The CX Season comes to an end..

Before i start i must explain the lack of posts over the past few weeks. Basically, i was a bit slow to report one race, then i missed another report, then before i knew it, i realised i hadnt done anything at all. Ill summarise them by saying i did alright and gained good points for the season.

Ill now move on to the most recent race.

The SouthWest Cyclocross series came home to Plymouth for the Certini Central Park final round of the season - Sunday the 16th.
Coming into this race, i was leading the overall by a couple points followed very closely by James Davey (MDCC) and Dexter Hurlock (Certini). I hadnt won a race the whole season, but i have got fairly decent results and i attended everyrace. So i had this advantage, wheas Dexter has only raced a few and won nearly all of them. All i had to do was finish 3rd senior if Dexter comes 1st. or 4th if he came 2nd. At this stage of the season following on from my recent races, this shouldnt have been too much of a problem. But it also meant that any mistake or mechanical made by me would have resulted in a definate loss of the series. So it was all to play for.

Knowing that i needed every advantage i could take, i got a bit of a pit team together and a spare bike.
The team consisted of my dad (pit man-bike cleaner), matt newman (coach man & bike holder, before and after the race), will amery (photoman & kit holder) and steve holmes (eyes on the everypart of the track). It felt pretty nice having this support.

After riding the course in practice, i was very happy i had a spare bike.The course was wet, muddy and fairly fast. This was going to be a problem with mud clogging up, especially on my redline as it doesnt have the best mud clearance. Having a fresh, mud free bike to jump on to each lap was re assuring.

I havent yet mentioned but, i had been ill with tonsilitus for nearly 2 weeks, 4 days prior to the race and had been bed bound for most of it. I had got out on my bike twice, since feeling better, but i knew my fitness wasnt quite there and the race was going to be tough.


At the start line waiting for the get go was a bit of a laugh, with people chanting USA USA at my comical skinsuit. But as soon as the race starter said 'you will be started by a gun within the next 30 secs', it went dead silent, nerves kicked in, pedal foot and legs tensed waiting for that gun. Until bang!

Me getting a great start

Every time i hear this i react like im bmx racing. I stomped hard on the pedals, spinning my legs up firing off the start line. As i turned the first corner this was very apparent, due to the gap, how hard i went off the line, probably too hard. I carried on trying to keep a strong pace up but i found my self not being able to keep the pace up. Not even close. Whilst i sat there trying to turn my legs with some force, watching people over take me, one by one, I started thinking to myself, 'shit this sucks, i have nothing in me to give, i didn't realise being ill had effected me this much, and uh oh, that's the end of being overall Champ'. As i passed half a lap, i heard coachman, Matt, telling me to chill out and compose myself. This was a bit hard to do cus i was certainly chilled already, so chilled i could barely move.
Still, this was only the first lap and i wasn't even close to reaching my lowest point.

Over the next few laps, i got slower and slower. Not because my bike was clogging up, i had a fresh bike every lap, but because i was like a car with a broken gearbox stuck in 1st, and not being able to find any other gears. I was warm, but it wasn't reaching my legs. My lungs were burning, i was urging and i was tasting blood. It got to the point of just stopping. I started walking up the hills and started feeling quite depressed. A bunch of about 5 passed me and i tried to hold on but they slipped away as well. I dropped to about 18th.
This was not fun.

All of a sudden, maybe 40-45mins in i found myself powering hard. Riding up every bank and cranking along the straights. I felt like my usual self, I found 2nd gear and was slamming through the gears. It wasn't long before i caught and left the 5 man group, and i found my self picking off riders one after the other.

The cheering from the crowds, friends and family started to make a noted difference. it gave me extra energy that i really needed to keep this going. My eyes on the track, Steve, ran along side me at this point shouting im in a great position and i will catch a few more if i keep it up. I stayed on the Redline for an extra lap because i found it was a faster bike than the spare Dolan. This was probably because of the Rocket Ron tyres that gripped really well in these conditions.

Matt Zietz powering his way to Victory

Half a lap left i started to get a fair bit of chain suck on the Redline because of the mud build up. Luckily this happened just before the pit so was able to jump on the spare for the remaining 4 mins or so. I had caught and passed 5th place Roy Wyle-Smith (Elite Velo) but he was not going down without a fight for the 2nd time this season. Coming off the mud onto the path, 3 corners before the finish, i thought i had created a comfortable gap between us but the next thing i knew was that he was turning underneath me! He must have put one hell of a charge down to catch me back like that! Coming down the ally before the 2nd to last corner, it was a good old battle trying to get to the corner first, whilst dodging a lapped rider. I was able to get half a bike length on him into the corner and carried the momentum covering my line in the last corner. He was right on my wheel which left it to a sprint finish! Thankfully i held the position, putting me in 5th.

At this point, i hadn't realised how much i had manged to claw back. So i was a massively relieved i hadn't done that bad. In fact, i was 4th senior. Which, as mentioned before, Dexter had to finish 2nd for me to grab the Overall! The Gods were on my side that Day. Pearson Cycles and Plymouth CX rider Matt Zietz had a brilliant race and managed to stay ahead of Dexter.

Thus making me SouthWest CX Champ by 2 Points! Awesome!

I would really like to thank first my girlfriend for putting up with me, the bike and mud being everywhere all season. Thanks to my friends and family for the support and encouraging words to keep me going all season. Thanks to my dad for cleaning my bike each lap with one bucket of water and a brush. Thanks to my family Mark & Chance out in LA supplying me with frames, components and kit that have made it possible to train in these cold winter mornings. Thanks to Cogs for directing enthusiastic Cross riders to me and each other, creating a training group which in turn, created Plymouth CX. Thanks to my mum and Daniel groves for the photos used. Thanks for Certini for putting on a great Final race with nearly 90 riders racing throughout the day.

And finally, thanks to the South West Cyclo Cross and all the volunteers who have put in hours of there life planning, organizing, setting up the races & for putting on a flawless series. Sunday being no exception.

Heres the top 10 from the Central Cross Race:
1 Matt Zietz Pearson Cycles S 0h 59m 59s
2 Dexter Hurlock Certini S +0h 0m 55s
3 Luke Eggar South Fork Racing S +0h 2m 26s
4 Jay Horton Certini V +0h 2m 31s
5 Matt Noble Plymouth Cx S +0h 4m 43s
6 Roy Wyle-Smith EliteVelo S +0h 4m 45s
7 Mike Mulroy VC VeloCake V +0h 6m 13s
8 Maddie Horton Certini W +0h 6m 30s
9 Richard Taylor Exeter CC V +0h 6m 48s
10 Rich Long Certini S +0h 8m 13s

more results here at British Cycling

I imagine this will be the last Cross post untill next august maybe. But if anything exciting or interesting comes up in the mean time, i will put it into black and white! 

                                                             See you all in the New Year

Team Plymouth CX having an awesome and successful first year.

Video: Koo Bikes Video

Sometime late last year Koo-bikes were approached by a couple of Film students looking to add to their portfolio of work and wanting to do a sort of 'profile' video of the up and coming online retailer Koo-bikes. Its basically an about us, what we're all about and who we are video. Koo-Bikes.com wouldn't be what it is today, either without its bricks and mortar shop Cogs-Bikes, so this was worth talking about as well, as Koo is the evolution of Cogs and a progression in retail. Anyways enough of the boring chat..
Here's the video!

Battle: Cannonade super six vs Redline CX

So I'm guessing that you are all aware that I have been riding the Redline cyclocross bike now for the past few months. This happens to be the only road/cross bike that I have ever really ridden. I have done plenty of miles of riding on this bike and however good i think it is, i cant help but feel if i had a new and up to date carbon bike, it will make a difference and i will be blown away by how far the technology has come on. i find myself forever looking at different bikes and mainly Carbon deep section wheels. I, and I'm sure many other people, always have a whole list of dream kit that they wish they had, just for the never ending struggle to be faster. I would say that number 1 on my wish list is the Zipp 303 firecest wheels. I look at them and dream of me out on my bike, just flying past people and laughing at them completely exhausting themselves, just to get near the speed I was cruising at....

Clearly I am deluded, and the marketing world has won the battle making me believe the hype with some cleaver sounding words. But even magazine, online and personal reviews rave about them. I couldn't help but think that I needed to try them out for my self. 

Cannondale super six...also super quick

One of the duDes 'Matt Newman' at my local bike shop, 'Cogs-bikes' in plymouth, happens to have a set of zipp 404 firecrest wheels. These aren't the ones I would personally have but apparently, they have very similar aero properties but a touch faster than the 303s. I thought it would be a long shot asking if I could have a go on his wheels sometime because they are soo expensive. But luckily enough for me, he agreed and said I should have a go on his bike at the same time. I thought this was very cool of him and really appreciate it! Would never have got the opportunity any other way, unless I bought them. The idea of being able to ride them got me a bit excited.. So of course, I thought up of test to see how fast they really are and do a versus battle with the Redline.

My first thought when i warmed up on the bike was the riding position, i'm used to a cyclocross position, so it felt a bit weird at first, but then i quickly noticed how easy it was to get up to speed and how it just kept going. Whilst out on the battle, i thought up many differences of the ride position and the way it rode compared to the Redline. 

Here's those thoughts......

- It was real nice and stiff and felt like the power transferred straight through the cranks,chain, wheel and to the floor with absolutely no loss. 

- It felt like it cut through the wind like a hot knife through butter.. 

- side wind hitting the wheels was a first and bit scary but i got used to it. 

- It was surprisingly quick uphills, thought it was going to be a bit sluggish but it was quite the opposite.

- Ultegra shifters felt weird. 

- The position whilst stood up felt really nicely balanced and controlled. 

- I have never gone for a ride where i felt soo fast with as much effort. 

- how is this going soo fast?

- not sure i would feel the same benefits of the wheel in CX

- why is going this fast, soo easy.

- haha lolol rofl at the cyclists i flew by..

So that's just a few things i could remember.  In conclusion, i liked it, it was fast!

Now for the geek tech stats bit..

About a month ago I did a strong ride on my redline. Setup was:

- Rolf vector 20mm deep wheels

- 46t front chain ring

- 27-12 cassette

And obviously a frame where aerodynamics were never thought of whilst designing. 

It was a 20mile loop and I pushed hard to see how fast I could do it. I can't remember the weather or traffic conditions, but I have a feeling that both were good. 

Here's the stats straight off the Garmin

- time 1.02.58

- dist.  20.17miles

- avg speed. 19.22

- max speed 37.22

Today I did the same route but on the Cannondale equipped with the 404s

I was hoping that I was going to smash the times above to justify me saving and spending lots of pennies..

Lets note that the previous results were over a month ago, and I'm probably a lot fitter than I was then. Weather today was fairly windy with a noticeable headwind but nothing drastic. Traffic on the other hand was a bit of a nightmare with bad timing at traffic lights...I probably need to find a better route to do tests. 

Setup was:

Zipp 404 carbon clincher 58mm deep section

52t front

25-11t rear

This gearing instantly means I can hit higher speeds and therefore be able to hold a higher avg. 

Stats:

- time 59.22

- dist 20.10

- avg 20.31mph

- max 38.84

I really don't think that these result show a fair result. I was 2 mins quicker on the Cannondale but I felt held up by the traffic a lot and I think that if I rode the Redline in the wind from today, it would have been a very different story. Only 1mph higher top speed which shows the gearing was not a big factor. One major thing to note is how much more energy i had left in me. I definitely felt a lot less exhausted.

Thanks for reading, and hope you found it interesting.

On a side note, this bike is actually up for sale... 

£1800 for the bike with mavic Ksyriums

£1300 for the zipps which will come with brand new Decals

orr £3000 FOR THE WHOLE LOT.. (frame size is 56)

i aint got the money but it sems like a good deal. If your in the area Pop into cogs bikes shop to have a look at it or speak to the guys. alternatively, here is their facebook

Wednesday Bikes: Vol 2 - Vanilla Bicycles

This week is Vanilla Bicycles.

This company, straight out of Portland, Oregan, hand builds and crafts every frame. And this really shows in the detail. This also explains why the SpeedVagen from last edition of Wednesday bikes were made with such detail, as Vanilla cycles actually create them.

I dint realize this then..but now i do. Im getting so wise!

So ill start off with two single speed CX bikes.
1 Frame, 2 very different looks!

OLD Skool:

Sweet looking crank-set on this. Have no idea what it is though.. (update, they are Paul ENO cranks)

 NEW Skewl:

50mm deep carbons and boom!! you got yourself fast as f**k looking race bike.

If i had the choice, i honestly don't know which to go for. It's so easy to make a frame look like a classic, just slap on some square box rims, matched with a lot of silver parts. I like the idea of the simplicity of a single speed. just something you dont have to worry about, and take too much care for, which is what you will get from the classic build. But as soon as you drop some carbon wheels in, it instantly defies the point of a singlespeed. You have to check and clean the pads and rims after every ride, or else before you know it, youv torn through a set of wheels that you had to re-mortgage your house to get hold of.

Dont get me wrong, if i had the money, i would have 100 sets of carbon wheels just because they look so pimp! But, being an average, struggle to pay the bills, kind of guy, a single speed should be plain, simple, reliable, and good enough to get the job done. Everything the first first bike is, just without the tubular tyres/rims. Especially not Dugast tyres as, apparantly they need more care and attention than other tub's because of the very supple, high performing, Cotton Casing.

Here's a Geared version..

Got this image from here.. worth a look as there's loads cool pics in there

This one being one of my favourites..

That's a serious gap to clear..

Video: Central Park Cross Course

I decided to GoPro a lap of my Cross course up Central Park last night. Its a pretty long track so i edited out the boring uphill bits. Watch out for me getting attacked by the tiniest dog ever...

The only thing i can bunny hop on the course. Ideally i would have more (another thing to hop right after this one) but im having to rely on the natural things. If i put anything up, it would get taken down.

Race Report: SW CX Rd 4, Stover

Race Report: SW XC Rd 4, Stover

            Today was the 4^th round of the South West Cyclo Cross series at Stover School just outside Newton Abbot. We have had a 2 week break from the series, well the majority had but I decided to do the Hell of the West to fill the gap of racing in the series. The hell of the west was an 80Km ‘CX sportive’ across Dartmoor. I won’t go into details of this, but I will say it was probably the hardest cycling thing I have ever done. It sucked and I probably wouldn’t do it again, especially on a cross bike. The majority of people had cross country mountain bikes and oh maan I was jealous of their suspension, disk brakes and fat tyres.

           Anyway, back to today’s events. Stover school grounds created a pretty damn good venue for a cross race. The start/ finish area sat amongst the well manicured sports fields. These fields were rolled so flat there was barely a bump or lump in sight. To the best of my belief, the ground men had also rolled flat 40% of the course especially for the race. However easy this sounds, it was a totally different story due to the fairly high amount of surface water that quickly got churned up at one end of the fields. Despite that, these sections made for good flat-out racing.

       The other 60% on the other hand made use of the not so well kept part of the school. Once you had come of the sports fields, you were met by quick, steep banks and tight turns that led out to a flat out rough, un-kept downhill section. This was a good place to have a bit of a rest and a lot of fun getting loose. But as we all know, what goes down must go up, and this wasn’t the nicest of ups. It was slow going and energy sapping. Even at the top of this climb it didn’t let off. We had to get off, run up some steps then navigate the best way to tackle a couple more short steep grass banks. This would have been ‘moderately’ easy if it wasn’t for large curb sized grass ledges that u needed to hop up and lose a bit of momentum. Not long after this section it was back onto the sports fields. A lap was about 6min 30secs and ended up doing about ten of these.

           My race went pretty well for me today; I got the best finish of the season. Whether it was the extra enthusiasm from my dad coming up and me wanting to show off, or the sibling rivalry of my half brother, Nick, racing and wanting to show him how us Cyclo cross boys do it, I don’t know. But today it helped.

        It was a good turn-out with nearly 60 riders in the main event. I was glad to be near the front at the start. I got off to a pretty good start from the 2^nd row on the grid. At the first hedge line there was a big ol’ puddle, with two small lines around it. I figured people were going to slow up to take these lines. So I made the most of this hopped the big puddle. This put me right at the front with 5 others. Throughout the first lap I worked my way to 2^nd and put up a big gap behind to 3^rd. 1^st position had also started to make a gap. I was able to keep this position for the next 2 laps but 3^rd was catching up. I dropped back to 5 over the next few laps. I held this position for a while. I took on an energy gel about 35-40 mins in to give me the boost to try and not lose 5^th, 6^th was slowly but surely catching me up.

The thick consistency of this made it very difficult
to swallow under race conditions.

I used a Zip Fit Energy gel today, different than the usual Torq gels. It didn’t go down very well. The Zipfit, banana flavour, was way too thick to consume when you’re at your limit and really doesn’t go down very well. The Torq gels are a lot thinner in consistency. For this reason alone, I will be using Torq for the rest of the season.

I would definitely recommend these energy gels. Thin, tasty,
easily swallowed and good energy supply.

With 2 laps to go, 6^th was right on my tail. But 4^th was in my sights; maybe 30secs ahead. The energy started to kick in along with fear of losing position. I stepped my game up and started to leave him on the downhill section. At the turn I kicked hard up the hill to drop him, which I did. I kept this momentum going and caught 4^th not long after the bell for last lap. As I passed him he jumped onto my wheel and could see he wasn’t going down without a fight. Again, I used the momentum gained from the downhill and just stood up and sprinted up the long, lung busting hill. 

He couldn’t match my effort and I rolled home safely in 4^th position, 10 secs clear of 5^th. I was still 3mins back from the winner; he put in a good ride.  I have some more work to do to start challenging for the lead but I’m sure it will come. It’s Just a matter of time.

Thanks for reading again. It’s you guys that comment on my work that keeps me going out there, just so I have something decent to write about.

Wednesday Bikes: Vol 1

Welcome to the very first volume of Wednesday Bikes. Such a momentous occasion and will mark it with something very cool!

So Wednesday bikes, what's it all about. It's pretty simple really, every Wednesday I will try my very best to post a different, exciting, weird, wonderful, cross bikes from all over the world. Whatever CX bike I post I will try and put up as single speed version of it from the same manufacturer.

This week is something that I only came across today and I thought 'WOW that shit is Hot!.
Here's the link to their website
Speedvagen
This contains other bikes in their very small range of top end bikes.



Check it out and see what you think..…

Very neat dropouts

Really useful looking cable guides, allowing for longer lengths of covered cable to keep the dirt and grit out
to keep shifts smooth and consistent. Note where the rear brake cable comes from.

Another angle for the rear brake cable routing. This keeps it looking so tidy. No need for ugly,
external seat tube adapter jobbies. Well you wouldnt be able to use a seat tube guide as this is the first intergrated seatpost that i have seen on a cross bike.

Some more internal routing for the front brake. This really does create a very clean look throughout. I cant help but think how tricky it would be to route them, especially the rear.

Images courtesy of BikeRumour

And now for you Singlespeed fans.

Super Pimp. Super clean. And can only imagine how fast this sucker is!

Got this image from Vanilla Workshops Flickr

Click on the link for many more awesome pics from this brand..

thanks for looking

and stay tuned because i have some weights and comparisons with a couple of very shiny carbony parts to come very shortly!

Race Report: CX RD 3, Barnstaple

 UPDATE: 26/09/12 - i have just found out that i came 6th overall at this race which is pretty sweet!  

 Yesterday, 23^rd September, was round 3 of the south west Cyclo cross in Barnstaple.

I knew that the weather wasn’t supposed to be very good at all for this race but all week it had been pretty dry and I couldn’t help but think, it really can’t be that bad?! I woke up Sunday morning looked out of the window to be greeted by dark grey clouds and loud a spattering of rain on the window. Ughh.. It had started to get really cold this week. I just knew by looking outside, I didn’t want to ride in this dreary weather.

On the brighter side of things, I feel that I’m pretty handy on a bike, skill wise, and I also know, that most of the people riding are rodies. They don’t tend to be very good at cornering, let alone cornering on slick, greasy, muddy corners. I was feeling confident.

           I rocked up to the joint with no problems this week; I probably have to owe that to the latest iphone update, ‘IOS6’. Before on the iphone, you had to rely on Google maps directing you, which is always a bit of a struggle, but included in the new update is, in its simplest term, is a TomTom gps system. This was the first time I used it and the new GPS routing system is very good. It worked without fault. The screen stays lit up so u can always see where you are and how far away the next turning is. There is also a little man in my phone that shouts out which way to go so you don’t even have to look..

           I got out of my toasty hot car and it wasn’t very pleasant outside. I signed on and started putting layers of clothes on. My kit consisted of Bib shorts, low cut socks, an Endura BaaBaa merino base layer, race jersey, arm warmers, windstopper jacket thingy and a one of those sweet cycle caps that go under the helmet. I obviously didn’t wear all of this for the race; this was just to do some warming up in.  The cap and jacket came off just before the start.

               I ran into an instant problem with tyre pressure as soon as I started my first practice lap. The course was very soft and muddy which I decided needed a very low tyre pressure. I set the front & rear tyre to 25psi. I went to bunny hop up a curb and I thought I was going to die! Literally I have never felt so unsafe and out of control on a bike in my life. As soon as I put any pressure on the front end, the tyre rolled over twisting the wheel to the side and nearly throwing me over into the curb. Luckily I got away with it. The rear tyre was absolutely fine and felt very good. 

        I should probably mention that I’m running different tyres front and rear; A Kenda small block 8, 700x32c in the rear, and a vredstrein 700x30c front. I have recently started to not like this vredestrein tyre much and this recent problem has strengthened my view on it. I really need to change it. I find this tyre to tall for its skinny profile and the sidewalls can’t cope with any side loads at pressures below 40psi. It just really isn’t stable at all. Anyway I sorted this by putting the front up to 30psi and coped with the slight rolling.

         The race got underway and I found myself in the top 10 pretty quickly. The course was also pretty lame. It was basically a playing field with lots of corners in it, with one section that went off the field with some stairs to run up back up onto the field..There wasn’t as many people competing this week, maybe 30 plus people. Results still aren’t up as I write, so can’t be sure.

         We got into the first of the tight chicanes and some guy left the door open so I nipped into the gap on the inside. As I did this, I must have caught this guy by surprise because he jack-knifed and fell to the floor creating a gap between the front group and the chasing group.  I was luckily in the leading group. I was following them around for a couple laps and it felt like I was cruising pretty easily so I pushed forward, over took some people and tried to pick the pace up.  

          As time went on, the course started to get very sloppy, especially on the uphill, headwind section of the course. I started to struggle for speed on this section and found two guys closing me down. They both overtook me and I just sat in behind them. As they passed by I noticed they were team mates working together. I found the pace they were going at was pretty good and being sat behind them, really helped on the head wind section. The front runner off this 3 man group started to get away and I found the other guy was defending the inside line on every corner making it pretty difficult to overtake. This didn’t frustrate me as I knew that if I needed to catch up, I wouldn’t have a problem. I decided to bide my time and use this guy in front to keep me feeling fresh. The ‘2laps to go’ sign came out and I figured this would be the lap to bridge the gap that had been created. I followed this guy for about half of the lap, until it came to a straight, fast section where I decided to jump this guy and sprint up to the next. This wasn’t actually very hard and I was right with him in no time.

          Again I sat in behind the next rider for most of the last lap waiting for the moment to make an attack. I followed him around for about half the lap until we got to the uphill, headwind section, where he slowed right up. At first I wasn’t sure if he was out of energy, or trying to slow us both up to let his team mate catch up. Whatever it was I wasn’t sure, so I took the lead, constantly checking over my shoulder, watching both of their movements to make sure they weren’t planning an attack. 

        All of a sudden one of them attacked out of nowhere. I was very quick to react and matched his attack with plenty left for the inevitable final sprint. He got in front of me and started to pick the pace back up. This time, I knew it was just between him and me. We went through the tight chicanes mentioned earlier. Coming out of this section is where I made my attack, knowing there was only 1 slow and 2 very fast turns to the finish. I grabbed hold of the drop bars, shifted through the gears and got my head down. I passed him just before the 1^st fast corner. Whilst cornering, I had to overtake a couple of lappers the long way around making sure I was ahead before the slow corner. Nailed it. But so had he... checking over my shoulder just before the exit, I could see he had closed the gap but this was fine with me. With one fast corner and a slight uphill headwind finish ahead of me, I knew I had to make sure I didn’t fall on the final corner, which would have been easily done under pressure. I checked my speed coming in, not caring if he was right behind me let the brakes go and flew though the corner, foot out, not quite flat out, whilst pedalling one footed. I stomped the other foot back into the pedal, grabbed the drops tightly and hammered it home. I turned around just as I crossed the finish line to realise the other competitor had cut his losses and must have given up not long after the corner. I was well clear.

         This has definitely been my best race so far. I raced and fought to the very end beating a couple of guys who had finished in the top 8 the week previously.  I have improved quicker than I thought from week to week. And, it would be really awesome to keep this momentum going to hopefully challenge for a win by the end of the season.

I have also just noticed how much I have written and I realise this is supposed to be a report, so I apologize for the ‘race essay’... but what you guan do.

Cheers

Matts Tamar Valley Bike Route & Pics

I went for a mellow ride this evening and decided whilst riding to take some pics on the way. Youll be able to realise pretty quickly why i decided this. I went out prepared and knowing the heavens was going to open. But to my surprise, the rain held off. It turned into a pretty cool evening and made my ride pretty fun.  I left my house rocking some cross tyres, the same set-up from the last cross race, and intended to mix up my ride and try and find some off road trails to burn along.

I have lived nearby the river Tamar all my life and is probably one of my favourite places i have ever been to and holds many memories spent with my friends getting crazy drunk out camping.

This area is fairly familiar and i knew there are some tracks out there that i have never rode and have always wanted to. I doubt many people would have taken the route i took as i don't think you are allowed to go through points '4-5'.  i have a feeling it is private property, but i didn't see any signs saying otherwise, so im going to claim my right to roam!

Heres the pics of each number dotted on the map. I did a bit of the old 'Instagram' photography for these ones, but i tried to capture the mood and feeling off each place. Some felt warmer and inviting, others where quite hard and cold. All of these were taken on my trusty iphone. Let me know what you think. Cheers and enjoy something easy on the eyes.....
no, not pictures of me.. :)


1.

This is on the first bit of off road on the route. Lots of logs on the track that kept taking me by surprise.

2.

Thought it was very necessary to put my bike on this fort style wall. I think this looks sweet!

3.

Halfway up the hill there was a gap in the hedgerows directly in front of me and this was the view!

4.

The Train Bridge '17 arches' on the Plymouth - Gunnislake line

5.

Top view of the same bridge. 

6.

Tamar Bridge

7.

Stopped here because i thought it looked pretty cool at high tide, then just my luck...

....the train came along 10secs later. I couldn't have timed it better as this train comes along every couple of hours.

8.

It started to get a bit dark and made this shot kind of dark and ominous.

9.

and lastly, i past the water treatment plant. This looked even more ominous than the last pic.

Rd 2 SW Cyclocross - Wellington

Today was an earlier start than i would have liked as the race is one of the farthest away this season.

My bike and kit was all sorted the night before to make getting away that much easier. I didn't take as much wheels this week, as I learnt from last week that it's probably not needed. I only did it before as a precaution so I was prepared for whatever.

         I arrived in Wellington, Somerset, an hour and a half later and i was at the place where the race was supposed to be, but I was pretty sure that this housing estate that I had ended up in wasn't the best place for a race....

The race starts at 1230 and I had got into wellington at 1145 to make sure I had enough time to ride the course and warm up properly.

I kinda realised that this definitely wasn’t the place. I drove around trying to find anything that looked like a park.

Now I have never heard of this place Wellington before, but apparently it seems like a bit of a tourist place. I asked 5 people if they knew where the college was and they all said I'm not from around here... seemed a bit weird as its a tiny town and not much there to do.

I finally found a guy who directed me 15 mins before the race.

I parked up, jumped out, threw my race kit on, grabbed my bike and sprinted over to sign on. I then Fiddled putting the number on and rode to the start line not warmed up and not having a clue what to expect around the course.

I was on the line for about 30 seconds and we were off. Damn did I notice the difference not being warm. I got a good start but I was gasping hard for air as my heart wasn't ready and was working over time it felt. I dropped back a few positions, from 16^th first lap, to 20^th ,over first 25mins and then started to settle in really nicely. The course was a pretty flat/ fast course on grassy fields, followed by some weaving through trees and school buildings. It wasn’t a very challenging course skill wise and only had one section where i had to get off the bike to run.

       I had been following a couple of dudes for the past two laps who were about 100m away from me and they didn't appear to be getting away. A guy caught me up and I mentioned this fact to him. We decided to work together taking turns at the front.

We must have caught them in about 1 lap which was pretty cool because these guys, who I previously thought 'I ain't guna catch them', sounded like they were struggling and I had loads of beans still left in me. We kept working together and caught up with at least two more people. I went from 20^th to 15^th in 4laps. 

I was ready to really start upping the pace for the coming last lap but, before I knew it, two corners before the finish and the leader was catching up. We had the choice of carrying on at our pace and he wouldn't have caught us before the line or, slow right up and let him pass so we didn't have to do another lap.  We had no idea how far ahead the next position was. Would it be worth carrying on? (For people that don't know, in a CX race and most races, everyone finishes on the same lap the leader finishes. So if you’re a rider about to be lapped, and cross the finish line in front of him, you have to do another lap. If you let him pass you before the finish line, your race is over).

We decided to let him pass us..

I finished in a fairly strong 15th position out of a field of 60ish. I'm pretty happy with this as it was a hell of a lot better than last week and I still have more to give. Let's hope I can keep it together next week.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I always like to put them in to keep it a bit more interesting but I really don't have any. Maybe next time.

Race report from round 1 in Bodmin

I woke up this morning with surprisingly little nerves and with plenty of time to get ready. First thing on my mind was food. I have porridge every morning and today was no different. I loaded up the car with all the wheels that I have and got on my way to Bodmin, in Cornwall.

there is a bike in there somewhere

Once i had signed on practice got underway. What I like to do is to go very slowly so i can stop and practice any of the technical sections to make the most of any extra speed I can gain or to find overtaking places. Next lap was to link all these together and up the pace. This time I sprinted/ rode as fast as I could through every hard section and rest on the flats. This is to get my heart rate up without tiring myself too much.

Start time; on the grid 5th row back and ready to go. Looking around, there were a lot of people here lined up. More than I can ever remember at a cx race.
The whistle blew and we were off. There were some tight turns and tricky sections coming and I was trying to make sure I was ahead of the main bunch before the first very tight technical section. I figured if I didn't get stuck behind loads of people, it would make the rest of the race much easier. So off I sprinted, diving into any gap I could and got to the first corner on the inside and took some more places. Took a quick look around and noticed how many people where behind. I found myself running in 5th, behind, what looked like, some elite dudes. And that's how it stayed for 20 + mins. I found myself starting to struggle along the bottom field that was boggy and energy sapping. I kept finding these guys getting away every time. Trying to catch up every lap started to take its toll and i was feeling the burn, so I decided to drop off and go at my own pace if I were to make it to the finish. 30-40 mins in, I found my self running at the high end of the top 10, biding my time and fairly comfortable, waiting for that bell lap and lay the hammer down. I passed the pit and into the tight off camber tech bit I explained early and as I dropped from the high part of the ledge to the lower and I must have caught my tyre sidewall because it started to make that dreadful and soul destroying hissing. Shit... I got off the bike as soon as I could rotating the wheel at an angle hoping the tyre sealant to work its magic and block the hole but with absolutely no luck.

Having just passed the pits I knew I had a very long run ahead of me if i wanted to change the wheel. I had two choices. Firstly, I could give up and face the fact that I was going to get a crap result if I carried on. Or I could man up and decide its only the first race and need more practice. Soo of I ran, bike on shoulder. As I was running I saw a lot of people overtake me. I was surprised how well I was running. It might have been because of race mode and blood was flowing and stuff. But it was almost easier than riding which was weird but made it a bit more fun. Definitely slower though. I finally got to the pits. Off came the rear wheel and on went the spare. As I tightened up the qr skewer I heard a cracking crunchy sound. The lovely noise a thread makes when it is being stripped. Arrrgh. What a nightmare. So I fiddled taking the other one off and putt it on my wheel. As I got on my way, I noticed the group that I had previously been riding with just lapped me.
The bell being rung meaning 1 lap left, so I gave it everything. I must have overtaken 8 people on this lap but it was all in vain as I was soo far behind. Still, my pride was intact despite feeling pretty gutted at the result.

So one race down and a lot to take on to the next race. It's only 1 race and there are loads left. So not the end of the world.

So to conclude. My race went brilliant, then good, then full blown shit, then a bit better.
I'll be back next week to try again.

Redline CX Final build.

Boom here it is, my complete bike, race ready all set up ready to go.
There have been quite a few changes to it since the first instalment so ill show and explain why I have changed those parts.
This is a list of everthing in this pic.
Redline CX frame
Alpina CX Carbon fibre forks wiht alloy steerer
Hope Pro 3 hubs
Stans no tubes ZTR alpha 340 rims 28h, DT swiss comp spokes
Stans no tubes tubeless sealant.
Vredstren premiato 700x30c tyres
Sram Rival Cx cranks 170mm 46-38t
Crank bros Egg beater pedals
Controltech 100mm stem -5deg rise
Shimano dura ace 7700 Shifters/brake levers
    "             "           "      Front mech
    "             "           "      Rear Mech Short cage

Zipp service course sl bars size 44cm with a short and shallow bend
Zipp service course CX bar tape
Selle italia Flight saddle
Did have an Easton EC70 carbon post but the set back (lay back)
   was too much so just got some no brand post on.

weighed the bike the other day and i have dropped a fair bit from the start weight.
it started off about 22.9 lbs
and is now 17.4 lbs which is pretty sweet!

heres some more pics...

The Sram Rival cranks that i changed to was only due to the other cranks , Shimano dura ace 7700 175mm, being too long for me.  I was doing a fair amount of rides and my knees started to really hurt. I tried lower saddle position and my knees hurt the same tried higher and my hips started to hurt as well so I figured that I really needed smaller cranks. since the swap, no aches or pains..well except from the usual cycling pains i.e jelly legs, sore legs, nausea...etc.

I choose these cranks because I don't like the look of the new shimano cranks, Ultegra, 105, in my price range. I obvoiusly wanted the shiny carbon Sram Force/Red cranks but slightly pricey and the thought of bashing carbon cranks on rocks and destroying them doesn't sound awesome.

Hope Pro 3s on Stans ZTR alpha rims were a pretty cool idea also. Hope hubs were a must for CX racing.
Iv used them in DH riding/racing and have known almost every person iv rode dh with to have used them and i haven't heard of anyone who has had any problems with hope hubs.. if they had it was quickly fixed due to the availability of spare parts and ease of assembly/disassembly. The seals in these bad boys are also dam good which is useful in muddy conditions. Alpha rims were chosen because of the tubeless tyre setup design and are pretty light..370g a rim.

Zipp bars because the older bars bent and flexed way too much for my likings. I also dropped from a 46cm to a 44cm. Not intentional,  but because i miss calculated the size of the other ones...the writing had rubbed off.  Still not 100% sure if i prefer them wider or narrower but i reckon that if i went wider again, it would feel weird.

And thats that...
Tune back tomorow to find out if i sucked or not!

Race day prep / Final Build

Tomorrow , 9th sept, will be the start of the southwest Cyclo series, that I have been preparing myself for the past couple months. The race will be held in Bodmin, Cornwall.

I haven't seen the track but almost all week I have been thinking about which tyre to use. I only have 2 tyre choices of the two extremes, semi slick "Michelin jets" or super muddy skinny "vredstren prematio" tyres. This has left me in a bit of a predicament... I have no in between normal conditions tyre like the 'schwalbe racing Ralph'. I couldn't get them in time.

For the past month, the weather in the uk has absolutely sucked. It has been pissing it down at every opportunity making it one of the wettest summers for years. Thus being the reason that I hadn't even thought that using anything else but wet tyres. But ohhh noo. As soon as sept has come around, the sun has been out and blazing. Now, I thought that the weather was going to turn again for the weekend but it seems it might be dry. But I still think that a semi slick isnt the right choice. Still I can't tell until race day. Let's hope for rain cus I'm not changing the wet tyres to dry, its a massive pain in the ass switching from tubeless to tubeless.... It makes a bit of mess.

So training this week has been focused on high intensity. I have done a couple, hour, high paced rides, rode flat out (sprinting) on my Cyclo cross coursed for,hopefully, 20 mins ( this is very hard) and a slow paced 35 mile ride just to ease the legs a bit. And today, Saturday, I have done jack shit. Except for truing some wheels and sorting out my rear tubeless tyre, it exploded last night just as I rode to the end of my street.... I put too much pressure in it, 70psi. But at least now I know not to go over 60psi as that has been fine.

I'm off to go stock up on some carbolicious pre race food. Pasta.
Stay tuned as I'll post my final bike build pics and notes later in this evening. And report about how my race went hopefully tomoro eve if I'm not too sleepy.

Thanks for reading
Matt

All sorts of Training

Training over the past couple weeks has bee going pretty good for me.

I think i have been hitting my 100 miles a week possibly more but i havent actually counted yet.

Im not going to go into much detail at all about any of my routes, but i will post the links to my garmin recorder rides just so you can see what sort of distances i have done and if you live in the area, what sort of routes you can take if you want to try some new routes. or try and beat my times..

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/203506410

Just a simple, easy ride, mainly downhill.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205025700

Smashed out a big 82 mile ride. Was pretty difficult but kept a 15.5mph avg. Also a high top speed that was very scary!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205025685

fairly fast shortish blast.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205713978

went out with the yogi cycling club to spin my legs in prep for the time trial.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/206012045 

Warm up ride to get to the time trial event. was further away than i was remembered which was a bit annoying. Felt like it was too long.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/206012037

and again my TT race.

I have missed some rides out here as they were before i got the Garmin edge200 gps. so not much i can do as i cant remember.

I have tried to make sure that i keep things intersting by mixing things up. On the days that i havent done any rode cycling, i have been riding my cyclocross course ( will put up images and map of that soon), practicing cyclocross riding technique i.e bunnyhoping logs, doing turns on grass as fast as i can untill i fall off to find the limits, running with the bike, mounting and dismounts and steep decents. This again i  might post some videos of me doing it or something if i can find someone bored enough to come with me and film/photo it. Just so it gives you guys a better feel of this bike handleing training.  
Talking of finding my limits, i definitely found it last Friday night. I was practising my cyclocross course, hit a concrete wet corner at a good speed, forgetting it gets slippery when wet and greasy. Went to sprint out and the rear wheel-span, lost the front wheel at hit the floor whilst spanking the floor with my hand and slid across on my front into the muddy bank on the side. I thought it was quite funny at the time because it came out of nowhere. Only realised it wasn't so funny when i saw that my new bar tape had ripped...dam it. I then decided that this could be a fun corner so I went back did it a couple times getting a big DH style drift through the corner. didn't fall this time. : )

I have also been doing some circuit training with my friends. This is a good bit of fun and is a good test for fitness. We did it a couple of time on the beach which has proved to be the hardest for sure. doing Shuttles/ sprints on sand is just straight up ridiculous. This is the circuit:
- 1mile high intensity cycling   or  10 sprint shuttles
- 8 chin ups
- 30 crunches
- 15 burpees
- 15 press ups
- 30 squats
- 1 mile ride   or  10 sprint shuttles
- 10 chest press'
- 20 sit-ups
- 10 feet elevated press ups
- 15 lunges each leg
- 15 tricep dips
- 1 mile ride or  10 sprints
we try to have about at least a 20 sec rest in-between each thing and do the circuit 2-3 times with a minute or two rest between each circuit.
Cant remember how long this takes all together. But, i think im allergic to it as i get really warm, sweaty, short of breath and have aches and pains over my body... Sometimes i question why anyone works out..

So this has pretty much what i have been upto since i last blogged.
Ill get my course map and images up soon.
catch you peoples then..

also, Sorry for the lack of images, i know they make it more interesting, but i have none. The next post will be full of them which will keep you all happy!

Time Trialling on my Cross Bike

Soo i havent blogged anything in what feels like ages, and i have done quite a bit of cycling and fitness stuff over the past couple weeks to report on. I just havent found the time to write anything, what with trying to make the most of the british summer consisting of 10 days of brilliant sunshine.
  I wasnt too sure with what i shall start with as most of it seems like old news. Im going to put it up anyway but i will start with the latest news.

Last Thursday 2nd Aug i decided to take part in the local 13mile time trial held by Plymouth Triathlon Club. The course is a fairly challenging 13 mile loop with a fair bit of uphill followed by a hopefully nice run downhill to the finish (i say hopefully for a reason ill explain in a bit)
The reason why i wanted to do this, is to see where my fitness is after a couple weeks of training, to see if iv achieved anything and what i need to focus on in the next few coming weeks.

Here is how the course looks from an elevation view.

This shows just how hilly it is  and shows the long downhill to finish. You would think this downhill was easy but there is apparently always a headwind and this time around it was a very strong headwind. I found this quite difficult and just felt like i couldnt get in a decent aero position to make the most of it... probably because im on a cross bike with no TT extension bars.
Heres the map of the course.

Erminton s3/13s TT course

The info that i have here is all from my garmin Edge bike GPS that i got from koo-bikes

Im pretty happy with how the ride went, i wanted to be under 40mins and i did that fairly easily. Also i didnt quite know how to pace my self as i didnt know the course so i think i can still get a fair bit out of that time today as i know where i can push it that little bit more.
The next one is the first thursday of september so im going to do that one. With a bit of luck, ill drop my time by a minute.

Tubeless Cyclosross Tyres?? Do they work? Are they worth the effort??

 Cyclocross is hard enough as it is without having to worry about tyre issues. I want to get rid of  (or get to the bottom off ) any of those worrying thoughts and perceptions of tubeless in cyclocross. Are there tyres that can perform like a tubular tyre and at a fraction of the cost??

      So a few weeks ago, i emailed Schwalbe UK asking if their cyclocross tyre, the racing ralph would work well with stans ZTR alpha 340 rims as tubeless tyres. I only asked as their mtb tubeless 'UST" compatible tyres all have writing on the tyre saying the are and on the packaging. But not on the CX stuff.

Early last week Tim Ward - (Schwalbe UK) Got back to me and gave me some great information that thoroughly answered my question. I thought that this would be very useful to share with everyone, so here is the main part of it:

       
         'Running cross tyres as tubeless is an interesting question and one that several people are looking at currently including myself. I was running Rocket Ron 700 x 35C on the standard Easton wheels that are on my CUBE cross bike. It took a while to get them up and sealed (you’ll definitely need a compressor) but I could really feel the difference in the way they rode; much like a tub. The main problem with them is because of the smaller air volume compared to and MTB tyre there’s a much higher risk of burping the air out (which I did twice) and I found there was a very critical minimum pressure of about 1.8 to 2.0 bar below which it was easy to burp them. You can only really find this out with trial and error as it will depend on rider weight and rim set-up etc. Be careful if you’re using the Stans rubber rim strips as these can push the bead up a bit too high on the crook lip and cause the tyre to blow off better to use the yellow adhesive tape; but again the rubber strips might be OK with your rims – it’s all trial and error I’m afraid.

You’ll find it a lot easier to get an initial seal if you use our Easy Fit solution on the bead of the tyre first as this will help create and air seal and help the bead seat evenly around the rim. Kevin at BETD Gold Tech in Newcastle under Lyme is also experimenting at the moment and another good person to talk to. The next step that we’re looking at is to glue the beads onto the rim with tub cement (something some downhill riders are trying) to stop burping at lower pressures.

Generally speaking the sidewalls should be up to the job but you may find that the tyres don’t last as long as they might running them with tubes in. As long as the pressure is OK it shouldn't be too much of a problem and I found that without the tube in you can run them at a higher pressure for a given amount of compliance compared to running with a tube.

In summary and conclusion I’d say it was worth experimenting with if you’re so inclined. But the emphasis is on ‘experimenting’; if you’re worried about losing race position because you lose air out the tyre then maybe think again about it – I didn’t start one race last year as I lost the air out of both tyres on the warm up lap! So it’s important to state that Schwalbe cross tyres are not as yet recommended for use in a tubeless set-up and at present this is not seen as a proprietary method of use and there are no guarantees from Schwalbe in this regard; just so there’s no misunderstanding if you lose a race!'

Just got another email from Tim Ward- (Schwalbe UK)

Racing Ralph (allround fast rolling tyre)

  



 ' As for the difference between Ron and Ralph it's very much down to the course and the conditions. I think for most of the season in typical UK conditions the Ron, which is more suited to muddier conditions, will be the better choice. However, if we have a dry autumn some of the early season races could be on very dry hard courses in which case the Ralph will definitely roll quicker. In mixed conditions where it's not too muddy there's some merit in running a Ron on the front and Ralph on the back as is very typical with cross country mountain bikers.

 

Rocket Ron (wetter weather tyre with tread desiged to shed mud)
This is the current 2012 Model. 2013 model to be released later this year!

The new 2013 Rocket Ron will be even more effective in the mud as it will be a bit narrower at 700 x 33C to meet the new UCI regs and have a slightly revised tread pattern. It will be available in an EVO spec folding clincher with PaceStar triple compound and also now finally in a tub version with the same 700 x 33C size.'







I am looking forward to experimenting with different tyres and
pressure. Im currently waiting for my stans rims to be built up onto

Vredestein Premiato

hope pro3s. I want to put most of my testing on these wheels with the
Racing ralphs and Rocket Rons as this is what i will currently want to be racing.
in the mean time, i would really like to try out some other tyres and run them at silly pressures on
my training wheels that i don't care for so i can really give them a good hammering. Then i can see what each tyres positives and negatives are. i have some 30c vredestrien tyres that i will give it a go with for now.




I was testing the Vredstrain tyres at 2.0 ,  2.5 and 3 bar last night on my practice course running them tubed. (i weigh 66kg if that helps give a better idea. I imagine much heavier people will have very different results) I have a section on the course which is really tough on wheels, strength wise, but
they might not be enough of a challenge for pinch flats. including quick transitions from a mud bank across paths and jumping down the other side, tight off camber turns, and 1-2 foot drops onto a lose open turn into a double jump that just so happend to be there!

I was hoping to pinch flat or something so i know the limit but
nothing and this was all mainly done on 2.0 bar, i knew any higher
pressure would cope. i did notice that it wasn't very stable on hard
cornering at this pressure and i felt the tyre rolling over. This Might be when
i would expect to lose air running tubeless.  I would like to try tubeless setups
to see if i do lose air and how much. But if i cant turn hard and feel stableish at these
pressures then i probably wouldn't run them that low, unless its not a very
fast course. but i do like the idea of the tub cement locking/sealing the tyre bead onto the rim.
But surely this is now getting into tub territory as this would need multiple wheelsets.
Still cheaper i guess.


I have the Racing ralphs already sat on my desk but not going to use them until they are
on my new wheelset. But i do look forward to try some other tyres and find out which tyre runs best with tubeless setup.

Over time i will try my very best to test every CX tyre out there for tubeless and was hoping that if my
blog starts to do well, suppliers will give me tyres to test and review.  

Untill then i will need to get some training in and make do with what i already have.