Not quite pro news but...

...I'm off to Italy in March to do a TTT with a few guys from the club. It's just an out and back affair and it's FLAT so hopefully I can get a tow from the other 7 guys in the squad.

I've not done much training this year so I'll be lucky to finish with the rest of the guys but wish me luck. PLEASE!

Thanks Keith. It's the Squadre della Versilia-Michele Bartoli TTT. March 18th. I'll be riding it with other members of East Grinstead CC and the fact that they're all faster than me has me a bit worried to be honest, but I can suck a wheel, believe me

I don't imagine I'll be doing much of the donkey work up front, but I'll try and keep a sprint for the finish.

I'm getting so excited already. Here's a link (in Italian) http://www.cronosquadredellaversilia.it/public/pages/it/home.php

8 man teams, you'll be fine, just man up and accept the pain! Worth it for the Italian experience, have a great time apart from the hurty bit..

Yes, in my experience, trying to hang onto these guys is pretty bloody tough to say the least. A couple of them are already banging some good evening crits out, so will be in fine tune come March and the others do huge miles every week and are ready to race. I'm only just starting to ride the bike with any conviction after tearing an abdominal muscle just before Christmas, thanks to one shandy too many. I think the hurty bit is going to come pretty swiftly for me. Cheers.

Thanks Scoosh - It's a nice thought, but here's no way we'll win because the quick teams out there average well over 30mph so there isn't a cat in hell's chance we'll even register on the leaderboard. We're all looking forward to it and yes there's a lot of other stuff attached to the ride because of the circumstances form last year. Even more reason to bury ourselves into oblivion.

Pure TT riders are usually not so great in a full on big team (6 or more) TTT, simply the sheer speed, ability to correctly follow a wheel, corner fast and small changes of pace crack them. Summary, 6 good roadies will beat 6 very good testers any day.
Stands back and waits for the fertiliser to fly.

I'm neither a Pure TT rider or a Good road rider. So, it looks like I'm pretty much f**ked. In an 8up all of us roll off starting ramp together and the time is taken on the 5th man across the line, which means there is room for 3 casualties along the way. We're all out there to rides as hard as we can so there's definitely going to be some strategical sheltering games because no one wants to be off the back. To be honest, I have some serious doubts about holding on.

The time has passed so quickly, in 2 weeks it'll all be over and I'll be back home. The training hasn't exactly gone to plan, not only for me but the quickest guy in the team broke his hand so is unavailable to ride. He's totally gutted. So we have Michele Bartoli's ex team mate riding with us as a stand in. Let's hope he's piled on loads of weight and can't pedal to quickly these days. With Bartoli and is mate riding with us I can't see me getting past the first 3-4 kms without being droped.

We have had some team skin suits all made our for us in the colours of the union flag, in fact they look very Team GB. I hope there isn't a copy write infringement.

All in all, we're looking forward to it and can't wait to see how we fare up against these super quick Italians.

I've been getting some decent rides on the commute home and doing 25 miles flat out to try and prepare myself to the all out effort. Decent(ish) rest in between rides and doing some top end stuff on the rollers or sprinting between lamp posts while out on the road. Like I said previously, all I need to do is manage to hang on the back.

Hold your doubts and focus on not being dropped, dont enter already defeated by it. Get your head right and your game will follow.

No, donn't do that, you will earn zero gratitude! The key to a fast ride is smooth speed and changes, do what you can at the front to keep the speed high, no silly accelerations, but move hrough steady and a fraction above the front guys pace. That way you will do more turns, last longer, and make a possibility for your team mates to stay in the wheels longer. So when the screws really go on in the second half, they will still have almost everyone working, and then when someone can't do any more, they can hold on for one last time and drop off with not far to go. That way there is less pressure on the last 5, one of which will be suffering horribly and hanging on, knowing that they simply can't be dropped!
Smooth and quick, does the trick.
Have a great ride, the intervals (which is what your lamp post sprints are) will be more help than you can imagine when the pain kicks in.

The day before the event last year all 8 of us went out for a spin to get used to working together and maintaining a constant speed. We were practicing through and off where once the rider in front peeled off I'd have to up the ante to keep the pace for a few revs then take my turn to move to the back, so we constantly had 2 lines of 4. One coming through, the other dropping off and joining the rear of the quick side, waiting for another few seconds of hell. It was an amazing day,fully aero kitted up, smashing through long, smooth tree-lined roads at top speed with the sun on our backs. Everyone in the team egging each other on and suffering together. We did about 15 miles that day before heading back to the flat for a meal and a glass or two of Chianti, in preparation for the race. That was a fine day.

When is it Bra? Good luck!

Thanks Rich.

We're Flying out to Pisa on Friday morning so we'll have the rest of the day to get the bikes ready. On Saturday we'll be meeting the new guys of the team and spending some of the day getting out on the roads - but to too much hopefully....I need to keep the tank full for Sunday which is race day. Temp in Italy is pretty low at the moment though so I'm not sure I'll be topping up the tan

Training is easy, not having a couple of beers of an evening - that's the hard bit....

Heh! A man after my own heart - save them for the celebration/sorrow-drowning They're only Peroni-style anyway!
I'd be more afraid of wheel-touching than getting dropped but that's because I'm a complete novice!

It's an easily developed habit, to open the fridge and grab a beer, scoop it down and grab another. Training kind of makes use of the time, I'm not quite dumb enough to ride the rollers with a beer in my hand (although now I think about it...) so while I'm training I'm at least not sitting on the couch in front of the telly with a gut full of booze.