Sunday, August 16, 2009
How on earth did i end up winning the thetford mtb summer series?
After three exciting races and only 10 crashes (i say only!) i managed to claim the overall junior prize for the thetford mtb summer series. As the round 1 was my first mtb race i was filled with intense anticipation and nerves. After winning this round i assumed it must have been a fluke or a very good day! Round 2 brought more crashes and a rather bloody knee but i eliminated my concerns that round 1 was a fluke. Finally after giving it everything at round 3 (in order to pay tim back for the 2up bungay 10) i claimed the overall junior series prize and beat tim by a comfortable 1.32. Unfortunately i am sure he will repay me again at next weeks bungay ten although he does have some 66m reynolds strykes which im sure make a hell of a difference. Anyway i would just like to thank Tim and streetlife for all the support they have given me this season and im looking forward to the d2d (if i can get a partner that is)!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
24hour to 23minutes
Its been some time since my last entry, and in that period a fair amounts has happened. Training has been up and down due to busy work and family loads, but I have been getting just enough of the right miles in. Missed the round 2 of the summer series due to illness (not a nice one either), but managed to recover in time for what is so far my favorite mtb event of the year, the Bontarger 24/12.
Previous Dusk till Dawn experience should have put me off riding big enduro races forever, however I have a bad memory and evidently forgot how hard they are. The setting for the race was Newnland Park in Plymouth, a private park open to riding exclusively for races. The course was great, really steep climb to start that tapered and climb for the first mile, in to some rooty tacky single track for the next 1.5 miles. Once through this it wandered its way through a super fast fireroad decent, and a nasty climb and bombhole run to a really fast rocky, narrow, root covered decent. Seconds after you thunder out of this decent it was about two thirds through, and you hit some gravel fire road that climbed steady for about 500yards (past a bunch of guys smoking reefer, chucking out ear melting drum and bass for the entire 24hrs). They were located at the foot of a soul destroying 25-30% climb about 300yards long, that made you get out of the saddle and grind your way to the top, which turn a sharp right into a succession of root cover smaller, shorter sigletrack climbs. Putting these behind you and it was pretty much home free for the last 2 miles, after the climbs came the biggest, fastest XC decent I've ever done. The track was bumpy and got pretty slick as the hours went by, it also had a nasty gully running it's entire length off to the left which if drawn into it you were more than in danger of dropping off it's near vertical 100ft edge. Through the river crossing after the decent and all that was left was a tricky climb through a considerable amount of roots, which spat everyone off at some point. Quickly this brought you to the last section of fire road that led you down a lovely quick grassy decent, under a bridge, weaved you through the campsite back to the handover.
All I can really say is that all the guys riding for both Streetlife and Extreme Sport Therapy put in an amazing effort, all completing their full complement of laps. Not one person bailed out (although I was close at 5am), and we had some a great set of results. Jason, Darren, Andy and myself grabbed 5th in the 24hour men's, Neil, Giles, Kevin and Ian got 22nd, and Alex, Howard Olly and Stef managed 25th. All in all a massive surprise to all us 24hour first timers.
My next event although tiny in comparison was last night Bungay 2up 10mile TT, that I rode with Simon Millard, a regular riding companion and powerhouse. A good start by us both was spoilt a little by my suffering of a massive stitch just after the 5mile point, which lost us about 30secs, and left Simon on the front for the majority of the final leg home. Still a P.B. for me of 22.58, and more importantly, we beat Josh (23.10). Making a point of signing on straight after us, and calling me his "carrot" just meant that I had to rode myself stupid just to make sure he wouldn't catch me.
Previous Dusk till Dawn experience should have put me off riding big enduro races forever, however I have a bad memory and evidently forgot how hard they are. The setting for the race was Newnland Park in Plymouth, a private park open to riding exclusively for races. The course was great, really steep climb to start that tapered and climb for the first mile, in to some rooty tacky single track for the next 1.5 miles. Once through this it wandered its way through a super fast fireroad decent, and a nasty climb and bombhole run to a really fast rocky, narrow, root covered decent. Seconds after you thunder out of this decent it was about two thirds through, and you hit some gravel fire road that climbed steady for about 500yards (past a bunch of guys smoking reefer, chucking out ear melting drum and bass for the entire 24hrs). They were located at the foot of a soul destroying 25-30% climb about 300yards long, that made you get out of the saddle and grind your way to the top, which turn a sharp right into a succession of root cover smaller, shorter sigletrack climbs. Putting these behind you and it was pretty much home free for the last 2 miles, after the climbs came the biggest, fastest XC decent I've ever done. The track was bumpy and got pretty slick as the hours went by, it also had a nasty gully running it's entire length off to the left which if drawn into it you were more than in danger of dropping off it's near vertical 100ft edge. Through the river crossing after the decent and all that was left was a tricky climb through a considerable amount of roots, which spat everyone off at some point. Quickly this brought you to the last section of fire road that led you down a lovely quick grassy decent, under a bridge, weaved you through the campsite back to the handover.
All I can really say is that all the guys riding for both Streetlife and Extreme Sport Therapy put in an amazing effort, all completing their full complement of laps. Not one person bailed out (although I was close at 5am), and we had some a great set of results. Jason, Darren, Andy and myself grabbed 5th in the 24hour men's, Neil, Giles, Kevin and Ian got 22nd, and Alex, Howard Olly and Stef managed 25th. All in all a massive surprise to all us 24hour first timers.
My next event although tiny in comparison was last night Bungay 2up 10mile TT, that I rode with Simon Millard, a regular riding companion and powerhouse. A good start by us both was spoilt a little by my suffering of a massive stitch just after the 5mile point, which lost us about 30secs, and left Simon on the front for the majority of the final leg home. Still a P.B. for me of 22.58, and more importantly, we beat Josh (23.10). Making a point of signing on straight after us, and calling me his "carrot" just meant that I had to rode myself stupid just to make sure he wouldn't catch me.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Lotus cycle race league 2009
How did i end up winning the Lotus league? I never set out to win it, the 3 mile pan flat wind exposed circuit hardly suits a rider weighing less than 10 stone, the corners on the circuit were hardly technical either so bike handling and power to weight ratio didn't count like it has in probably all my other wins, i knew i could do well but not win it.
I was consistant,7 races in the top 5, experiance helped and my sprinting improved thanks to my sl2 frame along with being able to cope bumping off Dan Zagni a few times, luck played it's part too in the 2 races i missed through holiday's none of my closest rivals scored big points.
It wasn't just me doing well, Ben lead the league early on after winning round 4 but he wasn't so lucky when he was on holiday, with me winning both races with ipswich rider zagni 2nd in both, Chris was unlucky too, missing early rounds, then just as he was about to start his campaign his wife Jill broke her hand, still taking a 1st and 2nd in the last 2 rounds.
Tim Bonnett scored his first ever British Cycling points placing in the top 10 in 2 rounds.
Special thanks to Glenn Stanford who when he turned up paid his £7.50 and rode for Ben, Chris and myself to get a result, certainly one of my wins was thanks to him.
Josh won the Youth league too, domination by the extreme sports therapy team.
I was consistant,7 races in the top 5, experiance helped and my sprinting improved thanks to my sl2 frame along with being able to cope bumping off Dan Zagni a few times, luck played it's part too in the 2 races i missed through holiday's none of my closest rivals scored big points.
It wasn't just me doing well, Ben lead the league early on after winning round 4 but he wasn't so lucky when he was on holiday, with me winning both races with ipswich rider zagni 2nd in both, Chris was unlucky too, missing early rounds, then just as he was about to start his campaign his wife Jill broke her hand, still taking a 1st and 2nd in the last 2 rounds.
Tim Bonnett scored his first ever British Cycling points placing in the top 10 in 2 rounds.
Special thanks to Glenn Stanford who when he turned up paid his £7.50 and rode for Ben, Chris and myself to get a result, certainly one of my wins was thanks to him.
Josh won the Youth league too, domination by the extreme sports therapy team.
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