Midlands XC - Round 2 Mansell Lacy

 Sometimes I need to remind myself that there is a bigger picture to think about, this is made even harder when you’re met with the raised eyebrows of those you find yourself chatting to before the start of a race. So whilst it may appear to be sheer lunacy to go for a 70 mile road ride the day before an XC Race, or to ride every day for a week after a tough event, the greater plan suggests otherwise!

I’ve been fretting about not doing enough miles or spending enough hours in the saddle for the big 24 hour solo in August, so I’ve come-up with a schedule to try get me to August with some element of structure, and to incorporate all of the other events in the calendar as part of an overall plan! The hard bit about this for a competitive wee soul like me is that there are certain events that I will inevitably find myself rather more jaded than I’d otherwise like!

Unlike last weekend’s Friday night shenanigans (pics of the pole-dancing incident fortunately too poor to publish…), I’ve been quite a good boy this week, I did try to take-it-easy on Saturday’s road ride and I succeeded in restricting myself to a couple of beers at Postierich and Sacha’s barby.

Mansell Lacy is a few miles outside of Hereford and deep in the heart of “Banjo Country”. Its been over 10 years since they hosted a Cross Country race. We got there just after 9am and with the race due to start at 11 there was plenty time to mess about and do a couple of laps of the course.

At 3.4 miles it is a short lap, but with 650ft of ascent in each lap brutally packed into a couple of short sharp hills and one big one, it managed to encompass everything I’m good at, everything I’m hopeless at, and throw-in a couple of eyeball-poppers for good measure!

The Veterans race is again the most heavily subscribed of all the categories and arguably the most fiercely competitive race of the day. I’d got enough points from Round 1 to be allocated a 3rd row grid position, leaving all the other nutters to fight for their spot on the grid behind me.

So with Big-Ring engaged, we’re off… a mile of up-hill sprint spreads the field out a bit before turning hard right off the estate road and dropping steeply to cross a stream with a 4ft muddy bank to get back out. I’d tried this several times in practice and still couldn’t get it, finally figured that the pressure of the race would carry my through it, wrong! I stall on the bank get passed by 4 others as I’m flailing about trying to clip back into the pedals! This is almost immediately redressed as the track kicks steeply up-hill and I regain my original position.

Again we drop steeply off a short bit of estate road and rip across off-camber roots, and trees that get harder to avoid every lap. There’s a horrid root section that despite the lovely dry weather had retained plenty very slippery sticky mud. My cunning plan was simply not to fight it, leaping off the bike and carrying it over the mud and slippery roots, kept my tyres dry and mud free, it was a good plan and rewarded me with a couple of places.

Flying past the other side of the main arena, hit the short but very steep wee pull as fast as you can before dropping down to start “The Big Hill”. A long, long ascent up a dirt road with 5 steep hairpin bends, and in the 28 degree heat, it’s brutal, and it’s the bit that suits me best! A short little respite at the top, before plunging very steeply into the darkness of the trees some good momentum is needed here to get up the vertical wall on the other side! A fun little roller-coaster section followed by a fast bit of dirt road followed by a good wiggly bit through a big bed of nettles (so nearly fell-off here), over a log, round some trees and we’re back at the start!

With every lap that goes past I get to enjoy riding this course but it would be a very different proposition if it were wet.

After the usual full throttle start, I find myself battling with a couple of others, fighting for position we swap and change several times a lap before finally on the third lap I pull enough of a gap on the big hill, to take me away from the fight. 

It’s yet another new feeding strategy, carrying half a bottle of drink saves 250 grams of unnecessary weight (that’s lots!), so Lizzie has to work a bit harder today in the feed zone, passing me a fresh bottle every lap. I’m also taking a gel every lap and that does succeed in making me feel sick by the time I get to the last one! 

Starting the last lap I’ve got a sufficiently comfortable gap behind (as long as I don’t do anything stupid) and the next place up the road is too far out of reach, so I just have to put in a steady but careful lap to protect my position. I spot Lizzie cheering me on as we rip past the other side of the arena, her feed station duties done for the day, but I’m too focused on my line and speed to wave! The heat is getting to me, particularly on the “Big Hill”, I’d been getting that shivery/tingly sensation that meant I was overheating… and not drinking enough! But I’ve mixed my drink a bit too strong and that’s not helping!  

Crossing the finish line, Lizzie’s there to meet me and confirms that I’ve finished 15th of 44… the day’s objective was to finish in the top 20, so I’m happy with that, a good improvement from last time out and a few more championship points on the board too.

It’s starting to emerge that there is a little feed zone community forming these days, our little helpers need to go and fight for their spot, retrieve the empty bottles we throw at them, and shout the right encouragement in the brief moment that we flash past and snatch a fresh bottle from their outstretched hand. They are utterly invaluable.

I'd better get Lizzie a proper bottle carrier… I think she’s getting bullied by the others for not having one!

Click here for Garmin Data

Photographs courtesy of Roy Bevis

Midland Monster 100 mile Sportive

Sportives… its not a race... But it is really! It's a canny way around all the daft rules associated racing on public roads and offers an opportunity for those without a British Cycling Federation Licence to get out and have a damn good thrash round some of the best cycling roads in the country with the spirit of competition.

Its against the clock, so position on the road is almost irrelevant as you're given a window of about an hour to start the ride.

I don't do many of these events, but they are a great training opportunity, so there were some objectives for the day, ride the 100 miles non-stop in somewhere near 6 hours and try-out a new feeding strategy. I struggle with gels at the best of times and the thought of eating 12 of them was enough to make me feel queasy… not to mention the horrid sticky mess I always seem to end-up in! So the plan was to split it, mini-flapjacks every 45 mins for the 1^st half and 6 gels for the 2^nd half.

We had agreed to meet at JC’s, Paul, Mike, JC and I would ride the 8 miles to the event and meet Mark and Leigh over there in time to sign-on, fiddle with timing chips and be ready for the off at 8am.

The start opened promptly at 8am and we rolled-out with the first group, minus Mark and Leigh who were somewhere in the car park trying to sober-up after a wedding the previous day. It was really nice to have a relaxed start for a change, rather than the usual Zero-to-Redline in 10 seconds.

A bit of a delay at some traffic lights saw a split in the group and being the ever competitive wee soul that I am, took up the chase. We caught them after a bit of effort and I hooked onto a couple of lads that seemed to be pushing on at a good pace. It wasn’t long before it was just two of us and then as my new partner eased away on a gentle rise and, disappearing into the middle distance, his tanned, shaved calf muscles like knotted ropes, hinting at his 1^st Category (elite) Road Race status (he was 1^st home in 5hrs 14mins) it was time for me to settle into a 50 mile lone battle into a difficult headwind.

I’d been out in no-mans-land for a long time with only the occasional glimpse of the next rider a good distance ahead, and no-one behind for ages until I spotted another lone figure crossing the gap, steadily hunting me down! I tried so hard to stay with him when he passed, and did for a good few miles but fact is, he was stamping on the pedals so hard that it was as much as I could do to stay on his wheel on the flat(he finished 2^nd in 5hrs 21mins!).

The biggest climb of the day came just before the halfway point heading out of Thorncliffe almost 900ft of steady uphill followed by some wildly fast descending… my bravery running-out at 48.8mph!

Finally the route turned around and the headwind I’d been cursing for the last couple of hours started blowing me in the right direction… head-down maintaining 25ish mph, it’s still hard work but psychologically easier to have a bit of pace. A difficult descent into the Manifold Valley followed by a vicious 1:4 climb back out and we’re head back towards Ashbourne and I’m back on roads that I know quite well.

Finally outside of Ashbourne, I team up with another chap and we work well together for the final 20 miles. The finish line appeared a couple of miles earlier than I’d expected and I crossed the line recording a time of 5hrs 48mins 5secs. That translates to 18^th of 232, I’m quite pleased with that, and that’s the longest time in the saddle non-stop this year with no real issues other than aching shoulders etc.!!!

Still need to work on an effective feeding strategy, it was ok, but as expected I was a sticky mess by the end!

Interesting to find out that a few Cycling stars turned-out for the event. John Perks who turned 80(!) earlier this year and a bit of a cycling ledgend did the 70 mile course in 4hrs 43mins. Martin Earley, stage winner in the Giro d’Italia and winner of the mountain stage into Pau in the ’89 Tour de France.

It was also great to see Paul and JC get home in 6hrs 19mins with Mike following a few mins later having broken a spoke early in the ride!

Back to proper racing this Sunday with 2^nd round of the Midlands XC at Mansell Lacy, near Hereford, lets see if I can write-up the Blog a bit earlier!

Oh and sorry for the lack of pics with this one!


Click this for Ride Data

The Dyfi Enduro

I'll apologise now for this rambling-on a bit, but I've got an 8 hour flight to kill, and I'll be too knackered to do anything else but sleep on the way back tomorrow night... Ash clouds permitting!

I did The Dyfi for the first time last year, and loved the impeccably relaxed, almost hippie fest atmosphere. With a band playing in the marquee on Saturday night, plenty of beer and food, battered overstuffed sofas and the coolest Rasta DJ easing you into a comfortable daze and allowing the wee small hours to creep-up on you all too quickly... it doesn't encourage nazi race preparation!

This year was no different, entries were limited to 650 places and were sold-out within 5 hours of the on-line booking opening up!

Looking back at last year's results, I finished 148th of 665 overall and 25th of 184 40+ male entrants, not too embarrassing a performance, but this year's objective was for a solid top 50 finish.

I'd been struggling to prepare for this event over the last couple of weeks, the crash at Hanchurch had left me with some really painful ribs. Stupidly (normal for me), I continued to ride everyday in that first week, and it was only the following Saturday when I conceded that I’d better take a few days off to give my body some chance of healing, and I should really go and see a doctor!

By Tuesday, although still rather tender, I was feeling much better and feeling a bit of a fraud sat in the Doctor's surgery on Wednesday morning. The Doc was pleasant chap and after having a good old poke about, announced that he was happy I could race on Sunday.

Arriving in the campsite at Machynlleth at 4, it was already packed with tents, but Rich Munro’s lovely 1971 VW Camper does stand out from the crowd. By 4.30 the tent was up and Rich Harris has thrust the first beer in my hand... I suspect this could go badly if I'm not careful!

Paul and son Alex (18) arrive soon after.  Alex and Rich M had bravely entered this event in the Luddite Singlespeed class... So one gear only and these boys had opted for no suspension either, a brave call for the big hills of Wales!

Rich Harris's bike however looked like it had been built by Orange County Choppers... complete with Ape hangers! Its a full carbon S-works and probably the best full-on race bike between us by far. Now I generally think that if it looks wrong, it probably is... So cue the Bike Doc and half an hour later with a bike that now fits, Rich is happier than a fat-bird with a Gok Wan makeover... ;)

We finally retired sometime after midnight... Hmmm what was that bit about preparation?

I'm sporting the new LEDgend Lights top for this race, and freezing down at the start in minimal clothing! I usually plan to start near the front but today, I'm on the front row (almost) next to ex-olympian and Scott factory team rider Nick Craig again, I seem to be lining-up with him quite often these days! 11am and it’s me leading-out a Peleton of over 700 riders... "Don't look round"! The marshall’s motorbikes lead us through the town centre which is lined with loads of people clapping and cheering... Fantastic!

As the tarmac turns to dirt at the bottom of the first big climb the marshalls pull-off and the race starts in earnest, a young lad in Mammoth Kit (15 years old, and apparently a real emerging talent) jumps off the front and it takes a few minutes before the pack decide to chase him down, its not a pace I can live with this early-on (if ever), we've got about 30 miles to race so I settle into a pace that's going to get me to the end!

This first hill is one of the longest ascents of the day, there's a band playing at the hairpin bend 3/4s of the way up, and later a group of cheerleaders to welcome you over the top... This is The Dyfi... It’s different!

It’s a mix of long long forest road ascents, (Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” on a loop inside my head… not sure I should admit to that!) followed by screaming down loose slate and narrow ruts followed by more big long up-hill (more Gaga)… my specialty!

A new addition to this years course is the World Cup descent, taking a long and extremely steep line down a spectacular ridge... It’s awesome and terrifying! Have a look at this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtSJTIUkMc its way steeper than it looks on here!

I'm amazed to reach the bottom alive and surprised to find a marshall telling me I'm 29th! Wow… but my chain is hanging loose, snapped! How do you snap a chain going down hill??? The fast link that joins the chain, normally the subject of much cursing in the garage when you need to split the chain, had somehow come apart and disappeared! It’s a frustrating few minutes listening to the marshal counting from 30th to 43rd places while I'm fixing my broken chain!!

The Red-mist descends... 15 miles to go and I'm going to bury myself to make as many places back as I can! There are a couple of guys that as much as I can reel them in and pass them going uphill, with full suspension bikes, they're way faster downhill leaving me to do it all again. Eventually getting the better of one, the other disappears on a very fast descent.

Another fast, loose stone shoot spits me out at the finish, 5th 40+ Male and 35^th overall... Really pleased with that, even with my mechanical, I've been lucky to not puncture, many people having 2 or more punctures, only had 1 spare tube with me!

Congratulations to Alex and Rich Munro on finishing 94^th and 74^th on their Rigid Singlespeeds!

Click on the Link below to see Race Data from my Garmin.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/32075945

Midlands XC - Round 1 - Hanchurch Woods

Agreeing to a night-out in Bradford on Friday was never going to be great preparation for a race on Sunday, but having taken the best part of 20 years to get back in touch with each other after leaving University in Newcastle upon Tyne, it was a pretty good reason, and I guess you have to try and have a life outside of work and riding bicycles.

By the time I got home on Saturday it was too late to go out for a spin so, to make-up for it, I set about breaking another golden rule of racing… don’t make major changes to your bike before the race! Well it wasn’t that much of a change really, I’d bought some Ergon grips with integrated bar-ends and had decided to swap the flat bars from my singlespeed onto the Maxlight (the fashion Police get quite upset if they spot Bar Ends on riser bars!) it was pretty much the same set-up so what could go wrong?

With the Vets race scheduled to start at 11am, Lizzie and I arrived at 9:30, enough time for a sighting lap and me to have a flap about something! The course was certainly challenging, 4.1 mile lap with plenty of climbing, lots of deep ruts, a very technical rooty section at the top of the first main climb, some fast descending (more roots) and a very fast, steep drop leading immediately into a very steep climb makes for an interesting lap, particularly with my new grips and bar ends that wont stop spinning on the ends of the bars!

Down at the start for 10:45, 60 of us old fellas all politely vying for a decent spot on the grid. I get middle of 2nd row and happy with that. The start is a brutal half mile of fire road uphill before turning hard left into a deeply rutted track past the feed station and on up the hill. I go off hard but try and temper the effort, we have 4 laps after all, and although I do get overtaken by a good few initially I’ve got most of them back by the time we hit the super techy roots at the top of the hill.

The first lap flies past and I sitting in about 10th spot, I take a bottle from Lizzie as I pass the feed zone and carry-on up the hill, its all going rather well… though the rooty section then into another technical rooted downhill, at the end of which there is an awkward off-camber left hand turn, over a steep wee drop onto a fire road, and I hit it way too fast to be able to maintain any degree of turn… the next I know  I’m half parted with the bike... and flying... awaiting the inevitable. It’s a hard landing, still tangled-up with the bike. The marshalls help me to my feet, a quick check over the bike and get back on. The bike (and me) still seem to be working ok, but I’m mad, all that hard work of the 1st lap wasted as I lose loads of places rolling about in the dirt! Worse still, Stevie, who has turned-up mainly to get one back for last weekend takes advantage and cruises through… I didn’t see him again until the end.
Its really hard to try and calm it all back down, put the crash to the back of my mind and get back into the zone, but I’m flustered and its telling, fluffing the roots on the last lap I go down again. Doesn’t hurt this time just annoys me… more!

I seemed to have been out on my own for a while and become conscious that someone is starting to close me down. I’m not one for looking round much, think that just makes you look a bit worried and give your pursuer a bit of a wind. At a short section of fire track this wiry old goat nips past, and there’s another chewing on my back tyre. There’s no way I’m going to let it go, if I can hang with him for the next couple of miles I can think of a strategy to beat him to the line. He fluffs a short techy climb but its more of a hindrance than a help. Coming into the final drag to the finish, I’ve got my plan, I’ve chosen the rut I want and need to make my move well out to get there before he does… it works well getting him and the guy in front to finish 21st of 59.

Its a result that I’m disappointed with, it really should have been top 15, but that’s racing I guess… Its still miles better than I did last year!

Link to techy bit below, had a bit of a misunderstanding with the Garmin over who was counting laps… (1, 2, 4 & 6 are the ones to look at).

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30481663

Next up in The Dyfi enduro in Wales in a couple of weeks... so back to training miles.

CRC Marathon Builth Wells – Sun 11th April, 42 miles, 1779m Ascent

After Saturday's night race, by the time I’d had a massage, cooked some dinner, might have had a sneaky beer (!) it was after midnight. I didn’t sleep well at all, not helped by drinking gallons of Rego, tea etc after the race… For anyone that hasn’t done one of these, there are 3 distances to choose from, so effectively it’s a mass start for everyone competing that day. Same drill as Saturday with about 5ish miles on the road chasing the marshal’s van… but I just cant stay with it today, legs are spent and I know immediately that the order of the day is simply to “Suffer-like-a-dog”! Its not long, possibly on the first main climb that the cramps start, Quads, Hamstrings, calves the lot… then the lower back starts to cave-in, oh this is going to be a long day… just turn the pedals, its only pain! A wee while later one of my Tuesday night crew passed me. Steve is as much a competitive animal as I am, but I cant live with his pace, I mean he was in his bed last night while I was out racing… it’s a good excuse and one I decide I can comfortably live with. But its funny how fortunes turn in racing and an hour or so later I spotted him up ahead, off the bike and clearly struggling with his own cramping issues.

That’s it, my mind is set, there is no-way I’m going to let him get away again! Steve’s a demon down hill, but we manage to stick together for the last 3rd of the race right upto the final descent where he pulls a healthy gap. Dropping back onto the last few miles of road, I can see him a few hundred yards up the road and I’ve really got the bit in now, big ring engaged, back pain/legs cramps/fatigue all blotted-out and I’m surprised at how quickly I reel him in and pass him then just keep it going to the finish.

As for results well there’s a problem there, loads of riders missed a turn and cut-out a significant loop, which makes it all a bit of guess work, but of the 485 finishers I appear 146^th. I expect that in reality it was a top 100 finish, not a great result on its own, but reasonable effort after the previous evening. I went round the 42 mile course in 4hrs 9mins.

Link below for the data junkies…

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/29753997

This Sunday sees the first round of the Midlands XC at Hanchurch Woods near Stoke, looking forward to that one, 4 laps of a 6ish mile course, its hilly and technical. Will report back next week when I can.

Exposure Lights Big Night Out – Sat 10th April, 25 miles, 972m Ascent

As is now usual for me, all thoughts of taking it easy and saving my legs for Sunday evaporated within about half a second of the gun! Although the start is theoretically neutralised for the first few miles on the road, what that really means is that we chase the race marshal’s van at speeds reaching 38mph, all jostling for a good spot in the draft! I was determined to stick with the lead group as far as I could, even managed a wee chat with Nick Craig the Scott Factory Team rider who went-on to finish 2^nd. Pretty soon we swung off the road and up the first long, long and really steep ascent. By now I had fully committed myself to just go-for-it and deal with the consequences on Sunday when it came, after all its just training really!!! I knew I was pushing a bit hard, but when I noticed that I had gone beyond my previously recorded Max heart rate and had been there for a few minutes, just confirming that this was going to be tough (184bpm… doesn’t that prove that I’m still really only 36?).

Over the top of the first climb and it was time to try and settle down, get the heart rate back into a reasonably sensible zone and concentrate on maintaining a decent pace. Descending at speed in the dark does, shall we say, require a bit of focus and we hit a short series of rocky steps that were fine until I realised all too late that my line took me off the steepest bit, with no time to pick the front wheel-up, relax and hope was the only option… luckily I was carrying enough speed to take me over it but any slower and I expect it would have been a very painful experience.

Splashed through a stream and smacked into the granny gear to get up a short but really steep climb, chin on the bars and front wheel lifting with every pedal stroke when there was an ominous “Ping” from the back followed by the “tinkle” that announced a broken spoke! Darn it… only one thing to do, whip the old one out, throw it away, crack-on and forget about it until the end of the race, it’s the first time I’ve broken a spoke, I guess it’s the price you pay for weight-weenieness!

Another screaming descent brought us back to the road and 6 miles of tarmac to the finish line. I caught and sat on the wheel of a guy who was going quite well, until we were passed by a chap pretending to be Fabian Cancellara… we ended-up with a group of 5 and were starting to work quite well, with about a mile to go it was my turn at the front and managed to stay there till we crossed the finish.

I was utterly spent! But finished in 2hrs 9mins and 31^st out of 205 finishers, probably my best result to date.

For the data/stats freaks the link below will take you to the data from my Garmin;

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/29754004