18:15 Youth U 16 and U 14 - 30 mins - entry fee £4

19:00 3rd and 4th cats  - 40 mins- entry fee £7

19:55 2nd and 3rd cats - 50 mins - entry fee £7

Paul Fairburn writes…

My wife Jo Fairburn, friend Helen Pearcey and I, decided to take on a challenge this year to raise money for Everyman – the male cancer charity. We were inspired to do it because our son Josh recovered from cancer last year. This was undoubtedly because of the research and hard work done over the years to combat cancer – and we’re keen to see this continue.
We decided to do the ride with Skyline (www.skylineoverseas.co.uk). They organize rides like this all the time, and you can choose which charity you support. On our ride there were dozens of different causes being supported, with 78 riders signed up.
Preparation
Jo and Helen headed to Red Kite to research some bikes last November. The team in the shop were great. I joined Jo and Helen when they went in to pick up their bikes, to get one for me too. Cycling 290 miles to Paris on my mountain bike or my Brompton wouldn’t have been a great idea…
The ladies bought Trek road bikes, and I got myself a Specialized. They served us well, and got us to Paris, which is the main thing.
Training in January wasn’t easy, with all the bad weather. So I bought one of those rollers to do some training in my garage. They work – but it’s not the same as proper cycling. I did catch up on some TV shows in the garage though!
We kept popping back to Red Kite, to buy more gear. Clothes, accessories, gunk cleaner, etc. etc. We became regulars. The staff in the shop have always been great – very helpful and full of useful advice.

Jo and Helen joined Red Kite’s Belles on Bikes – to get some free tips. What a great idea! They picked up some great advice, which they passed on to me.
Our training progressed over the months, as we built up the miles. We weren’t going very fast. “It’s not a race” was Jo’s refrain, when I mentioned speed. The only problem with going “steadily” when cycling to Paris is that you have to catch a ferry in Dover on the first day!
We planned training routes around Warwickshire and Worcestershire, using the Veloroutes website. But lately I’ve discovered www.GPSies.com. This is very good for planning a route, and better than Veloroutes. You can print maps and altitude charts, and download the route in multiple formats for your navigation kit, if you have any.
I used an old windows mobile phone and a free programme called Bikedashboard. But if you’re lucky enough to have an iPhone, there’s an App for that. Obviously.
I pushed myself a bit harder than the ladies, and soon regretted it. I developed ITB Syndrome. That’s painful – on the outside of the knee. One solution to this is to stop exercising for a month; rest; and build up the exercise slowly after that. That was clearly not an option with only a few weeks to go to the 290 mile challenge.
I visited Red Kite again, Mike fitted me with Time ATAC pedals/cleats to keep my legs in the right position. Then I had a course of physiotherapy, and lots of Voltarol (Always read the label). My knees hurt a bit; not enough to stop me training though. Would I make it to the ferry in time on day one?
The first day London-Dover (and then on to the hotel in Calais) is advertised as 95 miles. We trained steadily, increasing our mileage each weekend. But the longest we managed before the actual trip was 70 miles. Would we get to Dover?!
The 4 Day challenge
Day 1
We woke up at 5am on June 2nd and made our way to the Crystal Palace registration point. The weather was good, though the day before had been very wet.

We signed in, put tags on our bikes, put our luggage onto the Skyline van, and waited for the briefing.
The Skyline people are great, and the event was very well organized. The route was marked by fluorescent cardboard triangles. Follow those, and you’re fine. The briefing warned us when to expect water stops and lunch… and hills!
We set off at around 7am, to get out of London before the serious traffic.
Here’s a chart showing the altitude variation over the first day’s ride from London to Dover.

The Skyline team warned us about the nasty hill at about 22 miles. But the hardest were the ones before Dover. The “Downs” is not a name I’d have chosen for them.
The Kent countryside was spectacular in the sunshine, and after 91 miles of pedaling we made it to the rendezvous point in Dover.
We caught the ferry to Calais, and due to the time difference it was about 9.45pm before we docked in Calais. We then had to cycle to our hotel – another 7 miles away. We got to bed around midnight, expecting to start pedaling at 9am the next day.
The total mileage for the first day had been 99 miles, according to my bike computer.

Day 2
The briefing told us to expect more hills on day two. But at least we were only going to cycle 72 miles.
The lunch stops were always pleasant – on Day 2 it was particularly nice. A wooded glade by a small pond.

The next hotel (Ibis) was in Abbeville, and the only thing we had to arrive in time for was dinner at 7.30pm. Easy!
I think this was the day we passed a sign claiming that the temperature was 31 deg C…

Day 3
The route from Abbeville to Beauvais was hillier, I swear, than day 2. But the briefing underplayed it - a lot. The best thing about it was that once we’d hit the peak altitude, the descent to Beauvais was gradual and easy. The road was fast… and so once we’d make it to the highest point it was great!
(You may have realized by now that I’m not a hill-thrasher…)
This shorter day meant plenty of time for a drink and the evening meal. Much more relaxed than the first day’s mad dash.

Day 4
This was the highlight. The big finish!
The day started with a long hill we hadn’t been warned about… and it did involve the most traffic and lots of potholes, but at least it was the shortest distance; 53 miles.
We all enjoyed a leisurely lunch stop, so that the fastest and slowest riders weren’t strung out too far. We rendezvous’d at the Bois De Bologne, and then rode together to the Eiffel Tower.
The best thing about riding in convoy in Paris is the way we could ignore red lights and bully our way round those huge scary roundabouts. Like the one round the Arc de Triomphe! Sheer weight of numbers got us respect.

If you’ve considered doing the London to Paris Challenge, our advice is to do it. You’ll have a great time as long as you train for the hills. I’m the wrong side of 50, and I can do it… so give it a go. And consider raising money for Everyman (www.everyman-campaign.org) while you do.
Thanks to Red Kite for all the help and advice. And thanks to my physiotherapist for keeping my legs working…

Well last weekend was the return of Mountain Mayhem at Eastnor Castle in the Malvern Hills, and what a weekend it was. We had two teams entered, the Red Kite All Stars (Nick Dunn, David Eaves, Deborah Whitehouse, Ben Thomas and Adrian) in the open mixed category and a four man team (Rich Harding, Thom Phillips, John Laughlin and Euan Adams) in the open men.

Our support crew headed over on the Thursday in order to set up camp at a good spot near the halfway point on the course, next to the lake. Most of the riders arrived on the Friday after work/uni. A pre ride in the afternoon showed us that there were few new sections to course from last year, with a really muddy bit of single track in the first half due to rain that day. The course was also longer than last year’s with more climbing to boot. This meant thta, according to our Garmins,  a lap come in at just over 9 miles and we estimated lap times of between 50 min and an hour.

Race day dawned and the course had started to dry out a lot with people pre riding past the camp looking much cleaner than we did the day before. As with all 24 hr mtb races, it started with a le Mans style run start, with triathlete Thom starting for the men’s team and shop manager Nick starting for the All Stars mixed team. Thom put in an awesome run to come in in 17th to pick up his bike and start his first lap, with Nick coming in around half way through the pack.

After the first lap Thom passed the baton on to John who set out on his Whyte E120 to put in a solid, lung opening lap to hand over to team captain Rich and then on to Euan, who put in a seriously fast lap of 45min. After Nick came in (still suffering from the run) he handed over to Dave ‘Mr Consistent’ Eaves, who then handed over to Deb. The All Stars team had to manage with 3 riders for a few hours until the remaining riders arrived after work.

The rest of the afternoon passed without major incident with everyone putting in solid lap times and most importantly really enjoying riding in a beautiful spot. After 8pm all riders had to leave with their lights on whether they used them or not,  although wasn’t really dark till well after 10pm. Thom was the first rider to do a proper night lap and had to do the first half of the lap without his light as he couldn’t turn it on, a quick pit at the Red Kite camp changed that and he went storming round the rest of the lap. As the darkness came, the temperature plummeted and staying warm in between laps was vital to conserve energy. At 12.30am Euan headed out on his first night lap to record one of the fastest night laps only 3minutes slower than his fastest day lap! Despite the darkness and low temperatures everyone managed to keep pretty consistent with their lap times, making good progress up the results sheet.

As the sun came up at around 4.30am, riders spirits did too, giving everyone a new lease of life after a cold dark night. As everyone was now all awake at the same time, it gave them a chance to calculate roughly how many laps they had left to do and see who was going to be doing the last lap. After a quick bit of maths it looked like it was going to be Nick for the All Stars and Euan for the men’s team. Nick was able to ride comfortably round without having to worry about times and enjoy his last lap. Rich came in with 46minutes to go to hand over to Euan, which meant if Euan put in a really fast lap they would be able to go around again (although there was no offers to do the extra lap) and possibly move up the results. Euan rode hard but got held a little towards the end of the lap by riders counting down the timer and came in in 48min to just miss the cut off, and thankfully not go out again.

The All Stars completed 22 laps in 24:01:48 to take 24th place in the Sport Mixed category and Red Kite Cycles Men’s team completed 25 laps in 24:02:58 to finish 14th in the Open Men’s category. Everyone had a fantastic time and are already planning for next year. A massive thank you to all our helpers (Mike, Sarah, Anita, Ben ‘Man Up’ Harding) over the weekend whose support and heckling was invaluable.

Bring on next year!

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Red Kite Cycles is delighted to be supporting National Bike Week with a range of activities.

On Tuesday 22 June we are repeating out popular evening bike ride just for women, leaving the shop at 6:30 for about an hour and a half.  Our Belles on Bikes ride around the local lanes is for any women regardless of their ability or experience. With staff and experienced cyclists on hand to advise you on how to get the best out of your bike and enjoy your cycling it’s an opportunity not to be missed.

Wednesday 23 June is late night opening until 8:00pm.  Our staff will be on hand to discuss our wide range of bikes and accessories for all types of cycling. There will be an opportunity to test ride some of our bikes and learn about the Cycle to Work Scheme which could save up to 49% on the cost of a new bike. And the coffee is free!

On Friday 25 June the Velocity Health and Fitness Cycling Club regular ride will be leaving from the Village Hotel at the Green Business Park at 6:30.  This will be for about an hour along the local lanes finishing back at the hotel where there is ample bike parking.

The elite wave  is really the only time you would have to worry about bunch riding. There will probably be a lot of people on the course even if it is an age group non-drafting race, but they tend to stagger the race starts quite well so that it shouldn’t be too bad in terms of crowding and having lots of people around. They will probably find a lot of people not quite sticking to the drafting rules (I believe it is around 10m but this will be made clear to them on race day at the briefing) and getting too close for too long (i.e when they aren’t overtaking) but I would always advise them to try to be as careful as possible with this as if you are caught by a marshall there is a chance they would be immediately disqualified or at minimum face a time penalty (added on to their total time at the end) and t’s always better to finish knowing you didn’t ‘get away with something’ even if others do it.

Other than this I would say just to treat the road as if it is theirs - by that I mean don’t worry about other people around them trying to pass etc. If someone wants to pass you and you are in the way, it is their job to let you know so you can move over, not your job to ride on the side of the road the whole time in case you are in the way. It is much better to take the shortest route, and therefore the racing line so look for this round the corners - and there are a few places where you can take advantage of this at Blenheim.

Blenheim isn’t massively hilly but it s a fairly ‘bumpy’ course so I would advise controlling the pace throughout the first half of the bike and then building through the second half - particularly as the run also has a decent hill in it that has to be climbed twice. Going out too hard on the bike could spell disaster onto the run, but a more controlled approach and building throughout the race means they will probably finish much stronger than they imagine they will.

It is always good to use other people to pace off on the bike - obviously I don’t mean draft off them - but after the first few kilometres on the bike, once they start to settle into their own pace, have a look around, see who is near and who is riding roughly the same pace, or maybe just a little faster and try to stay the same distance from them. It always helps to have a target and someone to work off so this is a technique that a lot of pro long distance athletes use.

It’s really important to remember to drink on the bike - you get a lot more dehydrated than you think during the race and your run leg can suffer hugely if you haven’t taken on enough fluids on the bike so for a short distance race I would advise trying to get through around 600ml on the bike in average conditions (high teens, low winds) but in higher temperatures up to a litre may be necessary. As my race is drafting I tend to need slightly less so I drink around 500ml on the bike in ‘normal’ conditions during a sprint race like Blenheim, but in an Olympic Distance race I’d drink more than double that - at least a litre even in cold conditions and up to 1.5l in hot weather - half energy drink, half water. I don’t tend to use gels on sprint distance races but a lot of people do so if they are used to this then definitely carry on with it on race day. If they haven’t used gels before, during the race is not the right time for a trial!

As for swimming in open water, the most important thing is not to panic, particularly at the start when there will be a lot of people around and it can end up a little bit like a washing machine!! Just stay calm an concentrate on your own stroke - I find you don’t even need to try ’sighting’ in the first hundred metres or so as you just follow all the splash and you can’t really go wrong!! If they are particular nervous about being stuck in the middle of a big group in the water and possibly getting knocked around a bit (which is perfectly normal and if you just ignore it as best you can and try to get on with doing your own thing it isn’t a problem) then starting as close to the edge of the group as possible is probably the best idea.
The swim at Blenheim has always been fairly straight forward in the years I have done it - straight up for around 500m (along a lane rope too so it’s pretty difficult to go the wrong way!) and then a sharp left turn around a large turn bouy into the shore. Taking th inside line around the buoy is a good idea as it’s the shortest route, but your chances of being bashed around are higher s if this is a worry, take it nice and wide and keep out of the ruck. I really think the most important thing is to not panic in open water - it’s a bit mad but just try to enjoy it and settle into your own rhythm!

The likelihood they will have to do a lot of ’sighting’ is slim, but if they are in the situation where following the splash isn’t quite enough then they should always look at both the bouy ahead and also a fixed object that is directly behind it. Try to find something at the start (like a big tree or building) but if the bouy is too far away at this point then the first time you look at the bout during the race is the time to check out the background for something to use. If you only look at the bouy for sighting then it will always look like you are heading in a straight line even if you are wildly off course, so having something else to line it up with is really useful.

The transition onto the bike at Blenheim is up a pretty long hill so just relax and take it steady up there as otherwise you will be cooked by the time you get onto your bike!!

The most important thing is really to just enjoy yourself - what’s the point otherwise hey? - but also to focus on doing your own things right (racing line, fluids, pacing etc) and not get too caught up in what others are doing.

I hope that helps - not sure if this is the sort of advice they are after but hopefully something in there is of use!!

As for my first race, it was a pretty long time ago now but I do remember I made all sorts of mistakes!! It was a pool swim in May 2005 and my first mistake was to completely forget my number belt so I had to run back into transition to get it! That wasted a lot of time! I then ran past my racking position in transition so had to go back to find my bike. Onto the bike and my positioning was pretty awful on the road and I was rubbish at judging distance for the drafting - I was warned by the marshalls once to keep my distance too so was lucky not to come away with a time penalty. I was very unsure of the dismount and ended up getting off my bike about 10m early as I didn’t want to be penalised by riding over the dismount line! As you can see - lots of mistakes, and lots of room for improvement but I still really enjoyed it and was ready for the challenge of an open water race. I can honestly say I have never forgotten my number belt again, nor have I messed up my dismount so badly! I rarely race non-drafting so I’m not sure how my skills at judging distance are but I have on odd occasion (twice in 5 years isn’t too terrible though) ran past my bike in transition. To combat this I normally practice running into transition on race morning and use external markers (such a tree or an advertising banner) to know where my bike is. I like to think I am a fairly established athlete these days but I still struggle with some of the technical elements of triathlon even now and there is nearly always something that I could have done better in any race. A common one for me is fumbling my helmet clasp in T1 when I am trying to get it fixed quickly. I’ll keep working on these small things and striving to get as many things right as I can in every race - ‘ticking the boxes’ as my coach calls it, but let’s be honest, nobodies perfect right?!

Ross rode in the Elite race whilst Euan took the start in the Expert category. Tim and Dave were making their debut in the Sports race whilst Richard and Mark flew the flag in the ever competitive Masters category.

The weather got the better of Ross who pulled out after 2 of 5 laps wheras Euan continued his run of good form to finish second in the Experts and not far off the winner. Tim finished the Sports event but a broken chain put paid to David. The weather (mud) got to Richard as well but Mark finished despite crashing on the last lap and cutting both knees.

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Elite mens podium with Ross in 3rd

Starting 1min behind the Elites, Euan had high hopes in the expert race. Having not raced at round 1, Euan was gridded on the 2nd row so had to fight hard to get towards the front. Going into the second piece of singletrack, Euan was sat at the back of a train of 7 riders and managed to pick off a few places as riders made mistakes on the twisty course. At around halfway through the first lap Euan had pulled away with David Beskeen and had began to put some good space between them and the chasing pack. Just before the finishing climb on lap 1 David made a small mistake which allowed Euan to get a gap of around 10s at the end of lap 1. Euan kept extending his lead lap on lap, also making his way up to 6th place in the elite race which started ahead of him. By the end of lap 4 Euan came in to finish 53s ahead of David in 2nd and over 6min up on 3rd. The heat had played a huge part in the fatigue of the riders throughout the race with most riders collapsing straight after crossing the line. This win takes Euan to 3 straight wins and with confidence high he’s looking forward to round 3 of the National MTB series at Margam Park this weekend.

Expert mens podium, with Euan in 1st

Next up was Euan in 2.3 cat race, racing the same circuit for 50min plus 5 laps. After a quick start Euan managed to break away by himself after 3 laps but was chased down by a group of 6. This group of 7 then worked well together for a few laps until a few of the guys started sitting on and missing turns. Sensing the bunch wasn’t far behind, he attacked going up the slight hill on the finish straight immediately getting a good gap. The attacked worked well as the group was quickly swallowed up by the chasing bunch but they couldn’t make any inroads into Euan’s lead, as he continued to pull out a substantial lead by himself. With 2 laps to go the bunch finally gave up chasing and Euan came in to win by half a lap, and very tired. This has cemented his lead in the series with 2 more rounds to go, although he’ll be missing the round to compete in Mountain Mayhem.

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I arrived here late on Wednesday, feeling pretty good after the long travel – as the time difference to Canberra was only 1hour I wasn’t feeling any effects from jet-lag and I had a couple of hours sleep on the plane so I was actually quite fresh. In the days leading up to the race I had been feeling a bit ‘hit and miss’ on my runs – some felt great, some felt really average, but my swimming and cycling had been fine.

Race day itself came and I was nervous but excited to wear my single digit race number for the first time. As we lined up for the race start I stood next to Daniela Ryf, one of my training partners last year and the eventual winner…must be true that number 8 is a lucky number here in Asia!

I had a good swim and I have to say I didn’t notice the water temperature (which was a rumoured 14°C) exiting in 8th place. T1 was pretty smooth – apart from the loss of my chip as I whipped off my wetsuit! The officials must have noticed this during the bike section as my chip was placed on top of my run shoe so I had to lose a bit of time in T2 putting it back on. Onto the bike and there were three athletes clear away but they were closed down in about 2 laps on the bike. That made for a really solid first two laps for me!! Man, some of those girls can really ride and on the day I just didn’t have enough in the tank to contribute…I was giving my all just to hang in there!

It was vital to be near to the front of the group with so many tight corners and U-turns (32 U-turns, 4 each lap to be precise!) and I think I could have done a better job of this. Still I made it off the bike thankful that there hadn’t been any incidents and ready to test the run legs. Unfortunately the run legs never really appeared! I tried to go with the early pace…for all of 800m before I realised that this wasn’t really going to happen! I settled into a more comfortable pace and tried to focus on my technique but was somewhat stuck in the wrong gear. I guess the powerful surging bike course really took its toll on me as I just felt pretty flat on the run. I finally started to come good in the last half a lap and picked up a couple of places – maybe with another lap I would have ended up with a good result! Anyway I came in 19th – so it wasn’t exactly a disaster but just not the result I know I’m capable of. As I mentioned, Daniela stormed home to victory in what was apparently a fantastic finish, coming from 15m behind in the closing 500m to take the sprint from Barbara – another great result from our ‘Crazy Chicka’!

So this is where the race report would normally end…except for me the weekend was about to get much more ‘interesting’..! Around 12a.m on Saturday night I started to feel a bit rough, overly bloated and a bit nauseous. It was coming in fits and starts and mostly I was ok. By 2a.m I was really starting to feel sick and by 3a.m I was a very poorly girl! I spent all night in and out of the toilet with a nasty mix of vomiting and diarrhoea (sorry, probably too much information there!) and felt pretty horrendous much of yesterday too. Thankfully I’m feeling much more alive now and hoping to feel right as rain for my return to the UK tomorrow. Several of the other athletes (including my roomie Hollie Avil and training partners Lisa Norden and Barbara) have also been struck down so the likelihood is that the dirty water of the River Hahn got to us! Either that or a bug has been passed between the athletes.

Anyway, not a fun couple of days and Seoul certainly hasn’t been all I’d hoped for but looking at the positives – I’m coming home tomorrow!! I can’t wait to have a little time back in the UK after 4+months away. Come on little volcano, stay quiet for a couple of days so I can get home…please!

Next up will be the first round of the French Grand Prix in Dunkerque so I will ask the racing Gods for a better time in France.

Take it easy

Vix x

The course wound its way through the pituresque estate, taking in very little climbing but this didn’t make it any easier. The first half of the course was very heavy going through tight loamy singletrack and steep banks, opening up into a very rapid second half of fireroad and fast flowy singletrack through meadows of bluebells. Considering the rain the previous week and on the saturday, the course held up very well.

In race 2 we had Ross competing in the Elites and Euan in the Experts. With gridding based on UCI points Ross was gridded back in 33rd despite finishing 13th at the previous round at Clipstone. From the start the pace was relentless with Liam Kileen (Specialized) and Billy Joe Whenman (Whyte) forcing the pace at the front. Ross picked his way through the riders, riding strongly up to 10th at the end of lap 2. By the end of lap 4 he worked his up to 7th place, riding with Andy Blair (Torq), these 2 battled their way round with Ross edging him in the sprint to finish 7th, his highest finish in an Elite National race. This also means he’ll gain some valuable UCI points to work his way up the gridding for round 3 at Margam in 3 weeks.

Euan was gridded 12th, which meant a place on the front row. After a strong first few pedal strokes, Euan struggled to get his left foot clipped in and dropped a few places, getting safely tucked in the first section of fireroad. After getting held up in the first few sections of singletrack, Euan chased his way through the field coming in 10th after the first lap, just off the back of the leading group. Over the course of the next few laps the leading group split up and Euan managed to pick off a number of riders after some very consitent laps times. By the last lap he’d caught up a group riding for 4th place, but after a few gearing issues and fatigue setting in he had to settle for 6th.

In race 3 Rich was representing in the Masters category. This was to be Rich’s first race of the year after having to sit out round 1 due to illness. What Rich was lacking in speed in made up for in determination and technical skill. He rode strongly throughout setting his own rhythm after the race was upted from 4 laps to 5 after the quicker than planned lap times. He came in to finish 52nd in a very quality field, hopefully with some more training he’ll be placing much higher at round 3.

The next round of the series heads to Margam Park in South Wales in 3 weeks, for a hard weekend of racing on a proper MTB course, fingers crossed we’ll be reporting some even better results. 

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