TDH - Stage 2

Stage 2, the first to have more than 1 rider, was held on Saturday Afternoon. The race was a 3 hour mountain bike race held at Sparrow Hill and a pretty average track.

I started in the second row behind the likes of Shaun Lewis, Nathan Haas and Jeremy Ross, and shortly after the start gun went off, some keen guy on his fully rigid steel bike with a bag of bottles on his bar crashed causing a bit of a split in the field, but I managed to get around. It was a cracker of a start, harder than any XC race that I have done in a long time, but it got pretty easy once we hit the single track. Someone up front had a good start and held about 10 of us up in the first half of the first lap, opening a big gap between us and the lead group. Eventually I got past them all and was cruising on my own. I was lapping mostly on my own and managed to catch a few guys. At about the 2 hour mark I was blasting around, nailing every corner passing riders not feeling any pain and enjoying myself, but what goes up must come down. Half way through my second last lap I'd had it and wasn't racing anymore. I had a small crash and lost the legs were getting a bit tired, I could have done one more lap as I came in 30 seconds before 3 hours, but I couldn't be bothered. I finished in 13th place overall and 2nd in under 19s. Michael Baker who got 2nd overall blitzed it, I never knew he could ride well for any long races, but he showed us all there's more to him than the sprint machine we see at Nationals. It was a good race, I didn't expect to do very well, and its the first time I've raced that hard for 3 hours and my lap times were pretty good I thought.

There hasn't been as much riding as I'd like, I worked a lot last week and smashed it at the gym so didn't feel like riding much. Was going to ride to Burra and back this morning a nice 80km ride, but pretty tired from work, a big weekend and it was windy outside as well. In the long run its probably best I rest today I smash it tomorow rather then train while really tired for the next 3 weeks. So Ill get back to you in a few days after some more work at the gym, the ride to Burra and a bunch ride or two.

Tour de Holidays - Stage 1

Nick Wilson would like to introduce the worlds 4th grand Tour of cycling: the Tour de Holidays, a 26 day tour around Canberra to make up for lots of lost training.

First day of holidays, woke up with plans of an epic ride up to Honeysuckle Creek, but it was very very foggy, then it started raining and I had second thoughts. The clear sky in the distance made me think it may clear up, so I got ready and headed out. I decided to do a different safer rider on a route I found yesterday. I went out along the Federal Hwy and then the Old Federal Hwy and turned left at Gundaroo Bungendoor Road, which takes you a few kms south the Gundaroo. Here I turned left again back to Sutton and then back into a clear sunny Canberra. It was such a nice ride. No cars, nice roads, trees, very peaceful. I pushed myself pretty hard most of the way as well, by the time I got home I was stuffed for the first time in a long time.

So after stage one of the Tour de Holidays the Nick Wilson is in Yellow, Green, Polka dot, and White. Stage s will see some early morning hill climb reps on Black Mountain, followed by some long ride on Friday for stage 3, before an unusual 3 hour dirt based race at Sparrow Hill. Sunday will be a rest day.

Fun times are ahead.. almost

Thats right folks, holidays are almost here. So Schools been pretty busy, its been wet and cold and I may not have been for as many rides as I'd like. But as of next Tuesday, ill be on holidays for three and a half weeks. I only have to tests left, no classes, which gives me a bit more room to fit training in and study over the next few days. So what have I got planned I hear you say? Well it all starts this weekend with a cracker Fantastic Honeysuckle Tour. Most likely on my own Ill ride up to Honeysuckle Creek for some beautiful native bush, steep climbing and total chillaxing. its about 100km there and back from my place and not too hard except the 20% gradient climb. There will be a Federal hwy return tomorrow and a Bunch ride on Saturday as well as a warm up. Next week I might try to do something Ive wanted to do for a long time, end of Boboyan road and back. I checked it out the other night, it will be about a 50km return with some killer climbs including Fitzs Gap. Highest point is about 1200m. This is something Ive wanted to do for sooo long and Im ready to do it now. There are a few other rides I might do as well: the traditional Corin Dam (but will actually go to the dam this time), Googong Dam, Bungendoor/Captains Flat and many more rural delights. The big one will be a ride to the coast at the end of the holidays hopefully. From home looking close to 200km I think, but will need to check first.

Alto of this is part of my 2009 goal of riding every road in the ACT and the Canberra Region. Excluding dirt roads, which may still be used and Urban Roads as that's just shit boring, who cares about Something Street in Belcompton? There are a lot of areas that I still need to cover in the north of Canberra around Hall and also south east areas between Queanbeyan and Tharwa.

On the racing and training news, raced a club round at Kowen on the weekend. Pretty mush the worst track Ive ever been on, just stupid. Either worn out bumpy rooted old 24hr tracks, or some nice freshly cut ruts that Paul Cole wanted us to set in a bit more. I pulled out after 3 laps, as I wasn't racing anyone or having fun, so what was the point? I'm starting to see some results from my training at the gym, I can really accelerate now and I can really smash it up climbs now.

So thats all for now, Ill get be back after my Funtastic weekend of rides and two more exams.

The partys over

Its the end of may, and that only means one thing, I start training again now. Ive had a rest from real training for about a month and been enjoying my 18ness a bit. As ive probably already mentioned, Im now training to peak in September for some marathons the and the Scott24hr. My plan is to focus on endruance util mid July when ill be doing 200km rides on the weekends, at the same time Ill also work on my climbing which has never been the same since I started training for last summers national series. After this month and a half period, I will start working more on strength and thresholds. At this time I will also start doing longer XC rides on various terrain so that I really feel comfortable on my bike and can come into these races in the very best condition, ready to handle it all. My main gaol out of this is to get to a point where I have the endurance and knowledge to race a marathon with out hitting the wall midway through, and to build up my speed on easier sections where I usualy get dropped. I think with this amount of effort going into these races, I will really be at a level where I can start racing with bakc end of the elite guys.

Since I last posted nothing much has really happened, I got 15th in a club XC race in Senior men which I was pretty happy with considering the size and quality of the feild. Tha also means my forks are finaly fixed and going great. I think ive finaly got my roadie going well, gears are working the bakc wheel has been true for a record amount of time and pretty stiff and its generaly feeling good.

So thats all for now, Ill probably bust out some big rides next weekend and let you know how that goes. Catchya Gangstas!

Not so good

...was the Canberra Tour, not that it was really a tour for me, more a classic. Stage one went from stromlo to Uriara Crossing up to Condor Creek and back and then all that again. I decided to just race for the KOM points and not worry about GC. so we were off and it wasn't too bad, but pretty uncomfortable riding at the back of the bunch. After smashing myself to catchup with the leaders coming out of the Uriara Crossing, I moved up a bit towoards the front. We turned around at Condor Creek and then the second KOM points were about 1km away. There was a break away of about 3 or 4 riders out the front, but I thought it was worth getting 1 point so half way up the hill I made an acceleration and opened up a good 50m gap pretty fast and cruised down the other side waiting to be caught again. Me and pete did a few turns to try and catch the break away again, but as we came up the 3 sisters, I just couldnt handle the pase and got droped back a fair bit. I battled on and eventualy got caught by a group behind me and we caught the leaders at the end of the lap. However, coming out of Uriara Crossing again, I got held back again at the back of the bunch and couldnt catch up this time. I strugled along the flase flat for a bit, but Id had it and turned back. I dont know what was going on, I was just tired and my legs just felt terrible. I felt like I had already done 100km the day before and hadnt streched or somthing. It was a very dissapointing weekend not to have finished my first big road race.

Im getting my forks fixed at the moment, Ive given up on the warrenty as its probably going to cost as much sending them over as is to get them fixed here. But it will mean I can race the next Club XC race at my fav...MAJURA!!!!! So Ill see you all then.

Average

is how Im feeling after the 6+6 and a big weekend in Sydney. Been too tired to ride in the mornings, and its to windy during the day for riding, which is when Id usualy go for am XC ride, but I have no forks. So as you can see, things have been a bit lazy. Because I got my forks from America, the warrenty can't be covered in Australia which means Im probably not going to have forks for a few weeks now, which is pretty annoying because it means I cant race at stromlo on the weekend.

I start school next week and I have a nee trainign plan:
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - Cotter/Uriara in the monring and gym in the arvo
Wednsday - Bunch ride or hill climbs or intervals (somthing hard but short)
Thursday - Gym, maybe XC ride
Friday - Cruisy ride or XC ride
Saturday - Bunch ride plus hills or race
Sunday - Long endurance ride or long XC ride or race

This means I get some long rides in on Sunday and tuesday with a rest in between, and the other days I do more strength training, or recovery.

Next race is the Canberra Tour which im looking forward to. Not sure what my stratergy will be, but Im going to try and take out the KOM points, and I guess Ill see where I stand throughout the race and make a decision based on that. Then Ill have a break for 3 weeks during may and start some base training to peak in September.

Not so 24, but totaly solo

Well firstly, we got 3rd at the Mont the other week. We were leading, but i broke my chain and had to wait till someone came past with a chainbreaker to get it fixed. Then tom got held up for about 10 mins after someone broke their leg and finaly I was 5 mins late for an transition. So we came thrid by 20 mins and lost about 25 due to mistakes, 15 of which were mine.





But who cares about the mont, The 24hour solo champs were on over the weekend. I was racing the 6+6 hr in under 18s. There were 3 of us plus about 10 others in open. At the start i was about 3rd wheel for a little while until about halfway when i went off on my own and finished the lap first. I stayed in front for the rest of the day opening up a 20 min gap between me and 2nd place. However, I noticed my forks were really stiff and my wrists were killing me. I stoped to let some air out of my forks, but it didnt change anything. I asked the BMC guys (the use the same forks) and they said ask the bike shop. Shane from bike culture said this happens with these forks some times, I wasnt in the mood for details, and said to finish the day and put some new forks on for the last 6 hours. I couldnt handle the bumps down the hills and lost 5 mins. On sunday I got off to a slow start and after about 3 laps Taylor Charlton (2nd place) had halved the gap to 7.5 mins. I stepped on the gas and after about 3 more laps I had gained 90 seconds and was starting to get confident that he wasnt going to keep the pace up all day. Soon it was up to 15 minutes and with only 2 hours to go I knew I had the win. I kept on lapping but I was getting pretty tired and slowed down to about 35 min laps. But I had moved to a 20 min+ gap. the last 3 laps were tough, I had no energy and was pretty sick of riding the same track. But the last lap I just cruised around ticking off each section that I wouldnt have to ride over again any time soon. I finished with a smile on my face and 17 mins ahead of Taylor and about 3 laps up on Chris Cady. Its not a huge race like nationals, but its the biggets race Ive ever won on my own and it was bloody tough. Its given me a big confidence boost and taught me alot about racing longer events.

Well im on holidays now for 2 weeks so plenty of training. Next races are the next club race and then the Canberra Tour. After that, I have no races (other than club and road) until the Angry Doctor, So might chill out for a bit and start to build up for some big races in Spring.