North Road Hard Riders - A good performance but so much more to come!

1 Richard PREBBLE Pinarello RT 0:59:45
2 Peter TADROS In-Gear Quickvit RT 0:59:56
3 Andy PROFFITT Arctic Shorter Rochford RT 1:00:28
4 Matthew BOTTRILL De Rosa CC 1:00:47
5 Peter BISSELL Arctic Shorter Rochford RT 1:02:04
6 Christian YATES In-Gear Quickvit RT 1:02:39
7 Sean YATES In-Gear Quickvit RT 1:02:50 1st team
8 Brett HARWOOD Wheel Spin Cycles 1:03:30
9 Daniel CORNER Arctic Shorter Rochford RT 1:04:50
10 David STAFF Anglia Velo 1:07:22
11 Darren TREADAWAY Arctic Shorter Rochford RT 1:07:36

63 Riders Finished

This was to be my debut for my new team Arctic Shorter Rochford and my first outing in a big time trial event outside of the world of triathlon. The Arctic as the team seems to be fondly known, well that's what people shout when we go past is a very strong team in UK cycling with reigning U/23 road race champion and national hill climb champion plus other former national standard riders. So for a triathlete who specialises in three sports to be accepted onto the team is an honour, we also have another multi sport athlete in the form of former World Amateur Duathlon champion Dan Corner who is a very strong rider and has had me red lining it on training rides!

Onto the race. Unfortunately my team bike was not going to be ready for another few weeks but that didn't deter me as I was eager to see how my legs performed from the extra training put in over the winter. I noticed that all the riders in front of me were riding time trial bikes which I am guessing must have been the faster option so hopefully some more time to be saved here once it arrives.

The day started off wet so there was going to be no heroics on the descents just get round in one piece and hammer the climbs, it was warm though so that was a bonus. I hammered the first 2 climbs and probably paid a little bit here but felt strong and ready for the undulations ahead as I approached halfway. As I was about to turn left into Brickendon Green I was caught for 3 minutes which must have been one of the top finishers but somewhat scary to see how fast he was riding and taking the corners and a bit demoralizing to think I had been caught for so much time, on the other hand I had ridden past 4 riders so I must have been moving too.

The next quarter of the race was pretty uneventful, just keep the legs going and try and save some for Essendon Hill. As I approached the foot of Essendon I had problems getting into the small chain ring! after playing around with it and a bit of fiddling I got it back in the small ring and breathed a sigh of relief! I had to ride the last mile and a half in the small ring or stop which was ok as most of it was uphill so not worth stopping here. From what I can see in the results it probably cost me 10th but no big deal better now than later in the year. It turned out to be a costly day as I also broke my rear tri spoke wheel, it didn't slow me down at all just annoying!

Looking at the results I never thought I would ever see a results sheet with Sean Yates (ex Tour De France and team mates with Lance Armstrong!) in 7th and me in 11th!! So I am really pleased and know there is so much more to come.

Next stop Oxionian time trial, hopefully top 10 here!

2007 Schedule is now nearly complete!

25/02/2007 North Road Hardriders 25 miles time trial
17/03/2007 Oxonion 31mile time trial
25/03/2007 Reading Half Marathon (South of England Champs)

01/04/2007 South of England 12 stage road relays
06/04/2007 Welwyn Wheelers 25 mile time trial
15/04/2007 Sevenoaks Triathlon Sprint
05/05/2007 Lisbon International Half Ironman A Race
20/05/2007 Norland 50 mile time trial
10/06/2007 Shropshire Olympic Distance Triathlon BTA Ranking
17/06/2007 National Champs 50 mile time trial subject to qualifying
07/07/2007 Austria Ironman Triathlon A Race
22/07/2007 Worthing Olympic Distance Triathlon BTA Ranking
12/08/2007 Swanage Classic Olympic Distance Triathlon
26/08/2007 Bedford Olympic Distance Triathlon
08/09/2007 National Champs Half Ironman A Race
15/09/2007 Bala Olympic Distance Triathlon BTA Ranking
03/11/2007 Florida Ironman Triathlon A Race (subject to how the season goes, may consider something in Europe in October instead)

Pleased to report the first outing this year at the Watford Half Marathon was a successful one!

Liked this picture as the guy behind looks like he is really suffering! and for the record he didn't catch me!

1 01:04:50 M Tomas Abyu
2 01:06:04 M Mark Miles
3 01:06:08 M Huw Lobb
4 01:08:55 M Benali Naoui
5 01:09:12 M Hassan Raidi
6 01:09:28 M Nalerddine Hallil
7 01:09:40 M Steve O'callaghan
8 01:09:53 M Ivo Zigadlo
9 01:10:06 M Tarus Elly
10 01:10:55 M John Mcfarlane
11 01:13:11 M Steve Hallas
12 01:13:21 M James Buis
13 01:13:27 M Martin Yelling
14 01:13:31 M Darren Treadaway

1947 Finishers

I never really knew what to expect from this race other than to go quicker than the 1:15:15 I did in 2005. The plan though was not to back off from training and just go out there and run hard and see how the legs felt after the hard training built up over the week. I had planned to make Saturday my rest day which was the day before the race, however, I got home from work and my legs felt very heavy! So I made the decision at 8pm to try and spin them out on the turbo trainer for an hour and did 6x6min at a very hi cadence in a low gear and it seemed to do the trick.

I got a good nights sleep and woke to a very sunny day but cold with frost on the car but no wind so it looked like it was going to be a quick day. The race this year really stepped up in class probably due to the prize money on offer for the top 3 and breaking the course records and as you can see from the results a few foreign names and our Commonwealth Games/World Championship marathoners were also up for the challenge.

The gun went and my competitive instinct ruled my head and I decided to go with the leaders and see how the race panned out. I looked down at my watch after the first mile and we clocked 4:50! I knew then that if I didn't back off then I wasn't going to see the finish line. The problem was I was too slow for the leading group and the chasing group hadn't yet formed so for a few miles I was in no mans land with nobody to run with. I did know though by the splits at 2,3,4 miles that I was running well. I hit mile 6 in 33:30 and 4 guys running in a group had caught me and was pleased to see it had taken former international runner and multisport international Martin Yelling this long to catch me which was a big boost. I managed to keep on the back of this group for the rest of the race but couldn't quite catch Martin (next time!). I clocked a PB at 10 miles of 55:50 and my final time was a big PB of 1:13:31 so delighted!

It feels really good to compete at this level with guys who are solely runners and don't have to swim or bike! A cracking field, good race and any other year at Watford I would have been top 5/6! I celebrated the day by going out on the bike for a couple of hours in the afternoon to spin the legs out and still felt good.

Next outing the North Road Hard Riders!