I'm rubbish at XC racing (but I love it) - A Pirelli Powered VLOG Part 2

Hi I'm Benjie from Single Track and I'm here with part two of our Pirelli Scorpion vlogs

and this one is with Amanda here and she's been trying out which tyres

The Pirelli Scorpion X-C-M And what have you been getting up to on these Porelli Scorpion X-C-Ms

So I actually entered a 10-hour endurance race at Kiratry and I couldn't make it there because my van failed

So to get my race fix, I found a local event at a Quarry

So midweek madness at Lee Quarry is about an hour to an hour and 15

really intense XSE race so that was my backup plan and I did some training locally not really

any idea how to train for that type of race so I just rode my bike a lot This is why I ride an XC bike This is known as Cardiac Hill but it fine

It's fine if you're not slogging a big heavy bike up at. And I presume you had to ride your bike there

I did, yes, so I didn't have a vehicle. Was that a flat ride along a lovely c

It was a big slog up at Armit. hill down the other side up another hill and then it's quite a climb to actually get to the quarry

so we've basically climbed several times to get there and then back again were you late

no and how did you get on once you'd peddled all your way over there i won no um i actually

i really enjoyed it i'm not very good at cross-country racing but i loved it i just i felt like i had the

perfect bike for me at that type of race. So I had this secret weapon to keep me going and it's only an hour

So it's over before you have any ill feelings about what you're doing

Right there a lot of XC endurance marathon long distance multiple hour racing over the years And if there the first kind of short XC stuff you done how did you get on in general

And would you set your bike up any differently for the different types of event

So the short circuit is like a very intense concentrated test of all your technical riding skills

with courses designed to catch you out with unnatural lines and tricky features that just don't flow

So it's aggressive whereas endurance is a fixed mental state. It's a consistent pace and you can get into a rhythm

And as for the bike, I don't believe you can have the perfect setup for modern XC racing

So recognising your own riding strengths and then compensating for the parts that you're less confident with is a good approach for keeping rolling

So I'm very confident on my technical descending regardless of how aggressive my tyres are

If I'm running a racy XC tyre, I just tend to run higher pressures to get them

most out of the tread. But in my case, the steep, loose climbs are the biggest challenge because getting a balance of power and traction right is really hard

So I chose to run these tyres because they've proven to be really grippy on a bunch of terrain

The weather changes a lot around here So I done wet grass sloppy greasy mud wet rock I done the lot and generally I can climb up anything on them So they were my secret weapon to

making up for my lack of skill on steep climbs. Are you going to do any more short XC racing

this year? Oh, I think I've missed the boat this year but I'd quite like to do a series next year

I don't believe I'm any good at it but I just really enjoy it. It's good vibe

Thank you Amanda for that XC report about the Pirelli Scorpion XCMs

Now the next third final Pirelli Scorpion vlog will be from me

and how I got on with an enduro race. So bye for now and I'll see you then

Bye