BUCS Cross-country MTB Championships

Jun 09, 2012

BUSC XC. Time to stand up and deliver. Show your colours and do your university proud.
BLACK AND GOLD! Ride Hard or Ride Home!

For the first time BUSC XC was run as a separate event on a different weekend and at a different location to the BUSC Downhill champs. The new format will have suited most of the XC monkeys taking part with the short 4.8Km circuit at Birchall Golf course offering long sustained climbs and tight and twisty singletrack.
All thoughts were on this year’s race being a complete wash out, a week of high winds and rain leading up to it made it seem certain. Though a change in the forecast proved correct and Sunday was treated with some much needed sunshine. Unfortunately though the damage was done and the track water logged; the climbs, singletrack, descents, everything. But there was still hope, it became quickly apparent when doing the sighting laps Birchall has good fun mud! Non of that peanut butter sticky crap anywhere, good times!
Riding in the championship category for the mighty University of Sheffield was Lucy Harris, Robin Groves, Ross Phelps and myself. The race start was at 13:00 with sign on starting at 9. Arriving in good time we all managed to sign on and fit in a few practice laps before the start of the sport race. As with all BUSC events the atmosphere was relaxed, though as the hour approached the Turbo trainers or in Robin’s case his set of rollers were brought out and everyone’s warm up routine started. Realising that it usually takes the best part of 3 hours to get my legs feeling steady I decided to start my warm up very early.

(Click pictures to make them bigger!)

and the prize for the loudest turbo goes to Robin!

UoSCC don’t mess around

Max effort

OK? good? lets go win

All good things start with a good lunch

As we lined up and got ready for the start we were called forward to our grid position. The guy in the straw hat sombrero was sent to the back. We got the call saying we would start anytime in the next 15 seconds, 2 seconds later the gun went off and the fight for the first corner was on.

Focused on the prize

waiting to be gridded

The first climb blew the field apart with the top guys taking advantage of the clear track. Elbows were out round the first couple of tight corners which lead onto the long waterlogged heartbreak hill climb, here I found maintaining a high cadence was key picking a gear and sticking with it till the end. Once the climb levelled off the wet off-camber rooty singletrack was our next treat this lead onto what I thought was the most annoying section of swamp. Still on a slight climb, it was always possible to ride through it reasonably quickly but only if your line was right and you could maintain your momentum. If however, you slipped, hit a root wrong or were caught behind another rider you would start pin-balling between the trees. The water leap required a well-timed dismount and remount just to look pro for the bunch of loud spectators who offered much needed encouragement to all the passing riders. From here it always felt as if the course was downhill all the way with the best techy singletrack sections made all the more fun in the slippy conditions. The last steep drop attracted the most supporters who were all hoping to catch a good fall, I’m pleased to say I was able to offer them one of my best on my third lap.

ready for the climb?

Loving the singletrack

After what felt like a reasonably steady first lap making sure I didn’t go into the red to early my second lap felt awful. Slow through the swamp and with silly mistakes which got worse and worse causing me to wrap my bar end around a tree and take a tumble. The riders that I was closing down on disappeared off out of sight and a few had caught me up and passed me, not happy. When I started my second lap I looked behind to see Ross making some gains, he was obviously riding well. In races like these which break apart so quickly, I always find it difficult to ride with that little bit extra pace. I kept picking riders up ahead to close down as quickly as I could, though at this point we had begun to start lapping some riders so judging the pace of the race was tricky. By the end of the race the conditions were starting to improve in parts but in others like the climb and the swamp they were still energy sapping. Each lap I feel I easily lost 2 minutes a lap over the top guys who would have been flying through these sections which over a 5 lap race is a considerable margin.

Hitting the descent

weight back no messing

Allez Allez

cant wait here long..

Robin putting in a passing move

Loving it

Lucy gave Sheffield University something to really shout about with a closely fought out 4th place putting in consistent laps on the demanding course. I finished 12th with Ross and Robin finishing 20th and 27th respectively. Which out of a starting field of just under 100 riders can be seen as is a solid performance from all.

*** 6th overall team. 7 busc points in the bag, nice!***

does almost look like a I can do a wheelie!

job done

‘do you remember that wet bit?’

always good to beat Cambridge

Even nicer to beat Hallam…. again

This will be my last ever BUSC event and it was a pleasure to represent the mighty BLACK and GOLD

log from my garmin.. forgot to press the lap button each time

 

St Bees to Robin Hoods Bay; The Scenic route

Jun 07, 2012

What better way to celebrate the Queens jubilee than with a tour of some of Britain’s finest countryside. Starting at the traditional start of the Coast to Coast route St Bees, we devised a scenic route through the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and The North York Moors finishing at Robin Hoods bay.

Using the books ‘100 greatest cycling climbs’ and the sequel ‘Another 100 cycling climbs’ as inspiration we targeted some of the more iconic climbs in each of the national parks just to make the whole trip a little more memorable. We weren’t after breaking any speed records, this trip was purely a chance to enjoy some of the best ‘roads with a view’ that Britain has to offer.

Trips like these usually require a bit of careful planning with the route, hostels / hotels and transportation all being sorted a good few weeks in advanced. Not this time. With transportation being kindly supplied by a stranger with a van and all the hotels being booked at 9.30pm on the night before.

So after a much later than planned bedtime, our day started with a lift at 6 am bundled in the back of a van with no passenger windows. Fortunately it had seats! Arriving at St Bees we gathered our belongings and headed east.

Lake district

As I say taking in all the sites, we soon passed Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant what a beaut! Spirits were high the weather was fine and the scenery kept on coming.

With a few rolling climbs we quickly found ourselves heading up a steadily climbing valley which lead us up to Hard knott pass. Given a 10/10 with the prefix ‘if you can climb this you can climb anything’ we knew we were in for a treat.

But before we could get too excited Mikes bike broke. Snapping a spoke when going over the first cattle grid, which wrapped itself around his rear mech that in turn kindly snapped his hanger off. Damn…

After a lot of deliberation we decided to single speed it, this allowed Mike to be able to ride it on the downs and flats but it skipped far too much on the climbs so he was forced to walk.

Hard knott pass is a damn hard climb. Long at over 2 km at an average of 15% with sections of 30%. The narrow strip of tarmac winds itself up the very steep hillside with corners that force you to take the wide line, which when met with oncoming traffic proves another tricky obstacle. After the last couple of very steep ‘switchbacks’ the final straight drag offers a nasty sting in the tail with the crest of the hill appearing to move further and further away. From here we moved across the top of the mountain and down Wrynose pass another classic climb. Since Mike had a little bit of time on his hands walking up the climb he managed to locate on his mobile a shop in Ambleside that sounded like it was going to be able to help out. Once we had managed to limp into town we were met by the friendly staff at ghyllside cycles who had a spare gear hanger that was filed into shape. To get mike back on the road 9 new spokes had to be fitted, plus a new chain and rear mech. Ah well at least his wallet was a bit lighter now!

Our route took us down the west side of lake Windermere which forced us into climbing a series of very stiff climbs that lead us into the back of Kendal from here we climbed again heading towards our first hotel which was over the boarder in Yorkshire.

Tom was a happy man once he had returned to ‘gods county’. Cumbria had been tough on our, mind, body and bike. This first day had definitely shown us what to expect over the remaining couple of days.

Without a doubt Thorn Hall has some of the best showers ever. Our last minute booking had definitely paid dividends here. Good local beer from Dent brewery and simple food for dinner and breakfast in good portions set us up well for the next day.

Day one route

Yorkshire dales

Most of England was suffering torrential downpours and on the Sunday there was a risk it was going to head further north and catch us. We were pretty lucky with the rain since the showers remained reasonably light though a cruel easterly wind made riding pretty cold and grim as we crossed the Yorkshire Dales. Passing buy the iconic rail viaducts the vast scenery wasn’t failing to impress. The tarmac of the Dales was also noticeably better than that of the Lakes with the climbs until the halfway point being a lot steadier. Stopping for lunch in a very traditional Yorkshire pub, the Falcon, which offered ale straight from the barrel, fish finger cobs and a warm fire.

Fine preparation for the Park rash climb out of Kettlewell, rated 9/10 From a far it did look as if it was steeper than 45° as the climb appeared to impossibly wind its way up the side of the hill. Any momentum was quickly absorbed with a steep left hand bend that forced you to ride on the outside of the bend, I managed to get round before an oncoming car descended, which pushed mike who was behind to have to climb round the much stepper inside of the bend. The climb was made more manageable with a big dip in the road that allowed you to prepare for the final onslaught. From here it was pretty much down hill all the way to Beedale.

Our night’s accommodation was definitely not to the same plushness of the previous night. The last motel on the A1 before scotch corner, it had a bed, it was reasonably clean.. well my room was and they were kind in offering us a spare room for our bikes to be stored in.

Day two route

The North York moors

The last day of our trip took us into the North York moors and our route involved nearly every type of typically English climb; Long moorland drags and ridiculously steep descents down valley sides that immediately rise up similarly steep sided cliffs.

Unfortunately (or is that fortunately) our eastbound route sent us down Rose dale chimney, which I have to say is probably the steepest road I have ever seen with prolonged 33% sections. 10/10 and I can see that it definitely lives up to its reputation.

If we hadn’t been short on time then I would have been straight back up there, so I am looking forward to returning and sending it. At this point my legs were beginning to feel the previous days effort and the 25% climb that immediately followed that took us up to a similar initial height made me feel a little less like a deserter! From here we descended the Egton bridge climb that also had a sister climb up the other side of the valley of similar length and grade. We were now starting to get our first glimpses of the sea and the most severe climbs were behind us, though occasionally we were met with nice decisions like these!

The crowds were out to meet us at Robin Hoods bay, The celebratory pint and tray of chips went down nicely.

From here we had a further 20Km back to Toms house, which since we had managed to offload our bags was pretty rapid. The weather had been pretty much perfect all day and to be able to chill out in the sunshine with a drink felt well earned.

Many thanks to Sarah, David, Sue and Paul for meeting us at Robin Hoods bay and the for getting some celebratory Sparkly stuff. Cracking weekend, now time to start putting a bit more preparation into our next adventure!

Day three route …. missing the last bit..

Ride stats

350 km

14155 cal burned

6285m climbing nice

Erlestoke twelve 2012. Erlestoke 12 race report

May 26, 2012

Wow what a race! SPAM Biking Erlestoke Twelve we salute you. 

Riders
Pete Crawforth
Andy Douglas

We had been looking forward to this race pretty much since last year’s race finished. Erlestoke offers such a great racing venue with sharp punchy climbs which are duly rewarded with nicely flowing singletrack descents. Even when the racing got really tough, I still couldn’t wait to get back out to try and get the next lap nailed just a bit quicker.

In true British fashion the weather leading up to the race had been all over the place. The previous Saturday had been absolutely freezing and I had begun to fear a wet race was in order. However, the temperature began to steadily rise and we were treated with one of the hottest days of the year with hot headwinds, blistering sun and dusty trails, nice.

The track followed pretty much the same route as it did last year with a few well thought out alterations which created a very fast and flowing course. We managed to get in a sighting lap the night before and this fuelled our enthusiasm for what was in store.

Our initial plan was to ride the whole race doing two laps stints, this worked pretty well for us last year but this time round race day was a lot hotter and the temperature was going to keep rising. So we decided not to come up with a solid race plan and to pretty much see how we felt the moment the race started.

Andy used his rapid off the mark skills to get us a great position the moment the race started with a quick lap around the camp site before hitting the track proper. As usual it began with a fast and flowing downhill into the first section of trees which had a couple of sections which required some care to ensure any valuable speed wasn’t lost. After a small new field section, which rode faster than initially expected on the practice run, we hit the second singletrack section which was being run in reverse from the year previous, again a faster improvement. Then came the tough field climb which lead onto the heartbreak road climb though light was always at the top since it always seemed that from here it was pretty much downhill all the way. With some of the tightest racing singletrack a lot of time could be lost/gained by hitting the right line and maintaining momentum. This half of the track always made the big smile on my face even cheesier

So by the time Andy completed our second lap and had passed on the baton to me, he had managed to get us ahead of the whole field which was a great feeling but I could feel the riders from Lumicycle and cycleshack powering down. I managed to hold them off for the first of my two laps but half way round my second I had begun to start feeling the heat and after emptying my bottles, drinking became the only thing on my mind. When we transferred Andy shouted exactly what I wanted to hear “single laps from now on!” Since this was the first real heat of the year both of our bodies weren’t particularly acclimatised, riding the single laps allowed us to cool our core temperature consume a bottle or two of fluids and whatever food we could stomach. After five laps we were holding a close third spot and the pace wasn’t showing any sign of slowing. I suffered a couple of unfortunate crashes which put a bit of distance between us and second but Andy did what he does best and managed to close it again to less than 30 seconds. Then I was hit with a bizarre mechanical which resulted in my chainstay protector being bent, this in turn jammed my cranks solid. I had to turn back into the pits and stop. As I started to assess the damage, a stranger pushed me out of the way picked up my bike and put it on his maintenance stand. He pulled the cranks off and managed to rip the rest protector plate off, quickly reattached the cranks and send me off on my way. All in all I lost just over 5 minutes but as far as I’m concerned that guy saved our race.. So whoever you were THANK YOU!

From this point my race began to get a lot better my legs loosening up and the heat cooled down. After a bowl of pasta I went out for two laps which allowed Andy to recover and for him to then power through two laps of his own. From this point we felt we could start making some gains and went back to finish on single laps. We were back up to full speed and feeling happy. Putting in the overtaking move which put us into second felt great. It was a shame that first place had managed to pull out a lead which at this point, incidents aside, couldn’t be closed. Their lead had begun to fall from the max of twelve minutes to the finishing gap of just over eight minutes.

In the end we managed to finish with just over a minute to spare.m and a whole lap over 3rd place. This put us second in our category and forth overall in the whole race, all finishing on the same number of laps.

A big congratulations needs to be sent out to everyone who took part, the weather definitely played its part.

As part of our group of riders taking part we also enjoyed great success in the team of 4 6 hour male and female pair Rebecca bright and Lucy Harris both winning their respective categories. 12 hour rookie competitors Tom and Andy ‘Yorkshire Gold’ put in a solid performance finishing 11th in the pairs event.

A big thanks to the PedalPursuits support crew which managed to make it for the final part of the race their enthusiasm and regimental order managed to lift all of our spirits.

Thanks to SPAM Biking, CHARGE, Red Bull, the marshals and the owners of the land for facilitating one of the best races of the year. Hope to see you all again next year!

…insert your brand here… with consistent results like these PedalPursuits is in search of sponsors.We can offer positive exposure at events like these across the UK.

Contact
[email protected]

Erlestoke 2012

May 15, 2012

Starting to get really excited about this race. The quality of the track the atmosphere around the pits. Aiming for another podium. Going to be quality!

Pickering MTBO 12/05/12

May 12, 2012

The sun was out for a change at today’s middle in Pickering. It led to a false sense of security with bone dry roads and forest tracks, turning into the wettest of forest bog you could imagine!
The route generally consisted of hammering along fire-roads then deciding the best way into controls to avoid too much bog snorkelling.

Before the event I did the school boy error of a new chain on an old cassette so kept to my biggest 2 rings most of the way round to avoid skipping gears. Makes for a high cadence! I also had an awesome over the handle bars- one of those where you can’t quite believe you’re not injured! A few difficult route choices had to be made and i think may have cost a couple of minutes.

All in all I was pleased the bike held up enough to actually race and pleased with a good result.
Results