AlpenTour Trophy Stage 2

What an incredible day stage 2 of the AlpenTour Trophy had in store for us, in just 56km’s there would be 2400 metres of totally insane climbing. After just 2 minutes of neutralised rollout the gun went as we hit the start of first climb, an hour later the gradient hadn’t relented, eventually we peaked out at 1900 metres. Once again the European’s pace uphill was truly insane, Josh settled into his endurance pace, whilst I tried my best but mostly failed to chase down groups which had formed. The Australian U23 and Junior development team are here and it was good to see Euro Marathon Champs and XC fast guy Ralph Naef stop to help one of them fix a snapped chain midway up the first climb. By the top of the climb I’d focused on chasing down Mike Brodwick, another top World Cup rider.

The first descent started with some nasty slippery gravel fireroad, 2 Europeans sped past me so I jumped on their wheel and followed lines, as usual though once the singletrack started the same riders struggled to stay in control. Once onto the flat transition section to the next mountain we caught Mike who’d be dangling off the front of the group for some time.

Now the next climb was truly spectacular reaching over 2000 meters, along the way we climbed on fireroad which turned through hairpin after hairpin for maybe 30 minutes. Following this we hit a section with gradients ranging from no less that 20% to about 30%, this lasted for maybe 15 minutes before we hit the snow line where we were forced to walk through the sludge (rather disappointingly this made a mess of my white overshoes!) Through deep breathing Mike said something along the lines of “this is crazy”. Today we needed XTR chainset’s with a 26 tooth inner ring and a 36 tooth cassette and we didn’t have either so there was no choice but to grind our way up the steep sections, will have been an excellent muscle tension workout though!

Once we’d negotiated the following steep rocky descent which was basically just a huge boulder field we plummeted to 800 metres before one last much smaller climb which both Josh and me smashed our way up overtaking many riders who were suffering from their previous efforts. I pushed the pace pretty hard to the top of the World Cup course and was making up some good time until a mistake lead to a silly crash. It doesn’t look like I’ll be bringing back any prize money or UCI points but there are some good bruises to show off now! Luckily the shiny Kona which is attracting many fond looks remains intact and ready for tomorrow’s uphill time trial. Josh made good use of his excellent technical skills and chased down riders on the tough descent to the finish line.


After today’s stage the plan was to hit the local bakery but we’re both far too knackered so that’ll have to wait until tomorrow!

Alpen Tour Trophy Stage 1

Stage 1 started with a 2km neutralised start which turned out to be pretty dicey as riders jockeyed for position banging horns (bar ends and elbows) until the car pulled off and the pace went ballistic! With the first monster climb starting immediately the riders spread out pretty quickly with one of the Milka Trek riders jumping off the front almost immediately. Both Josh and myself took a little while to adjust to the insane pace and settled in around the top 70 and top 40 respectively.

The weather in the Austrian mountains is as expected pretty unpredictable, a small amount of rain last night and a heavy shower just as we were due to leave the apartment dampened the dusty trails at lower levels but left the trails at higher altitude a little muddy, an extra bit of resistance training having climbed for almost a thousand meters though wasn’t too much of an effort in the grand scheme of things!

The first descent was a little disappointing and several tough short sharp climbs caused some pain too already tired legs. About 35km’s in we’d dropped from the King of the Mountains at 1700 metres to 1100 metres, over the next 10km’s I went through a mid race lull. Josh on the other hand had found his rhythm on the descent and pushed the pace on the following smaller climbs.

On the Garmin the route looked to fall off a cliff at 55km’s and it wasn’t far from that, both us TORQ riders found riding the descent which reached 30% gradients easy enough but dodging the Europeans rolling around on the floor or walking was a much harder task! The next climb also seemed like a cliff face but my legs had now woken and I smashed it past many riders including many who’d blown after the fast start. The TORQ gels and isotonic drink were all we used throughout today’s stage and really gave us an energy boost for the climbs.

By the top of the final climb which we’d both made up a good number of places. Josh got a clean run down Schladaming’s Downhill World Cup track, unfortunately a riders jumped ahead of me entering the descent. After buzzing his back tyre for a few minutes I saw a gap and took the inside line on one of the bermed corners and nailed the remainder of the descent back to the finish line. Results are yet to be confirmed but we think my time was about 3 hours 30 and Josh took 3 hours 45.

Back at the apartment Josh’s obsession with food has only worsened, I can’t understand where all that food fits but I guess having burnt around 4000 calories today and probably the same tomorrow it’s necessary. Foolishly we forgot to buy any cake or puddings, following tomorrow’s stage our mission is to find the local bakery!

Alpen Tour Trophy Pre Race

After months of dreaming about a European road trip the TORQ Performance team has made its way back through the Eurotunnel onto mainland Europe. On Thursday Josh and I will take to the start line of stage 1 of the Alpen Tour Trophy 4 day mountain bike stage race. http://www.mtbfestival.at/

First off we stopped by Offenburg to watch the German XC World Cup and to do some training in the Black Forest region. The weather was perfect during the 3 days we were in the area with not a cloud in sight and temperatures reaching the 30’s. Watching the World Cup was fun but it did leave me wishing that I’d raced. Dalby is definitely the best organised World Cup I’ve attended and has a good atmosphere but can’t challenge the amazing atmosphere and awesome course that Offenburg offer. Beer flowing, hot dogs frying, commentators at each technical sector, and a compact course which is easy and quick to walk around for spectators makes this a race I certainly hope to ride again next year. Following a day riding the World Class Marathon loop which had some world class fireroad and not much singletrack we pointed the van south east to Schladming, Austria.


There was some World Class views from the Black Mountain marathon course


Our German home for a few days


After a relatively smooth journey (if you ignore the rather narrow German motorway lanes and random Police search) we made it to our destination. This afternoon we’ve spent our time exploring the town, having fun on some awesome technical steep trails right from our doorstep (including the World Cup downhill course which the stage race uses in a couple of days), and eating a pasta dinner for the third day in a row!

Over the next couple of days hopefully they’ll be some video and photos to upload, keep tuned for the very latest news!

Southern Championships 15 May 2011

After a few good weeks training I was a little more confident and motivated going into this race. The race was to be held at Wasing Park where I narrowly missed out on a British XC podium last year. A few changes to the track meant there was even more rooty singletrack made up of loose loamy soil which would test riders ability to ride smooth and also riders sprint power out of the many tight corners.

After being gridded on the front row I made a good start leading the race around the first lap. I set a reasonably high pace but tried to ride at a comfortable heart rate to avoid blowing later in the race. Leading the lap meant I had a clear view of the track and could pick the lines I wanted to ride. By the end of the first lap there was a group of 4 riders at the front including Ade Lansley, Steve James, Tim Dunford, and myself, with Billy Joe Whenman just a few second further behind.

Over the next lap Ade and myself shared the work and created a decent gap over the chasing riders. The pace mid race felt comfortable and I started to figure out where I might attack and was looking for any weaknesses Ade was showing. Over the next couple of laps it appeared that Ade was slowing on the climbs but they were early on in the lap, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to attack that early on and ride alone to the end.

Going into the last lap we were still together, it was a hard track to drink on so a gel each lap kept up the carbohydrate intake. A banoffee guarana gel at the start of the last lap I hoped would give me that extra kick I needed. Once the early climbs were complete I put in several attacks through the singletrack but it proved difficult to build any time without using too much energy.

I kept the pace high though hoping it would cause my rival to make a mistake and with about 5 minutes of the race remaining that’s what happened. A small mistake was enough of an opportunity for me to grab a few seconds lead and that’s all that was needed to take the 2011 Southern Championship title.

Gorrick 100 Enduro

With the sun shining and miles of dusty singletrack the Gorrick 100 Enduro would be a fantastic day out on the bike. Its always enjoyable to return to the Gorrick events, unfortunately I don’t get the chance to race many of these, however with no Houffalize World Cup on the schedule it meant there was an open weekend. With my desire to race more marathon races this year the Gorrick 100 fitted perfectly and the full 7 laps distance would be my target.

On the start line there was a mix of elite cross country cyclists and several successful endurance mountain bikers included last years 7 lap winner Rory Hitchins. 10 minutes after the start a lead group of 3 had formed including Ian Leitch, Phil Lenney, and myself. On lap 2 Ian increased the pace and his efforts were too much for Phil to follow and he dropped behind. Ian continued at a pace that would be impossible to sustain for the whole 100km marathon so I tried to save energy by following wheels and keeping myself hidden from the wind. There were 3 main climbs all within the first third of the lap, and on the third lap heading into the first of those climbs I gapped Ian. I was sure that he’d catch back on once we reached the next 2 climbs but over the remainder of that lap the gap only increased.

With another 4 laps to complete it would have been nice to have had some company but the excellent Gorrick trails and shouts of support kept me focused. Over those remaining laps I kept a consistent pace with my lap times staying within 2 minutes of each other and built a lead ahead of second of 20 minutes! Well done to Ian and Phil who finished second and third. Im now a happy owner of a rather large trophy, thanks Gorrick!

Fresh after 70 miles of racing!

The TORQ Performance team took several wins and podium finishes across the various race distances, and I won the full 7 lap marathon distance. That was my 4th marathon victory in a row, next marathon race is the UCI S1 classified stage race AlpenTour Trophy in Austria.

Results for today’s race can be found here http://www.timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/Gorrick%20Exposure%201000%20Results.pdf

Thanks to Mum for being on bottle duty!

British XC Round 2 Dalby Forest

My poor performance at the first national really knocked by confidence, I should have taken away some positive from that race having ridden within the top 10 UK riders for the first 4 laps but instead I’ve struggled to put that day behind me and the negatives are still fresh in my mind. Going into the season I set some pretty high targets and to see them disappear into the distance gave my moral a real kicking.

Normally after a bad race there’s time to bounce back by racking up some decent quality training miles but since Sherwood there’s been events each week meaning there’s not been the chance to do much riding. Leading into the second national the pain and disappointment I experienced at Sherwood was still fresh in my mind.

In a regional race where the competition isn’t so fierce and success is more likely there’s less chance of your mindset being tested. However 10 minutes into this past weekends race at Dalby Forest all those negatives came flooding back. I should have been able to just enjoy riding the awesome track but as my motivation to push the pedals at anywhere near racing speed disappeared so did the race.

On lap 4 I did finally start to have a little fun railing the banked corners on the first couple of descents, and sprinting up the early climb to the arena. Having easily dropped the group of riders who were sat behind me the chain dropped off the outside of my chainset. The chain had twisted possibly during an earlier fall, this was causing the gears to slip under load. As the riders I’d dropped rode back past me my race was over, I saw no point in continuing.

Racing isn’t just a battle of fitness but it’s a battle of mind. What I need to do now is resort back to having fun on the bike, start enjoying training, and then the success with come.

A few mid week thoughts

If you’ve never seen any footage from Paris Roubaix then I’m afraid you need educating! The classics season largely is ignored by the UK media and in this country the majority of people might only ever see a new article on each summer’s Tour de France. This is a shame because there’s something very special about these 1 day races where man and bike battles THE toughest and most demanding terrain that exist in Belgium and northern France. Viewing this amazing gallery http://www.flickr.com/photos/smashred/sets/72157626470428850/with/5610023660/ looking for a new desktop I tried to select the very best of the images to make a final choice. In reality I struggled to find a single image I wouldn’t have as my desktop, it’s probably actually pretty difficult to get a bad image of this sensational day! The image eventually chosen http://www.flickr.com/photos/smashred/5610023660/sizes/o/in/set-72157626470428850/ shows the HTC rider Lars Bak suffering on one of the many cobbles sectors along the route of last Sundays 258km route. To see the true insanity check out the speed the rider are going on this sector of cobblestones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBvIyBsK2Ac

In my last blog I said a small amount about what a pleasure it was to ride the CRC MTB Marathon at the weekend in the same small group as Nick Craig. At the end of the race crossing the line I was ushered towards the commentator for an interview, however the commentator hasn’t realised I’d just finished first and when I told him the first thing he asked was “where’s Nick Craig”!!! Then once a few more riders had finished Nick and me where having a chat/ laugh about the event when a Chinese fan comes across and asks if he could have a photo with Nick! This chap is a true great, a legend even, and you couldn’t meet a nicer person.

That’s all for now, I’ll try to find time to write again before the weekend.