Onwards and upwards.

Not sure where the time is going at the moment, I'm sure I meant to blog again in between the last post and now, but anyway here it is the next update in the continuing cycling saga!

Here we are - the jerseys have arrived!

Since the last post I've had a few more races, another edition at Rhyl, which turned out to be the best of the lot - stayed with the bunch for the ENTIRE race! Right up to the sprint finish which was slightly hampered by some guy crashing on the final corner and almost causing a pile up. Another 2nd place, and a bonus haul of points as the race organiser upgraded the race to a higher category!

The following day was round 2 of the CDNW Women's series at Nateby/Piling - it was a bit of a damp start to the day but an afternoon kick off was ideal. 4 of the women’s squad were riding, Nicky, Lizzie, Heather and myself. Our race was over 4 laps of the course and we set off at a good speed. I have to admit I was suffering a bit on the first lap, but not Lizzie who was off the front with the eventual winner of the race, looking strong. In fact, she was looking strong throughout staying usually close to the front. The laps counted down and with a slight interlude due to a horse-box which essentially neutralised the race for a couple of kilometers, the pace was generally high, with many attacks going off the front from most of the teams, but always being brought back. As we approached the end of lap 3 and the bell, I started to feel stronger and moved up nearer the front, Lizzie attacked off the front and I went along with her. Of course, being team jersey-ed up was a slight disadvantage here and we were soon pulled back. I dropped back for a while with Lizzie, Heather and Nicky taking up spaces at the front of the group. After a brief rest I headed back up to the front and after a slightly wayward move from one of the other riders ended up on the front and decided I might as well have a dig!

Inevitably I got brought back and decided I’d stay tucked in and try and get in a good position for the finish. Coming into the final straight I moved back up to the front and just as I reached it Jo Street from Manchester Wheelers attacked – perfect, I jumped straight on her wheel and dug in. It’s a long straight to the line and as the 200m banner came into view the peleton began to swamp past. I dug in again and continued to accelerate passing a good few people as I got closer to the line, which I then totally misjudged and got squeezed out into 11th place – damn!



Following this race I had a brief moment of coming out of climbing retirement! The winter conditions in North Wales were "in" and Cascade the classic icefall in the Llanberis Pass was rumoured to be in condition (the Oracle aka Tim Neill - had spoken!). Now there are 3 classic ice routes in N.Wales, Cascade, Central Ice Fall and The Devil's Appendix - a couple of years ago Andy and I had ticked off Central and Appendix so I really couldn't pass up the opportunity to finish off the trilogy. It was a chilly day but amazing blue skies to look at from the shade of the crag! We had a quite a wait for the only other team to get out of the way - it's not a good idea climbing underneath folk when they are showering lumps of ice down. But after some hanging around we finally got on the route - all I can say is that my arms are not what they used to be - I am so weak! I got pumped out of my mind in about 10 seconds and proceeded to squeak and wail and grunt my way up the rest of the first pitch, repeated the performance on the next pitch and managed to look slightly more competent on the top-out pitch - it was very short and considerably easier!
Luckily I was then due to work for the next few days so that was the end of my ice climbing renaissance.



I'm going to end this post here and start a new one for the next installment - The City of Perth Grand Prix!