Club Run 21/7 Feedback

[Snoop Doug]

Lawks A Lawdy!

Three weeks in Italy enjoying myself with the family and too much red wine is probably not good prep for the SCCU 100 next week. I went with the 18 group for only the second time and decided not to stop at the caff. It was a v windy ride out and I felt it when I did my bit on the front. I did a slightly extended run overall and boy, I felt awful by the time I got home.

I made several errors today, let me list them for you:

1 - I didn't eat owt until about 3/4 of the way round
2 - Felt good as I went thru Charlwood and as a result I went far too fast for about 15 miles after the caff.
3 - Chucked in two steep hills towards the very end of the ride just for good measure

I underestimated how much fitness I'd lose in three short weeks. Although I did go running quite a bit on holiday it clearly wasn't enough. I think I'll just slope off back to Italy, I'll not be troubling the record books next week that's fer sure.

Cheers - Snoop

[Andrew G]

Number 3 isn't a mistake Snoop, it's good training.

Record books or not, you're doing a 100 which is a lot more than most of us have the guts to do. All the best for next week, just don't wait until 3/4 of the way round to start eating .

I've been feeling knackered for the 2nd half of the week so went with the 19s rather than the 20s (or training group which I keep telling myself I'll have to do soon).

Started up front and pulled it along in to the wind as far as the M25 turn off. Called a rotate at the brow of the rise and sat in for a while.

Did a few more turns but it's fair to say that Richard M was doing most of the work today.

Short Thru n' off for us. We had a bit of a wait to let the 20's set off ahead of us, they must have been having a good old yak for us to catch them . We set off for ours which was both pretty quick and pretty smooth. The only problem being that I suddenly realised a few must have turned off early as there was only six of us so there wasn't much of a breather before you were hitting the front again.

On to the sprint and my legs were feeling it by now as they'd been expecting an easier ride . Positioned myself well on 4th wheel on the outside, slid up to 3rd wheel. Richard, who'd been leading us in to the start of the sprint, kicked hard and I jumped on to his wheel. The final 200 metres I sat in tight and moved out to kick with 100 to go. Unfortunately there was no snap in my legs and although I made it alongside Richard I couldn't quite get there, so he pipped me by about half a wheel. Very strong riding after all the work he'd done.

Redhill return and fortunately it was raining when we left the cafe. I say fortunately as I don't mind riding in the rain, and it makes life a lot easier to put your rain cape on before you start than have to stop and faff about having already started to get wet anyway.

Due to the weather the pace was reasonably brisk all the way back, and my legs had finally started to feel okay, so I really enjoyed the run back.

Strong riding up the climb past the golf course by Jo, so I think it might be her towing Ian round on Tuesday .

Ta, ta,

Andrew.

[Stu Merckx Man]

went in a maHUsive training group today. i think there were about 10 of us.

we worked well, doing a through and off the whole way. unfortunately i punctured a little bit after leigh

i set off on my own, and still kept the pace high. i didnt do the duel carriage way as i wanted to make sure i got a seat in the cafe

i went through ifield instead, and got my seat in the cafe

went back via box hill. good fast pace.

up box hill is where all the action happened though...
by the the 1st hairpin the only people left were me, george, sylv and paul H. we were really motoring. it was easily the fasted i have ever gone up, but i felt ok.

on the 2nd straight george put in a huge attack and stuck to his wheel. i looked at my speedo and we were doing 20mph !!

i thought for a minute sylv might have been dropped but as we got to the 2nd hair pin i looked round and saw him still in it!
george stuck to the front and out of the saddle the whole time. george put in ANOTHER dig to try and drop us. i clung on, and looked at the speedo 22 MPH!!!! i couldnt believe it!! as we hit the section with all the trees i think sylv came to the front. the pace was still high, about 16 mph. i was aware that paul had moved to the outside of my wheel ready to attack.

i braced myself for the surge of power i would need. sure enough paul attacked about 70m or so before the last bend. i went after him and was about 15m back from his wheel. i looked back and we had dropped geroge and sylv just about, although they may well have closed the gap, but we will never know... as we got to the last bend i was only a couple of bike lengths back from paul, and i still had something in the legs to sprint for the top....unfortunately i took the bend too fast for how greasy it was in the wet, and out the saddle, so my back wheel slipped out and i went down! i skidded a few metres on my hip which has got a nasty piece of road burn!. sylv and george kindly stopped and helped me up, and paul must had heard me yelling some bad words as i fell , and also kindly stopped (moments from winning) to come and see if i was ok. cheers lads!

good fast run back to coulsdon. i took it easy though as my hip was pretty painful.

the bikes fine, just needs some new bar tape. and thanfully no scratches on the carbon! i think the way i fell ment the bike was pretty much ok. i was less off an impact kind of crash, and more of those smooth skiddy ones. so all that happended was the bike skidded from under me, with the hadle bars and pedal taking the scraped.

cheers
stu

[Sylv]

Well I was a bit disappointed upon first hearing that the hilly 50 was off, but today turned out to be a great ride.

The training group started with the usual suspects, plus a few lest-often seen - Ray, Kevin, Simon H. We kept it together until the hills before Rusper, when George put a big dig that, having been at the front, I couldn't match - Jim and Simon kept up, then did their own thing on the DC while the rest of us waited for regroup.

With the tailwind and smooth execution the through and off was a joy to ride. When we got off the main road I told the Shadow I would try and lead him out to the sprint if I got the chance to, to see if the two of us could beat George. Sure enough though he put a big dig to go solo, I chased and somehow managed to get us all back to him. Upon being caught George made a final attempt, in his biggest gear, which made him look from behind like a string-less puppet - he was all over the place with joints moving in all kinds of directions

Andrew then attacked followed by Hal and then Steve, George and I had by then done too much work so we just eased off and watched Steve get the sprint by about a wheel to Hal.

Out of the café a small group of us hid under a tree as the heavens opened. It got worse so we all got back in and a few of us had an extra cup of tea to warm us up. We left in drizzle, some with newspaper under their jersey, and got some good speed going as that was the only way to get warm. Kevin kept giving Contador-like accelerations on the climbs, that were real hard to match and belied his lack of training.

Stu told about our Box Hill adventure, my speedo said 6"51 and that was after turning back after Stu's fall and soft-pedalling the rest of the way. Paul's attack was phenomenal and Stu did well to keep his wheel, but must have been working a bit too hard when hitting the last hairpin.

Another good-paced ride back from Box Hill, did some good turns with George on the woop-de-woop bumpy road. I love the first bend at the bottom of the hill after we exit the posh house back-street so put a dig to get there first, but a van overtook me on the way down and I had to brake in that turn - in return though I got one of the best drafts ever, practically all the way to the lights at Coulsdon, doing 50-53 km/h all the way - I stopped and about a minute later the rest of the group arrived , led by Paul H who'd got a good gap on everyone.

[Will]

[quote="Stu Merckx Man"]i set off on my own, and still kept the pace high. i didnt do the duel carriage way as i wanted to make sure i got a seat in the cafe

[Ian A4size]

A good number of riders out todat again.
My legs felt like lead- a fast ride round the surrey lanes on Thursday evening with Chris had left me feeling quite sore.
Also I was mentally prepared not to ride as the forecast was for heavy rain, Jo said the night before that she wasn't out, so I was gonna do a quick lonesome spin.
Curses! It was sunny , We were still in bed at 8.10, but made it to the off by 9.15.
Opted for the 19 group this week- hoping to stay on instead of getting a kicking on the hills.
Highlights of the ride for me...getting a rider who is never on the front EVER to go thru and do some work
On the drag up to Rusper, Andrew and myself controlled the pace of the group, bringing it down so we could watch with great delight two of ACC's lightest riders do battle with the headwind, they kept looking back , waiting to be swept up- but we slowed even more

Thru and off was a tad lively- the group was small so it always seemed to be my turn!
Richard M did a fine job of driving us along- and as Andrew said he did a lot of the work all thru the ride.
After the dual carraigeway I was feeling a little tired so I just sat in and let Richard and another tow the whole group along in a line- sprint was a foregone conclusion- I knew the result as we left CSS
A nice speedy ride back thru the lanes in the pouring rain.
The missus did well again, she is riding very strongly at the moment- yep she can lead me round the jack and jill on tuesday.

[adrian]

...in some shape or form?

[Yohan]

set-off with the 20's group today, and had a real good paced ride, the pace was consistent, and thanks to Graham O's huge effort up front pushed us along to arrive at the cafe to avrg 21.1mph.

Had a good thru an off, and the 9-10 man group kept together...just. After the DC, the run in to the cafe quickly picked up pace...I could feel my resources draining, but still hung in at the back. The lead up to the sprint I'd managed to recover, and looked for Paul Tunnells wheel as he is always a dead fire cert to make a huge jump for the line, he kicked out, I followed then put in a huge jump and pulled around the bunch gaining 10-12 yrds, i looked around and no-one was gonna catch me.......my third sprint win in a row, I was delighted

Almost went to Box Hill, but then saw the rain and thought redhill was a better option..hmm.....rode straight into a mini monsoon an got soaked!Everyone had left off much earlier so the ride back was solo, wet an pretty grim.

Got back to see the TDF time trails....seems there were plenty of crashes and wheels skidding out both in CR and TDF.

cheers
yohan

[Graham O]

Cheers for the ride today chaps. Good to see all doing some good stints in the 20 group.

[Paul H]

Good to see so many people prepared to do a training ride and hopefully they all enjoyed it and will try again.

I wasnt feeling very well so was just sitting in today and felt a bit guilty sprinting off for the win at Box Hill - then again it doesnt seem to bother George's new mate from Spain. Perhaps the TT yesterday was Karma.

God knows why Stu tried to go round the last haipin so fast - he wouldnt have caught me anyway. He will learn one day but probably not very soon.

[quote="Sylv the Cat"]Upon being caught George made a final attempt, in his biggest gear, which made him look from behind like a string-less puppet - he was all over the place with joints moving in all kinds of directions

[quote="Toks"][quote="Sylv the Cat"]Upon being caught George made a final attempt, in his biggest gear, which made him look from behind like a string-less puppet - he was all over the place with joints moving in all kinds of directions

[Paul H]

I can see another fram going back to bianchi.

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

[quote]Paul Tunnells wheel as he is always a dead fire cert to make a huge jump for the line, he kicked out, I followed then put in a huge jump and pulled around the bunch gaining 10-12 yrds, i looked around and no-one was gonna catch me.......my third sprint win in a row, I was delighted

[Yohan]

..Paul....I'll take any advantage I possibly can over you!

until next time

cheers
yohan