January 2011: New Year's Resolutions

Well I guess the first resolution of the year is to spend less time writing about biking and more time doing it and with that in mind I have decided to restrict myself to a monthly blog. There are however lots of plans for biking ventures in 2011 some madder than others - the one topping the madness scales at the moment seems to be entering the Kielder 100 event in September. Obviously, a totally insane challenge that I'm doing my best to forget I ever agreed to ....

December White Out

First and last entry for December 2010. The roads may be clear of snow and ice but if it's mountain biking you're looking for there's no escaping the stuff! I really can't believe that this winter is proving to be even more disastrous than last year for those of us that want to get off road. I haven't managed a single ride all month and I've discovered that this 'spinning' lark is just plain dangerous in comparison. So on the last day of the month family Lewis rebelled - we were going to have at least one ride in December whatever the weather!!

Sometimes you've just got to do it!!

Racing for fun - the final Nutcracker of 2010

Photo taken by Enigmatic Photography; photographs of the event can be viewed on flickr.

The final race of the Nutcracker Mountain Biking XC series was held at Hamsterley Forest in County Durham in October and as we set off early on Sunday morning it felt like winter was snapping at our heels. It might have been a beautiful frosty morning but boy was it cold when we arrived at 8.30 am. Every item of clothing was gratefully donned before we mounted our bikes and went in search of the event village and starting line.

The boys were racing in the morning and the temperature felt sub zero when they made a start but that didn't stop us giving Ben plenty of stick for wimping out on the river crossing and using the bridge instead. Still he raced hard and finished third in the Juvenile category in both this race and the series. At the same time Adam was competing in the Sweat Monster and a time trial lap of 1.34 minutes put him in second place; he struggled to maintain this pace for the race and had to settle for third overall. Not a bad outcome for a couple of lads just having some fun!

By the time the grown ups were due to race in the afternoon the temperature had risen a little but no way was it warm enough for the shorts option. Having done a practice lap earlier in the day I decided to live dangerously and stick with my SPDs. There were some tricky sections but I figured it was all in my head and if you're not committed when you're racing when are you? 

I was last off the start line not realising that the Grand Vets were being started separately after the Vets but I figured it would make little difference ... sooner or later I was going to be bringing up the rear with only two woman Vets racing. The course opened with a long section of fire trail that gradually increased in gradient until you turned off road and just kept climbing. I can climb all day on road but on off road technical uphill I haven't got the power and if you can walk faster than you can bike it kinda of defeats the object in a race. Then again there is the dilemma of  'well if you never bike it how are you going to bike it better'. These are the ridiculous conversations I have with myself as I drag my stubborn body round; that is in between generally ranting at myself for being SO slow - remind me again why I love to bike? 

Of course it wasn't all fire trails and hills there was some slip sliding through the rooty woodland undergrowth, where the gradient went radical in the opposite direction, and a river crossing. Since I was last the least I could do to entertain the spectators was give them the real deal through the water and yes it was as cold as it had looked earlier in the day. Just five minutes into the second lap I was momentarily confused by Mark coming towards me in the opposite direction. No I hadn't taken a wrong turn, a nasty virus had finally got the better of him and unlike me he wasn't use to going so slow.

The second half of the course consisted of more ascent via both fire trails and recently felled forest before we hit some fun man made descent full of bomb holes, bumps and berms. You couldn't help but have a massive grin plastered all over your face by the time you exited that section. Later there was radical descent of the more natural type; a hugely muddy vertical section that tried to misdirect your wheels by all means possible. Me and my bike were one and it was either going to be brilliant or I would wipe out in a glorious mud bath of shame ... somehow I gave the bath a miss this time round. And who ever shouted well ridden as we shot out the end of it all and headed for the finish line made my day.

That completes my first Mountain Biking Series. I came second overall in the Female Vet category simply because there were only two of us who actually competed in four or more of the races but I had a ball. I would encourage anyone with a love of biking to give racing a go no matter how scary it might seem - how you feel at the end of the race is worth it every time. Here's to seeing a few more female competitors in 2011.

Keeping the Faith

I love being out on my bike whatever the time of year - once I'm out there. The 'getting out' is always the tricky bit and its always like a zillion times easier if there is someone else to go with. I freely admit I'm spoilt because I can pretty much decide to ride any day of the week. BUT if there's nobody else free to go I feel like I shouldn't be free to go either. Its not a logical thing its just a fact. Its lucky for me that I know more than a few others that are keen to keep going even once the temperatures start to dip and the winds pick up. And so it was this Wednesday.

We headed out of Danby Dale up onto Castleton Rigg before turning back towards Castleton via some moorland single track with a few surprises. I bottled the eeky little edge where the ground falls steeply away from you on the left just as you summit a moorland mound. Pleased as I am with the progress I've made with my clip ins there are still moments when my head rules my heart - never the right way round on a bike!

We had a deadline to be back for so every time we came to a natural pause the next bit of the route was added to fit the time left. The off road ascent up to Park Nook was climbed ... almost to the top and then we churned through Danby Park Wood which had transformed into its muddy tyre sucking winter version and will no doubt stay like that for many months to come. On leaving Park Wood we turned left and suffered up squelchy uphill grassland which had us sucking in big lungfuls of air to pacify the burn in chest and legs. Wonderful to be alive and out among the glory of even a less than sunny autumnal day. Then it was a 'should I or shouldn't I' moment as we came through Ewe Craig Beck, which can run very deep in the winter, but it was fine and with a bit more conviction wouldn't have even needed a pause on the far side.

Little mental challenges, assessing and reassessing; outside with nature right against you; the physical effort; and all of it shared with a like minded friend. Perfect. Soon we were passed Rosedale Intake and out the top of Danby. Tempting though it was to just keep going time was passing and we needed to be back; so it was a quick return via the road and before we knew it bikes were being hosed down and hot tea brewed. Here's to more Wednesday rides this winter.

The Lakeland Loop: Last Day - Coniston to Bowness

We spent our last night of the trip in a B & B called Bluebird Lodge Guest House with the luxury of a comfortable double bed - although any bed seemed comfy after a day on the Lakeland Loop; and walked into town for much needed food and beer at the Black Bull Inn. It could have been sad to think we only had one day left of biking and a mere 12 miles at that but I preferred to dwell on the fact that I had almost completed a journey that I wasn't sure I could do five days earlier. What satisfaction!

Looking back that last day was gone in a blink of an eye and yet I know we skirted Coniston Water by road before forcing tired legs up one more climb through forest to Hawkshead Moor and the manufactured pleasure of Griezdale Forest's North Face Trail. Why we were whooping round a mountain biking trail centre on the final day of such an epic trip was incomprehensible but that's the nature of the addiction. I think it follows the 'it was there so we did it' logic.

Finally we left the trails behind and descended through Devils Gallop on the final stretch. We paused to treat ourselves to tea and scones before those last few tarmac miles round Windermere and timed our arrival to perfection just catching the ferry which deposited back at Bowness fifteen minutes later. Amazingly our car was exactly as we had left it abandoned on the road side six days earlier or was that a life time ago ...

The Lakeland Loop: Day Five - Eskdale to Coniston

Apparently I took AGES to wake up on the fifth morning of our Lakeland Loop adventure. But I was downstairs eating breakfast in Eskdale yha by 7.30am which is surely all that can be asked of a girl who took her mountain bike over Black Sail Pass the day before. The start of Day five wound down the valley of Eskdale keeping the river close to hand and revealing along the way an unexpected rainforest of Rhododendrons. The greenery towered over us ancient and vast and inspired a peaceful awe as we peddled along. The surreal nature of the ride continued as we traversed a perfectly manicured golf course in the middle of just nowhere.

Next we were forced to do a couple of miles on the road as we rode up, up, up towards Waberthwaite Fell; but at least there was a sea view as compensation on the way. Mark had nothing but bad memories of the trek across Waberthwaite Fell; 'horrible, boggy, pathless' were a few of the more complimentary adjectives he supplied. I was more upbeat about the whole thing not having tried and failed to find any discernible bridleway before and it sure beat yesterday's pain and anguish. The ascent might have been unrewarding but as always there was a fast and furious descent, this time down through Bigert Mire Farm and onto a picturesque bridge just outside of Ulpha. As we sat on the bridge eating ice creams the sun came out and everything in the world seemed right. Today we had sandwiches and crisps and having had none yesterday boy did we appreciate them. It was all very acceptable and I could almost pretend that there wasn't another up lurking in the not too distant future!

We were riding through a tapestry of starkly contrasting scenery. Birks Wood just after lunch, with its carpet of bluebells, was gentle English poetry sandwiched between the remoteness of Waberthwaite Fell behinds us and Walna Scar yet to come. But before that there was Kiln Bank which one of those climbs that hadn't even registered on our richter scale until we were on it. I kept thinking 'this isn't a proper hill' and then we'd go round another corner and still the road was rising upwards, another whole section of up. 

Finally, we turned off the tarmac and skirted the contours of Brown Haw and Dunnerdale Fells on some fabulous single track. You couldn't help but ride it like you were out for a couple of hours of fun it just grabbed you and asked to ridden in technicolour. Of course when the single track ended and the fire road took over I paid the price and was very faded as I pushed on towards Walna Scar. Mark kept saying stuff like 'were nearly there now' and 'its just round...over...through ...' He told lies all the way up past White Pike and onto some sort of slate quarry which he swore blind was part of the route despite the fact that we had to throw our bikes over slate piles as high as houses. But I could see a bridleway emerging on the other side of the quarry with what looked like a wonderful descent and my spirits rose. Mark didn't disillusion me of our direction until we hit the path and then instead of turning left and descending he turned right on a route that went up as far as the eye could see. 

I wanted to cry. Instead I pushed - incredibly slowly. I think it is probably the slowest I have ever pushed my bike but eventually we made the summit of the highest pass on the whole trip. On cue it started to rain. I was determined to be grumpy but the descent was just impossible to resist and within moments I had a smile on my face as we skated on boulders and surfed the pebbles past all those poor walkers in the rain. True they had strolled up the pass while we had suffered with our bikes and packs but as they joked about grabbing a lift on the way down I knew it had been worth all the effort. 

Racing for fun - the Nutcracker Rounds 4 & 5

Just back from our Summer holidays we should have been race fit for Round 4 of the Nutcracker Series at Fremlington Edge in Swaledale; a place we had never mountain biked before. Even as we parked the car I didn't like what I could see of the course - a massive grassy ascent straight onto the open moorland, not that you could see the moorland it was somewhere over the horizon! If there's one thing I struggle with its going vertical on grass ... I know I'm just a moaning minny. 

Time was of the essence if we wanted to get a practice lap in before Ben was due to start his race at 10am so we got going. Almost instantly it became apparent that it was a very tough course for Adam, 11 years old to be cycling so we took it steady while the other two disappeared into the stratosphere. OK it wasn't that steep but it felt like it. I had started using clip ins in the previous two weeks and thought I'd see how I faired with them on the course - badly was the answer! We were both out of sorts and it would have been a smart move to turn round and save our energy but unfortunately for Adam I was too stubborn to go for that option. We didn't make it back until just gone 10am when we could see Ben's race disappearing into the distance and Adam's first session on the Time Trial course was already under way. Poor kid, the rest of the field were fresh as daisies while he had been dragged round a seriously strenuous course for the last hour and had some nasty war wounds on his legs to show for it. Still he gave it his best shot and after both the timed lap and cross country race managed a very tired fifth place.

Photo taken by Enigmatic Photography; photographs of the event can be viewed on flickr. 

Meanwhile Ben was coping well with the physical ascent on the main course grabbing a few places as he toiled upwards and managing to hold onto third place during the very technical descent from Fremlington Edge and onto the finish line. A tough course and his best result to date - fantastic.

Photo taken by Enigmatic Photography; photographs of the event can be viewed on flickr. 

Once the kids had finished doing their thing the adults had a few hours to contemplate what lay ahead before lining up on the start line at 2pm. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite so successful on the grassy ascent as Ben had been and it was every bit as bad as I had imagined but once I reached the rocky moorland tracks I could get into my stride and the technical descent on the home bound leg of the course was pure focused adrenaline. I had ditched my clip ins for my beloved flatties but there was still a tricky little section that got the better of me. After the radical descent the track became barely a wheel width wide and clung to the contour of the hillside. On the first two laps of the course I found myself pitched off the right hand side of my bike into a steep bank of bracken and nettles at this point without quite knowing why. I'm sure toddlers often find themselves abruptly unseated as they struggle to gain command of legs and arms but as an adult it is a most bizarre sensation. Still I got the better of it on the final lap; a small victory but one I was happy to take. What's more I was the second woman vet over the line - or the last which ever way you want to look at it!

Photo taken by Enigmatic Photography; photographs of the event can be viewed on flickr.

Mark was the final Lewis clan member to cross the finish line and managed his own personal victory being the last man to complete four laps in the time allowed - although three laps more than enough for me. The kids did a brilliant job of supporting us throughout the afternoon; and I'm not sure they weren't going faster on foot than I was on my bike.

September saw us at Camp Hill to complete the Fifth Round of the Nutcracker and this time we got ourselves  a bit more organised. Mark and Ben did their practice lap in plenty of time before the 10am race. Meanwhile I hung out with Adam so that he could enjoy his Sweat Monster's event without being traumatised before he started. This worked much better and I still managed to fit in most of a practice lap before the elite race got under way. Unfortunately it was Ben's turn to suffer and he got a puncture very early on in his race. I was waiting for him at the finish line and was slightly anxious when he didn't arrive back as expected; then an ambulance crew was sent out to a boy having an asthma attack and I got really worried. Not that Ben has ever had asthma but being a parent is not always a logical thing. Finally word came back that he was running the entire course rather than have DNF against his name - I think I was prouder than if he'd finished at the front. 

The Camp Hill course was so much quicker this time in the dry than it had been during Round One in the wet; and since it is a much less technical course than the one at Swaledale I thought I'd give my clip ins another go. The combination of both factors meant I lapped at least ten minutes a lap faster than in April despite there being an extra lap in Round Five. Yeah, I know it's starting to sound like 'biking for boys' not 'biking for girls' how boring! Anyhow despite all that fantasizing I still managed to come last but hey ho I definitely beat all those millions that didn't even enter! While I had to settle for last place Mark had another good race and managed to finish about half way up the field - slow but sure improvement. So there we are only one more round of the series left which is a shame but hopefully we'll get to do it all again next year.