I’d been marshalling the UOSCC/B38 road race on Saturday which was won by my teammate Archie Cross. While it was a great event to support and help out in I didn’t get chance to do a prerace ride, so I was anticipating a little stiffness during the first lap.
Capernwray wasn’t on last year but I placed 11th 2 years ago and am much fitter than I was then. However, just like last week, the field was stacked. Multiple UCI race winners as well as many riders of domestic caliber. Fortunately, I had a teammate this week, our race captain Andy Nichols. The course is a toughie, 8 shortish laps with a 3-4 minute climb, a long main road descent, a section of technical twisty roads smattered with short rolling climbs. Totaling over 1800m of climbing, it’s a tough day out.
I had a pretty dire start to the day. I’d left my bleedin’ jersey at home so had to wear my winter jacket with the sleeves rolled up. What a whopper!
It took me a while to get towards the front of the race and by the time I did, a break had of 4 had got away. We approached the main climb for the first time and I knew positioning myself at the front would be useful. I wasn’t sure how my legs were feeling so I made the effort to get to the front of the peloton to allow some slippage if the power wasn’t there.
Fortunately, I felt stunning. We hit the climb REALLY hard, the Madison Genesis riders laid down the Watts but I could keep with the pace and didn’t need to slip back at all. I summited in the top 5 riders and had averaged a tasty 460W for the 3-minute effort. The group had split and I was at the front. We hit the descent and started to pull turns trying to establish a chase group but in the long descent it started to come back together.
As we regrouped, a group of 8 riders containing Andy escaped. I sat in allowing others to chase, but they were flying down the twisty section and the front break was almost caught. We hit the single track section and I was at the pointy end around 5 seconds behind Andy. When suddenly the race came to a complete halt. There was a tractor blocking the road….
We had a few minutes of rest as we all snuck past it before the race was resumed. The break got given their 15s lead again but it was bullshit tbh. They were on the verge of being caught and got given WAY more than their 15 second gap.
The chase from the peloton was hard initially but eased slightly before the climb. As was were on the lower slopes, I made a serious effort to get to the front and sat in around 7th wheel. Now if we hit the climb hard first time, we hit it like granite this lap. Madison Genesis got all three riders on the front and went ham. For the entire climb I averaged 3 beats below maximum heartrate and held maximum for the last 30 seconds.
I was just trying to hold the pace and held a tasty 463W for 3:06 this time. By the top I was gassed but when I checked behind, there were only 5 of us… The three Madison riders: Matt Holmes, Ian Bibby and Joe Lavarack as well as Kieran Savage who incidentally came joint 11th with me at last year’s national hill climb. It was quite a select group and I was buzzing that Ian Bibby, Chorley GP and Velothon Wales winner could NOT stuzz the Buzz. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t have a humongous gap at all but I had made the split. The climbing legs were there.
Obviously I was wrecked now and could hardly contribute to the chase with Madison. But also why should I? They are full time pros and all three from the same team, the onus was for them to chase. We held the gap for a few km but gradually several riders at a time bridged before it all came back together. How annoying.
The next couple of laps went like this: we’d try get organised chasing but the group was too big to coordinate. We’d hit the climb moderately hard, some riders would get pinged. It’d split a little then regroup and this just allowed the break to get a larger and larger gap. At one point they had 1:25 lead.
We were on the technical twisty section, I was mid pack when suddenly there were shouts and brakes squealing. Crash… I thought it was to the left of the road, so swerved right. But bike in the road! Dodge! Emergency handling came into play and I got around safely. Unfortunately, it was my mates Louis Szymanski and Kieran Savage who had crashed with Louis in a sorry state. I didn’t quite see how it happened but Andy was eating a gel and somehow dodged it with one hand on the bars.
Approaching the climb for the penultimate time, we were informed the front group had split and there were just two riders up the road. Once again I was climbing masterfully and made the front split on the climb, but I was certainly feeling the anaerobic efforts now and could feel my muscles twinging with exhaustion.
I was banking on it combing down to a bunch effort on the climb and decided to sit towards the back and save energy before a hill climb effort. At this point, Dylan Burne read the race perfectly and attacked at an opportune moment. Andy was hot on his heels but I was out of position and missed the move. Stupidly I was caught napping but moved up aiming to get into a chase group. I followed the wrong one and ended up in a chase of 5 riders but we were all wrecked by now and just lost time on the twisty descent before the main climb.
Approaching the summit finish my plan was to just ride the climb as hard as I could and hopefully drop everyone I was with. This was pretty stupid. The climb was a block headwind now and my fellow chasers just sat in. I was too tired to go hard enough to distance them like before and they could just shelter. With about 300m to go they kicked and distanced me. I managed to claw one of them back and rolled in 20th place. I’m still getting my racing/endurance legs but it was significantly more optimistic than last week.
One thing I really struggled with today was cornering at speed. I just wasn’t flowing properly. I mean we were descending at 80kph but I just kept losing the wheel and having to sprint out of it to keep up. It’s just too fatiguing and contributed to my deficit at the end.
Photographic evidence of me being marked by Ian Bibby.
Capernwray wasn’t on last year but I placed 11th 2 years ago and am much fitter than I was then. However, just like last week, the field was stacked. Multiple UCI race winners as well as many riders of domestic caliber. Fortunately, I had a teammate this week, our race captain Andy Nichols. The course is a toughie, 8 shortish laps with a 3-4 minute climb, a long main road descent, a section of technical twisty roads smattered with short rolling climbs. Totaling over 1800m of climbing, it’s a tough day out.
I had a pretty dire start to the day. I’d left my bleedin’ jersey at home so had to wear my winter jacket with the sleeves rolled up. What a whopper!
It took me a while to get towards the front of the race and by the time I did, a break had of 4 had got away. We approached the main climb for the first time and I knew positioning myself at the front would be useful. I wasn’t sure how my legs were feeling so I made the effort to get to the front of the peloton to allow some slippage if the power wasn’t there.
Fortunately, I felt stunning. We hit the climb REALLY hard, the Madison Genesis riders laid down the Watts but I could keep with the pace and didn’t need to slip back at all. I summited in the top 5 riders and had averaged a tasty 460W for the 3-minute effort. The group had split and I was at the front. We hit the descent and started to pull turns trying to establish a chase group but in the long descent it started to come back together.
As we regrouped, a group of 8 riders containing Andy escaped. I sat in allowing others to chase, but they were flying down the twisty section and the front break was almost caught. We hit the single track section and I was at the pointy end around 5 seconds behind Andy. When suddenly the race came to a complete halt. There was a tractor blocking the road….
We had a few minutes of rest as we all snuck past it before the race was resumed. The break got given their 15s lead again but it was bullshit tbh. They were on the verge of being caught and got given WAY more than their 15 second gap.
The chase from the peloton was hard initially but eased slightly before the climb. As was were on the lower slopes, I made a serious effort to get to the front and sat in around 7th wheel. Now if we hit the climb hard first time, we hit it like granite this lap. Madison Genesis got all three riders on the front and went ham. For the entire climb I averaged 3 beats below maximum heartrate and held maximum for the last 30 seconds.
I was just trying to hold the pace and held a tasty 463W for 3:06 this time. By the top I was gassed but when I checked behind, there were only 5 of us… The three Madison riders: Matt Holmes, Ian Bibby and Joe Lavarack as well as Kieran Savage who incidentally came joint 11th with me at last year’s national hill climb. It was quite a select group and I was buzzing that Ian Bibby, Chorley GP and Velothon Wales winner could NOT stuzz the Buzz. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t have a humongous gap at all but I had made the split. The climbing legs were there.
Obviously I was wrecked now and could hardly contribute to the chase with Madison. But also why should I? They are full time pros and all three from the same team, the onus was for them to chase. We held the gap for a few km but gradually several riders at a time bridged before it all came back together. How annoying.
The next couple of laps went like this: we’d try get organised chasing but the group was too big to coordinate. We’d hit the climb moderately hard, some riders would get pinged. It’d split a little then regroup and this just allowed the break to get a larger and larger gap. At one point they had 1:25 lead.
We were on the technical twisty section, I was mid pack when suddenly there were shouts and brakes squealing. Crash… I thought it was to the left of the road, so swerved right. But bike in the road! Dodge! Emergency handling came into play and I got around safely. Unfortunately, it was my mates Louis Szymanski and Kieran Savage who had crashed with Louis in a sorry state. I didn’t quite see how it happened but Andy was eating a gel and somehow dodged it with one hand on the bars.
Approaching the climb for the penultimate time, we were informed the front group had split and there were just two riders up the road. Once again I was climbing masterfully and made the front split on the climb, but I was certainly feeling the anaerobic efforts now and could feel my muscles twinging with exhaustion.
I was banking on it combing down to a bunch effort on the climb and decided to sit towards the back and save energy before a hill climb effort. At this point, Dylan Burne read the race perfectly and attacked at an opportune moment. Andy was hot on his heels but I was out of position and missed the move. Stupidly I was caught napping but moved up aiming to get into a chase group. I followed the wrong one and ended up in a chase of 5 riders but we were all wrecked by now and just lost time on the twisty descent before the main climb.
Approaching the summit finish my plan was to just ride the climb as hard as I could and hopefully drop everyone I was with. This was pretty stupid. The climb was a block headwind now and my fellow chasers just sat in. I was too tired to go hard enough to distance them like before and they could just shelter. With about 300m to go they kicked and distanced me. I managed to claw one of them back and rolled in 20th place. I’m still getting my racing/endurance legs but it was significantly more optimistic than last week.
One thing I really struggled with today was cornering at speed. I just wasn’t flowing properly. I mean we were descending at 80kph but I just kept losing the wheel and having to sprint out of it to keep up. It’s just too fatiguing and contributed to my deficit at the end.
Photographic evidence of me being marked by Ian Bibby.