Woodcote Cyclocross Sportive

This weekend is the last in a block of endurance training before I get a weekend to rest and recover. The plan was to do about 100km on Saturday with the Witney Grupetto and an 80km cyclocross sportive on Sunday. The RAF predicted a hard frost for Saturday morning so true to form, no frost in sight. We were out for about 4 hours in total covering nearly miles. The temperature never got above about 4 degrees but at least the rain stayed away and the regular climbs kept me reasonably warm. It seems the last week was popular for farmers wanting to spread shit all over the roads and we arrived at the coffee shop looking like we had just finished a Belgian classic rather than a gentle training ride. The pace was fairly relaxed for the majority of the ride which I was grateful for because I didn't want to take too much out of myself before Sunday's ride. The route will be on my garmin connect page once Emma comes home with my laptop!
To aid recovery from this ride I treated myself to the food of champions, a large fish and chips with mushy peas. To my mind you can't get a much better source of protein, carbs and oils for quick refueling between hard days in the saddle! Plus, I have to make the most of Emma being away because she doesn't like it!

Mud, glorious mud!

This morning I had to set my alarm for 6.45 which is far too early for a Sunday morning in my opinion. Fortunately we were again treated to a frost free morning. Unfortunately we had a thick fog which was still hanging around when we arrived a Woodcote. I don't know what the actual temperature was but I know it was bloody freezing! One of those mornings when you're reluctant to leave the comfort of the car to stick your kit on and get on the bike! This is the first sportive I have done but the format is basically turn up, sign on and set off. No mass start, just have a chip fitted to your leg and roll over the timing mat and your time is logged. The route started out with a gentle road section before getting into a the real challenge. There were 3 or 4 road climbs and a couple of off road climbs. After the recent rain the roads were greasy but the off road sections were cut up and hard to ride, especially with the gears, or lack of, fitted to my borrowed cyclocross bike. My quads were burning at times when I was in a gear much harder than I would have liked, and I even thought about getting off and walking at one point! I didn't though! My legs fealt good despite the previous days ride and we dropped Robin just after the half way point. I rode with new team, mate Franck for the rest of the route. On the last climb my bike was so covered in mud the gears were slipping all over the place and I couldnt put any power through the pedals for fear of knoking my 'wotsits' on the stem!

One thing I found out during this ride is it is surprisingly fun descending flat out on singlerack on what is basically a road bike with lightly knobled tyres. Its even more fun overtaking people who are going so slowly they might as well be trying to stand still. We finished the ride in just under 3h30 and inside the gold standard time which I was pleased with considering the conditions and the fact we cruised the first half of the route before picking up the speed in the second half.

Since ordering the XTC 29er as my race bike last week I have been worrying that my back might not be able to cope with the change from full suspension. Because of this worry I was very pleased, and even surprised, that my back felt pretty good throughout the ride today. Maybe it will be up to the job after all but I am going to try to get a ride on a demo bike in a couple of weeks just to make sure I am happy with it.

New Sponsor/Team for 2012!

This week I got some really exciting news. For the 2012 season I will be riding for the Giant Store Radlett racing team. This means the loan of a brand spanking new XTC composite 29er for the season. The team is also supported with nutrition from Maxim, pedals from Look and helmets from Met. I was already looking forward to getting this season underway but now I actually can't wait! I am really grateful to Dan from Giant Radlett for giving me the opportunity to use some of the best kit available and I'm also looking forward to meeting the rest of the team. The pressure to do well this season is now even greater because I really want to be able to justify having the jersey.

I have had a very short ride on the new XTC 29er and the first thing you notice is the stiffness of the frame. It feels almost as direct as a roadbike and feels seriously light too. The next thing you notice is the size of the tubes. Oversized doesn't do them justice. The down tube is a huge asymectric squared tube that you can hardly get two hands around it. I am really looking forward to getting the chance to have a bit of a longer ride on the bike because I have only had one other experience on a 29er but I was pleasantly surprised with the Giant Anthem X 29er so if that is anything to go by it should be rapid. The XTC also seems to get some good reviews in the press.

The other exciting part of this deal is the opportunity to test other bikes from Giant so that I can review them. The TCR Advanced road bike seems to be very popular with my local roadies at the moment so I am looking forward to having a crack on that too!

PS. for those who arent that up to speed on mtb terminology, a 29er is a bike with 29 inch wheels rather than the more common 26 inch wheels on most bikes. 29ers are definately in vogue this season so i'm glad I will be bang on trend when the new bike arrives!

Review: Stans Alpine ZTR / Just Riding Along Wheelset

Since July 2010 I have been riding a wheelset from Just Riding Along made up of Stan’s ZTR Alpine rims and ZTR hubs. The first thing you notice about these wheels is the weight. The official weight is 1372g which was pretty accurate for my pair. When compared to my Hope Pro2/Mavic 717 combo the improvement in acceleration is noticeable. They are also significantly stiffer than my old wheels while not quite as stiff as Crankbrothers Cobalt wheels which are my current stiffness benchmark. You do get the occasional twang if you catch a rock at an angle as with many lightweight wheelsets but the wheels are surprisingly resilient, still running perfectly true and the rims are ‘ding’ free. The spokes have also held up admirably and I have not even had to tighten them, let alone replace. As for the hubs, they have 30 point engagement, which is nothing compared to the 72 in a Chris king hub, but compares favourably to the 24 on a Hope Pro2. They feel quick to pick up and I have never felt like I am missing the extra 42! They run almost silently which I found a bit disconcerting initially after being used to the volume of my Hope’s. Some will like this, some won’t, but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker. The bearings in my hubs are still smooth and play-free after 18 months of use for training and racing which I am very grateful for after my Hope hubs have needed a complete overhaul at least once a year.

This was also my first foray into the world of tubeless wheels but the system was surprisingly easy to set up. I got everything I needed from JRA including the Stan’s sealant and valves and set them up successfully on my first attempt using standard non tubeless tires. To be honest, it was a bit of a risk setting these up when I did because my first substantial ride on them was 24hrs solo at Sleepless in the Saddle, where the golden rule is don’t try something new on race day! Fortunately the risk paid off and I went puncture free, and in fact I am still puncture free after 18 months of riding.

In summary, these are a great set of wheels, from the individual components to the build quality and service from JRA. The other great thing about these wheels is the price. At just over £400 for the complete build, they are relativly affordable, and a steal compared to the competition from Mavic, Crankbrothers, Fulcrum and Specialized.

Additional Note: Since writing this I have had 2 punctures! Apparently going tubeless breads complacency and I had run out of sealant in my tyres.

Not quite the power of Grayskull.

Last weekend it appeared winter had finally set in. I woke up to a hard frost on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately it has been dry so it hasn't been too icy and my training hasn't been affected other than having to go out in 2 pairs of tights and losing the ability to speak once my jaw muscles had frozen solid. The preceding couple of weeks training had just involved getting my legs used to the idea of training again. Other than 1 or 2 interval sessions on the turbo, I had just been riding to work twice a week, keeping it nice and steady and trying to stick in zone 2. This weekend was the first time I have really felt like I was being pushed. On Saturday I went out with a couple of guys for a fairly steady 100km road ride. I felt pretty strong on this ride and spent quite a bit of time on the front towards the end when the others were starting to struggle. On Sunday I met up with the same guys for a hilly 70km ride. In the past I have never really suffered much the day after a ride, and certainly not after only 100km, but yesterday my legs were in pieces on the hills. I actually stopped at one point to check my back brake wasn't stuck on! I was running out of gears almost as soon as the road started to point upwards and I was very glad when we reached the top of the final climb. I was still pretty knackered after I had eaten, gulped down a Bikefood raw protein drink and got home.

This was the first time I have ridden with a power meter and it was interesting to see the results. The first thing I noticed was that my power was very inconsistent and was jumping all over the place. I suppose the more you use it the more you the better you get at regulating your effort. The second thing I noticed is the minute amounts of power my legs appear to produce, especially compared with the numbers the pro's put out. Certainly no He Man-esq shouts of 'I have the power!'

I had a rest day on Monday and a recovery spin on Tuesday to give the legs time to rebuild. On Wednesday the aim was to use the Sufferfest film 'DownwardSpiral' to really cause myself some pain (in a constructive manner of course!). If you don't know what these are they are basically interval training sessions set to high tempo music with video clips from pro races to motivate you and distract you from the pain. Annoyingly the disc is scratched so it crashed during the first set of intervals and also caused my computer to crash for about half an hour. By the time it finally restarted I was completely cooled down so I had to start the whole session again using classic early 00's house music for motivation. Benni Benassi - Satisfaction anyone?!

First Turbo Session of 2012

Tuesday was my first official training session for the 2012 season. Actually, I was supposed to have done a session on Monday but with a combination of driving back from cambridge and high winds, I gave that a miss. The session I did involved 3 x 5 minute efforts followed by 5 x 3 minute efforts separated by 1 minute rests. Including an abbreviated warm up and a 10 minute cool down, the session only took an hour but my legs were suffering by the end! It was probably the first time I have really pushed myself since November last year and my calves and the back of my quads felt really tight.

I rode to work yesterday to try to stretch my legs a bit and felt much better at work as a result. The ride in was reasonably pleasant with clear skies and low wind. The way home was another story unfortunately! There was a strong wind and consistent, if not quite heavy, rain meaning I couldn't really see where I was going. That, in conjunction with West Oxfordshires terrible road surfaces had me grimacing all the way home. I hit at least 3 potholes that I swear were not there 2 weeks ago. I has made me consider buying a winter/commuter bike because I really didn't like the thought of my Canyon taking that sort of battering! As Si pointed out on twitter, I could get a CX bike. However, I actually already have one I am borrowing off a friend but I had not even considered using it for the commute. Maybe I will give that a crack tomorrow.

Today, as with most of the country, it is bloody windy. I might go for a short run after work but to be honest, I will probably think better of it and stay in and look at my options for a winter bike instead. Much more productive!