The V stands for Video

Strictly Local from martin steele on Vimeo.

First trial of editing software and a couple of hours shooting. More to come, including much more radness.

Updates

Lets start with the latest bits and bob I've been doing. Been in France the last couple of weeks, no real races but up a few cols, Col L'Izoard being the biggest one. Early start to avoid the really hot sun, lovey ride nice and quite ride passed a few other early birds on the climb, alway makes you feel good to pass folk. What a decent, open roads I was going like the wind.


Not just road cols, was up over 2500m for most of the day on some brilliant alpine rides with some fab views out over Italy and France. Lined up the rides for next year, road and mtb.

Had a bit of a mix of different stuff in the early session bit Crits (3rd over all) TTs, 10 under the Ben (3rd), Scottish Road race (25th, last but 10 people didn't even finsh!! Hit a few Highland games too.

Looking forward to the cross session and some mud love :)

tweedlove 2010

Last night Marty, Andy and myself attended the Celluloid Tweed film night in Peebles. It was great to see the theatre packed and to witness some great movies, none more so than Andy's winning CX film. It was a pretty inspiring evening all in all, so much so that in my lunch break today I made a little film.

A big shout to al the folks at the Hub for such great vision for the festival.

Now back to the editing suite.




buddy's trail from chris Duncan on Vimeo.

getting back to it

Although I've been to or around a lot of bike races this year, I've barely turned a pedal in months. A mixture of being away with work,weather and, um, laziness mean that the mileage column for 2010 is way down, whilst the waistline is way up.

It's a horrible vicious circle. Lack or riding > lack of fitness > loss of motivation > lack of riding. And it spirals onwards.

Stop.

Restart.

Ridden quite a lot this weekend at Tweedlove, probably more hours in the saddle in two days than I've managed in the last two months. 6 hours of mtb around the Tweed Valley yesterday and another 3 on the road bike today . Far too much pushing yesterday (and a spectacular bonk climbing up through Cademuir that required emergency rations to get me the couple of miles back along (the road) to The Hub). Far too much swinging off the back today.

Back
On
Track

3 Peaks

I guess we* better start running up big hills with cross bikes on our backs.

*We being Gordymac, Steven Halsall, Iain Mellis and Miffae de Muir.

Eddie Morgan RR

At the race briefing the race commissaire, was saying how he and Eddie were great rivals on the bike and great friends off the bike. Saying how he raced hard and loved to attack, so don't sit doing 18mph blethering along, race like eddie.

The race was just outside perth at luncarty, and headed west on back roads i have no idea where they were but i did recognise a couple of farms where i have delivered tatties and sheep.

The race certainly lived up to his memory, the attacks were coming thick and fast on the twisty lumpy bumpy roads with a good high pace. I was sitting in the middle of the bunch getting pulled along quite the thing. Towards the end of the first lap i started to move forward thinking there's going to be a split with the strong winds and the fast pace.

The second lap slowed down a lot, with people looking at each other to see whos making the moves, i was sitting in a nice position in the top 10 feeling quite strong. I saw one that i thought looked good with a guy from bicycleworks and guy from a glasgow club; it didn't really get going, i think they just wanted to get the pace up again.

With the wind behind us the speed shot up to the high 30s, i took my eye off the ball and lost a few positions. Then some car was blasting his horn behind us and trying to overtake, he pushed his way in and caused a split in the race, i was on the wrong side of this. The speed increased on a slight downhill, with about 3 miles to go. I was doing 43mph and couldn't catch them, it was only a couple of bike lengths, but i couldn't bridge it. I kept my speed well into the high 20s early 30s on the flat but the gap was getting longer.

I was happy with the way i rode, but not with my position, i would of liked to finished in the peloton. Maybe next week at Meigle.

My fault for sleeping Zzzz.

(Phlegmish) Green with Envy

After my latest acquisition, I'm no longer in the position to ever feel bike envy again. Last week I became the very proud owner of a spanking new Ibis Hakkalügi. And I know I'm not the only VCMer to be lucky enough to forge bonds with one of these works of art, but I'm so happy I need to share it.


I've never had a road/cross-type bike that I've felt properly comfy on. I put this down to my short stature. This bike has somehow done away with that sensation of over-extension, despite it's top tube being slightly longer than that of my trusty Surly Cross Check's. I've equipped it with Campag shifters which seem to fit my hands better. Despite using those nifty shims for small hands, Shimano hoods have always felt like more than a handful for me, and the more delicate Campag hoods just feel right.



The Dugaste Tubs aren't mine - They're my house mate Kashi Leuchs'. He wasn't around to ask permission to use them, so I took them for a proper rip around on some rocky trails anyway. But he doesn't need to know about that...


Some consultation with Dr Jon about the appropriate breaks (which are amazing, I must add) and Andy about the suitability of the bike for the job, and I've got myself one hell of a nice ride.
However, the travesty of all this is that the 'Lugi is going to be a road bike, more or less, because there isn't a cross league within a 1000km of my home!

Incoming: 10 at Kirroughtree

Its been weeks since Bristol Bike Fest. Time to look ahead and what i see there, looming ever closer - like the proverbial elephant in the room, is No Fuss events '10 at Kirroughtree'.

Last year this same combo kicked my sorry ass. i never really seemed to recover from the battering i got in Bristol and with the kirroughtree course being technical, hot and dusty and with a few short/sharp climbs that unhinged my legs, i felt like the wind had been let almost entirely out of my sails. Confounded by ridiculous and pervasive cramps in my hamstrings, quads and calves (which i would swear on my Endura pro-inserts were caused by my wrongly choosing medium over large bibs) i was left a sorry state for some time after that race.

This year its time to box clever. I'm going to have a go with the Vertigo. I suspect the extra weight of the suspension and gears will be a happy trade. It will be my first ever endurance race with gears. I'm also going to pay much more attention to my hydration and feeding and im also going to get a leg massage before the race.

One would be forgiven for thinking that this will be a pleasurable experience. The last one i had (before Bristol) hurt like razor blade infused kidney stones. No doubt, cyclists never really straighten their legs and my hamstrings are almost certainly tuned to a high pitched scream.



Now all i need to do is get the callouses on my hands off, so i can get some new ones in place...

N.B: Damn well done at the nocturne, chaps!

Nocture 2010

Edinburgh Nocturne

From The Sports Desk:

VCM riders packed the top 10 in the 4th cat race in the Edinburgh Nocturne yesterday:
Read all about it