Last night was the event of the century. Roller racing came to Bristol for the first time and it was at MUD DOCK. When we first planned this we thought it was going to be a gentle evening of fun and frolics with a few of our friends and general public. How wrong were we, it was packed out! Ii have never seen the upstairs so jammed with people. An awesome night where the competitive spirit of every one came out. I had more fun in the crowd than when I was competing.
Picture this, A massive crowd in front of you, 2 bikes on roller jigs, lights in your eyes, your heart pounding, then the infamous countdown, 3, 2, 1, GO! 20 odd seconds later and your legs are like jelly and your lungs burning. It's Rollapaluza. The 500m sprint on a fixed wheeled bike is gruelling. the first 250m was hard and then the next 250 was just painful. Its all about technique not power.
The fastest time of the night was 19.75 seconds which is a fraction of a second of CHRIS HOY's time of 19.44 This was achieved by our very own MUD DOCK mechanic and DMR rider DUNCAN FERRIS. He battled it out through all of the rounds smashing his opponents every time. He made it to the final where the 500m bench mark was moved to 1 kilometer. Now it was about tactics. Duncan was in the lead to begin with but with 250m to go he started to fade and Marcus Mumford started to gain the lead. It was neck and neck with 100m to go but Marcus Mumford managed to edge his was to victory as they past the finish. Duncan got second but still he did manage to get into the top ten fastest riders ever to race. Out of 7000 contestants who have taken part in this event over the past 18 months only 9 people have gone sub 20 seconds. Duncan slots into 7th place and makes that number 10.
The women's event was won by Sarah Barber who stormed the rest of the competition. The final was just as exciting as the men's, gurning was also present!
Well done to every one who took part. And I hope that Sarah Barber and Marcus Mumford enjoy their new IRONHORSE TRANSIT track bikes.
It was an excellent night and I believe enjoyed by all, so when is the next one going to be I hear you say! Well, keep an eye on the MUD DOCK website for details.
I'm going to be training for next one: 23.17 seconds was a bit poor.
G
06 November 2008
28 October 2008
No biking this week
I miss my bike. I was watching ROAM last night and had that itch that only a good day on the trails can scratch. 8 whole days I have left my poor bikes festering in the garage. Alone and wondering what the hell has happened. That is the longest I have been off my bike for 2 years, normally averaging 15-20 hours a week!
Well it's all for a good cause. I'm training for the 6 day adventure race in Abu Dhabi. I returned yesterday from North Wales where I had launched the kayak into the River Dee and Irish Sea for a couple of days of kayaking with my 3 team mates from Team For Goodness Shakes (http://www.forgoodnessshakes.com/news.aspx). Highlights of the weekend were being frightened to death by a cocky seal which decided to pop its head up right by the boat. We also saw loads of herons, curlews etc and some amazing views of Snowdonia from the water.
The weekend was topped off with a spot of dune running to prepare our legs for the 110km foot section over the sand dunes of the Emirate. My feet ached after 30 mins so I've got some work to do!
But I miss my bike and tonight will be dusting off the singlespeed and ragging around some local trails with the Tuesday Night boys (but not before a 90 minute hill run and an hour of weights). I can't wait.
Fi
x
Well it's all for a good cause. I'm training for the 6 day adventure race in Abu Dhabi. I returned yesterday from North Wales where I had launched the kayak into the River Dee and Irish Sea for a couple of days of kayaking with my 3 team mates from Team For Goodness Shakes (http://www.forgoodnessshakes.com/news.aspx). Highlights of the weekend were being frightened to death by a cocky seal which decided to pop its head up right by the boat. We also saw loads of herons, curlews etc and some amazing views of Snowdonia from the water.
The weekend was topped off with a spot of dune running to prepare our legs for the 110km foot section over the sand dunes of the Emirate. My feet ached after 30 mins so I've got some work to do!
But I miss my bike and tonight will be dusting off the singlespeed and ragging around some local trails with the Tuesday Night boys (but not before a 90 minute hill run and an hour of weights). I can't wait.
Fi
x
21 October 2008
For Goodness Shakes
So in addition to racing for Team Mud Dock I dabble in a bit of adventure racing for top UK adventure racing team For Goodness Shakes (http://www.forgoodnessshakes.com/). We're racing in Abu Dhabi in 7 weeks time and for a bit of practice we decided to enter a fast and furious Trailplus race in Petersfield. The format was no nav just run, mtb, run, kayak, run, bike, silly games. It was amazing fun.
Team Helly Hansen were the favourites and we knew we had to stick with them from the start to have half a chance. I've been out of AR for a while and didn't know how I'd fare against Team HH after 2 years away from running but 2 years of full on mountain biking.
I managed to stick with Nic McCloud from HH for the first run, which was a fast and furious 30 minutes. Team Captain Andy Wilson helped push me up a few hills and it was a struggle but the moment I got on the bike I felt good again. Heart rate settled and we shot off, overtaking the Hellies immediately.
But then puncture number 1 happened... then puncture number 2 and they caught us. We were then on the back foot and chasing. I ran so hard, being towed by the insanely strong Dave Barnaville and was just willing the bike section to start again.
Eventually it did and the boys had worked out we were 2mins 30 secs down on Helly. We shot off on the 45 minute bike loop feeling mega strong. I was leading and really enjoying the technical singletrack and swoopy descents. Within 12 minutes we had caught our rivals up on a fireroad climb. But another bleedin' puncture had us set back again. But nothing was stopping us now. We shot forwards and caught them almost immediately, spinning straight past and soon out of sight.
Coming into the finish and with just the scramble nets, ski-planks and slippery wall to contend with, we had over 5 minutes on them. We skipped across the line the victors and were 6th overall out of 300 teams. I felt really happy to have proven myself in such a high profile team and was proud to have won such a fast and furious race given the amount I've concentrated on longer stuff this year.
Also, my running felt good and I really enjoyed it, despite the effort. And the team are such an amazing group of guys, the whole weekend was superb fun!
Team Mud Dock is representing on the dark side of AR, so beware!
Fi
x
Team Helly Hansen were the favourites and we knew we had to stick with them from the start to have half a chance. I've been out of AR for a while and didn't know how I'd fare against Team HH after 2 years away from running but 2 years of full on mountain biking.
I managed to stick with Nic McCloud from HH for the first run, which was a fast and furious 30 minutes. Team Captain Andy Wilson helped push me up a few hills and it was a struggle but the moment I got on the bike I felt good again. Heart rate settled and we shot off, overtaking the Hellies immediately.
But then puncture number 1 happened... then puncture number 2 and they caught us. We were then on the back foot and chasing. I ran so hard, being towed by the insanely strong Dave Barnaville and was just willing the bike section to start again.
Eventually it did and the boys had worked out we were 2mins 30 secs down on Helly. We shot off on the 45 minute bike loop feeling mega strong. I was leading and really enjoying the technical singletrack and swoopy descents. Within 12 minutes we had caught our rivals up on a fireroad climb. But another bleedin' puncture had us set back again. But nothing was stopping us now. We shot forwards and caught them almost immediately, spinning straight past and soon out of sight.
Coming into the finish and with just the scramble nets, ski-planks and slippery wall to contend with, we had over 5 minutes on them. We skipped across the line the victors and were 6th overall out of 300 teams. I felt really happy to have proven myself in such a high profile team and was proud to have won such a fast and furious race given the amount I've concentrated on longer stuff this year.
Also, my running felt good and I really enjoyed it, despite the effort. And the team are such an amazing group of guys, the whole weekend was superb fun!
Team Mud Dock is representing on the dark side of AR, so beware!
Fi
x
20 October 2008
cwmcarnage!!!
I went to cwmcarn forest park for some downhill action this weekend gone. As i explained in my last post I have been riding a local pump track and wanted to see if it improved my riding.
Well the verdict is out and I can say I have not been so fast with out pedalling. I have become a lot smother and more calculated in my riding style. On the bottom section of the track I was running out of gears! Hmm larger front chain ring I think might help me get a bit more speed.
If you go and visit cwmcarn to experience the up lift service and downhill trails, go mid week. The amount of people made it impossible to get more than 6 runs in. also the amount of people that were doted across the track on the way down was silly. If you stop get OFF the track. The speed I’m coming down the track if someone was in the way I would kill them if I collided. Not joking. I was following my friend who had a cycling computer; we were reaching speeds of 29mph in some places!!
The day after the amount of people had increased so we popped round the corner to ABERCARN. This has no uplift but it’s only a 30min push to the top. Its a tech track and very very steep. Lots of photo's taken so will post them when I can do so.
To book an uplift at cwmcarn go to there website at www.cwmdown.co.uk.
So the moral of the story is that if you want to go quicker, be smother and impress your mates, go and build a pump track and start pumping. Its not the bike you ride its the skills you have that make you a better around rider. The bike just helps!
G
Well the verdict is out and I can say I have not been so fast with out pedalling. I have become a lot smother and more calculated in my riding style. On the bottom section of the track I was running out of gears! Hmm larger front chain ring I think might help me get a bit more speed.
If you go and visit cwmcarn to experience the up lift service and downhill trails, go mid week. The amount of people made it impossible to get more than 6 runs in. also the amount of people that were doted across the track on the way down was silly. If you stop get OFF the track. The speed I’m coming down the track if someone was in the way I would kill them if I collided. Not joking. I was following my friend who had a cycling computer; we were reaching speeds of 29mph in some places!!
The day after the amount of people had increased so we popped round the corner to ABERCARN. This has no uplift but it’s only a 30min push to the top. Its a tech track and very very steep. Lots of photo's taken so will post them when I can do so.
To book an uplift at cwmcarn go to there website at www.cwmdown.co.uk.
So the moral of the story is that if you want to go quicker, be smother and impress your mates, go and build a pump track and start pumping. Its not the bike you ride its the skills you have that make you a better around rider. The bike just helps!
G
16 October 2008
Crossing over..........
Having just put together a cyclo cross bike for the winter to train and commute on, enjoying the 'go pretty much anywhere' feeling of the new steed, the idea of actually using the bike for its intended purpose of riding cyclo cross entered my mind. After all, the sun was shining at the weekend and the event was local - Ashton Court. Something to do on a warm October Sunday morning.
Many of the local riders had turned up, having dug out their winter cyclo cross machines, and of course the dedicated cross racers were there, sporting their lightweight bikes, warming up around the track. There was a healthy field of 45 riders for the senior event (seniors/vets/female) chatting away as we lined up. Hush descended as the countdown began. The starting pace was somewhat quicker than I was used to! The start of a 12 hour solo race is a more sedate affair. Surely we can't keep this pace up for the full hour?! Apparently we do!! The field strung out at he first climb, avoiding bottlenecks at the first wooded section. I was up at the front until my chain jumped off after the running section, causing chain suck. I had to stop and deal with it, losing vital places and momentum in the first few minutes. Pushing hard in anger, I tried regaining as many places as possible, but I had twisted the chain causing the gears to jump every pedal revolution.
The course was short n sharp, 2km of short climbs, fast flat sections and wooded trails. It felt like I had been thrown back to my early days of riding trails, with rigid forks and cantilever brakes, which just do not work! And with the added instability of riding drops. It was like learning to ride again, having got used to fat tyres and suspension.
The last lap hurt the legs, alot, but I had managed to claw back some of the places, finishing in 5th position. I felt like I had had a good workout, and the awesome weather helped no end. Do this in the middle of winter when the rain is lashing down and the trails have reverted back to muddy bogs? Oh yes! Round 3 is this weekend I believe. It was great fun and after all, it is only an hour.
Go on, you know you want to give it a go.......Check out the BCF cyclo cross calender, there's bound to be an event near you.
Scott
Team Mud Dock
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