Too cold, too windy but….

  ….A decent start.

GYCC 10, B10/44. 24:40 something I think

  Not especially fast or anything but everything worked!  Bloody hell it was cold though – about 2 degrees Celsius apparently.  Fortunately, I still had a pair of thermal gloves in the car left over from the week’s walking trip to Pembrokeshire so that helped but my toes were frozen at the finish.

 

Brrr... Thanks to John Swindells for the pic

  Legs and body felt really easy and comfortable, although the ‘spare’ Boardman saddle will have to go – bit harsh! I’ll fit my comfy Specialized saddle for next time.

  I was spinning a nice easy gear and felt nimble and spritely on the long first 5.5 miles into the strong wind, really holding my enthusiasm back. I didn’t want to blow up and demotivate myself so took it really steady.  Besides, no chance of going quickly on a day like that, so just save it.  Felt ridiculously fresh with a mile to go and knew I’d massively underpaced it but survived to ride another day!

Looking smooooth! Pic by Gail Watkins

  The new position felt absolutely spot on, although it took a bit of getting used to – first few minutes had that unstable, dodgy headset sort of feel, especially out of the saddle but I soon got used to it.  Really felt the reduced bodyweight too, I felt really slick through the air and no thighs banging on the belly!!

  Homemade chain-catcher worked, in fact everything mechanical behaved itself. I was really worried that the latex tubes and posh tyres would puncture really easily but no hassles. The bike seemed to roll fantastically well, but I suppose it would after spending the last few months bombing around on a MTB with knobbly tyres!

  Nice to be racing again but I’m already finding the gangs of poseurs and bullshitters in the HQ before and after the TT immensely annoying. And it’s only March!  400 Watts? Oh really?  Yawn….

  There seems to be more of them this year – possibly an effect of the Olympics.  Ah well, each to his own…

  Much like last year, I just nipped into the HQ to grab my number and sign on, did my ride, sneaked my number back in, then came home having avoided all forms of anoraky chat. Besides, there are always lots of nasty diseases being shared in those sorts of sweaty confined spaces – best avoided I reckon.

  It feels strangely liberating though, being on a single minded quest for PB’s in the summer rather than being worried about where you finish, who went quicker than you, who you beat etc.  Think I quite like it, takes all the pressure off.

  Very disturbed to see so much of the lethal habit of riding ‘head down’ going on too – madness. A clubmate was killed at an event in 1996 when he rode into the back of a parked bus on the A12 and it was a lesson and a half in sensible riding if nothing else.

Look where you're going Dave, FFS!!

  Power meters are probably the main cause I suspect – riders fixating on their wattage rather than looking where they are going. A quick glance at your computer, HRM etc is fine but do riders really need to ‘watch’ them? It’s effing suicidally dangerous and, apart from anything else, the expensive head fairing / helmet he/she has bought won’t do an awful lot if the tail is sticking up in the air all the time!

  As I write, there’s a horrible rumour going round of a rider killed on the V718 this morning by riding into the back of a broken down caravan.

 What more can you say?