Stuffed......
Being fit has the benefit at telling you that an illness is on its way in the early stages so you can try and do something about it. I was looking forward to racing tomorrow but it is looking likely I will have to sit out, during the week I got the sore throat first and towards today I was starting to feel choked. So probably sit out this weekend and get healthy for next weekend which will be my first Grass Track event of the season which I want to be going well for.

Road Race
I have not been posting much in the last few weeks due to the shop being very busy and I have also been trying to get the training in the time I have left over. So the last few weeks I have upped the pace in the training as my season is ready to take off. Yesterday I took part in the Sam Robinson Division 1 Road Race over a lumpy course based near Callander.
As this was going to be my first Race of the season it was always going to be hard and so it was, after a few digs off the front I then sat in knowing that my legs were not going to be good this early on in the season. Out of about 47 starters only about 26 finished and I was 21 out of this so not so bad but I was hoping to do a bit more in the race. Good training anyway and I should get the benefit of the longer racing miles in my legs in the next few weeks.

More Hero Cyclists
I was at the National Museum of Scotland and paid homage to Graeme Obree's 'Old Faithful' which would give inspiration to any Cyclist or non Cyclist with the story behind it. The bike pictured was the one that was under Obree when he won the Pursuit World Champs in 1995 before it was later banned by the suits at the UCI. Obree is Still competing and winning time trials using his own bikes with eye watering gears like 67x14!!!!, one word Legend.

Real heros of British cycling


Photo from TheBikeZone.org.uk

Mallorca in the sun

Hard as nails

I Watched Gent-Wevelgem the Belgian Semi Classic on Cycling.tv today, it reminds you that the Pro riders that put on a show for our entertainment are amongst the most fearless athlete's on the planet and sometimes our entertainment turns into their nightmares. The first of two descents coming off the Kemmel there were crashes involving many riders and Jimmy Casper of Unibet.com looked like he crashed the hardest. Total respect to these guys that put their life and limb on the line so we can watch and enjoy the racing.

Real bikes have nuts

"Fillmore" (The most cruel hill of the San Francisco Grand Prix)


Out on the summer Fixed wheel yesterday - the Fillmore (44x16) as the weather was great.
The gear change felt good and the bike is a bit lighter than the Steamroller so the higher gear turned over well on the flat and as I am a bit fitter was fine on the hills.

Fillmore Street, enough said.

On the up and up.

After watching Oscar winning the M-SR in style on Sat I was up for a good run on Sunday and maybe push myself a bit for the first time after the winter build up and I can say that the feeling was good throughout the run but even better on the bits of road that I pushed it on. After the run recovery is always a good indicator of fitness and that seems to be good also, I am still on my 49x18 fixie so it is good to know that when the boys bring their carbonio stuff out I can still do a bit of damage. It is just three weeks till I head out to Mallorca for some sun on the back and back to the 'Gears' which should be interesting, although I might be onto the 'Gears' a bit quicker as there is a local Criterium that I might do before I head off.

M-SR "La Primavera"


This weekends Milan-San Remo is hitting 100 years old and if the first few races of the year are anything to go by we should be in for a cracker, a lot of the big hitters in the peleton would dearly love their palmarès to show a win on the Via Roma after 294km. The racing will be hard fought through and over some of the most famous names in cycling folklore including Passo del Turchino, Cipressa and Poggio di Sanremo.

Picture is 2006 edition from milansanremo.co.uk with Filippo Pozzato winning on Via Roma.

WEATHER WARNING!


Jees! it is not looking good for a Sunday run tomorrow with the forecast, so it might be a dose of Cycling.tv on the rollers.

I was back onto the bike on Fri after my dooring incident on Tue past and feeling good with the enforced rest that I had, hope I can get out tomorrow on the road to keep the training up.
Ciao.

Forecast from MetCheck.com

OUCH!
I GOT DOORED

Today I came off the fixed wheel and I am nursing a sore hip and right arm. The off was on my normal commute up to Dunfermline, I was cycling down the inside of stationary traffic when a nice wee school girl opened her passenger door on me which I then caught with my right forearm sending me flying over the bars onto the side of the road!

I would always normally ride down the outside of stationary traffic to avoid this kind of thing but today I was on the inside as the traffic light crossing had turned green ahead which I thought meant the traffic would start moving, instead the traffic had still been stopped by a lollipop lady meaning the Dad of the school girl in the car had told said school girl to jump out and right into my path...........BOLLOCKS!

So I am now trying to recover for tomorrows ride in to the shop as the arm is well stiff and sore at the moment although this typing has eased it off slightly.

On a good note the beauty of riding a fixed wheel is there is nothing on it to break or bend as there is nothing hanging off it, so apart from a little scuff to the bar tape and left lever the bike is perfect which helps make my sore bits feel a bit less sore.

Sketch pic from RoadKillBill.com

A great day..........

Here is the last time Lance would be coming on to the Champs-elysees as a Tour winner, just listen as the crowd gets to fever pitch.
Although you can not get the same feeling and sound looking at a small clip I can say that when I took this small clip it had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, viva le Tour!

Mini Review: Protective Chamois Cream


This is maybe one of the overlooked areas of cycling as it is a very personal thing but if you neglect to use some kind of protection on your shorts then this can lead to all sorts of trouble including sores, rash and if left will need medical treatment. I do not want to alarm anyone but I have had trouble in the past when I got a saddle sore which kept me off my bike for a week which maybe to a weekend rider might not have been to bad but for myself meant my daily transport and training ceased completely until it healed up. To help prevent this a good cream will go a long way to stop this happening, I have been using the Ozone Protective Chamois Cream meaning now I do not suffer from any of the above problems I descibed.

The modern short pads of today are mostly all made from a man made material and not the Chamois material of old meaning you can shove them straight into a washing machine and dry off with no problems. I use the cream on any Cycle more than 1hr as below this I find you do not get any problems, apply the cream to all the areas where your shorts rub i.e. the inner thigh and buttock region try also to not hang about in your shorts to long after your Cycle as this is the time when bacteria has a field day. Always wash your shorts inside out and if you can not get a shower right away after a workout at least clean yourself in the private areas to kill any bacteria (I like baby wipes for this) , also apply talcum powder to dry out any moisture.
Using the Ozone Protective Chamois Cream and keeping to some of these personal hygiene tips above you should be rash free making sure you do not have any down time on the bike this season.

I have been tuning in to the AMGEN Tour of California the last few nights through their Tour Tracker from Adobe, the info is fantastic through the tracker and with the bonus of watching live streaming content of the race in full flight in the background.
Yesterdays stage from Stockton to San José proved to be a cracker with the race lead up for grabs right up until the line, looks like Johan's Disco squad will take some beating this year.

As the Racing season is looming I thought I would share some memories of myself when I was a team mechanic for the Recycling Team in 2005 in the An Rás Tailteann (The Irish Tour) or more commonly called just the Rás, we went on to win the Rás with Chris Newton taking the overall. The Rás is an annual 8 day stage race held over the demanding roads Ireland has to offer with Irish County Teams competing against seasoned professionals and international squads. The 2007 edition will run between the 20th - 27th of May starting out in the Kildare Town of Naas and finishing in Skerries after 1200km of hard fought racing.
The Rás has a deep history behind it with some top names in cycling winning this race such as Stephen Roche, check out his bike that he used to win the 1979 edition at the bottom of the pics>>>>>>.
One of the Riders of note is Phil Cassidy who won the Rás in 1983,1999 and was still up there in the mix for a stage win in 2005 which was his last Rás before retiring at 43 in some stages he even helped his son Mark, Fantastic.
Check out the full set of Pictures from the Rás here: 2005 Rás

Since I could not get out yesterday I took to the road on the fixed today to get a great workout the Picture is of my details from my Garmin 305 Edge and using the SportTracks software.

So as this week I have been well busy in the shop and today was chucking down with rain I have decided that this is my rest week and I will start building up the mileage again from tomorrow. I was due an easy week round about now anyway but the way the week went with the shop and weather it is a good time to refresh the legs before moving onto the next block of training.
This year my training is geared up towards the Highland Games grass track season which starts in May and runs till Sep with races every week and sometimes more as some Games are run on local holidays during the week.
The racing takes place on grass although there is one in Inverkeithing where the track is cinder and can be a lot faster if the conditions are dry. The tracks are oval of anything up to 400mts in length but some can be very tight at under 300mts with no straight as such meaning you feel like you are cornering all the time (interesting in the wet!) The racing is usualy fast and furious giving the crowds a great show of which some number in the thousands giving a great atmosphere.
If you have not experienced a Highland games before put it in your diary as it is a fantastic day out for not a lot of money. Check out some dates here: Highland Games 2007

Pictures are Halkirk Games 2005 from Caithness.org

Mini Review: Nike Pursue Glasses



The Pursue are a very good fit on the face and can be custom shaped to your head as the arms can be moulded to shape and this comes in handy for me as my head is quite small meaning some glasses hang out the back slightly. The other good point of this is the arms can be moulded down out of the way of some helmet securing systems as these sometimes can get in the way.
The other points on the design is that the lens has what Nike calls the flying lens system meaning that the lens is attached at only two points on the frame so the air can circulate to avoid the lens fogging over. The nose bridge has also got design points as it has grooves to again help the air movement and keep your vision clear.

The lens that the Pursue comes with is the Max Speed tint which is not a heavy tint meaning you can run with this in most low light conditions up to dusk, this is a good thing in Scotland as the sun can be out one minute and away the next meaning you can start out with this lens and finish your run even if the sun drops. If however you are cycling at night then a Clear lens will be needed and if you are going to start out with the weather dull/overcast then my favorite lens at the moment is the Hi-Vis Tint which are fantastic at bringing out all the detail on a dull day which gives you confidence on descents and low light conditions.
Cheers for reading.