Stodge-Blog

Crapato Bicyclo !

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:33:20 +0000

I needed to keep the training up on my weeks family holiday in Brittany unlike last year when I was on my post season break. I tried to add a bike to our Flybe flights from Southampton but after 15 mins waiting on a 25ppm phone line and getting no answer I decided to try and hire one (with Flybe you can’t add a bike at the time of booking it seems). Given that France is a nation of cyclists and this region famous for its cycle touring, this proved more difficult than I thought. Many emails before I arrived eventually got me a general holiday equipment ‘location’ in Morgat to try but no email address.

I was disappointed to find on the day of our arrival Camaret Sur Mer that the tourist info office had not told me about a 50km MTB or ‘VTT’ race starting at the local SuperU that day. I jealously watched the riders come in past our gite on the way into the finish feeling frustrated I had not known that the French use the term VTT when I had been googling MTB!

The next day I took the car to Morgat and a very helpful hire shop owner kitted me out with the best town bike he had, though explaining it was the end of the season and it needed a bit of a service. He changed the seat for something slightly more sporty (a decision I was later to regret) and gave it the once over as I watched from a cafe on the other side of the square.

Over the next 5 days the bike and I enjoyed many kilometres of cliff top rides together as I discovered that this budget town model was in fact loaded with many high end features. The bottom bracket has a very advanced built in power meter, which gives a series of warning creaks on each down stroke as you reach maximum power. It also has a speed sensor built in that gives you feed back via a wobble if you reach speeds in excess of 40 km per hour. Good for me too was the way that it turns left much better than right, perfectly balanced for negotiating French roundabouts and the way the seat was designed in such a way that it became slowly more uncomfortable after 40 mins of riding enabling me not to need a watch to know when it was time to head for home.

Crapato Bicyclo – the name of the hire shop, priceless!

Gorsey prickles !

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:29:00 +0000

Without a bike on holiday in Brittany I wet off for a run around the coastal cliff path from our cottage. The trail barrelled up and down the various headlands with ocean views, golden sandy beaches and glorious blue skies reflected in the gentle waves far below. The track was very rocky in places and I tweaked my ankle several times, trying to keep up a good pace. Dotted all along the headlands were gun emplacements and bunkers, left over from the ‘Atlantic wall’ of WW2 together with the ruins of long forgotten grand houses.

After about 40 mins I stumbled again (probably looking at another view) but this time failed to hold it and started to fall. In a split second I made the decision to crash down into the ‘soft’ gorse to my left rather than hit the deck onto the rocky track. I made it, taking the fall on my forearms and hands and rolled over once before standing. For about 10 seconds I thought ‘that wasn’t too bad I thought gorse hurt more than that’ but then the tingling started as the hundreds of prickle holes plus salty sweat did there thing. I turned for home cutting it a little short pondering whether I would have been better falling on the rocky trail as my arms got sorer and more itchy. In fact in the two days since as I have squeezed out countless gorsey spines from red spots appearing all over my hands and lower arms I have wondered the same!

The next MTBO is on Woodbury Common near Exeter, Devon on Sat 11th Sept. I seem to remember from X-Country and orienteering races as a teenager that the gorse there also produced intense itching….
http://www.bmbo.org.uk/calendar/details.php?event_id=118

Riding from Romesy.

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:55:46 +0000

We always tend to ride with friends John and Nicky at our place on Cannock Chase and do kiddy things down in Romsey (near Southampton) where they live, swimming, beaches or The New Forest.

I had brought a road bike down with me to do a few hill sessions but John persuaded me to borrow Nicky’s Cannondale so he could come out as well and show me the area. As I wanted some hills, John said he would shout when one started, I’d put a rep in and then come down again to scoop him up. We started out through the lovely village of Braishfield climbing all the way until eventually I crested the hill on a steeper gravel track in a forest. Picking up John we turned left down through Parnholt Wood before 180ing back up the same track from the bottom giving me another good 100m effort.

Looking at the time, we decided there wasn’t time for another hill but there was time for a view! We rode along the ridge to the top of Beacon Hill to spectacular views North before turning to Farley Mount and panoramic views in all directions, The Isle of White clearly visible to the South..

A prickly stingy decent down a narrow bridleway brought us back to Braishfield and in to Romsey.

The area was much better than I realised for off road riding, nothing technical but lots of great views along pleasant tracks. The fairly dense bridleway and lanes would make a good MTB Orienteering score area in fact……….

London TFL Barclays hire bikes

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:23:37 +0000

I had a chance to see the new TFL Barclays bikes when I visited Pozzoni’s London office today. Just outside Euston station is a shiny row of the new bikes in their special stands. I knew before setting off I wouldn’t be able to use them today as you currently have to register, become a member and receive a key before you can hire them. Apparently ad hoc hires will be possible though in the future from the consoles situated at each of the bike stations.

The bicycles look very sturdy, with good mudguards, and the front rack with bungee looked like it would easily take my laptop bag. Coming up out of the tube at Barbican there was another row of bikes, so next time I need to get organised and do the journey by bike. However on my return to Euston I was glad I was on the tube as it was just chucking it down with rain. It will be interesting to see how popular they are when the weather is not so kind.
Perhaps a London charity MTBO using the hire bikes should be organised when the London City orienteering race is on next year ?

Lots more info at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/14808.aspx

Suckley Hills MBO Score (and trailquest)

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:00:56 +0000

Three days of uncharacteristic summer down pours had left much of the Midlands very soggy. During a ride on Saturday with friends near Abergavenny I had reached that point where it is not possible to become any more wet and muddy trails soon became quagmires.

Sunday however dawned with blue skies and bright sunshine as I travelled up to the village of Suckley, nestling in beautiful Herefordshire countryside to the west of the Malvern Hills.

The Suckley MBO score was partnered with a Midlands Trailquest, Colin Palmer doing his best to try to bring these two organisations together since their split several years ago.
With the event proceeds going to Pakistan flood relief and a well organised event centre in Suckley village hall approx 70 happy riders lined up to get their start times in the morning sun.

As this was mainly a Midlands Trailquest event we unfortunately were back to pin punches. I spent a while deciding the best way to carry the control card before setting off, wearing it pinned to my arm, and grabbed the pre marked 1:25 thousand OS map.

As the area had a multitude of footpaths Colin had opted to show where we could ride with an over print rather than mark what we could not ride with OOBs symbols to keep the map clearer. This was also done to avoid confusion as he had negotiated access from some landowners to ride on some footpaths. I decided I would try and clear the course so headed out first into the more complex and hilly area to the South East of the map leaving the faster lanes to the West for the end. Unfortunately fairly quickly I discovered due to the detail on the 1:25000, two layers of plastic and the over printing I was struggling to read more than major road junctions whilst riding. I would normally expect only to stop the bike to read the map if I made an error. I made a couple of scraggy mistakes picking my way through the complex Bridleway network through the first few controls but then coming out of number 11 simply could not make the map fit what was on the ground and could not find the entrance to a bridleway to do an in and out on number 4. After about 5 mins I gave up looking and headed down the overgrown route to 15, but although I think I now know where the control was, left it after again not being able to fit the ground to the map and carried on.

At this point I realised there was no way I was going to clear them all and that a clockwise route going West first would have gained far more points so decided to just enjoy the riding.

I struggled a little to find some of the controls once I got to locations as they were hidden from view to avoid vandalism and the thick red circles did obscure some of the detail but this didn’t detract from the beautiful villages and some great skitty slippery descents off road.

As I curved north hovering up the controls playing cat and mouse with Jason Howell we started to encounter more and more mud. The route from 9 to 17 was absolutely minging with huge puddles of standing muddy water. I met a very large group of ramblers here. Expecting some grief as normal I slowed right down but for a change was met with cheerful comments, which was a nice surprise.

On the way to number 5 I went south and round rather than riding off the map and back on again as I always assume that you are only allowed to ride on the competition map, and this cost me a bit of time as others didn’t and cut across. After 5 I was on a mission to get in on time so started to ride faster managing to pick up a few but eventually binning number 14 due to time, before racing for home, getting in exactly on 3 hours.

So a bit of disappointment in the standard of the 1:25000 clarity but the area has fantastic potential going forward with a few map corrections. The variety of terrain and such a dense path network which, if Colin can continue to get permission for some of more of the footpaths, will be great, and would make a good adventure racing venue too.

No results available at present – they should be available soon at :
http://www.midlandtrailquests.co.uk/index.php and http://www.bmbo.org.uk/results/