More Mamores

Remember Anja?

Well she hasn't hung up her Sidi's or her old skinsuit (I'll sort that for you next order;-))


NZ CX Championship



and pics here;


Anja McD



Hey Anja, tell us all about it?

John 'Shaggy' Ross

John "Shaggy" Ross has made the multi-email transfer to join VCM in time for the 2011/12 'Cyclo Cross season. A relatively local boy, hailing from Aberdeen, who, in preparation for a move to the professional circuit, moved away to the tropical environs of Bristol in the '80s. Having managed to get school and such formalities out of the way, he has begun racing his bike seriously. For a decade. Highlights are winning Strathpuffer Solo on a single speed, and setting the 3 Peaks Cyclocross single speed course record. He fills his recovery hours eating, collecting skinsuits, sleeping, icing his knees and designing commercial airliners.

If you follow mountainbike endurance racing in the UK, you will have stumbled across the beardy legend that is John 'Shaggy' Ross. One of the nicest blokes you will meet he is also a demon on a bike, big wheels, little wheels, and dumb wheels. I am so happy to have John join us just in time for cross season to bolster the south western crew, that's you Jez.

here he is racing at Peebles SCX a couple of years back. Pic by naegears

Alex 'Ag' McNicol

Introducing our new lanky all rounder, but don't let those svelte pins lure you into a false sense of security, this boy can ride a bike, fast, long and hard. I've known Alex for some time now, many years in fact and he seems to get faster with age, fortunately I'll be in the twighlight years of super vets by the time he gets there. 

so who is he?

Male, 30, thin & tired looking. NS, GSOH, owns own house & bicycles.

Enjoys latex sealant, sheds & time in cold, wet fields.  

Seeks like-minded people, for verbal abuse, waffles, gin & trombones.

"Had my first outing in VCM colours the other day too...

Picked up 9th at the Midlands XC in Hanchurch Woods, which was pleasantly surprising.

I've not really got round to racing this year.  Things just haven't fallen into place with one thing and another.  That's not to say I've not been riding though, just not racing much.  A while I got rid of my car so have been entirely dependent on my legs to get me to and from work.  The miles have racked up, I've done a lot for me.  The end result is that I'm not fast, just permanently knackered.  I look haggered.

However, Hanchurch is only 10 miles from home & is properly good.  The sort of place you can enjoy riding even when you're going slow - loads of tight woodland singletrack, steep little techy descents, jumpy bits & a massive bombhole type-doodah.  How could I not?

Without any points I lined up in a crappy grid position with a bike I'd cobbled together the day before.  The turn out was good & the course only had a short start straight before entering the first singletrack section, so I battled my way through the field, taking questionable lines & getting reacquainted with a heart rate I've not seen for a while.

On the first main climb I caught up with my buddy James, who has been racing pretty well & often this year.  We tussled for position for the next half a lap before I got away & pulled out a good gap.  A touch of confidence crept in my mind.  Perhaps riding your bike more does actually make you fitter after all.  The legs felt reasonably strong so I carried on moving through the field until the finish.  Quite happy with how it ended up really.  Followed it up by a far more impressive 2nd at the pub quiz that night too."

 

Tour de Ben Nevis

Anyone else up for Tour de Ben Nevis?

Puffer Lite - longer version

Images© Paul Masson,

I wanted a chunky epic and Plan A had been set up as a suitable candidate - a solo double ascent/traverse/descent of the Ben Wyvis massif unridden by me and without much local beta on one of the descents.

The weather got in the way of Plan A. Cloud was forecast. Cloud biking is not my idea of fun. Munro bagging when 50% of the route is guaranteed in cloud is downright odd. I like views - it makes getting to the top worthwhile.

So other alternatives were presented but did not pass muster.

It dawned on me that Plan B was right there in front of me - Puffer Lite. I was going to be there anyway providing some half-assed pit crewing for Jac. If I did it solo with the same mindset that I would need to put to Plan A - i.e. no slacking, no sloping off for a beer and a snooze because I was a little weary. Put some effort in. Reap what I sow and all that...

So I made a pile of water bottles, nuun tabs, a fistful of Mule bars and gels, made sure my Maxx-D was charged and decided to make the most of this surprise re-plan. In fact I was quite liking the element of 'surprise' and the fact that I had about 2 days to prepare - which mainly involved going for a ride and not cleaning my bike afterwards.

Images© Paul Masson,

I felt quite liberated as I had no expectations as to how I would, or indeed, wanted to perform [for want of a better word]. As I was to ride sans Camelbak I thought I may as well go the whole hog and not bother with tools, tube or pump. I have ridden the Puffer course enough times that I know there there are few puncture opportunities, although I snuck in a extra couple of PSI just to make sure.

Jac and I arrive hungry. The Achilty Hotel bar is closed, they are only doing accommodation now. The Owner-Cook seemed much less odd, semi retirement must suit him. We snagged some random just add water products and small beers from the shop in contin and headed back to the van for a snooze.

After brief shut eye we were up and attem in a grumpy manner to find that he Red Poppy folks who were catering the event were not going to be serving pasta until after the event started! Gnnn.... Not impressed. A bag of chups and back to the van for some coffee and last minute faff.

Images© Paul Masson,

Paul Masson dropped by - explaining his plan for photographing the event - which sounded more of a marathon than riding it. He was hoping to capture the beauty of the area and the uniqueness of having an event in such an amazing landscape as well as some the details and stories of the race. A big thanks to Paul for all the photos!

All too soon it was final loo calls and the Le Mans mince to the bikes for the first lap.

Keep a lid on. Steady as she goes. Eat. Drink. Time manage. Enjoy the riding and remember to look at the views whenever possible!

The course was a hoot - pretty much all dry with only the occasional spot of mud - and around 5 to 10 minutes quicker than the winter edition. It is engaging enough to keep interest levels high and the fire road climb has enough steady sections on it to enable refuelling on the move. The final descent is always fun - a smooth fast swoop through the trees. Except half the trees were missing where the Contin side of the hill had been clear felled, opening up the views and making the descent feel much quicker. BRAAAP!! And returning to Race Central a shade under 30 minutes later if you are Alex Glasgow, while I was hovering around 40-45 minutes mark.

I was going ok, and enjoying things, trying to ignore the banality of riding around in circles, which was less of an issue here with the scenery and the last descent is easily worth another run just to see if I can get a fasterSmoother line...

Around about midnight my stomach decided that all was not well with the world and that I was not treating it with the respect that a stomach should get. I ended up doing a crawler lap as I could not eat or drink anything and I was retching each time the trail got a little bumpy [which is about half the course...]

Eventually I pulled in to the van to see if a cup of tea and a pot noodle would sort anything. The tea helped a little, but I could only look at the pot noodle. So I ate what small scraps I could, grabbed a fresh bottle of water only, in case the nuun was the culprit and headed out on another crawler. At the end of this one I was still nauseous and unable to eat or drink much. Unfortunately for Jac her race had ended prematurely when her back brake packed in, fortunately for me I now had Pit Crew!

I changed into dry kit and wrapped myself in a sleeping bag while slowing eating a just-add-water pot of macaroni cheese. It was an insipid version of a majestic dish, but it was just what I needed. After another cup of tea and a strictly enforced 10 minute snooze-ette I was back out on the bike to see what was going to happen.

Much to my surprise I felt ok, in fact I felt entirely refreshed and was enjoying it all again. This coincided with the dawn lap, which for almost all other overnight races is a monumental occasion and generally makes everything ok again [for a while at least]. Here, because there is only 3 hours of official dark the light never really leaves the sky to the North and it is a curiously low key experience.

5 hours remained on the clock and I was feeling reasonably strong and able to stick to a gel only diet so upped the tempo a little to see what happened. Each time I passed Gordy Mac's team horse truck I got a good boost of encouragement. Gordy and his other two musketeers romped home to take the trios win - I reckon it mush have been the turbo trainer sitting outside their van that beat the competition down as much as anything : )

Images© Paul Masson,

Again, the final descent drew me in and gave me the inspiration to get back up the top to go once more. Crossing the line 7am I was still lapping in around 47 mins, so I realised that I had another 2 laps! Ugh, I had hoped that I could stop but I drew some inspiration from a few sources - seeing how it is done properly by many folks at the Newcastleton 24/12 hours of Exposure and some of the stories from epic adventures [I'm currently enjoying some Tour Divide tales and Cass Gilbert's amazing things seen while out riding]. Oh, and that means 2 more runs on the descent - w00t!

Images© Paul Masson,

Laps done, I dib for the last time and then go sit down. Jac brings over a beer and some of that pasta from the catering truck... better late than never, I guess.

I was quite chuffed with how it had all gone - I actually had fun and managed to keep going despite some stomach gremlins. I still felt reasonably fresh, but my back was beginning to grumble and hands were starting to suffer on the last choppy section of descent. I was happy with the 12hour-ness of it all.

Apparently I had somehow snatched back 2 places over the last two laps and come 3rd in the Solo category and 18th overall. As I had not been following the results this was a nice wee surprise. Ace!

PufferLite - a fun wee event which could easily do with a few more folks at it - keep it in mind for next year!


p.s.

As the race is the officially unofficial Scottish Singlespeed Champs I was also crowned male Scottish Singlespeed Champ. I'm going to keep quiet about this as I'm not a huge believer in singlespeeds being a distinct category in a race - it is just a kit choice. Oh, and I think second place was a 12 year old... ; )

Hedging Bets

Hedging Bets, a photo by martysavalas on Flickr.

Great new magazine.

Check it!

The Two Towers

In early August a small group of friends (including me) are riding from the Tower of London to the Eiffel Tower. 200 miles in 24 hours. Ouch.

We're all riding for different charities and mine is The Prostate Cancer Charity.

We're all bike riders, but the challenge has been chosen for it's difficulty - we intend to work hard for the money we raise!

I'd be very grateful if you're able to sponsor me.

www.justgiving.com

www.lejourdefrance.org.uk


I'll be flying the VCM colours (under a fluoro-yellow gillet as it's the law to wear one after dark on the continent).

Cheers!

Puffer Lite 2011- Quickie

It was a successful night for VCM at the 2011 Strathpuffer Lite, Gordymac riding in mixed trios with Highland Fire fighters CT duo of Donnie Macdonald and Cherie Pumphrey won their race and placed second overall in trios. Meanwhile Chris Marquis kept it steady throughout the night and was rewarded with the solo singlespeed crown and a fine third placed solo ride.

Puffer Lite Albino Midge Snow Globe!

I will get a more in depth write up later in the week once I've had some sleep!

Moulin 200

finally have the route finished for this, all interested parties let me know, and I'll send you the necessary details.


here's what to expect.

holeshot

Watching Stevo bolt off the start line then open a sizeable gap on the field on lap 1 of Crosslove was electric.

That moment made all the stresses and strains that come with organising a race more than worth it.

blur

Ritchey Bristol Bike Fest - the slack view

I had been looking forward to this for weeks. While Jon took the tough route of soloing at Bristol, I snugged myself into a team of four. We were the Hungry Honey Badgers and consisted of good friends Tymo, James, Dom and me. We were in the singlespeed team category - a small niche perhaps, but it seems that all those in it decided to give the event the appropriate level of oomph.

Despite it's short length and probable not-huge height loss/gain, the Bristol course is always brutal, in the best way possible. We all agreed that despite feeling wrung out after single or double-laps, there was no point on the course that we didn't look forward to. In itself that's a rarity especially as the day wears on.

We were blessed on the Saturday with fair weather, the lightest of showers not even knocking down the dust in the early afternoon. Ending laps with a sheen of sweat under a coating of orange dust became the norm (the 6hr racers on Sunday were unfortunately not so well served by the weather). The 12 hours ticked by in that strange way that they do at endurance events - the day seems long as you are clock-watching much more than a normal day, but each stint on the bike seems to come around quickly all the same.

The course itself was a variation on the regular loop at Ashton Court, with thick nests of roots, slick looking rocks (even in the dry), fast singletrack on baked dirt, wider section both in and out of the woods and the new quarry section which rode much like a stretched-out BMX track - a lot of fun, especially after a few laps to get your eye in for how it all flowed.

We started with single laps and moved on to doubles as it felt good to speed straight into a new lap and the longer gaps between stints meant there was time to sit with friends and enjoy the sun - two things I associate very strongly with this event. It's worth mentioning how the balance always seems spot-on here; well organised, dialled course, always friendly and with the right balance of feel between grass-roots and polished pro event.

Our vague approach was to have fun and really enjoy the course, but also give it some beans if we felt able. We didn't keep an eye on our position and only looked at lap times in order to know when the rider who was out might be back in.

The toughness of the course told with four punctures between us, but we didn't ever seem to lose much time and as it turned out, laps were remarkably consistent between us, nearly all falling in the 24–26 minute range. Our friends and locals the LVIS Singlespeed Superstars were going around at a cracking rate, so we relaxed knowing we were further down the pecking order.

It was great to holler at Jon each lap (Jon may not agree!) and share a change-over encampment with our friends at KMP.

Despite the punctures, we'd had huge fun all day and after James railed-round for our final lap we were all enjoying a long-desired cold beer. Ambling over to the podium ceremonies I heard our name on the tannoy! We were second to the LVIS team and would have finished well in the regular team event - a very pleasant surprise.

Thanks again to my great team - same again next year?

Photo courtesy of Lisa Rowledge - thanks Lisa!

10 Under the Ben 2011

Better late than never, I suppose!
My rose-tinted specs are well and truly back on now, so I thought I'd better do a wee write-up on Maddy & I's race at 10 Under the Ben.

With last year's 3rd place female pairs prize sitting proudly in our trophy cabinets, we didn't want to settle for less this year. After all, the No Fuss prizes are just too good to miss out on! ;o)

So, in bright sunshine Maddy lined up with all the other first lappers for the usual Le Mans style start. No Fuss Frazer kept them all waiting quite a while though ......

Shortly after lap 1 the rain came on - and it didnae stop!

No Fuss had added a couple of singletrack sections to spice up the race route and these were riding lovely for the first few laps. Rooty and slidy with some new boardwalk. Unfortunately with the newness of the trail and the hundreds of bikers battering through it in the pouring rain, it got pretty beat up and soon turned into gloopy mud soup. No Fuss then rightfully diverted the course onto the harder packed World Champs course. Which was welcomed!

Maddy & I decided to stick to last years race tactic of single laps each, proabably the fastest way for us. But with the rain and the cold, I soon found that my off laps were cold and miserable and I couldn't wait to get back out and warmed up again - albeit soaked to the skin.
All in all, the course was enjoyable and tough enough in places as the laps wore on. I thought that it balanced out well, with the hard going stuff at the start of the lap and then the fun, swoopy reward in the second half.

In the end we managed 10 laps between us and, riding towards the finish line to Maddy's fantastic encouragement (SCX-ers will be aware of this!), I was delight that we'd maintained our 2nd place right through to the finish.

A Benromach miniature and a handshake from Frazer was dished out to every finisher.

No Fuss did another grand job and did really well to keep everyones spirits up in what was pretty unfavourable conditions. As miserable as I felt at times, looking back.....I actually loved it!

Ritchey~Bristol Bike Fest.

Always a good race and a likely sun drenched affair, this years event delivered. I split the drive down and got 6 glorious hours of sleep (in a row!) in a travel lodge on the thursday evening, before arriving early at the venue (Ashton Court) on the friday at mid day ish. A quick chat with mel & shaggy and then plenty of time to prep bottles with energy powder and electrolyte and get some cheese and ham rolls made up. Awesome.



A few beers with good friends as the warming sun set over the Bristol skyline and bed before midnight.

The race traditionally starts with a Le Mans style run. With the race open to pairs, fours, solos and lots of different classes getting a good start is pretty critical so as not to lose touch with the front runners. This year it went ok until one of the minibike riders on "team inappropriate bicycle" (who were doing the 12 hour race on, well, inappropriate bicycles for Macmillan Cancer Research and are therefore allowed to do whatever) crashed hard right infront of me bringing the whole shebang to a shuddering halt.

Still, i got past part of the crowd and worked my way around the singletrack. Despite lack of fitness, rest and general race-readiness, my aim for this race was realistically second. With Dan Treby (Singular rider and current singlespeed 24hr solo Euro and National honcho) in the mix, it would have been overly optimistic to be aiming for the top step. However, it is a race, and i was keen to try and keep him in sight through the early stages.



On lap 2, it became clear that the rider in front on the ti 29er hardtail with the alt-bars in the Singular Cycles top wasnt Dan. Hmm! interesting! I decided to put the hammer down and see what the story was. Very shortly after, i passed Dan at his pit fixing something on his bike. I knew that i didnt have the strength or fitness to beat Dan mano-a-mano but even so, sometimes fate throws you a bone, so with the possibility he might have a prolonged mechanical or perhaps some other misfortune i decided to keep tapping laps out at an unsustainable pace for the full 12 hours and see how things went. Lap times around 26 minutes with micro stops for a bottle change and perhaps a mouthful of food ticked the clock by, but not quick enough. Around Lap 4 Dan chatted as he cheerily churned by. Ok then!

Not long after this, my lack of saddle time began to show. The Bristol course is great, but it aint easy. Lots of rough and ready singletrack: roots and rocks with precious little if any recovery time meant on a singlespeed you were more often than not out the saddle and giving it beans just to roll the stutters with minimal deceleration. I always find this hard on the lower back and this day was no different. All too soon, i needed to stop to strecth off and it wasnt even 6 hours in. By this time, the mystery rider in the Singular top had evidently caught up and scooted past as i heard the pop of the joints in my spine settling into a little more relieved position.

It was time to get back on it and give chase.



This pattern pretty much summed up the race until 9 hours in. I dont think i stopped riding for more than a minute at any given time and my hydration schedule was working well. On the other hand, it became extremely clear that i hadnt been taking in enough calories as i hit the wall like a battering ram at hour 9/lap 18. Unfortunately i was half way round the course and a painfully slow combo of riding while seeing double and feeling nauseous with a fair amount of walking was neccessary to get me back to the pit in a sorry state.

I stopped to refuel. Cheese rolls, a large handful of Skittles and lots of water. A mere 20 minutes. Eventually i came round and got back out on the bike. In that time however, not only had the 3rd place singlespeeder gone through so had the fourth, which meant i was now in fourth position. I didnt know it at the time but i was probably over 15 minutes down on 3rd place at that point. I took the first lap back out relatively conservatively to see how the energy levels went: all i could think about was that i didnt want to go home not having given my all. Images of my baby's smiling face in my mind kept me motivated and with a possible 3 laps remaining i accelerated. It is always amazing the strength you carry in your head. There was really no way my body should have been able to respond to the demand i placed on it at that point, but somehow or other it kicked in and i pinned the last 2 laps, taking back third place, but not getting close enough to second place to make a fight of it.

22 laps left me entirely broken and admittedly slightly disappointed with my poor tactics and refuelling but i was proud to put VC Moulin on the podium at this fine event.

Dan Treby took the win in fine style - he is so very strong at the moment, and (as i later found out) Mark Goldie in his first 12 hour race, let alone on a singlespeed took a fine second place. Incidentally, he is readying for a tour divide effort in 2012, in which i wish him all the best.

Many thanks, as ever, to the sponsors, and also team Morvelo and Singular and crews and mel and shaggy who graciously helped kept me out of mischief.

Photos are Graham Haller's and from Photo-it.

Edinburgh 48

Well last night saw the last round of the Edinburgh 48 and another good showing from VCM with Andy, ChrisM, Marty and myself. I'm kinda gutted I missed the first one as the last two have been immense fun. It's really got me thinking about organising a similar local series. Riding cross bikes fast in summer is a total blast, not having the security of soft muddy landings it all becomes very accelerated and sloppy reactions are punished hard. 

It's pretty funny racing with juniors and under 16's, they are stupidly fast for this duration of race, its also quite humbling being squeezed out of a line by a junior girl, a tip of the hat I should have leaned harder but my gentlemanly manners wouldn't allow. Anyway I got a reasonable start only to get snarled up in the entrance to the woods where some fast lads had decided to have a cuddle and interlock bicycles, really gents. there is a time and a place.

the charge of the light(weight) brigade

As is usually the way with these sort of races they sort themselves out rather quickly, I was pleased I managed an extra lap this week before being lapped by the the skinnies. Got into quite a good rhythm and was creeping up through the field, then with 3 laps to go, I made a rash overtaking manoeuvre pranged the wheel off a hidden rock and the tub rolled, pop. It took me a while to realise what had happened, when I did I opted to roll it back on and continue, this allowed Alastair Webb(I think) to catch me and pass, darn. We had a bit of a blether and I decided to have another go at escape on the grassy climb to the finish which worked. The remaining laps were spent nursing the bike on the sketchier sections to avoid the tub rolling again and trying to make up the time on the climbs. All in all damn good fun in balmy summer conditions. Scott Lindsay won and everyone else lost.

"Life is here and now, anytime you say the word, anytime you let her rip"

Henry Miller

Both photos by Stuart McInnes at Tri Centre.

Old Skool River Run

Armed with nothing more than a water bottle and half a Mule bar I headed off to do an old skool ride through an old drove road from Strathrory to Scotsburn.





After the last few days of wind and more rain showers than not I was itching to get out and with hardly a cloud in the sky today I wasn't going to pass it up. My route took me up a sun dappled fire road climb through Inchindown, This gives good views to the West over Ben Wyvis.

The river run has always been a favorite, It has changed slightly over the years, where you once got your feet wet there is now wooden bridges, Although not massively technical it does have some nice hillside singletrack which was dry and dusty today.

I was on my newish Ti hardtail for todays ride with 100mm forks I was overforked compared to bikes of years gone by that I would have cycled this route on.

The last section of trail takes me past Loch Catrina which was glistening in the sun today.

And what better way to finish a ride with hearty plate of Beanz on Toast, with a little sprinkling of cheese........... Is that allowed?

All in the ride is 22 miles and takes in 1581 feet of ascent and 1469 feet of descent, Lets hope this weather holds and I can get out and reverse those figures in favour of descending!

Vattenfall Innerleithen Classic Enduro May 28-29th

Greg and I were representing VCM at Innerleithen MTB Racing's 2 day classic enduro.



For those not familiar with the format the event is based on riders picking up a timing dibber anytime within a 2 hour window [ie no 'mass start'], making their merry way to the top of the hill in their own time, dibbing to record the start of their descent, pinning it to the bottom of the stage and dibbing out to record their end time for that stage. Repeat another 5 times over the course of two days. Winner is the rider with the lowest cumulative time for the timed stages.

Other than the infernal push-up track none of the timed trails were repeated and gave a good sample of the huge range of riding goodness that lurks beneath the conifers. Saturday's trio of trails were more xc-oriented making use of some fresh cut singletrack as well as some TTFs from the Red XC loop.

Saturday night's entertainment was a bbq and dual-slalom in the field next door. The racing line through the gates was marked with fresh cow poo, apparently ; )

Sunday dawned bright and [much] breezier, increasing to Eezy-up flattening by mid afternoon.

Sunday's timed sections were longer, faster and rougher. The highlight trail was stage 5 which dropped from the top of Plora Rig almost to the River Tweed by starting along an old enduro trail that is tricky to ride as the rocks and roots keep pushing you into a rut-bog that immediately kills any forward progress. Then into a new section of trail, that the FC had kindly decided to thin earlier in the week - the place looked a mess, the trail had not been wrecked but it was difficult to figure out where it went! And where it went was straight across a fire road and into the Plora Craig / Razor Rock trail then turning right after the rock garden into a joyful 'rediscovered' oldskool DH line with the usual Innerleithen ingredients of tightness, steepness, treesyness, loose loamyness and bermsyness.

The payback for this is the ensuing 300m+ climb that needed tapped out to get back to the top for the last run of the event - which used bits of the Matador, Cresta and Gold Run DH tracks - none of which was much as much fun as it was edgy survival on a hardtail.

The key to enjoying an event like this is, I think, to get a bunch o' mates and ride around in a gaggle at an eminently sociable pace, then individually rag it down the timed sections trying to catch the rider who set off 30 seconds in front, while not being caught yourself. The resulting regroup will offer plenty of faffing and blether time, and the relaxed deadlines mean there is little chance of being time pressured.

I'm sure it would still be a fun event if there was more time pressure on, and squeezing the 6 sections into one day would be a hoot [maybe even a night stage? ; ) ]. Every one seemed to be having a good time despite the slightly lower than hoped for numbers [Dalby UCI XC, The stormbound Glencoe British DH series race, and the Medieval weekend next door at Traquair House as well as other bank holiday activities all did their best to tempt folks away.

All in all top fun, and my new success criteria of placing less than my age was comfortably met

; )

See you back in the Valley at TweedLove, love.

Basque In The Sun

I recently spent a week in the Basque County with long time friend Doug McDonald who is originally from Fearn and now runs BasqueMTB. Doug knows us well and he had a tough week lined up for us.



Our week started damp but it soon picked up to reward us with warm temperatures and dry dusty trails. We cycled in the mountains...............





Along the coast on cliff hugging singletrack................

And finished on stunning golden beaches for end of ride swims in the surf.

San Sebastian.

The Basque Country is a beautiful place with stunning scenery as far as the eye can see, The trails are simply awesome, Ranging from rooty, rocky, techy, big climbs and even longer descents there is enough to keep everyone amused for more than a week.

We didn't manage to ride everything that the Basque country has to offer so that can only mean one thing! To be continued.............

2011 Scottish Downhill Series - AE Forest

At the start of the year I optimistically set out with a goal of racing all of the SDA rounds this year. Well as you will have read in an earlier post I managed to get myself entries into the first 2 races, the first being at AE forest and the second at Fort William. Well both races have come and gone and somehow I managed to organise my work/family/racing balance perfectly and actually took part.

AE Forest was First and on a course that I had vague memories having not raced there in nearly 6 years.

The course followed pretty much the usual line down the hill. Start line sprint down the hill to a rocky shoot with a right hand 90 degree turn at the bottom and onto a long stretch of off camber joy. Then down a couple of short drops followed with a few burmed turns missing out the much feared Coffin jump instead cutting a line through a wooded section of roots and mud. From here you were shot out on a man made section of trail, over a small river step down and over a large table top double jump. This lead you through a rough section of grass and single track to a wooden set of steps with a couple of line choices to get ones self through. I toiled with this section all weekend and think this is an area where I lost a lot of time. Once through it's time to stand on the pedals and get your sprint on for about 100 meters to get enough speed to bounce across the top of the infamous rock garden and then into the woods again this time snaking steeply and severely off camber in sections down to the massive Step down. Once safely over the drop it some swoopy big burms and crazy speed which leads you over the the edge of the Elevator which must be a 30 foot drop in elevation in the space of about 10 meters and across the finish line.

Saturday Practice

Saturday practice start as usual with a leisurely stroll to inspect the course, lite breakfast then time to ride. Thankfully the weather gods are shinning and the sun is out and the course is dry. I ride well all day cleaning all sections including the tricky wooded sections which I always struggle with especially having not ridden DH for over a year. I finish practice confident I can put down a respectable time come race run time.

Sunday racing

The format for Scottish DH racing is like this: Saturday Practice, Sunday Morning Practice then 2 timed race runs on Sunday Afternoon. My race runs for this weekend are 12:33pm and 3:33pm and I'm seeded 26th in a field of nearly 40. First race run comes around I am unusually calm as the clock counts down and the beeper sends me on my way. I have nice clean run with not a single dab and I'm well chuffed, I manage 2:43.623 and am sitting in 15th after run 1. I manage some lunch and before I know it I'm back on the start line ready for my 2nd run. After the first run I set my weekends goal. I would try breaking into the 2:30's and finishing in the top 15th. The beep goes and and I'm away, I pedal my guts out for the second race run pushing my limits in the sections I know I struggle with. Unfortunatly I have a bit of a step off in the woods after clipping the bars on a tree. I keep going hoping to make the most of my run hitting all my lines hard, I break the timing beam with a 2:40.096! I'm over the moon having crashed the bike during that run. Over all I managed 16th for the weekend itching for the next round. I'd had a great weekend racing on almost dusty trails and finished mid pack and almost attained my goals. No complaints really.

Bring on the Bill.