Rollapaluza comes to Eastbourne

@marktearle and me

Last night I took part in roller-racing in Eastbourne. Two cyclists battle it out on a pair of custom rollers connected to a huge dial over a simulated 500m distance.

I was one of 43 men that took part including one of my Twitter followers @marktearle. You have a few minutes warm up on the fixed gear bike and then you have to pedal as fast as you can until you hit 500m. The Rollapaluza record is 17.90s / 62mph / 253rpm. My time was 27.73s. Average speed 40.6mph. Average cadence 160rpm. I was pleased that I wasn't the slowest. It's really tough to do but in hindsight, I probably could have shaved a bit off my time but you don't really get any practice time to perfect your technique.

The fastest time of the evening was 21.22s by Robin Thompson. The TriStore provided generous prizes for the best riders of the night. The two finalists had to cover a gruelling 1,000m. The winner of the male competition was Nathan Russell.

All in all, it was a good night, something I'd like to take part in again.

Full results at http://www.rollapaluza.com/2011/01/15/eastbourne-national-series-qualifier/



Edit: a video has been found of me racing.