Monday, 30 April 2012

Back On Track Bash Rd2

Having just about got the Superfly back to looking all new and sparkly after Dalby, off we flew to Worcester for Rd2 of the Back On Track Bash XC Series. Looking back at the weekend, we were lucky to have a race at all, what with the ferocious wind and rain combo!

Having survived the scary high speed winds in the Priority Express wagon that was kindly lent by said courier company, Matt (also a Bike Shed employee) and I found what looked to be a dead flat race course around a pond. Thankfully, the practice lap unearthed some of the steepest and most sketchy wooded sections I've seen in an XC race. Grins a-plenty!

The race turned out to be another test of survival. I suffered a crash on a fairly easy section (day dreaming) during the second lap which seemed to kick me into action, some deep digging ensued and I smiled my way to first place in Sport, constantly keeping a watch over my shoulder to make sure Bike Shed Boss Richard, was kept rightfully behind me on his new Genesis Fortitude single speed! (Rich did go on to win the Masters category!) Here seems like a good place to say another "Well Done" to the Back On Track Bash organisers, volunteers and marshals. This was a great race even in the horrible conditions!

Having reviewed Sunday's results, I'm quite happy with my race; there was some reasonable lap times (comparing to Experts and Elites) but I still feel like there's an untapped reserve hidden in my body that I'm not yet accessing. It's early days in my racing career, time will hopefully unlock the speed and power that I'm sure is there!

Big thanks to:
Priority Express Couriers for the ongoing support with transport.
Bike Shed Wales for bikes and race kit.
Promotion Dynamics for making sure my limbs stay intact.

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

BCXCS Rd2 Dalby

It's been a couple of days since I've come back from North Yorkshire, yet I'm still finding soggy socks in the bottom of kit bags, grit in my ears and bits of bike that are seized up needing some TLC. I'd been told Dalby Forest was a bike eater of a course and from now on I will relay that message to anyone who asks!

Saturday practice brought us some bright and beautiful blue sky, at least, that's what we woke up to at our lodge a few miles from the race venue. Half way through our first practice lap, the clouds rolled in and gave us a massive, Welsh style beating with hail like marbles and rain that went straight through our 'waterproofs'. We ploughed on to complete a second practice lap avoiding the A-lines and playing it safe on the B-lines!

Race day Sunday greeted us with overcast greyness but no rain. A quick drive up to the forest revelled no falling watery stuff, but a thoroughly soggy course! I stayed in the van for as long as possible and did a really short but fast warm up on the road, keeping my bike away from the abrasive dirt, again, playing it safe! As the Ladies had been on the race course earlier in the day, the arena area was pretty messy and the rest of the circuit was wet and muddy but not boggy - it's that standard trail centre hard pack and considering the number of wheels that had rolled through by the time I got there, stood up well to our abuse!

Keeping it safe during the race with only the one spill was what I think did it for me. I'm really happy with my 4th spot in Sport and this race has really hammered home some pointers for me to work on. The longer than normal total race time probably worked in my favour and I really got to make up some time by nailing the sketchy bits and putting some power down where traction would allow! That near podium finish has also boosted me to within the top 10 in the Sport rankings, meaning that promotion to Expert next year is a bit closer!

Kinda hard to keep my ramblings brief this week but I had such an awesome weekend of immersion into racing bikes (my favourite thing) and getting disgustingly muddy (my second favourite thing), I had to go on a bit! Before I sign off I'll say a big thank you to the CCW crew for their company and guidance and another thank you to my supporters Bike Shed Wales and Priority Express Couriers.




Wednesday, 18 April 2012

300 miles...

...It's a long way and the furthest distance I've ever considered travelling for a bike race, but that is what the weekend holds for me the other riders soon to be road tripping from Cardiff!

If this is your first read of my blog, to save trudging back through the past few months of posts, I'll explain: I'm off to Dalby for a few days to do Rd2 of the British Cycling Cross Country Series (or BCXCS for short) and I'm super excited for it and hitting some form that I felt before a bug knocked me back in March.

I should really be "bags packed and ready to roll" by now: I'm far from that status. I have another whole day in work and then another training ride to tick off before Superfly gets pulled apart ready to travel. At least my race kit is washed and dried; there's a pile of spare parts stacked up and some more bits will arrive in the shop tomorrow (hopefully!!).

And as if trekking up to North Yorkshire wasn't enough racing action for April, I'll be in the Midlands at the end of the month tacking part in Back On Track Bash Rd2, as I thoroughly enjoyed Rd1. I don't reckon I do enough back to back racing weekends. With all the courier miles and the rapid recovery my work requires, I should be OK riding hard for a couple of hours with a week in the middle!?

We shall see..

Keeping it short and to the point... Si.

Saturday, 14 April 2012

Excitement, much?

Since last weekend's rather enjoyable outing to the Midlands (just about Midlands?) my entire attention has been on training and getting prep'd for Dalby, the next race in the BCXCSeries. I'm sure coach George is probably getting a smidge wound up by my constant messaging telling him how damn excited I am about going all the way Ooop North to ride my bike for an hour, he hasn't told me to shut up just yet! I'm itching to get out on the Superfly to hit some trails but that'll have to wait until tomorrow, just a rest (eat) day today then some really big sessions lurking in the diary...

The World Cup action this weekend isn't helping my excitement either, in fact, I'm just having a sneeky break away from shop duties to write a quick blog and check out the action from the XC Eliminator - really happy to see some British success on the WC circuit!

Other than race preparation, it's business as normal which means I'm busy and some how still squeezing life into the patlry 24 hours that we get to play with every day... I've promised myself a holiday at some point when you enjoy your jobs like I do... It's tough!

Back to work...

Ooh: A couple of website mentions:

http://www.xcracer.com/backontrackbash-round1-report-2012.html

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20120411-mountain-bike-Back-On-Track-Bash-begins-with-Easter-round-0

New Team Pro Motion Dynamics athlete profile:

http://www.teampromd.com/?page_id=7

Sunday, 8 April 2012

Back On Track Bash Rd 1

I had so much fun in the woods at what is now effectively my local regional XC series today, standing on the top of the podium in my category was just a bonus!

Stepping out of the car to see a reigning World Champ ride straight past you is a bit unusual at a regional level MTB event, and to find out that she had a hand in organising the race, which just happened to be in her folks back garden, does make you wonder what the course will ride like! I haven't competed in heaps of XC races yet, but this was easily the most fun and technically challenging. No walking, nothing overly scary even, just loads of tight and twisty which is what I love! It was just like a (really quick) ride through my local woods.

From the whistle to go, I was out in front of the Sport pack and tried to keep with the Elite and Expert guys; but sticking with the big boys didn't last very long! I'm still missing some of the top end spark from my achy, over-couriered legs and this was massively evident from today. No need for a sprint finish as I was a good chunk ahead of second place all the way around.

The Superfly was great, even wrestling wagon wheels through some really narrow bits, I wouldn't have wanted to be on any other bike. I was running a pair of tubeless tires for the first time on the plastic fantastic, so took a couple of laps to get a feel for them but, by the end of it, all positive.

Just now looking forward to Dalby and hoping to get this zing in my legs. I'm not on the road much over the next couple of weeks which'll give me a chance to find go-faster muscles!

Big shout out to Lingard Snr who bottled for me today (and kept track of my laps - which I'm TOTALLY incapable of doing). Thanks to supporters BikeShed Wales, Priority Express and the others who make it all happen. Much appreciated. Photos below...

"See, I loves my riding!" Photo by Andy Lingard

Smashing a turn. Photo by Andy Lingard


1st Podium in aaages! Photo by Andy Lingard

Friday, 6 April 2012

Summer!?

More blog abuse, I feel like it's been ages!

My relentlessly busy life has left me with very few breaks over the past couple of weeks. The Couriers, as usual, have been keeping me pedalling hard, even more so as we have new clients signing up on a daily basis. With new work comes new riders. We've added some new guys and girls to the team recently. They're all quality riders and some have real racing pedigree. Anyone noticed their deliveries getting signed for even more quickly than our already rapid service!?

The new extension to the Bike Shed seemed well received by our customers, it certainly adds masses of space and a new open and bright sales floor area. It's a much nicer place to be and we've more room to show off  the smart new kit and bikes that previously were a little hard to get to.

After Sherwood, I came back to Cardiff with a renewed lust to (constructively) smash my self to bits with my training. I love training hard and riding fast, which is exactly what I've been doing in the long, race-less period between the first two National Series races. On Sunday I'm going to Worcestershire to do the first round of the Back On Track Bash. This'll be a leg stretch before heading up to Dalby for round 2 of the BCXCS, for which I am already super excited!!

The Superfly has been prepped and is wearing tubeless tires for the first time. I've used tubeless tires before and loved them. I don't know why I've left it so long before installing them on my race bike; the Bontrager system is so easy to set up and seals first time. It's also pretty cheap! My only gripe is that my favourite tires aren't available in tubeless format, so I've gone with the slightly heavier lugged Bontrager 29.2 TLR, which I guess are actually better suited to most of the riding I do..

More food and an early night!