ACC Open 25 TT - April 26th '09

[Keith]

A few snaps from this morning's "drool-fest" ACC Open 25 mile TT. (I was marshalling at the top of a long drag about 3/4 of the way into the course and drool seemed to feature with a lot of riders .)

[img]http://i40.tinypic.com/2925ifl.jpg[/img] [img]http://i41.tinypic.com/o9edti.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i40.tinypic.com/1193442.jpg[/img] [img]http://i44.tinypic.com/282j2mv.jpg[/img]

[Ivor]

Keith,
Aha! it was Les Ralph's helmet. See I knew it was two first names. but had guitars on the mind.

[Andrew G]

That's the Hop Oast roundabout Keith and at the top of a really horrible draggy climb if your legs aren't working on gradients, mine weren't today . Good to see Carole back out racing, you take a lovely picture too .

Thanks to Tamar and all the helpers today, particularly Keith pushing off before riding. Keeping the organiser sweet so he said .

I wasn't expecting much today after a toughish last half to the week and it was a mixed bag overall. I felt good on the flats but on the drags to Tollgate and Hop Oast my legs didn't want to work. I'd sort of been expecting this so just rode up them and then carried on racing afterwards.

The end result was a 1.04.11 for me which is roughly 20 seconds off my current PB, so better than I thought it would be today. A shame my legs are a bit cooked as it was a lovely day, a bit chilly at the start but okay after you'd been going a couple of miles, and I could probably have knocked a fair lump off my PB with fresher legs. Hopefully it bodes well for once the season picks up and the mornings are warmer.

Going to rest my legs this week so won't race (or to be accurate: drag my backside around off the back of the bunch) at Palace but will get up there to marshal and cheer on.

Some quick times out there today and George looked to be flying when I saw him on the other side of the road. There seem to be a new bunch of fast London Dynamo riders TTing this year too as I've never noticed them that much before but they had 4 riders in with 54s before their top rider took the event with a 52! That's shifting some.

[Ivor]

Brief round up.
so this is 5am.
anyway, up and left in plenty of time for a change. a bit of ice on the car heading off, got to broadbridge just after 6.
COLD.
pootled about a bit and got warm and ready, trying to decide whether I needed two layers or not. opted for the warmer of two sets of gloves I had but just one layer, expecting to warm up quickly enough.
off at 6.49.
COLD
many admiring glances for the helmet as usual. I think.
COLD.
ok first couple of miles, oh my god it's cold. really can't get any heat into legs, starting to lose feeling in fingers, toes (everywhere I goes etc).
wondering about decision not to wear two layers. very thankful for wearing thick gloves.
er C O L D
ok about 15 minutes in and I contemplated turning around. thought I'd have started to warm up by now, but I can't get any speed up and I'm, er, COLD.
hit the A264 up towards the motorway and oh, ok, I'm managing to keep the speed up a bit, ok perhaps I'm warming up a bit.

nearly killed.

getting ready to loop the roundabout, on the approach quick glance and signal, but see that there's a camper-van approaching at speed. hmm ok keep to the left for a bit, clearly desperate to pass me before the rbout he barrels past. not quite all the way past me, but then must have realised he was going too fast for the turn and slams his brakes on till he's going slower than me. sigh. ok ease up a bit. for a second. but then.... he decides he's going to have to turn too hard and decides to make the corner smoother, by pulling to the left and straightlining the approach. and actually pushes me over the f***ing white line.
I shouted something appropriate as loud as possible and got around. dammit. ok now I'm angry. cold. and angry. oh well it's the lovely long descent back down now. whoosh. oh the, er cold, wind.

right back on it and I seem to be closing on my minute man so charge ahead.
on the run back the sun is now up and about, and warming the dark gloves nicely. unfortunately minute man #18 seems to have warmed up too and the gap has actually started opening up
right, up to the slip road and get an earful of encouragement from markey mark. superb.
bit draggy up to the final turn, but it's the home straight now. wahay! and finally catch and pass #18. yay. want to make sure he doesn't re-pass so head down and crank the dial up to 11. and a bit. roll over the line with slightly less than zero in the tank.

did I mention it was cold?

Anyway clocked in at 1.05:54.
Plenty of work still to do there. Not quite sure where I need to concentrate my effort at the moment though.

cold.

PS. many thanks to all the marshals lots of excellent shouts going around, cheers!
PPS. excellent cake selection too.

[Andrew G]

You'll go faster when it's, er, warmer . Warm mornings make a big difference.
[quote]Not quite sure where I need to concentrate my effort at the moment though.

[Snoop Doug]

Good work folks. Me 'n Junior Snoop had a day off our rappin world tour so we went along for a mosey. Top tongue out from Jon H as we stood layby side and watched a few blast by. Watched Georgezilla (The Smiling Man as K later christened him) come hoofing in with a very good time.

Ivor, you're doing great. Mr has offered some useful advice there. I might add....don't kill yerself in first mile, ease into the flow. Don't push too hard up the drags. You need to be on the power the second you hit the top of a drag/climb, that's when the hard work starts dude.

Snoop

[Dominic]

Ivor it wasn't cold according to Mr PVT it was freezing. I must admit as I was driving through Leigh at 5.15am my car said it was -1. But it had warmed up to an almost tropical 2 by the time I got to Broadbridge Heath.

I was off no 16 at 6.46am. Gloves and armwarmers on. I was expecting to be reasonable today after only doing a 10 yesterday Started off nice and steady and found it a real drag to Bewbush, just could not seem to get a comfortable rythymn (Cue Snoop)

After Tollgate Hill things seemed to get faster but I noticed that 17 was creeping up on me, not good. Kept hammering away and got caught by no 20 who was flying. Got to the last turn at Southwater and saw 17 even closer. I had shouted encouragement to Carole H on the way down to the turn but I think I was gibbering by then.

I decided that I would mash up the hill (guy) and pushed 53 x 15 all the way and hammered down the other side. Finished looked at my watch. Disappointed to see I had managed a 1.01 something. Turned out to be a 1.01.00.

Thanks to all the marshalls and shouts/claps and to the pusher off. Apart from not being happy with my time it was a very Agreeable morning ride

[Sylv]

I finished in 1.00.14, annoyed not to go under the hour (especially as I thought I would, as I saw what I thought was the final bridge, but there was another similar one 1/2 mile up the road), but happy enough with that time for my first 25, especially considering how dreadful I had felt the previous day. I must still have been tired though, as I thought it was really windy, but no-one else seemed to think so . Also a low HR of 156 (despite high perceived exhaustion) would seem to indicate that.

I am not sure my riding position is sorted though, as when I got off the bike I had this horrible pain down the sides of the bum, not from the saddle, but probably the muscles I had used. I couldn't bend down and was walking like Liam Gallagher, which made giving pushes to riders for the final half hour slightly tricky. It's almost gone now but I can still feel it.

Well done to George and Mark © FW, Dom who is getting closer to fine shape, as well as the rest of team ACC, riders and marshalls

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/4318897

[George]

Managed to get my engine firing on all cylinders this morning

Felt smooth

Felt comfortable

Felt fast

Felt warm

Thanks to all the Agreeables for a great event and super duties carried out all round, your bacon buttie tasted nice too at the cafe afterwards, thanks.

There was such a great buzz in the HQ after that was great to be a part of.

LETS GET SOME NICE ADDISCOMBE FLAGS LIKE PARAGON HAD AT THE LES INGHAM!

The Smiling Assassin

[Mike I]

[quote]roll over the line with slightly less than zero in the tank

[Dominic]

[quote="Sylv"]I couldn't bend down and was walking like Liam Gallagher,[quote="Sylv"]
The first few feel like that, in fact I felt like that myself afterwards.

[Jon H]

Up early this morning, and set off with a car full of stuff; bike, direction signs, warning signs, kit bag etc; surely I must have forgotten something.

Warmed up by running around roundabouts with mallet in hand putting out all the signs for the course; 2 right, 6 left, 7 cycle event, lots of straight ons, and a chequered board. Discovered that the grass verges were a bit damp, so got soggy feet; first thing I'd forgotten was spare socks.

Found a parking spot next to the Georgemobile, got the bike out and into the HQ to change; discovered the second thing I'd forgotten was a base layer, so had to wear skinsuit only; brrrr.

Anyway, once I'd got over the shock of only having a layer of lycra between me and the great outdoors I felt quite good; much better than the SCCU last week. Lots of shouts of encouragement from the agreeable marshalls, and a couple of them gave me the clap

All the ones for me, 1:01:11. Hope I can improve on that and get back under the hour this year.

[mark mclaughlin]

Great TT morning, sun was out and a bit chilly…!! Set off steady seeing how the legs were firing from yesterday’s efforts but seemed ok , rode a measured race perhaps could of pushed a bit harder, but least the wind was nothing like last week.
Pleased with time its still April!

ACC Results:

57.05 George, Great ride the Assassin woke up today!
1.0.14 Slyv so close watch this space….
1.0.34 Me
1.1.00 Dom
1.2.22 Robert
1.3.38 Guru I’m so Bl….ding Cold!!
1.4.11 Mr Green
1.16.17 Carole came across a dear in her path!

Big thanks also to all Agreeables for making this happen, as George said there was such a great atmosphere.

[mark mclaughlin]

Sorry Jon I thought I included you also!

[Sylv]

1st Richard S _____52.35
3rd Guy P ________54.14
4th Martin W______54.45
5th Paul C________54.54