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.