delivering the goods

201k audax followed by a trip back out to Pat's house.

Early start Sunday morning. Weather didn't look too promising as we threw the bikes in the back of the van and headed round the M60 to Cheadle. Splatters of rain on the windshield. Parked up, pulled on the overshoes, grabbed our brevet cards and we were off. Usual minor roads away from traffic and into Cheshire. Radway, Newport, Audlem, Middlewich and back. 200k and just a little spatter of rain. Thankful for the sleet that never came.

Audaxes are funny things. Seeing the same people multiple times throughout the day as we pass each other then stop at a cafe while they ride on and grab food at another favorite spot. Meet up at the end for soup, cake and a chat. Ambitious plans to complete one on a fixed someday soon. Definately looking forward to the 400 from Mytholmroyd in May.

Due to the hospitality of Rachel and Phil we didn't have to travel too far to Bredbury and grabbed some food. Bowls of pasta and big mugs of tea. Yum. Bit of chat then a couple of hours nap. Up at 11-ish to get ourselves together. Fired up the laptop at midnight to download the Mountain Mayhem registration form. Just to make sure of an entry in this classic event we headed off into the night for our yearly pilgrimage to Pat's house. Meeting up with Julie along the way we found out again that Long Hill is indeed long and hilly. Rewarded with flutters of snow at the top and the full moon peeping between the clouds. Quite a bit of snow still up there. Lovely riding up there on deserted roads with those views under a full moon.

Arrived at (Hall of Fame) Pat Adams' house around 3 and were greeted by the usual incredible early morning cheeriness. Coffee, cake and the ever enthusiastic Digit the dog. Sat, chatted and warmed up for an hour or so. Some of the first visitors on bikes again this year. Photos taken and we were off, guaranteed a place in the 11th Mountain Mayhem. Sunrise ride home. Actually back to Rachel and Phil's again. We sneeked back into the house like roadie ninjas so as not to wake Brutus. Think he must have woken up but by some kind of bulldog sixth sense knew we were too goosed to steal his snacks.

All too soon it was time to drag ourselves from the spare room and greet the day. Sun and blue skies though after 291k in 22hrs it must be time for a rest day.

Hit the North

Well, that was bloody fab. Got there in plenty of time, registered and had a chat with some folks. All too soon we were corralled between some tape, given some instructions and the we were off. Whoop! Took me a couple of laps to get into my cross bike groove and then started to enjoy it in a "this hurts but it'll do you good" kind of way. Many photos to come of people grinding and sliding their way around the 20 minute laps I'm sure. Surely there can't be a repeat of this one? Scroll down past the video to see some arse on a cross bike holding up 3 mountain bike riders. You'll be pleased to know the silly bars have gone and proper cantis now do the stopping. Those KoolStop canti pads are fab by the way. They've battered around all winter since completing the 3 Peaks and there's still half of them left even after today. Front tube didn't fare so well - at least it waited til it had been washed and blow dried before giving up around 6 hours later. Good timing.

Results are in. Surprised to see only 150ish of the original 200 actually bothered to turn up. 18th place for me, disappointing. Well done to everyone else.

Thanks to all those involved in the organisation, especially Jason and his mid race encouragement - it really works. Great spirit in the race too - no bad tempered racerheads that I saw - a great atmosphere.

See you next time!

Some Core bike stuff...

Some stuff from the Core bike show.

I think I've got a customer for this one...
Shiny aluminium fenders from Extra. All sizes around £45.
Fixie hub prototype using HG cassette cogs. Easier to swap cogs and use bigger ones than are normally available to screw on.Neat looking bar/stem solution

A great looking fixie from ID £650

Saddles on the same frame, from the same factory as the Charge Spoon - so they should be comfy.
New Gusset outboard cranks and bearings in pretty colours...

Pivotal saddles coming soon,
many coloured fixed cogs,
New Salsa Vaya, coming soon. Crosscheck with discs and a 'slightly' lower bb Note the proper front lowrider mounts on the fork, just like an LHT. £1349
Salsa Casserol, Pacer with all the fixings for racks, etc.
A new fix from Extra, the name escapes me. Nice and reasonably priced frame.
Folding bike from Topeak, replacement for the Birdy mebbe?
Mmmmmm. S3X and other Sturmey stuff stuff maybe coming from Ison soon.
Sustainable cork from Portugal made into grips and packaged in recycled card. Below are GR2s now with rubber ends rather than magnesium. Warmer on those chilli mornings and about the same weight.

snow biking!

Drifty out there, and pushy and slidey too. Hopefully a return to almost rideable trails soon.

A walk in the snow

So, we dragged ourselves out of bed at a ridiculous time for a Christmas day morning and were out the door for 9 o'clock, eek! By the end of the walk some 7 hours later I looked and felt a bit pooped, Shona as usual was fine and still 'Tigger-bouncy'.

We stumbled across a huge flock of geese snuffling around in the snow for some mid flight food. They could have just been killing time though as no-one would want to fly in the pea souper the day had become. It had started out full of blue sky promise but rapidly deteriorated.
A smackerel of lunch was provided by Jetboil Inc and Knorr Soups Unlimited washing down several large slices of Barm Brack, yum.
More scenes of Northern Snowiness. Its really is quite deep out there in places and lots of fun. My newly won Arc'teryx jacket got a proper workout as we rolled and frollicked in the snow. Thanks go to the Canadian tourist board and Heason Events for providing that!


We leave you with a question...

How many snowy expeditions did it take the likes of Bonnington, Cave, Kirkpatrick, etc before snowfights wore a bit thin?

(It would take about 50 for us I think, tee hee.)

RoadRideSpain

just got back from a week in spain with everyone at FreerideSpain in the very sunny Alpujarras region. We took the roadbikes for a last fling in the sunshine for 2009. It wasn't the plan but somehow managed to ride every day...

up to the alledged second highest village in Europe, Trevelez, for the first run. A couple of hours up followed swiftly by a howler of a descent back into the valley - nearly missed our turn off as there was a van parked in front of the signpost - eek. Now that could have been a long detour into the wrong valley.

next day, off to the coast with Simon (our host). it went something like this,

rich "*gasp* so is this *pant* your comfortable pace then *wheeze* "
simon " yeah, pretty comfy"
rich "*gulp* oh, help... *gasp*

made it to past the coast and half way back to Orgiva before things started to go a bit squiffy. note to self: if the first 40k out to the coast are at an average 38kph bloody slow down.

Another ride out to the coast on Wednesday. This time over to Castell de Ferro on the coast via Haza de Lino on the top of the hill and the never relenting climb from the coast through Polopos on the return. For a frame of reference the bar at Haza de Lino is at 1200m. It was very warm.

Saturday was a fab big 130k ride out almost to Granada before turning left and heading to a steady loop into the hills thru Jayena and Agron. There really is so little traffic out there that it seems like we had the place to ourselves. A bit cooler today but still around the 28 degree mark. Keep drinking and slapping on the sun cream. Never, ever pass up a chance to fill that water bottle out here. Some of the Spanish guys we saw out and about were already in arm warmers and tights but we were feeling close to fried a lot of the time.

If you own a road bike then maybe you should get out here sometime. The roads really are something else. The climbs are immense and the surfaces really are smoooth. Spanish drivers really have to be experienced. We were passed within 6ft a handful of times all week, y'know what? they all had UK plates. It's almost like the locals would rather push another driver into a ditch than pass too close to a cyclist. Simon, Emma and Lee are great hosts. They'll take you out and show you the best routes, leave you to explore with a map or anything inbetween.

time to give the legs a rest, easy commuting only for few days :o)

rich.

ps If you're ever snacking at a cafe in Lanjaron and a cute pooch that looks a little like a German Short Haired Pointer comes begging, could you take him home to FreeRideSpain? He's probably escaped again and has no shame.

it's next weekend, eek...

just back from 45 miles on the crosser. Lovely Sunshiney Day. hope it's like this next Sunday, i hate walking up hills in the rain :o)