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.