finally worked out my username !

forgot my login for this ! DOH

sorted it now

so my goals for the year as outlined above have been both sucessful and unsucessful , cant have it all i guess


10 under kirroughtree , i found a tempo , im not sure whos it was it wasnt mine but i enjoyed it. fluttered about in the top 10 for the entire race , had a good dual with a guy from the RAF who was also singlespeeding and we pushed each other on . I finished in 7th place over all in solo men

10 under moray last in the series of the 10 unders by NO FUSS EVENTS and well despite having no prior knowledge to the course i still only took my singlespeed with me. First lap the course didnt seem to gel for me , i continued to ride to 9.5 hours and couldnt face another lap it was punishing climbing for half a lap followed by some transversing across a hill where you had to pedal to keep going then an uber climb for 2 k on fire road. finished my last lap and rode into town for a fish supper. Hung around for the prize giving as another member(Mike Webster) of the angus bike chain cc won Veteran mens solo. Thank goodness we hung around , a raffle was drawn for a trip to new zealand and well i won it . a good incentive to train hard over the winter

Selkirk merida

leave the house in glorious sunshine , travel down pitch tent , sleep . wake up find james give him his tent and then the heavens open ...great i only have the michelin dry xc2 pros fitted to my bike.

race starts and despite being near the front on the grid a whole load of competitors barge in from the camp ground and mean im about half way back in the pack. I push hard on the road section and get into the top 20 for the first climbs to ensure clean descent from up there.

got a puncture on a climb about 35k in not sure why the tube didnt have a hole in it when i pumped it up later but gutted really. i then got a pinch flat after jumping over a broken down wall and landing on a pointy rock , race pretty much over at 55k finished the course in about 400th place (over all the catagorys 25-50-75&100k)

loch ness 360

funds did not allow me to race this :(

singlespeed world champs

interesting weekend this one

load up car
stop by angus bike chain to get last min bits and pieces
get fuel
get back in car and go to drive off ......

car doesnt start !

had to be towed home , my girlfriend stepped in to drive me to aviemore to a campsite and leave me there with my panniers and kit. Pack up kit and ride to bothy bikes on the sat where i meet an old friend "gordo" hes the mechanic there and gets me permission to camp behind the bike shop. Go out on a good easy ride on the saturday round aviemore and ride some incredible climbs and descents ! Sunday the race day , we ride out following andy and nash from the bike shop we loose the main pack and end up doing about 20kms on the way to badaguish where dr jon and chris etc are waiting for us. Race begins . i stop at nearly every purple rig trying to find my bike on the lemans start ! eventually find it and get riding on the awesome course ! Finish all 5 laps which very few did and loved every min of it ....planning to get out to san francisco next year where the SSWC will be in the Napa Valley.

I then pack up my kit onto the pannier racks and ride to laggan with the intention of riding to fort william ! for working at the world champs !

i get to laggan and have some tomato soup where i meet jack and dave from numplumz who offer me a lift to fort william which im greatful for !

Raasay rumble

awesome course
awesome organising
crap weather !

force 9 gales , rain and mud and i choose to ride a 29er Singlespeed !

off to a good start riding hard doing well change kit after 4 laps due to being cold and wet fine
do another 2 laps and im soaking wet and freezing and shivering again ...then i got blown clean off my bike and just got really annoyed and fed up with the weather.

good experiance and despite my annoyance at the weather it was an awesome place to be. Improving my bad weather kit and riding in the bad weather more often to get used to it !

Relentless 24
Last min entry into relentless 24. crashed in my second lap landed on my knee on a sharp rock , rode through this pain. did 13 laps including 2 punctures in the middle of the night :@. 15th hour i stopped for food and my knee did an impression of a blow fish and swoll up and became very very painful , will be making another attempt next year at Mountain mayhem

Currently back into my training after a couple of recovery weeks , Restarted running and swimming to improve strength and fatigue. Been riding plenty night riding in new places with new people. doing alot of hill rides and fixed wheel riding

goals for 2008

Strathpuffer 4man
hokonui moonshine race NZ
Busa XC
Mountain mayhem
10 under series (itd be rude not to )
singlespeed world champs (funds permitting)

also going to try and branch out to ride shorter events perhaps SXC events or something along those lines. and im trying to gear my training towards speed as well as endurance

not sure if ill be racing on singlespeed next year might get the geared bike out and see what i can do on that , but singlespeed will still have a place in some races and certainly within my training