Spoon to a gun fight

So if guns are for show and knives for a pro, what the hell is a spoon any good for in a fight? Alan Rickman, would claim it hurts more. Who though?

Sunday saw the 2014 running of the Gorrick 100, an annual race that is more challenge than a race, yeah right.  But it is great fun, the course always pretty good fun and all the category contestants appear to have fun.

Having felt off all week and not that interested in riding.  A Thursday night climbing session being the only exercise that seemed to lighten my ambivalence to training in the week, I was really struggling with the idea of racing. So I hatched a silly plan that I knew would put a smile on my face and be some good exposure for Cycleworks.co.uk (you have to do your bit).  I decided to race the Fatboy in the Gorrick, a bad idea if there every wise one with the lack of mud, snow and/or sand.

So arriving at the race village, I got registered, chatted to a few folk as ya do, grabbed a spare tube off Big Al (who had come up a bit earlier than he need, top man and congrats on the 5 lap win!) and then I got myself sorted and readied the fatbike.

This was never going to be easy and frankly I still felt at odds with riding let alone racing, but I was on the start line and we were off.  A funny thing happens inside your head when you start a race, you take off like a loon and forget about most things, squeezing past riders on the first tight turn, I thought I would have a crack at seeing how well I can do.  But I was under no illusions, I was on a damn fatbike (the spoon from the Lock Stock-ish quote above) whilst everyone else was on 29er XC machines (the guns, no knives).

Surprisingly though as I pressed on, I made up places, scared people as the 4.6" tyres rumbled up behind them, took off camber lines in the inside of turns to overtake because I could due loads of fat tyre traction and generally had fun.  Lap five would prove to be the one that caused me issues and I decided to reign in a bit.  At this point a fell into a bit of company and shared some work with the eventual female winner Amanda Brooks, a fellow antipodean, but she soon rode me off her wheel and went on to the win. Congrats!

I rolled across the line in a surprising 19th on the tractor that is the Fatboy.  I was broken, the spoon hurt me more than someone else Alan. But as feeling returned, so did the fact that fatbikes are damn cool, but more importantly they are stupid fun.  Cycleworks thanks for getting the Fatboy in for me it really is too much fun. :)

Gorrick team, as always a great course and well organised event. To Chris Noble and Big Al, congrats on great rides and thanks for the heckling, always appreciated. ;)

Thanks to the usual suspect, Weldtite, WTC, Cycleworks and Alpkit.

2013 - what's happening?

or at least planned.

I look back on 2012 and all in all, I can't complain.  Sure some races didn't go to plan, but I did go to Alaska, Canada and France.  I climbed fairly well even if opportunities were limited and I enjoyed the training for climbing and cycling.  I met some pretty cool and nice people stuck up a mountain or on an airstrip, saw a greedy brown bear and complained about the UK weather, with everyone else.

Lets look forward.

In what is becoming a time honored tradition, I don't plan to make things easy for myself and in some ways the long suffering, yet amazingly supportive Nik.  She deserves a medal or a new Yeti ASR5 Carbon.  :)

So there is the normal assortment of 24hr races on the list:

24hrs of Exposure - 24hrs Solo UK and European Champs, as a Vet still on a single speed this year. May
Bontrager Twentyfour12 - Solo Vet. July
Gorrick 100, always a great race. May
WEMBO 24hrs Solo Worlds in the ACT, Australia.  Well if I sort my entry this weekend. October

Amongst this lot things might get a bit bonkers, well there is a plan for it to be anyway.  A couple of challenges set are the following:

South Downs Double - on a single speed.  I think Rob Dean's record is safe.
Pennie Bridleway, in one push.  This truly is going to either test me or break me and we might even start a book on it.  This will be an attempt at the full length, not including the loops, roughly 560k's. It will be hard enough as it is.  August

So that is the cycling big hits for the year, what about climbing. Well, there are a couple and maybe not as dramatic as heading to attempt Denali last year, but challenging for me just the same.

The first is to climb some more E3's and try a couple of E4's.  There are a couple of E3's I have fluffed in the past, that will certainly be tried again.  Small steps first.

Much to my own disbelief, there still seems to be unclimbed lines within the UK at a lot of different grades.  So I will search out some of these and see what can be climbed, its the adventure and unknown that I like about such lines, it is really nice to climbed something that no-one else has.

I have found a few and indeed climbed at least one (Antiquity Direct, Skyline, Australia, Llanberis Slate, 2011) of the few I have found in the pass. They seem to exist as many other climbers want to climb the classics, the test pieces, lack adventure, etc...Who really knows?

Continuing this theme Dan Bergo and I are in discussions in relation to some opportunities to do the same, just on bigger rock faces abroad (not big walling mind).   This really is just talk at present, but we are both keen as it appeals to the adventurers in us.  I will certainly update as this progresses.

So what's first, well, get the damn garage finished. Bikes out the house and continue training and look forward to a fun year.  Oh and enter the WEMBO race.  Finally, be really especially nice to Nik or my brakes might not work.  :(

Best Laid Plans and all

On 6th May it was Gorrick 100 time and the Gorrick team pulled a great and not too wet track out the bag nice work.

Arriving not feeling the love and having not chosen which incarnation of SIR9 to ride I bumped in to Chris Noble, Irish (Graham) and Darren Garlish returning from a long lay off. The first two convincing me to run single (it never takes much) I got sorted and was soon on the start line. We started and by the end of the first bit of technical track, myself, Graham Chris were in the top 20 a good start.

Chris was a few riders in front of me when disaster struck, a slightly dodgy line choice and Chris and his bike bounced down the track in spectacular fashion.  I was surprised and a bit disgusted at the number of riders near the crash that kept riding without considering a fellow rider crashing that badly.  I stopped and soon Graham, whilst we tended to Chris we kept calling to the other riders to get a medic. Many rode pass without taking any action, eventually the last rider in this start group stopped, then turned around and went back for help.  She soon returned and said help was on the way and offered to stay with Chris.

Now he was a bit more lucid and had someone else to take care of him, Graham and I said take care and headed off working together to ride back on.  We caught many riders by The Wall, which somehow I managed to clean and lost contact with Graham. From this point on I would need to work by myself to get any sort of result.

On a bit of flat grassy trails I approached a small furry lump on the ground and my heart sunk as I realised it was a tiny fox cub maybe 6 weeks old.  Not knowing what to do, but knowing it had been hit by the front runners I hoped someone would move it, but I vowed to do so if it was still there on the next lap.

Soon I would catch another group of riders nearing what should have been the last couple of k's of my first lap, somehow though as we sped along the fire road we managed to miss the turn.  10 minutes later we returned to where we had gone wrong and I immediately went on the hunt, drawing a few in the group with me.

I had lost lots of time and the effort making it up would tell towards the end of my race.  On the next lap, my opinion of my fellow MTBikers sunk even further, I found the cub still on the trail.  I stopped and gently picked it up, it was still warm, it had certainly been hit by the front runners as there was one tyre mark across its chest.  I placed it a couple of meters off the track and climbed back on my bike.

Quite annoyed with whoever had hit it.  Even if you don't like foxes or animals, whoever hit it should have had enough respect to move it.

I raced on and would pay the price in my last two laps for the chasing back on, where my times where my lap times stretched a bit too much.  The kilometers of flat fire road hadn't helped the single speed times either, but we are racing each other anyway.

On the last lap, Graham caught me as I was wobbling a bit from my double effort and he even offered a tow, which was kind, but I was a bit too knackered now and didn't wish for him to lose a place due to me.

Surprisingly I did find enough to hold off a late charger and even distance him thanks to a technical climb with a super fast descent after.  I rolled across the line in 28th in the 7 Lap event and was pretty surprised with that.

I guessed to myself I proved I can chase back hard from a terrible spot and that there is always time for a fallen competitor friend or foe and any fallen wildlife, a little of respect doesn't cost much.

To Gorrick, another great course and I get why there was so much fire road, weather has been great.  Also, are you ever going to consider a Single Speed category at the bigger races you run like the 100, Brass Monkey Series and 12:12?

Cycleworks, Alpkit and Weldtite - thanks guys.

(Photos to follow)