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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