This is not my limit!

The time has come for me to say goodbye to a year of racing and training, reflect on the good and not so good and look forward to future challenges.

Why this post title?

I heard a fantastic quote from Amber Pierce, a US cyclist who said (roughly)

Cycling is about bringing yourself to the limit,
pushing beyond the limit,
realising it was not the limit.
Your limit is beyond what you thought.
It is a beautiful thing.

This sums up where I am at this moment with cycling, I hope I can stay here as I like it.

Final CX races for the winter season

The Yorkshire winter season ended with some proper winter racing.  Cold, wet and very muddy were the order of the day.  Although these are my favourite conditions, and I performed as well as I could, my results were a little disappointing.  But as I have said before, the performance is what really matters and I left the races happy.

Post Novacross

I have to say that it is races like these that really test drivetrains.  Most races have plenty of broken rear mechs, jammed chainsets, chains falling off.

My 1x setup with a front "keeper-onner" has worked faultlessly all year.  I am amazed how well the gear shifting works regardless of muck, grass, panic and the chain keeps spinning.

The only thing that stops my bike is when there is so much muck between rear wheel and frame that the wheel will not turn at all.

Ilkley Muck and the drivetrain kept working!

Racing Target Met

Although I have said before that results are second iun my priorities for racing I did have a target for the winter season.  I wanted to finish in the top 10 for my age cat.  I am happy to report and reflect that I did succeed in this, coming in 9th.  No idea if this puts me in the money, but I am pleased as it shows good consistency across all races.

Reflections of a racing year

Overall I have raced really well over the last year, both in Summer cross and Winter.  I have become more powerful, faster and technically better.

Where I think I went a little wrong is the amount of racing that I did.  I seemed to go through patches of race, rest, train hard, rest, race.  Start again.  There seemed to be missing some of the fun of being on a bike and doing crazy things.  My mtb sessions have reawakened this love again, as have events such as Aggregate100 which is to be repeated this year.

Next Challenges

This year I will:

• race a little less, become better at targeting races to maximise my performance.
• enjoy training as much as I enjoy just riding
• make sure that I make time to just ride
• ride coast to coast in a day for the fun of it
• ride the Dirty Reiver 200km gravel race in Kielder Forest
• ride The Struggle sportive in Yorkshire
• SMASH the Scotton 100
• SMASH 3 Peaks (Marshalling = guaranteed place!)

The Time that I Overtook a World Champion

A couple of great CX races to reflect on, fantastic considering the time of year which always throws up its own challenges.

Can I keep going?

This has been a long year of cx racing for me.  I started way back in May and have been racing pretty much non-stop throughout the summer, autumn and winter.  Whilst I really enjoy racing there are times when I really just want to ride my bike for a few hours at the kind of intensity that I feel up to at that moment.  This is in opposition to cx training sessions which tend to be 1 hour or so in length and very much interval based (no surprises there!). 

I think the quality of my training has started to decline a little and perhaps my maximum power output has declined as well.  Coach Tom has spotted this and adapted training plans accordingly.  He has incorporated some more fartleck type activities, fewer really hard sessions and creeping some more club style rides in as well. 

Only 2 or 3 more races this winter to go at, then next year's challenges need some attention.

Shibden Hall Yorkshire Points race

What a fantastic course!  I have been there before for a Rapha race (I think), but big kudos to the organisers who designed a really testing, yet fun course.  The weather was proper wet and muddy which made the going really tough.  There were lots of falls in the races before us old gaffers got on the course.

My target for this race was to not fall off and ride within myself to ensure that I did not burn all my matches too soon in the deep mud.

Off we went, things started well.  I played to my strengths and struggled on the long, long climb where I lost places each lap.  On the long downhill with added corners I made lots of these back.  As previous races I knew where I wanted to dismount and stuck to the plan.  As before it worked well as there is nothing worse than an emergency jump off the bike.

There was a long slight uphill section that was sooooooo muddy that I had to run the majority of it.  This is where I lost most places as lighter riders did not sink as deeply as me and managed to ride through.

Proper muddy bike

I stayed on the bike, managed to clear mud each lap and finished with a good result that definitely will help me in the overall league.

This race really brought home to me that the difference that power/weight ratio makes in cx is different to road riding.  I was passed by riders that I will usually beat on a dry day.  These riders are lighter than me and (I presume) less powerful.  In deep mud if you are light you float over the top far more and can keep momentum.  Larger and (once again I presume) more powerful riders who often beat me in the dry were passed by me on this day as they struggled even more in the mud than I did.

Target for next winter:  LOOSE SOME MORE TIMBER!

Great Skills Session with coach Tom

Tom put on a cx coaching session at Yorksport which was realy enjoyable for several reasons:

• It is great to train in a group
• He set up a proper mini course with proper taped corners
• We focussed on key areas - Start, corners, dismount and remount
• I could push the limits without compromising a race which I did and fell off quite a few times

North of England CX Championship

York Cycleworks and Yorksport hosted the championship race.  I was lucky enough to pre-ride the course on the day before the race, after helping a little to set it up.  The course seemed quite big, a lovely design with lots and lots of corners that could be taken at speed.  A long slog up a hill would sort the real fast riders from the rest.

Some things will always make me giggle and this number is one of them

Race day was damp under wheel but not proper wet.  Should I go mud tyre or intermediate?  I went mud tyre to ensure that I could keep speed in the many grassy corners.


My race came around so soon, gridded riders to the front, I was mid pack in the "also there" group behind. And they are off!


The start at Yorksport makes use of the tarmac cycle circuit meaning it is a faster start than usual for Yorkshire cx races.  25mph in a close bunch, each looking to gain advantage, is a nervous place to be.

I held my position well and once off road was a lot happier.  I made good ground first lap or so then settled into a rhythm.  Once again my main strategy was to stay on the bike except for planned dismounts.

Ian Taylor with broken bike

Couple laps in and what is this?  I pass the rainbow banded jersey of Ian Taylor, World Champion in my age group.  Wow

OK, I will have to admit that he was carrying his bike in 2 pieces, but I still officially overtook and hence have a lap recorded where I was faster than the current World Champion.

He made it to the pits, got a new bike and flew past me a couple of minutes later.




This is one of the magical things about cyclocross racing.  Very few riders of any other discipline will get the chance to ride in the same race as a World Champion, National Champion or professional riders from big name teams.  I have raced with all of these, been lapped by them and have nothing but admiration for their skills, strength and regard for other riders.

Its all about the performance

We are well over half way through the winter CX season up here in Yorkshire and I have had little time to reflect on what has happened so far.  I am going to split this blog entry into two main sections - a racing type report and then some bits of thinking and reflection.

Winter CX in Yorkshire

Firstly the weather has not been very seasonal up here.  Mud tyres have not been used often and full finger gloves have only come out of the bag once.  I have raced in colder summer CX races!

Performances in the Yorkshire Points series have been pretty good.  I have developed my start into a major weapon that usually puts me in a good position after the first lap or two.  I have tried to limit the number of mistakes as I race which is a good idea as well and have mainly stayed on the bike.

Highlights include good performances and results at Northallerton, Temple Newsome and Bingley where it really showed that the hard power training prescribed by coach Tom really has made an impact. 







My best race has been Huddersfield New College which is perhaps my favourite course on the circuit.  It has proper steep bits, a fair slog section and some really fast sections.  This year it was muddy - needing mud tyres.  I recced the course well and decided my strategy in terms of "I will get off the bike here and run" for 5 sections of the lap.  The skill, of course, is not deviating from your plan as I am always tempted by the "go on, you can climb that" devil on my shoulder.  If I listen to him I will of course mess up the climb and fall off.  This time I kept to my plan and produces a good performance and also a good result.

So 6 races down in this league, only 2 more to go!

Wednesday nights have seen me racing in the Vive le Cross mini series at Hull.  Four races in near darkness around some excellent courses that make really good use of the limited terrain available.  The thing about these courses are the lack of recovery time, you are always on full gas!  The series is over and I finished in the prize money!  4th in my age category is a nice result for me.  Made even better by some really close racing against good friends in each round.  Some battles I lost and some I won.

Time for a wash

Reflections

Firstly I have been enjoying my Training plan provided by coach Tom.  It is a joint effort, I tell him how I am performing and he tells me what to do to try and improve.  We have been really successful in terms of CX speed and power and I have worked on technique.  I know that my performance in training is not always reflected in race performance, an area that we will be looking at as time goes on.  As I have written before, it is really important that if you have a coach then you need to build a relationship with that person.  Tom understands me pretty well now, he knows my strengths and weaknesses both physically and mentally.  I do not know for sure, but I think that my own specific set of needs probably throw up more challenges to Tom as a coach than "the average" rider.  I like to think that I have helped develop him as a coach in return for his help.

Up to recent weeks I have been in a really good place on my bike.  I have been very positive and realistic in my goals for each training session or race.  I have seen real progress in both as a result.

I am at the moment going through a dark patch again, many of the indicators that I have seen before are rearing up again and I am trying to avoid descending into the state that I was in a couple of years ago.  Stress and anxiety are nasty in the way that they creep up, but more nasty in the way that they change thought patterns.  In good times I will train hard and be able to push well into the red.  At the moment my legs seem to hurt more and my head is yelling at me "Just stop and give up, you are rubbish at this".  Working with Tom right now is vital, I am very good at self reflection and know when I need to rest or simply play on the bike.  Tom is as always good at listening during these times and guiding me correctly from a physical point of view.

I recently read a fantastic little piece from cxmagazine.com click to read which really summed up how I try to ride and race my bike.  I race as hard as I can, I love the feeling of a good start, overtaking friends and clearing sections that others falter on.  I am not an angel and when going full gas I have been known to question "What are you doing? or "Don't stop there!" to other riders who accidentally get in my way.
My result is not ever going to be at the detriment of other riders.  Recent examples of this that really get on my nerves include:

• Any rider who is racing you on the same lap but makes progress by shouting at you rather than overtaking.  Lapping riders have the right to warn others, racing riders should overtake using skill and strength.
• Riders who push through gridding.  I recently saw a rider who, even not gridded, managed to push through the 3 lines of grid to just behind the front row. 

Is the result so important?
I want to focus on my performance.

Perhaps this is why my training performance does not get the race result?
If I shouted at other riders more often I might gain a couple of places.
I could never take enjoyment from removing somebody else's.

And I want to be the best rider that I can, one that is good enough to overtake properly, so that is what I will try to do.

Summer CX winnings

I have been mixing up some mtb in my riding recently.  This is great training, but also brings some enjoyment back into my riding.  I love riding the road, but nothing puts the smile on my face more than riding off road.  That is where my mojo can always be found

Riding a bike is all about mojo.

Long may it bring smiles.