Oh and on top of Whernside next Sunday for some dibbing action 🙂

1st round of Vive Le Cross tonight for a serious wake up call, then organiser duties for the 1st round of the Yorkshire points series on Sunday at Bishop Burton East Yorks, venue,catering,1st aid, course planning all done.

Getting 10 marshals = a right pain the a**e.

Wherever you are please put a bit back sometime over the coming season.

https://www.facebook.com/events/399662187340049/

Well before the 1st race have a play on the bike and play with tyre pressures, generally as low as you dare without risking pinch flats. Practice figure of 8 turns & getting them smooth.

Practice getting on & off the bike, doesn’t have to be fast just reliable.

On the day get there early, get some sighting laps in looking for things that might cause a pinch flat do this at or near to race pace.

Warm up.

After 10 mins ignore the voices in your head telling you you’ll never finish, you’re not quick enough, feign a mechanical etc. Most others are having the same thoughts.

When the weather turns take a large towel & big Ikea bag for dumping wet & muddy kit into in car parks.

Enjoy it, if you are at all competitive you’ll soon find yourself racing against the same people each week trying to get one over each other.

Get a tap & hosepipe set up at home for washing down the bike when you get back.

Drag along kids and get them racing / spectating, very family friendly environment.

If you are doing the Yorkshire series and come to the 1st one on the 8th September at Bishop Burton, I’m organiser come and find me and I’ll buy you a brew.

Be bold start cold.

Apart from your hands that is!

1st race of the Yorkshire points in Leeds yesterday under a very hot sun. Start line nerves were high as usual, I avoided the 1st corner pile up and got my head down, finished in front of my usual rivals and came in 6th V50 🙂

A good start to the season, looking at the weather forecast for the remainder of September I’m tempted to get some file tread tubs??

@ Andytheadequate if you managed to get any pics of me that would be great, arm number 709, pale blue Velo Club Beverley kit.

Ta

on the telly here this year,

https://www.facebook.com/events/533750310314056/

Will have to make sure they get my best side!

Take both start on the rigid then use the full suss if / when your back is in bits.

Good luck

Dates are all in the diary 🙂 and a place in the 3 peaks as well.

Aims are to improve my national rank in Vet 50 which went from 50th to 58th last season.

Improve my Yorkshire league result 6th last year, I reckon that will be a hard one to achieve though.

Not to lose form steadily through the season, don’t think I did enough endurance stuff last season and when it becomes muddy hard n slow I think that showed. Only a 1 bike rider so need to capitalise on the dry courses at the start of the season.

Race the National champs again and try and do a couple of rounds of the National trophy as well.

Have a trip to watch a big Belgian cross race, drink beer, eat frites etc.

Find a venue for the club cross race for 18/19

Good luck to all.

Rich

1st lap crash
tyre pressure low
spring cross tough

I’m in for my 1st ever xc race at Sherwood Pines this Sunday, also in the Grand Vet category. I’ve done plenty of cross racing but imagine the suffering will be similar but go on for anther half hour 🙂

Do we get time to have a sighting lap of the course?

I was on a 1 x 11. Sram CX1 set up with 38 chainring and a 40-12, it was fine and caused me no bother.
Second time for me and a much better time than the 1st but suffered terrible back pain every time I needed to carry, never had any hint of it in training.

Setting of now for a pint or two in the pub at Helwith Bridge then a night in the bunkhouse.
Good luck to everyone.

Make sure you have read and understood the rules and regs. NOTE the bit about being able to maintain disc brakes if you’re using them, this is my 1st time using discs for it so nearly missed it.(i’m taking it to mean carrying spare pads and the tools to change em)

No feed stops, only 1 water stop as listed in the regs.

13. BRUNSCAR DRINKS STATION
There will be a drinks station at Brunscar between Chapel-le-Dale and Whernside at the start of 20
metres of bridleway, where competitors must walk the 20 metres and ride again after the bridleway
(due to bridleway laws).

2006 frame with not so old components, still going well.

North of England champs at Manchester on Sunday, then National trophy at Bradford next week…what was I thinking 🙂

Aim of the day will be not the 1st guy to get lapped

The vagueness is all part of the fun of cross 😉 you certainly need to get used to playing about with pressures, find somewhere to train on that’s similar to race conditions then do repeated runs on lower and lower pressures until you start feeling the rim more than once on the run. Do this at race pace.

But if you still want to change tyre types,

I use Clement PDX tubulars and I am very pleased with the grip and mud clearing.

A mate uses the clincher version and he’s of the same opinion.

A good review of them here,

http://cycletechreview.com/2013/reviews/clement-pdx-cyclocross-tyres/

A fast and flat course up at Northallerton last Sunday gave me my highest position ever coming 6th in the V50’s.

Dead chuffed and wondering whether to retire on a high, or do it all again on Sunday at Wakefield?

Wakefield it is 🙂

Sounds very much Like Skipton 🙂 Had a great day but v tough and so glad the course wasn’t wet!

One of the good things about cross is the technicality can change during the race as well as year to year, one year you go well at a course go back next year after some rain and the whole thing changes.

Cheers for the tyre advice Leggy, another learning curve with file treads.

dharmstrong I’ve a nice CX bike for sale in the classifieds if your serious about having a bash at racing.

Apologies for the weather it’ll be my fault as I bought some challenge chicanes last week, anybody that’s used them care to comment on how damp it needs to be before these need to come off and the muds go on. I’ve nothing in-between the 2 options.

Impossible for anyone else to say Scruff 🙂 Like so many things it depends.

Guy I know did a Bob Graham and then 3-4 weeks later did the Lakeland 100 and finished well. But he is very fit and very determined / prepares well.

He’s now resting!

Yeah that’s gonna hurt, sounds like you know what you’re doing and will be fine. I found long walking days out in the fells is very worthwhile as well as the running, time on your feet is the advice I was given.

The thing you really need to be careful of is the creeping thoughts of “I can’t call myself an ultra runner until I’ve done a 100” that way lies madness 😉

I’ve done the 50 3 times and the 100 in 2014.
Using a gps watch worked well for me but I also knew most of the route from running / mtb’ing. Regardless of using gps in my mind you should be a competent enough navigator to relocate or get to safe ground if the weather craps out or your injured.

I’d recommend reccying the section from Howtown to Mardale head, there’s scope for cock ups there and you’ll get familiar with the section alongside Haweswater which goes on & on seemingly for miles.
Also Ambleside to the finish during the day and at night if you think you might be finishing in the dark.

Doing it over couple of days with a bivvy is a nice way to learn it.

Use your training time to perfect your system of shoes n socks (blisters cause a lot of dnf) what pack your using, headtorch, etc.

don’t neglect running down hill in training that catches a lot out as well and it really trashes your legs.

Enjoy the training I had some great days and nights, it’s a superb atmosphere, get there early enough to see off the 100’s on the Friday night.

On mine,

Plenty of this,

Rinse and repeat weekly 🙂

I’ll be having another go at the Yorkshire point series again this season on a new to me disc bike and 1st season as a Vet 50!

Will prob do a few of the northern Lincs league races as well if they fall right.

Also organising the last round of the Yorks Points series, so I’ll be back on here trying to drum up some entries.

Enjoy everyone 🙂 can’t wait

Thanks for heads up, mine arrived this morning and agree with the sizing a snug fit for the large. 6 foot 33″ waist.

You don’t want baggy gear on the road though 😉

Take this route up to Brid taking in Woldgate which has found fame recently in David Hockneys paintings.
Stay off the A165 back to Hull.

https://app.strava.com/routes/2774622

Cemeteries usually have a tap somewhere, run a fair bit off 1st before drinking.

Cheers Sam, I realise it’s not a rough area 😉 was a bit concerned about annoying people and whether there’s a barrier across the entrance at night.

To stick my two penneth in, I ordered a wheelset and a couple of small items yesterday @13:37 and paid the £2 for DHL (admittedly after hearing various reports about Yodels reputation) DHL have just delivered them now @13:15 the following day.
All parts present and correct.

Tub glueing tonight for me.

Empty inbox this morning 🙁

Hi Chris,
Have emailed you a route and phone number if you want to join us for a ride Monday evening.

Take a couple of spare tubes as it’s easy to pick up thorns.

Rich

Entry has gone in, I did it a couple of years ago.
picking up a new (to me) disc CX so the descent of Pen y Gent shouldn’t be quite so traumatic 😉

Fingers crossed

I’ve had the Columbus Mud X for the last two seasons and I’m also looking to change to a disc bike next season mainly to try and alleviate mud clogging around the BB and seat stays.

My current front runner is the Look X85 as from the few pics I’ve seen it seems to have the biggest clearance around the BB area. Trouble is they seem to be a bit scarce, would anyone like to comment on whether this is a genuine frame or knock off copy? I don’t know a great deal about Alibaba and its business,

http://tr1074784037.fm.alibaba.com/product/50005331091-0/2014_LOOK_X85_FRAMESET.html

Rich

As mentioned above by Irelanst try looking at TLI racing, handicapped smaller groups hopefully working together to stay away from faster groups behind and catch the group in front.
No BC points to get 3rd cat but good racing and a good work out.

East Yorks had a huge field for the 1st race of the season last week and plenty at Barton (north Lincs) tonight, you all get put into ability groups. Gets exciting when the fast lads catch you and you have to hang on!

Already picking segments that avoid help with the prevailing wind!

It’s a road club what do you expect! 🙂

Added bonus points for looking miserable & not waving would be good as well.

Great idea I’ve just set up something for the road club.

Here’s a question,

Is it possible to set it up so there has to be a minimum time between people attempting segments? I’m wanting to avoid people chainganging them rather than a solo effort.

Rich

Done, finished it off with 60 miles this morning a bit chilly but then a big scoff in the cafe.

Tea and bike cleaning now 🙂

Deliberately ignoring the post above my previous!