summer series round 2

[me running along back straight]
i seem to be racing 2 or 3 times a week at the moment . i have no time to do owt else. not even unpacked car from mayhem ! !!!

so tonight saw round 2 of the summer series duathlon , same format as last time 5k run 20k cycle

i ran the correct way this time , course marked much better.

how ever i felt crap on both the run and the bike just fatigue from the weekend , some of the other guys asked why i was slower this time. they couldnt believe one could ride a bike for a full 24 hours ......then do what i did 3 days later

finished in around about 8th place , right behind cooper , some 2 mins off pace though , i shoulda been able to make that up on the bike against him !

perhaps if i actually do some run training !
[at start line with steve]
anyway time for some rest now , got a day off work tomorrow for some RnR and car emptying. need to recover , ive been eating packets of things .... not packets of crisps , but packets of packets of crisps .....6 packs at a time and bottles of things ....2litre bottles of them ...packets of hobnobs at once. whole tins of potatoes and half a loaf of toast for breakfast. just been so so hungry.

Mountain Mayhem

[the start , not sure where this came from but roys rides is to be credited for it ]



After my diabolical attempt at a 24 solo at relentless i had to finish this one.

that became my mantra , along with MUST BEAT RICH/CHAR/SASCHA and ive driven 500 miles here im not quitting

[the morning looking good , courtesy of www.shooterz.co.uk]

so i put in a quick first lap to get out of the queues , and an ok second lap and just kept it going. initially pitting every 2 laps for more fluid and some gels. after the lights went on at 8 it got wet and pitting everylap to andy and gordos joyous faces looking at the state of my bike that they had to clean to keep me going. so the routine became , Ride , hop off get it cleaned , eat sugar , drink sugar , ride and repeat

course was good , kept changing and was challenging on every lap esp in the wet


atmosphere was good , everyone was friendly except some members of a team riding in orange. i believe they got there comuppance though.

6th for Dave Powell
11th for me
22nd for Rich Seipp

in the female

9th for Char and 1st singlespeed for Sascha

respectable weekend all round

its tuesday night

Its tuesday night , 3 days before i leave for mayhem at 9am which means 2 more days for me to start packing. Im working 9-5 tomorrow and my graduation ceremony is on thursday .....im boned

on the plus side , watch out for ABC Young Whippersnappers at 10 under kirroughtree , me n Mark Smith are going for a pair

a couple from the Drumtochty challenge the other week

deciding my route

racing for my last 2 points with 10 mins to go ........

GDR tour has started

http://www.tourdivide.org/leaderboard

ill be keeping an eye on this , as well as the blog .

an event i hope to do one day when i have a real job !

Ben Nevis , by bike and by the north face approach

Steep is not the word for this

I only just managed to ride the climbs on 29:32 but it was tough , it climbs just shy of 500 meters in less than 5kms on loose dusty climbs with rocky causeways to negotiate.

This was a recce for a ride incorperating the north face approach and access to the loch half way up the tourist path to allow the decending of the tourist path. The first 5k is ridable the last km or so is a cunt of a push and the descent requires somewhat of a freeride bike. 4 inch front and rear and 160mm rotors are not good enough. I boiled my XT disks for the first time ever as you cant let your self go on the dust there is just no traction to slow down once up to speed. Lots of square edges just crying out to give you pinch flats (of which i gained 2 )

its a ride for a technically skilled very fit rider but theres no reason that all but the km from the hut(deceased) to the loch cant be ridden , i got up to the hut only pushing over the 5 or 6 gullys that had a stepping stone placed aukwardly in the middle which trapped wheels when riding was attempted, the 29er mighta made them BUT id not have ridden up the climbs SS

Fort william world cup

[Liam Killean looking strong]


[ Connor Mcconvey]
[Willow Koerber]
[Kate Potter]
[Ross Creber ]
[ Marie-Helene Premont ]
[Mens sprint for the top of the climb first lap]

Did my annual pilgramage over to Fort William to volunteer at the world cup.

Another stonking event by rare management + help

stayed with the guys from http://www.descent-world.co.uk/ in the 1970s throwback apartments of central Fort William. Cant have been that bad , the Hermetically sealed Sam Hill was in the house next door !

Marshalled the 4x Xc and the Dh and the weather was great for all of them. Hot dry and dusty with a light breeze to keep them midges away.

ill not bore you with all the other details as everyones reporting on that and this is my blog of my experiances not everyone else ;) so i had a good time and thats what you should take away from reading this

2 pictures of random downhillers i thought looked quite cool , since i was using the photographic equivalent of a hammer and chisel on slate !

third race this WEEK

third race of the week tonight in the form of a duathlon

a 5k race round monikie and a 20k cycle to dundee and back

run was as expected ....crap due to me being a crap runner came to transition about 12th and then got on the bike and moved into fourth place within 2 mins of being on the bike. I tracked down third and second but although i passed second he reeled me back in the dying minutes.

organisation on the whole was good except for confusion over the running section , only three people did the correct route , the rest including me missed out 300meters. I believe this puts me into 4th over all as 1st 2nd and 3rd all did the correct course ....

University is finished

finished uni , got the results

i passed .... 2:2 honours in mechanical engineering from Dundee University

havnt got a job yet because i have travel plans in the pipeline so im trying to save hard !

ABC midweek league round 4

after missing round 3 which was an MTB race in glamis I had to put in a good result here on a 14 mile hilly time trial over carrot hill and wellbank climbs



Felt a bit lack lustre all day and spent the day for the most part in bed watching movies rising only to eat, having a had a hectic week or two running up to my only day off for some time so i used it for recovery rather than another beasting.



Once i got going on the bike i seemed to fall into the zone and i was able to utilise all my cardio fitness with my legs not going stiff like they usually do when i exert hard. Just kept pushing hard all the way round , caught my 2 min man then my 3 min man and my 4 min man then my minute man. With Euan in hot pursuit i just sprinted the whole finish straight as hard and as fast as i could and finished within second of throwing up i reckon.

came first in the end euan was having an off day , worked in the rain all day probably hadnt helped him.


Round 4: Hilly 14mile TT
Date: 3 June 2008

Position Name Time Points
1 Terry Davidson 0:38:10 30
2 Colin Nicol 0:39:33 28
3 Euan Ritchie 0:39:39 26
4 Hamish Lean 0:41:42 24
5 John Dougherty 0:44:23 22
6 Scott Davidson 0:44:50 20


off to fort william to work at the world cup tomorrow night , after doing a 5k/20k run bike duathlon at monikie and using the second half of tonights course

mighta felt like crap BUT

3rd over all and 1st place male senior soloist !

Drumtochty challenge

Arrived this morning in Fetteresso forest at 8am having worked 9am till 2am the previous day so felt a little tired.

Got signed in , marked up my map and went to sleep for 45mins while everyone else got sorted.

Sat in the "pits" Edinburgh bike coop had a tent offering free mechanics services. Which when confronted with a gear cabled snapped at the pinch bolt on the rear mech fell flat on its face which the mechanic proclaimed "i cant fix that ive only brought a multi tool"

so i stepped in in full angus bike chain regailia to then fix the problem by chopping a bit off the top piece of gear outer with my leatherman to give the inner the required length to work. under the watchful eye of the EBC mechanic. Turns out the guy lives local so i told him where i worked and it shall be in for full repair soon apparently.

Onto the race its self. The points were laid out by Brian him self this year and they were a little harder than previous years to find. But i found 10 of them , some of the bigger points this year upon cairn kerloch and its neighbours.

I wasted some time looking for the fabeled point 25 and failed. This caused me to be unable to get the transmitter mast at Durris. I did however get back to base on time in 5 hours exactly !

With a points total of 580 points i eagerly await the results to see how it fares against others.

On the whole my body did not feel good today. I found my self cramping up and i severerly bonked while riding the slug road ( a road that seems to find me bonking on it all the time as it is the return leg of my favorite local century). This is not a good omen 3 weeks before a 24 hour solo BUT to quote Neil Walker "a tired rider is a slow rider" and i certainly was a tired rider.