First Race of 2012 - Gorrick - Swinley Forest

My first race of 2010 was reasonably flat and in the Open category to ease myself into the season. The same can be said for 2011 (although that was determined by injury rather than by intention). This year, my first race of the season was always going to be round 2 of the Gorrick series. With no elite category, I knew there would be some serious competition. What I didn't bank on was one hell of a tough course. My practice lap took me over half an hour to complete and although that was at a fairly casual pace, that's a long lap and 5 laps was always going to hurt.



"Oi! Youff! Pass me that bottle!"



From the gun I got a reasonable start and was about 6th at the top of the first climb with everyone in front wheel to wheel. After the initial climb there was a long section of tricky but fast natural single track interrupted by a couple of short climbs and a tricky bog section. Once out in the open the course climbed gradually for about 500m. By this time I had lost time on the leaders after being caught behind some of the 'Open' riders. I put in a kick to get past the rider in front and quickly got a gap but the next rider was matching my speed and I couldn't close him down. The course turned right and up a very steep loose climb. I didn't realise Surry had scree slopes, but this changed my opinion. My knees felt like they were about to pop, you couldn't stand up and pedal because the back wheel instantly lost traction on the loose surface, you just had to grit your teeth, pull on the handlebars and push as hard as you could on the pedals. I genuinely wasn't sure I was going to make it up this climb 4 more times! By the top of the climb I had lost more ground on the guys in front but the first few sport guys had caught me so I pushed hard to get on their wheels to get my breath back. After a fast bermed descent with a couple tabletops and another very short steep climb, there was a fairly long flat section where being in a group really sped up progress. The lap finished with more natural single track before a fire road climb to the top of the final descent where everyone else took the slower wiggly route down. I took the straight route down a couple of drops and made up a good few seconds every lap on this. By the end of the lap I had caught and passed Scott Chappell and was up into 6th. At this point I was unsure if I was on my second or third lap, it felt like I had been going for quite a while already!

For the majority of the second lap I worked with a sport rider to maintain the gap to the rider in front and distance those behind but going on the third lap I was on my own and I think my mind must have wandered from concentrating on riding fast because the gap to those behind dropped quickly but my legs still felt good! Towards the end of the 4th lap my legs suddenly felt empty and Scott, who by this point had caught be but I was comfortably riding with, accelerated into the distance. I couldn't do anything to keep in contact with him and he was soon quite a way up the track. For the rest of the race I was alone and just concentrating on keeping going but not pushing too hard. I didn't want to blow up and not finish! The final time arount the scree slope I was suddenly on the wheel of the 6th place Expert but cramp set in at the back of my right quad and I had to collapse off my bike and stagger up the climb. At the same time I was passing a girl who was having exactly the same problem. Its a good job there weren't any spectators there, it would have looked a bit odd with both of us hobbling to the top grimacing! I think the rider ahead had bonked because I caught him again on the flat section and he didn't make any effort to keep up.
I finished 6th out of only 12 starters which I am pretty happy with although I was a long way off the winners time. The race took me 2hrs11 which is a good 40 minutes longer than the races I will be doing for the rest of the season. I surprised myself at how good I felt from the gun, somewhere I am normally poor, so that is very positive. I have just over a month until my first points qualifying race so with a good block of training, hopefully I can build on this race and get a good result then.

Forest of Dean / XTC final review

Its a bit of a poor show when a blog about last weekend is published closer to the next weekend! Im obviously getting a bit slack!

While I was (and still am) a bit jealous of everyone racing in the Midlands XC opener this weekend at Hicks Lodge, I have enjoyed the opportunity to do a couple of good rides myself. On Saturday I met up with the Wychwood RC ride which is normally run at a steady pace. I spent the majority of the ride on the front including along the flat and dead straight 6 mile road from Ambrosden to Islip straight into a gale force headwind – that bit wasn’t so enjoyable! The route was mostly flat with the road into Brill being the only significant climb and a good chance to stretch the legs. The Wychwood ride only ended up being about 50 miles (plus the 6 I did to get to the meet) so I decided to head off on my own for an extra few miles once everyone else had dropped off. Unfortunately I should have paid more attention to the whether forecast because as soon as I was alone, and bang on schedule, it started to piss it down. In addition to the headwind I felt like I was being jet washed and I was sorely tempted to take the quick way home. My resolve held, but only just, and I took the intermediate route home with the addition of 15 cold wet miles under my wheels. At least the beans on cheese on toast felt like it had been earned when I got in!

On Sunday I headed over to the Forest of Dean on the XTC to see how it coped on (slightly) more technical terrain. The upshot it, it was good! We did the blue route first to warm the legs up before heading out on the enduro route. For the first descent I was still getting used to the bike and not going too quickly but once I had got into the swing of things I loved it. The bike eats up the trail centre bumps, and the faster you go the smoother it gets. It also copes with braking bumps and pump track sections better than a 26 although it is still definitely not up to full-suspension levels of comfort. By the time we had been riding for an hour I had completely forgotten I was riding a 29er. You quickly get used to the slight difference in steering and just get on with reaping the benefits in the form of better grip and smoother ride. After a quick spin in the car park both Jack and Ash agreed the much talked about negatives of 29ers are almost imperceptible.

The enduro trail was my favourite section of the day with really slippery mud and crisscrossing roots keeping out on your toes. This sort of track is far more my cup of tea than manmade trails. We only rode for about 2.5 hours but after getting lost a few times we were all ready for a bacon butty in the café!

Unfortunately I have had to give the XTC back now for a few weeks until mine arrives so I will be rocking my old 26er at the Gorrick next weekend. Please don’t judge me for not being on trend!

Giant XTC 29er Review (part1)

Since my last blog I have spent a couple more hours on the Giant XTC 29er. So far I am really happy with it. On Saturday I got out for about 2½ hours on local trails with Robin from AreUfit and Mark from Beeline Bikes. After the snow on Thursday night the temperature has hardly dragged its self above 0 degrees so the snow was still upto 3 inches deep and the backroads still very icy. This was an ideal test really because the going was tough and to maintain grip I had to stay seated for long periods to keep weight on the back wheel. The ground was also frozen solid underneath the snow and was very bumpy and unforgiving. Pedalling through the snow seems to require extensive recruitment of back muscles to force the pedals around. You have to attack the snow and go as fast as you can to try to stay on top of the snow. Once you sink into the snow it is really momentum and energy sapping and you grind to a halt. Despite all of this, my back stayed almost completely pain free which is a big relief. It also speaks volumes about the benefits of the 29 inch wheel concept. The last time I rode a hardtail I got significant pain very quickly resulting from hitting bumps in the trail sending impacts through my spine. This might also be, in part, down to the lay-up of the carbon in the frame improving the shock damping characteristics of the bike. The other thing you notice in these conditions is the sheer amount of grip available through both wheels. On slippery climbs the back wheel stayed glued to the trail without slipping out and the front wheel gripped tenaciously when braking and turning on compacted snow. I am also sold on the idea of 2x10 gearing. During this ride I was able to leave the bike in the big ring for most of the time and had the use of all 10 gears on the back. For racing this means less shifting from big to middle ring when you are pushing hard and mean I can be on the power more of the time. The gears on the Giant XTC Composite 29er 0 (the one I am currently testing and almost certainly the one I am riding for the rest of the season) are a mix of Sram X9 (cranks, shifters and front deraileur) and Sram X0 (rear derailleur) which offers a good compromise of price, performance and weight. Although I have a general rule that more carbon is better, in this situation everything worked flawlessly so the only downside is the slight lack of ‘bling’!

 

There are a couple of things I will probably update as soon as I get my own bike but all relate to the cockpit (so is a very personal preference and what works for me might not be what the next person). I have already flipped the stem and removed all of the spacers to get the bars as low as possible but they still feel higher than I am used to because of the bigger wheels so I will try a different stem to fix this. The bars are also significantly wider than I am used to resulting in me frequently underestimating the size of gap I could fit through. This might cause a few problems at my first race which is notoriously tight and twisty! I will also change the grips to a pair of foam grips at the lock-on rubber grips found on this and many other bikes are narrow and hard and I find them uncomfortable. I will also stick some bar ends on to allow me another position for my hands to sit in and give me more leverage on the bars for hard climbing. Other than these minor changes the bike seems to be ready to ride or race out of the box.

 

It looks like I have the bike for another week so hopefully the snow will bugger off and allow me to hit up some more technical trails next weekend and see how the bike handles that. Team-mate Franck is heading up to the first round of the Midlands XC this weekend but I will be giving it a miss in favour of some solid training miles and aiming to make my season debut at the Gorrick race next Sunday.

Rest Week/ Snowboarding and a Giant XTC 29er

I am now into my first rest week of the season and it has come at a perfect time. After a couple of weekends with back to back Saturday and Sunday rides and a mix of intervals and commuting miles during the week, my body is starting to feel the strain. The idea behind my training plan is to ramp up the stress I put my body under during a block of 4 or 5 weeks, then rest before I over do it. Then, after a week get back into another block once my muscles have sufficiently repaired and any joint inflammation has rescinded. The theory is that once your body has been through this process and recovered, it is more adept at coping with the stress and you can increase the intensity and/or duration during the next block. This first block after Christmas has been aimed at low intensity endurance rides, specifically designed to loose a bit of off-season podge and ease your body back into the training routine. The next block will contain more intervals, including a few of the dreaded hill repeat sessions, and more high tempo riding targeting speed and strength. It is all very well having a good training plan but one of the most important sessions on the plan is rest. It is easy to over do it. A niggling knee pain or a twinge in a muscle, if not properly rested, can be compounded by repetitive training and cause other injuries later in the season as your body tries to compensate for the injury by recruiting other, less capably muscle groups.

Like I said, the rest has come at perfect time. During the last couple of interval sessions this week I have felt a slight twinge in my right knee. It is nothing new, and I'm sure a few days away from a bike will do the world of good. Normally I can't stand being off the bike but I have just returned from the French Alps where I partook in some light snow-boarding, and heavy hot-tubbing and wine consumption. I spent a lot of time sitting down, as boarders do, and wore excessive body armour and my back appears to have come away unscathed! We stayed with a few friends for a relaxing long weekend in the quiet village of Les Houches. Well, it is normally quiet but unfortunately me and Emma did our usual trick of picking the busiest festival weekend of the year as the Alpine World Cup descended on the village for the weekend! It was good to watch for a while but it was also a massive pain in the arse with 25,000 fans estimated to get in our way! It is also -15 during the day so it was a bit too cold to sit around watching for too long and frostbite was a concern for the ever-so-fragile Emma!

Since getting back to the UK I collected a demo Giant XTC 29er from Giant Radlett and tonight managed to take it for a quick spin around my local woods. It dealt admirably with the ice and snow, certainly better than my toes did, but I will keep my opinions to myself until I have had a few more hours of testing on it at the weekend and after I have made a few changes to get my position right.

Woodcote Cyclocross Sportive

This weekend is the last in a block of endurance training before I get a weekend to rest and recover. The plan was to do about 100km on Saturday with the Witney Grupetto and an 80km cyclocross sportive on Sunday. The RAF predicted a hard frost for Saturday morning so true to form, no frost in sight. We were out for about 4 hours in total covering nearly miles. The temperature never got above about 4 degrees but at least the rain stayed away and the regular climbs kept me reasonably warm. It seems the last week was popular for farmers wanting to spread shit all over the roads and we arrived at the coffee shop looking like we had just finished a Belgian classic rather than a gentle training ride. The pace was fairly relaxed for the majority of the ride which I was grateful for because I didn't want to take too much out of myself before Sunday's ride. The route will be on my garmin connect page once Emma comes home with my laptop!
To aid recovery from this ride I treated myself to the food of champions, a large fish and chips with mushy peas. To my mind you can't get a much better source of protein, carbs and oils for quick refueling between hard days in the saddle! Plus, I have to make the most of Emma being away because she doesn't like it!

Mud, glorious mud!

This morning I had to set my alarm for 6.45 which is far too early for a Sunday morning in my opinion. Fortunately we were again treated to a frost free morning. Unfortunately we had a thick fog which was still hanging around when we arrived a Woodcote. I don't know what the actual temperature was but I know it was bloody freezing! One of those mornings when you're reluctant to leave the comfort of the car to stick your kit on and get on the bike! This is the first sportive I have done but the format is basically turn up, sign on and set off. No mass start, just have a chip fitted to your leg and roll over the timing mat and your time is logged. The route started out with a gentle road section before getting into a the real challenge. There were 3 or 4 road climbs and a couple of off road climbs. After the recent rain the roads were greasy but the off road sections were cut up and hard to ride, especially with the gears, or lack of, fitted to my borrowed cyclocross bike. My quads were burning at times when I was in a gear much harder than I would have liked, and I even thought about getting off and walking at one point! I didn't though! My legs fealt good despite the previous days ride and we dropped Robin just after the half way point. I rode with new team, mate Franck for the rest of the route. On the last climb my bike was so covered in mud the gears were slipping all over the place and I couldnt put any power through the pedals for fear of knoking my 'wotsits' on the stem!

One thing I found out during this ride is it is surprisingly fun descending flat out on singlerack on what is basically a road bike with lightly knobled tyres. Its even more fun overtaking people who are going so slowly they might as well be trying to stand still. We finished the ride in just under 3h30 and inside the gold standard time which I was pleased with considering the conditions and the fact we cruised the first half of the route before picking up the speed in the second half.

Since ordering the XTC 29er as my race bike last week I have been worrying that my back might not be able to cope with the change from full suspension. Because of this worry I was very pleased, and even surprised, that my back felt pretty good throughout the ride today. Maybe it will be up to the job after all but I am going to try to get a ride on a demo bike in a couple of weeks just to make sure I am happy with it.

New Sponsor/Team for 2012!

This week I got some really exciting news. For the 2012 season I will be riding for the Giant Store Radlett racing team. This means the loan of a brand spanking new XTC composite 29er for the season. The team is also supported with nutrition from Maxim, pedals from Look and helmets from Met. I was already looking forward to getting this season underway but now I actually can't wait! I am really grateful to Dan from Giant Radlett for giving me the opportunity to use some of the best kit available and I'm also looking forward to meeting the rest of the team. The pressure to do well this season is now even greater because I really want to be able to justify having the jersey.

I have had a very short ride on the new XTC 29er and the first thing you notice is the stiffness of the frame. It feels almost as direct as a roadbike and feels seriously light too. The next thing you notice is the size of the tubes. Oversized doesn't do them justice. The down tube is a huge asymectric squared tube that you can hardly get two hands around it. I am really looking forward to getting the chance to have a bit of a longer ride on the bike because I have only had one other experience on a 29er but I was pleasantly surprised with the Giant Anthem X 29er so if that is anything to go by it should be rapid. The XTC also seems to get some good reviews in the press.

The other exciting part of this deal is the opportunity to test other bikes from Giant so that I can review them. The TCR Advanced road bike seems to be very popular with my local roadies at the moment so I am looking forward to having a crack on that too!

PS. for those who arent that up to speed on mtb terminology, a 29er is a bike with 29 inch wheels rather than the more common 26 inch wheels on most bikes. 29ers are definately in vogue this season so i'm glad I will be bang on trend when the new bike arrives!

Review: Stans Alpine ZTR / Just Riding Along Wheelset

Since July 2010 I have been riding a wheelset from Just Riding Along made up of Stan’s ZTR Alpine rims and ZTR hubs. The first thing you notice about these wheels is the weight. The official weight is 1372g which was pretty accurate for my pair. When compared to my Hope Pro2/Mavic 717 combo the improvement in acceleration is noticeable. They are also significantly stiffer than my old wheels while not quite as stiff as Crankbrothers Cobalt wheels which are my current stiffness benchmark. You do get the occasional twang if you catch a rock at an angle as with many lightweight wheelsets but the wheels are surprisingly resilient, still running perfectly true and the rims are ‘ding’ free. The spokes have also held up admirably and I have not even had to tighten them, let alone replace. As for the hubs, they have 30 point engagement, which is nothing compared to the 72 in a Chris king hub, but compares favourably to the 24 on a Hope Pro2. They feel quick to pick up and I have never felt like I am missing the extra 42! They run almost silently which I found a bit disconcerting initially after being used to the volume of my Hope’s. Some will like this, some won’t, but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker. The bearings in my hubs are still smooth and play-free after 18 months of use for training and racing which I am very grateful for after my Hope hubs have needed a complete overhaul at least once a year.

This was also my first foray into the world of tubeless wheels but the system was surprisingly easy to set up. I got everything I needed from JRA including the Stan’s sealant and valves and set them up successfully on my first attempt using standard non tubeless tires. To be honest, it was a bit of a risk setting these up when I did because my first substantial ride on them was 24hrs solo at Sleepless in the Saddle, where the golden rule is don’t try something new on race day! Fortunately the risk paid off and I went puncture free, and in fact I am still puncture free after 18 months of riding.

In summary, these are a great set of wheels, from the individual components to the build quality and service from JRA. The other great thing about these wheels is the price. At just over £400 for the complete build, they are relativly affordable, and a steal compared to the competition from Mavic, Crankbrothers, Fulcrum and Specialized.

Additional Note: Since writing this I have had 2 punctures! Apparently going tubeless breads complacency and I had run out of sealant in my tyres.