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.