Team Singletrack Pipedream

Just to say well done to James for a hard fought race and well deserved National Championship. Quite a lot riding on it for him…

Also Gareth for the win in the 50km.

After a reasonable day on Saturday, pacing myself to do enough for 5th place, I personally had a disaster  for the marathon race on Sunday, slicing my rear tire on the fireroad of all places and riming/running back to pits to change wheel after the canister didn’t reinflate the tire. I punctured the next lap on the spare wheel[though with more aggression in my riding this time] and that was that. Too far to walk back to the pits so let the race and the series go.

After winning two of the rounds and finishing 2nd in the other, I was favourite to clinch the marathion series for the second year starting the event but then that is MTB racing. Pity Plymouth clashed with my XC national championships back in July. I could have secured the series then.

Right going to have a rant about the course in Coed-Y-Brenin.

What a load of rubbish, endless forest road and mickey mouse bits of singletrack. Easily the worst course I’ve raced on for an NPS in the UK. Seemed crazy to ride down forest roads passing acres of forest to each side. Not to mention of course that we had to ride long sections of the race in a river. Same for everyone isn’t it but I rather be racing somewhere a bit drier when it hasn’t rained that much.

Possibly trail centres are not the place for XC races after all. Think everyone would agree that the previous 4 [I only attented 3] rounds had better atmosphere, a better start area, better parking, and a more accessible course to spectators than this one.

Not sure why, and this for all rounds possibly, the race courses have to leave the start area and not return for the full lap. Whats wrong with looping them back mid way through to add a bit of interest to the race. Maybe more than once. Plenty of scope in all the venues so far to accomplish this. 

Last thing, when I started the marathon series last year, it was billed as a 25 km loop to be ridden 1,2 or 4 times to make the distances. The exception been Checkendon but they did a good job there with what they had. 

This year we have had One 25km loop at Margam and the rest are sligthly glorified XC courses. Seems odd in the epicentre of Mountainbiking that they could find no more than a 12km loop. 

Right anyhow….

Just to echo James’ note and say thanks to Alex for all the work this year and flying the flag for the privateer teams… a bit like Williams F1 team…think we put on a good showing anyway.

A 5 hour race in relative warmth in very wet Wales.

I’m very pleased to have come home in 1st place. I have been 2nd twice in this championship and really have the ability to win it. I trained for at least 9 days for this race! I mean i did not go shopping on my bike so much and actually went out on a ride without panniers and put the Garmin on the bike and looked at my pulse etc….All that tech stuff!

The Marathon race is just about attrition…..
So many good riders started the race, so little finished.
Only Oli Beckingsale was missing and he would have done very well if he had the time and energy to do the race. He had a hard race against Danish Champion Peter Riis Anderson on Saturday. It’s worth noting that Peter beat Oli but had had a tiny amount of sleep the night before the Saturday race and slept in his car with his feet in wheel bag! His flight was delayed due to a plane crash in  Munich, then his hire car was delayed, then his car journey was delayed by a crash in front of him. Then on Saturday night he was very ill and could not do the Marathon on Sunday.

When I found myself alone in the lead, I heard that Nick Craig was 1 min 20 secs behind me with two laps to go I had the energy to just go faster and widen the gap. I had no idea if he was still in the race.

Hats of to Duncan Jamieson and Ross Creber…..
Ross is young and managed 5th place. It would have been a miracle if he did not get slower in the last two hours but he hung in there with his mighty determination.
Duncan was the best placed rider over the Sat and Sun races. Good job for him.

End of season for me now….
Big thanks go to Alex McNicol for running the most successful XC and Marathon mtb team in the UK. The Seymour family have been a great help. Gareth girlfriend Lindi. Barrie and Sue Clarke. Andrew Howett. James and Ruth Fraser-Moodie. These are just few.

James Ouchterlony (UK National Marathon Champion 2007!)

Brighton to Avimore is a long drive! I set off on the wednesday evening from Brighton and drove to my parents house in Castle Douglas with a brief stop to meet Ag and collect my new steed for the event. Thursday was spent building my bike and taking it for a test ride round the trails of Dalbeattie Forest before getting back in the car for the next 5hrs of driving to avimore.

I woke up on saturday morning and ventured down for breakfast to be greeted with the best breakfast buffet in the world! It had everything from cereal to haggis. After eating until I was uncomfortably full I headed to get my bike and kit together for the ride that was shortly to be leaving. We had a nice relaxed ride through the highlands taking in some really nice sections of trail in some warm Scottish sunshine.

Race day began with a nice 7mile ride out from Bothy Bikes to the secret race venue with the music man playing some chilled tunes behind us, making the ride quite a surreal experience. The race began in a le mans style start, Not being a particulary good runner I was a bit behind as we got to the bikes. After a lap and a half of chasing i was up to the front group of 3 consisting of all the American pros over for the event. The course is without a doubt the best race course in the UK with long fireroad and technical climbs and flowing technical descents with some big drops that alot of riders were struggling with. The race for me was going pretty well, I was hanging in on the climbs and riding the technical sections smoother than the Americans so recovering a bit before the start of the last lap where spectators took to slapping asses which sent cramp all the way down my left leg, man that hurt! From there on the last lap was damage limitation, I got dropped by the americans but held on for 4th spot, so not too bad a result.

We stayed on for an extra night and went out on the monday to do some more riding, my legs have never hurt so much after any race so hopefully its been good training for the final round of the BMBS at Coed y Brenin later this month where the series is still very open.

Friday night before this year’s Sleepless in the Saddle, Gareth & I were sat about having a fair few beers & a chat with one of our team mates for the weekend, Michael, when a lad named Brad stumbled upon us.  Stumbled is a very appropriate word.  It became apparent that Brad was in fact the world’s drunkest man.  We had a lovely chat with Brad, he was so drunk, so happy & so very funny.  We found out lots about Brad.  He lives near Stoke on Trent & hates it there, he had been drinking Strongbow since breakfast time & had been trying to chat up a woman at the event.  Brad said that this woman was 33 years old & although this is a lot older than Brad, he thought it was fine as she had “A massive banger!”. Just the one apparently.  We saw Brad again a few minutes later, he was talking to a Toyota Hiace & was convinced that it was responding.  It then became clear that Brad was more than just drunk; he had got to a higher level of inebriation which had never been reached before.  In his honour we named this state “Brad.”  We then got back to our beers in pursuit of “Brad.”

Unbelievably we saw Brad on Saturday morning at around 10 O’clock heading out with his team for a practice lap.  What a legend!

As for the race itself…. Gareth, Michael & I were joined by Felt’s Ritchie Mardle.  After the first few laps we were confident that we had second place all but sewn up   So we carried on having a lovely time in the sun, drank some more beers, cracked open the disposable barbeques & had an on course skid contest on a big left hander & down the start/finish straight.

Well won my chmpionships for the 14th year in a row…won each year since 1994 when I jumped away from Martin Early on the last lap in Kilruddery Co Wicklow.

This years event was held by Banbridge CC in Tollymore Forest Park Co Down, Nice setting..

Nice course, a fireroad climb up to an off camber singletrack descent back to the start. Course of two halfs really.

Took it steady for the first lap and went into the singletrack in 3rd but overtook Niall Davis and Roger Aiken who had ridden very hard on the opening climb. I got a small gap on the descent on the first lap but took it steady but pulled away on the singletrack on lap 2. I gradually extended my lead to about 4 minutes by the end.

I have ridden well recently in St Felicien Canadian World cup were I was 37th [my best World Cup ride in modern times] and rode well in the Europeans championships 35th…after a poor start I rode well. Quite different courses but riding well all the same for the variety.

I’ve felt this year particualrly in the Premier that I’ve been about 3minutes off my best race time and its left me with poor results so far in the series but think I have come around a bit now. This has given me a good form for the Nationals and despite Niall Davis and Conor McConvey riding very well recently, the championships worked out ok for me.

Have to say its a big pressure event. I feel neerves for this that I didn’t even feel for Olympic games. Its hard in Ireland becasue if I lose a 13 race winning streak I’ll never hear the end of it, the MTB scene here been quite small and insular. Although I close it out the best I can it still creeps in. The first lap was horrible for this reason, it takes a while to settle down but once that happens its ok the nerves go and you get on with the concentration of racing. Have to be so careful for punctures etc and ride that bit easier and try to be smoother.

Anyway champion for another year so time for a beer or two..

Have to have quick plug for our sponsor Kenda.

I got a new set of Karmas for this race…supply has been difficult this year. But apart from Mayhem I have ridden the same set of tires since Thetford..Not just the same type of tire[in all different conditions] but the same set of tires! Just left them on.

That is..

Thetford XC and MX, Castlewellan C2, Buykada Turkey C1, Poland C1, Sherwood XC and MX, Margam XC and MX, Moscow 2 C1 races, World Cup Canada, European Championships Cappadoccia Turkey….

Impressive stuff.[to me anyway]

I’m running Kenda Karma non tubeless 2.0″ its a wideish tire with about 80ml of sealant. The non tubeless version I run with a bit more sealant than I would in a UST specific tire.

On friday morning I set off on an adventure with fellow Scottish rider Ross Creber to a place in Hungary called Zalaegerszeg for a UCI C2 race.

Having not hired a car before going, as every car hire company required a credit card to hire from them we were expecting an absolute mission to travel 300km from Budapest to Zalaegerszeg! So we arrive in Budapest at around 5pm, chancing our luck i rock up to the car hire desk with my finger over the ‘debit card’ bit of my visa and ask the man if i can hire a car with my card. We had a 15 minute wait for the guy to get a car from the other terminal constantly thinking he was going to reject the card as soon as he realises its not a credit card…luckily he put it through and never said a thing about it so, game on, we had a car and not a 5hr train journey. The journey over went pretty smoothly with only a couple of wrong turnings!

Next morning we get the bikes together and have some pretty much raw eggs for breakfast then head off to ride the course. The course was tough 1 drag and 4 short super steep climbs totaling 300+ m of climbing per lap!

Race day - The race was over 7 laps of the 6km loop. From the gun i took the holeshot and was sitting near the front going up the draggy climb over the top i made the effort to get to the front for the singletrack so i could be in control and ride at my pace, which at this point sucked… the 35degree heat was taking its toll and i was wrecked. A group of 5 went away and i was left thinking i was going to die! seriously i felt rubbish, I settled into a pace i thought i could last race distance at and just rode my own race. After a few laps i started to come round and make some progress. with no idea about gaps to the riders in front i was just riding.At the end i was happy i had survived until i found out the next riders were only about 30secs up. Gutted i hadn’t gone harder but to be honest i don’t think i could of. My heart rate on the steep climbs was up at 190bpm.

On monday we chilled by the big lake Batalon for an hour before the flight and got burnt to a crisp, overall a pretty awesome trip, met some real friendly people and will definitely go back for some sun, good racing and 52cm pizzas.

G.

With many reports covering the outcome of this event already this blog takes a look our experience.

Lots have been said about the course, entertainment, the amazing unicycle and solo riders, weather etc.  All I can say is that I thought it was an amazingly large and friendly event that ran so well under such harsh conditions.   The congregation at Hecklers corner were very supportive of our team.
Now I am in my 22nd year of mtbing and the show always goes on…..it’s a great sport and one of the very few useful sports.  My tennis racket never got me to the shops but saying that pot shots with stones on the estates is great fun.

The thing that always bothers me at events is those elite riders (a minority group, that is me and others)!  The last thing we want to do is annoy our fellow riders while trying to pass them at a higher speed but it is sometimes so difficult to do it right every time, especially when you are getting tired.  Apologies to anyone who was bothered by the speed freaks.  Just as well there wasn’t more prize money at stake!

This was my first Mountain Mayhem and having only ever done one other 24 hour race (in March this year) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it was still fresh in my mind how hard they can be.  What I had learnt from that race was that this time I was not going to sleep at all during the 24 hours; this was made easier for me because I returned from an amazing cycling experience (and my sister’s wedding) in Jamaica on the 20th of June.  With Jamaica being 6 hours behind the UK right now my bedtime was really at 6 am.  Probably with the jet lag I was no better off!

The Team:-
With myself, Robin Seymour, Gareth Montgomerie and Jenny Copnall it looked like we had great potential to win the mixed expert category.

I read the great report on XCRacer, tapped by Philip Morris, and it talked of our main competitors including the triumphant BMC / Extra team.  I call them the Evans lads with top British Triathlete Julie Dibens.  Julie was on high for sure.  She had just won the 2007 UK national Oympic distance elite title.  She is really good swimmer and has done quite bit of mountainbiking and Exterra  races.  It should go without saying that she is very good on world level also.  We all hope to see her back on a mtb soon….Plymouth?

So Julie was pitched against Jenny.  Looking at lap times you can see that Julie was quick.  The only thing I could draw from this was that when Julie and Jenny where racing in the same conditions at the same time Jenny was quicker.
As we neared the end of the 24 hours Jenny went on to do two laps more than the minimum two because we thought it would give us a rest and at the same time it allow Jenny to ride her bike!  Not really fair to be hanging around for such a long race and to only have two laps to do.  The rules have now been changed for next year so that the ladies will have to do more than two laps in 24 hours.

We were in a comfortable 2nd place and the 1st placed team was close to us at some point during but pulled away near the end of the race so we had the luxury of asking Jenny to ride more than her minimum two laps.  1st place may have come our way if some major technical issue plagued the BMC/Extra team.

With all that in mind Jenny did what you would have expected from such a professional.  The one aspect of the race that seemed let us down was our first few hours when we were doing two laps each.  I think this did not help out legs.  I was really enthusiastic about doing two laps each but by the time I had completed 3 sets of two laps I had blown big style, losing nearly 6 mins between my first and second lap time.  I was cramping up and had to go for a massage.  From then on I was sore and restricted slightly but we changed to single laps each after that which helped.  To be competitive I think it had to be single laps but it’s such a short time on the bike and more work cleaning bikes and kit!

Robin and Gareth did a great job without complaint and none of us suffered from any bike trouble thanks to Ag.  With Ag’s wife Sue cooking for us night and day we had no excuses to do our best.  Robin’s girlfriend Rachel went through the whole event also helping us all too.  Last but not least was Robin’s mother.  This is a mum on the ball.  She knows racing and enjoys it….all through the event she was taking lap times and working everyhting out…..amazing.

Hats off to the Scott team for their win in the mens category….Nick and Paul’s lap times were especially good.  Kate Potter seemed to be smiling all the way.  Somebody should have had one of those auto stair-climber seats installed for the solo women podium; a careless mistake Pat!

A big thanks to all sponsors at Mountain Mayhem, especially Dave Sharpand, Big Al at Shimano, Kenda tyres for their amazing tyres, Stuart from Pipedream Cycles & Garmin for keeping us on the right track.  Thanks to Steve Palmer for the photo.

Other races:-
Robin Seymour has just got a very respectable 37th place at the 5th round of the world cup XC series in Canada.

Gareth travels to Hungary for the XC race on the 8th of July.

If I survive I will tell you about it next week!

Saturday 2nd June: XC

Well back to Margam, not my favourite course, could do with a few more bits of technical singletrack but its improved a bit since I raced there years ago…1996 etc..Had terrible legs for the XC and though I knew on the first lap I thought I’d ride through it.[Missed two days riding this week rebuilding an engine and legs were a bit ‘blocked’] Anyway was in about 25th turning off the tarmac. I scrapped my way to about 14th place and for a few laps chased Octherlony and Jody Crawforth.  Eventually my legs came round a bit on the last lap[head down too] and I moved up to 9th…passing Nick on the last climb[sorry]

Dissapointed as 3 BMBs have gone now and I have not really being close to a podium. Plus I’ll miss the next oppertunity in Plymouth as It clashes with my National championships…Pity really like that course!

 Sunday 3rd June: MX 100km

So back to back racing/flogging myself again, however felt a better today the legs having been blown out a bit on Saturday. Felt I was as quick up the climbs today despite the tiredness from yesterday and of course riding steadier for the longer distance.

Teammate James took off on the first lap of four opening a small gap of 15 seconds but when we came to the long fireroad section at the top of the course, I pulled over from the front of main group unwilling to pull all our competitors along. However they [Nick, Stuart Bowers, Will Bergfeld Etc] just sat behind me and refused to come through so we ambled along at about 20km/hr. James with his head down quickly built a 2min+ lead. It wasn’t Singletrack/Pipedream tactics or intentions to do this but I’m not going to tow the others and I’d forfeit the win rather than do that.

 Anyway Split the group on the start of lap 2 and Stuart was the only rider to come with me. We worked together but lost more time to James so by the end of Lap 3 he was over 3minutes up????

 Also on lap 3 we had missed the two hour cut off for starting lap 3 ahead of the 50km race so we had 300 riders to contend with on the course. I must say all the riders were very courteous and a long line of them moved over in unison on the first climb. Thanks for that!

 On lap 4 I put the pressure on Stuart, sure I was riding for 2nd but caught James moving very slowly on the double track to the top of the course. He had blown up, so I gave him my gel and after riding on a bit decided I could give him half the energy bar I had left. So I put down the bike and walked back to him handed him the bar and walked back to my bike, getting back on before he caught me again…100km racing is funny. And we sprint like mad for the first corner..

 I was getting into a bad way myself having run out of water and was very dehydrated. I stopped and asked a few people for water but they were probably as bad as me and refused, One nice man did give me his bottle on the climb to the 2nd feed..thank you. I stopped at the feed to refill the bottle. I was getting pins and needles everywhere so thought it was prudent to stop.

 The water did the trick but still suffered up the last climb horribly for the 2nd time in 2 days…uck.

Overall BMB Seriesss

While the XC series ranking wont be too good now [wont be 3rd again], the MX series is looking OK with two wins and a second. Still have to ride strongly in the final round, also the UK National Championships, but really looking forward to Coed-Y-Brenin.

 Robin