Old Portlians CC - Club Track Championships

Back at the AGM, long stand member Clive Jeffery put his hand in the air and offered to run a club track championship at Herne Hill. Given that putting ones hand in the air and offering to do things is not what the club is known for this was something special in itself. The normal method for apportioning tasks is a combination of chicken and you touched it last. The track champs used to be a fixture of the Old Ports calendar but had slipped away in recent years, so we were all delighted that Clive was up for breathing life back into the beast again.

The championship revolved around four events. A 200m sprint (basically eyeballs out giving it everything from a flying start. A four lap pursuit with riders starting on opposing sides of the track. Probably the cruellest event is the Devil Takes the Hindmost , where last rider on each lap is eliminated. To close the day was the points race, points being awarded for the first 3 places on each lap.

To be honest there at not that many experienced track riders at the club. More than once Clive rolled his eyes as his charges failed to follow his instructions. A number  of people were referencing doing it at school, and for most of us, school was a very long time ago. Michael Fowler was probably the most candid with his comment. 'I did it at school, I wasn't very good then, I am not very good now. But people pretty quickly got that hang of things, and once the riders stopped gasping for air, there were plenty of broad smiles. Sally Avery could barely contain her delight at the end of her sprint. Having knackered myself doing at 25 at Steyning this morning I sat out of the racing opting to take pictures and offer largely unhelpful advice.

The podium was, 3rd Place Dave Warne ( a bit tuckered from his 56 on the F1 this morning, I note he did not use a time trial as an excuse not to race this pm, hmmm), 2nd Steve Avery (looks strong) and 1st place went to Iain Hawthorn. Well deserved. Has been putting lots of time crit racing this season and the craft transferred well, especially as the bunch fragmented at the end of the points race.

Fantastic event for the club. Congratulations to Iain and the other guys on the podium. And a huge thank you to Clive and Ian Jeffery for doing the hard work and making the thing happen.  

Froome and Team Sky's plan B

Having been rather scornful of the value of a plan B Team Sky, like Omega Pharma Quickstep are faced with coming up with one inside the first week. Both Teams left out supposedly superfluous heavy hitters. How much would Omega have loved to have Boonan on the start line today now that Cav is gone? But Sky's omission of Wiggins will capture the headlines, in Britain at least, now that Froome has gone. On the steps of the Team bus  Brailsford looked less than convinced talking up Porte as a realistic substitute team leader. With a following wind he is a fine rider but its hard to imagine that tonight Nibali and Contador are not quietly relieved.

However, given his clear form just how bad must Wiggins be as a team mate that it was safest to leave him out, especially given that he does have recent form on the cobbles. Its debate, that some if not all, will come out diminished. Either Brailsford has made a huge error of judgment, or there was something so toxic in Froome, Wiggins or both that made having them together impossible. 

Here is my guess. Froome is a self made man who resented playing second fiddle to Wiggo, who I suspect he does not really respect. Wiggo, a product of BC, happiest with the individual effort of the TT and pursuit, a man who appears emotionally vulnerable, needs a lot of support around him. My guess is that he has also cheesed off some of the more senior members of the squad, such as Thomas.  However he is more charismatic and popular with the public. Brailsford would have convinced himself that a team needs to be more than the sum of its parts, that a whole sans Wiggo was a better bet. He was wrong. Froome has been vulnerable to crashes in the Tour run in and has had his own health problems. With a stage on the Roubaix cobbles so early it was a huge gamble he did not have to make. Sky have made wrong moves before, but this is far more profound. It brings into question their fundamental strategy and people management. 

What it does mean is that the riders that remain should be liberated to do some harm on individual stages. The team slogging away to put Porte on the podium (a long shot) feels a drab choice, riding in the wheels of Bert and Nibbles. 

Weather Forcasts and the Redmon 25

In my way of dividing up the racing season, the Redmon 25 is the start of Time Trialing proper. January and Feb kicks things off with the Reliabilty Trials (that didn't really happen this year tbh), March is all about the sporting courses, Hardriders and the like.

Today was also the 3rd round of SEWTTS, with another strong field of women riders. They enjoyed the dubious pleasure of going off first. Rebecca Slack, the mastermind behind SEWTTS earned the Michael Fish award for optimistic and inaccurate weather forecasts, with an early tweet suggesting that the women riders would miss the rain. Hmmm, as I arrived the first salvo of women riders were on their way. Their grim faces, and the work my windscreen wipers were having to do, suggested that whatever she turns her hand to a glittering career in the met office doesn't await.

The course was a new one on me, and a change from previous years, the G25/46. On a first acquaintance I can't say I liked it much. But the combo of wet, nagging cross winds, and headwinds probably did not let me see it at its best. I was the only Old Port in this one. The other Testers either in deepest Kent or applying salvon to their cobbled parts in Flanders. It was a day to get through, and I managed a less than sparkling 1.08.09

For the Men, it was Conal Yates who I think came out on top, with a 54.44.  At the start he was my minute man, at the end, my 15 minute man. With the outstanding rider of SEWTTS round 1, Natalie Cresswick a DNS, there was a well fought battle for the women's prize.  However looked like Jasmijn Muller had good minute on the rest to finish with a 1.01.06 . Great rides by both the winners on a tough morning.

The Joy of Audax

Yesterday I took part in the 'Ditchling Devil, a 200km ride to the coast and back run by Audax UK. For those unfamiliar Audax is a curious cycling sub set imported from France. The idea of an Audax is to complete a course (normally very long, 200km is a short one) within a set time limit. It is not meant to be a race. To emphasise this point until recently they would insist that all bikes had full mudguards.
In practice an Audax ride is like a cross between a Sportive and a treasure hunt. Therein, until recently lay the problem. Unlike Sportives there are no signs. Riders have to navigate themselves using a route sheet, collecting stamps on a card to prove they reached various points on the course. So for the novice there are two options. Do what I did in 2006 at the Tour of the Surrey Hills, stick  the route sheet in your jersey pocket and try to hang onto the wheel of somebody who knows the way. This resulted in me spending too much time in the company of a man who looked like Robinson Crusoe in a hi-viz vest. The only alternative was to fix a clipboard to your handlebars like a Cabbie doing the knowledge and follow the directions. But this is a pursuit revolutionised the arrival of GPS! Suddenly it is no longer the preserve of the eccentric. Just load the route onto your Garmin and go.
What this then reveals are some wonderful routes, and testing events run with a generous low key enthusiasm. On the Devil the feed at 65 miles was in somebody's back garden where they dished up pasta and cups of tea.
To their credit Audax UK have welcomed the GPS and are reaping the rewards. Yesterday's event had a full field, that included a decent cross section of roadies. The old school were there but also lots of younger riders up for the challenge. There is no chip timing but in this Strava age does that matter quite so much?
However, to the man in trainers at the start with a route sheet bungeed to his bars, I hope you were wearing bib shorts under your jeans. 200km of denim on saddle is not something I would wish on anyone.

Tour of Wessex in Sun Shine Shocker

 

The last time I rode the Tour Wessex was I think in 2008. After the first day the rain bucketed down and the climb to the top of Dunkery Beacon on the final day had to be cut due to the high winds. The collection of riders gathering for day 3 were a grim bunch.  Back in 2007 Day 2’s pouring rain and cold remains one a  club mates ‘worst day on a bike’. As a friend commented on my entry, ‘They order  rain for the ToW.’

Weather aside the event needs to be taken seriously. For those doing the whole three days it amounts to 335 miles of riding in beautiful but lumpy countryside, striking out from Somerton.

Anyway, we got rewarded with almost perfect cycling weather, and since my previous attempt the routes had been refined. Riding mostly in Surrey and Kent one of the first things that struck me was how much easier it is to find decent roads with little traffic in the West Country. Having ridden the Castle ride the previous weekend where most of the ride seemed to be on broken potholed tarmac, this made a nice change.

Compared to 5 years ago there were some noticeable changes. It felt like a younger crowd (maybe just because I have become an older git), and not only more women riders, but considerably stronger as well.

Pendragon Sports who run the event do have their eccentricities. Now there are plenty of things that appeal  60 miles into a sportive but a tuna and sweet corn roll, warmed by the sun is not near the top of my list, nor were the scotch eggs. I have to tip my hat to the guys from ‘Claud the Bulter’ who dished up wonderful coffee and recovery smoothies from their van at the finish.

The event HQ in Somerton was great given the weather but I would not have fancied it much if it had been tipping it down. There was an option to camp on site, but to be honest, fuck that for game of soldiers. So we stopped at the Travel Lodge in Podimore about 5 miles from the HQ. In a Ronseal kind of way Travel Lodge was brilliant. I am all for a nice family run guest house but the Travel Lodge ticked the boxes. Cheap, decent breakfast box ready to fuel for the day, no quibbles about bikes in the rooms, and come a go whenever. Job done.

High point- the decent to Corf Castle and the view from the top of the Lulworth Ranges

Low Point- Not doing final day – for wholly valid non cycling reasons- honest.