Racing daze

Another weekend gone, another kicking in cyclocross received.

I was asked the other day what races I'd done this year, so I sat down and tried to remember them all. By my recollection The Omnium Romand race on Saturday was my 31st day of racing this year. That's more than one race every fortnight, which is not a lot by pro standards, but not bad for a mediocre amateur. With only a couple of cyclocross races left in the year I figure it's a good time reflect on the past year before jumping headlong into the Australian national championships in January.

The year started reasonably well when I finished in the middle of the field in the Australian National Time Trial Championships. That doesn't sound very impressive, but given that the podium was filled by three current world champions, including the current holder of the world record for the individual pursuit I was pretty happy. I hope to do a little better than my 20th place when I race again in January. In October I significantly improved my PB in the Orbe time trial by averaging 45.9km/hr. That's still a long way behind the pros who'll dominate the field in Ballarat, but is 2 1/2 km/hr faster than I did in the same race last year.April is classics time. Ordinarily for me that means trying to find coverage of tour of Flanders Paris-Roubaix the other monuments. This year though I thought I'd head up to Belgium and northern France to watch them live and do some riding. The Flanders sportive was disappointing. With no timing, no exact start time and not even a starting line it was impossible to even pretend to race it. I still did the full course with all the cobbled climbs so it wasn't for naught, but without the spice of competition it left me a bit hollow. The Paris-Roubaix sportive was much better. It was run like a race with semi-closed roads and motorcycle outriders and was an absolute blast. The authorities withdrew their approval for the race at the last minute, so it was officially non-competitive and no times were posted. You couldn't tell on the day though. If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck... The lack of published times didn't bother me. I knew where I placed because I was first over the line! I rode the last 60km with Phillipe Gaumont, ex-pro with Confidis. He graciously didn't contest the finish and let me go when I surged to the line on the famed pavé of the Carrefour de l'Arbe. That was a definite highlight of my year.

The 24 Hours of Finale Ligure was another. Ouch that was hard. I went out way too fast, tried to compensate by eating too much and then felt terrible. Less than six hours in I wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish. Karolina put me right when she told me to harden up. I pressed on and recovered, then settled in and started to enjoy myself. It was a great course and brilliantly organised. I ended up really enjoying myself and finished 2nd overall.

I had a few other podiums, including 3rd overall and 2nd in my age category when I set my PB at the Orbe TT (after excluding the tandem from the results- seriously, that's not fair!), and third in the Forestiere MTB XCM. Unfortunately I also DNFed four times... at four of my my biggest races of the year. I abandoned the 2nd Etape du Tour because I couldn't handle the conditions, then had unrepairable punctures at the European 24 Hour MTB championships, the Master World Championships road race and at the UCI ranked Ornans XCM. Ah well, it gives me room for improvement next year!

Here's my full list of results for the year so far:

I'll save my training year for another post (after I've accumulated a few more kilometres!). In the meantime I'll leave you with a gratuitous photos from a gratuitous race- a two person 6 hour relay urban MTB race around the streets and stairs of Geneva's old town.

Interesting blags

I was told in no uncertain terms recently that I should make my blag interesting. Yes, I mean blag. Apparently it's the cool term for blog. How knew? Certainly I'm not cool enough.

Fortunately the critic is unlikely to read this as he is undoubtedly fornicating, so I might get away with being dull for quite some time. Perhaps even more fortunately, there are bloggers out there who do have interesting things to say. Among my favourites are my friends La Grande and Urban Ninja.

La Grande is my training buddy and Velocite Bikes contact. He's preparing for Ironman Frankfurt. Aside from giving me the motivation to get out of bed for pre-dawn rides in subzero temperatures he's a good resource for the latest training science and bike tech. He's also infinitely better organised that I am so will probably update his blog more than once a month, which is my current frequency.

Urban Ninja is the South African zen philospoher of triathlon and worth a read. His posts are a nice counterpoint to the jaded cynicism of the Fornicator. He's also a founding member of Pure Planet Racing, which seeks to offset the terrible carbon footprint that we self-absorbed globe-trotting athletes invariably have and to generally do good stuff for the environment.

On the other side of the feel good coin is the merciless New York City Bike Snob. We all need a laugh from time to time, and what better way than by mercilessly ridiculing fixie riding hipsters.

Finally, for the inside goss on all things pro cycling, I love The Inner Ring.

So, there is an entire universe of interesting cycling-related blogs out in the ether. I'll therefore be less concerned about being interesting and more concerned about keeping you updated on progress towards RAAM and occasionally doing some training. If anyone finds that interesting, so much the better!