Club 10 30th June - 24'03". Would have done a sub 24 if I could get my bloody feet in the pedals. Not too bad considering I wasn't feeling great.
Staplefield E/1/2/3/4 1st August - 26miles sporting
Kevin didn't turn up so I was sole Dulwich representative. From the pre-entries it looked like I could get 2nd without trying. Then the cream of the SE Region turned up and EOL'd! My mission was to get round without being passed by all of them. I failed after Guy Powdrill passed me on t…
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Added by Guy Phillips on August 1, 2009 at 6:00pm —
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10th July - Brands Hatch
An E/1/2/3/4 on a great circuit. It was a bit too hard for me and I was dropped on the penultimate lap, but I really enjoyed it.
16th July - Harry Must 10
24'26". Felt OK but not a good time. One of my clip-on bars loosened and swivelled round thru knockholt so I didn't risk using them on the descent. A paramedic vehicle effected a 3-point turn in front of me at the bottom of the descent. and I had to negotiate 4 cars at the turn into Cudham lane. So I lost time, but I…
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Added by Guy Phillips on July 26, 2009 at 3:07pm —
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23'42"
That's a new PB. I was suprised that i got it. I hadn't been on a bike for 5 days, I'm smoking again, didn't feel strong and got stitch and had reflux on route to the start. I wasn't expecting a good ride.
I started steady and smooth without really feeling that I was putting the power down. But it was probably OK, or so I thought until Jules passed me over the brow of a small slope in Knockholt. I had another stitch at that time. Anyway, that woke me up. From there to the bottom of Cudh…
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Added by Guy Phillips on July 2, 2009 at 10:42pm —
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http://www.londoncyclesport.com/Gallery/Minet_Grand_Prix_E_1_2s.html
Check out these pics esp min071 to see me in a 2-lap break with Norwood Paragon's Russell Painter in the middle of the race. I was in a couple of smaller earlier breaks too. I was diddling around with 10 laps to go when 10 riders went off the front to take the placings and cruised over the line to take 32nd out of 38 finishers from a full field. I really enjoyed this windy race which was run at around 41kph. min068 sees me in…
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Added by Guy Phillips on June 19, 2009 at 12:28am —
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The 1/2s soon joined up with the 3/4s on this windy race, and from then on it was run at a fast pace throughout with a lot of attacks. There was a block headwind on the bottom turn and up to and past the start/finish line. It made for a really hard and fast race, with the race mostly…
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Added by Guy Phillips on June 7, 2009 at 2:04pm —
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23'58"
Personal best for the Cudham course, but I could do a good bit better. I started badly, over-geared, and was a little tired from the ride out. Turning down toward Knockholt I got my legs in and nailed it from there to the A21 and Cudham village - 68kph on the downhill - except on 2 occasions when I was slowed by cars. Returning to the start-finish up Cudham lane I wasn't great on the steep sections and was probably under-geared. The last mile to the Blacksmiths was all OK. I really…
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Added by Guy Phillips on June 5, 2009 at 11:00pm —
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I felt 'average' for this one, neither bad nor with those 'eager' legs. It was a gorgeous day and hot too - I rode in the group cos my average legs weren't up to my usual front-end riding. As the race went on my legs came in and I did a couple of attacks, but each time we hit a climb (not that there are big ones on this circuit) I had to work very hard to stay in and kept sliding from front to back. This didn't help me on the last lap when I couldn't move up the pack in the finale. I had a reaso…
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Added by Guy Phillips on June 1, 2009 at 7:39pm —
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First time at Eelmore - it's an up-and-down circuit. Up is headwind, down is tailwind, a mile all round. Thus nothing managed to stay away. I was in several breaks, a couple were quite good, but it came to a bunch sprint. My back wheel skidded out on the final hairpin and I lost 10 p…
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Added by Guy Phillips on May 28, 2009 at 8:30pm —
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4 stages, 3 days, a national B race for 1/2/3 categories in Kent. A bit out of my class but I really fancied stages 1,2 and 4 so I entered my 2nd stage race.
Stage One: Time-Trial: 5 laps of Fowlmead circuit, 17.5km. I did it with a time of 22'40", which I was very pleased with, and i…
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Added by Guy Phillips on May 26, 2009 at 12:00pm —
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There was no timer so we timed ourselves. I had 24'04", which is 2secs slower than my best from last year on that course. I wasn't feeling that great having had a 5-day hangover and I suffered on the steep parts. First run-out for my aero helmet.
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Added by Guy Phillips on May 22, 2009 at 10:47pm —
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I have no idea where I finished in this race - I suspect it was in the second group, lapped by the front group just before the line. But I really couldn't say what was going on in the race, it was so confusing. All I could do was race the people I could see.
I started at the back of the group so didn't get a good position to start off with. So my race was frustrating at first, being held up. I kept moving up through the back markers and bridging to groups ahead, but by the time I was in the fro…
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Added by Guy Phillips on May 13, 2009 at 10:14am —
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OK so it was only a training race... but I won a 10 lap race against the fast group. I broke free on the 6th lap and solo'd to the end.
Up to that point I was finding the skills and race training pretty boring, and was thinking of jacking this track lark in (in favour of something truly thrilling - time-trialling!)
Afterwards I was down at Edwardes looking at one of their special-build track bikes and wondering how much it would be on Bike2Work scheme...
Hmmm...
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Added by Guy Phillips on May 9, 2009 at 6:59pm —
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After the last post I got to wondering what my FTP was these days. I got home from work and set about a 2 x 20 on the TT bars, but found myself doing the FTP test warm-up and went for the FTP instead. I normally do an FTP test at about 11am on a Saturday morning, not 7.30pm on a Friday night but these were the results
Average Power for 20mins - 362watts
Functional Threshold Power - 343.9watts (344 for the sake of argument) - increased from 330 two months ago.
Power/weight ratio: 3.66 (not that i…
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Added by Guy Phillips on May 8, 2009 at 9:09pm —
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Right now I'm going by feel and have abandoned my rigid base-training program. I'm racing now so i can't be knackering myself too much. So, this is what it is:
VO2 Max turbo sessions - 6 x 2.5 x 5 @ 117-122% FTP
another is 5 x 4 x 4 but the 2.5min one has better quality throughout. I try to kick the 2.5min effort off with 30secs at 550+watts average, and then settle in for 400-410watts for the rest, never letting it drop below 385watts (117%).
Sprint practice - I do this on the road usually at…
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Added by Guy Phillips on May 8, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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First race of the season I was marshalling and so didn't race - thank god as there were over 80 riders that night
Race 2 washed out.
Race 3, I was there on time and done all the things I needed to do.
First few laps were fast as per usual, however I'm begining to think actually it's just that I'm not warmed up properly, and it takes a few laps for me to get up to temperature. However after a few laps I found myself at the back of the first group and we had split from the main field. Must have b…
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Added by Scott Bentley on May 5, 2009 at 11:20pm —
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Well that was quite hard - 10 laps, 100km, several climbs each lap... I was happy to finish in the bunch and at no time did I feel like I could make a move and have it stick. 33/60 finished in the bunch, so the rest went out the back or with punctures, broken spokes, disintegrated wheels. I was 28th. I should stick to flat races...
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Added by Guy Phillips on May 4, 2009 at 10:37am —
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It was a fine and blustery day. My back was still stiff but at least I was able to pedal properly. The circuit was the 3 mile perimeter road of the aerodrome.
I got off to some early attacks and bridges but nothing stayed away along the windy back straight. So I decided to sit in un…
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Added by Guy Phillips on April 25, 2009 at 10:00pm —
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Not much to say as I entered this one with a bad back, hoping it would be ok. I was hopped up on diclofenac and codeine, and couldn't put any force thru the pedals. I was dropped first time up Molash, much to my relief, but rode on for a couple of laps before pulling out with pain from the back but mostly through the pelvis. Crud...!
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Added by Guy Phillips on April 25, 2009 at 9:49pm —
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Seemed like quite a hard and fast (40kph) race with the 1/2s and the 3/4s racing together, about 15 1/2s. Apart from 3 1/2s two thirds thru the race who got a gap, nothing was staying away today, maybe cos of the wind. I sat in for the sprint and moved up in the last km. Again I was at the front, me and four others riding abreast, holding up the pack. Soon an SFA rider made a break and we were off for the sprint. I was baulked in the sprint, and then again after I picked it up looking for minor…
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Added by Guy Phillips on April 5, 2009 at 11:30pm —
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This was a disastrous race for me. So many errors I made.
First, I prepared badly, especially as I was targetting the race. I hardly rode in the week leading to the race, and not at all the day before. I didn't eat well the night before, or sufficiently in the morning - I raced hungry. I had to do a good warm-up to get my legs in, but they weren't really in for the whole race. The one good thing was that I was off the fags for a week before the race.
Despite not feeling great I held my own ok…
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Added by Guy Phillips on March 31, 2009 at 11:25pm —
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TTs
Crystal Palace #3 05/05/09
