The Boardman Story

So two weeks ago this happened to the Boardman. (Henry, he has a name)  :

So what happened? I was trackstanding (yeah I know) at a set of lights, set off and then next thing I know I'm on the floor...

As I lay on the floor, very confused, a HGV driving towards me , the wheels at eye level, I thought I really should move. NOW!

Picked myself up and stood at the side of the road assessing the damage, this was not something I could fix at the side of the road.

Fortunately the office was only a mile away, so I walked back and collected my spare bike.

Now that shouldn't have happened obviously, and many people shared their opinion on how and why. In short nobody really knew... A picture was then tweeted to Halfords and Boardman, the next morning Halfords DMd me asking for more info.

I sent them my details, missed their call, but finally managed to speak with somebody last Thursday. Anyway, they are looking into the issue, and quality control and warranty will be in touch. 

No news yet from Halfords though...

More damage shots:

Race Report: Iceman Duathlon, Frimley

Saturday 25th January. 1 Van. 1 bike, Lucinda, some trainers, some lycra and a forest in Frimley, Surrey.

This was the setting for the Iceman Offroad Duathlon, race 3 out of 4, part of the Human Race Duathlon and Trail run winter series. Now it's probably worth pointing out this wasn't my idea. Lucinda seemed to think this would be a fun thing to do in a relay. A 10k run. 18k bike. 5k run. I obviously wasn't going to be doing the run, that was Lucinda's job, so I was on the mountain bike.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare, ready for the 10:20am start, register, coffee and a quick walk around the arena to familiarise ourselves with the transition area and formulate a plan for handover.

The route snaked around the army training ground in Frimley, the route mainly consisted of wooded trails and very steep muddy hills, certainly was going to be quite a testing course!

First off was the 10k run, there were around 270 entries into the Duathlon, so a large field, most were doing the whole thing on their own. Conditions were perfect, not raining, sunny and not too cold. There had however been a fair bit of rain so It was guaranteed to be muddy. All good fun then.

Lucinda went off to complete two laps of the 5k circuit, so I went to the transition area, sorted my bike out and made sure I was ready for a quick transition. 31 minutes in and Lu went past so was on target for a quick 10k time! 1:04 for the 10k. Brilliant time. Transition went well, swapped the electronic tag and I was off. I hadn't ridden the circuit before so didn't really know what the expect... Straight out the car park across concrete and you were onto fireroads, lots of standing water, mud and ruts. This was going to be fun! The route was mainly on wide fireroad tracks, with some steep, sharp climbs to really get the legs burning! I felt very good for the first couple of miles and covered the first lap (3.4 miles) in around 16 minutes, slightly quicker than I was expecting. Second of the three laps and the course was getting quite busy, and to add to that my bike was now not really working that well. That is to say the rear brake was shot, the gears were not really working and I was getting some annoying chain suck! None of these were ideal, but I just decided to push on as I felt good, and only had one more lap to go. Came into the transition area after three laps and Lu was there for the final 5k. Final time for the bike was 53:05, that was fun and I was pleased with the effort, if not with the bike. Now was the hard bit (well not for me) after waiting around for 53 minutes Lu had to go out and run another 5k! 31 minutes later and she crossed the line after a sprint finish, awesome!

Results:
1st Mixed Relay
2nd Relay overall
50th overall

Well think it was safe so say we were both very pleased with the results, had a great time and the event was run very well. I was also pleased to see I was the fastest bike of the day. This is good to see benefits are paying off, and certainly made me want to race the mountain bike even more! Now I just need to get around to cleaning my bike...

Anyway, some pictures:

Race Report: Imperial Winter Series E123 - 11th Jan

Ok, so i'm only just getting around to write this (my first!) race report. To say work has been busy would be a huge understatement. Anyway, don't want real life to cloud by posts!

This was the 7th out of 11 races in the Imperial Winter series at Hillingdon. Ah Hillingdon! A flat and very fast circuit in West London, which I do enjoy racing on. What I do not like is the 16 mile bike ride to get there, and then another 16 miles to get back... Some of the worse roads to cycle on.

Race didn't start till 2:15pm, so a steady cycle out with Lucinda, and got there in plenty of time. Upon arrival a large Cat4 field was going around (circa 40 riders!) got ready, pinned number on, had a gel, had a banana, and then once the Cat4 race had finished headed out for a warm up (which I needed) I was cold. Very cold. A few laps and then it was time to get onto the start line.

Now the start line was full of E12 and 3 riders... all mixed together, which I didn't expect, as I thought it was E12 and then 3. So yeah I thought, this will be an interested first race since August!

And we're off! (heading ACW) as is often the case at Hillingdon the pace seemed ok to start with, and then ramped up a little. Now I don't have a heart rate monitor, or a power meter, but I can tell you we were averaging just over 27mph for the first 20 minutes. Fairly Standard.

The aim of this race was ALWAYS to just stay on the bike, get my racing legs working again, and see how I fared. The main issue I seemed to have throughout was simply moving up the field. It was huge, maybe 60/70 riders. I spent the majority of the race in the top 1/3 of the field, and made a few attempts to move up, at one point on the front with Jake Martin, but that only last 3/4 of a lap before a large group attacked and went off again, at that point I settled into the top 1/3 again, and with some movement up (and down) the field stayed there for the duration of the race.

Ok, so some points to note:
 - My first E123 race. It was quick.
 - I need to practice moving up the field a bit more, and being more aggressive maybe
 - There was obviously some "interesting" riding, as there always is at Hillingdon.

Stats:
 - 32 miles
 - 1:11 race time.
 - 26.8mph Av

Anyway, all good fun, off to Hog Hill next to master The Hoggenburg!

The Festive Plans - A Review

Right, well i'm back in London now after 2 weeks off, half in Nottingham, and half in Scotland

How did the Festive Plan go? Well...
 - Mud
 - Some more mud
 - Flooded Roads
 - Broken Bikes
 - Running

Only clocked up 90 road bike miles, all local around Nottingham bar one ride up in the Ayrshire Alps in Scotland. It was only 23 miles, but just over 2,000ft of climbing, beautiful! Felt strong and set some good times of the climbs (two cat 3 climbs) which is was happy with.

As is usually the case when i'm back up North I managed to get in some miles on the Mountain Bike. Great to be back off road, and had some quick rides with Dave & Jack, as well as a few solo missions. The Mountain Bike is now back in London, ready for the Duathlon i'm doing with Lucinda and a few token cross races (maybe) 

So there we have it 2013: 12,914 miles over 763 hours. Busy and tiring. 

Now Scotland was a little damp, and not only that the roads were, well, flooded... This meant that I decided to go running with Lucinda, all off road to help with her training for our Duathlon and her Half Marathons! I'm a huge fan off road running, did a bit at the start of 2013, and then just sacked it off for some reason... Well mainly to concentrate on Cycling. 

Started off with a coastal run around Maidens and Culzean into the woods, beautiful scenery, very wet and muddy, but great fun! 8.6 miles and I felt good. 

Yeah, obviously I can't do this...

Next day we ran up onto the Moors, this was, well, hilly! Muddy as well. 8.3 miles that day, one wrong turn, and one bog where I fell in above my knees... Again felt good, however really need to work on my breathing. Guess that will come with time? Yet more beautiful views! Why don't I live here?

So that was the The Festive Plan. Didn't really follow the plan, but was brilliant and I enjoyed running again. 

6:00 am alarm for a painful 4 hours on the bike tomorrow though. Normal service resumes.