Sunday 3rd April - first ride of 2011

Well, it was the day after my 47th birthday. GB asked if I wanted to join them on their Sunday morning ride out of Banbury. OK I thought, why not. I had a new pair of spd riding shoes and pedals to try out (my old pedals were race look keos, but I could never clip in at the first go so I was always wary of using them when riding on the road). My new pedals are Shimano A530's, cheap enough at £40 ish with an spd clip one side and a flat pedal the other side to use with normal shoes.

Well, we set off, not overly quickly, but I was knackered after a couple of minutes (more winter training required) and my theory about being more confident with a flat pedal and clipping in on the move proved correct. Much less wobbly and prone to falling off in front of a big truck.

Anyhoo, off we went until about 3 1/2 miles out I changed gear to the lowest chain ring and lost momentum going up a rise. I stopped as opposed to falling off in the mud and tried to start again.

The chain had come off under the seat. When I put it back on, I realised that my bird poo welding had actually failed and I was riding no further. F rode back to the house to fetch a car whilst I walked homewards.

One thing about road shoes is you can't easily walk in them, due to the cleat underneath. My new spd shoes (where the cleat is recessed) were fab. Easy to walk in (good job really).

So what did I learn today.

1: new shoes - good for cycling and walking.

2: new pedals - good for confidence

3: train more - bad :-(

4: check bike before going to next race (2 weeks) rather than at/during race when I would have posted a DNF.

Live and learn.

2011 race dates

Date Venue
17 April Hillingdon I
15 May Darley Moor
4 June (Sat) Stourport
18 June (Sat) Reading (Racing from 12.00)
10 July Hog Hill
30 July (Sat) Lancaster
31 July Preston
14 Aug Scunthorpe
27 Aug (Sat) Fowlmead I
28 Aug Fowlmead II
11 Sept Shrewsbury

2 Oct Hillingdon II + AGM +

See you at Hillingdon.

MBG