Less than half the posts anything to do with cycling, I thought I’d get the juices flowing.
As there seems to be **** loads to do these days. My 2013 looks well good.

A full season of road racing, main goal is the vets national RR champs.
A fair bit of XC racing.
A full CX season at the end of the year.
24 hour road relay race
Sleepless solo
Reliability trials
Some sportives here and in France
A week in Luchon [possibly]
Weekly club rides
Weekly night rides
And anything else that comes my way.

Beer and build night tonight, got a mate coming round to help me build my new Yeti ASR5….and to drink beer

Trip to Llandegla and Penmachno end of Feb
My first Enduro in Quantoks end of March + a few more after this year
A cheeky CRC half marathon or two
And when not doing the above, enjoying my local trails at Stanmer Park in Brighton, which are about 10mins from my front door

😛

Bike ride with the youngest kids at the weekend, involving at least one cafe.

Beer and build night tonight

Ooh yeah bike build to come as well, but with tea instead.

Erm there have been lots of threads on “what you doin this year” but hey, I’ll play..

HTN
SSUK13
Masses of roadie stuff including the Harrogate stages of the Tour, back in the Dolomites for stages of the Lombardia, Eroica, riding with mates in Tuscany in and around Florence..
All my local trails need hacking too..
At last, a year back on the bike(s)

bikebouy Eroica, have you done one? I really do fancy that. I’ll catch up with you on that, off to work now.

TBH it’s interesting to read through the list of things folk ride, for instance I’d forgotten about the Schwinn/Merida/CRC marathons.
Love to have attended the SSUK in Swanage, but I’ve no SS.
Nice year ahead.

Saturday morning MTB rides with the missus.
Sunday morning watching my kids ride round the park.
Mid week night rides with my mates.
The odd big day out.
HTN (not riding though)

Oldgit

Love to have attended the SSUK in Swanage, but I’ve no SS

You could try speaking to Charlie, he may be able to sort you a demo ss for the weekend in exchange for something ?

He does run a bike shop after all 😉

Hit the north
Longleat sportive
A few cat 4 races at castle combe
A long weekend in North Wales with another bike forum full of strangers i havent met
Bristol bike fest 12 hour pairs
Silverstone 24 hour cycle grand prix solo
Bristol oktoberfest 8 hour solo

and some other random sportives, duathlons and maybe a TT as and when I feel like it

Just finished off the Soggy Bottoms
Newnham stinger – Feb (next week I think)
Bontrager twentyfour12 – July
A remarkably event free year for a change…missus might make me pay for a holiday :-/
I will probably do a couple of the Juice Lubes things.

I’m going to be doing a fair amount of open water swimming when the water temperature picks up as I was supposed to be doing my first Half Iron in Cornwall but ‘Human Race’ just pulled it without much explanation gutted doesn’t really cover it…still I’ll keep the swimming and running going as it’s a diversion from riding.

what’s on bike wise for 2013

I’ll try and ride my bike more than last year which shouldn’t be hard, hopefully spend more time just out n’ about pootling round the Galloway Hills and avoiding all trail centres.

No racing at all, no organised events either and no group rides, more of the sort of riding i used to do years ago which involves choosing an area to explore on my tod and heading off with no sense or need of urgency to hammer in the miles. i think i should join the Rough Stuff Fellowship 😉

A couple of sportives tour of the borders with a bunch of mates first
Pitlochry weekend with same guys road
4 days in the alps road
2 weeks booked guiding in Scotland..coast to coasts I think Mtb
Golspie weekend in may Mtb
Mite do 10 under
Want to knock off at least 4-5 munros by bike..enjoyed the couple I did last year
Not too hectic

TUTB, Tour de Ben Nevis and the Bealach Mor sportive should do it for events.
I’m also hoping to make it down to the Lakes and maybe a trip west to Torridon again.
I’d also like to give a bike-bivi a go.

double post

For me it’s putting the fun back in my riding
So no racing no training
Got a few weekends in Wales and one in glentress
Planned already

Just a year to relax

As the forums not very bikey, what’s on bike wise for 2013

Build a Ti framed road bike. Ride it and tear the legs off my riding group.

😉

Nothing set in stone yet but these are my plans in no particular order:

Buy a new full susser
Set up turbo trainer (in time for Spring lol)
Lincoln GP Sportive
Get out with my 4 year old on his new Spesh
Regular Sunday club (road) rides
Fort William World Cup (watching, not competing)
Learn to wheelie/manual better
Build up my single-speeding legs
Book some MTB weekends away with some pals I’ve not ridden with for far too long

Pick up Kevins new build tommorow
Shoulder reconstruction on 13th Feb
Two months off bike and no snowboarding holiday
Two weeks with Bike Verbier

I’d be surprised if I totalled more than 150 miles on the bike in 2012, so a significant increase on that is my main goal this year. First ride of 2013 lined up for Sunday, when I have been decreed a whole one hour to escape from family duties.

I am the least fit I have ever been in my life, so any riding I have done recently has felt hard and been quite demoralising. I also seem to have lost a lot of confidence in my technical abilities, so regaining some fitness and, for want of a better word, balls, would be a big plus.

Great thread idea 🙂 Been off the bike for most of last year due to a combination of achilles injury rehab and the arrival of blobby jr.

New bike plans are to finish my 29er experiment build (Scandal frame is still in need of wheels and a fork) and to finally get out on my lovely new Giant road bike.

Not much riding in the calendar yet. Only a weekend away for Etape Pennines and a week in Morzine for some big bike fun. Want to start getting out for some local club road rides and sure there will be weekends in Wales and up north on mtb.

I’d like to start doing some xc racing again after a long layoff, maybe the southern xc series. Quite fancy trying some road racing as well but no idea how to get into that (may mine some threads on here) as well as one or two local TTs. Hit 40 this year so guess I’ll be racing with the vets!

As for bike training, main aim is to get my watts/kg back to something approaching respectability. Blobby jr is making it hard work though through lack of sleep. I’d love to be able to run again too but that’s going to be very slow progress.

A few cat 4 races at castle combe

May have to look that up as it’s not too far from me. Is that around the circuit? Who organises the races? And just how fit do you need to be to do a cat4? 🙂

First ever uplift day at Cwmcarn next week. A long weekend doing the 7Stanes near Dumfries at the end of April and the London to Brighton off road in September. Looking forward to the new trails at Swinley opening too.

HoNC
Randonee in France
Will try for the full season of duathlons at Castle Coombe
FoD Enduro
If i can find an XC race locally, then I’ll do one
Local club 10mile time trials – try and break 26mins…
May do a sportive if I find a good local one

Quite a lot when I write it down…

Season goals are;

Gorrick spring series
Southern XC with a top 10 finish.
Achieve Cat 3 road when XC season calms down.
Summer CX in Newbury with top 10 overall.
Open TT events
Winter CX with top 10 overall.

Based on last season, these goals are very much achievable. 🙂

Oh yeah. 💡

I’m down for a charidy ride in April.

Is all so far.

🙂

In addition to my several-times-a-week rides through the New Forest (mud) i’m planning;

Lots more racing (this year as one of the Dirt Divas race team) inc the southern xc race series
Mountain Mayhem
Biking holiday in April with BasqueMTB
Doing my MIAS mtb level 2 instructor course
An epic Welsh C2C in aid of Cancer Research UK in September
A one-day assult on the South Downs Way in June (trying not to think about how many miles that is…)
Plus the usual trips to trail centres and general bimbling around Wales / Peaks etc with my bike

Phew. I feel exhausted just thinking about it all.

A friend wants to ride the Ridgeway path from Ivinghoe to Avebury in a day and I agreed to accompany him. Not the most exciting path, I know, but it’s more of a hedonistic session on wheels kind of thing…

2013 for me, is do I finally buy a nice bike? I think I know what I want (after lots of demoing in 2012) but the weather and poor state of the trails is sapping my enthusiansm at the moment. It costs enough in time, effort, very limited know-how, and ultimately money to keep my basic HT going. I can’t imagine the aggro with attempting to keep a nice FS going!!!

With such crap conditions, I am having an issue of some sort pretty much every other ride. To the extent that I could (almost) give it all up and stick to the road. Then because I like long rides, my old back is getting a bit of a toasting from riding HT all the time, but the maintenance with a FS in UK conditions fills me with some dread!

Ride more – should not be hard – I have no figures for any year but ‘not enough miles’ would certainly cover it, and well..
Just 2nd ride of the year coming up this Sunday. It’s also the farewll ride for my current frame. This can only mean their is a ‘new’ build waiting to happen 🙂 The build will involve beer.

Our little group are looking at planning more ‘big days’ out.

Get my butt in gear and knock a big chunk off my time for the Colne Valley Challenge.

Road bike would be nice – them there Triban 3’s seem like an ideal (re) entry to the world of Tarmac.

Oh, yeah, ‘man-space’ needs to be sorted – just moved house, got a 6ft’ish square cellar area to tidy, paint etc – it’ll be snug but it should work…

Citycross, halifax mill CX race
Heaven of the south (nice beer!)
A skyride with the family
Weekend in wales
Spinupinabrewery (can you see a theme here!)

Well i’ve just entered all of them there UK gravity enduros. Should keep me quiet.

Probably a week in the alps,

Probably a long weekend in north wales.

😀

A friend wants to ride the Ridgeway path from Ivinghoe to Avebury in a day and I agreed to accompany him. Not the most exciting path, I know, but it’s more of a hedonistic session on wheels kind of thing…

That’s quite hard going north of the Thames, and pretty hard to navigate that side as well. Ivinghoe Beacon is on my doorstep.

steelsreal

Citycross, halifax mill CX race

I was asked to do this, looks good, but I think I’ll just watch from afar.

Already got a few events booked- POC King and Queen enduro at glentress, Bluegrass/No Fuss enduro at kinlochleven, Inners round of the UK Gravity Enduro and the 3 winter innerduros, oh and the No Fuss Endurance Downhill again.

Otherwise… Want a week in france, looks like White Room. And just all the riding I can do, wherever I can.

That’s quite hard going north of the Thames, and pretty hard to navigate that side as well. Ivinghoe Beacon is on my doorstep.

Yeah, I’ve ridden some of it – Wendover Woods area to the Sculpture Trail at Cowleaze – and it can, as you say, be hard going. Not done the stuff near Ivinghoe to Wendover so if you’re awake at around 4am one fine day in the summer, perhaps you’d like to be our guide (and bacon roll fixer, possibly)… 😉

All 5 rounds of the UK Gravity Enduro Series
The Megavalanche and a few days of riding in Les Arcs
Dyfi Enduro
Another Red Kite Winter XC race
FOD Mini DHs
A weekend away riding in Wales
And I’ll probably end up doing a few more events on top of that too.

Diary is filling up

HONC
Long Mynd in May
Bristol BikeFest
Mountain Mayhem
3 Peaks CX
Full season of CX

Better get out with Oldgit on a few night rides to get fit 🙂

so if you’re awake at around 4am one fine day in the summer, perhaps you’d like to be our guide (and bacon roll fixer, possibly)…

Just the sort of daft thing I’d so, trying to ride that section in my head right now.

Kev, the local cross is booming. I cam 4th overall in my class this year was gunning for 3rd and a podium.

Bikebouy, the L’eroica, have you done it? my bike is 1986, but the bars, stem and saddle is later though still quill, are they that strict?

Burnham & Baddhow sportive (reliability trial) tomorrow….

Mudrunner Duathlon in 2 weeks time, then a lot of Cannock and Wyre Forest, Passportes de soliel at the end of June, first time in the Alps.

I have put all plans to the side for this year after breaking a rib so early on. I’m just aiming on getting back to riding at all, as I’ve not even sat on a bike in 2013.

Depending upon when and how things go I might reinstate the original plan which included a trip to Spain probably the mountains North of Barcelona as my girlfriends sister lives in the area and that will probably be an easy sell. I did want to do at least one bike packing trip a month this year. On the list I have the Trans Cambrian Way, Welsh Coast to Coast and some sort of trip to the Cairngorms. I have worked out a route to get from Birmingham to Church Stretton with about 70% off road that I would like to do as well.

Oldgit..
No they’re not that strict at all. I have seen some oldies doing it on early 90’s Peugeots and they did fine indeed.
I got introduced to it back in 04 when I was staying with my mate (a neo-pro riding for a fledgling Italian team ) and we just rode up to the start, signed on and died 4 times trying to keep up. It can be hard going if its wet, gets kinda boggy on the chalk but most of the “roads” are hard pack as the locals use them as proper roads.
I rode it pre the sportive that is in place now, you could ride it just by turning up as it was an informal race, but with the pros going off before the rabble, now it’s very popular and the Pros race is on the day before/after the sportive, and now you have to sign up and register for that.
Last time I did it was in 11 (mates last year riding as a pro, he’s back home having given up trying to find another decent team) and it rained all the way.. Which was fun, no it really was.
I’m doing it agin next year i think the entry for that is open Oct time, I’ll keep a look out.
I think you’ll enjoy it, it’s way more varied and exciting and invariably warm, and you get to see some spectacular countryside and villages along the way. Think of it like riding around the South Downs but with a few steeper climbs and the smell of olives and lemons and rosemary.
There tends to be a few bunches, a bit like P-R sportive, once you find a decent group it’s worth staying on it as they’ll pull you along nicely and they do look after you. There tends to be a bit of a ranking/bravado in the bunch and provided you don’t break their tradition of attacking the leader you’ll be fine and dandy.
Pace wise it’s whatever pace you make of it but you’ll need to crack at least 22-25mph which I’m sure you do so you should be fine.
I love the place, I love the pace.