Duathlon, only without the silly running bit...

Well having decided that having the bikes nicked was not going to cause me to throw my toys out of the pram (Crying, spilt milk etc) my first full day off in a good few weeks would be spent in the saddle, normality was returning as it were.  The omens weren’t looking good as me and regular road training partner James flogged our way around the back roads of Somerset, water bottles freezing and bikes complaining at the salt and minus temperatures. Never the less it was a fairly relaxed start that saw me heading from Bristol up through Chepstow to the forest of dean early the following morning, well at least it was sunny…

To prove the point, the seven bridge at -4

The plan was to ride the 40 odd miles to the pedalabikeaway centre in the middle of the forest and meet some lads who had travelled up for the day, and crucially had agreed to bring a spare mountain bike. Arriving just after 11 (Strangely bang on time which considering how bad my legs were feeling was quite a surprise) hands, feet and face were all frozen solid; a coffee was rapidly consumed while pedals were swapped and then we were off again.

If you have never ridden the new trail at FoD then I really would recommend it, although not very long it makes up for this by being one of the few trail centre loops you can do back to back laps with out getting bored; put simply its just fast flowing fun! A couple of laps later and we headed off into the woodland proper retracing tracks held in the memories of races long since past.  With it hovering just below freezing for most of the morning it was truly magic as we dived through the undergrowth shimmering green and silver in the light.

All to soon it was time to swap the pedals back on to triggers broom, well my old ridley and get back on the road. An aim of getting back into Bristol before it got to dark meant coffee and cake had to be cut short so while the other lads headed off for another lap of the trail (Yes it is that good…) I struck out homewards, strangely disappointed my water bottle had thawed out…

Although slightly warmer it was still proper chilly on the way back, stopping only for a moment atop the seven bridge (Well you’ve got to really) the plan of getting back at dusk worked a treat – thus ending one of the best days out in a vey long time. It’s like a duathlon only with none of that silly running business…

Thanks to Daf for the bike (26” wheels, are just plain wrong) and Jim for the coffee…

Until next time :-)

Ice covered frontage...

Sunday saw round 3 of the Thetford winter series. So headed down there for an early start to get a couple of practice laps/extra miles in.
Arriving at 8am it was seriously cold actually much colder than Northern Inverness had been at the beginning of the month.
So suited up in a couple more layers than race-wear and headed out for a loop of the 7.5 course, the course was flat and fast and very frozen as my legs appeared to be also. It was likely to turn a little muddy after the sun and 600 riders had been on it for a while.
The extremities were very cold and on looking down i realised my gloves, crotch and feet and face were covered in a icy film!
A comfortable 40mins and the lap was finished so headed back to the car to warm up a bit. Stopped and route for a chat with Mr Ant White and a surprise to see enduro legend Rich Rothwell had made the trip from Northumberland to race the flatlands!
Dr Read and his missus turned up with camera in hand as he was only filming today following another doctors orders to stay off the bike following a dodgy lung diagnosis.
Headed down to start line to get a good position despite being gridded and a few jumps up and down to keep. a clean getaway and attempted to settle into a nice pace for the next 4hrs it was soon clear that my legs were still a sore following the previous weeks Duathlon and possibly still from the Strathpuffer three weeks earlier.
An interesting race being done on one 750ml bottle as I failed to locate where Dr Read had placed my pit bag and it wasn’t until the start of lap 7 that i found it and took on board another bottle.
Never really got my groove on in the effort and it more turned into going painfully and slowly through the motions until the end.
With coming in a few minutes before the 4hrs for a 7th lap and only being passed by the leader at the very end of that lap I thought I had done enough the secure a reasonable position but I ended 17th at the finish, not bad effort but I think this was testament to a few faster newer riders to the series possibly with the end of the Brass Monkeys series the week before.
Best out of 3 for the series so maybe that might have to be all at the next race..

Clean heels

Well if nothing else yesterday proved to me that no matter how fast you are and how well you think you’re going there is always someone just around the corner that will show you a clean pair of heels if given half a chance.  After last weeks theft related nightmare it was purely by luck that local racer (Niner/Ergon/Stans) Scott Cornish had a Trek hanging around in my size, never one to turn down a chance to get off the tarmac a plan was hatched to do a big ride.

Heading over to his for 9.30 realistically meant a 10 start, heading out through the local trails and (Very quickly) on to those less well known we sped past riders out for a Sunday morning ride playing on the newly opened trails at Lee woods.  Heading out towards the coast and with mentions of cheddar and Mendip being banded about the day had all the hallmarks of an epic, it became clear that the large bowl of porridge consumed that morning was going to make its worth known…

As we sped along the strawberry line between Pill and Cheddar it became clear that we were still in the big ring, not only that but we had been in it long enough for the other two to become clogged up and almost slick, wondering how long I could maintain this pace we continued as the clouds grew closer and the ice cold rain that had been threatening became less threat and more hale.

The answer to this question became obvious climbing up the cheddar gorge (Remember the big climb in the cheddar challenge?) as Scott pulled away from me again I dropped down a cog and came to the conclusion that if I continued chasing it would put the return leg at risk – as it was now getting really cold and quite miserable it was decided with the bulk of the off road done we would ride the rest of the route at our own pace, in the aim of keeping warm.

7 hours and the think end of 110km later we rolled back into Bristol, ironically through Ashton court again and back for a well deserved Bath. Someone much wiser than me once said you have to play with people better than you to improve. There was a lot of improving done on Sunday…

Now all I need to so is sort out a bike of my own.

Duathlon, why?

Last weekend I had a free morning on the sunday and having been informed of a local Duathlon I decided to give it a go.
I have been threatening myself for sometime to do this type of event and as it was local and an xc event for the mountain bike it seemed ideal.
Whether this was a good idea physically 14 days after the Strathpuffer was unclear, but I had done a bit of treadmill work the previous week and im sure the legs could hold up.
I drove up to Kelling Heath holiday park sunday morning for a 10:30am start, Kelling is a quite location its a holiday park surrounded by cycling and walking trails. And it is surprisingly hilly for Norfolk.
I last time I had ran outside and entered a running event was a steeplechase back in October 2010 so the legs were bound to be a bit rusty.
There wasnt a massive line up and despite being local I didnt know any of the entrants apart from another MTB racer Elliot Lawrence who generally finishes above me in most National events but was less of a runner than me so he was likely to struggle on those legs.
The event was a 5km xc run around fireroad type terrain which consisted of three laps of a loop. This was painful enough but then it was followed a 20km ride over four laps of a different loop this had a killer climb in it which although very short was extremely steep, having heard that in the first of these events only 1 person had made the climb I was on a mission to ride it every lap despite it was likely to be quicker to walk it.
I had lagged behind on the run and only dropped elliot and a veteran runner and Elliot passed to on the last mtb lap as he was clearly much quicker on the downhill sections!
Ride over and then a further 3 laps of the run, but this time gels were a must to keep me go and I was overheating badly having the feeling I wanted to run in just shorts despite the January weather.
I caught Elliot almost instantly on the run and then plodded on to the finish, I had ended up 3rd as another guy ahead had a snapped chain.
The pain which followed was unlike anything I had experienced and the legs were in pain for three days following. But theres another in a week and will I do it again maybe just maybe.
Anyway Thetford Winter series round 3 tommorow so back on the bike for a 4hr stint.

New year, New team. Oh and an introduction...

Right, new year, new team and all that. No seriously I am really excited about this year – but ill get on to that in a minuite.

This being the first of my blogs for Team Cycleaid/on-one/exposure I guess I should introduce myself to you and outline what I’ve done, what I’m doing and most importantly what I hope ill achive this year (Then at least I’ll be able to look back on this come November and laugh!)

I have been riding and competing off for a while, actually as long as I can remember. The local midland scene (Anyone Bobs bash, Ashton court and the Midland Super series…) saw (ir)regular results and ignited a competitively that is still burning! As I got older and moved away the lack of a car curtailed most racing I began ‘just riding’ again; to cut a long story short the rides got longer, I got introduced to enduro’s, 24hr’s and the ability to swap tea for lifts and have never looked back…

My life at the moment pretty much revolves around teaching, spannering coaching and riding. Although this does leave me with a serious lack of spare time which I wouldn’t change for a second…

First entry into a long and relatively successful racing career came as a complete acsedent, having entered the race as a pair I was told at the last minuite (Were talking on the drive down) that my partner had in-fact changed the entry for two solo’s. D2D ’03. Still the most painful race of my life (Carbon saddles; just say NO kids). This has then spiralled into all forms of 24hr racing, team, solo and paired although solo is where my heart is!

This year a combination of some expert advice, some serious mileage, a little bit of speed work and the support of the Cycleaid boys, Mud Dock, Bristol Mountain bike club and my ever supportive girlfriend I’ll be attempting to improve on the results of last year. I’m also planning a short jaunt down to the south of Spain on the bike this summer so doubtless you’ll get to hear about that when it finally gets sorted out (That’ll be on the ferry to Calais then…)

Scotch Adventures.

First appointment with what was to become the new team was first started by a comment made late one night on Facebook, in much the same way as drunken ebay purchases saying yes to pitting for the lads at strathpuffer was not really given the gravitas that it deserved. For a start it was over 800 miles away, secondly it was in January and thirdly; well did I mention it was over 800 miles away???

Once committed I was in though, letting the boys down was just not an option so it was with some trepidation that we began to organise what would be one big old road trip. It transpired that the lads would drive over from Norwich to collect me and then we would head on up to within a hop skip and jump of John ‘o groats.

Did I mention it was 800 miles?

Heading up on the Thursday afternoon allowed us a few nights in the local Travelodge to get over the mammoth drive, acclimatise to the cold and get any last bits and pieces sorted. It turned out this was well needed as although we had all the kit required for such an adventure I wasn’t to sure where it was, this was a theme that would continue throughout the weekend though. Saturday dawned and the early 10am start necessitated a 6am depart from the hotel we were held up in, it was raining. This did not help.

Frantically trying to revive the Gazebo which had blown away over night while sorting food, clothing, lights and everything else we were supposed to be doing for the next 24hrs didn’t leave much time for anything else – luckily the lads were pretty relaxed about what they were about to enter into and made my job of trying to play team mom that much easier. Once everything had been sorted we all headed down to the traditional bagpipe start. It was still raining, although disappointingly (For me at least) no snow to be seen.

As is always the case when pitting a lot of what goes on is VERY boring and repetitive, feed rider, check bike, clean bike, feed rider some more and away so I wont bore you with the details of the whole race; suffice to say both Ian and Dean have written extensively about the race in their Blogs and as I wont steal their thunder.

What always makes the Strathpuffer so hard, indeed one of the 10 hardest mountain bike races on earth, is the unpredictable weather – during our stay we had everything from sunshine through to hale, with a nice just above freezing damp wind to make it that little bit more special. I’ve been told it was the nicest year recorded although I think they were just trying to make me feel better…

Both guys were obviously putting in there all and it really was great to see them working so hard, taking strength from the sheer stupidity of what they were doing, in the end Dean although comfortably in the top 10 finally admitted defeat with 16hrs under his belt. The fact that I had to carry him off his bike says a lot about how much he had put into the race. Ian made it to 20hrs and im sure could have been talked into continuing if the medics hadn’t intervened and quite rightly advised him to stop after some rather nasty pain coming from deep within.

As for me I made it through, very cold covered in mud and a bit confusded but looking forward to getting back on the bike and kicking this year off with a bang.

A year in review....

Last night saw my last ride of 2011 with a 3hr blast in torrential rain and mud with zoe and Scott from South Wales who I had met at the Bontrager 24/12 in which with Scott's Support Zoe placed an amazing 2nd in the 24hr. Really great to be able to meet up with them on my local trails.

This week Ian and I will be travelling up to Northern Scotland to compete in the Strathpuffer 24hr solo, which will without a doubt be the toughest event we have faced to date. And what an opener to 2012 that will be.

Ian wrote a brief overview of the year recently for our newsletter which covers the years highlights:

Team Cycle Aid have enjoyed an awesome year or racing and riding. As always, the focus has been on endurance mountain biking events, but they have also participated in a wide range of fun events, sportives and other adventures.

The highlight of the year has to be Dean Pointer ranking 16th in the UK & European 24 hour mountain bike championships. This was Dean's first ever 24 hour event, and he just excelled against a really strong field, keep pushing hard throughout the event and felt a great sense of achievement ranking high against Europe's finest. Dean's season continued with 7th in Bontrager TwentyFour12 (12 hours solo), 9th in the Brighton Big Dog, and 6th at the Thetford Summer Enduro. Ian Read's season highlights were a well earned 11th place at the Thetford Summer Enduro, and a hard though 19th at Dusk 'til Dawn (in extremely muddy conditions).

The team participated in many of the regional sportives, including the Suffolk Sunrise, Wiggle's No Excuses Sportive and the main Norwich event, the Norwich 100/50. As they felt the need for the endurance training, they opted to do the Norwich 50, followed by the Norwich 100. On a hot day in June, they managed to get around both events whilst quite a few riders were still struggling with one - they felt suitably pleased with themselves! Next year, they are planning to do the 100, twice.

Next year's season will kick off in January at the Strathpuffer. For some weird reason, Dean and Ian are quite excited at riding for 24 hours in temperatures well below -10, 16 hours of darkness in the highlands of Scotland. After that they will be carrying on the Thetford Winter Series, the Wiggle No Excuses Sportive and the Cheshire Cat in March, back up to Scotland for the UK/European 24 hour championships, the Gorrick 100, more Thetford racing with the Summer Enduro, and unfinished business in Kielder! Look out for the Team jersey events and say hi - they are very talkative chaps!

Seatpost or Saddle?

Sunday saw round 2 of the legendary Thetford Winter series, a race series which I first rode back in the very early nineties under the management of Pro-Circuit MTB. I had a 16 year break from the sport and came back in the 2008 winter series, now my 4th year and I can only say they get better with age and maybe my riding is maturing also.

An early start sunday having to drop the sprogs off at their Aunties for some babysitting duties, for a change this didnt involve waiting around for Dr Read to get out of bed! as he made his own way down.

Got down to Mayday farm just after 8am for a 10:30 start enough time for a last minute tinker and waited for Read (who was on time for the first time ever) and we went of on a reccie lap of the 6.5 mile course, at a steady pace this was around 35mins. So over the 4hrs we were looking at 8 laps.

As I was 13th in the last round had the bonus of being gridded at the start which always leads to amore relaxed start so you can concentrate on the 4hrs ahead.

We were off settled into my planned 13mph average and enjoyed the flowing course, the whole race was incident free for me apart from nearly washing out at the entrance to the MX trail.

The Course flowed so well and even the bombholes were all easily rideable in big ring and the double shocker was a treat as long as no one failed to get up the ascents!

Saw numerous people laying in the bush on those sections, with bikes on top of them, moaning in pain, should confess to laughing at their misfortune but this made me giggle thinking - how on earth do you bail on a ascent!!

Another strange incident was a tussle and fall between a Fatbirds rider and a Numbpluz rider - Numbpluz tried to overtake me and took out fatbirds and I ooked back to see him on the floor.

Fatbirds "what did you do that for?" and Numplumz "We are all in the same cat!"

Who knows what was going on their but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Unfortunately, Dr Read's race wasnt as incident free with a snapped seatpost after 5 laps, so his Winter Series is not happening this year but hes ensured a stellar performance at the Puffer and im sure incident free once his On-One Whippet is unleashed.

This was my first ride with my uber light Hope Race X2 EVO brakes and they didnt dissapoint pure xc speed item and once the pads had bedded in a lovely modulated feel. Anyway as planned 8 laps and a excellent little burn up on the last lap with a CC Luton - Eddingtons - Bandon rider on the last lap - to take 3 riders at the end but these turned out to be Vet riders so no places gained - 12th place! So with that and last months 13th an overall top ten thus far i guess. Right now some more training and two top tens in the last two races.