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12/05/08 The main thing to report here is my health - which is mostly covered here in the WASCO race report. In short I have been diagnosed with mono - or glandular fever as we know it in the UK. Which goes some way to explaining why I have been feeling so damn tired for the past several weeks! So now I will mostly be resting..... 20/04/08 So, racing started this month. My first event was a local hillclimb on 1st April - last year the hillclimb series was run in May, and I got gradually faster each week, ending up breaking the course record twice; so a good hill to test myself on, although tough comparing times with a month later last year, both because of temperature and fitness! Therefore I was very pleased with my time of 11:25 - way off my record of 10:39, but ten seconds better than my worst time last year. Then two days later it was straight into the Willamette stage race. Kickoff was a 6.6km prologue on Thursday evening, so the first time to try my new bike. The Pro/1/2 field had over 80 riders, with teams from Canada, Washington and California coming into town for the event. The weather was beautiful for this first day, and I had a reasonable ride to finish 8th, although almost 30 seconds down on the winner. Stage two was a single lap of 43 miles with a hilltop finish. I went to work first thing, before running out to race - on the drive out it started raining hard which did not bode well. We did manage to start in the dry with a bit of sunshine, albeit with soaking wet roads. The rules here dictate that there is absolutely no crossing of the centre line; with a large field and a narrow road this means it is almost impossible to move up the field. Therefore even if I had wanted to attack there was no way I could do anything apart from follow the wheels in front. But once we hit the climbs the field strung out and I was able to get up to the front. It rained on and off the rest of the race and I didn't really have enough clothes on - and when my legs get cold they don't work so good; on the final climb I was struggling to stay with the group as we closed down a small break. But I was given the same time at the finish line, and the break only got a few seconds; I slipped one place to 9th on GC. The descent back to the HQ was freezing; I got straight in the car and cranked the heater all the way back to finish off the work day. Stage three was a criterium in downtown Eugene, and more terrible weather. The course had a tight turn which brought us pretty much to a dead stop, so every lap involved a painful acceleration to get back up to speed. Not my type of racing, so I just hung tight and counted down the hour; I finished safely with the pack and preserved my GC placing. The final stage was a very hilly 83 mile race, with more bad weather.... this time I dressed for it - with winter bibtights, a long sleeve thermal, two jerseys, vest, hat, winter gloves and overshoes! I have never worn so much clothing in a race before... but it worked out well as I was comfortable the whole way round. Some guys were racing in shorts! On the first lap I rode tempo at the front of the pack on the climbs - basically because I wanted to be sure to be first down the descents; wet roads with a lot of gravel and a big pack aren't the safest. Otherwise it was sit tight and wait for lap two. Here I followed a strong attack by two riders on the first of the two big climbs; I wasn't able to join them, but was still away at the second climb. This is where the race all blew apart, and on the descent a couple of small groups joined together to make five of us away chasing the two guys in front. On the long flat run in to the finish I knew I was going to be in trouble over the last couple of rises, and sure enough when the attacks started I got dropped and just had to struggle the last 3km on my own. I got 7th on the stage which left me 7th overall - and first Eugene rider. After the terrible weather of the Willamette stage race, the following weekend was very different - fantastic sunshine and really hot, I got a little sunburnt! Misha and I went out to the wedding site to check out what would be going where, we need to start getting ourselves organised now..... And then this weekend it is back to snow; go figure! We are up near Seattle where Misha is doing an Animal Sanctuary course; the theory was that I would do lots of training. In practice the weather hasn't been very condusive and I have been pretty tired so it has been more about relaxing. Nice to see another part of the country and where Misha grew up; have to come back another time in the summer to enjoy it more. 29/03/08 Guess what? It is snowing again.... We were taunted with a week or so of spring and then back to freezing... I haven't written in a while as the last six weeks or so have seen me sicker than I have been in ten years - I don't think I've been to the doctors in that time, and now I've been through two courses of antibiotics in a month! Not a whole lot of fun, and as you can see here my training has pretty much tanked. Ah well, just have to use the first few races to get going! What with both of us having been sick, and Misha generally having to cope with me being very grumpy with it (me not being able to ride my bike doesn't leave me too happy...), my surprise birthday trip away was just what we needed - Misha took me to Breitenbush hot springs up in the mountains and we just relaxed and recovered. Pictures here. And I have finally been able to finish my new TT bike - feels like it has taken FOREVER, but in reality there was a lot of little bits to make, so maybe not so terrible. Pretty pleased with how it turned out - much lighter than expected and hopefully it will be fast! 26/02/08 I have finally got some pictures up - look here for NZ pics, and here for some Oregon pics. Training has been fairly up and down - the snow curtailed things for several days, then I have been struggling a bit with my health; me who is very rarely ill had three and a half days off work with the 'flu, basically writing that week off training wise. Then I felt better and was able to get one good week in before now it has come back and I have had to take another half day off work to try and get well. Very frustrating. It has also further slowed me working on my new TT bike - I am pretty close to having something rideable, which will mean I can test it before doing all the finishing work. With the first races only five weeks out, I need to get it done asap! Which is also the bummer about being sick - I am going to be racing seriously sooner than expected this year because they have brought back the Willamette stage race this year. With a prologue time trial and two hilly stages AND being right here in town, I couldn't very well miss it! The first weekend in April is a bit harsh to be racing that full-on, but there you go. I have been invited to race with Midtown Racing Team so we should have a strong team. Being stuck in the slight conundrum of not wanting to spend all my spare time at the shop, and having to set things up each time I have a few minutes to work on my projects, I have decided I need to get moving on getting a workshop set up at home. I have ordered my first piece of equipment (grinding belt/polishing wheel) and will start looking for a lathe and mill next. Then I will be able to just pop out to the garage and make things! 03/02/08 Well I haven't written much becuase the weather has been so cold and wet that I didn't feel I had many happy thoughts to share! However, it at least warmed up to above freezing this weekend, so training was a) possible and b) bearable. Which makes me feel substantially better..... Last Sunday we woke up to a couple of inches of settled snow, and it continued to come down for most of the day, leaving us with about 10 inches by the evening. So training was on the turbo trainer and on Monday morning I very carefully rode the mountain bike to work. It wasn't actually too slippery, since it stayed below freezing; later days in the week were much worse when the snow melted and then froze again, making it very icey; some very careful, slow commuting this week! Three weeks ago there was a 5hr group ride planned, which was an out-and-back over a couple of big local climbs. Fortunately it wasn't too cold (ie above freezing!) and although it rained on and off it was reasonable weather for January. All went well, nice to ride in a group at a steady pace with mandatory mudguards (and flaps!), and so when it was suggested by a few riders to extend the route to a bigger loop, I tagged along. Five of us went on this extended adventure, which got rather epic when there were a LOT of trees down across the roads, making it a bit of mountain bike ride in places! The loop ended up being longer than expected, and as soon as we crested the final climb and were back in cell phone range, we all had to call in to our other halves to let them know we were still alive - and to call for assistance! We were met by a car at the bottom of the hill, where sodas and snacks were gratefully received. Three of us then got a lift back to town; one other guy and me decided to ride home and thus I ended up with 120 miles, almost 8 hours and a LOT of climbing! A good day out..... STILL need to post New Zealand pics, haven't got to it yet.... Have been working on building my new bike though - I am building a custom time trial machine to race on this season. Construction is taking place in small installments when I have time, but progress is slowly being made. I should have something to show for it in a few weeks. No other news for now, generally just very busy with work, training, projects and keeping warm.... 06/01/08 Happy New Year! We got back from NZ on Thursday, and this weekend it has been snowing, so a bit of a shock! Vacation was great - except for doing something funky to my back/ribs - the weekend before we left I had cleaned out the barn, and the twisting motion with the pitch fork had caused a slight twinge in my side. Wasn't a problem during a busy week of work and training, but then four hours into the flight I must have moved oddly or something as it suddenly got a lot more uncomfortable. And then after christmas dinner, I sneezed, and dislogded something enough to put me on the floor, unable to move. I had to be very careful how I moved and not to sneeze or cough for a couple of days, but then it fortunately started to get a little better; but it did rather change my riding/training plans! On the other hand, it got me properly into relaxing holiday mode, so maybe not too much of a bad thing. We had a good time visiting with my sister, brother-in-law and mum, plus plenty of quality living-near-the-beach time to ourselves. I'll get some pictures up at some point soon. My poor uncared for original Bike Friday (bought seven years ago) has been showing it's age a little this winter - on the last ride before we went away the freehub seized; turned out to be the pawl spring in the campag cassette had broken, so that was easy to replace. Then on the first ride back the rear rim split (worn through the braking surface), which meant a careful ride home and rebuilding the wheel. It will keep going! 22/12/07 Alright, off to New Zealand tomorrow! After riding for four hours in the rain today the sunshine will be most welcome. My freewheel seized up on the ride today - but fortunately just as I turned into our driveway at the end. Turned out that the spring on the pawls had snapped - can't complain though, since this is the original rear hub on my 2000 Pocket Rocket - it's done all my touring and several winter's training! I borrowed a spring from another hub and it was all fixed, ready for more rainy riding tomrrow morning before we get on the plane to warmer climes! Training has been going pretty well so far. I tried going out with the local group last weekend, but they ride far too fast and jumpy for December, so I have returned to my usual solo base training - with the exception of being on the tandem with Misha! So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone, I will try to get back to writing more frequently next year.... 25/11/07 We are just at the end of a four day weekend - Thanksgiving was on Thursday, and the factory was shut down for Friday too, which is nice. It has been really cold here over that time though, with a very hard frost at night, and barely getting above freezing in the day. Not espescially looking forward to getting on the bike at 6:30 tomorrow morning.... Two weeks ago was the Oregon Handbuilt Bicycle Show - yes there are enough frame builders just in this state for our own show! Words and pictures on the Bike Friday site here. It went really well, so a good warm up for the MUCH bigger North American handbuilt show in February. Otherwise I have been getting chores done on the farm - today we built a new fence and gate for the horse - we have taken on care of a very old horse who was living out in Eastern Oregon and wouldn't have lasted the winter there; Misha's horse hospice.... Yesterday I dug a ditch to keep the draining rain water from going over the driveway. And since buying myself an axe I have been having fun splitting logs for the fire. Good to get some of these tasks done since I start training again next week and won't have so much time/energy available! This year's training plan is posted here. Not too much else to report; work is very busy as usual, but I am trying to find a little time for my own projects - I have designed a time trial bike I would like to get built, and also need to make the second iteration of the fork for my 29er; I plan to use that bike to defend my Cascade Cream Puff title next year. The other thing coming up is that we will be heading down to New Zealand for Christmas/New Year - I haven't seen my sister in over 18 months, so it'll be good to catch up with her and the rest of the family (and give her a chance to meet Misha before the wedding!), not to mention getting some sunshine for ten days. We will be taking the tandem! (so handy having one that will pack into a suitcase...) 01/11/07 I have spent a bit of time updating my list of bikes and am somewhat surprised that I am now up to 20.... Mind you, one is a Unicycle, and four are still back in England, and I do now work in a bike factory, so it seems somewhat inevitable.... As my fabrication skills progress my bike building gets quicker, so the number is only likely to swell! Hopefully Misha knows what she is getting into! I have not actually been riding very much at all in the last month - been very busy at work, so I haven't been riding at lunchtime, just my commute over the hill each way each day. Still, this is the off season; I haven't managed to run as I planned to, but I still might. And only a month until training starts again; need to get my plan worked out before the December 1st kick-off! 20/10/07 Well my sister just admonished me on the phone last night for my last update being two months ago! I knew it had been a while, but not quite that long.... Still, here we go, and we now finally have internet access out at the ranch, so hopefully I'll get back to posting a bit more regularly! Yes, so for those that didn't know, I have basically been moved in with Misha for the last several months - and it will be official next week when the lease on my apartment is up. I now live about four miles outside of town, in the countryside. We have seven acres for the two cows to roam on, and four cats in the house. Only trouble is that there is no cable broadband available, so it has taken us a while to get set up with a satellite, but we now have the rather obnoxious dish on the roof of the wood shed, and I can once again keep up with emails (and this site!), and most importantly get my fix of BBC radio (listening to the Rob da Bank show as I type). Unfortunately it seems that Skype isn't going to work, since the upload is on the phoneline and that just doesn't have the requiste bandwidth. So what has been happening since August? Well, the first weekend in September was the Eugene Celebration stage race right here in town - and with two of the stages starting outside the house, I couldn't really not do it. The Pro/1/2 field was fairly small, but it was an enjoyable three day/four stage event. In the first long road stage I finished safely in the pack, with a couple of riders grabbing a few seconds off the front, but nothing to worry about for the overall. The next morning was a seven mile time trial, in which I finished second, four seconds down on the winner, putting me in second overall. In the evening criterium I protected my position and finished with the group, again with a couple of riders just off the front. Then it was the most fun stage - a single 42 mile loop over great roads with two decent climbs. I attacked on both climbs and descents, and we ended up with seven riders split off the front. I decided to gamble on attacking the last short sharp climb to the finish to try and get the four seconds I needed, but I didn't quite crack the leader (although apparently he was in more trouble than I realised, and if I had sacrificed a possible stage win I may have gotten the overall. Ah well), and waited for the sprint to the line, where I got jumped and came second. But second overall was worth $150, and it was good training for my last race of the year a fortnight later. When I lived in Massachusetts in 2001 I competed in the Josh Billings Runaground - this is a huge team triathlon event which starts with a mass start 27 mile bike leg, before a lake canoe and a 10km run. That year I hooked up with a team that needed a cyclist, and they were very pleased when I came in as part of the lead group of three, several minutes ahead of the field. Every year since, Mark has asked me if I might be around to ride for him again, and this year I was able to make it happen - Misha and I were planning a trip to England, so stopping off in New England for the weekend was a nice idea - it broke up the long flight and gave me a chance to visit friends and show Misha where I used to live. The event has got bigger since, with over 400 cyclists lining up - fortunately the fast guys are pulled to the front, so I didn't have to deal with the big pack. As with six years ago, it didn't take long for the breakaway to form. This year there were four of us initially, with two more bridging to make six. I was on my little white BF (pictured below) which was causing quite a stir with the many spectators - I think I have got used to riding/racing in Eugene where the bikes are well known - it was kinda cool to have people amazed about the performance of the little wheels. On the final draggy hill two of our group got away, and I didn't quite have the power to follow. But they only had 40 seconds on us at the handover, so I felt satisfied that I had given the team a good shot. Unfortunately, the guys lost a bit too much time in the canoe, and despite our runner going two minutes quicker than anyone else (!), we ended up fifth overall. Still, it was good fun. After fitting in one more visit after the race, we headed back to the airport, only to discover that our flight had been cancelled. But the airline put us up in a very nice hotel (with a four poster bed no less!), and the flight we ended up getting the next morning was actually better - about half empty, compared with the fully loaded plane we would have been on. Our whirlwind tour of the UK was great; a bit too much driving, but good to be home and to show Misha my country - here are some photos of our trip. The big event of our trip was that whilst taking Misha for a walk in the woods behind my old house I asked her to marry me, and she said yes, so we are now engaged! We are planning the wedding for next summer, which we both agree seems awfully grown up, but then I guess we are really, even if we don't like to admit it :-) When we got back it was straight back into the fray at work. I am out of the production line now, and acting as team leader/expediter for the tikit line. I have a great team to work with and am really enjoying my new role, even if it has been pretty hectic so far! I am also trying to get some special bikes built for the Oregon Handbuilt Bicycle Show in November. So mostly working weekends until then.... Okay, I think that is pretty much up to date, I will endeavor not to leave it so long next time!>br> 25/08/07 
And suddenly another month has sneaked past... I have been suffering pretty badly with allergies - I now discover that the Willamete valley (in which Eugene is located) is one of the worst places in the whole country for this. Oh good. Apart from that, things have been going well. I am still working in the production line at Bike Friday, which is fairly draining, but apparently I should be getting out to get back to R&D soon. In the meantime, I have at last managed to get my project bike rolling, despite a few teething problems, as pictured to right. 14.5lbs at the first iteration, should be able to get under 14 with a few refinements, as long as nothing breaks in testing!On the racing front, I have done three events since my last posting. The first was a hillclimb time trial up Mt Larch, just north of Portland. It was 16 miles with some rolling terrain and a steep finish. I added some aero bars to my road bike, which turned out to be the right choice, as I won, beating the course record holder by thrity something seconds, although we were both a little outside his previous record. They had a proper start house and ramp, which was pretty cool - photo on the Oregon pages. Next up was the State TT champs - being a flat out and back 40km (25 miles), this was perfectly suited for the British tester - apart from the fact that I hadn't ridden a TT since April. Also it was a quiet back road, so no traffic assist, and windy - tailwind out, headwind back. I was going pretty good heading out with the wind, averaging 30.5mph to the turn, which was just a cone in the middle of the road! Coming back was hard, but I kept it going to finish with 53:26 and a 28mph average. Ended up being good enough for second - I was 44 seconds behind the winner, and a similar time ahead of third. Most safisfying was to find out later that I had beaten David Zimbleman by over a minute - he put 1:30 into me over a similar distance in a TT back in April. On another two weeks to last weekend, and another hillclimb. More of a proper climb this time, no aero bars required. It was to the summit of the highest point of the coastal range, Mary's Peak. I had been out there the previous week to pre-ride the course, and it was really beautiful. Race day was chilly and a bit breezy. Being on a Saturday morning didn't do me any favours, as I didn't get any rest after another busy week. And taking the cat to the emergency vet at midnight on Friday didn't help... Still, no need for excuses, I was beaten fair and square by the chap whom I beat at Mt LArch, though once again we were both outside the course record. So racing is almost done for the season. There is a local stage race I might do, but that is about it. Except that in mid-September, I am going back to where I used to live in Massachusetts to compete in the Josh Billings Runaground. This is a team triathlon that I competed in back in 2001, and my teammate has been asking me to come back ever since. I will do the initial bike leg, before handing off to Mark in the canoe, and then apparently he has an Olympian runner for the final leg. I've managed to fit this trip in on my way back to the UK - yep, after my longest time ever (almost a whole year) away from home I am going back for a vacation. Misha has never been to England, so I am looking forward to showing her my country, and catching up with friends and family. 19/07/07 Blimey, have I really not posted an update since May? I knew it had been a while, but that must be the longest gap since I started this thing! I can only plead general busyness and the fact that I am spending most of my time at Misha's house where there is no internet (but we are working on sorting that...). Anyway, big event to report on is the Cascade Cream Puff 100 mile MTB race, the report for which can be viewed here. Otherwise just general berating of myself for not taking enough (actually some would be a start...) photos of the gorgeous Oregon summer. Work is crazy busy but going well; trying to find occasional bits of time to work on my own projects - have almost got my new superlight Bike Friday finished. Almost. I have a couple of time trials coming up, which means I should think about doing some training, if I can find some spare energy! Oh, and the article on the hour record attempt has been published in the UK Mazda magazine - it can be viewed online at: www.mazdamagazine.co.uk/speedbikes. 29/05/07 I have been trying to find time to sit down and type; tonight I find myself skipping the evening race (really tired today after a busy long weekend), so at last a chance to backtrack over the last few weeks. After the 15 mile time trials every Tuesday night in April, this month has seen a weekly hillclimb. The first one, a whole four weeks ago now, was run in cold and rainy weather. The climb has a couple of minutes worth of flat at the bottom, then ramps up, with a couple of slight levelings out. Probably around 3 miles in length. That first week I did 11:35, which was good enough to win. The second week, with dryer conditions, saw me improve to 11:01, only 4 seconds off the course record. Week three and I was finding my climbing legs, setting a new course record with 10:47. And then last week I managed to go a bit better again, prompting this nice little comment with the results posting: "Now Robbie-Boy English has beaten the unbeatable beating he put on the original unbeatable hill record." I clocked 10:39. With it being much warmer tonight maybe I could have improved it a little more, but my legs are definitely not up for it, and having a bit of trouble with hayfever wouldn't help either.... Other events I have as yet failed to report on are a couple of recumbent events - WASCO two weeks ago and OPHV races at PIR this weekend just gone: WASCO: This is an unusual event, being one of the few open-road recumbent races anywhere. It has attracted top riders from the US and Europe over the last few years, and with me being in the State this year there was a fair amount of hype about my participation. The race is 75 miles, consisting of four laps of a testing course, with a mile long 8% hill. Now, Hachi wasn't really designed for this type of event, but it is the only race bike I have. I built new handlebars for it a few weeks ago to improve my forward vision, and I dropped the chainring a couple of teeth for the hill. The main competition was last year's winner Michael Wolfe, his Bacchetta teammate and endurance specialist John Schlitter, and the legend that is Freddy Markham. I was actually really nervous before the start - I think to do with taking the bike into the unknown, and the pressure of living up to the reputation I seem to have over here. We rolled out, and I spun up to the front, trying to get my legs warmed up and settled into the bike - apart from a short shake-down ride I hadn't ridden a recumbent since Arizona. The front of the bunch swarmed round me, which was rather disconcerting - most of them were on Easy Racers or Bacchettas, so all a lot further off the ground than me! So when JS clipped off the front, I chased him down, and used the momentum to continue past him and away on my own. Basically I didn't look back, and settled into my own little time trial. At the base of the hill, about 25 minutes in, I caught all the tandems, who had started ten minutes in front of us. The hill was fine - sure my cadence was pretty low, but I got up and over without any problem. On the 40mph descent I spun out top gear and had to freewheel, but I still completed the first lap 6 minutes ahead of the pack, in 43 minutes. I was going at the same speed on lap 2, which I would have completed in under 1:30, so looking good for around a 3hr finish - I was feeling pretty comfortable and the pace felt sustainable. But at the start of the long downhill, when I went to freewheel my secondary drive chain came off. I was already going close to 40mph at this point - fortunately I was able to grab the flapping chain with my hand, and hang on it to, whilst riding the bike one handed down the rest of the descent. At the bottom I stopped to, I thought, just put the chain back on. But on closer examination, where the chain had hit the spokes two links had become terminaly twisted, so without more tools than I was carrying there was nothing I could do. This was about two miles from completing lap 2. I estimate my lead to be in the 15-20 minute region - the lead packs second lap split was 57 minutes, whereas mine would have been around 44, plus the gap from the first lap. Very frustrating. I got a ride back to the HQ with the marshal at the bottom of the hill, and examined the problem further. The post-mortem was that the freewheel mechanism at the hub had seized, which caused the chain to get thrown and the resulting problems. The hub is a custom item that Kingcycle created - and it was never designed for extensive freewheeling - this is the first time in the five years since I built the bike that I have ridden it on the open road; it was designed for circuit and track racing where I don't stop pedalling! I suspect that the long descent on the first lap caused the clutch to overheat, and thus it locked up when I next tried to freewheel. If I'd realised what was happening, or the chain hadn't got damaged, I could have continued and just kept pedalling, even if that meant riding against the brake on the downhill. So incredibly frustrating - and a sizeable financial loss too; the prize money was pretty good, and I was on scheldue to have a crack at breaking the 3 hour mark and collecting the $400 bonus.... Ah well, that's racing sometimes. JS took the win in a sprint finish from Freddy and Michael, the three of them coming in a 3:40. OHPV at PIR: The story of this weekend's racing starts in the middle of last week - I had ordered a conventional freewheel for Hachi, intending to modify the original hub to accept it, and thus solve the problem from WASCO. So on Wednesday night I went to work, and soon had a new piece machined ready to press fit to the hub... but it all went a bit pear-shaped when I fractured the hub shell during installation.... This was at 7pm, and I was faced with the prospect of a long night to come up with a solution. But nothing to do but get on with it. I found a used Sachs drum brake hub as a donor, and machined it to accept the bearings and axle from the original hub (which started out as a Stumery Archer drum; similar, but different enough to require more work...). Then I machined up a new adapter for the freewheel, and pressed the whole thing togther. At 9:30 I called it a night; the hub was basically done, and I had one more evening left to finish up. So Thursday I finally finished building the new wheel, sorting the brake and fitting new chains, and gave it a quick carpark testride at 10:15. Then it was time to load everything into the car, as I would be leaving straight from work on Friday. The Human Power Challenge was put on by the Oregon Human Powered Vehicles club, and consisted of various events over two days at Portland International Raceway. PIR is flat, with a bunch of corners, and just shy of 2 miles round. We were blessed with gorgeous weather on Saturday, and Hachi ran really well as I covered the 5 lap time trial in 18:45, to average 30.4mph for the win. The other event for the day was the drag races - such fun, it is a pity I get to ride them so infrequently. For these I used my Bike Friday, and was able to win every round to take the overall. The OHPV crowd are a great group - it was really nice to meet a lot of people who I only knew by reputation, and also to see a lot of very diverse vehicles. Many people were pleased to see Hachi 'in the flesh', having followed it's development online. On sunday, in much cooler conditions, we kicked off with the flying 200m. I rode both Hachi and the BF, but for some reason I just couldn't get Hachi to go very fast - I was only a fraction quicker than on the road bike. My only thought is that, having not done any recumbent training, my sprint legs don't translate as well as my endurance ability. Anyway, Michael Wolfe did a great sprint to take the win, with me second on Hachi and third on the BF.... Next up was the Autocross - a very tight coned circuit in the parking lot, with four racers at a time tackling three laps; straight elimination, top two go through. I rode the Bike Friday again, and had a lot of fun whilst progressing through for the win. The final event of the weekend was the road race - Michael had ideas of sitting on my wheel, so I went really hard on the first lap to prevent that! So hard that my second lap was relatively really slow, but I had the gap by then, and settled in to a 29mph pace. All was well until about 25 minutes into the hour event, when my rear tyre went flat in the first bend. I was able to ride it flat round the mile and a half to the pits, then pulled in - fortunately I had a spare rear wheel with me, so was able to make a rapid change and dive back out. I estimate I lost about 2:30, which must have been my lead over Michael - as I came out of the pits he was right in front of me, so I was able to shoot past and regain the lead. I was running a bit slower after all that, but still finished with a 28mph average, so happy with that. In other news, work is still frenetic - I have been working in the custom production line for the last few weeks, to boost production there. It has been a steep learning curve at times, but I am gaining more skills and it is satisfying to actually be building bicycles! No progress on my superlight project bike; it'll get done eventually.... But I have bought myself a rather nice tandem; I figured if I waited until I had time to build one it'll never happen, and an ex-demo one came up that fits me really well. And I have finally been mountain biking in Oregon! The weekend before last, Ted and I caught the bus from Eugene, which cost us the princely sum of $1.25 to ride 50 miles with our bikes out to Mackenzie Bridge, where there are various awesome trails. Dylan met us along the way, and we had a great ride climbing up Castle Rock, which was fantastically technical and rewarded us with superb views. Not to mention a great grin inducing descent - yep, I still love emteebeeing! 02/05/07 I have been meaning to add to this for a while, but have been frenetically busy; work and racing already keep me fairly occupied, but throw in a bit of socialising and suddenly spare time is at a real premium! So where to begin to catch up.... Firstly I need to pass on a very cool link to the film that the Smithsonian Institute made at Battle Mountain in 2002. Mostly featuring Tanya Markham, but yours truly also crops up a few times - of course including my infamous 70mph slide.... The YouTube links can be found on my Bike Friday page here. I also need to thank Tom Salt, the British photographer who came out to Arizona to cover the hour attempt, as he has sent me several superb shots from the event (including the one now shown on my index page). I'll get them posted up on the Nissan Hour record page soon. Okay, so backtracking a little - two weeks ago when I last wrote I was about to head out to ride the third evening TT of the season. Sure enough the weather was miserable, with cold heavy rain - I don't think I've ever worn so many clothes for time trialing before! I did a pretty good ride though, 33:16 for the 15 miles to win by a minute and a half. Which was satisfying after puncturing the previous week. I am a little surprised to see that my level is that high compared to the local riders - apparently training less and working lots hasn't slowed me down too much.... The following weekend and time for a change of pace - instead of training lots and lots I went out to a party on Saturday night, had a great time, ended up being awake all night and finally getting home at 11am on Sunday. Haven't done that since I was a student! But it didn't seem to hurt me for the final time trial last Tuesday. This time it was dry, and pretty good conditions, just one stretch of headwind. I snuck under 32 minutes with 31:54, though with only a 38 second margin. Finding my time trial legs boded well, as then (almost getting caught up now), this last weekend was the Deschutes Time Trial Festival. This was a bit of a hike, but I had found someone to travel with, for the four hour drive to the Mount Hood area, East of Portland. Unfortunately I forgot my camera - doh! - as it was spectacular up there, fantastic scenery combined with great weather and the snow capped cone of the mountain showing above the hills. I'll try and write a race report later, but it was good, hard racing and I ended up third overall, so pretty happy with that. 16/04/07 It occurred to me in typing the date that I have almost become americanised with putting the month first, since I do it at work that way. But no, I will hang onto my English ways! I shall keep saying aluminium becuase I am right and eventually they will realise! But anyway, finally taking a few minutes to catch up. I have just posted a load of pictures from the Arizona weekend, to accompany the words which can be found here. Arriving back last week I rode out of the airport into, oh yes, rain - welcome back to Oregon indeed! And no sooner back than racing again - last Tuesday was the second evening time trial, and after besting all the TT guys by four minutes with Hachi the week before, I was interested to see how I would fare on my lo-pro. Well, unfortunately I didn't get to find out - it was a perfect evening; not too cold and calm and bright, and I was riding really well, depsite not having ridden that bike since last September. But at 8.5 miles into the 15 mile race my front tyre went pop and it was game over. Extrapolating my average speed put my finishing time probably quicker than the winner... but first you have to finish. I'll try again tomorrow, though it is looking like being rather wet. It took until the weekend for me to feel fully caught up with sleep and energy after being away and then going back to work. And although there was a road race on Saturday, I decided just to do a long training weekend - after doing all the recumbent and intensive stuff for the hour it felt like a very long time since I had done a long road ride. So on Saturday afternoon I did a hilly loop of four hours, then on Sunday I headed out intending to do six... but it ended up rather more epic as I arrived home seven and a quarter hours later, just shy of 200km and 1750m of climbing.... Pretty pleased with how I felt though. I think that is the longest ride I have done since France last summer. I experienced something new on Saturday night - I went to the ballet! Yes I know, something I have turned my nose up at in the past, but it's like, I is getting me some culture, innit? I have to say that the first half was exactly why I haven't been before - boring music and no clarity as to there being any reason for what they are doing; some of the movements are very impressive, but there seemed to be an awful lot of just scurrying around. However, the second half (and the reason I went at all) was fantastic - a live gospel choir and band and some great chereography. I have finally had a chance to start building my new superfly Bike Friday for racing on this year (as long as I get it finished before the season is over....), with the fork and front wheel completed. Just need to work backwards now.... 04/04/07 Right now I am sat at Eugene airport, about to board a flight to Phoenix for my second trip to the Nissan test track at Casa Grande and a second hour of suffering in the name of trying to get a world record.... I'll be putting up running reports here. So the last week or so has been about final preparations for said attempt. This has meant that almost all of my riding has been on the Bacchetta, with a couple of sessions on Hachi. Last Thursday I again did the evening chaingang. Slightly smaller attendance this time, and it played out quite differently - this time they let me go at the start. And so I just rode a time trial by myself; harder to be motivated without folk on your tail, but the couple of times I looked behind me they were still in sight. At the last turn they were pretty close, so I lifted the pace; was able to keep a bit of a gap up sprinter's hill, then it was just hammer to the finish. One rider managed to jump across to my wheel with a mile to go, and then just got round me in the sprint after sitting on, but no worries. I was pleased that I was only 1 minute slower than the previous week, with mostly a lower heartrate and certainly less suffering. Starting to find my recumbent legs! Over the weekend I mostly rested, and had my legs massaged. Then last night was the first evening time trial of the year. What a contrast to the UK! At home you might get 20 riders showing up, very low-key. In Massachusetts it was even lower - due to USCF restrictions they couldn't actually make it an official race, so you had to time yourself! But in Oregon they are more enlightened - OBRA (Oregon Bicycle Racing Association) runs separately to the national governing body, and makes racing affordable and frequent. A racing licence costs $20, and races are cheap. So I arrive at the setting for last night's 15 mile test, to be greeted by loads of cars, a queue to sign on and riders everywhere, on turbo trainers, and with the fanciest TT equipment. Running order was in order of sign-on, in 30 second intervals. All categories catered for: they do the TTs the same as road races, so by category (1,2,3,4,5), age (Masters etc) and also recumbents! I had Hachi, and I met up with OHPV folk Todd (Challenge Jester with a much-hacked about streetable Varna shell) and John Williams (ex-Quest owner, came to watch on his motorbike). First rider was off at 6:30, I got a start time of 6:57:30 - I'm glad I wasn't any later, as it was getting pretty dim by the time the last riders were finishing. After a 20 minute warm up (and it was a cool evening, so actually needed to get warm after standing about) on my road bike, I did a few minutes on Hachi before heading to the line. The course is pan-flat with two turns, good surfaces and hardly any traffic. Off the start I took my time to settle in, getting into fourth gear and finding a comfortable cadence at 30mph. I soon started passing people, but with everyone racing under their personal OBRA number, rather than with a number in order of start as at home, I couldn't tell how much time I was catching people for. Not knowing the turns meant I slowed a little more than I needed to. Also, with half an eye on being really fresh for Friday, I didn't go quite all-out. Not far off, but backed-off a bit. I finished fast, and had almost lifted the average speed to 30 at the end - 29.8mph. Todd broke the course record with 25 minutes; I was just outside 30. It'll be interesting to see how that compares to the fast TT boys when the results are posted. I was pleased though; the legs felt good, my heartrate was up, and I wasn't sore afterwards. Now just two days of good rest before doing the same, harder, for twice as long, in my little carbon fibre box..... 25/03/07 Well that is my 20s done and dusted; Friday was my 30th birthday. Kinda funny how it has felt like I would never be thirty years old, then all of a sudden it has caught up with me. Ah well, age is only a number, right? Arriving back in Eugene and is seems like spring has sprung - in the week I was away the trees have burst into blossom, and the weather has been mostly warm and sunny the past few days. It took me a couple of days to recover from the intensive training week in the desert, but since then I have been working on getting my recumbent muscles primed. In view of this, on Thursday I took the Bacchetta out on the infamous Eugene Thursday chaingang. This ride has been running for a long time, and I had only heard stories about it. Basically all the top roadies show up for a 26 mile training ride (for which read 'race'), and with the lovely weather last week there was a big turnout. My intention was to spend an hour at pace, so after the initial roll out I cruised up to the front and wound it up. I had the group lined out, and ended up with four of us away over the first climb. I lost a few lengths over the top, but soon pulled that back over the top and went back to the front again. Which is where I mostly stayed - periodically someone would try to do a turn, or they would attack me over a small rise, but every time I just kept going at my pace and was soon back around them again. After 45 minutes of this I was starting to feel it, so when I got dropped a little on a climb, I sat in for a few minutes after getting back to the group. But then it was time to work again, so I attacked the group and rode away, riding up to the one rider who was ahead on his own. We made it over sprinter's hill (the last climb before the finish) and still had a gap, so I just gave it everything I had to hold 30mph or more all the way to the finish. My breakaway partner tried to take a turn, but we just slowed down, so I cracked on. And we did actually hold the group off, with me taking the (uncontested) sprint. A very good training session - I was sore in the familiar places (familiar from the hour record last year), so it was perfect hour record training for my recumbent muscles. This weekend I actually had a bit of time to use the workshop for my own projects for once, and so built some new handlebars for Hachi, getting it ready for racing this season. Pictures are here. 16/03/07 
Greetings from Arizona! Today was the last full day of Bike Friday's Desert Camp for 2007, and saw us arrive back in Tucson after spending the last week exploring the outlying desert and small towns. It has been a really good week; fantastic weather, great people and plenty of quality training and rest. And I have got my tan lines back... Since arriving here last Saturday (after a very early 4am start) I have logged over 25 hours, which includes a lot of pace riding and intervals. The ability to rest properly for the first time in ages has made a world of difference to my ability to train, and with three weeks to go until my hour record attempt, the timing is perfect. I have not done a fully supported tour like this before, it really is very luxurious - two rest stops (with drinks and snacks) and one lunch stop each day, luggage taken to the next hotel and no need to worry about anything apart from pedalling. Very civilised. This year's camp was designated 'More fun than fast', being focused more on the older Bike Friday customers who like to tour, rather than the younger racers. However, this actually suited me perfectly, as the shorter distances meant I could include some interval training, and then extend the distance if I chose to. Then I would mostly be done riding by 2pm; shower, nap, chill out, eat, sleep, repeat. One evening I gave a talk about my HPV racing and showed the clip of my crash in Mango, which folk seemed to enjoy.Tomorrow we fly back to Eugene and back to work. I need to try and work somewhat sensible hours for the next couple of weeks to get ready for returning to Arizona at Easter to ride round in circles again....  |