Cycling – Page 5 – Stodge-Blog

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.

September 1, 2014September 1, 2014

Mountain Bike Dolomiti

A family holiday taking bikes to Cortina d’Ampezzo brought an unexpected day pass for a big ride whilst Holly and Cath had a day relaxing with books, shopping and ‘Going Ape’

Strangely my back issues didn’t figure in my thoughts on planning a mega route combining a few of the marked MTB trails north of the town, which I think must mean I am finally nearly there with my rehab…
All the routes start with a blast up the cycle track that runs past Cortina on an old railway line, including a lit tunnel! I then forked off onto the first climb of the day on the ‘MTB no. 10 route’ up to a pass at Forc Lerosa. The climb just went on and on, getting steeper and steeper until I had eventually to get off for a few bends as I couldn’t keep the front wheel on the ground! Eventually after a short level section in the high meadows the track cascaded back down the mountain to join the MTB no.12/13 route up the main valley to Rifugio Sennes.
I really struggled on this climb, running out of food and water eventually limping into the Rifugio and downing a huge plate of Goulash and Dumplings before heading off towards my next huge decent.
The hairpins on the way down into Rifugio Pederu were amazing and just went on and on, culminating in a final very steep paved series of switch backs which left my brakes ticking as they cooled at the bottom. There then followed another monumental climb up to Rifugo Fanes where I sampled yet more home cooking ( not sure they appreciated my smelly attire at this point) before tackling the final 100m or so of climb up to the final col above.
From here it was mostly downhill, kms and kms of it, firstly through meadow pastures before diving into woodland, down and down.
I finally came out back on the main cycle path back into Cortina exhausted as it began to rain, realizing I had just done over 5 hours on the bike, 60km and 2700 metres of climbing and my back didn’t hurt a bit.
The Whyte E5 was the perfect tool for this trip, soaking up the bumps on the descents but the pro-pedal and front fork lockout keeping things under control on the climbs.
An amazing day, up there in my top 5 of best rides ever I think.

July 14, 2014

Dark and White Summer Series 2014

Stodge is back! well fingers crossed.

I started mountain bike orienteering with Dark & White Summer series events in the Peak District back in 2006/7, I still remember my first event, my new bike’s front brake failed on a decent and the climb back up to Teggs Nose showed me I wasn’t used to proper hills, but I loved it.
I managed 3 of this years summer series on consecutive Wednesday nights in June and July.
Week 1 was from a new venue on the outskirts of Southern Sheffield and used the hilly area down to Chesterfield including Ramsley Moor. I took it very easy, coming in early and not biting off more than I could chew, loving just being out. I did find it hard getting back into navigating on an OS map again, overshooting a track on the way to my first control and misreading the faintly printed contours on the next resulting in some route choice muppetry and extra climb.
Still it was great to finish in one piece with fantastic views and of course great to natter to friends I’ve not seen for the best part of 3 years.
Week 2 was from another new location for me – the highest village in England – Flash! Just south of Buxton – firstly a quick plug for the Flash Stores – top cake and pasty’s! http://www.maccinfo.com/Flash/
I was a little braver on this event, which took me on lots of terrain I knew between Flash and Macc Forest and some I didn’t to the south. I ended up having to work really hard on the climb back up to Flash, finishing just inside the 2 hour time limit. My back had to endure some pretty rough tracks though which worried me a little but it seemed to cope OK. The views on the drive home were simply gorgeous and I vowed the following week to do something I had been meaning to do for years – drive my spitfire to and from the next event.

So Week 3 saw me zooming up from Ashbourne over the Peaks in my old 1977 spitfire with the Whyte E5 tied on the back, in the late morning sunshine. After parking in New Mills and a quick shuttle into Manchester for a business meeting it was over to Hayfield for the last round of the summer series. Filled with confidence after the first two rounds and no real issues with my back I put in a bit more effort and loved every minute of being back working reasonably hard on climbs, trying to pick clever route-choices and hooning it down narrow lanes, enjoying the hedge-rush at 60kph. I finished a little early keeping the red mist at bay and not trying to go for one last control and then enjoyed a fantastic drive back over the Peak District in the setting sun.
Thanks to Dark and White for a great welcome back – cant wait for the night events later this year and of course the 3 hour winter series. http://www.darkandwhite.co.uk/

May 28, 2014May 28, 2014

Forest of Bowland, Gisburn and the Hornby Rd

At the last minute this spring bank holiday weekend, we found ourselves looking for something to do, somewhere in the mountains or on the coast, an active 3 days, but where? After an evening of searching we eventually found 3 beds in a Youth Hostel in Slaidburn, in the heart of the Forest of Bowland. Its an area we have not been to before, always drawn by its more famous cousins, the Yorkshire Dales, the Pennines or the Lake District http://www.forestofbowland.com/.

The Youth Hostel http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/slaidburn is basic and fairly old school but warm with great showers and an open fire, a proper youth hostel! Or first morning was just up the road at Gisburn forest when there are a number of MTB routes, graded for difficulty Blue, Red and Black. The red route riding was fairly tough at times and certainly on the darker side of red. The riding though is only half the story with fantastic long views to the moors beyond and great ribbons of singletrack following streams with carpets of bluebells and other wild flowers.

http://www.gisburnbiketrails.com/

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/gisburn

http://www.pmba.org.uk/gisburn.htm

There is a recently opened visitor hub at Gisburn and the Forest Den Cafe at the Stephen Park Centre, is a great teashop too! http://www.stephenparkcentre.com/forest-den-cafe/

We spent the afternoon down in Clitheroe, mooching around the castle, and having a dip in the pool before returning to Slaidburn to eat in the excellent pub opposite the YHA, the Hark to Bounty http://www.harktobounty.co.uk/

The next day we ventured over to walk up & over Ingleborough from ChapelLe Dale down into Horton in Ribblesdale before coming back to Slaidburn to soak up the atmosphere of the end of the village May Queen festival, bathed in sunshire.

On the last day our plan was to ride as a family up over the middle of the Forest of Bowland on the Hornby Road, an ancient packhorse track and Roman road. It starts just out of Slaidburn and finishes over in Wray, usefully near a great teashop, Bridgehouse Farm. http://www.bridgehousefarm.co.uk/

The ride up out of Slaidburn is pretty steep, on the road and eventually on the track. Amazingly Holly (now 11) managed nearly all the climb on her 24 inch Isla Bike. Only the roughness of the track defeated her, and again and again she got back on and managed to get up bits I am sure many adults would be off and pushing on… a proud dad.

Once the climb is out of the way and you pass the watershed the track slowly descends for miles and treats you to amazing views all the way, firstly across the moorland of Bowland and then far reaching out to the 3 peaks of the Dales, Whernside, Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent.

There is one brutal road climb just before the drop down into Wray, but its soon over and the cake in Bridge House Farm more than makes up for it.

A very beautiful area, few tourists and great riding.
http://www.slaidburnvillagehall.co.uk/

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 12, 2014April 12, 2014

MTBO Camp – WRE Long race

We woke this morning. To glorious blue Baltic skies and crisp sea air. The camp long race is a world ranking event for the elite riders and reading the final bulletin I was glad to be only riding 1/2 of the elite men’s distance.

After lots of chatting and catching up with old friends I headed out, to be honest a little apprehensively towards the start. The route to 1, involved a slow climb option on a fire road which I took, avoiding the steepest of the climbs. I was feeling a little depressed as rider after rider overtook me. I wasn’t working that hard, trying to be careful with my back, but soon found the red mist coming up and starting to push the pedals a bit too much, particularly on the road section to 2. I paid for it straight away with an over the handlebars into a wet ditch and then after hauling myself up onto a fire road and relocating a realization I’d missed a track junction (my only real mistake of the course) which ended with me in a swamp splashing around in some brambles off track. I calmed down, enjoyed the sublime views of forests and little lakes, the low sun reflecting fantastic light through the trees and concentrated on a mistake free ride and the faster riders stopped worrying me.

Although a little muddy in places, some of the single tracks were great and I enjoyed my full sus Whyte E5 for the first time properly chucking it about. At the half way stage I was starting to feel tired and was temped to bin it but the 2nd part of the course was a little less hilly and all to soon I was rolling into download.

So no win today but to be honest that shows I am on the right course for my current capabilities and I am more than happy with 5th – 10 mins down on the old men.

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……

April 11, 2014

MTBO Camp 2014 – Day 1

My travel day started with a very antisocial 3am alarm, what was more antisocial was the M40 to London being shut, meaning a massive detour back round Birmingham and Coventry to get on the M1.

I’d resigned myself to missing my flight but the M25 London ring road was quiet at 6.15 and after a frantic scramble through security I raced into the gate, just as the last few people were getting on board and made it with a couple of minutes to spare.

Luckily Sandor who I was travelling with from then on had everything under control and I could sit back in the hire car and snooze as we crossed the bridge from Copenhagen over into Sweden. We had a huge Pizza in Ystad and a lazy afternoon in coffee shops before getting the late ferry across to Ronne in Bornholm the island in the middle of the Baltic Sea where MTBO Camp is being held this year.

After building bikes in the morning we cycled 12km against a drizzly headwind to Hasle and the event centre to register.

We had a play with the new Sportident touch free punching system which we are using this week. I can see the benefit on bikes and ski–o but I’ve never been that convinced about touch free punching other than for the finish line for foot O. It will be interesting using it on tonight sprint, I think its placement on the bike is worth a rethink though; I don’t think the top tube by the headset is the right place… Looking down between your legs as you ride through a control might mean not spotting an incoming rider which might make life interesting if both people have their heads down…

I might stick it on my left wrist if I am allowed or on the handlebar grip perhaps.

I am looking forward with trepidation to this week. I haven’t MTBOd for 2.5 years, its not the navigation I am worried about, its my fitness. After just 25km of riding today I really struggled up the final climb coming home this evening, lets hope my legs are up to the short course I’ve entered.