Ice-Breaker

We got the traditional season-opener out of the way on Sunday - an early start to avoid the traffic for the Ice-Breaker 2-up TT. Over 40 teams were there to open up the lungs over 14 miles. Walkers had 6 teams riding, including 3 first time road racers - and all had a good time, despite the effort, one team missing their start, and another missing a turn at a roundabout!

What a difference a proper warm up made - I don't think I've done one properly for about 10 years, and I don't hurt nearly as badly after as I usually do - maybe I'm not getting old after all.

Drew did a good job in my team - gave plenty of spells, and rode it technically perfect - apart from a wee touch of wheels - but at least that shows he was close enough behind. After our practise on Friday I opted not to ride my new TT bike as Drew was getting zero shelter behind me! I've been slowly tweaking the position as my stretching regime allows me to get lower - so am looking forward to seeing how much quicker I'll be able to go!

APR's coming up next month on the Moscow Circuit, so hoping to get a good club turn-out for those ones too!

Neil Walker

2 Wheels Good

Hello, struggling to think of what to write - bloggers block? I'm normally not stuck for words (if the right topic/rant comes up in conversation), but that is in the real world, not typing!

Life has been very quiet in the bike shop recently, the traditional February blues, coupled with the road to Stewarton being shut following the train derailment of a couple of weeks ago. Still, that means plenty of time for for family & bike riding - popped out of work early to sledging with Finlay (2) today, the recent cold snap is actually pretty good for bikes too - muddy trails are frozen hard, and back roads are quiet (you just need your wits about you on the ice), and snow is surprisingly grippy.

I road with Iain Nimmo and the Squadra Porcini guys at Aberfoyle yesterday - awesome MTB trails there, the SXC in April is going to be awesome - if the ground is reasonably dry it'll challenge Badaguish for best course of the year in 2009 - could be a total 'mare if your tech skills aren't up to scratch though. The line up of events is looking pretty good, and I'm really excited about being a local organiser with Cathkin Braes for the 1st time - pretty nervous too!

Going to be spending more time on skinny wheels this year - less training time with number 2 on the way means having to concentrate on shorter races, closer to home - so aero bike and pointy helmet will be the order of the day. Not really done TT's seriously since 1995, so will be interesting to see what I can do. It'll be good to encourage some of the club guys to give it a go too, plenty really strong riders who I think will surprise themselves and others as the season progresses.

I'm pleased to see my former employer (Scottish Cycling) really moving forward with their performance programme - see their home page for latest recruitment - given their recent growth, I'm sure that results (both racing, and the progress of the sport in general) won't be far around the corner - when you hear about the work going on in clubs like Peebles CC, you can just see the massive leap forward about to happen.

Neil Walker