Grain of Sand

Sorry for the slow posting. I have had my first 2 exams this week so blogging is not key priority. I had Hog Hill Junior GP last weekend. Theoretically it should have suited me great- 80km and 40 times up a pretty hard power climb. I also had my own domestique de-luxe- 75 kilos of raw Stuart Power. It may be around 74 kilos though as he spent an hour shaving matts of hair into the sink. I won't include pictures of that. After a good warm up the race started. Stu went for an attack about 3 laps in but got pulled back. About 10 laps in the race just turned into a dogfight and I spent 30 laps in agony. Between then and the finish my legs gave out and Joe rode off the front. I finished 7th. My form isn't the best at the moment- I just feel quite tired. There are quite a lot of photos on the website- www.hoghilljgp.org They are heavily weighted towards Joe which I suppose is fair considering he won, but lets be honest, everyone likes looking at pictures of themselves racing. Watch...

My Dad has uploaded loads of footage of the Junior Tour. Check out the comments about the Irish coach. These are just the highlights. Follow the youtube links for video of each individual stage. (Check out Stage 2- I won that one, but its not pretty)

Here are some pictures of the Club 25 run around the drift road circuit. I'm in an ODP skinsuit as Twickenham are having a skinsuit made. Here's Stu concentrating My Dad also videoed me and Stu.

I made a very low key start to this year's Reading Track League. I was last in my keirin heat, eliminated from the devil, and about 7th in the 20k. To do myself justice I was racing for training and pretty aggressive but still. I learnt a good lesson though. Sunday's time trial was supposed to be followed by 2 hours steady, not 2:30 reaming myself around the Chilterns. Usually I have a recovery day Monday but I got a surprise Sunday night when my coach called!

This week was all about time trialling. Stuart and I did the Thursday night Maidenhead CC 10 miler. I did a 23:36 which I was a bit disappointed about. It is a sporting course but the fastest guy took a minute out of me. Stu did a 25 something which was a good ride. Sunday was the club 25. I prepared very thouroughly and did a pretty well measured ride. I was tired after yesterday's long ride but I don't think it affected me too much. My new shoes (specialized road pros) felt great. I only got them yesterday and had not had a chance to try them out, so it was a risky move.  I ended up doing around a 58 30 which I was pleased with as I was aiming to break the hour on such a sporting course. Stu did a 1:08 on a road bike which was good. Video and pictures might be up shortly. Had an interesting sandwich for lunch. Toasted brown bread, houmous, pesto, beetroot, sausage, and spinach- was delicious. Reading track league tommorrow should be hard. I had expected a rest day so went out...

It was my first Tuesday night Hillingdon race of the year this week. As it was quite short (45 minutes) and I wanted a good workout, I was very aggressive. Me and Colin Roshier got away in the closing stages but Plowman Craven and Agiskoviner pulled us back with 500m to go for the almost inevitable bunch sprint (won by Tony Gibb). I finished mid pack but was delighted to find that my brother won his 4th Cat race. This was Stuart's first race and such was his immense power he won the sprint without getting out the saddle (video will be up shortly). We just need to build his endurance and he should be sorted! At 75kg I imagine he has good potential as a rouleur. On Thursday I travelled up to Manchester to see Phil Burt, the BCF physio. He suprised me with an entirely unorthodox physio assessment. I was expecting the usual flexibility/core tests but he stuck tiny silver balls on my joints and filmed me under bright light while on the turbo. I should get results through soon. I got the...