Road racing

ah, rotten luck. Are you and the bike ok?

yeah minor scraping due to wearing all the clothes in the world; bibs ruined .. might hurt tomorrow.

Bike is fine; somehow managed to unclip both legs.

Bad luck.

It's always worst the next day. I hope it's not too bad.

HealTFU
Glad you and the bike are relatively ok.

^ this.

Racing in this>>>>>>>>>

I've had to cut back to doing steady miles on the cross bike. Though i'm off to llanberis for a training weekend tonight. Not quite Mallorca.

Hope you're not too banged up @amey

Are you racing tomorrow at Hillingdon?

Not sure; I am sore today .. will see how I feel in the morning. I want to.

It depends on the injuries obviously, but quite often I've found they feel a lot better after riding my bike.

YMMV.

I ride my Parallax on that circuit quite often, I actually enjoy doing it fixed, is that tough in an actual race? The back straight has an ascent but it's not too bad. Would make an alright fixed crit circuit if you an handle the turns.

That sucks, did many others go down?

Anyone riding Redbridge tomorrow?

Defo. Even if it's a bitch to begin with, once there's a bit of blood flowing the pain disappears and it feels, generally, ok.

Was sore; still did it. Enjoyed it. Did better than last time. Still sore.
Cheers @hippy and @andyp for the advice.

Crashed again! FFS!!

I was doing well; good pace, positioning and DNF 10 feet away from finish line :(

Bruises; ruined the top; shifter hoods fucked; wheels out of true; slightly bent nose which is retaining its original shape painfully ..

I think I'll give up

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Gah, bad luck! Hope you're feeling better soon!

Ouchy. New hood should put the shifter right though.

Heal up and get back on with it next week (he says from the sofa).

Velopark is going to be a crashfest always.

@amey Bad luck.

Ooff, bad luck, Amey. What a difficult start to your racing career.

Heal fast and I hope everything can be fixed cheaply.

Don't make a decision on giving up in the heat of the moment. You've worked hard to get to where you are, it would be a shame to waste that effort. Trust me, you won't crash every week.

Back luck Amey. I'll echo what Andy said - it won't happen all the time so stick at it.

Stop racing in the winter. It's full of choppers. Wait till road races in the summer.

Cat 4 closed road crits are always gonna be full of choppers. (Though by the sounds you got taken down by a 3rd cat.) If you are still allowed to enter them by mid season because you haven't moved up. Then i'd give up. Refocus on training more/smarter.

After managing more hours/miles and intensity this jan than last, and getting the good feelings on a team camp in wales last weekend. I've slightly adjusted my targets for the season;

1. Win a 2/3/4
   
2. Move up to 1st Cat
   
3. Top ten in an E/1/2
   
   
   

so sore this morning .. called in sick. Going to GP to sort this bent nose out; apart from that I guess I am healing.

I agree with you guys; it was just bad luck I guess. I really enjoy racing so I wont give it up surely. I could even race tomorrow at Hillingdon if I can convince already freaked out missus .. thats the hardest task.

Yesterday was first time I learnt a little about how to advance in bunch. Velo park (anti clock) is a very interesting circuit compared to Hilllingdon (anti clock) the up hills is where I could advance easily into the head wind compared to others.

Tbh I am not even remotely looking at these races as advancement towards Cat 3 this year or even top 10 finishes! I just want to learn the techniques and train myself to be powerful in race situation this year. Next year I might give cyclocross a go in winter instead of this chopper chaos ..

The shitty thing is that these two winter series are the only logistically possible races for a long time in the race calendar. I really dont want to miss out on them. Red bridge and Gravesend are miles away ..

Silver lining is I get to buy new kit ;) I wish I had rapha .. the repair service would come in so handy (and so would the downsize offer).

Personally, i'd get the strength and some of the group skills needed for racing from riding a fast chaingang, rather than racing.

Less risk of broken things, more chance of old hitters passing on tips.

Sounds like a crash fest all round last night. I always try and stay to the side of the bunch at Hillingdon and velopark so that if things go wrong up ahead there's hopefully somewhere to go. The faster the race too helps as it isn't as bunched up

If you are working your way up on the hill you'll probably find hoghill and cyclopark suit you well, I find them way more enjoyable races if you have form and safer. Although saying that I've only come off at hoghill and cyclopark!