>Fixed

>Last night was the final Westerley CC Hillingdon Circuit ’10’ of the season. I decided to ride it on the track bike (with added clip-on tri bars). This was a) to get some saddle time with the bike before Saturday’s track session and b) just for the hell of it. The bike was set up with a 50×15 (90″) fixed gear which seemed about right.

I’d only ever ridden one race on fixed before – a ’25’ in 1978 – and that was because I’d smashed up my gears the day before. In fact it went well. I kept the gear turning over, though I found it difficult to ‘push on’. I should probably do more work on fixed to improve my cadence.

The Westerley are using transponders this season, so you can see a lap by lap breakdown of my ride here. I was pretty happy with an even-ish pace. I was 18 seconds slower than the last time I rode this circuit, but the average heart rate was down, which suggests I wasn’t trying / able to try as hard.

Race stats: Time: 27:18 (22.68mph). First 5 miles: 13:14, second 5 miles: 13:10. Top speed: 26.0mph. Slowest miles (4 and 5): 2:41 (22.36mph), fastest mile (2): 2:35 (23.23mph). Average HR: 159bpm, maximum HR: 165bpm. 21st of 30 finishers. Ave. cadence: 85+rpm. Winner: Jerone Walters (Sigma Sport) 21:43