Twinkly Dave – Mud splattered bicycle and pizza enthusiast

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• CLIC – can’t think of a tag line

  
  I had in my head the idea, on saturday morning, or remembering one important thing that happened on each of my laps of the CLIC course. I was doing well until about lap 15, when i realised i couldn’t remember the previous 14 laps…somewhat unsupirisingly my memory (and ability to think in general) got worse as the event went on, all i’m left with is this:
  Lap 1: Oooh, this course is fun
  Lap 2: Guy shoots past me, but then stops at the end of the lap

  Lap 4: Stop to tighten headset before the last descent, Simon rides past and checks I’m ok
  Lap 5: Horses on the course, one takes a dislike to me and calmly turns around and wanders off in to the undergrowth, despite protests by its rider
  Lap 6: Puncture

  Lap 8: My legs hurt, my arse hurts, my arms hurt, I stop at the end of the lap to eat something, clean and relube the chain, refill camelback and bottles, grab some more energy bars to eat while riding, pack a new spare tube and fit lights – i keep forgetting what i’m doing so it takes ages
  Lap 10: it’s getting dark now, Simon catches up with me and slows to ride with me while playing with his new u.s.e. exposure lights, i use his light to see by to conserve my battery
  Lap 11: My computer dies, steve catches up with me and gives me a hand untangling my camelback tube, with has got so tangled up inside the bag i can’t get anything out of it
  Lap 12: Uuugh, this is horrible, my legs don’t hurt as much anymore, but i feel sick, i can’t think properly, i have no power, i can’t see using just the helmet mounted vistalite but don’t want to run the X6’s on full power so i bounce all over the track, how i dn’t get a puncture or crash is beyond me
  Lap 13: See lap 12, then multiply it. I slow down and start to use 1st gear on the steeper little climbs
  Lap 14: I suddenly feel lots better, i manage to speed up again and start hitting my lines, excellent

  Lap 16: I think i stopped briefly after this lap to get some more water and a replacement battery for the vistalite
  Lap 17: I think it started getting light again, which felt great
  Lap 18: someone in a welsh cycling kit rides past on the first climb, he has “in” written on the rear of his shorts, i spent the next 20 minutes or so wondering why having stuff written on your arse is becoming so popular and what i would have written on mine if i was to do the same…i decide on cake or death…it was highly amusing to me at the time. I crash for the first time while riding up a hill. I then fall asleep whilst riding and am only woekn up by some bloke shouting as he rides past…i stop and make the fatal mistake of lying down in my tent, i fall asleep for just under an hour
  Lap 19: I wake up, realise how stupid it was of me to doze off and do a 45minute lap to make myself feel better. I decide i can get 2 more laps in, possibly 3 if i finish the 2nd before 10:45
  Lap 20: I meet Guy at the end of the lap and he lets me sit on his wheel along the run in to the arena – thankyou Guy for reminding me!
  Lap 21: I finish the lap at 10:55 and decide i don’t have a 1hr 5min lap in me as i’m feeling a bit sick and have run out of drink again

  And that’s it, I imagine i’ve got when everythign happened all wrong, but it went something like that.
  My legs hurt more on the first 8laps than they did for the following 13, in fact i felt better towards then end that i did at the start muscle wise, the only thing that seemed to cause me any problems was that my stomach was in turmoil (oh, and the fact ithat i fell asleep!).
  This all bodes quite well for SSMM…
  Oh, I came 3rd, so big up to Ian corfe who did 23laps and Dave Buchanan who did 22laps.

  On a different note, i am proud to annouce that this site appears to be the number 1 site for riders mothers to find out what their errant offspring are up to! So hello to my mum, angela’s mum, rich’s mum, guy’s mum and any other mums out there!

  dgpowell 9:59 am on May 16, 2006 | 10 Comments | # |
  

   

• I need a hero!…

  My helper for SSMM might not be able to make it, so if you know of anyone who’d be willing to mix energy drinks / unwrap energy bars for me on the 24th – 25th June please let me know. Knowledge of how to fettle bikes would be a bonus, but is by no means essential…
  Obviously I will pay for their food, drink and possibly even a massage (not by me)…and they could even have a (small) share of any winnings*

  Over the weekend the weather did it’s traditional “stay nice up until ride-day then turn crap”, but that didn’t stop rich and i heading out over Whins Fell for a last ride before next weeks attempt at clic24 solo – my first ever solo 24hr race and mid-training test for SSMM (did i mention i need a helper for that?).
  The ride was suprisingly devoid of mud, given that the Trough usually only needs about 5mins of mild drizzle to turn in to a quagmire, which made everything faster – nice.

  During the ride, Rich and i learned that we will never be able to retrain as sheep dogs, after i inadvertantly forced a lamb THROUGH a gate (the first i knew about it was a strange “mee-eh-eh THUMP” noise from below me). Before i could grab it, it had squeezed itself through the gap between the slats and had bounced off in to the next field, looking rather confused. We tried coaxing it (it seemed unsure as to wether to trust us or not), hiding from it with the gate open and trying to herd it using all our combined knowledge from years of watching One Man and His Dog on telly**
  Of course we failed miserably to do anything apart from drive the poor beast further and further away from the gate.
  We eventually gave up when rich said “Sod him, he squeezed through once, he can do it again” as the wooly terror lapped him for about the third time…

  *I have no chance of winning anything
  **I, at least, have never knowingly watched One Man and His Dog, i cannot speak for rich, but i doubt he has either

  dgpowell 10:23 am on May 8, 2006 | 4 Comments | # |
  

   

• summer sun

  Yes! It felt like summer over the weekend; bright sunshine, warmth, (suprisingly) dry trails all made an appearance and immediately cheered me up.

  In keeping with laid back summer riding both saturday’s cruise along the cyclepaths and canalsides near Lancaster (with Angela et al.) and Sunday’s spin round the latest issue of MBR’s Killer Loop, in the North York Moors included pub stops. Both with the added bonus of being able to sit outside the pubs and soak up the pre-summer.

  In keeping with british summer tradition, someone had to get sunburnt over the weekend and this time round it fell to Angela to end up looking remarkably like a lobster – well done, you positively glow right now!

  There’s some pics from Sunday’s ride up here for you, including what is possibly the most “caption competition” friendly picture of a cow ever…my current best effort is “i knew i should have brought my wellies”…
  Speaking of the ride, it quickly leapt into the “classic” genre; putting it up there with the Burnley – Hebden Bridge loop, 3 Towers circuit and Howgills rides, which is no mean feat. Of course, the weather and dusty dry trails helped, but it was overflowing with scenery, cracking climbs and ace technical descents too.

  It’s rides like these that remind me just how much bikes rock

  dgpowell 11:36 am on May 2, 2006 | 7 Comments | # |
  

   

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© Twinkly Dave Mostly in 2009
Spolling Mistooks are on Porpoise.