Race, Recover, Race again. #3peakscxrace update and Reasons to Love your LBS

Cyclocross

A busy few weeks (strangely) for a cyclocross racer.  Cyclocross, being a winter sport, leaves the summer for other forms of riding.  In Yorkshire we have a summer cx league and smaller local series that squeeze in during spring and autumn as well so that means it is possible to race pretty much all year round.  In recent week I have raced at Nunroyd Park, Leeds and Pateley Bridge, squeezing some quality hard sessions and recovery in between.

Nunroyd Park is another fast course, I averaged over 22kmh which is fast for me (winter speeds can be down to 16kmh).  It was a good race,  I showed good power on a long drag climb and kept good speed although I kept fluffing up a few off camber corners.  I must commit more and be more aggressive with the front tyre.  My finish position of 65 was good in the field of 130, 15th in my age group.

Pateley Bridge was much more to my liking.  A more technical course with lots of off camber tight turns followed by short, sharp steep climbs.  A bit of sand and an even bigger wheel of doom made it a fun (in my eyes) course. 
A little moisture in the ground and in the air meant I opted for mud tyres which gave me plenty of confidence for the corners.  A good choice! 
The nature of the course brought the average speed down (I averaged just over 17kmh) which also played to my strengths.  Don't get excited reading this, I did not win but came in 52nd, 12th in my age group which with an influx of strong "Sunday only" racers was really pleasing.

Recovery between these really hard efforts is really important.  I have worked with coach Tom to try to coordinate three elements:  "Do nothing" rest, active recovery exercise and nutrition.  It seems that we are getting the combination somewhere near effective and I can bounce back from hard efforts much quicker.  If I could make myself behave more during active recovery and ignore Strava bleeping at me on my Garmin I could recover even quicker!

#3peakscxrace

As I mentioned in an earlier post I have been unsuccessful in my entry to #3peakscxrace for the second year running.  I have been in email contact with the event organiser who has explained the selection procedure.  I hope that he does not mind me reproducing it in part below for all readers to understand:

  We check experience from a safety perspective.  There were very few entries removed this way, mainly those who left the experience box blank.

2.       Guaranteed entries are put through.  This includes marshals from the previous year and the top 10 riders from each category.

3.       Rider quotas are established to ensure the field is balanced.  These quota’s are balanced against the number of entries in each category (i.e. if 40% of the registered entry is V40, then 40% of the paces are allocated to V40).

4.       The entry list is then subject to a random sort using Microsoft excel – the resulting sheet forms the list from which entries and reserve list are drawn.

 

The popularity of the race is the problem – particularly since 2012 when numbers surpassed 650 for the first time.  The landowner for P-Y-G allows an entry of 650 which means that one third of applicants are unsuccessful.  This year, there are so many well qualified entries who have a place, such as yourself, and it is also disappointing for us to see these turned away.  An alternative approach would be for us to just select riders we liked from the list although they would clearly be unfair! 

 

As a mathematician I cannot see any aspect of this procedure that is anything other than very fair and I have to live with the disappointment, hoping to get in off the reserve list.  Next year.........

 

I Love my LBS

As you will know, my LBS is York Cycleworks.  There are nearer bike shops to my home, but this is the one for me.  In this time of internet shopping and price matching I would like to share my reasons and my own rules with regard to purchasing bike related stuff.

#yorkcycleworks will always help me out.  If I need a cup of tea during a ride, mechanical assistance or advice they will always provide it.  As an example, I dropped in the other week and top lad Liam fixed my poorly maintained rear road wheel.  It needed some work after 6 years of none.
He could have sold me new freehubs and all sorts, but no.  He stripped it, replaced only what needed replacing (bearings), cleaned it and gave it back nicely greased and as new.  All at a brilliant fair price.
As a clever bunch of chaps and chapesses #yorkcycleworks are fully aware of the internet and the low prices that can be found.  My personal rules are these: 

• I will never ask my LBS to match a ludicrously low price, it is unfair to expect them to sell at a loss.
• I do use internet providers for some stuff just because the price is right and I have the ability to maintain/build my own bike at home.
• Items that may go wrong (Garmin, wheels) I will buy from my LBS as it would be unfair of me to ask for support with an item bought elsewhere.
• If I find a good price I will ask about price matching, if my LBS get close I will go LBS.
• I love the fact that they will help me if I drop in, but fully understand that if they are busy I have to wait and drink tea.
• I will buy them biscuits/cake/beer in gratitude for their help.
• I will always race in their colours (even though I am not very good) because their colours are ace.

I will always be an advocate for #yorkcycleworks as we have built our relationship over nearly 20 years.  I would not enjoy my cycling as much without them.