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What Mountain Bike recommend Ragley Wiser Alloy Bars in their Christmas Essentials List

Byeeee!

Those of you that have seen the news on the On-One website will know already that I’m not riding for Ragley anymore.

The last two-and-a-half years have been pretty special – the amount of success, especially in 24 hour races, that I’ve enjoyed has been way beyond what I expected and the level of support I’ve had from the guys at Hotlines (Ragley UK distributor) has been exceptional.

In short, it’s been ace.

Things were all set to change though when Brant left Ragley and headed back to On-One. After a slightly rushed meeting in the Lee Quarry car park (complete with stealthy prototype), the decision was made to join in the fun (with Dave and also some new team mates) and ride for On-One and the newly-acquired Titus brand in 2012.

As usual, there’s a simple plan. Amazing new bikes. Loads more races. Big races, little races, daft rides. Fun.

Gels are usually a means-to-an-end. Something necessary for getting the fuel in without having to eat large bowls of carbohydrate-rich food. They’re convenient and straightforward but rarely are they particularly tasty or some kind of ‘treat’.  Sure, they’ve improved immensely in recent years but they’re still a kind of ‘synthetic chemical food substitute’ and have too many and you’ll probably be quite sick.

Hitting the lack of taste issue head on though are Clif with their new gels. I’ve been using Clif products for some time now and I’ve often praised their carb drinks and Shot Bloks for their ease of use, taste and effectiveness. These gels though take things to another level, taste-wise.

2pure sent me some samples so I’ve had the chance to try all the different flavours….

Let’s not beat around the bush here. The ‘Double Expresso’ gel is utterly GORGEOUS. It contains a couple of shots of caffeine (which is a lot) so don’t go caning them at bedtime but the taste…..wow. I actually kept a bit of this one in my mouth for a while as I rode back from an early morning ride the other day because it tasted so good.

They remind me of those M&S ‘this is no ordinary caffeine-laced energy gel….’ adverts. (yes, I know M&S have never sold energy gels but if they did….)

Then there’s the chocolate one! Yes! Chocolate! No choco-substitute plastic rubbish either. Organic chocolate that tastes as good as it sounds and delivers a good chunk of carbohydrate and electrolyte fuel at the same time.

The ‘Razz’ raspberry flavour ones taste like jam. I’m going to have raspberry Clif gels on toast in my next 24 hour race. Or perhaps on a crumpet….mmmmmmmmm.

Even the wrapper is clever

Treat yourself. Buy some. You’re more than worth it. Then when you’ve finished one, do what I do and pull apart the wrapper to finish it off.

Ragley are now offering our hugely popular Blue Pig and Piglet frames in a complete bike package. Available in two guises – with RockShox Sektor or Revelation forks, SRAM X7 or X9 10spd drivetrain and full Ragley finishing kit including CNC Stubbing Stem and Ragley Hold-On-Tight lock on grips – this package has been specced to hammer straight out of the box!

Check out the full spec here

Here we go again. Yep, ‘we’. I almost single-handedly organised last year’s HTN, which was satisfying but pretty knackering. The fact that Andrew has now returned and the old partnership is driving the HTN bubble car will mean that things will be a bit less frantic on the day and we should be able to develop the event a bit…

First of all we need contestants – the entry opened last week and at this rate we’ll be sold out pretty soon.

Enter!

Well over a decade ago, shortly before Debbie and I were married, we both learned how to scuba dive. It was a horrible experience. Diving itself is cool, but it was a horrible experience because we learned to dive in the middle of winter in a flooded quarry near Lancaster. It was so cold that our faces froze but we knew that we were paying our dues now so that we could enjoy nicer (ie warmer) diving later.

Our honeymoon, planned for 5 months after the diving in the murky, freezing depths of the quarry near Lancaster, would include diving at the Great Barrier Reef. In contrast to the quarry near Lancaster, the Barrier Reef would be warm, inviting and wouldn’t need us to wear protective clothing that made us look like a bloody Michelin Man. We wanted to enjoy the experience without having to spend part of the holiday learning the ropes so we decided to get that out of the way before we went.

Getting the horrible stuff out of the way, nailing it so that a better life can be enjoyed later.

Around 14 hours into last weekend’s Relentless 24 in Fort William, I started to recall memories of those dives in the quarry. I was leading the race, I was feeling strong and I was quietly and cautiously confident that I’d be able to stay consistent through to the end of the race to pull off the win. At the same time I was freezing cold, sick and tired of the constant rain and I was trying to decide if this was indeed the most miserable conditions at a 24 hour race I’ve ever had the misfortune to race in.*

When the weather worsened and The Persistent Bloody Rain was joined by its good friend The Howling Sodding Wind my mind was made up. This was miserable beyond anything I’d done before.

Despite all that, the things that maintained my focus on the job in hand (apart from caffeine-laced Shot Bloks) were the excellent and fast trails that made up the course and the fact that there was a trip to the World 24 Hour Solo Championship in Finale, Italy for the overall solo winner of this race. A 24 hour race. On the Mediterranean coast of Italy. Warmth. Dust. Lovely glass of rosso, Signore? Oh, don’t mind if I do. After this lovely, warm, dusty 24 hour race though, eh compagno? Don’t bother with mud tyres. Don’t forget the factor 30.

I was heading for the win and in fairness, I had been since lap 2. I was keeping it together and my lap times, for me anyway, were nice and consistent. I’d have to stop occasionally to re-apply chain lube and replace brake pads but I was staying in front of Huw Thomas, a guy very much in form at the moment and a rider that I knew I would have to gap early on. Every so often my lead would be cut by a couple of minutes as I swapped brake pads but I seemed to be coping ok with that and responding by putting in a quicker lap next time round. It wouldn’t take too much for me to lose the lead, a major mechanical would see to that, so I had to keep extending it.

Meanwhile, Dave hadn’t been feeling 100% and eventually he dropped out when he started to feel worse, deciding he’d achieve more by helping me keep my bikes working and joined Angela in the pit. From that point on I’d have a clean bike each lap with a freshly-lubed chain, with brakes that worked and a fresh bottle. Occasionally Angela would present me with a flask of hot ravioli or a small cup of hot coffee – I was constantly cold so the occasional few mouthfuls of warm food and drink was working pretty well to keep my spirits up.

The darkness laps seemed to last an eternity – it’s a long time between sunset and sunrise in the Scottish Highlands in October but once the dawn did arrive, I knew there would only be 5 hours to go. I needed to make sure I was way out in front by then.

A torn rear tyre on the spare bike was a setback, the tube (yep, still running tubes on the spare bike) popped through the sidewall and exploded like a bomb. I rode half a lap on the rim, worried that I was going to destroy a 70 quid rim in the process but also mindful that if I ran the 4 miles or so back to the pit, I’d probably lose the lead.

Back to the pit. Back on the main bike (tubeless!). Smash it again.

Dawn arrived and I found myself, as planned, way out in front. I remained consistent, motivated by the daylight and the constant encouragement from Angela and Dave. The rain continued. I was wetter than an otter’s pocket. But I didn’t care anymore. Still thinking of the glittering prize, I was having this.

Last lap. I thanked all the marshals. An hour of being very careful indeed. Angela took my jacket just before I rode across the finish line. I dismounted, held the bike above my head (I’ve always wanted to do that) and embraced my two completely knackered friends that had stayed up all night to make sure I was able to win the race by two clear laps.

attractive, huh?

After a quick shower and the presentation (The overall solo winner’s ‘Opportunity to race at the Worlds in Italy’ confirmed by the man with the microphone. Yay!),I phoned Deb and I played Internet catch-up with friends and family, most of whom had been flooding the Twitter and Facebook feeds with congratulations.

A quick kip in the hotel, then we were out in the bustling metropolis of Fort William for a large meal of pies, curly fries, haggis, hot dogs, pizza and lashings of real ale to properly seal the win.

*despite the miserable weather, Relentless 24 really is a gem of a race – brilliantly organised with an irresistible sense of humour and inclusion, using trails that don’t fall apart at the first sign of water, all the facilities that you could possibly want in one of the most stunning locations in the country. Do it.  

David at The Sufferfest sent me a pre-release copy of his new indoor training video, ‘A Very Dark Place’ a few days ago. The weather has been unseasonably warm and sunny recently though, so I didn’t really have much chance until yesterday to sit on the turbo trainer for an hour to try it out…

All the usual ingredients of a Sufferfest are here – brilliant cycling footage, great music and just the right amount of on-screen instruction (with some added taunting).

The workout is nicely structured without any unnecessary complexity – it follows the now-familiar ‘warm-up – hard – recover – HARD – recover – GNNNNNN – recover – AAAARGGGGGHHH – recover…etc’ pattern of other Sufferfest vids with the duration of the main set of intervals being quite long at 4 minutes each.

Other Sufferfests are available with varying types and durations of intervals, from 15 x 1 minute flat-out orgies of pain to 4 x 20 minute, big-gear, high-resistance, ‘I’m pretending to climb an Alp’ er….orgies of pain.

I think David has invested in some new editing software recently, because the overall quality feel of A Very Dark Place is quite a lot higher than in previous efforts. The footage is always nice to look at but the whole thing just seems ‘polished’. The 4^th interval also includes some of the most exhilarating cycling footage you’re ever likely to see, thrusting the sharp-end of the 2010 Paris-Roubaix into your face and loud metal down your ears, the clever bit is how that kind of assault on your senses forces you to push yourself harder, until the interval is over and the equally great, but much more mellow, footage of a rider descending urges you to recover.

For anyone who trains indoors and wants to make the most of their time on a turbo trainer without getting bored, The Sufferfest is essential.

My fourth 3 Peaks Cyclocross race was also my first wet race. I’ve been fortunate in the past 3 attempts in that the conditions had been reasonably (or very) dry in the days leading up to the race and during the race itself.

The wet start to autumn this year included rain pretty much all last week and the morning of the event. A super-tough event just got tougher.

The record-high number of riders lining up at the start resulted in near-madness during the lead-out along the road to the foot of the first offroad climb. I lost quite a lot of places at this point as, once again, my nerves and self-preservation instincts whilst surrounded by eager riders kept me out of the way of trouble as others surged towards oncoming cars and into gaps that simply didn’t exist.

No matter, one of my strong points in this race is my relatively quick and consistent climbing on foot, so I figured I’d reclaim a lot of ground once the gradient kicks up.

photo: Cycling Weekly

The iconic climb of Simon Fell is always off-the-scale difficult. Until yesterday I was under the impression that it gets (slightly) easier each time you do it, the benefit of familiarity allowing you to decide a vague route to the top, avoiding the usual procession along the wire fence on the left hand side. Yesterday though it was much harder than ever. The grass seemed longer this time and it was very wet, causing several slips and slides that threatened a plummet downwards and a likely collision with several unsuspecting people beneath. Added to that was the constant fear that people above you would suffer the same fate and come plummeting down on your head (or is it just me that has these thoughts?). Note to self – when it’s wet, join the procession along the fence.

The descent of Ingleborough was as slippery as expected with many riders coming to grief or riding much slower than that would have otherwise done in dry conditions. I gained a few places here, the disc brakes on my bike allowing me to regulate speed consistently, braking performance mostly unaffected by the conditions.

Once at the road, I expected Dave, who I’d passed during the last descent, to catch me up. I had these ‘Dave’s chasing after you’ thoughts in mind so I rode extra-hard towards Whernside

The ascent of Whernside, up the sometimes-narrow stone steps, often allows me to make some off-piste forays up the grass at the side of the steps to improve my position in the race. This time though, the ground was just too wet and slippery so for the most part I joined in the slow procession and stuck to the steps. It’s easy to see where time is lost when the conditions are wet.

The descent of Whernside was one of the most enjoyable times on a bike I’ve ever had. Last year I was desperately trying to avoid a puncture or a crash, however this time I felt more confident and in control and rode most of the normally nightmarish stone slabs and steps. Occasionally walkers and spectators would cheer and clap with their approval of my heroics, urging me to carry on with what must have looked like complete recklessness at times.

I had powerful brakes, bar-top brake levers and a very short stem. I suppose I was cheating. But it looked pretty impressive and was immense fun.

There is such a thing as a 3 Peaks-specific cyclocross bike and I was sat on it.

photo: Ed Rollason

I started to think about a possible sub-4 hour finish. It was certainly possible as I rode the road section from Ribblehead to the start of the Pen-Y-Ghent climb. It was possibly possible. Just. I was alone and isolated on this section though and struggling into a headwind. Luckily, a group of 5 riders caught me so I held a wheel until the start of the ascent. Starting to pass riders again, I started to feel good in spite of the increasing struggle uphill. A ‘fast trudge’ upwards to the summit, reached the checkpoint then turned around and started my final ascent of the day – the same ascent where I crashed and cracked a helmet last year, shortly before snapping my chain and losing loads of time.

This time the descent was trouble free (apart from nearly hitting a dog) and I reached the road with only a couple of minutes before the 4 hour mark. Legs starting to cramp, I knew that a new personal best wasn’t happening today, the conditions slowing progress at various parts of the course just enough to see me roll across the line in 4:03.

How irritating!

Certainly the hardest 3 Peaks race I’ve done and in a strictly performance sense it was yet another ‘middle of the pack’ result, but without doubt it was the one I’ve enjoyed the most so far.

Already my thoughts are turning to next year’s race….aaarghh this is how people become obsessed with the bloody thing…..!

Results and split times are here.

September and the start of October are always a crazy-busy time of the year for me, in a bicycle racing sense. There seems to be a number of really enjoyable and ‘special’ races at this time of year, a time of year when many of my bike racing friends are getting ready to have a bit of a break, or in the case of the cyclocross crowd, are just getting started.

I’m torn at the moment, as I was this time last year, between a need to continue to train hard in preparation for Relentless 24, the totally ace 24 hour race in Fort William – and taking it easy with a proper taper in preparation for this weekend’s 3 Peaks Cyclocross race. A little voice in my head (and a few voices on Twitter) tell me that I should taper now and prepare properly for the 3 Peaks… give the race the utmost respect that it undoubtedly deserves and perhaps do a bit better in it.

I certainly don’t want to appear so churlish as to claim that the 3 Peaks is some kind of training ride, because as a training ride it would be really really horrible, quite mad and put most people off training altogether –  but the more I think about where my priorities lie, the easier the decision to NOT take things easy just yet becomes.

Relentless is a race that I hit the podium at last year. It made a big impression on me, partly due to the unseasonably warm and sunny weather of last year’s event and partly due to the incredible course (coming home with a trophy helped too). Obviously, I’d love to finish as well (or better) than I did last year so to achieve that I need to carry on with the hard miles right now, just to get mind and body in the right place for the immense sustained effort that a 24 hour solo race demands.

Meanwhile, everyone I know that is taking part in the 3 Peaks this weekend has been tapering and enjoying a rest for the last few days and will no doubt continue to do so until the start of the race. After the race, they’ll all be pouring celebratory beer down their necks and feasting on cake and chips. And who can blame them?

I, on the other hand, apart from a couple of easier days late this week will be very much ‘pressing on’ and after the 3 Peaks I’ll be thinking about the number of training hours I have planned for the following few days before I can start to taper for Relentless.

As for beers at the pub in Helwith Bridge, well, I’ll be maintaining a sensible pre-race diet and focussing on the 24 hour race in 2 weeks’ time (oh…maybe just the one though).

Last year I rode the 60 hilly miles back home after riding the 3 Peaks race for the same reason. That looked a bit of a weird thing to do…but for some of us, the work isn’t quite done yet.

…but when the work is done, I’m definitely going to treat myself to one of these bad boys-

I tried something new at the weekend. I invested in some skills training, specifically, cyclocross skills training. Meeting up with Ed ‘Great Rock’ Oxley at Lee Quarry – not a typical cyclocross venue but one of the closest things around these parts to Whernside, one of the nightmares of the 3 Peaks race – we chatted and compared our cross bikes with new-fangled disc brakes and waited for the rest of the ‘pupils’ to arrive.

Joining us for the day and bringing with them their experience and expertise were Dave Haygarth and Alan Dorrington. I was looking forward to getting faster and smoother not by routine training in the usual sense but by learning smarter ways to ride a bike – around corners, over rough ground, dismounts, that sort of thing.

Quite soon we were staring at the Lee Quarry pump track, listening to Ed’s advice on how we should ride something like this on a bike that in our minds at least, was not really designed for the job.  Off he went to show us what he was talking about. All the way around the pump track, working the terrain and getting all the way around without pedalling.

Off we went. After an hour or so, everyone was pumping the pump track and was flying around much smoother and faster than the first time. Progress.

Then we worked on technique for riding over rough ground. To make sure we all knew what ‘rough ground’ is, we rode over some big rocks. Some people fell off. Some more than once.

We rode some of the red trail a few times, each time applying skills and techniques we’d just learned, each time getting faster, staying off the brakes a bit more…

This stuff works much better than any bike upgrade.

Then we went for our dinner in a big greenhouse with a kitchen in it…which was nice. There was also loads of cakes.

The afternoon session was a bit more ‘regular’ cyclocross in a nearby park – grass, mud, barrier tape, run-ups, dismounts, that kind of thing. Dave led this session and passed on a wealth of knowledge and racing tips and we made a bit of a mess of the grass.

It was ace. There will be more of these courses and if you want to go faster on your cyclocross bike and discover where your real weaknesses are (and thus what you need to practice afterwards), you should get your name down here www.great-rock.co.uk