9

Cycle Season Has Started!

Hello everyone. The cycle season has officially started! The days of taking the first race steady and easing yourself gently into the season are behind us it appears. Many of the pro tour teams fielded strong squads in the season opening Tour Down Under. Caisse D’Epargne were virtually at full strength and their top riders were not hiding. The Spanish outfit were looking for the win with Luis Leon-Shanchez and he was being ably assisted by his team leader Valverde.

The battle over Woolunga Hill with World Champion and local favourite Cadel Evans was the highlight of the weeklong tour for me. British based Team Sky had a largely impressive debut. Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton were always in the mix for stage wins in the sprints. They were thwarted on most occasions by Columbia’s ultra impressive Andrei Greipel who took a hat full of stage wins and the overall. It was Evans’ performance for his new BMC team that I was most impressed with.

I have often been critical of the Australian in the past. I believe that he has often failed to grasp every opportunity to attack and has suffered because of it. However credit is deserved for his attacking style in his “home” race. Ironically I would not have criticised him for “keeping his powder dry” in January given that his main goals will be 3 week stage races in May and July but he gave it his very best shot and was not far away from securing an unexpected victory.

Next stop for the pro tour will be Qatar. This is bound to be a sprint fest, with only the nasty winds likely to break the peloton up. Cavendish will be out with a dental issue, but there will be plenty of fast finishers queuing up to take advantage of his absence.

My own progress continues to improve. My now regular track and specific turbo sessions are now being complemented with some longer rides in the New Forest. I’m starting to get to grips with the track. My Focus Pista is contributing hugely to my enjoyment indoor training.

I’m starting to master the art of holding a tight line around the bottom of the track and my confidence is growing with each visit. I’m lucky enough to have been able to join in the “Wiggle Sessions” at Calshot and “TrackyMalc” has really been putting everyone through their paces.

Back on the road thankfully the snow and ice have thawed. Only just in February there will always be a chance that we will experience another cold snap or two, but fingers crossed it will stay away long enough for me to build a solid base. I’m lucky enough to be able to get onto the New Forest within minutes.

The roads are quiet, but the terrain is not very challenging. In the next few weeks I hope to get across to the Meon Valley where there are more undulating routes to test yourself on. Who knows? I may even pop into Wiggle Towers. See if I can blag myself a cup of tea!

49

A Busy Few Weeks

The last few weeks have been fairly busy, although I’ve not had any races my training has been improving and various other events have kept me occupied. The majority of the snow dumped around Christmas finally thawed out mid-January which meant I could finally get back on the road bike and start getting some serious training done. Up until the thaw all I was able to do was get on the Raven MTB with Schwalbe snow stud tyres and ride around the back roads. I wasn’t able to add any structure to the training which was very frustrating.

After such a long spell off the road bike I was seriously motivated and have put in a couple of big training weeks. One of the major benefits of the Powertap hub I am using is that you can keep a very close check on effort and the intensity of rides, which helps with future training plans and also should help prevent any possible over-training which is very possible as such an early point in the year.

We moved house (again!) and the change has been very positive. We have moved to a great house in a superb location, although not that far from where we were before. The Mountain Biking is not quite as close as before, but just 2 miles along the road gets me to the best local riding and much more on offer to create longer rides. The road riding however is the real gem, with quiet rural roads heading out in every direction offering plenty of harder and easier routes.

To allow us to complete the house move and also to get a big training week in I took a week off work and kept my fingers firmly crossed that the weather would hold out. Thankfully the weather played ball, and although it was cold all week it stayed dry on all but one day. I’ve not ridden many rides further than 40-50 miles recently, so I was keen to prove to myself that I still have the endurance to stay in the saddle for long periods. I planned my week to include 3 separate 100+ mile rides, which would hopefully be a big boost for both my fitness and my confidence. With the week now complete I am really pleased to have completed all 3 rides, each with over 2000m of climbing. The final ride was on a really windy day and really took it out of me, but I am very pleased with how it all went.

On Wednesday I attended the Carmarthenshire Sports Awards, as I was one of 3 people who had been short-listed in the Sports Personality award. I was very honoured to be nominated, especially against such prolific athletes: David Greene, International 400m hurdler and Mike Phillips, Wales and British Lions Rugby player. I didn’t win the award, but had a great night and enjoyed the experience.

To end a very busy week I travelled to Cannock on the weekend to meet and ride with DH legend Steve Peat, as the final part of the prize for winning the Garmin Academy competition way back at BikeRadar Live last May. Steve himself was a true gent and every bit as nice as people have said. He spent all day with us, doing some riding and a bit of technical coaching. I had a great weekend riding and came away a better rider.

Moving into the next few weeks I am hoping to mix a few more longer rides while also starting some more intensive sessions done. But as I am writing this we have a fresh dump of the white stuff which may cause a few more problems!

So I have been out on the gold coast now for 2 weeks and instead of the usually “Balls in the wheelie bin” sessions it feels like its been a balls in the wheelie in non stop! Things have really been ramped up this winter which is exactly what I need to step my performance up this year.

Even though I am not running, swimming and cycling super fast at the minute I am loving training out here. I mean how can you not when the sun is shinning and your doing what you love for a living.

I am doing my training with Stuart Hayes in the swimming pool and running which is great to have an athlete that pushes as hard as you in every session. Stu really drives me through the sessions when I am hurting its great to have someone there going through the pain with you as well but what makes the sessions even better is having the coach on the side lines that knows how each session feels and really understands and gives you the motivation to get through it.

Michelle is not only getting me through the hard swim and run session but in the bike session she is training herself which is great for me as I not only have Stuarts skinny ass to chase but hers also. She is training for the national road race championships and is going very strong.

We did a session around a place called Nerang and it’s a two and a half minute circuit with half of it up hill. when I had to go hard I had Michelle next to me shouting at me to dig in making me push that little bit more. It just shows how strong she is when she is still shouting at you when were both cycling up the hill! But I love it.

I had a quick look at my diary today and notice it was only 8 weeks till Mooloolaba World cup so I best keep working hard.

All the best guys
xxx

49

Back In The Sun

So I have 3 months in OZ which is a little shorter than previous years but loving every second out here. Last year I feel I spent too much time in the sun and slightly over trained. I found my first week here very hard because of the time change and the massive increase in the temperature but I will never complain as I know how bad the weather has been back in the UK.

My first big session was the bike criterium to run which I quite surprised about. I actually felt pretty good on the bike considering I was only sitting on the turbo back in the UK. This goes to show what a great tool the turbo actually is & how fitness how much fitness you can actually maintain.

The run was an other story as I was really struggling here to hold a good pace after the bike session. It was pure pain at 20 kph & when I finished my legs gave way and Michelle (coach) just looked over and laughed then said welcome back. :-)

A big thing for me this year is getting my nutrition right during the big sets so lots of gels, electro drink and plenty of protein after all sessions. I have even started running with a fuel belt for my long runs and I have found it makes such a difference to my performance towards the end of the run.

There is rain forecast over the next couple of days but it will still be in the high 20s. When the rain comes all the big groups of cyclist disappear around here. They have no idea how tough you guys are in the UK.

Train hard win easy.

8

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope that you all had a good festive period and that Santa managed to find you that obscure item of cycling necessity you requested.

I love Xmas morning, just after the little Carters have finished opening their presents, when I’m opening the multi tool or overshoes or cadence attachment for my “Garmin”. My joy is matched by apparent bemusement of all those around me. I can see them all thinking “if that’s what floats his boat”. By the afternoon most people have given up asking “what did you get Richard?” and have moved onto Wii Fit to burn off the calories.

Today I have been to my nutritionist for the first visit of 2010. I’m pleased to report that all measurements are moving in the right direction and I’m back on track to achieve my power/weight targets by the time the Sportive season is really upon us. I have almost addressed the hydration issue that was threatening to halt my progress so there was good news on all fronts. I’ve got to continue with this progress now. I’m back to the nutritionist in six weeks so I’ll keep you posted on how I get on.

Like most people the snow at the start of the year has forced me inside to train. A mixture of Turbo and Track has kept my motivation high and my fitness levels haven’t suffered too badly. I’m glad to see the back of the sub-zero temperatures now though and have been back out into the New Forest to catch up on some base mileage. My dhb windproof jacket and overshoes have been a “god send”. Having top quality thermal protection is really important and I’ve been really comfortable on even the coldest days. Impressed with DHB quality, Mrs Carter has made a first cycling purchase. She has some very attractive dhb R1 pink and grey ladies road shoes so that she can share in the joys of winter Turbo training.

The pro tour ranks have no such barriers! Most of them have flown south, like swallows, to avoid the inclement weather. I see Team Sky bolted for Valencia following a swanky, but very cold launch in London. Although I think that the weather in Spain was “unseasonal” as well. Further afield, the teams, new and old, of the pro tour are assembling in Adelaide for the “Tour Down Under” Armstrong and his Radioshack team are making their debut along with the inaugural outing of the British backed Team Sky. Both teams looked to have scored early success.

The Team Sky boys gave early intention to challenge Columbia Highroad for the best lead out train. In the Adelaide city centre circuit race that precedes the Tour the antipodean chapter of Brailsford’s boys looked well drilled and organised with Greg Henderson scoring a victory that could just have easily gone to his team mate Chris Sutton. With Mark Renshaw sidelined and George Hincapie gone, Mark Cavendish may well be thinking that things might not be so easy this season in the sprints as it has been in the last two. Robbie McKewen looked anything but finished in the final 100 metres in Adelaide. He’s back from a wretched 2009 and looked eager to make up for lost time. All this makes for a very exiting 2010. I can’t wait!

More next time,
Keep Warm, ride safe!

48

Getting Ready For A New Season

After my break it only took a couple of weeks to get back some good fitness again and to be honest I love the feeling of training for the new season.

I went to the Wiggle Christmas party which was great fun I got to meet some of the Wiggle athletes and also the people that provide such a fantastic online service.

After two weeks of training I decided to do the Cambridge 10k on New Years eve. One of my training partners in the UK Will Clark wanted me to race so I could see where he comes from and the Miles he did as a kid. I ran a 32.08 and I placed 4th and Clarkey ran a 30.05 which won him the race. I went out with him for 2k only to fine the mind was willing but the body wasn’t.

The past few weeks with the snow have been tough and have been really getting to me. Just like every one else I have been on the turbo since Christmas and luckily I am off to OZ so I can get back outside again. I feel for all you guys and girls that can’t get away to somewhere warm to train however what I did realise was the turbo is way harder than riding outside because of the constant pedaling. The only problem is the boredom, so I found some useful Wiggle cycling DVD’s which helped with my motivation and to keep me on the turbo longer. You might want to check them out at www.wiggle.co.uk.

But one thing I did find was a positive is that running in the snow is great as your legs don’t get as sore and it good resistance work. Happy training everyone and will be back soon to give you another update.

Stu

48

Winter Blues

After writing my last blog, mid-December things were all looking good. Training was going well and I had just won a round of the Welsh CX series, which was a surprise. But things never go smoothly do they!

The spell of cold weather we are having seems to have been going on for ages and living in rural Wales the temperature and conditions have been worse than many areas. Temperatures have been down to -8 and only the major roads are remotely safe to ride on. On a very cold early morning ride the week before Christmas I came off my road bike on the ice. Thankfully I didn’t hurt myself too much, but I did bruise my knee and hurt my thumb which is still sore! I took a few days off training to recover and also lost confidence in riding the smaller (and far more enjoyable!) roads around the area. Just as I was back training I had another slip on the ice when walking and strained the same knee I injured before. Another few days off the bike!

Christmas was really enjoyable, but the weather put a stop to any plans for festive road rides. I was really starting to get frustrated with the lack of training that was going on! To make things even worse I picked up a cold in the days after Christmas which made its way to my chest and again kept me from training!

I had pre-entered the Salisbury Winter Challenge, but after the rubbish weeks leading up to the event and still hanging onto a cough and bad chest I was undecided about entering. I finally decided to do it in the days before in the hope it would be a kick start to the new year and my training.
The journey to Erlestoke where the race starts meant an early morning start and with temperatures below zero I knew it was going to be a cold event. I had decided to race on my Focus Mares Cyclo-cross bike for a few different reasons. I had been riding it more than my MTBs recently, so I felt good riding it. I also knew that although there were technical sections on the whole it was an non-technical event with a fair amount of road, where I hoped the Mares would be an advantage. I wrapped up warm for the race, with dhb Merston tights, Earnley base layer and dhb Rogate top with the temperature just getting above freezing.

In the pre-race briefing we were warned of the icy conditions and this was immediately evident on the first climb after the start where the back roads were covered in a layer of frost and ice. I tried to ease myself into the pace at the start, but several quick riders were here and with a long climb I didn’t want to loose touch so had to push hard. I stayed within the top 10-15 on the first climb with a large group forming at the front. As soon as things turned off-road onto frozen grass and mud the advantages of a cyclo-cross bike were clear as I soon made up time and passed a few riders. It was a little different on the bumpy descents, but I didn’t loose too much time and managed to stick with the same group of riders. I had a small tumble on a section of frozen tank tracks and also stopped to take off my skull cap. The high intensity of the race meant I was overheating, both these lost me time and I had to work hard to try and get back in touch. On a very long section of road I was working well with another rider on a cyclo-cross bike and we managed to pass a few riders. Only one managed to stick our pace and that was Ant White, a rider who I am more than familiar with!

We stuck together as a group of 3 for a while, but on a short climb it was just down to myself and Ant. I was pushing hard on the front trying to catch 3 riders who were still ahead. After a while I caught a glimpse of a rider ahead and it didn’t take too long to catch him up and he tucked in behind. On another climb I put in an effort and managed to put a small gap onto the other 2, although this was wiped out as soon as we went off road where the MTBs had the advantage over the bumpy, ice strewn tracks. I managed to stay close and we push on together and soon glimpsed 2nd place rider ahead. Another climb, another big effort! I caught 2nd and gapped 3rd. It didn’t last too long as we came to a long downhill road where we were warned of the ice on the way down. I was still nervous of ice from my fall before Christmas and was taking it really easy. The rider in 4th was not easing up at all though and caught and passed us both – ballsy stuff!

Next came the final climb, which was a long one and the steepest climb of the course. The Mares was over-geared compared to the MTBs and although I got up OK I lost a heap of time and was caught and passed by Anthony White to put me in 5th. There was very little distance left to the finish and I knew a big part of it would be the final descent. It soon came and there was a gap of around 30 seconds to 2/3rd and 15 seconds to Ant. I pushed as hard as I dare, but in reality there was no chance as the descent was bumpy and steep in places making it a challenge to get down, let alone catch a skilled rider on a MTB. In the finish there was just over a minute separating 2nd to 6th and I kept hold of 5th position.

I’m pretty happy with that considering how bad the last few weeks have been. I certainly didn’t feel anywhere near my best, so hopefully I will be able to train well over the next weeks and months and really build upon my fitness. I’ve got no big races planned until March, so it will be a case of training hard and getting the miles in!

End of Season Lowdown with Team Wiggle

Our Team Wiggle athletes have had a cracking year, standing atop rostrums the world over in road racing, mountain biking and triathlon. Before they put their feet up for the festive break, we caught up with them all as they reflect on 2009 and look ahead to 2010. For triathlete Emma-Kate Lidbury, it was her first season racing as a pro…

43

Team Wiggle 2009 Team Highlights

Q. Looking back on your 2009 season, are you pleased with how it went?

A. It was a tough year as I seemed to be constantly battling with injuries, but I learnt a lot of valuable lessons and was pleased with the results I achieved. It means I know what not to do in 2010 to ensure it’s a great season for me.

Q. What was the highlight of your year?

A. Antwerp 70.3 in August proved a lot of things to me. I was fifth pro woman and never far off the podium pace. I struggled on the run, but that was to be expected after only being able to average about 10 miles of running a week through the season because of injury. Helvellyn Tri was also another highlight – it was a last-minute decision to race it and it totally took me out of my comfort zone, but I loved every second and it renewed my love of triathlon.

Q. What was the funniest moment of your season?

A. It wasn’t funny at the time, but looking back, it was probably suffering my first bike bonk in October. When I finally made it home, I fell through the back door and had the dogs licking my face trying to revive me. I was so spent I couldn’t even fight them off! I blogged about it here

Q. What was the most important lesson you learnt?

A. Balance – not the standing on one leg kind, but the work-life-tri balance. It keeps you sane and at times this year I was guilty of focusing on triathlon at the expense of everything else. Also, it’s only at the back end of this year that I’ve realised how important listening to your body is – I know it’s an athlete’s cliché, but it’s a cliché for a good reason!

Q. What are your plans for winter training? How’s it going so far?

A. I began a structured off-season training plan at the start of November and did a solid four weeks before falling off my mountain bike (on my first off-road outing!). I injured my shoulder and collarbone, so that’s hampered swim training somewhat, but I’ve been more than making up for it on the turbo ever since. I’m hoping to soak up some sunshine in Lanzarote in Jan/Feb as I think the snow/ice novelty factor will wear thin soon!

Q. What does 2010 have in store for you? What are your major races going to be?

A. I’m hoping to do Abu Dhabi in March, which is a 3k swim-200k bike-20k run, so it should play to my strengths and it’ll be interesting to see how I fare over the longer bike distance. I’ll follow this up with three or four 70.3 races from May through to November. I’m really looking forward to having a successful 2010 and getting closer to achieving my potential.

Enjoying a much-needed Coke after a long hot ride while training in Lanzarote

Having a great time racing at Blenheim in June – you can just about see my family heckling/cheering me on