Wrapping up the Cross Season in the Snow

Bury St Edmunds: My last CX race of the season, Jan 19th, 2013

I had longed all season for an ice-bound, snowy 'Cross race, and my wish was granted at the very last moment, for the last fixture of the 2012-13 Elmy Eastern League Cyclo-Cross League, held yesterday at King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmund's, promoted by West Suffolk Wheelers and Triathlon Club.
With a very keen south easterly wind, the worst of it was always going to be the  'warm-up', something of a joke because until you really start cookin' your extremities just go the other way. Despite Assos liners and neoprene outer gloves, my hands were numb within a single lap of the pre-race recce.
However, as ever, the race itself soon heated us all up and the real heroes were surely the stalwart supporters, who remained on their stations throughout and offered lots of encouragement.
It was a typically English affair: the course was not 'ice-bound'. It was infinitely changeable and different corners changed during the race. Out on the steppe-like playing fields, you were riding on snow with some underlying compacted ice. The racing line poked through as semi-frozen mud on some corners. These corners got faster as the race progressed, as long as you didn't lose the racing line and go off into the chuffy side-snow, which meant front tyre wipe-out or much reduced speed. I lost time on several corners for getting the line slightly wrong. I never crashed because I have a good understanding of snow. I did plenty of snow riding when I used to live in the US. But you have to respect the precise levels of available grip.
I lost my duel with Maldon District rider Chris Ridley, coming in 28th in the senior/elite vet race. But I secured my overall season goal of a top twenty placing among the elite vets, at position 20, having completed nine races, the best eight of which counted towards my points total of 246.
My main discovery this season has undoubtedly been the advantage of running tubular tyres on good, light wheels - but this will be the subject of a separate blog concerning my first year with a pair of Zipp 303s! The short version of that? They're brilliant, paired with the Dugast Rhino CX tubs that I've already blogged about.

Tao Geoghegan Hart visits Eagle Road Club

Already a fantastic public speaker

Tao Geoghegan Hart was the guest speaker at the East London and Essex-based Eagle Road Club's annual awards ceremony and dinner. Braving the snowy weather, the 17 year old racing cyclist attended with his brother Bede on Saturday, January 19th.
A native of Hackney, London, and a member of Cycling Club Hackney, Geoghegen Hart (pronounced 'gegen') is a hot tip to replace Bradley Wiggins one day. He is already a very well known racer in the East London scene, and a member of the British Cycling Olympic Development Junior Programme.
After the dinner and awards, I interviewed Tao in front of the assembled club, and he said some interesting things. Asked what his ultimate ambition was, and he didn't hesitate to say that it was winning the Tour de France one day. Asked who his ultimate role model was from today's Pro-Peleton, and he unequivocally chose Bradley Wiggins, explaining that for the best part of a century British riders had struggled to make a lasting impression on the continental scene, and that Wiggins had effectively broken the deadlock with his spectacular 2012 season.We noticed his Fifties-esque suit and thin black tie!
Starting out as a promising swimmer, aged 13, Tao recalled being 'doored' by a minicab driver on the Leabridge Road in East London. The term means being knocked off your bike by someone flinging open a car door. He was injured and couldn't swim for eight weeks. He finally got back to normal by riding a popular night time cycling event that threads its way from Hackney to Dunwich on the Suffolk Coast (the 'Dunwich Dynamo') with a friend, and attributes to this ride his new-born love of cycling and the moment at which he started to drift away from swimming.
He then quickly became a leading light among youth riders, winning numerous races and often lapping much more experienced riders. Although still officially riding for Cycling Club Hackney in domestic events, at least half his season is now racing overseas, in a British Cycling jersey. At the dinner he was displaying just such a jersey from the 2012 Junior edition of Paris-Roubaix. He was involved in a incident and crashed at an estimated 60km/h, ripping the shoulder of the shirt and hurting his back, but still completing the course. Speaking of the event, he described it as one of the greatest events there is in the cycling calendar, not least because of the human theatre and "spectators lighting up barbecues by the side of the road, the smell of grilled meat hitting you in the face as you speed by." He will ride it again in 2013, using the Eagle Road Club-hosted Good Friday racing event at Redbridge Cycling Centre as part of his preparation.
Speaking of the women's scene, and in light of the fact that Tao's cousin Emma Grant is also a top amateur on the US circuit, Tao made a heartfelt plea for better treatment of female athletes and a more organised sponsorship scene, better events and a greater level of professionalism and investment. He echoed outspoken comments by British Olympic road race champ Nicole Cooke, who retired earlier in the week.
Tao enthralled the Eagles with a behind-the-scenes recollection of what had happened last summer just before the Olympics. The Belgian squad had spent six hours sweltering on the M25 in order to recce the Box Hill section of the men's Olympic Road Race. The next day they resolved to ride straight out the Olympic Village in East London, but not having a clue about the roads were pout in touch with Tao, who acted as a guide. After an hour's riding, the four-man squad, which included super-stars Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert, asked if they could stop for a coffee. Tao took them to The Bridge in Abridge, and they loved it because of its low key ambience. But there was a problem. None of them had a penny between them so Tao had to convince the owner to run up a tab for next-day payment, with an order of six coffees, one green tea and one piece of cake. Apparently the next day they went out again but ended up in British coffee chain Costa, less popular because the autograph hunters cottoned on and the riders were interrupted too much to really relax.
The Eagle Evening ended with a special presentation of the famous Eagle RC cap to Tao by club veteran and time keeper Peter Smith, and thanks by Tao to the six sponsors who already support him on an individual basis: Condor, Rapha, Giro, Madison, Neovite and GARMIN.
Tao already has a very popular blog: taogeoghegenhart.blogspot.co.uk

Yours truly with Tao

Going Vegan, -a Plant-based diet for endurance sports

Can a vegan (plant-based) diet make you faster on the bike?
 

A Great Read

Enforced flu rest meant I read a lot over the New Year: Bradley Wiggins' My Time, and then three books in a row about Iron Man / ultra runner folks; Rich Roll's Finding Ultra (2012); Scott Jurek's Eat and Run (2012) and finally Chrissie Wellington's Life without Limits (2012).

The best of that pack is easily Scott Jurek, Eat and Run. I recommend it.

It's not an all time classic like Chris McDougall's Born to Run, but it's really involving and this book is the product of a massive amount of work. The difference with Born to Run is that McDougall is a pure writer who learned to run to get his story, whereas with Jurek, we're back in the land of the non-writing athlete who rests heavily on a ghost writer. But it's head and shoulders better than the vast majority of these sorts of books. It wasn't rushed. It was crafted and crafted again. You enjoy this crazy guy finding himself through a tough upbringing in Minnesota. Good characters, incredible events you won't have heard of, running events of 100 miles ++ and ....... a persuasive case for a vegan diet.

So I've just completed a whole week of being vegan. Can't believe I'm saying that. It's not a political statement. It's just an experiment. Jurek swears that it made him faster, got him a tonne of tone and made recovery a faster process. Interestingly, Rich Roll, who really is a 'zany' Californian character, narrates exactly the same process. He's vegan too. I think Dave Zabriskie is too, in cycling. Actually I just checked that - he's vegan plus salmon, a Pesca-Vegan? He says a small amount of salmon twice a week helps iron absorption.

Vegan means no meat or fish, like a vegetarian, but then add in  NO DAIRY AT ALL as well. So even whey protein recovery shakes are off the menu (whey is from dairy). No cheese. No milk. No eggs as well - the theory is that a plant only-based diet is better for you.

I'm going to post a more detailed account of all this on my website richardlofthouse.cc, but so far so good. I think the novelty might wear off, but it's been really fascinating to see the whole universe of food through this new lens. For instance, there's not a single product you can buy at an Upper Crust franchise that's vegan. That means nothing. Or does it? Bad chains rely on mayo in all their sandwiches. They focus on fatty muffins and cakes; in fact just about everything cyclists should try and get away from. You can just about do a packed lunch from Tesco. It means buying low fat hommous and bread rolls. Or relying on fruit more than before. The biggest 'loss' I notice so far is not being to indulge in baked goods like croissants, since they have butter in them. Yet once again I'm up against myself saying: should I be eating that stuff? Not really.

On the plus side there's a vast universe of alternatives and whole foods that are much easier to get hold of than they used to be - world cuisine for want of a better word. So today we had home made felafel (pan fried not deep fried) in corn tortillas with guacamole (Mexican) followed by delicious miso soup (Jap). For dinner, brown fusilli pasta with a nice sause, no parmesan (don't miss it contrary to expectation); massive salad. After my threshold training a smoothie like the following:

Green kale, cavallo nero kale, chia seeds, maca root, sprouted brown rice protein powder, banana, blue berries, mango pieces, spirulina, hemp milk, almonds.

If that sounds expensive it's not. All the fruit is frozen from Asda, while you can buy the powders in large bags that last months.

The one thing is this: you need a very powerful blender to make sense of almonds etc. I bought a Vitamix Aspire for us at Christmas. It spins at 10,000 rpm and commands two HORSEPOWER - and no surprises, it's a cult product among all those flaky west coast ultra people. But I can tell you it is simply incredible.

One example I'll leave you with: you dump some roasted peanuts in it. Turn it up to max. Less than one minute produces the smoothest, creamiest peanut butter ever witnessed this side of Waitrose. And it costs...buttons.

Don't know how the whole 'food and sport' scene will evolve, but we can probably agree that we're a long way away from A Sunday in Hell, where Roger de Vlaeminck is shown in 1976 grubbing down a rare steak as his pre-Raris-Roubaix breakfast. I don't think any of us would do that now. The question is to what extent going in the complete opposite direction can be a benefit. Plant-based warriors or flaky nut jobs? Zabriskie said his best year followed the new diet, having previously been a massive meat eater. He won more TTs that year.

'Transforming the planet one warrior at a time?'

 But it costs as much as conventional recovery powders.

Arare are a nice crisp substitute

You feel brilliant after corn tortillas with not-deep-fried felafel

Less than one minute to make super-smooth peanut butter in a Vitamix Aspire

REVIEW: Exposure Six Pack Mk 2 (2012 model)

REVIEW: Exposure Six Pack Mk 2 (2012 model), RRP £424.95
2000 Lumens, 362g, 6 x XPG LEDs

The Six Pack was Exposure's flagship bike light, except that for 2013 they have introduced the Reflex which sells for £449.96 and has a few tweaks and additions. See the demo on www.exposurelights.com.

Apparently most of the reduced 75g weight, and new LEDs, have been added also to the Six Pack Mk 3 (2013), so this review can only describe the light in terms of it's outgoing model, the 2012 Mk 2.

In particular, you need to consider the digital theatre of the 2013 model, which allows programme modes and digital read out on the back panel. It might be less satisfactory than the Mk 2, which just uses blue LEDs to show beam modes; 3 for high, 2 for medium, 1 for low. I like the simplicity of the old model in this regard. It has a large battery and you can happily commute 1.5 hours a day for a week on low beam, without any recharging issues at all.

This leads on to the broad question of price and performance. Is this overkill for commuting? Not if you are rural or encounter dark alleys or back streets, perhaps. But the Six Pack is probably not necessary as such. There are so many other lights that offer blazing performance for alot less money, not least from Exposure. Hands up: my own light is an Exposure Joystick and on full beam 400 lumens still lights the road quite tidily, while weighing just 87 grams. Wonderful it is; also wonderful are Exposure's Flash/Flare combo with re-chargeable batteries, which I use as secondary commuter lights (that's dissing the rear Flare, which is VERY bright) and primary winter/dusk day time training lights. These cost £40 each and less bought as a pair.

Is the Six Pack desirable then, in an urban setting, and does it make you safer? I began the test some weeks ago with a sense of trepidation. The light is just SO bright I thought I was going to get yelled at by drivers and by pedestrians. It was like agit prop. Every day a new sarcasm from a white van driver, or an unhappily blinded walker. Eventually a minicab driver told me the angle was wrong and that if the police saw it they would confiscate it "and throw it in a bin." I thought I had it gently angled downwards, but apparently not. So get the angle right. It has to angle down at least 30 degrees. I've also stopped using the flashing mode, since this marks you out as a cyclist. Leave on low beam, and you get treated more like a moped rider - it's as if you've upgraded in the traditional pantheon of road users.

A word on low beam. It still lights up the nostrils of a bus driver across a junction, or allows you to count the buns on the shelf of a Greggs, also across a junction. Well maybe not, now that my light angles down, but you get the message. This is a hugely bright light on low beam. High beam is overkill. That's a way of saying that you don't really need this flagship product for commuting.

But I love it, and the Sixer has made my Joystick now seem like the perfect supplementary light rather than the main course. There are particular junctions on my commute across London, where traditionally drivers just seem to not see me. Now they do. On one occasion in pouring rain during the day light, I put the Sixer on flash mode and drivers typically moved over to allow you through standing traffic - it is uncomfortable to have that sort of light in your side mirrors, and might subliminally communicate 'emergency services!'.

Quibbles? For me, the weight hasn't been the issue I thought it would be, but I wouldn't ideally train with it. The bracket it fixes to is rock solid but takes a bit of getting used to, with re-mounting requiring the exact approach angle otherwise it skates out of the shoe.

Final thought? I love this light. Imagine a really foul night in mid-winter. What else could be better than a Six Pack? If the lighting arms race is on then just smoke the system and run full beam. I did it once or twice when the rain was streaming down, and it worked. I felt safer. On this basis I want my own Six Pack and hang the cost. But at the point of purchase I'm pretty sure I'd pick from somewhere else in the range and get the MaXx-D Mk 5, and save nearly a hundred pounds.The Six Pack is really in its element for night time off-roading. The core user is the MTB'er, or perhaps for night time Cross races like Muddy Hell.

The Six Pack is a big unit. Shown here next to Cateye Opticube.

Full beam is too bright for most commuter applications

Three blue lights means full beam. It's wonderfully simple, but has changed for the 2013 model