Felt Colbornes Team

Ok, its wednesday, my legs feel good, just on that limit of cracking from some heavy attacks later that evening in the final Elemore. So, at what point does agreeing to take a guest rider spot at Thursday evenings Rollapaluza Urban Hill Climb up Swains Lane on Highgate Hill make sense…..nope, it doesn’t, I just can’t say no!

After saying yes, Justin and I made the trip up to Highgate for some leg breaking fun. 1km average 20% gradient, whats all the fuss about?!

I rolled out forth from last at 8:26pm, I span my rear wheel out of the blocks, so much so I had to adjust my front breaks back to centre, I’d like to think this lost me 5, 10 seconds, but the truth of it, maybe 2 max. Anyway, at about 120 rpm I pushed up the first half reaching the final kick to the top, legs did not like this! My cadence must have been more around 60 on the top section, just as the crowds increased. I tried to dig in for the line but rolled over instead. Ouch! I couldn’t stand up, not alone breath. How can something so simple be so painful! The joys of my first hill climb. 1min 44 sec. 11th overall.

Justin powered up with style in a cracking time of 1min 34.7sec raising question to his hatred of climbs…..closet climber I say! 4th overall

Friday, more racing, this time in Wales…..which was nice!

With an best of the crop for all of the Pro Continental Teams, this was set to be a speed freaks dream. Justin, Tim, Lee and Myself made the trip to battle it out with the best. 8pm kick off, all warmed up the first couple of laps where very civilised, then the big guns rolled through……BANG!

With a tight fast course that had a deadly little hairpin turn that felt like a stop start it was hard! We all hung in, one by one dropping the wheels like many others. I hung in until 40 mins until the front group just edged away 4 or 5 bikes lengths and for all I could give I could only hold that gap and not bring it back for the next 6 laps…..then BANG!

For what it is worth, it was bloody good fun! we all finished off with Fish and Chips and a long drive home……which was nice.

British Cycling Report

Racing in a late summers evening in any UK town centre is a great feeling, Guildford though, has a great edge about it. The Crowds and the riders have an epic event to encourage an atmosphere of a Belgium classic!

Justin, Lee, Tim and Myself Ricardo el mince alot made our way down for the 8pm Elite race, with Pete playing Team managed, suited and booted and Gary chief arse kicker and wheel man, the team presence was intense!

As the race kicked off up the cobbled high street into a long sweeping left down into a tight left up a narrow back street with pave then a tight left on to the cobbles and climbing for your life, all in 1.4km! ouch! I rolled through on the front pushing the first few laps before wanting to settle in for a rest….nope, no resting in this one. Hanging on for dear life as the pace went up. Wouter (Sigma sport) pushed in hard about 20 mins in and I went out the back, thankfully, so did most people, Wouter then went on to lap the field, legend and machine! Lee was our only man that stayed within fight distance of the main pack, I came off the rear and with the last 15 mins puncture the from tub, a quick wheel swap saw me back in the race with Lee and I tried to help and push on to get him back in contention. By the end of the race my legs felt great…..to late!

Zipp 303’s are an amazing wheelset! Justin and Myself road the event on these and the are compliant, responsive and so fast out of the corners. Not to mention, bomb proof!

Results

1 Wouter SYBRANDY (Sigma Sport/Specialized) E
2 Jody CRAWFORTH (Hargroves Cycles/Trant/Next/Scott/GSI) E
3 Phill SYKES (Sigma Sport/Specialized) E

12 Lee SMITH (Felt-Colbornes RT) E

20 Richard MARDLE (Felt-Colbornes RT) 1
21 Tim ELVERSON (Felt-Colbornes RT) E

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.

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)

With such bad weather back in the UK it has been a perfect time to accumulate some (more) warm weather miles with the team. It was also a great oppurtunity to try out our new Felt F3SL bikes, Castelli clothing, Zipp wheels, bars and stems and super stiff Bont shoes. The demanding terrain made for some great rides with long twisting climbs and some really fast descents, a perfect testing ground for the new kit.

The evenings were spent planning our season, full details to follow shortly. In the meantime Warren, Justin and myself are looking forward to the traditional UK season opener at Perfs. Fingers crossed that the weather improves enough for it to go ahead.

It may only be January and the weather is less than perfect but we couldn’t resist a chance to race the new team bikes. It was also a chance for new recruit Warren to show off the Felt colours as part of a stronger line up for 2009.

With the temperature hovering around freezing point I attacked hard from the gun and took one rider with me. Whilst this did help me warm up, I didn’t think for a second that we’d still be clear at the end. Behind the field splintered, reformed and splintered again under pressure from several riders, all of these moves were covered by Justin and Warren as they protected my lead.

 At the halfway point Justin got to within 150m of us but a few hard laps later the gap had balloned out to nearly 2 minutes. Coming into the last few laps I was planning to leave it to a sprint and preserve what remaining energy I had left. When Simon made his move inside the last 1km I struggled to hold his wheel and bit by bit dropped away up the final drag to the finish.

Justin easily won the sprint for 3rd and Warren came in shortly afterwards. The new bikes perormed flawlessly having been tested, in my case, for a quick lap of the circuit before the race. I’ll upload a few pictures from our Gran Canaria training camp, the bikes may not need the sun to look good but we need all the help we can get! 

With the season drawing to a close the National TT Champs was the last big race for the three of us.

Tim and I had headed up the day before for a ride round the course, only to find part of it under water and the wind and rain didn’t make it anymore inviting. We retreated to the hotel car park where we managed to get a short turbo session in to the amusement of the other guests.

 Getting up early the next morning the rain had cleared, the wind had dropped and the course had been shortened. This didn’t make it any easier as the course was over some rough, twisty roads with a couple of nasty climbs before a long descent back to the start/ finish area.

I was off first and it seemed to take all of the first lap to get warmed up, the second lap felt much better. As I slowed after the finish line Tim was heading out to the start so between breaths I gave him  a rundown on what to expect. 

Justin was off next and, by the time I’d changed, was flying through to start his second lap. Tim followed a few minutes later whilst I headed for the village hall and a deserved tea and piece of cake!

Master A   
1 Danny Axford  Arctic Premier RT   00:30:45
2 Ben Anstie  Chippenham & District Wheelers   00:31:23
3 David Crawley  Fibrax-Wrexham RC   00:31:33
4 Peter Kench  GWR Team   00:32:06
5 Justin Hoy  Felt Racing   00:33:02
6 Patrick Brennan  a3crg   00:33:11
7 Bryce Dyer  a3crg   00:33:14
8 Mark Heath  Echelon – Spuik   00:33:22
9 Jason Streather  VC St Raphael   00:33:33
10 Mark Simmons  Team Milton Keynes   00:33:41

Master B   
1 Ben Instone  www.scientific-coaching.com   00:30:48
2 Jeff Jones  Chippenham & District Wheelers   00:31:45
3 Gary Robson  Dooleys Cycles Racing Team   00:31:53
4 Rob Lyne  Climb On Bikes RT   00:32:06
5 Jeremy Ponting  a3crg   00:32:22
6 Tim Elverson  Felt Racing   00:32:27
7 Nigel Haigh  Sportscover-Spiuk-JeJames   00:32:31
8 Simon Berogna  Velocity Bikes CC   00:32:55
9 John Wager  Felt Racing   00:33:02
10 Sean Williams  Wightlink/WightMountain RT   00:33:03

Thanks to Sarah Brooke for the photos.

www.sarahbrookephotography.co.uk

Held a few days after the Time Trial on much of the same course we faced three laps of 40km loop featuring 3 climbs per lap. The largest of these was just over 2km in length and kicked up to 11% in places, a smaller climb at the back of the circuit featured a 15% section followed by a long drag through a village and then an 80km/h descent.

Justin and I were put into seperate categories with his race starting 15 minutes before mine. With 25 Italians in my race the tone was set from the start and anything that wasn’t Italian was sat on and treated to a shrug of the shoulders. This didn’t deter the other 90 riders in the field and there was constant attacking throughout the race with groups escaping and then being pulled back.

Into the last lap 2 riders clipped off the front and held a narrow lead to the line, the bunch thundering through a mere 20 seconds later. Whilst I survived the climbs the run in proved treacherous and I was almost brought down 3 times in the last kilometere alone, combined with a broken spoke from the first lap I hoped Justin had fared better.

Justin’s race started 15 minutes before mine and was aggresive from the start. The slightly smaller field meant there were less places too hide and he was quickly on the attack and working well with a group just 30 seconds behind the leaders on the second ascent of the big climb. This only spurred them on and they rapidly extended this lead to over 2 minutes by the line. Justin’s group was pulled back and the Italians then closed everything down.

Into the last kilometre and Justin was at the front doing what he does best and he was only just pipped on the line by a crazy Brazilian who thought he had won.

 With the racing done and the time only just approaching midday it was time to fill the tanks and turn our focus to the following weeks National Time Championships……………………..