Winter

It's like the Somme out there. Finding it difficult to find the time for any decent length rides as well... I am doing a sports science study for UWIC at Cyncoed though, which involves 6 hour ergo bike sessions - the first one I did was one of the hardest bike related things I've done in a while! Good Puffer training though, and I should end up with some useful heart rate information that I can use in the new year. In other taking-it-all-a-bit-seriously news, I've finally managed to put a decent road bike together - a Genesis Equilibrium frame with a singlespeed drivetrain at the moment, with some gears to come next year at some point I expect. Road miles ahoy!

Wobble 2011

A vintage Wobble year; same course as last year, which meant a shortish (22 miles or so) ride but with some cracking descents. Usual carnage in the beer tent at the back of the Stonecroft, with the same awful band; top marks to Mike though for getting the singer to give everyone a good telling off after he lobbed some soggy cider-soaked piece of tissue paper at him. A fairly sedate ride on the Sunday due to varying degrees of hungover-ness, with the bonus of a cheeseburger with a fried egg in it for lunch at the burger van. The next few days will now be occupied with washing a mountain of filthy clothes and swapping knackered bearings out on the El mar...

Puffer

We're in again; me, Captain Timmy, Matt and Gaz. Also travelling up in the fun bus will be the horrible Ice Weasels lot (our arch rivals) and wee man Luke, who will be soloing again. Looking forward to more of this sort of thing:


(pic by Si Smith)

In a slightly more local style, I've also signed up for the Wentwood50 Challenge which is just down the road in Newport (and 50km not miles, thankfully) which is on the 11th March. Si was joint 1st last year, so no pressure then...

Autumn

Just realised that I haven't posted since July, which is a bit rubbish really. Instead of a long list of everything that happened, here are the edited highlights:

Dusky Valleys' was cancelled, so I never got to pop my endurance racing solo cherry. I did manage to complete the Cardiff 10k run in a pleasingly-not-rubbish time of 53 minutes though, which was nice. Heading off to the Real Ale Wobble in a couple of weeks, which is going to be awesome, and then the Strathpuffer again in January, hopefully this time with working lungs.

More importantly than all of that though, I treated myself to a new 29er frame. The Felt Nine Solo frame (which has done many thousands of miles) was making various alarming creaking noises and the rear wheel wasn't sitting straight in the rear triangle any more, so it was retired from active service and replaced with a lovely new Salsa El Mariachi frame - steel tubing and swinging dropouts to tension the chain. Only had a few rides on it so far, and I'm still dialling the fit in, but it's riding very nicely so far.

Some random pictures...

Racing...

Haven't posted for a bit because, well, I've been out riding a lot really. My fitness is progressing nicely so I thought I would set myself a bit of a challenge... I have made the rather rash decision to enter the Dusky Valleys 12 as a soloist. I really have no idea how I will do: my speed and endurance are good at the moment but I suspect my total inexperience in this sort of thing will be my undoing. Hopefully I'll be able to get some sort of pit crew together to keep me on track, and Dave B says he will give me some nutrition advice. Other than that, what sort of bike to ride? Loving the singlespeed at the moment so maybe that with a lower gear? Or the Cobia, but the big fork makes it a bit slack, and if I had a puncture it would take ages to get the front wheel out... or the Superlight I suppose, but I'm not big on 26" wheels at the moment... too much choice!

Tour Divide done...

Mike Hall has finished the Tour Divide today, in an fantastic 10th place. 2700 miles... incredible stuff. Not an easy ride for him either, he had knee problems that nearly finished off his race but he dug deep and got back out on the road again. He appears to be stuck in New Mexico now, but I guess he will be back home soon.

A big interview with Dave Buchanan this month in What Mountain Bike, the full transcript is here.... Rather pleasingly he name checks Team Tapas stalwart Captain Timmy in it, fame at last.

Mountain Mayhem 2011

This year was the first year that I hadn't ridden at Mayhem for 6 years or so... I kind of had mixed feelings about this: I've nearly always found it hard work in the past but at the same time it felt wierd not being entered. Anyway, I was looking after Luke Morris this year - Luke is one of the UKs top 24hr solo racers who I had previously mothered at the Strathpuffer, where he got third place this year. Along with his very-soon-to-have-a-baby girlfriend Gem I was charged with the task of filling bottles, preparing food, fettling bikes etc on what looked like it was going to be a very muddy race weekend. Mayhem mud has special qualities - it sticks to tyres and frames like no other, so I was expecting lots of cleaning and unclogging of drivetrains throughout the night. Rather unexpectedly the course held up remarkably well... the bikes hardly needed touching, and Luke was calm and chilled out throughout.
Watching dawn break over the campsite was an uplifting moment; Luke had ridden himself from a slow start into 6th place during the night, and kept that place until the finish for his best result at Mayhem to date.







Also competing were the Bikeshed's singlespeed team (one member of which didn't actually own a singlespeed so they borrowed mine), who ended up first in singlespeed class, 3rd in open and 10th overall, meaning they got onto the podium twice. I think the fact that they were 3rd in open on rigid singlespeeds was lost on most of the people there... quite an achievment though.





So good results all round. Other notable sights included Voley swigging out of a bottle of Leffe, a team riding in sumo suits and Liam Kileen, who was on the winning expert team. And in the end I really rather missed being in a team... maybe next year.

What happened?

Due to some changes in my life, I've had a lot more time free in the evenings recently, so I've been getting the miles in... riding three or four times a week instead of once or twice and trying to make an effort to get out whatever the weather. And riding the singlespeed exclusively - my logic for this was that it would be the cheapest one to keep going while riding as much as possible in mostly muddy conditions. I didn't really know what to expect; I was hoping for an increase in stamina that would let me take on longer rides without feeling dreadful at the end. Rather wierdly though I have found myself going significantly faster both up and down hill... I might even be tempted to take on a race or two towards the end of the summer if my fitness keeps on improving like this.

Back in the world of proper bike racers, I will be looking after wee man Luke at Mountain Mayhem; he's racing solo, so I'll be filling bottles and fettling bikes again for him. The weather forecast isn't looking brilliant; another muddy Mayhem ahead, at least I'm not riding this year.

Over in the States, spanky Mike is taking the whole ultra endurance thing to ridiculous levels by racing in the Tour Divide - 2700 miles from Canada to Mexico, self supported, offroad. He's currently 4th, and about 1000 miles or so in, covering 175 miles or so every day. He's a tough little bugger (he won the solo class at the Puffer this year), I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him on the podium at the finish.

More Hobbit's tale

Hairy Matt's photos...

Dave on the news...

Dave in the paper...


A cooks perspective...

The Hobbit's Tale - a supporters video diary (low res) from Rob Khoo on Vimeo.

Hobbit's Tale

It's done... on the weekend, Dave Buchanan rode from Cardiff to Caernarfon and back to Cardiff again non-stop and offroad. 430 miles or so, and 22000m of climbing... the scale of it is just too much to take in. I was priviliged to be on the support crew of this awesome achievment, along with a fantastic group of individuals who were a joy to be with for the whole weekend - despite the sleep deprivation and the less than brilliant weather, I didn't hear one person moan from start to finish. More stories, pics and vids when I get them sorted; until then here's some mugshots of the people involved. Such a huge achievment, I'm not sure I'll ever be involved in anything to top it; Dave, you're a proper hero!

Endurance

Mucho awesomeness from UK and European 12 and 24 hour champs: Huw was second in the 12 hour race, Voley won the 24 hr for the second time, Si was third in the same race, and Dr Evil won the vets 24 hr. I'll post some links to pics and reports when they turn up.

Next weekend I'm going to be part of the support team for Dave Buchanan's totally epic Hobbit's Tale ride - Cardiff to Caernarfon and back again, off road, without stopping. As befits a member of Team Tapas, I will be cooking food for all the other support crew members in the car park at Coed Y Brenin. If you haven't already, please send Dave some money on his Virgin Giving page here. Report and pics when I get back.

More Snowdon stuff

An awesome video of the Ranger Path descent from Hippy...

Snowdon Ranger Path - Easter 2011 from Matthew Cope on Vimeo.

Roadtrip

Due to one thing and another, I had been really looking forward to this trip, but a cold in the week leading up to it had left me feeling pretty groggy and unsure of my fitness levels. We were staying in the flat above the legendary Pete's Eats cafe in Llanberis, and fueled up on Thursday night with some excellent curry from the restaurant down the road.





Friday morning dawned and we managed to get on the road by 9am (which is no mean feat given the faffing levels that occur when we meet for group rides).



I really had no idea what to expect: obviously it is the highest peak in Wales, but how difficult could it be to push a bike up a bridleway? The answer is, very bloody hard; a 36 lb bouncy Nicolai up a steep path for two hours is never going to be fun.







The wind was blowing pretty hard at the summit, so we headed off down the Ranger path after a quick coffee (and some whisky for Paul's birthday).



I didn't take any pictures of the next bit as I was hanging on to my bike so hard my hands weren't working when I stopped. It was uber-rocky, steep and loose - the big bike that I had been cursing on the climb was awesome on the way back down again, steamrollering rocks the size of beachballs and three foot steps. There were a mechanical mishaps - Paul snapped a bolt in his seatpost and then ripped off his mech hanger in a collision with another rider, and Scooby put a nice 2 inch rip into his brand new rear tyre. Eventually the path levelled out a bit and we regrouped and repaired bikes.







We then headed for Telegraph Pass, which takes you back to Llanberis. A fast flowy track which is punctuated by a series of water bars, which turned out to be our undoing... we had around ten punctures on just this short stretch of trail. After that we rolled back into town for a slap up meal in Pete's Eats.





The next day we headed down to Machynlleth, with some people stopping off for a ride at Coed Y Brenin on the way down. The Dyfi campsite was as scenic as ever... I tried my best to resist the lure of Cafe Seren, but failed miserably to be honest; at least I made it back to my tent without help this year. The next morning I felt pretty tired, and my back was aching badly before I even started; it was nice to meet up with Team Cheese on the start line though.





I found a lot of the first half of the ride pretty grim, my back was so painful I couldn't put any power into my pedalling so I had to spin up every climb in the granny ring. The tapas at the feed station (along with some red wine, ibuprofen and Torq gels) transformed me though, and the second half of the course flew by.





A bonus was the disco and free beer on offer at the end of the last descent.



Then we rolled back into town for more beers and tapas, a pub dinner and a few more pints back in the hippy tent.





One of the most awesome weekends that I've had on a bike - great weather, fantastic trails, and, most of all, the company of some of my best friends. Cheers all.

Bluebells

Went for a 4 hour or so ride today with Jim and Matt, on a glorious sunny spring day. I left the house fairly early on after a bit of bottom bracket fettling, and headed up to the teashack on Caerphilly mountain for a cup of coffee before hitting a few descents on the way back down to Morganstown.









After that we ended up on top of the Garth via Tyn Y Coed woods, and then dropped down to Badger and Bodger.









I love this time of year... the bluebells are out, and the ferns, nettles and brambles are yet to encroach on the trails. All rather fleeting though as it only seems to stay like that for a couple of weeks, after which we head (hopefully) into summer. Next stop is our assault on the Snowdonia Rangers' Path and the Dyfi Enduro, which is going to be a fantastic break from reality for a couple of days - I just hope the weather holds.

Therapy

Bike, dusty trails, sunshine... makes everything seem better.

Bad back

I put my back out a few days ago; the muscles on one side of my spine have gone into spasm which is tilting my pelvis over to one side and making list rather heavily over to my right. So no bike related activities for me for a few days at least, which is difficult with the weather being so sunny and the trails riding so well at the moment. Vicarious cycling for me for the next few days, with some gentle bike fettling thrown in as well. And this time, I promise I will do my core exercises and stretching... just like I did the last time... and the time before that...
In the meantime, I love this short film about Keirin racing, body armour and track bikes sounds like a pretty heady mix.

Sunny

A significant first for the year: the first ride without knee warmers and long sleeves. A lovely sunny day, albeit a bit chilly on top of the Garth; the trails were slippery as, rather suprisingly so as it has been fairly dry apart from some rain last night. I've got a few days off ahead, so the plan is to have a shakedown run or two on the Big Bike in preparation for the forthcoming Snowdon trip; it will be interesting to get used to it's handling again after a winter of riding short travel and rigid bikes.

(This link will probably only work for a limited time, but it's got some great Strathpuffer coverage in it, featuring wee man Luke and Spanky Mike.)

Anyway, here's a few pictures from today, it's nice to have some decent light for a change.