Re-energising and goals

I will be restarting this blog for the new training season which starts right at the end of December. I intend to make most posts YouTube video blog posts, if I can get all that gizmo stuff to work.

2008 Goals so far

La Scott 1000 Bosses (Cyclosportif)
La Marmotte (Cyclosportif)

Landis guilty

So we get the long awaited verdict, and as expected it’s guilty. Sometimes you can’t really see the wood from the trees in these doping cases. I’m not going to get into the malpractice of the lab (alleged), exogenous testosterone, elevated or not and all that stuff. Personally, I am sure Landis was doping, and some how or other he got caught, there was the usual bluffing and confusing white noise thrown over the whole case to try and get it thrown out. A lot of mud was slung, a fair bit stuck, but in the hand the panel voted 2-1 (one of the panels members is recommended by Landis I believe) to uphold the charge.

All I want is for the peloton to wake up to the fact that we don’t want them to dope, we want a clean race, otherwise we aren’t going to follow pro cycling any more, and you will all be out of a job.

Is the Tour clean? Part II

See I told you it wasn’t clean. And as for Contador and Discovery don’t get me started, or sued I guess. As the French TV put it to Johann Bruyneel, well that’s 8 wins out of 9 for you now, how do you do it? Yeah, how do you do it, when we know everyone has been doping left, right and centre, and would you believe it Discovery win the GC again, and get another rider on the podium to boot as well as best team.

People really say Cadel Evans is clean. I’d love to think he was.

Is the tour clean?

This was a question a non-cycling friend asked of me the other day. Of course not, I replied. Just because a few guys have admitted they were doping in the 90s and a few others have been caught here and there, plus the fact that one team finally has a sponsor lead clean-up (T-Mobile), it doesn’t change things overnight. And then there is the first positive test of the tour, Sinkewitz, ironically a T-Mobile rider, or perhaps not ironically, as they have really introduced strict tests on their riders. Cycling News actually described him as poor “Patrick Sinkewitz” as he had crashed into a dog one day and tested positive the next. What, do we feel sorry when riders get caught now? Well in a way, we should, it’s been endemic in the sport, I don’t believe the riders have had much choice over the years. Dope or find yourself another job.

As for this years’ supposed “clean tour”, well the old guard are right up there at the top, Rasmussen, Valverde, Klöden, Sastre, Evans, only Vinokourov has struggled, and that’s more to do with his earlier crash injuries. Do I think any of these riders are clean? Well honestly, I don’t. Valverde and Klöden, how do I put it, well rumours have flown on these two for a long time, and they were up there when the others we know were doping. Except, Mr.Armstrong, the guy who beat them all by a mile, when all around were doped up to their eyeballs. Unlikely.

It’s still fun to watch, and I am sure it is a “cleaner” tour, but it’s not a clean tour.

Pre-race feelings

I am getting together all my stuff to take with me to Lyon tomorrow for the cyclosportif I am riding on Sunday, La Scott 1000 Bosses. It’s a strange feeling I have, one of excitement and nerves, almost like waiting for an exam in that now I just want to get on the start line and get riding. The difference is I am hoping to enjoy myself out there. I have my routine worked out these days, I have some important information taped to my handlebars such as the climbs, their length plus the location of the ravataillements (feed stations). I have lots of food to eat, I aim to eat a bar every 45-60 minutes or more, I have 1 750ml bottle of energy drink and a spare smaller 500ml bottle just for water. I will stop at the ravataillement if I am running low on water, otherwise I won’t stop. Clothing will be shorts and short sleeve, no arm warmers, though I will wear a T-shirt and a sleeveless shirt underneath my cycle top, which is a bit warm, but should be better for the descents. Ah, the descents, now there is a problem, still no sign of any improvement in my descending ability, I could lose a lot of time there.

Strangely, though I am not so worried this time, I guess because my training has gone so well, and La 77 was such an enjoyable ride. I should be worried though, I haven’t ridden a cyclo with this much climbing (2900m) for 2 years, and last year when I rode Les Copains, I was in such a bad way because of the heat I only rode the 124km event. I’m still on my old bike, and I haven’t even changed to fast tyres. When I mentioned this to Neil, and said I was going to use the 270g tyres, he claimed the difference was “enormous”, there speaks a Weight Weenie!

I reckon I need to ride it in around 4hr 30 to get a gold award, I think that is at the limits of possibilities, if I have a perfect ride I might have a chance but no more than that. I think  4hrs 45 is a more realistic target. Still, I always tell myself that the main thing is to enjoy and a good time would be a bonus, and I really believe that. So if I ride well I’ll be happy.

The famous carton

My racing “carton” has arrived. So I have really done it now, all I need to do is get myself along to a race with this carton and my licence. It will be only cat. 3, but I would be pleased just to avoid a crash and finish in the peloton. I am away for a week, but if all goes to plan and the weather is fine, the first race will be Sunday 15th at Les Alluets des Roi. I’m quite nervous at the prospect.

Bandido Ride

Each week I have a choice of who to ride with as my group ride. I can either ride with my club or I can ride with my informal club, the Bandidos, who are a group of expatriates living here in France. It generally depends on how the weekend pans out as to who I choose, as the Bandidos ride their long ride on a Saturday and my club rides on a Sunday. This week I fancied the Saturday ride as one of the Bandidos, Jerry is leaving Paris and going back to the U.S. at the end of April, so there won’t be many more opportunites to ride with him.

The weather wasn’t great, but I had my rain jacket with me so I was happy enough. It was the first time I rode up the long hill out of Bougival with the Garmin, and as expected it turned out to be the longest and highest hill of a day of lots of hills! I thought I would be very tired after Thursday’s hill interval session, but I felt pretty good that early in the morning and by the time I arrived in Versailles I reckoned on riding quite well. It was a fivesome today, myself, Jerry, Jochem – the big German who is getting stronger each week, Brian riding one of his THREE carbon fibre Colnagos and Lionel, the indestructible Lionel! We set off under darkening skies along the usual route through the Chevreuse, and it was fun (sort of) to see the total ascent on the GPS continually rising, it wasn’t too long before it had reached 500m! My early morning legs had gone by the third hill, and basically during the course of the day I “lost” every hill to Lionel, I was even struggling to hold off Jochem, I was far from flying, but then I should have expected that after the very hard training weekend. It’s a great route, and the rain never really got going, although the icy wind was a bit of a bother. St.Remy, Dampierre, Aufargis, Les Mesnuls – all the old favourites.

We were going back via Brian’s for coffee (how civilised), so we took a slight detour, and to add a bit of spice I took them on a detour of the detour up the very short 18% climb near Pontchartrain, at last a hill I could win, even if it was only 200m long. Jerry wasn’t best pleased, judging by the expletives he uttered at the top. Jerry was having a bad day on the bike and we kept having to wait a little and shepherd him along, so when we got near to Brian’s, and the other three shot off into the distance, I waited for Jerry and let him slipstream. It’s a long downhill on the main road near to Brian’s, but unfortunately I don’t know the exact turn, so I sped off down the hill and the next thing I know, there is no Jerry and I am near the bottom. I had missed the turn! Well I had a choice, ride back up the hill or ride home. After 3 hours and the rain drizzling and only 15 minutes from my home I chose the later! Although I got lost in St.Germain-en-Laye on the way and ending up riding the wrong way down several one ways to get home.

It was one of those days that needed a hot bath and a cocoa when I got in! Only 91km in just under 3.5 hours, but 1000m of climbing and I was all buty gone. Half of me says I should worry with the 148km La 77 race next weekend, while the other half says its all good training and only to be expected after this weeks hard work on the bike.

Call me Mr.fairweather

Type: Muscular-Endurance
Duration: 91 minutes

I got up yesterday morning nice and early, thought the weather looked dodgy, but still had a bowl of porridge. By the time I had finished it, it had started raining, so adding that to the wind and the cold I just didn’t fancy the club ride. So I went back to bed and slept till nearly 10am!

Well I had to make up for it, so I got up again, had a coffee and went and rode the hardest trainer session I have on the list. Simply known as T08, it involves a warm-up followed by 25 minutes riding at 80% MHR, then without a break or pause, 20 minutes @ 85% and finishing off with 15 minutes at 90%. It’s a damn hard hours riding, and you know it’s bad if your legs start to go during the first 25 minutes. In fact I felt a little at around 22 minutes, a bit more at 35 minutes, but not much else. I even felt my best during the last very hard 15. Nevertheless, I have ridden a couple of ks further (nominally according to the trainer) in an hour doing this session, so there is still room for improvement, but I’ve never had my legs feeling so good during this session.

Music: A Retrospective of House Vol.4 Disc 2 mixed by Tony de Vit

Goals for the season

I have made a pact with a cycling friend of mine who we shall call Neil, seeing as that is his name. He has been riding since his teens, has been very good in his time and was a second cat. racer in the UK. You could say as far as any of us amateurs go he has seen and done it all. I being a late starter, have only been riding seriously for about 3 years, since I came to live in France in fact. Nevertheless, Neil always encourages me to believe I might one day be as good as him. Personally I doubt that, but I might come close. Certainly, I like to feel responsible in rekindling his enthusiasm since he came to live in France. Evidenced by the fact that this year he has been training for some bike racing for the first time in 5 years. I think once I started to get close to his level he really thought he needed to do something about it.

So, his goal this year is to win a UFOLEP (a French cycle organisation) race, and to that end he set up a winter training program using the Friel book. His encouragement and the lending to me of his book has helped me to follow a similar program through the winter, with the aim of achieving my goal, which is to get a gold award in a mountain cyclosportif. To achieve such a thing you have to finish approximately 10% behind the winner in terms of time. A much harder than you might think thing to achieve. In fact in the 5 previous cyclosportifs I have ridden I have achieved silver each time. There is also a bronze award for finishing further behind the winner, around 30% I believe.

I am writing this today because Neil rode his first race today. And despite being still some way off his best form managed to finish third! Surely, he will win one during the season, which gives me added incentive and encouragement in my training for my cyclosportifs. The gauntlet if you can call that has been put down!

A windy day in Paris

This will have to begin somewhere in the middle of a story of indeterminate length, which is rather like finding yourself watching a film that has been running for a good half an hour already. We will have to catch up with everything as we go along; the training plan, the riding, the bike(s), myself, and all those everyday things in the life of a cyclist.

The run of very windy days is continuing here in Paris, the wind map site is suggesting its 35kmh Southerly out at the airport at Tussous le Noble, so after the hard windy session on Saturday I am going to have a spin on the indoor trainer this morning. I am still tired from the weekend, 80km on Saturday, 65km on Sunday, and a 40 minute recovery session on the trainer yesterday. However, this is the last week of the first Build 1 session in the training plan, and so I still need to ride another 7 hours of good training this week to make up the 10 scheduled.

I’ll come to the training plan soon, as well as the goals for the year, my club(s), what I’ve ridden in the past, my bike, and my new bike that I am hoping will arrive sometime this month.