Right on track....

...literally.

As promised, here's a short report of my newest time-sink, a day on a cycling track. As I see, Cait, who did the same session as me on the day (i.e. track accreditation followed by a track training session) has beaten me to it already on her blog, and you can read there what we did, so I'll just give a few of my own impressions here.

The sundrive track is nothing near as scary as a "real" indoor track (so I was told), as it only has very shallow banking.

Riding a bike without freehub, gears and brakes does take a bit of getting used to. There was a few times where I almost got caught out, e.g. when I wanted to shift my position on the (quite uncomfortable) saddle, which I would usually do in freewheeling mode, but your bike reminds you very quickly that you have to keep pedaling.


I thought it would be difficult to keep pedaling after a full out sprint, because whenever I do it on my roadbike I do not have the power to turn the pedal any more after the effort and usually freewheel until I've recovered. On a track bike the pedals move your legs after a full-out sprint.

I know I am very much spoilt with the bikes I ride (blog post on my new S-Works Carbon Epic coming as soon as it's customized and fully built up), but I think the track people keep such - how can I say this diplomatically - low-end well-used starter rental bikes to entice you to buy your own bike as soon as possible. I won't go into details, but I almost spent more time off the track getting my bike fixed than riding it!

This leads me to another point. From the start Ireland is at a disadvantage when it comes to developing track cycling as a sport due to the lack of facilities and resources (Ireland doesn't have an indoor track and only a couple of basic outdoor ones).... On the other hand, there's plenty of mountain biking opportunities and you can practically ride all year round. And with plenty of people doing it already, I bet there's some track talent lurking on the dirt roads!

Anyhow, after the session I was intrigued and looked up track records and made some calculations of how many seconds I could shave off merely with the right equipment, i.e. using a skinsuit, a pointy helmet, shoe covers, an aero bike with aero wheels and good tires....

Recent Road Racing

While I love the long winter miles of building a base on the road bike (especially when they are spent in a warm country with nice weather), they are unfortunately not sufficient to properly prepare for the high intensity of racing. This means threshold or AC hill repeats.... - or road racing! I've found that the constant changes in power output in road racing quite nicely simulate those of mountain bike racing. And here in Ireland there's actually quite an active road racing scene - every weekend from spring to autumn there are several road races to choose from. So, instead of those annoying drills, I chose to do a few road races.

Ras Naomh Finian, Saturday, 12th March, Clonard
Course: Easy out and back course, big straight roads, good surface, a few roundabouts, flat, 70km.
Weather: Grimnest! It was freezing cold at the start, and the mizzle turned first into rain and then into snow and sleet! Breaking, shifting and drinking became difficult after the feeling had left the frozen fingers....
Race: A3s (my category) started off after giving the A4s a head start.
Goal: Get a good and hard workout.

I was here to get in a good AC workout. For some reason I had amazing legs and great determination. I basically chased everything that moved. I was very happy with my positioning, staying around the front for most of the race (I made it into at least 4 of the Irish Cycling shots!). We caught the A4s on the way out and rode through them. On the way back the speed and the attacks picked up. I started to feel the effort and started cramping up. I lost a few places going around a right-turn roundabout the longer way, like so many others and had to work hard to work my way back to the front. One person got away in front (I missed that) and the rest came in as a big bunch sprint. At that point I was so toast from the effort that I was happy to roll over the line with everybody else. Turns out I rolled over the line as first lady :) Frozen, but happy :)

After the race (which was only about 1h 45min) I went to do some mtb training, just in case I hadn't tired myself out enough in the race...


Newbridge GP, Sunday, 13th March, Newbridge
Well, what better idea than to really put the nail in the coffin and do another road race after a hard race and training the day before? Spontaneously I decided to turn up to this race and see what happens. When I started mtbing a few years back I used to race in the UK a lot, doing an XC race on Saturday followed by a 100km XC marathon on Sunday and I felt that these double sessions of back-to-back racing benefitted me a lot. Unfortunately the marathon series was discontinued, which really is a shame. But at least here in Ireland I could do 2 road races on consecutive days.

Course: 4 laps of a course, smaller roads, bigger field (about 160 riders in A3), 70km
Weather: Nice and not too cold either :)
Race: A3s had their own race.
Goal: Try and complete with the bunch.

We had a neutralized start until we reached the course. The bunch was nervous, for many their first road race of the season trying to show off their winter form. Breaks were squealing all the way to the start of the course. I was too scared and stayed at the back of the huge group. When we reached the course the speed suddenly seemed to go up and the person in front of me dropped the wheel. When I tried to chase back on my legs were saying no-no and the bunch pulled away. I regrouped with a few more stragglers and pushed on nonetheless. If I can't get an AC workout, then at least I can get a good tempo workout (I was out on my bike already, so no sense in turning back home now and starting again!). And so I went round and round the course 4 times mostly by myself.

After completing it I went home and out on the mtb again for a bit more of fun riding. In the evening I wasn't sure if I'd achieved the goal of tiring myself out enough, but when I cycled to college the next morning I was sure that I did - I was wrecked!

St. Patrick's Day Road Race, March 17th, Dunboyne
Course: Out to circuit, 2 laps, back to Dunboyne, mostly on smallish roads, 56km
Weather: Warm and dry
Race: A3s had their own race.
Goal: Get in a good training session and, if legs allow, be first lady over the line.

Team Cycleways was out in force with 3 people entering the A3 race: Stew, Sean and me - it is a bit weird seeing other people wearing "my" jersey! The general race plan (so I was told) was to take it easy on the first lap and then string it out on the 2nd lap, so I decided to save my energy and sit in on the first lap. Again the bunch was nervous and I wasn't focused, slipping back in the bunch all the time. I had one main competition in this race in the form of Michelle Geoghegan, pro-rider and thus well able to ride efficiently and defend her position in the bunch. After a crash in front of me I decided I had to get to the front to get out of harms way and worked my way up. The speed was fast on the 2nd lap and my legs were not in as great a form as in Clonard and I found it tough enough. Then somebody started attacking and I followed, but I was not quite able to stick on. Either way, I found myself quickly in front of the bunch by myself, about equidistant between the attacker and the bunch. Another lad attacked and bridged across to the guy in front - my chance to hang one, but unfortunately I reacted too late and wasn't strong enough to catch onto his wheel. So I was in nomansland, hoping for the bunch to catch me again quickly, because I was still going hard... Finally I was swallowed up again. The speed stayed high and we were on our way home. Again I kept slipping back through the bunch, with Michelle always in sight in front of me. The roads on the home straight are anything but straight and quite tight and windy, leading to another crash right beside me of a person going into a tight corner too fast (I almost washed out on the muddy edge of the road myself) and instinctively I slowed down. Big mistake, because the bunch kept going at full speed and soon I found myself out the back. I tried to chase on, but with Michelle in front in the bunch I knew that my chance to be first lady had gone at that stage, so I had to be content with letting them go and roll over the line after the bunch. Goal half-achieved!

Next up will be a short report about another new distraction - track cycling!

Leinster MTB Series Race 1, Bunclody, Wexford

Probably the biggest grin ever :)

I was so happy to do a local XC race for once - no bike packing and Ryanair flight! While I'm already in full swing in racing season (I've done 5 XC and 3 road races this year so far, reports of road races will be put up soon), the Leinster League MTB Race 1 in Bunclody, Wexford was for many of the Irish MTB community the first test of their legs. For me the race was going to be a first test this year against Cait Elliott, my biggest competition here in Ireland. Last year I was able to fend her off in all races, but she's come uncomfortably close in some of them and believe me, I really pushed hard in those! Every year it's a question if she's been able to make up the small gap that separates us over the winter or not.

This year I was also a little bit more nervous, because after finishing her studies last year, she's practically turned full-time and similar to me has already had great racing in her legs from completely dominating and winning the first edition of the Andalucia Bike Race in Spain in the mixed pair category with Josh Ibbett. Not only that, but they also fared really well in comparison to the leaders in the women's pair category (Sally Bigham & Kristine Norgaard), and I have a good indication of what form both of them are in at the moment (I've seen Sally many times when out training in GC this winter and she was flying then and Kristine Norgaard showed us all what great form she is in by placing 3rd in the first Cyprus Sunshine Cup Race just before the stage race). So these were the kind of thoughts that were playing on my mind while I ventured to do a pre-lap of the course.

The course was basically a mixture of draggy shallow fire-road climbs (my favourite, something I'm good at) and slippery, muddy and rooty singletrack descents (my least favourite and something that Cait is very good at). So overall our advantages should be evened out and the course probably suited Cait as much as me, just in different sections.

A video of the sliddery descents

Since we were starting off on the fireroad climb my tactic was to go full-gas on the first (and subsequent) climb(s) and get into the slippery singletrack ahead of Cait and try and place as many other riders as possible between her and me (we were starting off with new Senior 2 Men's Category).

I knew I had enough racing in my legs to pull off a fast start and was hoping for Cait to go overboard by trying to stick onto my wheel on the climb (which I assumed was going to be her tactic, followed by and nipping into the singletrack ahead of me). So we went off and I did put in a big effort on the climb up and my plan seemed to work. Of course on the first lap on a tight muddy singletrack there's always going to be a bit of a hold-up and after dropping the chain and a few mistakes on my part Cait had caught up with me, so it was focus, focus, focus to stay ahead of her and blast up that 2nd fireroad climb. I lost (what seemed like) an awful amount of time still on the smeary singletrack descents, making a good few of mistakes (I should have changed to a Nobby Nic on the rear) but got out ahead of Cait and made up lots of places again before hitting the next singletrack descent. For the whole first lap I could see Cait still behind me whenever the singletrack double-backed on itself and I knew I had to keep the pressure on.

I was very happy with my climbing and took it a little bit easier on the 2nd time up so as not to be so much in the red zone on entering the single track. And for the rest of the race the play was repeated - I overtook a few people on each of the climbs and lost the places again on each of the descents (each time dropping a little bit further down on the overall Senior 2 Men's ranking). I was quite disappointed with my bike handling on the singletrack, I wasn't doing my amazing and supersmooth S-Works Epic any justice today, and thought I was too timid and rode too rigidly, deciding to run a lot of the sections instead of riding them, but on the upside I was very happy with my speed up on the climbs and my general fitness. After the fast first lap I was able to get into a good rhythm each time on the climbs and felt I could have gone even harder if required and because I was riding the climbs more controlled I was less tired going into the singletracks and rode them better each time round.

In the end I finished about 2 minutes ahead of Cait - she definitely has gotten faster, so hopefully that means we've both improved over last year. So while both of us had the podium guaranteed (there were only 2 of us in the Senior Women's 1 category, sad, I know), I still had a really good and hard race, and yes, I am quite happy and relieved that I was able to hold Cait off for another race (but it's getting harder each time!) ;)

Another victory for Cycleways!

Thanks Oisin Fitz and Aine from MAD who did a great job of doing my bottles this race. And thanks to the encouragement shouted along the way! Thanks also to Racing795 for putting on a very well-run race on a nice but challenging course.

Results are up here, I would have placed 9th in Senior 2 Men's - not bad considering the shamble I made out of the singletrack descents!

The next race against Cait (why am I getting so much fun out of this?) is going to be in Sherwood Forest, UK, for the first UK NPS this weekend. The course is fairly flat and generally suits me well, so I'm looking forward to it!

Cyprus Sunshine Cup #3 Race, Amathous

Start of the race (Picture by Marius Maasewerd)

It's amazing how different one's perception of a race can be from another racer! When I read Annika Langvad's blog post about how the race went for her (she won it), I first thought she was talking about a different race....

Anyhow, for me the race started with a blistering pace and I was being squeezed in by riders from either side, so I dropped back to avoid a crash. The start loop was up a short climb and very fast along on fire road and road circumnavigating the complete race arena. I found the pace very fast from the start and did my bestest to hang on to the bunch - it was like a road race: a person in front of me dropped a wheel and I had to chase! Finally, on the road section I was able to make up a few places and catch onto the group in front before we hit the singletrack and that was more or less where I would end up position wise. Because while the course is great fun to ride, with about 95% singletrack (time-wise), it's not that lovely in a race when you can't get by some girl that would rather push you down the hill than let you pass her (I only witnessed the quite physical elbows-out battle between the two girls in front and thought better than to get involved myself, apart from shouting at the girl that was holding both of us up). So we had to trail behind her for a whole lap before we had the chance to pass her.

However, the course was such a savage course, full of short steep power-sapping climbs and it was quite warm and humid too and I felt I was tiring towards the end of the race, starting to loose concentration and making more and more mistakes. In the last lap (which actually came one earlier than I had expected) I had to really focus to keep the pressure on as a few riders were closing in on me, but fortunately I could hold them off.

I finished in 14th place, which is OK, but I was a bit disappointed with my race, I didn't feel I had enough power and was beaten by a few people that I would have beaten last year.

Report and full results on cyclingnews here.

Thanks to Bas for doing my bottles - isn't it nice in mtbing that conflict of interest is being largely being ignored and people help you out everywhere?

Taking deep breaths at Afxentia Stage Race, Cyprus

Well, the 3-day stage of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup is just over. And what a mixed bag it was. First up, on Friday, was the time trial: one loop of the XC course. The course was different this year, with more singletrack, more steep climbs and more speed changes. They did keep the super steep descents from last year though. The other difference was that the weather this year was a lot more true to the races' title, it was actually reasonable warm and the sun was out! In fact, due to the rain overnight the course conditions were perfect, the ground was really nice and very grippy.

Stage 1: Time Trial

After last week's shock to the system and my realization that I may not have enough racing fitness as I had hoped to have, I knew that this short, sharp effort would be a tough one. It's always hard to judge how well one did in comparison to others before you see the times, but I was happy enough with my ride - my heart rate was pegged throughout and I found I rode the first half really well on the technical parts, but lost concentration on the second half of the ride and started making small mistakes on the singletrack. Unfortunately about half the girls were sent the wrong (time-wise shorter) way, so that the times are not all correct. In the end I was down as 20th, a good while off Annika Langvad, who again showed off all the girls with an amazing performance.


Stage 2: Point to Point

Then it was just resting up for the XC point-to-point loop on Saturday, one of my favourite courses. The only annoying thing is that you have to endure lots of fast and hard fireroad riding before you can finally indulge in the nicest and longest singletrack climb and descent here in Cyprus. This year we also started further down the mountain in the village Kapedes and the climb up on the tarmac to the start of the fireroad was hairy, to say the least. Some girls really don't know how to ride their bike in a bunch. People were barging through everywhere in a fight for positions and almost pushing you into the ditch, erratically changing positions from one side of the road to the other and not staying in their line. So to stay out of trouble I went to the front. The pace was actually not very fast, and Ryan thinks with all my road training I should have attacked off the front to try and get a bit of space before entering the fireroad - now that would have been an interesting move! We hit the fireroad still together, but the pace soon picked up and the bunch started splitting up. I overshot on one corner and had to break really hard and lost a few positions. But my aim was to not go too hard at the start anyway, so that I don't blow up on the long singletrack climb, like last year. And it mostly paid off. On the climb I was able to overtake a few girls and was working my way up the rankings. Unfortunately I got stuck behind a slow Ukranian girl who really didn't want to let me pass (of course this was at a stretch where the track was too tight and the sides too steep to pass without pushing her into the ditch), so I did my best to control my anger and finally passed her at the first opportunity. I passed more girls on the way to the top and when I came out on on the top on the bit of road that connects the two singletrack sections I could see Anne Terpstra and Laura Turpjin in front of me - I knew then that I was going well! I felt great too, feeling that I had paced myself well up to the top, possibly even left too much in the tank. I absolutely loved the singletrack descent, but lost a bit of concentration when I came off the bike in one loose corner. I knew the girls I had overtaken on the climb couldn't be too much behind me, so I kept the pressure on and kept up the speed on the last 5km towards the finish. I was very happy when I saw the 500m sign and went underneath the bridge. I prepared myself for the last short steep climb - but wait, why is Mike at the top gesturing me to go into the middle loop of the XC course? It was an extra 1.5km that we had to do that I had not expected! Finally I finished in 12th position, which I was really happy with.

However, when I stopped after the race to chat to a few people before I went on my cool down, my chest started tightening up and I couldn't get any air. I started panicking which made it worse, so people called a lady from the ambulance. She tried to get me to go to the ambulance, but I didn't want to move because I had to concentrate hard to get my breathing back. After a while the heaving and wheezing died down and my breathing went back to mostly normal. This was now the third time I had this happening, so I will get it checked out when I come back to Ireland. Another thing I was unhappy with was that again some girls were sent went the wrong way, with some girls having done the very short loop that I had expected, the middle loop of the XC course or even the outer loop of the XC course.



Stage 3: Cross Country

Then on Sunday was the last of the stages, a regular XC race on the same course as the time trial. The pace was blistering from the start. It was so fast and hard in fact that my breathing problems that had plagued me after the race yesterday returned and got so bad that I had to stop for a rest after the start loop. I could barely get any air and had to let all the riders pass one by one. I told the marshal that I wanted to pull out of the race, but he didn't want to take that and told me to take a rest and catch my breath. I was weighing up my options in my head. I would have stopped if it had not been part of a stage race and counted for the overall cup. So I waited until I my breathing returned back to normal and decided to try and finish this lap and re-evaluate then. Unfortunately the course with all it's steep ups and downs and speed and acceleration changes was not suitable for riding easy. But I got around and decided to keep going and finish the race. I focused on getting into a rhythm and stay at that speed for the rest of it. It felt like I was going only at 80%, so I was surprised then that I could pick up a few more riders. In the end I finished the race in 16th position and 11th in the overall - thanks to my good time from the point-to-point race I didn't loose too many positions. But needless to say that this race is ranking high on the list of most frustrating races. But it could have been worse, I could have been the strongest rider and leader of the race and missed the start, therefore missing out on 160 UCI points in the only HC stage race, a heap of prize money (Some blank looks were exchanged when the race leader, Annika Langvad, was called to the start line but didn't turn up! Anyhow, the race was started without it's leader and it turned out that Annika Langvad simply arrived too late to the race due to not being aware of the change in start times that was communicated on the manager's meeting but not updated on the website (luckily I heard about it!) - see here for her emotional blog entry).

Until I got the breathing problems during the race in stage 3 I had been in denial about having any problem at all - sure, who cares about breathing problems AFTER the race is over and sure a bit of heavy breathing and gasping for air, isn't that normal after a hard race effort...? But today, when I went out on my training ride today with Frederik and my house guest Henrique, I couldn't keep up with them and go my own pace because of my breathing again - I felt like I was dying to keep up with them and they were not going very hard....

Obviously I am now a bit more concerned about this, especially since it has started to affect my performance. The obvious guess is that it's exercise-induced asthma, something that seems to afflict half of the professional cycling community, so I'm planning to get tested for that.

All the results can be found on cyclingnews.

Big thanks is due to the Orange Monkey Team for helping me out in the feed zones!

1st race this season: Cyprus Sunshine Cup #1 Voroklini

Well, I got the season opener out of the way. Unfortunately I wasn't going as well as I had hoped to and I was quite disappointed with my result. I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to repeat my performance from last year (a 4th place) - with the scramble for Olympic points and double as many women signed up (with 10 out of the 30 ranking in the world's top 50) the competition was going to be tougher from the outset. Annika Langvad lead from the start and pulled away quickly, finishing with a huge gap of 5min to the next person down, Blaza Klemencic. Third was Kristine Norgaard, a further 4min down. Then, from 4th place onwards the girls came in closer time gaps, and unfortunately I was towards the backend of those.

I didn't have a great start, with two girls closing in on me on either side so that I dropped back to stay out of trouble, but the main thing was that I just didn't have it in me today. I pushed as hard as I could, but just couldn't give any more. In the first or second lap I was still towards the front end of a chase group, but one by one I was overtaken by the girls behind me, loosing more and more ground - I felt I was going backwards! In the end I came in with a gap of over 16 minutes down on Annika - last year it was only 6 minutes.....


Of course I ask myself what has gone wrong - surely I am hoping to improve year by year, and my power figures show that I have gotten stronger - so why am I not doing any better in the results? Has my training been wrong? Have I started intensity too late? Should I have done more mtb specific training? Is my sickness from last week still holding me back? Was it wrong to fly out so close to the race (last year I came a day earlier)? Is it because I don't have Ryan here to support me? Or did I just have a bad race? I don't know. But I know it's early in the season and I've got plenty more chances to have a better race - the next one will be the 2nd round of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup, a HC stage race in the Macheras Mountains next weekend! :)

Thanks to Ninko from the Milka team for his mechanical help and Frederik for feed zone support.

Full results and report can be found on cyclingnews here. Photos from Marios Spyrou.

Short results:

1	Annika Langvad (Den) Easton Rockets	1:45:39
2	Blaza Klemencic (Slo) Felt Otztal X-Bionic	0:05:07
3	Kristine Nørgaard (Den) HMTBK	0:09:08
4	Janka Stevkova (Svk) CK Epk Dohnany	0:11:08
5	Anne Terpstra (Ned) MPL Specialized MTB Team	0:12:17
6	Rie Katayama (Jpn) Specialezed JPN	0:12:18
7	Laura Turpijn (Ned) Dutch National Team	0:12:55
8	Tatjana Dold (Ger) Easton Rockets	0:14:14
9	Iana Belomoyna (Ukr)	0:15:36
10	Asa Erlandsson (Swe) Swedish National Team	0:16:06
11	Melanie Spath (Ger) Cycleways	0:16:49

Oh god, I'm racing tomorrow!

It kinda is like Christmas, you've been waiting for it for so long, prepared for it for so long, seen all the lights and heard all the jinglebells, it's been creeping up on you, and then all of a sudden it's there: the start of the racing season (and you haven't even bought all the Xmas presents yet (read: done all your intervals)).

I just can't believe that I am in Cyprus again and meant to race my first race this season tomorrow. It always seems to happen so quickly. And it still somehow amazes me how one can plop oneself into a completely different surrounding in such a short time. Feels surreal sometimes. And if I was flying home on Monday it would feel like "blink, and you missed it". But I am not flying home Monday, I am doing the complete Cyprus Sunshine Cup this year again. And without Ryan too, so I hope I won't be too lonely in my huge apartment that I had rented for the two of us. But I don't think it will be too bad - lots of people again are staying in Kalavasos and the neighbouring village Tochni, including the Rabobank Giant team. Anyhow, I better get going on my pre-ride in Voroklini - I am here to race after all!