Bigfoot

How big are your feet? Big for your frame? Small for your size? Or just right?

You've probably never considered the size of your feet when buying a new bike, why would you? There are far more important things to be thinking about, frame size, colour, components.

However, one thing you should check is whether your feet might touch the front wheel when you are turning. Speaking with a fellow North Cheshire Clarion rider on our club run on Sunday, he has exactly this problem with a new winter bike.

The frame geometry on his new ride is very tight, as his foot approaches the 3 o' clock position on the forward rotation, if he is turning the wheel on that side, his foot hits the mudguard. Not ideal. It's something he didn't consider as it's one of those things you just take for granted, 99 out of 100 of us would do the same.

Lesson identified for the rest of us. It's really worth checking this if you are buying a new bike before leaving the showroom. Get someone to hold the saddle for you, or - if possible - take a test ride and try it for yourself.

Back in the Saddle

Decembers been a write off for me on the bike. A second bout of chest infection plus the snow put pay to any base mile work. Chutzpah!

Arriving back from my first club run, in I can't remember how long, I took a look back at my miles for the last six months, to get some idea as to the impact of December on my overall miles.

Miles since May look something like this: -

May 260
June 485
July 290
Aug 454
Sept 460
Oct 222
Nov 224
Dec 32

So between June and November, I managed to clock around 2.1k miles. My overall target for 2010 was 3,000 miles, so I've comfortably hit that with my Jan-April numbers, so despite Decembers poor mileage month, 2010 has been pretty good for my first full year on the bike.

Trundling along in the cold today, I could tell my fitness had taken a dive from where it was. Sunday 28th November was the last time I was on the bike, so it's about four weeks out of the saddle for me. My heart rate monitor was certainly letting me know as I spent most of today's ride in HRZ4, far in excess of where I would normally be.

Still, I enjoyed it. It was freezing out, however I had four layers on to combat the cold. A thermal vest, arm warmers, merino top, windtex jacket and an altura windcheater over that, with some very thick gloves. All in all, I didn't feel cold once.

It felt good to be out on the road again, it started with a bit of a bump as the bike went from under me on my street, no damage done other than to my pride. I considered to abandon at that stage and jumped in my car, full club kit on to lick my wounds at Starbucks. Pulling off the estate I spotted our club secretary riding down, so pulling him over and checking the route, I nipped back for the Spesh and got myself up to Stretton. Route here.

So, time to shortly think about objectives for 2011. More distance overall. More speed. More stamina. Faster Sportive times. What are you planning?

Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings to all visitors to this blog. I appreciate your visits!

I hope that 2011 brings you huge stamina, big distances, speed, endurance and enjoyment on the bike.

Terry Dolan Classic Fixed Gear

I just love the simplicity of this retro Terry Dolan classic fixed gear steel frame. This one was a refurb for Tokyo Fixed Gear by Dolan Bikes (spot all the frames in the background).

If you're ever in London, make sure you stop by Tokyo Fixed Gear in Peter Street, Soho. Great place, knowledgeable staff and some to die for frames and components.

I'm going to use this for inspiration when I get round to re-furbing my vintage Raleigh Record Sprint which I've got in the garage. Had it since 1984 and plan to do a job on it, not to re-furb back to original but to do something with it to make it a new bike again. Will keep you posted.

AN Post Team

Cycling supremo Sean Kelly has equipped his AN Post racing team with Dolan Ares bikes. I've owned an Ares for about five months now, awesome bit of kit and a great ride. Here's my review of the bike and a few decent pics I had taken of it.

Seems Dolan will be providing road, track and time trial bikes for the team. Great to see them transferring their track branding to the road.

Pinarello Paris 2011

Do like the colour scheme of the 2011 Team Sky Pinarello Paris. Now conspiring to see what I can do to own one.

Revolution 31

In a three-quarter full Manchester Velodrome, riders competing in The Revolution series battled it out for points last night. I went along at the last minute due to a spare ticket cropping up from fellow North Cheshire Clarion club member Adam Leadbetter.

It's been a while since I've been to the National Cycling Centre, last time was for the Track World Cup as a guest of British Cycling, where I was in the centre of the track and went home with a sore neck (it was a bit like watching Formula One racing cars zooming by).

Being up in the stands gave a much better view of what was going on, both in the pits and on the track, I really enjoyed it. For a cyclist, there's lots to take in. Not only the fantastic bikes that are on the track, seeing the up and coming talent plus some blistering racing but also the stalls and shops that set-up for the night.

I managed to bag a Condor cap for seven quid and a DVD that I've been after for absolutely ages called "The Battle of the Bikes," which details the rivalry between Chris Boardman and Graeme Obree. An absolutely superb documentary of a rivalry from the mid 1990's which follows both riders in a "fly on the wall" style aswell as fantastic footage of their individual achievements. Brilliant for a cyclists Christmas stocking.

If you've never ridden in a Velodrome, it's a completely different experience to road cycling requiring a completely different set of skills as a cyclist. I went on one of their track taster sessions, which you can read about here and I'd recommend it to anyone who fancies it.

Preparing for a long distance cycle ride

Lots of people I know are committing to long distance charity rides at the minute. Very admirable. Inevitably the "help" e-mails are beginning to arrive in my inbox, particulary from people who haven't done any kind of endurance or distance riding before.

I'm no expert, however, I've read enough books in my short time as a cyclist to have picked up some of the pointers you should consider. Here are ten tips to get you started: -

1. Pick the right bike for the job. Road bike? Tourer? Mountain Bike? Check with your organiser what they recommend.
2. Set a decent amount of money aside for your new bike. Avoid Halfords, go to a local bike shop or internet specialist. I've written a road bike buyers guide here.
3. Remember, that just because you can run it doesn't make you an endurance cyclist. Running and cycling use different muscle groups. You need to put training miles in on a bike, not in your trainers.
4. Get fitted on your bike, give yourself the best chance of being comfortable and using every ounce of energy efficiently.
5. Cycling is all about power to weight. Lose as much weight as you can prior to your ride without sacrificing strength. Every pound you lose, it one less you need to haul around on your bike and it will make ascending easier.
6. Don't leave it to the last minute to train or you will make it really difficult for yourself. Any ride exceeding 100 miles in distance on a single day or subsequent days, will require a high level of fitness and preparation. If you're doing say 400-500 miles over a week, you should be thinking around 16-20 weeks out in terms of preparation time.
7. Don't over estimate how fast you will ride. 100 miles will probably take you around six to seven hours depending on terrain. The hillier, the harder. The bumpier the roads, the longer it will take. Check the profile of your ride to establish what balance of fitness/strength training you need to do.
8. Get yourself tested so you know what your training zones are. For distance riding, eating/fuelling is absolutely key on the bike. If you burn sugar at low intensity, you'll be running out of steam quickly unless you replace it.
9. Get a specific training plan book. These are widely available on the web or in a high street book specialist like Waterstones. Joe Friel has written a decent book which you can view here.
10. Buy the right kit. So essential. Whether that be the kit you have on yourself, on the bike (tyres) or in your saddle bag. Buy the best you can afford at the time. Buy cheap, you might pay twice.

The Flying Scotsman

Christmas is coming. A must have stocking filler for any cyclist is DVD "The Flying Scotsman," which tells the story of Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree's life. One of my favourite cycling movies, you'll probably only pick it up on Amazon now, be quick though as there are some copies on there for a fiver. Graeme didn't (and doesn't) earn anything from the film rights and has only watched it once. See my previous interviews with him here and here and my book review here for further info on this cycling legend. You can also follow him on Twitter here.

New Fixed Wheel Bike

"Satzoomer." That's the name I've christened my latest addition to my bike collection (due to its bright orange satsuma like colour).

It's an Onza Uno.  Having a natter with Graeme Obree when up was up in Scotland the other week, he extolled the virtues of owning a fixed wheel bike for training and bike control. Graeme is an absolute legend when it comes to cycling, so I took it all in and thought that I would be one step further to being a world champion if I owned one (not). So, with that fresh in my mind and always liking a bargain I spotted this and took the plunge. I'm glad I did as it turns out it was the last one.

I'm going to get some Keo pedals put on it for starters, will probably remove the back brake and tweak a couple of the bits on it. It's got a nice little barber shop pole feature in the head tube, which is quirky and the Araya rims remind me of my BMX back in the 80's. For now, I've stuck it on the turbo trainer as I'm doing low intensity training, it seems happy enough, for now.

Mow Cop

Great video of Mow Cop from last years Sportive. The last little drag is 25% gradient and doesn't look very long, however it comes at the end of a long, steep, drag up, so by the time you get to it, your heart rate is at max (well mine was). At the top of that, it kicks up again, nowhere near as steep or as hard, however it continues to go up. Cracking hill.

Synchronicity

In his biography entitled "A Peipers Tale", former cyclist Allan Peiper describes this lovely concept called "Synchronicity" on page 35 (if you haven't read the book, buy it), I've quoted a small piece of text from it below.

"..you have a chance meeting with somebody you know, 10,000km from home, or a guardian angel arrives in your life exactly the time you need them to..."

With my low intensity rides at the minute, I find myself drawing up alongside people much more, rather than usually whizzing past them at speed. Today, I got chatting with a charming lady from Partington called Sue (pictured), who was our on her inaugral ride on her new Specialized Hybrid bike.

As we chatted, I realised that Sue was a little low in her saddle and didn't look too comfortable on the bike. After a few questions, Sue said she felt some discomfort from the saddle. So, we pulled over and I gave Sue an impromptu bike fit, for no other reason than she was a lovely person and it's great to pass on some of your practical knowledge to others. Seat went up about five cm, back about four and we also levelled up the saddle as the nose was pointing down (main reason for discomfort). Sue was soon feeling much more comfortable and I got a free Costa coffee for my trouble (thanks Sue)!

It's nice to meet people out on the bike, that's why I enjoy being part of a club so much. It makes you realise that we all want different things from riding - friendship, fitness, competition, medals, success - are some that fall to mind. For me, it's all about general fitness, staying in shape, the odd sportive and an interest that takes me away from business or I'd be working all the time. For Sue, it was about independence and fitness.

Although I was thirty (not 10,000km) from home, I couldn't help but feel that today was a moment of synchronicity. Sue benefitted from a quick bike fit, I benefitted from some lovely company for the remainder of my ride out today. Win win.

My Garmin 705 went nuts on the ride out today. Approaching Costa in Hale, it just went off on one, beeping and beeping. Have a quick check of these ride stats for a bit of fun. If I could do these sort of speeds and distances in real life, think I'd be getting a call from Dave Brailsford to join Team GB. I'm working on it.

Ten Things to Carry on your Road Bike

Chatting with a new roadie the other day, they asked me what things I carry in my saddle bag. So, for their benefit, here's the things I always carry when I'm out on the road.

1. A spare inner tube (or two if you have room).
2. Some hand wipes (avoid greasy hands on bar tape post puncture).
3. A puncture repair kit in the event that you get a double puncture.
4. Tyre levers (carry three, because some tyres are a very tight fit).
5. A multi-tool.
6. A piece of old inner tube to patch a tyre up with in the event of a tyre rip.
7. Contact details of who to get hold of in an emergency. I have one of these on my helmet. Well worth nine quid if it means life or death.
8. A mobile phone. We've all been there, double puncture, buckled wheels, broken spokes resulting in a long walk home if you cant ring someone to come and get you.
9. Some money to get you out of a tight spot. A taxi home. An emergency cuppa. A bar of chocolate if you bonk.
10. A plastic glove or two. You know the ones you get at the diesel pump at a petrol station. They scrunch up really small and are the ideal thing for putting over your hands to mount a de-railed chain or a wet tyre which is gunked up with brake dust.
    

Ten Items of Road Cycling Clothing You Should Own

Rain, snow, sleat, wind. It's all ahead of us as autumn turns to winter and we wrestle with our inner voices about staying in bed or setting out on those horrid winter mornings.

You can however minimise the effect of weather by choosing the right clothing combinations. When I first got going with cycling, I got some bits from the dealer where I bought the bike, some bib shorts, a top, some shoes, some fingerless gloves. Comparing that to what lives in my wardrobe/kit bag today is a different story.

Of course, much of it is "nice to haves," how many cycling tops do you need? Answer = never enough. However, when I really scrutinise the differing types of clothing I now own, it's clear that you can "dress for success" on the bike in the winter. Here's my Top 10 list of the differing types of winter cycling clothing, primarily to mix and match to get the optimum clothing combinations regardless of what the elements are throwing at you (in no particular order).

1. Base layer. Essential as the first layer in your get up to wick away sweat from the body.
2. Thermal vest. They don't have to be expensive, I picked mine up for two or three quid.
3. Windtex long sleeved jacket. For cold, more than wet days. Keeps the chill off and the warmth in.
   
4. Windcheater. Some days the wind can just cut through you. I keep a windcheater stuffed into a spare cycling bottle to whip out when needed and protect from quick showers.
5. Gloves. I own three pairs of long fingered gloves. A heavy, thick waterproof set, with thick insulation. A mid-duty set which aren't waterproof but keep the cold out and a lighter pair.
6. A neck warmer. You can often see these being given away on the magazine fronts. Whip it over your head and it will keep your neck warm or pull it up over your mouth on those really cold days.
7. Waterproof jacket. I went for an Altura waterproof winter jacket.
   
8. Overshoes. Just buy some. They keep your feet warm and the bulk of the wet out. Make sure you get some which are appropriate for winter as some are quite then and not designed for the bad days, get them waterproof if you can.
   
9. Arm warmers. Merino arm warmers are only about fifteen quid and give you the option to put on/peel off as the weather dictates, really handy.
10. Beanie hat. Keep the warmth in, a thin woollen hat is a good buy. Pull it down over your ears and feel warmer instantly.
    

In the Zone

Going backwards to go forwards, that's what it feels like when you are heart rate zone training. As I ambled along the leafy Cheshire lanes on The Unicorn today, I had plenty of time to think about the outcomes I wanted from my Winter training plan. One of them was riding straight up Mow Cop on the Cheshire Cat sportive in the Spring, the other was to get my weight down to around 14 stone (196 pounds), I currently sit around 210 Ibs.

Knocking out fifty base miles, in the aerobic zone, meant I averaged around 12.5mph all said and done. It's funny, I had my eyes fixed on my Garmin 705 screen, where I'd set the screen up to prominently show me my heart rate zone and an audible alarm when I went into Heart Rate Zone 3. I found myself going up and down the gears, every time it went too low or too high. Anytime I crept into heart rate zone 3, it was slow down, spin and get the old ticker under control.

Checking my stats out when I got back vs. a previous ride of a similar distance, my average speed is around 20-25% slower than I would usually ride. Calorie wise it was around 20% less burned, however, the difference being that I didn't need to fuel with carbohydrates on the ride to replace any defecit that I would normally get, by riding harder and faster. Arriving home, my legs felt fresh and I guzzled down a bottle of Rego, just as a precaution (don't want any more viruses or colds).

At one point, three guys whizzed past me and I was really tempted to just up the ante and get on the back of their group, they were doing about 20mph. I didn't. Opting to just gently spin the pedals whilst I watched them disappear in the distance.

After my second base mile ride, it's starting to sink in. I've firmly got my eye on the bigger picture. Lot's of steady miles, with minimal effort, building up to higher levels of effort as the winter progresses. Main objective is weight loss, before anything else, so I can improve my climbing in 2011. To do that, it's diet, training in the aerobic zone all mixed up with a little dash of commitment.

Choosing the correct crank length

An often overlooked consideration on road bikes is the length of your crank arms, relative to your leg length.

As a first time rider, you don't even realise there are differing lengths, nor their importance. It's just the thing that turns the chain round and you screw your pedals in to, isn't it?

Most shop bikes come with a 170mm or 175mm crank arm as standard, which if you're over six foot (which I am), 175mm is generally the right length due to your inside leg relative to your height. However, if your legs are a bit shorter, it may well suit you to have a shorter crank arm.

Here's why. When you're new to road cycling, most training manuals point you to a cadence (pedal rotations per minute) of around 85pm, in order to help you build aerobic capacity and reduce muscle fatigue (the Lance Armstrong method pretty much). If you have shorter legs and a long bike crank arm, it can mean your pedalling isn't as efficient as it could be as the overall rotation has to go through a bigger arc, relative to your leg, meaning you may not be getting the most from your muscles.

Now, on your first bike, this won't be a big issue as you're starting out, getting used to things, doing all the learning and things like crank length won't have any noticeable impact on your new hobby.

However, if you start to get addicted to cycling (as I did) and you hanker after your next bike, you want to get faster, look at the science a bit more and get more into things like geometry and fit, you should make sure you ask the question at your local bike shop. Selecting the right crank length for your new bike should be one of your considerations.

I had a body scan, which established the right frame size, optimum crank length etc, however there are plenty of articles on the web about it, like this one if you want to read up about it. I also found this article which offers a crank length formula if you really want to go to town.

Final thought is if you do change your crank arm length, you'll also need to adjust your seat height to compensate. If you're in the North West, come see me and I'll get you all fitted up on your bike.

Target Heart Rate Training

Winters on the way and with it comes the prospect of fewer miles outside and putting a bit of weight on. Or does it?

After a year on the road, I'm not losing any weight and I'm stuck at my current weight, even though I've been cycling around 400-500 miles a month. I knocked about a stone off in the beginning, but after that, nothing.

It's mostly to the intensity I've been training at. When you have a heart rate monitor, you can begin to understand how hard you're working. My problem is that I spend most of my time in Heart Rate Zones 4 & 5, I like to ride fast, push myself on the misunderstood basis that it's better for you. On my recent healthcheck, my heart and lungs were judged at someone ten years younger, so that's a good start.

However, I want to lose weight to get my power to weight ratio better for the going up hills. The solution, is to do more miles in Heart Rate Zone 2 and 3. This calls for longish rides, really keeping an eye on your intensity and ensuring you don't go out of Zone 2 in the main. Staying in Zone 2 means you're body burns more fat, than carbohydrate, which should contribute to reduction in weight, when combined with a decent diet. If you're always pushing, you end up relying on carbohydrate for fuel instead of fat, well that's what the experts say.

After today's 36 mile ride, it's quite tough going slow. Reason being, is your instinct is telling you to ride fast, get out the saddle up a hill, get the old heart pumping. Today, I was up and down my gears on my winter bike, just making sure the old ticker stayed in Zone 2. It slowed me right down, at times to 8mph going up hills, 12mph on some drags and no more than 17mph on some flats, where I would normally be hitting 22-23mph.

Of course it means, you get overtaken whilst you're out, which as a naturally competitive person, is a bit tough. However, thinking ahead, a good winter of aerbobic base miles should do me the world of good and help shift the 10 - 12Ibs I want to shed over the winter and come into 2011 a bit leaner, a bit meaner and much keaner. Let's see.

Graeme Obree - Book or the Film?

It's been a hell of a four days. Picking up a nasty virus last Thursday, I've been on house arrest. Unable to get out of bed for the first two days, this nasty little virus has hit me for six, no bike for me this weekend.

When you find yourself laying in bed for long periods, inevitably you start watching DVD's and reading books to break the boredom. I took the opportunity to re-watch the Graeme Obree film "The Flying Scotsman," which is a film I only discovered about six months ago, depicting Graeme's achievements. Or does it?

Regular readers will know that I've met Graeme a couple of times now, most recently a couple of weeks back. On that visit, he generously lent me the original hand-written manuscript to his auto-biography, also named "The Flying Scotsman," and taking the opportunity of being stuck in bed, I got stuck into it.

When Graeme first told me that he'd written the entire thing in longhand, I thought it quite incredible. In this computer age, I thought he'd of bashed it out on a laptop, e-mailed it somewhere, the edit would have been done, final approval, off to the printers. What I got put into my hands was an A4 ringbinder with page after page of his handwritten story.

When you see a story written in words on paper, it completely changes the context. It brings this amazing connection to the subject, you can imagine Graeme just sat with a pen pouring his story out.

If that wasn't incredible enough, I then set out to compare the printed book with the handwritten manuscript. How many changes were made? What made the book, what didn't? How much was ghost written? Amazingly, Graeme knocked out almost the entire book with little amendment or editing. I found this simply incredible. Just put yourself in his shoes, someone says write a book about your life. Where would you start? How many attempts would you make? How many pages would have line after line of corrections or tipp-ex through them? The Flying Scotsman manuscript has very few and the book is 95% word perfect to the original manuscript.

Watching the film "The Flying Scotsman," it dawned on me that the film portrays very little of Graeme's life. "It's a drama, not a documentary," was how Graeme described it to me and I have to agree. Much of the surrounding storyline is fictitious. An example, Graeme did not strip his wifes washing machine down on the kitchen floor, he stripped down a disused washing machine, you could argue that this is pretty central to the Graeme Obree story. In addition, the film depicts him getting up late on the day of his record attempt, he didn't, he was right on time. Nevertheless, the film remains one of my firm favourites.

If a proper film were to be made of his life, I think it would need to be an epic like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Reading his biography for the third time, it's amazing how he just swept up Time Trial records as an amateur, often on bikes he's fashioned from spare parts. How he once rode 220 miles (350km) in one day to meet his family on holiday. How he broke TT records on a fixed wheel bike, when others would need a full set of gears. How he would think nothing of setting off on his bike to ride countries in Europe, with hardly any money to get by. I could go on.

What's obvious to me is that whichever way round you do it, you have to read the book and see the film. The book gives you the amazing story, and it is amazing, the words you read are not a publishers or a ghost writers, they are Graeme's. The film is great to watch as Jonny Lee Miller depicts Graeme brilliantly, I could watch it time after time. The sum part of both is an amazing story, which I think should be told far wider than the cycling community.

I do feel incredibly privileged having the opportunity to read such a manuscript. Perhaps, a once in a lifetime event. It speaks volumes about the man, that on our second meeting, he would entrust me with such an item. For me, it should live in The British Library, it's such an important piece of cycling history.

I've written a couple of previous pieces about Graeme from a long chat I had with him, which you can read here and here. He's currently writing a training manual, which should be a really interesting read if the auto-biography is anything to go by. Recently joining Twitter, I had a look at some of the comments people were saying about him, I've never seen "legend" and "inspiration" quoted quite so often. Within a week, he's attracted 825 followers, which says a lot about how people view him. The Obree story is far from over, that's clear.

Blackpool Rock(s)

It's been a very busy seven days. A combination of a very busy schedule, travelling and some late nights thrown in, left me feeling pretty tired this weekend. As a result, I fancied a flat and easy 40 miles today, rather than the scheduled North Cheshire Clarion club run, which was a hilly route.

Question was, where to go? Needing a bit of time for reflection, I decided to have a run up the coast. I loaded the bike on the roof of the car, drove up to Lytham St. Annes and rode the coastal route up to Fleetwood and back. The route takes you right through Blackpool promenade in parallel to the sea. It was just what the doctor ordered, bit of sea air and great views over the Irish sea plus plenty of time to clear my thoughts down. Weather was a little cold and overcast.

Setting off I had a decent tailwind and shot up to Fleetwood pretty quickly. Spinning round, that tailwind became a headwind and I opted to just knock into an easier gear and have an easy run back. Spent quite a bit of time dodging pedestrians, which did knock the average speed down at points, however, no drama, I went there to enjoy the view and that I did.

Bike was pretty gritty when I got back. There was quite a bit of sand about and The Unicorn needed a good clean, the babywipes soon sorted it all out and it's back its dazzling white best and in it's air conditioned cabinet back at home :-)

Overall it was just short of 40 miles for the roundtrip, almost pan flat all the way but a nice change. Here's a photo I took en route.

The Flying MAMIL

Gorgeous day for riding. Bit cold setting off, but when the sun broke through about half nine this morning, it was one of those days when you could have ridden all day. 23 of us whizzed out from Stretton heading out on a loop, taking in part of the Johnny Helms Memorial Time Trial being ridden over Knutsford way.

It was MAMIL central round Knutsford, with many clubs and riders, riding out to see the event, particularly with famous names like Graeme Obree and Yvonne Mcgregor taking part. I split off from the club cafe stop to peg it home today as it was my sons birthday party and I needed to be back in plenty of time.

On such a lovely day, it made for a terrific ride. I put the hammer down and got some great speeds in heading back to Stretton, hitting 20mph+ average for many of the miles I rode, my best mile time was 2mins 32 secs, averaging 23.6mph, happy with that. The bike felt brilliant today, the pedals just purred round, I caught and flew by many a cyclist on the way back.

It ended a brilliant week for me. If you hadn't heard I won these two amazing awards on Thursday night, Graeme Obree stopped by to visit me at home on his way to the Time Trial and lent me the original manuscript of The Flying Scotsman to read (if you have never read it or seen the DVD, you must), it was my sons birthday and my ride today, just capped it all off. Life is good.

North Cheshire Clarion Club Run 031010

Sunday was wet. Very wet. In fact the rain lashed for about four hours solid on the club run. We were all drenched. According to the met office there was only the risk of slight showers, someone got that one very wrong.

Riding a route that looped back on itself a couple of times, six of us ended up through Delamere Forest to one of our regular cafe stops at Summertrees (load of the club on the Seasons of the Mist Audax on Sunday). There was no one there when we arrived, place was empty and we soon had the place steaming when we started stripping our kit off. I wrung my gloves out the door and it was like squeezing a sponge, water poured out of them.

And then there were the puddles. We hit some big, big puddles. You had no perspective of how deep they were approaching them, we went through two big ones and then we hit the big one, splash, It came up as far as my cranks and my feet got soaked through.

It was one hell of a slog. Average speed was rubbish, we had to slow right down for safety more than anything, Geordie Graeme's brake blocks almost totally disintegrated with all the grit on the road, so that was fun for him on a couple of the descents.

Arriving home, I was wet through. My overshoes had done their best but my feet were soaking, my gloves were wringing wet, my hat soaked through. Still, you have to be able to go out in all conditions if you want the miles bad enough, I did and despite everything, a hot bath soon sorted me out.

Soreen World Record Attempt

Friday night saw the kick off a 24 challenge to establish a new World Record for “The greatest quantity of electricity generated by pedalling on static cycles for a period of 24 hours. (Electricity is measured in watts)”, spearheaded by Malt Loaf brand Soreen.

Inviting riders to book in on one of fifty wattbikes set up in the centre of Manchester Velodrome, the set up meant that around 1200 hours of cycling would be crammed into the 24 hr attempt (50 bikes x 24 hrs) if fully optimised. I, along with a bunch of riders from North Cheshire Clarion, stumped up en masse to have a crack at some of the sessions and to get the event rocking early doors.

Jumping on for the first session, I went for a warm up and averaged 183 watts output for the first 30 minute session at 5.30pm. I then had an unexpected half hour break and cranked it up for the second session at 6.00pm, achieving an average wattage of 222W and peaking around 360W when I pushed a hard gear for a couple of intervals.

The Wattbikes are great, I blogged about them previously here. This event was a great opportunity for you to measure your power output, whilst doing something for charity and contributing to a world record attempt. As it happened, around 3hrs into the challenge the record of around 12k watts was smashed and with the event still running at the time of writing this, it's already up to around 72K watts, so I can officially call myself a World Record Holder I guess.

It's a great initiative, good for the region, good for the brand. Few small improvements to mention if they do it again: -

1. E-mail confirming that you've booked on, didn't confirm your time, so if you didn't remember, you'd be stuck.
2. I booked a back to back session, 5.00pm and 5.30pm. Turning up, they had no record of this, thankfully I managed to grab a cancelled slot at 6.00pm. Everything was on paper. I wasn't the only one regretably.
   
3. The readings were all recorded manually. You just verbally gave your wattage. Wattbikes can be all fully hooked up via a network and data taken electronically. This would be better in the future as - with big prizes up for stake - anyone could have just lied when submitting their power output to win the prize. Can't see the Guinness Book of Record guys accepting the reliability of that, although I'm assuming the wattbike data will be downloaded and submitted.
   
4. It would have been great display the real time rider data. If the data was being captured electronically, you could see a leaderboard for most watts etc which would have been a real incentive on the day.
5. Thought they might have publicised it a bit better. Great event, shame that more people didn't know about it. They'd being posting on social media but were lacking some of the fundamentals for me like a hashtag to really bring the community of contributors together.
6. Spot prizes like a Soreen cycling top would have been brilliant. Rider with the biggest power in each session wins one.
7. Don't think the website was that well optimised.
   

On the positive side, it's worth mentioning the following: -

1. It was an interesting idea and - as a marketeer - a great alignment between potential market and brand, very newsworthy.
2. It gave a lot of people a free try on a Wattbike.
3. It was open to everyone, you could just book on, so very inclusive.
4. Soreen were donating 5pm for every watt generated, so on the basis that over 72K had been done before the event finish, that should mean £15K ish for the Christie Hospital.
   
5. THE RECORD GOT BROKEN, which is great for that to happen in Manchester and great for all those taking part. Well done to all the fellow record breakers!
   

Tour of Britain - Photo

Here's me just hitting the crest of Gun Hill on Sunday's Tour of Britain, Stoke Sportive. The fastest rider on the day got up it in 7 mins and 31 secs. My time was 12 mins and 52 secs which put me 516th out of 778 riders in terms of time. Plenty of work still to do on my fitness. You can get some perspective of how high it is from the backdrop. Was great to nail it.

Tour of Britain 2010 - Stoke Stage Sportive

"Quitting lasts forever, pain is temporary", those words from Lance Armstrong were ringing in my ears today on some of the biggest and hardest hills I've ever ridden. With just shy of 8,000 feet of ascent across the 100 mile sportive, today was about guts, not quitting when your body is shouting out for you to stop, digging deep for that extra little piece of energy when you thought everything was spent.

My mission today was clear, ride the whole route without walking up any hill. Prior to today, I'd of thought that a big ask as I've been off the bike on previous tough sportives, however I'd been mentally preparing myself for this one and arrived at the start line with a steely determination to give it everything I had. This was the hardest sportive on paper that I had ever entered and I had my race face on. I've captured the key points of the day in bullet form below for easy reading.

• Driving down to Stoke at half six this morning, the temperature was dropping. Six degrees in Knutsford, three degrees in Stoke. On arrival at the car park, it felt really cold. I had planned to just wear shorts, a base layer, my top and some new Merino arm warmers I bought yesterday. I rolled out with a hat on and leg warmers too!
  
• The start line was well organised with plenty of noise, plus TV cameras, so we managed to roll up to the line with our club tops on to hog the picture. Riding with me today were Martin, Sarah, Ade and Matt.
• Riding out, we had a motorbike outrider and we were all pretty excited. Although the traffic wasn't stopped, like the real tour, the organisers had gone to town to try and give the riders the same experience.
• It was windy today, really windy. It made the ride much, much harder and for me precarious at points. With the deep section wheels I had on, they really caught the wind. At one point, I hit 40mph on a descent (Ade hit 50mph) and was still gaining speed, a huge gust came from the side and nearly blew me off. The bike did a big wobble and I got straight on the brakes, it put the frighteners on me for sure and at other key times during the day I experienced the same thing. On the positive side, the wheels rolled magnificently and looked the business.
• Food and drink was first rate today. All the drink and food stops were well stocked and on arrival back in Stoke you got a voucher for a bowl of pasta and a bag of freebies. I managed to bring back a pocketful of energy bars and gels. All in, there were six stops on the route. Only critiscism I had about the organisation was that they didn't have timing mats on the stops to deduct from your overall time. The mats just timed you rolling out and rolling in plus how quick you did Gun Hill. So, if you had a few stops, it would make it look like you were out for a huge amount of time.
  
• Gun Hill. We were all cacking ourself about this one, particularly as it had a lot of press during the tour. To be honest, we all felt there were harder hills on the ride. Some of the short, sharp, shock hills which didn't qualify for King of the Mountains, were absolute killers! Many a time I was out of the saddle, fighting to stay on someone's wheel or just to stop myself coming to a complete stop.
• What's very different about this Sportive compared to say The Cheshire Cat is that the hills were relentless over the entire distance. It felt like the bulk of the ride was going up. The Cheshire Cat gets them all done in the first thirty miles. Even within the last four miles of this ride, there was a hill. Not a big one, granted, but enough that you felt it after 96 miles of tough climbing.
• Great moment was when Twitter follower Mike McConnell, who lives in Birmingham said "Are you Roadphil?" as he recognised my bike which I call "The Unicorn" at one of the feedstops. Mike is was great to meet you, readers please visit his blog or give him a follow on Twitter. The power of social media eh.
• Fellow North Cheshire Clarion riders were magnificent today. Ade (AKA "Billy" the mountain goat) flew up everything in sight, Matt overcame terrible cramp at forty miles and ended up finishing (that took guts), Sarah just got stronger the longer the ride carried on and Martin kept our spirits up with his hill commentary. As a group we got round and had some good banter on the way.
• Had my front derailleur fettled by the SRAM mechanics on the first foodstop. Was struggling to get it off the small ring to the big one on front, small adjustment and all sorted. The bike felt awesome today, I think it played a big part in my ability to get up the hills. It's light, nimble and puts the power straight to the wheels.
  
• There were times when I was on my limit today, no doubt. I think the base miles and sportives I've ridden over the summer have helped. I can honestly say, I've never performed better on hills than I did today. Still not superfast, I'm 210Ibs in weight and that takes some hauling up, however compared to where I was twelve months ago, big change.
• At the end of the sportive, we rode in the park where we set off to the finish line and we all crossed together, that was a great moment. It typifies what our cycling club is about, not shelling people off the back or dropping people, but never leaving a rider behind. Managed to bag some bargains from the Tour stall which was selling off its stock.
  
• On the way back to the car park, I commandeered one of the lamp post signs for the Pro Tour, that will have pride of place somewhere when I figure out where to put it. Managed to hack it off with my house keys, nice memento.
• All in all it's been one hell of a hard day. At times, my lungs were at capacity, my legs ached and it would have been easy to walk. However I did what I set out to do, that is ride the entire Sportive without getting off once (apart from food stops of course). Overall it took me about 7hrs 30mins to ride the 100 miles, comparing that to the 6hrs it took me to ride the Manchester 100 the other week, it says it all. Easily, the hardest ride I've done since starting on the bike last August, but by a long chalk, the most satisfying. Today was a real achievement for me and another step forward in enjoying this wonderful sport.
  

Tour of Britain - Stoke Stage

Tomorrow, i'll be riding the Stoke stage of the Tour of Britain, along with a few other members from my Warrington based road cycling club - North Cheshire Clarion.

Make no bones about it, it will be the hardest sportive I've completed to date. It's 161km (100m) long with 2450m of ascent (7350 feet). You can view the stage manual here.

I've kitted my Dolan Ares up with with the SRAM S60 deep section wheels for the first time, they've been sat in bags since I bought them and this may well be the last chance to ride them before the winter sets in (see picture). Following a run of punctures on my other rims recently - which run Michelin Pro Race 3 tyres - I've put some Continental 4000's on to see if they make a difference, only problem being they were very tight to get on, so I hope I won't be struggling to get them off again at the side of a road somewhere.

My Garmin 705 has still not been returned from them following it's breakdown, I have to say I've been pretty disappointed in the service experience from them and I'll think twice before buying upgrading to an 805. I think there's a real gap in the market for someone to challenge Garmin with a decent GPS/Bike computer, if I had the time......

So, now making the final preparations for tomorrow. What food to take? (although the feed stations look well stocked) When to stop? When to pop a gel? How am I going to get up Gun Hill? I'll post a blog about how it all went.

Road Bike Buyers Guide

Buying your first road bike, can be daunting. There's a lot of jargon, a huge range of products to choose from and loads of opinion to decipher. 

In this short buyers guide, I'm going to try and give some advice as to the basics you should be looking for, demist some of the jargon and hopefully allow you to make an informed decision about what is right for you. I'm going to focus on the sub £999 price bracket primarily as that is where the Cycle to Work limit is.

First things first, buying your first bike is all about getting going, getting out there and starting to enjoy the sport. Bikes in the sub £1k category all pretty good, with different pro's and con's of each. The main vendors in this category are: -

Boardman (Halfords only) - English brand, made in Taiwan.
Cannondale (Available in many bike shops) - American brand, made in Taiwan.
Giant (Available in many bike shops) - Taiwanese brand, made in Taiwan.
Specialized (Widely available in local bike shops) - American brand, made in Taiwan.
Trek (widely available in local bike shops) - American brand, made in Taiwan.

Within this price bracket, you also buy bikes from Bianchi (Italian), BMC, Cube and Eddy Merckx. As you can see, Taiwan is pretty much the bike producing capital of the world now, with all the major brands taking advantage of the low cost labour to hit the key sub £1000 price point.  If you want to see where a brand originates from, I posted a separate article about it here.

Major considerations to make when buying your new bike are firstly: -

What sort of riding are you planning to do? Sportive, Racing, Tri-athlons? Depending on your answer, it will dictate what sort of geometry you should go for. If you want to ride for distances with comfort, you're better off with a bike with a long front headtube, which makes the bars sit quite high relative to the saddle (sportive position). If racing or tri-athlon is your cup of tea, then you'll need something with a shorter front head tube and tighter geometry which sits you further down on the bars to reduce air resistance.

How fit are you? This will dictate whether you need a triple, compact or standard chainring on your bike. A triple (three cogs on the front) gives you the maximum range of gears and willl certainly be the best choice for the beginner. I purchased a triple for my first bike and I'm glad I did, especially on the big hills. A compact chainset has two rings on the front with what's generally a 50/34 combination (big ring has 50 teeth, small 34), this is better if you are reasonably fit, it has a slightly narrower range of gears than the triple. I moved to a compact for my second bike and found it fine as I was fitter. A standard chainring is what most experienced riders, racers and tri-athletes us. It is a set of bigger rings which allow you to go faster by creating harder gearing ratios.  I've written a separate article about gearing here. For a beginner, I would consider a triple or a compact. 

Groupsets. The word groupset commonly refers to the combination of the brake & shift levers, the derailleurs, rear cassette, brake callipers and pedal crankarm/chainrings. There are three major brands in the market, Campagnolo, Shimano and SRAM. Each manufacturer has an ascending set of groupsets, starting from budget and ending up in something very high end. You can see the ascending lists here. Generally speaking, Boardman come with SRAM Rival, Bianchi come with Campagnolo Centaur or Veloce, Specialized come with Shimano Sora/Tiagra and Trek come with Shimano Sora/Tiagra too. For my second bike, I went with SRAM RED, the very top end of the SRAM groupset and it works like a Porsche gearbox!

One thing to be careful of is that manufacturers mix and match. For example, they may have a Shimano chain-ring and derailleur, however opt for unbranded brake callipers and other components, so it's not what's considered a full groupset. As you get more into cycling and mix with other cyclists, groupsets figure a lot in discussion as they are key components on the bike. Gear changing and braking efficiency on the bike are key, however on sub £1K bikes, you have to try and get the best you can, taking into account other components on the bike such as wheel quality.

Wheels. As you get more into cycling, one of the first things you'll find yourself upgrading is the wheels. Generally, sub £1K bikes come with pretty average wheels. You'll find Alex rims on most of the Specialized range, Ritchey rims on the Boardman and Bontrager wheels on the Trek (Bontrager is a brand owned by Trek). Personally, I think that the Bontrager rims are the best in this category, however that shouldn't be the decisive decision for you, as the entire bike and look/feel need to be taken into consideration when you make your purchase.

Aesthetics. You can drive yourself nuts trying to compare loads of bikes, I've done it myself. You love the look of one, but the other one has better wheels. One has a better groupset but the colour scheme isn't your cup of tea. Seriously, you'll be there. My advice is this. Make a shortlist of three bikes that you like the look of first, forget the spec. Go and see them in a showroom and see if you like the look of them in the flesh first, don't buy the first one you see.

Then do a spec comparison of the bikes taking into account the best deal you can get at the local bike shop. Remember, if you're buying on a Cycle to Work scheme, the dealer wont often budge on the price as they have to give 15% margin to the people that run the scheme. If you're using your own lolly, then drive a hard bargain. I managed to get my shoes, water bottle cages, two bottles and a full set of Specialized bib shorts and a Specialized top with my bike, plus some Look pedals all for £50 more than the bike SRP, so I saved a stack.

There are some good bargains to be had on last years bikes as dealers clear this seasons models for next. Grab the bargain whilst you can and spend the money you save on other kit like lights, saddle bag, spare tubes and a bike multi-tool. II've written a few blogs about kit you might consider to buy if you want to get serious about cycling, so it's good to save a bit of money at the start.

Where to buy your bike. You've three options really. A bike chain retailer (Evans Cycles/Halfords - Boardman/Carrera range), a local bike shop or over the web. Halfords don't have the best reputation with road cyclists and you'll read lots of complaints in the forums about poor set-up. Don't worry too much as Boardman bikes are good bikes and if you buy one, just whizz it to your local bike shop and pay them to set it up properly for you. You've no other options as the Boardman range is exclusive to them. Evans are more specialist with a better reputation and a wider range of brands to choose from. Lot's of guys I know ride the Boardman and it is a decent bike, so don't be put off.

Local bike shops can offer more specialist advice and set-up advice too, they'll also be trying to push the models they have in stock, so visit a couple and make your own decision (don't forget about bargaining hard). If you don't mind ordering on the web, websites like Onixbikes, Planet-X,  Ribble and Wiggle (with their Verenti brand) have cropped up, all offering decent bikes with good spec at competitive prices. Wiggle offer a 30 day try before you buy on a wide range of bikes, which does away with the uncertainty away if you want to give a bike a good try.

If you do buy a bike, try and get it fitted by a bike fitter.  After riding for six months, I look back and wish I'd sorted this out on day one as it can make a big change to your riding style. Even a set 1cm too high can impact on your pedalling performance.

The bottom line with your first bike is buying a bike that appeals to you in terms of looks and has as good as components as you can get for the look you like. Some people like white bikes, some black, hence my advice to narrow down on the emotional side first, i.e., which bikes you like the look of first, then groupsets/spec, then price all have to be assessed to come up with your final choice.

As you develop, you'll upgrade bits as I did with my Specialized Secteur Sport, it doesn't take you long to get into the serious cyclist mentality, buying kit, shiny new bits, latest bits and bobs and things you read about in magazines, that's half the fun of getting into it.

So, get out there, get looking and good luck!

Meeting Denise Hampson

I love my job. One advantage of running a large business with a big external sales force is that you are always looking for inspiring people to tell their story as a way to motivate others. As someone with a big passion for cycling, I'm always intrigued by what motivates top-flight sportspeople who have made the top flight and what lessons can be learned for business.

Last week, we heard from Scottish cycling legend Graeme Obree at a customer event about overcoming adversity, breaking rules and achieving the impossible (see blogpost here). I thought that was an inspiring story to fit in with a new campaign we're running which talks about ambition and giving 141%.

Today, I invited former British Champion track racer - Denise Hampson - to address my sales team about transferable lessons from sport to business. She drew some great parallels between her experience as a top flight cyclist who rode for team GB. I've added my comments to these in bold.

• "It's easy when the coach is there, real commitment is the things that you do when no-one is watching" <--This is about self-motivation to get on with the job.
• "Assumptions are deadly". <--Great point, always check.
• "You don't learn if you get beaten or win all of the time". <--Agree, this isn't the ideal way to learn.
• "You don't have to have every skill to be successful". <--A strong team counts.
• "Constant positive feedback is not helpful as you cannot clearly identify the bad days" <--So true, feedback must be constructive.
• "If you have success, celebrate it" <--In a busy world, important to stop for a moment.
• "Belief is important, but not everything". <--Ability also counts.

With a warm, human delivery, Denise won our bunch over really quickly. It takes a lot to impress a sales force, however there is so much to be learnt from people who have pushed themselves beyond the limits that many of us dare to.

From a cycling perspective, Denise was able to share some of the highs and lows of her career, which were fascinating to hear. I've bulleted these for quick consumption, in no particular order:-

• She got into cycling after seeing a picture in a shop window which said "Do you want to be the next Chris Boardman?", clearly she did!
• Her first bike cost £150 which she paid £5 per week for.
• She started in a club, but quickly progressed to the Velodrome.
• She had joined team GB within six months of getting into track cycling.
• She won the British Championship in 2001.
• She was only 25 when she retired after she lost the will to race. A key contributor was the politics in the sport.
• She did around 2,500 hours of training for a race that would last for less than 60 seconds (that's pressure).
• She went to Australia for part of her career and trained with the Australian track team, where she said she really benefittted from a much more informal training regime.
• Her main motivations were to "achieve something that money couldn't buy" and to "prove people wrong" who said she'd never make it.

Denise now runs a successful business which you can read more about here. She has re-invented herself and is on her fifth career at a sprightly 32 years old, by her own choice. That in itself is pretty awesome and speaks volumes about her ability to set and pursue goals.

Graeme Obree Documentary

Not wanting to be accused of being Obree obsessed this week, but I found this fascinating documentary whilst doing some research about him, on Youtube. I've watched the film, however this Channel 4 documentary is about as authentic as it comes.

The quality isn't brilliant, the sound - at times - terrible, however it gives you a real "fly on wall" feel of the competitiveness that existed between Obree and Boardman, culminating in Obree beating Boardman at the World Championships. If you want to watch it, you can view it here. It's chopped up into six minute chunks which you can keep linking sequentially to on the right. Really worth a watch.

Meeting Graeme Obree (Part II)

Continued from previous blogpost...

Graeme Obrees Top Tips for New Cyclists

I asked Graeme what his top tips would be for someone new to road cycling. He claims that the following “made him World Champion”.

1. 1. Seek out older riders. Ask their advice, really listen to them, particularly about racing tips or riding in groups.
   2. Never stop thinking about your position on the bike. Saddle height and saddle fore/aft. Keep making minor adjustments to this to see if your performance improves. If it doesn’t put it back to where it was.
   3. Learn when to rest.

Graeme was very insistent that rest is the #1 element of his training, not to constantly keep knocking yourself out, but to include rest as a key element of your training plan.

Do specific training for specific results was something he kept re-iterating. Whether it be a TT, a road or velodrome race, tailor your training specifically for your objective. Graeme finished by saying that he would rather ride a cheap bike that fits him perfectly, rather than an expensive bike that doesn’t. Sound advice (remember my bike fit service, details here).

Nutrition Tips

It’s well documented that he’s not an advocate of performance products, preferring to scrutinise what he eats. Here are his three top tips: -

1. Eat a balanced diet and avoid sports fitness drinks and products.
2. Eat plenty of vegetables and avoid processed foods.
3. Chew your food!

The only two foods that he eats on the bike are Bananas and Marzipan. He says Marzipan is one of the most overlooked sources of energy for bike riders and contains all the necessary things you’re system needs (including digestive) when out on long runs. He’s done all the research on this (Marzipan is a new one on me).

Graeme had studied the way our digestion system works in great detail. He became really animated and went into great detail on this topic, I couldn’t take the notes fast enough. I guess you’ll have to wait for the book!

Other Things in the Conversation

a) The original “Old Faithful” bike can be seen in the Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. He donated it.
b) A replica “Old Faithful” was made for the film. Graeme made this himself and this will be donated to the Scottish Transport Museum.
c) Graeme wrote his book “The Flying Scotsman” himself. He wrote the entire book longhand and amazingly still retains the original manuscript (including the strike throughs that he had to remove for legal reasons). He told me that once he had finished his manuscript and done the final edit, he has never read the book again.
d) Graeme names all of his bikes and feels that everyone should give their bike a name. His current steed is called “Lady Penelope” (he owns two bikes which he’s built himself).
e) He said he is either “full on or full off” when it comes to cycling. Giving everything or giving nothing. Full intensity or no intensity. I guess this comes as a by-product of his personality.
f) Graeme doesn’t own a car and has never driven. He rides everywhere or uses public transport.

So that ends my post about meeting Graeme Obree. He's a one-off person, his own man, not afraid to speak his mind. You have to admire his guts, determination and sheer audacity. A privilege to meet the man. He was generous to carry a poster of his film all the way from Scotland to sign for me, that's being framed this weekend and going up on the wall in the study.

Meeting Graeme Obree (Part I)

Last night, I spent a good amount of time with former World Individual Pursuit Champion and Hour World Record Holder Graeme Obree. I hired Graeme as a speaker for an after dinner talk and – as a result – got to spend a lot of time with him one to one. It was fascinating to meet him and I had so many questions, we spoke for about an hour in the bar of the hotel as I scribbled notes furiously.

Since getting into cycling over a year ago, I’ve read many biographies and The Flying Scotsman (his biography) was one of those that I really enjoyed. I saw the film on TV a couple of months back which I highly recommend you watch.

Reading the book and watching the film quickly established that his life had been full of adversity, serious challenges and – at times – failure. His well documented battle with mental illness simply goes to underline the strength and resolve he subsequently showed in breaking Franceso Moser’s record in 1993. I wanted to focus our time together on his cycling achievements, rather than his battle with bi-polar disorder.

Speaking to him, what strikes you about Graeme is his intensity. He’s either staring you steely straight in the eyes or looking the other way when talking. He’s a maverick. Outspoken. Single-minded. Opinionated. Highly analytical. Focused. Quirky at times. He’s been compared to James Dyson in the way he analyses problems and finds solutions, using first principles for solution searching.

Underneath all of this was someone who is a genuine person with an amazing story and a large dose of modesty and – after the initial nerves – we warmed to each other and relaxed. On many questions, he really paused before answering, considering details, asking that some responses not be published, for political (cycle politics) reasons. I agreed to this, so some elements of the conversation have to remain with me.

I’ve captured as much as I can from our time together. For me, I wanted to get inside the head of a world champion. To understand what it was that made him tick? To understand how we kept going, in the depths of personal and sporting despair when the odds seemed stacked against him? Earlier in the day I’d asked on Twitter if anyone else had a question for him, these are answered below.

Question via @leeboyman – Rumour is that he has a book on training coming out. Is it true? A – True. Graeme is planning a book; however it is not yet started. It’s the next big thing he plans to work on and ideally would like it done for the Spring 2011. The book will cover road cycling, time trialling, training and nutrition.

Question via @leeboyman - Can you ask him if it's true that he just trains on 'feel' ie no heart rate monitor or power? A – True. Graeme told me that his set-up is as simple as this. He has a turbo-trainer at home, with a big screw in it so that the position never deviates or moves. He uses exactly the same track pump, inner tube, tyre and tyre pressure to ensure that his bike set up is absolutely constant over a long period with no deviation. Then he looks to constantly improve every time he trains - sometimes by only 0.5%. Therefore, he trains by feel only with no electronic measurement. Amazing.

Question via @adamleadbetter - I'd like to know what he thought of the film version of "Flying Scotsman"? A – He enjoyed the film, however has only watched it once and doesn’t like to watch it. He was careful to remind me that this was a film, not a documentary. There are some factual inaccuracies; however – in the main – it is representative of his life. He enjoyed the emotional and evocative style and felt that the film has introduced his story to a newer generation.

Q – Do you think you could ride in a team? Are you a team player? A – Yes I could but only if people were as obsessed about results as I am. If people can’t give critical feedback about their performance or mine, then it would serve no purpose for me to be there and I would be better to ride alone.

Q – Do you think the press attention dubbing Old Faithful “the washing machine bike” was detrimental to your career? A – Yes, sponsors didn’t take me seriously at the time, it meant that most of my career I’ve lacked serious sponsorship. Many people have offered me alternative sponsorships of types over the years, but I’ve refused it as I felt it would compromise by ability to speak out or do things my way.

Q – Do you think you would have liked to have ridden the Tour de France? A – Yes. He cites in the book that the amount of doping at the time meant that he could not have ridden the Tour and felt as if he was competing on equal grounds. He would have ridden it if this was not the case.

Tomorrow I'll put up the second post which contains information about his diet tips, advice for new road cyclists and all of the other general information I captured. To be continued...

Update. Here's the link to the second part of the interview and other Obree related articles I've posted.

Manchester 100

Fellow North Cheshire Clarion club member Sarah sent me this photo of us on the Manchester 100 on Sunday. I'm wasn't wearing my club kit but opted for my long sleeve Dolan windtex top instead, as you can see there were no riders around to help us take the wind!