Tuesday was to be the last ride before round 2 of the Whyte/Thetford winter series at FR10 on the Brandon side of the forest, and boy what a ride!. After staying dry most of the day the rain crept slowly in, after about 1 hour it's full potential was realised, it came thrashing down, although down is probably the wrong word, it battered me from the side due to the brisk winds making the rain truly horizontal. I had set out for a shortish ride but the work out seemed much tougher as the wind was literally blowing me to a stop as it screamed through the air applying pressure to anything in it's way. What stood out most from the ride though was just how creepy everything feels when the wind is howling and the rain hammering. I ride regularly alone in the dark, on trails I know well, with easy outs if things turn nasty. But with the horror movie weather and some of my ride taking me to the most haunted village in Essex I found myself having some properly strange thoughts. It felt like the impending danger of a mad axe man or crazy beast attacking me was just around the next berm. Still, clearly neither of these things came to fruition as I'm sitting here writing this.
All in all it was a good ride and I'm feeling good about Sunday but on the down side it appears after giving my bike a thorough once over I'll be racing with - deep breath......... A BB which is on it's last legs, rubbing brakes due to sticky pistons (replacements still not arrived!) a slightly bent rear mech, a bent mech hanger and a snapped spoke, unless I just happen to have one the right length kicking about in the shed. But the gears shift so I'll try not to let it bother me too much, if I make it through this round I'll have plenty of time for tinkering afterwards.
Good luck and happy racing.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Saturday, 26 November 2011
Thetford/Whyte winter series, off track and Blog lapse!
Hi guys. Time has been a precious commodity of late due to numerous things I don't want to go into on here as a result Blogging has suffered, therefore this is what is becoming a trade mark sporadic catch up, For some reason i'm watching the Brazilian GP qualis with an evening to spare so here we go. With the fine weather dragging on my prep for the first round of the Thetford / Whyte winter series at FR6 on the 6th of November was not non existent but a lot of time was spent playing on the Dirt jump bike before everything turned to mush. So as the day of the race arrived I was aware in the back of my mind that I hadn't done enough specific training, but hay lots of wheels off the ground fun was had and my riding has improved for it. After all why just ride one discipline when for me the beauty of the sport is that it can encapsulate so many different types of riding, from smashing out miles in prep for a race, razzing down downhill trails and flying skyward through sets of jumps. and the real beauty of it is with modern bikes you can do all these things on one bike, just like they used to in the old days. but better. obviously! (Although I do have a specific bike for jumping, it's basically just a lot cheaper to replace parts on than the the Trek when i stack it) Anyway reader I digress. Coming in Fifty something at the first round I was fairly happy considering the sheer volume of people on the track (Nearly 400!) but was unhappy with the way I felt afterward, I put this down to a few weeks of really long days up at 5ish, getting home at gone 7 and then a drive to Ipswich Friday night followed by a trip to Surrey to service my Brother in laws bike Saturday, due to all this eating lots of junk. plus a lack of specific training added up to. Barely being able to bend over, wanting to curl up in a ball and die, trying to eat a cereal bar and nearly throwing up in the car. Seriously I have never finished a ride and thought to myself I never want to get on my bike again, It was probably a bit of an exaggeration as after about ten minutes I started to recover, the drive home was hard work mind. With the weather changing and the local jumps becoming un ride-able I've been fully focused on round 2 next week, If as I have heard the race is gridded out e.g. top 25 then next 25 and so on I should be starting nearer the front and have a bit more stamina due to my extra riding and hopefully barring any disasters better preparation in the few days before. If your reading this and are going to be racing good luck, I hope to see you their, i'll be number 98. And hopefully i'll feel a lot better after this one.
Random catch up over hopefully I can resume more normal updates soon. Also have a bundle of stuff to review. Brake pads, Mudguards, hubs and so on.
Random catch up over hopefully I can resume more normal updates soon. Also have a bundle of stuff to review. Brake pads, Mudguards, hubs and so on.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
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