Eight members of Team Trisports CX made the trip over to Oxford on Sunday to compete in Round 4 of the Central Cyclocross League Championship.

On a course that couldn’t have been more different to the previous weeks round at Hemel Hempstead, it was Joel Farrow (pictured left) who led the way for the club with a very strong ride to 26th overall.

Finishing second for the club, Bam (pictured right) was once again in the thick of the action as he put in a committed ride to follow Farrow home.

And Sean Bradley rounded out the club top three with a solid ride on a course that played to his cycling strengths.

Also competing were; Tim Smith, Dave Welch, Mick Clark, Keith Perry and Michael Humpris.

And finally, there was more good news for Joel and Bam as their strong performances this season have earned them selection to represent the Central Region in the British Cycling Inter Regional Championships in two weeks time along with team mates Sean Storey, Heather Storey, Paula Adams, Jackie Perry and Kate Turner.

Fourteen members of Hitchin-based Team Trisports CX continued their cyclocross adventures this past weekend at Round 4 of the Central Cyclocross League Championship.

Having played hosts as well as participants at the previous round; this time out team members could focus purely on racing to the best of their abilities on a Hemel Hempstead course that featured some extended sections of single-track that would have been more at home in a mountain bike race.

Once again it was Sean Storey who led the way for the club with a superb performance to finish 11th overall, and 3rd Vet, against vastly more experienced and specialist competition.

Elite triathlete Stephen Harrison put the previous races DNF disappointment behind him to finish second club finisher ahead of Joel Farrow, who has yet to finish outside the club’s top three in every race thus far.

Paula Adams was the first club finisher in the Women’s race and earned herself a 4th place cash prize to boot!

Finishing order: Sean Storey, Stephen Harrison, Joel Farrow, Tim Smith, Simon Douglas, Jon Wilson, Keith Perry, Mark Robertson, Dave Welch, Mick Humphris, Paula Adams, Heather Storey, Jackie Perry and Lesley Dutton.

Hitchin Boys School became the place to be on Sunday as Team Trisports CX hosted the second round of this year’s Central Cyclocross League Championship.

With the large crowd fully equipped with coffee, cakes and cowbells, 25 members of the club took to the start line of the hour long race for the Senior, Female and Veteran categories.

Finishing first for the club with an awesome ride to 15th position overall was Sean Storey, who enjoyed a race long battle with elite triathlete and club mate Stephen Harrison before a puncture prematurely ended Harrison’s race.

There was also another strong performance from Joel Farrow, who ended up 2nd for the club just 8 days after his 1st place performance at the Milton Keynes event the week prior.

And rounding out the club’s top three was Tim Smith, who dug deep in his usual manner to take the final podium spot.

In the Women’s race there was double celebration as Kate Turner and Paula Adams earned 2nd and 3rd place finishes respectively.

Competing were: Sean Storey, Joel Farrow, Tim Smith, Tony Shortland, Mark Beaver, Andrew Mussett, Sean Bradley, Ian Hobbs, Kate Turner, Mark Grayson, Michael Humphris, Michael Clark, Paula Adams, Craig Tribe, Paul Dutton, Mark Young, Mark Malone, Heather Storey, Darren Greene, John Wilson, David Welch, Lesley Dutton, Stephen Harrison (DNF), Steffan Ford (DNF) and Simon Douglas (DNF).

The traditional winter sport of cyclocross got off to a red hot start, quite literally, on Saturday for nine members of the Team Trisports CX crew who kicked off their 2011 seasons at the Milton Keynes Bowl in temperatures that soared to 30c.

Taking the heat in his stride, Joel Farrow finished first for the club with an excellent ride on a course that tested every riders climbing and bike handling abilities and showed that Farrow’s strong 2010 season was more than just a one off.

Also putting in a strong performance, Simon Douglas, who having made the decision to make a full time switch from triathlon to cyclocross earlier in the year, finished second for the club with a ride that rewarded his determined approach to this season.

And rounding out the club’s top three, Tim Smith showed his cycling pedigree with a controlled ride to third.

Switching to the women’s race, veteran athlete Jackie Perry secured an excellent result of second lady overall and in the process made the Milton Keynes event podium for the second consecutive season.

Also racing were; Mick Clark, Dil Wetherill, Mick Humphries, Paul Dutton and Lesley Dutton.

After completing the Vitruvian I was interested in my swim splits as I was concerned with the time being much slower than the dambuster. I found the website with tools to compare pace per 100m. I used another athelete splits in both races to compare with mine and was shocked to find that I was 15secs slower compared to the other athelete being 9secs slower. Think I may not have raced to my full ability. I will return with the experience gaged.

http://www.bx3.com/phil/tri/tricalc.asp

Athelete 1 ( Dambuster Time (/100m) – Vitruvian Time (/100m) )
22:10 (1:28) – 30:51 (1:37)

My Splits ( Dambuster Time (/100m) – Vitruvian Time (/100m) )
22:39 (1:30) – 33:32 (1:45)

I arrived at the race looking to achieve a sub 60. The record had to go and I knew after my last attempt that I could manage the time. However, the weather wasn’t looking good. It was very overcast at best. Anyway, the race got going and starts with a descent, the first time trial I’ve done with a descent. The outward section feels like it’s going up hill and then under a tunnel. The wind was following me and was probably the cause of me being undergeared. On the return I looked and notice an average of 25.9mph, I thought right dig deep and make sure you get to the line and notice at least 25mph. I noticed the line and the chequered flag and gave a final sprint as I passed the marshalls shouting 68 (come to think about it could easily be turned around to look like 86). I looked at the garmin to see the magic average spped of 25.6mph and a massive “YES”.

Final Time = 00:58:47

Below are my Garmin reading for the route.

I arrived at the race with a fellow Team Trisports member. For once I was early and I set up the transition area. Luckily the weather was good and clear. I started in the 1st wave for the olympic race and found the river challanging at best. Worse of all was my wetsuit had started to burn my neck again and I could feel it every time I sighted. I decided to follow some feet but lost touch on the way back and had a nice gulp of the sewarage.

The bike course is really good and fast although I got annoyed with some drafting. It reminded me of club runs around the coople loop. For once, my back didn’t hurt and no hamstring problems. I got on the run and started to catch some people in front. The end result is below but was more enjoyable for the lack of pain/issues. Next mission is a quicker swim and bike.

Overall : 9
Time : 02:11:38
Swim : 00:25:10
T1 : 00:00:55
Bike : 01:07:09
T2 : 00:00:43
Run 00:37:40

Well hello readers.

I hope to engage you in what will be a running blog of my race of the year, The Dambuster. My knowledge of the dambuster isn’t the best but I love the film and my motivation when in pain will be memorising the dambuster music.

Well how did I get to enter this race ?

It was a mixture of things, discussions with Steve and Jinxy last year on how they have enjoyed the race, the fact that it’s the BTF NATIONAL TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011 and the qualification event for the ITU Standard Triathlon World Championships 2011 – Beijing, September 2011, sadly I can’t afford a trip. So coach Simon picked it as my main focus for the year in my race calendar and I entered (I was not lucky enough to get a free entry as an early fathers day gift or birthday pressie or 10th wedding anniversary gift).

Race Plan

So what do I want to achieve, I’m not racing to win but I will be racing to achieve the highest possible place in my age group. I would prefer this to be in the top 3 as my goal for next year is to qualify for an ITU event and actually be competitive against my peers.

Pre-Race Prep

Thanks to coach Simon advise I’ll be camping at the site. I’ve checked the weather and can confirm it will be raining whilst I pitch my tent. I’ve actually only ever camped once before and it rained every day so I do have a bit of experience, but am interested on how this differs to a night in a hotel / early morning 4am wake up call and drive. The actual course cycle is longer than a normal olympic and has a few hills but looks like good drag, the run also looks pancake flat and all times checked last year would confirm this when comparing against others I’ve raced before.

The Sleep + Trip

I left St Evenege at 6pm and realised that the A1 was closed after J17 due to a fire. Great, so took an off road tour of roads and areas I didn’t realise exist including a War Memorial. Finally got to camp at 8pm and set about setting up the tent and blowing up my deluxe blow up bed. I also had a chance to register and walk around the course which was refreshing. Also had a chat with fellow triathelete campers. Now I’ll admit the sleep could have been better as it didn’t stop raining all night and then at 5am the organisers decided to start the music

Race Setup

I bumped into fellow team mate Richard Melvin at the course and had a quick chat but I felt really relaxed as I was prepared. Put bike into transition and followed Dil’s top tip for counting the right steps (This is brilliant and works !!!).

The Swim

Now what a great place to swim, the lake is beautiull and they split out waves from 35+. The race started and I got into a bunch of 6 and simply followed feet. This was a real change from my usual 100m burst. I was relaxed and controlled and felt easy. I got out in 22:39 so equally happy with the time.

T1

A simple transition and away I went. Okay not as fast as dil but safe !!!

The Bike

What a course. It has 2 hills and then is flat and undulating but ends with a few climbs. I was probably a bit layed back in the bike as the organiser warned us at the start of issues with Police and any law infringements and they would cancel the race. However, I still raced and as I was in the 2nd wave it was great to pick-of athletes from the first wave. I suffered on the bike with a bit of back pain and my chain jumped off the rear cassette (now I don’t think I’ll ever buy a Planet-x again and luckily Trisports are fixing the deficiency with the frame), this had a slight negative on me that I didn’t risk going up too many gears but used the Turbo sessions 120rpm to full use. It was a windy day and this was made clear by the number of aero bikes on the side of the route caught by the strong winds. I ended with a time of 1:11:21 and this really is the difference if you want to be in the top 10 let alone the top 3 of my Age Group.

T2

DOH DOH DOH. I ended up with one shoe on and one off. Yes for the first time ever in Triathlon I messed up by not taking my feet out of shoes far enough in advance of the line.

The Run

By far the best run course I have done to date. Great scenary and flat, although windy. It’s a nice out and back. I ran steady leg and finished with 36:05 which was the difference between me and a fellow HSBC employee .

The Result

Overall = 62
Age Group 35-39=11th
Overall Time : 2:12:12
Swim : 0:22:39
T1 : 0:01:10
Bike : 1:11:21
Run : 00:00:55
Run : 0:36:05

Review

I’ll admit I did start with a vision of 3rd in my age group but I now realise that is a tougher challenge, although one I will take up. I quite fancy targeting the Age Group qualification to New Zealand in Olympic Distance next year. I’ll return to the course this year to do the middle distance and have different ideas on how to tackle the bike. Now on to the next Olympic and hopefully get down to 2:05 (Think I’ll target MK as it is short ). As events go this has top marks from me except with the exception of a timing issue but this was resolved by the time I got home, great facility (showers etc).

A good day out in Hatfield Broad Oak not to be mixed with Hatfield in Hertfordshire (I wondered why the Sat Nav displayed 60min to destination). The race which is part of the annual village festival and is a closed road course was full of runners and supporters. The course was tough and although overcast the weather was very humid. I managed a time of 35:40 (Chip Time) and came home in 17th place.

Running Number: 538
Gun Position: 17
Gun Time: 00:35:43
Chip Position: 17
Chip Time: 00:35:40

The race started well with the first K being a quick 3:20. Then the following being 3:27, 3:28, 3:30, 3:31,3:34 then the wheels came off and the early pace killed me 3:49,3:54. The last 2k was an improvement in 3:40 and 3:25. Here are the Garmin Stats of the day !

The course was a little too lumpy, and a little windy and I could have done without my chain coming on my rear cassett (cost me 90 seconds). The wind picked up later in the race, so the early starters definitely had it easier (oh that would be me). The race venue was spot on and I enjoyed the delights of my black coffee and Carrott cake at the end. It was also a good outing from team trisports so it was good to come home first for the club. Now to target a course to beat that sub 60! The end result was 1.02.42.