Alan Hartley (author of the Sportident timing software AutoDownload) and I go back a few years, first meeting in the Pludds village hall when I was 10 at a South West Junior Orienteering squad training weekend. Since we shared a house together as students in Cardiff we have often ridden together (with me chasing his tail technically) and watched each other fall off many times over the
years – well mainly Alan watching me, ask him about Bedwas! For the last few years we have both been riding Giant XTCs and for various reasons we have both ended up with new race bikes at the same time. And both German.
Alan has a Cube Reaction XT and I have the Corratec Bow. The spec of them is very similar, XT groupset, Elixer CR brakes and alloy frame. The standard wheels on the Cube are slightly better and it comes with a Fox fork as opposed to the Bow’s Reba.
What both bikes also have in common is the style-thing that European bikes tend to have: bling frame graphics.
Both of us like our new bikes and will be racing them on Saturday down at the Military Challenge in Aldershot. Achtung everybody, the Germans are coming !
New Race Bike – Corratec Bow XT World Cup !!!!
Last Friday and a knock at the door brought a big brown box with Corratec on the side. Mmmmmm…. I wonder what that is.
I’ve ridden it a few times and have now put my race wheels and saddle on it. Initially feeling much shorter than I am used to, a few tweaks to the shock rebound, tyre pressures and I am now completely amazed and besotted by the bike. It just simply is so much better to ride than the old 2005 XTC. It is so stiff at the rear end that it climbs really well, the turn in is very confidence inspiring, so much so that where I was struggling just to turn round on a fire road on the XTC the Bow just tracks perfectly. I am also going quicker through the single-tracks, the shorter setup suiting my riding technique better it seems. So out with the old school long setup and in with the new, mind you those wider bars do take some getting used to on the narrow trails !
Thanks to Corratec and the UK importer Raleigh for supporting me with a generous discount on the bike and watch out for me in a Corratec race shirt from time to time this year !
Corratec Bow XT World Cup
M.C. Stodge
No racing for me this weekend as I was organising the timing for my Club’s (Walton Chasers) National Event on Sunday.
With over 1000 entries and logistical problems with a remote registration and 
a timed start for the entries on the day, I was looking forward to a busy day not just running the timing but also doing a functional test of all the kit ready for next years British Orienteering Championships where there will probably be more like 2500 entries.
We wired the last control (300 metres distant) to the Sportident Autodownload commentary software, as well as the finish and borrowed the West Midlands OA public address kit, intending to do a little commentary.
The day dawned frosty and sunny and with all the kit in place before first start I started a little PA….. In fact I ended up commentating most of the day, stopping from time to time to sort out entry queries, mispunches and the usual confusion caused by very tired runners. I don’t think Per Forsberg has got anything to worry about as I suspect I was probably fairly dull but I did try to vary it a bit and with a prewarning of 300 metres it was fairly easy not to miss anything important.
Thanks to Alan Hartley of Sportident UK and author of Autodownload for his unofficial support all weekend, and to the rest of the WCH download team.
I was pleased to get all the results and rankings on to the web in time for competitors to spend the evening dissecting and analysing when then got home. Cath managed to get the Routegadget upload done really early and this seems to have paid off with129 people posting their routes on Sunday night.
Oh and I also got to ride my new bike, but more of that later in the week !
Turbo with Delia and the Human Power Station
I have a new setup for the turbo trainer this year to make it slightly less boring.
I am using my old Specialized Sirrus permanently mated to the trainer in the garage with a little table in front with a fan and an old laptop, connected to our home network and the internet. I’ve been queuing up various hour or 1/2 hour BBC iPlayer episodes of recent programs, mainly James Mays toy stories and Top Gears, but desperation on Wednesday and to time to search for anything better drove me to watch Delia’s Christmas special while doing a 4 x 10 zone 4 mins interval session. Mind you, I missed the finer points of her chocolate pudding towards the end of the 3rd effort with sweat dripping in my eyes, and I missed the Turkey stuffing bit completely when Holly ducked under the garage door for a night night kiss. Being longer than an hour I warmed down to darting giant squid on ‘Life’ which I though were quite nice until I learned they were 2 metres long !
More interestingly on Friday morning I watched the first half of an experiment that tried to power a normal house with 80 people on turbo trainers just like mine rigged up with lots of tech. Many of the riders did not look like they were seasoned cyclists but I did spot some serious Lycra clad thighs sprinkled around. The idea was that most people can keep up around 100watts and with 80 of them they could power an 8 kilowatt electric shower. Ill watch the rest on Monday morning at 6am when I have my next turbo session, but I was thinking I can average 340 Watts for 4 mins in the Watt bike racing so perhaps I could power the laptop !
Event Report – Swynnerton District (foot O)
I have kept the running to a minimum since the niggly injuries I got in October, but I needed to keep my orienteering hand in and the chance to run on the little used Swynnerton brought the dob spikes and thumb compass out of the cupboard.
The torrential rain of the previous week had left everywhere saturated and Swynnerton was no exception but many of the paths and roads were tarmaced.
At 9.3 km and the area being a flat ex munitions factory and military training area I knew the race would be fast and furious with a few long legs of pure running but most of the course was quite technical, and certainly was testing. The undergrowth was fairly man eating so path routes were favourable to trying to cut through in most cases. I had a good run with only a small error at #6 caused by a misplaced control, but this only lost me 10-15 secs or so, and a larger error on the way to #11 where I seemed to exit the wrong corner of a car park losing about 30 secs before I picked up what I had done.The route to #19 was quite eventful 
with huge berms, banks and walls to negotiate, I suppose all part of the old munitions installation. My hips and knees were sore as I punched the finish but was very satisfied at download to see I was in the lead, which I kept until fellow Chaser Rhys Finlay Robinson pipped me by couple of minutes.
The other reason for running was a bit of a recce to see what it would be like for MTBO if we could negotiate permissions. The bottom line is that it would be a fantastic venue for a sprint or middle race so 2011 perhaps, watch this space ?
WATT Bike League 2009
It’s that time of year when the dark nights force us all to look for indoors activity rather than braving the wet mucky roads. I missed the first two WATT Bike 
league events this year recovering from niggly injuries but Friday night saw me at Lichfield Leisure Centre to compete. For more info on the league see this post from last year.
As it was my first appearance this year I was placed in division 2, and showed this was probably a good decision by coming last in the first race – a 500m sprint, my foot coming out of the pedal. There then followed a course de primes where consecutive 300 sprints are raced for points plus a final 400m sprint to the line. A team sprint was next where my team crashed and burned but next was my ‘favourite’ event the distance scratch race.
Being in div 2 this was run over 3000m. I decided to keep at 115 rpm and stay in touch with the leader. With 800m to go I was just in the lead so let rip up to 125rpm and pulled ahead. In hindsight although I won by 5 secs or so I think it was probably a bit early to sprint for the line and I did feel a bit wobbly walking back to my seat, my heart rate showing the highest since a Watt Bike race last year. My time of 4:01.6 isnt bad though and I can definitely go quicker if I use a higher gear. We finished off with a 500m handicapped sprint and although I hung on to 2nd I need to re-evaluate trying to spin 150rpm for 30 odd seconds and try a high gear.
Full details of the league are here.
Bike Testing
I have been thinking of changing my race bike for a while, not because I don’t like it, just that the frame is now 5 years old and I can get a whole bike for not much more than a new frame and bits. Carbon frames are now the norm but I would like to stay with Aluminium (had too many gates close on the bike on MTBOs in the past) So what to buy…….
A fellow GB team member, now Corratec Product Manager for the UK distributor Raleigh, indicated a deal could be done on a Corratec Bow, but to make sure I like the bike I have just picked up a demo model to try for the weekend.
The demo model is a 2009 Equipe which is of a similar spec to the 2010 XT World Cup model I have as an option.
The Bow is unique in its design, having a top tube that divides and then runs all the way to the rear becoming the seat stays. This is suppose to produce a very rigid design giving it very good climbing characteristics. An initial look over the bike seems promising with a full XT groupset and Avid Juicy 7 brakes, but the own brand wheels are a tad heavy. The bike is a little ‘shorter’ than i’m used to but friends who have ridden my XTC have always commented on how ‘long’ it feels so perhaps it is no bad thing.
A quick lunchtime blast without touching the setup has shown the bike to be less twitchy than the XTC and the wide handle bars require more input to get it to turn, however this may be due to the aggressive tyres on the test machine.
This is not a bad thing and perhaps may suit my riding style more, I certainly was not hanging about on it.
Next job is a quick service, to sort out the front shock pressures, and play with the stem and seat position before heading out on Friday to give it a proper test on Follow the Dog with the Berkswich Primary School Dads ride.
Ill then put my race wheels and map board on it to give it a final test on Sunday but I think I may have found my new steed !
http://www.corratec.com/en/bikes2010/mtb/superbow/superbow_wc_xt.php
Event Report – D&W 2 – Birchover
Saturday night saw me driving to Yougreave Youth Hostel for the Annual General Meeting of the Trail Cyclist Association (Governing body of MTBO and Trailquests in the UK
– see separate post to come later in the week). Several faces were missing, being stuck in Cumbria by the flooding. I believe evryone is OK, thank goodness. The Peak District had not escaped the heavy rains and the rivers were swollen and the tracks very muddy as 200 riders set out on Sunday morning on Dark and White’s Winter series round 2, this time from Birchover Campsite, near Matlock. I have competed from Birchover twice before and I have either been too early or very very late, such is the terrain in the area you are always faced with a huge uphill finish as the campsite enjoys fine views over the surrounding countryside in all directions.
Unfortunately I’d managed to leave the waterproof cover to my mapboard at home (Id taken it off to wash it!) so I phaffed the start losing about a minute to elastic bands and cold fingers and struggled for the next three hours with a ballooning plastic bag whenever I went over about 5 mph. Id decided after being horrendously late at Birchover in the past that I would cross the Derwent Valley early on and then approach the finish from the SW so I did not face a hideous climb when tired. After grabbing #1 and #4 I rode very strongly up onto Darley Moor and was really pleased with the way my climbing has improved in the past 6 months. The weather deteriorated as I splashed though some axle deep puddles on the way to #19 but it never got too bad, just enough to you generally wet and cold when not climbing. I was still riding strongly for #22 and #21 covering familiar ground so navigation was easy, but due to my ballooning map I had no real plan for what to do next. Riding up the B5056 I still did not have a plan and after #9 I got sucked into a route with no getouts via #13 and #12. The climb upto 12 lost me too much time and I knew I would be late…..very, very late.
I crawled up the final climb back to the finish and punched 20.07 mins late. Penalties for lateness are ramped on Trailquests and, unfortunately, after 15 minutes you hemorrhage points. I score 235 points today but lost 110 of them in penalties. Perhaps I should have gone out for an hour and spent the rest of the time in the pub: I would have got a better result (but the extra riding has done me far more good that a few pints of real ale & a packet of pork scratchings)!