Trans Scotland - The Mighty Dinsdale Roars!

The Mighty D puts in a blistering second stage tt to take first place.

texted from The Mighty Dinsdale today:

I've taken the lead!
Showers today but so
far none when putting
tent up - I'll be size
0 in no time at this
rate.getting a little
tired of bogs and extreme
technical trails we
only did 2 days ago.
KB now 21/2 mins per
stage up on Facer.
Shame about Dom!
Are you coming to
MM then?"

Hurrah!

Trans Scotland

KB's diary is on cyclingnews.com

9th in the Vets so far, well done Keef!

Trans Scotland stage three

Tues 29th May: DAY 3 - Start: Drumlanrig Castle - Finish: Buittle Place Farm, Castle Douglas - Length of course: approx. 100km with 2000m of climbing

texted from Paul today:

Midges are out now and
I am their late evening
drinking den. They know
I was 13th yesterday.
Unlucky for me. Where
did all these fast Vets
who weren't in Wales
come from? More fast
Edinburgh blokes. But
today was 110km with
some excellent descents.
But also a few miles
of grey fireroads with
grey skies. Mtb purgatory

texted from the Mighty D today:

110 km today in sunshine!
Time trialist Dinsdale
managed to get lost near
the end last night so the
10km took an hour I wasn't
the only one so those
results aren't counting-
phew! KB beat Facer by
2mins he never listens!

and:

Yesterday, wet, wet,
wet, muddy. Today
sunny, muddy! Time
trial tonight only 3
Vet women, I may come
3rd! Facer and KB will
battle it out in a big
category

Trans Scotland

Write up here on cycling news

And a pic of KB

Trans Scotland stage two

Mon 28th May: DAY 2 - Start: Moffat Rugby Club - Finish: Drumlanrig Castle - Length of course: approx. 45km with 1150m of climbing - special stage (afternoon) in Drumlanrig Woods.


From Paul today 20.44

Another day another bog.
And a hike a bike hill.A
cold north wind keeps
blowing so today i wore
yesterday's clothes and
today's. I was cosy today.
But this evening was the
first special stage.One
section wasn't well
signposted.Julie got lost.A
dry twisty,rooty narrow
technical course.I hit three
trees but only fell off once.
Jack set off right behind me
and caught me quite soon.
I know only so far that I
didn't podium.Some
showers are cold.

I will post results as soon as they are up on the website.


'Julie got lost' ..........The mighty Dinsdale does not get lost, she finds a better way!

Trans Scotland stage 1

Here are two blogs from people taking part in the race: Allan Kelly and the RAF

Paul texted from the sign in yesterday:

Arrived at 6pm.KB and
Dinsdale staying in B&B
Bags half size of
TransWales but will survive.
Food in.

Sun 27th May: DAY 1 - Start: Selkirk Rugby Club - Finish: Moffat Rugby Club, Holm Road, Moffat - Length of course: approx. 76km with 2100m of climbing

Texted from Paul today 20:20:

Hello Belgium.The main
thing is that well over half
the TransScotland riders did
TransWales.Even the same
Italians and other
Europeans.How short
Memories are. Today it
rained.Of course it missed
us altogether again.But
the wind was so strong we
had a tailgail.So a fast
day? 71km in six hours.
Perhaps not so fast. So
what alse got in the way
besides multitudes of wet,
knee deep boggy sections?
Well a mountain for a start.
I have never pushed my bike
up such a steep climb.
Luckily there was no false
summit but there was a
false descent.
It was steeper than the up. I
couldn't stop to get off so I
had to squeal instead.
It was referred to afterwards
as the 'the descent'.There were
wobbly bridges that
two people couldn't ride
over together as the wobble
became just too wobbly. A ride
that put endure back
into endurance.I wondered
which was worse,icy hands
or frozen feet.The first
timed section is tomorrow.

Trans Scotland

The Trans Scotland starts this weekend:here

Pablo, The mighty D and KB have entered this first edition(rumoured to be the only edition)this seven day stage race.

Pablo has been working hard for this race and is hoping to do well in the vets category.

I'm hoping to get reports from everyone during the race.


Itinery:



Sat 26th May: START/REGISTRATION - Selkirk Rugby Club.

Sun 27th May: DAY 1 - Start: Selkirk Rugby Club - Finish: Moffat Rugby Club, Holm Road, Moffat - Length of course: approx. 76km with 2100m of climbing.

Mon 28th May: DAY 2 - Start: Moffat Rugby Club - Finish: Drumlanrig Castle - Length of course: approx. 45km with 1150m of climbing - special stage (afternoon) in Drumlanrig Woods.

Tues 29th May: DAY 3 - Start: Drumlanrig Castle - Finish: Buittle Place Farm, Castle Douglas - Length of course: approx. 100km with 2000m of climbing.

Wed 30th May: DAY 4 - Special stage (morning) in Dalbeattie Forrest - Start (linking stage): Dalbeattie Forest - Finish: Lochhill Farm, New Abbey - Length of course: approx. 59km with 1300m of climbing.

Thurs 31st May: DAY 5 - Special stage (morning) in Mabie Forrest - Start (linking stage): Mabie Forrest - Finish: Moffat Rugby Club, Holm Road - Length of course: approx. 64km with 1200m of climbing.

Friday 1st May: DAY 6 - Start: Moffat Rugby Club - Finish: Glentress Bike Hub / trail head - Length of course: approx. 65km with 2100m of climbing - special stage (night) in Glentress Forest.

Sat 2nd May: DAY 7 - Start: Glentress Bike Hub - Finish: Selkirk Rugby Club - Length of course: approx. 63km with 2300m of climbing.

Trans Germany

When did this happen?

This is the first I've heard of it! TransGermany

Is it one race too far? I'm beginning to feel inundated...I must resist the compulsion to include it on my palmares:-)

The man in the white shoes

I see no mud....only shiny shoes.





Made by Paul Facer, a brilliant and obsessed young researcher working in a textile mill up north. He invents an incredibly strong fibre which repels dirt and never wears out.From its fabric he makes a pair of sidis which are brilliant white because it cannot absorb dye, and slightly luminous because it includes radioactive elements. Facer is lauded as a genius until both management and the trade union realise the consequence of his invention - once consumers have purchased enough material, demand will drop precipitously and put the textile industry out of business. The managers try to trick Facer into signing away the rights to his invention but he refuses. Managers and workers each try to shut him away, but he escapes.

The climax sees Facer riding through the forest at night in his glowing white sidis, pursued by both the managers and the employees. As the crowd advances, his shoes begin breaking apart as the chemical structure of the fibre breaks apart with time. The mob, realizing that his yarn has a flaw, rips pieces off his shoes in triumph, until he is left standing in his socks. The next day, Facer is dismissed from his job. Departing, he consults his chemistry notes. A realization hits, and he exclaims "I see!" and strides off to perhaps try again......

More Ironbike

I found some great pictures of 2005 race here: ironbike

Fast forward website here :Belgian tho' The prologue is around the town, through alleyways and down steps!!

Now I'm a bit frightened!

The Whole Story

I arrived at the venue at 9.20am, giving me forty minutes before the start.
Already suited and booted all I had to do was sign on and attach number board to bike.
Somehow I found and arrived at the start line just in time to put my foot down before the whistle blew. So I started right at the back.
The start was quick though and even at the back we went off at a healthy pace.
An excellent fast course with lots of great singletrack. It wasn't very hilly but there were a couple of short sharp climbs and short drags. Also enough bits of fire road to enable me to pass and slowly make my way up through some of the field.

I was going quickly although not a blistering race pace I just concentrated on catching the person in front all the time. This was good until somewhere through the fourth lap. I was lapped (already!) and then it started to rain. Had the fast boys brought the bad weather with them?
At first everything just got wet, especially me, but gradually a thick gritty pasty mud began to appear.
On one section through some trees that had previously been very twisty singletrack I wondered who had pulled a plough through it. And just before the end of it I fell off. I'd wanted to take a bend to the right but jut carried on going left until I reached the floor. I fell off again not much later, on an off camber section.
500m later I didn't fall off but had enough of a twitchy slide that I thought it better to cut my losses and actually stop and let some air out of the tyres. 45psi might have been good for the firm pack start but now I was going all over the place. Besides I'd needed a pee from the off and now I could have one.

It was still worth sitting behind people on the less muddy flat sections that were fast but this meant everyone ended up covered in mud. I do mean covered.
The bike faired no better and my gears were jumping. They were actually jumping twice every pedal revolution. This was really extremely annoying and meant I was gradually moving along slower and slower.
So again eventually I stopped. The rear block was full of gritty mud and pine needles. I could just see the teeth. I tried to clean it out with a stick but that just snapped. Great.
I sprayed it with water from my camelbak then remembered I had my house keys in my back pocket. They would be just narrow enough to get in between the cogs.
Without a rear crud catcher I had to rummage around in the mud in my pockets but I found them.
And it worked. For a good ten minutes. And then the mud got back in there. Why did this only seem to be happening to me? I carried on riding but soon had to soft pedal quickly in a low gear to lessen the permanent continuous jumping of the chain.
I stopped another couple of times to repeat the process of clearing the block with a key but each time it didn't take long to clog up again and I was travelling painfully slow.

Bugger it. I was only on the sixth lap but despite feeling fine I was fed up of stopping and not being able to ride as quickly as I'd like so decided I was going to drop out. Of course now the chain stopped jumping so frequently. I could carry on. I had a bar an plenty of energy drink left.
So with 3km of the lap remaining I hurried forward and the chain immediately slipped. It jumped for the rest of the lap and I just thought, f*** it and stopped.
I made my way back to the car park in the heavy rain.
But there was a bike wash so I queued. Chatted to the guy behind me who'd also dropped out. He questioned me about my Pace then when I asked him about his prototype Hope wheels he told me he'd got them because he worked for Pace!
There was also a mobile shower unit, which once I'd worked out how it functioned gave me a hot shower rather than the cold one I was suffering.
But that was the worst I suffered all day. I even ended up placing 11th (in the vets). And to be honest I don't think I would have been better than 8th without a jumping chain.
Need to get quicker. And write less. PF

Trek Marathon Series R2 - Sherwood Pines

Pablo went off to Nottingham for round two of the Trek Marathon Series.

He texted his experience:

'horrible, horibble, horrible. Great course.
the rains arrived on lap four. I managed
two more laps but was fed up with chain
jumping constantly on mudfest block.
Stopped three times to clean it with car
key. This worked for about ten minutes
but genearlly just made me cold because
I'd stopped. Great course still.'

He placed 11th in the vets, results: here

also a sneak preview of the new bike in the picture:-)

Marshal

Today ramon and janey marshalled for the swrc randonee at the halfway mark in Bury nr. Amberley.

It was a surprisingly good turn out, with lots of punctures and crashes on the descent of Coomb Botty.

It rained quite a bit, but it was a good steady 117km round trip for the Sundayriders.

Jane models her Parisian emergency poncho.

More cross training

ramon, juanita y lco return to the Welsh mountains for some hiking; useful for storming the Maginot line in July.

They completed a bold and daring ascent of the west face of the Sugar loaf, good conditions meant crampons were not needed.

We're in!

Ramon and Pablo are going to Italy!

The Iron Bike:here

Yellow Jersey

This looks a nice trip and takes in all the big cols: yellow jersey

At £500 similar in price to TransAlps etc. some pics: here