First race of the year in the bag leaving me bagged

So there we have it. First race of the year done and despite losing some 20-25lbs over the winter months, I was brutally exposed when it came to my stamina. Which was to be expected given I haven't gotten the miles in I might normally have by now. And that's okay. I suffered for it, but I finished the course and it felt good to have gotten around. I know where I need to improve for the next race, which is pretty much everywhere that isn't downhill.

The race was at Mansfield Outdoor Centre about 90 minutes north of Toronto on Airport Road. Nice place and great for mountain biking. The kind winter and dry spring ensured for a very dry, dust and therefore fast course. Not too technical but plenty of sharp little biting climbs that force you (or it did for me) into the granny ring with the body hanging over the front of the bike to stop the front wheel lifting while compensating enough weight at the back to stop the wheel slipping. Oh the joy.

Saturday was practice and gave me a chance to see what lay ahead of me. I rode two laps in all with a back disc break that was rubbing quite badly but found a kind mechanic who fixed it up for me ahead of the race the next day. My only complain, was as ever, the fact the race would start at the foot of a steep climb. I understand why they do this, but for someone like me, it's painful to see!

On Sunday I decided to warm up hard and long. With that climb right from the start I wanted a heart-rate that was thumping out of my chest. I achieved that, and while it settled briefly on the start line, it roared up close to my limit within 50 yards of the start.

I was dismayed by that. I had planned to watch it closely and keep it under control allowing me to ride the entire race at a decent overall pace rather than blowing up. I didn't quite blow up, but I didn't maintain a decent overall pace. Try as I might my HR stayed high and made me suffer. It was somewhere on the second lap when my wheel slipped on one of them super-steep short little bits forcing me to unclip and push up over the top that I decided that despite my weight loss, I was in no good racing shape.

The only way to regulate the HR better and get it to take a longer time going from 130bpm to 190bmp was to get more miles in my legs and get fitter.

I guess this was as good a place as any to start I figured. For that reason I was still glad I attended and it kept me pushing on to complete the race. As I said, isn't the first race of the year partly for working out the kinks anyway?

I think I crawled home in 12th place of the 16 in my category and one place off last of those that finished, though crucially, not last!

Still, the entire thing wasn't without some pleasure. You see, in a circuit race it's only natural that what comes up, must come down. So for that hard hill at the start with it's layer of sand on the surface, there was a steep, fast, descent to the finish and I made the most with it.

Sensibly I told myself on the approach to ease off for the descent and allow the body to recover for the climb to start the next lap, but when the path began to point downward and I seen plenty of people looking on, common sense went out the window and I attacked that downhill each of my three laps. I'd be lying if I said I didn't put myself on the limit and didn't feel the wheels really biting for grip on a couple of the gravel/sand covered bends, but I held it together each time and if it didn't help my heart-rate go down, then it did increase my laps average speed by a tiny margin as well as decrease the time gap to whoever was in front of me.

Looking on Strava that evening when I uploaded my ride I may have been well down in almost every other segment listed, but on that descent I was fourth quickest for the day, two seconds back on the fastest bloke -- and I put that down to having to overtake someone each time down. Yes, descending was never my weakness!

I recovered quick enough, packed up and hit the road home. First race in the bag and a marker laid for improving upon. My so-called 'professionalism' kicked in on the drive when I celebrated getting to the finish of the race with a post-race meal of champions: battered fish and chips and a Coca-Cola. With that in the stomach I hit the road again looking forward to a post-race evening R&R with a bag of chocolate buttons, a bottle of beer, a movie and a crying baby!

Ride details below:

Also on Strava here

Wiggo becoming the man to beat

How about that? After late last week showing he could be a sprinter when he won stage one of the Tour de Romandie to take the overall lead, Britain and Team Sky's Brad Wiggins showed that he can still time-trial also by winning the final stages race of truth to seal his GC win to go with his victory in the Paris-Nice earlier this year.

Surely Wiggins is now one of the big favourites for France in July. Yes it's going to be much tougher than Paris-Nice and Romandie, but the style of the race this year is perfectly suited to a man like Wiggins and it might be his best ever chance. The way he's gunning for it so far in 2012, you have to think he knows it.

Bradley Wiggins: Jack of all trades

Wiggins winning a bunch sprint... Yes, you read that right. Photograph: AFP

We all knew Bradley Wiggins is a supreme time-trialist, that he is an Olympic hero on the track, a contender in the Tour de France, a man who can climb well, and the man who already has the Paris-Nice crown on his 2012 resume. But when it came to sprinting you probably thought he was as good at that as his buddy Mark Cavendish was at going up hills. Think again.

This afternoon, in stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie, Wiggo jumped from the peloton with 300 meters to go and took the bunch gallop for what is surely the first big-time bunch sprint win of his career. So add the Green jersey to that of the Polka-dot and Yellow jerseys that he might win this summer in France.

The win and subsequent time bonus moves Wiggins into the general classification lead. It is also the second British and Team Sky stage win so far at the race after Geraint Thomas won yesterday's prologue. On that stage, Wiggins' (who was 11th) team-mate Cavendish beat him into 3rd place posing the question, just what on earth is going on here?

Cavendish beating Wiggins in time-trials, Wiggins beating Cav in sprints. Whatever next? Can normal order be restored tomorrow with Cavendish going out and winning a sprint to make it three from three for the Brits and Sky?

Note: I just found out that Cavendish finished the days stage 11-17 behind Wiggins so technically Wiggins didn't beat him in the sprint but let's not the facts get in the way of a good story.

One of cycling's quite little excitments

You know what one of the most beautiful things about cycling is? When you go out on a nice long spin, get into such a rhythm that when you snap out of whatever zoned out state you have gone into, you realise that you've covered the last five miles of road almost subconsciously. You've gone into some day dream, your legs are turning over and you're enjoying the scenery so much that you forget to even think about what you're seeing when suddenly, in the snap of a finger you're fifteen minutes up the road and you don't remember getting there.

This happens to me a lot when I get outside the city limits and into the countryside in the long summer evenings when the sun is beating down. You can even be pushing along at a decent clip when it happens and you can even have been riding into a miserable headwind, though it tends to happen more when the wind is at your back.

"What was that?" you ask yourself as you suddenly blink and realise just where on the ride you are. "I made the left turn back there and must have crossed that bridge, but I don't remember it. I don't remember riding the last five miles." You check your bikes computer which confirms the distance you've covered and you check your average speed to confirm you maintained a steady pace over that segment of road and you smile to yourself, click up a gear and push on, happy to tick off the miles ahead and likely back into that zoned out state that puts you at one with the bike and the ride.

The last MTB winter training ride

Sunday was my last chance to get out and put some mountain bike miles in ahead of my first race of the year this coming weekend so I headed back up to that old faithful of training grounds at Kelso Park to put in two hard laps of a pre-planned circuit. It felt good and I was especially pleased with the fact I was able to maintain a consistent average speed between the two laps.

Who knows how ready I am for the race itself. My training ride was about as long as the race is likely to be but I've done little in the way of distance road miles this spring so we'll see whether that does catch me out as the race goes on. General fitness is decent and I'm going into this race about 22lbs lighter than my last race at the end of last season so that should be a huge benefit. I'm pretty sure I won't win, I'm not sure I won't be at the tail of the field, but I should get round it better than I did that last race.

I want to try get one more spin in on the road ahead of the weekend but we'll see how the weather holds up. On my walk to the bus yesterday morning it was snowing! An hour north of Toronto -- not far from where the weekends race is -- there was a foot of snow. That's expected to melt, but I hope the temperatures rise quite a bit as well.

Post-ride weigh-in: 196.2 lbs

Below is a look at the ride:

Off the wagon

It was mid-January when my 'winter training schedule', as I liked to call it, started in earnest ahead of my first race at the end of April. Back then it seemed so far away but so to did my targeted fitness levels ahead of it. After being somewhat conservative with my eating through the winter months I had dropped from around 218 lbs in mid October to 213 lbs, but still had an ideal 30 lbs to go not to mention all the stamina work. Things got off to a good start putting in plenty of time in the gym, but once I bought my Garmin and the weather showed the slightest signs of turning allowing me out onto the road, the gym was abandoned. Sadly the weather never turned enough and I haven't done near the amount of road miles I might have required and it's left me playing a little catch up.

On February 22 -- Ash Wednesday and the start of lent -- I decided to make sugar the item I would give up for forty days and forty nights, if only to see how it helped in the 'get-fit-shed-weight' plan. By then things had been going really well. I was down to around 205 lbs and pleased with the progress. Those forty days and forty nights without any kind of refined sugar taught me something quick: You can lose your sweet tooth -- and I suppose anything you have a craving for -- after about ten days; and, what you do in the gym is nothing compared to what cutting out sugar can do for your waistline.

With the birth of my daughter in early April I didn't go to the gym much and limited anytime I had to get some exercise in to short spins on the bike. That was okay and despite that anytime I stood on the scales the numbers continued to drop. By Easter when I was cracking into my first chocolate egg to bring Lent to an end the scale was reading 195 lbs. It was the lightest I had been in about eight years. Only 13 lbs to go, right?

Well, a week of eating sugar filled items again and a slip from the habit of going out on the bike for a week, I climbed onto the scale this morning to read 202 lbs. Safe to say I was off the wagon two weeks before the first race.

Alright, alright. Still time to turn this thing around. So here I am, April 19th and committing to abandon sugar once more . . . at least until after that first race. No alcohol for the rest of the month and a limited amount of eating out. A weekend of road and mountain bike riding planned and a couple of midweek spins to get as ready as possible for that first race and we'll see where it takes me. 182 lbs is out of reach for the end of April -- though not for the summer -- but it's time to get at least lower than I have been and call it one last hard kick in this 'winter training schedule'.

The Giro forced to avoid the Cinque Tere

How sad to read last night that the Giro organisers have had to amend their route to avoid the Cinque Tere after mud-slides hit last October 25 and have made some of the roads impossible to travel on. I visited the Cinque Tere last summer for four days while on my honeymoon and I can honestly say it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. When I seen that it was on the Giro's route for stage 12 of the 2012 race I was looking forward to tuning in to see those helicopter shots of the area as the field passed through. Sadly that won't happen now.

A statement from organisers RCS Sport said the race "had hoped to follow the planned route as a sign of solidarity with the local people who have suffered so much. The new stage route visits much of the area hit by the landslides but only touches the Cinque Terre." I really hope they will find a way to get the Cinque Tere into the 2013 route as a renewed sign of solidarity with those friendly locals.

The unstoppable Thomas Boonen

If his victory last week at the Tour of Flanders didn't quite cement his place as the worlds number one cyclist so far in 2012 and perhaps the finest classics rider of his generation, then his solo win -- for the fourth time in his career -- at the infamous Paris-Roubaix certainly did. Boonen has now won the Gent-Wevelgem and Tour of Flanders to go with his Paris-Roubaix win and he's quickly making the accomplishments of Philippe Gilbert twelve months ago look nothing out of the ordinary.

Coming into the race a few had been critical of Boonen over the fact he only had to follow moves knowing that he could outsprint his rivals when it got down to the final two-hundred yards, but Boonen put that theory to bed when he attacked with 52 kms to go and rode solo to victory by 1-39 over Sébastien Turgot in second place and Alessandro Ballan in third.

Boonen won't be any kind of favourite for the Grand Tours this year, it's not his style of riding, but just as they are geared for a specific type of cyclist, so to are the one day classics races and Boonen is proving to be better at his discipline than anyone else is at theirs. Until you go broadly across the spectrum of cycling disciplines and meet the dominance of Chris Hoy on the track, Boonen stands alone in 2012.

Winning Paris-Roubaix for that fourth time makes Boonen the king of the cobbels. His previous victories at Roubaix came in 2005, 2008 and 2009 and it ties him for the most wins at the Hell of the North with Roger De Vlaeminck. Sadly De Vlaeminck was far from content to see someone level his record describing Boonen's rivals as "third-rate".

"I hope Cancellara participates next year, then we see a different race," de Vlaeminck moaned. "I knew beforehand that he [Boonen] would be next to me [on the list of all-time career victories]. Tom can not help it that this time he had no opposition. They were not second, but third-rate riders."

Next up is this weekends Amstel Gold Race followed by Le Flèche Wallonne the following Wednesday and the Liège - Bastogne - Liège the weekend after that to conclude April's classics. Boonen won't be racing at the Flèche Wallonne though who could rule him out of winning or or both of the other two. My money is on a big result at Liège. It'll be fascinating to watch how the others try to stop him.

Taking dad to Kelso

On Easter Monday the wind was howling. If I thought the wind was stiff on Friday when we cycled at the cottage, then this was another level again. 'Gale force' might be the weather mans description and it was a day you didn't want to be caught out on an open road on your road bike with twenty miles in front of you. Not wanting to do nothing however, and unwilling to descend to the level of just going to the gym, we got a loan of my brother-in-laws mountain bike for my dad and along with mine we drove up to Kelso Park for a bit of trail riding. As dad pointed out moment's into the ride, this was his first time on a MTB in dozen some years.

The wind was certainly harsh but given we spent the majority of the riding in the trees, we really didn't notice it much. Kelso Park is loaded with good trials and for the most part we covered the best ones at least once. We got down to the lowest point of the park at the bottom of the ski-lifts, only to find the tough gravel climb back to the top closed for construction work forcing us to ride up the side of one of the actual ski slopes. If you look at the profile you'll see just how brutal that was. A case of the granny-ring and leaning over the front wheel to stop it lifting off the ground as the grade went in excess of 40%.

That was the hard bit, the rest was just fun riding, though dad might well argue his crash zapped some of the fun out of one of the more enjoyable descents. All in all though another good day up there though I've yet to have a bad one. The route, as ever, is embedded below with more info and stats inside. I'll be up at Kelso a few more times this month for a few more aggressive sessions ahead of my first race of the year at the end of the month.

Weekend miles in cottage country

There's nothing quite like getting out into the middle of nowhere when you're a cyclist and putting your miles in away from serious traffic. The pleasure taken in seeing maybe two or three traffic lights, max, in your couple of hours of riding is highly overlooked by those that don't do the majority of their cycling in the city, or indeed the cities suburbs.

My dad has been over with my mum from Northern Ireland this past ten days or so visiting the new baby and while over my dad had borrowed my road bike and followed a couple of courses I mapped on Garmin Connect. He said he liked the routes for the most part but was put off by the traffic in some sections and the number of red lights he had to stop at that would break his momentum. Welcome to my world was about the only response I could fashion.

Then on the weekend, with him renting a road bike and my on mine, and while up at the cottage, we got out two days running away from the city life. Fresh air, proper head-winds, and the kind of consistent rhythmic riding only the country-side serves up.

The first day we put in 32-miles on an average speed of 17.9 mph. Which you'd be reasonably impressed with if you felt the headwind we rode into for the final 15 miles. Granted the first half of the ride was with a tail-wind that meant average speeds to the degree that when you see them on your bikes computer you know aren't natural and must be the work of mother nature because you just aren't that good.

Day two was a slightly different route, more time on even quieter roads and 37 miles all in. The intentions had been to get 60 mile rides in, but the weather just wasn't generous enough. It was only a handful of degrees over freezing and the wind certainly didn't help. Dad handn't packed tights and we both had to borrow gloves. Still the distances were enjoyable and with a slightly lighter head-wind (though still prevalent) we upped the pace to an average of 18.7 mph.

Below are the maps of both rides. Click on each to view the stats, profile and other information in greater detail.

Boonens surprising low-key celebrations; Cav a dad; Contador accepts fate; and a caption competition

STICKING TO THE VINO (THE WINE, NOT THE KAZAK CYCLIST)

There was no lines of coke, double vodkas and strippers at Tom Boonen's post-Tour of Flanders party this year. No, the Belgian who is off to a superb start in 2012 had a low key celebration with his attention already turning to the Paris-Roubaix this weekend.

"On Sunday evening it was a normal evening at home. I arrived at home, drank a good glass of wine with my family and that was all. I went to bed immediately. I was really tired," he said, as if trying to convince us that things didn't get out of hand after that second glass... "On Monday, I didn't really have a lot of time to enjoy my victory. It's unbelievable." It is, you'd think after such a win, a man would be given a few days out on the tiles, but not so in the fast paced world of professional cycling.

"In cycling you have to turn the page immediately, and next weekend is Paris-Roubaix," he confirmed. "I am still really motivated. Mentally I have no problem. I work a lot to be competitive at this period of the season so I really want to try to do my best even on Sunday and fight for the victory. I don't know if I will make the recon or not on Friday. The parcours is still the same and I have pretty good experience with it."

With confidence like that who would bet against him? Not this fan.

Back on the MTB saddle

That felt good. And it's been a while. Several months after putting the mountain bike away for the winter I was finally able to drag it back out of the storage cage and give it a proper good run out on proper mountain bike trails. Yes I took it out for a short ride through the park last week to test out the new Garmin, but that doesn't really count.

Kelso Park was the destination and I spent little over an hour ploughing through some of the trails with one lick up that rough climb at the front end of the escarpment. That was a wakeup call, but 98 percent of that park is single track, so all-in-all it was enjoyable.

I've got less than a month to my first race of the season now and no doubt I've a lot still to do in the way of stamina training, but it was nice to use the first MTB ride of the year to just enjoy it, turn the legs over, give the bike a run out and see how things were. The bike is running like a dream, so just me to work on then.

Over this month as I get up there, my rides will become a little more intense as I try to get myself ready enough that I'll enjoy the race rather than suffering to the finish line, though I still want to be able to enjoy those rides. Thankfully at a place like Kelso, you can have a challenging ride, via climbs and technical sections, but it's laid out in such a way that you can't help but enjoy it at the same time. That's one of the great beauties about suffering while riding a mountain bike.

Post-ride weigh-in: 194.2 lbs