What a stinker!!!

Well, the title sums up todays race....

Try to keep this as short as possible, but this was not good!!

Lessons learnt:

1. Do not eat chilli and garlic prawns the night before a race

2. Do not spend the whole of the day before, painting the skirting boards

3. Check your brakes dont stick to you rear wheel...

Pre race:

Got up at 5ish, bit of muesli and then drove to the start in plenty of time. The three 'pit stops' were an ominous sign of things to come, little did I know...

Red bull downed, and ready to go.

Swim:

Target was 6:45 - actual 6:38. Valuable lesson here, dont need to practice swimming as my times don't getting any quicker with it... I was in the first wave, the cycleworld and soton tri club one and I was in the lane with Dave Savage. Set off too hard as usual and got past Dave in two laps then settled down into my normal pace and got out feeling OK.

T1:

Pretty pleased here as this was probably one of my quickest transitions ever - at least something went right today ;o)

Bike:

This is where it all went wrong... Set off going quite well and was sat behind one of the cycleworld guys (Anthony I think? He came 6th overall, so good for him...) for a little while and was closing in on him slowly but then after around two miles I came to the first little climb and it was like someone was sitting on my back!! I felt fine and looked down at the bike quickly and everything seemed OK so carried on as I thought I was going through a bad patch. People were flying by and no disrepect to any other competitors, this is my strong point and I very rarely get overtaken - OK, I was on my road bike but even so, something wasn't right...

It wasn't until 6 and a half miles that I eventually stopped to check the bike and the rear brake had clamped onto the wheel and I had been cycling with this since the start!!! I tried taking my wheel out and re-aligning and I was getting in a total mess... Thought I fixed it and off I set.

Dave overtook me in the meanwhile and was not far up the road and he also had his fair share of mechanicals what with his chain coming off twice!! Things still weren't right... The brake was still rubbing and tried to centre the brake on the fly but to no avail, so I just tried to power through it. To be honest, I'd sort of given up on my top ten finish and now I just wanted to put in a good run to redeem something in this race...

Bike time - don't know and didn't care...

T2:

This again was pretty good...

Run:

Got the shoes on and sprinted off - must have been at around 5.15 pace - this was more suited to a 400m race rather than a 5k!!

Tried to settle down and reel in the first guy I spotted who was another cycleworld guy and he was moving pretty well but my stomach wasn't having any of it! I needed a crap, and I had to go but should I go now or try and wait till the end??

I got up the first and only real hill in the run and I was only about 20 metres away from the next guy but it was no good, I had to go....

Was running around a grassy layby looking for a place to go - sorry if anybody saw me but I just had to go!! Must have lost around a minute and half here easy looking for a good place to squat!!!

Finished what I had to do and just tried to go as hard as I could to the finish. Got a time of 20.xx with an average of 6:49's and that was including the 'pit stop'...

Finish time: 1:09:xx

Position 55th!!! This is a personal worst...

Was pretty annoyed with myself for schoolboy errors that cost me dear but ho hum, you live and learn...

Next race, 'One last Tri' and things will be different there, oh yes, they will be different ;o)

Something blue sir....

Well, I have finally made my decision after much deliberation and I have chosen the Blue Triad sl as my new steed :o)

It came down to basically two things: 1. being sensible with the money I had and the 20% off that Jamie (from Multisport distribution) gave me was a big factor and 2. getting the right bike from the stats of my previous Retul fit back in February.

I will admit that the Blue wasn't really on my radar when I was choosing a new frame as I was really lusting after the new shiv and after seeing it up close and personal I was even more taken a back!!! However, the adjustability of this bike isn't very good - you basically fit it or you don't!! There are only minute adjustments at the front end, there is only a few mm's fore and aft in the pads and they can also only go upwards (if you get the chance, check out Jens Voight's stack height on his at the TDF - WOW!!!) and that is it basically as the base bar and extensions stay put!! After much research I decided that I would go with my head as opposed to my heart and it was down to a bike that was more suited to my stack and reach - the Plasma, the Slice and also the Triad.. I'm a tall and narrow sort of guy, you see ;o)

So, after seeing the Blue close up at the London Tri expo and having a good chat with Jamie about it (plus another free Retul fitting included :o)), I was sold... Plus, it is a lovely looking bike - especially with some deep set wheels on it!!!

So now I have got the frame plus all the other bits which are all SRAM Red apart from the front mech which is SRAM Force as I have read that the Red one is a bit flimsy - thanks to Bonger on Tritalk for that little nugget! The bars are the 3T Mistrals which I saw on the bike they had at London and they looked very nice but, after receiving them I am in two minds whether I will get on with them? The first thing of note was the building of them - they look a very well constructed bar but putting them together was bit of a 'mare'!! First off, they included two right arm pads - not good and stupid me, only found out once I had tried to install it - DOH!! Fair play to Wiggle though, they sent me an extra set within a few days :o) Then the actual installation of the pads themselves was a bit time consuming and painful... I had to heat the little plastic sleeves that covered the arm pad holes and then screw a little wood screw into them and pull them out with some pliers!!! What a palava that was and something that you should not have to do for something at that price!! The last thing is, they are quite on the low side and only once I get the bike built up will I be able to tell whether they will suit me as all my previous bars have had a bot of a stack on the armpads? However, there are ways around this with a conversion kit that puts the extensions above the base bar but this sort of takes away the whole idea of this bar!

Now, I am just waiting to get the bike into one of my LBS's - hargroves cycles in Fareham for them to press the headset and also the BB30 bottom bracket (no, it's not ceramic!!!) and then I will start the build :o)

One thing though, how easy is it to install internal cables? Do you have to put the outer cables in as well or is just the inners? My gut feeling is the whole lot but from memory, the hole on the top tube that the cables run into don't seem big enough...

Back to tri stuff and training... Training is going quite well at the moment seeing as the Ironman was only 6 weeks ago (you have to realise that I am the worlds worst at recovering from any event!) so to get back into some serious training this soon (started three weeks ago) is pretty pleasing :o)

Picked up some Brooks T6 racers (yes, the ones Chrissie wears and no, I didn't get them just cos she wears them...) from the London expo at a bargain price of £44 (thanks to Puretri.co.uk...) and first impressions are good. My feet and lower legs have taken a bit of beating due to the heel drop in them compared to the DS trainer that I have been using but it is something that I will have to get used to... They are very light and very responsive, how long they will last I don't know as I have seen quite a bit of wear on the forefoot of the sole already! I was going to go for the Newton Distance shoe (after some great advice from Helen at Ten-Point) but I just can't afford the £120 for them at the moment - they are great shoes but I will have to start saving, especially after the bike build... Don't worry Helen, I will get them from you eventually just to pay back the time and advice you gave me :o)

I have Southampton sprint tri this weekend and I am going off early in the Cycleworld Tri team wave - get to race my old buddy, Mr Fat boy Dave Savage (he of Manchester Commonwealth fame ;o)) It will be interesting to see how much speed these legs have got in them after the Ironman? Got 9th place at Winchester earlier in the season so what with me on my road bike this time (as no built up TT bike yet...), no swim training and the residue of an Ironman in my legs, I'll take 9th place once again thank you very much (actually, top 20 would do me nicely!!!).

Next blog, Southampton race report...

Have a good weekend y'all

Decisions???

After an incident with my bike and a metal shelf in my garage, I am now in need of a new steed - TT stylee...

I am still not sure what I am going to go for at the moment though? The bike company who have been dealing with me, offered me a couple of options and they were: this...



or



However, after a fews days of research and a lot of guessing on whether it would fit I decided that I was going to go for the Shiv but, and here is the but, it is not available until the end of September, beginning of October!!! So, it was back to the drawing board and after a lot of help from John Dennis at www.velomotion.co.uk for whom did my Retul fitting back in February, I have decided that I should follow my head and not my heart! So, as it turns out I have rather long legs for someone my size, I am more suited to tri bikes that are 'tall and narrow' as opposed to the 'long and low' types such as Cervelos and Felts. The 'tall and narrow' bunch that I have narrowed it down too are:



The Scott Plasma Ltd frame, or:


The Cannondale Slice???

Choices, choices...

Oh, and triathlete europe magazine if you are reading this, thanks! Your timing is impeccable - just as I thought I had made my mind up I have now spotted the Giant Trinity Advanced SL and that looks fab too... Think I will hold and have a butchers at the weekend as I am going up to the London Triathlon to spectate and they always have a good selection of bikes to drool over at the expo ;o)