Felt Colbornes Team

With very little racing on and nearly everyone else consumed with a desire to take Lee to Brighton’s Gay Pride weekend I though a little light training ahead of the following weeks Python Road Race would be in order. I’ve covered the roads in the chilterns for the last 20 years so when the oppurtunity came to have a weekend away , dinner at a fine italian and the chance to ride 90 hard miles without thinking about the route I jumped at the chance. Not high, perhaps 6 inches in the air.

Evans Cycles have been putting on a number of well organised sportives this year and the Cotswolds Sportive was no exception, Timing chips, a well sign posted route and some challenging hills made the Long Ride a worthwhile day out. The course had constant twists and turns and a couple of decent hills after about 40 miles but I managed to roll round in 4h:17m at an average of 21mph.

The picture tells the true story of the effort involved as I don’t normally look that vacant. My wife, Jen, did the shorter 60 mile route with our friends and would have gone faster but for the fact I’ve not bought her a Felt bike yet! Maybe next year.

john

When an event advertises itself as a “challenge” nowadays it’s hard not to feel the title has been added to attract the punters as opposed to offering a true test. Having completed the the Fred Whitton the title is not only justified but I feel like many you don’t finish, you survive.

The Challenge this year was ably supported by the Saddleback crew who were out in force doing last minute checks at the start, roadside repairs supporting the volunteers at the feeding stations. The weather this year was kind to everyone with bright sunshine and light cloud for those who registered on the Saturday and slightly cooler conditions on the Sunday.

Starting almost bang on 8am I caught a large group approaching the first climb of the day, unsurprisingly this immediately split and for the next 45 miles 4 of us shared turns and worked hard to get to steep ramp at the bottom of the Honister Pass. Our group split at this point as I climbed at a more leisurely pace and I was surprised to see two of the guys lying at the side on the road just a few miles further on (looking through the results later it seems they both managed to finish).

For the next 20 miles the roads climbed, dropped, twisted and turned and having followed some good advice in not eatinng at the first feed got into a good rythmn. The climbs of Whinlater through to Irton Pike  were taken at a good pace, the steepness not ramping up to more than 25%, and by the time I arrived at the base of Hardknott I was feeling comfortable.

Hardknott soon changed that as it ramps up visciously as you pass over the cattle grid and doesn’t let up. I started the day thinking a 39×27 bottom gear would be fine but after nearly 100 miles of riding I was reduced to a snails pace.

The descent is incredibly steep and twisty and gives way almost immediately to the final big climb of the Wrynose Pass. Thankfully the majority of the climb is quite steady, it only ramps up over the last 500m, but distance makes it feel twice as long and twice as steep.

Like many who’ve not ridden this event before, I expected a relaxing run into the finish. Not a chance as there were still a couple of decent sized hills to climb before the final flat out run into the finish.

I was really pleased with the finishing time of 6:13, not bad for a non-climber! I’m already thinking about where I can save time on the course and break through the 6 hour barrier.

The winning continued at Felt-Colbornes home race on Wednesday with a convincing 1-2-3 after 80 minutes of non stop action.

After arriving with only 20 minutes to spare and thus foregoing the ritual meeting at Starbucks I kicked the action off by going hard from the start to try and string the field out. Despite the strongest and largest field of the series so far the Felt boys had managed to force a group of 13 clear within the first 10 minutes of racing.

Once the split was established everyone put a consistent hard effort in for the first 1/2 hour to establish a clear lead over a fragmenting bunch. Not wanting to arrive at the finish in such a large group I clipped off the front in a group of 4 leaving all the chasing to Sigma’s Wouter Sybrandy who single handedly closed the move down over the space of the next 20 minutes. Impressive!

The pace of the chase had further split the race and when our group finally came together we had 4 Felts in the leading 9. The last 25 minutes were characterised by violent accelerations and brief respites as everyone tried to attack or bluff.

Into the last lap and Tim closed down a dangerous move before Justin went to the front. As I passed him on the final corner he let the wheel go and everyone else simply looked at him to start the sprint. The plan work as I lit the afterburners and opened a clear gap over the rest on the way to my first win of the season. Tim and Justin rounded out the top 3 with Tom just behind. A good effort from him after recovering from a broken collarbone earlier in the season.

Thanks to Dean “Deano” Frost for the pics on the night.

The 51^st Wally Gimber Road Race, Tenterden by Tim “Sicknote” Elverson

With clearing rain and many teams well represented this was going to be a fast race, history says this race breaks early but the team had split opinions as with so many strong riders present it would be hard to make anything stick.

Tim decided it was his day to go down the road from neutralized, and then again and again until one worked.

Tim was away half way round the second lap (18miles in) in a four man break with an Orbea, Sigma and a Corley so a spread of the strong teams but never enough to last the distance then another four men came across the gap 2x Orbea riders, a Corley and a Cycle Premier. With the cycle premier rider in attendance all the big teams were present and the break moved away. Tim was always going to be out numbered by the teams with multiple riders but he fancied his chances at the finish with any of them.

The break extended its advantage out to 2 minutes but with the CyclePremier rider puncturing with 3 laps to go it completely changed the race. With no one in the break the Cycle Premier and Wyndy Milla teams each starting riding hard and Pete and John sat just behind for an armchair ride at this point. Justin was licking his lips at the thought of the break coming back for a bunch sprint and also to get a chance to try the mini mars bar in his back pocket.

Mean while at the front with 2 laps to go the inevitable was happening with Orbea and Corley taking it in turn to attack the break, none of them keen to take Tim to the finish. The combined efforts of Wouter and Tim were just about keeping it together but half way round the last lap the elastic finally broke with a Corley, 2x Orbea and Wouter getting clear. With no one prepared to help Tim had to do all the work himself and was finally pulled back with just under 3 of the 75 miles remaining.

Now it was time to activate Plan B, John and Pete went to the front  to put a big effort in to keep Justin out of trouble and maybe take the front four back, it got close and Justin took an easy Fifth only 100m back from the front four.

John and Pete had done a sterling job on the run in and unfortunately Lee and Tom had been taken out earlier in the race in a big crash caused by someone else so we could not stick any more firepower on the front. Fortunately Lee only has a bit of gravel rash and, if you believe Tom, he has broken every bone in his body but he may have a broken collarbone. (If so I can see a stem cap being moved on).

All in all we were well represented throughout the race and everybody knew Felt were there.

With Justin back trying to repeat his win from 2009 and six other riders to help him we were feeling confident at the start. This year the field was much stronger with Rapha, Wilier and Orbea fielding some quality riders.

The opening couple of laps were fairly steady with only the narrow lanes, swirling wind and constant attacks as everyone probed for weaknesses, it was at this point that Rapha decided to up the ante by putting all six riders on the front and promptly splitting the field to pieces.

Justin and I found ourselves just a few riders back and as sheltered as possible adn waited for the next round of hostilities to begin and with just over a lap to go the attacks were coming thick and fast. There was no time to look round and think too much just keep your head down and hope the rider in front didn’t let a wheel go.

And so with under a lap to I had my moment of clarity as I realised there were only 10 or so riders left at the front, up and over the final climb my legs were cramping and it took nearly 2 miles chasing to close a 30m gap to the remaining riders. Whilst they continued to attack each other I tried to recover enough for the final sprint, the long drag seemed to go on forever but I finally rolled across the line in 7th place.

To give that a little perspective the winner is an ex-Australian National Road Champion, I finished in front of the current British National Champion and I was the first rider over the line with a full time job.

This is not so much a post about the race but the extended mission we undertook just to make it to the startline on time.

The story begins with Justin almost losing the van down one of the many man size craters currently plaguing Hampshires roads, putting the faint hiss down to his taste in music he picked Lee up and made it a further 20 miles before being faced with a very flat tyre. The provided inflation kit failed to make any difference so it was time to call in rider/ sponsor  Tim to help out. Tim kindly dropped everything and headed over to remove the wheel, take it back to for a replacement tyre and return to the van.

Whilst this excitement was happening I’d been dropped at the services in Didcot and was still waiting for a lift. When it became clear that it would be sometime before that would happen I had to ride home with no lights, a full kit bag, a wheel bag and track pump on unlit roads and a brand new pair of tubs!

Justin finally made it to mine for 12:30 and we rolled into the hotel at 3:15am for a very welcome 4hrs sleep. Breakfast was a very quick affair before jumping in the van and heading out to the start of the Eddie Soens. This is a very prestigious race with many fine winners over the years.

We were immediately in the thick of the action trying to get into moves with some of the biggest teams in the UK.

Unknown to us the Juniors had made contact with the Elite group and despite numerous attacks they couldn’t be shaken. It was not for lack of trying as the average speed for the 80km race was over 50km/h!

With the finish looming and many unaware they were sprinting for very minor placings all the big teams moved forwards in the hope of placing their sprinters in pole position. Lee made the most of this work to drift between the various trains to pop out of the final corner in the top 10 and finishing a highly respectable 4th.

With the new team bikes arriving just before our looming trip to Gran Canaria a little try out was called for to make sure everything was working.

Ian, Justin and myself made the trip down to a damp and windy Portsmouth track and from the gun set about stamping our authority onto the race. First Ian made the break of 3, I jumped across a lap later and Justin, in his usual relaxed way, decided it was more fun up front and joined us 4 laps later.

We had lapped the field with just 25 minutes of racing completed and continued to press all the way to the end. Ian clipped off the front in a small group forcing rival teams to chase and allow Justin and I a breather before the pace lifted in the last few laps.

First, second and fourth was a great result that owed as much to team work as a fantastically fast new bike.

The team bikes this year are based around the AR1 frameset with a full SRAM Force groupset. This is finished off with a Ritchey WCS stem, Zipp SL handlebars, Zipp bottle cages and a Devox carbon saddle. In this picture I’m running the wheels from last seasons Felt DA, a massive 1080 rear and 808 front running Zipp Tangente 23mm tubs.

Looks out for pics of my brothers pimped out AR1 complete with Vuma Quad crankset, coming soon from sunny GC.

john

With our mid week World Champs suspended for the next 3 weeks we’re having to look further afield for places to conquer. Justin winning on Monday at Upavon, the 4th Felt win in a row there now, the pressure was on.

A quick browse on the British Cycling site and I’d found my target, an hour plus 5 laps round the MK Bowl. The last time I rode this a couple of years ago I had a really hard time so I bided my time until the last few laps when i started cranking up the pressure. Into the last lap and the chase to the lone leader stalled as no one wanted to close the last 100m. As everyone looked around I took my chance and hit the afterburners, catching and then dropping the lone leader to come in well clear of the field.

I’ve not got any pictures from last night but thought I’d include one taken a couple of weeks ago at Thruxton. It’s an ideal place to use the wheels from my Felt DA although the deep rumble makes a surprise attack a bit tricky.

 With the new Felt DA’s finally arriving in the country I’ve manged to get around to doing a few time trials. Setting up before the National 10 was fun with the bike arriving on the wednesday before and then being stripped and rebuilt with the awesome SRAM Red groupset.

I managed just warm up prior to the Nationals with a 21:57 in a local club event. A bit more “adjusting” to get the seat further back to try and get close to my position from last  and I was ready.

On the day I didn’t really find a good rythm and recorded a relatively slow 22:02 nearly 2 1/2 minutes behind the winner, Michael Hutchinson.

The National 25 took place a couple of weeks later and was to be my first 25 since last August. I cruised round with a leisurely 55:35 in fairly windy conditions.

Hopefully with a few more time trials in the coming weeks and a laid back seatpost instead of the “triathlon” seatpost supplied I’ll be able to finally clock a 19 minute 10 this year.

Coming just 24 hours after getting back from Gran Canaria was always going to be a tough challenge for Warren, Justin and myself. After being delayed whilst the last of the ice melted Justin was one of the first to test his legs on the long and draggy Forestside climb. As a previous winner of this event he was never going to be given much leeway and was soon brought back.

 After another couple of laps of constant attacking I went clear over the top of the climb, when this was pulled back on the run in to Rowlands Castle I went again and stayed away to the bottom of the main climb. At this point I was thankful of Justin’s push to get me back up to speed, a hollow eyed stare was all I could manage by way of a thank you.

The field threatened to split many times in the next few laps and it was only the intervention of a group of horses with 5km to go that finally worked. Whilst some chose to attack at this point a horse running alongside the bunch and then throwing it’s rider was enough to see us watching the race disappear up the road. Perhaps not the finish we expected but we live to fight another day!

Our race programme up to April now includes:

 1st March – Severn Bridge Road Race – sponsored by Saddleback so expect a good showing here.

 8th March – Jock Wadley Memorial Road Race

14th March – Spring Chicken Road Race – one of my favourite courses and to be used for the National TT in September.

15th March -Wally Gimber Road Race – A South East Classic with a great course.

22nd March – High Wycombe CC Road Race

29th March – Peter Young Memorial Road Race

5th April – Cycle Kingdom Classic

All photos courtesy of Graham Robins (www.grahamrobins.net)