 5 miles, then it bit hard. Miles 15 to 20 were fun with that breeze behind and a downhill slope, but after the turn was going to hurt. Managed a 1:05:43, nearly three minutes up on last week, so that's positive, but I'm still slower than last year. Next one in the calendar for me is St. Christopher's at the end of August.

Very confusing course hard wind on last 4 miles reduced me to a crawl then decided to have a goldfish moment and went round roundabout three times not that it would have mattered not close to PB but slowly going right direction

Weather was truly horrible, couldn't stop shaking at the end of the race and even at race HQ, thought I was going to have to get chung to wrap his small frame round me for some body heat I was that cold. But apart from that it was pretty good. I had heard there was probably going to be a break and true enough there was, very early on, I thought I'd missed my chance as they'd opened up a bit of a gap but decided to go for it, no one came with me and I made it across thanks to a strong tail wind. There was now 10/11 of us with a couple not working but the pace set by the nightingale and ivy boys was fast and we soon shelled the drafters. I started to really feel the pace the 2nd time we did the dam climb and by this point hands and feet were totally numb, I started doing some drafting of my own and luckily managed to recover for the sprint which I had decided to go for alot earlier with the idea of getting better than 7th, I managed 3rd and happy with that, must say it was a very well organised event and great circuit, cheers to charlie and Iain for the jwcc road side support and to chung for the in car support and well done Colin and Paul on a tough night, oh and Cheers for reading. 😉

Entering is easy, you have to turn up as well!

Start sheet

Got a start. Chuffed with that. Here's hoping the weather improves.

Hope to ride and hope to finish

Things didnt start off great tonight  - While rushing to clip in at the start i somehow clipped into the wrong side of the pedal then had difficulty getting my foot back out. By the time i got going properly i was way off the back, it was windy too with a headwind on back of the circuit so took the best part of 10 minutes to rejoin the lead bunch. After that i just followed wheels for the rest of the race, last lap moved up but got pushed wide as the sprint opened up coming out the last corner so had to brake (and as Cipo said "if you brake you don't win")....managed to make up some lost ground and (i think) i was 6th again.
 
Anyway that was the last in the series, just when most riders have finally got the hang of riding the circuit. Some areas down south have racing weekly (even twice weekly in the summer)  all year on purpose built circuits and it's definitely something we are missing out on up here. Hopefully the Linwood plans go ahead because it would help rider development so much IMO. Plus from a selfish point of view it would be so much easier to get to than Edinburgh!

And so the report
Not been showing any form this year so decided to try some bicarbonate of soda , so got up early 0645 mixed .3g per Kg of body weight mixed with water and some orange for taste
All went well had breakfast and started drinking my pre race drink , looked out the window saw the rain and decided to do my warm up in the house started the BC 20 min warm up and into the first five minutes had to dash to the toilet
Yes my bicarbonate was having a reaction, twenty minutes latter got out of the toilet and drove to the start.
Sign in went well then started to ride to the start dropped my chain which managed to get jammed another five minutes got to the starter to say 15 seconds flung my jacket off at 5 seconds to go.
The weather was fairly wet but the way out was fantastic tail wind I was feeling great, went through what I thought was a puddle which turned out to be a whole something made a hellish noise thought it was my tub slowed down waiting for it to loose air, but no bike was a bit different but kept going.
Got to the turn and started coming back up to woodhall still feeling good wasn't dropping much speed on to the next section much harder now head wind but still ok last roundabout time to really push .
Put a bit more effort into my legs and bang crank falls off nearly crash the bike managed to stop and walk back find my crank and finish one legged . It would have been a low 19 honest George is claiming a victory but surely mechanicals are an exception

You were the fastest man pedalling with one leg

Hi All,
 
Some of you might know that I had planned on doing the Paris-Roubaix Challenge again this year, since I "enjoyed" it so much last year & thought I must go back to put myself through this again. So, I thought I would write a wee report on my trip with my friend Stevie from the Velo.
 
The travelling schedule was bikes on cars with everyone travelling to Hull on Thursday for a over night ferry crossing arriving Friday morning in Zeebrugga.
This time, without the police chasing us, we had time to spare before our journey to Lille, a short drive to Oudenaarde to visit the "Flanders Museum" & have lunch/beer under the gaze of Merckx & Martens etc.
We even manage to get the bikes out & cycled 3 of the iconic climbs of the Tour of Flanders - Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg & the Koppenberg. It was a fantastic wee detour!
 
Driving through even a small part of Belgium, I could not help but enjoy/admire this beautiful country. All the houses seems to be well designed & looked after, the roads are clean & the people are so relaxed & friendly. It'll be a place that I would love to go back to with my family for sure!
 
Now, its a well known fact that movie sequels are always s**ter than the original one. Well, in my Paris Roubaix Part 2, it was definitely the case in terms of the weather
 
The extremely early coach trip to the start village of Busigny was never very pleasant, but to be met by weather of rain & strong wind just about made me want to jump back onto the coach again (especially as I decided NOT to pack a rain jacket, I comforted myself by seeing a LOT of riders making the same mistake)
We arrived fairly early which meant it was very busy, so we held back a bit before starting so that the roads won't be busy especially going into the Pave sectour, it's bad enough when it was dry but the wet stones was going to be a different ball game altogether. Having ridden it last year, I kind of knew what was coming (the others had the previous day experience of the Flander climbs too) but on the wet .............. it'll be "tricky"!
 
On the run in to the first Pave sectour, there was a lot of puncture compare to last years both on/off the road and this would be the trend through out the day. (I had a total blow out on my tubs too, but thankfully I got it fixed & resumed my ride)
 
The wet Pave is like riding on "lumpy ice" (not that I've done it before), it's just a very, very un-pleasent & a SCARY experience for me, I was slipping & sliding every where, traction was poor - definitely a new one for me. It kind of brings back some of the awful feeling I had from last year. But I manage to stay calm/focus and just took things as it comes & stay positive. There was quite a few folks crashing onto the verge of the sectors & face planting the fields & ditches, bloody awful!
 
This was a long ride, and no doubt you'll go through mixed emotions & you have good/bad times. For me, I just had to stay positive & get on with it. But those thousands of horrible stones will do it's very best to smash your wheels/bike & your body/sanity.
All around me, I saw cyclist loosing the plot as emotionally/physically, they were pushed/forced over the edge. Some were standing on the side looking lost & destroyed, but at the same time you have normal residents going about their business - it was a very surreal image indeed!
I saw on one section of the Pave - a cyclist in front of me crashed into the verge & got up, picked up his bike & flung it onto the field with disgust before kicking this fallen bottles like he was dribbling a football - bizarre (luckily I saw the same cyclist at the finish looking a lot "normal") It certainly drives people insane!
 
Luckily as the route went on, the weather got a bit better & dryer which mean some of the Pave sectors were dry at least but the Arenberg was a totally nightmare, it was wet & it was very very greasy, not to mention the famous huge stones & bigger gaps which makes it legendary. 100m in and an ambulance crew was tending to a guy that had fallen and broken his leg. Then a pile up just behind me with a Velo also going down, which meant we had to stop to check (which was very tricky indeed) to see if he was ok, luckily he was but getting going again was almost impossible.
 
Seeing how this stretch really was un-ridable, cyclist started to mount the pavement on the right hand side, a few followed & got through but the event stewarts saw this & immediately pulled the ropes back up to prevent more folks from doing that (they were only doing their job I suppose :-)) bloody murderers!
I have no idea how I manage to stay rubber side down, but thankfully I did & manage to finished the Arenberg unscathed!
 
After that, It all kind of gotten into a routine for me - road, eat, drink, Pave, road, eat, drink, Pave ......... so on..... and before I know it, we were almost into Roubaix, and by now it was sunny :-) Just the easy ride through the suburb traffic & into the Velodrome fro the final finish.
 
This year, for me it was less emotional but still just as enjoyable even though the weather was not favourable at all - what with the rain & strong head/cross wind, it certainly made the pave sections a lot harder & more demanding to ride on for sure!
 
Anyway, job done & collected my medal, but still a 15km ride back to Lille as we had to cycle into Roubaix on the morning.
 
So, this is my sequel ..................... one faces a dilemma .......... should I make another one - part 3 ............. :-) anyone for next year then?
 
Thanks for reading
 
Cheers
 
Chung

Great evening. Jane did a fantastic job organising it all.
 
Big Al earned his nomination for the Hamoc award for next year.

Ahhh, ok, so it's tonight then, whoops. Em, ok, paid the money in today, new shoes bought, hope you had fun!

Could I get 2 adults please Jane

Good turnout of wheelers and jets tonight.
 
First up in the Bs was a 60 lap points, about a quarter of the way through i swung up after my half lap turn and realised i was off the front. Upped the pace a little and pushed on but i only maintained the gap so i suspect i was being hung out to dry! At least managed to get one of the sprints before being caught. Sit in to recover for a bit then follow an attack and find myself off the front again. D'oh! We worked together but i was suffering big time and we get caught and i can only roll round rather than contest the final sprint. Next was a 30 lap scratch, hardly did any work at all just followed wheels then attacked with 1.5 to go Danny zooms past on the back straight and i expected a couple of others to follow but we had a gap so managed to hold on for 2nd. Tried the same tactic in the last race but it didnt work this time was poorly positioned when the pace picked up and had too much to do.

Eventful night in the Bs, first up 60 lap points, didnt contest the first 3 sprints but after the 4th a rider went off the front and i was waiting until he got a decent distance so i could then try and bridge. However left it too long and couldnt bridge, he managed to get the lap and i was dangling in no mans land for about 15 laps. I won one of the sprints by default  but by that stage my legs were gone. Next up 30 lap scratch, feeling good until my front wheel was clipped when someone swung down into a gap that wasnt there.I landed on my head then my face but helmet done its job, some track burns down the side of my leg and a banged elbow. Bit stingy in the shower and will no doubt be a bit sore tomorrow but hopefully be ok for Bute at the weekend. Never nice to crash but could have been worse - judging by the marks and scratches on them my sunglasses kept my cheekbone and bridge of my nose off the track!

Good luck Al . Hope the triathlon went well today. All that training on your mountain bike with the skipping gears on the cycle path must have helped!

good luck

Good luck al

Good luck Al! Wishing you the best!
Andy

All the best for the future Al - hope to see you at TTs and the velodrome.
 
Iain

Good luck Al.

All the best Big man....