Spring?

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BY: Niall Frost

Published: 11th February, 2011

I don't want to start with excuses before the season even starts but.....

It's been a wee while since my last blog due to a house move, busy work and fitting in riding my bike somewhere inbetween.  It's a good time to update though, I had a cracking ride through the dales on Thursday morning in blazing sunshine, Spring must be coming early?

Since the new year I've been concentrating on just getting on and riding as much as possible, with work impinging on riding time and lots of miles in a van moving house I've been commuting to get the mileage.  My aged fixed wheel is taking a real pounding, although since I don't really have to use the brakes much at least it doesn't require much maintenance.  How you guy's all race through the winter is beyond me!

a)  I struggle with the cold

b) I can never get my head around, "race for 2hrs, clean for 3hrs" :-)

That's not to say that I haven't been getting the legs opened up with some hard efforts.  We have a great reliability series in North Yorkshire and I've done both rides so far.  The first was a fairly amiable affair with a few conversations in the bunch and general goodwill.

The second caught me a bit unawares when on the start line was, amongst other elite riders, Alistair Brownlee (world triathlon champ 2009) was present.  Also, I'd never seen so many pairs of carbon wheels at a winter event before.  Bike shop owners must have been rubbing their hands together with glee.



I managed to hang on at the start to a group of about 15 but close to the finish of the 60mile route I dropped off the front group as the crosswinds and hills took their toll.  Still, only 4mins down on the lead group of 5 at the finish and we were the next group in so I was at least pleased that I must be going in the right direction.

A slight change to last year is that I've taken a succession of half days off work, which although not practical for everyone, is excellent for training.  I really enjoy skipping out of work early and getting 3/4hrs in on an afternoon which definitely beats the rollers on an evening.  Plus, with my Exposure Diablo on I can extend rides well into the evening to maximise the opportunity.

All this great riding is soon going to come to an end though.  The race season seems to be coming quickly which inevitably means shorter more intense rides.  Bring on the hurt, but I'll miss the winter base miles :-(

News will be coming soon on the new 2011 ride, with pictures too.  I can't wait, I want it now!

Niall
Xcracer.com
Exposure Lights
Gateway cycles
Accelerade

Picture courtesy of Guy Little.