DNF or DNS?

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

If at times I may be accused of being slow I like to think that I cannot be accused of being inconsistent. I can still count on one hand the number of races which I have pulled out of or had mechanical in. Sunday was not one of those days.

After the Eastern series round I was feeling on for a good ride at Wasing. It is after all on paper pretty much my ideal MTB course. Despite being due to spend the weekend in Germany, ready for another week at the forefront of bicycle technological advancement at the Canyon office, I decided to throw caution to the wind and catch a last minute flight back. In doing so I spunked a load of cash I didn’t have but it felt worth it.

What a mistake… Somewhere between Koblenz and Colchester I got sick; feverish, sweaty, pukey sick.

Cutting the“oh wasn’t it so horrible …” out of the story when I woke up on Sunday the others (Sarah, Rachel Fenton and Chris Peddar) had long since gone to the race. Sitting at home alone at this point I had two choices. DNF or DNS.

Realistically I knew there was no way I could survive Southern Champs Elite race but I hate being a quitter and I love bike racing. Fired up on two perfectly-formed dark shots of finely-ground arabica and a handful  of ibuprofen (artistic exaggeration) I made the wrong decision.

Not more than four minutes in to the race it became blindingly obvious I couldn’t ride.

Lap 1 is where this story ends.

DNF.

On the wheel of Chris Peddar from AW cycles. Photo credit to 1st gear cycles

Sometimes things just come together

Monday, April 30th, 2012

Hi there guys. After taking a little rest from XCO racing, initially for recovery and then due to work and travels, I finally made it back to the race track.

The Mud,Sweat and Gears series is, I guess, my “local” series. When I was growing up there was no Eastern XCO series; the reason I didn’t start MTB racing until I was at University despite trying to. Now there is an established BC ranking series I am always keen to attend to support it when I can in the hope that young riders can get the opportunity to race for years to come in the region.

The weather was awful all week and I knew waking up to the heavy heavy rain on Sunday morning that this was going to be a complete sufferfest. It was. As a small field, but with some notable riders, lined up it was clear I was going to have my work cut out in order to hold the pace.

The course was tough, tight singletrack, no grip and a very long slow climb on water logged grass; at points the water was over BB height. Physically I had one of my best races in a long time holding an average heart rate of 178 for nearly 2 hours of racing. Technically in the mud I felt invincible making very few mistakes and where there wasn’t any traffic I was flying. I was only really left asking for more in back 1/3 of the course over the long slow climb. It was a real nasty draggy one.

Throughout the race I had no idea in what position I was in, but I kept taking places and was for a few laps in a tussle with Andy Cockburn; a rider I consider to be much faster than myself. Andy was clearly faster in the open but in the woods I was reeling him in.

Come the end of the race I was really happy with my ride. My girlfriend Sarah thought I was 5^th so we just went back to the van to clean up and head home – turns out I was 3^rd and I missed the podium. Gutted! It was the first time I have reached the podium in an Elite race, oh well, more to come as I am finding some form and rhythm on the bike.

Looks like training this week will be on hold as I will spending most of it cleaning up.

Racing is not about excuses. So here’s mine.

Monday, March 26th, 2012

I raced yesterday and placed 62^nd in a UCI C1 race which was by far the hottest field I have ever been involved with. It was a great experience riding my bike as hard as I could lined up with lots of friends in the biggest race, outside of a World Cup, that I have seen in the UK.

Racing Elite is different from racing in lower categories; it is more ferocious, unforgiving and fraught at the start. If you are towards the back then the kind of effort you put in on lap one through the mess is just bizarre. My HR went from 180 in the first minute to about 140 in the first singletrack section as a tangle of highly-driven and leg-shaven men were wedged between the tape, each other and their bikes. Times my experience yesterday by two and you start to get close to what my friends at the back of a World Cups experience. I can only imagine

The rest of the race was OK for me. I enjoyed the course, had no niggles from my previous injuries, (Thanks to Anne again) and wasn’t last. I wasn’t super-fast, but I had a good race with a few guys and if it were not for losing my head on lap 4 then I could have grabbed a few more places.

Now that said this being a blog about my cycling exploits I feel I should stick to the formula and lay all my excuses down. You see, really, this was not a target race for me but I was clearly just using this race as preparation for life on the Pro circuit. hmm… let me explain.

The way I see it Liam Killeen, who won the race, must have flown in from South Africa during the week, affecting; recovery, training, sleep and nutrition. I had a similar experience. After the Southern XC last weekend, my 3^rd race on the bounce, I was up at 5am on Monday to fly back to Canyon HQ in Germany. During the week I was up at 6:30 and working some longish hours, training in the evening, and then sleeping on a couch or the floor. I got home at midnight on Friday ready to get up at 7:00 and spend Saturday morning preparing Sarah’s bike for the race.

Ideal race prep? Hardly. But so what?

Racing is not about excuses. It is about pedalling harder than the other guys. So that is what I am going to work on, and not fuss about my work/travel schedule – it pays the bills and is thus more important to my ability to race anything else.

I’ve got three weeks till my next XCO race at Pippingford. Might be sneakily dusting down my TT bike in the mean time.

Racing. How racing should be.

Monday, March 12th, 2012

After last weekend’s racing at Black Park I needed something to put a smile back on my face. The Gorrick series is another non-ranking event but they consistently provide some of the best run, best value, best course XCO racing in the UK. Crowthorne Wood is traditionally round 3 of the series and holds a whole lot of memories for me.

Let’s rewind the tape to 2007… My first year at University. It came down to Crowthorne Wood to race out for the coveted 4 places in the Uni team. Pat Cobb, Me, Rob Spragg and John Whittington. If you have been racing long enough you might recognise all of those names. I think that was possibly the last time I beat John Whittington in a fair fight.The woods are about 5 minutes ride from Sarah’s parents place and I used to ride there every week with Ergon’s Richard Todd. If anywhere is then this is my home race with real home advantage. Well, it would be if it were not for the hundreds of other people who also ride in there all the time.

I had a good weeks training, less hours than I was hoping but the first race always digs a little deeper; especially in those conditions. I am using this early season racing to just train straight through so on Saturday I did 3 hours with the local road club. This South African guy George came out, he was probably the best road rider I have ever seen. 50 years old, 4% body fat, 35 years riding experience and  Fast. Hitting 3 hours with an average HR of 150 and maxing out at 190 is not my usual race taper. It was great. I think George and I gave GS Henley a little shock on a Saturday morning…

Come Sunday my legs felt surprisingly good, despite the bashing they had the day before, and the sun was out ready for the fun single-track in Crowthorne. I can honestly say that I have not had such a fun race in absolutely ages. I rode hard, sometimes fast, climbed OK  and at times faultless in the single-track. Perfect. I even managed to not blow my brains out over 1:48:52 of racing. I had a great last lap battle with James Horton, played my cards well, let him pass me where he could do the work and the pinched the shot in to the final descent and climb. He was pleasantly smashed at the end. I took the place. No cramp. Winner.

So all in all a great day racing and just what the Doctor ordered. 14^th from 22 guys in a mixed Expert/Elite field is not great but the feeling was. The top 6 were pretty strong guys and the usual suspects at the front. I am still going to hide in the safety of steady miles for a few more weeks before starting to ramp things up once I am completely stable physically. It is a long time until the season is over and lots more battles to be had.

Thanks to Sarah for bottling for me, Gorrick for putting a great event on, James for not beating me, Joolze for shooting and the Sun for shining.

Holding off James Horton to the line.

Pick your battles

Monday, March 5th, 2012

First race of the year out the way. hmmm….

So being sat at home the last week watching all the news feeds role in about the Andalucia stage race has been cool. I think that I need a little more sunny training and racing in the early season.

My experience was far from similar. I woke up on Sunday to the predicted heavy heavy rain. The race was only 30mins drive away, but it took a huge amount of courage to get out and go over. I would have been just as happy watching movies sat on the turbo trainer in the dry!

The race was a mixed Expert/Elite race so despite my return to training and physio work I knew I wouldn’t be completely off the back. Off the gun the rider to my left rode in to me and I then missed a pedal. I am always good at MTB starts but this was not one of them. Settling in and the course was flat and fun – if it were not for Biblical levels of rain and mud it might have even been fast. Top Elite riders were putting in the same lap times as the “Fun” category in the morning.

I rode hard for the first time since my last race in Germany – that was also cold and wet. Spot the trend? Snow started to fall on lap 4 of 7 and the course was just getting slower and slower.

The Black Park race is a non- ranking race and is really just a place to find your legs ahead of the season. After 1:40 racing I decided to call it a day, only 4 riders finished the full number of laps which is pretty indicative of the conditions. I could have complete the remaining two laps but I didn’t see the point. It would have only meant a slower recovery. I got what I wanted out of it so I am happy enough today.

So on to this week, resting up today and then a nice solid block of training Tuesday – Thursday. I think I might even race next weekend again.

Till next time

It’s me again!

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Hi guys,

Every blog you read it 80% filled with posts along the lines of “wow it’s so long since I updated on here”. Here is another one to add to the tally. Sorry guys.

So since my last post. Things have gone crazy for me. Graduating, Racing, Flying, Working at Canyon, Sickness, Health, Cyclo-Cross, Beer. You know all those good things that fill up every single available second of my time. Right now I am sat back at my parents place and finally have some time to calm down and relax.

SO here it goes again. For me winter training is only just begining. I have been fighting some really bad difficulties with my legs and my bike fit for a while now. Thankfully I am sorting myself out, with a little help from an awesome physio, and I am super pumped for the season ahead. I just wish I had another couple of months!

Anne Dickins, who is a fellow 24hr racer in the UK has worked wonders on, wait for it… my hip, glute, rec fem, spine, calf, bike fit, posture and lots more all in about 4-5 hours of treatment. I am now finally feeling balanced on the bike, fitting on a saddle again and have more enthusiam to ride and train than I have since 2010 (the last time I was injury free)

I wont bore you with the details but I had a lot going wrong and finally see some light at the end of the tunnel. I might be late but I will be fast this year. That is exciting. Very exciting.

Here is a couple of pics from my treatment which are kind of cool.

First, single leg squats – you can tell so much my what is going on in these. Can you spot the improvement?!

Check out the angle on my knee cap. Much stronger Glute, much looser IT band. Plus NO KNEE PAIN

And then, thanks to a bit of pelvic re-alignment I am now not only sitting on the my saddle correctly but getting all my weak muscles in my right leg are firing properly. It feels great.

OK, so not a exact comparison, but you can see what is going on - that's for sure!

So I am going to wrap this post up and get out on the bike.

Till next time,

Trev

Mountain Mayhem – 5th in the Expert field

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Mountain Mayhem is a one of a kind event. No other bike race in the UK is this big, even World Cups can’t match this for size. Having recently been disappointed by the ticket allocation for the Olympics maybe even this race can’t beat the numbers of feet on the ground. Now in its 14^th year Mountain Mayhem continues to grow in size and in commercial value. It’s not just the size of the cycle industry commitment to the event but a title sponsor from cosmetics brand, Original Source (part of the http://www.pzcussons.com/ empire), and the attendance of Aston Martin cars hopefully paints the picture.

Last year this was my second attempt at 24solo, deciding to take at least a year out of that game the team came together with 4 riders in the ultra-competitive Expert category. The top teams were littered with professional riders, World Cup racers and top domestic elites. The HOPE team even had National champion and top 10 Olympian Liam Killeen; I found myself thinking “if only we had Wolfram and Alban with us”. Without doubt this was by far the hottest field of any 24 I have attended; even the power of the Storck team from Munich would have been pushed to make the podium….

Mayhem traditionally starts with a lemans style run to the bikes. This year to help spread things out even more the run was lengthened to 2.5km. Despite being about as co-ordinated as Bambi when running somehow it fell to me to stumble round. Legs screaming I make it to the bike, well down on the leaders having to fight my way through the traffic on the first lap. Not the best start but I worked my way back through the field coming round not too far adrift from UK/EU 24solo champ Matt Page, also racing in our category.

So the race went on and on, lap after lap. The weather forecast didn’t come true and we had a relatively dry event, despite a few short but aggressive storms in the early hours. The race course this year was longer, 17km with 500m of climbing with no road sections and plenty of singletrack.  No doubt any German reading this will likely be shocked; yes, a 24hr MTB race with a REAL mountain biker’s course. I would love it if more European riders would come to experience this race, or any UK 24event. Lap after we lap we lost time on the blistering pace set by Hope Factory racing and SCOTT but were riding well in 5^th place. It stayed that way for pretty much the whole race despite my best efforts to confuse the team with my tired and incoherent lap maths. We all rode 6 laps of the course and took home the last place on the imaginary UCI podium (only the top three made it up). No prize money for us this year, that all went to the Pros!

Podium: Hope [Liam Killeen, Paul Oldam, Dave Collins, Maddie Horton] SCOTT [ Nick Craig, Roger Walders, Neil Crampton, Nikki Harris] AW cycles [ Simon Ernest, Tim Dunsford, Steve James, Rachel Fenton]

Having now raced three 24hour events in as many countries this season, it’s time for me to take a little break and rest up for a while. I have a couple of more things planned for this season, but you are going to have to wait and see what they are. Rest assured I am sure it will involve lots of travel as usual…

The opposite of 24hr racing!

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

I haven’t done much road racing before really but thanks to a great series running in the centre of Bath this May I have been out on the Ultimate CF in the skinsuit twice already this month! The racing is fast and short and a real shock to the system since Madrid, but I am loving every minute of it.

Heres my blog post over on the road.cc website
http://road.cc/content/blog/35759-royal-victoria-queen-promotion

Hoping to edge a race win sometime before the series closes out, two more to go!

Pic thanks to Dave Atkinson

24Doce Madrid

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

WOW! What a race…..

Its taken me a long time to get round too writing something about the race. Partly from being busy with various bits and pieces in Bath but I think mainly it was such a crazy few days I hadn’t really had time to think the race over and work out what I wanted to say.

So Kim and I headed over to 24Doce just out side of Madrid. This was my first time in mainland Spain and my first 24 pairs race.  We were met at the airport by the really friendly guys at Canyon Spain and they showed us around a bit and treated us really well. I tried so hard to pay for dinner but it never worked!

The race itself was on an awesome course, on the Thursday I got to ride it IN THE DRY with some of Fernando’s (Canyon) friends. Lots of variation and lots of single track, after a pretty nice techy climb there was the toughest descent I have ever seen in a 24, it even rivalled Dalby World Cup circuit in places!

When race day came, the cultural differences between Spanish racing and the Anglo-Germanic style was pretty clear. We arrived at the race two hours before the start without a proper pit set up and even without water! But this seemed to be pretty standard fayre; the race was much more relaxed than the 24hour races I was used to, even some of the expo area was still being set up.

Some mad dashing around and we just about got ready in time for the start. With the forecast for awful weather all race Kim and I decided to just ride our own race and plug a steady tempo early one to save energy for the dark, the rain and the mud. That said it wasn’t long untill we settled nicely into 2nd place and the laps started to roll. This is a photo from the first couple of laps before the rain came and it was still really muddy!

It rained on and off for pretty much the whole race. It was one of the toughest races of my (albeit short) career, conditions were brutal. The course was always rideable but was such a slog in places and the constant drain of the cold and the wet really took its toll. In the darkest section of the night we started to reel in the Trek duo ahead of us, first unlapping ourselves but the funny rule about the fastest lap meant that we would have to catch them and then lap them to take the win. We soon realised we didn’t have time to get the win unless we could break them. I dug a little too deep in a move to try to break their spirits but it didn’t work and I put myself in a hole I couldn’t climb out of. The last couple of laps were horribly slow glycogen depleted affairs – not my finest hour!

The Trek team were obviously very strong riders, and there support crew was absolutely dialled. It was hard for Kim and I as we only had a bike bag of stuff for the whole race rather than the usually truck load of bikes, spares and food that we are used to. I think with a bit more support we could have a closer race but in the end the Trek pair took the win. Kim and I were 6 laps up on 3rd place in the end so decided to stop riding as we were secure. I was pretty gutted not to take the win after travelling so far and riding hard for so long but I am proud of our fight in atrocious conditions. One thing I have definitely learnt is how hard pairs racing is!

Unfortunately I caught some food poisoning whilst my immune system was suppressed. The not so glamorous side of international racing was lying on the floor of my hotel bathroom vomitting at 4 in the morning after the race. Not a pleasant experience by any means!

After the race we all headed in to Madrid for a couple of days to relax and play tourist. Kim and I even got to grab a recovery ride in the park!

Big thanks has to go to Sarah, my girlfirend, for coming over and suffering all through the night helping me and Kim, as well as Manuel and Fernando from Canyon Spain for inviting us out to their crazy race!

BMPS rd 1 – stepping up to elite!

Friday, April 1st, 2011

Stepping up to Elite this season has been a scary concept all winter. I decided to jump straight into the deep end with the first British Mountain Bike Series; a UCI class one event this year. It was the biggest Elite field in about 15years, so I am told, with 68 entered riders. Thanks to collecting a couple of UCI points last season I wasn’t on the back row but not far off!

I didn’t really have any plan or any preconceptions of what I wanted to achieve, I was just happy to be in a big race and lined up in a strong field. Many European riders making the trip over including the Giant Rabobank riders which added to the quality field.  I had a great start and managed to get through lots of the field before the inevitable bottle neck at the singletrack. About half way into the first lap I got in a small group which started to increase in size as we picked riders up both on the front and the back too.

I stayed with the bunch for about 4 out of 6 laps and was reasonably pleased with the speed I had in my legs. It was a steep learning curve as riding towards the back of the pack meant in every single track section I would pick up all the riders mistakes and then have to give a massive effort just catch back on the pack (lesson learned for next time!). This took its toll and I tied up pretty badly on the last two laps once I had been dropped. I only lost 1 more position but could have been in the mix for a sprint finish against the riders in the pack if I could have held on. In the end I came in 50^th about 15mins down on the winner Emil Lindgren from Giant Rabobank.

It was a great experience and I am encouraged to have shown that I belong in the Elite by staying on the lap in a fast race, I just need more conditioning to the Elite length race! With only 20days until I submit my dissertation it won’t be long until I can hit the big miles once again…..