The weekend

The weekend has been at interesting one, and a relatively good one too.

Saturday began with me not having to work for once (worked 3 saturdays in the past month), so it began very lazily with umpteen teacakes eaten for breakfast with a huge mug of coffee before heading over to the parent's place where more coffee and the newspapers waited for me to devour.

The afternoon was spent with Mom and Bro shipping (window shopping in my case, as I'm so skint) and having a hoot with them both. Popped into the shop I work in, and we all had a go on the tombola - myself and mom not winning everything, bro winning 3 times. he was very nice and gave me one of the prizes which I'm happy about as it's a lovely fragrance, and one which I'd never normally think about. But there you go!

The evening was spent over at the Manchester Velodrome watching Revolution 26 - a night of cycling including elite and future stars riders all competing in their own sectors for placings in the series.
Unlike in November's event where the future stars had several crashes, it was the turn of the elite riders with 2 crashes in the same race. Both riders got up and carried on racing later in the night once their bikes had been fixed.
Bradley Wiggins put on a storm of cycling and former skier Alain Baxter put in an appearance for his first cycle race of his career and gave an amazing performance as he stomped through the sprint with a sub 12 second ride in the flying 200m sprint. Excellent!

Today was meant to have involved some cycling. All was fine until I woke up with bad knee pain (again). I was talking with Mom yesterday anyway about strapping it up or putting a knee brace on it at some point. I did a google search this morning on the subject and matched my symptoms with those of PCL sprain - pain on hyper-extension of the knee and most certainly made worse by straightening it out - all the pain is in the right area and fits in so well with what I read. However, I cannot physically do anything in terms of strapping/bracing etc until I have seen the physio which will be after xmas now. So in the meantime it's back with the anti-inflammatories when really needed and trying to take it easy when I can

I will not, however, let the pain stop me from riding in MCC track champs on 20th December.

Middleton CC Track Session 2

On Saturday 8th August, Middleton CC held their 2nd track championship session of the year with only 5 members riding and 6 guest riders.
The night turned out to be a great one with the prize for most competitive members going to Pantani Pete and Simon B as they tried to outdo each other on all the events.

Events took a familiar route as we began with the flying 200m sprint, followed by the 1k TT and then t he 2k pursuit. With no women riding - Janet was ill and unable to, I'm still not riding competitively as I want to ensure my pelvis is fully healed first, and Ali was presumably riding elsewhere with Amy, it was purely a testosterone filled environment.

There was a good selection of non-riding members and partners watching: Lyndsey and her mum, Mrs Robinson, Hilda, Jack and Tristan (Cliff's Grandson and the club's youngest member), so support and morale was high. Alan V took part in the warm-up and helped to push off during the 1K and the pursuit. Whilst the majority of riders rode the Velodrome's hire bikes (black & white Dolans) others rode their own - Alan V rode his vibrant yellow Dolan, Cliff his minimalist skinny-tubed white machine, Chris a glossy black beauty and Paul rode my lovely sleek Pista (she's not been ridden since January and wanted an outing; plus Paul wanted to try out my gearing).

Results (bold type denotes club riders) -

200m flying sprint:

Chris Barton 14.19 seconds

Simon Brierley 14.65

Paul O'Neill 15.40

Pete Robinson 15.56

T Welshaw 15.72

Cliff Rowe 15.87

P Barlow 16.10

Frank Boucher 16.25

M Kay 16.30

Steve Crossley 17.60

Stu 17.80

1K TT:

Chris Barton 1;28.10

Pete Robinson 1:30.50

Simon Brierley 1:31.03

T Welshaw 1:31.75

Paul O'Neill 1:34.90

M Kay 1:35.80

Cliff Rowe 1:36.60

P Barlow 1:37.19

Steve Crossley 1:38.65

Stu 1:40.50

Frank Boucher 1:41.81

2k individual pursuit:

Simon Brierley 3:00.96

Pete Robinson 3:04.44

Cliff Rowe 3:15.03

Paul O'Neill 3:16.10

M Kay 3:25.45

Frank Boucher 3:27.79

Stu 3:34.05

P Barlow 3:36.68

Chris Barton 3:41.00

T Welshaw 3:43.53

Steve Crossley DNS

All in all it was a great evening of racing with some excellent results. With only 3 members having ridden in the first session in March, there were only a few previous times to beat:

Paul beat all of his previous times for the year over all events; Pete also beat his previous times in the events and Steve had mixed fortunes beating his previous 1k time, but was faster in the March session for the sprint. Paul currently has the larger margin for beating previous times.

Middleton CC Track Results

Here come the results from yesterdays track championship -

200m sprint

Tony 14.75

Peter R 15.70

Steve C 15.97

Paul 15.98

Alan 16.02

Steve F 16.04

Ali 14.56

Janet 16.85

1k TT

Peter R 1.31.34

Tony 1.37.53

Paul 1.38.08

Steve F 1.39.09

Steve C 1.44.61

Ali 1.34.59

Janet 1.40.66

2k individual pursuit

Janet 3.27.09 v Steve C 3.20.05

Peter R 3.07.00 v Steve F 3.25.42

Paul 3.25.00 v Ali 3.09.56

Middleton CC Track Champs 1

The first session of the Middleton CC Track Championship of 2009 got underway in earnest this afternoon at the Manchester Velodrome with approx 10 riders (club and guests) taking part in the 200m sprint, 1k time trial (4 laps) and the 2k pursuit (8 laps).

As with last year the forerunners seem to be Ali Mitchelmore and Tony Martin although Tony didn't take part in the pursuit.

Ali certainly made the 2k pursuit look easy as she powered past my bro Paul and we had a family affair with Janet pitted against her husband Steve (Steve winning this particular session).

Full results and pics will follow tomorrow. But for now....all hail the king and queen of the track Tony and Ali.

Well done guys!!

Velo riding

As Everest is poorly, I got an early morning session in at the fab Manchester Velodrome.
After lugging Piste to the track in the rain and drying her off, I was all set to try out the new start time (8am) for this session. I couldn't have picked a better time as all the other riders wee newbies and needed the coaches instruction and monitoring, while I had pretty much all the track to myself! Perfect!

My initial intention was to see how my injuries have healed after my (road cycling) crash in November that left me with broken bones. As I began everything seemed fine: I could get in the drops without my wrist hurting (unlike on Everest), my shoulder was OK too. Real test would be at high speed where my ribs would get tested during the rapid/deep breathing required.

As I was having no problems I upped the pace to that of race pace to check the ribs - they seemed OK, so I maintained my race pace for several laps, just to be 100% certain.

Yup, it all seemed OK. I now began my sprint start training: few laps at the top of the banking, then when the newbies had buggered off out of my way swooping down and hurtling like a lunatic with legs all a blur for a lap, gulping air like it was running out. All still seemed OK, so that's how I spent the rest of the hour.
The coaches know I this training in the taster sessions and so long as I'm careful, they're quite happy for me to carry on.

As often happens when I've been on the track, I get used as an example of how to ride/do things for the newbies to learn from. This happened today too. Newbies were asking 'How d'you know when it's safe to drop down in front of another rider?' Conveniently, I was about to do that to pull in for a drink, so there goes lesson 1. Each time I went past the little huddled group, the coach would point at me and say summat to them that made their little faces change with the knowledge they'd learnt summat (they'll probably forget 2 seconds later!).

Right at the very end of the hour, the newbies had all pulled off the track and I'd just finished a sprint when I heard the coach shout to me to do it again; on seeing my puzzled mush he said that the group had asked how the sprints work and they didn't know where the markers were or anything (how you can't see a long white line on a wooden floor I don't know!); so I had a chance to show off and took it happily. What I didn't know was that the coach had got his stopwatch out.....

Off I set for lap 1, upping the pace and gaining height on the banking; lap 2 right at the top of the banking almost touching the upper railings, legs pumping away, then SWOOP across the 200 metre line mashing down on the pedals, straining for breath, got a perfect line all the way round.

When I eventually came to a stop panting like a dehydrated dog that's when I noticed the stopwatch; he'd timed me to show the guys exactly how it works and how fast a 'normal' rider can go.

My time? 15.67 seconds - my first sub-16 sprint. And that was after sprinting for most of the session!

My shoulder and wrist are now hurting, but I think that's purely down to being in the drops for the whole session and I normall don't stay in one position.

Boring bits -
Maximum mph: 35
Average mph: 27
Distance: 15.93 miles
Sprint time: 15.67 seconds. Yippee!

I'm bored!!

Until I get Everest back from Gerry Shields I'm getting very bored!

Past few days have been spent filling in job applications, trying to sell stuff on eBay and doing nowt generally. Humph!

Still, I have the track session to look forward to. No doubt I will be the only female on there at stupid o'clock in the morning - usually the only female on the track regardless of what time I go actually. At least it'll get the legs spinning for whenever Everest comes home.

Trusty Steeds

I know Jonathan is wondering what I ride, but I don't know about the rest of you. To save you all wondering, here are my trusty steeds -

Firstly there's the Eddie McGrath Everest. She's got Shimano components, Eddie McGrath stem/handlebars, Bontrager Seatpost, Selle Italia saddle, Shimano spds, Mavic wheelset, Bontrager tyres.

She's a classic that grabs everyone's attention. Whenever I leave her alone after any event or take her to the bike shop for love and attention, she certainly gets it - she's even stopped conversation dead when I took her for repairs after we had a crash.

And there is my Surosa Pista. She's a fully hand-built track bike with Mieche components, Cinelli stem/handlebars, Alpina forks & seatpost, Selle Italia saddle, Look Keo Sprint pedals, Surosa handbuilt wheels, Vredestein tyres.

The staff at the Surosa shop in Oldham are probably the best I've spoken to about bikes - SUROSA CYCLES was established in 1983 by Ken Barlow, father of then international Bob, who took over the business in 1998. The business was around for many years before and was originally founded by Derek (Nobby) Clarke. The shop is now owned by former World Champion Mandy Jones and her husband Nigel Bishop.

Pista has served me well at the Manchester Velodrome helping my times for the three events I take part in at the Middleton CC Club Championship drop by a good amount. Since getting her in March 2008 my times have improved greatly -

200 metre sprint - 3.56 seconds quicker

1k time trial - 6.83 seconds quicker

2k pursuit - 25 seconds quicker

Revolution 22

Chris Hoy made an emphatic post-Olympic return to track racing in last nights Revolution 22. He featured in his usual events - the sprint and keirin. At the other end of the scale Sam Harrison and Ruby Miller both consolidated their positions in Future Stars. And again there was another intriguing Sprint/Endurance face off.

Elite events

Sprint - Chris Hoy
6k scratch race - Peter Kennaugh
Womens 5k points - Sarah Reynolds
Mens 10k points - Luke Roberts
1k Madison TT - Ed Clancy & Steven Burke
Womens 500 TT - Jo Rowsell
Womens 6 lap dash - Hannah Mayho
Mens 10k scratch - Rob Hayles
Revolution keirin - Dave Daniel
Invitation keirin - Chris Hoy

Future Stars events

Girls 5k points - Laura Trott
Boys 5k points - Sam Harrison
Girls 6 lap dash - Lucy Garner
Boys 6 lap dash - Sam Harrison
Girls 5k scratch - Harriet Owen
Boys 5k scratch - Sam Harrison

Revolution 21 saw a 750m flying start challenge between the Sprint and Endurance guys, with Endurance taking first blood. This time saw a face off over 1km with a standing start. Would this be a chance for the fast-twitchers?

The result was evident from the first lap, with the sprinters opening up a huge advantage – with Staff putting in an awesome 17.9 opener – from then on in, the Endurance guys were unable to do very much about it. A score settled then…

Result
Sprint Team- 58.832
Endurance Team - 1.01.438

Revolution 21

The Revolution series began in earnest on Saturday night, and it made for an excellent night. Seating tickets had sold out way before the event and there were only a few standing tickets left, so capacity crowds were on the boards.

On top of the track events, there was the thrill of Rollapaluza track centre which was a popular place all night. Unfortunately I haven't got the results from that event, but I have for the track events.

Elite events
Motor-paced scratch race - Geraint Thomas
Women's 10k points - Alex Greenfield
Scratch - Brad McGee
Women's scratch - Becky James
Sprint - Matt Crampton
Madison 1k TT - Ed Clancy and Steven Burke
International revolution keirin - Matt Crampton
Points - Chris Newton

Special event just for this night - Flying 750m team sprint - Endurance riders v sprinters
Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas & Steven Burke beat Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton

Future Stars events
Girl's points - Ruby Miller
Boy's 6 lap dash - Sam Harrison
Girl's scratch - Harriet Owen
Boy's points - Sam Harrison
Boy's scratch - Kian Emadi

Sam Harrison leads the Future Stars so far in season.

Brad McGee has used this Revolution night to showcase his talents before retiring from racing and concentrating on coaching. After a video clip of his previous races on the big screen, Brad was given several victory laps with a guard of honour compiling all the night's riders on the track with their bikes on their rear wheels forming an archway for him to ride through.

UCI World Cup Classics 2/3

Wow, the past 2 nights racing has been even better than Friday night's session. The GB squads have now won 15 out of 18 Golds and many more silver and bronze medals. Well done GB!!

Results -
Team pursuit - GOLD Ed Clancy, Rob Hayles, Geraint Thomas & Steven Burke 2:58.761
Team sprint - GOLD Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny & Ross Edgar 44.306
Points race - GOLD Chris Newton 58pts
Madison - 6th Brad Wiggins, Geraint Thomas
500TT - GOLD Victoria Pendleton 19.597
Womens team sprint - GOLD Jessica Varnish & Anna Blyth 34.352
Womens keirin - GOLD Victoria Pendleton, 5th Anna Blyth
Womens scratch race - GOLD Elizabeth Armitstead, BRONZE Alexandra Greenfield
Mens international keirin - GOLD Matt Crampton, SILVER Ross Edgar

It has been an excellent weekend of racing with some spectacular crashes including Jason Kenny's gold-winning slide across the finish line in the sprint with Shane Perkins & another crash in the Madison, but that's the life of a cyclist!

In terms of more autographs for me, I managed to obtain Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas's, although there isn't a picture of me with them as I let Paul stay to take pictures of the racing rather than tag along with me to the area where the guys were.

UCI World Cup Classics

Wow, what a night of track racing! The home crowd were great and the Brits dominated the first evening. To top the night off Jamie Staff, Chris Newton and Chris Hoy were signing autographs for those lucky few who managed to get to the front of the queue in the allotted 30 minutes they gave to their fans - I was lucky enough to meet all of them and get autographs, hugs and photos with them. I was lucky enough to have Chris Hoy sign 'Heroes, Villains & Velodromes' with the inscription - To Anna, Best Wishes Chris Hoy.

Sad as it may seem, but meeting the guys kinda made my night!

The results of the GB squad(s) (Great Britain, 100% Me and Sky+ HD) -

1 Kilo TT - GOLD David Daniell 1:01.996

Individual Pursuit - GOLD Ed Clancy 4:20.041

Men's Scratch - 7th place Bradley Wiggins

Men's Keirin - SILVER Jason Kenny, 7th place Matt Crampton

Women's Sprint - GOLD Vicky Pendleton 11.697, 4th place Anna Blyth

Women's Pursuit - GOLD Wendy Houvenaghel 3:50.591, BRONZE Jo Rowsell

Women's Points - GOLD Elizabeth Armistead 39pts, SILVER Lucy Martin 25pts, BRONZE Katie Colclough 25pts

There's to be another 2 great nights of racing, but unfortunately I'm only going to be at Sunday's as today's tickets sold out within minutes of going on sale! There'll be more results coming up on here as I get them. Results are also showing on the Tissot Timing page here

Track championship results

I ride for Middleton Cycling Club and have been taking part in the club track championships at the Manchester Velodrome.

Our last session of 2008 took place on October 28th and the official results are in - I came third!!

The times that got me the third place are -
0.16.64 - 200 metre sprint
1.39.47 - 1k time trial
3.25.01 - 2k pursuit

The 2k is always the event that gets me worried - mainly due to the way MCC run it. Rather than all the women racing against another woman (ditto for the men) we pit one rider against another with a similar time from the 1k TT; so I have always ended up riding this event against men.
This time around I was pitted against one of the faster men in the club, so really though that he'd lap me. Never mind that he didn't lap me - I knocked a massive 25 seconds off my previous time for the event!!