My weapon of choice

With the recent flurry of posts about shiny new bike builds I was feeling a little left out so thought it about time I chipped in with my own weapon of choice for this 2011/2012 season.

I feel a degree of loyalty to this machine as it was the main facilitator allowing me to get back out on a bike after breaking my knee cap … far easier than pushing a singlespeed gear everywhere and off roads where I could potter along at my own speed.

The bike is a loaner … gratefully sent to me by the kind folk at Evans Cycles just to get the Fuji name out and about.

The bike remained stock for a few months as I used it for riding and training but as racing loomed the itch to ‘spice’ it up set in and I finally started to lavish some time and money on it.

First to get replaced where the stock wheels, although clinchers are fine and good nothing beats cyclocross tubs when it comes to grip… I had a set of Zipp wheels mooching around the garage so after a friend, Rick Perry, gave them the once over and fettled any little cracks that had began to surface I had a local shop glue on a set of Tufo Cubus tubs tyres. The Cubus is an out and out mud tyre with great grip in the worst of conditions.

Once the wheels were set the brakes came next … a bargain find set of TRP Euro carbon canti’s where had when a shop misplaced the box and fittings … a set of Swiss stop yellow pads later and I had brakes that worked enough to be useful.

Drivetrain was changed as the bike had been used and abused by journos as a test bike before me so new chainrings, 46/36, and a new cassette, 12-28, were fitted along with a new chain.

My final finishing touch was to remove the not so mud friendly white bar tape and replace it with black … and for true US styling added the shotgun cartridge bar end plugs ..

So far the bike has had a few outings although with my fitness still lagging behind the bikes capability there has been no stand out races… I hope to remedy this by the new year if not before.

Night riding time !!!

Well thats it ... it is no longer possible to even get a cheeky hour in after work without lights so there is no other solution other than to embrace night riding.

2Pure are the UK distributers for Niterider lights ... this video showcases the 2012 range ...

Showing us how its done...

Most cross riders would look at a pair of jump boards, set half way up a slight ascent, with a hard right angle bend at the top as an obstacle that would be best run than ridden.

Ian Wilkinson (Endura Racing) does not fall into the category of most cross riders, as we found out at the CSP-Hope Barnoldswick Bash today.

Despite being involved in a ding dong battle for a podium place with Giles Drake (Team Elite) Wilko couldn't help styling it up on the boards!

A weekend of kickings...

What with being offshore with work and weekends away etc, time on board my new Gin and Trombones has been minimal - zero in fact. And so it was that I thought it a good idea to 'test' it all works OK after the week long build procedure, on the usual saturday morning road ride.

Arriving at Paul's house and seeing him on his road bike and Adam with road tyres on, I knew it would be a tough day, but in my ignorance, didnt think to change over to road tyres as well, or even increase the pressure to something greater than 50Psi.
The first 40 miles were bearable. There was no chance I could keep up in the usual race for the cafe, but I was willing to accept it. After the espresso and food stop, things rapidly started to go downhill. Pedalling became laboured and forced and I started to drop off the back. Adam did the honourable thing though and helped nurse me back the final 20 miles or so, all the time my legs burning, eye sight flickering and every thought occupied with food.

Saturday afternoon was an exercise in damage limitation as I got the compression tights on and inhaled bags of pasta in prep for the 'proper' event of the weekend - Round 6 of the CXNE series at Bedlington.

With my cross experience pretty limited, I was perhaps a bit eager and made sure I was pretty close to the front for the start.
The start was the usual frantic pace with Neal getting a flier and me perhaps 4 places back, somewehere possibly in the top 20. Neal and me then had a good race, with plenty of position changes - him strong as ever on the flats and draggy parts, me able to make up ground on the climbs.
Paul had another man size slice of bad luck breaking a chain not long after catching me, ending his race yet again. Sure his time will come yet.

My chronic lack of top end fitness reared its head again (as was to be expected having raced no event shorter than 3 hours this year!), but the finish soon came - a bit of a surprise to be honest. 50 minutes flys by at a rate.
No ground breaking results, possibly top 20, but more importantly, the Van Dessel was brilliant and the first race and it's associated nerves is now out the way.

Time to start training for this cross malarky.

Baptism of Cross Fire

This weekend was a first for both me and my bike. I finished my Van Dessel Gin and Trombones build a couple of weeks ago but due to wheel problems I hadn’t had a chance to ride it. Fed up of my whinging about wheels Paul offered to lend me his spare set for the weekend. This is what the bike looked like with Paul’s wheels

Apologies for the state of this photo, I will get some better ones soon! As all three of us with Van Dessel Gin and Trombones from the Bearded Man have finished our builds, I will write a blog about how each of us has built up their own bike and the specs in the near future.

Back to the weekend!

Saturday was an early start and a training road ride with Paul. I decided I’d better test the Van Dessel and make sure everything worked as I thought it should. With road tyres fitted we set of for a few hours with some intervals in the middle to spice things up. Having never ridden a ‘cross bike, let alone the Van Dessel I wasn’t sure what to expect. The bike was perfect, well balanced, light and responsive. I was chuffed, the bike worked well and an inspired confidence, all that was left to do was to put some cross tyres on and have a go at my first cross race.

So Sunday arrived. As I said, I’ve never ridden a ‘cross bike before let alone raced one, so it was with a little trepidation that I turned up to round 5 of the CXNE league. As fantastic as the bike is it deserves a solid performance, unfortunately I was the rider. The VD’s first public appearance was me making a prat of myself in the carpark practicing my dismounts / remounts. Dismounts / remounts turned out to be pretty tricky and I instantly regretted my comment of “it is only getting on and off the bike, I’ve done that every ride so far” – what an idiot! After much hilarity, mainly at my expense, we test rode the course. With much relief we finished the first practice lap without needing to dismount, this meant I only had to deal with some tricky off camber sections; a very lucky escape.

Pre-race prep followed the tried and testing cliff bar and a hand full of shot block formula. The start was the usual mass of some smug, some nervous and some already knackered looking faces. I was concerned that with my lack of experience I would mess up someone else’s start so picked a position somewhere towards the back of the pack. This was a bit of mistake, I hadn’t realised how quick the start would be, by the time I crossed the start line it seemed like the riders at the front were already half way round the course, from now on I will be at the front (probably messing up everyone else’s race)!

The racing was brilliant, much more exciting than I expected and demanding a level of rider skill which means that even the road whippets don’t have it their own way. The sunshine also helped!

Usually, I ride and race for longer than one hour and I am always making a conscious effort to keep something back. I found it really difficult to get out of this mindset and found myself backing off when I felt myself go into the red. I’m not saying I could have gone much, if any, harder but I was learning about the bike and the style of riding all the time. I am amazed how hard you can corner and how little you have to brake!

At the end of the race, while my position was nothing to write home about, I had learnt a lot about the bike, cyclocross racing and had achieved a couple of the aims I started out with. I made it to the end and I didn’t come last! I am already looking forward to next week!

Finally a thank you to my team mates Rob and Neal who fielded all my rookie question and tried in vain to teach me how to get on and off a bike without coming to a complete stop! And to Paul for lending me the wheels.

Oh yeah, and while I think about it I made another rookie mistake. I took my girlfriend along to cheer and pass water bottles. This backfired massively, as I spent the rest of the day doing things I hate paying off the ‘brownie points’ she earned. She also had a conversation with other WAGS and nearly discovered the true cost of cycling. Luckily, realising the danger the WAGS were split up and made to stand separately, maybe this should be a rule at all bike races?!

Versatility of the machine

Some amazing bike handling on the Ibis Hakkalugi ....

Local trails ala cx from Andy Wardman on Vimeo.

I guess most cross courses pose no problem for this guy :)

A real testament to cross bike versatility

Dismounts, Remounts; Ups and Downs

Well, that's bike racing - I've personally had some mixed fortunes this weekend. It was worth it though. Saturday brought a 5 hour round trip to Lake Windermere for Round 1 of Rapha Super Cross, good atmosphere but a poor start and a bike clagged with mud meant I was not going to be able to compete in this field. A hell of a lot of riders starting also made it very difficult to get stuck in... I actually had to stop mid-race to clear mud from the wheels as I literally could not ride. A helpful marshall informed me I'd 'lost at least 30 places'...

There is never a time when this information is gratefully received.

My fantastic support team, composed of Rich Holland and girlfriend Shonah Dobson (to whom credit is due for the accompanying photo) were there to give encouragement and cowbell-rings, despite my headshakes and grimaces throughout. Always a great lift every lap, even if I couldn't produce a placing to warrant their support.

Despite my issues, it was great to see Tony Fawcett (Blackhawk Bikes) and Adam Martin (Cestria Cycles) absolutely kill it up front. The self-named 'North East's answer to the Chuckle Brothers' (on bikes) stormed round and won some Rapha swag in the process. Good to see, and some great banter to be had post-race with them, as well as Kenny, and support team Graeme and Mrs Fawcett. Furthermore, it was enjoyable to sit in the sun and watch the elites slog it out through the mud with a beer.

As for Sunday... a much more enjoyable course at Gateshead Stadium, fast and dry, provided more of a chance with some cheeky off-camber sections. After a ride over to loosen the legs and a great start for me, I found myself sitting with 2 MTS riders in the top 15 and feeling good; then disaster, a third-lap puncture! I ran back to the pits and borrowed a wheel, managing to get back in to the mix, but not as quickly as I'd have liked, and I was pretty much done for. Moreover, I'd been having some serious trouble with my hands from the previous day; huge blisters on my palms had developed and my hopes of managing the damage failed spectacularly.

Cross Club riders Neal Wesley and Adam Cooke did well; Neal making up for last week with a great ride and Adam in particular putting in a good shift for his first ever cross race. I personally can't make too many excuses though, as Tony Fawcett, Adam Martin and Kenny Haswell again put on a great race and completed the 1, 2, 3 respectively.

All in all, a disappointing weekend of racing in terms of positioning and performance, but lessons have been learnt and some good laughs made up for it. As always, I'd do it all again; its certainly better to have a bad day on the bike, than a good day in the office...

Enjoy your riding and racing everyone, and just think; if you did have a bad weekend, it could have been worse - you could have crashed into a cameraman...

This blog post goes out to all who had a bad weekend, but particularly Niels Albert - Chin up mate, there's always next week :)

2pure and Clif - I can't believe it's not butt'r

Since the inception of Cross Club exciting things have been happening. Some fast, some slow and some surprising. New kit design was finalized and will be coming in the next month or so. Fast and slow.

One of the surprises was team support from 2pure. You'll have perhaps knowingly and unknowingly ingested, applied or ridden one of their products - from Chamois Butt'r to Crank Brothers they have a big range.

Image borrowed - thanks for the loaner!

Having used them the most however, I have something brief but appreciative to say about their range of Clif products, and one in particular. Indeed, I've enjoyed Clif bars before in training and racing, but a revelation in nutrition occurred this summer in the form of Clif Shot Bloks.

24 hour racing - just a sample of our nutritional intake.

Racing 'Sleepless in the Saddle' 24 hour MTB race as a pair with fellow Cross Club rider Rich Holland, we decided to give Shot Bloks a go. They didn't disappoint. Coming in a variety of flavours, packed with complex carbohydrates, electrolytes and (some varieties) the all important 25mg of caffeine, they were not only ideal for such a race, but also proved to be the only thing I could consistently stomach during my 24 hours of racing. I cannot recommend them highly enough, and as above, they took pride of place in our selection of energy products.

As you can see we used a bunch of products and of the above, they were by far the easiest to stomach, the best tasting, and the thing I took out on every lap.

And so it was an easy choice to write about a product I rate very highly. Both Rich and I went through a substantial amount of them and I have chosen Shot Bloks of all flavours to devour prior to, and during many races since (Kielder 100, and cyclocross, showing they are ideal for any length of race).

Give them a try and you'll be impressed too :)

And so it begins...

My first taste of cyclocross racing came last October, and despite its reputation for being miserable anyway, it was awful. Unknowingly carrying a knee injury and riding my MTB, it was a baptism of fire to say the least, at a muddy but fast Temple Park in South Shields.

So it was with a sense of unfinished business I approached my first cross race this year at the same venue. Armed with a proper cross bike, some summer riding and a goldfish memory I rocked up at a balmy Temple Park on Saturday. Quickly joined by fellow Cross Club riders Paul Errington and Neal Wesley, we scoped out the opposition and compared tyre pressures..

"See that Dutch lad in the tiny car? He won the World Cup..."

Rumours of Belgians and Dutch pain merchants abounded; and that was just the start, as Paul Oldham, Steve Lampier et al also warmed up... not to mention Kenny Haswell! A scout of the course showed it was quite quick, a good dismount on the back section and a sandpit providing the only obstacles.

Northwest Kneewarmers embrocation liberally applied, some of my favourite Clif Shot Bloks devoured, and at 2:30pm the race began. A chaotic start with the large (some mention of 100 riders) group meant bottlenecks at the first taped section. Still, the field soon spread out with the top 10 moving away swiftly. I thought at the start I'd try and stick to Paul's wheel. Having trained together a lot and having been lapped by him the previous year, I knew he could put the power down and I couldn't bear to be passed again... early on in the first lap though, I felt good enough to make a cheeky pass, and latched on to a group of 3 other guys.

The 4 of us put in some good shifts, each doing well in different parts of the course and working hard. The dismount/remount worries prior to the race were unnecessary; although the guy who's saddle snapped off his post mid-remount next to me will surely have had sore nuts this morning. The sand pit was good fun; 'just power through' was the general consensus.

It came with a sense of certainty that I heard Paul Oldham politely ask for room on the right as he lapped just before the bell. Only a group of 4 remained at the front though, showing how fast it was despite the National Trophy the next day (The Dutch guy in the tiny car won both, in the end - beating Oldham to second on both occasions).

With the bell we pushed hard; I tried an attack and shook 2 of my fellow sufferees, but was pipped through the sandpit by the third to the line.

Note to self; don't attack too early.

All in all, a seemingly decent result for a first race, and thoroughly enjoyable regardless. With the unexpected congratulations of a good race from Paul and Neal, I can only look forward to next week and a trip (possibly) to Windermere for Rapha Supercross, and then Gateshead for the CXNE on Sunday.

Unfortunately I am no doubt a marked man in Cross Club now, and expect to get my arse handed to me by Paul soon enough.

Until then, though, I feel the Temple Park demon has been laid to rest after last year, and look forward to more. Bring it on :)

Spirit of Cross

Flandrian Flag? Check. Knee deep mud? Check. Baying hoards of spectators? Check.

Brilliant picture.