Peter Armstrong
Über Member
My first Crit “The Spring Cotton Spinners” at Tameside Cycle Circuit in Ashton-Under-Lyne.
So 7:45 I get up, grab my breakfast and my gear and set off. I arrive, sign on, get ready and do few warm up laps, and I must say it was a very cold morning, so cold in fact I had to leave my normal jacket on for the race. This circuit is very narrow and very bendy and only 1km a lap, I’m looking around at the other people and their bikes, full sky team Pinarello bikes, those fancy egg-shaped gears, full kit castelli gear, I’m starting to think I’m out of my depths, and I wasn’t wrong. Here’s me, my first year of what I call proper cycling, turning up on my cycle-to-work scheme bike, and rocking out my Aldi cycle gear. As I roll up to the start line I’m stuck right on the back, I start thinking to myself that it doesn’t matter, sit on the back for a few laps till it settles down then maybe start to move up by taking the bends a bit faster. The whistle or whatever it was goes off, and we start, pace builds up all seems fine for the first few laps, fast pace at first although I wasn’t worried as I expect the first few to be fast until people settle down. We have 45mins to go plus 5 laps so I cannot see anyone wanting to kill themselves so early on, just twitchily legs I’m thinking. I’m looking down at my heart rate and I’m already at 175bpm, this is my FTP, I know if I go over this I will burn out so I try and stick to the back wheel of whoever is in front of me, unfortunately this person in front wasn’t the best at cornering, so I was slowing down to much then having to speed up again too much to get back up to pace, this clearly wasn’t working and before I knew it a rather large gap had appeared between the rider in front of me and the main bunch, I looked around me and there was probably a hand full of people who were also stuck in the same boat, dropped off the back having being stuck behind this rider, I blame my tactics and the narrow circuit. Who’s going to breach the gap? I look around again, nobody is, I either do it now and risk blowing up or be stuck behind for good. “FOR fark SAKE” I say out loud, I get my ass out of the saddle then off I go, 15-20 seconds later I’m back on! Yes! But in doing this I’ve maxed my heart rate out at 185bpm, I’m holding on to the back of the main group, holding on, holding onnnnnn, nope I cannot recover in time, slowly, inch by inch drifting off the back, till I’m going solo. Crap! I’ve messed up, and I’m not fit enough to say with them. So here I am, last place I want to be, going around this track on my own, it all goes downhill from here. A few people pass me, oops didn’t manage to get on the back of them, next lot pass and I jump on the back of them. I stick along with two other riders who caught me up, a few laps later and the main group lap us, lovely! This happens again 10mins or so later I try to jump on the back but after getting shouted out “LEFT” “RIGHT” I think why try and stay with these again if I’m not even in it? So I back off do I few more laps then 33m mins in, totally disappointed with myself I pull off.
OW WELL………………
http://www.strava.com/activities/122844834/overview
So 7:45 I get up, grab my breakfast and my gear and set off. I arrive, sign on, get ready and do few warm up laps, and I must say it was a very cold morning, so cold in fact I had to leave my normal jacket on for the race. This circuit is very narrow and very bendy and only 1km a lap, I’m looking around at the other people and their bikes, full sky team Pinarello bikes, those fancy egg-shaped gears, full kit castelli gear, I’m starting to think I’m out of my depths, and I wasn’t wrong. Here’s me, my first year of what I call proper cycling, turning up on my cycle-to-work scheme bike, and rocking out my Aldi cycle gear. As I roll up to the start line I’m stuck right on the back, I start thinking to myself that it doesn’t matter, sit on the back for a few laps till it settles down then maybe start to move up by taking the bends a bit faster. The whistle or whatever it was goes off, and we start, pace builds up all seems fine for the first few laps, fast pace at first although I wasn’t worried as I expect the first few to be fast until people settle down. We have 45mins to go plus 5 laps so I cannot see anyone wanting to kill themselves so early on, just twitchily legs I’m thinking. I’m looking down at my heart rate and I’m already at 175bpm, this is my FTP, I know if I go over this I will burn out so I try and stick to the back wheel of whoever is in front of me, unfortunately this person in front wasn’t the best at cornering, so I was slowing down to much then having to speed up again too much to get back up to pace, this clearly wasn’t working and before I knew it a rather large gap had appeared between the rider in front of me and the main bunch, I looked around me and there was probably a hand full of people who were also stuck in the same boat, dropped off the back having being stuck behind this rider, I blame my tactics and the narrow circuit. Who’s going to breach the gap? I look around again, nobody is, I either do it now and risk blowing up or be stuck behind for good. “FOR fark SAKE” I say out loud, I get my ass out of the saddle then off I go, 15-20 seconds later I’m back on! Yes! But in doing this I’ve maxed my heart rate out at 185bpm, I’m holding on to the back of the main group, holding on, holding onnnnnn, nope I cannot recover in time, slowly, inch by inch drifting off the back, till I’m going solo. Crap! I’ve messed up, and I’m not fit enough to say with them. So here I am, last place I want to be, going around this track on my own, it all goes downhill from here. A few people pass me, oops didn’t manage to get on the back of them, next lot pass and I jump on the back of them. I stick along with two other riders who caught me up, a few laps later and the main group lap us, lovely! This happens again 10mins or so later I try to jump on the back but after getting shouted out “LEFT” “RIGHT” I think why try and stay with these again if I’m not even in it? So I back off do I few more laps then 33m mins in, totally disappointed with myself I pull off.
OW WELL………………
http://www.strava.com/activities/122844834/overview