Well, it's been a few months and quite a bit has happened since I last posted, but more of that in other posts.
Before that, I eventually managed to upload my footage from Fort William this year, or at least the women's XC anyway.
It's a real shame that the UCI have dropped XC from Fort William for next year, apparently because the lap time was 'too long'. I'll not be working up there as a marshall next year as a result, having been there from 2005-2008, but may make trip to Houffalize or Offenburg instead, I hope.
Sunday, 19 October 2008
Saturday, 31 May 2008
Gary Fisher Superfly 29er review and general updates
First of all, apologies to anyone out there reading this for my lack of updates. I'd like to say I've been spending time doing something worthwhile but I've been merely busy.
Anyway, now that's out of the way, I'm writing this with a new slight injury to my right knee which I tweaked while running around a few weeks ago. I went to see a new physiotherapist today, and there's good news and bad news. The good news is that I can still race at Mountain Mayhem in 3 weeks' time, which is a huge relief. The bad news is my body core stability is not great, and as I knew already, my hamstrings, hip flexors etc. are generally pretty tight. My Illio-Tibial Band is also tight, which is what's pulling on my right knee, so I've got various exercises and a large inflatable ball to work on. It's good to know that it can be fixed though :)
In preparation for Mayhem, injured or not, I finally bought the Hope Vision Single LED light I've been after for ages. I've only been out using it once, but I'm really happy so far. It's cable-free, takes 4 AA batteries, only weighs around 240g wih batteries, and produces more light than my old 10W halogen system. Well, at least I think so. Once I've taken some comparison photos, I'll upload them here.
A few weeks ago, I made the journey up to Drumlanrig in south west Scotland for round 2 of the 2008 British National Points Series. I don't drive, so was reliant upon public transport, couldn't take the bike for various reasons, and there were rail engineering works, but it all worked out perfectly. I even managed to get a local bus from Dumfries to Thornhill and then walked the 4 miles or so to Drumlanrig Castle itself. £43.50 in total for a return journey from south west London to Scotland seems good value.
While I was there, covering the racing for the XCRacer website, the kind guys at Trek lent me a 2008 Gary Fisher Superfly carbon 29er to try, which meant I could ride the course. I must admit, I wasn't a great fan of 29ers at this point, although I had never ridden one, as I don't like them from an aesthetic point of view. Nevertheless, I tried my best to be open-minded once on board the £2500 machine, which came with X0 trigger shifters and rear mech, Avid Juicy Ultimate brakes, carbon Bontrager cranks, 32mm stanchion Fox forks and wide flat bars but no bar ends. The Superfly has the Genesis 2.0 geometry, which means a shorter top tube combined with a fork which is further offset away from the headtube, to keep the overall bike long enough. The 19" Fisher frame I tried still felt far less stretched out than my 18.5" Inbred.
Over the regular rocks and roots of the Drumlanrig course, the large wheels rolled really well. Medium and fast corners were a revelation, as a combination of the stiff forks (compared to my 30mm Marzocchis) and the large level of grip afforded by the contact area of the tyres meant the bike could be really cranked over and it would stick beautifully to whatever line you chose. Downhill, the wide bars, high grip levels and short top tube made it easy to attack and left a big grin on my face.
The downside of the short top tube, wide bars and no bar ends was uphill however. The bike felt really sluggish as soon as the terrain went up, and even a stiff carbon frame and low overall weight didn't seem to help. Every climb left me wanting to be back on my (probably heavier) 26" wheeled Inbred. The other issue was slow speed cornering, where turning the Superfly felt like trying to turn a supertanker, it was such hard work. The long stem fitted (necessary with the short top tube) combined with the size of the wheels meant every tight bend became hard work. I'm not sure how Fisher could rectify this, as a shorter stem would leave the overall riding position even less stretched out than at present. I suppose narrower bars and bar ends could make some difference for climbing perhaps.
Overall, I'm much more of a convert to 29ers than I was before riding the Superfly, but I certainly won't be buying one soon, and Fisher maybe have some work to do so that the bike climbs as well as it descends.
Anyway, now that's out of the way, I'm writing this with a new slight injury to my right knee which I tweaked while running around a few weeks ago. I went to see a new physiotherapist today, and there's good news and bad news. The good news is that I can still race at Mountain Mayhem in 3 weeks' time, which is a huge relief. The bad news is my body core stability is not great, and as I knew already, my hamstrings, hip flexors etc. are generally pretty tight. My Illio-Tibial Band is also tight, which is what's pulling on my right knee, so I've got various exercises and a large inflatable ball to work on. It's good to know that it can be fixed though :)
In preparation for Mayhem, injured or not, I finally bought the Hope Vision Single LED light I've been after for ages. I've only been out using it once, but I'm really happy so far. It's cable-free, takes 4 AA batteries, only weighs around 240g wih batteries, and produces more light than my old 10W halogen system. Well, at least I think so. Once I've taken some comparison photos, I'll upload them here.
A few weeks ago, I made the journey up to Drumlanrig in south west Scotland for round 2 of the 2008 British National Points Series. I don't drive, so was reliant upon public transport, couldn't take the bike for various reasons, and there were rail engineering works, but it all worked out perfectly. I even managed to get a local bus from Dumfries to Thornhill and then walked the 4 miles or so to Drumlanrig Castle itself. £43.50 in total for a return journey from south west London to Scotland seems good value.
While I was there, covering the racing for the XCRacer website, the kind guys at Trek lent me a 2008 Gary Fisher Superfly carbon 29er to try, which meant I could ride the course. I must admit, I wasn't a great fan of 29ers at this point, although I had never ridden one, as I don't like them from an aesthetic point of view. Nevertheless, I tried my best to be open-minded once on board the £2500 machine, which came with X0 trigger shifters and rear mech, Avid Juicy Ultimate brakes, carbon Bontrager cranks, 32mm stanchion Fox forks and wide flat bars but no bar ends. The Superfly has the Genesis 2.0 geometry, which means a shorter top tube combined with a fork which is further offset away from the headtube, to keep the overall bike long enough. The 19" Fisher frame I tried still felt far less stretched out than my 18.5" Inbred.
Over the regular rocks and roots of the Drumlanrig course, the large wheels rolled really well. Medium and fast corners were a revelation, as a combination of the stiff forks (compared to my 30mm Marzocchis) and the large level of grip afforded by the contact area of the tyres meant the bike could be really cranked over and it would stick beautifully to whatever line you chose. Downhill, the wide bars, high grip levels and short top tube made it easy to attack and left a big grin on my face.
The downside of the short top tube, wide bars and no bar ends was uphill however. The bike felt really sluggish as soon as the terrain went up, and even a stiff carbon frame and low overall weight didn't seem to help. Every climb left me wanting to be back on my (probably heavier) 26" wheeled Inbred. The other issue was slow speed cornering, where turning the Superfly felt like trying to turn a supertanker, it was such hard work. The long stem fitted (necessary with the short top tube) combined with the size of the wheels meant every tight bend became hard work. I'm not sure how Fisher could rectify this, as a shorter stem would leave the overall riding position even less stretched out than at present. I suppose narrower bars and bar ends could make some difference for climbing perhaps.
Overall, I'm much more of a convert to 29ers than I was before riding the Superfly, but I certainly won't be buying one soon, and Fisher maybe have some work to do so that the bike climbs as well as it descends.
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Hope pro riders and the Olympic XC points race is go!
Following in the footsteps of the team-only red Magura Marta SLs as used by Specialized etc., Hope have been issuing their pro riders with a range of mint green kit, which is now starting to appear in photo such as the above, which is Andrew Patterson's bike.
The amount of kit being provided by Hope varies from person to person, so in the case of Andrew Patterson, it includes mint green disc brakes, external bottom bracket cups with ceramic bearings, stem, headset and seatpost QR it would seem. It goes really well with his white Endorfin, I think. Oli Beckingsale's black/red Giant Anthem Advanced doesn't look quite as good with mint green external BB cups and disc brakes. The ladies, meanwhile, such as Jenn O'Connor, get the same kit but in the light pink which first appeared in late 2007. Hope are also supporting the likes of Trek/SiS and Filip Meirhaeghe, so I'm keen to see how much of the range they end up with, and any horrific clashing colours too....
In competition news, the race to claim one of GB's 2 Elite Men XC places for Beijing 2008 has now well and truly begun. Oli Beckingsale has already won one round of the K Capital Cup in Ireland, and this weekend won at the Midlands XC. Liam Killeen meanwhile finished 9th at the first NMBS event of the year in the US. Any difference in points at this stage is probably irrelevant, however, given British Cycling's typically opaque Olympics selection criteria.
The amount of kit being provided by Hope varies from person to person, so in the case of Andrew Patterson, it includes mint green disc brakes, external bottom bracket cups with ceramic bearings, stem, headset and seatpost QR it would seem. It goes really well with his white Endorfin, I think. Oli Beckingsale's black/red Giant Anthem Advanced doesn't look quite as good with mint green external BB cups and disc brakes. The ladies, meanwhile, such as Jenn O'Connor, get the same kit but in the light pink which first appeared in late 2007. Hope are also supporting the likes of Trek/SiS and Filip Meirhaeghe, so I'm keen to see how much of the range they end up with, and any horrific clashing colours too....
In competition news, the race to claim one of GB's 2 Elite Men XC places for Beijing 2008 has now well and truly begun. Oli Beckingsale has already won one round of the K Capital Cup in Ireland, and this weekend won at the Midlands XC. Liam Killeen meanwhile finished 9th at the first NMBS event of the year in the US. Any difference in points at this stage is probably irrelevant, however, given British Cycling's typically opaque Olympics selection criteria.
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
93 days to go....
I'm really looking forward to racing this year, whether as a spectator or actually on course. Despite my initial misgivings about my enforced move up to the Masters class for 2008, I've just had a look at some of my old lap times from National Points Series and Gorrick races in 2005 and 2006, and although I would be nowhere near the front, I would at least have a few people behind me. Of course, I was relatively fit in 2005 and 2006, and not being a hypochondriac about my still not 100% right knee, so I doubt I could repeat those times right now...
On an NPS-related note, I've now rejoined British Cycling after allowing my licence to lapse, so I feel a bit better for supporting our governing body in the UK, despite its many faults.
One thing I could never understand, particularly after working at the World Championships at Fort William in 2007, was why British Cycling seems to make so little use of sponsorship to help support our riders. Italy have Skoda logos all over their strip, Rabobank clearly work together with the Dutch team, and yet all British Cycling seemed to do was use Trek bikes and have a small Adidas logo on the strip. It's all change this week however, with Hope not only working more closely with the XC riders at least, and providing some lovely mint green disc brakes in the process, but also Halfords Bikehut have now joined in too, although I'm not sure if this is for XC and/or DH too.
One thing I hadn't realised when guessing who would be at Mountain Mayhem this year is that the 2008 World Championships take place the same weekend at Val Di Sole. That would explain why there's no Giant team entered, since Oli Beckingsale will be in Italy, and also makes it unlikely that Ian Bibby will be riding for SiS/Trek or Jenny Copnall for any of the teams requesting her as a rider. However, it appears this week that Sue Clarke (formerly Sue Thomas) is making a return to XC after getting married and missing all of 2007's races. She's joined SiS/Trek so could be at Mayhem on their Expert Mixed team, which could now be very strong on the women's side. I had in my head that Amy Hunt was still at Trek/SiS and therefore could be on their team at Mayhem but of course she's at Trek/VW now....
It will be interesting to see how the results of the first NPS of the year go, with Sue Clarke added to the usual suspects of Jenny C, Amy Hunt, Jenn O'Connor, Kate Potter and the like. I hope to be there on 13/04 in Thetford, albeit probably just as a spectator taking photos (badly) and some video footage, but I'll decide that over the next week or so.
On an NPS-related note, I've now rejoined British Cycling after allowing my licence to lapse, so I feel a bit better for supporting our governing body in the UK, despite its many faults.
One thing I could never understand, particularly after working at the World Championships at Fort William in 2007, was why British Cycling seems to make so little use of sponsorship to help support our riders. Italy have Skoda logos all over their strip, Rabobank clearly work together with the Dutch team, and yet all British Cycling seemed to do was use Trek bikes and have a small Adidas logo on the strip. It's all change this week however, with Hope not only working more closely with the XC riders at least, and providing some lovely mint green disc brakes in the process, but also Halfords Bikehut have now joined in too, although I'm not sure if this is for XC and/or DH too.
One thing I hadn't realised when guessing who would be at Mountain Mayhem this year is that the 2008 World Championships take place the same weekend at Val Di Sole. That would explain why there's no Giant team entered, since Oli Beckingsale will be in Italy, and also makes it unlikely that Ian Bibby will be riding for SiS/Trek or Jenny Copnall for any of the teams requesting her as a rider. However, it appears this week that Sue Clarke (formerly Sue Thomas) is making a return to XC after getting married and missing all of 2007's races. She's joined SiS/Trek so could be at Mayhem on their Expert Mixed team, which could now be very strong on the women's side. I had in my head that Amy Hunt was still at Trek/SiS and therefore could be on their team at Mayhem but of course she's at Trek/VW now....
It will be interesting to see how the results of the first NPS of the year go, with Sue Clarke added to the usual suspects of Jenny C, Amy Hunt, Jenn O'Connor, Kate Potter and the like. I hope to be there on 13/04 in Thetford, albeit probably just as a spectator taking photos (badly) and some video footage, but I'll decide that over the next week or so.
Thursday, 13 March 2008
Confirmation and Crossmarks
It's been a good week in an MTB sense. First of all, my Dusk 'Til Dawn/SITS team mate Andrew and I were out in Swinley Forest on Sunday, and although forecast rain didn't arrive, it was still a little stickier than I thought but I didn't need the TrailRakers. We got some good riding in, managed to find the fun corkscrew section which I had raced down a couple of years ago from Crowthorne and then forgot about, and also some excellently fast bermed singletrack. I'm looking forward to getting back there again for some more training, ideally with my other team mate Roger in tow.
Judging by Sunday's performance, Andrew's winter training has produced some impressive straight line speed, but he was struggling a little technically until he remembered his tyre pressures were really high, let some air out, and was then much happier. While we were out, we heard a PA system nearby, and I remembered that there was a Gorrick race taking place, so we went along to offer some support to the likes of Alex Paton and George Budd. It was good to see some familiar faces, but the event seemed really quiet by the usual Gorrick standards, although it was late in the day and perhaps many riders were at the BUSA Championships instead.
Mountain Mayhem entry confirmations were released in midweek and happily "A Midsummer Night's Team" and I made it into the Sport Men race. It will be our first trip to Mountain Mayhem, and Ian's first race since about 1993, but I can't wait. Some of the teams joining us in Sport looks familiar from Sleepless In The Saddle 2007, such as the Black Riders Of Mordor. The Open Men category seems to contain some potentially very fast teams, now that Elite and Expert Men can only ride in Expert Mixed or Open Men for 2008. Some of the Expert Mixed teams look intriguing too, such as SiS/Trek and Rivette, making another trip across from Denmark after finishing 2nd in Expert Men in 2007, but bringing a number of teams this year. I wonder if Ian Bibby will be riding for SiS, and who their female rider(s) will be? Amy Hunt would seem a good bet, since SiS/Trek is her old team, but we'll have to wait and see.....
Finally, my Maxxis Crossmarks arrived today, and although I haven't fitted them yet, I have had the weighing scales out. Maxxis claim a 530g weight for my 2.1", 120tpi 62a eXCeption series tyre, but my pair came in at a mere 484g and 486g. Either my scales are wrong, Maxxis are wrong, or Maxxis' website is a little conservative, but I'm happy at being able to save weight while gaining grip and pinch puncture protection :) I'm looking forward to trying them out this weekend!
Judging by Sunday's performance, Andrew's winter training has produced some impressive straight line speed, but he was struggling a little technically until he remembered his tyre pressures were really high, let some air out, and was then much happier. While we were out, we heard a PA system nearby, and I remembered that there was a Gorrick race taking place, so we went along to offer some support to the likes of Alex Paton and George Budd. It was good to see some familiar faces, but the event seemed really quiet by the usual Gorrick standards, although it was late in the day and perhaps many riders were at the BUSA Championships instead.
Mountain Mayhem entry confirmations were released in midweek and happily "A Midsummer Night's Team" and I made it into the Sport Men race. It will be our first trip to Mountain Mayhem, and Ian's first race since about 1993, but I can't wait. Some of the teams joining us in Sport looks familiar from Sleepless In The Saddle 2007, such as the Black Riders Of Mordor. The Open Men category seems to contain some potentially very fast teams, now that Elite and Expert Men can only ride in Expert Mixed or Open Men for 2008. Some of the Expert Mixed teams look intriguing too, such as SiS/Trek and Rivette, making another trip across from Denmark after finishing 2nd in Expert Men in 2007, but bringing a number of teams this year. I wonder if Ian Bibby will be riding for SiS, and who their female rider(s) will be? Amy Hunt would seem a good bet, since SiS/Trek is her old team, but we'll have to wait and see.....
Finally, my Maxxis Crossmarks arrived today, and although I haven't fitted them yet, I have had the weighing scales out. Maxxis claim a 530g weight for my 2.1", 120tpi 62a eXCeption series tyre, but my pair came in at a mere 484g and 486g. Either my scales are wrong, Maxxis are wrong, or Maxxis' website is a little conservative, but I'm happy at being able to save weight while gaining grip and pinch puncture protection :) I'm looking forward to trying them out this weekend!
Friday, 7 March 2008
Not tired of tyres
I'm feeling optimistic that Spring will soon be here after a weeek of sunshine in London, even though the forecast for this weekend is not great, so it's a fond farewell to my Panaracer TrailRaker mud tyres and hello again to my now quite worn Maxxis Flyweight 490s. Luckily they won't need to last much longer, except for the occasional dry hardpack summer race, as I'll hopefully get a pair of Maxxis Crossmarks this week, in their 2.1", 120tpi 62a eXCeption series incarnation.
Granted, it is a 40g per wheel weight penalty from the 490s to the Crossmarks, but I'm hopeful that the larger volume should help me avoid pinch punctures, while still allowing low pressures to be used for grip and lowered rolling resistance. I've only pinch punctured once while racing as far as I can remember, and that was hitting a drop-off too hard while using about 18psi in the rear wheel. Ooops. Judging by the amount of miles of racing, training and road commuting use my 490s have done over the years, the 62a rubber seems to last quite well, so the Crossmarks should be good for a while.
Maxxis have got some new cross-country tyres out too, but not in the eXception series yet. The models are named Monorail and Ridgeline and "offers spacing to grab rough and sandy surfaces, while the stability bars keep flex and rolling resistance to a minimum" and "masters dry trails, offering athletes awesome lean angles with little sacrificed momentum" respectively. The design of the Ridgeline looks very interesting so it will be intriguing to see the first reviews come in.
I'm still awaiting confirmation of whether our team entry has been accepted for Mountain Mayhem, but all those who applied should be contacted by early next week apparently. In the meantime, entries for Sleepless In The Saddle are not yet being accepted, so I suppose I'd better complete our form for Marin Dusk 'til Dawn....
Granted, it is a 40g per wheel weight penalty from the 490s to the Crossmarks, but I'm hopeful that the larger volume should help me avoid pinch punctures, while still allowing low pressures to be used for grip and lowered rolling resistance. I've only pinch punctured once while racing as far as I can remember, and that was hitting a drop-off too hard while using about 18psi in the rear wheel. Ooops. Judging by the amount of miles of racing, training and road commuting use my 490s have done over the years, the 62a rubber seems to last quite well, so the Crossmarks should be good for a while.
Maxxis have got some new cross-country tyres out too, but not in the eXception series yet. The models are named Monorail and Ridgeline and "offers spacing to grab rough and sandy surfaces, while the stability bars keep flex and rolling resistance to a minimum" and "masters dry trails, offering athletes awesome lean angles with little sacrificed momentum" respectively. The design of the Ridgeline looks very interesting so it will be intriguing to see the first reviews come in.
I'm still awaiting confirmation of whether our team entry has been accepted for Mountain Mayhem, but all those who applied should be contacted by early next week apparently. In the meantime, entries for Sleepless In The Saddle are not yet being accepted, so I suppose I'd better complete our form for Marin Dusk 'til Dawn....
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Mountain Mayhem 2008
After racing for 24 hours at Sleepless In The Saddle in 2007, I hoped that we could get into its big brother for 2008, Mountain Mayhem. Mayhem is now in its 11th year and is the UK's largest 24h MTB race, but with the size of the event comes popularity, i.e. it sells out within days. Many teams and solo riders, keen to ensure they get in, actually hand deliver their entries to the organisers.
This year, forms were released at the new Mountain Mayhem website at midnight on Friday 29th February. This coincided with me being up north for my dad's birthday, which meant using their geriatric PC instead of wireless broadband. :( With my anticipation levels growing throughout the day, and knowing that getting the entry off early was a priority, I crossed my fingers that a combination of Windows 98, a 333mHz processor and a 56kbps narrowband internet connection would allow me to download and print the entry form.
Midnight arrived and went, and the form could not be accessed. I finally managed to download the form at 12:45am, but on opening the PDF document, it was blank. I checked Singletrackworld's forum to find that the first version was corrupted, so downloaded version 2. Still blank.
My team mate Roger emailed me his download of the file, which was also blank even though he could open it, so my old version of Adobe Reader was the problem, and there was no time to download an up to date copy. Being creative, Roger used Fn + Prnt Scrn to produce 3 JPEGs of the form, then attached them together with Photoshop and uploaded them to his webpage for me. We now had the form over 2 pages, but our ancient printer could not cope with 'fit to A4' so I had to use Boots Photo Editing Software to print it to fit OK.
After sending it off by Special Delivery to arrive by 9am on Monday, I'm now awaiting confirmation from Joolze/Pat that we're in, but I'm hopeful as we couldn't have got it there much earlier except by hand delivery. Fingers crossed....
The event itself should be fantastic, with a 10 mile course, perhaps more climbing than at Sleepless, and up to 2500 people racing. One of the more interesting changes for this year is that there are no team categories for Elite Men and Elite Women, but only an Expert Mixed, which requires not only at least 1 female racer, but that she must do a minimum of 4 laps too. With a relatively limited number of fast female racers in the UK, they are sure to be in high demand! Multiple British national champion Jenny Copnall raced last year in a mixed team, as did top triathlete Julie Dibens who ended up in the winning team, and I wonder if they will both be back? Other names in the frame, if they are not racing Solo, could include the likes of Paula Moseley, Gemma Collins, Sophie Johnson, Amy Hunt and Ruth McGavigan.
On an XC racing note, I'm going to be in serious trouble if I race any NPS events this year, now I have to race Masters and cannot hide in Sport. Looking at the times of the Masters field compared to Sport, and the calibre of some Masters racers, not finishing last will be a major achievement! Oh well, I'd better keep doing the knee exercises and general stretches and do some training....
This year, forms were released at the new Mountain Mayhem website at midnight on Friday 29th February. This coincided with me being up north for my dad's birthday, which meant using their geriatric PC instead of wireless broadband. :( With my anticipation levels growing throughout the day, and knowing that getting the entry off early was a priority, I crossed my fingers that a combination of Windows 98, a 333mHz processor and a 56kbps narrowband internet connection would allow me to download and print the entry form.
Midnight arrived and went, and the form could not be accessed. I finally managed to download the form at 12:45am, but on opening the PDF document, it was blank. I checked Singletrackworld's forum to find that the first version was corrupted, so downloaded version 2. Still blank.
My team mate Roger emailed me his download of the file, which was also blank even though he could open it, so my old version of Adobe Reader was the problem, and there was no time to download an up to date copy. Being creative, Roger used Fn + Prnt Scrn to produce 3 JPEGs of the form, then attached them together with Photoshop and uploaded them to his webpage for me. We now had the form over 2 pages, but our ancient printer could not cope with 'fit to A4' so I had to use Boots Photo Editing Software to print it to fit OK.
After sending it off by Special Delivery to arrive by 9am on Monday, I'm now awaiting confirmation from Joolze/Pat that we're in, but I'm hopeful as we couldn't have got it there much earlier except by hand delivery. Fingers crossed....
The event itself should be fantastic, with a 10 mile course, perhaps more climbing than at Sleepless, and up to 2500 people racing. One of the more interesting changes for this year is that there are no team categories for Elite Men and Elite Women, but only an Expert Mixed, which requires not only at least 1 female racer, but that she must do a minimum of 4 laps too. With a relatively limited number of fast female racers in the UK, they are sure to be in high demand! Multiple British national champion Jenny Copnall raced last year in a mixed team, as did top triathlete Julie Dibens who ended up in the winning team, and I wonder if they will both be back? Other names in the frame, if they are not racing Solo, could include the likes of Paula Moseley, Gemma Collins, Sophie Johnson, Amy Hunt and Ruth McGavigan.
On an XC racing note, I'm going to be in serious trouble if I race any NPS events this year, now I have to race Masters and cannot hide in Sport. Looking at the times of the Masters field compared to Sport, and the calibre of some Masters racers, not finishing last will be a major achievement! Oh well, I'd better keep doing the knee exercises and general stretches and do some training....
Thursday, 21 February 2008
Losing weight and licences
The rules for the 2008 British National Point Series (NPS) races are now out and it looks like there are some not insignificant changes in licences and entry rules. In prior years, I have raced in the Sport class, which was for those aged 19 and upwards, based on ability. Above Sport were Expert and then Elite. In addition, there were the aged based categories of Masters (from age 30) and Veterans for the next age group above that.
However, many racers who were eligible for Masters (in age terms) raced in Expert or Sport. Not any longer. As a result of my 30th birthday approaching fast, I can't choose my category any more for 2008, unless I request so especially, but will be automatically upgraded to Masters. Sport do 3 laps at the NPS, while Masters do 4 (the same as Expert) and Masters racers tend to be quite a bit faster than Sport, at least at the front of the grid. It looks like I'm going to need a lot more training to be able to even hide in the middle of the pack this year!
The other interesting impact of the rule changes should be fewer people changing category/in the wrong category, or trophy-hunting by dropping down a class from perhaps where they 'should' be. Apparently you will only be able to ride in your particular BC licence class unless you have requested an exemption in advance.
However, there is some good news in my quest to not be embarrassingly slow in 2008. I've shed another 64g from my Inbred courtesy of some On-One 'clever cam' skewers, which cost me a mere £7.35 including postage and packaging! At only 101g, and looking very similar to the Mavic composite levers, I'm very happy so far. If they perform as well as my 1993 Shimano ones have over the years, but with a weight advantage, they will be a good buy. The Inbred still weighs around 11.63kgs (25.6lbs) even now but then it has never had serious money thrown at it. For a (relatively) cheap build, the weight is good, and I love that it is almost certainly unique in its current specification.
However, many racers who were eligible for Masters (in age terms) raced in Expert or Sport. Not any longer. As a result of my 30th birthday approaching fast, I can't choose my category any more for 2008, unless I request so especially, but will be automatically upgraded to Masters. Sport do 3 laps at the NPS, while Masters do 4 (the same as Expert) and Masters racers tend to be quite a bit faster than Sport, at least at the front of the grid. It looks like I'm going to need a lot more training to be able to even hide in the middle of the pack this year!
The other interesting impact of the rule changes should be fewer people changing category/in the wrong category, or trophy-hunting by dropping down a class from perhaps where they 'should' be. Apparently you will only be able to ride in your particular BC licence class unless you have requested an exemption in advance.
However, there is some good news in my quest to not be embarrassingly slow in 2008. I've shed another 64g from my Inbred courtesy of some On-One 'clever cam' skewers, which cost me a mere £7.35 including postage and packaging! At only 101g, and looking very similar to the Mavic composite levers, I'm very happy so far. If they perform as well as my 1993 Shimano ones have over the years, but with a weight advantage, they will be a good buy. The Inbred still weighs around 11.63kgs (25.6lbs) even now but then it has never had serious money thrown at it. For a (relatively) cheap build, the weight is good, and I love that it is almost certainly unique in its current specification.
Saturday, 9 February 2008
Wasted rides and wheel tape
Looking out of the window this morning to see clear blue skies and sunshine, it was definitely time to get out on the bike, only for me to get two minutes down the road and experience some distinctly soggy handling, courtesy of a front wheel puncture.
No problem, I thought, having been a sensible boy and packed a spare tube, tyre lever and pump as usual. One quick (-ish) tube change later and I was on my way. With warm sunshine and no breeze, riding conditions were perfect, and I was soon at Richmond Park, looking forward to a couple of laps at speed, and hopefully no crashes this time. After around half a lap, I hit a right-hander at speed, and cranked the bike over to get some more cornering practice in, only to hear a horrible sound of air escaping a few seconds later. *Another* front wheel puncture :(
With only an already punctured inner tube, no CO2 and sealant canister and no money with me, it was time to walk home, which I knew would take me the best part of 2 hours. Oh well. At least it wasn't raining.....
That's 3 front wheel punctures in the last few months, but I never seem to find thorns, glass or nails in the tyre, and they are not snakebite punctures caused by too low pressure either. I think it is time to bin my rim tape and try some electrical tape instead, as the rim tape keeps moving and I suspect it is the tube hitting the spokes/valve hole which keeps causing the punctures. I really must go tubeless soon....
In other MTB news, while the British NPS XC race list has now been finalised, the licence requirements (or lack thereof) have not been clarified yet, and I'm waiting to see what licence level if any will be required before I renew my British Cycling membership. A number of people seem to think it will cost them lots of money to get a licence, but I suspect and hope that the Bronze membership, costing £13 including a free Provisional Racing Licence, will be sufficient to race the NPS this year. With only one of the rounds having UCI points this year, it will be interesting to see if all the UK-based riders do every race, or if they go chasing points in the rest of Europe, and how many overseas riders race over here.
As excited as I am about doing more 24 hour team racing in the UK this summer, in the long term I hope we can do some events in the rest of Europe too. After looking at a number of races listed here, it seems that many of the events have very short lap distances, seemingly in a very compact area, with the winning teams completing 60 or 70-odd laps in 24 hours, compared to say 48 laps from team Giant at Mountain Mayhem 2006. The courses don't look particularly interesting either, at least from the YouTube footage I've seen. I'll keep looking as I'm sure there are events with longer lap times (and hence less chance to get bored) and more interesting terrain out there.
No problem, I thought, having been a sensible boy and packed a spare tube, tyre lever and pump as usual. One quick (-ish) tube change later and I was on my way. With warm sunshine and no breeze, riding conditions were perfect, and I was soon at Richmond Park, looking forward to a couple of laps at speed, and hopefully no crashes this time. After around half a lap, I hit a right-hander at speed, and cranked the bike over to get some more cornering practice in, only to hear a horrible sound of air escaping a few seconds later. *Another* front wheel puncture :(
With only an already punctured inner tube, no CO2 and sealant canister and no money with me, it was time to walk home, which I knew would take me the best part of 2 hours. Oh well. At least it wasn't raining.....
That's 3 front wheel punctures in the last few months, but I never seem to find thorns, glass or nails in the tyre, and they are not snakebite punctures caused by too low pressure either. I think it is time to bin my rim tape and try some electrical tape instead, as the rim tape keeps moving and I suspect it is the tube hitting the spokes/valve hole which keeps causing the punctures. I really must go tubeless soon....
In other MTB news, while the British NPS XC race list has now been finalised, the licence requirements (or lack thereof) have not been clarified yet, and I'm waiting to see what licence level if any will be required before I renew my British Cycling membership. A number of people seem to think it will cost them lots of money to get a licence, but I suspect and hope that the Bronze membership, costing £13 including a free Provisional Racing Licence, will be sufficient to race the NPS this year. With only one of the rounds having UCI points this year, it will be interesting to see if all the UK-based riders do every race, or if they go chasing points in the rest of Europe, and how many overseas riders race over here.
As excited as I am about doing more 24 hour team racing in the UK this summer, in the long term I hope we can do some events in the rest of Europe too. After looking at a number of races listed here, it seems that many of the events have very short lap distances, seemingly in a very compact area, with the winning teams completing 60 or 70-odd laps in 24 hours, compared to say 48 laps from team Giant at Mountain Mayhem 2006. The courses don't look particularly interesting either, at least from the YouTube footage I've seen. I'll keep looking as I'm sure there are events with longer lap times (and hence less chance to get bored) and more interesting terrain out there.
Monday, 28 January 2008
A (very late) Sleepless In The Saddle 2007 write-up
Better, late than never, as the saying goes. I finished my write-up from the 2007 Sleepless In The Saddle 24hour race many months ago but then never made time to publish it, so here it is.
After an eventful and not entirely successful introduction to team XC racing at Dusk ‘Til Dawn 2005, I convinced my team mates Roger and Andrew to have another go at Sleepless In The Saddle this year, adding in former colleague Steve to complete the “2.5 beards, an Aussie and a Dutchman” line-up in Sport Men. SITS was to be Roger and Andrew’s second ever race, and Steve had never had a number on his bike at all, so we were hoping the step up to our first ever 24 hour event wouldn’t be too big. The main aims for the event were to have fun, complete the 24 hours, and have a rider out on course at all times.
Leaving London in the early afternoon on Friday left plenty of time for a relaxed drive up to Catton Hall, and a supermarket trip en route to stock up on pasta meals, cereal bars etc. Arriving at Catton, the non- trade/soloist camping area was already really busy, and it took a few laps of the site to find a pitch, but it was a good one, near to the change-over area and the high quality toilets/washrooms, complete with shiny brass door handles – no standard Portaloos here! After setting up the tents, we went to registration to collect our impressive number boards (Roger may well frame his) and vouchers for free Fibrax brake pads for discs/V-brakes of your choice – a nice touch to have options here. We were also happy with the ‘baton’, a vaguely glow-in-the-dark rubber wristband, which would be much harder to lose than the glowstick we had at Dusk ‘Til Dawn in 2005. A quick detour to buy a mixed box of bars from Matt at Torq and it was time for an early night.
Saturday morning saw clearing skies, bright sunshine, and a chance to pre-ride the 7.2 mile course. After an opening long, flat grassy farm track section with some fun high-speed corners, the hard work started with a steep little climb heading into the single track. Much of the course was the same as EnduroPlus 2006, the last time I was at Catton, with the addition of a new section across the public road which had been shut for the event, and was a mix of farm tracks, twisty sticky singletrack, off-camber loose descents, small sharp climbs, a lot of bumps, and some long, thankfully fast and smooth, grassy sections. It wasn’t particularly technically difficult, although definitely harder than my team mates had been expecting, but we were confident it would be fun.
Steve’s jinxed weekend began halfway round the pre-ride when his left-hand crank arm fell off. After much searching around in the mud until we found all the pieces, we abandoned the pre-ride and headed for the Shimano gazebo to fix his bike, which didn’t leave us enough time before the rider briefing to complete the rest of the pre-ride: the second part of lap 1 for each of us would be ‘blind’.
We decided on a 2 lap strategy, and I drew the short straw and had the pleasure of the Le Mans-style start, an 800m run to pick up the bike followed by the opening lap. Looking for a reasonable start to avoid getting stuck in single track blockages, the run went well, and the field soon spread out over the first few minutes of flat racing. Approaching the first climb however, roughly 75% of riders had gone off far too quicky and were walking up it, meaning those like me who wanted to ride it had to politely request they move out of the way between gasps for breath. The course proved to be as much fun as we had hoped, with plenty of overtaking possibilities, loads of high-speed corners and a mix of surfaces.
One of the highlights of the lap was what we called ‘the corkscrew’, a series of inter-linked 180 degree turns up and down hill, with cross-country horse fences to bounce off if you got things wrong. Another favourite was the penultimate descent, which soon gained a crowd of bloodthirsty spectators hoping for crashes and heckling/supporting those racing, depending upon how they rode the downhill and the sharp left corner immediately following it!
The first 2 laps were over soon enough, and it was time to use the well-designed change-over area, where riders continuing to another lap walked through the left side of the timing tent, and those finishing their stint used the right, walking with the bike to hand over the wristband baton to a team mate who could join the course further down the main straight.
The early part of our race proved to be uneventful, only enlivened by our only puncture of the entire event for Andrew. We were lucky to only pick up one – the thorn hedges were freshly cut and I lost count of the number of riders changing tubes by the side of the track.
Andrew, Roger and Steve all completed their first sets of doubles, and as dusk fell, it was my turn again. Unsure of how many watts I would need later on, it was possible to turn the lights off altogether on the open sections on lap 1, but lap 2 saw a mix of 5W and 15W in the singletrack, and even this wasn’t enough in places – time to invest in some new lights…… The night laps were great fun, except for being thrown over the handlebars at 3mph when my back wheel jumped out of the frame – all the bumps must have loosened the QR. Had it happened 15 seconds earlier, in the midst of a 30mph gravel descent, it would have been a lot more painful! After another change-over to Andrew, I headed to bed for a quick 4 hour sleep, expecting to be out on course again at 4:10am roughly, so set my alarm for 3:45am.
Two more consistent stints from Andrew and Roger while I slept left Steve with his first night lap, and his cursed weekend continued. Not only did the forecast rain turn up as a short sharp shower, coating his bike and the course in mud, but his lights failed completely early in the lap. Even using other riders to illuminate the course, a few crashes resulted, and doing a second lap was not an option. Cue Steve riding to our pitch 30 minutes earlier than expected with the baton, and handing over to a still sleepy and half-prepared me. 20 minutes of delay and a swift Red Bull later, I was back on the course, which had miraculously dried and was hardly muddy at all.
Meanwhile, Andrew had slept really badly after his last session, so when I walked through the timing tent to hand-over to him, there was no-one there – he was still in his tent and in no fit state to go out. I did not fancy a third lap of my stint, and Roger and Steve were also sleeping, so we took an executive decision to have a break. Andrew got some breakfast and more sleep while I cleaned all the bikes, and we resumed with Roger’s stint, leaving Steve and Andrew to make up their missed laps later.
A quick position check from the commentary position at around 10am found us in 117th place after our 2.5 ‘lost’ hours with no-one on course, having dropped from 99th to 101st earlier. Time to get a move on..
With the sun shining and blue skies again, the final hours of the race were great fun. Andrew handed over to me at 1326 and, keen to get as many laps in as possible, I produced my fastest lap of the event to get through the timing tent with 3 minutes to spare, overtaking a number of lurkers enjoying the sunshine at the top of the last descent in the process. The final lap was very relaxed and with hardly any riders on course, the singletrack was flowing nicely, and all too soon I found myself crossing the line for the last time and receiving a handshake from Pat Adams. The 24 hours was over! We ended up 109th of 142, with the final lap bumping us up a few places.
For our first ever 24 hour event, it went pretty well, all things considered. The atmosphere for the whole race was really friendly, numerous overtaking places meant there was very little aggression in passing other riders, and the weather was great for most of the event. Granted, we didn’t manage to have a rider out on course for the entire 24 hours, and the 2.5-3 hours we lost could have been used for another 3 laps or so, but the whole team had fun and learned a lot.
Thanks to Pat Adams and everyone involved in organising such a great event, the marshals and support staff, Salsa/Thetford MTB Racing for fixing Steve’s brakes, and Shimano for adjusting malfunctioning gears.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Spring is in the air?
It's still January but the sun was shining today and the trails seem to be drying, at least for the moment. The Gorrick spring series started today, and the dates for most of 2008's races are already available.
One target for 2008 is to improve my speed, particularly downhill, and I've been trying to really lean the bike over in corners with my weight over the outside pedal, and the crank at 6 o'clock. I've definitely seen some improvements recently, but I got it a bit wrong today. Trying to carry a lot of speed over a wet wooden bridge, I ran out of grip, washed out, and sent my bike cartwheeling towards a group of runners who didn't look best pleased with my riding! Apart from a grazed hip/shin/ankle, no damage was done, and it's another lesson learned :)
I've been testing the Torq gels over the last few months, and although I like the Orange And Banana flavour, and am getting used to the Forest Fruits With Guarana, the clear winners are the Strawberry Yoghurt and Black Cherry Yoghurt, which are absolutely delicious! They remind me of Fruit Corner yoghurts, they are that tasty. I've no idea how well they work compared to other gels, but they certainly work and I'll be staying with Torq for 2008, having used Science in Sport gels the last few years.
Having lost our 12h/24h team member Steve, who has returned to Australia, it looks like we have a replacement lined up, and we're finalising our racing plans now. The aim is to do the below races as a team of four:
21-22/06 Mountain Mayhem
09-10/08 Sleepless In The Saddle
04-05/10 Dusk 'Til Dawn
I'm really looking forward to racing as a team again, but need to get some new tyres and better lights before then. The new Hope Single LED model is looking favourite at the moment for the latter.
One target for 2008 is to improve my speed, particularly downhill, and I've been trying to really lean the bike over in corners with my weight over the outside pedal, and the crank at 6 o'clock. I've definitely seen some improvements recently, but I got it a bit wrong today. Trying to carry a lot of speed over a wet wooden bridge, I ran out of grip, washed out, and sent my bike cartwheeling towards a group of runners who didn't look best pleased with my riding! Apart from a grazed hip/shin/ankle, no damage was done, and it's another lesson learned :)
I've been testing the Torq gels over the last few months, and although I like the Orange And Banana flavour, and am getting used to the Forest Fruits With Guarana, the clear winners are the Strawberry Yoghurt and Black Cherry Yoghurt, which are absolutely delicious! They remind me of Fruit Corner yoghurts, they are that tasty. I've no idea how well they work compared to other gels, but they certainly work and I'll be staying with Torq for 2008, having used Science in Sport gels the last few years.
Having lost our 12h/24h team member Steve, who has returned to Australia, it looks like we have a replacement lined up, and we're finalising our racing plans now. The aim is to do the below races as a team of four:
21-22/06 Mountain Mayhem
09-10/08 Sleepless In The Saddle
04-05/10 Dusk 'Til Dawn
I'm really looking forward to racing as a team again, but need to get some new tyres and better lights before then. The new Hope Single LED model is looking favourite at the moment for the latter.
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