BDS Rd.2 Fort William
To be honest I wasn't planning on racing this one. Tokyo Fixed is one our latest stockists and one where, during lengthy chats about bikes, riding and racing, it was very apparent we had the same point of view. Which is why Morvélo stepped in to sponsor The Hunt {A Fixed gear Crit}. For both Morvélo and Tokyo Fixed, racing and events should be about fun, speed, enthusiasm and throwing something different into the mix. So a fixed gear crit seemed like a great choice to us and one that hasn't happened over in the UK before, but has in some lively races in different parts of the world. I'm a sucker for novelty and change so I signed up along with fellow KMP rider and friend Phil Moore.
I couldn't face not going out although checking through the window at the lashing rain, it was going to be an easy option to cry off. It was one of the days though that I just couldn't be dissuaded. Kitting up in everything waterproof I owned I had a momentary pause as I opened the shed and pulled out the road bike. It was properly hammering down. Like standing in a power shower. Back went the road bike and out came the cross bike. For some reason I thought it would come in handy.
If there hadn't been 7 other faster riders than me.
Looks like I have spoken too soon.
Weather was very generous up until now. Cold, and wet. Last weekend we have started proper racing, with a win over Ipswich at home. I was quite happy with an 16+2, one race didn’t go to plan, got beaten by a young man, and that made him very proud indeed. At least someone was happy. Monday I went to the Christine Ellis Memorial at Wednesfield.
Not a bad field, on an extremely wet afternoon, with two fours, 18 points would be a good result, but I wasn’t very happy at the end. Made stupid mistakes, and could not get past anybody. Gating was up and down. Good at the start but then not so quick. Performances like this are messing my head up. I don’t know if I’m going in the right direction. I didn’t feel fast at all, but I know I’m training hard. I don’t feel tired or jaded, there are days I feel fast, and days I feel very slow.
I have noticed I’m always up against it in a weather like this. I just have to put it behind me and dig in. The ICSF decision didn’t go my way. I’m still banned for the Euro Club. It’s frustrating as I haven’t done anything wrong in my eyes. You will have a rider which was found guilty of assaulting another rider, broke his ban twice, he will be competing (no offence), and I’m sidelined. This would be my last Euro Club, I don’t have the energy to pursue these things anymore, long weekend away, another holiday at work.
It’s taking its toll. Exciting times on sunday. I’m going for a Polish Extraleague match in Czestochowa to ride for TSZ Torun. I hope we can start with a win. Theres is some more appearances to come, so watch this space. I will be wearing my Morvelo again around the world. I should have a new helmet and gloves soon thanks to POC, and still waiting for the 5.10 trainer supply to come. It just takes forever.
Oh yeah. Forgot to mention my protege, Lauren Davies. We have been working very hard through the winter and early stages of the season. I have been talking to her and showing her a couple of things. I don’t know how much of this is actually sinking in, but certainly Lauren is in flying form. She destroyed her opposition on Monday at Wednesfield, beating a very strong field of girls with a faultless 20 point max to take the Ladies Dash Trophy.
Well done. Next Elite League meeting is at… Wednesfield again. It will be my fourth visit, so hoping for a good result. It will be an extremely difficult task. The aces are amongst the favorites to take the title, so we will have to have something special in the bag to beat them.
Well had a fun weekend and a freezing one. Been out to the 2nd stop of the FMB World Tour Rocket Air in Thun, Switzerland. Definitely one of the hardest if not the hardest comp i have been to.
Arrived on thursday checked out the course which looked sweet, its been the same course for the last three years and every year they tweak it a bit to make it better. This year the down ramps were not so steep which made for a much better comp. Unfortunately the weather was wet and cold but luckily it was all undercover so the rain never affected us just the freezing temperature.
Spent Friday practising and watched the prequalis which looked hard. The level of riding is like the finals a few years ago. It's crazy how fast the sport and tricks have progressed. Saturday came and we had qualification and finals to do. The qualification went ok managed to do a clean run and just made finals in 14th place. Finals only started at 8:30 in the evening so i was getting pretty tired from riding all day but thankfully i managed to hold it together and put a good run together.
Ended up with 12th so was happy with that considering how good everyone was riding. Stoked on being ranked 10th on the FMB World Tour so I pray I can stay there throughout the year. Now going to train my ass off for the next comp and hopefully do well. Here is a few highlight videos:
On Friday I walked the track for the first Scottish Series race of the year. The organisers did a really good job with taping out the track, they decided to use the gold run, a flat out track with some pretty sick sections, there was were some cool turns, and some good breaking bumps which always make it a bit more fun for riding!
I woke up on Saturday morning to the rain on my window, it had been raining quite a lot in the night so I got out the RRP and headed up for practice. The track was quite muddy and slick but it was still running really fast which was good. I did a couple of runs in the morning and then some in the afternoon after the track had roughed up a bit.
The track was quite long with a lot of turns to remember but luckily I’ve ridden at Innerleithen quite a bit, so memorising the track wasn’t an issue! On Saturday night it rained even more but throughout the day on Sunday the rain held off so the track started to dry out but the mud got thicker and the track got a little slower.
In my first race run I had a pretty smooth run apart from smashing my knee off of my stem right before the pedally section at the bottom!After the first runs I was sitting in 2ND with a time of 3.03. My second race run was pretty smooth with just one mistake in the middle section, and I ended up getting the exact same time so I finished in 2nd Place which was a good solid start to the 2012 Scottish series!
JC
BDS Rd.1- Combe Sydenham
On Thursday morning we left from my house to drive down to the first race of the year in the southwest of England. We finally arrived there in the evening, the weather was beautiful but there were no other racers to be seen! We parked up for the night, Dad made us some dinner and then we headed to bed after a long days travelling.
On Friday the other riders and teams started to show up and the pits started to take shape. I was lucky enough to do a bit of filming and interviewing for ITV West Country with Al Bond and Ronan Taylor which was a good laugh and a good experience.
Then right after we finished filming the interviews the rain started and I headed back to the camper for some cover! In the evening when the race stopped for a bit I headed up the hill to walk the track. The track looked like a lot of fun to ride despite there not being too many technical sections and I was looking forward to getting on my Zerode and getting my lines dialled in on Saturday.
Saturdays practice was pretty sweet, there were quite a few slick sections of the track so I threw my Intense Spike tires on and it was all good. The new jumps in the middle section added a bit more fun to practice, it was cool to have some more jumps on track than normal!
On Sunday the track began to dry up and I went back to dry tires for the race to get a bit more speed on the flatter sections of the track. My fresh new POC kit also arrived so I was stoked to bust out the new kit! Qualifying came around and I had pretty smooth run and came in 2nd which was pretty good as I knew where I could make up some time for finals in the afternoon.
In my finals the bike was working great but I made a couple of mistakes that cost me as ended up in 4th just 1.5 seconds off of winning! It was a good trip down to the first race of the year and my first race with my new bike and team! JC Here is the section of the ITV Westcountry which I featured in! - http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/update/2012-04-13/mountain-bike-racers-head-to-exmoor/
The turn of the month, on the weekend of the Tour of Flanders, marked the passing of one month in my racing season and, as always, it has been a mixture of positives and negative feelings, emotions, condition and varying success.
I arrived in Belgium, delayed after English prescribed physio, in a bit of a slump after having spent 10 days off the bike with a minor knee injury, at the end of February. Despite being out of sorts mentally and physically, I was notified the night before Brussel-Zepperen, that I would be riding the brutal early season amateur race. It was hard, but harder than I expected, and I felt worse than I was expecting too.
Some lab testing confirmed that something was up, as despite showing test results of being better trained than last year, I was only able to put out 20 watts less in the test... Confused? I was too, and a bit worried as I did feel terrible. I was booked in for a blood t est, but put on iron supplements in the mean time, and as luck would have it, that was apparently the root of the problem! Once semi-accidentally addressed, I felt better every day and have progressed in one month to what is now the best shape I think I’ve probably been in.
For two years I have gone to races expecting a punishing, fruitless 3 hours, getting in breakaways from time to time by following the right wheels, but with no great expectation and generally thinking, “I hope this isn’t too hard”. In the last two weeks that mentality seems to have been left behind, though. I still know that it’s going to hurt, and will more often than not come away with nothing, but I have a confidence in my capabilities that hasn’t been there before, at least not while I’ve been in Belgium.
It seems two years of hanging on has dented my tactical nous at the business end of things though, as I’ve missed the winning break in the last 2 races and walked away dissatisfied and frustrated; as clear an example as any that bike races are more often than not won by the clever, not the strong. Those that win at the highest level have so much of each that it leaves mere mortals like me in disbelief. The other undo ubted key ingredient of success is confidence, something which at the moment I am on the cusp of getting a spoonful of. I know I’m capable of winning now, at least. Never before has the term “easier said than done” felt more applicable!
Due to the slow start, I’ve only notched up 5 race days so far. A little less than expected for this point in the season, but with an aim to be competitive for the whole season (as opposed to the usual crack point of August), keeping a lid on things is probably advisable for now. Once the Kermis season is in full swing I’ll start to race two or even three times a week, which will more than likely be from late May onwards, in the overcast, anti-climatic throngs of the Belgian summer.&n bsp;
The next two weeks bring with them two big outings for the team, and hopefully me, at Zellik-Galmaarden, and GP Roeselare, the former being a TopCompetition race and UCI 1.2 which tops the Muur twice and the Bosberg thrice, the latter a Cup of Belgium event which takes in two summits of the Kemmelberg. The next couple of races after these are both TopCompetition races, and held in the Ardennes, so perhaps not best suited. Once in the gutter, dragging myself over the cobbles of Kemmel, I will I’m sure be doubting the suitability of that terrain too! I need to get in the team first though, something which as you ascend the cycling ladder naturally becomes increasingly hard to do. With a fully fit squad, and some already taking wins, competi tion for spots can be quite intense.
Off the bike you can’t really help but be entertained in Belgium at this time of year with the amount of bike races on to go and watch. We’ve had a great few days out “race chasing” E3 Prijs, KBK and of course Vlaanderen’s Mooiste, The Tour of Flanders. With Flanders, when I say “chasing”, of course what I really mean is perching on the Kwaremont and turning my head between road, portable TV, and free Panos pastries, but it’s probably just as fun. The course change isn’t all bad, and I even had the blasphemous cheek to state that while filming a typically bizarre Belgian TV show on the subject when out on a team training ride.
April and May could be quite decisive then, as I seem to be at the deciding point of another peak or trough. One good result could send me off on a successful spell of raci ng, a few more episodes of failing to grab chances could have me down in the doldrums. One thing’s for sure, if that does happen I should probably stop reading books about cycling around the world in case I do something silly!