Having recovered from the SXC in most ways except for an annoying bruise on the skin surrounding the hamstring tendon, i attended the 5 lap MTB race at glamis
Mike Milne set an easy controlling pace for the first 3 laps in comparison to my normal race stategy of put as much distance between me and the others ASAP and then step back a pace. and him , my self and Mark Smith completed the first 3 laps in unison
at the beginning of the 4th lap Mike took a quick look behind him and stepped on the gas , i followed , Mark was taking a drink from his bottle at the time and missed the boat.
I held mike along the straight and down the singletrack and he pulled over at the bottom of the bridge descent. I continued but at a slower pace to let him catch up , he came back and i hit the gas again. We were neck and neck till the steep back climb where again he dropped well back buti did not notice this till i hit the second steep climb and he wasnt anywhere to be seen which meant he`d dropped 30 seconds at least. i completed the lap and saw Mike limping to the finish with a broken bike and i saw Mark about three mins down on me so just eased the pace back and took it easy with the merida 100k at Selkirk this weekend in mind
legs , lungs and head functioning well and in unison for this event unlike Sunday bit happier now
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Monday, 28 July 2008
Fort william SXC
SXC booked some more good weather for this event mid 20s by the feel of it and no midges
they also put on a good varied course , after i assumed it would be the fort william world cup course which is all up , followed by all down which is a bit boring really . They cut out the lazy k and sent us down some singletrack and made us climb up the fire road to the haggis trap which was evil , but not only that , they then sent us down the lovely flowing singletrack that Ruari Watt built for 10 under the ben , then onto the witches brew and immediately turning left to take us along the puggy line and up the switch backs to nessie. Back along the whole wall and up mckenzies road to the arena.
For the first lap i decided that since there is only really one easy line up the sandy brae i wanted to be in the top 3 , i seemed to hit it with relitive ease and found my self spinning away up front, not sure if that was a good thing or not but it got me up without misshap.
we settled into position at the top with Dave Henderson taking the front as per norm, Karl Mott going well and taking second place , Chris Bell taking third, Barry Wilson fourth Graeme Neagle and Me taking 5th and 6th.
climbing up to nessie on my first lap it became apparent things werent right , stomach cramps and a tight chest plagued me for the whole race from there on in and things just werent firing on all cylinders , i had little or no power to manhandle the bike about making stupid stupid mistakes and generally just feeling crap , I knew i had to finish though as id already missed a round through doing Mountain Mayhem.
Neagle punctured just before Nessie and DNFed , I made up some time on Barry on the second lap and was catching him up before the witches brew. At this point i spotted him missing the left hand turn and shooting off down the Worlds course , i shouted to him but had no idea if he heard or not.
Climbing to nessie i saw he had and wasnt far behind. I held him off for the next lap and just at the top of the sandy brae he passed me like he had a rocket up his arse , but by this point for me the stomach cramps had become hell and the race became a lesson in survial and minimising losses. I put in a 35 min lap for my last lap and literally colapsed on the bike needing my team mates to help me off it onto the ground where i felt really sick and made my way to the toilet.
found out when i got home that my mother had the same symptoms and we are putting it down to food poisoning. feeling better now though after a fast on water and toast , possibly not the best for recovery from a race ,but would rather take some muscle pain than be constantly doubled over with cramps
results were
Dave Henderson 0
Chris Bell 6 mins down
Karl Mott 10 mins down
Barry Wilson 12mins down
Terry Davidson 15mins down
they also put on a good varied course , after i assumed it would be the fort william world cup course which is all up , followed by all down which is a bit boring really . They cut out the lazy k and sent us down some singletrack and made us climb up the fire road to the haggis trap which was evil , but not only that , they then sent us down the lovely flowing singletrack that Ruari Watt built for 10 under the ben , then onto the witches brew and immediately turning left to take us along the puggy line and up the switch backs to nessie. Back along the whole wall and up mckenzies road to the arena.
For the first lap i decided that since there is only really one easy line up the sandy brae i wanted to be in the top 3 , i seemed to hit it with relitive ease and found my self spinning away up front, not sure if that was a good thing or not but it got me up without misshap.
we settled into position at the top with Dave Henderson taking the front as per norm, Karl Mott going well and taking second place , Chris Bell taking third, Barry Wilson fourth Graeme Neagle and Me taking 5th and 6th.
climbing up to nessie on my first lap it became apparent things werent right , stomach cramps and a tight chest plagued me for the whole race from there on in and things just werent firing on all cylinders , i had little or no power to manhandle the bike about making stupid stupid mistakes and generally just feeling crap , I knew i had to finish though as id already missed a round through doing Mountain Mayhem.
Neagle punctured just before Nessie and DNFed , I made up some time on Barry on the second lap and was catching him up before the witches brew. At this point i spotted him missing the left hand turn and shooting off down the Worlds course , i shouted to him but had no idea if he heard or not.
Climbing to nessie i saw he had and wasnt far behind. I held him off for the next lap and just at the top of the sandy brae he passed me like he had a rocket up his arse , but by this point for me the stomach cramps had become hell and the race became a lesson in survial and minimising losses. I put in a 35 min lap for my last lap and literally colapsed on the bike needing my team mates to help me off it onto the ground where i felt really sick and made my way to the toilet.
found out when i got home that my mother had the same symptoms and we are putting it down to food poisoning. feeling better now though after a fast on water and toast , possibly not the best for recovery from a race ,but would rather take some muscle pain than be constantly doubled over with cramps
results were
Dave Henderson 0
Chris Bell 6 mins down
Karl Mott 10 mins down
Barry Wilson 12mins down
Terry Davidson 15mins down
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Monikie Midweek duathlon series Rnd 3
the series finished last night with a final 5k run 20k cycle
as usual my run was sub par compared to the others and i was well down on the others.
as usual my run was sub par compared to the others and i was well down on the others.
[Me running like a spazzy]
good transition followed by me dropping my bottle and it bursting over the road led to me going out without fluid
a very windy road ride let me use my riding strength to my advantage and claw back about 10 places on the bike to finish 8th
this allowed me to finish 4th over all in the senior catagory.
Not bad for someone who runs like a spazzy taking a siezure!
Jayne came 2nd over all in the senior females so very very well done to her.
[Jayne running in the wooded section]
good efforts all round
10 at kirroughtree
Teamed up with Mark Smith from ABCCC to compete here in the team "young whippersnappers" , due to my back not being fully recovered from the pounding it took at mountain mayhem three weeks ago
Traveled down on the friday night with Neil and Mike of ABCCC team "old whippersnappers" and did a slow practice lap where i earnt the nick name bugs...as in bugs bunny as no one else could see and i was riding like it was daylight
Mark was warned i was taking this as speed training for the SXC and that i would be giving it 100% every lap....so i did that
on the first lap me and an RAFCC rider stuck behind the pace car and ended up miles infront of the pack, i eased off slightly feeling the pace a little too quick for me.
I course its self was fooking ace the singletrack was in abundance and this allowed me to maintain a good placing through to the finish of the first lap where i came in third
handed over to mark with a swift change over in the pits.
Mark punctured. He tryed to straight line a corner that had a ditch in it lined with rocks.
swift change for him though and his use of C02 carts saw not too much time lost
the rest of the race saw us fighting to regain this time with the laps staying consistantly about 50-55 all day
we finished in 6th place in pairs
Mike and Neil finished 40mins down and took first place vets and 12th place over all (not bad given mine and marks combined ages (22 + 18) dont even make up half their teams age)
good event again by the no fuss team. and good scran by carolines kitchen
Traveled down on the friday night with Neil and Mike of ABCCC team "old whippersnappers" and did a slow practice lap where i earnt the nick name bugs...as in bugs bunny as no one else could see and i was riding like it was daylight
Mark was warned i was taking this as speed training for the SXC and that i would be giving it 100% every lap....so i did that
on the first lap me and an RAFCC rider stuck behind the pace car and ended up miles infront of the pack, i eased off slightly feeling the pace a little too quick for me.
I course its self was fooking ace the singletrack was in abundance and this allowed me to maintain a good placing through to the finish of the first lap where i came in third
handed over to mark with a swift change over in the pits.
Mark punctured. He tryed to straight line a corner that had a ditch in it lined with rocks.
swift change for him though and his use of C02 carts saw not too much time lost
the rest of the race saw us fighting to regain this time with the laps staying consistantly about 50-55 all day
we finished in 6th place in pairs
Mike and Neil finished 40mins down and took first place vets and 12th place over all (not bad given mine and marks combined ages (22 + 18) dont even make up half their teams age)
good event again by the no fuss team. and good scran by carolines kitchen
Friday, 11 July 2008
ABC midweek league round 7
this took place on tuesday in the form of a 26 mile APR round craichie
the groups were john on his own 3 mins then mark and steph then 3mins then mike and colin followed by myself , euan and neil at a further 3 mins
euan started like a steam train and just hauled all the way round , my GPS recorded an average of 39kph for the race ! me and euan dropped neil on the second sharp climb. dont think his chest was agreeing with the effort, much like mine at the first apr trying to keep up with euan.
we continued round passing people and eventually picked up mike milne. We continued round and came to the final climb, both Euan and Mike would outsprint me on the flat to the finish so i made a play on the climb but went slightly to early and was caught out by a false crest and really cramped badly. Finished in third though which im happy enough with , just to finish in the front pack is good enough for me at this as i hate pack racing on the roads ...to many tactics
Round 7: Craichie 25.5 mile APRDate: 8 July 2008 Name Points
1 Euan Ritchie 30
1 Mike Milne 30
3 Terry Davidson 26
4 Mark Smith 24
5 Stef Delaney 22
6 Colin Nicol 20
7 John Dougherty 18
8 Neil Raitt DNF
the groups were john on his own 3 mins then mark and steph then 3mins then mike and colin followed by myself , euan and neil at a further 3 mins
euan started like a steam train and just hauled all the way round , my GPS recorded an average of 39kph for the race ! me and euan dropped neil on the second sharp climb. dont think his chest was agreeing with the effort, much like mine at the first apr trying to keep up with euan.
we continued round passing people and eventually picked up mike milne. We continued round and came to the final climb, both Euan and Mike would outsprint me on the flat to the finish so i made a play on the climb but went slightly to early and was caught out by a false crest and really cramped badly. Finished in third though which im happy enough with , just to finish in the front pack is good enough for me at this as i hate pack racing on the roads ...to many tactics
Round 7: Craichie 25.5 mile APRDate: 8 July 2008 Name Points
1 Euan Ritchie 30
1 Mike Milne 30
3 Terry Davidson 26
4 Mark Smith 24
5 Stef Delaney 22
6 Colin Nicol 20
7 John Dougherty 18
8 Neil Raitt DNF
Friday, 4 July 2008
return to new zealand
thats it , no turning back now ! booked 2 flights to new zealand leaving the 17th of november and returning the 24th of march !
plan to land in chirstchurch , collect a pair of bikes as close to below as possible from a local shop whom ive yet to contact
ride down to see friends in invercargill , ride up the west coast to milford sound , then round to queenstown for xmas and up to wanaka for new year , continue up the west coast to nelson and picton. ferry over to wellington and ride up the center of north island to hamilton. taking in taupo and rotorua if we have time.
looking forward to it. not a cheap "holiday" by any stretch! but itll be great
just need to get "packed" and sort out some luggage ....got pannier but i think ill need more than 36 litres that i do tours here with .....
thanks to the guys on singletrackworld.co.uk and VORB.co.nz for helping me out with stuff , shop recomendations and bike recomendations.
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
ABC midweek league Rnd 6
As you may notice i havnt been doing all the round of the summer series. round 3 i was on holiday and feeling rough after Fyrish SXC and then round 5 was recovering from Mayhem.
Ive had a week roughly off the bike completely and wondered just how things would go last night. it was hard to get going at a pace i wasnt going to burn out at. one min i knew i was going too fast the next i was going too slow. made some silly errors involving gear choices.
Ive only ever ridden the course at glamis on my Duo(29:42) with an 11:34 rear block but i still had my mayhem gears on in the form of an alivio triple (22:32:44) and an 11:32 rear block which meant i had to use different gears for climbing ...or so i thought . turns out its just as easy to climb(those climbs) in 44:32 as it is in 42:34.
apart from getting lost on the first lap the race was pretty uneventful. took the front on the start straight and held it till the end with mark smith making a couple of threatening speed bursts and catching me up on the start finish straight.
woulda been a much faster race if the Mikes had been there. i was lapping 12 min laps and with them 10.30 laps is normal. but not totally unfeisable for me i wasnt pushing 100% once i got out in front so definantly room to push harder! im sure they will be there next time , 2 days after the Fort William SXC
Round 6: Glamis MTB XC (5 Laps)
Date: 1 July 2008
Name Time Points
1 Terry Davidson 1:00:56 30
2 Mark Smith 01:02:40 28
3 Colin Nicol 01:08:55 26
4 Neil Raitt 01:01:01 (-1 Lap) 24
5 Hamish Lean DNF
Ive had a week roughly off the bike completely and wondered just how things would go last night. it was hard to get going at a pace i wasnt going to burn out at. one min i knew i was going too fast the next i was going too slow. made some silly errors involving gear choices.
Ive only ever ridden the course at glamis on my Duo(29:42) with an 11:34 rear block but i still had my mayhem gears on in the form of an alivio triple (22:32:44) and an 11:32 rear block which meant i had to use different gears for climbing ...or so i thought . turns out its just as easy to climb(those climbs) in 44:32 as it is in 42:34.
apart from getting lost on the first lap the race was pretty uneventful. took the front on the start straight and held it till the end with mark smith making a couple of threatening speed bursts and catching me up on the start finish straight.
woulda been a much faster race if the Mikes had been there. i was lapping 12 min laps and with them 10.30 laps is normal. but not totally unfeisable for me i wasnt pushing 100% once i got out in front so definantly room to push harder! im sure they will be there next time , 2 days after the Fort William SXC
Round 6: Glamis MTB XC (5 Laps)
Date: 1 July 2008
Name Time Points
1 Terry Davidson 1:00:56 30
2 Mark Smith 01:02:40 28
3 Colin Nicol 01:08:55 26
4 Neil Raitt 01:01:01 (-1 Lap) 24
5 Hamish Lean DNF
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