You used a Furious Fred round there??!! You’re mad. Those are only for courses with no rocks – and certainly not Checkendon where there are loads of flints (as you discovered). I saw someone – must have been you – riding around with a Fred on the rear and did have a little giggle. Brave, but not the best decision..

Well it was okay for 2 and half laps 😀

I think I saw you too.. Do you own a golf? If so i was parked opposite in a red t4 van

my first time at Checkendon, interesting course, all the hills in one place in like 3 stages..first 2 laps i either lost traction or was blocked/knocked off the bike in the open cat carnage and i ended up running up the hills with the bike overtaking and annoying a couple of pushers in the process.
3rd lap though i nailed all the climbs and my 3rd lap turned out to be my slowest! so that was a tactical fail.
That course would be truly horrific in the wet, ice snow etc but kinda enjoyed it considering i’ve not done much cycling let alone training recently. maxxis monrails did good ok on the off camber, flints and climbs though.

Then again because I’m so slow on the climbs I’ve developed a technique where I have to go relentlessly flat out on anything flat or down to try and make up time (which I do usually).

You should be going flat out on anything! Just because people can climb doesn’t mean they take it easy on the fireroads!

I think I saw you too.. Do you own a golf? If so i was parked opposite in a red t4 van

He does, but George’s most distinguishing feature is the fluorescent green Salsa kit he adorns 🙂

He’s right about the Furious Fred though, I’ll wager if you tried again you’d have the same result! Wasing they’ll be ok, particularly on the back.

2 specialized mtb rib cages purchased, will attempt to ditch the camelbak again. i might even shave my legs this year;-)

i never know how much i should be drinking in a 3 lap race tbh, i usually try to drink 800ml energy drink from an sis bottle, best bottle by far? cheap metal cage works for me

I like Spesh bottles, personal though really! Just like anything that opens and closes easily, and I like clear so I can see how much I’ve got left.

If I don’t drink enough I get cramp! Generally just under 2 small bottles/hour for me.

You should be going flat out on anything! Just because people can climb doesn’t mean they take it easy on the fireroads!

Well they (the people near me in races ie mid pack 🙂 ) often seem to ease off, and I pass them with ease usually. They just get me back and more on the climbs 🙂 Esp women.

Furious Freds! are you bonkers? Even the houses are made of flint in those parts.

Esp women.

Not sure I’d admit to that… 🙂

Fair play to the fit women of the world!

Last race I did I had a great battle with this one middle aged woman (seriously) she was quick on the climbs and I had to really hammer everything else to get the time back.. each lap I managed to come out ahead by about ten seconds! Was pretty pleased with beating her even though she obviously wasn’t in my category…

warm up lap at ‘tempo’

water bottles not camelbak

rocket ron front & back, you will steamroll everything 😉

I ran 2 Freds at Wasing for last year’s National – was a bit of a gamble as there are some rocks there, but I got lucky on the day. This year I’ll probably go with Ralphs.

GB

That was me! You did pretty well in that case. I managed to turn up to the line 3 or 4 minutes late and if you suffered mechanicals and all sorts you did well!
I got a DNF on my first ever race too 🙁 Don’t let it get you down.

I use bottles, as I don’t fancy carrying around an extra 1-3 kgs of weight when I can get away with just 500grams of fluid and change when it’s empty. Normally my missus is kind enough to do the honours. I’ve always used the Blackburn carbon cages, never ever lost a bottle from them.

And I agree with both njee20 and Gee, that course was hard. Of all the races I’ve done in the last year or two that one didn’t seem to have much flow and some brutal climbs.

My firts time at Checkendon too as mentioned before the open fields bit espacailly the last bit past the feed station/finish (Soft and draggy) was the hard bit for me must work on pushing the big ring but the rest was great real good test. Had a few straight on moments on the looser corners on the downhill sections. Was runnning Advantages F&R which worked great heard a few guys cursing the summer tyres on the climbing section.

That was me!

Ah.. Did you have the trog mtb kit?

I think we had a couple of moments where i overtook you and later on in the lap you overtook me again.. took me a while to get back to you for the 3rd lap

that climb was certainly a bitch.. especially with furious freds 🙂

if you’ve got another fred Tricky leave it on for catton it’ll be fine on the rear as long as it’s not “moist”

stans crow or raven for me possibly*, they make a fred look like a gazzaloddi 😀

* I may well be the one upside down in a tree if it rains at all

Sitting in 9th in your first race and your a bit down !
Come on Td……….
I used to look forward to checkendon it was one of my faves back in the day 🙂
see you sat for some words of wisdom possibly or just talking :)£&
I now see it’s a very short course I know your a riding god but I was a bit shocked at the 20min lap times

Races are shorter these days, UCI regs, but it certainly didn’t feel like the Checkendon of old, despite using many similar bits!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5drsNLrWrk[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XiM7jjK1ag[/video]

That was me!

Ah.. Did you have the trog mtb kit?

I think we had a couple of moments where i overtook you and later on in the lap you overtook me again.. took me a while to get back to you for the 3rd lap

Yep, I was wearing TROG kit. It was good fun that. Next time I’ll try and get to the line on time :doh:

I did the open… pretty p*ssed with myself as I did a ride the day before and blew after just one lap! I have very long recovery times so I usually rest the day before/do some light spinning. Also had a complete nightmare as on my second lap after taking a drink and trying to put the bottle back in the cage on one of the bumpy fields it fell out! Arrrghhh! Should have just carried on but stopped, ran back like a loon, picked it up and continued! I still managed to overtake the two guys that overtook me in that time again so didn’t lose anything really, just my sanity (by this time the field was very spread out). Not how I wanted this race to turn out really.

I thought the course was okay, fun in many places but quite physical too, especially that climb. Also too many field sections for my liking, the draggy one towards the end was horrible. Nevertheless did enjoy it.