Terry Davidson,Endurance Xc Racing

Im leaving on a jet plane !

2010-10-03T08:30:00.001+01:00

coming home - that is all !

new bike time !

2010-09-01T18:34:00.003+01:00

there are two holes in my assortment of bikes - 1 something i can ride over distance and 2 something i can hoon and just have good fun on ... These are 2 holes that have become apparent that i have not been racing so much and more riding for fun and enjoyment -i still enjoy riding long distances but i dont want to be full on flat backed head down arse up and uncomfy.

26inch wheels suck for distance - its all about the 29er , angle of attack is shallower and you feel less of the bumps - this i have proven to my self with a 400 quid gary fisher rig experiment - it then became my most ridden bike !

Bike number 1 - Ragley TD-1

Not only because my initials are T and D but because last year i was looking into having a custom made frame built up to my specs with 29 inch wheels , rohloff specific drop out , a nice low front end and ability to carry luggage. Then Brant came out with this bike. Im the first to admit ive not always seen eye to eye on some of Brants previous and even some of his current designs but thats why he is the designer and im just a rider. He certainly looks outside the box.

going for a cross between

Ade Wards (1st photo) look with forks similar to that of twinkly dave (2nd photo) - and i do prefer daves silver seat pin too

mines how ever is having a rohloff stuck in the rear end . XTR cranks , Stans arch rims , a brooks swallow Ti saddle , hope race x2 brakes , hope seat pin , headset , ceramic BB , front hub. ITs the first bike ive just built purely based on performance of the bits without too much consideration to the price - ive not just got wreckless - nothing is specified unless i think it will perform to the maximum. I could quite easily specifiy this bike with much lighter kit but the risk of it failing and leaving me in a hard spot is quite high !

Bike number 2 -Surly pugsley

Two reasons - i live in an area with alot of soft woodland trails, an area thats prone to lots of snow and could leave me unable to ride about the place for 3 months of the year. The main reason though is that stick in a bit more psi and you can have lots of fun hooning the downhills and rolling over stuff that would stop a normal bike .....

Malabo

2010-08-19T15:41:00.002+01:00

Things aint bad out here - the digs aint the best but tollerable , much better than bumbles hostel in nelson anyway.

Looks like a nice enough place tbh , spanish colony , speak a mix of spanish , french and pigeon english - all of them at a speed that i cannot understand - bit like me speaking scots to them;)

not allowed to take photos - infact company policy is no cameras - i have my phone camera so if i feel safe i may take some but not likely anything outside of base or the digs

Managing to get out running after work - who knows what i might get up to when i get back , might be tempted to actually do some real running races -its something i mentioned before about wanting to be a better runner but dont have the time with cycling all the time. Might actually make me a better cyclist being able to run !

Very warm running out here though - 30degrees and 98% humidity last night - sticky !

Off to africa

2010-08-06T13:18:00.003+01:00

not much to report , been on standby for a job coming up in africa.

so im off to malabo , equitorial guinea for a couple months starting august 16th !

hopefully it will pay for a new bike , intend to do this running training i keep talking about when im out there , hopefully the lack of the temptation to ride will entice me into thinking im getting fat and make me run.

Meantime im riding 35 miles each way with 4000ft climbing to work and back-excellent ride !

a rather badly timed photo

2010-07-12T14:37:00.004+01:00

(photo by footflaps)

but still provides much laughter ...

on the start line at kirroughtree I am paparazzied looking at steve webbs singular cycles mean machine with gears and suspension (unusual for a singular) but unfortunantly for me it looks like im up to no good.

(I dont know Lesley so hopefully she takes this in good humour if she sees it haha)

10 @ kirroughtree

2010-07-12T08:56:00.002+01:00

all quiet on the western front as i tried to cash in some of my banked miles in an effort to get a modicum of speed back into my legs last week in an effort to give mark and mike my best effort in our trio - and secretly wanting the fastest lap of our trio if not the event.

Don't think i achieved either but after 3 weeks completely off the bike i didn't expect much else.

I elected to go first off the line due to my aggressive riding style when riding in packs - i dont get bullied easy. Sat on the line with fraser giving us the pep talk and my front tire starts deflating (tubeless) so i frantically try to get it to seal - it does but is rather soft. I ride the lap with greig brown and find my self jumping off mid corner and dabbing lots as the tire squirms under me wildly.

Came in off the lap 4th behind nimmo , keswick mtb and velo 29 and find my tire had 9psi in it !

mark went out and put us in a strong position passing keswick and velo 29 (or so he tells me) followed by mike and the infamous flat tire - god knows what he hit but i think we need to buy shares in stans - he split the rim and tire.

the track was the best in the world for me i loved the mud - i mean seriously loved it , reminded me of my first downhill race back at strathyre on rigids and vbrakes ! It only got muddier as the day went on too.

the rest of the day went smooth with us eeking out the gap to the singular cycles trio in second.

Fraser opted to stop the race an hour early on grounds of light so i got the glory lap for a change and despite low light and crap conditions on course i put in my fastest lap of the day with some very very dodgy piloting - going round corners on the front wheel and launching straight over switch backs jumping into the next berm !

Jayne stayed firm on her decision to do solo despite the weather and the offer of a mixed trio. She came in off lap 1 in first place and thought she had been lapped ! We didnt let on that she was in first till the 8th hour where we told her she was 3 minutes down on second - she stormed the last lap despite a busted rear mech that meant the front rings only for gear choices. Final result - 1 lap up on second to win female solo. The result we have all (except her) been expecting from her for some time - she is getting stronger and more technical riding orientated all the time - the progression curve has been steep and quick !

Moving again .

2010-07-01T13:30:00.004+01:00

HAD to get out of the city - the city was killing me.

never been a city fan but equally never one to write something off without trying it.

With that in mind moving to the city onto one of the busiest roads probably wasnt clever !

Now jaynes been given a job at mearns academy which gave me the perfect excuse to get out.

now live right on the trails of drumtochty , fetteresso , durris and swanley hill with a trail network of a couple hundred miles(which will expand once i get started building) all in varying from fire road flowing technical singletrack DH to steep rocky 500m height gain climbs.

the trail head is at my door really - no road work at all to get onto them

we also gained at least double the space of our old flat for 125 quid a month more .... - an extra bedroom , a larger kitchen lounge and bathroom. as well as the quality of the furniture and finishings being about a billion times better.

You know the landlord cares about this place - esp after the vetting process we undertook...

shhhh dont tell jayne .....

2010-06-27T18:08:00.003+01:00

i often see oakley jawbones in glass cabinets in shops and i look at them lustfully thinking - i like them but i tell my self I cannot justify the price on a pair of glasses.

The other side of me thinks back to how great my old minutes were - how you never noticed them on your face . How you could wear them all day and just forget they were there. No rubbing , no weight , you just forgot they were on !

Because they were in that cabinet i never got to experience that and my subconscious would stop me asking for the glasses out of the case.

i had four hours to kill in george bush intercontinental today - i spotted a sunglasses hut and had a look round. Sure enough there were some jawbones - not in a case just on the shelf I tried them on - looked in the mirror and thought thats it , they look good behind the glass and that glass is the barrier that stopped me buying them in the past but once i stuck them on my face and felt that feeling that only oakley provides of "have i got them on my face or not" it was auto pilot.

The fact they were a fair chunk cheaper than the uk also helped - while still supporting livestrong !

now - dont tell jayne !

tooooo far

2010-06-20T17:02:00.007+01:00

its about that time of year - where i push my body a bit far. 1800k in 4 weekends +12k daily commute in the week

spent last weekend in bed under doctors orders not to ride my bike or do anything strenuous for a couple of weeks.

Severe viral chest infection saw me sent home from work at the end of the week before last. went to the doctors and was told to rest - so rest i did - weekend in bed , drove to see a house on monday and then drove to the west coast - kilchoan on ardnamurchan and read some books and generally chilled while Jayne did some big loops,

and then after the week was up i was due to fly to houston so i watched - ride the divide for the first time ! Seriously epic movie - i challenge you cyclists out there to watch it and not want to compete in the event or at least tour the trail !

Ride The Divide Movie Trailer from Ride The Divide on Vimeo.

Singletrack World » “Mountain Biking’s Greatest Race” Kicks Off Today

2010-06-11T16:45:00.000+01:00

Singletrack World » “Mountain Biking’s Greatest Race” Kicks Off Today

snow roads

2010-06-07T15:07:00.002+01:00

its that time of year again ....

Snow Roads 300km Audax
Find more Bike Rides in Kirriemuir, United Kingdom

was enjoyable - felt good to dufftown this year , ran out of fluids and consequently puff at tomnavoulin this year DOH

plans for next year are as a shake down for TD to attack this as per the audax then reverse it - riding the bike i plan to race on.

uk24 hour TT

2010-05-31T18:30:00.003+01:00

Have opted for a new challenge this year before i go to equitorial guinea for 4 months. That is to ride the uk 24 hour time trial run by the mersey roads club

in the run up to this ive been taking on some long distance audaxes with some mid wee k TTs

tuesday after 10 under the ben - club 17mile TT 43mins odds - wednesday after that a 10TT 24 odd mins

last saturday i packed up the road bike with my bivy kit and rode from aberdeen up deeside and over glenshee to forfar - then slept by the loch and rode the 200k deeside loop audax the following day - total riding 400k

audax - Deeside Loop 200k
Find more Bike Rides in Forfar, United Kingdom

This saturday i headed for portmahumock and rode the durness duress 300k on saturday (first man home and with 28kph ave) then rode the cromarty cruise 200k on the sunday

audax - Cromarty Cruise
Find more Bike Rides in Portmahomack, United Kingdom

audax - Durness Duress
Find more Bike Rides in Portmahomack, United Kingdom

Legs feel in good shape and i feel that my road legs are firmly on for the 24 , 24tt on the road bike is going to be a million miles from the 24 on the mtb - but at least i know i have the head for sitting on the bike for 24 !

I think this new level of suffering will stand me in good stead for the tour divide 2012.

the next two weeks will see me riding the snow roads 300 as i did last year - 5000m climbing and then the only for softies 600.

10 under the ben

2010-05-22T11:34:00.002+01:00

its that time of the year again .

Quietly confident in my abilitys after the success at the puffer i lined up near the front for the lemans start. Reached the chaos that was the bikes with little hassle and got going , worked my way up to the front for the decent from the pipe.

2 laps in running in 3rd place i lost a spoke in my rear wheel , resulting in the tire rubbing the frame. Had to stop to repair it to save destroying the frame. Lucky i had a few spares in the van

Got going again , had lost 3 or 4 place managed to get back into my rhythum and just turning the pedals.

Big improvement over last year whereby i had major achillies issues.

The finish of my 9th lap came and i had to stop again , thought my frame had snapped but the course had just taken its toll on my rear wheel to the point that it just flexed really badly under pedaling. Decided that at worst id loose too places and it wasnt worth risking a 90 quid rim to possibly come 8th - different if i was in with a podium shot though !

as it happened i didnt move down at all and stayed in 10th , had i got the 10th lap in it woulda been 8th, live and learn - wheels are off back to whence they came for warrenty due to where the spokes are snapping - my experiance of wheel building tells me that somethings not right - dead center of the spokes , not the threads of the shoulder. Suspect dodgy spokes !

Jayne also soloed and got an excellent 5th place in a really tough field on her new merida HFX. Think the bike gets a thumbs up !

Holidays

2010-05-21T11:30:00.000+01:00

took a week off work at the end of april there and since jayne wasnt off i decided to test out the space in the van by living in it for a week.

Saturday - 150k audax
sunday - 100k audax
Monday - drumlanrig and wanlockhead - 100k
tuesday - gypsys glen -30k + 10mile TT
wednesday - fix bike and 10 mile TT
Thursday - Corriarricyk pass double from laggan 85k
friday drive home

Miles were good , weather was as good as could be asked for at the time of year , little chilly but dry(ish). Van is comfortable for 1 plus 2 bikes - and its pretty inconspicuous !

some really bad photos from ABC winter series

2010-03-16T17:38:00.002Z

After 1 lap it became clear my legs were fooked after the effort of the run yesterday - although i recover quickly from riding my legs do not like running one bit ! so i dropped out and did a spot of photography - it would seem that like running , this too requires regular practice and i ended up with a bunch of fuzzy out of focus shots - either that or the lads were just simply too fast for my camera

From glamis winter series

The wee tri

2010-03-16T17:31:00.002Z

So as events go it went well - but youd think id learn from my mistakes right ?

Sadly it seems not - how many events do i have to do to learn that if i just did a wee bit of running outside of events i might actually win something ?

400m swim - 6 mins 24 - extatic with that result as i havnt swum since september - although its a distance that takes not very long so you can just beast it and be done with it

10 mile bike ride - on a fixed wheel cyclocross bike - 47 mins something. Not bad - bike was the best of a bad bunch - only bike with more than a 54inch gear (82inch)

this put me into a 2 minute lead over anyone else coming into the run ....

3 mile run took me 30 minutes - thats 10 minute miles ! that SUCKS PB for 3 miles is 18.30 - when i ran a fair bit - thats my first run since january even then it was a sporadic notion that i would do it more often and its shown up pretty well that i didnt !

finished 3rd in the end - beaten in an asmathic sprint to the finish for second

Jayne how ever finished 1st senior lady , coming off the bike in a similar position to my self - ie with a lead , only to be overtaken by a womans vet whos a very good runner ! to finish second overall

Good weather and good results all round

The Wee Tri & abc XC race

2010-03-12T16:16:00.003Z

Off to see frazer and chums at no fuss events for the first no fuss race of the year

a wee triathlon - 400m pool swim - 10 mile run -3mile run

good warm up for sundays penultimate round of the ABC winter series.

Would have been nice to have the skins compression wear i ordered earlier in the week perfect chance to try them out but hum ho.

Will be good to get a battle going with mark on sunday though after a winter plagued by injury for him - still seems to be going strong ! -

half an hour till the road trip begins !

where did the duck go ?

2010-03-09T10:56:00.003Z

(smoking)

Thats right - the duck went to loch ness !

(no im not going mad , it was something for jayne guide unit)

Its cold out !

2010-03-03T22:26:00.005Z

hands up who thought we had had our snow for the year ? Not so up here in aberdeen unfortunantly !

Rode to work with the intention of getting 5 hours on the bike after work. Rode into kirkhill from the overton side and immediately i knew it wasnt going to be a fast 5 hours.

spent the next hour pushing anything vaguely uphill due to the 3 inches of frost crusted snow - Got across the forest and opted to go off into tyrebagger and elrick which was an awful lot less painful to ride. Lots more foot traffic meant nicely compacted snow to ride on. Lovely sun set from the top of then hill too

met up with the ecurie neeps (www.ecurieneeps.co.uk) at 6.30 for their weekly night ride and rode some new stuff and some old stuff.

2010 Tour divide

2010-03-02T14:00:00.004Z

http://tourdivide.org/2010_letters_intent

http://swilko07gdr.blogspot.com/2007/11/introduction.html

http://pleskogreatdivideride2008.blogspot.com/2008/06/well.html

http://greatdividekiwi.blogspot.com/

just a bit of light reading there - i can feel it calling as i have for many years past - its time to set a date !

Summer 2012 -in 18 months time i break out from training at work so can begin to broach the subject with my boss about taking the time off to do the tour divide

Of course it also gives me the time to get in some training ;) Audaxes and endurance races as well as plenty of living in the woods !

hanging up the mocha

2010-02-26T10:29:00.003Z

Its race season soon , giving up my daily coffee fix or rather i "have" given up my daily coffee fix.

From drinking 3 or 4 cups a day to nothing , cold turkey.

Lethargy and tiredness set in

Managed 5 days - then had a can of coke - was buzzing.

This is why im giving up caffiene - so i can get a "buzz" from it when im racing.

Tune in to watch Dougie at his limits, as well as the hardest of hardcore endurance athletes

2010-02-19T22:59:00.002Z

i didnt even make that title up - thats what the adventure show wrote ....

Watch the adventure show on february 28th at 19:00 on bbc2

after 17 continuous laps they have to have SOME usable footage of me - where i didnt swear , fall off , make a stupid comment , run over the cameraman/shove him in a pond

Consistency is key

2010-02-15T07:14:00.003Z

after a hit and miss season last year with peaks and troughs of huge magnitude the aim this year is not to destroy but to keep my self kinda level , rather than turn up to a race and take the lottery of either doing really well or DNF id take some lower placings but have a more stable results base - either that or to discover when im going well and when im not so i can plan round it - by the time i know if im going well or not its usually too late to do owt about it !

Anyway i rode with my HRM yesterday at the 4th round of the ABC winter series and got some interesting results

1 hour 10 , average hr of 184 and a max of 191 riding a singlespeed round glamis station woods

Terry Davidson 1 1.12.18 19.05 13.05 13.25 13.10 13.33

Colin Murray 2 1.14.56 19.07 13.28 13.50 14.13 14.18

Mike Webster 3 1.17.40 19.09 13.34 14.35 14.07 15.13

If thats not a consistent pace from me i dont know how to get more consistent ! I eased off on the last lap as the course has a cross over point that i know is about 1min up if i can get there before 2nd place although the times say i didnt ease up that much ! Cracking race but better to see mark back on his bike (not racing but riding at least) hopefully we can get some damage done in late season pairs races this year !

Who turned the tap on !

2010-02-14T14:00:00.002Z

I think its understandable to say that a lack of enthusiasm for riding my bike after the puffer is an understatement brought home by the fact i removed my bike to race today with the number AND mud still attached.

quick brush down , change out the 21 tooth cog for a 16 and a lube of the chain and out we go.

Feeling stronger on the bike than ever , things i was running up pre christmas im riding up , things i rode standing im powering up in the saddle. If anything the puffer and 3 weeks rest has gained me strength in buckets.

Feeling all enthused again and im ready to tear up tarmac before work in the mornings now - I was finding it hard to get motivated for obvious reasons , id get up at 6am and eat breakfast then just sit around listening to radio till it was time to ride(4 miles) to work rather than go for some real pre-work milage.

coming soon (slowely) to a race near you !

2010-02-10T14:05:00.001Z

My blue bucket has become a bit of a joke really. My wreakless abandon shows how much feeling i have my old 200 quid car ! If you raced at the puffer you may have chuckled at my parking half into a snow drift at the top of the fire road.

Fed up with its lack of locking , lack of windscreen washers ,Its ability to drink fuel like i drink milk (30mpg or less with bike rack on) and impending MOT i saved up some dosh and bought some new wheels !

Its a 1.9D peugeot partner van with 38k on the clock- its as slow as shit but returns 60MPG+ does 70mph and its comfortable for me at 6 ft 3. The hyundai required the seat right back , the back at 45 degrees and the sun roof visor open to stop my head touching the roof ! . Even then it was guesswork as to where the bonnet was as i couldnt see it !

The van swallows bikes effortlessly and keeps them protected from the salt on the road! i used to put my race bike across the back seats of the car for this very reason - it now has oily stains all over it !

Inside my 29er gary fisher rig - possibly the longest wheelbase in the world , and jaynes old scott - no bother - also has my kit bag in there and still had room to effortlessly take jaynes bag for 5 weeks away (the same bag i used for 3.5 months on the road) and its getting another bike put in there for tomorrows trip to innerleithen.

Thanks to pizza cutter front wheels and low power vs torque it handles starting on ice and snow no bother to my delight today as we negotiated aberdeen in what can only be described at chaos ... climbing hills with cars going in all directions trying to regain traction - 2nd gear no accelerator lift the clutch - zero slippage and she just cruised up.

Strathpuffer 2010

2010-01-20T18:11:00.009Z

big up to the people of squarewheels cycling club for finding us a course to race on under the 15 inches of snow that coated the course last week.

after a stressful drive up the a96 which took 5 hours as banffshire seemed to want to repair every hole in their roads on friday , i arrived in dingwall to

be greated by the worlds worst steakpie supper !. Off to Contin and made my way up the fire road to find a decent spot for my solo pits - read car reversed into the snow drift and abandoned !

(the twinklyone- edit its actually Jase the other ragley rider.....)

Set the bivvy up with my minus 20 sleeping bag and rab bivvy bag ontop of 2 kathmandu thermarests and grabbed some kip. Had a great nights sleep better than any night in a tent

The race started with an spd mince over the ice covered road to the bike. Straight away i realised i was on the wrong gear for a 24 hour race - 32:18
The first lap was tough enough to ride as it was , we were left to clear the downhills and some sections that the guys hadnt quite had time to clear. I resorted to walking up the snow covered uphils rather than expend energy this early on. After 3 laps i decided to stop and change gear & brake pads. 32:21 and some disco sintered pads.
(mikey on the plastic prowler;))
the rest of the race followed a similar pattern - Lap , eat , lap , eat repeat . after a 8 laps i installed more brake pads and changed to my endura stealth jacket with open vents. At some point in the night i stopped and picked up a flashing rubber duck from the stream- this resulted in a bottle of Squirt Lube & Cube water bottle.

About 4am the guys in the pits told me that i was gaining time on Simon hayes of godiva trail riders - he was a lap and 20 mins up on me at this point but i was gaining , over the next lap i managed to unlap my self and get back on track for what i came to do , my head got into a good place and i kept plugging away - i gained 50mins over simon on the next lap and at 6am or so i came across a broken looking simon pushing his bike with a sore back from pushing 32:18. I can only imagine how much pain he was in as i was incredibly sore from 32:21

I did 1 more lap and it really hurt , was really cold and i thought that would be enough for the solo SS win - sat in with jo , roberta , big al and TJ someone mentioned that simon was infront of me again or at least potentially could be as we were on equal laps. I perked up , found my gloves and stormed off up the hill in search of simon. Giving it everything i had , leaving Alek Rozin and Twinklydave (two fellow soloists) in a spin as to A , why i was going so fast at the end of the race and B Why i was able to go so fast at the end of the race.
(Unknown trail of light through the dark)

The truth being i dont really know , adrenalin does funny things to you. I pedaled as hard as i could and when i couldnt pedal I ran and dragged my bike , all the while thinking simon must be round the next corner or the next or the next . Eventually i got back to the pits 50 mins later and it dawned on me - either simon never went out on that last lap or simon had won !

i got into the pits and simon shook my hand congratulating me on my win he had never gone out on the last lap we had infact spoken before i went out when i was panicing about my lost gloves , it didnt dawn on either of us what i was doing !
(jo cardwell)
Alex slaven is a machine ! pushing out countless near identical laps for first place solo with the boys from Ragley , Dave and jase following close behind ! then behind them the first solo singlespeeder (me)

From Drop Box

(The aftermath in my bath ! )

the other ABC guys had a hell of a time with pops bike getting left in forfar , Baffs seatpin snapping , neillys brakes going AWOL but still did really well regardless with a 2nd in pairs and a 4th in quads !

(all photos from Keith Harris except my bath)

mckeith would have a heart attack ....

2010-01-13T21:43:00.002Z

microwave meals , custard , rice pudding , neat honey , lucozade , lots of bananas , lots of mars refuel ......

hopefully it will all get used when the going gets muddy.

The only thing left is something you cant buy and thats my performance - ive prepared for it as best i can , ive done the miles , ive done the stretches the only thing left is to hope the planets line up and my stealth kit does its job !

Weather looks grim at best !

See you on monday

its awfae cold

2010-01-08T08:33:00.003Z

its the question on everyone in the offices lips - "did you ride in this morning in that ? "

Its been blizzard , its been -15 , its been foot deep snow.

everydays a fun day. Id like to say its because i want to - but some days you look out at back door and think "ill take the car". You force your self onto the bike and walk to the front and see the traffic and remind you self why the bike is a good idea.

Wearing L/S base layer , 200 wt polar tech fleece , stealth jacket, 650 wt down vest , stealth extreme trews , Salomon ski socks , goretex boots , gore balaclava , liner gloves and lobster claws - most clothes ive ever worn on a bike but i was just right temp wise ...

Me in -15 today !

runners vs cyclists 2010

2010-01-01T13:03:00.003Z

This is a fun mid winter race - half cyclocross and lots of running.

With the conditions being 3 inches of crusty frozen snow the runners had the advantage this year. The start straight we got ahead of them , suffered along the snow back to the stairs and by the top of the steep bank they had caught us.

only one thing to do in that situation .... keep pushing hard

I ran off from the top of the banking which is a slight incline that i could not ride up in 32:16 without the wheels spinning. This gave me a gap over the other guys on gears which i held through the bog and to the next steep icy climb. By this point i looked back and saw that Neill raitt had started to make ground on my on his CX bike.

on SS the only thing to do is push harder .... so i did and that they say is that .

runners won by 6 mins at just over 30mins but conditions played their part in that. i came in 14th as first cyclist at 36 mins followd by Mikey Milne and the doc in a sprint for the line in 39mins

ice and snow and snow and ice

2009-12-27T19:15:00.002Z

not as many long epics to report on this year for base milage - mostly coming from commuting too and from work and riding round the city.

home in Arbroath for christmas this year though ,significantly colder than NZ this time last year :( been getting the miles in at least
auchmithie ice trails - good representation of the puffer ! on christmas day

riding down the melt water river up the sidlaws on boxing day

all my winter milage this year has been done on singlespeed , both my mtbs and my road bike are all running SS and it seems to keep the legs spinning and the pace down rather than grunting away in monster gears .....

Bealach na Ba

2009-12-08T07:29:00.002Z

From Drop Box

Last weekend me and jayne rode the Bealach na Ba climb over to applecross and round the loop to Sheildaig and back from lochcarron.

Excellent loop for Climbs and Scenary ! Looking out over the Cullins from the top in t winter sun !

From Drop Box

The actual Bealach isnt as bad as everyone i know whos ridden it makes out - cycling weakly seems to agree with Mike Cottys reviews (a man i feel is very qualified to say its not that hard ;) ) The loop however becomes a toughy when someone blows in your face for most of it at 30kph! its not flat despite looking it on the route profile there are 4 or 5 different 20-25% climbs on the loop.

Take food cause you wont find any on the loop.

Route - 95k
Climb - 2000m

From Drop Box

Getting there!

2009-12-08T07:25:00.002Z

working now - not as much spare time as i once had , working all day training all night ;)

From Bikes and bits

Singlespeeded my merida in preparation for the strathpuffer in which ive decided to do the solo singlespeed catagory. So got three bikes ripe for the riding now.

Working on the finer points of chain tension on the merida though its not finished - does look good as an SS though!

Mid way through my build training for the puffer , monster ride next week should see me good for 4 weeks taper/recovery (from the cold no doubt) into the race over christmas

Endura kit arrived :D , sids and Ritchey WCS

2009-10-21T20:34:00.002+01:00

just got some Endura Stealth equipment for winter training and the puffer

1 stealth jacket
1 stealth extreme bib longs
1 stealth lite bib long
1 pair of deluge gloves

wore them home through the torrential rain and rode through loads of puddles

dry as a bone the stuff really is a work of art - didnt sweat up and wet out from the inside from sweat.

Although the endura Extremes did feel "warm" and would strictly be cold day only kit the jacket with a base layer under was perfect and didnt feel too warm in the slightest even with the vents all shut.

Also got my sids back from warrenty - the lowers were twisted after relentless - common fault apparently. Fisher spotted a leaky motion control so changed it out for a world cup blackbox damper (to replace my basic race motion control) and put on new sid team lowers.

and courtesy of the STW classifieds i have a seat post with 25mm layback to make my Merida fit correctly as the thomson post was "inline" and set me too far over the pedal.

Gary fisher Rig has returned .....

2009-10-21T20:30:00.002+01:00

Grampian police did a sterling job and i was without my Gary Fisher rig for only a week

unfortunantly the asshat has done some vandalism :(

It had Ergon grips on and they just hacksawed off the "ergon" part and glued them to the bars removing the bar ends :@

They replaced the EA70 seat pin and Specialized seat with a fat hybrid saddle and suspension seat post.

They repaired the rear puncture and put the wheel in pretty much all wrong and didnt tighten it !

But at least i have it back !

Looking good ! Relentless

2009-10-12T07:48:00.004+01:00

Been pretty quiet on the bike front for a wee bit , letting my self have some time off and head recovery for my winters plans. Since ive moved to Aberdeen ive been doing a 3 mile each way commute and ive done 2 , 90k rides.

Sat in the flat playing fastest finger first on the laptop to see who gets a strathpuffer 2010 entry.

I got lucky

So based on that i quickly got in touch with frazer at Nofuss events and sorted out an entry to Relentless 24.

We left on Friday night and headed over the lecht to the grey corries lodge at roy bridge for a good nights sleep before the race. In bed at 10pm a first for me i think. Up at 8 and at the race by 9. Signed on , pit set up , speak to a few friends and line up for the lemonds start.

Off we went. New tactics for me - real food , fruit juice and taking it easy. No point in racing wont last not done enough milage!

[photo by oliver coats of www.olivercoats.co.uk]

Rode with josh ibbett for 3 laps till i had to stop for some real food , then with Dave Buchanan again till food , then Twinklydave till i stopped again. All of us working the same policy of riding easy till 3/4am rather than racing hard, training ride all round.

All went well , my new USE exposure Maxx D and Joystick were infailible and gave out so much light it was a revelation over riding with my old dinottes.

From Drop Box

Got caught out in my quest for 3rd place and got caught in heavy rain and bitterly cold winds on my last 2 laps wearing a non waterproof softshell which soaked me to the skin and my body just shut down. Ended the morning at 6am sat in the cafe wearing 3 warm jackets with a blanket round me right next to the fire shivering for an hour eating food till my body let me regain control!

Stopping didnt hurt my result that much, dropped from 4th to 6th as the top 4 (josh , dave , dave and me) were that far ahead of the rest.

Happy with that for a training ride ! Bring on the puffer (new waterproof that breaths i think for that one)

Stolen GARY FISHER RIG aberdeen !

2009-10-12T07:00:00.000+01:00

From Drop Box

IF anyone trys to sell this to you or you see it ride by - rattle some sense into them please or tell me where you saw them !

They also stole an Angus bike chain Windtex top , Endura superlite Gilet and a pair of arm warmers (my only pair without a hole :( )

Scum !

Quiet but lots happening

2009-08-28T18:30:00.003+01:00

Not updated much as not much of note has happened except the following

Jayne Crashed at 10 more @Moray and knocked her self out
I crashed at Moray more @ Moray and trashed my shoulder
I learned to ride the unicycle on grass
I got a new job
I am in the process of moving to Aberdeen
I finish at Angus Bike Chain tomorrow(Saturday)

ng she had no idea what she was doing or where she was ! Stopped at the next medics wagon and a blue light taxi down the hill

I should probably elaborate on the some of those points:

Jayne hit a jump a bit to confidently (which is a great thing) but miss judged her speed and body position and it threw her over the handle bars. Splitting her helmet front to back and knocking her out for a few seconds. She got up quickly and rode on before realizing she had no idea what she was doing or where she was ! Stopped at the next medics wagon and a blue light taxi down the hill

Since our race was over i decided to try to ride the unicycle that was floating round our pits - within a couple of hours i was zooming up and down the field we were pitched in.

On monday i got a call from John Fraser @ Alpine Bikes Aberdeen making an offer of employment so as of Monday next week i am an Alpine Bikes Mechanic.

I have a flat in Aberdeen now - 2 miles from kirkhill right on the edge of town near Dyce.

Pitlochry 200k

2009-08-16T23:19:00.004+01:00

So take 1 x 210k audax add 1 25k ride to get there add in fixed wheel and a pannier and 1 unbroken in brooks saddle and what do you get ?

I dunno.

Today was fun actually not sure why but it was. Legs dont hurt as much as they should for some reason probably due to the lactic acid getting thrown to the far corners of the universe as my legs rotate at 173rpm.

Arbroath to forfar-pitlochry - tummel bridge - kinloch rannock - tummel bridge - queensview - pitlochry -over moulin moor - kirkmicheal -down glen isla and home as shown in the map.

From Drop Box

The bike in question although it had a pannier on it for today !

Brooks saddle - although no broken in it got noticably softer today (ive only done 250k previously on it and took a risk with today) but its the first time ive covered this distance on anything other than my ochterergonomo (tm) saddle and not had sores or numbness. A huge thumbs up from me , all the old geezers at these audaxs aint just buying into folklore they actually work !

Few stats from the day

8.3 million inches were cycled during the audax or 210k
Average cadence of 70RPM
Average speed of 25kph
Max cadence of 173rpm at 61.5KPH
Min cadence of 8rpm at 3.5 KPH (think trackstand with slight forward motion and lots of body english)

Map below

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-kingdom/forfar/269487503"&amp;gt;Pitlochry 200&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-kingdom/forfar"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Forfar, United Kingdom&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Dundee Thistle 25TT

2009-08-08T18:18:00.002+01:00

Well since the start of the year Euans been challenging me to go for a sub hour on a 25TT.

The Dundee thistle TT on a road i know is an ideal road for having a crack. Glamis Junction to Coupar angus , round the roundabout and back as fast as you can.No tactics no nothing.

Got Jamies Merida Scultura EVO907 AGAIN , fitted my tribars AGAIN and pedaled hard again !

Wasnt sure how it would go , got to the roundabout in Coupar Angus at 31mins , meaning i had gone too slow on the outward leg. I didnt feel like i was giving 100% but i wanted to make sure i had gas for the home stretch. As it happened i had a slight tailwind on the way home and sat between 25 and 30mph for the whole distance. Passing several people who had gone out too hard and blown up (evident by the way they had sat up off the tri bars and were twidling little gears to get home).

From Bicycle riding in scotland

[At the turn - photo by James Lyons]
The last climb on the course is hell , i could feel my legs dwindling away and the speedo going down and down to 17mph , then at the top i managed to wind the compact gearing back up to 30mph and held it all the way to the line watching the time on the flightdeck creep ever closer to the hour.

I recorded a 59:35 on the flightdeck but the official time is a 59:27 which im very happy with. Scope to take more off this yet im sure !

From Bicycle riding in scotland

[In Meigle on the return - Photo by "fatdave" of Dundee Thistle]

CTC end to end article

2009-08-04T16:13:00.002+01:00

From Terry Davidson,Endurance Xc Racing

Click to read

From Terry Davidson,Endurance Xc Racing

Click to read

From Terry Davidson,Endurance Xc Racing

click to read

From Terry Davidson,Endurance Xc Racing

click to read

2009 sid race travel change 80-100mm

2009-07-31T19:29:00.005+01:00

From Drop Box

Wanted to change the travel of the above forks to 100mm as you can see from the picture the front end of the race bike was a little low and as a result often found my self using lots of travel and with sore forearms. Id heard several different storys about these internals - 1 that you needed a special pronged tool to do it - 2 that they were 2 different set of forks and that they couldnt be changed. Knowing the second was bullshit , that the 1st could probably be bodged & Being a cycle mechanic to trade i went for an explore. Opting to treat it like a reba.

Tools needed

1 deep drive quarter inch drive 10mm socket (with hole up the center to fit over -ve air
Circlip pliers
5mm allen key
Rubber mallet

Directions

First Let the air out both chambers.
Pull rebound adjuster off - needs a firm tug
loosen the resultant 5mm allen key a good few turns but dont remove- ensure there are quite a few threads engaged.
Give the allen key a tap with the rubber mallet
Remove -ve air cap
Unscrew the 10mm foot bolt by sliding the deep drive socket over the air valve.
using something soft - i used an old hammer shaft - give the air valve a tap similar to the allen key.
Remove allen key bolt
Lower legs should now pull off
on the air cartridge side remove the circlip with circlip pliers.
Give the damper a pull and it will remove from the slider
Remove or install the travel adjust spacer as per rebas.
Reinstall damper unit with circlip
Clean out the seals and bushes for reassembly with some fresh 5 weight oil.
Reinstall lowers being careful of seals and bushes.
Reinstall the 5mm allen key and the nut onto the air valve paying attention to the Torque values on the SRAM website
Reinflate fork check the sag marks on the fork and ensure the correct set is availible for the travel settings you think you have
Plug in rebound adjuster ensuring it is fully seated
Enjoy your new front end being plusher and higher !

Warning - Blackbox motion control damper equiped forks EG Team and WC may be different - but i doubt it as the travel adjust is on the air cart side not motion control.

Brooks Saddle

2009-07-31T01:45:00.002+01:00

Decided after trying several saddles to find an adequate comparison for either my original ti flites or my ouchterlonie modified flite ti and failing miserably despite trying Specialised alias - comp , Selle italia flite SLR 135 , Prologo Nago and team pas , Several WTB numbers and some bontragers i just havnt found anything that fits well.

comfiest saddle i own. Keeping it for ultra long distance events now as its getting severally worn and the chap that made it is no longer local - local being the same land mass.

My latest quest for a comfortable saddle - at least for my training bike has brought me to brooks of england. Now i know you all think these saddles are only to be ridden on audaxes by men with beards. So what - good enough for men who can ride all day and all night - sleep for 20 mins in a bus stop and go again. Sounds like a saddle that i should have on my bike no doubt !

[Brooks B17 in honey]

This now lives on the tricross i bought a month or so ago. Done 60kms on it tonight straight out the box with a light proofiding. So far its proving to be the correct shape and fairly comfortable. With no pain after getting off the bike as has become the norm of late after similar distance on some of the saddles i mentioned above - other than the flites i have on some of my bikes , one of which ive ridden on all day ever day for 3 months with no ill effects - some of the others ive tried i cant even ride for 2 hours !

Monikie Duathlons Final round

2009-07-31T01:39:00.004+01:00

Managed to blag Pauls Giant TCR advanced for the last round - despite it being "officially" slower than the merida i used for the last round - it fits me better.

Stuck on my profile T2+ bars and away we went

to beat Paul and take 3rd place in the series i had to get a sub 58minutes for the 5k run and 20k cycle.

tried a different technique for the run (i do very little running at the moment due to injury) which was to run at high cadence with short steps - much like my cycling. Rather than big strides , slowely like i usually do. This allowed me to take another 30 seconds off my 5k time and push it down to 21.30

On the bike i felt like this did not help me and i felt slower on the bike overall. Not much slower when looking at the clock but i was slower.

Managed a 57minutes for the event and took 3rd place in senior catagory - no prize as "the entry uptake was too low" despite advertising prizes for top 3 in the main catagorys. Needs to advertise better me thinks !

WWW.Eventfull.biz (thats a freebee - lots of events based in angus needing competitiors)

10 @ Kirroughtree disaster

2009-07-31T01:38:00.002+01:00

tubes suck - mechs + rocks suck - achillies suck

That is all !

Look maw - i can manual !

2009-07-05T21:55:00.003+01:00

[www.exposure-scotland.co.uk]

Found this on a site of a marshall taking photos at the strathpuffer lite race.

Dont know if merida will like me doing that with there bike but it was rude not to when i saw the photographer pointing the camera at me.

New Training bike

2009-07-05T21:41:00.002+01:00

After all sorts of issues regarding my Training bike which was

From Bikes and bits

[1990s puch road bike turned into a fixie]

At 54 cm TT it was just too damned small. I decided to stick it up for sale and find something a bit more fitting and along came

From Bikes and bits

Second hand for 200 quid - the guy didnt like singlespeed (nutter) so picked it up stuck on some middleburns i had lying around that wouldnt sell due to being 110 ATB fitting and a surly 14 tooth cog and became very chuffed that the rear wheel could be 42:21 or 42:14 without changing the chainlength due to the length of the drop out just turn the wheel, drop the pads and ride . Great thinking from specialized there. Fits great - really comfy from the box with the stock saddle on which is unknown for me !

Should be a good bike for riding out on friday nights with the ABC mtb ride. 42:14 ride there - 42:21 on the mtb ride ( currently ride 32:16 on a 29er) and then back on 42:14 - should cut down about half an hour on my normal time to get there.

Angus Bike Chain Hill climb Championships

2009-06-30T22:46:00.004+01:00

Its not a race ANYONE in the club looks forward to its roughly 10 minutes of pure lactate inducing vomit nearing hell.

But we all come back for it

Craigowl hill - roughly 200metres climbing in roughly a mile.

sounds not that bad till you realise most of the climbing is done in the first half mile as it goes near vertical - you realise 39-25 isnt quite enough just as you reach the cattle grid at the bottom and it looms over you like a wall!

note the road going up vertically in the distance beyond the cows. It then turns sharp right , goes over another cattle grid and round the side of the hill all the way to the mast on the top. By the top of that vertical bit your legs are in a world of hurt , you wanna spew but you can still see the boy infront.

If you dont colapse over the line then you didnt try hard enough.
I colapsed alright took me ages to get my breath back !

Round 10: Hillclimb Championship
Date: 30 Jun 2009
Position
Name Time
1 Terry Davidson 00:07:49
2 Neil Raitt 00:08:13
3 Mike Milne 00:08:54
4 Hamish Lean 00:09:57
5 Euan McArthur 00:10:13
6 Scott Davidson 00:10:42
7 Jayne Taylor 00:11:01
8 Steve Smith 00:14:15

I got a wee cup with some names on - Only cup ill ever get my name on that James O has his name on im sure !

Wimps Puffer - or was it !

2009-06-29T09:44:00.003+01:00

Riding a 12 hour summer version of the Strathpuffer in june sounds glorious compared to riding 24 hours in the mud,rain and snow of the "real" Strathpuffer in January (which ive done twice)

So when the entrys came up for "Puffer lite" me and Mark jumped on it. "Ach that`ll be a piece of piss we said"

We forgot one very small thing about scotland in summer in the north......

From Strathpuffer lite

[MIDGES]

The little gits came out in their droves as soon as the intense sun went in for the night.

With a relitively small field entered but lots of names we did not know we were both unsure how we would do although went into it aiming for a podium. Alex Glasgow assured us he hadnt done much training and had been ill for 6 weeks so "wasnt going well"

Mark made me do the first lap so i had a couple hundred meters running where i noticed i forgot my pump , lucky the race went past the pits so i grabbed another pump from Mark. We got a shift on up the climb and i moved into 2nd position behind Alex. I say behind - i couldnt actually see alex. This is where we stayed for the rest of race. Behind the 2 Alex` but second over all. The Squarewheels under 16 4 man team threatened our second place for a while but they eased off as the early hours came in.

From Strathpuffer lite

[the ABC pits at the top of the first climb]

The course also seemed alot rougher in places than the winter puffer.It developed alot more braking bumps than in the winter and as a result this took its toll on your upper body. Still an excellent course which is technically challenging instead of the boring round a field stuff we get in other places. Certainly was alot faster in the dry with the fastest laptime of the day being set by Alex Glasgow at 29.29 and that included the lemans start !

Me and mark averaged around 35mins a lap which kept us busy , it also meant that eating was hard so i kept my eating simple , sugar/gels and dried fruit.

From Strathpuffer lite

[energy food]

Big thanks to John McCallum for not only giving me one c02 can when mine blew up in my face on lap 7 at the furthest point from the pits on the course but for giving me another when it transpired that the one he gave me first was empty. He went on to take second in the solos. Colin Olden won the solo men - "do i really need to do this lap" he shouted at 7.50 - John has to do a 33min lap to even attempt another lap Colin. "Oh in that case im stopping if he manages a 33min lap at this stage then he deserves to win".
Dont know if i fancied my chances on that course, Im not a strong guy in the upper body department and im sure id have felt really beaten up on that course after not too long.Also Gavin Mclean did 9 laps on his own at a pace which kept him in the top 3 of pairs till he blew up(understandably). His team mate Hendry Mcnicol became ill after his second lap and emptied his stomach contents across the pits.

From Strathpuffer lite

[it seems after 12 hours racing ive forgotten to smile]

From Strathpuffer lite

[Team mates - the Colins(your left or my right) in third place]

From Strathpuffer lite

Mark in celebration mode PRE race.

Driving down the road after the event became interesting and after about 20mins showed its self to be dangerous so we stopped in inverness morrisons and slept for about half an hour had 2 iced coffees and a lucozade alert before pressing on. Mark how ever decided he needed a snooze ...

From Strathpuffer lite

Good event and other organisers take note.
Technical courses
Live results on a webfeed (as our pits were so far from the race center due to space issues at venue it saved a very long walk each time we wanted to see results)
Good catering

Its not all about the bike

2009-06-26T00:31:00.003+01:00

But it sure does help.

From Bikes and bits

I managed to get a demo on a Merida Scultura evo 705 for the latest round of the Monikie summer series. I put my tri bars on and dropped the front end as low as possible.

From Drop Box

[me and John matched for pace almost all the way round]
With my Achillies and knee issues from the last round showing no signs of flairing up recently , largely due to my newly learnt stretches for hip flexors. I managed to improve on my run by just over 3 mins reducing my deficit to catch Paul up on the bike.I entered the bike section 2.5 mins behind paul having covered the 5kms in 22mins.

From Drop Box

[possibly the only time ill ever beat Jannette on the run!]

Once out on the bike i settled into the aero position , found the saddle a little uncomfortable but that may have been the lack of padding in my orca tri shorts. I picked off riders one by one all the way round till at last turning at michelin i had paul in my sights.

The course climbs all the way from the turn at michelin i made ground on him while climbing until he spotted me and tried to make a break on the flat to keep away from me. 50:12 at 120rpm gives a max speed of 38mph , but i wasnt catching him while he was turning 53:12.

Once we hit the newbiggin hill it was all over for Paul. I span past him and took the coveted third spot from him.

From Drop Box

[me lifting from aerotuck coming into the finish]
Run 22.03 and bike 35.18 - taking a minute off my bike time in what was windier conditions. That has to disprove the old theory that its ALL in the legs (although most of it is ;) )

From Drop Box

[Team Angus Bike Chain at the end]

Handing back the merida scultura tomorrow. It rides well although at 6 foot 2 i found the medium too short in the top tube despite it being longer than my current road bike (but i have a 130mm stem on as oppose the meridas 90) It doesn feel as "zingy" as the giant TCR advance i had out previous but it is lighter and seems to be comfier than the giant which was very harsh.My only real niggle with the bike was the compact ultegra chainset. as mentioned above i found my self spinning out on the flat or any downhill gradiant (all be it at 40mph but still annoying when your competitors have 53:12) It certainly matches colour of my MTB and we all know thats the important part ! Could do alot worse than this bike for £2499.99.

Snow roads 300k

2009-06-07T12:58:00.006+01:00

[snowgate at Glenshee]

Recovering from the snowroads today, hence the sudden influx of new posts.

My self and Mike W opted to ride the snowroads 300k audax yesterday. Neither of us having intentionally set out to do 300k before , but both having completed (and with good results) 24 hour solo mtb races.

with 28 starters and 20 hours in which to complete it. It was going to be a long day. We estimated 15 hours in the saddle (13mph ave due to the hillyness of the route) Rob a hardened Audaxer having ridden the LEL a few times had other ideas and had us zooming along at 20mph most of the first half. Somewhere between Rhynie and Dufftown on the Cabrach i dropped off the back as my legs we a bit frazzled from the midweek duathlon and just hit my own pace which was only a K or 2 slower than rob and mikes.

[the whole 9 yards ....full distance]

After Dufftown the real climbing starts over the Lecht and then over Cairnwell i rode alone from the start of the lecht climb to the finish. The climb over the lecht road is relentless. Its just up steep hill ...down steep hill ... up steep hill you see in the distance ...down steep hill ....up steep hill thats up there on the left and down steep hill. Thankfully there was a tail wind up the cairnwell as having ridden it 3 weeks ago with a headwind it is hellish and took nearly an hour. Yesterday it took 35 - 40 mins. Quick blast down glen isla and home for a bridie ... 15 mins behind Mike , Rob and some other dude that passed me when i was in a dark place at the top of a climb eating food.

[maximum speed coming down the cairnwell in the wet ! ]

Surprise of the day was a finishing time of 13.5 hours - riding time of 11.5
coming in at 7.30pm.

[average speed]

Monikie Summer Series

2009-06-07T12:54:00.003+01:00

Its that time again. The monikie summer series.

Nick seems to have got more interest this year with a start sheet of 35 competitiors instead of the 15 he had last year.

Having done no running training for a fair while due to knee problems i opted to take it very easy on the run. posting 25 mins for a 5k which is very very slow even for me i should be doing it in about 21...... But still damage limitation.

Jumped on the bike and did my usual of going from near last to near the front. posting third fastest bike time. Enough to move me from 6th last off the run to 6th over all (4th senior male) right behind Coops so im happy enough with that !

10 under the ben 2009

2009-06-07T12:31:00.005+01:00

HOT HOT HOT !

Do not know how frazer manages it but for the last 3 years its been sunny and upwards of 20degrees.

[me , image by Darren Wilkinson]

Hummed and haa`d about using my SS for this ride as i knew Rod Mason was in attendance and was using his SS. Spoke with frazer on friday night and he informed me of a big climby prologue loop designed to thin out the riders before the singletrack. Knowing i would get caught up in the bottle necks at the singletrack if i rode SS i opted to run the Merida with gears.

A relaxed start out the Nevis range carpark up to the fort william cycleway on the road behind a motorbike pacer saw the pack thin out slightly and once we hit the north face carpark we were let loose on the hill. A relentless climb which saw many of those at the front of the paced section be left behind. The first descent was down the Lazy k which interestingly doesnt make a very good descent ! Down the sandy brae and through the transition to begin the first lap. The first section all the way round to the bottom of the lazy k was the same as previous years with it taking a right turn ala sxc 08 onto the fire road for a slog up to the pipe. down the descent between the fire roads and a sharp right on the fire road to a newly cut wooded section with some ridable lines and many non ridable lines. Along the puggy line and then up the old jumpy swoopy descent to almost where you were before. Head along to the cackle (awesome flowy swoopy boardwalky rocky descent) before slogging up the puggy line to the witches brew. Where the course went back to the same as previous years.

[Image by Xpressphoto.co.uk]

Despite having reservations about the Merida and the XT cranks mounted upon (im having knee issues that i put down to the increased Q factor on the Merida) the bike was comfortable and maybe the Q factor issue is all in my head as the only pain i experianced on saturday was CRAMP! and i wasnt alone ! with the temperatures hitting the high 20s and intensly sunny weather all day it was key to stay hydrated. So when my cage dropped my only full bottle somewhere between the start and the back climb i was in trouble ! Reached down and i had no bottle to drink from.

I managed to blag some water off Andy Barlow and Helen Dixon to try and limit damage and slowed down a good bit but it was futile. The next lap saw me starting to cramp up badly in both quads. At least twice a lap from there in i cramped. Sometimes bad and sometimes bearable. Ended up lying in a ditch cooling off as all the muscles in both legs cramped at once and i couldnt unclip.

In the end i kept plugging away and finished 7th over all. stats were 175k & 4500m climbing in 10 hours 51.
Jayne Jo and Char came 1st in female trio
Gordon Bathgate and Mark Smith came 2nd and 3rd in male solos
Mike Webster came second in male vet solo
Mike Milne and Neil Scott won Male vet pairs

So a good day for the ABC + Gordon !

[Image by xpressphoto.co.uk]

Dundee Wheelers 10

2009-05-19T23:15:00.002+01:00

Not long for recovery after the 200k audax came the dundee wheelers 10mile TT out of Meigle.

Both me and Jayne entered this as our first forae into scottish TT. The starter was a bit of a kit snob commenting on Jaynes poor choice of bike for the event (because her bike was not bought for time trialing) but other than that the competitors seemed friendly enough.

The course although looks flat when driven in the car actually holds some quite even short climbs and a bugger of a headwind on the way to coupar angus that doesnt seem to be a tail wind on the way back either !

With legs feeling akin to jelly after the 200k i pushed as hard as i could and passed 2 folk in front of me to come home with a time of 24.35 , id set a target of 22mins but in the wind it wasnt to be. The winner didnt even break 22mins with a time of 22.10mins.

Jayne came in with a very respectable 28.55 for her first 10mile TT,(winning lady at 26.30) A bit of work with the tri bars will help loads due to me only fitting them late last week they are still quite alien. Hopefully i will get the drop bars and STI units fitted this week after i have serviced her MTB for her to ride while the Roadie is in the workshop !

Deeside loop 200k audax

2009-05-19T23:01:00.002+01:00

Sunday past saw the Deeside loop audax come round. I have often looked at it and thought that sounds like a good ride but audaxes are for old people.

Turned out that others in the club had been thinking the same so me , Baff , Euan , Hamish , Scott , pops and dougal all turned up in the pouring rain thinking "this will be hell" ....and we were right !

The sun broke through right at the start of the event and gave way to some spectacular scenary , some long climbs and a bugger of a headwind on the return leg from braemar

first group in - euan hamish and baff did 7 hours riding time

second group with me scott and pops came in with 7 hours 15 riding time

Good relaxed day out in the saddle with cafe stops. Next audax is 300k starting from kirriemuir and taking in the snow roads.

audax - Deeside Loop 200k
Find more Bike Rides in Forfar, United Kingdom

deeside loop 200k

Snow Roads 300km Audax
Find more Bike Rides in Kirriemuir, United Kingdom

snow roads 300k

Hilly TT midweek league

2009-05-19T23:00:00.002+01:00

With my dodgy knee and achillies handling the Drumtochty challenge i chose to test them a bit harder with the ABC 14 mile Hilly TT over Carrot hill and harecairn.

Set off third from last with Neil Raitt and Euan Ritchie firmly on my tail and Euan out seeking revenge for me beating him last year i was a marked man. The start felt ok , and i caught up Neil Scott and Dougal Dargie Grinding silly large gears up carrot hill. Something ive worked hard on over winter is my ability to spin as ive always been a grinder and its made a noticable improvement in my cycling abilitys (when im not injured) So after twiddling an easy gear past them on the climb i then set about catching Scott who was in sight. He was caught just at the top of the climb and proceeded to pressure me all the way down the other side, something he does really well. Once we turned back onto the wellbank road i managed to climb away from him and catch up with Jayne and eventually at the monikie junction i caught Euan Mcarthur the man at the front.

At this point i realised i was doing well and just thrashed my legs as hard as i could but to no avail , shortly after i came in Euan Ritchie came in cutting 1min 15 off my time and pushing me into second !

Round 5: Hilly 14mile TT
Date: 12 May 2009
Position Name Time Points
1 Euan Ritchie 0:36:32 30
2 Terry Davidson 0:37:46 28
3 Neil Scott 0:41:09 26
4 Neil Raitt 0:41:20 24
5 Scott Davidson 0:42:08 22
6 Euan McArthur 0:43:35 20
7 Jayne Taylor 0:46:58 18
8 Dougal Dargie 0:48:46 16

another excellent result for Jayne especially since she still has a flat barred road bike and no tri bars (both about to change)

Drumtochty Challenge

2009-05-19T22:55:00.003+01:00

Myself and Jayne took a trip to Drumtochty for the annual Drumtochty challenge last weekend. This was my third attempt and Jaynes first.

I made a schoolboy error at the start , In previous years all the big points have been over in Durris and it looked like it was possibly the way forward again. So off i went and 20 mins after the start i was up to my knees in bog. Pushed on and was having a good run of points till i could not find the one on Swanley hill. I wasted too much time looking for it and ran out of time to get some of the others i planned.

I returned to base to find Jayne smiling having racked up 630 points compared to my 700 by going a completely different way and having a more relaxed day than i. I had to really push my self taking the route i chose.

Jayne Came 1st female in the lead by 200 points !

I came second missing out on my second win by 50 points (exactly the number of points on offer on swanley hill...gutted)

There is always next year !

No evidence ....i wasnt actually there

2009-04-27T16:30:00.003+01:00

Yesterdays race was a non event. SXC round 2 was supposed to be my debut into the expert catagory. I didnt get a mention on the results sheet and there are no photos of me ...my performance was that bad im keen to keep it that way !

I might as well have been in a wheel chair. Legs just didnt let me get out of breath.

IT band on the right knee throbbed from the start even with a heavy dose of Vitimin I so i pulled out at the end of the first lap through fear of doing major damage to the knee.

The course was excellent , although i couldnt get the power down on the ups i regained a large number of places through my gung ho downhilling style on the technical rooty downhills which were awesome to ride and showed out the roadies of the pack !

Mike Milne and Neil Scott did great in a veteran field packed of names from the past and some fast irish boys ! 9th and 11th respectivly and Mark Smith also kept his side up with a very respectable 5th place

Hopefully the woman im going to see tomorrow night about sports massage therapy can work some wonders and I`ve also come round to the suggestion i should take up yoga as prevention for injury.

Quote of the week

2009-04-25T23:15:00.001+01:00

Terry

ran 3/4s marathon with 2k elevation and a 4 hour enduro last week

cured one injury

caused 2 more

23:11Michael Boyd

do you not have a tv, they are great for just using up time

rather than killing yourself

Some more bits for the merida

2009-04-24T20:19:00.002+01:00

Ordered some Cane creek Ergogrips for the merida last week. Had a package arrive today

From Drop Box

Inside. Going to give them a punt on the bike , pretty comfy in the in the hand test ! Plus carbon Plus lighter than ergogrips.

Possibly all in futility as im an avid user of Ergon Grips but they weigh a metric tonne so trying some other options first !

Also fitted a thomson elite (black) seat pin to the bike as i needed a little extra length over the stock FSA (250mm). The thomson lets me get the seat up into the correct position while retaining the full recomended distance into the frame.

Lost the 20mm layback that the FSA had but this has brought my weight forward which i thought i needed having given it a propper ride !

SXC round 2 this sunday at aberfoyle for us. Me , Mark , Neil and Mike heading down on sunday morning. Looking forward to trying out expert. No high hopes. Aiming to finish hoping not to get lapped !

ABC midweek league round 2

2009-04-23T21:56:00.002+01:00

Another win for Euan , but its mtb next week that should sort him out A good time for Jayne especially since she did it all in her middle ring due to a mechanical error.

Round 2: 1 Mile Sprint (Standing Start)

Date:
21 April 2009

Position Name Time Points

1 Euan Ritchie 00:02:02.2 30
2 Neil Raitt 00:02:04.0 28
3 Terry Davidson 00:02:05.3 26
4 Colin Murray 00:02:06.8 24
5 Mike Milne 00:02:08.2 22
6 Colin Nicol 00:02:09.0 20
7 Scott Davidson 00:02:09.4 18
8 Ewan McArthur 00:02:10.2 16
9 Mark Smith 00:02:11.1 14
10 Derek Clark 00:02:11.6 Guest
11 Dougal Dargie 00:02:11.8 12
12 Neil Scott 00:02:15.6 10
13 Hamish Lean 00:02:18.2 8
14 Steve Smith 00:02:23.3 6
15 Jayne Taylor 00:02:26.5 4
16 Andy Davidson 00:02:29.8 Guest

Reid Park Revolution

2009-04-23T18:06:00.001+01:00

From Bicycle riding in scotland

Im entered - are you ?

Iroc adventure race

2009-04-22T23:27:00.004+01:00

Stats for my attempt at event

RAN - 3/4s of a marathon with 2000m elevation
cycled - 8k in 30 mins at night then 3hrs and 15 mins in the enduro
Punctured - 5 times
ran out of tubes - twice

For having done no running training i think i did quite well , 5th U23 catagory or 84th out of 186 competitors.

took 12th/2nd U23 in the night MTB time trial , gutted as i got a puncture. Even with the puncture i was only 3 mins off overall win !. ( this was also my first ride on my new merida race bike)

In the enduro the puncture fairy was to stay. On one particularly rocky descent i punctured the rear wheel , then on the next lap the front wheel. Had to get Pauls spares and pump to fix it as i was only carrying a co2 can and a single tube. I punctured another 2 times and then packed up for the day having no tubes left.

Im going to have to review my set up. More PSI and eventually a tubeless set up i think. The rocket rons were also not suited to the rocky terrain , as i was expecting muddy conditions the only other tires i brought were 1.8 fire mud pros and they would have been even worse in the rocks !

You live and you learn and my lacking of toe nails and multitude of blisters have taught me that i shouldnt fell run !

The event its self was very well run from an organisational point of view with only 1 or 2 minor minor snags. The team from inov8 seemed to have thought of everything. Including the great weather we had !

Dr Andy

2009-04-22T23:17:00.003+01:00

Not something i want to write here , but i feel it important enough that it needs to be documented.

earlier this week Andy Cathcart was killed while riding his bike in south africa

This has been a massive blow to my self and everyone i know who knew him

My self and Jayne wish Rona and the family the best of wishes and hope that his repatriation goes smoothly.

From Kirroughtree SXC 2009

Andy doing what he loved. Was only taken 4 weeks ago at the kirroughtree SXC. Seems like a lifetime now knowing its the last time that we will see him mowing down everything in his path !

IROC adventure race

2009-04-16T23:33:00.002+01:00

in true dave fashion....weatherwatch !

SUN SUN SUN !!!!

leaving tomorrow at 10am for durham in the mighty golf !

First ride on the merida too, Quite looking forward to it.

Turns out we are now in the pairs category(both racing) which means i have to fell run , could be a laugh

Our competitors in our category withdrew leaving us as the only competitors in the pairs (one racing) category.

At least now we get to compete for the prizes....shame we wont be near the front haha

Booger! & yay!

2009-04-15T15:52:00.003+01:00

Slight hinderance with the whole new bike testing day on sunday.

I had a stinking cold complete with smokers cough and snotty nose. I have also developed Tendonitus in my ankles.

The good news is that yesterday I went to the physio, She said best thing to do with it since its not really bad tendonitus and very little swelling and no Bursitus is to keep riding. With that in my mind i set off to the first round of the Angus bike chain summer midweek league.

Round 1 , 8.5 mile TT with 340m climbing

Position Name Time Points
1 Euan Ritchie 0:21:20 30
2 Terry Davidson 0:21:45 28
3 Mike Milne 0:22:31 26
4 Neil Raitt 0:24:03 24
4 Mike Webster 0:24:03 24
6 Dougal Dargie 0:25:26 20
7 Hamish Lean 0:25:49 18
8 Roger Peart 0:26:46 16
9 Steve Smith 0:27:22 14

With my mind at ease about my ankles falling apart i just let my legs go , adrenaline is a wonderful thing and i did not feel any pain till the cycle home :D ....but yesterdays physio made the pain alot less intense than the last few times on the bike.

Off to the IROC adventure race on friday for the weekend. running , orienteering and MTB all under one roof ! guess its my first race of the season really and my first MTB ride on my new bike.

New plastic ride

2009-04-08T00:57:00.003+01:00

Having always been a makedo and mend sorta guy. Receiving a new bike today where everything fitted together and worked as it should first time and very little fiddling needed to make it work as it should was a bit of a shock to the system.

A boxed merida FLX 3500D arrived in the shop today for me.

2 hours later i exited with a nice shiny carbon frame with Sids and mix of XT and XTR.

Weighed it on the scales when i got home and came up with 22.2Lbs

No idea how it rides yet , will find out on sunday going out on a 5 hour ride in the hills with it ..with another guy from the club who has the same bike!

and finally the pictures !

From Bikes and bits

will report back after ive ridden it properly on sunday

SXC round 1

2009-03-30T11:32:00.002+01:00

From Kirroughtree SXC 2009

[St Andrews uni, Chris Bell looking a little too happy mid expert race]

For a couple of reasons i found my self unable to race at the first race of the season so i went down with Mike and Neil from the ABC to feed and do bottles/tale photos (click the photo above)

There were certainly plenty people in attendance , most notably a large womens field.

Course looked and sounded good with plenty of singletrack to create some questionable passing maneuvers !

Paul Oldham(hope) looked to be ripping up the Expert/Elite with over a mins gap by the first time he passed us about 5 mins from finish. Paul Smith{SWC} was trying his hardest to close the gap. Lots of new faces in category but as expected new face in expert Dave Henderson was showing them what he was made of and when i left wasnt going to be far off a podium.

Looking forward to round 2 where i should be able to race

roll on round 2 when i can race !

Nearing home time

2009-03-15T08:02:00.003Z

THE END IS NIGH!!!

From sydney and blue mtns

Currently in sydney railway central YHA for the last night. Fly out of Kingsford smith on an A380 double decker tomorrow night at 9.45 for Dubai. 2 days there . Then we get on another plane at stupid oclock in the morning and head for Glasgow international !

Been a great trip but it will be good to get back into training. Looks like it`ll be a late season peak this year.

Try a Tri

2009-02-18T05:29:00.006Z

[Taupo ironman from feb 2008 NZ trip]

Me n Jayne are going to be dabbling in a little mid season Triathlon ,Sprint distance. Nothing serious though, there will be no wind sprints or HR monitoring just good old fashioned fun

If we enjoy it we may join a tri club when we move to Aberdeen at the end of the summer. Good motivation for the off season

Been to the docs

2009-02-03T03:39:00.002Z

Will have to take it easy for a bit. Been ill for the last 3 weeks, thought it was just a stomach bug. Had all the usual symptoms.

Sickness
diarrhea
Sulphurous burps
no hunger

Tried not eating for a couple days to starve off the food poisoning ...didnt work

Tried eating again to give my immune system fuel to kill......didnt work and i found it hard to eat ... so much so i didnt eat anything but white toast for a week !

Went to the hospital after 2 weeks on a weekend as doctors shut....got told , its food poisoning itll be gone in a couple of days

Took Imodium so i could ride to cambridge for rest and doctors.

Finally got to a real doctors here in Cambridge and i got diagnosed with Giardia

got a weeks worth of metronidazole and roxithromycin-arrow to treat it. No training and a bland diet :(

Winter Base miles- Check !

2009-02-01T07:10:00.002Z

From New Zealand Cycle tour

Just finished riding round new zealand on my Kona Jake. Wonder if its made my legs any quicker. Will find out in March i assume !

Back into training now. Away to take it easy on the running and do alot of core work. Since im bikeless for approx 6 weeks !

Decided to go expert.....

2009-01-27T05:11:00.002Z

After much deliberation having not "quite" made the grade for expert for the 09 season i could have kept Schtum and raced sport again. After alot of thinking i decided i might as well get my self into the big boys catagory and "develop". A quick email to Roger at BC and he has let me move into expert based on me missing the Scottish champs in Lui of doing Mountain Mayhem solo.

So for 2009 ill be racing expert cat

Ready to get my arse kicked all over the place and prop up the bottom of the table as its a totally different catagory to the sport where IMHO a slight degree of training guarantees you a good placing ...expert everyone is committed and your gonna get a pasting ....sounds like great fun to me !

Just need to get a bike now .....dont think i can race on my Kona Jake im touring on atm ...and the only other bike i have is a gary fisher rig singlespeed that wont take gear !

Bannockburn classic MTB (35k)

2008-12-30T21:30:00.002Z

Me and Jayne found our selfs in the Right place right time so we opted to do the 35km Bannockburn Classic on our touring bikes(the kona jake and dew fs).

Mass start of over 700 riders made it interesting with a road lead out to spread us out

From New Zealand Cycle tour

We hit the climbs and i worked my way forward ending up in the leading pack for the start of the long descents and the Crosser was well out its depth on these rocky descents and i had to slow down considerably. Gained back some distance on the final climb but they leaders were well gone.

From New Zealand Cycle tour

Result 1 hour 30 and 13th place in open mens classic
and Jayne 2 hours and 12th place in open female classic

From New Zealand Cycle tour

[results sheet]

http://www.cromwell.org.nz/downloads/2008BannockburnClassicFull.HTM

Confirmed results up , still have the same placing though :d

Iconic mag

2008-12-21T06:00:00.002Z

From New Zealand Cycle tour

[The 2008/09 iconic adventures motatapu icebreaker mag article covering the 2008 moonshine trail event.]

From New Zealand Cycle tour

[cover]

From New Zealand Cycle tour

The flyer for this years moonshine "win a trip to scotland" WOOO ha , see you guys at 10 under the ben who ever you may be !

http://terry-and-jayne-cyclenz.blogspot.com

2008-11-02T18:54:00.004Z

I dont envisage doing much racing or "training " for the next 6 months. So the purpose of this blog here was for my racing and training. Im moving to

Cycling round new zealand just for the hell of it !

for the duration of my trip to new zealand which will be solely for the trip and prep for the trip. It wont be updated everyday as internet cafe prices are silly but ill try to update a few times a week after ive done/seen something interesting.

Be back in the late spring !

I like coffee....

2008-11-01T22:54:00.000Z

I how ever usually try to have my coffee in "coffee shops" and had never had a starbucks till i came to NZ .....all the coffee shops close at 4 except starbucks ...and i was in a coffee mood at 4.30pm. I have to say it was a bit like a mcdonalds meatburger(??) and wasnt really much like the kinda coffee i like...but it was ok for a fix !

Cycling the Grand Fondo for CRY

2008-10-26T12:54:00.003Z

I dont usually donate to "justgiving" causes as im never sure whether its genuine or not , i prefer to give my money away the old fashioned way.

However Jayne sent me this link and i remember the front page of the local paper when it happened ,how the town stood still for the funeral. Good to see he is still being remembered. The guys havnt taken on an easy option either. They are going to be competing in the Grand Fondo cycle race to raise money for Cardiac Risk in the Young

Best of luck to them , i know its not going to be easy for them

We would all be greatful if you could spare a couple of pounds towards this cause , you never know, its increasingly common and one day you or someone you love may need their help !

Click the donate button to read the whole story !

End of an Era.....

2008-10-24T12:25:00.003+01:00

The heckler is going , not sure what if anything is replacing it yet. What ever it is cant weigh any more , At the last weigh in before stripping it weighed 31lbs .... had alivio cranks and deore cassette on , an alloy seat pin and heavy rear tire ...

looking to shave 8-9 lbs off that weight !

end of an era and im fairly sad to see it go , but bring on the new bike and the faster times !

if the next one makes it to 11 years old itll be doing well !

Relentless 24

2008-10-18T18:19:00.003+01:00

3 attempts

3 fails ...

Things started off promising for my first relentless finish in 3 tries. Paired up with team mate Mike Milne we set off at a pace that saw us in the top 3 for much of the day after an initial first lap puncture. Although laboured it wasnt an exceedingly hard pace. We fought hard with Colin and Mark (Also ABC team mates) and Neil and Gordon (also ABC) and in the end we just went one step too far and Mikes flu bug reared its head and left him vomiting track side and me at the pits wondering what had happened to him.

our race was over

[Thanks to David Wilson for photos]

Colin and Mark how ever continued to dominate and by the 23 hour mark were discussing whether they neeeded to do more laps or not , the concensus was no they had lapped the second place boys ! Luke and Chris came in second and Gordon and Neil came in third

In solos Mike Webster came 1st vet and Colin Murray came 5th vet

Good weekend and a good finish to the season for most.

Full time prep for new zealand now !

(will add (more non me)photos later off to work now)

5 weeks monday

2008-10-10T20:14:00.002+01:00

This is one of the main reasons im going , the southern alps are the backdrop to some cyclists riding along a wide and uninhabited road in New Zealand.

although i was reading another blog by a chap who had moved into a tent for a year while he reduced his debts and it seemed we had alot on common , except the debt !

we were both slightly nuts :D

5 weeks on monday i leave to tour round new zealands south island , north island and the southern corner of Austrailia mostly by bicycle , with some bus. I return on the 23rd of March via Dubai expect plenty of stories!

At times like these you can only laugh

2008-10-07T22:12:00.003+01:00

you know those cycling or motor racing videos that always have the rider error/crash section near the end .... well thats what this weekend was like

1. Lost in edinburgh going to Toms
2. we arrived late due to underestimation of the distance
3. My shoes were in my car in ediburgh
4. I missed the start due to trying to find more shoes
5. the borrowed shoes cleats were time so when they eventually clipped in they stuck in...but better than nowt
6. 5 gave me sore knees after 3 laps

But i still had a hoot of a time. Traveled down with Oli Young (honey stinger/bicycle works) Tom Owen (EUCC) and Andy Barlow (Whyte bikes) and it was a propper old school road trip. You know the kind where you stop at services and buy over priced food , make rude gestures as you pass each others vans, realise you have no diesel and neither does the next fuel stop !

The course its self was good , with a large portion of singletrack lovelyness , flat but lovely. MY plans of getting a top 10 went out the window once id forgotten my shoes but i didnt travel 500 miles not to ride so i did 60kms/3 laps in someone elses shoes before thinking , hold on , i have the dream cycling trip to new zealand starting next month and here i am cycling in "not" my shoes doing who knows what to my knees , so i packed that in sharpish.
{photo blatently stolen from Eldrik Hartleys facebook}
Oli finished up on his 5th lap exhausted at around 6 hours , tom came in 2 laps later at 11.5 hours opened the tent door and went to take his shoes off ... he then started screaming i cant cope with this my shoes wont come off i cant cope. So after trying to do it my self we assertained they werent coming off (note specialised ...make your ratchet release more mud friendly) eventually we got them off but by this time tom was shivering madly soaked and freezing and badly drained of energy so no question of another lap from him. Andys team finished 1st in the quads so the trip wasnt a total waste

Effort of the weekend goes to Matt Page for defending his title as D2D solo champ, something never before done !

Still like i said it was a laugh , i couldnt be mad i just had to laugh at my own stupidity and get on with working round the problems!

Relentless this coming weekend , hopefully not actually racing last weekend will leave me with plenty energy for this weekend !

nearly the end of the season

2008-09-30T20:35:00.002+01:00

this Saturday we are off to Norfolk with Oli Young and Tom Owen to race at dusk till dawn , all three of us racing solo.

then the following week after plenty rest and recovery the ABC boys will be at relentless, me paired up with Mike Milne for the event

then its time for me to hang up the heckler for good. New bike next season , not sure how or where from but its needed !

it couldnt end smoothly could it ?

2008-09-27T19:51:00.004+01:00

Glentress SXC final round

before the race i felt good , felt i could do it , felt it was in hand

i began my last lap with the same feeling , i also thought "im ahead of chris , its worth pushing harder to make the 30 seconds up on karl" ..... who knows whats happened to chris behind me !

3rd should have been in the bag , second could have been on the cards. i pushed hard , gareth montgomorie came past to lap me i thought , ideal ill just join the pain train and stay with him and he`ll pull me to karl. just away to start the climb up the red switch backs to the spooky wood fireroad and my legs just screamed stop , they cramped up solid and just made me stop .

i couldnt stop the pain and literally had to stop , drink and watch 5 people take past me,

got the feeling back , hit the gas made up 2 places again putting me back in contention for third. i hit the last climb about 2 mins from the finish and just died of death! Allan and Tim both past me and i had to settle for 4th over all for the season

not gonna let it get me down , Reading the bikebiz in the bog at work this week and i found the musings of BikesnobNYC to cheer me up a bit !

" the less you paid for your equipment, the more your placing is worth. If you cross the line on a $1,000 bike at the same time as a rider on a $6,000 bike, you essentially won, because you spent 5,000 fewer dollars in order to do it. Sure, $5,000 may buy you a fraction of a second here or there in the form of aerodynamics or lighter weight, but saving $5,000 is worth infinitely more in terms of bragging rights. And changing your perception of victory is way cheaper than changing your equipment."

directly from http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/08/downgrade-to-win-increasing-results-by.html

Sounds like a good phillosophy to me. I know for a fact i was on the heaviest, cheapest bike on the grid that day so im taking the moral victory for my self ;)

11th on the day , 4th in Scottish XC series , not bad for my first year doing when im an endurance guy !

SXC MUDFEST round 6 , drumlanrig

2008-09-01T21:27:00.004+01:00

Driving down the road somewhere between glasgow and the a702 and it became apparent that my tire choice of kenda small block 8s were not the tires for the day. What was a lovely morning turned into a deluge of water falling from the sky at an alarming rate.

[Junior start .....look at Kenta !!!]
none the less we continued to the race and started a practice lap in the rain.
[Scott doing the feed for Neil in vets]
[Me doing a CX remount after a twin brake failure]

the heckler performed flawlessly on the roots and its articulated rear end(read flexy) coped with the switchback twists rik built for us no bother. but the tires showed there weakness when i couldnt ride round the arena without the back wheel just spinning in the deep wet grass/mud type stuff. Nothing short of what i expected

enter team star , Mike Milne with his sore knee which saw him drop out of the Veterans race but whos tires were then up for grabs for the afternoon race. A tactical choice saw me leave the Kenda SB8 on the front and put his 1.95 cinder on the rear. What a difference ! what i will say though is that an SB8 on the front on the roots wasnt a bad choice when the pressure was lowered to about 25-30 psi

Big thanks must go to rik for an excellent course and for showing the vets how its done on SS

I ended up 4th on the day. My brakes failed late in the 3rd lap , by failed i mean pulling the lever to the bars resulted in nothing happening !

[cause of my brake failure]

After moray i replaced my pads with some new Fibrax organics not knowing that drumlanrig mud is second only to Strathpuffer mud for eating pads !

i had to do my last lap and a half on zero brakes performing cx style dismounts for the technical downhill sections which wasnt the fastest and IMHO cost me 3rd place .......

sintered from now on !

Hoy eat yer heart out ........ok maybe not !

2008-08-29T22:24:00.003+01:00

inspired by the recent olympic track cycling and the new zealand nationals i saw out in invercargill i decided to take the opertunity of some novice track cycling at the angus bike chain track champs and midweek league round

(hamish closest , me middle , martin harris ouside)
(me doing something)
(me winning the losers final)
(Jamie beasting everyone)

Lets just say concrete tracks are a bit harder to ride than a real velodrome , the two back corners at caird park scared the crap outa me on my flying lap and in my first heat i was heard to say "oh shit" as i entered the corner in a sprint in close quarters with dave

By the end of the night after the 20 lap race though i had the hang of those corners and was able to hang into the pack and make the final sprint

It was a fun night and i may go along for some of the thursday night track league , has to help my leg speed and sprinting power !

10 @ Moray

2008-08-28T00:05:00.004+01:00

(The start , Spot the meercat)

In true frazer style the weather was shining on him with the sun holding out for the duration of the event

Angus Bike Chain were well represented throughout the catagorys with a rarity of a mixed pairs entry from myself and Jayne. All the other usual suspects were in their respective catagorys

(Mike Milne and Neil Scott performing a surgical change over)

Everyone started as they meant to go on that is to say "quite" fast

As the day went on it became clear that everyone was moving up on the overall table and that there was going to be some prizes won

(photo from www.xpressphoto.co.uk)

Jayne put in an incredible performance for what is only her second MTB race ever and was totally oblivious to the fact we were sat second until i crossed the finish line and told her !

Everyone else performed to the top of their game as well and the whole team attending got on the podium

(3rd Mark Smith 2nd Joe Barnes and 1st Andy Cathcart)

Mark Smith 3rd solo senior

Mike Webster 3rd Solo Vet

Neil Scott and Mike Milne 1st pair Vet

Me and Jayne 2nd Mixed Pairs

(The trophy that Jayne has)

back on bike(but not back on form sadly)

2008-08-15T22:52:00.002+01:00

back on the mtb tonight , everything goes swimmingly till i hit anything where i need my upperbody to throw the bike about , chest just goes rigid , but it has only been a week n a bit.

Gonna stick to the road bike till next saturday when im entered in 10 @ Moray as a non competitive non serious event just chilling with Jayne as my team mate. At least i can put the effort in on the road and keep the legs spinning hard

Rough with the smooth

2008-08-03T19:36:00.002+01:00

Been pretty lucky with injurys sustained from cycling , apart from concussion and mild epileptic symptoms ive not had any real injurys caused by crashing.

when i was newly 18 my chain snapped on my road bike and i hit the ground at about 20mph ... stupidly not wearing a helmet , then went to a club to see some dj who was playing with my mates. I had bruising round my temple at the time and the strobe lights were giving it some , i was drinking ....and i woke up in hospital

well my newest injury was sustained in a crash at the Selkirk 100km marathon today. misjudged a corner and caught my front wheel on a log , got pitched over the bars and landed chest first on another log suspended off the ground by resting on 2 humps , meaning my hands couldnt hit the ground first like i planned ...

i the log full on with my chest and winded my self badly , i let this subside and thought id keep going , got up , picked up the bike and vomited promptly. I was in so much pain at this point i had to throw in the towel , it hurt to walk , it even hurt to ride in the Mountain rescue landrover.

I got to hospital and was diagnosed with severe abraisions to the chest and 2 broken ribs on the left side. I was sent packing with some co dydramol and come diclofenac tablets and told id wake up in utter agony tomorrow ! GREAT !

Big thanks to the Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue service for getting me off the hill in minimal pain and to Micheal from U.S.E for taking me to and from the hospital

Angus Bike Chain midweek league round 8

2008-07-30T23:13:00.002+01:00

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

Fort william SXC

2008-07-28T20:01:00.002+01:00

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

Monikie Midweek duathlon series Rnd 3

2008-07-17T21:50:00.004+01:00

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.

[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

2008-07-17T20:44:00.002+01:00

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

ABC midweek league round 7

2008-07-11T14:42:00.003+01:00

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

return to new zealand

2008-07-04T20:10:00.004+01:00

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.

ABC midweek league Rnd 6

2008-07-02T17:30:00.005+01:00

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

summer series round 2

2008-06-25T22:23:00.005+01:00

[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

2008-06-23T22:15:00.004+01:00

[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

2008-06-17T22:43:00.001+01:00

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

2008-06-14T17:43:00.001+01:00

deciding my route

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

GDR tour has started

2008-06-14T10:45:00.001+01:00

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 !