Homecoming and MSG Round 5

Apologies - this post is a little late, approximately a week or so. My life's been a bit hectic of late, I simply haven't had time to update my blog. As I've said before, I hate writing retrospectively. I like to write my blog whilst it's all still fresh in my head.

Anyways, first of all, Jay is finally home! Seeing him again was a bit surreal at first, but it wasn't long before we were in front of the TV playing games haha! It's like he had never left. He's got so many stories, which I'm slowly extracting out of him. We haven't had a chance to sit and go through his photos yet, but I'm looking forward to that! We've seen quite a lot of each other lately. He came round the weekend he got back, and again the following weekend to watch the race, which brings me on to my next topic, my race report...

I still get awful pre-race nerves... I felt so sick in the car on the way down. In fact, I think getting me out of the house and into the car is harder than actually racing. Once I'm on the grid I'm fine. I haven't chickened out yet, and I won't either. It's one of my season objectives to race and complete every single round (if possible). The training lap was, interesting... The first thing I noticed was that the course was very treacherous. Lots of little holes in blind spots and loose bits. I'd say it was fairly technical actually, for an MSG race at least. I remember saying to Tony that we'd have to look after each other if we rode together and overtake cleanly. I can imagine it would be all too easy to end up in a pool of toxic sludge if you got carried away! 

The race, the race went really really well for me, except from the very start, and the very end. I had problems clipping in, which I think cost me about 10 places or so, Tom couldny believe his luck when he came past me. Unfortunately for him, it was short lived. Me and Tony had grouped up and were making our way through the pack. By the first climb, Tom was history - never to be seen again. Until the end of the race that is! Tony and I were absolutely smashing it, taking turns on the front and working together. We were putting a lot of pressure on people until they eventually cracked. It felt good to be the one doing the overtaking, rather than being overtaken. It proves the training has been doing something at least. 

To say I didn't get a good start was an understatement!

Tony and I exchanged places a couple of times in the last lap. My "oh so great" plan was to beat him to the last bit of the single track, back off a little bit, and then beat him in the sprint finish. I'm a pretty good sprinter, and rarely lose. It was all going to plan, until the last corner. I was just coming out of the single track and about to start my sprint to find a woman on the racing line, I shouted "on your right" and she kinda panicked and pulled out in front of me. Tony couldn't believe his luck, and just went around the outside with a cheeky grin on his face. I'm pretty sure he paid her off lol! I was a bit disappointed, but this is racing - sometimes things don't go to plan. But, I quickly got over it when I found out that we'd finished 9th and 10th! Not bad at all! I was really pleased! My goal for the season had been smashed (to finish in the top ten), three races ahead of schedule. Now I need to push to get as close to that bottom step as possible, but it won't be easy, especially with the last few rounds being so cramped up! Watch out Dan, I'm coming for you!

On it like Sonic yo!

It was nice having Jay with us, Kirsty's mum and dad even made the trip and came down to watch which was really cool! Unfortunately I couldn't hang around to cheer my team mates on this time, but from what I understand Will got second after beating Liam in a sprint finish, and Darren DNF'd after a mechanical. I have told him several times that he should of brought a Cannondale! 

For those of you who follow this blog, but don't really care about the cycling side of it... with Jay being home, I will be accessing my goals, and seeing how I've gotten on in my next post!

Demo'ing a F29 and the (long awaited) Summer Enduro

After seeing the new 2014 F29 Team bike, I was seriously considering buying one. It's truly a thing of beauty. It comes with the new hybrid Lefty and a set of Enve's, which make it very very temping prospect. Unfortunately, it also ships with a set of Avid XX WC brakes, which would go straight in the bin/on ebay if I brought one. Anyways, Chelmer Cycles were kind enough to source me a demo F29 for me to try....

I was quite pleased with the bike they'd sent me. It was mid-range carbon 29er. It definately looked like it had seen better days. The first thing I noticed was a huge scratch on the top tube, someone somewhere had obviously had a nasty crash by the looks of it haha! I've done about 100 miles on the 29er and after much deliberation decided that I simply don't like them. 

Not bad for a demo bike hey? 

The first thing that gets me is the wider bars, they make it handle like a boat and can't fit through anything, which is more annoying than you might think. It's just so hard to manoeuvre! The second thing I noticed is the thing simply doesn't accelerate. Don't get me wrong, once you're moving its easy to hold speed, but getting up to speed seems to take forever. Which makes sprinting, climbing and blasting out of corners much harder. The idea is you carry more speed into the corners, but due to my overly aggressive (in-efficient) riding style it doesn't really work for me. I also don't like the riding position either. I do realise that some of the problems I listed could potentially be fixed with the right stem/bar/wheel set, but I'd literally have to several thousands for a bike that's only slightly better than what I've already got. 

Gav one of the guys I train with also says the same thing. He has demo'd 5 different 29ers and whilst we both agree that 29ers have their place in the market, they don't suit everyone. It ultimately depends on what kind of rider you are. If I brought a 29er, I'd have to sell my beloved 26 to fund a road bike and a winter hack bike, which I'm simply not prepared to do. Call me sentimental but I'd be heartbroken if I had to sell my 26. I think she's one of those bikes I'll keep forever! The good news is, I'm going to get a road bike instead! 

So, onto The Summer Enduro. I had originally arranged to do it with Will. Unfortunately, he left it till the last minute to organise it, then realised he couldn't make it because it was a Saturday and he was working -_- (I rarely use smileys when I blog, but that smiley sums up exactly how I felt about it. I had to pull out - much to the disappointment of the Sunday Crew. Darren and Gav were desperately trying to help me find a partner -  to no avail. On a whim I dropped Paul "Bad Boy" Thomas a message to see if he was doing it, and if he had a partner. Turns out he hadn't heard from his partner either and was looking for a team mate. A match made in Heaven (sort-of), much to the demise of Gav haha! Paul is a very quick rider, and I knew I'd need to really push myself if I didn't want to let him down...

Paul getting in the zone..

This being my first endurance event, I didn't really know what to expect. As always I asked everyone I knew who had done events like this for hints and tips. We decided that Paul would start, simply because he's a better starter than me. Quicker, stronger and much more experienced - which meant he was a lot less nervy on the line, although he later confessed he was a bit nervous on the grid... The plan was to do two laps each to try and get as high up the field as possible. We were hoping to make up some time whilst people were in transition, it also meant we could do two flying laps right off of the bat (the laps were about 9 miles long) which worked a treat. 

Paul's first lap was extremely quick. He completed his first lap in just over 34 minutes, which was rapid. Before I knew it, he and completed his second lap and I was up. We were in fourth place. Unfortunately the first thing I did was concede a place to New Dales. Liam came into transition right on Paul's wheel and within half a lap, his team mate reeled me in and passed me. I did try and stick on his wheel, but I was very conscious of burning myself out too early and let him go. It was blatant that he was a much quicker rider than me and that I wasn't ever going to catch him. I managed to complete both my first and second laps in about 39 minutes. A bit slower than Paul, but on par with Tony and Gav. It was really strange, going out, doing a lap at full gas and then coming back into the pits to cool down. Your body doesn't really get a chance to recover and deciding what to eat and drink is a nightmare. Luckily for us, we were able to borrow a turbo trainer off of Ollie (thanks Ollie) and that really came in handy. 

Plum Buster isn't as much fun going up it...

By lap four I was really feeling it, I quite literally had given it everything, and I had the consistent lap times to prove it. I wanted to get round as quickly as possible to give Paul as much time to complete his final lap as I could. He was definitely feeling it as well. We had toyed with the idea of Paul doing a second double stint towards the end of the race in an effort to fit an extra lap in but he needed to rest up for his final lap. The best thing about the race was that it was great experience, experience that you can't get anywhere else. I got used to overtaking people in tighter spots and had a series of micro-battles which I really enjoyed! Me and Andrew from New Dales literally had a battle for an entire lap. I was finally able to drop him on the last climb, to my relief! I thought I was never going to shake him at one point! By the time I pulled in and set Paul off on his final lap, I was completely broken. I must of been on the turbo for a good 20 minutes before I got off. I made my way over to transition just in case Paul had another monster lap and we could fit in another lap. Looking back on it though, I'm kinda glad I didn't have to do another lap... Either way it was nice watching Paul bring it home. We'd both given it absolutely everything we had, and we'd earnt a respectable 7th place (out of 40+ teams). Safe to say I definitely slept soundly that night...

The obligatory post-race photo! 

The Summer Enduro was everything I'd hoped it would be, it was a really good day all in all! It was really nice spending the day with all the guys and their families. It was Gav's birthday, which made the day even more special, although he didn't want to celebrate it until the day after! Unfortunately Darren couldn't make it down after a family emergency, he was definitely missed, but Julian made a great substitute and rode well! Lastly, I want to give a mention to Ad, who despite splitting his tire carried on and got a good result in his first ever race! I think he might of even broke a sweat (long running joke). Hope to see you at the MSG races soon mate!

Other CSC results: 

Gav & Bob - 15th

Tony & Julian - 20th

Adam & Liam - 30th