Well that's it the season is finally over and its certainly been a busy one. Last weekend was the final round of the National Series and whilst Chris headed off the Yorkshire I made the long journey down to Plymouth. I had a quick potter around the course on Friday evening and found it to be really fun, a few steep climbs, a drop, the infamous pipeline descent, two river crossings and one twisty section through the trees. Unfortunately the team I was going to be riding with pulled out of the team relay but this did at least mean I got to chat to lots of people and hang out with the Buick clan.
Saturday dawned cloudy and grey and as I made myself coffee and ate some cereal it was a bit wierd with Chris not being there. I gave my bottles to Sara Flatt and Andrew and went with Imogen to warm-up. We rode up the hill on the road a few times and then joined the massed ranks of female racers going round and round in circles in the centre of the arena. It always feels a bit wierdly ritualistic to me going round and round in circles but it does serve a purpose. It was really exciting listening to the elite women being announced to the line since, this included Gun-Rita Dahle Flesja, multiple world champion and one of the best female racers in the world.
All the usual suspects were there for the Expert race as well as a few folk we hadn't seen before and as the (very loud) gun went off we all charged off the line. We all had the plan of sitting on Emma Smith's wheel I think since she has been the strongest competitor all year. She didn't go storming off as usual but seemed to be taking it steady and I was happy to do the same. Ont eh first hill however, Maxine obviously decided this was too slow and went storming off with Jessie not far behind. I perhaps should have gone with them at this point but decided to stick with my game-plan of steady paced racing since it was going to be a long and hilly one. Some of the masters riders joined us and we managed to keep the front two within sight for most of the lap and by the end Emma had overtaken Jessie with me following closely behind.
On the second lap I took an opportunity to go past Jessie on a slightly lumpy and muddy section and then at the top of the climb before the pipeline had a dig to get past Emma. This seemed to work quite well but I could not quite get enough distance between us for it to really count and on the pipeline she used less brake than me and got ahead again. She didn't get much of a gap on me either though se we continued riding in this formation until well into lap three. At this point I was closing in on Emma again and I was pretty sure I could get past her again on the last lap.
Perhaps I was a bit excited and went for it on the cottage descent but by the time a reached the second river crossing I realised I had a rear puncture. I stopped on the other side of the river and put some air in my tyre hoping the sealant would do its job but by the time I reached the feed on the first hill it became apparent it it hadn't. I stopped and put a tube in as quickly as possible hoping I wouldn't lose too much time. After my tube disaster at the nationals I put in some serious training on how CO2 canisters work and was able to do a pretty good job this time, well after I got the tyre off! By the time I got going again I was in 4th place with 5th closing in so I put the hammer down as best I could in the hope I might just scrape a podium.
Unfortunately I never quite made it back but it was a good competitive race. In the end Maxine took the win, with Emma second and Jessie in third. In the elite race Annie Last (Halfords) outsprinted Kate Potter (Cotic Bontrager) for a well deserved win with new National Champion Sue Clarke (SIS) in third. With so many foreign racers it was great to see the British girls doing so well. Bring on 2010...
Saturday 3 October 2009
Monday 28 September 2009
Ending on a high
Wow, it's the last race of what's been a packed summer season, and it came around surprisingly quickly. It doesn't seem all that long ago that the first of the spring greening was appearing on the trees, and i was riding through the dust of most of the Expert field at Sherwood Pines at the first NPS. A lot has happened in the last six months! So, for my final race of the year, i decided to go back to the three peaks cyclocross. In the twelve months since the last edition, the 46th one since 1961, i've managed to submit a PhD and find a job, in fact i handed in my thesis about three days after getting back from Yorkshire last time around. It wasn't ideal preparation, and my lack of cycling and running, and in fact fitness in general, told on my pretty badly as i crawled over the line in 238th place in 4hrs37. I hoped that this year, with life a bit more settled and a few more running and cycling miles in my legs, things might be different...
Rachel was heading off down to Newnham for the last round of the NPS, on what sounds like it was a fantastic course, and a fitting end to the year with something of a carnival atmosphere, but i'm sure she'll tell you all about that in her own post from the weekend. I, however, had had more than enough of Newnham at 24/12 - don't get me wrong, i liked the course, and it's definitely somewhere that plays to my strengths on a bike, but 14 laps does burn a course profile into your brain rather! Anyway, i digress. Rachel left on friday morning to head over for the team relay, but unfortunately her team from AW cycles pulled out at the last minute, leaving her with more than enough time to get ready. I stayed home and packed my stuff, made banana muffins (i'm getting better, but they're still not up to Fenton standards), and cooked dinner for me and a couple of mates who were nice enough to cycle out from Cambridge to keep me company. A few preparatory glasses of wine (one simply has to carbo load on a chateau la fite, dahling) a lot of food and a new, improved recipe Tescos sticky toffee pudding, and i was ready for my wee bed.
Saturday dawned overcast in Cambridgeshire, and i packed up the last of my stuff, and headed off Northwards at about 11am. After a long, but thankfully uneventful drive, i got to Helwith Bridge, in the beautiful dales, and amazingly not that far from the Lake District (my geography was sufficiently bad, i had no idea of this - shameful eh?). I pitched up my tent by the pub as i had last year, but without Rachel and Mark for company this time, and then headed out for a pootle on my bike to loosen my legs after such a long. On my way out of the car park i bumped into Jerry Turner, so the two of us headed off together for a little trip. Unfortunately, little did we know when we parted way that the bridleway that Jerry was taking would bring him right back to the campsite where i was pitched, so we could have ridden together all the way anyway. I got back, de-kitted, read my book for a few minutes and then made some dinner.
Post-food, or actually really during food, Jerry returned, and we headed to the pub with him and a chap i'd met in the camp site, my neighbour in canvas, and one of the guys Jerry was looking after during the race. A nice chat and a pint of the local micro-brew, and of course a quick fuss of the Clarke's rather sweet springer spaniel, and again i was ready for some shut-eye ready for the next days antics. I slept pretty well, and awoke a bit snotty (pretty standard for camping) and then got about the busy business of getting ready. I had my usual super-strength pre-race coffee, kitted up, warmed up, pumped up my tubs nice and hard (60psi i reckoned, i'm not that heavy after all), and before i knew it it was time to head out behind the pace truck.
I lined up on the 4hr line, with an ever-increasing number of people trying to squeeze in in front. Once we'd started to roll out, Owen and I ended up riding together in the slightly terrifying 500-strong peloton where there were almost constant braking waves, including one that very nearly had me off as i locked both wheels to avoid the guy in front. This continued until the pace began to quicken through Horton-in-Ribblesdale, and out the other side in antipation of the start of the offroad that leads to Simon Fell, Unfortunately, a bunch of motorcyclists decided they simply couldn't wait for the group to disappear onto the farm track, and decided to overtake all 580 of us behind the pace van - after last year when a guy on a motorbike broke his leg and had to be ambulanced away in the middle of the race, you'd have thought they'd have learned. On we went, and up into the offroad section.
Straight away, the difference from last year was noticeable - i rode much more of the run in, and even when it became a walk, i was able to keep a good pace, and put in the odd burst of a few steps of running - what a difference a year makes. The wall of grass on the way to Simon Fell wasn't quite such a shock this time, and i enjoyed the opportunity for a chat with the other guys around me, one of whom was wearing a bright red pair of sidis that got him the nickname Dorothy! The new widened stile was a nice suprise, and i was even more chuffed to find that i'd got to the top in pretty much spot on 1hr in 100th place. Things were looking okay! Down to Cold Cotes, and my lack of descending on a cross bike really showed, i felt very amateurish and unconfident, whereas i usually really like it when the course points earthwards. I suspect the dodgy brakes that i hadn't fixed properly (the springs are way too strong, which makes them really difficult to apply, even with suicide levers) and skinny tyres didn't help matters though. Onto the road section, i got into a nice little group that worked all the way to the foot of Whernside, where we were greeted by the dulcet tones of the commentator, a 3 peaks institution in his own right! So this is what i'd missed the previous year - mid race commentary. I got a bit of stick for belonging to a team with "Over the Hill" in the name - not appropriate for a team outside yorkshire apparently, and carried on up towards where the climbing starts on Whernside.
Surely bad brakes make you go faster, right?
The water station at the bottom was a nice surprise, as were the amazing number of people out to cheer - the support this year was second to none and really made you feel so great out on the bike, even when your legs were screaming at you to stop! I hiked on, still feeling good, and picked up a few more places along the way. There were a few people who didn't like being overtaken on the walking sections, and one particular guy sticks in my mind - every time i picked up the pace to pass him, he'd match me, and then walk alongside me poking me with various bits of his bike. This happened three or four times along the way, until i got thoroughly pissed off, and decided to take off at a run - when i got to the summit of Whernside, i couldn't even see him in the distance, so he obviously didn't have it in him to match me all the way - phew! Down the back of Whernside, and again my descending left a little to be desired although i was getting more into the swing of it, and occasionally getting carried away and slamming my poor tubs into the rock slabs - oops! I did have one spectacular "into a ditch" moment i front of a cheering family, who thanked me for the show, but made it to Ribblehead largely unscathed. Zipping along the road at the viaduct, surrounded by hundreds of spectators has to be one of my favourite memories of the whole year. And i remembered to take the man's line down the rock slabs too....
Along the road section i saw Jerry, and waved to him as he sat by the roadside taking photos. I still felt pretty good, probably in no small part thanks to my caffeine gel, and was well up for Pen-y-Ghent. This is probably the scariest of the three hills to me, as the riders near the front are hammering down at a great rate of knots whilst mere mortals like me are trying to hike and ride up. I saw Neal Crampton zooming down at warp speed, and clearly on for a great ride - i later found out he took up the last space on the podium after Nick Craig and Rob Jebb, closely followed by a largely wheelbase chasing bunch! It was a bit of a struggle to get to the top of PyG, but still not as bad as last year, although with my poor pumped arms, and naff brakes, i wasn't looking forward to the descent much. I made it down in one piece, and hit the road section, determined to leave it all out on the course, and dashed back into Helwith Bridge like my life depended on it - the timer on my watch had stopped and i hadn't a clue how close i was to making my aim of under 4hrs.
Still smiling on the way up Pen-y-Ghent - amazing!
In the event, i needn't have worried, as i made it back with 10mins to spare in 3:50! I was still 10mins off the pace of the first singlespeeder though. I have to admit, i don't really understand the mindset of entering events on a singlespeed, even if i do respect the results that people get. Singlespeeds are a great way to train in winter and not destroy your drivetrain, and they have their own events like the UKSSC and even a world champs, which is very cool, and very silly. But to enter an event like the 3 Peaks on an SS just seems daft, and even dafter if you're good - i wouldn't waste my fitness trying to ride a penny farthing or a unicycle over the 3 peaks after all! And if i did, you'd rightly tell me i was stupid!! Unicycling course record anyone?
It was great to do the race feeling fit, and i'll definitely be back again next year to try to knock a bit more off my time - i suspect i'll need to do much much more running, but i'm getting less averse to that in my old age, i'm even toying with the idea of some fell-running events, but we'll see whether that survives the rosy post-race glow! For now, everything hurts, and i'm definitely more beaten up than i have been after any other race this year. And the sickest thing is, i don't want to stop....
Rachel was heading off down to Newnham for the last round of the NPS, on what sounds like it was a fantastic course, and a fitting end to the year with something of a carnival atmosphere, but i'm sure she'll tell you all about that in her own post from the weekend. I, however, had had more than enough of Newnham at 24/12 - don't get me wrong, i liked the course, and it's definitely somewhere that plays to my strengths on a bike, but 14 laps does burn a course profile into your brain rather! Anyway, i digress. Rachel left on friday morning to head over for the team relay, but unfortunately her team from AW cycles pulled out at the last minute, leaving her with more than enough time to get ready. I stayed home and packed my stuff, made banana muffins (i'm getting better, but they're still not up to Fenton standards), and cooked dinner for me and a couple of mates who were nice enough to cycle out from Cambridge to keep me company. A few preparatory glasses of wine (one simply has to carbo load on a chateau la fite, dahling) a lot of food and a new, improved recipe Tescos sticky toffee pudding, and i was ready for my wee bed.
Saturday dawned overcast in Cambridgeshire, and i packed up the last of my stuff, and headed off Northwards at about 11am. After a long, but thankfully uneventful drive, i got to Helwith Bridge, in the beautiful dales, and amazingly not that far from the Lake District (my geography was sufficiently bad, i had no idea of this - shameful eh?). I pitched up my tent by the pub as i had last year, but without Rachel and Mark for company this time, and then headed out for a pootle on my bike to loosen my legs after such a long. On my way out of the car park i bumped into Jerry Turner, so the two of us headed off together for a little trip. Unfortunately, little did we know when we parted way that the bridleway that Jerry was taking would bring him right back to the campsite where i was pitched, so we could have ridden together all the way anyway. I got back, de-kitted, read my book for a few minutes and then made some dinner.
Post-food, or actually really during food, Jerry returned, and we headed to the pub with him and a chap i'd met in the camp site, my neighbour in canvas, and one of the guys Jerry was looking after during the race. A nice chat and a pint of the local micro-brew, and of course a quick fuss of the Clarke's rather sweet springer spaniel, and again i was ready for some shut-eye ready for the next days antics. I slept pretty well, and awoke a bit snotty (pretty standard for camping) and then got about the busy business of getting ready. I had my usual super-strength pre-race coffee, kitted up, warmed up, pumped up my tubs nice and hard (60psi i reckoned, i'm not that heavy after all), and before i knew it it was time to head out behind the pace truck.
I lined up on the 4hr line, with an ever-increasing number of people trying to squeeze in in front. Once we'd started to roll out, Owen and I ended up riding together in the slightly terrifying 500-strong peloton where there were almost constant braking waves, including one that very nearly had me off as i locked both wheels to avoid the guy in front. This continued until the pace began to quicken through Horton-in-Ribblesdale, and out the other side in antipation of the start of the offroad that leads to Simon Fell, Unfortunately, a bunch of motorcyclists decided they simply couldn't wait for the group to disappear onto the farm track, and decided to overtake all 580 of us behind the pace van - after last year when a guy on a motorbike broke his leg and had to be ambulanced away in the middle of the race, you'd have thought they'd have learned. On we went, and up into the offroad section.
Straight away, the difference from last year was noticeable - i rode much more of the run in, and even when it became a walk, i was able to keep a good pace, and put in the odd burst of a few steps of running - what a difference a year makes. The wall of grass on the way to Simon Fell wasn't quite such a shock this time, and i enjoyed the opportunity for a chat with the other guys around me, one of whom was wearing a bright red pair of sidis that got him the nickname Dorothy! The new widened stile was a nice suprise, and i was even more chuffed to find that i'd got to the top in pretty much spot on 1hr in 100th place. Things were looking okay! Down to Cold Cotes, and my lack of descending on a cross bike really showed, i felt very amateurish and unconfident, whereas i usually really like it when the course points earthwards. I suspect the dodgy brakes that i hadn't fixed properly (the springs are way too strong, which makes them really difficult to apply, even with suicide levers) and skinny tyres didn't help matters though. Onto the road section, i got into a nice little group that worked all the way to the foot of Whernside, where we were greeted by the dulcet tones of the commentator, a 3 peaks institution in his own right! So this is what i'd missed the previous year - mid race commentary. I got a bit of stick for belonging to a team with "Over the Hill" in the name - not appropriate for a team outside yorkshire apparently, and carried on up towards where the climbing starts on Whernside.
Surely bad brakes make you go faster, right?
The water station at the bottom was a nice surprise, as were the amazing number of people out to cheer - the support this year was second to none and really made you feel so great out on the bike, even when your legs were screaming at you to stop! I hiked on, still feeling good, and picked up a few more places along the way. There were a few people who didn't like being overtaken on the walking sections, and one particular guy sticks in my mind - every time i picked up the pace to pass him, he'd match me, and then walk alongside me poking me with various bits of his bike. This happened three or four times along the way, until i got thoroughly pissed off, and decided to take off at a run - when i got to the summit of Whernside, i couldn't even see him in the distance, so he obviously didn't have it in him to match me all the way - phew! Down the back of Whernside, and again my descending left a little to be desired although i was getting more into the swing of it, and occasionally getting carried away and slamming my poor tubs into the rock slabs - oops! I did have one spectacular "into a ditch" moment i front of a cheering family, who thanked me for the show, but made it to Ribblehead largely unscathed. Zipping along the road at the viaduct, surrounded by hundreds of spectators has to be one of my favourite memories of the whole year. And i remembered to take the man's line down the rock slabs too....
Along the road section i saw Jerry, and waved to him as he sat by the roadside taking photos. I still felt pretty good, probably in no small part thanks to my caffeine gel, and was well up for Pen-y-Ghent. This is probably the scariest of the three hills to me, as the riders near the front are hammering down at a great rate of knots whilst mere mortals like me are trying to hike and ride up. I saw Neal Crampton zooming down at warp speed, and clearly on for a great ride - i later found out he took up the last space on the podium after Nick Craig and Rob Jebb, closely followed by a largely wheelbase chasing bunch! It was a bit of a struggle to get to the top of PyG, but still not as bad as last year, although with my poor pumped arms, and naff brakes, i wasn't looking forward to the descent much. I made it down in one piece, and hit the road section, determined to leave it all out on the course, and dashed back into Helwith Bridge like my life depended on it - the timer on my watch had stopped and i hadn't a clue how close i was to making my aim of under 4hrs.
Still smiling on the way up Pen-y-Ghent - amazing!
In the event, i needn't have worried, as i made it back with 10mins to spare in 3:50! I was still 10mins off the pace of the first singlespeeder though. I have to admit, i don't really understand the mindset of entering events on a singlespeed, even if i do respect the results that people get. Singlespeeds are a great way to train in winter and not destroy your drivetrain, and they have their own events like the UKSSC and even a world champs, which is very cool, and very silly. But to enter an event like the 3 Peaks on an SS just seems daft, and even dafter if you're good - i wouldn't waste my fitness trying to ride a penny farthing or a unicycle over the 3 peaks after all! And if i did, you'd rightly tell me i was stupid!! Unicycling course record anyone?
It was great to do the race feeling fit, and i'll definitely be back again next year to try to knock a bit more off my time - i suspect i'll need to do much much more running, but i'm getting less averse to that in my old age, i'm even toying with the idea of some fell-running events, but we'll see whether that survives the rosy post-race glow! For now, everything hurts, and i'm definitely more beaten up than i have been after any other race this year. And the sickest thing is, i don't want to stop....
Wednesday 23 September 2009
Midlands XC round 4 - final
We hadn't originally planned to race the final round of the Midlands XC this year since it was at a venue neither Chris nor I are particularly fond of - Sherwood Pines. There are just not enough hills here so the races tend to end being more like road races with those who get into the front pack the most liekly to win. When the series standings after round three came out however, it became clear that I was in for the series title in the expert category and Chris had a chance in the expert men's series so we thought we would come along and give it a go. Nadine Spearing and James Hampshire have again put on a good set of races this year. They have been technical and challenging. That said, the women's categories have been a little disappointing on the attendance front and it would be really great to see more girls racing this series next year. It is after all pretty accessible both from the north and the south.
Anyway another reason for us going to race at Sherwood is that we can stay at Chris's parents in Nottingham. So the morning of the race we only had a 45 minute trip up the road to get to the venue. After signing on we went to take a look around the course. It was actually pretty good for a Sherwood course with the usual twisty singletrack as well as a few ups and downs and a good little steep and loose descent. The only really bad bit was a wide track which because of the recent dry weather had become a sand pit and since I generally lack raw power was a really slog.
I was pleased to bump into Ruth Owen-Evans (Yeti/Chris King) when heading back to the car to sort out my drinks since this meant there was another person in my race. As well as Ruth, Jenn O'Connor (Altura Patterson Training) was lining up in the Elite category and Hollie Bettles (XCRacer.com) who I seem to end up riding with at Midlands races in the youth category. At the start we were disappointed to see we were going to be set off behind the Open Male category which meant a few hold-ups in the singletrack. But despite this spirits were high and the 18 or so girls all set off together. At the start I made a real hash up and ended up cutting in front of Ruth (sorry!) but then having got going I was shoulder barged by Danielle Rider. She did apologise but I lsot my rhythm rather. Jenn unsurprisingly took the lead comfortably with Danielle and Hollie following and me behind.
On the podium for the overall complete with tasteful green glass plate
By the time we hit the back of the open men I was with Hollie again and we were working our way towards Danielle. Then disaster, on the sand-pit section I was taken out by one of the male riders and took ages to get up to speed again because of the terrain. For the rest of the race I was chasing down the other girls. I passed Danielle on a corner at some point in the first couple of laps and could see Jenn riding with Hollie on her wheel just ahead of me in the singletrack. She had a lot more power than me on the wider tracks, but it was pretty pleasing to be able to see her going about the same speed through the trees. It was good to have a bit of a carrot even if she did eventually disappear. In the end I finished about four minutes behind Jenn after four laps, winning the expert race and the series. She took the Elite race and series, and Hollie and Danielle the same in the youth and junior races.
Chris seemed to be having a good time in the pits chatting to Paul from SIP events and Trevor Allen from Bath University and whilst I waited for my podiums and chatted to his parents they went out onto the course for a warm-up lap. At 2.30 the boys were off. There were six guys in Chris's Expert race and about the same number in the Elite race, so not a massive field but there were a good number of sport riders. Chris as usual did not have the best start and I had a nervous wait to see whether he would make any places up early on. After less than twenty minutes the lead elites came through in a group and a few minutes behind them the lead expert. As usual Giles Drake had ridden a storming lap and was off the front by some margin. Chris came in a couple of minutes behind him but was looking pretty good and took another bottle - something most riders weren't bothering with. He was less than 10 seconds behind James Hampshire. They have been battling it out a bit this year so this was definitely a good sign!
Status normal for Midlands XC Expert Men - James and Chris off the back!
Over the next four laps the situation did not change much, but as usual Chris was getting closer and closer to James through the singletrack. Unfortunately on the 4th lap his saddle rail snapped and fearing a saddle spearing Chris decided to stop and not take the risk. When I spoke to James at the end he said he had been looking forward to a last lap battle so it was a shame. As Chris was having a massage, Nadine informed me that he had managed to scrape third in the series. So, despite the disappointment of not being able to finish the race there was something to be pleased about. The winners of the men's races were Rob Friel (Raleigh Avanti) Elite, Giles Drake (MSC bikes) Expert and Serge Hunt (Petracycles) in the sport race.
Some consolation for a broken rail :).
Thanks to Nadine and James for organising the series. Hopefully it will continue to be a fixture for years to come.
Anyway another reason for us going to race at Sherwood is that we can stay at Chris's parents in Nottingham. So the morning of the race we only had a 45 minute trip up the road to get to the venue. After signing on we went to take a look around the course. It was actually pretty good for a Sherwood course with the usual twisty singletrack as well as a few ups and downs and a good little steep and loose descent. The only really bad bit was a wide track which because of the recent dry weather had become a sand pit and since I generally lack raw power was a really slog.
I was pleased to bump into Ruth Owen-Evans (Yeti/Chris King) when heading back to the car to sort out my drinks since this meant there was another person in my race. As well as Ruth, Jenn O'Connor (Altura Patterson Training) was lining up in the Elite category and Hollie Bettles (XCRacer.com) who I seem to end up riding with at Midlands races in the youth category. At the start we were disappointed to see we were going to be set off behind the Open Male category which meant a few hold-ups in the singletrack. But despite this spirits were high and the 18 or so girls all set off together. At the start I made a real hash up and ended up cutting in front of Ruth (sorry!) but then having got going I was shoulder barged by Danielle Rider. She did apologise but I lsot my rhythm rather. Jenn unsurprisingly took the lead comfortably with Danielle and Hollie following and me behind.
On the podium for the overall complete with tasteful green glass plate
By the time we hit the back of the open men I was with Hollie again and we were working our way towards Danielle. Then disaster, on the sand-pit section I was taken out by one of the male riders and took ages to get up to speed again because of the terrain. For the rest of the race I was chasing down the other girls. I passed Danielle on a corner at some point in the first couple of laps and could see Jenn riding with Hollie on her wheel just ahead of me in the singletrack. She had a lot more power than me on the wider tracks, but it was pretty pleasing to be able to see her going about the same speed through the trees. It was good to have a bit of a carrot even if she did eventually disappear. In the end I finished about four minutes behind Jenn after four laps, winning the expert race and the series. She took the Elite race and series, and Hollie and Danielle the same in the youth and junior races.
Chris seemed to be having a good time in the pits chatting to Paul from SIP events and Trevor Allen from Bath University and whilst I waited for my podiums and chatted to his parents they went out onto the course for a warm-up lap. At 2.30 the boys were off. There were six guys in Chris's Expert race and about the same number in the Elite race, so not a massive field but there were a good number of sport riders. Chris as usual did not have the best start and I had a nervous wait to see whether he would make any places up early on. After less than twenty minutes the lead elites came through in a group and a few minutes behind them the lead expert. As usual Giles Drake had ridden a storming lap and was off the front by some margin. Chris came in a couple of minutes behind him but was looking pretty good and took another bottle - something most riders weren't bothering with. He was less than 10 seconds behind James Hampshire. They have been battling it out a bit this year so this was definitely a good sign!
Status normal for Midlands XC Expert Men - James and Chris off the back!
Over the next four laps the situation did not change much, but as usual Chris was getting closer and closer to James through the singletrack. Unfortunately on the 4th lap his saddle rail snapped and fearing a saddle spearing Chris decided to stop and not take the risk. When I spoke to James at the end he said he had been looking forward to a last lap battle so it was a shame. As Chris was having a massage, Nadine informed me that he had managed to scrape third in the series. So, despite the disappointment of not being able to finish the race there was something to be pleased about. The winners of the men's races were Rob Friel (Raleigh Avanti) Elite, Giles Drake (MSC bikes) Expert and Serge Hunt (Petracycles) in the sport race.
Some consolation for a broken rail :).
Thanks to Nadine and James for organising the series. Hopefully it will continue to be a fixture for years to come.
Friday 18 September 2009
Autumn's Coming
Well, it's official, the football season has started (although that seems to get earlier every year), the trees are starting to shed on my local trails and there are reports of the first 'cross races of the year up on British Cycling. Autumn's pretty much here. In spite of what you might think, i quite like autumn - it's a time for a bit of 'cross, which i find fun and stupid in equal measure, time to kick back, relax and take stock of the year. Autumn leaves weekends open for things other than racing, which after a summer as busy as mine and Rachel's can be a bit of a shock - if you're not away racing in some far-flung corner of the country, what do you do?!
You can also tell it's getting towards Halloween, Bonfire Night, and all those things that we associate with falling leaves, temperatures and rain in this country by the fact that it's now a little over a week until the 47th (i think that's right) annual 3 Peak Cyclocross. I've spent the last week dusting off my 'cross bike, truing wheels, gluing tubs (i've decided on the rather suicidal tactic of using Tufo hard-as-nails tubulars for this years race after last year's little experiment with tubeless 'cross tyres didn't go entirely according to plan) and generally sprucing it up and getting used to riding offroad on skinny little 34c tyres. I've also spent a week trying to get to the bottom of a very annoying squeak. Last night, it got so bad that i decided i couldn't just ignore it, so i decided to strip the chainset off the bike. Baaaaaad plan! It transpired that the cup on one side of the chainset had worn out - not a problem until i realised when removing the cup from the frame that i must have cross-threaded it when i put it in this time last year - it was harder than holy hell to move. So now, having planned everything meticulously, i have to find myself a replacement set of Truvativ GXP cups asap, and also get some kind soul to re-chase the threads in my BB shell. First port of call will be the ever-helpful Jerry Turner in Ely, a legend of East Anglian cycling and a wheelbuilder extraordinaire. Hopefully he'll not be too sick of me coming in with daft problems to help!
So the bike preparations have been alright barring this (ahem) minor glitch - how about body? Well, i've been doing some long offroad runs which tend to leave me feeling pretty beaten up; case in point was the last one on thursday which has left my calves still sore today! Unfortunately, there's nothing in these parts than even remotely approximates the wall of grass that's going to confront me for a second time on the ascent of Ingleborough - i remember last year not being able to believe my eyes. At least i've done some preparation other than sitting in a chair and writing a PhD thesis, so hopefully this year should be better (or at least over more quickly!) than last year was.
For those of you who haven't done the three peaks, you climb and descend the three highest peaks in Yorkshire, Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent; it's a 38 mile round trip, of which 34 miles is rideable, and 4 of which you have to walk/run. It's a truly crazy race, where you climb above the clouds with your bike over your shoulder, and then descend at breakneck speed down the side of very big hills with only useless cantilever brakes working over a tiny patch of rubber to slow you down. Possibly the most terrifying bit is Pen-y-Ghent where you climb and descend on the same track, so you spend your whole time going up hoping that some loony doesn't hit you, and then spend your whole trip down trying not to be that loony! It is nothing at all like your average cyclocross race, and yet almost everyone on the 'cross circuit does it because everyone else does! The last ten years have been almost totally dominated by fell-runner Rob Jebb, who just run away from everyone up the wall of grass and is never seen again - it's pretty amazing to watch even from the back-row seat that i had last year.
This year, there's a curious mixture of people entered, some old faces like Rob Jebb & Nick Craig, and some newer-comers like Kielder 100 winner Neal Crampton and American NUE series winner Jeremiah Bishop. It probably gets said every yearm but it'll be an exciting battle, and interesting to see who comes out on top.
With the 3 Peaks very much at the forefront of my mind, i'm off to my last MTB race of the year tomorrow, the final round of the Midlands XC series at Sherwood. Not exactly my favourite venue, i'm not sure i could explain my preference, but i just don't like the flat-out speed and tactical nature of the racing there, i think i prefer the terrain to decide. But, worth a trip up there when combined with a trip home to see my parents who it feels like i haven't seen in ages. Hopefully my calves will ache less by tomorrow!!
After that, it'll be time to strip down the trusty MTB, and start slowly acquiring replacement bits for things that are worn out/in need of a bit of TLC - there are definitely plus-points to autumn. So long for now,
Chrispy
You can also tell it's getting towards Halloween, Bonfire Night, and all those things that we associate with falling leaves, temperatures and rain in this country by the fact that it's now a little over a week until the 47th (i think that's right) annual 3 Peak Cyclocross. I've spent the last week dusting off my 'cross bike, truing wheels, gluing tubs (i've decided on the rather suicidal tactic of using Tufo hard-as-nails tubulars for this years race after last year's little experiment with tubeless 'cross tyres didn't go entirely according to plan) and generally sprucing it up and getting used to riding offroad on skinny little 34c tyres. I've also spent a week trying to get to the bottom of a very annoying squeak. Last night, it got so bad that i decided i couldn't just ignore it, so i decided to strip the chainset off the bike. Baaaaaad plan! It transpired that the cup on one side of the chainset had worn out - not a problem until i realised when removing the cup from the frame that i must have cross-threaded it when i put it in this time last year - it was harder than holy hell to move. So now, having planned everything meticulously, i have to find myself a replacement set of Truvativ GXP cups asap, and also get some kind soul to re-chase the threads in my BB shell. First port of call will be the ever-helpful Jerry Turner in Ely, a legend of East Anglian cycling and a wheelbuilder extraordinaire. Hopefully he'll not be too sick of me coming in with daft problems to help!
So the bike preparations have been alright barring this (ahem) minor glitch - how about body? Well, i've been doing some long offroad runs which tend to leave me feeling pretty beaten up; case in point was the last one on thursday which has left my calves still sore today! Unfortunately, there's nothing in these parts than even remotely approximates the wall of grass that's going to confront me for a second time on the ascent of Ingleborough - i remember last year not being able to believe my eyes. At least i've done some preparation other than sitting in a chair and writing a PhD thesis, so hopefully this year should be better (or at least over more quickly!) than last year was.
For those of you who haven't done the three peaks, you climb and descend the three highest peaks in Yorkshire, Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent; it's a 38 mile round trip, of which 34 miles is rideable, and 4 of which you have to walk/run. It's a truly crazy race, where you climb above the clouds with your bike over your shoulder, and then descend at breakneck speed down the side of very big hills with only useless cantilever brakes working over a tiny patch of rubber to slow you down. Possibly the most terrifying bit is Pen-y-Ghent where you climb and descend on the same track, so you spend your whole time going up hoping that some loony doesn't hit you, and then spend your whole trip down trying not to be that loony! It is nothing at all like your average cyclocross race, and yet almost everyone on the 'cross circuit does it because everyone else does! The last ten years have been almost totally dominated by fell-runner Rob Jebb, who just run away from everyone up the wall of grass and is never seen again - it's pretty amazing to watch even from the back-row seat that i had last year.
This year, there's a curious mixture of people entered, some old faces like Rob Jebb & Nick Craig, and some newer-comers like Kielder 100 winner Neal Crampton and American NUE series winner Jeremiah Bishop. It probably gets said every yearm but it'll be an exciting battle, and interesting to see who comes out on top.
With the 3 Peaks very much at the forefront of my mind, i'm off to my last MTB race of the year tomorrow, the final round of the Midlands XC series at Sherwood. Not exactly my favourite venue, i'm not sure i could explain my preference, but i just don't like the flat-out speed and tactical nature of the racing there, i think i prefer the terrain to decide. But, worth a trip up there when combined with a trip home to see my parents who it feels like i haven't seen in ages. Hopefully my calves will ache less by tomorrow!!
After that, it'll be time to strip down the trusty MTB, and start slowly acquiring replacement bits for things that are worn out/in need of a bit of TLC - there are definitely plus-points to autumn. So long for now,
Chrispy
Thursday 10 September 2009
Torq in your sleep
The weekend before Chris's epic adventure in Kielder forest I had a epic outing of my own, albeit on a totally different scale! A friend from the XC racing scene Nick Evans (Beyond Mountain Bikes) asked Chris if he wanted to race 12 hour pairs at the Torq/Gorrick event and Minley Moor. With the K100 coming up Chris decided against racing but suggested me as an alternative. SO there I was entering a long race - not normally my thing but I've done lots of riding right?
With Chris heading to the peaks on the Saturday before for a day of torture with our Elite XC racing friend Andrew Cockburn (Cambridge CC) we decided we would head down to the race on the morning of. Nick only lives a short drive away so was doing the same. What could possibly go wrong?
Well aparently nothing since we both arrived in OK time Chris set up camp and Nick headed to the rider briefing and I went round the course. It was fun, lots of swoopy singletrack, a few short climbs and a bit of slogging through dry loam. It was however, also going to be hard work for 12 hours!
We decided that Nick would do a double to get us going, so just as I was coming back from my course recce I saw him heading out and setting a good pace overtaking on the lap of the field which was required to start. Coming back through after 1 lap he was in a good position and we were second in the mixed pairs - a good start. I started to get ready to go and was ready and waiting in the hand-over area in good time for Nick who had done another good 38 minute lap bringing us into first place - awesome.
Nick coming in to change-over
It turns out though that I was out against some of the male racers from the team in second though so it took about half a lap for them to pass me back again. We were however still in contention and 12 hours is plenty of time right...
Looking rather too relaxed whilst waiting for another lap
Nick did another two laps before we settled into singles for the rest of the race. We didn't manage to get back to first place again. They were just consistently a little faster than us. But we did manage to engage ourselves in a very exciting battle for second place. A team of Nadine Spearing (Patterson Training) and her other half James Hampshire (XCracer.com 29ers) had had a slow start and were gaining on us all the time. Nadine is a fast road racer as well as an elite mtber so when she came speeding past me on a road section of the course I though about going with her before changing my mind and sticking to my own pace. We rode pretty much in formation for the rest of the race, until in the last three hours or so we started to gain time on them again. This was mostly due to Nick staying a pretty much the same speed for the entire 12 hours compared to me and the XCracer team who were all slowing down! Going out on his last lap Nick was about 4 minutes behind Nadine who had just gone out and had been instructed to go for it by our pit crew extraordinaire - Chris! Nick must have given it everything because when he finished - just 18 seconds behind Nadine he was cooked.
At the finish with unavoidable dust-tan
Third place though! Great! Especially since I felt rough for the last 6 hours. I think i need to drink water more and not carb drinks for events like this in the future...
Thanks to Nick for being a great team mate, Chris for being a super pit-bitch and Nadine and James for a great race. We'll see you again at the Midlands series final round in a week or so!
Obligatory podium shot!
Now back to nursing my midge bites from marshalling the Kielder 100 (a suberb event BTW I'm quite tempted by it for next year!). There are loads more pics from the Torq 12:12 that Chris took. I'll get him to upload them to the blog gallery this evening.
With Chris heading to the peaks on the Saturday before for a day of torture with our Elite XC racing friend Andrew Cockburn (Cambridge CC) we decided we would head down to the race on the morning of. Nick only lives a short drive away so was doing the same. What could possibly go wrong?
Well aparently nothing since we both arrived in OK time Chris set up camp and Nick headed to the rider briefing and I went round the course. It was fun, lots of swoopy singletrack, a few short climbs and a bit of slogging through dry loam. It was however, also going to be hard work for 12 hours!
We decided that Nick would do a double to get us going, so just as I was coming back from my course recce I saw him heading out and setting a good pace overtaking on the lap of the field which was required to start. Coming back through after 1 lap he was in a good position and we were second in the mixed pairs - a good start. I started to get ready to go and was ready and waiting in the hand-over area in good time for Nick who had done another good 38 minute lap bringing us into first place - awesome.
Nick coming in to change-overIt turns out though that I was out against some of the male racers from the team in second though so it took about half a lap for them to pass me back again. We were however still in contention and 12 hours is plenty of time right...
Looking rather too relaxed whilst waiting for another lapNick did another two laps before we settled into singles for the rest of the race. We didn't manage to get back to first place again. They were just consistently a little faster than us. But we did manage to engage ourselves in a very exciting battle for second place. A team of Nadine Spearing (Patterson Training) and her other half James Hampshire (XCracer.com 29ers) had had a slow start and were gaining on us all the time. Nadine is a fast road racer as well as an elite mtber so when she came speeding past me on a road section of the course I though about going with her before changing my mind and sticking to my own pace. We rode pretty much in formation for the rest of the race, until in the last three hours or so we started to gain time on them again. This was mostly due to Nick staying a pretty much the same speed for the entire 12 hours compared to me and the XCracer team who were all slowing down! Going out on his last lap Nick was about 4 minutes behind Nadine who had just gone out and had been instructed to go for it by our pit crew extraordinaire - Chris! Nick must have given it everything because when he finished - just 18 seconds behind Nadine he was cooked.
At the finish with unavoidable dust-tan
Third place though! Great! Especially since I felt rough for the last 6 hours. I think i need to drink water more and not carb drinks for events like this in the future...
Thanks to Nick for being a great team mate, Chris for being a super pit-bitch and Nadine and James for a great race. We'll see you again at the Midlands series final round in a week or so!
Obligatory podium shot!
Now back to nursing my midge bites from marshalling the Kielder 100 (a suberb event BTW I'm quite tempted by it for next year!). There are loads more pics from the Torq 12:12 that Chris took. I'll get him to upload them to the blog gallery this evening.
Monday 7 September 2009
A Big Day Out
Possibly even a massive day out. I'm referring to the first Kielder 100 race, i say first because i hope it is the first of many. It certainly felt like something special, from the moment i arrived and saw the size of the terrain around Kielder, a place i'd last visited as a shy, long-haired seventeen-year-old about to head out on a Duke of Edinburgh's walking expedition, to seeing 230 people all gathered in the courtyard of the castle, it was clearly a serious undertaking. It was all a pretty groudbreaking idea, the first 100mile race in the UK, the first enduro to cross the border into Scotland, the first single loop race (as opposed to that oft-used get-out "challenge"). And the earliest start of any race i've ever heard of in the UK at 6:30am - ouch.
In the week running up to the event, the weather in Cambridge decided it was going to turn decidedly autumnal - gone were the sun drenched, breeze tousled summer evenings to be replaced by harsh winds, cold rains, and less daylight. It almost sounds ridiculous to admit it, given that officially at least there are another couple of weeks left before we even get to the beginning of autumn, but the start of the football and cyclocross seasons do sound the knell of summer to me, and try as i might, i can't help but start counting down the days and weeks until halloween when the winds start sweeping in across the fens from Siberia (at least so the urban legend goes...). Whilst i was being blown around in the flatlands, biblical amounts of raining were falling on the borders, soaking the Kielder peat even more and swelling the local rivers and burns almost to the point of bursting.
I took the friday off work, not fancying starting the 300mile journey north on a friday evening on the A14, and Rachel and I made a day of getting up there. We stopped off in Oakham, the county town of Rutland (according to Steven Fry the second smallest county in Britain, after the Isle of Wight at high tide) to grab some cash and some food, and to have somewhere nice to eat our packed lunches. We then carried on North, making it to the border town of Kielder, set in 250 square miles of man-made forest shortly after 6pm. Rachel headed over the the castle to help out Sara and the sip-events team, and i tootled out over the first few miles of the course to see if there were any bottlenecks to worry about, and to spin my legs out. We reconvened for the age-old favourite of noodly-stir fry at about half-seven, and then went back over for Rachel to get to the marshall's briefing. Unfortunately, and this won't suprise any of you that know us, we got to the castle too late, so helped out with sign-on instead.
I made friends with a beautiful weinmaraner (sp?) dog, who was intent on licking my face, but wonderfully well-behaved and belonged to the chap doing the kit checking. In spite of her best efforts, Rachel didn't manage to get a photo of me making a fool of myself over my new canine best friend! 9:00pm came around amazingly quickly with all these distractions, and it was time to head down to the courtyard to be told of what was in store. I have to admit, when the reality of what i was planning to do hit me as Sara ran through the details, my stomach did tighten - i can't have done 100 miles on a road bike more than half a dozen times in my life, and every time it's been an experience. The closest thing in terms of effort and concentration i'd done previously was the Ardechois cyclosportif in the summer of 2006. That experience had left me so tired that i managed to stagger to the event village, buy a 1kg jar of ratatouille and a 2litre bottle of coke, eat entire jar of veg with the only utensil at hand; a piece of cardboard i found (it's amazing unhygenic you are when you're that hungry!), drink the coke and then fall sound asleep under my bike! I woke up three hours later with one of my mates tapping me on the shoulder with his foot...
Hydrate or die...
Post briefing, i headed to bed, mindful of the 5:00am start i would need to be ready in time for the roll-out, and with every intention of getting a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, my pre-race nerves had other plans, and i tossed and turned restlessly in the sleeping bag until long-gone midnight before finally getting some shut-eye. If anything, the arrival of the alarm was a relief - i could get up, and occupy myself with getting ready. It was pretty chilly so early on a september morning, and i kitted up and then put all my clothes on over the top. I forced down a couple of bowls of crunchy nut, a coffee, and then headed over to the line, pain-au-chocolate in hand. The sun was poking his head over the trees, and starting to warm the air, unfortunately bringing out clouds of midges that were out for blood on the start line (as if they hadn't feasted enough on the assembled throng whilst we were being briefed the night before!). We headed out on a neutralised start at 6:35, riding behind the lead car at a fairly sedate pace intended to keep the bunch together until we hit the first climb.
As soon as we did, all hell broke loose and the guys at the front started tearing strips off each other. My legs were already feeling a bit heavy, and didn't thank me for trying to get them going faster, and i floated back through the group from about 10th position to 60th or 70th as the climb went on. Bugger, losing contact so early on, not a good sign i thought. I decided it was too cold and too early to start worrying, i'd just ride a steady pace and see what happened as the race progressed. The first descent was a bit sketchy, covered in muddy water from the previous week's rainfall, and by the bottom i couldn't see a damn thing through my oakleys - so it was going to be like that was it?! As we carried on, i caught up with the guy who designed the graphics for the numbers, Dean who was riding for VC Moulin, and as if the event wasn't hard enough had decided to singlespeed it too. We rode to the first feed, where i grabbed a bunch of gels and a refill, and started to feel a bit better, and picked up the pace a bit. Further on, i came across Rachel marshalling a "three arrow" descent which transpired to be nothing more than a steep rock slab you could roll down or drop off, although apparently lots of people freaked out at the idea that it deserved three arrows, got off and ran! She shouted to me that i was about 20mins down on the leaders - 20m in three hours, not so bad i thought.
I pressed on, passing group after group of people who seemed intent on riding really gently along the flat fire roads, and then hammering up the climbs; not the most efficient way to ride such a long event. Just by riding steadily, and descending reasonably confidently i seemed to be making up quite a bit of ground. The slog up to the piper at the bloody bush bridge was worth it just to see the quintessentially Scottish sight of a man in a kilt standing in the rain piping. Good work, sir! By the time we got to Newcastleton at the 65mile point, i was starting to suffer though - the riding kept me going, being fun swoopy descents, and then i got another boost from seeing Paul of sip fame who told me i was nudging the top-15. He very kindly put some oil on my poorly, creaking chain, as I dashed inside, grabbed a couple of handfully of jaffa cakes and some more energy drink, and then headed out to try and catch a few more people. The remaining riding is a bit of a blur, i remember really enjoying my bottle of flat coke from feed 4, and riding down the slightly wet & slippy boardwalk with the abandon of someone who no longer cares for their safety, and the enthusiastic marshalls who told me there were only 6 miles left to ride. Oh joy, i was nearly back. Sadly, most of those 6 miles consisted of horrible, half-finished tracks that felt like riding over the foundations of a wall - apparently they were no less rattly and horrible on a full suss, and they even caused my saddlebag to come unhitched. But it didn't matter, i was so nearly home. I exchanged pleasantries with Mike Powell over the last couple of km, and we came in almost together, me for 9th senior, and him for 2nd vet in a bit over 9hrs.
It was a big day. I didn't feel too bad straight after, and wandered around for a bit chatting to the guys at the finish, and then catching up with more peeps at the castle. I had some food with Si Ernest and Neal Crampton who'd come first and second, and then staggered back to give Rach a sandwich (she'd been finish-timing quite a while by this point!) with the soreness really starting to set in to my legs. The rest of the evening's a bit of a blur, probably aiding in part by Ian Leitch, purveyor of fine pale ales, but the experience did nothing to dampen my post-big-dog enthusiasm for the idea that all races should end with a party!
So, in short, a superb event, and definitely a proper man's race (none of this lapped nonsense!) - one that will definitely be on my list to do again, in spite of mud, rain, wind, cold, wheel-swallowing puddles, and nasty unnecessary boulders. Maybe i need my head examined...
In the week running up to the event, the weather in Cambridge decided it was going to turn decidedly autumnal - gone were the sun drenched, breeze tousled summer evenings to be replaced by harsh winds, cold rains, and less daylight. It almost sounds ridiculous to admit it, given that officially at least there are another couple of weeks left before we even get to the beginning of autumn, but the start of the football and cyclocross seasons do sound the knell of summer to me, and try as i might, i can't help but start counting down the days and weeks until halloween when the winds start sweeping in across the fens from Siberia (at least so the urban legend goes...). Whilst i was being blown around in the flatlands, biblical amounts of raining were falling on the borders, soaking the Kielder peat even more and swelling the local rivers and burns almost to the point of bursting.
I took the friday off work, not fancying starting the 300mile journey north on a friday evening on the A14, and Rachel and I made a day of getting up there. We stopped off in Oakham, the county town of Rutland (according to Steven Fry the second smallest county in Britain, after the Isle of Wight at high tide) to grab some cash and some food, and to have somewhere nice to eat our packed lunches. We then carried on North, making it to the border town of Kielder, set in 250 square miles of man-made forest shortly after 6pm. Rachel headed over the the castle to help out Sara and the sip-events team, and i tootled out over the first few miles of the course to see if there were any bottlenecks to worry about, and to spin my legs out. We reconvened for the age-old favourite of noodly-stir fry at about half-seven, and then went back over for Rachel to get to the marshall's briefing. Unfortunately, and this won't suprise any of you that know us, we got to the castle too late, so helped out with sign-on instead.
I made friends with a beautiful weinmaraner (sp?) dog, who was intent on licking my face, but wonderfully well-behaved and belonged to the chap doing the kit checking. In spite of her best efforts, Rachel didn't manage to get a photo of me making a fool of myself over my new canine best friend! 9:00pm came around amazingly quickly with all these distractions, and it was time to head down to the courtyard to be told of what was in store. I have to admit, when the reality of what i was planning to do hit me as Sara ran through the details, my stomach did tighten - i can't have done 100 miles on a road bike more than half a dozen times in my life, and every time it's been an experience. The closest thing in terms of effort and concentration i'd done previously was the Ardechois cyclosportif in the summer of 2006. That experience had left me so tired that i managed to stagger to the event village, buy a 1kg jar of ratatouille and a 2litre bottle of coke, eat entire jar of veg with the only utensil at hand; a piece of cardboard i found (it's amazing unhygenic you are when you're that hungry!), drink the coke and then fall sound asleep under my bike! I woke up three hours later with one of my mates tapping me on the shoulder with his foot...
Hydrate or die...
Post briefing, i headed to bed, mindful of the 5:00am start i would need to be ready in time for the roll-out, and with every intention of getting a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, my pre-race nerves had other plans, and i tossed and turned restlessly in the sleeping bag until long-gone midnight before finally getting some shut-eye. If anything, the arrival of the alarm was a relief - i could get up, and occupy myself with getting ready. It was pretty chilly so early on a september morning, and i kitted up and then put all my clothes on over the top. I forced down a couple of bowls of crunchy nut, a coffee, and then headed over to the line, pain-au-chocolate in hand. The sun was poking his head over the trees, and starting to warm the air, unfortunately bringing out clouds of midges that were out for blood on the start line (as if they hadn't feasted enough on the assembled throng whilst we were being briefed the night before!). We headed out on a neutralised start at 6:35, riding behind the lead car at a fairly sedate pace intended to keep the bunch together until we hit the first climb.
As soon as we did, all hell broke loose and the guys at the front started tearing strips off each other. My legs were already feeling a bit heavy, and didn't thank me for trying to get them going faster, and i floated back through the group from about 10th position to 60th or 70th as the climb went on. Bugger, losing contact so early on, not a good sign i thought. I decided it was too cold and too early to start worrying, i'd just ride a steady pace and see what happened as the race progressed. The first descent was a bit sketchy, covered in muddy water from the previous week's rainfall, and by the bottom i couldn't see a damn thing through my oakleys - so it was going to be like that was it?! As we carried on, i caught up with the guy who designed the graphics for the numbers, Dean who was riding for VC Moulin, and as if the event wasn't hard enough had decided to singlespeed it too. We rode to the first feed, where i grabbed a bunch of gels and a refill, and started to feel a bit better, and picked up the pace a bit. Further on, i came across Rachel marshalling a "three arrow" descent which transpired to be nothing more than a steep rock slab you could roll down or drop off, although apparently lots of people freaked out at the idea that it deserved three arrows, got off and ran! She shouted to me that i was about 20mins down on the leaders - 20m in three hours, not so bad i thought.
I pressed on, passing group after group of people who seemed intent on riding really gently along the flat fire roads, and then hammering up the climbs; not the most efficient way to ride such a long event. Just by riding steadily, and descending reasonably confidently i seemed to be making up quite a bit of ground. The slog up to the piper at the bloody bush bridge was worth it just to see the quintessentially Scottish sight of a man in a kilt standing in the rain piping. Good work, sir! By the time we got to Newcastleton at the 65mile point, i was starting to suffer though - the riding kept me going, being fun swoopy descents, and then i got another boost from seeing Paul of sip fame who told me i was nudging the top-15. He very kindly put some oil on my poorly, creaking chain, as I dashed inside, grabbed a couple of handfully of jaffa cakes and some more energy drink, and then headed out to try and catch a few more people. The remaining riding is a bit of a blur, i remember really enjoying my bottle of flat coke from feed 4, and riding down the slightly wet & slippy boardwalk with the abandon of someone who no longer cares for their safety, and the enthusiastic marshalls who told me there were only 6 miles left to ride. Oh joy, i was nearly back. Sadly, most of those 6 miles consisted of horrible, half-finished tracks that felt like riding over the foundations of a wall - apparently they were no less rattly and horrible on a full suss, and they even caused my saddlebag to come unhitched. But it didn't matter, i was so nearly home. I exchanged pleasantries with Mike Powell over the last couple of km, and we came in almost together, me for 9th senior, and him for 2nd vet in a bit over 9hrs.
It was a big day. I didn't feel too bad straight after, and wandered around for a bit chatting to the guys at the finish, and then catching up with more peeps at the castle. I had some food with Si Ernest and Neal Crampton who'd come first and second, and then staggered back to give Rach a sandwich (she'd been finish-timing quite a while by this point!) with the soreness really starting to set in to my legs. The rest of the evening's a bit of a blur, probably aiding in part by Ian Leitch, purveyor of fine pale ales, but the experience did nothing to dampen my post-big-dog enthusiasm for the idea that all races should end with a party!
So, in short, a superb event, and definitely a proper man's race (none of this lapped nonsense!) - one that will definitely be on my list to do again, in spite of mud, rain, wind, cold, wheel-swallowing puddles, and nasty unnecessary boulders. Maybe i need my head examined...
Tuesday 25 August 2009
Brighton Big Dog 2009 - Saturday 15th August
Well I've been distracted by other things and entirely forgotten to blog about the best event I've done this year by far! Chris and I were really looking forward to going down to Brighton for this race. Firstly because we were able to race as a mixed pair again which has always worked well for us and also because the guys who were organising the race are reknowned for being great fun and had promised to put all the profits on the bar at a Brighton pub.
We arrived rather late on friday evening after a few frustrating hours crawling along the M25 around the Dartford Crossing and quickly put up the tent (in the wrong field we later discovered but the signage was not great!). I made a rather bland dinner, since I forgot a large number of the ingredients (ooops!) and we hit the hay. Saturday dawned grey and damp. We gathered all we needed for the race, debated with the camp-site owners whether we needed to move our tent and headed off to the venue - Stanmer Park. We were greeted by a queue of cars at the entrance, clearly the organisers had not been lying about the event being sold out. Getting out and joining another queue for sign on we were excited by the atmosphere. There were all sorts of people pottering about, various old bits of bike piled on rugs on the ground to be sold to anyone who wanted them and a stash of rather yummy looking cakes, which I discovered, rather too late, were free!
Having signed on we kitted up and managed to sneak out onto the course- apparently pre-riding wasn't meant to be happening! The course was brilliant, the first third was packed with little short and pretty steep climbs followed by some equally steep and loose descents. We then crossed over a small road and meandered through a little bit of singletrack. Crossing back over the little road we hit another singletrack section which was really twisty and narrow with holly bushes carefully placed to cause maximum scratchage. The most amazing section of course however, was accessed via bridges over a big A road - quite an awesome experience. Here again were some steep descents and a very steep climb featruing the occasional step created to make walking up the paths easier. We crossed back on another bridge, bombed through some more single and double track, down a final descent and slogged across a field before we were finally back in the arena.
We were slightly concerned that we might not make it back for the rider briefing,but it turns out we had little reason to be concerned. The first aiders were late to arrive as was the PA system so the briefing and the start were delayed by half an hour. At most events this would cause an uproar as people who had carefully planned their morning, eating breakfast at the right time and trying to fit in the perfect warm-up, were suddenly in turmoil. But at the Big Dog there was no such issue, the atmosphere and the great selection of people who were there meant that we just enjoyed the sunshine which was starting to burn through and waited for everything to be ready.
Chris on the front row at the start
Chris decided to place himself on the front row with Ruth Mordaunt from the Patterson Training team whilst the briefing was going on so that he could be assured a spot. It worked well and when the race eventually got underway at 12.30pm he was right up there at the front with the big hitters including ex-Tour de France Stage and Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Backstedt! The first lap is usually quite eventful in these kinds of events and the Big Dog was no different. Somewhere on the other side of the A road on the section of course over the bridge a rider had a put his foot in a wasps nest. The understandably angry insects went mad stinging any rider they happened to come across, including poor Chris who ended up with a rather sore bum! Despite this he had a storming lap coming through in 4th place not too long after our good friend John Whittington who was leading the race. He went out onto a second lap as we had tactically decided we would do a 2 laps for Chris, one for Rachel to start with and then see where we ended up and decide from there.
Enjoying the singletrack
Chris seemed to be going pretty well and I didn't really have that much time to wait before he was around again and it was my time to go. It took a few minutes to warm up but once I was into my rhythm I found I was riding the course pretty well and really enjoying it. Much to my relief they had now routed the course around the wasp nest and my lap was uneventful. After what felt like no time at all (but was actually around 45 minutes) I was back and it was Chris's turn again. Not sure whether he was planning to go and do 2 laps again I filled my bottles and hung around by the pits chatting to the guys at USE we met at 24-12 and one of our competitors James Poole from Beyond Mountain Bikes. Chris had planned to go out again and flew through so I had a little more time to waste and decided to go and watch out for our results in the timelaps tent. I had an inkling we were in the lead because Chris had come through 4th with the male pairs riders and I didn't think anyone had passed me, but it turns out there was a team in front of us from the Magnus Maximus coffee company. James and I thought this was a little odd since their mixed team was clearly behind both our teams so we decided we needed to look out for this mystery leading team from now on!
Concentrating whilst navigating a rooty section
Chris came back in again having done two more pretty quick laps but was complaining about needing more rest so we switched to single laps for the rest of the race. My second outing was again uneventful and I surprised myself by doing almost exactly the same time as my first lap and as Chris headed out again I did some quick calculations and worked out that one more lap for me and that was that, race over. In a lot of endurance races you do 6 hours + a lap, but in this case any laps finished after 6.30pm didn't count. We had a ten minute lead over 3rd and I would finish at around 5.40 meaning that Chris definitely could not fit in another lap. James and I had spent a lot of time by this point looking for the team who were supposedly leading our race. I spotted someone with the right team number riding around in Colnago kit but he didn't seem to have a female partner so we suspected something was up. However, I headed out on my last lap knowing that whatever happened as long as I did about the same time we had at least 2nd place. I felt rubbish at the start of this lap, but by now the course was really empty (the joy of a race with the correct number of competitors!!) I gradually got going and by about half way through was throughly enjoying myself and felt like I was out on a hard ride in the lcoal woods! Towards the end of the lap Charlie Eustace passed me. I knwe he had been entered into our category and panicked, thinking I had lost 2nd place. Jumping on his wheel I was determined to try and get the place back and ended up finishing by trying to out sprint him - not that he was probably aware of any of this! Understandably given our size difference, I failed.
Dejected I apologised to Chris for having lost the place. He didn't seem too worried and we concentrated on enjoying the atmosphere and congratulating our friends John Whittington and Trevor Allen who had also done well placing 2nd in the men's pairs. We sat and looked at the results and it turned out I was wrong. Charlie had not raced in the end and was just doing a lap. We definitely had second! James then came up and said he had queried the first place finishers in the mixed pairs as he was convinced there was not a woman involved! So over the next few minutes we finally found out that UK based road pro Yanto Barker had taken up one of the Maximus coffee places and had changed the category but this information hadn't got through to the timers. We had won!!!
On the top step
So we got to stand on the top step of the podium together and Chris successfully sprayed Cava everywhere! Thanks to all the guys who organised the Big Dog. Surely the best event this year for me by far, even with the wasps and the delays and topped off by a trip to the seafront and a few beers!
Woohoo!
We arrived rather late on friday evening after a few frustrating hours crawling along the M25 around the Dartford Crossing and quickly put up the tent (in the wrong field we later discovered but the signage was not great!). I made a rather bland dinner, since I forgot a large number of the ingredients (ooops!) and we hit the hay. Saturday dawned grey and damp. We gathered all we needed for the race, debated with the camp-site owners whether we needed to move our tent and headed off to the venue - Stanmer Park. We were greeted by a queue of cars at the entrance, clearly the organisers had not been lying about the event being sold out. Getting out and joining another queue for sign on we were excited by the atmosphere. There were all sorts of people pottering about, various old bits of bike piled on rugs on the ground to be sold to anyone who wanted them and a stash of rather yummy looking cakes, which I discovered, rather too late, were free!
Having signed on we kitted up and managed to sneak out onto the course- apparently pre-riding wasn't meant to be happening! The course was brilliant, the first third was packed with little short and pretty steep climbs followed by some equally steep and loose descents. We then crossed over a small road and meandered through a little bit of singletrack. Crossing back over the little road we hit another singletrack section which was really twisty and narrow with holly bushes carefully placed to cause maximum scratchage. The most amazing section of course however, was accessed via bridges over a big A road - quite an awesome experience. Here again were some steep descents and a very steep climb featruing the occasional step created to make walking up the paths easier. We crossed back on another bridge, bombed through some more single and double track, down a final descent and slogged across a field before we were finally back in the arena.
We were slightly concerned that we might not make it back for the rider briefing,but it turns out we had little reason to be concerned. The first aiders were late to arrive as was the PA system so the briefing and the start were delayed by half an hour. At most events this would cause an uproar as people who had carefully planned their morning, eating breakfast at the right time and trying to fit in the perfect warm-up, were suddenly in turmoil. But at the Big Dog there was no such issue, the atmosphere and the great selection of people who were there meant that we just enjoyed the sunshine which was starting to burn through and waited for everything to be ready.
Chris on the front row at the start
Enjoying the singletrack
Chris seemed to be going pretty well and I didn't really have that much time to wait before he was around again and it was my time to go. It took a few minutes to warm up but once I was into my rhythm I found I was riding the course pretty well and really enjoying it. Much to my relief they had now routed the course around the wasp nest and my lap was uneventful. After what felt like no time at all (but was actually around 45 minutes) I was back and it was Chris's turn again. Not sure whether he was planning to go and do 2 laps again I filled my bottles and hung around by the pits chatting to the guys at USE we met at 24-12 and one of our competitors James Poole from Beyond Mountain Bikes. Chris had planned to go out again and flew through so I had a little more time to waste and decided to go and watch out for our results in the timelaps tent. I had an inkling we were in the lead because Chris had come through 4th with the male pairs riders and I didn't think anyone had passed me, but it turns out there was a team in front of us from the Magnus Maximus coffee company. James and I thought this was a little odd since their mixed team was clearly behind both our teams so we decided we needed to look out for this mystery leading team from now on!
Concentrating whilst navigating a rooty section
Chris came back in again having done two more pretty quick laps but was complaining about needing more rest so we switched to single laps for the rest of the race. My second outing was again uneventful and I surprised myself by doing almost exactly the same time as my first lap and as Chris headed out again I did some quick calculations and worked out that one more lap for me and that was that, race over. In a lot of endurance races you do 6 hours + a lap, but in this case any laps finished after 6.30pm didn't count. We had a ten minute lead over 3rd and I would finish at around 5.40 meaning that Chris definitely could not fit in another lap. James and I had spent a lot of time by this point looking for the team who were supposedly leading our race. I spotted someone with the right team number riding around in Colnago kit but he didn't seem to have a female partner so we suspected something was up. However, I headed out on my last lap knowing that whatever happened as long as I did about the same time we had at least 2nd place. I felt rubbish at the start of this lap, but by now the course was really empty (the joy of a race with the correct number of competitors!!) I gradually got going and by about half way through was throughly enjoying myself and felt like I was out on a hard ride in the lcoal woods! Towards the end of the lap Charlie Eustace passed me. I knwe he had been entered into our category and panicked, thinking I had lost 2nd place. Jumping on his wheel I was determined to try and get the place back and ended up finishing by trying to out sprint him - not that he was probably aware of any of this! Understandably given our size difference, I failed.
Dejected I apologised to Chris for having lost the place. He didn't seem too worried and we concentrated on enjoying the atmosphere and congratulating our friends John Whittington and Trevor Allen who had also done well placing 2nd in the men's pairs. We sat and looked at the results and it turned out I was wrong. Charlie had not raced in the end and was just doing a lap. We definitely had second! James then came up and said he had queried the first place finishers in the mixed pairs as he was convinced there was not a woman involved! So over the next few minutes we finally found out that UK based road pro Yanto Barker had taken up one of the Maximus coffee places and had changed the category but this information hadn't got through to the timers. We had won!!!
On the top step
So we got to stand on the top step of the podium together and Chris successfully sprayed Cava everywhere! Thanks to all the guys who organised the Big Dog. Surely the best event this year for me by far, even with the wasps and the delays and topped off by a trip to the seafront and a few beers!
Woohoo!
Monday 17 August 2009
Elegy to Assos Shorts
We’ve been through so much together, you and I.
Every time I look at you I remember the experiences we've shared, the ups and the downs.
We were always so close.
When times were hard you were always there to provide the support and comfort I needed.
Oh Assos shorts... I’ll miss you.
Every time I look at you I remember the experiences we've shared, the ups and the downs.
We were always so close.
When times were hard you were always there to provide the support and comfort I needed.
Oh Assos shorts... I’ll miss you.
All Trailered Up, and No Place to go (yet...)
So, since my last update, Rachel and I have had a visit from all-round nice guy, and aspiring Jim’ll-fix-it character, Michael. Not being one to arrive without empty handed, we’re now replete with offroad bike carrying capacity courtesy of www.biketrailershop.com, and Michael’s garage is (hopefully) a bit less full. The trailers look ace for riding offroad, and have the handy feature that they detach in the event of a crash. Fingers crossed this won’t be a feature that Rachel and I need too often, but you never know...
It’s been an aspiration of mine ever since i cycled John O’Groats to Land’s End with a bunch of mates from Uni to head over to Iceland and tour the coastal path over there. Not only does it have a general mystic appeal to me as a country, but everyone i know who’s been has loved Iceland, and a place that nurtured Sigur Ros can’t be bad, right?! Coupled with the coffee-shop culture they have over there, there’s something for both me and Rachel. So, we have somewhat nebulous plans that once Rachel has finished the dreaded thesis, we’ll find the time to pootle around with our home in our panniers; the perfect test for our single-wheel trailers. In the mean time, they might have to stick to somewhat more mundane journeys around the Cambridgeshire countryside when we have occasion to carry a lot in one go.
Michael has also been integral in launching some pretty big touring trips, including James Bowthorpe’s big round-the-world adventure that has been receiving extensive coverage in the Independent. You can find out where he’s got to on www.whereintheworldisjames.com; last time i checked he’d just crossed from New Mexico into Colorado, and insodoing taught me that they share a border! Ah geography, always a weakness!
I had a play attaching our new trailers to our bikes, and here are some photos that show the results – i’ll tell you more when we’ve taken them out offroad...
Bike + trailer = rider - sweaty back. Now that's maths I can do!
No danger of these not being seen...
Monday 10 August 2009
Midlands XC round 3 - mud bath
I keep vowing to get better at updating this regularly and have so far not really managed it! However, I will manage this from now on, honest...
The weekend before last (2nd August) was the third round of the Midlands XC series in Cannock Chase. There was also a race on the 2010 Nat Champs course as part of the Southern XC series, but since we have to go round the M25 it takes forever to get to these races and we decided it was easier to head north. Cannock is also an awesome place to ride so we were expecting a good course.
We stayed at Chris's parents in Nottingham the night before and took in the delights of the River Festival fireworks. It was a great display. The next morning we woke early and loaded the car full of bikes and kit and hoped that the rain which had caught us out the day before on our ride would stay away for the race. It had rained on and off all week and the trails would no doubt be muddy enough without more water. Arriving at the race venue we were reminded of Gorrick races as we drive down a forest road and parked up slighty in the undergrowth off to one side. I quickly kitted up and went down to sign on whilst Chris made up bottles and kitted himself up and we headed off to look around the course. The rain of the week had certainly taken its toll and lots of the trails were sloppy, with some big puddles on either side. Where this cleared the course was typically Cannock, lots of climbs, tight singletrack and steep descents which were made comical by their slipperyness - typical off the back of the saddle let go of the brakes and hope stuff. I loved it. Well apart from about 1km of the 5km loop where there was no chance that riding was going to be possible in the race.
I made it back in time to quickly remove a few layers and line up on the fire road. There was one other person in my category - Amelia Cambridge of Rutland CC, and I had a bit of a chat with her as we were waiting for the youngsters, Vets and Open Male racers to go off and then all the women lined up together and hit the start hill. A couple of juvenile girls and masters racers went off ahead of me, but by the top of the climb I only had the juveniles in front. Going through the first lap we were stuck in a few queues as the Open and Vet met got stuck in bottlenecks. I was riding just behind Hollie Bettles (XCracer.com/Trek) and we had quite a bit of fun getting past people and trying not to loose control on the descents. I was riding slightly faster down than Hollie and came past her just at the bottom of one hill before the long climb of the lap. I apologised for cutting her up a bit to which she replied 'don't worry but I'm just going to try and sit on your wheel to get back up to Beth' - the girl in the lead in her race. With this target in mind I decided to give her as good a slingshot as I could and dug deep. When Hollie came past towards the top of the hill we had definitely made some inroads into the gap.
Coming through the start/finish I was just behind Hollie again and we set out on lap 2 together. It was nice riding with someone for once especially since she was not in my category and we could work together quite well. The second lap was slightly easier since we had fewer people in our way, although the running section at the top of the hill was getting more annoying - I'm not a great runner at the best of times and running in deep mud is exhausting! Still it was more successful than trying to ride and spinning the back wheel round and round and round. I was really enjoying the descents however, and was riding them pretty well, just managing to stay in control and going pretty fast - such fun! I must have gotten a little over confident at one point and caught my bar end round a tree. Over the bars I went with my bike crashing down on top of me. No damage done however, other than a bit of mud everywhere on my LHS. Recovering from this mishap I left Hollie to go in, in second place at the start/finish and headed out on my final lap.
This was a bit of a comedy lap, I slipped off the trail a number of times including once when I somehow managed to twist my bars round and had to stop and straighten them again. But I got round without injury at least and managed to ride the difficult and annoying (ask Chris about this one!) bowl shaped turn down onto the fire-road, only to be so excited I forgot to steer and went straight across the fire-road into a ditch! Despite this I finished first and felt I had mostly ridden pretty well.
We had a good break between mine and Chris's races this time and it was nice to be able to hang out a bit. I also took to opportunity to grab a massage from a great guy who was interested in my tight left calf and right quad and to stand atop the podium and 'do the arms'. After a couple of hours it was time for Chris to go and warm-up for his race. He was not expecting that much, since it was unlikely that he was recovered from the 12 hours of racing the weekend before. Still it was likely to have been a little annoying when, as in every other race this year, the entire field rode away up the hill! I settled in at the feedzone and had a chat with Luke Webber, the newly appointed MTB web editor for British Cycling, who although normally an expert had raced the Open race because he needed to dash off part way through the afternoon to commentate on the World Cup taking place in Canada. It was nice to have some company for the first lap at least!
Chris came through after one lap in fifth place. With no safety in numbers this time he was the last man through, but was not far behind race organiser James Hampshire - a point which I made quite clear to him. Apparently by this point the course was fun, but frustrating since it looked like lines had appeared but they were simply smoothed mud from where walking racers had been pushing their bikes, but it wasn't quite wide enough to ride. It didn't stop Chris from trying and failing every lap however! He tapped out five extremely consistent laps again, finishing with a final lap which was faster than all but the leader of the expert field. He eventually overtook James to take fourth place. Not bad considering the fatigue that was clearly still in his legs from the weekend before.
Chris also visited Dave Sutton for a nice mixture of extremely painful massage and a chat about international travel. Whilst we both watched James deconstruct his bike very adeptly it has to be said, to pass it on to his team-mate who had had an unfortunate accident with his!
Thanks to Nadine and James for another excellent race. Shame the weather was quite as helpful as it could have been!
The weekend before last (2nd August) was the third round of the Midlands XC series in Cannock Chase. There was also a race on the 2010 Nat Champs course as part of the Southern XC series, but since we have to go round the M25 it takes forever to get to these races and we decided it was easier to head north. Cannock is also an awesome place to ride so we were expecting a good course.
We stayed at Chris's parents in Nottingham the night before and took in the delights of the River Festival fireworks. It was a great display. The next morning we woke early and loaded the car full of bikes and kit and hoped that the rain which had caught us out the day before on our ride would stay away for the race. It had rained on and off all week and the trails would no doubt be muddy enough without more water. Arriving at the race venue we were reminded of Gorrick races as we drive down a forest road and parked up slighty in the undergrowth off to one side. I quickly kitted up and went down to sign on whilst Chris made up bottles and kitted himself up and we headed off to look around the course. The rain of the week had certainly taken its toll and lots of the trails were sloppy, with some big puddles on either side. Where this cleared the course was typically Cannock, lots of climbs, tight singletrack and steep descents which were made comical by their slipperyness - typical off the back of the saddle let go of the brakes and hope stuff. I loved it. Well apart from about 1km of the 5km loop where there was no chance that riding was going to be possible in the race.
I made it back in time to quickly remove a few layers and line up on the fire road. There was one other person in my category - Amelia Cambridge of Rutland CC, and I had a bit of a chat with her as we were waiting for the youngsters, Vets and Open Male racers to go off and then all the women lined up together and hit the start hill. A couple of juvenile girls and masters racers went off ahead of me, but by the top of the climb I only had the juveniles in front. Going through the first lap we were stuck in a few queues as the Open and Vet met got stuck in bottlenecks. I was riding just behind Hollie Bettles (XCracer.com/Trek) and we had quite a bit of fun getting past people and trying not to loose control on the descents. I was riding slightly faster down than Hollie and came past her just at the bottom of one hill before the long climb of the lap. I apologised for cutting her up a bit to which she replied 'don't worry but I'm just going to try and sit on your wheel to get back up to Beth' - the girl in the lead in her race. With this target in mind I decided to give her as good a slingshot as I could and dug deep. When Hollie came past towards the top of the hill we had definitely made some inroads into the gap.
Coming through the start/finish I was just behind Hollie again and we set out on lap 2 together. It was nice riding with someone for once especially since she was not in my category and we could work together quite well. The second lap was slightly easier since we had fewer people in our way, although the running section at the top of the hill was getting more annoying - I'm not a great runner at the best of times and running in deep mud is exhausting! Still it was more successful than trying to ride and spinning the back wheel round and round and round. I was really enjoying the descents however, and was riding them pretty well, just managing to stay in control and going pretty fast - such fun! I must have gotten a little over confident at one point and caught my bar end round a tree. Over the bars I went with my bike crashing down on top of me. No damage done however, other than a bit of mud everywhere on my LHS. Recovering from this mishap I left Hollie to go in, in second place at the start/finish and headed out on my final lap.
This was a bit of a comedy lap, I slipped off the trail a number of times including once when I somehow managed to twist my bars round and had to stop and straighten them again. But I got round without injury at least and managed to ride the difficult and annoying (ask Chris about this one!) bowl shaped turn down onto the fire-road, only to be so excited I forgot to steer and went straight across the fire-road into a ditch! Despite this I finished first and felt I had mostly ridden pretty well.
We had a good break between mine and Chris's races this time and it was nice to be able to hang out a bit. I also took to opportunity to grab a massage from a great guy who was interested in my tight left calf and right quad and to stand atop the podium and 'do the arms'. After a couple of hours it was time for Chris to go and warm-up for his race. He was not expecting that much, since it was unlikely that he was recovered from the 12 hours of racing the weekend before. Still it was likely to have been a little annoying when, as in every other race this year, the entire field rode away up the hill! I settled in at the feedzone and had a chat with Luke Webber, the newly appointed MTB web editor for British Cycling, who although normally an expert had raced the Open race because he needed to dash off part way through the afternoon to commentate on the World Cup taking place in Canada. It was nice to have some company for the first lap at least!
Chris came through after one lap in fifth place. With no safety in numbers this time he was the last man through, but was not far behind race organiser James Hampshire - a point which I made quite clear to him. Apparently by this point the course was fun, but frustrating since it looked like lines had appeared but they were simply smoothed mud from where walking racers had been pushing their bikes, but it wasn't quite wide enough to ride. It didn't stop Chris from trying and failing every lap however! He tapped out five extremely consistent laps again, finishing with a final lap which was faster than all but the leader of the expert field. He eventually overtook James to take fourth place. Not bad considering the fatigue that was clearly still in his legs from the weekend before.
Chris also visited Dave Sutton for a nice mixture of extremely painful massage and a chat about international travel. Whilst we both watched James deconstruct his bike very adeptly it has to be said, to pass it on to his team-mate who had had an unfortunate accident with his!
Thanks to Nadine and James for another excellent race. Shame the weather was quite as helpful as it could have been!
Wednesday 5 August 2009
Bearing the torch
As soon as i had entered 24/12 and seen my name appear on the list on xcracer.com, i had a bad feeling that it was a mistake. Originally, it started out as a training excercise to get ready for the Kielder 100 in September, i’d done Merida marathons before, so i knew what it took to ride 100km offroad, but i’d never done 100miles on the rough stuff before. So i figured the best way to give me an idea of what was to come was to do a 12hr solo. My history here is a little chequered – before i ever really gave XC a go, i tried a 12hr solo at the Bristol Bikefest back in 2005. It didn’t work out well, although i felt fairly strong, and was riding in 4th place at the time, my body and mind packed up pretty much simultaneously at about the 7hr mark – my stomach wasn’t really enjoying the purely maltodextrin diet i was trying to force into it, and i was bored, really really bored. A crash on what was around my 11th lap that killed off my poor, long-suffering mindisc player and that was it, no tunes, just me, a 30min lap and another 5hrs to kill – my motivation totally went and i packed in in favour of going and doing some fun riding in Afan Argoed the following day. So it wasn’t without trepidation and some daemons to slay that i tried again. And what’s worse, because of my disorganisation i had to enter the Torchbearer race that started at 12am and ran to 12pm. I couldn’t really decide at the time whether this would prove the gimmick that would see me through, or the final nail in the coffin of my 12hr racing career!
A couple of weeks out from the event, and things seemed to be going pretty well – i was having fun racing the FNSS races, probably because they’re quick 1hr races on quite testing courses; not scary tech stuff, but hard to ride flat out – they’re a big helping of what i love about ‘cross and mtb rolled into one. I also seemed to be finding some form after a pretty slow start to the season, which did my motivation wonders. So things looked good on the physical front, perhaps the more untested part of the equation was my mind. Deciding i needed something to take my mind off it, i planned a couple of days off work, so i took the Thursday to practice my technical riding under Jenny’s watchful eye – the few things she suggested to Rachel and I made the world of difference to our riding – it was incredible how much i’d been riding below par in the technical department, and how much i’d needed a refresher! Thursday evening we drove over to stay at Rachel’s parents’ house in Worcester, before making the final push on to Plymouth on Friday morning (it’s really quite a long way from Cambridge!). We got to Newnham at about 4pm on Friday, and already the solo camping area was filling up. It seemed from where we were that a lot of teams had realised that the solo camping put you nearer the course, and so they latched onto their one solo rider in order to get a huge course-side spot to cheer their team mates – not quite what the area was intended for, but at least they added to the atmosphere!
Having set up camp, Rachel and I headed out for a couple of steady laps of the course, and immediately realised that our help from Jenny had changed the way we thought about riding offroad, we kept spotting better and better lines in the tapes for me to take. It was really good to have someone riding around with me to discuss things with too – it calmed my nerves and also reassured me of my choices. After that, it was time for noodly-goodness, and then a wander around the arena. We headed for Theresa & Mike’s party for Keith Bontrager, safe in the knowledge that wherever T was, good food and good company could only be close by. Having been helped to food and wine (good way to settle nervous stomachs, right?!) we hung around and chatted to a few people before heading off to hit the hay. It was bizarre, there were still another 24hrs to go before my race even started – what was i going to do with all that time?!
Saturday morning dawned and the sun shone, ready for the off at midday. Trevor Allen, a mate of mine and Rachel’s through doing altogether too much racing this year, was going to be off in the 24hr race up against stiff competition from the likes of Ian Leitch, Matt Page, Ant White and Ian Payne. Watching him come through very steadily towards the back of the field, the enormity of what he was going to do over the next 24hrs hit me, my race would be barely more than a warm up! Getting involved with looking after him with Nick made me feel so much better, and made me feel useful too – bonus! Come the afternoon, i decided the excitement of the 24hr and 12hr soloists was a bit too much, and lay down to get a bit of sleep, over the coming night i was sure i’d be glad of it. I shovelled in an uncomfortable amount of risotto for dinner, and then kept snacking right up to my 9pm cut-off; i was going to have everything ready for 9, then go to bed for a couple of hours, and try to trick my body that it was morning when i woke up by having a bowl of crunchy nut, my breakfast of choice! It was more surreal, but it might just have worked – i felt pretty awake and ready to race by the time i rolled up to the start line at 11:50. Finding the start proved a bit tricky, but we all made it there in the end – after a bit of an anticlimactic whistle, we were off into the night. I slotted in third wheel from the torchbearers with the aim of putting out a reasonably quick first lap, more to remind my body i was racing than for any time advantage.
Going up the first big climb i had a chat with Nick Evans before he slipped away into the night, it had me rather worried that i was giving a bit much too soon and that he was pacing himself rather better than i had. I let my pace drop a bit for the second and subsequent laps, aiming to maintain a decent rhythm on the climbs, and then let rip on the descents, although even with my helmet-mounted light this proved a bit tricky; all the lovely lines i’d sussed were out there somewhere in the blackness, but try as i might i couldn’t find them anywhere. Somewhere around the 5th or 6th lap i had a particularly bad one, riding like a total spanner through the rooty woods, and fluffing most of the techy bits, and came in pretty frustrated with myself. There were the first hints of light in the sky, and i was struggling to stay on the case – my legs felt good still, and i was putting away the gels, bars and energy drink i needed to keep me going, but i was annoyed at not being able to ride well. I had a good old whinge to Rachel when i came into the pits, and stopped for a minute eating a banana to give me time to think about what to do next. I was very tempted to quit, and as soon as i said this, Rachel gave me the “bad” news – i couldn’t quit because i was in first place. I didn’t have a huge lead, but there was enough there that i could try to extend it.
I headed out for another lap, the sun starting to lighten the sky discernibly now, i knew i would only need lights for the darkest bits of singletrack next lap, which did everything to raise my spirits. Even better, i had flat coke in my water bottle – my little treat to myself for the last few hours. As the race wore on, i found i was missing my tunes so i grabbed an ipod in the feed zone, stuck a bud in one ear and got Calvin Harris going to keep me on it. I needn’t have bothered though, i soon had Nick for company again, and we rode around together for a few minutes trying to work out where in the field he was, we reckoned second or third. At this point i was really excited, i’d just lapped the guy in third – things were looking better, i might be able to hang onto this. As the sun came up properly, i started spotting those errant lines that had escaped in the peripheral blackness not two hours before, and my lap times started to quicken again. I was riding with energy i hadn’t realised i had, i was cleaning the tricky rooty section in the woods every lap, and better still i was really enjoying it. I had one slight scare when, going for it a bit too much i burped the air from my back tyre, and had to make a pit stop to top up again, but apart from that to get the adrenaline going, it all went like clockwork. I spent the last three hours carefully checking and rechecking whether i could stop early and be sure to win, and by the sounds of things so did Rachel and Nick in the pits! Come 11:25am with 14 laps completed, and nearly 2 laps ahead of my nearest competitor, i decided to call it a day – i came through the feedzone to shouts from Nick to zip up my jersey with a huge grin on my face, as much one of relief as excitement. It was a bit of an anticlimax coming through the arch and doing the arms, given that there were only about a dozen people there to see me, presuming that everyone would finish post-12pm, but it did still feel great – my first win!
Trevor hung on admirably to get 3rd in the 24hr solo category, even if he did eat my olives! I got some great prizes courtesy of the kind people at Trek/Bontrager, and was even topped up with extra goodies by Mike Jackson on the Trek stand; such comfy socks! It was a great weekend all things considered, and the atmosphere really reminded me why i love mtb events, but i don’t think i’ll be doing another 12 solo any time soon – i’m much more keen for the big loop marathons. So roll on Kielder....
A couple of weeks out from the event, and things seemed to be going pretty well – i was having fun racing the FNSS races, probably because they’re quick 1hr races on quite testing courses; not scary tech stuff, but hard to ride flat out – they’re a big helping of what i love about ‘cross and mtb rolled into one. I also seemed to be finding some form after a pretty slow start to the season, which did my motivation wonders. So things looked good on the physical front, perhaps the more untested part of the equation was my mind. Deciding i needed something to take my mind off it, i planned a couple of days off work, so i took the Thursday to practice my technical riding under Jenny’s watchful eye – the few things she suggested to Rachel and I made the world of difference to our riding – it was incredible how much i’d been riding below par in the technical department, and how much i’d needed a refresher! Thursday evening we drove over to stay at Rachel’s parents’ house in Worcester, before making the final push on to Plymouth on Friday morning (it’s really quite a long way from Cambridge!). We got to Newnham at about 4pm on Friday, and already the solo camping area was filling up. It seemed from where we were that a lot of teams had realised that the solo camping put you nearer the course, and so they latched onto their one solo rider in order to get a huge course-side spot to cheer their team mates – not quite what the area was intended for, but at least they added to the atmosphere!
Having set up camp, Rachel and I headed out for a couple of steady laps of the course, and immediately realised that our help from Jenny had changed the way we thought about riding offroad, we kept spotting better and better lines in the tapes for me to take. It was really good to have someone riding around with me to discuss things with too – it calmed my nerves and also reassured me of my choices. After that, it was time for noodly-goodness, and then a wander around the arena. We headed for Theresa & Mike’s party for Keith Bontrager, safe in the knowledge that wherever T was, good food and good company could only be close by. Having been helped to food and wine (good way to settle nervous stomachs, right?!) we hung around and chatted to a few people before heading off to hit the hay. It was bizarre, there were still another 24hrs to go before my race even started – what was i going to do with all that time?!
Saturday morning dawned and the sun shone, ready for the off at midday. Trevor Allen, a mate of mine and Rachel’s through doing altogether too much racing this year, was going to be off in the 24hr race up against stiff competition from the likes of Ian Leitch, Matt Page, Ant White and Ian Payne. Watching him come through very steadily towards the back of the field, the enormity of what he was going to do over the next 24hrs hit me, my race would be barely more than a warm up! Getting involved with looking after him with Nick made me feel so much better, and made me feel useful too – bonus! Come the afternoon, i decided the excitement of the 24hr and 12hr soloists was a bit too much, and lay down to get a bit of sleep, over the coming night i was sure i’d be glad of it. I shovelled in an uncomfortable amount of risotto for dinner, and then kept snacking right up to my 9pm cut-off; i was going to have everything ready for 9, then go to bed for a couple of hours, and try to trick my body that it was morning when i woke up by having a bowl of crunchy nut, my breakfast of choice! It was more surreal, but it might just have worked – i felt pretty awake and ready to race by the time i rolled up to the start line at 11:50. Finding the start proved a bit tricky, but we all made it there in the end – after a bit of an anticlimactic whistle, we were off into the night. I slotted in third wheel from the torchbearers with the aim of putting out a reasonably quick first lap, more to remind my body i was racing than for any time advantage.
Feed zone hilarity
Going up the first big climb i had a chat with Nick Evans before he slipped away into the night, it had me rather worried that i was giving a bit much too soon and that he was pacing himself rather better than i had. I let my pace drop a bit for the second and subsequent laps, aiming to maintain a decent rhythm on the climbs, and then let rip on the descents, although even with my helmet-mounted light this proved a bit tricky; all the lovely lines i’d sussed were out there somewhere in the blackness, but try as i might i couldn’t find them anywhere. Somewhere around the 5th or 6th lap i had a particularly bad one, riding like a total spanner through the rooty woods, and fluffing most of the techy bits, and came in pretty frustrated with myself. There were the first hints of light in the sky, and i was struggling to stay on the case – my legs felt good still, and i was putting away the gels, bars and energy drink i needed to keep me going, but i was annoyed at not being able to ride well. I had a good old whinge to Rachel when i came into the pits, and stopped for a minute eating a banana to give me time to think about what to do next. I was very tempted to quit, and as soon as i said this, Rachel gave me the “bad” news – i couldn’t quit because i was in first place. I didn’t have a huge lead, but there was enough there that i could try to extend it.
I headed out for another lap, the sun starting to lighten the sky discernibly now, i knew i would only need lights for the darkest bits of singletrack next lap, which did everything to raise my spirits. Even better, i had flat coke in my water bottle – my little treat to myself for the last few hours. As the race wore on, i found i was missing my tunes so i grabbed an ipod in the feed zone, stuck a bud in one ear and got Calvin Harris going to keep me on it. I needn’t have bothered though, i soon had Nick for company again, and we rode around together for a few minutes trying to work out where in the field he was, we reckoned second or third. At this point i was really excited, i’d just lapped the guy in third – things were looking better, i might be able to hang onto this. As the sun came up properly, i started spotting those errant lines that had escaped in the peripheral blackness not two hours before, and my lap times started to quicken again. I was riding with energy i hadn’t realised i had, i was cleaning the tricky rooty section in the woods every lap, and better still i was really enjoying it. I had one slight scare when, going for it a bit too much i burped the air from my back tyre, and had to make a pit stop to top up again, but apart from that to get the adrenaline going, it all went like clockwork. I spent the last three hours carefully checking and rechecking whether i could stop early and be sure to win, and by the sounds of things so did Rachel and Nick in the pits! Come 11:25am with 14 laps completed, and nearly 2 laps ahead of my nearest competitor, i decided to call it a day – i came through the feedzone to shouts from Nick to zip up my jersey with a huge grin on my face, as much one of relief as excitement. It was a bit of an anticlimax coming through the arch and doing the arms, given that there were only about a dozen people there to see me, presuming that everyone would finish post-12pm, but it did still feel great – my first win!
My first trip to the top step of the podium!
Trevor hung on admirably to get 3rd in the 24hr solo category, even if he did eat my olives! I got some great prizes courtesy of the kind people at Trek/Bontrager, and was even topped up with extra goodies by Mike Jackson on the Trek stand; such comfy socks! It was a great weekend all things considered, and the atmosphere really reminded me why i love mtb events, but i don’t think i’ll be doing another 12 solo any time soon – i’m much more keen for the big loop marathons. So roll on Kielder....
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Moving forward
I guess I was more annoyed by my slight disaster at the XC Nationals a couple of weekends ago than I thought, since I've only just decided I should write something about it! The whole thing didn't really start very well, when my forks went missing after being sent off for servicing and despite the best efforts of Magura Germany were not returned in time. I therefore spent the few days before I left for the race trying to find forks or a bike to use. Thankfully Theresa Jackson came to the rescue lending me her Gary Fisher hardtail and I definitely owe her big time! Then the weather forecast was terrible. The weekend was set to be a soggy one and exhausting so I was glad to have organised myself a lift up to Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders in the AW Cycles van as well as nabbing one of the beds in the flat they had rented. It would have been a bit miserable in a tent on my own.
They picked me up from the services close to Worcester where my parents had dropped me off a couple of hours earlier on the Friday before the race and we had a very steady drive up in absolutely horrendous rain (well done to Simon for dealing so well with it). I had a very enjoyable journey chatting to Simon Ernest's wife Mel about PhD's, since she had just finished her writing and of course I'm getting there! Anyway we arrived about 7pm, had dinner in a local pub and curled up for the night. On Saturday morning the weather looked to have cleared and I pottered about in the flat waiting for 1.30 pm when the course was open to pre-ride.
When the time arrived we cycled up to the course HQ - a two minute ride. I signed on and then met up with Andrew Cockburn from Cambridge CC before we all headed out onto the course. I decided to let the boys go and just pottered up the climb at my own pace. I was very aware of how much uphill there was and did not want to exhaust myself. The climb was pretty varied, a fair amount of fire road of course, but also some muddy and steeper singletrack and some woodland linking trails. Once you hit the top though it was all downhill. A steep, muddy and rooty descent which was going to involve hanging off the back of the saddle the whole way. I managed to ride all but two parts of this and was pretty pleased with myself. Realising my steady climbing and the queues at various points on the descent had meant my pre-ride was an hour long I decided to call it a day there and headed back to the race village to watch people change their tyres and catch up with friends.
Race day dawned and looked pretty similar to the previous day, sunny periods with the odd shower, and not too bad considering the weather of the previous days. Was packed up out stuff and headed out to the course to watch the vet and masters race. The beginning of the course and the main feed zone was in a field off to one side from the race village. This was going to be the worst part of the course and looking at the early racers slog round at what appeared to be minimum speed I was not looking forward to it. After a good deal of cheering I decided I had better go and get ready for my race. A spin up and down the road for warm-up and frequent stops back at the van for the various things I had forgotten and I was lining up ready to take to the start.
The elites lined up first and the rest of us made up the second and third lines. There is no expert category for National Championship races, we all race in the same championship race, so it was the only time this year I would be lining up against the faster girls! Its always a little scary, but I like the challenge and the opportunity to see how I measure up. A little after 1pm we took off, again at 2 miles per hour around the tea-cup field. I watched as most of the field plodded ahead of me, but stuck to my plan of taking it easy and seeing what happened as the long, hard race went on. Pleasingly my competition from expert this year was just ahead of me and not gaining much ground so I sat back and just kept going at a steady pace. On the first little bit of downhill linking two bits of climb, Emma Smith had a tumble. I asked if she was ok and after "No!" as a response shouted at the first marshall to go back and look after her. I didn't see her again, so I hope she is ok!
Towards the top of the climb I was coming back to Maxine Filby as well and as we headed into the descent was hoping to be able to make up a place or two on the way down. But here disaster struck! My rear tyre suddenly felt spongy, so I stopped and tried as calmly as I could to put some air in hoping that the sealant would take effect. Darn the tyre was unseated, presumably by me riding it a little flat. So I grabbed my tube and tried to put it in and pump up the tyre again. I got the CO2 canister going, but no air seemed to go in, darn. Anna Buick, who was unfortunately not feeling well stopped to give me another tube and CO2, but I still could not get it to work! I still don't have any firm idea what happened, but it might be that there was some kind of a seal in the new tube which I neglected to break before I tried to inflate it. Or, I was just being incompetent in the heat of the race. Anyway, that was that. Race over. I walked/slid back down the hill, withdrawing on the way and took a spot in the pits to watch what was happening at the front of the races. It was pretty exciting and Sue Clarke (SIS) won the women's race with Jenny C (Look RT), who also had puncture issues, a couple of minutes behind in second and Sharon Laws (Halfords) in third. Liam Killeen took the jersey in the men's race and Annie Last and Scott Thwaites in the under 23 races. Congrats to them all!
At the time I was not too upset, since I would not have been up there winning the race, but it did annoy me that I didn't finish because of my inability to fix the wheel. I am over it now but I have vowed to make sure I can work everything absolutely before the next time I race. I did however make some good friends in the AW cycles crew so thanks guys for the company.
This last weekend I spent an enjoyable night looking after Chris in the Torchbearer 12 at Bontrager 2412 which I will let him tell you about! My next race is the Midlands XC in Cannock Chase this weekend and I can't wait.
They picked me up from the services close to Worcester where my parents had dropped me off a couple of hours earlier on the Friday before the race and we had a very steady drive up in absolutely horrendous rain (well done to Simon for dealing so well with it). I had a very enjoyable journey chatting to Simon Ernest's wife Mel about PhD's, since she had just finished her writing and of course I'm getting there! Anyway we arrived about 7pm, had dinner in a local pub and curled up for the night. On Saturday morning the weather looked to have cleared and I pottered about in the flat waiting for 1.30 pm when the course was open to pre-ride.
When the time arrived we cycled up to the course HQ - a two minute ride. I signed on and then met up with Andrew Cockburn from Cambridge CC before we all headed out onto the course. I decided to let the boys go and just pottered up the climb at my own pace. I was very aware of how much uphill there was and did not want to exhaust myself. The climb was pretty varied, a fair amount of fire road of course, but also some muddy and steeper singletrack and some woodland linking trails. Once you hit the top though it was all downhill. A steep, muddy and rooty descent which was going to involve hanging off the back of the saddle the whole way. I managed to ride all but two parts of this and was pretty pleased with myself. Realising my steady climbing and the queues at various points on the descent had meant my pre-ride was an hour long I decided to call it a day there and headed back to the race village to watch people change their tyres and catch up with friends.
Race day dawned and looked pretty similar to the previous day, sunny periods with the odd shower, and not too bad considering the weather of the previous days. Was packed up out stuff and headed out to the course to watch the vet and masters race. The beginning of the course and the main feed zone was in a field off to one side from the race village. This was going to be the worst part of the course and looking at the early racers slog round at what appeared to be minimum speed I was not looking forward to it. After a good deal of cheering I decided I had better go and get ready for my race. A spin up and down the road for warm-up and frequent stops back at the van for the various things I had forgotten and I was lining up ready to take to the start.
The elites lined up first and the rest of us made up the second and third lines. There is no expert category for National Championship races, we all race in the same championship race, so it was the only time this year I would be lining up against the faster girls! Its always a little scary, but I like the challenge and the opportunity to see how I measure up. A little after 1pm we took off, again at 2 miles per hour around the tea-cup field. I watched as most of the field plodded ahead of me, but stuck to my plan of taking it easy and seeing what happened as the long, hard race went on. Pleasingly my competition from expert this year was just ahead of me and not gaining much ground so I sat back and just kept going at a steady pace. On the first little bit of downhill linking two bits of climb, Emma Smith had a tumble. I asked if she was ok and after "No!" as a response shouted at the first marshall to go back and look after her. I didn't see her again, so I hope she is ok!
Towards the top of the climb I was coming back to Maxine Filby as well and as we headed into the descent was hoping to be able to make up a place or two on the way down. But here disaster struck! My rear tyre suddenly felt spongy, so I stopped and tried as calmly as I could to put some air in hoping that the sealant would take effect. Darn the tyre was unseated, presumably by me riding it a little flat. So I grabbed my tube and tried to put it in and pump up the tyre again. I got the CO2 canister going, but no air seemed to go in, darn. Anna Buick, who was unfortunately not feeling well stopped to give me another tube and CO2, but I still could not get it to work! I still don't have any firm idea what happened, but it might be that there was some kind of a seal in the new tube which I neglected to break before I tried to inflate it. Or, I was just being incompetent in the heat of the race. Anyway, that was that. Race over. I walked/slid back down the hill, withdrawing on the way and took a spot in the pits to watch what was happening at the front of the races. It was pretty exciting and Sue Clarke (SIS) won the women's race with Jenny C (Look RT), who also had puncture issues, a couple of minutes behind in second and Sharon Laws (Halfords) in third. Liam Killeen took the jersey in the men's race and Annie Last and Scott Thwaites in the under 23 races. Congrats to them all!
At the time I was not too upset, since I would not have been up there winning the race, but it did annoy me that I didn't finish because of my inability to fix the wheel. I am over it now but I have vowed to make sure I can work everything absolutely before the next time I race. I did however make some good friends in the AW cycles crew so thanks guys for the company.
This last weekend I spent an enjoyable night looking after Chris in the Torchbearer 12 at Bontrager 2412 which I will let him tell you about! My next race is the Midlands XC in Cannock Chase this weekend and I can't wait.
Sunday 19 July 2009
Another Busy Day
I’m back in front of the computer, trying and failing to watch the highlights of today’s tour stage to Verbier on ITVplayer (I’ve spent all day insulating myself from any talk of the tour so I have no idea of the results!), so I figured what better time to write another blog entry! Today, I spent the day racing the first race of the new Eastern Series at Danbury country park. Having never been down to that part of the world (I’ve never been to Chelmsford before, I realise this morning as I was driving down), I didn’t really know what to expect. Having got there early to make sure I got a ride (in practice that wasn’t really an issue apparently, but never mind – good to have time) I had plenty of time to preview the course. Too much time, it transpired, as the course itself was only around 15mins long! I ended up doing four laps just to fill the time before my race at 1pm!
I also had a nice chat with marshall extraordinare Tony Williams, and the organisers were nice enough to warn me that there was a pretty serious competitor also entered in my race (but not who it was!). It became apparent when I went to line up that I would be racing, amongst other, Alex Dowsett, who’s road- and time-trial exploits I’ve read about many a time on the British Cycling website. As long as he could stayj upright, it was pretty clear it was going to be a race for second!
As race time arrived, I quashed my usual instincts and lined up on the front row for the downhill start that went almost immediately into the singletrack, as I was concerned about the possible bottleneck this could cause. I ended up in a nice little group of four riders at the front of the race, but after a couple of minutes of sitting in, I started to worry about the faster guys behind, and decided to strike out alone. I led for most of the first lap until Alex came flying past me at a totally unmatchable pace on the gentle fire road climb towards the start-finish. So it remained for the rest of the race, with the marshalls giving me ever-increasing time checks to Alex (they even seemed disappointed every lap when they realised I couldn’t close a six-minute gap!), and the guys behind remaining a pretty constant distance back.
I crossed the line for second place feeling really pretty pleased with myself – I hate to say it, but it’s probably an indication of the lack of strength of the field that I came second, but it was nice to get to stand on the podium and spray champagne (Essex champagne, no less!). My back is now killing me from all the lumps and bumps in the course – it definitely wasn’t hardtail country, but with only one bike I didn’t have the luxury of a more comfortable machine!
Once I’d finished, and picked up my prize, I dashed back to the car to ring Rachel and find out how her race had gone. Sadly, she’d got a puncture at the top of the climb on the first lap, and been unable to get any air into her tyre, in spite of the help of Anna Buick, and pulled out. In fact, it sound like only one Expert woman managed to finish the Senior race! In the men’s U23 race, the guy who’s been leading expert all year, Scott Thwaites, managed to overhaul Dave Fletcher to get himself a nice stripy jersey, and Sion O’Boyle who’d been pushing him all the way came in 3rd, which makes me feel rather better about the torrid time I’ve been having in Expert.
Now I’m going to head back to the sofa to watch the remains of this very-slowly streaming video of the high mountains, so ta ta for now!
I also had a nice chat with marshall extraordinare Tony Williams, and the organisers were nice enough to warn me that there was a pretty serious competitor also entered in my race (but not who it was!). It became apparent when I went to line up that I would be racing, amongst other, Alex Dowsett, who’s road- and time-trial exploits I’ve read about many a time on the British Cycling website. As long as he could stayj upright, it was pretty clear it was going to be a race for second!
As race time arrived, I quashed my usual instincts and lined up on the front row for the downhill start that went almost immediately into the singletrack, as I was concerned about the possible bottleneck this could cause. I ended up in a nice little group of four riders at the front of the race, but after a couple of minutes of sitting in, I started to worry about the faster guys behind, and decided to strike out alone. I led for most of the first lap until Alex came flying past me at a totally unmatchable pace on the gentle fire road climb towards the start-finish. So it remained for the rest of the race, with the marshalls giving me ever-increasing time checks to Alex (they even seemed disappointed every lap when they realised I couldn’t close a six-minute gap!), and the guys behind remaining a pretty constant distance back.
I crossed the line for second place feeling really pretty pleased with myself – I hate to say it, but it’s probably an indication of the lack of strength of the field that I came second, but it was nice to get to stand on the podium and spray champagne (Essex champagne, no less!). My back is now killing me from all the lumps and bumps in the course – it definitely wasn’t hardtail country, but with only one bike I didn’t have the luxury of a more comfortable machine!
Once I’d finished, and picked up my prize, I dashed back to the car to ring Rachel and find out how her race had gone. Sadly, she’d got a puncture at the top of the climb on the first lap, and been unable to get any air into her tyre, in spite of the help of Anna Buick, and pulled out. In fact, it sound like only one Expert woman managed to finish the Senior race! In the men’s U23 race, the guy who’s been leading expert all year, Scott Thwaites, managed to overhaul Dave Fletcher to get himself a nice stripy jersey, and Sion O’Boyle who’d been pushing him all the way came in 3rd, which makes me feel rather better about the torrid time I’ve been having in Expert.
Now I’m going to head back to the sofa to watch the remains of this very-slowly streaming video of the high mountains, so ta ta for now!
Saturday 18 July 2009
New things, and a two-race weekend.
As I write this, I’m sitting here nursing my slightly sore legs and watching today’s tour stage on ITV player. In spite of, or perhaps because of Rachel being away in Innerleithen at the national champs this weekend, I’ve been keeping myself madly busy the last few days, and not to be outdone, I’ve also made sure I’m doing more races than her (that said, I wouldn’t swap with her for the world!).
Part of my busyness has been getting used to all my new kit – thanks to sponsors Ben Hayward Cycles, I have a lovely new pair of specialized mtb shoes that I tried out on the road bike today.
It’s amazing how comfortable they are; you’re very aware of how stably your feet are being held, but at the same time they feel like slippers in terms of general comfort. A weird and wonderful feeling. The only worry I have is that they’re too pretty to wear except when it’s bone dry! Along with a new pair of cleats to go one them, I also invested in the crank brothers sole savers – little machined bits of stainless steel that stop the metal wings on the eggbeater pedals that I love from eating their way into your carbon soles. They’re not cheap, but they’re beautifully made, and as long as they do stop my shoes from eroding, I reckon it’ll be money well-spent.
I guess we’ll soon see if I manage to talk myself into wearing the new speed slipper at 24-12!
My other new acquisition from Hayward’s is a pair of the lightweight ergon GR2SL grips; Rachel has raved about her ergon grips for quite a while, and having had odd numb sensations in my hands after long rides, I decided it might be time to invest too. Being an incurable weight weenie, I went for the light ones with lovely little ergonomic carbon bar ends integrated into them, and in spite of the slight hit on weight compared to my old ritchey foam grips, I definitely don’t regret it!
My first outing with them was the FNSS race last night at Delapre Abbey; it poured with rain all the way there, and Jef and I talked ourselves out of, then back into, out of and then back into racing again on the drive over. Handily, we arrived just late enough to avoid getting our bikes dirty by pre-riding, but the downside was that we both felt a bit dodgy after the starting sprint with no warm up. I had started getting into things, and was really enjoying the tricky mud, when I dropped my chain and it jammed between my chainrings and my crank arm. Helped by the marshalls, I eventually got things untangled (I first tried to prise the rings away from the arm with a twig – it’s amazing the dumb things you do when your heart’s beating three times a second) by undoing the quick link. I spent the rest of the race chasing back to where I’d been in the field, but alas didn’t quite do enough to get me back to Ant White in 3rd, and so missed out on a prize. It was a bit annoying losing 3 minutes through something so dumb, especially when the nat champs had thinned my competition rather, but never mind! Aside from chain issues, the bike worked perfectly, I loved my new grips (especially the bar ends) and my rocket rons (bought a couple of weeks ago from other supporters Clee Cycles) made the bike handle like it was on rails in spite of the slippery mud on the course.
Coming up next is the first round of the Eastern MTB series down in Essex tomorrow, and I going into it without any real idea what to expect! It was a choice between that and the next round of the thetford summer series, but to be totally honest I feel like I’m done with thetford as a place to ride, and I really want to see an mtb league in the east return and survive, so reckon it’s worth supporting. Hopefully, this video of Billy-Joe Whenman riding the course will be representative, and I’ll still feel I made the right choice tomorrow evening!
I went for a bit of a leg-loosener of a ride this evening, or at least it was supposed to make me feel a bit less achey after yesterday’s exploits; I was only intending to ride for 30 mins or so, but it was such a lovely evening, and I was so enjoying I ended up riding for two hours – whoops! I figure it’s a good sign for my upcoming effort at 24-12 that I feel motivated to ride for longer than planned at the moment; all I have to do now is store up all that motivation so that it’ll last me the full 12hrs! Which brings me to my final bit of new kit – I splashed out on an exposure joystick; such a neat helmet mount and such a powerful but small light seemed like the perfect option for racing 6hrs under the cover of darkness.
Obviously the most euphoric bit will be when I can switch it off and embrace the new day, I’ll just have to keep reminding myself that I still have 6hrs to ride at that point….
Rachel will be back from sunny Scotland on Monday, more than likely full of exciting stories of endless climbs and hair-raising descents to put my eastern racing to shame, until then adios amigos.
Part of my busyness has been getting used to all my new kit – thanks to sponsors Ben Hayward Cycles, I have a lovely new pair of specialized mtb shoes that I tried out on the road bike today.
It’s amazing how comfortable they are; you’re very aware of how stably your feet are being held, but at the same time they feel like slippers in terms of general comfort. A weird and wonderful feeling. The only worry I have is that they’re too pretty to wear except when it’s bone dry! Along with a new pair of cleats to go one them, I also invested in the crank brothers sole savers – little machined bits of stainless steel that stop the metal wings on the eggbeater pedals that I love from eating their way into your carbon soles. They’re not cheap, but they’re beautifully made, and as long as they do stop my shoes from eroding, I reckon it’ll be money well-spent.
I guess we’ll soon see if I manage to talk myself into wearing the new speed slipper at 24-12!
My other new acquisition from Hayward’s is a pair of the lightweight ergon GR2SL grips; Rachel has raved about her ergon grips for quite a while, and having had odd numb sensations in my hands after long rides, I decided it might be time to invest too. Being an incurable weight weenie, I went for the light ones with lovely little ergonomic carbon bar ends integrated into them, and in spite of the slight hit on weight compared to my old ritchey foam grips, I definitely don’t regret it!
My first outing with them was the FNSS race last night at Delapre Abbey; it poured with rain all the way there, and Jef and I talked ourselves out of, then back into, out of and then back into racing again on the drive over. Handily, we arrived just late enough to avoid getting our bikes dirty by pre-riding, but the downside was that we both felt a bit dodgy after the starting sprint with no warm up. I had started getting into things, and was really enjoying the tricky mud, when I dropped my chain and it jammed between my chainrings and my crank arm. Helped by the marshalls, I eventually got things untangled (I first tried to prise the rings away from the arm with a twig – it’s amazing the dumb things you do when your heart’s beating three times a second) by undoing the quick link. I spent the rest of the race chasing back to where I’d been in the field, but alas didn’t quite do enough to get me back to Ant White in 3rd, and so missed out on a prize. It was a bit annoying losing 3 minutes through something so dumb, especially when the nat champs had thinned my competition rather, but never mind! Aside from chain issues, the bike worked perfectly, I loved my new grips (especially the bar ends) and my rocket rons (bought a couple of weeks ago from other supporters Clee Cycles) made the bike handle like it was on rails in spite of the slippery mud on the course.
Coming up next is the first round of the Eastern MTB series down in Essex tomorrow, and I going into it without any real idea what to expect! It was a choice between that and the next round of the thetford summer series, but to be totally honest I feel like I’m done with thetford as a place to ride, and I really want to see an mtb league in the east return and survive, so reckon it’s worth supporting. Hopefully, this video of Billy-Joe Whenman riding the course will be representative, and I’ll still feel I made the right choice tomorrow evening!
I went for a bit of a leg-loosener of a ride this evening, or at least it was supposed to make me feel a bit less achey after yesterday’s exploits; I was only intending to ride for 30 mins or so, but it was such a lovely evening, and I was so enjoying I ended up riding for two hours – whoops! I figure it’s a good sign for my upcoming effort at 24-12 that I feel motivated to ride for longer than planned at the moment; all I have to do now is store up all that motivation so that it’ll last me the full 12hrs! Which brings me to my final bit of new kit – I splashed out on an exposure joystick; such a neat helmet mount and such a powerful but small light seemed like the perfect option for racing 6hrs under the cover of darkness.
Obviously the most euphoric bit will be when I can switch it off and embrace the new day, I’ll just have to keep reminding myself that I still have 6hrs to ride at that point….
Rachel will be back from sunny Scotland on Monday, more than likely full of exciting stories of endless climbs and hair-raising descents to put my eastern racing to shame, until then adios amigos.
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