PaulL

Lots of photos here:
 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/caitlinroberts/sets/72157653709175691/with/18082925199/
 
Well done, guys!

Cheers for the tow today guys. Legs feeling okay, but the constant bending is a right pain. Had a good run up the coast with Dez after bailing at Kilcreggan. Lovely day for it and hope to be back to normal in a couple of more weeks.

Or grow another few inches and buy mine

Guys hopefully meet up on the day

Well done riders tonight, Blowy but dry. Great show from Mike who rode fixed gear tonight due to a mechanical.  
 
 
Iain Couttie - 17.40 
George - 17.54 
Billy - 18.23
Mike - 18.31 
 
 
Iain, George and Mike paid and backdated payment for George and AlanT - £15 given to Iain C
 
Cheers
 
Paul

I will take a look on my lunch break and post here around 2.30 pm
 
P

Bumblebee! It was the spawn of Beelzebub...attached itself to my arm It was me or it! Top skills from Al saving his skin and mine too. Al's face as I launched my unprovoked attack will live me for a long time. Great Run, brilliant company. Apologies for nearly killing us all!

It was indeed a fantastic day on the bike with my fellow Wheelers! It felt like ages since the last time I pedalled under pure sunny weather, and today's weather was just what makes it great to be out on the bike!
 
A good bunch of 8 - Big Al Yullie, Iain Couttie, Iain Ginty, Iain67, Paul C, Paul Levy & myself set off from the bridge heading Northwards to Aberfoyle. The view from the top of the Crow was fab :-) which made the climb that bit more bearable.
Through-out the route we encountered lots of cyclist, some in small groups & quite a few large bunches too, but they all seems to be heading the opposite of where we were heading, strange!
 
A welcome lunch stop in Aberfoyle was very much appreciated by all (especially me of course) Al's offer to do the Duke's Pass after was wisely declined as we still had a bit to go before home.
 
Pretty incident free & no mechanicals to report EXCEPT for Big Al being punched in the face while we were pedalling along, by our very own PaulL (maybe Al's earlier Dukes Pass suggestion had peeved him off :-)) causing him to clip the pavement and acrobatically doing a perfect 10 landing off the bike and running up the grass verge. Looking from the back seems like Al had enough of cycling and just jumped off the bike for a run instead, it was actually quite funny :-) Thankfully no damage done to man & bike. Paul was very apologetic afterwards but I suppose he did something we ALL wanted to do for a long time :-) (Only kidding Al)
Apparently a big friendly gentle bumble bee was getting a bit to friendly with Paul, so he decided to give it a good whack but Al got in the way :-)
 
Thanks again for the wheels to follow gents, it was a pleasure to be in the bunch today! 156km clocked by the time I got home, totally goosed but felt great to have gone out!
 
More of the same weather again please in weeks & months to come for sure.
 
P.S Paul, I'll try to upload the photo later if I can get it to work.
 
Cheers
 
Chung

Great day out . I wasn't even talking when Paul clocked me !

I'm up for this Ken, see you there.
 
Cheers,
Chris.

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!

Ha ha have seen a couple of runs on strava and wondered what was going on (training camp on other side of the world!!) don't have power meter but sounds like fun 😉

Unfortunately not the most convenient of times starting @ 3.30 pm on a Tuesday however the support race for the tour series in Motherwell on  26 May is open for entry
 
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/131839/Pearl-Izumi-Tour-Series-Support-Events#entry
 
Have entered but not sure if i will be able to make it until on the day.
 
 
The main race (and the other rounds in the series) will be on itv4, this is the tv schedule

Friday 15 May Ryde, Isle of Wight – ITV4, 8pm
Wednesday 20 May Redditch – ITV4, 8pm
Monday 25 May Aberystwyth – ITV4, 9pm
Wednesday 27 May Motherwell – ITV4, 10.15pm
Friday 29 May Durham – ITV4, 9pm
Sunday 31 May Barrow – ITV4, 9pm
Wednesday 3 June Croydon – ITV4, 10pm
Friday 5 June Canary Wharf – ITV4, 10pm
Wednesday 10 June Peterborough – ITV4, 8pm
Friday 12 June Bath – ITV4, 8pm

I've entered 😉 . Going to give a crit a go

Week 3: After last weeks bombscare the riding was much better tonight. Made a harder effort to stay out of trouble, so that meant more riding at the front, although a couple of lapses in concentration had me at the back too as usual. Felt reasonable throughout and with 3 laps to go found myself on the front and ended up leading the bunch for a lap. Not ideal with a strong headwind on the back straight but i wasnt exactly going hard more just waiting for an attack which someone went for with 2 to go, i followed and aftera bit looked back to see what was happening and we had a gap of maybe 10 metres...&*%$ going to have to commit to this now, but i committed a bit much and over cooked the 180 degree corner and went onto the grass (i guess that makes me the chopper this week!), eventually get on to the guys wheel again and another couple of riders have come across, we still have a gap i come to the front to try and drive the pace but no-one else comes through and we get caught and swamped with half lap to go, recover a bit then sprint, probably about 12 back at this point, manage to make up a few places in the sprint to finish 6th or 7th. 
 
Anyway really enjoyed tonight, all the bad stuff from last week is forgotten!

I've already sorted arrangements and will meet you all there too. Any thoughts on accommodation yet? Heard there's a couple of reasonable places in Park Lane but thought I should check before making any group booking.

Race report = another great race on a testing and at time paris roubaix circuit with the bomb track roads. After a very tired couple of weeks after LBL I thought only way to get back into racing is to get back into racing. Was happy just to hang on to the end in the lead group as things got a bit grippy on last couple of laps. Chapeau to Alan and Colin who finished in the lead bunch. And Charlie who hung in weel into the final. Results so far listed below
1 Douglas Watson
2 Greg O'Malley
3 Simon Woodliff
4 Richie Provan
5 Stevie Robertson
6 Stuart MacGregor
7 James McPake
8 Alan McBride
9 Barry Crumlish
10 Willie Turner
11 Chris Stewart
12 Paul McDonald
13 Kallen Kerr
14 Ngale ?
15 Grieg Brown
16 GJS Racing ?
17 Colin McPhee
18 Scott Newman
19 Drew Clark
20 Ngale ?
 

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

Week 2: Physically felt much more comfortable this week - i was in the lead group to the finish,  but despite that my overall placing will be worse than last week. Was feeling good, moving up on the last lap but was forced on to the grass with about half a lap to go and lost ground which i couldnt make up in time for the sprint and too many people to get past to get in the points.
 
I've raced alot in the last 2 or 3 years - mostly track league but also a fair number of crits now and some road races - and tonight was the worst riding ive  experienced over that time. Throughout  there were lots of bumps and guys not holding their line, diving up the inside of the corners then drifting all over the place. Was just sheer luck that there were no crashes.
 
Of course moaning about crappy riding probably just sounds like an excuse for not doing better in the sprint

Lovely weather here! 23 - 26 C with clear blue sky. Some steep climbs here that are murder in the heat! Rented a Corratec CCT Carbon for 3 days - very nice bike.

I can't get my scuba attachment to work, and I don't have the right pedals for my flippers. Turbo for me.

Blowing a hooley in WK

Iain C requested I let you know how things went.
 
Op done. Very sore, but the painkillers are magic!
 
The six weeks off a bike are reduced to at least two and I've to judge by my body's reaction to cycling. If the body says ouch! I've to stop.
 
Fingers crossed I'll be out for some easy solo rides in two weeks or so and maybe jump in with the inter group to see how I cope in a Bunch. Summer ain't looking so bad after all.
 
Enjoy the sunshine folks!

report from the first race: pumped A wee bit of help.
 
Slightly longer. Got held up in traffic so by the time i'd signed in i didnt have time for a proper warm up. Fast early on and i was feeling awful but still hanging on in the front bunch until after the prime lap, i didnt go for that as i was struggling but the increase in pace had me off the back then into the headwind...gap grew to 10 metres...then 20. Pegged it at that for a bit but then it started going out again and i had to ease off.  An ERC rider came round and we worked together for the rest of the race...he was doing most of the work, i contributed what i could but not much.  There was the front group (im not sure how many were in it - maybe about 12-15) then there were us 2 and then another fairly large group who were lapped by the front group and we were catching them too so thats not too bad. Then some other stragglers. So not great but hopefully can improve in the coming weeks.
 
wheelsucked the whole of the last lap then shamelessly came round to take the sprint. I did apologise afterwards!

Retired for the year