Paracycling | Final Road Races of 2024

September brings a close to the road season and the Paracycling National Series with Round 5 (Devon) and 6 (York) on back-to-back weekends - yes, it was a lot of driving.

The plan for the month was to try and maintain my 3rd place on the podium in the C5 Classification. After round 4, I was on 97 points, 5 points behind 2nd and 16 points ahead of 4th. Depending on the amount of entries and who enters, I might have been able to keep 3rd. In order to get 2nd, I would likely need to beat them in a TT while I don’t have a TT bike which means that is close to impossible - which is why I need to look into TT bikes for next year.

Before the back-to-back races, I had just under 2 weeks of training to do. The first ride consisted of a recovery ride. Which says a lot about how much I suffered in the London Academy GP that I did a proper recovery ride.

With the final ride of the weekend “block” being a self-imposed 90minute TT to see if I could break my 60minute and 90minute average power PBs. For context, my FTP was much higher than 276w, but I never did an effort that was consistent over the duration. Given that I was also going for the 90min record (256w), I split the effort into 3x 30minute blocks and went for a “middle split” approach. That meant that the first 30minutes were at 276w (280w NP) which meant that as long as higher that 277w, I would have a new record.

The middle split was always designed to be the highest and I went at 291w (294w NP), but midway through the 30minutes, I decided to make sure I definitely got the record by increasing the pace to 295w (297w) range for 20minutes.

While this meant that I secured the 60minute average power PB, I needed to continue for another 30minutes to get the 90minute record. While in theory I could have sat up, I wanted to continue the effort to put a decent bar for the next effort. This final 30minute effort was 285w average (290w NP) including a 5minute effort at 323w (328w NP) to finish off the effort.

So the total effort was just over 90minutes at 283w average (289w NP) while being baselined to 276w and not on fresh legs. I also messed around, a bit in final 30mins, knowing I ticked off both objectives knowing 300w for 90minutes is already on the table.

The other interesting thing to note is that I put more power down in the aero position on the hoods than I do in any other position because I pull up as well as down which means that when I move to the aero position, I actually have to lower my gears.

The main thing being that I ticked off another two objectives (60minute and 90minute average power PBs! With only four efforts left to do which are:

• 10second & 12second

• 2minute

• 5minute & 6minute

• 10minute, 12minute & 20minute.

The following weekend saw me join the Peterborough CycleHub group ride which isn’t really a social ride and more of a keep up as long as you can training ride. I made a few mistakes before this ride relating to nutrition meaning that I didn’t have my normal pre-ride breakfast or have carb-mix on the ride. I also woke up with heavy legs that felt like they didn’t recover from Tuesday’s 90min TT effort. That said, I wasn’t too concerned about the legs because it’s when they feel like this, I tend to get my max power out of them - and that’s what happened.

I got warned before that you need to be aware for big efforts on the climbs so when Charlotte Deykin (who races in Nat A) attacked, I followed which was a massive confidence booster for me when I got on the wheel. I have no doubt that it wasn’t a full-on attack, but I got on the wheel having smashed my all time sprint power records. The main thing I noted was the continual effort which is something I need to work on (and these rides will help). I could get onto the wheel but I was suffering a lot to stay in it. The other thing to note is that the pedalling on the full out sprint wasn’t smooth and I don’t know if that is my technique, the gear selection or generally the bike but it will be something to note as I try to get better at sprinting. The final thing to note is clearly I made the newbie mistake as no one else tried to follow on the climb. Strava says we put 10seconds into everyone else on that small dig.

The rest of the ride was less big attacks and more continual efforts, probably because I was suffering and couldn’t put in those digs. That said it is a weakness of mine that I can’t kick off high efforts. I’m not sure if that’s a gearing thing or being in the red - probably a combination of the two.

I also learnt about the immediate sprint which occurs just before the main climb. That effort was interesting because I thought it was going to be the lead out for the climb, but it wasn’t. In the end, I ended up 3rd in trying to chase to the main sprinters - but then was confused by them sitting up. Something I’ll know for next time.

I did start to struggle at the end with the efforts in the red which wasn’t helped by being stuck on the front ahead of the final climb. While I got dropped, I continued the effort after with a solo effort which was 11minutes at around 300w.

That meant the total effort was just under 94minutes at 246w but looking at NP it was 294w. Which is my highest NP for that long of an effort. Perhaps the thing that impresses me the most about the effort was that the IF score was 1.2!

While I mentioned I ticked off the 10sec & 12sec PBs off my objectives, I also proved that I can smash my 5min & 6min power records too. Nearing the end of the ride I did 5mins at 335w (but perhaps more importantly 367w NP) which extended to 6mins at 332w (362w NP). While I also did 340w NP for 10mins which would smash my current PB (325w average) which also extended to 330w NP for 12mins - once again much higher than my average power PB.

The next weekend was the start of my back-to-back Paracycling National Series race weekends starting off in Devon. But before that I had a quick trip to get a bike fit for a track bike which was a bit more interesting that hoped. In the end, I brought a Dolan DF4 which will hopefully arrive soon so I can start doing more track work.

While the original plan was to drive Thursday, I drove Friday morning which meant the legs were never going to be the best they could be for the Saturday (TT). However, the big day was on the Sunday.

Saturday was an 18km TT which was essentially an out-and-back with a small loop instead of the standard roundabout. Essentially the route was flat but there was a small false flat on the way out (and therefore small false flat downhill on the way back).

There were a few unknowns going into the TT, which were the combination of potential travel legs, an unknown about what my FTP actually is and false flat to start. The primary goal of the TT was to ensure that my legs felt good on the Sunday. The plan was to try to beat my 10min, 12min and 20min average power records which would mean I need to do around 330w for 30minutes (presuming I could do 36kph). However, I decided that perhaps 330w was being too conservative and decided on the day to target 350w for 20minutes and survive the final 10minutes or so.

The race its self didn’t actually go too badly overall. I hit all my targets that I set before the race of 330w. The idea being if I did 350w until the downhill and then slowed down that would be quicker than 330w the whole way - the problem was when I went out at 370w. When targeting power in a TT, I kept upping the power whenever I saw 340ish watts and would panic. So the next (non-crit circuit) TT that I do, I’m going to try and set the minimum power to be 10-20w lower than my target.

The other mistake that I made was by using 5sec average power when I panicked, there was no instant confirmation so I would continue going harder. The reason I moved to 5 seconds to help understand the power without the odd spike but it backfired.

Anyway, I’m going to talk about the successes now. I put out the second most power out of everyone racing at 319w average (327w NP) - which is 4.09w/kg for 30minutes! While not close to my potential, it means my FTP is at least 320w.

So yes, I went out way too hard. But I will learn from it and that’s the main thing.

The following day was the big day with it being the crit race. My whole season had been designed to be as competitive as possible for this day.

With the confidence in my technical skills and the increased power from the last round, I am hoping to stay in the front group for my longest time yet. To do this, my goal was to sit on Ben Payne’s wheel the whole time. This is as Ben’s style is like mine - we can sprint if needed but more of a diesel-type riders - set a pace and can hold it. A couple of these races I’ve sat on Josh’s wheel which isn’t great for me so hopefully this will make it easier to survive the group.

The course it’s self has two hairpins which I will hopefully use to my advantage to stay in the group. I went into the race confident that I’m up there for bike handling skills and wanted to take advantage of that.

The course however was very much impacted by the wind. Both hairpins came out into headwind (or cross-head) and therefore my lack of sprint impacted me quite a bit. This is as I couldn’t get into the wheels and therefore was much more impacted by the wind compared to everyone else. I need to get better at sustained 30second efforts and it’s one of my winter goals.

Massive tangent here: Everyone has impaired differently, for me I have difficulty with high impact efforts (normally associated with running, rowing etc.), which is why I got advised not to do them. Unfortunately, out of the saddle sprinting has the same impact. I don’t deny that mentally I need to deal with it better too - but not being able to walk after London Academy GP does play a factor in this. Obviously there are two thoughts around this and I’ll do a combination of both. The first thought is to reduce the impact, to do this I need to work on seated sprints - which hopefully track will help with. I’m not going to hit max power numbers in the saddle but it would help reduce impact throughout especially if there isn’t a full on attack. There is a side benefit of being more aero but that’s not something I’m thinking about at the moment. The second thought is that I just need to train more with these high impact efforts and the body will get better at dealing with them.  To do this, I need to do Crit-style interval training at least once a week. I’ve found a 1.4km loop near me which should be perfect for this - actually it looks like a really fun loop with 1km at 1% false flat and a descent into a sharp hairpin. The other thing is that as I get more powerful, each effort will also take less out of me meaning that I can position better so I will also then need to sprint less.

Back to Devon… because of my weakness, I had to go for the sustained effort and hope that people would slow down in the headwind section - which they did not. So I was putting in a lot more power than everyone else. Due to the issues above, I find myself in a horrible vicious cycle of can’t sprint to get into position so have to put more power than everyone else.

This all being said, I survived over 25minutes in the lead group! And got dropped when the winning moves started to go which is a massive achievement having survived the initial moves for the first time. Ben Payne was setting a brutal pace for a lot of the race while everyone (other than me) sat in his wheels before Sam Davies went to the back to see how my legs were (I think I was the only person to not go to the front) and realised I wasn’t competitive but I did get to see his big attack from his wheel - unfortunately, I had nothing left.

The annoying thing was that Nick had been dropped about 10-15seconds after me and if I had been able to hold on then I could have raced with him. I did try to get back to him but the legs had said no. So I did a solo effort for 25minutes until I sat up for the final few laps to get some cool down. That effort was 277w (286w NP) which I’m happy with. The right leg was struggling which is a first - but not surprising.

So while on an individual race weekend I know I should have been able to do better (both TT and Crit), when I step back and look at the development, being disappointed shows how far I have come. I’ll take the lessons learnt and adapt to the next races - which was the following weekend in York.

I also got my 3rd Cat Licence!!! Which means that I can now start to plan out my 2025 road season. (I’m targeting entering a couple of National B Road Races)

Like in Devon, it was a TT on the Saturday and the crit on the Sunday. The main difference is that the TT was held on the circuit (like for the Nat Champs) meaning that I could get a proper recon of the crit circuit during the TT. Once again, the priority is the crit race but the difference being that it is an anti-clockwise circuit meaning that I’m slightly disadvantaged - even if it’s a lot less than I originally thought after my races at Cambridge Crit and London Academy GP.

The other thing to note is that the sprint into the main hairpin was going to be worse than the sprint out. If you aren’t in the top 5, you could easily be dropped. However, that section was into the headwind which added an extra dynamic.

My tactics for the weekend was to change it up compared to Devon and go all in with the efforts and see how my ankle reacts. Which was high risk-high reward, but in the end my ankle didn’t recover from the TT.

The TT was advertised as 18 laps, but actually was 10 laps (or 10.6km) which meant it was a 16-18minute effort depending on the wind for me on my road bike. But the headwind false flat section meant it was best to do an over/under strategy. I already knew it was something I needed to work on, but it was confirmed again in the TT.

I probably didn’t pace it as well as possible as the plan was to just go all out on the false flat uphill headwind section and recover in the tailwind. I probably went slightly too hard in the first few laps on the “over” effort and too easy on the “under” efforts. The numbers aren’t that impressive but it was an all out effort - so I’m happy with my performance, the output being 16mins57secs at 321w (330w NP) which was 36.1kph.

As mentioned for the final crit, I had changed up my tactics from Devon and was looking forward to seeing how I could have done. With my 3rd Cat secured, I was happy to take a risk and see how it went. However, this all went wrong when I noticed that my ankle didn’t recover from the efforts from the TT (it was the same level of pain as if I’ve just ridden instead of about to ride). So I decided to change my plan to just go flat out at the start and see if I could split the group. Hopefully allowing the quicker riders off the front while being able to get back into the main group. So I attacked into the headwind false flat, recovered slightly into the hairpin where I realised I was going to be allowed to lead out. The hairpin which I took way too cautiously, but probably helped my tactic because slower meant everyone else had to go even slower and I could already be sprinting while they were in the hairpin.

Unfortunately, while I caused a small split in the group, the effect wasn’t what I was looking for as I caught a few of the stronger riders out of position (which is good), it meant that they could put in a stronger effort to keep up compared to others. Into the 2nd lap hairpin and my ankle was not in a good place and got dropped.

Given it was about training, I decided to use the race as over/under practice which I thought went very well. I did 24 minutes of 2 sprints a lap and while the under was a lot lower than it needed to be to be competitive (and tbh the over was probably too low too), it put a lot of strain on my ankle in a good way. In the end, I did 23 sprints over 600w before sitting up as the ankle pain got too much. I could sit in the saddle and have no issues as it’s the impact that is painful.

That said I ended the day with a 30second sprint which was at just over 700w and that felt surprisingly comfortable. I actually was more limited by the corner and the knowledge that there was a corner just after the finish than my legs which is great news. Which gives me a lot of confidence going into track season where I need to get use to sprint-starts for both the Kilo and IP events.

All in all, I’m delighted with my race block and looking forward to seeing where my fitness takes me over the winter. I’ll also do a full season recap blog once I’ve done my end of season testing week that I put in for November.

As always to finish off with FTP review. My FTP is around 320w at 78kg (4.10w/kg) which is a great base to start winter training off. I also wouldn’t be surprised if 320w is low estimate and that it is even higher given I’ve not done a true FTP effort in a while (thanks to my bad pacing in Devon).

Also some pics from Round 5 and 6 below!