Friday night brought the first round proper of a phenomenon which hopefully will take the UK by storm and lead is to even more cycling success. As I have mentioned before the Watt Bike is a static bike developed in the UK along the same lines as the Concept 2 rower (ie accurate reliable data) in conjunction with British Cycling.
Lichfield CCCs Watt Bike league using The Friary Leisure Centre’s Watt Bikes is designed to mimic a 
standard Club track competition evening. The 10 bikes are lined up in a row facing a wall on to which graphics, times and results are projected and a couple of Watt Bike employees were there to make sure the first session ran smoothly.
We were split into 3 divisions based on fitness and experience. The 3 divisions then took it in turns to race various track favourites.
First off was a 750m scratch race, ie all out sprint for about 45 -55 secs. I started poorly by managing to unclip by mistake, I then overspun the gear andwent anaerobic. The fastest time was put down by Steve Clayton in 46.6 secs. Lessons learned, we progressed on to the next race: an 1800m Devil, where competitors are eliminated at 200m intervals to leave 3 to sprint for the finish. With my feet securely tied in I was very pleased with a 2nd place, although my Quads were totally rigid when I finished. There then followed a 500m handicap which I won, then an 1800m points race (3rd) and a team sprint.
The finale of the evening was a 3km scratch race. The atmosphere was great with lots of encouragment and cheering, the racing very close, lots of tactics and a good deal of testosterone flying. I played it steady for the first minute or so and then slowly ramped it up, leading for the 3rd quarter. The pain then really started andI dropped to 2nd. I had fellow Chaser Neil Lawford behind me egging me on and managed to just pip another Chaser Stuart Clayton and retained 2nd.
Apparently I went purple and had huge pulsating veins pumping on my forehead. Its a shame I wasn’t wearing a HR monitor as I’m sure it would have made interesting reading. I now know the true meaning of Intensity 5 on my training diary, and all for a 4 min race.
It was a great evening and I have already signed up for next week, although I have a little way to go before being promoted into Div 1. Full details can be found at Lichfield CCCs website.
edit – Event report now on British Cycling Website here
Thanks to Neil Lawford for the photos.
The Mammoth logs looks good in the photo. Which is more than can be said for you! Keep up the hard work……