Tuesday ride

pic: Roger has trouble holding off an angry mountain bike after saying he preferred the road :)

Me and Roger have started our weekly winter Tuesday rides on the mountain bike again. A bit later this year because I took a couple of months off the bike.

It was another lovely Tuesday so we started by riding over to Leith Hill for some singletrack. I realise that I've lost fitness, but hadn't realised that I'd lose all of my skills too! Once I'd had a couple of slips and slides on the roots and got used to the bike moving around under me, it came back a bit.

From Leith over to Holmbury via High Ashes Farm, where Roger had a slight comedy off when a rock submerged in a puddle flipped him sideways :) We stopped for coffee and teacakes at the café in Shere and went back over the north Downs.......... Lovely :)

Birthday Bothy Boy

As part of my birthday celebrations, we nipped up to the top of the Sugarloaf on Saturday morning. Where we found snow!!!!! hurrah!!. So, we just had to try out my new two person bothy bag, (it was a bit of a squeeze with three)

It's a fabulous bit of kit. Originally designed for emergencies, but great to get out of the wind/rain and take your coffee and ciabatta in relative comfort.

overheard in a bike shop recently :)

Offa's Dyke

Me and Richie had been planning a trip along part of Offa's Dyke for some time, co-ordinating our time off work was the main problem. Offa's Dyke is a hiking path that runs the whole distance between Wales and England, more or less following the border itself.. Originally built by Offa a king of Mercia, to keep out marauders from what is now Wales. It is 177 miles long and Richie had prepared a route for us to cover about a tenth of that distance over the weekend.

We were to set off from Hatterall Hill heading north hoping to break the back of the walk and then bivi on the top near Hay Bluff as it grew dark. This would leave a nice leisurely stroll into Hay on Wye on Sunday morning.

The forecast on Saturday was for 50mph winds and maybe a little rain, before the wind dropped and the rain cleared by around six that evening.

The day started off quite pleasant and the climb up Hatterhall was was warm under blue skies and fluffy clouds. The views from here were stunning, looking over to England on the east and Wales to the west. The views of England were markedly flat and of square fields bordered with hedges and dry stone walls ...all nicely ordered. The large looming mountains signifying the unfettered wildness of Wales on our left side. There was something wonderfully ironic about a Welshman and an Englishman walking together along something originally designed to keep us a part :)

The wind up this high was incredible with some of the blasts almost knocking me over, it was becoming apparent that we'd have to drop lower to set up camp.

A more pressing problem was water, or the lack of it. We were both carrying enough water to drink. But finding water to camp was a problem. We'd both brought filter bottles with us, Richie had the katadyn here : katadyn and I had the travel tap from the most excellent Backpackinglight.co.uk We'd bargained on getting water from streams. But after such a wonderfully dry September even Wales was short of water :)

It was hard going, the terrain was uneven and the wind was blowing us all over the place.

As we neared the highest point of our trek, dark clouds began building to the east and within half an hour we were being blasted by freezing horizontal rain. Here we revised our plans and Richie suggested we push on to Hay Bluff and drop down from there. Luckily from here onwards the trail was large stone slabs, laid to prevent erosion and these made for good speed.

As we descended the Bluff it was hammering down and we decided to forego the camping and pushed on into Hay on Wye.

It was a great hike and we accomplished what we'd set out to do, the full 17 miles. We are going back to bivi another day :)

X vuelta a Ibiza

La pagina web dice -

- Estamos trabajando en la edición 2010 de la Vuelta a Ibiza. Pronto pondremos a vuestra disposición los nuevos programas, recorridos y paquetes de inscripción.
Las inscripciones comenzarán el 15 de enero. ¡Reserva estas fechas: 2, 3 y 4 de abril!

It's a week earlier this year.

Sant Josep extrem -

The race started with the usual Ibicenc firecrackers and smoke and we were off. We started with a loop around the astro turf running track at the campo desport, a bit like the Paris-Roubaix but with the track at the beginning!


Me and Jane had decided to ride together today. Up the main road through Sant Josep we caught Julie, Keith was long gone. The next 2km was downhill on rocky stuff interspersed with sand traps, we squirrelled quite a bit on these -later we learned that Julie had hit the deck on the final one and scraped her knee and face :(

At about 12km we hit the very rough, technical climb - Sa Serra Grossa and everyone was off and walking. The sun was high now and I had sweat dripping off my elbows. I couldn’t actually work out where it was originating, my sleeves where tight so it wasn’t from my armpits. Here we passed Mari - eventual 2nd place senior lady, also the girl Jane had been 2nd to in the Vuelta Ibiza. We took some water at the top, Mari went straight through. The next climb-Sa Capelleta- we recognised from the Vuelta Ibiza. Nicely technical but rideable, Jane pulled away from me on the last steep section up to the first check point.

Danny from Kandani, whispered to me that Jane was fourth girl and only a minute down J

A long technical down and a short hard up took us to the 2nd cp overlooking the bay, we grabbed some coke and aquaria (isotonic drink) and set off up the road overlooking the bay. Up a slightly technical climb, we saw kb. He’d begun to cramp and had eased back, he gave us his wheel and pulled us across the flattish section and we began the climb of Puig D’en Serra. This was 4 km of rippled concrete, long sections at over 20%. Many people were walking this, I was in my 22/32 granny the whole climb and fighting to keep the front wheel on the ground. We crested this to ride fast wide gravel hairpins to the bottom and the last cp. This cp was at the base of Sa Talaia, the last climb of the day. This was a wide gravel hard pack climb, not too steep and a nice middle ring ride. But somewhere between the last descent and here Jane had hit the bonk. I’d been feeding her gels for the past couple of km but she hadn’t recovered yet.

We began the last climb steadily, Jane still had her head bowed and was suffering like a dog, but she pushed on. I rode ahead with Pepé one of the organisers, keeping an eye on her. Suddenly, a couple of km’s into the climb, she appeared alongside us smiling and chatting. The gels and the coca cola at the cp had kicked in and we spun up to the top.

It was all downhill now into Sant Josep! We had hiked up and down this trail a couple of Christmases ago and I remember at the time joking with Jane what a good downhill it would make. At the time we were struggling to walk sections of it J Juan Ferrer had warned us a little earlier that it was worse than ever because there’d been a downhill race on it the week before.
It began with a very steep, loose drop in with the obligatory guy with a video camera that dangerous bits attract J Because of the previous race the trail was covered in loose marbles and dust which continually slid you sideways on the off camber towards the big drops off the edge :-o

Jane rode more of this than she (or I )thought she would J At one point there was a huge climb down with the bike on the shoulder. I left the bike at the bottom and clambered back up to carry Jane’s down. Just at the top she rode past me, into someone’s garden and down their drive and came out way down the trail!!! Damn! she’d found the chicken run and was way ahead of me. I finally caught up with her on the tarmac run into the finish, where we shared the work with a local guy.

At the finish the paella party was in full swing, these events are always popular with non riders and family and they make a day of it.
Kb came in a minute later and Julie had taken a few wrong turns on the course and was about an hour later.

We got changed and sat around cheering the last few home and waiting for the award ceremony. First they had a raffle, pulling race numbers from a bag - Jane won a maillot and some pantalones. Then she and Julie were called up for 1st and 2nd over forties ladies. And surprisingly I was called for 3rd in the 50+ class……hurrah!


A great day out

Pulborough Bird Sanctuary

Today we decided on a long ride because the weather was nice :)

 We hadn't been on the South Downs yet this year. So at 7.30 am and the temperature a fabulous 20'C already, we headed off over the North Downs via Peaslake to Cranleigh.  Our aim was to reach Amberley in around four hours.

We reached Cranleigh  four minutes quicker than when we came this way three weeks earlier on our way to Southwater - the trails are much less crowded this time day :)

We pushed a bit on the Downs Link and reached Southwater at 40km in 1 hour 53, last time was a long 1.59 hurrah! I filled a bottle here and we pushed on.  

The downs link was remarkably clear of other users so we made good time with Jane on the front :)  We reached the end of the link in 2.44 . This is where it got tougher because now we turn on to the South Downs Way and encounter.........some hills!! 

We'd been pretty much in the shade until now. As we climbed up onto the Downs, the temperature climbed too, reaching 27' C in the most exposed points......lovely :)  We climbed from here over Annington hill, then up again after the level section to Chanctonbury Ring all the time enjoying the lovely heat. Next was the scary loose descent to the even scarier A24! :-o

At the top of the next climb we came across a guy with his bike upside down, emptying the bits of his broken suspension seatpost from the seat tube :) the next section across Kithurst ,Springhead and Rackham hills is great fun all a gently rolling big ring blast on hard narrow chalk paths. It was getting close to four hours so we hammered it across here and skidded down into Amberely at 3h 49m.....hurrah!  We would normally grab teacakes and coffee at the cafe in Amberely, but Jane hadn't stopped complaining about the small size of the teacakes since we were there a month ago. So we pushed on to have tea at Pulborough Brooks (Where I'd had some normal sized tea cakes a few weeks ago when I was out with the A group.)

The teacakes met with Jane's approval, meeting all of the criteria for the perfect teacake. Two weeks ago at Southwater she and Eric had worked out the formula for teacakes. Eric had had a similar teacake trauma some time before.  I don't remember all of the details but it had to be around 8cm wide, not 'capped' (sliced evenly so that the top and bottom are of even diameter), cooked in a toaster to avoid being tainted by smells of other food from the grill.......and so on....etc

After tea was a two hour hard slog into the wind to home. A great mixed six hours on the bike.

Sundayriders lsd ride

First proper wet ride of the year - well in the UK anyway :) So we had to dig out las guardabarras

Today's ride was to the tea shop at Cripplegate lake, Southwater.  JD needed some steady km and decided that hanging on to the back of me and Jane for 80km's would suit her down to the ground :)

The way it went was that me and JD failed to hang onto Jane's wheel for much of the way down. Jane is sooo strong at the moment.  Her form is coming good in time for the Ibiza race, she'll need it because la campionata del mundo -
Marga Fullana will be there!  
I don't know how they do it in Ibiza, last October they had Miguel Indurain and Abraham Olano turn up for their road sportif.

It took us 2.15 to do the 40km to the café - surprisingly quick considering it was hard going and  muddy. We were filthy. The lake was quite busy with people canoeing and others sitting outside in the now bright sunshine. 

We had a nice tailwind for the return and got home a minute faster. JD fluffed the little climb near the end "the cows looking at me put me off" And we had to hose down the bikes (and JD) for the first time this year!

Sunday ride con Dinsdale

The Mighty Dinsdale out on the bike again so soon!  Qué bien. Pero por qué?  Well the reason is that she's coming to Ibiza to race the San Josep Extreme.....hurrah!  The other reason is that she has a new recipe for wild garlic soup and most of Surrey seems to be blanketed in garlic this year :)

Off up over Leith Hill to see if we could bump into Greg and the guys on the shop ride from Moosecycles.com

As we climbed, so did the temperature warming up the woods for an olfactory smorgasbord of spring :-o The lovely pong of bluebells, the may, garlic, pine and the azaleas. To cap it all just as we reached the highest point we heard our first cuckoo of spring.......yay! :)

We did the usual singletrack stuff, all still amazingly dry. (The forecasters keep promising us a bit of rain, but it keeps moving on.) On the way to the tower we went via 'impossible climb' - a loose very steep climb that takes you up to 'summer lightning' Jane led the way up the left side then scrabbled across the loose marbles in the middle to the  right side. She eased a bit on the grippy bit near the top so I attacked on the left, but she pipped me to the top :)  - her first ever clearance of this climb.......well done Jane :)

None of the guys were at the tower so we rode over to Peaslake via Belmont - at Belmont we went through the school grounds and through the rhododendron woods, which have grown over to form a tunnel. Me and julie got under it but Jane was too tall :)

Next was over Holmbury through the singletrack to Peaslake, where we'd missed them again...doh

We did see Eric, his bro, clive and Dave Fignon out for an mtb ride though.

On the way back we had to go to get some garlic for Julie's recipe. We rode back through the vineyard to the stepping stones where Julie stuffed her backpack full.

Sundayriders Monday ride - up the Downs

Paul turned up early today!

We decided to do a few steady hills on today's ride in preparation for the San Josep Ibiza Extrem 

We have a little route that traverses the North Downs escarpment- up Clag, down Cold Kitchen, up the one next to Cold Kitchen, down Netley Heath, up Juniper Hill, down Halfpenny Lane,up to St Martha's Church, down the back and loop around to come up the south side of the church, up Water Lane.  We were now on the way back across the escarpment, but this time we rode down the climbs and up the descents :)

We did our usual head banging 'line out' across the Roughs to round out the day......fabulous :)

Steady ride to Amberley

Jane is getting excited about being fit for the Sant Josep Extreme, so she is eager to be out on the bike once again :)

Amberley is one of our favourite tea stops, with it's view of the South Downs.  It's also been our salvation in times of foul weather when riding the South Downs Way.

It's a road ride  but on winding, rolling lanes. So we often do it on the mountain bikes because the relaxed position allows us to enjoy the views :)

Nature has suddenly bloomed this last week  and almost everything is in full growth, including the St Mark's flies! We run into great swarms of these things this time of year. They're hopeless at flying and have big scary dangling legs that brush against your face, I always try to hold my breath until we're through the swarm :)

It's a very jolly area an has a number of roads named Gadd  and Gay.

Sundayriders Friday Ride by Jane

The weather is fantastic and Julie has  a rare day off so she's joined Paul and I on our regular Friday ride. The countryside is heavy with blooms and foliage and we roll out through fluorescent fields of yellow rape and take in the climb of Clag to wade through acres of bluebells. Despite the fabulously dry weather we manage to find some muddy rutted tracks to descend to the woodyard, then climb back to the North Downs Way and head for Newlands. A fast descent down water lane follows and we take in the long drag up Pond's lane - remarkably dry - through the Silent Wood and follow the gnarly track up to Jelley's Hollow. After descending into Peaslake we climb through Hurtwood, blast down telegraph and head back over Paddington Farm. A classic SundayRiders Friday ride! and the best day of the year so far:) Paul was back on his old bike as, having done two whole rides, he's already worn his new baby's race tyres down to the carcass and wants to save the remaining noblets to race the second round of the National Points Series next weekend in Dalby.  Julie was on fine form and will soon have the miles in her legs ready for the upcoming Ibiza Xtreme, she has threatened to come out both Friday and Sunday next week too.......................the Mighty Dinsdale is back!!!

Jane

The Sunday ride

Today is forecast to be the last dry one for a while, so we thought we'd make the best of it and see the bluebells. I love the bluebells, but the pollen affects my chest.

The trails we lovely and dry, we've had very little rain this year. This encourages hooligan riding!! :) Which is why I'm sitting here in pain from body surfing down the fastest singletrack in Surrey :(

Jane had chosen a route taking us over towards Epsom race Course. The first part is one of my favourite rides for testing my fitness. I led the way up Staine street, which was dry enough to climb out of the saddle, I kept it steady to keep the three of us together. Paul was on his new bike and so was eager to attack and test it :)

So we kept together until the start of the 'longest singletrack in Surrey' where I moved over at the top to let Paul through, but he slowed and moved over to let me through :)

I accelerated hard along the 30 metre asphalt stretch by the house and launched off the step into the loose rocky stuff and big ringed it to the farm, where I saw a dog from the corner of my eye and eased a bit. I accelerated again into the twisty section. As I hit the straight section The bike suddenly veered up the banking, I pulled it back down to the straight but something was wrong. The front was sliding and twisting - then the sloooow mooooootion kicked in and the sound went. I could see that the front wheel was locked and sliding to the left - I thought, I'm going down. I looked up and because I was near the ground already, all I could see was a series of tree roots. So I tried to superman it :) I was pretty horizontal as I hit the ground.I felt my shins and knees bounce off every root as I twisted to slide on my back. Then normal speed and sound returned as my helmet hit the ground....ouch!

As I lay on the ground performing a quick triage :) I heard Jane shout look at the wheel. The front tyre was off and the inner tube which was still inflated was enormous, as big as a tractor tyre and wrapped around the forks :-o (no pictures I'm afraid as Paul and Jane were far to bothered about my well being - bless 'em) I'm sure had it been Paul or Jane the second thing I'd have done would be to take some pics ;)

I'm not sure whether the tyre wasn't seated properly or that I'd hit a rock or root and dislodged it, but this is what had locked the front wheel.

Next the pain hit me and I felt sick and and wanted to go to the toilet at the same time. This was my autonomic nervous system freaking out when the body dumps a load of hormones into the system. 'Dumps'being the operative word :) I think that this was probably my hardest crash ever. Later my gps showed my speed dropping from 32kph to zero in an instant :-O Better than any disc brake! lol!

Once the nausea had passed and I'd reseated the tyre. I was on the horns of a dilemma. Which was: a. being full of adrenaline and wanting to go hard. b. frightened that my tyre might come off again.

Ten minutes later we were hammering down the singletrack to Given's Grove :) This is super-fast and narrow. At the fastest point the owners of one of the local mansions has built a raised driveway across the track. We hit this flat out and took off,I skimmed across whole thing about three inches off the ground.......whoaaaaaa!!!

Ten minutes later I'm off the back on the slightest climb and everything's hurting :)

So, now I'm sitting here and slowly stiffening up. My left elbow won't fully extend and supination is very painful, I have bloody knees and shins,  scrapes and abrasions on my shoulders and scapulae and a huge lump on my right sacroiliac. The good news is that I'll have some fabulous scabs to pick later in the week! :)

More btt in Ibiza

This one looks fun, it's around the castle in Eivissa Town.

stage 3 - Las Calas

It rained all through the night, so hard that it woke me a couple of times. 

After the late night last night it was difficult to get out of bed and face the prospect of 2-3 hours riding in the rain.  We had left the bicis in San Antoni and drove over in the lashing rain, hoping and expecting that the event was cancelled :)  At the headquarters we were greeted with 'you have brought the weather from londres' and 'it is perfect for you' ....etc   :)  So, no pulling out for us then!

The sign on was put off for an hour to wait for the rain to ease and it did a little bit.  

We set off through the streets of Sant Antoni in a huge spray of water thrown up from the road, to add to the rain :)  Up a couple of asphalt climbs and we started to warm up a bit until the first off road section which was underwater for the first 100 metres! Today's ruta was to be a tour of the calas, a cala is a sort of bay or cove. So after the big climb of the day, we tended downwards  back to Sant Antoni, dropping down to the little coves and climbing back out again. This meant some nice technical, wet rock descending down to the beach then a scramble across the sand and then often a hike-a-bike section either up the rocks or steps cut into the rock, which because of the rain each step was a mini waterfall Though sometimes it was  super steep access tracks for boats.  . I have mentioned before that when the rock gets wet in Ibiza in some places it forms a slick grease on the top. The locals call this patina and if you hear the shout 'patina, patina!' you can expect that you or someone nearby  will hit the ground soon. It's instantaneous, one nano second you're on the bike, the next you're not :-o 

Some areas above the calas were huge moonscapes of boulders and rocks and we bounced and banged across these, all the time with the sea roaring and crashing to our left....fabulous :) 

At the top of the last climb out of Cala Bassa we were stopped at the road, because the next section was neutralised. Shortly a police car turned up, this was to be our escort to the finish line. We were told to stay close in ‘peloton’ and not to overtake the police car J About 20 of us set off behind the police car with lights flashing, immediately he sped away and we jumped after him. Soon we were lined out and tucked in behind at 40 kph! People were cheering and clapping as we went straight through traffic lights and around roundabouts into the centre of Sant Antoni………most excellent.  

stage 2

Sant Antoni - Santa Eulalia

The forecast was for 20% chance of rain today, it had rained hard in the night so we expected some more.  It  was much colder as we lined up for the start of today’s stage.

The first part of today’s stage was neutralised and we rolled out of  town as a large group and stopped at the foot of the first climb. We had somehow managed to get ourselves squashed to the back of the first 100 :(  The first climb was  fairly wide fire road and we made good time up this, passing a few of the other ladies. One girl ……. Who was second yesterday tried to get onto Jane’s wheel but couldn’t hold it. She got back on at the next flattish section, and off again on the next rise. We hadn’t seen her for a while when we hit a steep, rocky and rooted greasy section.  Jane was riding very well up this stuff , as people all around were spinning out,  slipping and dabbing. A lot of the guys were walking, but Jane was riding all of it. Then …… just rode past!…. On the worst line possible, she floated over everything….amazing and we just watched her ride away.  This climb lasted over two km’s me and Jane cleared it but it was a long walk for some :)  The steep descent was through a recently cleared forest area and was  at least six inches  deep in wood pulp.We descended fast and I lost the front wheel a couple of times on the bends. But the scary bit was the sticks and branches flicking up and hitting the spokes, I was concerned that at any moment I would lose the rear mech.  

The next climb was a true hike-a-bike section , we shouldered the bikes and scrambled and hiked for a good ten minutes. The next descent was one of my favourite types on the island.- steep wooded, tight  singletrack with rock slabs and rocky drops :)  

We recognised some of the next trails as rutas tres and neuve but in reverse. It’s strange how a previously great climb becomes an amazing descent the other way around. We hit a great descent here again, deeply rutted and loose. On one big drop I flicked up to the right to avoid it and I heard ‘paso, paso!’ on the left. The poor guy ‘supermanned’ over the drop! He was immediately up and apologising to me and Jane and then rocketed of down the trail. My turn next - on the next bend someone went wide, I tried not to and the front washed out………..Rider down!  :) As I got up, I looked up and I was next to the video guy and the photographer……..and they looked very pleased. I shouted ‘saca mi foto?’ ‘Si, si’ they laughed. Everyone loves a crash. :)

The last climb started with an amazing technical section of about 500 metres of  deep ruts and channels which I immediately fluffed and Jane cleared it leaving me and a couple of guys walking. There was about three km to go now, all up. The trail widened into a smoother fire road and we started to reel people in again. This led to a big sprint fun sprint and we dropped the group we were with. At the finish they told Jane she was third women. We met the girl who’d gone past on the technical climb, she was just under three minutes up on Jane. 

We rolled the next 20 odd neutralised km’s with Juan Ferrer and some of the guys from his shop in Eivissa town. It turned out he’d been the guy who crashed in front of me and we hadn’t recognised each other :)

As we came into the finish area we could see the finish line inflatable had collapsed, so we climbed under together and on the other side the t.v. guys were filming us crawling out. :)

vuelta Ibiza stage one

La Vuelta Ibiza

La Vuelta Ibiza is three day stage race held over Easter every year, usually in the north west of the Island.

Stages one and three are around 30km each and more like sportifs. Stage two is 80 km and takes in most of the big mountains and is timed over a 37.5 km mid section.

Yesterday we signed on in Sant Antoni at the headquarters of Mammoth, the organisers. In the usual goody bag was a racing jersey and a t-shirt, it was then that we realised the main sponsor was Space!! Yes, space the rave nightclub, probably the biggest consumer of ecstasy and amphetamine based pharmaceuticals in Europe……yay!  Another quick look through the goody bag  revealed no trace of  free samples :( This may be the start of a new trend, what with Amgen the makers of epo sponsoring the tour of California :) as we pass through the start we hear a shout from Jane’s mother and sister from Wales. The Welsh tifosi  also known as the  taffosi!   :)

Stage one:

Stage one starts in Eivissa Town  on the Vara del Rey. It’s very official, and like the tdf and other big races, we have to mount a stage, walk across and sign in.

The start is signalled by lots of fire crackers thrown to the floor in front of the start line, and we’re off! Like most of these races, there are so many taking part that we wait a few seconds and then start scooting and finally cross the start line a few minutes after the front runners. :)

The first km or so is with a huge tailwind blowing us through downtown Eivissa and through all of the junctions held on red as the police stop  the traffic. We gradually move up through the groups here and as we hit the first climb people are coming backwards.  It’s nice gradual wide fire road middle ring climb, we have already decided to keep it steady and ride together as Jane is recovering from  a twisted knee from the  Three Peaks Trial a couple of weeks ago. But, still we’re passing people and climbing easily.  The first descent is down some very rutted and greasy tracks, Jane is a bit nervous at first but soon realises that she has more grip then she thinks.  The next climb is another three kms but a bit steeper and it’s onto the granny ring. Over this one and we find a beautiful hairpin asphalt road descent! Which then becomes a  rutted fire road. Bonkers, a stretch of pristine asphalt in the middle of nowhere. :)

Next up is the last big climb of the route, for me it’s 22/32 mostly on this one. It starts ok but then gradually becomes more and more broken up and rocky on the right hand side. And more and more we are left with a narrow rideable line on the left.  Even this starts to disappear and become an off camber greasy ledge, Jane is riding very well on this stuff and people behind us are slipping into the rut. Just before the top an angled wet root catches her back wheel and she dabs. I manage to squeeze past and at the top of the climb is the refreshment checkpoint. We grab a couple of  cokes and set off down. It’s pretty much down all the way now, but for a couple of bumps.  Jane responds well to coke and she descends well. We catch a couple on the slight rises, but we see no one on the descents. We pass two more guys on a short sharp greasy 20%+ .  Two or three km’s to go now and I get my head down and Jane tucks in behind on a wide camino. We hit a track wide water splash here flat out and a guy flags us down shouting ‘espera!’  This is the official end and the next section into town is neutralised. We stop and a chap comes up to Jane and says something about ‘primera mujer’  and then realises she’s not Spanish and he says well done first woman home. We’re  pretty astounded! He introduces himself as the President of the Balearics racing and says that he lived in Leicester for a while and does a passable midlands accent :) A local girl then turns up and he grabs them both for a photo. After five minutes the group has expanded to about 20 and we’re told to set off  to town we cruise the streets and once again all the traffic is held back for us.

A lovely day out and I wore shorts  for the first time this year……..hurrah!

Sherwood Pines

My first race of the year! Well for a year in fact :)

This time last year I started to get some tendinitis in my knee, and it's taken me a while to figure it out. So this year I've started to put a bit of effort in again, hence joining the alpha's on a Saturday :)

So I decided to race the national series this year. The first round was at Sherwood Pines in Nottingham.

Me, Paul Facer and Tom (Paul's friend who kindly put us up for the weekend) -Hello Tom,Rachel,Martin and Jude:)- Went for a quick spin around the course. I was surprised by how amazingly like Thetford it was.But it was even less hilly!

This year I'm in a different category to Paul, he's vets and I'm now in the grand vets. The start time was 3pm!! 3pm is ridiculous, that's when I take my afternoon nap! Don't they realise that we oldsters start to get up earlier and go to bed even earlier. I'm up and dressed at 7am ready to go, but it's still eight hours before we start. :)

I'm standing in the paddock two rows behind the seeded guys, surrounded by scary looking proto-pensioners in lycra. The gun goes and they're gone in a cloud of choking dust, I'm still trying to clip in as they disappear toward the first singletrack section. I can't close on them at all, until we hit the singletrack where technically I'm much quicker. But, out onto the fire road again and they're gone. This goes on for a while and gradually I pull two or three back on the singletrack sections. This is tough, each time glance down at my HR monitor I see the high 160's.

I gradually pull in a few of the vets who'd set off before the grand vets, and it's over. Four 7.5km laps - 1.42' This short sharp type of racing is utterly new to me, it's usually fours plus.

I can see where I need to improve: My bike handling is fine, and from riding with the Alphas on a Saturday, I can hold the pain and high heart rates. I just don't have any strength. :)

My heart rate averaged 163, My maximum is 175.

Paul had a good race and was a minute faster than me on every lap.

So next week back to riding with the Alphas :)

The picture is me and Paul picking up our prize for coming joint 312th :-)

othg

no mtb today.

Roger was busy and I needed some spinning in my legs after the weekend's hiking had turned them into jelly.

As I arrived at Betchworth, the over the over the hill gang were just leaving. The otothg is a steadier ride for those old blokes who can't keep up with the other old blokes who are in the over the hill gang.

Today was pretty quick - we scorched up Snowhill with Sabin and Andy on the front at over 30kph. At the top I eased to wait for the others and when I looked around, everyone was sitting right behind us grinning! Worrying :-0

Even on the col du Colgate it didn't let up. Andy kicked off, then Steve. Seconds later another Steve came past this one with a fixed wheel!!! and a moustache!!! I was beginning to think maybe I need some of that hormone replacement that everybody must be getting from their doctors. ;)

And this is how it went for most of the ride. I think I prefer the Alphas on a Saturday, at least I'm getting a kicking from people nearer my age group..... :)

Old cyclists never die, they just get a triple................................bypass!

The 3 peaks platinum

No cycling today, Jane had entered us for the South Wales Three Peaks Trial. this is a 30 km hike over three peaks in South Wales.

We haven't done much hiking this year, and I haven't run at all. So, I wasn't looking forward to 30km and three mountains.

The Paltinum route,unlike the Gold , which is circular, is a straight route starting at Llantony Priory and finishing in Abergavenny.

We are bussed to the start of the event and our coach was last in line. This meant that the others got a head start on the first climb...grr! oops! easy tiger , I'm not out with the alphas today ;-)

We overtook a lot of hikers and caught of couple of the runners who'd over cooked it on the first climb to the check point at Bal Mawr. On the ascent we passed Malcom, a chap who we'd met the year before last. He's very competitive and tried to hang on to us, finally catching us on the descent before the next big climb. We walked together and reminisced on the intervening flat section, he said goodbye as we hit the next climb of Pen Cerrig Calch. I was feeling pretty good here and instead of following the hairpin footpath, I pushed straight up the shortest way. I hit my highest heart rate of the day here - 167 bpm Which I held for most of the climb( nowhere near the 175's I regularly achieve on the swrc Alpha rides)

As we crested the steepest part, we saw the leader coming back down. Onto the push to the top and we first saw the second place guy, followed by a group of three. Just before the trig we recognised the guy coming towards us, it was Mike another guy we met last time. We got our cards marked and ran with a fantastic tailwind back down the way we'd come up. On the steepest part Jane hurt her knee. She was ok on the flat section through Llanbedr and no problem on the biggest climb to the Sugarloaf where we caught Mike. On the descent Jane's knee became very bad and we had to let Mike go. We finish in 05.10, it's a pity about Jane's knee because I think we would have cracked 5 hours.


we are planning next year now :)

Saturday fast ride

Today I went for my second 'kicking' from the South Western Road Club 'A' group :)



Last week was pretty tough and hilly and I hung on for a while.



This week's trip was to Danehill Farm, and I knew there was going to be some hills on the way there. I hung on quite well and wasn't off the back at all. I had one 'moment' on the last of the series of climbs when my legs stopped pushing and I went backwards for a short time. I soon recovered and enjoyed the flat out chase into into Dane Hill.

Coming back was a different matter :) My climbing legs had deserted me. They were hurting the whole way. Each time we hit a hill, I was fine and then my legs would just die near the top and everyone would come past. This was ok until the hill at Rusper, when I couldn't close the gap at the top and had to sit up and roll back steadily alone. I can feel my fitness returning, I need a bit more stamina and distance in my legs :)

I could have taken it easier on the way out, but my next race is around 2-2.5 hours. So, I need a bit of speed over that time and I think this helped :-))

tuesday ride

The weather is perfect for mountain biking at the moment :)
Roger turned up at 10 am and already it was 11'C and sunny...hurrah!
We decided to head toward Leith Hill to do some singletrack in the woods, notably Summer Lightning. - a man made trail that really just follows some old trails we had years ago. This was bone dry and a little bit dusty, which was nice because you could really get the weight over the forks and let the back drift around a bit :-o
We then went over towards Holmbury via Friday Street and Belmont School. At Belmont we took a cheeky trail through the grounds, this trail is very tight and twists throught the bushes which have grown over to meet at the top forming a long green tunnel. Next off was the climb up to Holmbury and down the telegraph row one of Roger's and Alan's favourite trails. Here I hit a root and my water bottle hit my leg and bounced out. I thought was strange at the time but only later when i got home I found the break in the water bottle cage. see pic above. This must mean I'm hardcore!!! :)
We grabbed a cup of tea in Peaslake and rode back over Holmbury and Whitedown.
An excellent ride

Sundayriders Sunday ride

The mighty Dinsdale managed to come for a ride and brought some chocolate fairy cakes...hurrah!



We've had some great dry days recently, but the wind has kept the temperatures down. Today the wind had dropped.

It felt a bit nippy when we left the house, so we all wore sleeves and leg warmers. But the temperature soon zipped up to 18' C At one point everyone took their shoes and socks off!

My legs were a bit sore from riding with the A group the day before so we took it reasonably steady, just attacking the the singletrack and climbs.

At Peaslake we saw Frank and Greg, who were out doing a bit of freeriding. Frank had taken a spill and landed on his head.

We rode a nice 50km's on hard dry trails in the sunshine.......excellent! Roll on the summer.

Viernes con Kandani

Today was the warmest day so far. We met kandani at 3.30 ,it was still very warm and they teased Jane for having bare legs and arms because for them it was still muy frio :) .We set out in a very steady, even slow manner. We assumed it was tranquilo because there is a race at Can Trull on Sunday. But as soon as we hit the off - road, the pace jumped way up.

Werner was leading again, and was very excited because he’d discovered a new climb - Casa Rojo. Werner has an amazing knowledge of la isla’s trails, so for him to find a new one is astounding. I rode alongside him and he turned to me very excited and said in his excellent German spanglish “Ya, ya I find nuevo climb, mucho subida, mas duro mas strong, si, si…20 percents! ….ya”

The climb of Casa Rojo turned out to be one of the many utility access roads. One of the companies like telephonica or the electricity build something on top of the hills and cut a rough access road up one side and often down the other side. The rain and baking sun soon turn these into very rough tracks with nice loose gravely hairpins. Me and Jane crest in the front group and we wait for the others. Once regrouped someone shouts “attaque, attaque!” and we disappear in a cloud of dust down the other side, sliding and giggling on the loose bends :)After a hard blast through twisty rocky caminos we get to Can Trull (pron.troy)

Can Trull is restaurant and banqueting hall set up by Art, a nice chap we met a few months ago. He does all sorts of functons and weddings here. But, also his sons are bikers and he’s a bike fanatic! So, he has built and crammed a five km mtb course into the grounds :) It’s fantastic, it twists and turns, lots of steep drop ins and the best and scariest bits are the wooden ramps. These are like decking but are built to cross ditches and some run through trees……..excellent I meet Art out on the course and he tells me that they hosted a round of the Copa Catalana ,their version of the national series, last October.

kandani ride

This afternoon we rode over to Santa Eularia to go out with the guys from Kandani on their Wednesday afternoon mtb training ride. Ten of us set out through the deserted siesta time streets of  Santa Eularia, up to the rotunda and down the ‘Roman Singletrack’ -  the romans were busy here some time ago and built a beautiful harbour and bridge. Not much has been done to it since they left, so it makes good rocky mtb riding J. 

Everyone was a bit frisky tonight and we were flying through the singletrack. Werner had some special neuvo caminos for us. He’d been out earlier in the day cutting back bushes and branches on some excellent steep, rocky  hanging off the back of the saddle stuff……big grins and muy biens all around…..yay!p 

After about an hour and a half of  ups and downs and ins and outs of the trees, the pace picked up for the blast back toward home.  This was excellent, lined out like a road race on rutted, pot holed tracks. It’s times like this when you learn that loose gravel has so much more grip than you think  :-o

On the road into Santa Eularia people gradually pulled off the group and at the shop Pascual asked if we were up for more on Friday.  Cool!

Jane's new shoes

On Saturday we went to Run to Live to get Jane some off road running shoes. She has been running off road some Thursday nights with her running group. She had towalk and then run for a  time on the treadmill and then was given a gait analysis on video by the very nice Alan.

She bought some lovely red and grey Asics :) 

Sunday Ride

After the heavy snows of earlier in the week, we didn't know what to expect on the trails this weekend. Joining us today for his first ride since his disastrous attempt at the Trans Wales last year is Parky! - The SWRC's blog meister.

Heading off-road the slippery snow from earlier in the week had been replaced by the more usual slippery mud :)

As we progressed across the Roughs some areas were, strangely, still covered in several inches of crunchy snow which was fun. It took the others a little while to adapt to the snow riding,but they soon got it.

At Abinger I made a mistake and turned right. So to get back on track we had to ride up Rad Lane. Rad lane is a bridleway and is often tricky to ride because of a couple of muddy sections. Because of the melting snow the mud section was much longer and extremely challenging. I dabbed at least five times! :)

Up over Holmbury the trails were pretty clear, at the top we met with Jason and Gary out with the Moose Cycles ride. Their Wales trip to Cwmcarn had been called off because of ice dropping onto vehicles from the rigging of the Severn Bridge.
We did a couple of loops of Holmbury taking in Telegraph row. Alan liked this trail so much that he logged it's position on his gps. :)

We headed back across the Roughs attacking each other repeatedly until Jane finally gapped Alan, I came around him and almost caught her before we got to the icy wet 'truce' area :) On Hole Hill Alan and Paul rode away, I was stuffed I've only got a couple of hours in me at the moment.

Great fun :)

Tuesday mtb

We set out a bit later today because of the minus 5 in the night was still hanging on to the morning:)

Roger arrived in brilliant sunshine at about 11 ish, it had taken him tw0 hours to ride the 15 miles that normally takes him about an hour. 

Once we were off road it was beautiful deep and soft squeaky snow. At first it was quite tricky to ride and I couldn't stay with Roger at all ( after all he'd had 2 hours more practice than me :)

Across the roughs the snow was very deep and a couple of time we had to push the bikes to a shallower bit.

Once over White Down the going got bit easier and the girly squeals lessened as the font wheels slipped less :)

From here we crossed the A25 at Abinger, then took the bridleway around the back of Shere. After a loop to Albury and back we headed into Shere for tea and toast.

Sitting at the back of the cafe were Gary and Eric! After some gossip and toast we headed back over the Roughs.


At White down me and Roger elected to ride up the road hill, while Gary and Eric carried on off road. The on road was much more difficult than off, as the snow was compressed solid. I dabbed twice, it was that slippery! Once over the top we cruised steadily down the hill until we came out into the sunshine where the ice had softened. Suddenly Roger's front wheel slipped and in slow motion he slid to the ground in front of me. I could do nothing and landed on top of him, a surprisingly soft landing! We lay in the floor tangled up like a game of twister and giggled for a while. No physical damage done maybe some ego bruising though :-)

Box Hill

No biking today, we have 180mm of snow......hurrah!

Unable to buy a sledge me and Jane went to Box Hill where there were loads of people boarding, skiing and sledging. On the way back I found an old skate board with no wheels......excellent!! 

..it hasn't rained for at least three days and it's been below zero and windy. This means dry, fast trails, it also means that we freeze :)

The Santa Cruz is in Greg's to have lots of stuff fixed - bushings, headset, fork service and maybe a BB. So I get the Marin out of the attic.  I bought it as a complete bike to do la ruta de los conquistadores on a few years ago with my bonus from André when I worked for him during Wimbledon.  I hated this bike with a passion, it was uncomfortable and handled like a pig. When I got back from la ruta, I switched all of the bits to a hand job frame and chucked André in the attic. Recently I rebuilt it with a new magura Durin 80mm fork, didn't like the look of it and chucked it back in the attic. Today I had no choice, I nothing else to ride! 

Me, Paul and Jane did a fantastic three hour ride around Shere, Albury and the North Downs on hard packed trails. The bike was fantastic! It was light, flickable accelerated incredibly quickly and just felt great. It's amazing what a good fork can do................ I like it now :)

I've just gone into the garden to weigh it and it's covered in snow!!  Hurrah!!! Snow riding with Roger on Tuesday

Pen Cerrig

Pen Cerrig was to be the first mountain of the year in our monthly hikes in Wales this year.

One of my patients had said that earlier in the week there had still been snow on the top, so this gave us good reason to choose this particular lump :)

It was frosty and the wind was biting, but it was bright as we set off toward the table mountain. Past table mountain it started to get much colder and once over the steep step to the moraine area the cloud came in and we started to crunch on the ice and snow. We pushed on past the trig because now it was very cold. Just after the trig there is a hollowed out cairn in which we crouched and ate some peanut brittle.

As we set off some of the cloud began to lift and the sun warmed a little. as we came out of the cloud and lost height it became like a summer's day: blue skies, brilliant sunshine and the wind dropped. We passed several groups of walkers coming up as we descended, none of them believed us when we said that there was snow at the top! :)

In Crug Hywel we went for coffee and toast!

happy new year

31st
Today was our ride with the guys from Kandani.
So in the morning I thought I'd look the bikes over as Juanita's brakes were rubbing a little bit on the back. I was startled to find the qr really loose! I tightened it and found the the wheel wouldn't turn at all. so, I moved some of the spacers and the it was still not moving. I removed the brake completely and the wheel still wouldn't move unless I backed the qr off to almost nothing. I don't have the tools to strip the hub down so off to Kandani to buy some new wheels for her. but, as usual Juanita finds a way for me to convince myself pay for them. And by the time we get to the shop they've become her next birthday present! :)
We meet the guys promptly at 3.30,unusual! And we're gone by 3.40. Only seven have turned up today, that's because as we find out later there's a big ride new years ride tomorrow at 9.30 am. and these are the guys who are going out on the town tonight :)
What followed was a fantastic two hours of of off-road caminos and singletrack, they didn't have a spanish word for singletrack but had a catalan one! Something like corredon.