Cyclocross training diary week 4

Week 4 was going to be an important week from the start. This week was going to be the big base mile week that would hopefully start the good form to kick start the cross season. The 3 peaks cross race only being 2 weeks away meant that many riders were needing some much needed miles in the hills. Even though I wasn't doing the 3 peaks I thought it would be a great opportunity to practice some much needed cross skills.

Around 40 riders turned up to complete the 3 towers training ride which would take in Rivington Pike Winter Hill and Peel Tower. Climbing from the lower barn next to RIvington res. was a pretty technical climb with the terrain being very rocky and a number of riders littering the route. My legs felt heavy from the start after some gym work the previous day, this lead to me struggling throughout the whole day but in the knowledge that I would benefit from any pain that I suffered then when in a race. Running with the bike was one of the most improtant part of the day as a lot of the route couldn't be ridden easily, which I proved when going through a puddle and going straight over the front wheel in to the water. Lesson learnt, don't go through a puddle that you can't see the bottom of.

A great day was had by all, much of the thanks was to my club team mates at Horwich cycling club who run the event year on year. Next week is start of the interval sessions.

Diary: Cyclocross Training Weeks 2/3

These last two training weeks seemed to have blended into one, mostly because these were always going to be the weeks where I needed to continue with the base mile training but also start with some sprint work. Week 2 consisted of some good weather which I used to its fullest by going on some longish base rides along the Leeds-Liverpool canal through from Chorley to Blackburn. The great thing about this route is that its really quiet, uneven, not too muddy and generally a good stretch of towpath to train on. There are many bridges over the canal along the way where you need to slow down in case other people were coming under the bridge at the same time. This was a great opportunity to start practicing sprinting out of corners which I did by doing about 10-12 kicks once I could see the coast was clear.

Week 3 started with a club ride on a Tuesday night where we decided to do some simple intervals chasing each other down through the woods of Rivington. Using this to quicken up reactions and bike handling ability, then I final climb to the top of Rivington Pike just to get the feel of going deep into energy stores.

I could feel the strength from riding different types of terrain starting to build, but I was still struggling with the endurance which could possibly be a major factor in two race weekends as recovery time is much shorter. So at the end of week 3 I decided to do two longish rides for base miles and I was looking to do over 4 hours over two day. The Saturday consisted of some of the worst weather we had seen here in the North West of England in a while but true to my word I went out for a ride, up Rivington Pike and back down along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal was the planned route to Wigan then home. Unfortunately the ride had to be cut slightly short as I crashed out after a bunnyhop over an open drain went wrong and my hands slipped of the bars, fortunately leading to me landing on a pile of mud with only cuts and bruises to show. I decided to cut my losses and go home in one piece and ride on Sunday for a couple of hours as well.

All in all the training has gone well, no problems with the tendonitis and no serious injury from the crash. Roll on week 4...running starts this week. I'll keep you all tuned in on how the trainings going.

Diary: Cyclocross Training Week 1

Its early August and the Cyclocross season is just 5 weeks away. Having been injured with tendonitis in my knee about 3 weeks prior and being on holiday for a further 10 before this weekend I felt it was about time to start my training if I was going to hit some good form throughout the North-West Cyclocross season. The aim of this first week was to build up the 'base' and prepare my body for some hard training and races throughout the winter months. Usually I have done this with some long rides along flat terrain with minimal climbing involved, this year however was completely different. 

Even though I hadn't ridden many miles coming up to the start my cyclocross training I had been taking part in a variety of different sporting activities. Running, swimming, golf and cricket were all used to keep myself fit throughout my time off the bike, but there was probably a bit too much alcohol consumed along the way as well. Cross riding is a completely different style of suffering than road racing, its about how hard you can push yourself rather than how long to can stick it out chase riders down or staying away in a break. Less aerodynamics are involved usually meaning that as long as nothing goes wrong with the bike, the strongest rider will win.

As I came out for my first cross training session of the season with one of my team mates everything felt different from riding on a fully carbon road bike. The cross bike felt heavier, bigger, but more comfortable and more fun. You can ride a cross bike harder than any other bike because they are built to be bomb proof. Most of the rides on the first week consisted of skidding around muddy tracks and taking on steep climbs which I was completely not ready for and it came to a head when my quads cramped up on a climb. I knew it was a bad way to start the pre-season training by going up so many hills so early but it did help to gauge where my fitness is at before I start doing to full on training with about 3 weeks to go.

Looking forward to getting muddy throughout the pre-season. 

Week 2 to follow soon...     

Is Team Sky finally coming good?

When Team Sky was announced in 2009, I am sure the majority of British cyclists were very excited to see a team associated with Britain once again. Bagging the valuable signing of Bradley Wiggins was very much an added bonus after an unbelievable 4^th place in the 2009 Tour de France. The team looked set to take over the world with its multi-millions of BSkyB’s money and is ‘transformer’ like buses (yes there’s two!). But after their maiden win at the tour of Australia there wasn’t much to get that excited about. There was so much expectation from the ‘super team Sky’, we all thought the sky really was the limit, but very little sparkled. Major events that stood out were few and far between, Bradley Wiggins taking the Pink jersey in the prologue of the Giro d’ Italia, and Geraint Thomas becoming the British National Champion seemed to offer very little weight to the heavy investment that Team Sky had at their peril.

Geraint Thomas

One major factor which was blamed on the lack of success was put down to the rare interactions between rider and fans. Professional cycling is a rare sport where fans and spectators can easily gain close access to athletes and see their equipment close up and personal. Team Sky decided to close their doors on prospective fans in an attempt to keep their team focused and on the ball before races, creating a major gap between team and spectator. Brailsford has corrected this, most probably as a result of the lack of involvement fans could have with the team, plus I don’t think BSkyB were particularly happy with their image being tainted by the ‘closed door strategy’ Team Sky had at the time, even while they were shooting blanks in races.

Bradley Wiggins winning the Criterium du Dauphine

Roll on 2011 and the Brits seemed to have woken up, as it looks like a completely different team with Geraint Thomas finishing many of the spring classics in very strong positions, Ben Swift showing his class with a good tally of stage wins already this year, and the greatest achievement by Team Sky in their very brief history coming at the Criterium du Dauphine as he won the General classification for what many call the mini Tour de France. It feels like there’s finally a real chance for there to be a British rider competing for every aspect of a professional road race, from the sprinters to the mountain climber and the GC contenders. BSkyB had a vision of creating a British Tour de France winner in 5 years from 2010 and it feels realistic. The futures bright, the futures ‘black, white and blue’, Hopefully!.       

‘Pretty in Pink’. Giro d’Italia. The greatest grand tour on earth?

2011 Giro d'Italia Winner- Contador

From the podium girls to the monumental climbs, every aspect of the Giro d’Italia oozes class. 2011’s tour has just finished for all riders involved with much relief, anguish, and for one very happy rider a pink jersey. I have watched very few Giro’s (two fully in total), but every time I turn on the television to watch the riders poised to attack for the line I think to myself, ‘this is one very special race’. The Giro seems to carry a different air about it than its rival across the border, the Tour de France, the climbs look much more severe and technical than the sun baked over crowded climbs that feature in the Tour de France. Many of the climbs such as the Passo Gavia with its corridors of snow and the epic mountain top finishes of Mount Etna and Monte Zoncolan have gaps of spectators as a result of how rural the roads can be, and with adverse weather conditions a certainty during the month on May, the small number of spectators on the rainy days does offer some light to how alone the breakaway riders must feel as they relentlessly turn over the pedals on their bicycles for what must seem like an eternity until they are either caught or they reach the line.

 

It’s not just the stages and the setup that makes the Giro such a great monument, the supporters offer quite a lot of the excitement and much more to the spectacle of the race. The Italian cycling fans treat their fellow country cyclists as gods, cheering on their every move, helping them up mountain roads with not so gentle pushes and offering copies of the Gazzetta dello sport to put down the front of their jerseys before the cool descents from the mountain tops, truly rewarding support. Flip this over to ‘le tour’ and you’ll see foreigners (including the Brits) people screaming straight in riders face directly stood inches from the front wheel and the pratt’s running full-pelt alongside riders, I find myself watch the mountain stages  half the time shouting ‘get out the way you D**K!’.      

Some of the stage roads from this year’s Giro were, to put it nicely, a bit rough, but that seemed to add to the traditional feel that was on offer. With its hill climb time trials and its positively cyclocross like routes on occasions, the Giro does like to keep in touch with its roots which seems to give it that golden age prestige still today, although some of that may be offered over the television by the Eurosport programme directors way of turning the colour off and going back to the black and white picture on a regular basis for some sort of arty reason.

The Italians seem to know that they’ve got something special from cycling in the Giro d’Italia as once the first grand tour of the year is over there are no major professional events that are looked upon on the same scale as the Giro or the Milan-San Remo for that matter in Italy. The Giro d’Italia is surely the greatest opening to the grand tours of Europe and long may it continue to open the grand tour season for many years to come.