I did a Scott marathon where we averaged 17.5mph for 85km and 1000m of ascent

I was drafting Nick Craig and Paul Oldham for most of it though. ;)

For the record I think e-bike racing is silly because as all their defenders state, e-bikes are for the old, injured and completely unfit. We’d need about 20 ambulances on standby.

Sorry ;)

There’s the last 80km on youtube. Great race as usual. Enjoy!

I keep getting the premier partners adverts switching from the right side of the page to the left and obscuring the text. and then i think the scrolling goes haywire. I say I think because at that point I give up with it and go and do something else.

It was nice to watch the podium presentations and see you get on it Pad.

Going back a couple of posts about not being able to ride outside during winter due to time constraints, I would like to point out that we tend to meet at 7pm, ride 45mins to MTB trails, then stay out for 3 more hours. It’s really grueling sometimes, most of the time to be honest, but pays dividends.

I think time on the MTB is so important. When your front wheel washes out or you face a big chute like at Hadleigh on Sunday (I came 4th in your race Ernie), then you need to be able to rely on your inbuilt reactions to sort it out. Riding through the woods all winter on a mix of ice and mud, in the dark most of the time, gives you so many experiences to draw upon.

Kryton, you should also add to your post that you couldn’t get your heart rate anywhere near normal race levels. Normally I’d associate this with massive over-reaching but I know you’re following a sensible coaching plan so can only surmise that you were really unwell yesterday.

My advice is to bin that result as an anomaly and move on (after a couple of days off, please!)

Sadly it’s the thing that can’t happen when one of the protagonists is in a glazed box traveling at 50mph.

Actually he was happy to admit that horse hooves were definitely causing more damage than my tyres. It was quite a sensible discussion mainly. I was defending the fact that my 2.4” tyres at 15psi were exerting a similar footprint to his feet and he was countering with the fact that a wheel rut creates a groove which then holds water. This was the juncture where I said he may have a point and switched tack to “isn’t the forest lovely today?”

Looks fun to me. Certainly more fun than riding round in circles for 24hrs. I’ve tried doing a 12hr twice in my life and ended up hating it. Love a stage race though and being able to ride my bike as fast as possible.

I think it’d be better just to replace the bearings and move on. I had a miserablel battle with Dolan once where they just kept fobbing me off, to the point where the anger was ruining my life. Ended up bodging a solution myself and moving on.

Thank you, you’ve all made me think a bit more about it and that my dislike and assumptions are pretty irrational.

I will try and be less judgemental. Now just near to deal with my hatred of BMW drivers, the media, large corperations…..

;)

I do concede to all your points. I don’t usually get involved in these discussions as I don’t particularly enjoy confrontation. For some reason the whole electrification and computerisation of everything really frustrates me. Up until recently cycling was an escape from all this ‘progress’, which is why I now feel exasperated by the emergence of this technology.

I know I’m a bit of a silly idealist, but I do think people are generally happier when not buying so much stuff and not having to spend every waking hour working to afford it

Riding was a way to reverse the trend of modern laziness. But now a way has been found to to circumvent that.

I use purple extreme all year round.

I had the joy this morning where the roads were frozen but the trails were muddy. Worst of both worlds.

Excuse my ignorance, I don’t generally concern myself with TV stuff much. With Eurosport, do you have to pay for it AND put up with adverts?

Tired’s advice is pretty good.

I’m currently in the process of turning myself from a CX racer into a 3 day MTB stage racer by May. Mainly doing it by just getting out whenever I can for as long as I can (3-6hrs) on whatever bike suits my mood but also by including a little bit of more specialised turbo work and one crit race training session a week to maintain my top end, plus a few hours/wk of core/strength.

It’s a lot to fit in!

Generally, the MTB miles feel the most productive use of my time.

Sorry for the double post. This forum seems to have got more complicated since I last posted. Oh good!

I wish CX had never got so popular. Now It has, Eurosport has got it’s grubby hands on the coverage. Screw them and the UCI for selling the rights.

I wish CX had never got so popular. Now It has, Eurosport has got it’s grubby hands on the coverage. Screw them all!

2k would get you coaching for a year, a bunch of physio appointments, entry to half a dozen races, and a new purpose to life.
100+ entrants to vet50 CX races each week in the south east alone. Life’s too short not to be your best.

I once used Vic’s Vapo rub as I couldn’t find any chamois cream to sooth my sore bits. Familiar with the phrase ‘ gingering a pony’?

Them American folk on mtbr seem to love the Fox 34 on the Topfuel. My bike is 29” btw.
Back in the old days, you used to run a Reba if you rode more than your Sid could handle. Is the relationship between the 34 and the 32s step cast similar?

I’m loving the udder cream recommendation. Cut through all the marketing bs and there you have it, the ultimate product, tested by farmers. Boom!

I’ve used bonty tyres for many years as they have proved 100% reliable both on the trail and during tubeless set up.
Xr4 on my play bike and then the full range of other xr’s over the years on race bikes.
Currently using xr1 both ends on my xc bike and whilst they should be rubbish for wet weather riding, they slide predictably enough for me to trust them in the mud. I just change the tyre pressure depending on the conditions.

Who’s still racing then? Final round of the national trophy today and it was such a struggle to motivate myself to dig in and hurt. Course was dry and pan flat unlike the thick mud I’ve been training in all Christmas.
Hoping for one last chance of a mud epic in two weeks time. Can’t end the season on dry grass!

I’ve found a magic ratio on my cx bike of 36/15. When the chain stretches to the point it starts dropping off I switch to a 16 tooth cog which makes it bar taught again. When that goes sloppy, it’s new chain time.
If only everything in life was that simple. :-)

To be able to ride fast after many days of horendous rain is a blessing. I was with Kryton the other day, and yes the bikes got coated in sand, but it wasn’t really any slower than in the dry. After the previous week of slogging through deep woodland/bridleway mud I was happy for a change.

What I’ve found interesting is how at a regional race you can get amoungst the top guys but you all know there are nationals riders in the area who’ll leave you for dead. Then you go to the nationals and your nationals heros are struggling for top tens and beating themselves up about it and then by good fortune you get to know a junior national champion and he’s fretting about getting a kicking at Worlds (He did get on the podium at cx world champs last year though)
No one ever feels fast enough.

Regarding longevity, my power 2max has now done five very hard years where it’s been ridden outside every winter through all weathers. This year I stuck it on my CX bike so it has been crashed, ridden through mud, rain, snow and ice, jumped and generally abused 4 nights a week.
Still opererates as new with just a new battery (1 min job) every 9 months or so.
Very impressive.

Bradford quickly went from frozen, dry ground to mud today but I wasn’t complaining as I enjoy slithering around and was pleased with my commitment to the ruts when they were available. Managed 15th Vet40 which I was well pleased with as a top twenty has been a bit of a dream for the last two years.

Anyone else doing the trophy race at Bradford tomorrow? Just got to a hotel nearby and the car park is sheet ice.
Should be scared but instead I’m so excited. Hoping for an epic ‘cross experience in the morning.

I think if you could get a weather window of hard frosts it could be sublime. Perhaps bivi near to pubs so you can spend a few hours each day in warmth and comfort.

Rain today, then snow and ice to follow maybe?
Should be a fun trophy race.

Nathb. Have a look at Southborough wheelers. I think they have a pretty active TT scene and lots of group rides setting out from the Velo house in Tun Wells.

Racing cross every weekend keeps me really motivated, plus I’m dead excited about getting back on my mtb in Feb.

I’m so glad the mud has arrived. Was getting bored of yet another grass race.

Raced National Trophy at Cyclopark this morning.
And to think your average mountain biker thinks they’re hardcore!
Best moment had to be brakes off descending, one foot unclipped, down a slick slope onto muddy tarmac when the guy in front of me goes over the bars and cartwheels across my path. Had to swerve violently (screaming “watch out”!) before hitting the tarmac and the back end sliding right out almost 90degrees. It’s a race so power on, grin to yourself and get back to business.
I may be down in the twenties but I didn’t hit the deck. :)

London X-League at cyclopark today on a Nat Trophy standard course. Overnight rain meant us V40’s probably got it at it’s best as first adult race, The mud was just right! Nice and slippery but not a bike killer.
Very, very technical circuit with a lot of the drama played out on steep banks.

When you’ve done a 2/3 road race of 60 miles with an average speed of 27mph and attacks going off every few minutes then a mixed bunch of ‘Sunday’ riders, straggled all over the place and stopping every 20 miles for a feed zone break all seems a bit tame.
However these things can be raced in a sense and as a competitive sort I would ride as fast as possible if I did them.
As for e-bikes, apart from medical reasons I despise the modern trend to try make life easier all the time. My joy of riding comes from the fact it’s hard and I have to work to get better at it. I’d generally regard an e-biker at a sportive as a bit of an idiot with more money than guts.
Doesn’t really come onto my radar though as proper racing has loads of rules and the only e-biker I’ve come across was whilst training at Swinley and I enjoyed giving chase and trying to keep up.