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I thought I ought to write some words – http://www.ragleybikes.com/our-products/td-1/

…neither of them looking in the right direction.

A very huge BLOODY WELL DONE to Twinklydave and Jason Terrahawk, who pulled in 2nd and 3rd at the Premier showcase 24hr Solo race class at OSMM last weekend. The lads were racing on their TD:1 frames, which aren’t as good as the ones you lot can buy right now.

Race reports coming soon.

It seems like we’re having a proper summer this year. I’m struggling to remember the last time I rode my bike in bad weather in fact (proper bad weather that is – prolonged heavy rain, snow, hail, fireballs, etc  - not a brief shower to dampen down the dust).

This coming weekend looks like it’s going to be more of the same too. In the past Mountain Mayhem, like the Glastonbury Festival, seems to have been cursed with wet weather. Mud so bad that wheels would stop turning, components would be removed forcefully from bikes by large wads of wet grass and the human spirit would be sapped away so quickly and so completely that people would stop at the side of the course, halfway through a 3 hour lap (that should have taken 50 minutes) and would start to cry. Or kick the crap out of their bike. Or both.

This year we’re having dust, sunshine, hardpacked trails, tyre choice that can realistically include semi-slicks and genuine, infectious happiness on the faces of racers, organisers and spectators. The only downside for me is the carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrists that I’m convinced I’m developing that can only be a result of riding a rigid bike for months on bumpy trails and race courses as dry as concrete. Here I go again, ’I really need to get around to sorting out my tubeless setup’. The ability to run 25 psi up front without getting a puncture sounds comfy. But would it be fast?

Anyway, I’m loving it. My pie-in-the-sky plans to force my entire family to move to another infinitely-less-shit climate are on hold. I’m thinking of the possibility of not having to replace an entire drivetrain on two bikes this year like I normally have to do and making them last, if I’m careful, another year. Or a bit of next year at least.

I’m loving the fact that whilst I’m racing for 24 hours I’m not feeling bad about the fact that I’ve once again dragged my wife and kids away from the warmth and shelter of the house to spend a weekend in another muddy field, at times having to hold onto all of our belongings to stop it all blowing away in a gale.

I know that when you read this, most of you will immediately think ‘Oh my god, he’s done it now!’, that I’m tempting fate and the heavens will open next week and won’t close, ever…so to counteract the inevitable effects on the weather of this blog post, I will be taking copious amounts of Goretex, spare gloves, the caravan (which we bought because the weather at UK races is ‘always wet’) and mud tyres to Mountain Mayhem.

As for the race, if I have anywhere near as much fun and excitement this weekend as I had at last weekend’s race, I’ll be very happy indeed. Whatever the outcome (although a good finish would be nice, obviously).

A nice, maybe chilled out 12 hour race, as a pair, seemed to be the ideal preparation for Mountain Mayhem in which Dave and I will both be racing solo. Sure, we’d have to battle hard to get a good result but we were here to have fun and to just enjoy it.

After a really early start I travelled up to Gisburn with Phil, Budge and Andy (who were all racing solo) I met up with the other half of Team Ragley and we set about dumping all of our food and spares next to the Cooksons gazebo. It was still early. There was an hour to go until the 7:30 am start….

Somehow drawing the short straw to do the run (I must remember Dave’s ‘do not get changed into cycling clothing’ ploy for next time) the race started and I puffed and wheezed my way up the gravel road to the start/finish area where my bike was. I’ve not done any running since autumn last year so to only lose a handful of places at this bit was an achievement…I started my first lap with the taste of blood in my throat.

not how to ride bendy bits

Obviously we were expecting a battle as with any race but we weren’t expecting Rich Rothwell and Ant White to be racing in the pairs too. Another pairs team from Leisure Lakes were also dishing it out and early in the race we appeared to be running in 6^th place. Soon afterwards and following a few more flat-out laps we were leading. We continued to lead the race until I had a disastrous lap where I had two punctures as a result of poor line choice, clumsiness and lightweight tubes. I really must get around to sorting out my tubeless setup….

That lap cost us a load of time and dropped us right back to 3^rd. Gutted, but we decided at that point (with about half of the race still to go) that we were going to still go for the win. Lap after heroic lap followed in one of the most exciting 6 hours of bike racing I’ve ever experienced. First the Leisure Lakes guys were overtaken, leaving some time still to make up on Rich and Ant. The sun was beating down on us but we were remaining consistent, we were closing on first place. They were also out for the win and the transitions were getting more and more frantic, until the point where I overtook Rich on the final part of a lap and came through the timing gate a whole nanosecond in front, shouting ‘DAAAAAVVVVE!!!’ like I was his mum or something. I could see him and Ant taking off their coats ready to receive the timing chips and off they went to start their penultimate lap…..

Dave was first back but I knew that 2^nd place was only a couple of minutes behind as I saw Ant riding into the transition pretty much as I was on the way out.

Big Lap. Give Dave a head start as much as possible.

Back into transition. Off Dave went. Turns out I’d given him about a 2 minute cushion.

Anxiety followed. The race would end at precisely 19:37 (the race had started seven minutes late), when no more laps could be started. I needed Dave to come back before Ant, but AFTER 19:37 (otherwise I’d be heading out for another bloody lap).

At 19:37:48 (ish), Dave crossed the line. We’d won. WE ROCKED. So much for ‘nice, maybe chilled out 12 hour race’ though.

Results here (you may notice that we were rocked so hard that we had in fact won the pairs, the teams, the solos, the whole bloody lot)

At the presentation we drank beer and feasted on the hottest chilli ever. It was so hot that most people couldn’t even finish it, there was more sweat being produced as a result of this stuff than had flowed from anyone’s pores during the race and even though the chef said he didn’t slip with the bottle of Insane Death Sauce, I think he did. Mental.

Saturday is exactly a week before Mountain Mayhem – the second 24 hour race I’m doing in the space of 4 weeks. Before this and to kick off my week-long taper (which follows a week of hard training, which itself followed 2 weeks of recovery from UK24), I’ll be racing at the Gisburn Dirty Dozen – a 12 hour lap-based race that uses the berm-tastic man made trails at Gisburn Forest. Racing for 12 hours solo a week before a 24 hour race wouldn’t be a great idea so I’m one half of the Ragley Bikes pairs team, Dave being the other half.

Despite my regular appearance at endurance events as a soloist, I must admit I fell in love with the pairs racing thing last October at Dusk til Dawn. The main reason for this is that you’re able to race your lap pretty much flat-out, safe in the knowledge that you’re going to have a period of time off the bike after each hard lap to recover, regain your composure, eat food without plastering it all over yourself, fix your makeup, that sort of thing.

You’re not waiting for ages and ages in between laps, getting stiff and frozen as you’re not waiting for 3 team mates to ride their laps and motivation to ride like a maniac comes from the fact that you’re letting your team mate down if you make a pigs ear of it or you decide to have an easy lap.

Basically it goes like this; “AAARRRGGHH….aahhh….AARRRGGGHHH….aaahhh….AAARRGGHH….aahhh”… and so on.

Dave and I have even got an unofficial fastest lap contest between us (although I’m not fully expecting to win this). Whether a 12 hour pairs race is good prep for Mayhem remains to be seen however next week is rest week, it has the chance of putting us both in a great frame of mind for the weekend after and remember this is all about having fun. And fun it’s going to be. The weather forecast even looks good.

A couple of videos that have been shot at Lee and Cragg Quarries that illustrate nicely the kind of riding that’s now available in the hills 12 or so offroad hilly miles from here. A new breed of ‘trail centre’, light on facilities but that really doesn’t matter. Motivation on tap for me to ride up there and do a couple of laps of one (or both), pretend I’ve got rad skillz (maybe even develop some rad skillz), crash, make sure nobody was looking (which is unlikely) then ride back. Sweet.

Enjoy.

I can’t seem to embed the other one so click here instead

UPDATED – videography and everything by http://maiamedia.co.uk/ -THANKS.

(pic courtesy of epicyclo)

Looking at the photo above, you would be forgiven for thinking that I was my usual grumpy self during this race, but you would be wrong. At the time the photo was taken it was getting close to the end of the inaugural UK 24 (AKA 24 Hours of Exposure) and I was in a world of hurt. Not my legs, although they were weary, not my wrists either. I was suffering from the most horrible, agonising backache. Pain that was up there with the time half of my tooth fell out and the time I had appendicitis – Ibuprofen wasn’t working at all and the only way I could find relief was to keep stopping, getting off the bike and doing a ‘praying to Mecca’ stretching manoeuvre at the side of the trail.

My final 4 or 5 laps were taking 20 or so minutes longer than they should have been because of this and my plans to catch James Leavesley and gain at least one place in the final standings evaporated. I was hanging on until the end, resisting the sometimes overwhelming urge to quit, (remembering that others had travelled up here to support and to help me compete) but despite all this, I was at all times resisting the urge to get grumpy.

I was giving The Power Of Positive Thought a go. It was working.

The course was like this; 12 miles of woodland ‘stuff’, long fireroad climbs and sections of the ace red route at Newcastleton that consists of typical Scottish trail centre rocky singletrack with more flow than you would think possible and loads of berms. Climbing-wise it was a scary 550 metres of climbing per lap. This was a hard course. A man’s course. I loved it, despite before the race working out in my head that four laps was slightly more horizontal and vertical distance than a whole Mary Townley Loop. Ouchy.

It all started without a run, thankfully, just a ride from the square in the centre of Newcastleton behind some guy on a cruiser in wellies then a 3 Peaks Cyclocross-alike neutralised rolling start behind a van where 12 or so of us dropped the rest of the field after half a mile or so…then BAM we’re off and racing proper. Duelling for a couple of laps with James, passing other riders, coping with the heat and picking up a fresh bottle of energy drink every lap, it was going well. It continued to go well for hours and hours. I was staying consistent. Phil was utterly immense in the pit – pulling the empty gel wrappers from my jersey pockets (don’t drop litter lids) and bunging new ones in, swapping my bottle, sorting the bike when it needed fettling/a torn tyre replacing and always having the spare bike ready to go – our pit strategy in fact meant that I think I spent at the most 25 minutes of the entire race not on the course.

Not much went wrong for the first 18 hours; I ripped my rear tyre about a mile from the end of a lap and had to complete that lap by running to the end to get the spare bike, I felt down when I saw Dave drop out of the race with sickness, but apart from that all was tip-top-tickety-boo. Until the back pain started….

I wanted a top ten finish in this race. The start list was a who’s who in UK endurance racing and up against that lot, top 10 would have been a big achievement. I finished in 6th place, which I’m obviously very, very happy about and I’m in a great frame of mind now for Mountain Mayhem in just less than a month.

Things that worked well: Staying positive. Not getting grumpy. Having a few days holiday before the race to properly relax with Deb and the kids and force me to pack a week early. Having utterly flawless support from Phil who stayed up all night and made sure that our pit stops were absolutely dialled (even giving me a bollocking when he thought I wasn’t eating enough). The bikes were spot on – a bit more time the week before to prepare them properly paid off.

I think I’m starting to get the hang of this lark…

Food, check. Clothes, check. Two pairs of shoes, check. Caravan (!), check. A variety of tyres and some spare wheels, check. Two race-worthy rigid 29ers, check. Two sets of lights, check. One new set of Ragley stickers for the TD:1, check….and about a MILLION other things that are now packed and ready. A load of it is travelling up separately in the van with Phil who’s very kindly giving up his entire weekend to provide race (and probably a bit of emotional) support, leaving Deb free to do important things such as checking the kids don’t run off