Singlespeed goes to the pub

Darren is being a bad influence.

And it was...

The Friday before the event it rained and rained and rained. Proper "lead item on the news" kind of rain. This didn't fill me with hope, and I changed my plans from camping from the Friday to driving down on the Saturday. I'd heard that the course would hold up relatively well to the rain (compared to say, a giant sandcastle) but I still wan't brimming with keenness.

Saturday morning was slightly better and I arrived about 8am to meet Jackie and Nick (pit bitch #1). We soon had the super-gazebo up and there was a fairly relaxed pre-race few hours, with a bit of a test ride. The course was rideable, we did the first couple of singletrack sections which turned out to be the hardest of the whole lap.

Then the rest arrived - Jon and Phill riding as a pair, Caroline riding solo and Caroline's assistant Tessa (I'm not sure if it's quite correct to call a girl a pit bitch). Start time came around and off we went.

Things started reasonably, I was going too fast as usual at the beginning and rode round with Jackie for a lap or so - not deliberately, we were just doing the same speed. I stopped on the first lap to help Jon, who had a puncture and had forgotten how to use a bicycle pump. The were the usual chats with the usual people, including one guy on a singlespeed who I've only ever spoken to at events, mainly whilst riding. The track was just starting to dry... and then it rained. All got a bit gloopy then, especially in a couple of sections which were total slurry pits. I'm sure I saw the top of some guy's helmet just breaking the surface - he must have hit the deep bit.

About the start of lap 7 (about 7.5 hours in) something went ping. And not in a good way, in a "hmm, that was something fleshy breaking" way. Thing was, it only really hurt under power, just above my left knee. Normal pootling was fine (which was 96% of the time by now) but any kind of burst, e.g. getting out of a dangerously deep slurry pit, caused some real "oweeeee" moments. I was really in two minds whether to carry on, but my natural cowardliness won in the end and I quit at the end of the seventh lap (about 8.5 hours in).

It was a really brutal course in the end - no real respite because it was fairly flat, so no long downhills. There were a few people who just keeled over in the woods for a bit of a sleep, and a few more who were still moving but had lost all sense of reality. Great atmosphere though - I was even asked if I was OK when I stopped for a piss. Fine thanks, I'm quite good at it by now.

Jackie ran out of gas at 7 laps too (considering she did the Transrockies a couple of weeks before, I'm not surprised), Phill and Jon managed 11 laps between them, and Caroline did brilliantly, keeping riding til the end and putting in 8 laps. All in all - a tough, worthwhile event.

My next challenge will be a 13 hour blindfolded singlespeed ride.

Another event

Another attempt at 12 hours... Could be rainy.

Revenge on brambles

Not only are they feeding me, but i'm stopping them breeding! That's revenge for all the scratches and pain they cause me.

This is why we ride

Sunshine, a couple of hours off road, followed by bbq leftovers, cake and beer. That's Darren in his transrockies top.

Trail centre fatigue

The Wales trip took in three trail centres in the end - Afan, Brechfa and Coed y Brenin. And I'm not really sure I like them, or the concept. I've done mostly natural riding in the past so this was a bit of a change for me.

What I liked:

• The lack of having to think about where I was going. It was just ride, ride, ride.
• The facilities (at Afan and Coedy)
• Something else (which I'll cover at the end...)

What I disliked:

• The lack of having to think about where I was going. I enjoy the navigation, the getting lost, the feeling of being "out there" in the country. Following handy sign posts took all this away.
• The facilities closing early, so when I wanted cake there was no cake to be had.
• Riding a route that felt "built", rather than evolved. You know, that big rock is there because the trail builders thought it would be a good place to put it - not because that's where it's always been. Coedy was particularly annoying for this reason - "hey, lets put in 100 yards of medium slabby rocks contouring down the hill, not too steep, not too varied". Yes, but very very dull after the first 10 yards. I can ride the 10 yards fine, it wasn't fun or exciting, why continue for another 90?
• Big gangs of people being out, who all disappeared when it started raining. Thinking about it, the cafe was packed at about 1pm. We did a shortish trail 1.30 - 2.30 (where there were loads of people about), then a longer one 2.30 - 4. We didn't see anyone on the second trail, apart from one bloke taking a short cut back because his leg was leaking. Where did everyone go? Did they, and their bikes disolve? Were they really made of sugar?

Now, the "something else" that I liked is sort of against what I said about not liking the "built" feel of the trails. I liked Brechfa Blue - and this was the most obviously man-made trail we did. It was to mountain biking what a velodrome is to road cycling. Surfaced, swoopy, jumpy and not trying to be "natural" or "blend in". Jon called it a big BMX track, and that's a great description. It was all the better for not pretending to be something it wasn't.

Plus the little shop in Brechfa sold brilliant cheese.

So, if you are going to Wales, go to Brechfa - buy a picnic from the little shop and ride the big BMX track.

After last nights curry...

I'm going have to have something vaguely healthy for breakfast. Although it appears the pic is upside down. Bit rainy today and my bike is a bit broken, so there is a plan to possibly sit in the cafe while bike is getting fixed. And watch the lympics.

Best shop in the world

Little shop, brechfa. Amazing selection for the self assembly picnic.

Trail food

Two trails down, lunch time now. Jacket served the correct way, beans then cheese.

Since 24/12 I have been mostly cycling

I sort of promised myself some time off after 24/12, to have a bit of a play on the bike and generally relax a bit. Thing is, I've entered another 12 hour solo so it was back to crating and following a training plan again. I had a hard week last week, including being back in the garage on the turbo trainer. It still hurts so much more than riding a real bike in real life. I managed to cram seven bike rides and three gym sessions in to seven days. Yesterday was a well deserved rest day (so only a gym session), and today I'm saving myself... for Wales.

That's right, off to wet wet wet Wales for four days of riding trail centres. I thought it was about time I visited some and managed to convince a couple of other to come along. I'm looking forward to it, with a minor amount of trepidation about falling off and trying to remember to treat it as a holiday rather than a race.

On the subject of races, Darren is now in Canada, two stages down on the Transrockies... best of luck for the rest of the race!