Hove Crits & Steyning Tri

Hove crit road race cat 2/3 was held on 18th May. I did the first of the series a few weeks prior and came 4th on this short 1km circuit, including a leg sapping mini climb in it. From our cycling school teacher (aka Steve Calland) he gave me some useful tips on racing from Tuesdays Goodwood race (did crap) and basically kept my eye on one of the stronger riders Mike Coyle. When he jumped I went with him and we did about 6 laps together before he pulled away from me, leaving me to do about another 8 laps on my own with the pack hunting me down. In most races I nearly always feel sick with pushing hard, but this was the first time I have actually thrown up during a race and was reaching a few times on the final lap. Managed to get 2nd so that will do. Full race report is posted here (luckily no mention of me being sick ha);

http://www.velouk.net/2012/05/19/report-george-samuel-memorial-hove-park-crits-2/

Steyning Triathlon on 4th May went better than I had expected, despite the grim rainy 6'C weather. (if you think riding in this weather on a normal ride is bad, try doing it straight after swimming in a nice warm pool and run out bare foot in a tiny trisuit then hop on the bike and deal with the cold air blasting on your cold wet body (i.e no warm kit / water proofs). My arms were cold but DAM I thought my bits and pieces had frost bite, I was in some serious discomfort!!!!

My 800m (32 lap) swim was not very fast  by my normal standards, but not terrible to compare to others at 4/83, 36.5km Bike 3/83 and 8km run 7/83. I finished up as 2nd Snr male and 3rd overall. So got a nice pair of shades from Bloc plus a weee trophy.

Plans for the next tri's are another couple of local races before my Half Ironman (1.9km swim, 90km bike, then just to make things fun a half marathon to end) in California on 15th July. It will be frigging hot and it will be more of a tick box as there will be many pros doing it along with Joe average like myself. Then in Sept the London Olympic plus, which is a 1.5km swim, 90km bike and 10km run.

                             

http://www.southdownsbikes.com/news.php?articleid=219

Gorrick 100

The Gorrick 100 is a tough event and after two weeks of rain I feared it was going to be a long day. Luckily much of the course was on the all-weather trails of Swinley Forrest and there were only a couple of slippery sections to spice things up. Naturally the course included the infamous Surrey Hill cliff face and a couple of other tough little gradients. However, these were loaded towards the beginning of the lap allowing you to enjoy the rest of the course which was a maze of serpentine switchbacks and singletrack.

 

I was up bright and early for the 7 lap start. It was chilly and damp underfoot but the rain held off. Learning the lessons of the previous 10 years I started slowly. Others raced off only for me to catch them again a few hours later, looking pale as their energy reserves hit zero. The other trick is to keep eating and drinking throughout the event. A packet of fig rolls, a couple of energy bars and two bananas were scoffed during my 7 hours in the saddle. 

 

As riders tackling the shorter challenges joined the ‘real’ men (and women) later in the day I was caught by Matt! We had a quick chat and he kindly provided a nice tow on one of the long fireroad drags. Having proudly conquered the climb on every lap I was able to hold off a strong challenge from behind to finish 18^th on a day when only just over half the 90 strong field managed to complete the distance.

 Well done to Fay who was the only lady to complete the 5 lap race. Doddy came charging past me on his way to 2^nd in the 4 lap event ahead of Matt who finished 18^th. Steve was first home in the 2 lapper and I saw Will a few times during his 3 laps – unfortunately one of these was while he was wrestling with a tyre trying to fix a puncture!

 

Year after year this continues to be one of my favourite events. It doesn’t stop it hurting though! I was so knackered I had to stop for a nap on the way home! Luckily it was a bank holiday so there was opportunity for a lie in the next day. 

Check out this amazing video! American Paul Basagoitia lands the world’s first natural terrain double backflip… but has to endure some pretty rough treatment on the way!

Haywards Heath Triathlon

Sunday 29th April was my first "Triathlon" racing under SDB and boy what horrible weather it was (many other events had been cancelled, so we got lucky). Strong wind and rain with twigs and leaves all over the road. The race was a 400m pool swim, 25km bike then a 5k hilly run.

I only entered earlier in the week as wanted a bit of a "pick me up", as felt frustrated with some recent road races where I wanted to position better than I did (no change there then). The TT course was tough, what with the winds and rolling hills, but posted the 3rd fastest swim, fastest bike time and 6th run in the male category. I finished 1st out of 96 overall, but unfortunately I could not claim my goodies as had to shoot off to watch my 4 year old's first football "match", which was highly entertaining...... Next week I have Steyning Tri (800m swim, 36km bike & 8km run), which even though is a local event, it attracts a lot of good triathletes around the South East, so lets see if I can continue my luck - cant see I will position top 3 but a top 5 would be respectful.

A weekend of rides starting at QE Country Park on the 19th/20th May.
The weekend kicks off on the 19th with the Garmin Road Sportive with a choice of 60km or 80km routes and the MBUK Royal Rumble 4hr Enduro Mountain Bike Race in the Park.

No entry on the day, online entry first come first served.

Gorrick Spring Series - Final Round

Sunday was the final round of the Gorrick Spring Series and what a contrast to the slippery, claggy trails of last week. The guys at Gorrick had put together a belter! Fast flowing singletrack with very little fire road and a couple of short, stiff climbs to test the legs. The early races helped clear anyway any remaining puddles as the laps times dropped under 20 minutes. Since it was the final round, series positions were to be decided so there was a lot at stake.

In the Masters race Alex slipped past me at the very first corner and then rode away to an excellent 6^th place. I was pleased with another top 10 and Matt grabbed the final series point in 15^th on a loaned Stumpjumper.

Will racing to victory

Earlier in the day Will Taylor took a narrow win in the Youth category to make it 4 wins in 4 races and take the series.

Ian rode another great race to finish 2^nd and more importantly claim the series victory in the Grand Vets

Fay successfully switched to 4 laps in the Expert women.

Again a good turn out for the club and some excellent results. Final series positions will be published next weekend but I’ve done my own calculations below! (Apologies for errors or omissions)

Ian collects the series win

Gorrick Spring Series Positions

1st    Ian Petherbridge  Grand Vets

1st    Will Taylor           Youth

4th    James Bailey       Sport

6th    Alex Taylor          Masters

11th  Ben Connor          Masters

Well done to everyone who has taken part this year in one of the best XC racing series in the UK. XC racing continues to flourish, as demonstrated by nearly 600 entries at the 3rd round! Certainly Gorrick are the standard by which other events should be compared – a superb variety of courses and different venues, always meticulously well organised.

Southern XC Round 2 - Pippingford

Despite a couple of dry days the clay soil of Pippingford Park had held onto last weeks rain. This made the course an evil mix of long strength sapping climbs and scary decents!

I think everyone took at least a couple of tumbles, on a day when just reaching the finishing line was an achievement!

Results:

Will Taylor                6th   Youths
Fay Cripps               1st   Masters Female
Alex Taylor              8th   Masters
Ben Connor             12th  Masters
Gary Dodd                6th  Vets
Steve Calland           8th  Vets              (Was that your broken front wheel in the pit area?)
Ian Petherbridge       6th   Grand Vets    (Still racing despite a broken rib!)

Goodwood Duathlon 2012

Goodwood Duathlon.

This race was again held at the Goodwood race track and was sold out in record time. I (Gary Brind) did the event last year and won it, this year was the first time I was racing a multi sport event in the black & green colours of SDB, so the pressure was sure on.

During race registration it was a nice surprise to see Fay Cripps there with her interesting mode of transport a 29nr mountain bike !!! Most people were either on road bikes or TT specific bikes with all the aero gear, so a MTB with 2.1 tyres was an interesting choice to say the least :o)

There were 2 choices of distances 4k run 24k bike 4 run, or 4k run 40k bike 8 k run. I went for the standard distance while Fay was entered by default (a friend of hers backed out the day before, so she took her place) to the longer distance. In a way I was glad I did not do the longer distance event, as there was no way I would have won it, as a person called Colin Dixon was there (very well known for some years in the multisport world). Who is the current World Triathete age group amateur champion and also World number 2 amateur duathlete.

My run was tougher than I thought, as there sure were some better runners than the previous year, but once on the bike I managed to pull a lead where I did not have to worry too much on the final run and came in 1st place.

Fay Cripps did well in her event and came in 2nd in the women's race, no doubt if she had a sensible bike she would have won it with ease !!! (but as she said, it is great MTB training!!!!). We know what you want from Santa.....

Splits (personally I like to dork out comparing the stats after...);

Gary

4km run 24k bike 4km run

14.24min 34.40min 15.30min

Fay

4km run 40k bike 8km run

15:53min 1.15:04min 35.57min

Colin Dixon

4km run 40k bike 8km run

13:35min 55:36min 28.58min

Southern XC Round 1

The 2012 Southern XC series started on Sunday at the classic old school Checkendon course near Reading.

Despite a dry week the rain came on Saturday so the woodland course was a slippery maze of shiny roots. While most of the UK basked in spring sunshine, a torrential downpour just as the Vets got underway dampened the spirits. It also made certain sections almost unrideable as there was simply no grip. I can’t remember having to walk a climb on the warm-up lap before!

After shivering on the start line amongst the shaved legged racers, I got away well onto the grassy opening loop. The guy in front of me dropped a chain and for a second I thought I was going to tangle with him, but I squeezed through and he then did an excellent job of holding up those behind. The mad dash to the first singletrack got the heart beat racing and my breathing was soon struggling to keep up. I tried to recover as we wound our way through the trees but once out of the wood and back onto open trails several stronger riders surged past as I heaved for breath.

Then we plunged back into the wood and the nastiest section of the lap. A series of tight twisty off-camber climbs littered with greased roots. Everyone had to take it easy as we fought for purchase on the slimy surface. I cleared the worst section and was probably still holding onto the back of the top 10. Maybe I would be alright!

At the top of the hill I rounded a bend onto a short little upward slope and the front wheel caught a root. The bike slithered out from under me and I was forced to dismount and run the next few meters until I reached firmer ground. Three or four riders came through including Alex! I spent the rest of the afternoon chasing him down but he finished 13^th and I was 15^th. Next time!

Ian continued his good run of form with 4^th place, and Steve put in another strong performance for 6th in the Vets. In the same category I spotted Doddy off the bike wrestling with his rear mech, so I assume mechanical gremlins hampered his route to 12th.

All in all lots of series points in the bank for the team as we look forward to the season ahead.