Team Launch

It’s been a long time coming but the new Mosquito/Londoncyclesport race team is now official, following the ultra-slick team launch last thursday. Well it was fairly slick for us; riders turned up, got kitted out in the new kit and lined up to have  photos taken in front of a Mosquito banner. All very convivial and conveniently followed by us all piling down to the Rouleur Photography Album launch party (a fine publication, perfect for the cyclist in your life!).
We have been running a Mosquito team for many years now with varying degrees of success and interest but I’ve felt for some time that it needed some re-invigorating and the opportunity to combine with Londoncyclesport (www.londoncyclesport.com, for many years an invavluable source of info for all London cyclists) was the boost we needed.
Given the ages of most of the team members it looks like we will be concentrating on Veterans (over 40’s) racing! In fact my aim is to have a strong veterans team combined with a youth/junior section. Hopefully us old boys have a pretty good idea of what we are doing and whilst taking the racing seriously can also keep things in perspective (our days of dreaming of pro-level racing on the continent being long past). Alongside the vets we are looking to build a strong youth/junior squad allowing us to help to youngsters on their way to bigger things.Our star junior rider is Hugo Humphreys, who is just into his first year as a junior (up till 16 you ride as a youth) and performing admirably on the cyclocross scene scoring a podium finish in last weekends South East Cross Champs.
The new team has certainly spurred me into action and I’m really looking forward to once again racing with old friends such as Matt with whom I began my racing career (I still recall the dread with which we both signed on for our first road race in a Surrey village hall some 20 years ago).
So we’ve got the fancy new kit, sponsors are lining up and we even have our own team website (www.mosquitolondoncyclesport.com), roll on 2010.

Took it easy for a couple of weeks after the Tour of Mallorca but have now got back into regular training. I’ve decided to start the winter training a bit earlier than normal and keep up regular ‘top-end’ efforts (intervals etc) and try some leg strengthening exercises. The theory being that as one gets older it is important to keep up the intense work and that the ‘base miles’ should really allready be in the legs after 20 odd years of regular training! Makes sense, I’ve always noticed how cyclocross riders seem to benefit from a winter of regular intense races (and the training associated with it) whilst those of us who spent our winters riding steady miles struggled to keep up early season. The leg strength exercises are an attempt to slow down the loss of ‘fast twitch’ muscle fibres (which I read is important somewhere!), all I know is that they have left me barely able to walk this week so they must be targeting something!
Necessity dictates that tough efforts are performed on the dreaded turbo trainer, an instrument of torture I have managed to avoid for the last few years but have now returned too with my tail between my legs to accept it’s use. I can never quite understand the point of spending thousands of pounds on ’simulator’ trainers which allow you to follow your progress on a computer screen whilst riding up your favourite climb, pretending your in the Alps when in reality your stuck in the cellar! Surely the indoor trainer is supposed to be unpleasant, tough both physically and mentally, in fact rather like real cycling and isn’t that why we do it?
Alongside all this indoor stuff I’ve been enjoying the winter riding in the UK, which this year so far means a lot of rain and wind. I have treated myself to some new Mavic clothing  which has helped me get through the worst of the weather. The ‘  ‘ waterproof bib-tights combined with the ‘  ‘ jacket have been worth their weight in gold. Never having used waterproof tights before I have learned what I was missing, even with mudguards there is a lot of spray off the roads and they really come into their own off-road where any ride at this time of year is a mud bath.

time trials are such fun

It’s a couple of weeks now since I was racing the Tour of Mallorca with Matt and Niall, a race full of surprises!The first shock was discovering that despite being billed as the ‘Masters Tour of Mallorca’ the event was basically open to any non-pro over the age of 23 which we figured, and we were soon proved right, would have a significant affect on the speed of the racing! As you can see I’m getting my excuses in early because basically we got a good old fashioned kicking!!

It all started off fine with the 6km time trial along the seafront (each rider with a police out-rider), none of us troubled the leader board but but at least we didn’t get caught by our minute men.

Stage 2 was run on a 20km flattish road circuit. Disaster struck after a couple of laps as we were hurtling along in the 120 man bunch when there was the heart stopping sound of wheels touching and as I did all I could to avoid falling I glanced Matt flying through the air and into the ditch, it looked nasty. Thinking we were going to be spending the next few days visiting Mallorcan hospitals it was a big relief to see Matt back on his bike the next time I came round (having managed to get dropped whilst worrying about him!). Bad bruising to his back and a buckled front wheel (sorted out by a local bike shop).

Stage 3 and we were into the mountains, the day we hade been talking about. However first we had to tackle 60km on the flat where the bunch was determined not to let anyone get away so the pace was pretty brutal. We were all aware of the potential danger of the bunch splitting especially when we went around the Bay of Alcudia where the crosswinds are notorius. The predictions were right but we still got caught out as the bunch split in two and we were left chasing as we approached the climb.So I settled for a ride up the mountain with a small group and a fantastic long descent into Inca, it was worth all the suffering just to ride down the mountain on closed roads.

So onto the final stage, a couple of times around a 50km circuit ventruring into ‘Es Pla’ the rural centre of Mallorca. Problems started early for me as I punctured after only 5kms, a fast wheel change from the Shimano neutral service car soon had me back on the road and thanks to some helpful drafting from the team cars I managed to get back into the bunch fairly quickly. Unfortunately the effort cost me and when I found myself on the wrong side of another crash I saw the last of the bunch and finished the race in the aptly named ‘laughing group’ of 15 riders.
The race finished with a great buffet meal in a local hotel laid on by the organisers, not the kind of post-race treatment one is used to as a British bike racer! The prize presentation followed with a succession of Spanish, Portuguese, German, Belgium riders picking up silverware with not a Brit to be seen, next year…..

Ian racing back down Pen y Ghent (courtesy Andy Jones)

 

September means one thing for me: the annual pilgrimage to North Yorkshire for the very toughest cyclo-cross race in the World, the Three Peaks.

All other rides pale into insignificance against this monstrous approximation of a ‘cross race. Much as I love the fast and furious hour-long version that takes up the rest of the winter season, it does not compare. Road races, crits, even sportives: all are fine and dandy for the summer months, but they are a means to an end – all preparation for the big day.

For anyone unfamiliar with the event, some bright spark back in the day had the bright idea of stringing together the three biggest hills in Yorkshire – a route already familiar to walkers and fell runners – and throwing a bike into the mix. A 14-year-old schoolboy by the name of Kevin Watson hauled his standard-issue road bike to the summits of Whernside (2,419ft.), Ingleborough (2,373ft.), and Penyghent (2,273ft.) in 1959 and the Three Peaks cyclo-cross was born.

And riders have been coming back ever since, some more than others. Organiser John Rawnsley has completed a mighty 45 of the 47 runnings of the race, as has Neil Orrell. Mosquito’s new recruit Simon Scarsbrook was heading for Yorkshire for his thirteenth attempt, while I was mere beginner on four.

Simon Sarsbrook (courtesy Andy Jones)

One of the bonuses of working for Cycling Weekly is getting to talk to riders, so under the pretext of writing an article, I grilled seven-time winner Rob Jebb and 1991 victor Nick Craig for every little tip going: where to go hard; where to ease off; when to eat; when to run; when to walk; when to throw the bike away and collapse in a heap due to cramp and sheer bloody exhaustion.

Team Mosquito set reasonable but perfectly attainable targets: top-20 in the vets’ category and under four hours. It was a perfect day for it, with little wind and a covering of cloud with the occasional glimpse of sun, so we set off in a 450-strong bunch feeling nervous yet optimistic.

Suffice to say the handy hints from Jebb and Craig came in very useful. Not going flat out on the road following the opening climb of Ingleborough meant having more energy to attack Whernside. The little diversions from the beaten path taken by the top riders shaved seconds off here and there. And Craig’s phenomenal descending inspired my brake-free hurtle down Pen-y-Ghent and thrash to the finish in Horton.

It didn’t feel especially quick, yet I had taken 12 minutes off my best time, shaved into the top-20 vets, landed some prize money, and got well under the four hour target. Simon came in a few minutes later and, as tradition dictates, I got the beers in.

And now we have another 12 months to work out our next assault on the ‘Peaks. Much like this year’s winner, Nick Craig, it will fly by…

I have just returned from a long and exciting journey.

I was visiting Islay, the Hebridian Island that is home to Jez Hastings and Brian Palmer creators of The Washing Machine Post, a website read and trusted by cyclists around the world.

The reason for this trek was to understand the thinking behind the Islay jacket. A custom made tweed cycling jacket.

The brainwave of Jez and Brian, with enthusiasm from us at Mosquito. We love selling custom bikes so why not clothing.
It will be available from Mosquito, individually made to measure.
To get the full Islay experience I stayed with Jez and his lovely family in Port Charlotte. Besides a couple of nice rides in breathtakingly beautiful countryside I also sampled some of the Islands famous export, malt whisky. Plus making daily visits to Debbie’s- Welcome to Great Coffee- café.
The Island has an extraordinary history of weaving, I visited the Islay woollen mill. A place with a heritage dating back to the 16th century. The mill makes Tweed using traditional methods produced in small batches to the highest quality. The colours are those of the landscape around the mill, greens and browns with flecks of blues and purple from the heather.
So the tweed is the starting point, next was the idea to make a cycling specific jacket. Tweed has always been used to make riding and country sports wear so with its natural properties of water resistance and warmth without bulk it lends itself very well to cycling. The interesting part was to design it with clean construction and a cycle specific shape.
Then to find someone who can make the jacket to a very high standard and be able to keep the quality of manufacture to these standards when each jacket is custom made for each rider.

Jez has found such a person, Anne, she lives in a hill top croft on Islay, with an understanding of how Tweed works she has worked on the development of this jacket so that it shapes around the body using the natural weave of the fabric.

The finishing touches are the buttons, made by Anne’s husband is his workshop next to hers. These wonderful buttons are each cut from the antlers shed by the deer on the surrounding hills. Worked and finished by hand, each button is unique.

So the finished product is a superb bespoke jacket, made from small runs of Islay Tweed. Not just another cycling jacket, this is a garment that will soften and mould and live the ride with you, to be treasured and admired for many years.

The jacket will cost ……..and will take three weeks from order to delivery. Samples of Tweed and examples of the jacket will be available at Mosquito; order forms can be emailed or completed with Gill at Mosquito

 

Been back a few weeks now from summer holiday to Mallorca, a few weeks of sun, sea, wine and a bit of bike riding – actually quite a lot of bike riding including several races in blistering heat (unfortunately not accompanied by blistering speed on my part). Son, Thomas, is now getting big enough to compete in the local races and came home with a sack of trophies for the sideboard, the Spanish work on the principle that the smaller you are the bigger the trophy!
In a fit of post holiday madness I have agreed to take part in the Masters Tour of Mallorca, notice I say ‘take part in’ as opposed to ‘compete in’! in fact ‘hang on for grim death in’ might be more appropriate!The T of M is a four day stage race for riders over 30 with 3 age classifications and some good riders,  in fact it was won by UK pro Malcolm Elliott a few years back.
Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Probably, but then again the chance to race for 4 days on closed roads and with stages in the mountains feels like an opportunity not to be missed. So, how to train for a stage race? I’m going for plenty of racing with blocks of days on the bike back to back. With the rest of the family over the bank holiday weekend I raced saturday and monday with longish steady rides sunday and tuesday. Then regular weekday rides with racing every weekend.
Last Sunday was the Annual Giler Ree Memorial race down in Eastbourne. This was entered in a moment of madness (that’s the problem with online entering,you can sit at home with a glass of wine and convince yourself to ride events which in the cold light of day may not seem so sensible!) Anyway 130 km with eleven times up a 3.5km climb with a bunch of super fit 1st cat riders = a lot of suffering, so I was pleased to finish even picking up the consolation prize of being 1st 3rd cat rider over the line – I think that’s what you call the wooden spoon.

 

I first really became aware of cycling as a sport in the late 80’s, I well remember Stephen Roche’s triumphant season in 1987 when he pulled off the historic triple of Giro D’Italia, Tour de France and World Championships and then two years later watching in wonderment as Greg LeMond overhauled Laurent Fignon on the Champs Elyses to win the Tour. But for me the greatest was always Sean Yates, the Sussex rider who did it the hard way (and boy was he ‘hard’) upping sticks and moving to France to race with the fabled ACBB club near Paris, part of a generation which included the great Robert Millar who is to this day the finest Grand Tour rider these Isles have produced. In those days if you wanted to make it on the Continent you were on your own, no help from British Cycling. Many years ago we had a guy who worked at Mosquito who had ridden with Sean at the ACBB and looked to have a fine racing career ahead of him, but back home during the winter and working as a postie (a popular job with racing cyclists, up early and all day to train once your round was over) he damaged his back lifing sacks and never raced seriously again although his class was enough for him to turn up at Herne Hill track years later and show us how real riders race!
Anyway, back to Sean Yates whose career spanned the years from the late ’80’s when cycling in Europe was opening up with the arrival of American teams such as 7-Eleven right through to the early Armstrong years and the Motorola team. Best known as a super domestique, plugging away on the front of the bunch making all behind him suffer, he also had his moments of personal glory not least being wearing the Yellow jersey of the Tour de France in 1994. This was the year the Tour came to the UK and I well remember standing on the side of the road in Brighton shouting myself hoarse as he and his fellow ‘kings of the road’ raced by.
Forward 15 years to this past wednesday and i turn up,for the regular wednesday night track league at Preston Park track in Brighton less than a mile from where I once watched Sean race by. We have ridden a few of these events this year and I’m really getting to enjoy racing on the track again, a discipline I haven’t turned my hand to in over a decade. This week was different though, we arrive to find a fully liveried Astana team car parked at the gates of the track. Now in the Burnett family this is a sight to cause sopme excitement, team cars are something we associate with summer holidays and watching the Tour pass over Pyrenean climbs. Then the penny drops, it can only mean Sean Yates is riding, he still lives in Sussex and is a Directeur Sportif with the Astana squad. Still fit, he likes to turn up for the odd race when work allows, the competitive spirit still shines bright.
Final race of the evening and Yatesy puts in a bit of an attack to string out the bunch, I didn’t hesitate and glued myself to his wheel – it may only have been half a lap but it gives me a thrill to say I’ve ridden on Sean Yates wheel. I wonder if in 10 years time David Beckham will be turning up for a kick around at his local park!

Can I take this one home please!

So, at the end of last week Roger and I spent a hectic three days visiting Milani and Pegoretti in Italy. Too much eating, too much drinking and too much driving (I think Italians must be the worst drivers in the world!).
The Milani workshop is in Gallarate, 50 or so km north of Milan. It’s where Milani orignally began and where the complete bikes are now built up and frames stored. Celeste Milani showed us round and we watched as Emilio (ex Italian Cyclo Cross champion, now in his sixties) built up bikes for customers.  The evening saw us out on bikes (very nice Milani N107 full carbon) for a couple of hours on Celeste’s regular route – a lovely warm evening with the sun setting behind the Alps on the horizon.

A Seigiorni track frame in the jig.

Thursday we visited the frame factories where Milani’s are handbuilt. Framebuilding in Italy is struggling as an increasing number of brands take the cheap option of outsourcing production to China. This is something Celeste Milani has no interest in, preferring the higher quality and customisation possibilities available in Italy. All Milani frames, whether carbon, aluminium or steel can be fully custom built. The carbon and aluminium frames (carbon road and cyclocross, alloy track and cyclocross) are built in a factory in Rosa where a team of three guys handcraft the frames from raw tubes. The steel frames are built in Padova by artisans with a huge amount of building experience, real engineers. Milani currently produce just two steel frames which are both lugged, we spoke to Celeste about the possibility of producing a tig-welded steel frame – watch this space!

Dario welding a Luigino fork.

And so on to see Dario Pegoretti in his workshop in Caldonazzo, a small town nestling amongst the mountains in the Dolomites. It was great to see Dario looking well and in good spirit after his health problems of the last couple of years. He and his co-workers Pietro and Daniel are busy working away on a long backorder list which is a testament to the Pegoretti believe in the continuing strength of steel as a frame material and the importance of comfort and efficient power transfer in a frame.

(click here for more pictures)

So the spring weather continued and saturday February 28th found me out on my mountain bike for a birthday ride. A week of good weather had left the local trails dry and fast and meant the bike could be put away without the usual half hour cleaning session which often puts me off getting the MTB out in the first place. I have to say I really enjoy my mountian bike rides – a chance to hone riding skills, check out quiet corners and in three hours give  oneself a great workout, the leg strength taining on a mountain bike is second to none.
Then into week 10 of Base training and the legs are beginning to feel the effects after six weeks without a break. The idea of base training is to get the body ready for the tougher training and racing ahead and for me this winter has consisted of regular two hour commuting rides, weekend road or MTB rides and a couple of strength training sessions a week. I’m into my final week of it before an easier week and then a few weeks of faster riding with intervals thrown in before the racing season proper kicks in. Once racing starts in earnest things get simpler and more fun – race, recover, race, recover…..
The birthday reminded me of the increasing years and the inevitable slower recovery between workouts, so I found myself asking my wife for a pair of Skins to celebrate another year added! She did look at me slightly oddly but when I explained more fully the look turned more to one of bemused acceptance.Anyway what are Skins? Basically fancy looking, very close fitting and expensive tights which claim to aid circulation post exercise thus helping with removal of lactic acid from the legs and aiding recovery. The idea is that you put them on as soon after a workout as possible and wear them overnight. Having tried them a few times now I would say they certainly help, my legs have felt fresher than I would normally expect after some hard workouts.
Sunday saw me out with 300 fellow riders enjoying the sunny if windy conditions enjoyed on the South West Road Clubs Reliability ride, actually they now insist on calling it a Sportive but that’s just marketing. Reliability rides are traditional early season events designed to test the legs of the aspiring racing cyclist before the season proper begins. The idea is to complete the route in a set time and  they inevitably end up in a good burn up as the finish approaches, often tougher than the races for which we are preparing. These days the lure of the bike reaches out beyond the mysterious world of the club cyclist and events such as this regularly sell out. A great ride in good company, hopefully a sign of the year to come.
Next week Roger and I are off on our annual Italian sojourn to visit Dario Pegoretti and, for the first time, Celeste Milani. What better way to spend a recovery week than talking bikes, eating Italian food and drinking good wine?

Gill, Phil, Celeste and Evo

 

I don’t like to speak too soon but just maybe the weather tide has turned and we are beginning the long journey to another glorious English summer (ok, that’s being a bit hopeful but one can but dream). The signs are all around – the Mosquito workshop is full of bikes as hibernating cyclists make a re-appearance,I am suddenly finding myself poring over racing calendars and planning the season ahead, and last weekend, the first ride of the year with a warm sun on my face.

Saturday was three hours in the Surrey Hills with a local cycling buddy and a glorious ride it was too. Training on your own you forget the extra effort required to stay with a riding companion as the inevitable element of competition creeps in! Having been doing some extra strength training over the winter I was interested to see how it would help my climbing, well after the ride with Niall I am still no wiser – all I can say is that one-legged squats the day before a hard ride make the legs sore! I started off with clothing suitable for the snowy conditions of previous weeks so spent much of the ride peeling off layers, not quite time for shorts and mitts but the time will come – although I expect the weather has a few more tricks up it’s sleeve before it finishes with us.

Sunday was the LondonCycleSport Test Ride Day at the recently opened Hog Hill Cycle Circuit. A fun day and well attended, there was plenty to do with bikes to ride from Mosquito and several other local dealers, Roller racing on the famed Rollapalluza rig, demo bike fits by our very own Roger Graver and a showing of cycling films. It was great to get so much positive feedback on the bikes we brought along. Of course after saturdays glorious sunshine the clouds returned and a bitter wind blew, oh well I’ve always been an optimist.
It was particularly pleasing for us to have Celeste Milani and his colleague Evo in attendance – they made the journey up from the Milani factory in Gallarate north of Milan to be with us. Leaving at 7.30 pm on friday evening their plan was to drive as far as Dijon for a stopover, unfortunately they missed the turning and kept going to Reims by which time it was 4am. Understandably they were pretty tired when we met with them for a meal in Islington on saturday, but a few glasses of wine soon revived them and a convivial evening of bike related talk ensued.