Last Monday I was very chuffed to succeed with a team entry into the Sani2C 3-day MTB race in KZN. The race runs from Himeville near the Drakensberg, to Scottburgh on the coast. Entries sold out in 2 and a half hours, but I was quick enough to get in. I’ll be riding with team-mate Paul Jacobs. Then Garron and Andreas, other team-mates, are also entered. So BikeMaxPower has 2 teams in the race, which is great for our sponsors.

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.

Rode the Argus Cycle Tour last Sunday - I started in the VA (30-39 yrs old) group, but had a puncture just before Smitswinkel Hill and then joined the B who were 5 minutes behind. I rode the rest of the race with the B group and finished with a group of about 10 of them that got away on the Suikerbossie Climb.

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!!

As part of our team sponsorship I managed to organise myself a nice new bike. A lovely Schwinn Peloton Ltd. I’m getting rid of the Ksyrium ES wheels since I’ve got the PowerTap and existing race wheels too. The bike is a beautiful metallic blue with lime green around the seat tube area.

I built the bike up last night, moving pedals, saddle, wheels and bottle cages across. The new bike is 0.8kg lighter than the old one. Hopefully the extra weight saved will make up for my current lack of fitness on the climbs.

PowertapGeek made some predictions at http://stevenwagner.typepad.com/powertapgeek/2007/01/watt_happened_i.html that I think are very true.

I’m seeing these two:

• Racing will get harder and faster as those using wattage will raise the level of preperation,
• People who do not use power will continue to fall behind

in action in our sub-vets league (30-40). Average speeds and average powers are increasing every race, and there’s more and more guys riding with Powertaps, Ergomos or SRMs. Those guys without power-based training are going to be a step behind. I’m very thankful that I’ve got mine already and am seeing the benefits at the expense of those who still don’t have. And thankfully, not everyone who has one knows how to use it properly yet. I’m sure the advantage won’t last long though…

2nd League race of summer today. With my CTL hovering at 63 before the race, I wasn’t expecting to last the hilly route. So my plan was to race as though I was fit for the first 55km, which would get me up to Red Hill. Then I’d back off and to the rest as a training ride/warmdown.

And that’s pretty much how it went. I chased down a few breaks, and even had a go myself at one point, then I exited the bunch very rapidly at the foot of Red Hill when the power spiked to 500w.

Paul stuck with a group of about 20 over Red Hill, and tried attacking several times on OKW. Unfortunately he couldn’t get away, and he climbed his way to 4th place. Another win for Dave Garrett, who seems to be in a league of his own, with Mark Moir taking 2nd and Andrew Studer 3rd.

It turned out to be quite a hot day too, and I was planning to ride home to get an extra 90mins in. But by the end of the race I was pretty exhausted and I decided the car home was the more prudent option. I think I would have been couch-bound for the rest of the day had I deciced to ride. I still managed to rack up 226TSS, and with yesterday’s 165TSS from a nice ride to Stellenbosch, CTL is starting the slow, steady climb back to normal levels. If all goes to plan I’ll be back up at CTL of 80 by the end of the first week of Feb. That should be good enough to let me race properly, and for the full duration of a race.

I woke up on Sunday morning for the first summer league race, Three Passes, and my body was aching all over. I couldn’t get much breakfast down and wasn’t feeling great at all. I figured I might feel better once I was on a bike and moving, but it became apparent during my warmup ride that I was feeling very crap. I started the race nevertheless but got dropped at the foot of the first climb, Ou Kaapse Weg, at only 230w. So I turned around and headed home and straight into bed for the rest of the day.

Not quite the 270TSS day I was planning, which meant that CTL gain for the last seven days was a big fat 0. So much for getting fitter. Hopefully I can shake whatever it is that is afflicting me and get training properly again soon.

By all accounts the race turned out quite hard and Paul was right up front, but couldn’t make the decisive break. Looks like all the boys have been training hard and fitness levels are very high. In contrast to me

We completed the Double Century yesterday in about 6:07. Not sure where we came but probably just outside the top 10. We had a bit of a mixed team - some strong riders and some a little weaker. And only 10 of us at the start line.

We managed to get 7 of us to the finish and it was mostly a smooth ride. Only one puncture which cost us 3 or 4 minutes.

So I’ve gotten 6 weeks of solid training in now and my fitness is starting to get to the level where I don’t have to worry about getting dropped, and instead I can focus on helping the team strategy on the day.

Unfortunately we didn’t read it quite right at Sunday’s Simonvlei league race. We let a break get away early that contained Geddan Ruddock and Craig Gerber, both pretty strong lads. Then we did a really easy tempo up Helshoogte, so the gap was probably still growing. Once we were over the top though everyone realised that we had our work cut out and the pace lifted substantially.

Despite a very high tempo though, the closest we got to them was about 500m, so our bunch sprinted for 6th. Then Robby got beaten by both Neil Bradford and Mark Moir, not suprising when you saw how much effort Robby put into the chase. The race was over already though, and barring any misfortune for Neil in the final race, he should keep the yellow jersey to the series-end.

I got some nice numbers out of the PowerTap. Average power for the race was 216w and normalized power was 267w. Both new highs. Then I set new PB’s for the range from 10mins all the way to 2hrs. Average power up the Hels climb was 301w for 12mins. The nice thing is that it felt pretty comfortable So my guestimated FTP is up to about 275w. Which is ok for my 62kg, but I’m really aiming to get it to 285-290w.

I’m missing the final league race this weekend ‘cos I’m going for a hike. The following weekend is the Double Century though, and I hope I can carry my form until then to help the team to a good time.