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.

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

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

Welcome to my bike blog

So this is my very first post. First things first. A welcome is in order. And thank you for taking your time reading what I have to say.

Let me introduce and tell you a bit about myself.

My name is Matthew noble and I am currently 22years old. I live in Plymouth , UK and have been cycling since I was about 2. Over that time I have raced xc, dh, bmx, cyclo cross and road. I have managed to become southwest champ in dh, cyclo cross and was close with bmx. I have never orientated myself as a type of rider ie rodie, downhiller. I like to think of myself as a cyclist who respects and enjoys every aspect of the sport. I find it very funny how people can have such a hatred or disregard for another type of cyclist. For instance a downhiller calling a roadie a fag because he wears Lycra....it does make a good laugh though! Despite me being a Lycra loving roadie at times.

I also work for an upcoming online bike company Koo-bikes.com. Worth a look if you've never heard of it. They are the only bike shop that weighs every single bike product, in house, on very accurate scales, to give riders more knowledge about the product. And if your anything like me, I want to ride the lightest stuff. Especially if Im trying to shed some bike weight.
I guess me working for the shop will make it easier to get hold of new products and review them and stuff. So it benefits the readers also. That's you by the way!

Ok why am I doing this when I could be out there riding. Well it's simple really. Firstly, There is only so much riding one man can do and what better than spending your spare time writing about bikes.
Secondly, I have started to weight train a lot recently and I have decided to put my fitness to the test and race the upcoming southwest cyclocross series and thought why not blog my progress.

Not many people know much about cyclo cross and there doesn't seem to be that many sites out there that gives it that much attention. Unless I'm missing something and haven't found one yet.

So I want to show what it takes to prepare for a season. What sort of bike you need, how much training I do (I have a full time job, so there will be levels of commitment and a limit to how much I can do) what I do to prepare for a race. What I think about before, during a race and after. And of course what I eat.

Over time I will blog about almost every single bike related thought I have, from dh riding right through the spectrum of cycling to fixies! Cus they are kool!
This is a list of what to expect:
- Southwest cyclo cross
- Training: hours- miles -diet
- Bike build: my bikes. Pic of new stuff and why I choose it over other kit.
- Race day bike pics ~ other peoples bikes
- Relevant info: news, races, websites.

Feel free to subscribe to my blog. It would also be very cool if people wanted to send me pics of there cx bikes for me to post them on here. And feel free to share my blog on fb or whatever.
The pic is a little giveaway of what is my number 1 cross bike. Guess if you can.

I'm off for a ride!