There is a map of the route available which shows total distance covered together with a height profile.

You can see Ross’s report on the National MTB Champs on the previous blog post. At the Brighton Mitre crit race, Euan was hoping to get his 3rd straight win there and with it the series. The race started off at a high pace with keeping near the front out of trouble on the twisty course. After about 6minutes of racing, Euan made his move over the brow of the hill near the finish to get an immediate gap on the field, after 1 lap another rider Phil Cloke had joined him and the 2 of them started to pull away from the rest of them. They were working well together and after 40minutes of fast riding, the 2 of them had lapped the field. A lap later and Euan attacked in the same place and caught Phil off guard to jump away. He rode the remainder of the 7 laps by himself opening up a lead of almost half a lap to take the win, and the first win in the new team kit. So with 3 wins out of the series of 4 (he missed one due to Mountain Mayhem) he took the series quite comfortably. Two days later he rode with brother Ross at the National MTB Champs to finish 18th in the senior men despite 2 rear wheel changes on the first lap.

Euan at the MTB Nationals

Vicky’s race report from Hamburg

“Well I wasn’t really expecting that! Training has been going great, and as I mentioned in my last post I was feeling pretty confident of a good race, but I wasn’t quite expecting to make such a leap forward! For those of you who have no clue what I am waffling on about, last weekend was the Hamburg leg of the World Championships Series and I finished 5th. Not only that but I ran for 9.7km with a lead pack of 7girls including the World No1, 2 and 3 from 2009 and only got outkicked when it came down to the sprint. Our run times were all under 34.30 and although I am not sure of the accuracy of the course, that is still 2minutes quicker than I have ever run before so it was a DEFINITE improvement!

I’ve never raced in Hamburg before (demonstrated by my booking a hotel in the red light district directly above and next to two sex shops…oops) but the atmosphere is legendry in the triathlon world. Basically the course is right in the centre of the main shopping district and every year thousands and thousands of people come to watch and I know the athletes love to race here. I was really excited to experience this atmosphere for myself and after watching the men’s race live on German TV the day before (it was too hot to go and stand outside and watch and certainly not sensible pre-race day) I was even more excited. I was 100% ready to rumble by Sunday and I was literally counting down the hours as I sat in our hotel room waiting for race time.

As for the race itself, the horn went and the fighting began. I’ve heard from several of my training partners that Hamburg is a notoriously hectic swim and this year didn’t disappoint. At around 200m in I was getting so smashed around that I could barely get my arms over so I took the fairly drastic decision to stop, wait for the pack to go past and then swim towards the gaps…which was pretty much the opposite direction! Luckily I was actually feeling really good in the water so managed to swim straight past a lot of girls and at the first turn buoy I had got myself onto the front pack. That wasn’t to last long as I got pretty beaten up around the top turn buoys – honestly, why do people think it will make them quicker to attack someone else by pulling on their race suit, their head or literally swimming over the top of them? I’m pretty sure it slows them down as well as me! Anyway, I had to work hard to get a reasonable place back and just as I did so we went under ‘the tunnel’ (40m pitch black tunnel that we had to swim under three times) for the first time. Now I’m not sure if some people got scared under there or maybe they thought that seeing as the cameras couldn’t see us it was just a free for all, but it definitely got more aggressive under there! The light at the end of the tunnel couldn’t come quick enough!

After the roughest (and dirtiest – ours suits got dyed a beautiful green algae colour) swim of the year I exited 16seconds down on the leader and hopped onto my bike just off the front pack. After a couple of laps we came together as a big pack with most of the main players present. The pace was relatively high but I didn’t feel like I had been too stretched coming into T2 for the all important run leg.

The lead girls ran out of T2 at lightening pace (no change there then) and I was struggling to find my legs so I decided to hold back, try to find some rhythm and then bridge up to work my way up as the pace calmed down. After around a km I found my form and started to pass people and close in on the leaders. Just before the 2km mark I made contact with the lead girls – I wasn’t exactly expecting to get right to the front but I decided to just try and relax into it and see how long I could hang in. Emma Moffatt was leading the charge and surged a few times through the 10km making it tough at times, but in general I think I was carried along by the electric atmosphere and the adrenalin of being in the mix with the best in the world. Every kilometre that passed I said to myself ‘so that’s 5km you’ve now run with these girls’ ‘now that’s 7km with the best girls’!

Vicky in the lead group at Hamburg

Photo courtesy of Thomas Sobczak www.foto37.net

I was expecting to suffer at some point and have to drop off but into the last lap, even though I was beginning to hurt I knew I could stay with the pace unless a massive surge went. 500m to go and I started to get a bit excited. The 7 of us – Emma Moffatt, Lisa Norden, Kate Roberts, Aileen Morrison, Laura Bennet, Andrea Hewitt and myself – were all still together so it was going to come down to a sprint – something I am normally pretty good at. Around the final corner with 300m to go, Lisa made a surge and everyone reacted. That’s when I knew that I wouldn’t be outsprinting many people that day! I’d ran the best 10km of my life (by a LONG way) but I had nothing in terms of a sprint finish – I guess that is the price you pay! I crossed the line in 5th, half a step behind my housemate and training partner Kate and only 4seconds behind Lisa who took the tape and the glory. Needless to say I am pretty much over the moon with the result. Pretty much.

Ok ok, I really have no justification to be disappointed (and really, disappointed is too strong a word), yet there is this nagging voice in the back of mind saying ‘yeah it was good, but you were only two seconds off the podium and four seconds from winning the thing’. I guess sometimes it’s hard to be so close to the ultimate glory and not quite be able to seal the deal! It’s all to do with the competitive instinct that is part and parcel of any sportsman and in truth I am glad that I am not 100% satisfied with this result as otherwise where would I go from here? Instead I am pleased with the progress I have shown but am now even more driven to progress and most importantly….find my kick! Next time Vicky, next time….

So a great weekend for me and also other Brits too – Tim Don was 3rd in the men’s race on Saturday, Jodie Stimpson took a fantastic victory at the French Grand Prix in Paris and the in the men’s FGP the Brownlee brothers dominated once again. In terms of D-Squad…well I think it’s safe to say we dominated in Hamburg with 1st, 4th, 5th an 8th – half of the top 8 ain’t bad!! Well done one and all!

Next up is the London round of the WCS this weekend in Hyde Park. This is arguably the biggest race of the year so far – the field is the strongest it has been all year (29 of the current top 31 in the world will start) and being the home leg for us GB athletes it is really exciting. Coming off my race in Hamburg I am more confident than ever in my running so with some good recovery this week I am hoping for another great day in front of the home crowd which will include some of my loved ones who are coming over to watch. Let’s hope the people of London come out to support this race just like in Hamburg – now that would be really special.

Finally, thanks for the many messages of support and encouragement that I have received in response to both my last blog and the race in Hamburg. I appreciate them all .”

And as she mentioned, she also raced the London Hyde Park round of the Triathlon World Champ Series on Saturday. With a much stronger field than at Hamburg, Vicky had an amazing race to finish 6th 45s off a podium. There will be a full race report from Vicky coming soon, but in the meantime you can watch highlights of her race here, and an interview with Vicky by British Triathlon here.

National Champs on my Whyte 19

Sunday 18th July was the day I had been targeting all year, the day of the National Championships. This year they were held at the Pippingford Estate, about 10miles from Gatwick Airport. After riding well at the Southern XC Series event on the same course in May, I was quietly confident that I could achieve my aim of a top 10 finish. My Whyte 19 was running smoothly after Sean had put some new bearings in the bottom bracket (Thanks Sean!), so there would be no excuses, the only thing that would affect my finishing position would be my legs.

I travelled over to the the race on Saturday afternoon and rode two laps of the course at a steady pace to wake the legs up a bit, and to get used to riding off road again. The course was slightly different compared to the one I raced on in May, the main difference being that a section called “The Quarry” had been placed in the middle of the lap, as opposed to the start, where it would cause a bottleneck if 50 riders hit it 2 minutes after the start. I really enjoyed the course, the climbs were long, but not too long, and the downhills were nice and fast, with big berms allowing you to carry your speed through the corners. I came back to the caravan happy; a good course and legs that felt good too.

Race day dawned cloudy but dry, and keen not to carry on my tactic so far this year of taking 2 laps of the race to get going, I went out for a 30min spin on the road after breakfast. As the race didn’t start until 2:30pm, I didn’t want to hang around all day and then get to the start and discover my legs had been asleep all day… The other challenge with the later then usual start was eating. The trick is to eat enough to get you through the race, but not so much that you feel full on the start line, as that can have some rather unpleasant consequences. So after a few more sandwiches than usual, I started my warm up 45mins before the start of the race, to make sure I was raring to go from the off.

For the first time all year (and ever!), I was gridded on the front row of a national level race… and I completely messed up the start, missing my pedal engagement and ending up sat on the crossbar as half the field came past. The National Champs is not a race you want to make harder for yourself!  With my foot safely in the pedal, I entered the first bit of singletrack just outside the top 10 and quickly settled into the race. I was feeling good on the climbs and more than holding my own on the downhills. After 2 laps of the 6 lap race I was riding with Chris Minter and Dave Collins, and still going strong. Coming up the final climb to the finish at around half distance, Dave upped the pace and broke clear from Chris and I. However, we could see him for the majority of the lap, and I was confident that I could make a move later in the race to get up to him. However, not long after this it became clear that I hadn’t quite eaten enough before the race, and was becoming reliant on the PowerBar energy gels to me through the race. The new plan was to blag it, and hope Chris didn’t realise I was on the verge of blowing out of the 2nd half of the race! If he pushed the pace, even slightly, it could have been a messy ending for me! As the last lap approached, I was surviving. We were riding for 6th place, and thanks mainly to the caffeine gels, I was still going OK. Up the last climb on lap 5, Chris managed to pull out a slight gap, and in the over eagerness to catch up on the downhills, I slightly overshot a corner, and washed out. I managed to stay on the bike, but lost precious seconds. Perhaps more importantly, my legs made a different movement to going round in circles as I dabbed the ground. My legs only go round circles (just ask my girlfriend how much I dislike walking!). A twinge of cramp caused the last lap to be an even greater battle for survival, but survive I did, crossing the line in 7th place, a whole 7 places better than my previous best at the National Champs! With Euan riding brilliantly for 18th, despite two wheel changes on the first lap, it was a great day for the Red Kite Cycles Race Team. A good Nationals debut for the new kit too!

Now it is time for a rest! And maybe a few road races if I can find any 1st cat races close to home…

ROSS ADAMS

CatEye Strada Wireless Computer

Summer is here and it is time to get out on the bike. How far did you go? what was your max speed on that long downhill you found? Don’t know  - then you need a cycle computer to keep track of things. An ideal model is the CatEye Strada which is available both as a wired and wireless version. We prefer the wireless for it’s cleaner to fit to modern bikes. It’s slim design combined with ease of use and large screen makes it the ideal training tool for riders aspiring to Le Tour De France and casual riders alike. Rather than having fiddly buttons, almost the entire screen is one single button that requires little precision - just push and cycle through the computer’s functions in sequence. The sensor/transmitter itself is similarly compact, and impressively impervious to interference from other transmitters.

At £44.99 the Strada normally comes in black or white but for a limited time, Tour De France colour themes such as yellow, green and white/red polka dot to mimic the main jerseys for leader, points leader and king of the mountains are available. For minimalist, real world, real rider performance, at such value, the Strada Wireless can’t be beaten.

Le Tour De France is now in full swing and although most people will never get to be in it, let alone win it, you can ride a Tour winning bike.

When a frame has won the Tour de France as often as Trek’s Madone - seven times in the hands of Lance Armstrong and last year with Alberto Contador - you expect great things of it. The latest incarnation used by the pros is the 6.9 . Its rapid acceleration, balanced geometry and an impressive degree of comfort make for a bike fit for Tour de France winners. And if it’s good enough for them, it should be more than good enough for the rest of us.

The Madone family of bikes is made up of three parts. There is the 4 series, the 5 series and the 6 series as well as women’s specific models designated WSD. The team issue 6 series frames are made from OCLV2 Red carbon with a full carbon XXX Lite asymetric carbon fork. It has BB90 internal bottom bracket bearings as well as full internal gear and brake cable routing. It is also available to purchase through Project One which allows the customer to not only choose from a wider palette of colours but to also spec the groupset. Want Campag on a Trek? no problem with Project One.

The 5 series frames are upgraded for 2011 to now include internal gear/brake routing. It shares BB90 with the 6 series but is made from the slightly heavier TCT carbon and has a Race X Lite fork with aluminium steerer.

The 4 series are also made from TCT carbon but do not include BB90 and have a conventional seatpost instead of the seatmast used by the 5 and 6 models. These are not available to purchase through Project One either

The 2010 Madone range starts at £1599 for the 4.5 Madone, up to £5800 for the 6.9 Madone Pro.

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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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