Imperial Winter Series At Hillingdon Round 10

Today Me and Luke Souter from Banbury star went to Hillingdon, Luke was in the 3rd cat race and I would be in the E/1/2/3 race. On the way there Luke said I should try doing a longer warm up, and I had got ready early and was warming up I did about 3 miles and I punctured. This was not good I did not have any spare wheels or tubes! I had to wait for Luke to finish (he did well and got 11th for his first race of the year) and swap my front wheel for his (which was better than mine). I then had to time to sit on the start line and feel cold. As the race started my legs felt abit tight, but I wanted to stay near the front but as I pulled of the front it sped up I found myself not being able pedal hard my legs felt ok but my lungs would not take it, it felt like not being able to take in enough air and lungs just hurting. I ended up not being able to get on the back and gave up after that. I did a few laps waiting to be lapped where I managed to warm up a bit better and then the bunch came round again and I jumped on the back and just tried to do the race as easy as possible, but by this point I did not care. As the race went on I thought about how I could have done the start better without a warm up, like wheel hanging for a few laps. I started to get a bit warm by the half way point and ended up taking my gloves off when the race slowed down. Not much happened and I kept up with the bunch and got 30 miles in at 25mph so it was still a good training ride. In the morning I will try and do a 5 hour training ride to make up for not doing so well today.

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Imperial Winter Series At Hillingdon Round 9

Today I raced at Hillingdon again, it was windy but it was also warmer than last week. I was right on the front on the start line and feeling ready. As we started we rolled off and got up to speed soon after. The first 10 miles or more were hard, with the strong riders on the front pushing hard in the head wind and cross wind they managed to get away and it was a big group that got away! All though the race riders kept getting away and there was loads of break up the road, we even got lapped by the leading breakaway! As we got closer to the end I felt a bit better and with 3 riders not too far ahead and 1 lap left, I attacked and got up to them hoping we could work together but one guy got away and the other two would not work with me as I pulled over to let them come though. We got caught by the bunch and I managed to sit not too far from the front and in the sprint I managed to give everything to get too the line and I think I may have come about 26th. It was a hard race with the wind but I can say it was good training.

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Results here

Imperial Winter Series At Hillingdon Round 8

Today was my first race of the year, I was unsure how this was going to go because over the winter I've been doing longer rides but I never had any fast average speeds even on short rides and I seemed to good at going slow for a few hours. It was cold as I warmed up and I met another Zappi rider who was in my race -the E123 race- Nick Baker who had already been doing well at Hillingdon. As I waited for the 3rd cat race to end an ambulance turned up and drove on to the track to help some one who had been in a crash and was laying on the floor, luckily the bunch got past it safely. I was on the start line I felt good but not sure if that would be enough to keep up. After a long wait the race started, there was no sudden sprinting but I looked down and we were up to 23 mph already and we hit the hill and it got faster about 28 mph and I was still there and still felt I could keep with the bunch. Not too long into the race a breakaway managed to get away and I was starting to feel like it was not too bad and like I would keep up. Nick got in the break and I never saw him again. A few more breaks try to go throughout the race and because this was an elite race everyone worked together and I even did a few turns on the front! This surprised me as I did not know if I had the legs to help work at the front. After many fast laps we got to the 5 laps to go and I checked my garmin and it said an average speed of 26 mph. The sprint came very quickly and I was near the back but felt I had somthing in the legs to pass some people and I sprinted as hard as I could and was doing 32 mph up the hill and crossed the line about 13th in the group I think with 8 or 9 in the break I think I may have came about 20 somthing, not too bad for the first race of the year.



Thanks for reading
Results maybe here