Stage 8 - Trento to Riva Del Garda - Team Zipvit Sport

Team Transviamala had 6mins on us, it was possible we could beat them. So part one of the plan was to bag a spot on the front row. An even earlier alarm at 5:30, breakfast and drive back into Trento, and a bit of European style queuing got our spot front and centre, perfect.

I was expecting today's start to be a bit manic and we had spotted a very tight left turn into a very steep and narrow lane, that was going to be a fair bottleneck. The gun went off at 9 precisely and the pack charged out of the square to chase down the leaders group that always gets a 10 Second head start on Block B.

Supposedly a neutralised start, it was still at top speed through the centre of Trento, using either side of roundabouts and traffic islands... Just like they do on The Tour de France!

We got to the bottleneck in good shape and pretty much got straight through, that was the start of todays longest climb. The pace more like a short XC race as everyone fights for final positions, we're no different pushing on as hard as we can.

At the 2nd feed station there was a horrid muddy push up a steep hill, Stevie's knee was giving him some grief... Didn't drug him up enough this morning, I grabbed his bike off him to push both up the hill and rather unsympathetically told him that he could or rather should destroy himself today, we had a whole week to rebuild him!

The final climb of the day took us up a road cut spectacularly into the edge of a cliff and at the top provided a stunning view down to lake Garda... But the finish was still a good 30Km away. Dropping quickly to the valley floor it was a fast run into Riva on tarmac and gravel cycle paths. We were with a small group of 6 that we soon rode off our wheel but then a fast moving group caught us and guess who was at the back... Transviamala!

We jumped on the back hoping to at least best them in a sprint for the line but fate had different cards to play for us... We overshot a badly signposted right hand turn and as I hit the brakes I realised there was no way of avoiding the Transviamala guy in front, plowing straight into him we both went down hard. Fortunately both ok but I'd shipped my chain and twisted the seat which allowed the group to get away from us.

Red mist... All we could do was hammer it back to the finish on the final few ks of road, head down, forearms on the bars, legs burning but there was no backing off, I knew we were dragging a few with us but didn't care. The SRAM Team went past but poor old Stevie's legs couldn't make the jump across to them.

We finished in 4hrs 8mins and took 24th place on the day. Not enough to move us any further up the GC so we stayed 31st overall.

Of the 220 teams in the masters category that started the race, only 120 made it to the finish.

Its been an awesome week, and a huge challenge that somehow we've got though. It would be easy if it were only about the racing, but its not, its about the team and not just the riders either!! I'm really proud of old "Bird Bones", he so easily could have given-up in his darkest moments but didn't and came out fighting everyday since.

Thanks to all that have helped and supported us through this, especially Lizzie and Gina for all your hours of feeding, massaging and generally putting up with a pair of prima-dona racers. Also a huge thanks to Zipvit Sport for your support and keeping us fuelled along the way.

Now for a week of rest, eating badly, drinking too much and sleeping... Oh and Piglet, just in case you think your life is about to get easier, better think again ! ;-)

Transalp Stage 7 - San Martino to Trento - Team Zipvit Sport

Everytime Stevie has a moan about the organisers and route setters being complete B*****ds, I've got to remind him that this race is one of the hardest races you can do and it doesn't earn a title like that for nothing!

Its fitting I guess that we should follow the 2nd hardest day with the longest, and slightly disappointingly cut a little short because of a 24hr public transport strike so the Police wouldn't allow us to race right into the centre of Trento. Our real finish line was a rather less spectacular layby off a road about 5km out of town. Although we did have to ride into the finish in the centre anyway, race-heads switched off!

We've made lots of friends in the peloton, and it this that makes you realise the truly international nature of this race. There's a couple of lads from Wisconsin, the Rocky Mountain mixed team that we see everyday, a couple of Spanish lads that we have a daily sign language conversation with. There are teams from Cuba, Peru, Venezuala, South Africa along with the inevitable smattering of Aussies and Kiwis etc.

Another hot day today although it was freezing on the start until the sun came round. I was a bit concerned about the early part of the race, hitting a fast section of downhill gravel I wanted to get through as much of the slower traffic as we could. It worked well and by the time we hit the gravel everyone was moving at a good pace.

Then we hit a great section of singletrack we'd been told about in the briefing, a cracking bit of narrow downhill through the trees with tight switchbacks "that you will have to walk your bike around"... Not if your from Cannock Chase!

One big climb today, not steep but steadily up for 20km with a rapid descent to the valley floor and 40km of flatish tarmac cycle track. Sadly my hopes of a good sized group to work with were just a bit too far out of reach leaving me to hammer myself to bits into the wind. We worked well for a bit with a couple of other lads but the accelerations out of some tight bends soon did for Stevie and we had to let them go (to be honest I was barely hanging on myself).

The final climb although short was hard and I've got to confess to reading the Garmin wrongly and convinced Steve the finish was at the top... Err but it wasn't, it was another 10km down the road (Doh!). Time for Steve to get the bit between his teeth, I'd virtually blown myself to bits getting us to that point.

We crossed the line in 5hrs 18mins which was good enough for 22nd place on the Stage. This has moved us up again in the GC to 31st overall, 6mins behind the team infront... I can sniff a top 30 finish if we can keep it nailed tomorrow.

Transalp Stage 6 - Alleghe to San Martino de Castrozza - Team Zipvit Sport

I've got to start this today with a huge thanks to everyone of all your messages of support last night, it did the trick and by the time Lizzie and I came back from the Pizzeria, I had my team mate back!

All your support and the mere mention that Rich Munro would likely be wanting an explanation galvanised Stevie into action... Rich we may have taken your name in vain but it was all in a good cause, thanks mate!

Several good feeds a couple of massages and an early night, coupled with clear skies this morning and spirits were much lighter in the van this morning.

I'm down to my last 6 Pro-plus tablets so I donated todays ration to keeping Stevie up and running... For those of you that know Steve well... Can you imagine what he was like on the start line drugged-up on Pro-Plus and Ibuprofen!

Today was the last of the big climbing days another 3100m to get up and over. The roll out was fast with 5km downhill before hitting the first climb, steep and long, and halfway up we went straight through the centre of a tiny hamlet and single file through a steep,narrow tunnel/walkway between the houses, with what seemed like all of the locals above and below cheering us through.

The riding then became very much more "British" short steep climbs on singletrack with roots and mud... Stevie happy with this... Much less like yer foreign riding!

We were going well at last, moving forward and riding with a bunch of people that we haven't seen since stage 1.

Each day we head out with a bottle full of Zipvit juice, a couple of energy bars and 3 or 4 Gels. Its the first time I've really had an opportunity to try the full suite of Zipvit stuff and tell-you-what it sure works, not having too much trouble stomaching it either. Liking the bars too!

The last feed station was set right at the bottom of a spectacular part of the Dolomites. The route climbed up and through the most awesome rock architecture before dropping off the back down to San Martino.

A few k's of fast gravel led to a road of perfect tarmac and twisting hairpins before diving off the road and dropping straight down to the town through the local bike park.
5hrs 21mins ride time has brought us our best result, 28th on the stage that has moved us up to 35th Overall.

The bike is with the Shimano guys getting some new cable and the gears set-up again, 20 Euros but I expect well spent!

Longest stage tomorrow at 122km, I'll be donating my last Pro-plus again... Hope the sun still shines!!!

Transalp Stage 5 - St Vigilio to Alleghe

This morning was a test of mental fortitude. The promised sunshine never materialised and the rain battered off the roof of the van as Stevie and I forced our breakfast down. Normally porridge, followed by eggs, bacon and coffee wouldn't be a problem but the quantities of gels, energy bars and drinks during the day then all the lactic acid in our systems at night is just making us feel constantly sick. The hidden pleasures of endurance racing!

Down at the start we're all shivering under the canopy of a cafe. Inside the espresso machine is working overtime and there's a steady stream of people heading for the loo, the cafe owner is too busy to notice or is simply resigned to his fate for the next half hour.

I find Brian and Martina hiding in a corner. They're from Stratford on Avon, although Martina's Dutch. They are racing as a mixed pair and doing pretty well, 18th yesterday and only a few minutes behind us. Its a great excuse to hide in the warmth for a few minutes having a chat.

A few minutes before the start its announced that the weather conditions above 2000m are pretty bad, 2 degrees C and snow. The organsisers are considering finishing the race at the 2nd feed station at 50km to avoid going over the highest point of the route at 2400m.

Stevie's head has been down all morning, he's rather out of sorts at the minute, his left knee is hurting, but the daily battering is taking a greater toll. I'm bearing up ok, its a Scottish thing, never properly happy until there's a bit of misery involved!

Whilst I'm happy to push Steve along for as long as I can, its bloody hard going. Got to take my hat off to the guys in the mixed pairs you see pushing their partners along for most of the day. Not only is there a skill involved but its really difficult to gauge the amount of effort to put in. I usually have to give-up after a bit and go and recover on my own.

If your on Facebook, go and find "Craft BIKE Transalp" there's loads of info, links to results and photos of each stage.

At the 1st feed, we were told that the stage would finish at the 2nd feed station in 20km. Got to admit I wasn't even a little bit disappointed although we did still have to ride down to Alleghe, but hey, twisty alpine roads, on a bike with disc brakes, and cars to overtake and outbrake into the hairpin bends... Well you just would, wouldn't you!

Again we've finished 44th today, but have moved up in the overall standings to 39th.

Tomorrows a tough day with 3100m of ascent, I fear that Stevie is on the brink of abandoning. Hoping we can re-build him again tonight... The 6 million dollar postie!

Transalp Stage 4 - Brixen to St Vigil

We've finally established a bit of a routine but God its a busy day. Alarm at 5:45 and Gina gives me about 2 seconds to get out of bed, having complained about this she has relented a bit... Get nearly 5 seconds grace now.

Breakfast, pack-up and check-in at the start for 8:15, then have at least 5 nervous pee's before the start at 9. Straight after the finish its into recovery drinks and food, then bike washing and prep for the next day, massage, then food and by then its time to go to bed.

Anyway, todays stage started with another 20Km of climbing, after a decent start Steve was struggling again and we started slipping back, or so it seemed. I have my first proper experience of overheated brakes, pulling them on as hard as I could but I was no longer slowing down, was lucky to get away with that one!

Another hard stage with some really brutal climbing that eventually got to everyone with just about all getting off and walking.

Just when we thought we'd cracked it with only 8km to go the track crested in a tiny hamlet, I'd just changed to the big-ring ready for another screaming descent to the finish when the course turned hard left and up for another 500m of height to gain!

We did have a great section of technical wet singletrack descent that was great, as most things round here, it went on for ages leaving hands, arms and shoulders screaming.

A final couple of miles flying downhill on tarmac (70kph today) to another town centre finish.

In all today racked up 10000ft of climbing over 72km, and just as I was thinking we'd had another bad day, seemingly everyone else did too again finishing 44th in 5hrs 51mins.

Now somewhere in all of this Stevie found his turbo button (or his missing stash of EPO), he went flying past me and kept on going, and was still going at the end. He's been bouncing around like a demented Zebedee tonight... Hopefully this bodes well for tomorrow!

A quick note on today's winner...

Todays stage winner in the Masters category was Udo Bolts, remember him? Jan Ullrich's old team mate... He was only the 1 hour ahead of us!

Transalp Stage 3 - Mayerhofen to Brixen

It rained last night, then it rained a bit more and when the alarm went off at 5:45 it was still raining and just to make the day a bit more enticing it was cold too!

Today vee go up und then vee go down... 32km of up to be reasonably precise followed by 65km of down...ish!

As Stevie and I shivered on the start in full winter kit (God Bless Johnny Darroch for the loan of his waterproof jacket by-the-way)... "Arnie" the commentator announced that it was snowing above 2000m and the temperature was barely 2 degrees C... Ahh Scottish Weather we should do well, as long as " bird bones" could stay reasonably warm! Clearly feeling fine as he chatted-up the two girls that went on to win their class today.

This is such a fabulous event, the roads are closed for the all the starts and at every point you cross a road, pavement or whatever there's a marshall or policeman to stop the traffic! Everyone is just so into what we're doing, people out walking in the hills step out of the way and shout and clap as you go past... Don't get that in the Peak District!

The rain eventually turned to snow as we hit the point on the ascent of the Pfitscherjoch that we had to start the 30min carry over rocky sections... For those that have done the coast to coast, think Blacksail pass... In Winter!

We crossed the border into Italy right on the top and started to hurtle back down and on the wettest day ever... And we're clocking 80kph in places.

The final run-in to Brixen was on cycle paths and old ladies sat on benches enjoying the sun clapping and cheering as we charge past. Entering the centre of town at max effort, the course barriered-off from packed cafes and loads of spectators, a couple of tight bends and we burst into the town square and the finish. 40th and we've move back up the overall classification to 44th.

Glad to have my old Stevie back today, well 75% of him anyway! We've been force feeding him tonight so hopefully see a bit more of the old Tigger tomorrow.

The girls are doing a awesome job looking after us, driving from A-B, finding campsites and still getting to the finish line in time for us to arrive... Sometimes only just!

Transalp Stage 2 - Team Zipvit Sport - Report

Climbing way to hell and back! On todays menu, a shorter day at 69km, the highest point of the race at 2296m and a mere 2900m of climbing over 3 big hills.

It was properly hot this morning and the 1st of the hills was right from the off and a steady hour and a bit to the top.

The longest climb of the day was next, just over 10km long and 1000m of up up up and more up!

Stevie was having a bad day, struggling with the pace from the start this 2nd climb really got to him, perhaps it was a bit of altitude, perhaps (probably) a bit of dehydration from yesterday, but he was suffering. Now I've noticed that one of the first signs that Stevie is starting to suffer, is when he stops shouting "Alright are ya" to any girl that happens to be near... He'd gone quite pretty quick today!

The climb was a killer and I was wishing for a triple chainset, the 2x10 whilst ok, was just that bit too long to push Steve although I did try a bit.

The descent was mental, more 45mph gravel with hairpin bends... More of Harry's braking technique coming to the fore!

A brief stop at the feed station before the last climb and I'd been taking this one a bit less seriously, its not that big... Err but yes it was as it zigzaged up and up and up.

The reward for all of the hard work was 20km of the most awesome screaming downhill. Some really steep gravel to begin with, then onto narrow twisty tarmac and speeds hitting 50mph, overtaking cars and motorbikes all the way down to the valley floor.

The last 5km was flat but into a headwind, Steve glued to my back wheel I tried to bang this out as hard as I could. To finish in 5hrs 01min and 47th for the stage. We're now lying 47th overall.

I broke a front spoke today, and typically my super new Easton wheel has a type of nipple that's different to everyone else... And of course as nothing is ever simple... I'm going to have to ride my spare bike, whilst I do love the S-Works hardtail, I can't help thinking that it'll be fab on the 35km of up, but not so good on the 65km of down!

Its going to be cold and wet tomorrow... A scotsmans speciality, need to make sure "Bird Bones" is properly dressed! ;-)

Transalp Stage 1

Darn cold this morning when the alarm went off at 6am, misty, but by 8 the sun was burning it off quickly and it promised to be a nice day.

With it being so cold over the last few days we had a real clothing dilemma, it could do anything. I opted for a bit of Deep Heat on the legs. I'd bought some German stuff that didn't really seem to do very much.

The published start line procedure of placing you in a box according to your number, 343 we weren't looking forward to starting 2/3rds of the way back. Fortunately it didn't work out like that, there was a grid for all the international licence holders then everyone else and managed to get reasonably close to the front of the B Grid.

Everyone had been saying the start was mental and usually lots of big crashes. In reality it wasn't that bad, no worse than an XC Race.

We bashed it out pretty hard to begin with to get as far up the field as we could before the start of the 1st real climb, tomorrows grid is determined by where we finish today.

The 1st climb went ok 7km long, the Euro-machines making it look all too easy, Legs burning now... With a screaming fast descent, 45mph on loose gravel, even me passing slow Euros who can't descent for toffee! Harry if you get to read this, I did remember your lessons of the other week! The lesson in braking now making perfect sense!!! The 2nd big hill came at 45k and 10k long, and the heat of the day building... Legs burning madly!

From the top it was steep loose and technical down to the road then a 30k generally downhill or flat before kicking hard up for a very hot steep 5k climb to finish in Weerberg.
We got in with a good group moving fast and working well when the bike started handling like a pig. Back tyre had gone soft, not punctured, must have burped it on the last bit of rough descent. Then the cramp hit home, both legs! Desperate... Steve having to push me along for a while until it subsided. We hooked up with a couple of Americans and worked well together to the last climb. That's where Steve cracked, his turn for cramping legs!

So we finished in 4hrs 51mins and 44th place. Happy with that, hope we haven't gone off too fast, with 2300m of ascent,that was the easy day!

We're sat in the campsite at Weer, had a lovely long shower, shaved the legs... And they are still feckin, burning... Don't buy German Deep Heat!!!

A very long journey!

Its the little things that you always forget or underestimate... Like just how long will it take to get there! Err 885 miles and 25hrs of relentless travelling.

Finally got to Mittenwald at 8:30 last night with the need for sleep completely over riding everything! We headed straight for Registration which was of course closed and really couldn't be bothered to go and find a campsite so we parked in the school carpark along with a few other vans and slept for 11hrs solid!!!

This morning we've moved to a campsite... showers, toilets etc... Feeling a bit more human now... And the Sun is starting to make an appearance.

So there are only a handful of UK competitors here, and we've parked next to a guy from Stratford upon Avon... Who had even heard that there were a couple of guys from Lichfield competing!

Have to say... There are some exceptionally fit looking people here... Feeling nervous now!

JB

Midlands XC Round 3 - Hanchurch

I'd been thinking that a full-on XC race the week before the Transalps could be a bit fool-hardy, particularly on a technical course like Hanchurch, but its just too good a race to miss.

It was also great to see another member of the Infinity Cycles Team there too, a rare sight outside of the North East! Good to see you Ray.

Steve's previous placings earned him a front row start leaving me to fight it out with the rest for the 4th row.

The course was a bit different to last years, still the same brutal sprint up a fire road but instead of continuing up the hill it was a tight left had turn onto singletrack. It was quite muddy in places but I thought the Rocket Rons should be ok.

The start went well, getting to the turn in good shape and made a good few places on the brakes up the outside... A favourite tactic harking back to my motorbike racing days.

The first lap is always so frenetic it takes a while to calm down and concentrate on staying smooth. Opting for the "safer" B-line lost a bit of time, and a couple of places but probably the best decision as I found later that Steve went clear over the bars on the 1st lap!

Things were just fine until the start of the 3rd lap when my legs seemed to decide they'd had enough... Even a gel didn't really bring them back much. I could hear I was getting reeled-in and soon he was chewing on my back wheel. I had enough to gap him a bit up hill only to lose it on the downhill. He made his move half way round the last lap, gambling on a cyclocross style jump-off and leap a log, neatly just beating me through.

The gap opened quickly and he had about 200yds on me at the top of the bombhole and the closing section of the lap, but he was slowing and slowing enough to convince me that now was the time to bury it! It worked, legs came back on-line and I sprinted past to rescue 13th place (turbo trainer magic!).

Disappointingly out of the top 10 but happy to be in one piece. Steve had crashed a 2nd time overtaking one of the younger riders and had damaged his rear disc... There's going to be some frantic spannering in that household tomorrow so its ready to travel on Wednesday!

Team Zipvit/Lichfield CCC news... and last minute panics!

Great news... Zipvit Sport have agreed to support us for The Transalps (You might have noticed the subtle change with the website!).

Many thanks to Ben and all at Zipvit Sport for your support, we'll do our best to get a great result for you guys!

There are plenty of last minute changes and panics happening... our kit has been a bit delayed in Italy, hopefully be here on Monday (sweating a bit about that one!)...

We have both been running Schwalbe Rocket Rons this season and whilst I really like them we have both been struggling with punctures despite running tubeless, and losing loads of hard-won time sat at the side of the track faffing about trying to fix things. So in a last minute change of tack we've gone for Continental X Kings, sacrificing a bit of weight for a hopefully a more robust tyre.

The bikes are in bits and we've got the 3rd Round of the Midlands XC tomorrow at Hanchurch...

Better go and get busy! :-)

Mayhem...

Its all getting a bit last minute.com but we are almost ready to hit the road to the Alps this coming Wednesday.
Its been a dramatic few weeks. I turned-up at Mayhem to ride in the Veterans Team for Cycleshack to find that the rest of the team couldn't turn-up till much later, or couldn't turn up at all. A very quick reshuffle of the teams and Matt Williams joined me and between us held it together till 7pm when Matt Barratt arrived at that point we were still in 3rd place. I was so relieved to hand over to Matt B and then Ian Wright so I could get some food and a rest.
Ian is struggling with an injury so he was a limited resource that we had to use sparingly and strategically (not that its slowing him down much). By the wee small hours we had moved up to 2nd place and the battle for 1st truly began.
At 4am we were 3mins behind, but a dreadful lap from me followed by a change-over cock-up dropped us to 15mins.
At 8am I went out for the 8th and last time and put-in my 2nd fastest lap of the race at 1hr 1min, but then the real boys went for it with Matt B and Ian putting in two stunning sub-54min laps.
Matt Williams was last man out, this was his 8th lap also and he utterly buried himself with a 54min lap. I'm sure I detected murderous look in his eye when I announced that we'd won, with 10mins to spare, fortunately he could barely stand at that point!
A great result and a real kick in the pants for me finding that I was the slowest man on the team... Not used to that these days! Just going to have to get quicker then.