Sunday 31 August 2008

somethings gotta change



Photo blatently stolen from Simon :-)


fed up with being overweight and unfit now, done that, got the T shirt...

so, another 30 in 30 is about to start tomorrow, get up early and get an hour in then hopefully a night ride at Delamere tomorrow, should be fun,
Next two days will be a bit more difficult, especially as I'm in Germany Tues and Weds, cunning plan is to get up early at 6 and get my hour in for Tuesday and then do a night ride on Wednesday after arriving home at 8.



This weekends plan has gone okay so far, Saturday saw a road ride to Tims place, I cheated a little and went the short way, 58 miles at 17.7mph average emptied my legs pretty much.

Sat night saw me and the boy wandering around the Rapha organised Salford Nocturne and very good it was too, lots of fun amateur races, roller racing and a very impressive pro race in the dark, must have quite scary racing those narrow roads at 35mph in the twilight !.

Today my legs were still shafted so the planned ride to Delamere with 360 was aborted and we did a pleasant 35 miles through the lanes ending up at the Bike Shak for a brew with Simon and Leon.

Final part of the weekend jigsaw is 2 bottles of fine ale chilling in the fridge to be followed by a 2004 Chateu Neuf de Pape, my last drink for a month, yes folks, as well as doing 30 rides in 30 days I'm also on the wagon for a month as well !!

Thursday 28 August 2008

SSWC08 report


After 14 hours on 2 planes I eventually hit the ground on Thursday evening at SFO to be met by me hombres Christina, Sara and Simon.

Straight into the van and away to Santa Cruz, the tag team heckling begins !

Meet up with Mike and Kelly, catch up, eat and drink and even get to pay the bill eventually, more chat and wine, tired now, its been 28 hours of awakeness before turning into bed staying overnight at Kelly’s house.

Friday, bike fettling (09 69ers courtesy of the nice people at Trek) and out onto the trails straight from the door, a bit of climbing before the swoopy good stuff, 2 and half hours later and we’re sat in a Taqueira eating Burritos and drinking beer.

Leave Santa Cruz and drive down the Pacific Ocean highway passing all the surf spots and craning my neck to see the pelicans, through San Fran passing other folks obviously going our way “You suck” coming from their van gives it away as well as the Blue Collar singlespeeds hanging off the back.

Get blown across the Golden Gate bridge and all the way to Napa where most of the usual suspects are already hanging and drinking beer, get room sorted and ride into town. Napa is a very different place, seemed to be quite straight laced, lots of Chinos and button down collars, lots of cops, lots of funny looks, drink beer and wine, eat a nice meal in an Italian, drink more beer looking for some life….

Back at the hotel, there’s a group gathered together chatting and drinking, the wine is flowing nicely now..... 3am….

Saturday, hangover, splitting headache, 4 litres of water before anything came out the other end :-0

Ride to the race course, sit and drink more water, then beer, meet other people, decide to have a barbecue back at the hotel, lend camera to small Bacon boy who takes lots of photo’s and earns himself ten bucks.

Hotel again, swimming in the pool, food, beer, wine, bullshit, dancing, carrying on, laughing, getting hosed by Phil (the maniacal laugh should have given the game away), no durby…..

Apparently Durango have the event next year..

Sunday, up early to get to the race on time, there’s a few spare places going and lots of folk looking for an entry, don’t even consider it for a minute, just happy to be there.

Take photo’s, laugh a lot, heckle (much to Lilias surprise “he’s not going to get off and fight me is he ?”) hang out, relax, beer, wine etc etc etc …


Sunday night ride into town, meet up with Troy and Dane, learn two new jokes (Juno and Dr Dre), eat fantastic cheeseburger, head back to hotel, some debauchery, skinny dipping, quiet chat, things starting to slow down now, tiredness catching up………

Monday, drive out to the best diner in the world ever, get intimidated when choosing a sandwhich, then riding on the road to the first vineyard….

And finish at the forth vineyard, not a huge ride in miles but huge in fun, another sandwhich conundrum and then packing the van for San Fran, via the Golden gate which is showing itself off so well that two dodgy looking cops are photographing each other against the backdrop ???

Through the streets of San Fran to Chris’s restaurant where we eat the most amazing food I’ve ever had, then to a motel for the night before flying back to the UK.

All in all a fun packed flying visit that was well worth the effort to get there, next year I’ll be fitter and ready to race, honest 

Saturday 16 August 2008

One Dark Lord

Who decided he didnt want me to ride !



So, the holiday in Greece is now a dusty memory, if only we had dusty trails, SITS was worse than usual, not just rain but trails made of plastocene, I really feel for the organisers of these events, they go to enormous efforts to put on a great event, new trails every time, but no matter how hard they work the weather gods dont even bother to get out of bed.I started the 1st lap with Jac, it was okay but before I was even half way round the bike was inoperable and had trebled in weight, by then I had decided that I wasnt going to bother, horrible flashbacks to Mountain Mayhem of 2 years ago where I pushed my mud laden bike for nearly 70 miles and paid a heavy price for 2 months afterwards, there's no way on gods earth that I'm going to put myself through that again in the name of fun, so that 1 lap was me done.Shower and a beer and I switched into support mode for jac, sharing the duties with Chris, Shaggy and Mel, sharing lots of laughs and banter with all the crew on our side of the fence.Jac did a sterling ride to grab herself 3rd solo place, the Delamere crew also did them selves proud with Dave, Ian and Sue all finisjhing their first solo attempt, chapeau to them all, and all who continued on, even the guy who set out with just a bike frame over his shoulder...The quietness in the wee hours gave me some time to think and I made a decision to try and get to the forthcoming single speed world championships, I've been dilly dallying all year about whether or not to go, I doubt I'll be racing but hopefully Punkass can get me a loaner bike for a few days and I'll be doing lots of riding on dusty trails.After getting home it'll be head down for a few weeks on the road bike leading upto the Manchester 100, I'm not a big fan of these organised charity rides but this one will serve a purpose and give me something to aim for, a sub 8 hour time I hope and (yes yet another) kick start to getting some fitness (yes i know, more comebacks than Frank Sinatra) leading upto what I really hope will be a mild autumn when I have places to ride and people to see.Next year I will attempt another 24 hour solo but hopefully it will be warm, dusty and rideable, maybe Finale with some of the cheeky crew :-)

Sunday 3 August 2008

Latest news


well, there isnt any... concerning bikes anyway !

Greece was nice, very hot, very dusty, met some great people, drank and ate some great wine and food, saw some fabulous places, didnt ride any bikes, did some running and lots of swimming, did lots of walking and exploring, found some amazing looking trails that are just begging to be ridden down

took lots of snaps, took lots of arty farty stuff, found a nice nature reserve that hardly had any nature in it but early in the morning and late in the evening had the most amazing light which got me out to it for at least an hour every day

Family all spent lots of time together and for the most part got along just fine, its possibly the last time we'll all be together for a holiday while the kids are still kids (well teenage kids anyway) and we had great fun

One very sad incident involving a quad bike and a 20 foot drop put a dampner on things for a few days (not involving us) and then home, tired and raring to ride

Home to find that Anne our dear friend had passed away while we were away so some sadness this weekend, but looking forward as always to a few late evening rides this week to try and get some circles into my legs in time for next weekends attempt at SITS.

SITS, probably the last time I ride a 24 hour race solo, although I have said that before on more than one occasion, anyhow, its a chance to catch up with everyone, test my fading mettle once again and cheer on the real athletes :-)