Thinking I want all-rouders I can leave on – I can’t be arsed messing around with tyres any more.

Vittoria Barzo TNT’s are where it’s at for all rounders, if you want faster (within 0.6w of RaRa) then the Mezcal G+ are great too.

I’m not convinced by that review, I guess too many variables to be sure. Normally run rons at 18psi front and 20-22psi rear. Put ralphs on when dryer and run at 22-25psi. Ralphs at 25psi definately feel faster on hardpack than rons. Also I use snakeskin tubeless easy and I think the carcasses are more similar then.

Why tyre pressures are people using? I’m religiously sticking to 30R 28F tubeless Rons, nervous of change/being slower, but wondering whether I’m missing out on grip/confidence.

?

I use ~21 F Ron, ~24 R Ralph. I do only weigh 66/67kg though.

Surely it’s dependant on tyre width as well? 2.25 front, 2.1 rear (that’s what you get from a frame designed by americans…)

First race today.

Basically went: great start, stitch 2nd lap, fade. From 6th to 21st in 90 minutes. Club mate that hasn’t slept for 3 months (baby) came 8th and will be gridded in front of me.

Shit. I might take up knitting.

I heard it was a bit of a mudfest. Had visitors for rd 1&2, hoping to make it to rd3.

Nasty crash involving 5 or 6 riders on initial start sprint. Missed them by an inch !! Wasn’t nice.

Kryton – sorry to hear your woes. Analyse what went wrong, rejig training and come back stronger.
Are you starting too fast? Maybe you should chase rather than be chased?

Thanks.

I’ve 3 weeks until the next one. Traineroad say repeat the last 3 weeks of plan, I can’t remember if thats build or speciality. Probably the latter?

Maybe so – my race team colleagues have mentioned the same so perhaps I’ll go off easier at the next round an see what happens, but as you know on XC its harder to pass on the singletrack than the start, so I’m not sure I’ll fair better. I’d live to see an overhead Video of yesterdays race to see where on the start the people that later passed me were for analysis.

However, a strava comparison over the same rounbd/course last year has me exactly the same speed, 5 places up. Yesterday there was a howling head wind, last year there wasn’t. So perhaps I am overall stronger than before just not good enough overall. Last year estimated Wats 177, this year estimated Watts 205. My club collegue was using stages and knocked out 288 NP to come 8th.

Sigh, what does it all mean…

Youre an average bloke with average ability.

The sooner you accept this, the better the world will become.

Over the past 5 months i’ve learned a massive lesson… I wasn’t training enough, i wasn’t eating right, i wasn’t as fit as i thought.
I’m still not eating right, but i am a LOT fitter and faster than i was.
In simple terms, the guys who are fast are fast for a reason, either genetically, historical training/fitness or current training…. If you want to be quicker… train better/more/harder/intelligently.

if you’re putting in an average amount of training, you’ll be an average racer 🙂

Stages power is immaterial – mine over reads by 30W compared to a powertap.

When I have felt the need to kickstart things but have little time:-

1. Have a key very high quality session each week that you do to complete exhaustion – eg 4 increasing to 5x 15minutes x 90% your 20minute FTP. This session is trumps – nothing must get in the way of going into it rested and giving maximum effort.

2. Get out to an XC course to play/ride each weekend. Concentrate on holding speed and technique.

Not really.. there’s levels of average. There’s average within average and there’s personal battles within that too. Just because you’ll never make it as a podium elite rider doesn’t mean it’s pointless. If you’re fitter/faster/better than previously, then of course that’s a good thing. But don’t ever think you can just flick a switch and go from Sport mid-pack to Elite front runner in 6 months, because simply put, that’s not going to happen.

I’m average… but i’ve accepted the averageness (sp!) and i now target goals within myself and my realistic expectations.

For example, this weekend i’ve got the Cat 4 debut…. my target is to make 50% of race distance without being shelled out the back.

Weekend after it’s Southern XC, which doesn’t seem to have a rubbish bloke friendly class like Gorrick, so my target is 50% of finishers….

Both of these are WAY above what i could have expected this time last year… so even though i’m only average.. i’m a better average than i was 🙂

Kryton, I think your strategy is right, I’m not a good starter and find if there is a singletrack or other bottle neck soon after the start it’s game over unless I really push it to get as near te front as possible off the start. Otherwise you are spinning away behind people without being able to pass and lose too much time

In my book, cramp isnt a fitness thing, its a preparation thing. Were you adequately hydrated the day before?

Also two points regarding average.

1) The people winning, even in lower cats, are exceptional, to win you need a combinination of genetics, training, technical skill and mental fortitude. Being avaerage in an XC race context is not a bad thing as weeksy said.

2) I don’t know your background, but your in vets, this includes ex-elites who have raced since they were in junveiles and so have 25 years of training in them. However hard you train you wont meet their base. Last year I trained as much as I could, based on strava more than others, but was at best mid field sports cat and slightly better in ‘cross. However I have to accept that having not touched a bike from the age of 20 – 32, I’ll never get that base level of the faster guys and will always be mid pack. 3 years hard training will never beat 20 years

edit. In other news, having spent yesterday slithering down our local pretty technical hashtag enduro trails the motivation is back and I’m looking forward to racing. 😀

Thanks ADSH it looks better like that. You can see where I lost out to the 2nd lap stitch then pulled some back.

Regional A Vets, so yes.

So er, I have a confession to make. I went out – ableit with good intentions – and had 5 pints on Friday, DID drink loads of water on Saturday but marshalled all day Sunday with only 2 coffees pre race. 😳

In February throughout I haven’t been looking forward to this race – I’ve been nervous of it – have had post Turbo depression if there is such a thing and to be very honest probably didnt act much like “an XC Racer” in the last month. Retreospectively then, I’ve got myself to blame I guess.

*awaits appropriate flaming*

Why would we flame you ? You got out there, you tried, you pushed, you ENTERED…. The only thing you’re guilty of is being human.

Andy Cockburn (3rd elite) was at a wedding the day before and was definitely a bit hungover. NO EXCUSES ALLOWED 😆

I just snuck a look at his strava – 262w average via Stages. Its may be his Watts/KG of course. Our 5th place man was 175w proving guess its not what it is but what you do with it.

There was a lot of pedalling yesterday, certainly from me!

Pretty similar – Rugby from 21-26, social MTB from 30-40 with some “for giggles” team 24’s, last 4 years proper training and now in my 3rd year racing.

Probably had draggy tyres on 😆

What PM do you have Paddy? I wonder whether whether left only power meters work well when there are so many accelerations from low speed.

Eg if you lead with your right leg then you are missing the first big pedal stroke coming out of every corner. (I’ve just made this up. You would have to have a data file for the race to see if adding a powder spike after every 0W section makes a difference).