Avonlea-Treasure RT

Tonight was the penultimate round of the Cheltenham criterium series, and having paid for all four rounds I made sure to be there. It has been a very busy week as I have been trying to sort out the logistics for the National 3-Up team time trial championships that Avonlea-Treasure will have two teams riding in, but I was determined to race tonight, as otherwise I wouldn’t get chance to ride the bike until we arrived at the Nationals.

Having warmed up I felt surprisingly good, and my legs felt fresh with even a bit of power lying down there somewhere! The race started, and much like last week the pace was very high for the first 4-5 laps to try and break up the bunch, this left a small group of approximately 20 riders that were able to keep with the high pace. The bunch then settled down and we were cruising around averaging just over 25mph.

It was about 10 or 11 laps in that I felt pretty good and going around the long sweeping bend before the very tight 90° bend I decided to attack. I gave it 100% and dug deep. Having been able to choose the best line through the tight right hander and with the chicane approaching, I had managed to pull out around 15-20 seconds. By the time we hit the hill, I had about 25 seconds in hand and then when turning right at the top of the hill, I could just see the riders coming around the corner at the bottom. This was where it all started to go downhill though. The riders in the bunch were clearly working together, and as I sped down the back straight I was starting to suffer, maybe I had gone too hard? I was still alone as I went back around the tight right-hander and through the chicane, but as I hit the bottom of the hill for the second time whilst away, I could see that the bunch were now only 5 or so seconds behind. I thought I would try and keep the speed fairly high going up the hill so that when I got caught I could just slip back into the pack. They clearly didn’t want be to do this though! Just as I was being caught, three strong riders counter-attacked and shot past me. I had nothing. The bunch then instantly lifted the pace to try and prevent the 3-man counter attack from getting away. This meant that the whole bunch sailed past me, leaving me to try and latch on to a wheel. Another couple of laps past, and the pace wasn’t particularly high but I was just off the back and struggling to recover. Another lift in pace from the front of the pack and I was now two or three bike lengths off the back and not getting back on. I did another couple of laps to see if the pace at the front backed off, but I was just fading more and more.

I decided to pull out just after the half-way point. I thought that it would be for the best, as I had done a good, hard 30 minute effort and with the Nationals on Sunday I didn’t want to destroy myself for that. Had the pack only had 10 or so riders in it I may have continued, but with around 20 riders, even if a few had dropped off I would have never been in contention for any points.

Not such a good night as far as racing was concerned, but a good training ride, and I managed to leave earlier to get home and pack for the weekend, so not all bad!

This weekend the team will be heading north for the National 3-up Team Trial. We have got two teams entered into the event, with Russ, Alan and Adi in one team and Myself, Phil and Tom in the other. With the event taking place in Darlington, just south of Newcastle there will be a lot of travelling involved. Fortunately, Vans 2 Go Bristol have provided us with a large van that we are able to use to transport all of the riders bikes, kit, spare wheels etc. This is a huge help that is greatly appreciated and saves us having to squeeze everything into cars. Hopefully the good results that we saw in last nights evening 10 will mean that we are able to put in good performances on the weekend. We will be posting up a full race report for the Nationals as soon as we get back.

Tonight was week 12 of the Severn road club evening 10 series, and this week we had five of our riders at the event, including myself. It was a warm, dry night but with quite a strong breeze that turned out to make the night alot slower than was expected. Adi was the first Avonlea-treasure rider off, followed shortly by myself and then Phil with Stuart and Russ starting about 20 minutes later. Whilst warming up we began to realise the full extent off the high wind speed. The wind usually blows in one of two directions on this course, either blowing along the dual carriageway meaning that you are riding into a head wind along that stretch, but then get a tail wind along the lanes on the way back, or vice versa.

It is quite commonly regarded that a tail wind along the dual carriageway is more advantageous than a tail wind back as there are bushes and trees that will protect you from a head wind on the way back, but they aren’t there on the way out. Tonigh unfortunately we had a head wind along the dual carriageway and quite a strong one at that. All you can do though is try and get on top of the gear and spin a smooth, steady cadence to try and minimize your losses.

All of our riders managed to complete the course with no punctures this week and we had a very good table of results. I again finshed in fourth position, behind Rob Lyne, Rob Dixon and Freddie Lewton, having done a 22:11. A little off my PB for this course but I was happy enough with it. The gap between Phil and Adi is getting ever close, with Adi this week riding his newly acquired TT bike that me and Phil rustled together for him. This week Phil did a 23:03 with Adi doing a 23:12, proving that aerodynamics really do count! Not much futher down the results sheet are Russ and Stuart, with Russ posting a 24:41 and Stuart doing a 25:39. Although the conditions were not quite ideal, both Adi and Phil did a personal best with Adi knocking nearly 30 seconds off of his. This also helped push Adi to the top of the Arthur Powell competition for the most improved rider of the year.

Another good week for the team!