Mud Sweat and Gears 2: Hylands Park

I am sick of these dry and dusty races!

I’d be worried if it had escaped your notice but it has been raining quite a lot recently. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that copious amounts of rain will probably lead to a muddy race so I had already prepared for this when I got up on Sunday before the Mud Sweat and Gears Eastern MTB race. Despite Emma suggesting it would be wise not to go (probably true) I ignored her, and was actually looking forward to it. The bike was prepped, cleaner than any bike I have ever owned, and there were no mud tyres in sight. As I said, I was prepared!

National XC 2; Dalby



Axe's tend to fix most things

I have been looking forward to, and dreading the Dalby round of the national series for a good few months now and certainly since the first round at Sherwood nearly a month ago. Dread had started to outweigh excitement with the weather forecast being pissing rain, mixed with some hail but balance swung back in favour of excitement aster my practice lap. The course was great and holding up well to the elements, and I rode Madusa’s Drop which was probably the most technically demanding section of the course. Half-way through our lap we were hit by torrential rain and hail which left many competitors cowering under bushes for cover. By the time we had got back to the car, hastily got changed and warmed up the sun was back out and the forest was steaming. After the lap everyone was panicking about brake pad life and RWD were doing a roaring trade. In the end I bowed to pier pressure and swapped mine too, but not until after I had watched George Budd’s interesting approach to bike maintenance.

Review: New Bikefood Bars

Bikefood's new chewy cereal bars

Recently, I have started using the Bikefood energy bars during longer road rides to stop myself getting hungry and to keep the energy levels up. They have been reinvented and are now fruity cereal bars in two new flavours, coconut/choc chip and cranberry. The bars have a nice chewy texture and are easy to eat on the go; they don’t dry your mouth out or crumble in your hands and don’t take a week to chew through like some others. I have tried both flavours and am happy to report they are both are very nice and tasty enough to eat when not on the bike too. They are well worth a try if you favour longer rides on or off road, and are almost certainly better for you than that big piece of chocolate cake you usually have at the coffee stop! They are also vegan friendly, if you are that way inclined…

Bank Holidays, Time trials some MTBing

Over the last couple of weeks since Sherwood I have managed to get out and do some good riding without really concentrating on training. Last weekend I got out for 92 miles with the Witney Grupetto. Despite Dex and Rodger being in a massive rush to get home after we had dropped everyone off in Carterton I felt surprisingly good at the end of the ride. On the Sunday my legs were pretty stiff but it was a nice day so I went out for some supersets on the MTB. Unfortunately everyone else in Oxfordshire thought it was a nice day too so the bridleways were packed with kids, walkers, dogs and horses, meaning I couldn’t really get up to race pace for fear of hitting someone.

Review: Continental X-King RS

Towards the end of last season I moved over from a tried and tested combination of Schwalbe Rocket Ron 2.1 front and Kenda Small Block 8 2.0 rear to Continental X-King RS 2.1 front and back. These tyres are supposed to be a tubeless ready version of the Supersonic X-King, which its self is supposed to be a superlight XC race tyre for just about all conditions. At a glance, the tread pattern looks similar to the Schwalbe Rocket Ron with widely spaced aggressive knobs to clear mud quickly. They also live up to their billing as a superlight tyre, unfortunately I didn’t weigh them before I set them up but they felt at least as light as the tyres they replaced. Unfortunately, this is where the positives end.

Despite the RS version being designed to be run tubeless, it took about 6 months, and copious top-ups of sealant to get them sealed. Every time I went to ride them I had to top up the air pressure and there were always signs of sealant bubbling through the side wall. I have never had this with my previous set up (or my current set up) using standard, non-tubeless tyres. They must have swallowed so much sealant by now that the stated weights are half what they currently weigh. Admittedly, I should not have raced on leaky tyres but I don’t have the luxury of spare sets of wheels and this problem cost me positions in at least 2 races when I had to stop and pump them up.

National XC 1; Sherwood Pines

It feels like this season has been going for a while already but this weekend was finally time for the first national series race at Sherwood Pines. If you read other racers blogs, you will probably hear the same line repeated ad infinitum– “it’s too flat, It doesn’t suit me”. The fact is, it probably doesn’t suit most people so everyone is on a fairly level, extremely flat and rooty playing field. That’s not to say I’m not going to say it too! I prefer hills and the flat pedally nature of this course does not play to my strengths! 



lots of lovely rooty singletrack



Southern XC 1, Checkendon



Not going as fast as it looks



Well that was a bit shit! I've been pretty confident all week that I could get a good result this weekend. The rain came on Saturday morning and it made the course very slippery, and quite draggy in places. Half way through the lap the course dropped down a tricky descent and the following climbs were very slippery making it almost impossible to ride in places. I used the practice lap to get used to the bike and how it handled in the conditions and by the end I felt like I was getting to grips with it. I definately felt the benefit of the big wheels in the singletrack because you can just take a direct line through the roots at cut off corners which would slow your momentum on a 26. I was still a bit concerned about the lack of grip on the front wheel in the mud though because I am used to a grippier 'Rocket Ron' as opposed to the semi-slick 'Racing Ralph' on this.