Race Report: BUCS Duathlon 21st November 2010

Last Sunday was the date of the British University Duathlon Championship in Chippenham, consisting of a 2 mile run followed by a 10mile bike leg, and finishing in another 2 mile run. Funky fresh. It was rise and shine at 6am to get ready to start the 4hour drive down South. Thankfully I was hitching a ride with a couple of other students from Bangor Uni, so I got a chance to have a little doze and catch up with some sleep.

After a nice detour around Birmingham we arrived at the race circuit (Castle Combe) where it was pretty dam cold and miserable. The track was the flattest thing I'd seen in quite a while due to living next to Snowdonia, so I was excited to ride and run without having bust up any hills. After registering we went and got ready, which seemed to take forever and had a bit of a rush to get all sorted, nevertheless it was soon time to start the race.

At the start line myself and friend Andrew Hailey, also racing, noticed just how many people were wearing team GBR tri-suits... a tad intimidating but it just showed how strong the line up was. The race got under way and was pretty hectic at the start with about 200 students jostling for position, here's a video of how it went down (notice a lot of people just wearing tri-suits, they must have frozen their asses off):



I set off at a pretty quick pace for myself, having not really done any running races I didn't know what I was doing to be honest. I finished the 2 mile run in 11:14 and entered T1 to get on my bike. The bike leg was fast and flat, I felt pretty good and overtook a fair few people especially towards the end. I clocked a time of 24mins 21 for the 10 miles which is a PB but I was secretly hoping for a faster time as it was such a flat course... I'll blame it on the wind... and it being cold... and having just run 2 miles. Here's the data from the GPS watch for the first run and the bike leg.


(The first run went well, averaging about 5:45min/mile which was cool)



(The bike leg, slightly disappointing time but I definitely pushed it to the limit. O and I forgot to start my watch for the first mile and a half so the GPS data above only say 8.5miles)

T2 went smoothly and it was back onto another 2 mile run. My legs felt wrecked, and I felt slow. I gradually got into an alright rhythm but it felt a lot slower than my first run, which is fair enough as I'd just cycled 10 miles but I'm sure a bit more brick training would help for sure. I finished the second run in a time of 12:27 which wasn't too bad. I was hoping to average 12minutes for each run and I got that so at least I achieved one of my goals.


(My second run, felt pretty grim but overall I'm pretty happy with my time. O and I forgot to stop my watch which is why it says I took 14mins 29 seconds)

My overall time was 49:54, Which I was happy with considering it's my first ever duathlon. The winning time was 43:31 by a world class duathlete, so if I improve by 5 and a half minutes by next year I'll be well up there chilling with him... but that's ain't gonna happen! I finished 57th overall out of about 260, which doesn't sound great but considering how many top athletes there were I'm quite content with that. I came 59th for the first run, 50th on the bike and way down in 91st for the second run. I'll be back next year fitter and faster... maybe going under 47minutes, we'll see.

After a massive burger with all the trimmings in Wetherspoons it was time to head home. I was extremely grateful that Jill was driving, firstly cos I was nackered, and secondly I had eaten way too much and was in a slight food coma. So all in all a great day and a good learning curve, I look forward to next years race already. Unfortunately I haven't got any photos yet- there was a photographer at the race but I ain't paying £5 for a digital photo, nu-uh. So the video and GPS stuff will have to suffice for now.

Tested: Dirtwork Bike Spray sample

Dirt Work UK are on a quest to produce the perfect bike cleaner, forget that weak watery rubbish most current bike cleaners are. These guys are developing a premium product that actually does the job properly At the moment they're doing a lot of testing, and my Kona Jake the Snake was lucky enough to get to try it out.

The sample arrived yesterday and my cross bike had a nice crusty layer of mud welded to it from Sundays race in Amlwch so was in desperate need of a bath. As it happened the sun decided to show its face today so I decided to give the stuff a go. I got a nice sized bottle of the green spray so applied liberally across all of the bike. The first thing that hit me was the smell... quite pungent and chemically, proving that it's pretty concentrated stuff as I don't think it's a parfum smell. Perhaps something to mask it a tad might be nice... apple and cinnamon for the Christmas season? Anyway here are a few pics of what my bike looked like before, nice and dry, welded on mud:

Before: Pretty grubby, and very crusty (click for larger image)

So after giving it a good spray I left it for a couple of minutes to do it's thing. Nothing particularly interesting happened within these two minutes, no frothing, no noise, no melting etc etc. Once that was over I gave it a rinse with my hose, which I have to add is pretty feeble when it come to power. The mud seemed to come off real easy so the spray had definitely done it's job, if I'd sprayed it without adding any chemicals not much would have happened for sure. I then took a few more pictures from phase 2 of the process:

Not much mud left at all, just slightly brown marks where it had been (click for larger image)

Phase 3 involved giving the bike a wipe with a damp cloth to get rid of the brown marks that the hose hadn't quite washed off. This is where my bike started looking super orange. All the brown marks wiped off with ease and even black scuffs that I hadn't been able to get off before had faded. Nice! So once again I took a few MORE photos of what my bike looked like to finish...

Almost like new, just some mud on my tyres and a greasy chain to work on (click for larger image)

All in all this stuff has done the job big time. The bike looks super shiny and super orange. Comparing it to other sprays like it that I've used this stuff is significantly better, you can tell it's a lot better quality chemical wise and I can see it doing well in the MTB and Cyclocross worlds, or any other sport involving mud and machinery. I would have liked to give it a go on my carbon fibre road bike, but apparently they don't know if it's safe to use on carbon yet... and I don't want to be the one to find out! So I'll just have to stick with one bike looking funky fresh for the moment. Best of luck to Dirt Work with the rest of testing, I hope it all goes well and thanks for letting me try it out.

North Wales Cyclocross League- Round 3: Amlwch

Yesterday was round 3 of the local cyclocross series in Amwlch, which happened to be the venue of my first ever cyclocross race this time last year, where I pulled out with a puncture half way round. I drove to Amlwch Lesiure Centre where I, and a few other cyclists, thought the registration was. However after hanging around for a good half an hour without any sign of registration, we decided to drive over to the race field to see if it was there, which was a challenge as I had no idea where I was going. Nevertheless I eventually rock up and had a walk around the course with Sam, the Sports Science student that's gonna help me with my racing this year.

The course looked great, lots of interesting and technical stuff, however it was also renowned for punctures and I could see why; with broken glass, cans and even whole champagne bottles (I guess from teenagers having 'Friday nights down the park', living the dream) littering the wooded section of the course. I then got on my bike and did another couple of laps until it was time to race...

The steep climb of the course- certainly made the legs burn!

The race started on the road with a good sized section of straight road. I got a sweet start and was in 2nd place before we hit the more technical stuff. I managed to hold onto 3rd for the first couple of laps, I was feeling good but then things started to go downhill. The course got more slidy and slippery as the race went on, and I realised that my tyres were pumped up FAR too hard (70psi!!! haha) and my rear tyre just had no grip as I've been riding it around on the road a fair bit. So I was slipping and sliding everywhere, and was generally out of control. I had to run the whole of the wooded section because I just couldn't get the power down and had to take corners at a snails pace. A bit of a bummer really but nevertheless I had a good workout and learnt a lesson... tyres matter!

2nd place Chris Purt slogging up the bank

I ended up 8th overall, and 7th in my age group which was slightly disappointing. As much as it hurt I really enjoyed the race, the course was awesome, I think only one person got a puncture and it was on his last lap, which is cool so everyone had a good time . I currently lye 3rd overall in the series but there's still 7 rounds to go, so it's all to play for.

Me feeling the burn big time!

This time next week it's the BUCS Duathlon, which is the race for all the British University and College students. It involves a 2 mile run, 10 mile road ride, and then another 2 mile run. Should be a good test of my running and cycling, and also a good chance to see where I am relative to other students. So time to sit back and rest my legs for a week. Nice.

Crazy Fools

One of my cycling buddys told me to look at some cycling courier videos on youtube, so I did and they're absolutely mental. You've gotta check them out. Here's a couple of videos from London and New York, if anyone knows of any other good ones let me know. I can't seem to find any for Bangor haha?

Enjoy!

TLI National Cyclocross Championship 2010: Prestatyn

Yesterday I ventured over to sunny Prestatyn for another cyclocross race, this time it was the TLI National Champs. I drove to the race but miscalculated how long it would take, I arrived before 10am so had a bit of a wait before I could register... then it turned out my race wouldn't start until 1, so there was quite a bit of waiting around which wasn't too bad for me, but for my support crew (Heather Dinsey) I'm sure it was pretty boring.

wondering how to get round the first corner in one piece!

The race attracted a medium sized field with some very talented riders, and some keen beans opting for the two bike tactic where you switch between bikes during the race as they get clogged up with grass and mud. Of course this method is pretty expensive and you need a willing helper who will wash your bike for you when it's not in use - so I couldn't really go for that option as much as I'd like to!

www.sportpicturescyrmu.co.uk

After a few laps around the course to find my way around and warm up it was time for the race. The start was quite interesting as the organisers decided to place the sprint about 50m from a narrow, sharp, slippery corner... which I wasn't too happy about. Nevertheless it all got under way pretty smoothly. I started quite conservatively as I didn't want to risk crashing out on the first corner. The first lap was pretty crazy with a lot of overtaking going on and everyone settling into their own rhythm. The course was great. It was really long, fast, technical and interesting. Nice one Mark Baker great job there!

www.sportpicturescymru.co.uk

The race was pretty uneventful in terms of mechanicals and crashes etc. It definitely seemed like the longest hour of my life, and with good reason as I checked my watch at the end and the race had last nearly an hour and 20 minutes. Painful. But all in all it was an enjoyable race and a solid workout.

It was then off back to the leisure centre where I got changed, ate some monster munch and then went and watched the prize giving. It turned out I got 2nd in my category which was cool as I received my first proper medal, however it unfortunately fell off it's ribbon on the way home. First place in my category went to Mat Prichard from Revolution Bikes (Perhaps he would have won if he'd held back on the shandys' the night before?!) The winner overall was Paul Bethell who was in a whole different league. He led from the first corner and apparently didn't even look tired throughout the race. Impressive stuff.

age group winners (www.sportpicturescymru.co.uk)

Nice one to all the race organisers, great job. And once again great shots from Gwynfor James of Sport Pictures Cymru.