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.