what better way to start...

....my 1 week holiday than with a Bad Brains trip over to Llandegla trail centre in Wales.

To say we were heading to Wales, the start time for this trip was most respectable. In fact my 18 month old son made sure I was up with plenty of time to check, check and recheck I had all my kit with me.

I was to be privileged with the company of Fat Lad on this very trip to Wales so off I went as quick as I could to meet with a promise of good old British bacon butties and a cup of tea. There’s no better way of getting the cycling body prepped for action and with a little arm twisting I was enticed into having a second butty and more slurps of tea. Full of food and excitement of riding somewhere new we decided to load the car get ourselves on our way.

With two dismantled bikes and enough cycling gear to complete the Trans Wales we headed off West to our meeting point. The 2hr car journey passed by as if it wasn’t even trying to make us feel the discomfort of long distance travelling and soon we were crawling round the car park looking for a suitable spot to park up. With the lower car park full of cars and riders tweaking their bikes and making last minute pre ride checks we made our way up to the additional parking where we found Glen and Lynn and a few other Bad Brainers.

This was Al’s and my first outing at Llandegla and the countless sightings of body armour wasn’t doing anything for my overworked imagination of what I was going to find here. Is anyone riding XC?? Thankfully, when the ‘all I can see is downhillers’ vision had cleared I recognised some Bad Brains faces riding their usual choice of bike sans armour.

Bike rebuilt, lid on, Camelbak packed and strapped into position we freewheeled down to the trail centre to meet up with the rest of our group. Good turnout. Without counting there must have been around a dozen of us. And with groups photos taken we headed off onto the start of the track.

The initial part of the trail is a wide track which steadily climbs out of the trail centre for a good stretch and eventually brings you to the first of the downhill sections. Now, Llandegla knows how to do berms! These were big and immense fun to ride.

After an extended stop due a shoe stuck to spd pedal incident we continued on with the fast flowing singletrack. Now, if I were to try and describe the extent of this ride I think I would get entirely lost and meet myself coming backward a few times. So, all I can try and do is sum it up as best I can, here goes...

- Big grin
- Berms
- Switchbacks
- Jumps
- Table tops
- Short climbs
- Long downhills
- Rocks
- Drop off’s
- North shore
- Fun black sections
- Front wheel landing!
- ‘should have put my seat down’ moments
- Thrown off line
- Heavy braking

We rode a couple of the sections twice and maybe three times, it really was worth the climbs to get back to the start. Each run building the confidence to go just that bit quicker and to ride the jumps just that little bit smoother.

Eventually, after lots of fantastic riding the trail was nearing the end and finally we landed back at the trail centre. Time for tea accompanied by a huge helping of a huge cake brought by Chip. If there’s ever a time for sneaking your own cake in to a cafe this is not the cake to do it with! With a diameter close to the size of a car wheel and a thickness that none of my knives at home would make it through this will now be my immediate vision whenever anyone mentions ‘cake’.

A cracking day out and a great start to my weeks holiday. I will definitely be revisiting at some point.

I will add links to pictures and videos as and when they are available as I didn’t take any of my own.

new old winter bike

I've decided to build myself a winter bike so that I can tuck the Superlight up for the winter in its cosy warm bed to get plenty of rest for next season.

I must say, I am finding I am having to work bloody quick on this project as it feels like winter is upon us already. Mince pies and sprouts at the ready...

The idea is to build using no new parts, so ebay has been seeing some action from this corner of its empire

what I have so far:
- trek fuel 90 frame (this is my old frame which I used before the superlight)
- Easton EA50 stem (going to put this on the Superlight and swap the bontrager stem back)
- XT shifters
- XT rear derailleur (swap from Superlight)
- chain (swap from Superlight)
- LX Cassette (swap from Superlight)
- front wheel, Mavic XM719 deore hub
- Selle Italia Flite seat, put this on the superlight

still a fair few bits to get but enjoying looking at the moment, hopefully have this up and running very soon...

23.10 update

now have a set of XT disc brakes, bargain from ebay.

Looking forward to getting this built up now, maybe even put my manitou black forks back on this bike to save the expense of new forks as I know what i am like when i get spending...this little lot aint going to be cheap....or 'this little lot will only be cheap love' if talking to the Mrs!

has it been that long...?

...didn't realise it was that long ago when i last updated on here. Well, i'm still riding lots but seems like life has got a whole lot busier for some reason! Moving house, jobs to do on new house, designing a shed (yes really!) and work all seem to be eating a lot of my time up. But the bike does manage to get out now and again...and thankfully takes me with it.

In between my busy diary I seem to be getting plagued with much more bugs, colds and illnesses these days. Not sure if it is my son who kindly brings them home from nursery for me or my 32 year old immune system is not what it used to be??

Anyway, I'll stop the moaning now and promise to get out on the bike a bit more than I have been and report back here more often...

secret recipe

Just got back from a fantastic and fast ride out from home. I managed to cover 36km in just less than 2hrs and I felt great, I could of had more I'm sure and I'm certain it was my pasta concoction I knocked up for tea.

I knew all day at work that for some reason I was on for a bigger than usual Tuesday night ride, there was just something niggling all day and I was eager to get out on the bike.

My idea was to get home then straight out on the bike. So home it was, changed and banana consumed...then...this is where the plan changed, I decided to spend more time with my son and have my tea first. The wife already tucking into her culinary delights left me stranded in the kitchen looking for possible ingredients. A pasta dish it was to be, laden with veg and (this is what I believe to be the secret and trail busting ingredient) chorizo sausage...oh it was a delight!! Anyway, as simple as that, and all topped off with a chilli tomato sauce. It worked for me anyway!

The route:> Ackworth > Wragby > Haw Park Wood > Old Royston > Newmillerdam > Secker Wood > Newmillerdam again > Walton > Crofton > Ackworth

Mountain Mayhem 08

Well, I am struggling to find time to write up on this amazing event due to house move, family commitments, work, continual biking, etc, etc

so in the meantime have a read up on what went on at Big Al's blog, a very well written report which truly captures the moment...the 24hr long moment!

Also, some excellent photo's to be found here.

10 Under the Ben - Sat 31st May 08

Have bike, have wife, have kid…we’re off!

Following the arduous but increasingly view rewarding journey north we finally got to Fort William around tea time on the Friday. With a quick check in at the guest house we were reluctantly back in the car for a quick 5 mile trip to the Nevis Range where the 10 Under the Ben event village had been assembled. Surprisingly when we arrived it was fairly quiet so we promptly made our way up to the Nevis Range centre at the top of the gondola ride where registration was taking place.

Only at this point I think I realised what I had let myself in for, when listening to other riders it seemed everyone else was taking part in a team….oh how sensible they are, but where’s the fun in that? Now, accepting this as the point of no return, I gave my name in exchange for an electronic ankle tag.

So, after a very quick look around at the top Kay, Oliver and me set off on our journey downwards back to the event village. Deciding there wasn’t a lot happening at this point we made our way back to base camp.

By this point, Caroline, my third support crew member (3 – Kay, Oliver, Caroline) had made her way down from Ullapool to join us for a huge pasta tea. Huge is probably not the word, in fact mammoth with lots left over is probably more apt. Got slightly carried away with the Fussili !!
Friday night saw me have the best nights sleep in months and I woke up extremely refreshed and full of adrenalin for today’s race. Two bowls of porridge for breakfast and I’m now full of a mixture of adrenalin and Scottish oats.

We got to the event village for just gone 8.00am and as it happens we got a really good car parking spot right next to the course which turned out this was going to be my support / rest area.

Dressed in my racing attire (sorry folks there was a bit of Lycra going on) I ambled over to the compulsory race briefing, not sure why it was compulsory as they never told us anything new from what I had read in the event programme. Back at the car I got myself together, dressed, wheels on, seat in, water on board, checked seat height, checked I had my water, checked I was dressed! And I was ready for the off.

The start area was now very busy, so after a last toilet check I get myself nicely positioned somewhere near the front of the pack which presented a few photo opportunities for my support team.

After a fumbled count down we were off, to a very slow pace as riders sorted themselves out and gradually got both feet clipped in and pedalling. The pre race lap must have been around 3 miles which soon had us coming back through the transition area and off to start the first official lap.
I made good pace round the first lap completing it in around 1hr 5mins and after a very short stop and another photo I set off for lap 2.

I found it hard to pace myself against other riders as there were riders of all abilities and also team riders who were going all out on their laps. So keeping my head down I plodded along at what I thought was a sensible pace.

Lap 2 seemed to be quickly over and after a short rest I was away on lap 3. Things were going well! By this point the sun was getting very hot and the white stone tracks were throwing heat back at me from every direction. The good weather meant the tracks were on the whole very dry and fast. In terms of mountain biking, the whole of the course was fantastic and consisted of a bit of everything from rocks, roots, drops, berms, fast downhills, river crossings, boardwalks and plenty of other things to choose from. To have this on my doorstep would be good!

Now, when it comes to punctures, I have never seen so many people with tyre lever in one hand and a semi inflated tube in the other in one day. I kept wondering when it was to be my turn, surely these rocks were not going to let me get away with 10 hours of riding at full psi? I must have had someone looking out for me on Saturday because smooth rolling with no technical issues was the order of the day for me.

Nearing the end of lap 3 I decided now was the time to take a longer rest before setting off once more and for some unbeknown reason to me I made the fatal mistake again (I didn’t learn from the Merida in Wales) of eating too much. After a good rest in the shade and now full of bananas, cereal bars, sandwich and energy gel I sumped back onto my bike for yet another hour plus in the saddle. Lap 4 wasn’t good, it hurt and I felt sick…I seriously thought this was going to be my bail out point, how could I do anymore feeling like this. Granny ring on all the hills to conserve energy I finally made it round. Back to my support team who amazingly told me I looked better than I did when I came in off lap 3! Time for a drink, change of plasters on the hands to protect the blisters, banana and that was it this time, no gourmet pit stop to be had.

Reluctantly but at the same time willingly I lifted myself onto my bike once more. Lap was good! Felt loads better, picked my pace up slightly and got round another time. Some of the sections, in fact, one in particular which was a bloody steep short climb had me taking the bike for a walk but I figured better to walk a small bit and feel better for the rest of the ride. I nearly did myself a mischief at the start of lap 5, a very steep drop with a few steps plus tiredness equalling complete lack of concentration had me entangling my plums in my handlebars! This I decided was also to be walked on my next lap.

My personal target, for whatever reason, was to do 6 laps, and so with that in mind off I trundled for the last time into Scottish mountain biking bliss. In fact, lap 6 felt great, it was fast, my legs felt good, the hills seemed a bit easier again and even the blisters were not hurting as much. Inner strength, second wind, whatever I were to call it, it got me round and quickly. But, truth be told, I was glad to see the finish line for the last time and have my end of race photo taken.

Electronic tag handed back, miniature bottle of Whiskey received and a check of my times, I decided this was now time to go home.

All in all a fantastic event. Carloline did ask, about 10 mins after finishing, if I would do it again? Still not given her an answer, but the answer would be a definite yes. I can’t wait.
A huge thanks to Kay, Oliver and Caroline for supporting me on the day, I could not have done it without them.

And, to top it off, a fantastic amount of sponsor money raised for the Thembalitsha organisation.

All round big smiles

Now looking forward to Mountain Mayhem in a couple of weeks…

Final ride stats

6 laps - (approx 63 miles including pre race lap)

ride time (including stops): 9hrs 44mins

in the senior solo male category i finished 45th out of 88

less than a week to go...

Saturday 31st May will see me going round and round in circles up in Scotland, it's the 10 under the Ben race at Fort William.

Trainings going well

Feeling the fittest I have felt in a long time

Been training at a high intensity with the idea that on the day I should be able to go for longer at a lower pace...just got to remember to go at a lower pace!

Settled in on the Superlight now, mind you i think the merida in wales helped a lot with that!

Energy gels and drinks a plenty purchased

new cycling shorts (extra padding!) bought

still to get disc brake pads and spare tubes

need to start eatin lots of pasta!

and overall, really looking forward to it in a strange 'I can't wait to go to Scotland and completely knacker my entire body' kind of way

again and again...oh...and again

for yesterdays ride I decided to give myself a taste of what is to be at 10 under the Ben at the end of this month. 10 under the Ben (for those who dont know) is a mtb race in the foothills of Ben Nevis, its a 10 mile course and you have 10 hours to complete as many laps as you can or want to! I have entered this as a solo rider and with me will be the family to give me support, food and drink.

So, Saturdays ride...

the route: home - Low Ackworth - Rogerthorpe - Upton - Hemsworth Bypass - Home (10.5 miles)

terrain: mix of off road and tarmac (I used the tarmac to really push myself and maintain a high pace)

conditions: warm, slight breeze (which was behind on the homeward stretch!), muddy tracks

laps: 3

total distance: 31.5 miles

lap time: 45 minutes

overall, felt good after doing this, the hardest thing I found (and this is the reason why I decided to do some laps) was the mental obstacle of doing the same tracks over and over, but i need to get used to this for the end of the month. Physically I could have carried on, which is good news as on the day I think the atmosphere will hopefully carry me round also and take away the monotony of lap after lap

my first Merida - Builth Wells Spring Marathon

“flippin hec’ – that were hard!”

Saturday 12th April

I arrived in Builth Wells, after a marathon of a drive, at around 1pm which saw me clear to getting a good camping spot tucked away in a quiet corner of the campground. By the time I had all the bits to my tent strewn around the place and the outer tent blowing around like an oversized empty crisp packet the camp ground was starting to fill up rather rapidly.

After a very quick tent building episode (to try and avoid the rain from the ever darkening clouds!) I took a walk over to the event village to see what was happening. A mix of trade stands, registration, food bar and general boggyness under foot. The remainder of Saturday was fairly relaxed (reading, listening to music, drinking tea) and I met up with Glen and Dasnut from Bad Brains.

That evening we watched the ELBNO race get under way just before 8 and I think I hit the sleeping bag and roll mat combo at around 10.

Sunday 13th April

It rained heavily through the night that could mean only one thing; it was going to be wet and muddy today!!

The marathon was due to start at 10.30 so I made my way to the start area just after 10. Myself and the other Bad Brainer’s lined up together for the start, we positioned ourselves fairly close to the front which incidently was to be the only point of the ride where I would be near to the front!

We were off, a mass of mtb’ers pedalling away through the town of Builth Wells and less than a minute in, the pace car was gone which I am sure was closely followed by a number of Elite riders. Glen started showing good pace early on and I decided to let him go on ahead and suss out the route! ;) I made good pace up the first hill which was on tarmac, finding it hard to ease off if other bikes were passing. “pace myself” I kept saying “save the legs”.

The first feed station was around 25km into the ride, just before this little tent of energy there was a wooded section which on map looked good but in reality and in thick ankle deep mud was in fact a bloody nightmare! A combination of mud, slippy tree routes and riders bunching up made for a very tricky section.

Shortly after the first feed station, where I ate a banana at light speed and filled up my Camelbak reservoir, we were back into another uphill tarmac section followed quickly by up hill off road. There certainly seemed to be more up hills on this ride than downhills! Somewhere around this point a fellow biker asked me how to get rid of cramp which he was suffering in both legs, I told him about the old Salt n Vinegar trick which I had learnt from numerous people and offered him the only bag I was carrying. Not long after consuming these on the move, and I had pulled away a bit now, I heard a great ‘yelp’ from behind and turned to see the Salt n Vinegar man going down like a sack of ….!! Maybe the crisps idea was not the best advice after all?! He wasn’t the last I saw suffering the effects of cramp that day.

We were fast (or probably slowly) approaching the 40km mark at which we knew there was a hell of a hill to climb. No sooner had we remembered this, we found ourselves dropping into granny ring yet again for another long drag. I think this ride is the only ride I have done where most of it has been in my granny ring!! We made it to the top where a photographer was waiting to take a pic of the pain in our faces, I’m sure he must have succeeded with me.

After an awesome downhill the choice to take the route for the 50km race was presented to us. Dasnut, who I had been riding with for a while decided this was to be his chosen path back to Builth. I quickly convinced myself that I would carry on and conquer the 65km, especially now I had come this far. Shortly after saying our goodbye’s I started to wonder if I had made the right choice especially now that the heavens decided to open. Huddled amongst a crowd of bikers under a gazebo in the middle of nowhere I found myself at feed station number 2. This time, I could hold back from stuffing my face with biscuits and crisps and the occasional banana. I set off in the rain, some more tarmac and then again off road into what turned out to be, for me, the hardest climb of the ride. A climb so long and with so many false horizons, this turned into a challenge of mind over matter as well as fitness. I eventually got to the top of what I thought was the last hill of the ride.

On the decent, which was grin-tastic again, I met up with a welsh bloke who just happened to be similar pace to me. So, not through discussion, we ended up riding the remainder of the ride together. The hill which I thought was the last, was indeed not. We were met by a marshal who had a smug look about him and proceeded to inform us that we could carry on back on the road which would be 6 miles back to Builth Wells or continue with the marked course up another huge hill for a 7 mile trip back to the finish. At this point my heart sank, thinking I had used up all my energy and that I would most certainly die if I went up this last hill. But…my new welsh friend somehow gave me the motivation and encouragement to do it and go for the 7 mile with huge hill option…so that we did. And, amazingly, I got my second (or maybe this was my third!?) wind from somewhere and started feeling good (ish!) again. The climb was hard, a fair amount of walking but the constant chatting made it all the better.

The final off road downhill was crazy, basically a very steep mud chute, that I rode completely out of control. Concentration at this point was minimal. A short tarmac and path section threw me into the winding finishing slalom through the farm yard and to the inflatable finish line. A finishers T-shirt was shoved into my hand and I made my way wearily back to my tent. 6hrs 25minutes of riding got me round this marathon, I was pleased just to get round, never mind what time I achieved.

There is something quite addictive about this kind of riding, although when doing it I’m sure I asked myself numerous times ‘why’ and probably told myself not to do this ever again, but worryingly I am looking forward to the next one….

I'm off...

off to Wales. My first Merida is upon me and I can't wait. Driving down to Builth Wells today, hoping to be there early afternoon to get my tent up and waterproofed! All my kit is laid out ready to be packed, anyone would think I was going away for a week or two! And I'm so worried I am going to forget something...I can see double and triple checks happening.

The bike is clean and well oiled, new brake pads, puncture fixed and air pressures set...

blimey...I thought i was just going for a bike ride, where has all this extra pressure come from?!

With the pressure comes excitement, I slept like a kid on Christmas Eve last night...says it all really

anyhow, its early and theres a lot to do.............now where did I put those tent pegs?