The Garmin Challenge Glentress

This year so far we have been getting slightly spoilt with the dusty dry courses that have prevailed upon us in the land on mountain biking, but it looks like Scotland has remembered its original climate (boo!) and has returned to being rather bleek! On Sunday the guys from Bike radar and Garmin descended upon Glentress for the 3rd Garmin challenge event! It was a bit rainy and a bit yukky but pretty good fun out there on the mountain bike I have to say!

The event was class, really easy, pitch up, sign on , get a Garmin unit attached to your bike and follow that route! Check out the full report at:

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/winner-of-scottish-garmin-mtb-day-revealed-22589

I'm going to have some fun with my new Garmin Edge that's for sure!

Yee ha

Les

This is what its all about . . . . . The British Champs 2009

It's been a while since I have felt like this . . . . . . it is now Tuesday, my body is officially broken, if it doesn't hurt or is not bruised it has just decided that right now it doesn't really want to work properly! I went to the limit this weekend at the Champs - holy smokes it was fun!

Innerleithen what a place! For ages now I have always wondered why the Scottish Borders lacks mountain biking events especially since in a relatively short radius you are absolutely spoilt for choice! This weekend the small usually quaint (except on Saturday nights) town of Innerliethen played host to both the Downhill and XC 2009 British Championships! It was super exciting and the whole place looked awesome!

The XC course was not for the faint hearted, the climb was mega with enough steep little kickers in there to keep pain levels above threshold . . . the descent was mental and the field . . . . god that was just horrible! It was proper mountain biking and it was so refreshing! My race was hard, probably the hardest race that I have competed in yet. There wasn't much space for a breather out there and I had my fair share of problems but at the end of the day that's just what racing is all about! An eventful third lap resulted in me ripping my cleat out of my shoe - seriously I still have no idea how that happened. Anyway it left me trying to descent by putting the carbon sole of my shoe onto the pedal, yip it wasn't that much fun and pretty scary to be honest! I was just chuffed to get to the bottom, kind of in one piece, where Graeme kindly lent me his shoe for the final lap, it may have been a few sizes too big and my heel kept popping out on the climb but it was so good to actually be able to ride like I know I can on my last descent. Hats off to Sue Clarke (SIS) who took the win in the women's field on a proper hardcore track! Followed by Jenny Copnall (Look RT) in 2nd and Sharon Laws (Halfords Bikehut) in 3rd. I finished 8th and am mega chuffed with the result, first top 10 in the British yee ha!

The rest of the Glentress riders were on form too with Katy Winton taking the win and becoming youth Champion, Hannah Ferguson returned to racing after a pretty horrible accident mid week and finished 4th - good riding girls! Lucy Grant was 2nd in the Juvenile catgegory. Lewis Kirkwood also made the podium finishing 3rd in the Male youths and Sam Waterston finished 12th. Jake Law and Graeme Short claimed to take this one easy but they seemed to be motoring when I saw them! And Last but by no means least Neil Wilson won the Vet's Downhill category - sweet riding guys!

I'm still buzzing from the whole weekend, it was so cool to race at home and have so much support out there so thanks to everyone who came along to watch! The marshals were awesome too thanks for all the chat along the way! The course was awesome and everything ran really smooth on the day. I think it was really cool that both events came together for the weekend as it something that never happens and it was really nice to catch up and watch friends and team mates riding in the Downhill, for the future I reckon it would be good if both events could run together but possibly on separate days for example like they use to do at Fort William for the World Cup. After all its the British Champs, its a really big deal to all the riders involved and each and everyone one of them deserves the limelight for a day!

G man you are cool, I never would have managed those hills without your wisdom! Kerry respect as always! Sarah thanks for the last bottle!!

Special thanks to The Hub, Bloc, Luvians, Baillie Gifford and Tunnocks.

Time for some more sleep I think

Yee ha

Les

Girls are Loud . . . . . . boys are rubbish :)

This weekend Kirroughtree played host to the next in the series of the No Fuss 10 hour events! Seriously what a host and what a course! At last a course that wasn't made up of relentless hours of firetrack road it was sweet!!!!! There was just under 300m of climbing per lap (see the course profile below!) and it was a real course for the power houses of the mountain bike field! The bitterness of the climbs and hard efforts were immediately whisk away by the fast flowing singletrack descents! If you didn't smile out there seriously you need to have a word with yourself! There was one relentless climb (you all know the one I mean!) in there, where the lactate filled the legs, it was always a relief to get to the middle section of the climb where it eased off for 1 second or so before the rest of the climb kicked in - ouch!, its only saving grace was its shortness and you knew when you got to the top a treat was in store all the way to the finish line! It just goes to show that you can actually put together a proper mountain bike race without an overkill of fire track! Two big thumbs up to the organisers at No fuss for this one yaaaa oooo!

The weather even held up! It was proper scorchio during the day and the rain that was due to arrive a tea time was delayed for a few hours until the race was finished! Well done to whoever was in charge of that one ha ha!


To the race - yaaaaooooo! After the solo efforts at 10 under the Ben I decided to kick back a little on this one and entered the race a part of a female quad . . . . . only thing was that there wasn't much kicking back as I was part of a totally magic team! Team name: Girls Are Loud, members : Lee Craigie (Square wheels), Emma Guy (Glentress Riders), Tracy Brunger (Glentress Riders) and myself (Glentress Riders). Since we were the only female quad and being the competitive little animals that we are, we competed in the male quad category! The laps were fast and we were all truly loving it out there, chasing people down, hoping for a clear run on the descents and just having some good old fashioned fun on our bikes! We didn't really know where we were in the standings for well over the first half of the race, when Lee went to check. We were pretty happy when she returned informing us all that we were in fact in the lead by a staggering 50minutes . . . . come on boys ha ha! Anyway that was kind of job done, the boys just couldn't catch, imagine that girls that can really mountain bike! We finished 12 laps in 10 hours 24 minutes a whole lap ahead of our fellow competitors! Check us out on the podium below wearing our make-shift beards to fit in with the boys ha ha:)

Graeme short also put in a impressive performance completing 10 laps in 9hour 49mins and finishing 3rd in the solo male vets! It was his first podium - yaa hoo! Nic Jenkins and his team Lady and the Cramps just missed out on third spot in the trios - good effort guys! Nic was definitely having way too much fun out there, showing off with bunny hops and all!

Big thanks to all the team for making it such good fun! El Captanio Kerry for time keeping, holding bikes and keeping everyone in line as normal! Lee's Aunt Ruth for great banter and cousin Sue for amazing legs massages before our 3rd laps - god that so helped me round! The guys at No fuss for another cracking event, all the marshals for their time and encouragement out on the laps! And as always my sponsors : The Hub, Bloc , Tunnocks , Polar, Luvians.

Champs next weekend at Inners . . . . . . . . its all gonna be a bit mad!

Les

Fort Bill hosts the Scottish Champs and boy what a course!

Fort Bill played host to the Scottish mountain biking champs and it was a refreshing change from the previous 2 years at Paisley! Anyone use to the course at the Bill will automatically think of the characteristic massive uphill, followed by the long winding man made descent! But when I arrived on Saturday I was so surprised by 2 things . . . . . the lack of midgies (it's a miracle) and the totally awesome course that unravelled right in front of my eyes! The start was pretty much same old same old, up the boardwalk, the horrible dusty fireroad climb (that still reminds me of the first 24hr race I competed in, not nice!) catch your breath over the bridge (formally from Glentress), along a flattish part of track and prepare yourself for the horrible climb . . . . . .or maybe not it was taped off yipee! The rest of the course was awesome, very little climbing (what there was it was steep and sharp) a great natural descent that put a big smile on my face from ear to ear! Well done to the course organisers so refreshing to race on landscapes that are representative of what Scotland has to offer the mountain biking community!

Race day

Once again the sun gods blessed Fort William for another scorchio day of racing (don't believe me??? Look at how blue the sky in in the picture below!)

Preparation phase:

Getting the race number sorted on the bike (left), and yes G is making sure I'm doing it right :)

Chilling out and having a laugh on the right (my arm isn't really that big!), but I will claim it as muscle!!!

Racing time

Before I knew it was 11 o'clock and off we set. Pictures below are of the start, Lee Craigie (Square Wheels) in the Blue, Sue Clarke (SIS) and myself in the Glentress Riders colours. The start was as rapid as ever up a dusty firetrack road before we looped onto the race circuit.

I had a pretty good race and felt I was riding well. Unfortunately I had a massive stack on my third lap just over cooking it slightly on the natural descent! I was wearing a GPS unit from work (GPSports Pro) which also has an accelerometer built in so you can measure the G-force during impacts. I hit a massive 12.4 G on that stack - gee whizz!!! I so would have made Emma's sequel video with that effort- ha ha! It left my handle bars slightly squint but I manged not to lose too much time and was stoked to finish 3rd in the race and 2nd in the Scottish Championships - yee ha! Sue Clarke rode an awesome racing taking the win and Lee Craigie in 2nd spot (also taking the Scottish Championship).

It was a great weekend for the team too . . . . . Lucy Grant and Katy Winton were both crown Scottish champions in the juvenile and youth categories. Lewis Kirkwood finished 4th in the race, getting a podium 3rd for the champs. Sam Waterson put in another good performance finishing in 10th. After severe blood loss from midgie bites (I didn't see any) Jake Law finished 5th in the Masters- he he! With Graeme Short picking up 11th in the vets!

Accommodation for the weekend was the Stronchreggan in Fort William where Bronwen, Graeme and family gave us a very warm welcome! Those guys have some of the best beds I have slept in away from home! Nice rooms, good food and what a view from the front room . . . the dolphins even gave us a visit in Loch Linnhe - that was pretty sweet. Check them out at : www.stronchreggan.co.uk

Great weekend, great course!

Yee ha

Les

10 Under the Ben

I'm not sure if I took a wrong turning on the road on the way up to Fort Bill this weekend, but it felt like I was in France . . . scorchio! The best thing about the heat . . . .nae midgies, the worst . . . . . . I had 10 hours of cycling to do! Ouch!!

So after a few years of entering such events as a team, G and I decided it was time to go solo, yikes!

Look left, thats me on the podium (in the middle). . . . . . pretty happy it's all over! (8 laps in 9:49:11), Katrina Brown (blue top) 2nd (7 laps in 9:27:19) and Helen Findlay 3rd (7 laps in 9:57:12).

Here is the story of how it went:

The start . . . . oh the start! The start is always an interesting one at 10hour events. Take a few hundred people and some how try and spread them out on a firetrack road before entering singletrack sections of courses, lets be honest its always gonna equal disaster! This year a couple of trials guys led us out on motorbikes to try and spread the field. They held a relatively easy pace (something that was nice when compared to the madness of the XC races), however instead of speeding up to spread the field more, they held the pace, before long we turned off the main road, the track narrowed, people slammed on their brakes and the carnage started! It was pretty mental cycling along as everyone jostled for places, a few guys hit the deck! At one point one guy cycled into me, we locked handle bars and then he was sent flying off to the side, bit to close for my liking! Before you knew it you were into a small descent where I lost my first water bottle of the day - doh! I didn't panic though knowing I would be through transition soon enough where I could collect another bottle!

Lap 1 - Felt good, it was really warm on the open sections of firetrack road, there were a few hold ups at some of the natural sections of the course, on the whole I was pretty happy with how things were going!

Lap 2 - Everything was ticking along nicely until about 5 minutes into the lap when I reached down for my water bottle to find there was nothing there noooooooooooooooooooo! First reaction total panic, thinking in this heat a lap without fluid could be race over! First plan . . . to check out everyones bikes and see if anyone was carrying a spare bottle, I got slightly fixated by this, more so as my mouth got dryer (so sorry if I saw you out there and I was looking rather strangely at you!). Anyhoo that plan wasn't working, no one had a spare bottle oh oh! Then just like a knight in shinning armour a motor bike guys went scooting by, I managed to shout him and ask if he had any spare water . . . . . . luckily he did! He went up to the top of the hill and gave me a bottle as I passed! So I had fluid and managed to finish the rest of the lap in an ok fashion!

Lap 3 - hated it, it felt horrible . . . . . I wanted to go home! It was hot, hot hot!!!

Lap 4 - Felt better again but it was starting to get soooooooooo hot! Feet were getting a bit sore!

Lap 5 - My feet hurt really really badly! Not a good lap, could hardly stand on the pedals during the descent. Started to question my sanity (yip that was an easy one to answer :) !!!)

Lap 6 - Straps were undone on the shoes, two clicks of the ratchet on (they were hardly on my feet!), stream dunk every lap, water need . . . . more water! Couldn't really remember what number of lap I was on, everything was merging into one! Met some nice people on the course, good banter!

Lap 7 - Its all downhill from here I'm pretty happy!

Lap 8 - Last one woop woop! Great feeling, wrist feeling a little sore but so delighted to almost be finished!

Feet were painfully sore, lay in the back of the van for a while and felt a bit sorry for myself! (I know I can hear the violins playing!)

So that was it 8 laps in 9:49:11. I finished 1st in the female solo category and 14th overall out of 177 male and female solo competitors! Yaaaaaaaahoooooooo! God that is such a good feeling! On reflection I really enjoyed the event, some parts of the course were a bit boring but guess you will always find that cycling around and around and around the same course!

Graeme Short (Glentress Riders) also put in a great performance completing 9 laps in 10:30:21, finishing 5th Vet and 10th overall, yee ha!

I was maybe out there doing the cycling on the day but 3 great people made it possible for me to achieve what I did - Kerry, G and Sarah! Those guys stood out in the baking heat for hours making sure that at the end of every lap I had everything I needed! Kerry suffered from heat stroke because it was so warm but that didn't shift her and she stay right to the bitter end making sure I was cool. G is not only responsible for getting me to the start line in such good shape he also kept my biking running smooth, had a few mad dashes to the other side of the track when I had forgotten a bottle and kept me up to date with what was going on behind me! Sarah was a little Pikka, running around like usual making sure I was tickety boo!

Kerry and I stayed at Achnabobane Farmhouse for the weekend! We got a lovely welcome from Neil and Elizabeth and truly enjoyed staying there. Although its called Spean Bridge the accommodation is only 2 miles up the road from the Nevis range so you don't have to worry about all the Fort William traffic . . . . perfect! Nice rooms and great breakfasts! They also love mountain bikers :), if your up that way check them out at - http://www.achnabobane.co.uk/.

Ok, this blog has been a bit of an epic but a few more thanks are in order - to No Fuss Events for another well organised event! All the marshals / helpers that were out there on the day always cheering and asking if you were ok! And last but not least all my sponsors (The Hub, Bloc, Luvians, Baillie Gifford & Tunnocks).

Fort William next weekend for the world cup???? Who's gonna win? Come on Rue!

Yee ha

Les

Baggies to the death!!!!

Peebles cycling club held their first open time trial of the year so I decided it was time to bite the bullet, leave the mountain bike in the shed (boo hoo) and entered the world of the road monsters/time trialist's . . . . . . scary!!!

It was all a bit of a mad rush to get down the road, get changed, pick up Gary . . . . . . sorry change into the Goonie mobile so we would arrive in style ha ha! I had no water, no bottle . . . forgot my purse mmmm it wasn't looking too good :) When we eventually arrived at the sign on we got a few special looks as we spilled out of the van in our MTB baggies, we didn't really fit in with the whole aero theme that was going on that was for sure :) Don't think matters were helped when Gary asked if it was ok to use elbows ha ha!

The course was an out and back and although I have cycled that road loads I didn't really understand where turning point was, I'm a bit rubbish like that so just nodded my head and pretended I knew! Karl (bike patrol) was at the half way mark . . . however we were told that we had to cycle round him . . bit difficult when he was standing in the gutter :) It was pretty tough that's for sure10 miles of pain . . . I think I almost coughed up a lung when I finished :) Finished in 28:58 and I'm happy to take that for my first go. Gary Forrest pulled off an impressive 27.12, with Dick Hamilton getting 29.36 . . . he was wearing flatties and five 10's!!!!!! Jake Law schooled us all finishing in 26.38 and last but by no means least Hannah Ferguson finished in 32.52!

Really enjoyed the event . . . . . maybe one day I will venture to the dark side once more!

Les

Lots of laps at Laggan

Friday was abysmal, winter appeared to have returned and the weather wasn't looking too hot for the race at the weekend! I headed home to Fife on Friday to get some TLC from the family Ingram before heading up North on Saturday. I arrived up at Laggan just after midday and headed around the course for a pre race reckie! One thing is for sure at Laggan . . . . . you know it's going to be a fast race! The course was similar to the one I had raced a few years back apart from a natural section that had been added to the climb and a smoothing out of the descent . . . . . mmm slightly disappointing!

Out of no where the sun was shinning on sunday which was ace! The Elite/Expert females had one of the biggest fields that I have seen in Scotland which is such a great thing to see! The start was mental (but it always is) as everyone tried to battle for a position before entering the singletrack descent! On the first descent their were riders and bikes sprawled all over the track, it was quite a sight! Lee Craigie was as dominant as ever and took an impressive win, followed by Anne Edwing and myself in third - yaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooo!

To the Team . . . . . Lucy Grant continued her good form finishing in second spot in a very tight race. Hannah Ferguson had a day of misfortune, after suffering 2 punctures resulting in her having to push her bike round most of the course she later found out she had been disqualified because her dad helped her realign a wheel that wasn't working right . . . . maybe I'm being cynical but the fact that she was the only one in her category (Youth Female) and she pushed her bike so far not giving up should we not be praising that . . . . . . .some people and power just don't mix! Rant over :) Lewis Kirkwood and Sam Waterston finished 4th and 10th respectively in the youth males! Jake Law finishing in 5th in the masters race. Last one Graeme Short finished in 10th in the vets! Yee ha well done guys.

After the race everything got launched in the van and once again Kerry, Chi Chi and I hit the road . . . . . destination Fort Bill to catch the tail end of the downhill. G was over all weekend collecting some data from the boys (Gary & Graeme) during their race! It also gave me a chance to catch up with the downhiller's in the team, with Neil being very quick to point out it was old man 1, whipper snapper Alex nil . . . . . his words not mine ha ha! Good Craic at the Bill!

It turned into a bit of an epic day and I had a slight boob that made it even longer by failing to turn off for Edinburgh on the M9 - doh and promptly headed for Glasgow! That is such a pain in the bum I tell you . . . you have to drive for miles to get back on track! AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGG! One day I'm going to drive to and from a race and not get lost, miss a junction, hit a animal and so on and so on . . . . . . one day!

2 weeks til 10 under . . . . . yikes what have I done :)

Les