velopaint rocks!

This is a photo I took of the T Mobile team in the Tour of Britain London stage in 2006. I think this is one of my better attempts to capture the excitement of cycle racing. I received an email from an Addiscombe Cycling Club mate exiled in Chicago earlier this week. Turns out he used this photo to inspire a painting!!

If you want to see the result, then go to http://velopaint.blogspot.com/2008/10/magenta.html and check it out for yourself.

Cool

Good, and not good enough

Here are the cycling goals I set myself at the end of last year for the 2008 season.

“Come on then......let's 'ave it.

1 - PB in a 10 mile TT

2 - PB in a 25 mile TT

3 - PB in a 50 mile TT

4 - PB in a 100 mile TT

5 - Complete SCCU BAR

6 - PB in a 12hr TT

7 - Equal my PB of helping/marshalling at least four events (again)

8 - PB on the Bec CC Hill Climb (Again! Have I learnt nothing this year?)

9 - Keep the Yellow, Black & White flying over The Rawson Shield (team effort y'all)”

So – how did I fare?

1 – new 10 mile PB by 2 minutes (was 27min 37, now 25.43)

2 – new 25 mile PB by 6 minutes (was 1hr 11.10 now 1.04.50)

3 – new 50 mile PB by 4 minutes (was 2.26.37 now 2.22.38)

4 – new 100 mile PB by 20 minutes (was 5.30.43 now 5.10.43)

5 – completed the SCCU BAR knocking 24 minutes 54 seconds off my 2007 time

6 – Seriously, did I say I was going to do a 12 hr TT???!!! Nope - after my mid season unwellness there was no way this was gonna happen so I bottled it and went to Disneyland instead. Smart move.

7 – Job done, in some style if I might say

8 – after a rough night in hospital with a sick daughter, I did not make it to the start line. She’s much better and at least I avoided suffering up that damn hill.

9 – Oh yes, team ACC nailed it!

I've had a weird year. Great winter training and early season form, knocked for six after I stupidly knackered my shoulder in May whilst doing the gardening (it’s still not right). PBd in every race I finished bar just one, and I won the handicap in the Southern Counties 10. The one and only event I didn't PB in also happened to be the one I enjoyed the most largely due to the fact that I rode it intelligently (yes honest) and finished all the way up there in mid table mediocrity, a place I could only dream about in 2007. I should feel much more satisfied with these results yet my fading form has left me frustrated.

Thanks to Super Toks (again) for getting me to write down my goals and huge thanks to Richard Viney. Without his help, advice and a worrying willingness to inflict pain on me I'd never have made such consistent improvements. I’m sure I can go much faster in 2009. Need to get back to some training and a few sharper targets.