Night Ride

Thursdays are good days, especially when the weather’s fine. I usually get out Thursday night for a mountain bike ride in the Peak with some friends, if I can fit it round all the other claims on my time.

Tonight we’re meeting at Ladybower for some variations on the classic trails that loop over the hills there. Some people drive for hours to get to this place, so it’s always a thrill to know I can ride those trails on an evening after work, and more so when I look out of the window and see blue skies waiting for me. Riding into work this morning my legs were like wet noodles though, so it may have to be the geared bike tonight, or maybe I'll just grit my teeth and hurt a bit on the singlespeed. I’ll need to take lights too, for the first time since spring.

3 Peaks Cyclocross

I’ve entered the 3 Peaks, it’s a cyclocross race in Yorkshire.

When I say ‘it’s a cyclocross race in yorkshire’, I’m not giving the whole story. Your average CX race is an hour or less, round a park or woodland or some similarly friendly terrain, with a few small sharp hills, lots of mud and sometimes the odd barrier to leap over. You do a bit of it on foot usually, with the bike on your shoulder. The races are full of skinny roadies on skinny cross bikes, riding offroad much faster than you’d expect roadies to do. If you are a tough old mountainbiker, who thinks he can show those roadrats a thing or two about riding in the dirt, prepare to wake up. That was my experience anyway.

I’ve got a cross bike (it’s my commuter). I’ve done a few cross races, badly. I can hold my own off road with most mountainbikers, which must be qualification enough for the 3 Peaks. The ‘Peaks’ however is 60 odd km, covers 3 mountains over 700m high on rough moorland , and is patently unsuitable for cross bikes. The rules don’t allow mountainbikes. It’s the toughest race of its kind in the UK, and I’m frankly nervous as hell about it.

‘Training’ is something that I just don’t do these days, mainly because I’m short on time and large on other priorities, so my preparation so far comprises putting wider drop bars on the commuter last night. It’s a month away now and I’m regretting entering it and excited in equal measures. I need to order some tyres. The maximum width allowed is 35mm, which hardly a tyre at all in my view, more like a rubbery hoola hoop. More later.

Sleepless in the Saddle

A few weekends ago ago it was SitS, a 24 hour MTB race at Catton Park. We did it as a mixed team. Very mixed in fact, 3 on singlespeeds, two on gears, and the girly member was on her first ever 24. I haven't done a team 24 for a couple of years, and this was a great way to get back into it.

The course was rolling, fast (early on), with some great twisty singletrack that was deep in dust. It was just technical enough for decent riders to have a blast riding it flat out and easy enough for everyone else. I'd just got used to two wheel drifts on dusty bends when I set out on a dusk lap and it started drizzling. It got very slick very soon, and the dust started to get very sticky. I got back and handed over to my team mate before things got too bad, but a few hours later I had a lap from hell. Big 2.3" tyres and not much clearance on a Reba fork meant I was pushing lots and at worst, my wheels were locking up with claggy mud every 10 metres. Trudge, stop, clear tyres, trudge, stop clear tyres .... it was a long long lap, but I kept a smile on my face.

The team held it together really well, and kept going all through the night. Lots of teams gave up, the handover area was almost deserted at one point. Pathetic really. It was a pretty chilled out effort, we even stopped using the handover area for the last 12 hours and just rode back to the campsite to pass on the baton, but we still got 18th out 94. Either we were pretty quick or the opposition were really poor.

We all had a cat on the handlebars, not live ones (at least not by the end). It's something to do with the murky virtual world that our team captain inhabits on Bikemagic and his twisted wit, and I'm not sure I understand it. At least it gave me someone to talk to in the grimmest parts of my hell lap. Some hallucinating soloist shouted 'Hey, nice bear' at one point.

SitS - great event, good course, fab team, all very lovely really. And I passed shit loads of other riders on my laps. It makes me feel fast and fit, but really it's just them that are slow and a bit rubbish.

I don’t know why I’ve started this thing, and I’m even more puzzled as to why you are reading it. If it turns into something, it’ll mostly be about riding bikes, and in particular singlespeed mountainbikes. If you aren’t bothered about stuff like that, then you’d be advised to blogout.

If you’re still here, welcome to my cosy little world of riding my lovely (but pretty shonky) one geared bike around the gorgeously fantastic trails near home (and sometimes other places).