Competitions – Page 5

July 31, 2016July 31, 2016

Brompton World Championships 2016 – Race Report

Preparing for the Brompton World Championships held in London on the iconic Mall is a strange one. It’s the event that doesn’t take itself seriously but somehow is becoming a hyper competitive must do event for all sorts of Bromponeers. The competitiveness comes in many forms – yes the race itself with gridded positions based on seeding, attracting huge names such as Michael Hutchinson and David Millar but also in some other areas. The best dressed award brings custom tailored suits and other bizzare outfits, pimped Bromptons include enormous chainrings and carbon wheels and then there is the folding race.

Holly and I arrived early enabling us both to get a lap of the freeride London in – a 12 km closed roads spin around London’s normally jammed roads, taking in some famous landmarks.
Next were the various stalls to look at and sample and the Women’s Classique Criterion to watch. Oh and I had a go at the fastest fold challenge and ended up with the slowest fold after getting the pedal stuck on the frame pump – oops, very embarrassing.

So finally the race. We lined up in 4 waves opposite our bikes (folded) at 20 second intervals all the way down the Mall based on our seedings. On the horn and flag we sprinted across the road Le Mans style for the great unfold.
I made sure I got my saddle correct (I have a scratch on the seatpost to mark the height) and then had a good unfold, although a little fumble on the frame spinner. I then tonked it down the Mall and tried to get the first lap in as fast as I could staying out of traffic on the outside getting past loads of slower riders with higher seedings. I realised straight away that I needed a bigger gear, running out of cadence but I soon settled into a good speed and concentrated on taking the corners as fast as I could and by the end the gear was spot on for my legs.

I was really struggling to find anyone to draft, just slowly overhauling people one at a time as I went though lap 2 and into 3. I had a major near off on the corner into Horse guards on lap 3, taking speed through on the outside up against the barriers there suddenly were some stragglers who forced someone wide. I am not sure quite what happened but I ended up unclipped and bounced off the barrier with a few ‘oooos’ from the crowd on the corner and a couple of ‘well held’ from the guys behind me as a clipped back in and got out the saddle to regain some speed.
I then realised why I couldn’t find anyone to draft – I had about 10 people behind me while I did the work. Soon 3 or 4 of us started to work together and I started to race properly, getting a rest on birdcage walk and working hard up the Mall.

Eventually as I neared the finish line on lap 6 the lead group with David Millar, Hutch and the defending champions streamed past taking the bell. I dug in and kept up the pace using various people for shelter before a final sprint for the line, an awesome feeling on the Mall with the crowds cheering.
I managed to get a parade lap in which was fun, crowds had stayed on the major corners and it felt very special to be cheered outside Buckingham Palace and coming onto the Mall again for the final time.
Final results are now out – 88th – well chuffed with that laptimes were consistent at about 3.45

Full results here http://www.brompton.com/Events/Posts/2016/BWC-London-Final-2016

#BWC2016

July 29, 2016

Brompton World Championships 2016

Just a day to go now until the Brompton World Championships. The bike is serviced, decided to leave on the mud guards and rack but I’ve taken off the mud flap and front bag holder.

What to wear has been a bit of a conundrum, not spending too much money on bespoke kit I have raided the wardrobe and ended up just buying a new pair of shorts. I just need to decide now if I want to cut the lining out of the jacket and hack off the shirt sleeves a bit!

There is a full days activities running up to the race, including the Ride London Classique – Holly and I will be there all afternoon taking part!

More details here https://www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/

June 23, 2016June 23, 2016

Jukola 2016

Jukola is a Finn phenomenon in orienteering – held since the late 1940s it has become one of the largest orienteering events in the world, this year attracting around 18,000 competitors. It’s an all-night relay, starting at 11pm with 7 runners per team tackling varying lengths of courses from 8.5 to 16.5km.

It’s been on my bucket list for a while but putting together a team and being fit enough to run it, affording the cost and having the time to go have always been barriers…. This year Cath and I decided to just do it, whatever, and ended up piggybacking some pals in a Bristol Orienteering Klub team (I was a BOK member years ago so I do have some claims!).

Cath took the trip at a slightly more leisurely pace but as I had limited holiday I did it in a whirlwind, landing on late on Friday night flying from Manchester. BOK’s resident Finn, Tommi Grover, kindly hosted everyone at his family house just outside Helsinki on Friday night and on Saturday we drove out towards the Russian border where Jukola 2016 was to be held.

The weather all weekend was constant rain with the odd shower of not raining, leaving the ground waterlogged, and from the off I decided my wellies (Nokia ones, of course) were a very good thing to have brought with me.

We arrived just in time to see the Venla (Women only relay race of 4 runners) kick off and then after dropping our kit in our home for the next 24 hours (an army tent) we spent an afternoon slowly getting soaked, eating too much sausage and cheering on the BOK team and any other Brits we could see coming through the changeover.

There are huge outdoor shops that appear for the weekend on site in large tents, together with food outlets and sponsors – all a bit like Glastonbury (Still the Pilton Festival if you grew up near Glastonbury in the 70s & 80s as I did). Unfortunately, over the course of the day it got even more like Glastonbury as the site turned to a sea of mud.

At 10.55pm I found myself lined up with 1740 others (men and women) in rows of approx. 30 as maps were handed out. At 11.00pm a Finnish Soldier with a rifle let rip a burst of automatic fire and we were off as the Benny Hill theme tune pumped out through the PA!

The start is bonkers, trying to glance at an A2 sized map, find the start triangle on the map, fold the map down to try and see the long leg to #1, work out where you are going, perhaps take a compass bearing and oh…. leg it through a sea of mud….. with 1700 others doing the same thing at various speeds!

After about 700 metres of run out we were faced with a wall of young trees and rock and we all dived in, ducking, jumping, weaving; hundreds of orienteers forming long trains through the forest, threading their way through, splitting and rejoining, everyone attempting to stay in touch with progress over the map, hopefully in the right direction.

And so this continued, the trains thinning slightly, groups of 150 of so converging on controls (or not) over the next 11 km.

For me it was just rough compass, hang on to a train going in the right direction and pick off the big features. I made a couple of mistakes, one where I should have taken a ‘British’ style easy route-choice rather than the ‘Finnish’ straight is always great approach and avoided a horrendous marsh and ditch network, and one where I went with the train not trusting my instincts that I was right and they were wrong (difficult to go against 20 or so others).

My legs started to give in as I came through the long spectator loop and it was all I could do to hang on through the last section but I finished in a respectable 920nd position and handed over.

Our team was a rag tag bag of all sorts of fitness and abilities and I had to leave for home before we ultimately finished but finish we did and nowhere near last with many older Finns taking literally hours to finish their legs. The atmosphere was fantastic, the normal relay camaraderie taken to a whole new level.

The adventure didn’t stop, however, when we got to the car – the parking field was strewn with cars in random angles up to their axels in mud, 4 way flashers on waiting to be pulled out by a team of tractors. We had a flight to catch and managed to jump the queue for a tow. I’ll remember being pulled out sideways through the mud by a huge tractor in our brand new hire car for years to come.

We just made the flight and I eventually rocked up back in Stafford with a bag of stinking wet and muddy kit at 10pm on Sunday night with a smile on my face. A great event – Ill be back…

A video of the event can be found here

February 24, 2016

Brompton World Championships – I’ve got an entry!

Well, after not much to tell I’ve entered an event, got an entry and now have something to train for….

The Brompton World Championships! http://www.brompton.com/Events

My Brompton has been a little underused for about a year and needs a little TLC but I think this event might get me back riding it regularly. So if you see a green Brompton being ridden like its been stolen around Stafford…. that will be me training for July’s event.

November 5, 2014November 6, 2014

Somerset MBO – Quantocks

A chance to ride a mountain bike orienteering event on my old home turf of the Quantocks, mixed with a weekend catching up with the family and a visit to Bridgwater Carnival was a perfect end to the half term holidays.
Bridgwater Carnival was fab, awesome huge articulated ‘floats’ interdisbersed with mad individuals in costumes, the odd majorettes band and of course a bit of wind, rain and the waft of sizzling sausages. I am not sure standing in the cold for 3 hours was the best preparation for a Mountainbike event but we had a great night. For those that don’t know about the Somerset carnival season, more info here http://www.somersetcarnivals.co.uk

The next morning dawned wet windy and with mist and cloud hugging the Quantock hills as I drove to the event, wipers lashing the screen. After a catchup with old faces and some general phaff about what to wear I rode the 20 mins to the top of the hill to the start.The clouds and rain had cleared to give fantastic views in all directions.

Even with the rain stopped there was standing water everywhere and lots of slippery slimy red mud. On the way to #1 I lost the front end of the bike and soon found myself in a slowmotion superman dive into a muddy puddle. In a way it spead me up for the day as already being cold and soaked I didnt mess about from then on!

I knew the key to the event was to pick a route which kept climb to a minimum. As I splashed through the mud I suddenly picked a route from the map that worked and went for it….

My legs are still struggling with 3 hours, the climb up to the top from my last checkpoint was narrow, steep and slippery, all too soon I was off and walking, craving some food… The minutes ticked away and it was only some bravery and a full suspension bike on the last decent that meant I only lost 20 points being 10 mins late.

However a smile soon formed itself on my face as I downloaded in third place

Thanks to somerset Mbo for an excellent event. Results and report here… http://www.bmbo.org.uk/results/report.php?event_id=597

September 3, 2014

Dark and White – end of summer 2014 MTB Lane orienteering

Arriving home from Cortina d‘Amprezzo late on Thursday night with a bike in bits, it was always going to be a rush to get to Matlock for 6pm to do an MTB Orienteering event, but as the last of the season and with my back in good shape, it seemed to be the right thing to do.
Of course starting late in September means finishing in the dark so off I went with lights a’flashing on the two hour score which this time would only be on the dense steep lane network that runs North West from Matlock towards Chesterfield, no tracks or paths.
My legs were a little tired and the full suspension bike not really the right tool for the job but I had a great time whizzing around the lanes, seeing parts of the Peak District the tourist would never see.
I tried to be clever with the navigation in the middle of the event, avoiding a load of climb but at present I am just not fit enough to pull off a routechoice like that so in the end a slightly disappointing result after a good start to the ride. Still, there were lovely views to the South as the darkness descended but soon as my legs began to tire the rain came out of nowhere and just chucked it down, leaving me feeling very soggy and cold at the finish, glad I didn’t have to find any more bits of red and white tape in the gloom.
The rain chucking it down and stopping for chips in Matlock Bath on the way home brought back memories of Slalom Canoe training in the Mid-noughties, happy days.

April 14, 2014

MTBO Camp Cup – Middle Race 2

The last formal race of the MTBO Camp Cup 2014 was another middle race, again on classic Baltic sand dune forest terrain. Our start was adjacent to the event centre at Hasle smokehouses. Fragrant herring smoke wafted about us as we queued up ready to get going.

I messed up number one by riding to the last control first (deliberately as I misread the number), I didn’t lose much time as it was on the way but could have picked a faster route choice. After that other than perhaps a few suspect route choices where I could have saved a few 10s of seconds and a missed track at number 4, I rode really well, enjoying the single tracks and dense path network not making any mistakes.

I didn’t see any results until after dinner, just before the prize giving as I was attending the event advisors course for a rules update ahead of my role at next year’s European Championships. I was thrilled to see I had won the day’s race, securing an overall win in men’s short, a little strange given I was riding elite 3 years ago but really feel it’s a massive step forwards in my recovery since may back problems started in 2011.
I am returning home with some great Bornholm produce, mostly alcoholic!

With just the Hoke (ultra long) tomorrow the MTBO camp for this year is now nearly over. I’ve had a fantastic time, caught up with lots of old friends and really enjoyed seeing Bornholm.

April 11, 2014April 12, 2014

MTBO camp – sprint

No warm up, no mental prep, just rocked up at the start line, said hello to a couple of people and then zoomed out into the night.

A great little sprint area, Gallokken, next to the sea, but that meant sand hiding in the shadows, ready to make your front wheel go squiffy, exciting stuff in the dark.

I rode well, making only a couple of little errors, until the end when I lost touch with the map and messed up 11 and 13 big style but didnt lose more than 1.30 I suspect. The touch free punching was great, I wore it on my wrist and loved flying into a control, pulling a big skid turn and then powering off, my wrist beeping and flashing. Chatting to others afterwards it rewards good entry and exit to controls, affecting route choice, meaning you can save a few seconds if you come in at the right angle. Perhaps my views on touch free are now changing?

I just had a fantastic time, and now feel so alive! I can feel my back a little now, but nothing a little pilates before bed won’t sort.

Update: I’ve won Men’s Short 🙂 oops, though everyone else is at least 10 years older than me……