Tockwith Spring and Summer Series

mart66 · Post by **mart66** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:10 pm

Good stuff.

Will entries be via the BC site?

PhilBixby · Post by **PhilBixby** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:20 pm

Nope. Entry on the night only. Tockwith will take a field of 100 riders, and we never got near that last year. We're keeping it simple for the sake of the organisers. Just turn up with a tenner (or a tenner plus day licence fee if you've not got a race licence) and you're in.

like my bike · Post by **like my bike** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:07 pm

Suggest if you have nt already Tockwith racers get a Silver membership http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/member ... membership £36.00

If your a Clifton member and never had BC membership before you are entitled to a £13.50 discount.

With the above Silver membership, you get a FREE day licence for the 4th category C+ races (non members pay £10.00 for day licence) so you save £10 with Silver.

3rd/4th category Reg B. Silver members pay £5.00 day licence fee, (non members pay £10.00 for day licence)

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/a ... ---Track-0

If your doing 4 or more Silver membership pays for itself. Silver membership also entitles you to other benefits including Up to £10m third party liability insurance, which Clifton recommends to all members who activley ride their bike.

With any of the above, you will not get licence points so you won't progress to a 3rd cat etc....

You need a race license to do that

GrahamMartin · Post by **GrahamMartin** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:30 pm

Thanks for answering the question I was about to ask. However, you don't just need a race license to gain points, you need to be able to actually top 10 a race. Wondering if its worth upgrading my Silver membership given I don't rate my chances at getting points?

reubenbarrett · Post by **reubenbarrett** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:25 pm

From reviewing the posts on here so far it seems that the following are planning on taking part:

AndyMyers (maybe)
Teebs
nigelt
mart66
GrahamMartin
ReubenBarrett (me!)

That makes 6 and I suspect there will be a few more (TimJ / Phil ?) that have yet to show their hand. I would really like Clifton to bring home some points from this series this year and it is a great platform to learn some racecraft.

From my experience last year there a few key skills:
1. Fitness, obviously. It's about an hour at 25mpg average but with large variations in pace from 17mph to 30mph+.
2. Cornering. The more confidently you can chuck the bikes round the corners, the quicker you will get round. The course is short so this needs practising.
3. Sprinting. There will be lots of this, particularly in the last 100 metres. This needs repeated practising in the few weeks beforehand and is the key physical ability required for this race.
4. Riding in a bunch with view to conserving energy for the sprinting. Saturday morning training helps.
5. Tactics. This needs a plan and discussion between team members in advance. If we work as a team, we can easily propel 2 or more into the points.

I won't pretend to be any expert on this but I would be happy to organise some sessions in the 2 to 3 weeks before the first race with a view to working on the above. If there are some older and wiser heads available with advice / training drills, that would be even better.

My thoughts are that we would do this, as a group. on the 2 to 3 Tuesday nights immediately preceding the races (clashes with Chaingang). All of this will only work if we have a core group of riders committed to riding the series and doing some group training - I think we need 4 for this to work.

Would anyone be up for this?

AndyT · Post by **AndyT** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:39 pm

Agree with all of the above.

I think we have 1 more, but he's yet to join Clifton.

I'm pretty good for most nights, I work in York so that makes things easier.

Andy

AndyM · Post by **AndyM** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:26 pm

That sounds like a good sum up Reuben.

I'd like to join in with the sessions, but due to Uni I will only be in York in the 3 weeks between March 30th and April 22nd. That's probably too early, so I'm happy for someone to fill me in on the night of the races.

mart66 · Post by **mart66** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:57 am

I'd be happy to take part in training but work out of York so would probably struggle to get back in time.

Where would you do the training? if it was the Bishopwood circuit, I pass that on my commute home at around 6:30. Only problem being that I'll have my rucksack on!

Early Sunday mornings good for me but appreciate that this is difficult for people with families (and those still young enough to go out on Saturday nights!).

GrahamMartin · Post by **GrahamMartin** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:22 pm

I'd be happy to get some group practice in, but Tuesday nights are a pain, and I'll be dropping out of enough things to make 6 weeks of races as it is. What is the layout of the course like? Are they sharp corners or bends?
Graham

reubenbarrett · Post by **reubenbarrett** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:00 pm

I only proposed Tuesday nights as that is the same time as racing, we can do another time but should avoid weekends as other races happening in those weeks.

Thought would do sprint drills such as sprinting against each other or having designated lead out person with aim that others sprint past etc. Main aim would be to make it competitive among each other so the sprinting is fun.

Then for corners, thought we would find a tight corner with good sight-lines (to avoid cars!) or somewhere off-road where we practice going into corner in 2's presuming that one is quicker than the other, we can learn how to improve on racing line etc. Probably lots of other suggestions on this sort of thing from the more experienced.

I am going to take a trip down to Designer Outlet on a Tuesday night over next weeks to see if there is a clear section of car park to practice cornering safely. The sprinting we can do anywhere on a wide quiet road, if McArthur Glen looks OK, then this could be on Naburn-Stillingfleet Road.

GrahamMartin · Post by **GrahamMartin** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:39 pm

Monday or Thursday night would be best for me. I normally have something on at 7.30pm in town on Tuesdays, but have accepted I'll have to take a break for the 6 weeks of races. The training you suggest sounds like the sort of thing I could really use - on tight corners I get pretty nervous.

Cyan Skymoos · Post by **Cyan Skymoos** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:50 pm

Loving the enthusiasm, but I think maybe some of you don't know what it is you're best suited to yet. Mark Cavendish will never be a climber and Contador would never win a bunch sprint.
I realised very early on that I couldn't sprint, but I could win hard hilly races so I entered those.
Finding a corner to practice going fast round sounds like a recipe for disaster, keep taking it a little bit faster until you hit the deck. Don't over analyse these things, there are loads of races on Tockwith this year, I reckon you could afford to use the first couple to get in the swing of it.

reubenbarrett · Post by **reubenbarrett** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:56 pm

Learning to corner in a race of 60 4th cats is not a good idea. Far better to learn in a safe and controlled environment first. Not planning on turning anyone into Cavendish or Cancellera...

I am thinking something like this: http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/t ... ike-29333/

Cyan Skymoos · Post by **Cyan Skymoos** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:09 pm

I think everyone is nervous in a group when they first start riding. Which is why it usually goes something like..Join a club..go out with something like a K ride..progress to riding tight in 2's on a clubrun...do a few chaingangs, and then start racing. You'll learn more now by following guys like Kit and Jamie on the chaingangs in my opinion, but what do I know.

PhilBixby · Post by **PhilBixby** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:47 am

I'm with Darren on this one (which may seem surprising since I'm usually worryingly methodical) - for a variety of reasons. It's mainly to do with the fact that conditions at Tockwith are different to what you'll find elsewhere. The surface is special grippy stuff designed for race car testing - it's virtually impossible to fall off on it although occasionally riders bottle out and take to the grass. You'll never replicate that on the road or a car park. The second issue is that it's very different practising with a few people who you vaguely know and trust to doing the same in a bunch of seventy or eighty, a fair percentage of which are nutcases. Lastly the speeds will be different, since you'll be towed into corners faster in a race.

I'd get there nice and early for the first few races - there'll be someone there from 5:30 each time and while they won't necessarily thank you for trying to sign on then, they won't stop you going out and warming up.

You can certainly practice sprinting so you stand less chance of getting dropped out of corners. Darren's right that some people will never make sprinters but pretty much anyone can train at it such that they're better than they would be if they hadn't. But it's not an immediate thing - it takes a while to build up that ability. I've droned on to many people about the old LVRC magazine eight-week sprint drills regime I do each spring but am happy to email it to anyone who PM's me their email address. I'm still a fairly crap sprinter, but I'm whacking out 20% more power while doing it, which is handy out of corners.

There's a big nugget of truth in Darren's comment about choosing your races though - some people are good at crits, some aren't. They're very different to road races; some people may find them easier, some will find them much harder.