Penny farthing madness

The Knutsford great race 2010

2009-12-21T10:50:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a while but at last I have some really exciting penny farthing news!

I have entered the Knutsford great race 2010, a three hour road race for penny farthings.

Take a look at the web site for full details, I can't wait.. and I intend to win! http://www.theknutsfordgreatrace.com/

I have spoken to the organiser and so far they have 35 riders entered and the race is not untill September 2010!

On boxing day I will start my penny farthing race practice by doing my cyling clubs 10 mile time trial on the penny.

2 up time trial

2009-09-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I raced in a two up time trial. Normal time trials see riders starting at one minute intervals and racing on there own, against the clock. In a two up riders ride with a team mate and start together. By doing this you can take turns riding on the front, so the rider behind can take a rest from the wind resistance of being on the front. It's calculated to take about 30% less effort to ride as the second rider in a line so if the two work well together they should be able to record a fast time, faster than they would as a single rider.

Anyway, I rode this event with a friend from my cycle club. We are of a similar standard and worked well together to record a decent time of 55 minutes and 55 seconds for 3rd place. That resulted in me receiving some prize money! A whole £12.50! 2 up time trial result...

http://cyclingtimetrials.janet0102.co.uk/Default.aspx?&ge482__geka=zDDQ-6ZV33MzjqeBwbmQrz_ANSkB_T7qN_S6WibhjZTI8y2wcGnNyDpN-nRZsqK4HLTvoFNgxq_eqoFwb3FRVCzy335V6LAUe5s2WzQBllY&ge482__gevi=bkosVTEcmXX5ekdECVvBmA&gv484__gvac=2&gv484__gvff0=54409&gv484__gvfl0=0&language=en-GB&tabid=109

One second from glory!

2009-09-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

DOH! I ALMOST WON!

EVENT:-
10m tt Severn Stoke 27/08/09

Name Cat Time
S O'Toole V 23.50
D Preece SG 23.51................ One tiny second.............
D Evans VG 24.02
M Amery V(F) 24.04
B Boswell S 24.06
J Barnett SG 24.26
N Preece SG 25.08
T Bird S 26.14
S Price V 26.17
G O'Mahoney V 27.00
D Yapp V 27.24
D Burnage V 28.10
H Walker S 28.32
T Knight V 29.58
M Aston L2 30.00

Tour de France, Mont Ventoux.

2009-07-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

I have just spent a fantastic weekend in France for the Tour. I went to watch on Mont Ventoux, the hardest climb in France.

The day before the race came up the mountain I rode up it on the same road. It was an amazing experience. The first few km ar actually not that hard, at one point I was even in the big chainring, but not for long!

The climb is about 21km long at an average gradient of about 9%. I managed to get up it in about 1hr 44mins and felf ok at the end. The outright record is about 55 minutes...... Different class.

Anyway, on race day we walked from our tent, which was on the roadside at about 14km from the top, and watched from about 7km from the top. We had a great spot, The highlight for me was when David Millar came past us. He looked almost dead but when he heard our support he managed to raise a hand from his handlebars and nod his head in apreciation of our support.

Millar had a good tour, he got into a few break aways, almost won a stage, did well in the time trials and road himself into the ground in support of Bradley Wiggins. Wiggins was a incredible, 4th overall and never out of the top 10. Sometimes a rider gets a bit lucky and finds themselves in a breakaway that gains 25 minutes on the main group. They then find themselves in the top ten for a while, but Wiggins started like a freight train and just kept going! Seeing him going wheel to wheel with Armstrong on Ventoux was fantastic, and to finish 4th in the strongest tour line up for years was just ace!

Of course there were other british riders in the tour, Charlie wegelius was there to help Cadel Evans in the mountains, but Evans couldn't stick with the other big hitters. There was also a guy called Mark Cavendish, a sprinter from the isle of man. Cav did ok..... He won 6 stages, but somehow managed not to pick up the green jersey for the best sprinter?! The way the points work for this are a bit silly, so on Ventoux we made our own little comment about this. On the mountain stages people often write words of encouragement on the road for the riders. So we wrote, Cav 5, Hushovd 1. In referance to the number of stages that each rider had won at this point. Cav went on to win in Paris for 6... but Hushovd still won the green jersey!

Anyway, Cav is the fastest bike rider on the planet, Millar was awesome, Wegelius rode a good solid tour and Wiggins was fantastic! Not that they are going to be, but if any of the british tour riders are reading this, thanks for making it the best tour I can remember! In 2010 I want Millar to win a tt, Wegelius to win a mountain stage, Cav to win 7 and Wiggins to win the overall!

Famous cyclists that I have raced against..

2009-06-23T05:26:00.000-07:00

I've not put anything on here for ages, so thought I would try to make an effort to do a bit more. Since my last post I have been cycling quite a bit. I've riden the penny farthing a few times but just don't seem to have the time do use it as much as I would like. The main reason I have not ridden it much is that I have been doing time trials and have been trainning quite hard for these.

I have had a some mixed results, some good some disappointing but on the whole I am pleased with how I am going.

My best ride this year was in the 39.5 mile little mountain time trial. Last year I rode it for the first time and was really pleased to get inside 2 hours as it is a very hilly course with some seriously difficult climbs. This year I went even better and managed to go 4 minutes faster.

I have also bought a single speed cyclocross bike in the January sales. I hope to race this in the west midlands league over the winter.

Cyclocross is fantastic, I love the fact that some really top quality cyclists sometimes just turn up and ride an event. There can't be many, if any, other sports where the likes of me can compete against people at the top of there sport. Running the London marathon doesn't really count as you are never going to even see the fast runners, but in cyclocross you can actually see them and talk to them.

This had led me to make a list of famous riders that I have raced against, and lost....

1) Roger Hammond. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hammond_(cyclist)Roger is a current full time professional cyclist. He lapped me, but only twice, in a cyclocross race in Solihull in 2008. He came past me on a muddy section where I was strugling to go about 8 mph, Roger was probably doing 15mph....

2) Liam killeen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liam_Killeen Liam has riden mountain bikes at the highest level, in the Olympic games. When he came past to lap me in a cross race he was good enough to advise me on which side of the next climb was easiest.

3) Flavio Zappi. http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/cyclists/flavio-zappi/Flavio was a top quality professional ride a few years ago, he rode the little mountain time trial the first time I did it in 2008.

I am sure there are a few more, but these are the three that stick in my mind.

Lanzarote International Duathlon 2009

2009-02-03T01:08:00.000-08:00

I have recently returned from two weeks in sunny Lanzarote where I competed in a duathlon. The event was organised at Club La Santa, a large sports complex that also holds the legendary Ironman Lanzarote.

A friend, Les Bailey, did the Ironman last year and set an over 70's age group world record,. to read about it see... http://www.tri247.com/article_3461.html

I went to Lanzarote firstly to have a holiday and secondly to do the race. I did the same last year and finished 72nd, so my aim was to finish a bit higher this time. My build up to the event in England had gone really well. I had done a few cyclocross races and really concentrated on doing more running as last year I hadn't really done much and after the first run I was already a long way down the field.

I arrived in Lanzarote nine days before the race. On the first day I rode from the resort I was staying in to Club La Santa to register. The ride from Costa Teguise to La Santa is not an easy one. The two places are on opposite sides of the hilly, volcanic island. Last year I rode to the start of the race, raced and then rode back to the resort... This ment I had ridden 20 hilly miles before the race and worse, had to ride 20 hilly miles back afterwards. Needless to say it turned out to be a really tough day!

This year I was going to organise a lift to the start and back after the race. Then I could race as hard as I could with fresh legs and not have to worry about getting back on the bike to ride back.

I spent the days after registration but before the race riding my bike around the island, doing the odd short run and eating and drinking a less than purfect diet! I didn't do a huge number of miles in the week before as I wanted to do my best in the race. I rode around 250 miles and ran only about 6 miles. The cycling might sound like a lot but it's quite easy to rack up a few miles when you have all day to do so, and I wanted to enjoy riding in the sunshine.

Come race day I was feeling pretty good and planned to run the first leg quite quickly to get away with some of the faster competitors. I've done a few duathlons in the UK but they have always been non drafting events. This meens that on the bike leg you can't ride close up behind another rider to take shelter from the wind. When doing this it really makes a massive difference, the second rider in the line will use about 30% less effort to go the same speed. Non drafting events meen that usually the strongest competitor will win, when you can draft this is not always the case. In this race in Lanzarote drafting was aloud, so I wanted to get away with the faster competitors so that I didn't spend the whole of the bike leg dragging others along.

After a short warm up we were soon underway, the starting gun was fired by Chrissie Wellington, a World class athlete. See http://www.chrissiewellington.org/pages/index.asp for more details.. I started quite fast and settled into a pace that I could maintain. I ran the 5km in 20minutes 34seconds and felt good when I got on the bike. As I am a stronger cyclist than runner I soon found myself passing other riders on the uphill climb away from Club La Santa. I rode all of the climb on the big chainring and felt really strong. Two of the riders that I passed managed to follow me to the top of the climb and then passed me on the down hill run. I then got myself in to there draft for a while and took a breather.

As a group we then caught two more riders and became a group of five. I did a couple of short turns on the front but then found myself going backwards and dropping off the back. I wasn't too worried about this as I knew I could climb well. At the turn I was only about 20 metres behind them, the turn was very tight and was easier for a single rider than it would be in a group so I was soon back with the others and feeling good. I passed them all quite easily on the climb and none of them came with me. By the top of the climb I was feeling great and started to catch and pass other riders on the way back to Club La Santa.

Getting off and running after a big effort on a bike is never easy and when I first uncliped from my bike and stood up I was fairly sure I had overdone it on the bike. My legs were shaking and I didn't feel good. I changed into my running shoes and slowly jogged out onto the running track. Within a few metres of the final run I was being overtaken by others. I tried to follow them but all I could do was to limit my losses. After about 2 or 3 minutes I started to recover a little and was able to hold a gap to one of those who had come past me. The last run was only 2.5km so it was just a case of holding on for a few more minutes. I did the last run in 10 minutes 50 seconds, the guy who finished one place behind me did it in 8 minutes 53 seconds but I had taken 5 minutes and 4 seconds out of him on the 20km bike leg..

I crossed the line in 35th place, 13minutes behind the winner, and world Duathlon champion, Joerie Van Steelant. Last year I was almost 22 minutes down and in 72nd place so I was over the moon with my result. My splilt time for the bike was 22nd fastest, not bad considering I was riding a basic road bike that would have been at least 7lbs heavier than the top guys bikes and for most of the week I had been eating full English breakfasts and drinking lots of Lager.. I can still ride better than I can run, but the gap is closing.

The event was fantastic and very well organised, with a bit of luck I will do it again next year.

More pictures of my holiday are here.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/10804338@N06/

National hill climb championship 2008, the big day!

2008-10-28T00:57:00.000-07:00

.........................................................................Photo 1. Looking back down Bank street, Matlock from about one third of the way up.

Photo 2. Looking up Bank street from the same spot.

Photos 3 and 4. Me, suffering like you wouldn't believe!

After pre riding the course the week before, and doing some research into the other riders, I was actually really looking forward to the race. I knew that I could get up the climb in reasonable time, as I'd kept a little back and done 3minutes 50 seconds the week before. I also knew that I wasn't going to come last. Not that there is any disgrace in finishing last in a national championship, it's just not a possition anyone really wants to see themselves in.

The day before the race I cleaned my bikes and sorted out what I was going to take with me. I was going to ride the hill on my fixed gear bike, but I was also going to take my standard road bike with me. This was mainly because it's easier to warm up on a bike with gears and a freewheel, and it also gave me the option of using it in the race should for whatever reason I couldn't use the fixed bike.

The drive up to Matlock was straight forward, and I arrived in time to drive up the hill. Mickey and Cassie had travelled up with me to offer me some much needed moral support, when they saw the hill, I don't think they fancied walking up it to watch, let alone cycle up it at maximum effort!

We parked up in a free car park, about one third of the way up the hill and went to find the headquarters. As I signed in and collected my new, unused numbers, Matt Clinton signed in straight after me. Matt was the hot favourite for the win, having gone about 11 hill climbs unbeaten in the run up to the event. He looked fairly nervous to me, I suppose he knew lots of people were expecting him to win it easily, but he knew it was never going to be that straight forward.

Everyone seemed to think Matt would win it, but who would join him on the podium? One thing was for certain, it wasn't going to be me! I thought David Clarke and Lewis Cowley would take some beating, others were saying Bill Bell or Jim Henderson, but nobody seemed to think the deffending champion, James Dobbin would make the top 5. I wasn't so sure, In a recent hill climb on a hill near to me, Dovers, Dobbin started a few minutes after me and when he finished he looked like he was just going for a short ride to the shops. I wondered if he was trying to take attention off himself for the big day.

After a quick walk round Matlock the road was closed to traffic and before we knew it the first rider was off, setting a time of 3 mins 49.6 seconds. I watched quite a number of riders go up the hill as my start number was 141 so I had plenty off time to kill. Watching the riders go up gave me a bit of a boost, quite a few seemed to be of a similar standard to me.. and one or two were clearly much faster! When Bill Bell went past us at about half way, he was flying! It looked as if he was sprinting for the line with half the hill still to go. As it turned out at half way Bill would be almost 5 seconds up on Matt Clinton.. But would he hold on?

I stayed and watched upto number 82, Xavier Disley, as he is about the same standard as me. He looked to be going ok. On the hill climb of Dovers he beat me by about 15 seconds in 5 minutes. I then went to the car park, put my road bike into my turbo trainer, and started my warm up.

Considering this was bar far the most important race I have ever been in, I wasn't nervous at all. I suppose I knew I wasn't going to win anything, and I wasn't going to look too out of my depth. I was much more nervous earlier in the year when I was entered in a local 25 mile time trial. I was trying to go under the hour for the first time, and my time would be there for all to see. As it happens I did 58minutes 51 seconds, but all the way round I was wondering if I would make it. Now I have done it once I think I should be able to go a bit quicker next year as I can afford to start a bit faster and if I blow up it doesn't really matter as I have a decent pb anyway.

Back to the hill climb, Before I knew it, it was time to get to the start. As I swapped bikes Simon Wilson, who used to ride for my club, Worcester st Johns, came over and wished me luck which was nice. Simon had done his ride and would finish in 40th place. I walked down the hill to the start and had about 10 minutes before I was off. I popped in for a last minute toilet stop and had a quick look at the times that had been recorded. Xavier had done 3 mins 30.8 seconds. That was 20 seconds faster than my practice run last week, but I felt quite good and thought I might just beat that.

After a short ride up and down an ajoining road, it was may turn.. As I waited I watched Matt Clinton start. He looked awesome! Fully committed and very fast! I quickly put this out of my mind and concentrated on my ride. My plan was to start within myself and to stay sat down for as long as possible. This was to last for about 100 yards...

As the time keepers counted down from 10 seconds, I concentrated on breathing deeply and I was completely focused on doing the best that I could. 3, 2, 1, GO! I always start with my left foot, I had noticed that Matt started with his right, but stick with what you know. As I pushed down and turned the first few peddle strokes I imediatly felt over geared. Oh, well I couldn't do anything about that now as I was on a single speed fixed gear bike. Besides, I knew my gearing was about right as I'd made the climb on the same ratio last week. I sat down and started to spin as best as I could. On the right hand side of the road was some metal fencing which I had planned to get at least half way along before I stood up on the peddles.

I was feeling ok at this stage and as I got up I felt in control, may pace was about right. Then I got into the Crowd.. I guessed the first person would shouted my name must be someone I knew but hadn't seen. Then when it happened again and again it dawned on me that all these people had programs and were happy to encourage anyone.

I stayed up on the peddles pushing out just off my maximum power, after about 300 yards of this I started to think I'd probably gone out to hard. I tried to sit down, not really to rest, just to regain control, but it was no good. The damage was done. I couldn't turn over my peddles while sat down so I had no choice but to get straight back up and try to hang on.

I got to half way and remember hearing Cassie shouting encouragement at me, I didn't see her or Mickey as I was pushing so hard all I could do was to look at the ground a few feet in front of me. I passed halfway in 1 minute, 24.2 seconds (I only know this from the results print outs, at the time I had no idea how long I had taken). Unfortunatley the second half of the climb was steeper and being tired was going to take everyone longer than the first half.

The crowd was at it's biggest from here to the final bend, every was cheering, it was great, but it did make me push even harder. By the time I got to the final bend I was suffering big time. I sat down as the climb became less steep, my legs were on fire and my arms had gone almost completely dead. I forced myself to stand up again and give it one final push for the line and as I crossed the finish my vision was starting to go very blurred. Two marshals ran along side me at the finish, to catch anyone who had overdone it and were about to pass out, but I was ok. Sort of..

I rode a few yards past the line and unclipped fom my peddles. As I put my foot on the ground my leg just gave way and I ended up sitting on the cross bar, which is where I stayed for about 5 minutes. When my heartrate and breathing returned to normal I begain to ride down to the headquarters. After about 100yards I noticed a rider stoped and slumped over his bike. It was Matt Clinton. I asked if he was ok, which in hindsight was a silly question. After he had finished being sick, he replied, "not really". I stayed with him for a minute or two, but when it was clear he was going to survive, I left him to recover on his own.

As it turned out Matt had just managed to win the event, after being 5 seconds down at half way he won by the narrowest of margins, 1.2 seconds, from Bill Bell, with 5 time winner Jim Henderson in 3rd, only 1.1seconds further back. Defending champion, James Dobbin could "only" manage 21st. Aparently he snapped a carbon crank arm whilst doing his warm up and had to borrow a bike from a team mate.

I'd managed to do a time of 3 minutes 25.3 seconds, 25 seconds faster than my trial run last week and good enough for 96th place out of 139 starters. At half way I was 76th so I probably did start out a bit too fast, but it's hard to say if I'd have got the time back if I'd have started slower. I'm pretty pleased with my ride, I can't say the ride itself was enjoyable, but the day was fantastic. Maybe next year with some specific training I might do a bit better... Maybe top 50?

As I type this on Tuesday night I'm feeling ok, my legs transported me by bike to work today and I'm pretty sure I've not done myself any lasting damage. My lungs still feel a little sore, I've never breathed as deeply before, its amazing what the human body will put up with.

All in all, it was agreat finish to my racing year. I've set some new personal bests, 10 mile tt 22minutes 2 seconds and 25 mile tt 58 minutes 51 seconds. I did a decent ride in the little mountain time trial and I managed to win the clubs time trial points series. It's going to be a tough year to follow!

National hill climb, dry run...

2008-10-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

With only six days to go before I take part in (I was going to say compete in, but that might be pushing it a bit) the national hill climb championship I thought I better go up to Matlock and pre ride the course.

So after a 2 hour drive I parked up and road my standard road bike around to find the start. I parked a couple of miles before Matlock so this acted as a decent warm up.

The climb of bank road turned out to be very similar to my local hill climb course of Ankerdine. The gradient and distance are about the same, although the road surface is much much better up Bank road.

Bank road starts as it continues, on a hill! Mentally it's quite a tough hill too. It's very straight for about three quarters of its distance so it will be best not to focus too far up the hill as it will seem like you're getting nowhere.

It's about 14% gradient average and has a maximum of about 20%...

My plan is to start sitting down, and to stay down for as long as I can. For me the hill is just that bit too long to sprint, standing up all the way. Although I'm not going to be winning anything myself, it's fair to say nobody has ever won a hill climb in the first 100 yards, although I'm sure somebody will have gone out to fast and lost one in the first 100 yards..

I aim to stay sitting down for about 30 - 50 seconds. This doesn't sound like much but the hill is so steep that once you have got out of the saddle you are going to have to stay there and the steepest section is about two thirds of the way up, so you have got to be able to stay out of the saddle to get over this part.

The only corner comes after about three quarters distance and is one of the steepest sections, by this time it's really just about survival, but once round the corner the last 50yards or so are a little flatter than the rest of the hill, so I'll probably sit down for a very short while before giving it everything when the finishing line is in sight. When I say in sight, that's assuming I can still see at that point... Hill climbing at maximum effort does strange things to your body..

The photo is a graph comparing the two hills, ankerdine is the slightly longer line. The other photo is of me on my hill climb bike, on my way up Ankerdine in the clubs hill climb a few weeks ago.

After riding up Bank road on my standard bike I returned to the car and changed over to the fixed gear bike. After a slow ride to the bottom of the hill I started my stop watch and started to suffer.. I did the climb in about 3 mins 50 seconds. I was trying quite hard but held a bit back for the big day. The last 100 yards or so I sat down and just rode to the top, and I would think on the day I may be able to go 20 seconds or so faster.

That's going to keep me from finishing last, but I'll be nowhere near the top. A time of about 2 mins 30 seconds will win it... I might just get into the top 100, which I'd be happy with.

So I now have no excuses, I have a light bike, I know the course, and my gearing felt about right at 39 / 20 (51.8"). Talking of gearing, Matt Clinton said, on the cycling weekly web site, that he thought he would be using 42 / 20 (55.8"). I think I could just about turn that over on the last section that is a bit flatter, but I'd really struggle on the steeper parts. That's probably why he is the favourite and I'm just one of the many making the numbers up!

People who I'll be cheering on.. (if I'm able to / not warming up etc)

No. 39 Adrian Bird. past member of Worcester st Johns cc. now rides for a local bike shop, echelon... where most of my bike stuff comes from. http://www.echelon-cycles.co.uk/index.shtml

No. 125 Tejvan Pettinger. Fellow cycling blogger. http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/

No. 126 Alexandra Zebedee. If your knee holds out that is..

No. 135 Jim Henderson. Hill climbing legend! http://website.lineone.net/~jim.henderson/cycling/hc/hc.html

And everyone else mad enough to take on a hill climb!

National hill climb championship

2008-10-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like I'm in! Here's the start sheet.. http://cj.orpheusweb.co.uk/cycling/01clubev/clbev08/ss.html

The photos are of my training rides.. 25% hills on the penny should make the national seem easy! The other bike is my lovely daily ride, nothing too flash but everything works and nothing ever goes wrong with it.

Back to the national hill climb championship...

I start number 141, one minute behind Matt Clinton, who was today named by cycling weekly as the hot favourite! It will be interesting to see how fast he attacks the hill. I'll take a good look as he leaves the line, as that's the last I am going to see of him!

I'm no expert, but I'm not sure he will have things all his own way. In the recent hill climbs I did up Dovers and saintbury I started a few minutes in front of the 2007 champion James Dobbin. I was able to watch him finish at the top of each climb, and to be honest, he came over the line looking like he wasn't even trying. OK, so Matt Clinton beat him in both climbs, but not by much, and Dobbin looked to me to have something in reserve.

While all of the big names are doing as many hill climbs as possible to get fit, I am just riding to work and back. It's not even a hilly route, so on my way home I am sprinting in as big a gear as I can pull, for as long as I can do it for. I did go on a hilly trainning ride yesterday which covered most of the Little mountain time trial route that I did earlier in the year. The toughest sections are Stamford bank and Ankerdine, made even harder by my heavy winter bike!

I guess we will find out whos the best climber soon enough. As for me, I'm going to be giving it everything and if I make the top 100 I'll be over the moon.

Hill climbs..

2008-10-07T03:49:00.000-07:00

I survived the two stage hill climb, and with the weather the way it was survival was the name of the game.. The picture is of my warm up for the second event.. It rainned all morning which made warming up difficult. I rode the climbs on my fixed gear Specialized Langster, but took my winter bike to warm up on. Even with mud gaurds I got pretty wet.. As I understand it, the shorter the event the longer your warm up should be. Well I figured 30 minutes in the pouring rain was enough, I then swapped bikes, took off my waterproofs and leggings and rode to the start.

The first hill was Dovers hill. This has been used for the national hill climb championship in the past, and I think it may be the venue again in 2010. Anyway, earlier in the year I did a club time trial up it, organised by Evesham wheelers. It was the day after my clubs hill climb up Ankerdine where I had tried really hard. On Ankerdine I did 3mins 33seconds which was a pb for me. I'd ridden up Dovers on my standard road bike before but never raced so I had no idea how I would go. I managed 5mins 13 seconds and felt ok most of the way, so I thought 5 mins might be possible on a good day.

The day of the hill climb was not a good day though! I also messed up and sat up about 200yards before the finish thinking I was at the end... I realised almost straight away but it's hard to get going again. Even so I did 5mins 13sec, the same time as I had done before!

The next climb was up Stainbury hill and I had almost 2hours to prepair. I spent this time wisely, sitting in the car with the climate control on maximum, trying to dry my clothes! My warm up for the second hill was the grand total of the 5minutes it took me to ride to the start. I was properly cold and still wet, not nice. Even so I felt like I went better up the slightly longer and more varied gradient of Stainbury. my time was 7mins 57sec. I'd only riden up this hill once before on my fixed bike and did 8mins 15sec so I was quite pleased with my time.

My total time was just over 13 minutes, I had hoped to get just under 13, but as it was such a horrid day a few seconds outside was ok. The problem with bad weather is that some people don't turn up to ride. Unfortunatly the ones who don't turn up are usually the only ones that I can beat, the quick guy still race, so my overall position wasn't up to much, but at least I was there.

The winner, Matt Clinton managed 10mins 7 seconds! and beat national hill climb champion, James Dobbin into 2nd place. Also riding was a guy called Tejvan Pettinger, who also knows how to ride a bike up a hill.. The day before the race I googled Dovers Hill and found his web site. It's really very good.. much better than this blog! If your into cycling, check it out. http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/

Anyway, I really enjoyed the event and as a result I have done something really stupid... I've sent an entry off for the national hill climb championships! 150 of the best climbers in the country going up a big hill at one minute gaps, against the clock. I doubt if I'll get in as they obviously pick the fastest riders first, but I figured I may as well enter as I would have gone to watch anyway.. If I do get in my aim is not to come last, a top 100 place would be fantastic.....

My week off work

2008-10-01T13:56:00.001-07:00

I've just had a week off work, and had a pretty good time. The first weekend was spent at the bmf bike rally, which is always good.

Then I spent a few days with Kat in Wales on our penny farthings. We covered about 70 miles and had a good time. The b&b we stayed in even had an old duke box with vinyl records, cool!

I seem to be having a bit of trouble uploading pictures on here, so take a look here for more... http://www.flickr.com/photos/10804338@N06/

My final few days off were spent at the Motocross of Nations, which was awesome. Although I did have my money stolen from my tent while I was sleeping in it, which wasn't nice. Some people will do anything except go to work to get money... Although they are not mine, there are some great photos of the motocross here.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jj-pix/sets/72157607595237992/

My next cycling event is on a fixed gear bike, but not the penny. I'm in a two stage hill climb on sunday. Also in the event is a guy called James Dobbin, who just happens to be 2007 national hill climb champion!

10 mile tt pb..

2008-08-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

I've managed to get my 10 time down a bit to.. My pb is now 23mins 22secs. At the weekend I'm down as 10th reserve in a big quality field of riders on a fast course, so if I get a ride I would expect to get a 22min ride.... If it's a really good, warm and still day and everything goes well I may even manage a long 21min... We shall see...

UPDATE..... I GOT A RIDE AND MANAGED 22MINUTES AND 2 SECONDS! A HUGE PB.. REALLY PLEASED WITH MYSELF, BUT CAN'T HELP THINKING IF I COULD HAVE GONE 3 SECONDS FASTER!

25 mile time trial pb!

2008-07-28T00:21:00.000-07:00

I made it! A 25 mile tt, on my tt bike not the penny, in under an hour. 58 minutes and 51 seconds... This was one of my targets for the year. I still have a few left though, one of which is to climb a local hill in a hill climb time trial in under 3mins 30seconds.. My bike of choice for this event is to be my new fixed gear bike. I plan on testing gearing, and my legs, this week. Here's a picture of my hill climb weapon, although not yet geared down for the 17% climb of Ankerdine.

The other pic is of my time trial bike that I used for the 25 mile tt..

pedal in the park worcester

2008-07-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

Photos are , Dave Walker roller racing and Martins time trial tandem

A free cycle event a Worcester! I was on the St Johns cycle club stand for most of the day. There was lots for people to do and see including a mountain bike trials display team, which was awesome!
I rode the penny down and went out on the guided ride, about 10miles through the lanes. All good fun. I met up with Chris Ford from cycle active, the company who I did coast to coast with. Cycle active had a mountain bike skills area to teach kids about bike control. They do loads of mountain bike trips, and a few road ones so if you're after a holiday check out the web site... I've been on a couple of mountain bike holidays with them in the past and had a really good time..http://www.cycleactive.co.uk/

.................................................................... ............................................................. ............................................... ............................................... ..........................Other stuff that was fun was the roller racing, check out this site for the results... I was 10th..

www.rollapaluza.com/?p=99

2008-06-17T03:02:00.000-07:00

I won a local time trial last week! Hardly the national 25, but a win is a win! The route covered some small lanes around the area that my parents grew up. Part of the route went along a road that they would have cycled along to catch the scool bus, on this road my Dad once managed to knock my Mum off her bike and cut her chin open, what a charmer! Anyway, here is the results sheet...

10 mile TT Mere Green
Name Time
Dave Preece 0:25:36
Joe Bloxsome 0:28:05
Gary Davis(Bromsgrove) 0:28:07
Martin Tinsley 0:28:42
Tony Crossland 0:28:49
Hellen Russell 0:29:12
Richard James 0:29:51
Richard Archer 0:30:03
Mike Matthews 0:30:04
Constantin Murray 0:30:13
Adrian Clifton 0:30:38
Alan James 0:30:58
Gary Davis(RRPCC) 0:31:44
Bob Pritchard 0:32:24
Brian Dingle 0:33:43
Nev Billington 0:34:52

national fame!

2008-06-16T12:29:00.001-07:00

Firstly, the picture of the beetle is here as I have just sold it... I'm quite sad to see it go although the guy who bought it seems to be really keen so I'm sure the car is in good hands... Back to the national fame thing... The second photo is a scan of a picture that appeared in the Times on 14th May 2008. It's of the world record attempt that I have written about earlier in this blog. A similar picture was also in the daily mirror, but in much the same way that a royal flush beats a pair in poker, the Times beats the mirror in journalism!

Fixed gear time trials

2008-06-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

....................... ....................... ............................ ....................... The penny farthing is the ultimate fixed gear bike (no freewheel) but when my local cycle club decided to organise a fixed gear time trial league, I decided that if I was to stand any chance of winning it I'd have to use a different bike!

So this is what I came up with, It's a Fuji track bike with a few modifications.

- The standard front wheel has been replaced with the carbon one from my time trial bike.

- An old front brake from my first real road bike, with new cork brake blocks.

- Cut down handlebars from the same old racer.

- Added an old set of areo bars.

Appart from that its just a cheep steel track bike, but it rides really well. At the moment the gearing is 50 / 15, about 90" in old money.

The league is now well underway and I'm going quite well in it. The first race was a short 5.5mile tt, where I did 11mins 28secs came second by 2 seconds.... Next was a 19.5 mile tt ( 48mins 34sec) where I was 2nd again. I've just done the 3rd race in the series (10 miles 24mins 34sec) and finished..... 2nd again! With only one race remaining my only chance of an overall win is if Steve, who has beaten me three times, fails to turn up!

It's been fun though and has opened my eyes to fixed gear tt bikes. Even with a basic effort like mine it's possible to post some decent times. I'm probably slightly fitter this year than I was last but even so on the fixed bike I'm only about 20 seconds slower over 10miles than I would be on my 20 speed areo, carbon time trial bike.

So drag that old roadbike out of your shed, convert it to fixed for a few quid and start showing people what a waste of money there flash tt bikes have been!

World record attempt

2008-05-12T23:44:00.001-07:00

............................................................................. Saturday 10th May 2008 Beaulieu..

We needed 132 and managed 104 penny farthings, so the record didn't go. It was good fun though and quite a sight to see that many pennys together.

I drove down to the show on the Saturday morning so I had quite a long day. Not half as long a day as Kat had though. Kat had been away in Hong Kong and only landed at 5.00am on the Saturday morning. Most people would have gone home and gone to bed, but not Kat. For one Kat had no home to go to, but that's another story, and for seconds, Kat is not most people! (I meen that in a good way Kat)..

The Veteran bike show itself was a little odd, you could feel a bit of a divide betwen the owners of original pennys and the owners of replicas. It's strange really as we all have the same love of a strange bike, it's just some of us want to ride the things too and have bought replicas. I for one don't trust riding around 8 feet up in the air on 120 year old steel, and it would also be a shame to ride an original bike and watch it fall to bits. If there was no world record at stake I'm sure the replicas would have been asked to stay away.

Some of the owners of the old stuff were quite rude. One looked Kats bike up and down before saying "I used to have a cheep replica as well." Maybe he used to have friends too. We also received no help at all when ever we asked people if we could get some spare spokes from anywhere. I'm sure If we had turned up on original, older bikes, and if we were 40 years older ourselves, people would have been more helpful.

So when the penny stack was over Kat and I went for a ride and then went to a pub as the show at Beaulieu didn't have a bar!

My parents came to the pub too and we all sat and chatted for a couple of hours then Kat had to get the train "home"

All in all it was a fun day, although I'm not sure either Kat or I will be rushing off to join the veteran cycle club any time soon! If anyone wants to take a look at a few more pictures of the event, take a look at, http://www.flickr.com/photos/10804338@N06/

little mountain time trial

2008-05-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

This is me, a few miles into the hardest time trial I have ever done! The little mountain tt is not to be taken lightly, it's over 39 miles long, has more than 3500 feet of climbing and includes two very steep climbs of over 17%. The first big climb comes at about 20miles the last one at 33miles. So the penny farthing wasn't really an option!

My time trial bike was almost the perfect tool for the job, fast on the flat and light enough up most of the hills, although bottom gear was too high (42/23) for the two big climbs.

My time was 1hour 58mins and 59 seconds, I was aiming to get inside 2hrs so I'm really pleased. Full results are on this web site.. http://www.beaconrcc.org.uk/open_races/lmtt/2008_results.html

Next week I should have some good penny farthing stuff to report on as it's the world record penny stack, so more on that next week..

World record attempt..

2008-04-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

On May the 7th I am taking my penny farthing to the international veteran cycle club rally at Beaulieu in the UK. There is going to be loads of penny's as part of the rally will be an attempt on the world penny stack record. It's hard to explain but it's essentially a record where riders mount there bikes and get in a long line, handle bar to handle bar, all facing the same way. So the line is one bike deep but many bikes wide. It should be good fun and will give me chance to say hi to some of the people who helped me to find my bike.

Other news from me is bicycle related but not penny farthing news. I've started time trialing again this year and over the winter I have tried really hard to get fit. So far my results have been a little mixed. My first race was a disaster, I was about 2minutes slower than I thought I would be over the 10 miles. The next one went much better, it was only a 5.5mile race but I managed a personal best by 2 seconds. Then came my finest hour, well my finest 24minutes 59seconds. I won a local time trial in pouring rain and freezing cold. I usually go really badly in the cold and when I finished I was disapointed with my time, I thought I would do about 23mins 45secs. But as it turned out I was the fastest on the night.

I've got a few local club time trials lined up but my next big race is the little mountain time trial on 27th April..

Anyway, here is the result sheet from my win!

Broadheath 10 Results K46/10B 15.4.08
1st Dave Preece 24.59
2nd Mark Allen 25.48
3rd Simon Rousell 26.03
4th Richard Graham 26.05
5th Ed Dursley 26.08
6th Steve Price 26.29
7th Sean Dyson 26.45
8th Stuart King 27.48
9th Jason Griffiths 28.18
10th Chris Sherratt 28.36
11th Mick Hedges 28.58
12th Andy Johnstone 29.36
13th Jeff Grainger 30.06
14th Ros Hope 30.31
15th Richard Finch 31.04
16th Chri Cox 31.47

Cycle touring

2008-03-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

No penny farthing but hills this steep are tough enough anyway!

More to follow, I'm off to bed in a bad mood after my first time trial of the year ended with me posting a terrible time..... Probably something to do with these hills...

Kat and I recently went to the lake district on a cycle tour, 3 days lots of hills and 180 miles. We had planned to ride the sustrans route following Hadrians wall but after the first day we changed our minds. The route takes in some of the most scenic sights in the lakes, or that's what sustrans would have you believe. What we saw was Sellafield Nuclear power station, and about 10miles more of Whitehaven when we got lost.. Hadrians wall seemed to be hiding so we got as far as Carlise and then rode into the heart of the lake district. This was much better, nice landscapes, wildlife and big hills. We rode over wrynose and hardnott pass which have gradients of over 30%! All in all it was a really good, if short, holiday.

It's now Thursday and I have just done my first club time trial of the year. After the open tt on Saturday where I had a bit of a nightmare I'm back to somewhere close to the times I expected. Tonights tt was only a short one, 5.5miles, but I did a fairly good time of 13mins 15seconds. This was obviously on my tt bike... I have done the same course on the penny and I think I did about 21 mins..

VC Sevale open time trial

2008-03-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

Well as anyone living in England already knows it bloody cold! Can't believe that on the 29th I will be sucking in lung fulls of freezing cold air doing my first time trial of the year ( on my tt bike, not the penny). I've been riding quite a lot but haven't really done any speed work so no real idea how I will go.

I did do the bike leg of a duathlon as part of a relay team last week, with my dad doing the running, but I find it hard to go flat out when I'm not racing.

Looking at the start sheet Steve Price, a fellow member of my club Worcester st Johns, should have a good chance of a win. Worcs St Johns could have a chance of winning the team competition too as along with Steve we have some quite usefull riders entered. Realisically my aim is to get somewhere near to 25mins. My pb for the course is 24m 2 secs but I'll need the perfect day to get anywhere hear this!

Well I'll update this post later in the week when I've seen a weather forecast for Saturday!...

The time trial is now over, I put in a really poor performance in the worst weather I think I've ever raced in. My excuses for my time are as follows!
1) In the week leading up to the race I went cycle touring with Kat in district and cycled 180 hilly miles in three days, on my road bike with panniers and a bottom gear of 39 / 23... i had a great time though.
2) The weather was terrible, strong winds and rain. I hate getting cold so I made the mistake of time trialing in my water proof, not good for aerodynamics!

Slide show at the Dragon

2008-03-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I was contacted by a local cycle club to see if I would do a presentation about my penny farthing adventures. At the time I was really excited about doing it but now the time is almost here, it's on friday 14th at 8pm in the Dragon on the tything in Worcester, I'm getting quite nervous...

Presentations are not really my thing so I hope my slide show goes ok, I'm told people are really looking forward to it so hopefully it will be alright on the night!

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.....

Quick update... The show went well, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. The real ale in the pub probably helped though! It's one thing blogging and typing rubbish but it's another to stand up and say it. Not sure I'll do too many more presentations but in the end I quite enjoyed doing it..

I'm not doing much tonight as in the morning I'm doing a local duathlon as a relay with my Dad doing the running and me the cycling. So I'm trying not to drink too much so that I don't let the side down, I expect Dad is having an equally dull night too...

Shimano 24hr road race

2008-02-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

I've just received confirmation that my entry has been accepted for this race, http://www.shimano24.co.uk/

I'm one of a five man team from my cycling club, http://www.worcester-st-johns-cc.org.uk/index.html so I now have the much needed motivation to keep trainning. I find if I am only going to let myself down it's sometimes hard to get out on the bike if the wheather is bad. However, if I feel I'm going to let others down by staying in I am more likely to train. I'm fairly sure the others in my team will want me to leave the penny at home though...

After coming back from Lanzarote I've been quite good and managed a few hard rides and averaged about 150miles per week. I should be going quite well when the time trials kick off again.

The event is also an excuse to start saving for a flash new bike... Kuota KOM?..

Lanzarote international duathlon

2008-02-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

I've just spent two great weeks cycling in Lanzarote. I borrowed a bike bag (cheers Sam) and took my standard road bike. Whilst there I competed in the La Santa Lanzatote international duathlon. I did ok considering I had to ride 22 miles to the start, and 22 miles back again afterwards! I finished 72 / 112 and my bike time was 52nd. The bike course was very tough, climbing from sea level at the start to 800feet in about 4 miles.. If I had tried it on the penny I would still be riding.

I've not used the penny much in the last few weeks, but I am doing a presentation for the local cycling touring club next month. So I'm busy putting together a bit of a slide show of places and events that me and the penny have been to.

Anyway, I've put some photos on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/10804338@N06/ if anyone wants to check out Lanzarote.