stevie

Yeah sorry - Training and Racing with a Power meter by Hunter Alan  and Andrew Coggan


https://wordery.com/training-and-racing-with-a-power-meter-hunter-allen-9781934030554?currency=GBP&gtrck=bVMrclB4N2pqSXg1bW40WHM1VGVlVWJ3a0RHRGJtalIvV2FBQlppRFRGS3NNdnVoTDZqWldJeGdPWU1lREU0dmlTN0sxY1RWSkd2S1RObk1sQXh4Mmc9PQ&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjsfIlde71wIVpTLTCh1BwgQoEAQYBCABEgLDJvD_BwE
 

Anyone else interested in the Dirty River 200km in the County next year?


https://www.dirtyreiver.co.uk/event/

Team JWCC
 
The doctor said it was ok for me to think about Arran one or two days a week. So I did.
 
ToDAy I thought it would be splendid to extend the Arran challenge a little further. We have the SA(single Arran) the SS (solo single), the 56 +50 and the DA (mythical and immortal DA).
 
Clearly that is not enough. So we need to add the WSA (winter single Arran). To qualify it requires that you must do it during the winter ferry timetable (Oct to March) and it must be on your recognised winter bike with muddies.
 
That may well lead to a WSS (winter solo single) etc.
 
Just sayin like.
 
But I would be up for this one SaturDAy if the weather looked benign.
 

Manufacturers measure centre to centre, or outside to outside, or even probably inside to inside. Usually in the small print somewhere. I use same for road and cx but narrower for my rare track appearances cos it looks good. Difference between 44 and 40, however measured, feels huge.

Great turn out by the Wheelers and Jets. V50s looked strong as usual. I managed a good start for a change and went out hard and lost my legs on last 2 laps I finished somewhere in the top 40 but mylaps shows a DNF! always something 😂 Well done to George on first outing and for Davie for finishing on the legendary Chinacross bike. Has to be the best CX course in Scotland!

whoa, Mylaps>Sporthive timing website has lots of new graphics to tell me exactly how much I suck at cross, suckiest lap, and comparison finish times with less sucky people.

Aye the first lap was a bit of a farce the usual wee ramp up to the tree was much less of a bottle neck than the slalom thru the trees. Wish I had gone for the mud tyres as cycling is generally a bit easier when you are not writhing about on the ground. A decent off saw me slide about 15 feet past the bike, probably quite an impact as my head and neck is now in more pain than knee. On the bright side the impact did seem to repair right hand brake lever which from previous off was projecting horizontally out from the hood, I can't quite figure this one out as it seems still fully operational...
 
No excuses (apart from the ones about the tyres, the gear ratios, the.....) as was grubbed by the end and just focused on keeping Paul in sight the last couple of laps.
 
Onto Irvine......

Great day in the mud, Alan Mclean, Duncan, Mike, Davie B and myself and at least 4 Jets took to a slick Callender Park course which deteriorated into a mud fest. I was doing a bit of Marshalling for the first few races and witnessed a lot of riders sliding  off on the off camber slopes to the cheers of the onlookers. I didn't get to see the other wheelers but everyone looked suitable dirty by the end. Davie & I Started mid pack and start was pretty furious, a guy a few riders in front of Davie hit a park bench but there was no stopping. I managed to keep Davie in my sights as we picked of quite a few riders, but it just got muddier and muddier! Davie went down on a slope and I manage to stay upright(its the tubeless I tells yeh) and the last two laps it stayed that way, just trying to stay upright. Excellent course  fun, we need to start further up the Grid next week! 

I was using 42 x 42 at weekend and was enough for flats(no sprinting) but could have used a 36x42 on the hills, but that would have been to spiny on the flats. You should come out to Calander park at on Sunday and give it a few laps

I picked up a Glencoe today and it is a weighty beast. food for thought.

the Whyte Griston is a decent spec and probably a bit better suited for cross.

I did look at the space chicken but I'm a local bike shop sort of guy!

I got a disc gravel bike a couple of years ago as a winter bike, and have used it as you plan to: road tyres and mudguards in the winter, and the supplied CX style tyres in the summer for off road.
 
I've been really pleased with it in both roles, I got it as a previous years model on a Black Friday deal from Evans, so it was close to second hand prices, but without the wear and tear.  If you can wait a couple of months there should be some deals coming along on 2017 models as the 2018 ones arrive in the shops.

The 650b tyre (clearance?) seems to be a feature on these bikes. 
 
Only tuppence worth I would say is go for hydraulic disks they are night and day compared to even the best (TRP Spyre) cable pull brakes. Alos a lot of these "gravel" bikes being marketed with 1x drivetrains I would have thought for an all round bike which is going to spend time on the road you would want a double.
 
Not a huge fan of their customer service and practice of hawking redundant brand names as if they are still dripping in Italian/British heritage but Planet X is probably worth a look - any bike called the Space Chicken has to have something going for it.

Nice second hand bike for sale from top rider https://www.facebook.com/groups/198728110180843/permalink/1460257517361223/?sale_post_id=1460257517361223&pnref=story won alot of SCX races last year... top spec for similar price

650 wheels   on the Glencoe(nice looking bike) and the 11kgs better of with a MTB, Go for a cross bike it does everything a Gravel/urban marketing named bikes do plus ready fro cross if you ever want to. My 2 pence

He means Speedos.
 
I'm sure he means Speedos.

Paul, Ian A and me in the first group. Through the wonders of age handicapping we also had Jim Cusick as well as the women Lynsey Curran and Jesse who are all regular Renfrew bunch and winter Saturday morning riders. Ian McT, Marc and Robbie were in the later groups.
We quickly had a very well organised bunch of eight or nine which held together until a touch of wheels half way on the return and a rider went down. We lost momentum and within a few minutes were swallowed up by a big bunch including Marc and Ian who must have worked super hard to put over 4 minutes into us.
I just held on over mt Stuart and just sat in for the habble to finish. Kudos to Paul as first v50 but all jwcc did well in big bunch sprint. Robbie punctured.
APR is good format, Very hard racing with no let up, my geek meter says average 232 watts which explains why I am writing this while lying horizontal on sofa.

Errr...
Entered as the last rider, just to give it a shot. At the start line with Carol and Dave and without a clue as to what could happen in a race. Kept at the front group for the whole way round but after the first wee climb I was at the head and because I eat lots of cake I pulled away easily on the first downhill section. I kind of just repeated that round the course with everyone else catching me going up the next hill. One brave soul made a solo breakaway effort and held it until something stopped him heading towards Mount Stewart. Back in the lead bunch on the home run I decided to have a sprint with about 500m to go, looked back once at 200m to see no-one nearby and surprised myself by winning. Massive amount of fun.

Always a fun weekend of racing on Rothesay. Wheelers well represented in every event from the hill climb, cx, 2up TT, individual TT and the 2 road races.
 
APR was run under TLI age category rules this year with 1.5 minutes between groups.  Robbie, Marc and myself in the 4th group. Most of the group were willing to work however there were a couple who were strong riders but who seemingly didnt know how to ride through and off so it meant things werent smooth and we had to work harder than should have been the case. Scratch caught us after 12 miles then jumped on that, pace picked up but it was now much more organised so really started to motor along  we caught the 3rd group of youth/juniors just before the turn just as they had caught the 2nd group. Then it was the chase of the first group. Gap was 2.5 minutes by then so the first group had extended their lead on the 2nd group. Was starting to get more difficult and some attacks were happening. However nothing came from any of them. We caught the first group just before the final climb, things started to split here and was hanging on by a thread by the top with the front group of about 14 riders (Paul, Marc and Ian all in it). It mostly all came back together on the descent and the flat when things eased a bit with everyone starting to think of the finish and jockying for position.  Jim was going to lead out Lynsey for the finish so thought it fair Jess had that option too which worked pretty well with her winning the womens race (and 9th overall). I was 10th, Paul 11th (and winning his category) and Marc 12th so good spread of Wheelers towards the top. Ian was pretty close behind too and 2nd in his category and Alan towards the top 20 too i think. Robbie unfortunate to puncture.
 
The groups and time gaps were spot on this year. Ideally you want the groups to come together before the final climb and thats what happened.
 
Special mention to Gerrard winning the novice race and also his category in the TT. Also to Marc and Ian going for the yellow jersey, no idea how the standings for that finished but Marc must have been pretty high up by the end...just unfortunate to share the same age category as Martin Lonie and Chris Smart!
 
Next year i think it would be a good event as a club to target to try and win the overall prize. We wouldnt have been that far off this year as Fullarton won it and i dont think any of them finished in the top 12 of the road race.

Made it to the start line with Davie and Paul. Highlight of the day was being gridded. Went a bit downhill from there after being winded in a crash and lost about ten places in a daze. Davie was super strong and pulled past me around lap three. Then Gary MacDonald lapped me only half way through the race. Either he's getting even faster or I'm slower.( Or both, Ed).
I just squeezed ahead of Davie as we both finished mid pack.
Best part of the day, as ever, was the atmosphere, ferry and sense of adventure. Returned to Wemyss Bay in cloudless, windless dusk with stunning Argyll hills and Arran as backdrop.

Pretty uneventful race for me, just missed big crash on first drop of and gap opened up in front and behind... kinda stayed in nomansland for whole race, on better news hydraulic brakes are awesome, if only I went fast enough to need them

Tubeless for the win.


I got the new wheels set up tubeless - difference is night and day on the road bike. Got a puncture the other day (glass I'm sure) sealant starts to spray out so I put my thumb on the hole and presto. fixed. The only issue is that the sealant doesn't wash out your new Gabba all that well!

Too fast for me and I wasn't feeling to hot after the cold last week.

A winter of turbo hell and I'll be better next year. I promise!

Yeah good night. Although i guess that means summer officially over now
 
Well done to Marc taking both the sprints

Cracking ride tonight. Marc and Jan looking strong as...... (insert expletive).....
 
Cracking idea for the final chaingang, a tour de France style, final ride/criteria/thing... Really enjoyable!.. Despite the fact I got fired out the back both laps!! Cheers Chaps!!