Burt on the front was great for battle on the beach

Thanks nick. Its quite interesting riding the full loop hard, certainly a different flow to the trails. Quite hard work as well!

Right, I pushed on a bit today and came home a few seconds above the hour:

Swinley full loop minus tank traps

Following the signs, this is the full Swinley loop minus the tanks traps (bird nesting season so its closed). Sub hour is easy enough as I missed a few course markers. May try it again during the week.

Bike: 2017 Top Fuel. Tyres: XR3 rr, 29-1 frt.

I brought a Citroen Picasso as the main family car 3yrs ago. We went to a main dealer as we wanted a reliable car; we included full service plan and warranty to reduce the risk of failure as far as possible. It had the 2l diesel engine with semi auto box. Space is very good inside, that’s the only positive thing I can say about it now. The semi auto box is sluggish to change (basically electronic clutch controlling the gear box) adn so often left me panicking when you have to wait seconds for the car to figure out what gear to choose when you try and accelerate (scar when you try and overtake anything). The car was not that efficient either (max high 30 mpg) and wallowed like a barge through corners. Over the two yrs we had it, it broke down repeatedly with the garage unable to diagnose the fault, battery failed, alarm failed, rear suspension failed (took fours weeks for garage to fix it). We contacted Citroen directly about the car who basically told us “not our problem”. The last straw was when the garage advised us the injectors needed replacing at a cost of £2-2500k, this on a car that had done four year old car that had coveted 50k. It was the worst car I have ever owned with service and support from the main dealer and Citroen equally terrible. We traded the car in for a Volvo V70 which is better in every way.

Some great and interesting careers!

I fell out of school into a sales job that I hated. After five years I quit , used my savings to get myself through college and ten uni (BSc and MRes). Spent almost the years working as either an environmental regulator (exciting job but crap pay), environment consultant (felt morally wrong charging the money we did to the MOD for no benefit), environment advisor (bio research laboratory who should tbh be shut down), environment manager for network rail (on the crossrail programme). Loved the company but not the role so became scheme project manager. Now I love the job, love the company, believe in what I am doing, see all the work I put iin being realised and can’t wait to see the first electric train run on the tracks that my team installed.

I was fortunate enough to be in the right place and right time to buy an original Adroit. I rode it to win a few races in 2003 before picking up sponsorship. The Adroit is special, I wanted one in 1990, now I have one, I rode it hard, loved it and cannot see myself parting with it. Whether the ride is good or not, to me is immaterial. Its a classic and value is in the eyes of the beholder. Its not in perfect condition, no bike ever should be if its been !over.

Try cx. I hated the idea and then a friend suggest I try. I tried and most giggled watching some of the riders crash whilst riding bikes so totally out of their depth. Ride and mtb or a cx bike, it really is great fun and got my mojo back.

I believe froome is due, nationality, i.e. Holds a british passport. His parents are british and he was schooled in the UK.

I seem to recall that a very high number of elite athletes suffer exercise induced asthma, it being triggered by the bodies heightened sensitivity when hjighly trained. Im not a doctor so cannot vouch for this nor am i going to become an internet doctor to hunt for an answer that suits my argument.
This does sound like a witch hunt to me. Sky etc have handled this badly but i guess no matter what they did there was going to be a shit storm. As it turns out wiggo saw a specialist who prescribed the medicine; i think he probably knows more about why ‘x,y,z’ was prescribed and should justify the prescription. It pains me how many people become experts having read about something on the internet.
Why was the drug broguht from the BC/Sky base? What would you do: pop round the corner to the local pharmacy to buy the required medicine from an unknown manufacturer or request someone bring it with them from a stock where they are sure of the ingredients? Sport is littered with contaminated medicines stories.

What size? A friend was selling his Ridley cx bike.

a few friends looked seriously at them but were nervous over the lack of tyre options and benefit of the very limited fork travel. In the end no one went for one and brought other brand gravel bikes instead.

Cheers dude

Thanks everyone. The room was wood clad, this looked fantastic but masked the problems. DPC seems overkill as the walls are not wet, plus it does not solve the root cause. I think I need to remove the pathway first and foremost.

A friend was after a 12v TV for his van. He found a cheap TV, chopped off the transformer and hey presto: caravan TV! No need to go for a caravan specific TV

Adam – great series. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even all the pain stuff that goes with riding xc fast. Looking forwad to 2017, the veterans category and getting Luna racing.

Its just bloody amazing all the time.

I Met Kenta on a BC training camp in majorca back in 2012, he did xc because he was offered money by BC to ride xc. When he no longer got yhe funding he went back to his roots i.e. Dh.

Changing STW to an xc racing mag will never and should never happen. However, from some comments in this forum people could find it interesting to read. Especially if it opens up a dicipline that previously they had never tried (or not knowingly). If a feature gets people to try out a local xc race, then fantastic: its poeple out enjoying their bike.

Trail types: xc races typically use man made trails but with no ‘trail centre’ finish. The organisers use natural features and soil, of course there are exceptions.

If this thread has demonstrated one thing, it seems to be the lack of awareness/knowledge/experience of xc races.

Training ise, phil pearce is full time this year and typically rides for 2-3hr a day. A lot of which is on the mtb and off road. Riding on the road doesnt develop the muscle groups you use on the mtb.

I’ve said it many times before: BC can select a team for the workd champs etc, the team is presented to UK Sport who have the fonal say on how the money is spent i.e. Who is sent. BC can select who they want, but if this is veteoed by UKS there is nothing further they can do. Blaming everything on BC is silly, downhill took hold of their dicipline and developed it with excellent marketting and course / race development.

For UK xc racing, how many on here go ride xc and race xc races? UK courses are improving and the talent pool is increasing. BC have a very active youth and hunior development programme that seems to be turning up with the goods e.g. Current european junr champion. I am convinced BC got it very wrong leading up to London and Rio but are now focused on 2020. Ive been racing at the top level since 2005 and have seen the dicipline develop and change. To my mind the quality is improving (although it could just be me getting old) and the numbers are increasing.

Media attention: why do no magazines / general mtb websites cover mtb xc? Singletrack – any comment? I dont know. If i said i would write race reports would you be interested in printing on the website?

Anybody who thinks xc is too easy should come out for a ride with the elite riders: they are bloody fast and have to mix excellent technical skills with top end fitness. Some top roadies e.g. yanto barker did some end of season mtb events and got hammered. Their fit but mtb requires different physical attributes and lots of skill.

Klien adroit. Brought it second hand in 2000 (in practically un used condition). It was my dream bike when i first started riding in 1992/3. Ive ridden it hard, winning races, epic sunday rides, etc. Its now hung up on the wall and i never plan to sell it.

Argh! Clashes with my daughters christening. I’m am atheist – do you think the wife will forgive me if I use that as an excuse for not going to church?

I used a set of the maxzis maxlites back in the 26er days, raced the Plymouth national and got top 15. Sketchy would be a good description of my riding style that day.

Last year I based Ralph’s 2.1 (I think) for the whole year irrelevant of the weather. Basically I was too lazy to change tyres but the tyre coped very well but changing pressure and style to suit conditions.

I’m becoming a big fan of bontrager tyres, good range with the xr1 my choice. Good weight, seats really easily on the rim, not fragile, and plenty of grip with a nice profile. Worth looking at if you ask me.

September to December I was riding my Cannondale SuperX with ultegra disc brakes – this was my daily commute bike and I loved it. I started using this bike after I broke my finger and could not manage with the brakes on the normal commute bike (Kinesis TK). I’m now back on the Kinesis and have just had to replace both rims through worn braking surface. Based on my annual mileage and the conditions on the road I’m replacing rims every year. From now on: disc brakes.

Working through the Easter weekend: Currently ripping up most of the rail track at Maidenhead Station. We’ve got to relay ~350m of track including new S&C before tuesday so had better keep going.

The Doc advised me to stay off the bike for a couple of weeks, but in essence use common sense. If it hurts = stop. I was riding to work again after one week, the vibration was the killer. Riding my cx bike with disc brakes was the only thing that made it feasible in my opinion: wider tyres and disc brakes.

Give Middleburn a call/email and they can advise you best. I think there may be chain line issues, as the Duo ring is obviously aligned to give the best possible chain line as a two ring set up.

Please don’t moan about it, appreciatey ou get it and enjoy it. I’m a scheme project manager for network rail, our Xmas party was last night (public sector now so had to pay). Everyone went home at 2200 as we are gearing up for a massive work delivery during the Xmas blockade. That means hell of a lot of people working through Xmas, not seeing family, working in hard conditions doing a hard job. Basically: be grateful you miserably sods (or do a night shift and work on Xmas day). Rant over.

Wife has Phd ‘effects of antibiotics on soil’
Sister in law no1: exercise physiology
Sister in law no2: effects of wild fire on soil.
I quit after the MRes (know when to quit). Plus PhDs were getting a bit common in the family.

I’ve got a 1992 klien adroit. It was my dream bike when I first started mtbing. Rode it to win the student champs in 2004. Even then it rode amazing. I love the bike and always will. It’s now hung on the wall in my bike room . Sad not to ride it, but would be distraught if it ever came to harm.

I’m not a doctor either. But the wife is, unfortunately not the medical type. However, she is allergic to practically everything on planet Earth and has daily doses of steroids and anti histamines to control reactions day to day (and no, the steroids do not help me ride faster). She also carries epipens and more drugs plus medi alert bracelet, etc. Her reactions were only localized initially, however it all got nasty when she was on holiday and came down with a bug and was prescribed penicillin. She reacted with hives all over her body. Following that event, more reactions started to more foods/drugs and eventually we got to where we are today. I guess the lesson to learn is do not dismiss it. Go see your doctor and ask for testing. The next time you get stung the reaction could be a whole lot more serious.

Is the growth in railway land? If it is report to network rail and they will cut and treat. It’s incredibly nasty stuff and very invasive. I understand the process is cut and treat on site, if the cut material needs to be transported off site it is classed as hazardous waste and should be disposed through a lincsed site (check with the environment agency). The EA also have a guidance booklet on jkw. Btw, I work for nr and we hate the stuff. Costs a bloody fortune to get rid of properly and delays projects I work on. Good luck.

Enjoy it and get over the thoght of curling up ina ball on simons fell. I had thoghts of dnf within the first 30min becuase of that climb.
The start is fast (at the front). Get a 36t sprocket for the back (bit late now if not already on). Get a new bottle at every opportunity (i didn’t and paid the price). The fell runners will refuse to work with you on the bike sections (or did in my case). Eat throughout the race.
Above all: enjoy it! Its a brilliant event, fantastic support from walkers, runners, old folk, local road clubs. Its flipping brilliant and i’ll be back next year.

OP, my hubby showed me your post (ernie) and I’m commenting from his account as yor situation resonated with us. Our first was delivered by planned C section, under general anaesthetic. Luckily for all concerned there was no trauma, but I was alseep for the first 8 hours of her life and due to some medication I wasn’t allowed to attemp to bf until she was 36 hours hold. She was exclusively bottle fed during that time, with no skin to skin as I was too unwell. She had a 100% tongue tie and struggle to bottle feed too. It wasn’t cut until day 10. However, we went on to exclusively breast feed until she was a year old. I put our success down to the following:
1) I had amazing support from the feeding consultant in the hosptial and also the healthcare assistants. I basically made a pain of myself and insisted someone stay with me until I could get D latching properly. Without that support I’m sure I would have struggled to establish feeding.
2) i was told to express every three hours for the first two weeks, so I would feed D, and hour and a half later pump, and hour and a half later feed and so on. This really helped establish my supply. It is harder to establish supply after a C section, especially if it was elective as your body doesn’t receive the same hormonlal signals as it would during a natural delivery, so pumping is key. If your wife is really poorly she may be deficient in iron (especially if she needed a transfusion), ask about iron supplements as iron deficiency will impact supply.
3) when pumping try and relax (I used hypnobirthing techniques) and think about your baby/look at a photo of baby to stimulate the right hormones. Don’t panic if you produce very little, especially in the early days. Her milk won’t come in for a good 3-4 days.
4) if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. It’s food after all and feeding your baby is the most important thing. As for nipple confusion I’m very dubious about this, but Medela Calma bottles are dsigned to mimic a breast and a baby needs to suck the same way as they would at a boob so these are the best bottles to use if your wife wants to try combi feeding. If you are anywhere near Reading we have some that you can have (they aren’t cheap and ours have barely been used).
5) luck and determination. I am pretty sure that it was sheer bloodymindedness that meant we succeeeded at breastfeeding, that and absolute luck. My nipples didn’t crack, bleed, blister etc even during 10 days of feeding through a severe tongue tie. I know that I am bloody lucky, even so I did have times where the latching reduced me to tears.
6) i found the babycentre forum was amazing at offering support. There are birth boards where everyone has a baby the same age, so are all up in the middle of the night for support and there is a specific breast feeding support forum to help trouble shoot technique etc.
7) a decent breast feeding pillow was a god send. I had a really firm one that offered me lots of support.
8) remember the first few days are the hardest. Everything in your wifes world has changed, hirmones are surging round her body, feeding is painful to her nipples and painful to her uterous (bf causes it to contract), it gets easier after a few days, but significantly easier after the first 6 weeks, then again after 8 weeks. Setting short and achievable goals might help eg I’ll do one more day, then two more days, if I can get past this bit I can manage another week etc. once bf is established it is so much easier than faffing about with bottles (that’s what I kept telling myself anyway!).

I’m a big fan of bf. I am intrinsically lazy and forgetful, both personality traits that put me off bottle feeding! However, I really dislike the way that any form of feeding is rammed down parents throats. Food is food. There are a lot of studies that suggest bf is better than formula, but fundamentally the reasons for this are unclear. It isn’t a magic wand. I bf both my children, they both have allergies and they both get every illness going. That is more to do with genetics than how I fed them as babies. Your wife is not a failure, whatever choices she makes and it saddens me that this will be colouring her early days and memories with her baby.

I quite like him. Imagine having him as an uncle.every trip to see him would be an adventure

Oh, just heard about his wayward days as a youth and the trust fund.

And what does this guy do for a living? Farmer/drug smuggler?

Good for you Adam and good luck. To a certain extent if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

Perhaps another suvey of the 2015 would provide additonal data?

I think the sxc crew have listened to the wider audience and considered the difection xc racing is heading i.e. Shorter aggresive/technical courses. And some of the courses have been developing to suit e.g. Wasing has seen remarkable development since it was first used (with a,b and c lines). I believe the regional races should always provide that first step to national races and the sxc series achieves that.

On the technical front, most rounds did not include features that were techically or mentally challengining i.e. Are actually quite easy once you put your brave pants on (see njees comment on the wasing log drop). However, technical difficulty does and shouldn’t come down to ‘features’, i have long argued that even sherwood becomes challenging when you are hitting the singletrack at warp speed. And so in that respect, bordon and black park were not technically dificult but became difficult when hitting single track at race speed. Another elite rider once said “your racing the series, not just one race”. Ypu will never design a race course that everyone likes nor suits everyone. So a series that challenges all types of riders will determine the best (actually phill pearce will beat us all but he’s special).

Xc is about the 1.5hr duration which allows BC sanctioning. But i think it would be intersting to mix in a marathon. I love the idea of multi lines as has been used at the german world cup (i think). For me, xc racing holds so kuch more interest than road racing as it provides an environment ideal for families. Shorter courses closer to population centres to encourage spectators? Exhibition races on technical town centres? Bouncy castle hire for the kids? Liaison with country fairs/exhibitions e.g. Newbury show ground (course may not be technical but if crowds start cheering then racers get in the mood). Commentator (come on njee).

Brain dump over. Good luck and see you at the races

I completely agree with what has been stated above. I was using a programme that included:
Back squats
Lunges (holding 20kg disc) and side lunges
Leg curls
Press ups
Plank and various other pilates related exercises
Kettle ball swings
Sit ups
I certainly felt it built some power in the legs and core. This had the benefit of improving my ability to get up steep climbs and maintain good position. I guess the saying “you are only as strong as the weakest link” is true. I did not notice too much of an increase in body weight but was certainly leaner in the upper body.
The pilates and use of free weights in dynamic exercises was much more beneficial than using weight machines. Also, stay away from smith racks for the back squat – that knackered my back really quickly.

My first CX race was the three peaks last year. I can’t make it this year so will be having a crack at a few of the Wessex League and Southern Champs. I’m kinda keen, unless it gets really muddy in which case I’ll re-ignite my love of the turbo trainer.

I hate them. The experience I have had has left on edge every timei use it: bought in 6yrs ago, bearings went in 2 month (turbo use only) and nine (I kid you not) torque tubes. Yes the service has been good, I have only paid for one torque tube but at £450 that was one to many and also explains by nervousness. In the future I’m buying a pedal based system for the ease of swapping between bikes. On the flip side, one of my buddies has a centuries old pt and he’s never had a problem .

I’ve got a scalpel team. Is it better than an alloy scalpel, don’t know cause I never rode one. I do know my bike is a rocket and a light on at that. I seriously love this bike like the son I never had. i really hope the wife never, ever reads this post.