Tuesday, 6 May 2014
Island life
Although the UK weather has been pretty reasonable of late, it's still not as nice as in the Med, where Naked Bikes rider Mark Proudman has been training. Just to reinforce this, he's sent us a shot of himself working on his tan lines.
Monday, 28 April 2014
Midlands XC
Possibly the largest one-day turnout of Naked Bikes / Haibike / Impsport riders to date descended upon the first round of the Midlands XC this weekend
The results round-up looks like this:
Chris R- 3rd Vet
Nick P - 5th Vet
Ben - 7th Sport (he had his cast taken off especially to race we hear!)
Paul - 2nd Open
Chris G - 24th Sport
Lee - 5th Go Race
Ross raced both days, but he's now so tired he can't get to the phone to tell us how he did...
Ben seemed justifiably pleased with his return to racing:
"I took 7th in sport cat. Happy with result as I've only had my pot off a week.
My descending was camp to say the least cos I was scared of stacking it again!
The SRAM x1 is absolutely fantastic,
No mud clogging no chain suck, no fuss! Mint."
Nick P also enjoyed his day out by the sounds of it:
"After a smashing week of 13 000 ft of climbing, 10 KOM's on strava and 100 trophies for fun in Pembrokeshire, Brechfa Forest and Penbrey Country Park, Friday and Saturday would have to be rest days after this holiday as I wanted to make a strong comeback into racing this year.
I arrived early but Josh was too tired to race so I went off and did half a lap and decided it wasn't worth getting race bike too muddy before the race,
Mental preparation was paramount today with some new race prep plans and a new MTB roller session to do. The race was at 11.30 so at 10.30 I started building up on the rollers with stretching sessions in between and I was ready. 3rd for the series last year so should get good grid ding .
On the first climb 5 of us stayed together and stayed the same for rest of race bar positions with me just behind team mate Christopher Rathbone. We juggled positions a few times together but he left me on a descent. At the top the long grass climb (the muddiest climb) I was off running rather than on and off like others were. By the jumps the Rocket Ron 2.25 acted like a ski and I had to guess which direct the bike was going in. We had the usual rock and rollers which was fun, I stayed behind top rider Anthony White for another 2 laps with the running mud section allowing me to keep with him as he was trying to ride it. On the last lap he ran and made it harder to keep up as he is an animal climber. 17.34 was fast on our first lap and we settled into 18 plus on lap remaining laps ,
As we entered the last descent rollers he was starting to get away and I finished a minute down and 1.30 min behind Chris.
So - very happy with legs for this one and that I felt good on the last lap"
Ross went for the 'crazy man of the weekend' award by racing both days - XCE on Saturday and XCO on Sunday:
"I got 10th on the sunday, the course was tough and was more of a cyclocross course with lots of running up the big hill every lap because the deep mud made it unrideable at any speed at all, this didn't really suit me but was a fun race to do! We set off with the expert category so from the start I lost track of my position in the junior field so just tried to ride my own race.
Saturday was the day I knew I would do best on because the short eliminator sprints really suited me because of the short sprints and BMX track which I used to ride on before I even rode a cross country bike! I got 2nd in the first heat, 3rd in the second and won my final heat, this was enough to put me into the 'A' final and guarantee me a top 8 senior result. I managed 1st junior and 5th including the seniors and vets as all 3 categories raced together.
I was pleased with my eliminator result but I would have liked a better result in the sunday XCO race, hopefully my form will come with more training after exams! "
The results round-up looks like this:
Chris R- 3rd Vet
Nick P - 5th Vet
Ben - 7th Sport (he had his cast taken off especially to race we hear!)
Paul - 2nd Open
Chris G - 24th Sport
Lee - 5th Go Race
Ross raced both days, but he's now so tired he can't get to the phone to tell us how he did...
Ben seemed justifiably pleased with his return to racing:
"I took 7th in sport cat. Happy with result as I've only had my pot off a week.
My descending was camp to say the least cos I was scared of stacking it again!
Great day with the team, gazebo looked grand. I had a wee dram of rouge with my steak n chips and no injury!
The SRAM x1 is absolutely fantastic,
No mud clogging no chain suck, no fuss! Mint."
Nick P also enjoyed his day out by the sounds of it:
"After a smashing week of 13 000 ft of climbing, 10 KOM's on strava and 100 trophies for fun in Pembrokeshire, Brechfa Forest and Penbrey Country Park, Friday and Saturday would have to be rest days after this holiday as I wanted to make a strong comeback into racing this year.
I arrived early but Josh was too tired to race so I went off and did half a lap and decided it wasn't worth getting race bike too muddy before the race,
Mental preparation was paramount today with some new race prep plans and a new MTB roller session to do. The race was at 11.30 so at 10.30 I started building up on the rollers with stretching sessions in between and I was ready. 3rd for the series last year so should get good grid ding .
On the first climb 5 of us stayed together and stayed the same for rest of race bar positions with me just behind team mate Christopher Rathbone. We juggled positions a few times together but he left me on a descent. At the top the long grass climb (the muddiest climb) I was off running rather than on and off like others were. By the jumps the Rocket Ron 2.25 acted like a ski and I had to guess which direct the bike was going in. We had the usual rock and rollers which was fun, I stayed behind top rider Anthony White for another 2 laps with the running mud section allowing me to keep with him as he was trying to ride it. On the last lap he ran and made it harder to keep up as he is an animal climber. 17.34 was fast on our first lap and we settled into 18 plus on lap remaining laps ,
As we entered the last descent rollers he was starting to get away and I finished a minute down and 1.30 min behind Chris.
So - very happy with legs for this one and that I felt good on the last lap"
Ross went for the 'crazy man of the weekend' award by racing both days - XCE on Saturday and XCO on Sunday:
"I got 10th on the sunday, the course was tough and was more of a cyclocross course with lots of running up the big hill every lap because the deep mud made it unrideable at any speed at all, this didn't really suit me but was a fun race to do! We set off with the expert category so from the start I lost track of my position in the junior field so just tried to ride my own race.
Saturday was the day I knew I would do best on because the short eliminator sprints really suited me because of the short sprints and BMX track which I used to ride on before I even rode a cross country bike! I got 2nd in the first heat, 3rd in the second and won my final heat, this was enough to put me into the 'A' final and guarantee me a top 8 senior result. I managed 1st junior and 5th including the seniors and vets as all 3 categories raced together.
I was pleased with my eliminator result but I would have liked a better result in the sunday XCO race, hopefully my form will come with more training after exams! "
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| Race Face Rathbone |
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| Spookiest podium location ever?! |
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| Ross in action |
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| Lee in 'full flow' as he describes it! |
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| Chris G, pushing hard even near the end |
Wild Weekend of Welsh XC
Nick P cross the border last weekend into Wales to see what the Welsh XC had to offer. As well as taking 5th Vet, he and his son managed to complete the Scott MTB Marathon event the next day as well!
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| Not sure if the guy on the right is worried about the size of his number board, or has just realised that his gloves don't match his kit. Who knows. |
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
First outing....
Our newest and youngest team member had their first outing for Naked Bikes last night at Mallory Park, taking on 3 laps of the famous course.
Oliver enjoyed the action immensely - almost as much as he enjoyed hanging out with his hero, our own 'Captain Crash' - Ben!
Good work Oliver!
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| The two 'bigger boys' look suspiciously like 'pot hunters' in the wrong cat to us! |
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Look we're famous!
This week's top new Naked Bikes stories see us in the papers, and going camping (maybe!)
First of all big thanks to the Leicester Mercury for featuring our wonderful team shot today - one of these days we won't get upstaged by Lucy Garner in the headline bit! :)
Secondly, we're proud to reveal our new err, tent! Look out for our team Gazebo at an endurance race near you this year.
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| More news about the team Mercedes to follow. Maybe |
Monday, 31 March 2014
BCXC Round 1
You know the MTB season's really kicked off when the first NPS round rolls around....
This year things began in Essex, and the Naked Bikes Haibike Impsport team were well represented, with Matt, Nick P, Josh and Ross in action.
Star of the weekend was Matt, who decided to prove exactly what he could do on his new Haibike Greed!
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| Matt storming to 2nd in Masters |
Matt:
"The first round of the national mountain bike series was in Braintree Essex. I hadn't raced at national level for 2 years and I was quite nervous. My category for the day was masters so that's 30-39 year olds, being 38 there was a lot of younger riders in my category.
I was gridded near the back because I hadn't raced for a while so I had a lot of work to do. The race started on a grassy climb, so my idea was to ride on the outer rough edge where no one else was riding and hope to get past them all, luckily this paid off and I was in first place a minute into the race.
The first lap in I had one other rider for company but I decided to attack on a long climb on the back end of the course and got a good gap, over the next few laps I was out on my own riding my own race but on the last lap another rider caught me up and we just spent the last lap upping the pace trying to gap each other. In the end it came down to a sprint and I was on his rear wheel and became boxed in between him and the barriers. I took 2nd place but that's bike racing anything can happen and I had a great day out.
My new 29er Haibike Greed rode really well on a fast course I am surprised by how well a big wheel bike handled through the technical sections "
Josh:
"The first round of the national mountain bike series was in Braintree Essex. I hadn't raced at national level for 2 years and I was quite nervous. My category for the day was masters so that's 30-39 year olds, being 38 there was a lot of younger riders in my category.
I was gridded near the back because I hadn't raced for a while so I had a lot of work to do. The race started on a grassy climb, so my idea was to ride on the outer rough edge where no one else was riding and hope to get past them all, luckily this paid off and I was in first place a minute into the race.
The first lap in I had one other rider for company but I decided to attack on a long climb on the back end of the course and got a good gap, over the next few laps I was out on my own riding my own race but on the last lap another rider caught me up and we just spent the last lap upping the pace trying to gap each other. In the end it came down to a sprint and I was on his rear wheel and became boxed in between him and the barriers. I took 2nd place but that's bike racing anything can happen and I had a great day out.
My new 29er Haibike Greed rode really well on a fast course I am surprised by how well a big wheel bike handled through the technical sections "
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| Josh (looking at his stem? :)) |
"First round of the national points series this weekend was a lightning fast course, tough transitions with semi technical aspects. Race as a whole was definitely an eye-opener to the series. Top three riders rode off from the beginning with me grovelling, stem chewing behind. Crashed hard on the second lap and lost roughly 9 places and only went backwards. Not the ideal start to a season but a start none the less. Looking forward to the technical round 2 at Wheal Maid."
Nick P:
"No problems on pre laps, but race wheels with Thunder Burts proved too slippy on the BMX trail so I changed to Ralph rear and Ron 2.1 front. Schwalbe said I needed a Ralph 2.25 which was faster on the front so they gave me some new tyres which worked better.Warm up went well watching elites start - that was so fast!!
Then my go - got gridded 19th so happy with that on the third row. Tried to follow someone fast in front of me but that did not work as he wasn't the best choice, so when we hit the climb I went past him. First lap was good 17.45 - 1 min 14 down on the leader, the pace was high (it's the nationals!) 2nd lap went and I was able to overtake on the BMX course. 3rd lap I eased back to push on last 2 but on lap 3 climb I could not stand as cramps were working into my legs so I ended dropping back with a 19 min last lap. Glad I finished and did not cramp up.
21st in the end out of the 60"
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| Nick P outsprints the tree |
"No problems on pre laps, but race wheels with Thunder Burts proved too slippy on the BMX trail so I changed to Ralph rear and Ron 2.1 front. Schwalbe said I needed a Ralph 2.25 which was faster on the front so they gave me some new tyres which worked better.Warm up went well watching elites start - that was so fast!!
Then my go - got gridded 19th so happy with that on the third row. Tried to follow someone fast in front of me but that did not work as he wasn't the best choice, so when we hit the climb I went past him. First lap was good 17.45 - 1 min 14 down on the leader, the pace was high (it's the nationals!) 2nd lap went and I was able to overtake on the BMX course. 3rd lap I eased back to push on last 2 but on lap 3 climb I could not stand as cramps were working into my legs so I ended dropping back with a 19 min last lap. Glad I finished and did not cramp up.
21st in the end out of the 60"
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| Ross |
A new addition....
Whilst the Naked Bikes team has riders from a wide range of age categories, there's been a suggestion that Paul's latest signing might be taking things too far....
Joking aside, Paul's just had a bouncing baby boy! Congratulations from the rest of the team.
We're thinking Haibike Greed as a name?
Joking aside, Paul's just had a bouncing baby boy! Congratulations from the rest of the team.
We're thinking Haibike Greed as a name?
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| We're not sure if Paul wore team kit at the birth as well? |
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| Avoiding the 'that's the end of my racing career' stereotype, Paul was back on the bike within 15 minutes of the birth. Maybe :) |
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