The year of 'The Sir Chris'

We were formed with this date in mind, 2012 was always going to be when things started to get very exciting, but things have already been on-the-up since back in early 2010 when all this Vortex chat kicked off.

The opening date for the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow's East End is 1st October 2012,  there's a lot of work to do in between now & that date. Looks like we'll have 2 track coaches fully trained up, an event planned at the track, plus loads of riders will be accredited and ready to ride.

Meadowbank in Edinburgh is still currently Scotland's number one track, a 250m outdoor wooden track seems a mad thing to build, but just look at the champions it's produced with it's incliment weather limitations. It's also vital we keep a venue in Edinburgh, plus another vital venue is Caird Park in Dundee, it's getting resurfaced after some very hard work from some active volunteers, which is what keeps our sport (and all sports at grass roots level) going, the work behind the scenes is often a thankless but vital task. These tracks will complement 'The Sir Chris' as I head it mentioned recently, maybe that'll stick, let's make it stick. Track cycling is about to kick off big time in Scotland. The rumours of a possible indoor track in Inverness are also something to look forward to, that would be incredible if it came off.

Vortex RT has been undergoing some transformations too, we're building and expanding with a very welcome burgeoning sportive section, all of whom will obviously be provided with the opportunity to get some track craft and time on the boards of our old friend Meadowbank, before the comfy indoor velodrome opens.
There will be more on this later, along with some sponsor announcements, then it's hard work until the season opens for our racers & riders, the bid is in for the Scottish Men's & Women's Road Championships with a bigger & better plan than 2011, so we hope to run that again, we'll let you know if it's successful. Roll on 'The Sir Chris'.

Vortex RT

Scottish Road Champs 2011: Wrap-up

Oliphant (RCD Photographic)

 A week later & everything is returning back to normal (until the next event). We're all beginning to sleep properly again after what seems like a rollercoaster ride up to the event, hopefully it all pieced together on the day. From an organisers point of view, we tend to spend the day answering questions, directing people & generally sorting things to make sure everything runs smoothly, a task which if it's done correctly, nobody knows it's being done, hopefully we were successful. So we tend to lose the overview of the event that you get by being a spectator, but judging by the feedback, everybody had a good time, the riders got some support & the good number of non cycling spectators got to see racing close up, the way it should be.

Barr leads (RCD Photographic)

The people of Balfron & the surrounding area have been hugely supportive in our efforts to pull this together, we've met Daryn Piper from the community council on a number of occasions and with his help we've included the community in the event, without this enthusiasm we'd have been unable to make a route passing through a village safe for the riders, as you could see with coned off areas & volunteer marshals from the community. In return the riders put on a great show for the spectators and some local businesses benefitted from the event, there were a lot of people on that finishing straight, a great noisy crowd, exactly what we were looking for.

Womens podium (RCD Photographic)

We've got a lot of people to thank, loads of 'Friends of Vortex' came forward on the day to help out, it was really appreciated. For those non cyclists reading this, Vortex Race Team is one of many cycling clubs, we don't run events for a profit, everybody working on the event does so for a bit of grub & some petrol money, as with all but 3 or 4 majorly sponsored sports I expect this is the case with Scottish championships in most other sports, run by small teams of people, these are the people that help sport run in Scotland and everybody who helped made the event what it was. The organising team from Vortex RT were Colin Bark, Jeremy Greengrass & Tom Worthington, all contributed hugely for the last 6 months to create what we hope has been a memorable championships, we're even considering going through it all again next year and placing a bid with Scottish Cycling. We're going to get out on our bikes now!!

Where do we start, in no particular order... 

All photos courtesy of Robin Dick, RCD Photographic (see link below for more)

......the race convoy....
In the lead cars we had Robert Kennedy from Milersport Architecture (Vortex RT too) & Graeme Steen (City of Edinburgh RT), both drove all day long across the two races, a tough job and requires complete concentration ahead & in rear view mirrors.
Our commissaires control the event and direct everybody through CB's, a rolling manager & referee all rolled into one, tough jobs & as I said, everybody's a volunteer. In the womens champs we had John Davies (VC Glasgow South) & Tom Forbes (VC Astar & Ivy CC), they were driven by Martin Harris (Discovery Junior CC) & Guto Williams (East Kilbride Road Club). The mens event commissaires were Al Sutton & Kevan Sturgeon (both Elgin Cycling Club), they were driven by Stevie Hazlett (Ivy Cycling Club) & Neil McLeod (Glasgow Wheelers).
We have 2 first aid cars in each event, in each car a St Andrews Ambulance first aider is covering the race, the first aiders in the womens event were driven by Bobby Gilmour & Bobby Brown (both Glasgow Nightingale CC). In the mens we David Leese (Vortex RT) and Bobby Brown again. Not too many problems in the womens event, but a high speed puncture and crash resulted in a number of riders needing attention in the mens, one rider was airlifted to hospital as a precaution, but he's ok and is racing again this weekend in Barcelona, tough guy Stuart MacGregor.
The race service was covered in both events by the team from Solid Rock Cycles of Balmore, the shop mechanics were providing fast wheel changes and vehicles to the event, a very important job. Without this service a riders race could be over very quickly if they punctured and failed to get back into the bunch quickly.
Thanks very much to all the race convoy, you did an excellent job and we'd love you all to come back for more next year.

 Mens break (RCD Photographic)

.....marshalls......
The unsung heroes of every race, these guys stand on the corners in the howling wind & rain, to keep the riders safe, any race you're at please go and thank these people, true heroes and all of ours did a fantastic job. We had several clubs helping out on this, plus a good number of locals who did a great job, some on their first marshalling duties, we're all impressed!
We had representatives from loads of other clubs, the Ivy CC, Glasgow United CC, Glasgow Nightingale CC (big Al from Wheelcraft was photo's a lot in his own 'special' fashion), thankyou everybody for that and we hope the goody food bag helped a bit, tomoto ketchup will be in there for you next time Al, duly noted request.

......Janette Hazlett & helpers....
Yes Janette, you get your own category! The Ivy Cycling Club volunteer extraordinaire (she'll be cringing at this, but it's all true) took full control of the lap control, time gaps and keeping everybody informed about what was going on at the corner in Balfron. Essentially a judge, timekeeper and coordinator, an asset to any event, thanks Janette. Also thanks for flags, signs etc, loads of help pre-event too. Thanks also to Leigh Marshall from the Braveheart Fund who was helping Janette out at that corner. The local marshall who provided bacon rolls and tea was especially helpful, saved us a job, much appreciated.

......photo finish, NEG & Scottish Cycling .......
Bill & Sandy operate the photo finish kit all year round for Scottish Cycling, it's now become a 'must have' at any race, as before these guys are tireless volunteers who help make events run smoothly all over Scotland and sometimes down south. Hopefully putting the guys next to Doyles cafe this time made things a bit more comfortable, quite often they're stuck in the middle of nowhere, with a couple of sheep and a cow for company, hopefully we didn't scare them off.
The NEG (National Escort Group) were fantastic as usual, these guys are police trained volunteer motorcycle outriders and help keep the race safe, if you were there you wouldn't have been able to avoid their presence, we had 6 in total, they did a great job as usual. 
Scottish Cycling provided the photo finish, the NEG riders & the medals, plus the SC van with all the kit we needed and we were helped set up the finish area, thanks Mark & son. They made a wise & welcome decision (in our opinion) of awarding Vortex RT the road championships in 2011, we hope we gave it the respect it deserves.

Doyles Cafe (RCD Photographic)

......the people of Balfron & surrounding area......
We owe a huge gratitude to the following individuals & organisations for their help, every one has helped to make the events what they were.
Fundamental to it all were the people of Balfron & their community council, we couldn't have hoped to have a more supportive community to help us run the Scottish Championships.
Colin Bark visited the farms on the course before the event and we owe a huge thanks to all the farmers, they ensured that there were no livestock movements across the road on the day and offered to limit use of tractors too. Everything ran smoothly on the day and hopefully we didn't cause them too much disruption. Thanks also to Malcolm Paterson (Nightingale CC) for his help on this.
Stirling Council also helped hugely, providing banners, cones & poncho's on the day. The resurfacing work carried out by them on the course before the event allowed us to use this circuit, previously we wouldn't have run a race on it, all really appreciated.
We also really appreciate having the Provost of Stirling Fergus Wood & BBC Sport's Rhona McLeod available for the prizegivings, this really helped to make the podium presentations very special, huge thanks to both.
The people of Balfron came out in impressive numbers to cheer on the race, loads of riders have said that this is what made the day for them, so get cheered round the circuit and over the line, thanks and we hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Mens Podium (RCD Photographic)

........event partners & sponsors......
There's a long list here, everybody did a splendid job and shared our vision of what we were trying to do.
Ridley Bikes of Belgium, who provide some of the worlds top quality racing bikes also provided first prize of a carbon fibre race frame to mens race winner Evan Oliphant (Endura Racing). The full range is available at Solid Rock Cycles in Balmore.
Optical Express & Adidas Eyewear, providing sports glasses & prescription sports glasses were there all day offering assistance & provided Scottish womens champion Jane Barr (Velocity44Stirling) with some Adidas eyewear.If you require prescription cycling glasses or advice, give them a call or visit the shop at 28-36 Renfield Street, Glasgow.
Keytime Blackberry Centre on Great Western Road, Glasgow, are an indpendent mobile retailer who provide a huge range of mobile phones (not just Blackberry) & contracts to businesses & the public, worth a look. They provided a Blackberry to mens silver medal winner Gary Hand (Endura/Pedalpower).
Not only providing race service, but also helping with our finish line area, Solid Rock Cycles provided a giant 'tent', unfortunately it had to be taken down in the afternoon's high winds, but provided a rain free area for the ladies podium presentation. They had some new products on show, carbon wheels from Cruise Racing Products, have a look. Solid Rock also brought out friends and family in force to support the events.
Doyles cafe on the finish line was a great & welcome addition the to day's events. We'd like to thank Jack & his team for opening on a Sunday. We noticed the athletes from the ladies race were giving special attention to the home made cakes as part of their post race recovery. Jack normally rides his bike on Sundays, but if you're on a Saturday ride, I'm sure you'd be more than welcome to use Doyles as your coffee shop.

Womens lead group (RCD Photographic)

........the riders........
All the riders gave a fantastic show of strength, power, skill & fitness to the spectators. With the circuit based format everybody got to see the riders a number of times & everybody appreciated their ability to be courteous (& smiling) immediately after crossing the finishing line in the gruelling races. Really was great to see and shows our sport in a very positive manner, a great introduction for some new cycling fans.

.........the photographers........
We've seen some stunning shots from loads of photographers, who all captured the event, we've compiled a list below, this can be added to if we've missed any. Get in touch if you want yours listed here, email here.

Robin Dick was in the action on a motorbike, driven by Scottish Cycling's Graeme Herd for some laps, see his photos of both event in the following link. Particularly interesting is the capture of Oliphants winning attack in a sequence of shots, the spectators didn't get to see this, here's your chance. RCD Photographic (all photos in this article are property of RCD Photographic)
Graeme Brown took some excellent shots, all on this link. GeeBee Images
Stuart Hall from Our Day Photos was on the road all day taking some superb action shots. All Day Photos flickr
Ian Henderson was back out taking great shots, see them here LeesLang flickr
Vortex RT flickr site has a good number of shots from various contributors. Vortex flickr

Oliphant (RCD Photographic)

Results, links & reports.
Womens Championship results by Vortex RT.
Mens Championships results by Vortex RT.
Veloresults report.
VeloUK mens report.
VeloUK womens report.
Previous Vortex RT blog preview 1
Previous Vortex RT blog preview 2

DHL Meadowbank National Track League 26/04/11

After the balmy conditions of the first week, Meadowbank returned to it's traditional temperatures, although this time we had an unusual easterly wind, straight from Siberia and giving us a nice chilly headwind on the home straight. Blankets were the most prized items in the D, riders huddling together under them between races (the D's the area the riders all sit in, coz it's shaped like a D).
Representing Vortex RT were Jeremy Greengrass, Mark Colquhoun & Colin Bark. Mark took this opportunity to brighten up the dull skies with a new pair of canary coloured Mavic shoes and received his team issue skinsuit.

 Onto the racing, more riders this week, so some events were a bit 'chaotic', but things are learnt quickly in track racing, there's always somebody to offer some advice, good to see riders get the hang of it in a short space of time.

Brucy Bonus
We were all wondering where Bruce Croall (British kilo champ) was last week, this time he showed us he was going well, taking wins in the 15 lap scratch & the 8km, beating our own Jez in the finale of the latter one, must have been a close finish as Jez wasn't sure if he'd won it or just been pipped until the result was announced. Bodes well for the future.

Sprint Ladder
We had Colin & Jez in this, Colin was feeling a little under the weather (& he needs another 10kg of muscle to squeeze out a sprint), but Jez won his heat. Would be good to see our comeback man Mark Colquhoun in that next time, but not entirely sure how it works.

Rest of the racing
As expected Martin Lonie was picking up points right through the night in various events, putting him to the top of the league table & also good to see Greg Brown, also from Dooleys dishing out some pain.
Looks like the track league is quite healthy this year, loads of new riders plus all the established ones and a few of us from the west getting ourselves through.
From our point of view, Mark's starting to look very strong and Jez is getting right up into the action, hopefully Colin can breathe next week, the Vortex will be gathering in numbers and the weeks progress.
 
Results from this week
Overall standings
League Info
Our info blog from a while ago

Jane Barr – Women’s Scottish Road Race Champion 2010

On receiving Jane Barr’s entry for the Scottish Road Race Championship we asked if she would speak to us about how she got into bike racing, her thoughts on the 2011 Balfron course and her future plans. So when she agreed, we arranged to catch up over a coffee on a rare rest day to have a chat about her swift rise to the top of Scottish cycling. I quickly found that she had come a long way in a very short period of time.

Can you tell me a little about your cycling background?

“I intitially started racing late in 2009 through the Gold for Glasgow programme. I managed to get onto the squad late on in that season and managed to get a couple of races in late in the year. After that I got a good solid winter of training which led to my first full racing season in 2010. I went from strength to strength and did well in both Scottish and British races, which led to me going over to Holland with the Scottish Team to some stage races there this led onto me being selected to go to the Commonwealth Games in Dehli”

What sports did you do before coming to cycling?

“I come from a running background and competed for Scotland at long distance running but stopped once I finished at University and then did a bit of mountain biking with some friends one of whom told me about the Gold for Glasgow programme so I just went along and that was it”

How have you found the transition from running to bike racing?

At the start it was quite strange because in running you are racing for yourself and push yourself as hard as you can for the whole race and if that’s good enough then so be it. I found quite quickly that bike racing wasn’t about giving your full out effort all the time, it’s about making the effort when it counts so that you can get the most gain out of it. So it was quite a steep learning curve and my first couple of races in 2009 I found out the hard way and learned pretty quickly how to do it properly. In terms of training cycling is certainly more time consuming but the motivation still has to be there and my coach Graeme Herd has helped me enormously with both a training schedule and the tactical side of racing.

So you made the move from Stirling Bike Club to your new team Velocity 44 this year can you tell me a little about that?

“Yeah it’s a new team based in Stirling from the Velocity44 shop in Barnton Street. All the team involved in the project give me fantastic support allowing me to concentrate on racing along with my team mate Laura Murray. We also have a guys team and some mountain bikers.

How do you find racing as part of a team?

“It’s good, different I really enjoy racing as part of a team both with my team Velocity44 and with the Scotland set up. It’s a totally different outlook to previously and I enjoy it, helping others to get the best results possible for the team.”

You won the Scottish Road Race title last year. It’s slightly different this year as it is a stand alone race, what are your thoughts on the way that it’s been formatted this year?

“It’s good I’m pleased that it is it’s own race this year, it will have it’s own identity and recognition and I think that is what women’s cycling needs especially as it will give the women in Scotland to race against each other”

What do you think of the course that Vortex Race Team have come up with at Balfron?

“I think it will be quite a challenging course. It’s quite deceptive if you just go round it once or twice the hills don’t seem that steep or long but having ridden over it for a few laps they will take their toll and there will definitely be some breakaways especially as it is quite a twisty course and this should lend itself to groups getting away, so it should make for a good race as there are quite a few women who are at the same level and they will definitely make it hard for each other. I think it really good that we will have a proper race as it’s great that you can say that you are the Scottish Champion and there will be a lot of people that want to be Scottish Champion.”

So after the Championship what are your plans for the rest of the season?

“The main goal is the British Women’s series, unfortunately all the races are down in England this year and then I also plan to go out to Holland and do some stage races there with the Scotland Team and then the British Champs in Northumberland which should suit me with the climbs.”

And in the future there is obviously the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow?

“Yes Graeme and I have been making plans for 2014 as I firstly need to qualify which will probably need to be done the year before as the games will be earlier in the year than Dehli and secondly I’ll need to be competitive so I may need to go to the Southern Hemisphere to get some competitive racing in beforehand”

And racing on the continent?

“Yes definitely, in the games last year all the girls that were there were racing on the continent so you have to race there to get up to that level and be over there consistently. The bunches are so much bigger than over here and your bike handling has to be so much better than here, the Dutch girls especially have been doing it since they were juniors and with me coming into cycling that bit later you have to learn that pretty quickly when there’s 140 of you on narrow Dutch roads!”

How have your results been so far this year?

“They’re getting there I’ve only done a few APR’s, a race out in Holland and one in the British Series where I was a little disappointed with my 15th place, but things didn’t quite go to plan on that day”

The series is made up of Road Races and Criteriums, how do you find the Criterium Racing?

“It’s a bit of a shock to the system because as soon as the gun goes that’s it, red line for the full hour, I’ve done a couple in Holland and wow, I didn’t think it was possible to corner as fast as that, it was unbelievable and you soon learn that you have to keep pushing yourself to the front, but I really enjoyed it. I’ll be racing abroad again this year in June so hopefully I’ll learn some more.”

With her quiet self assured manner and the guiding hand of her coaches I’m positive that Jane will indeed “learn some more” and will absolutely be one to watch not only at the Scottish Road Race 2011 but also in Glasgow 2014 with a Scottish Jersey on her back. Good luck to her in both.

Scottish champs course preview update No1

Please see our previous course preview here, the resufacing is done now and this is going to be a great event, the improvements in the surface are going to make a huge difference.


After a ride round the newly resurfaced circuit, we can safely say we're really looking forward to hosting the event, a special thanks must go to the people of Balfron & their community council, who have allowed us the opportunity to take the event into the town each lap, without their co-operation this really wouldn't be a possibility.

SPECTATOR VIEWING POINTS

There are also a number of prime viewing points we've identified on the circuit, bring some binoculars if you want to get the full benefit of these locations.
(See map below)

1. The short rise heading East up to Clayland farm also allows views over to the other side of the Endrick Valley where you can see what's happening on a couple of the 'stickier' sections of the race and then the resulting splits on the run into Balfron. We don't really want any cars parked here, so please use this location on your bike or park in a safe location off the road and walk to this point.
2. The climb to Dalfoil is where we reckon the main damage will be done, the gradient changes constantly here and finishes off with a drag of about 1km, spectators will see some action here for sure. There's also an area off the road where cars can be parked, which is right on the steepest section, a good location for those not on bikes. From the drag the opposite side of the circuit can also be seen in a few locations, again binoculars would be very beneficial here.
3. Balfron corner. This area should see a good amount of spectators, we'll have the lapboard here so you can check the progress of the event. Doyles cafe just 300m up the hill from the corner will be serving refreshments throughout the day and from there you'll be able to see live updates from our 'tweeters' on the circuit and hopefully some live telemetry from riders with mapmyride installed on their mobile devices. So you'll know when to go back down to the corner to view the race, Doyles will be our race hub during events and will also be where our podium presentations will be done post race. Other interest here will be provided by Solid Rock Cycles, Ridley Bikes & Optical Express who will be setting up outside Doyles. The other essential here is the proximity of the public toilets to this corner.

It's really important that spectators don't affect the race, as you know it's being held on open roads, with the race controlled by NEG moto riders under the guidance of race commissaires. Please follow all intructions issued by the moto riders and marshalls, groups of club riders going head-on towards a large bunch of racers isn't a cool thing to do, so please be aware that spectators need to help us make this a safe race. Please stop if you're told to and avoid riding at the race.

CHAMPIONSHIP PARTNERS

Providing race support will be Solid Rock Cycles, who will have vehicles in both races with superfast wheel changes by the shop mechanics.
Ridley Bikes will be providing the mens race winner with a special edition Scottish champions Ridley carbon frame, a sneek preview as seen below.

Optical Express will be at the event & supplying prizes with Adidas Eyewear on the day.
Balfron community have been instrumental in helping the event take place and have been involved since last year.
Community website.
Balfron history website.

More partners information to follow, if you're a potential race partner wanting to get involved in the champs, please let us know and we'll see if we can accomodate you in the event, there's still time.
Click here to email Vortex RT Event Organisers

DHL Meadowbank National Track League 19/04/11

The first track league of the year, held in unusually warm conditions for this time of year, with the Meadowbank black cloud moving elsewhere for the evening made this an excellent starter to the Scottish track season.
Vortex RT had three riders involved in the racing, comeback hardman Mark Colquhoun opting for the A's, then Scottish Vets champs Jeremy Greengrass & Colin Bark starting in the B's on the night. The 12 lap scratch for the A group was full of quality riders, a shock to the system as this was the first race of the season for some riders. The race was won by Martin Lonie of Dooleys RT.
The B 10 lap scratch was actually run at a faster pace than the the A race, with Bark & Nik Gowrie (Peebles CC) getting away early on, Bark then 'fluffed' a change as he thought the other riders were behind them and lost contact, Gowrie went on to win and a fast chasing Greengrass took 2nd place. This resulted in Gowrie and Greengrass being promoted to the A group for the rest of the evening.
Over to the devil take the hindmost events, first up the B's, Bark took the race from the front as riders were being eliminated, never leaving that position until 2 laps to go, then taking the win from Jonathon Cosh (Glasgow Wheelers). This Vortex rider taking his first win since 2006!
The A devil looked to be it's usual tactical self, with riders getting caught out at the back, the event was another win for Martin Lonie, on some fine early season form.
The final event our riders took part in was the 25 lap scratch, with all riders on the track, Greengrass made it to the finish with the lead group and took 5th place in the sprint.
A great evening's racing and fantastic to see Meadowbank still proving to be an excellent venue, there wasn't even much of a headwind on the back straight! Will be back next week, in greater numbers.

Full results and info here...
http://www.estpa.org.uk/mtl/index.html

Previous blog post here, plus how to get there....
http://vortex-rt.blogspot.com/2011/02/meadowbank-track-league.html

West of Scotland Grass Track league

After a long search for a suitable venue, involving members of several clubs, Glasgow Life & Scottish Cycling's Rab Wardell, we finally have a suitable venue for the Glasgow based grass track league.
The main purpose of the grass track league is a stepping stone towards training officials & encouraging participation for the new Glasgow Chris Hoy Velodrome in the East End, which is due for completion September/October next year. Learn the basics here!

The Venue
The racing will be held in Pollock Park from Monday 6th June @ 7pm. The park managers have agreed to cut the grass & mark out the course for us, all very encouraging. The area in which we'll be running the league has an incredibly flat lower level which will be ideal in dry weather & a good but maybe not so fast area close by, when we viewed this area it had been raining all morning and the area was dry, so there should be a place to run the events regardless.

Format
We envisage the league will run during the summer this year & next, the first 1 or 2 weeks will be classed as open training. Hopefully we'll have a number of volunteers come forward to train as starters, judges, timekeepers, bell ringers, lap boarders etc, plus we still need additional trainee track commissaires to come forward. Then we'll hopefully be in a position to run an indoor track league during the winter of 2012/2013 at the new velodrome.
All riders will be welcome, it's expected not everybody will have grass track bikes, but the condition of the surface should hopefully result in 'normal' track bike clearances being possible. If there's demand we could run some geared novice events.

Participation
This is really the unknown here, who would like to get involved as a rider, would be good to get the clubs & individuals to let us know what kind of interest and support the grass track league will have. Let me know at the email below.

Trainee Officials
We really need your help on this, the best venue cycling in Scotland will ever get is nearly upon us and volunteer officials are critical to it's success. You can be a valued part of this by getting involved now. See 'format' above for the list of ways in which you can help.

Get in touch.
Colin Bark ( WOSCA Track Secretary )
email: vortex.rt@gmail.com Email me


p.s. The next WOSCA meeting is on Monday 11th April @ 7:30pm in Bellahouston Bowling clubroom, next to the Bellahouston sports centre (opposite side from the bike track).
p.p.s. WOSCA stands for 'West of Scotland Cycling Association'

Scottish Road Race Championships 2011: Course Preview

Vortex Race Team are very proud to be hosting the championships in 2011, we're sure the riders will like the course we've got planned for them, based around the historic town of Balfron on the 'Endrick' circuit, which we don't think has been used for any events before. Part of it is ridden in the opposite direction for the 'Tour of the Campsies' classic time trial.
*UPDATE: COURSE HAS NOW BEEN RESURFACED BY STIRLING COUNCIL*
Circuit Start
At the start of the first lap we'll be rolling down the hill of Buchanan Street, past Dunmore Street, which will become a familiar left turn in Balfron town, there's a fast descent down to a sweeping left onto the Endrick Bridge within the first km on the A875, the road surface is good here. The course is based on the valley formed by the Endrick Water, so we'll be passing it again later.

Boquhan
As soon as we're over the Endrick Bridge, we start a on a deceptive bit of road, an incline leading up through the village of Boquhan, it will surely play a part later in the race, but possibly not noticed too much early on. The very left hand side has a lumpy road surface, the rest looks ok. The road rises for approx 1km to the first turn, a left onto the B818.

TURN 1
The road levels off a bit after the turn, still no steep gradients here, we're turning off the A875 & turning left onto the B818, heading towards Fintry, but you'll not be going that far. This corner has a particularly nasty surface on it, it needs a bit of work, but a good recon' and you'll have a decent line sorted out that isn't going to cause you any problems, we'll be going round the circuit closer to the event once the promised road work has been done and give you an up to date preview for those who can't visit the circuit. This turn is at 2.2km into the circuit.

Endrick Valley
This twisting and turning run along to turn two is approx 5km long, there's no hills to speak of, a couple of very short rises & ideal racing roads, we expect attacks to go here. There's only a few occasions where there's any more than 30 seconds sight up the road at race speed, usually much less. As for the surface, this is where we've been raising issues with the council, there's some dodgy bits of road, interspersed with some really good bits of surface, it won't be like this in May, so keep an eye on our website & twitter for news www.vortexraceteam.co.uk

TURN 2
This is another left off the B818 & onto an unclassified road, this corner will be taken quite fast as it's flat leading up to it. It drops down towards the Endrick Water again and we think this will be another fast section, it's a short section before 'Turn 3'. So fast that we're going to be placing an extra marshall on a fast bend on this road to keep things safe, it's essentially a single track road, but wide enough for two cars to pass. This turn is at 7.3km from the circuit start.

TURN 3
Immediately after crossing the bridge, you'll see a house on your right and you'll be making a left turn at the T-junction. This takes you west again, heading towards Balfron on the opposite side of the valley from the previous 5km section. This turn is at 8km from the circuit start.


BACK ROAD
This is currently the best surfaced piece of road on the circuit and takes you right into Balfron, it's also the lumpiest profile, there's a few drags and one short but hard 8% section, which we'll call the 'Balfron Berg'. The 'Berg' will claim it's victims in the race finale, but there's no sustained climbs on the circuit. This section is 2.5km long.

TURN 4
Not so much a corner, more of a left fork, this takes you off the back road and onto Dunmore Street in Balfron, which desends down to the final turn on the course. You pass this at 10.5km from the circuit start.


TURN 5
This turn forms the start/finish of each lap, the lap board will be placed close to this corner in easy sight of the riders. This is another left, back onto the A875 to head back towards Boquhan. This completes one full circuit of 11.3km. The ladies will complete 6 laps in the morning, then in the afternoon the men will complete 12 laps. The finish line will not be on this circuit, but on the last lap (you'll hear a bell when you have one lap to go) you'll turn right on turn 5 and the finish line will be up the hill.



THE FINISH LINE
When you turn right at turn 5 on the last lap, you'll see the finish line, it will be 300m up the incline, we're not being too cruel and putting it on the steepest part of the climb, so it'll be just next to Doyles Cafe.



THE MAP


THE PROFILE (one full lap)


Thanks to Robin Dick for photo's

Bianchi Kuma 5300 review

I've been away from mountain bikes for some time, raced them a good few years ago, so I decided to get myself one due to the incredibly bad weather and unrideable roads of the lovely Scottish winter. I chose the Bianchi Kuma 5300 from Solid Rock Cycles.

I was quite surprised to find what kit I got on this bike compared to what I'd get on a similar priced road bike, it seems like much more for the money, maybe due to larger production volumes, but a pleasant surprise anyway. Hydraulic disc brakes, suspension forks etc, here's the full SPEC. The frame colour also includes the traditional Bianchi blue/green colour, a definite draw for a 'roady' buying an mtb, a bit of heritage.

As expected when you buy road bikes, the rear mech's are specced up to give an appearance of a better groupset than you've got, this MTB has the same thing with a Shimano Deore rear mech and the front mech and shifters all Alivio 9 speed. The shifting all works very well, had it in sand and mud, no problems. I've never ridden disc brakes before, what a difference to canti's or V-brakes in the wet and dirt, I expect it won't be long before they become standard on road bikes, the stopping power is massive, I could never set up canti's properly anyway.

I've experienced the changes in road bikes over the years, so probably not noticed the changes as being particularly dramatic, it's hit me with this bike just how much things have moved on. This is better than the bike I was racing in the 90's. I know some people still love them, but in the past I was riding Pace RC35 elastomer forks, the Suntour XCM forks on this one soak up the bumps just as good if not better, found myself using the lockout lever a fair bit too on solid ground too, very useful to avoid the out of saddle bouncing. I've no idea if these forks are considered good, average or poor, but for me they've allowed me to gain back some of my old lost offroad skills, and the frame and fork set up appear to allow me to ride single track reasonably well (for a roady) and I'm getting better.


Overall, I'm very happy with this bike, it's the ideal addition to a roadies winter stable, a good quality mountain bike that doesn't break the bank and seems able to withstand a fair bit of punishment in seriously dodgy winter conditions. It may not be the very lightest about, but it handles well & I have to admit, I've been having a lot of fun on it. I may even attempt to race it this year, then we'll see if really is better than my old race MTB, I'm looking forward to it.
The full Bianchi range is available from www.solidrockcycles.com in Balmore for around £600. You can buy it online HERE.

Colin.

Rosneath Road Race Super6 Round 2

It’s that time of the year to dig out the calendar and make a few decisions about when and where to race for the early part of the season and the plunge was taken with applying to the second round of the SC Super six series on April 3rd. This is a new edition to the series from previous years and Janette Hazlett and the Ivy have certainly picked a circuit that has all the hallmarks of what promises to be an epic race at Rosneath. Personally it’s a part of the country I’d never ridden before and much to my own chagrin knew absolutely nothing about. So with this in mind I approached our man with the knowledge and “Vortache”, Mister Worthington, to escort me around the roads to enlighten me.

We managed to choose a day that amazingly had absolutely no wind which was pretty incredible as for the days leading up to our ride gales had caused carnage on the roads around the West of Scotland. Slate grey overcast skies welcomed us to Helensburgh but at least the light rain had stopped, leaving a gloss finish to the tarmac which was still showing signs of the winter’s teeth tearing chunks from it. Rolling out of the town along the waterfront it became obvious that the green painted cycle path was not the place to ride as it had collected the debris of the council’s winter gritting programme as well as some mighty pot holes. Thankfully, this was short lived as made our way out of town the road surface improved and we travelled North through Rhu towards Faslane with the millpond that was Gare Loch on our left. We agreed that this would be a good fast hors d’ouvre to the circuit ahead and as we passed the multi coloured caravans of the “peace camp” outside the naval base the road had already began an initially unperceivable rise towards a short downhill to the first roundabout on the course.

The road surface here is excellent and allowed us to concentrate on the first long drag of the race as we continued North on the A814 and what we decided to call the Whistlefield “A” climb up to the roundabout which signified the start of the circuit proper. No respite here though as the climb continued at a steady six or seven percent as we turned South on the high road heading down the peninsula. With road nestling down between rock faces it looked as though it had been cut especially to hide travelling vehicles from the elements, we hoped that this would be the case when the wind was stronger than it happened to be for our ride.

Two or three more sneaky undulating rises awaited before a long sweeping right handed descent to the Shore Road commenced. Make no bones about it this will be really fast on the day and not for the faint of heart or brake blocks, especially if rain falls, the hairpin turn at the bottom will catch those ill prepared out, you have been warned! The fun isn’t over there either because the exit onto the Shore Road is where the weather has taken it’s toll more than anywhere else on the circuit with a hundred metre section of pave like road to negotiate before things settle down again.

The lower part of the course couldn’t be more of a contrast to the bleak high road. Flat, fast and lined on one side by the open expanse of the entry to Loch Long and on the other the mansions of rich industrialists long since departed, leaving their exuberant legacies in brick and stone on the shore line. This part of the circuit will suit the non-climbers and allow them the opportunity to exact some revenge on those who prefer to cause their adversaries suffering elsewhere. Narrow roads with the occasional twist and turn will no doubt have the peleton strung out and gaps will open up as wheels are fought for. There will be no hiding in the bunch in this race, I predict there will be no bunch!

Rounding the bottom of the peninsula it is easy to forget that you are heading North again, you may even catch sight as we did of some military hardware as you travel fast and furious through Rosneath itself, followed by Clynder and Little Rahane and eventually back up to Garelochead, where the left turn takes you immediately into the realms of pain with the ultra steep Whistlefield climb staring you right in the face. You first catch a glimpse of the tarmac poking it’s nose out at you at the top of the tree line, never a good sign as the road doesn’t so much tilt up but simply rises straight out of the ground like a missile so infamously stored along the coast. No gentle lower slopes here, it’s straight into ten percent climbing swiftly followed by twelve and fourteen percent. A slight levelling half way and then straight up again to the roundabout that signifies the start of the next lap which as you may recall continues upwards for a few kilometres more, ouch!

Three circuits later and thankfully only twice up the Whistlefield you take a right turn and make your way through Garelochead and rejoin the A814 southbound towards the finish in Helensburgh. The road is fast and flat and if and that’s a mighty big if, there is a group together the sprint will be a fair one. Somehow though I doubt if there will be any groups of more than ten riders coming in together, this is an event for tough men who can climb and ride in the wind, because I’m pretty sure that we stole the only one they’ve had in those parts for several years!

Well done Janette this is a fantastic circuit and will provide the stage for some excellent racing, there is one sure and certain thing the guy over the line first will not have fluked a win….

Meadowbank Track League

All of us at Vortex RT will be involved in racing at the track league for 2011, the olden days of sitting in the car in the rain, outside the velodrome, staring at the sky for a break in the clouds are thankfully just a nasty memory of ‘days gone by’. They now harness modern technology with online weather forecasts, text messages & emails to make sure nobody make the journey without knowing the conditions.
For those of you who are not familiar with the track, it’s located at Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh, just East of the athletics track. It’s an outdoor wooden 250m velodrome, it was originally built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, then rebuilt for the Commonwealth Games in 1986. As you’d expect, an outdoor wooden track of that age in Scotland needs a load of work to keep it in an order that you can still race on it, can’t imagine what will need done after the winter we’ve just had/are having.



I first rode the track league in 1989 or 1990 (it was a long time ago, I can’t remember exactly), riders racing on Tuesday night around that time included Olympian Anthony Stirrat, British sprint champ Stuart Brydon & a couple of youthful and incredibly talented riders called Craig MacLean & Chris Hoy. Having been around the UK for a few year, last year I started racing (well, turning up without training more like) at Meadowbank again, really enjoyed it, loads of the old faces still riding, brought back a load of memories.
So it’s back on the boards again, stronger, lighter and faster than 2010, with some km’s in my legs, things should be different with my old track legs back. I’ve heard loads of bad stories floating about, “riders from the West are not made welcome” etc, total nonsense, we’ve had no such bother, in the 90’s or now. So if you have an interest in track racing and want to be up and running for the new velodrome next year, get ourselves across, there are a few routes in which avoid the bulk of the traffic, but it’s worth the trip. You’ll all have to get used to track racing soon enough, it’s going to become a staple of the Scottish riders competitive diet in the next few years, even winter track leagues will proved very popular, year round racing is about to hit hard.
If you want to use public transport, you can get a train across from Glasgow Central station, it’s much cheaper than the Queen Street commuter line. Get the 17:50, takes over an hour, then you’ve got 20 mins to get to the track before the racing starts, that train even has an area that takes about 12 bikes, ideal! See map below.


Track at top right of map.

As for how it’s run, everybody involved in the organisation knows the job they’re doing, most have doing it for some time. In the commentators hotseat is The Old Man of Hoy himself, David Hoy. The first thing you’ll do is a flying lap, where generally your time will determine which category you’ll race in, A, B or C. If you’re new they’ll most likely stick you in with the C group, obviously if you lap the field you’ll be moved up. The events vary week to week, so there’s always something different, for different types of riders, culminating in a scratch race (mass group, first over the line is the winner) at the end of the night.
Conditions at the track are often the same, head wind down the back straight, tailwind down the home straight and a chill in the air. Meadowbank sometimes appears to be the coldest place in Scotland, so wrap up warm between races, a blanket is a popular accessory for the seasoned Meadowbank track leaguer, a habit worth considering. Occasionally you’ll get that incredible sunny and windless evening, the night legends are made of, the last one in 1997 is still talked about, you never know, if you get yourselves through there in 2011 you may be lucky enough to witness another.

The DHL track league has a website with a weekly programme and results.
http://www.esca.uk.com/mtl/index.html

The first event of 2011 is on Tuesday 19th April.
http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/52872/DHL/Meadowbank-National-Track-Series

We'll be updating the weather on our twitter feed, you can see it on our website, see you there.
Colin.

Thoughts from the Turbo – VORTEST the appliance of science

The Vortest, probably the single most dreaded day of every Vortex RT rider in the month of the training schedule. Why? Simply because it hurts, no that doesn’t do it justice, it is so painful that no matter what I write it could not possibly describe what your body goes through in attempting track your training progress.



What is the VORTEST?

The rig itself consists of one static bike with powertap connected to a laptop loaded with a programme cunningly designed to measure your output. Dependant on your needs the tests can measure several different significant areas that you want to train. Each programme has its own particular pain inducing speciality. Sprint, threshold and anaerobic ability attack the body in every way possible and with every passing training day the inevitable date with reality moves closer.

Each member of the team knows what to expect we’ve all subjected ourselves to it so that the files can be collated and individual programmes can be designed. Now into my third term of the torture it still fills me with dread, the build up always begins the same, you’ve finished your month of hard work and your recovery days have lulled you into a state of false relaxation. It’s there though, lurking in the background of your mind, the spectre of knowing that for around an hour and a half at the end of the week your tormentor I mean coach will be there, waiting for you to arrive so he can strap you onto the rig to make sure you’ve been a good boy and not told him porkys about what training you’ve done. A little light hearted banter with him to try and settle your nerves is the preamble. It’s akin to the childish, giggling bravado with your mates prior to a teenage date, you know what they expect of you but will your performance meet with approval or will you look at the end result with embarrassment and despair?

The warm up, the final few kilometres of Alpe D’Huez on the I-Magic this time, spinning a low gear and getting the heart rate going has the desired effect, warm enough now for the cooling fan to be required, it’s welcome breeze taking the edge from the perspiration tumbling from the pores. Warm up completed and the first of the tests is set on the screen, sprints.

A full on, no holds barred effort timed to evaluate your ability to push out as many watts as you can for as long as you can. The tone starts you and bang off you go hitting it as hard as possible the first seconds see the readout shoot up and then all to quickly you realise that you aren’t Sir Chris or Cav, it’s January and you’ve lost what ever ability you had to hold at any reasonable wattage for more than a few seconds. Someone appears and is pouring lactate into your thighs from a water jug and there is nothing your body can do to empty them. Your head tell your legs to keep the cadence high, but it’s just not happening then suddenly the tone tells you it’s time to stop and recover. That’s not though as you are now expected to have a short recovery and do it all again, just to make sure that there’s some consistency! The second effort is just as painful but this time the lungs start to burn too and the sting of acid starts to build in the throat as you finish your effort. It’s at that point you’re asked “How did that feel?” Even if you could speak there haven’t yet been words invented to describe “how you feel”.

Recover and on to the next sadistically designed test, threshold, a period of time between three and five minutes where you ride at pursuit tempo to establish your endurance abilities. Once again the tone indicates the beginning of the self inflicted torture. No matter how much you tell yourself to pace it you always start too fast, the wattage of Bradley Wiggins is not the place for mere mortals to be, reality sets in (or more accurately forced upon you) and a more realistic output ensues, it still hurts and you become more aware of your breathing and pedalling action, “keep it smooth and rhythmic” repeats in your head, try not to think of the time passing concentrate on cadence, but there is no escape from nature or physiology. It’s different this time, the pain that is. It’s there don’t get me wrong, the lactic build up isn’t so immediate, it’s more intense and you can feel it building, loading your muscle tissue, weighing it down so that every pedal stroke becomes battle between your brain, your lungs and your legs. It’s as if strong elastic has been attached to your feet to pull them in the opposite direction that you are telling them to go, the resultant compromise being a wattage you can sustain for the whole effort. A white dot appears from somewhere floating about infront of your eyes and as the pain tightens it turns yellow, grows larger and starts flashing closing your eyes doesn't help the psychedelic show just intensifies. Eventually the tone sounds and welcome relief as the programme releases you from its grip, temporarily. No questions, the look last time must have said it all. It isn’t over by any stretch of the imagination the final and most devious test is yet to come. The ramp test awaits.

Simple in design the ramp test is sneaky, it creeps up on you allowing you to believe that you are actually mastering it, of course that just isn’t going to happen. The beauty of this test is no matter how fit you are it will always, always, always beat you. The test starts with all the venom of a Sunday club run actually that’s an exaggeration it’s more like the effort required to sit in a café on the Sunday club run, surely this can’t be part of the test? You sit there as every thirty seconds the programme requires you to up the wattage, it’s almost sedate and you look at the screen thinking I could sit here for hours spinning away, but as the wattage climbs the requirements demanded of you change and you wish you were sitting in that café supping on an expresso and chewing down on some calorie laden sugary delight. As you move inexorably through discomfort to effort to pain your heart rate lifts, slowly at first but it’s having to work now, you breathe harder the earlier tests have chipped away at the energy reserves and once again the lactate beast decides its feeding time. The wattage demands are relentless creeping up ten at a time as your heart has to work harder to get those red blood cells moving towards your lungs for oxygen. Your head sees the steps on the ramp, just ten watts more you tell yourself, again and again, break it into little chunks it can’t be that bad surely? But it is, you can’t escape it, mouth gasping, lung crushing, it feels as though you are sucking searing hot dry air that is not compatible with your lungs and in less than a minute your body says enough the watts just can’t be sustained any more as your anaerobic frailty is exposed to the world. Finally it’s over and as the programme is switched off you try to warm down and pedal with legs that feel as though your femurs have been surgically removed.

It really doesn’t get any worse than that, pure unadulterated torture, forget water boarding if you want a confession threaten them with a VORTEST.

The really crazy thing though is that we do this so that once the analysis is done and the “needing work” areas are identified, the training schedule is adapted to strengthen the bits that hurt the most and next month we’ll see if it worked………