Busy busy busy!

Well, yes, that was a rather busy weekend. On top of a busy week 'in the office'.

I knew that I'd be having some travelling adventures to get along to the last round of the Nationals in Essex . There was also a slight oversight by my good self in that the race was unusually, on a Saturday, rather than the traditional Sunday. The only option to get me to the very East of England on time was to get most of the journey out of the way on Friday evening, as I was unable to take any time off from my work, then have a smaller stint of car driving Saturday morning, pre race.

Sooo after a 62 mile work day on the road, a bike ride to Cardiff Central, an hour and a half on a train, a quick break at my folks house in deepest darkest Wiltshire, then unknown quantity of hours and miles in Dad's car which was kindly loaned for the purpose of bicycle and rider transport for the weekend, I finally rocked up at my good friend, Clara's, to enjoy the hospitality of her lovely flat near the middle of London Village, leaving me just less than an hour of my journey to complete in the morning. Thank goodness for GPS. I'm sure I'd still be lost somewhere in the vastness of our capital without said gadget!

The race itself was pretty uneventful to be quite honest! I arrived in plenty of time, had a good warm up and pre-ride of the course with George and the guys from CCW RT. The course suited me perfectly - not too many long or steep ups, with the downs being fast and swoopy. The only items I forgot to pack were some muscles for my legs. These, I believe, were left on Caerphilly Mountain during one of the two ascents I made on Wednesday at work. Still, the purpose of the mission was accomplished - very happy to finish the race and coming eighth was a massive bonus!

I'm now looking forward to the season closer at Coed y Brenin for the Welsh XC champs this weekend. It promises to be a really tough course. Having viewed the preview video I'm even more excited. There's some long down hills and we all know who enjoys a nice down hill... All I have to do is keep myself out of trouble this week and recover those legs!

Big thanks to all my friends, family, colleagues and employers who supported, provided shelter and transport, food and direction this weekend! It all goes greatly appreciated!

Si.

Things I like

I've had a couple of days off work preparing for this weekend's race. Part of what I like to do is get all my kit sparkly and polished, washed and dried and then suitably packed up nice and early. No last minute panics; we've all spent too much time doing that, haven't we!?

Some of my favourite bits of kit surface the week before a race. Some are little tiny things. Others fairly major pieces of equipment. Here's a few to begin with:

Gore Ride On sealed gear cables. I fitted these things a YEAR ago to my Superfly. I have treated them to zero maintenance and they feel just as smooth and as light in action as the day they were first put on the bike. Yes, they're at least twice as much buck compared with standard cables but I think the fit-and-forget nature of said item more than warrants it and when considered in the big picture of the go-faster, all the bells and whistles race bike, the price is not such a big outlay. For the record, I replaced the rest of the drive train half way through the season as it was ruined beyond use but kept these cables!

Bontrager tubeless tire system. I have enjoyed the on-trail benefits of using tubeless tires for many years. Bontrager's system is the first group of products I've actually enjoyed setting up. Without naming names, I've used most of the big competitors offerings but none have been so simple in set up and as reliable in use as Keith's. Semi-solid rim strip, valve and compatible tire. Providing you're running Bonty wheels you cannot go wrong!

ESI Chunky foam grips. I started using these a couple of years ago after seeing loads of pro's use them. The blown silicon grip slides on with a little bit of a battle, following the manufacturers guide and using window cleaner is a big help here, but they're still tight when new. But once they're on, they're on. I've used ESI grips on my courier bike (as well as my MTB's) in all sorts of weather and suffered only minor 'throttling' only toward the end of wet Welsh deluge days. There is an asymmetric cross sectioned version, Racer's Edge. I'm not sure if its that our riding in S. Wales is tough or if it's just me having wimpy arms but I prefer the fat-all-over version - Chunky. In short, these're super comfy grips which you can use bare hands on if you really want to.

Inspired

I made a last minute visit to London to see the ladies Olympic XC MTB at the weekend. I pretty much spent all of Saturday with my jaw hanging down near my knees somewhere, overwhelmed by the incredible volume of bodies going to see a mountain bike race, the atmosphere, the scale of the event.... I'm still buzzing from the experience, an experience that I'll probably not ever get the chance to have again, certainly not in the UK.

Since coming back to reality, I've watched both the guys and girls races on the (fantastic) BBC online player thingy and although the TV coverage was awesome, the cameras simply do not do that course justice! The only flat part of the 5km loop was the start finish straight. Everything else was gnarl.

At the total opposite end of the mountain bike racing spectrum, there's little me. I've been hooning it thanks to my boss having a week and a bit in the sun, allowing me some time off the road and in the office. Time away from my 'normal' day job gives me the opportunity to really concentrate on specific training tasks, by the looks of it, George reckon'd I needed to go and ride my bike fast, which is exactly what I have been doing! This culminated in a monster of a ride on Monday that I was lucky to make it home from without passing out. It's the sort of training I really love and tells you exactly what needs work.

It's a little bit smaller than the Olympic MTB race but this weekend is the final round of the Back On Track Bash. I'm leading the series in the Sport category and hope to come away with a win this weekend! It's back to Tracy Moseley territory for the super tight and twisty woody course, as used in Rd1. I'll be there with one of the Priority Express Courier vans and as ever, I'm extremely grateful for their ongoing support!

After this weekend it won't be long until the Welsh XC Champs then cyclo cross begins. CX this year will be intersected by some enduro events like Margam Madness, Oktoberfest and maybe a SPAM race.

All exciting stuff!

Si.

Olympic mobile pics below - so close to the action. Rio you have a big task to match this.

Annie!!

Emily Batty.  Superfly rider. Broken collar bone before she started. Hard as nails. 

Julie Bresset got the win.