Category: Cycling

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World Cup Sweden – Middle Race

The World Cup Middle race event centre was an Orienteering Club, Club House. Just amazing falicities, it even had a sauna.

As I warmed up and chilled at the start, the skies opened. It really chucking it down.

We knew the maps were not waterproof so in my pre-start minute I did not do any planning ahead, I just concentrated on folding my maps so they would stay in one piece. I ended up woith a rolling start through the startline just as the last beep went, sweet !

I rode really well to number one but made the mistake of cutting through on number two losing a little time.

A cut through again at number 6 after a small mistake missing a track junction cost me precious time, but I got the right route choice to 7, using the road and then started to nav a little better.

The course looped around, the tracks becoming more waterlogged and muddy as the rain poured down. I was riding really well, both technically and strongly in the middle part of the course. After the spectator control and map change we went back across the road before a long leg back to the X Country Ski arena again. I picked a ‘straight is great’ route choice which involved a cut through again. Unfortunately I ended up sliding down a bank in to a knee deep stream and had to throw my bike up the other side before hauling myself through some brashings. It was still a reasonable leg time but I think another route choice would have been quicker.

Crossing the finish line I felt id had a reasonable ride and managed to stay in front of Lasse which had been my goal, but only by 2 seconds. Although I was 48th I was just 4-6 mins down on a much better placing, so I go into tomorrows mass start long fairly confident on a reasonable result.

Anybody got any wet lube ?

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MTBO World Cup, Dalarna, Sweden

Midges, Dirty and Wet, but great riding……..

Building bikes in the morning, we got midged. Little ones, but with a proper bite that soon had everyone scratching and running for more clothes. Those of us with insect repellent were suddenly rather popular !

The event centre is Rattvik, in Dalarna, Sweden, a pretty little town on the shores of a large lake with forested rolling hills rising all around. All morning the skies threatened and towards the end of our ride on the model map just before lunch the drizzle started and has not really stopped.

We sat outside a little woodland cafe, sipping coffee until the rain broke through the sun umbrellas before eventually heading back to our youth hostel.

My bike developed a scary rattle during my model event ride which got louder and louder, so I spent most the the time trying to diagnose it rather than navigating, but once sorted (a loose frame insert) I was soon blatting down rooty, rocky singletracks with a smile on my face.

After a couple more cafe stops in the afternoon it was time for the opening ceremony, always amusing affairs. After some cute violin-playing children we were ‘entertained’ by a troop of local dancers. We all enjoyed there fairly uncoordinated dancing, particularity their last number which had us in stiches.

We also had a smile at some of the interviews live on Swedish radio where one Austrian team member when, asked what he thought of Sweden, pronounced it ‘Wet and Dirty’

After some dinner and a uneventful team leaders meeting a few team members went off to a ‘Monster Truck’ event, in town for the evening, while the rest of us chilled out readying for the first races tomorrow, the World Cup and World Masters Middle Distance events, about 20km away.

Lots of photos at https://picasaweb.google.com/mark.stodgell/SwedenWorldCupMTBO2011?feat=directlink

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Airport, Lost in Translation.

Coming out of Manchester airport security on the way out to the World Cup in Sweden, Alan and I were accosted by a hysterical, middle aged Chinese lady. She thrust a bit of paper in front of our noses and started frantic jabbering and arm waving.

The bit of paper said, ‘What number is the departure gate for Frankfurt?’

To be fair, you do come straight out of security into what looks like a crash between Debenhams, Toys R Us and a high class off license, with no signage, but she was going bonkers, looking like she was about to burst into tears.

We tried to calm her down but I suspect the problem was she could not recognise any Roman characters and was like a rabbit in the headlights and scared.

Eventually we got her through to the information point (closed) and could at least point to a screen to show her gate was not yet being called (in fact not for another 40 minutes). Then she produced a mobile and asked Alan to speak to her daughter, who eventually calmed her down.

She shuffled off towards the gates (still no number had been called) a little happier, and we felt very good at having been good Samaritans, but a little relieved to have got rid of her.

Over the next hour we kept seeing her at the head of an ever-growing gaggle of Chinese travellers, still seemingly totally confused as to where she was meant to be and when wandering between the various gates. She kept us amused, though!

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Please vote for Chase Trails !

Please see the message from Chase Trails below, The Cannock Chase singletracks don’t build themselves so please give them your vote.

I’m writing on behalf of the volunteer trail building group Chase Trails. We’re delighted to announced that we have reached the semi-finals of the National Lottery awards.
 
For over 8 years Chase Trails volunteers have worked to design, build, maintenance mountain bike trails on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire. Over 100,000 people have now ridden the network of cycling trails built in partnership with  the Forestry Commission.
 
The trails continue to grow thanks to our efforts building trails every Sunday morning.   

I konw you have used the trails at Cannock in the past and I writing to ask if you would support our project by helping us promote this news and encouraging people to vote for us. By supporting Chase Trails you’ll be showing your support for the trails and the work the volunteers do to build and maintain them. We’d encourage all of the mountain bike community to get behind us and show their support for trail development and the future of sustainable mountain biking in the UK.
 
People can vote online www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/best-sport-project/141/ or by calling 0844 836 9721 (voting closes at midday on 20 June so vote today)

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Chiropractor and sports massage.

I have been having regular visits over the last couple of months to my local Chiropractic clinic who also have a sports massage chap.

http://www.chiropractic.uk.com/index.html

I have long been convinced that injury’s do not just appear, unless you have a physical incident, ie foot down a rabbit hole or an big fall from grace off of a bike. Normally I find those niggly little injury’s, ie muscle strains etc, are caused by something else impinging on the area and a slow build up until they become chronic or an annoyance affecting performance.

I have always had a very unstable lower back, in fact I can do a bit of self manipulation stretching my back if I feel a bit ‘asymmetrical’ at times, which can be a little unnerving for anyone listening to the cracks. This tends to then trigger other factors if not kept in check, such as muscle imbalances and general deep muscle tightness, which then leads on to overuse injury’s elsewhere.

I tend to have an MOT with the Chiropractor every 3 or 4 months now to keep me right, but recently have been having some good value sports massage from his colleague too, concentrating mainly on sorting me out after any running races which tend to leave me not being able to walk down the stairs properly the next morning.

The two treatments together, particularly some deep muscle massage in my glute’s have kept a couple of niggles at bay recently, including a calf strain and a troublesome inner hamstring.

Throughout the years I have used all sorts of ‘practitioners’ its just a case of finding a combination that works for you.

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Sweden World Cup / World Masters Preview

Thurs 16th June will see a large team of Brits flying to Sweden to compete in the 2nd round of the 2011 MTBO World Cup and World Masters Championships. Sweden although being one of the top nations in the world in foot orienteering is relatively new to MTBO and it is hoped that hosting a World Cup round will increase participation in the country.

Full details at www.mtbosweden.se