The result was a slight fall-off in CTL, and now its rising gradually again, up to 88 as of today.

The next two weeks are planned to be slightly heaver, so CTL should gain another 10 or so in the next 10 days. My power at various durations still has some way to go. At 1min I’m about 30w off my best, which isn’t too bad. At 5mins I’m 25w off my best, but at 10mins there’s a massive 45w deficit to catch up. 20mins is only 15w short though.

4 weeks to go until the first race of the season, so I’ll be looking to improve on the 5 and 10min numbers by then. My goal is to match these numbers by 4 weeks, and to beat them before the start of the Cape Epic. Goals are
* 5sec: 20w/kg
* 1min: 9w/kg (currently 7.5)
* 5min: 6w/kg (currently 5.3)
* 60min: 4.5w/kg (currently 4.0. This will come in a race, I don’t generally do 1hr TTs)

Read the original blog post here Getting there Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

It was a great team effort with 9 of our 10 starters finishing together. The only person to miss out was Frank who had an unfortunate incident involving a musette and his front wheel. Said musette stopped Frank’s front wheel from rotating causing Frank to go flying over the bars. Fortunately Frank wasn’t hurt, but his wheel lost a spoke and our support vehicle was not around to give him a replacement.

Comparing numbers with last year’s race, it seems I went harder despite being less fit. I certainly felt better after last year’s race. This year everybody was completely knackered, apart from Paul who looked like he was ready for another lap.

Still awaiting the results on the PPA site. Hopefully we made the top 10

Read the original blog post here Sub – 6 Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

I’ve been off the bike for 10 days, so I sat in as much as I could to save my legs. We were quite a big bunch going over Hels with Paul setting a very manageable tempo. About 15k’s from the end Team BMP still had 5 riders so we started attacking. First Peter, then Andreas, then Paul. Paul was marked very closely by Shaun and John, so we started again – Peter, Andreas, Paul. Nothing looked like it would stick, but we were tiring out the main sprint contenders while we still had Garron sitting comfortably in the bunch.

About 3k’s out I got away with Alister Arenson on the rise up to Paarl Main Rd. Surprisingly we got a good gap, but my lack of riding in the last few weeks saw me not recovering from the initial attack effort, and Alister did 75% of the work. When it came to crunch time, the final k, my legs were toast, and we were swallowed up with 50m to the line. My disappointment quickly changed though when I saw it was Garron flying past ahead of Shaun, taking a well-deserved win!

And that wraps up a great spring League campaign. 4 wins and 3rd overall for Paul.

Read the original blog post here Team BMP takes 4 out of 4 Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Read the original blog post here 10 days off :( Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Last Sunday was the fast and flat West Coast Express. We headed out with a tailwind at a phenomenal pace, probably averaging 60km/h for the first 10k’s as the attacks were coming thick and fast. I ended up in a break with all of the main contenders, being driven primarily by John O’Connor. One by one though, we dropped off as he was setting an infernal pace. He ended up on his own until just after Atlantis.

Just before we got into Melkbos it split again, with most of us on the wrong end of the split, but luckily they slowed down up front and we regrouped. Then Andreas launched a masterful attack along Blouberg beachfront, which no-one followed, and stayed away until the end.

Shaun Le Roux won the bunch kick, with Paul getting 5th. I sat the wrong wheel in the sprint and ended up 12th.

Well done Andreas!

Read the original blog post here West Coast Express – BMP wins again! Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Team Vineyard/BikeMaxPower/Reeds first victory of the season!

Read the original blog post here Belated Durbanville Race Report Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Saturday was the flat Tour d’Worcester. No wind and no real climbs. I marked several attacks but otherwise took it relatively easy until just before the dirt-road section.

We didn’t know what to expect with the dirt, but I realised it was coming when Francois rode off the front. Shortly thereafter the road kicked up a bit and I thought I’d take the opportunity to string the bunch out a bit. I carried it through the first quarter of the dirt before my legs gave in on me and all the contenders came flying past. 9 riders got away whilst I managed to hook in with a chasing group consisting of most of the rest.

With only Paul from our team in the group of 9, we didn’t fancy his chances, so we proceeded to chase. We tried to get the group working nicely, but a few individuals spoiled the chase by coming through too hard. Then we had the marshalls that tried to stop us to let through some slower groups. WTF!?

In the end we finished less than 100m from the lead group. Paul went on a flyer with 3km to go, but was caught with 100m to the line, leaving Shaun Le Roux to take the race and the yellow jersey.

My numbers for the race were ok, especially considering my heavy training week. We rode for another hour afterwards and my week ended up just short of 800TSS, which is my biggest week in a long time.

We’re going to have to try something a little different next week if we want to get Paul ahead of Shaun.

Comparative power stats from Peter at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pvzhpTQNrhxbyrtpVXSkUEg&gid=1

Read the original blog post here Tour d'Worcester Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

I took it real easy my first week back – only 319TSS for the week, then 473TSS and 484TSS for the next two. I really didn’t want to overdo it and need a rest week so early. Those 3 weeks have served as a bit of a base, and after feeling absolutely horrible with no power last Sunday, this week I’ve been feeling stronger and stronger.

Tuesday I did a 2.5 hour ride at 0.73IF, giving me 130TSS. Yesterday was shorter and harder – 1:20 at 0.82IF giving 91TSS. That included one 15min L4 interval. Its been a long time since I did one of those. Today I started out conservatively at L1/L2 then gradually ramped it up for 2:16 at 0.83IF, giving a nice 155TSS. NP for the ride was 234w, which is more like it!

Saturday is Worcester League (98km), so I’ll probably rest tomorrow and hope that the good legs last until then. The plan is then to do an hour after the race, and another 3.5 hours on Sunday, which should give the CTL a serious kick up the bum (currently 57).

Its no nice seeing CTL on an upward trajectory :)

Read the original blog post here Fitness & Form Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Unfortunately the good news was tempered with an injury. I bumped my knee into the wall the other day. It was pretty innocuous, but an hour or two of riding would see some knee pain and light swelling at the top of the knee cap. Three physio visits later and almost 10 days of no riding and things still aren’t perfectly fixed. I’m back at the physio this Thursday for (hopefully) my last visit, with Friday pencilled in as my first ride in 2 weeks.

Consequently CTL has plummetted and I’ll be going into the season’s first league race at the end of the month, with less than ideal fitness. These things happen, I guess.

Read the original blog post here Ups & downs Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Peter’s posted some interesting power stats on his blog. Its clear why I’m not a pro – how about David George’s figures?! Stupendous!!

Read the original blog post here World Funride Champs Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.