Weekend roundup

Sunday saw the Midlands XC Championships at Eastridge, and a good turnout of Naked Bikes / Haibike / Impsport riders eager for glory.

Matt on the top step

After some rather sunny racing, the team took a few podiums!

Nick P

Lee in podium action!

Nick P on the gas

Towers tackles the National Marathon Champs!

Here to explain his absence from FNSS is Nick T - we think his excuse is pretty good!

"I've always wanted to race the British MTB Marathon Championships, but being honest have never really fancied the journey there and back or it's coincided with another event. There's also the issue of driving 300miles to have my backside served back to me on platter by the UK's best vet endurance racers. However, nothing ventured................


Race entered, hotel booked, training plan tuned, press GO.


The MV40 entry list looked, well, quality. All the usual podium suspects and more. I made a mental note of those I expected to show me their heels..........hmmm! I obviously knew the only stripes I'd come away with would be brown ones, but I was a little worried I'd be rear gunner! Oh well, enjoy the race, the course and the atmosphere eh?


The forecast predicted rain on and off all week leading up to the race and my knowledge of previous ventures had me planning for some gloopy racing. Leave the Niner Jet 9 RDO at home, collects too much mud in heavy conditions, stick a 30t on the front of the Haibike Greed Team and have faith in Racing Ralph.


FFwd to the start I think. Light rain, grey sky. Myself and Bongo Marc positioned towards the back of the grid - suitable/sensible. Lead out car pulls away, I'm sure he spun the wheels as he tried to keep ahead of the front runners! I expected a brisk neutralised roll out, but even with the car holding the pack back I was brushing zone 5. Not how I wanted to begin. I had an HR plan to work to, that provided I stuck to, would see me through in good shape. It was just a matter of having faith in it and (hopefully) reeling those back in that had gone off too hard. Simple?!


The race was effectively a 3 leaf clover, 3 major climbs with some smaller lumps in between. Fortunately the climbs wear on hard pack. I'd expected fire roads but it was good to find them on either open trails or nice techy switch back trail centre climbs. Tougher, but more rewarding than an endless, featureless fire road. The descents on the other hand were a different matter. The first was an open mountain side rocky trail that took its fair share of puncture victims. I went past Ant White (24hr guru), George Budd (gentleman Elite racer and kick-ass endurance racer) and Andy Cockburn (Kielder100 winner). All grovelling around in the muck with flats. The remaining descents were a combination of evil trail centre/natural forest descents and open moorland tracks. Roots, ruts, streams, bogs and nasty drop offs. Pleased I cleaned all those without issues. I forgot add that as a bonus the rain abated and the sun made a brief appearance. Arm warmers off! Sucking diesel now (in my own little way!).

 



Towers sucks diesel!

 

The Greed gets dirty!

Still on HR plan everything seemed to be running sweet. SRAM XX1 really loves the filth. Not a gear crunch, bumped chain or anything. Quality kit. I caught a small few riders who'd gone off too hard - the plan was working. Better still no-one came past me. Nice. The final climb was up to Minch Moor at Innerleithen, a climb I know well. I have to say, tough though it was, I really enjoyed it. Yes it hurt, but I knew each ramp, each switchback and knew where the top was. I thought I was being caught by a rider at one stage, but I think it was the illusion of the switchback climbing. As I topped out he was a long way down. One last grunt across the last stretch of boggy moorland and up to the final cairn. I caught 2 more racers. One on gloopy the traverse, one on the rutted descent. I just touched 40mph on the rutted, greasy track. Living on the edge! It was then just a matter of keeping pace back to Selkirk. Finish line dib. Game over. The Haibike Greed Team was faultless. I have to say the flexy seat post did seem to save my derrière. That 30t chainring was a wise choice.


13th MV40. Well chuffed really. Top 10 would have been better, but I finished with plenty left. Ok I was way off the 'proper' vets, but 13th in that field stuck a smile on me! Encouraging for the season full of 6 hour+ races.


Ride On! "

FNSS is back!

Well, it doesn't seem that long since Nick T was celebrating his runner-up position in last season's Friday Night Summer series, but here we are again! Round 1 of the 2014 series took place on Friday at Borough Hill.

Although Nick T was absent from the Vets race (see other post for details), the Naked Bikes / Haibike / Impsport team made up for it by throwing Nick P and Chris Rathbone into the mix

We're pleased to report that the vets result was a Rathbone - Popham '1-2'

Ross took a top ten position, coming 9th in the U23, while 'fresh from training camp' Mark Proudman took 5th in the Seniors

Top work gents!

Nick P

Ross

Nick P leading out Chris Rathbone

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.

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!

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! "

Race Face Rathbone

Spookiest podium location ever?!

Ross in action

Lee in 'full flow' as he describes it!

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!

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.

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!

The two 'bigger boys' look suspiciously like 'pot hunters' in the wrong cat to us!