Pricycles

When I moved to Hereford a year ago I knew very little about the Wheelers other than seeing some of the shirts in the Climb On Spring Road Race in 2008. I remember thinking what a great opertunity it would be to get involved, namely with the time trials, club rides & winter turbo sessions.

Well, around October I popped along to Sutton St.Nicolas village hall (Incidentally just a few minutes down the road from Marden) to see what went on. I left with a burning desire to get involved. Armed with necessary forms to join, I unfortunately let a few things get in the way & put it on the back burner.

That is until I saw a familiar looking face down the swimming pool on Monday. Instantly I remembered him (Chris) from the Wheelers. Getting chatting to Chris he kindly offered to lend me his turbo to give the ‘Ramp’ test a go. Your On!

I later find out the ramp test is based on power output starting at 160 watts for 3 minutes & increasing by 20 watts & sustaining for a further 3 minutes for as long as you can keep increasing power output.

After a 25minute warm up we begin! Up until around an output of 280 watts I’m still breathing comfortably through my nose, I look around briefly to see some are working reasonably hard, but focus on the job at hand, nothing else! (Thanks Steve!)

Eventually I crack at a minute & a half into 400 watts output having run out of gears on my compact chainset at 360 watts, I think this was when I became the last one standing…

Not bad for the new boy!?

For whatever reason this has set my mind into such a positive approach for the new season that goals WILL be achieved!

My own Turbo ordered (Chris will be glad to have his back!) & will be back down with the wheelers next week for the regular training sessions for sure!

Pricer

A bit like the Challenge Anika series of old just with Clive instead, & bikes!

Up in a snowy Rhayader setting, things quickly ran into trouble on the route… …Lee’s head disappeared!

Hahaha!

Despite some pretty bleak snow storms the ride was fabulous with a great route laid out by Clive Powell. Great snow type meant it was pretty grippy & I can think of only a short few meters that had to be walked! Tidy

The thing I struggle with most at the moment is keeping my face warm & so not hinder the acupuncture treatment I have been having as a result of silly Downhill bikes!

Am I sticking my tongue out???

Following the ride, a couple of pots of tea & some grub in the cafe reflecting the day with Sparky & Lee, not to mention Lee’s ironic jack pot of 2 tubes in the raffle rounded it up nicely! Y0u see, Lee has more than his fair share of punctures and really loses his head when he gets them!

Pricer