Twinkly Dave: Ragley Bikes Supported Endurance Racer

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• beer, mostly

  God this riding lark’s hard, isn’t it?!

  Nipped out for a couple of hours after work on friday on the road bike, headed over some little hillocks to beacon fell, where i practiced trotting up the steep side of the hill a couple of times with the bike on my shoulder (i can’t run, so i do a sort of fast walk/trot thing..like what you’d expect a fat person to do in the direction of a cream cake). Riding back down the gravel track after each climb, on the road bike, was “interesting”, especially trying to jump the water bar/ditch type things but hopefully the cross bike won’t be quite such a shock to the system now.

  Sunday’s ride over some of the yorkshire dales round malham and such places (example piccies from other rides on the same route here and here) was wetter than usual thanks to the constant rain this country is drowning in, but still fun, the sun even came out while we sat drinking beer halfway round
  (pint of wainwright’s apparently)

  Yesterday’s cruise round the lancashire lanes was split down the middle by a nice pint of spitfire and a bowl of pie peas and gravy, yum. I kept the dark lenses in my glasses while riding – a bit of a mistake as it felt like a nightride thanks to the dark clouds, which thankfully didn’t start precipitating until we got home, but seeing as summer can’t be arsed turning up i thought i might as well get some use out of them and just pretend i could see where i was going…

  I should probably do some more proper training for the 3 peaks this week and not insert beer stops into all my rides. Hopefully the new bike will be here by the end of the week so i can take it round the legal bits of the course at the weekend

  dgpowell 11:56 am on August 26, 2008 | No Comments | # |
  

   

• cyclo-what?

  After a couple of weeks of “resting” since SITS (it’s my ‘off season’, so i’m king of slobbing right now…pies with everything and all that), i took myself out for a ride yesterday to get a bit of practice in for the 3 peaks.
  Now, my spangly newpompino isn’t here yet (end of next week apparently, woo!), so i chucked a set of michelin mud cross tyres on the scandal (matt’s tyres, no less), pumped them up to 65psi and headed off round the 3 towers route.

  I was expecting to fly along the roads like a man possessed on the skinny tyres, but TBH all i discovered was just how good the racing ralphs really are – despite being massooff-wide things they don’t appear to have much more rolling resistance than the cross tyres i was running!
  Saying that i was still impressed with just how grippy the mud cross’ were, they gripped far better than i was expecting and didn’t let me down once. Ok it got a bit hairy if i drifted off line, but overall they were great.
  They made my hands hurt a bit too, coming down the bumpy descents over rivi, but i can’t really blame them for that.

  Major downer of the day (not includingthe constant rain and fact that i wasn’t overheating despite wearing thermal 3/4 leggings in august) came from the Ti eggbeaters, which appear to have died a death in the spring tension department. I’d decided to get used to singlespeeding by just not changing gear (simple, eh?!) but ended up giving up after my feet kept popping out of the the pedals whever i really tried to haul muself up anything out of the saddle. In fact i must have looked like some sort of bicycle-martial-arts-expert as i seemingly ninja-kicked my way up the climb from belmont to the masts at rivi!

  Anyhoo, the schwalbe land cruisers* have arrived today, so i’ll fit them on the scandal tonight to start getting used to them – they don’t look anywhere near as grippy (so they should roll faster, i guess) but if they’re good enough for rob jebb, they’re good enough for me!

  *THE tyre for the 3 peaks apparently…in fact it won’t be long before the rules state “land cruisers only” i imagine

  dgpowell 11:46 am on August 22, 2008 | 1 Comment | # |
  

   

• Taking a walk

  Nipped out on Saturday to go for a walk over Whernside as a bit of reconnaissance for the 3 Peaks; most of the off-road sections are off limits to bikes apart from race day so walking is the only way to get a look at the tracks used in the race. Sadly all i can confirm after lengthy investigation is that

  a) Whernside is big and
  b) It’s steep

  OK, that’s not strictly true. I can also confirm that it’s very exposed and has one of those descents that should be totally rideable (lots of paving slabs, a few steeper techy sections, lots of loose rocks) but undoubtedly won’t be. Here’s some pics I found on flickr and have blatantly robbed to illustrate what I’m on about:
  
  (this seems to belong to nick3216′s gallery, so go look at that)

  Am I still looking forward to the race? Well yes, kind of. It will certainly be a grand day out on the pomp…which I haven’t actually got yet…though i think i’ll be more in the “hairy legs and stop for a pasty” brigade rather than the “shaven legged whippet” catagory.

  As soon as the new bike arrives I’m going to head back over there and cruise round the road sections to get an idea of where I’m going.

  dgpowell 11:06 am on August 18, 2008 | No Comments | # |
  

   

• I’m a little tea-pot

  
  Click for more of Wayne’s piccies

  That was a gentleman’s 24hr race; with a nice stop after every lap for a brew or similar. Best typified by my 3am cheeseburger – a cheeseburger that seemingly contained enough calories to keep me going for a further 10.5hrs* without having to eat much else! It may have been one of (if not the) crunchiest burgers I’d ever eaten and did look a little like some of the mud i’d ridden through earlier, but by god it was lovely

  I did 16 laps, so i think that means Wayne washed the bikes 13 times. Top stuff. He didn’t even seem grumpy (or if he was, I didn’t notice). They’re both still sat in my living room ATM needing a good scrubbing, when you’re ready

  Hello to everyone who said hello, it made a hell of a difference having people get behind you and also BIG THANKS to number 55 who lent** me a spare chain link and use of his chain tool on the last lap – that was ace

  Top marks also go to the AA man who came out to see us when something went horribly horrible with the car on the way home – turned out one of the wheels was coming loose! EEK!
  He fixed it, then rang his mate who agreed to nip to a local garage and dig out a spare wheel nut for us FOC…on a sunday evening…when he had been at home…how good is that?!
  They were both really cheery and chatty too. Fantastic, join the AA

  *i blew up half an hour from the finish line
  **you know, that kind of lending where you neverexpect to see said item again…

  dgpowell 9:51 am on August 12, 2008 | 6 Comments | # |
  

   

• SITS weatherwatch

  BBC
  uk weather
  met office

  oh for f-ks sake!

  On the plus side, it may actually help me as i wouldn’t be in good enough shape to race flat out in the dry (in the wet it’s mostly just ‘drag your mud encrusted, wheel jammed uber heavy weight around’)…and dragging myself around with a bike on my shoulder should be good training for the 3 peaks…hopefully

  

  that pic was from 2006 on one of the rare sections where you could actually ride the bike; even the 1.8″ mud tyres i was running would clog up and jam the wheel in the frame.
  I think simon took the pic…i vaguely remember being cheered on by a familiar sounding umbrella with a camera sticking out of it

  dgpowell 2:59 pm on August 6, 2008 | 8 Comments | # |
  

   

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