Most mountain bikers will have heard of the Beastway Mountain Bike Race Series at some point - it's one of the oldest around having started up some 20 years ago. It's also famous for being held in London. Well, sort of; it was at the Eastway Circuit, twenty minutes from the centre of London.
There was some controversy a few years back when the plans came out for the Olympic Park as they were going to be building over the bit of land and the mtb circuit plans weren't all that clear. Still, I think something got sorted out in the end. But it did mean the series had to move somewhere else.
Luckily the Redbridge Cycling Centre (aka Hog Hill) in Ilford had been built and had some manmade mountain bike trails. So the Beastway series has been homed there for a few years. But all good things must come to and end and the organisers decided in 2012 that enough was enough and that would be their final year.
They asked for further interest in anyone looking to take on the series and obviously I, as SIP Events, showed an interest. Tonight was the first meeting of the group of interested parties and willing volunteers and as no-one else really had any organising experience it sort of fell to us to say whether we wanted to do it or not.
Decisions, decisions. What with the new job and the other events it's a lot to take on. I'll have to have a good look at it but it would be a shame for it to just stop so I'll do whatever I can to keep the series alive.
Showing posts with label sip events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sip events. Show all posts
Monday, 11 February 2013
Sunday, 3 February 2013
The Big Chill Swim
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| Sunrise on race day |
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| Swim lanes in the marina - 30m across |
The day dragged on, really, really slowly. Open water swimming isn't the most exciting of spectator sports it has to be said. Finally I'd had enough of standing around being very cold and went to get a nice hot choclate in the rather lovely hotel I was staying in, the Low Wood Bay Hotel.
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| Huges crowds watching not much going on |
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| Low Wood Bay Hotel on the shore of Windermere |
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
My Dirty Habit
Hello, my name's Sara and I'm an addict. It dawned on me the other day that I have a problem, my dirty little habit as I sometimes call it. It takes up all of my spare time, I can't go a day without thinking about it, it makes me do silly things and it costs a lot of money. So what am I referring to? Mountain bike events.
The signs have been there for a long time and now other people are starting to notice. Earlier this year I took a weekend off inbetween a two week job on a mountain bike event to go to help out at another mountain bike event 5 hours away and whilst there I mostly talked about other mountain bike events watching the last day of the Tour de France. A friend pointed out to me the previously un-noticed Busman's Holiday I was on.
Just this weekend gone I worked a full night shift at my proper job, finished at 7am and drove from London to Brighton to help out some friends on the Brighton Big Dog 6 hour mountain bike race. As soon as it finished I jumped in my car and drove back to London for another night shift! Many told me it isn't healthy, or normal, to go for 36 hours without sleep just to work on a mountain bike race. But it's not the first time and I doubt it will be the last.
I go to sleep thinking about mountain bike events, I wake up and my first thought is about an event and in between that almost every waking minute is spent thinking, talking or writing emails about events. Hell, I even dream about events!
Weird, I know. Obsessed? Probably. Addicted? Undoubtedly. But what can I do about it? Cycling is my passion, and evidently my life. I have been consumed by it, heart and soul and there's nothing really wrong with that. There is just one problem I've come across that seems to be getting bigger though - I don't actually get to ride that much any more!
The signs have been there for a long time and now other people are starting to notice. Earlier this year I took a weekend off inbetween a two week job on a mountain bike event to go to help out at another mountain bike event 5 hours away and whilst there I mostly talked about other mountain bike events watching the last day of the Tour de France. A friend pointed out to me the previously un-noticed Busman's Holiday I was on.
Just this weekend gone I worked a full night shift at my proper job, finished at 7am and drove from London to Brighton to help out some friends on the Brighton Big Dog 6 hour mountain bike race. As soon as it finished I jumped in my car and drove back to London for another night shift! Many told me it isn't healthy, or normal, to go for 36 hours without sleep just to work on a mountain bike race. But it's not the first time and I doubt it will be the last.
I go to sleep thinking about mountain bike events, I wake up and my first thought is about an event and in between that almost every waking minute is spent thinking, talking or writing emails about events. Hell, I even dream about events!
Weird, I know. Obsessed? Probably. Addicted? Undoubtedly. But what can I do about it? Cycling is my passion, and evidently my life. I have been consumed by it, heart and soul and there's nothing really wrong with that. There is just one problem I've come across that seems to be getting bigger though - I don't actually get to ride that much any more!
Friday, 12 August 2011
Same old
Work today. Home-work that is. Work, work and more work. Though I have the added diamension of a third computer to sit in front of as I tried to get my new laptop up to speed. I was trying to put it off until after the Montane Kielder 100 but the current one took over half an hour to get itself together this morning and I lost my patience again so action had to be taken. Now it's just a case of installing all the relevant software and transferring all the important files over whilst doing a bit of house-keeping. Not great timing but I'm sure it will pay off by the end of the month.
The dullness was interrupted by a surprise phone call from the National Trust Ranger at Ashridge Estate asking if I'd like to go along and discuss mountain biking on the estate with him - future potential and event ideas and how to help mountain biking in the local area. It was a very exciting conversation and hopefully I'll get to meet up with him early next week. Watch this space!
The dullness was interrupted by a surprise phone call from the National Trust Ranger at Ashridge Estate asking if I'd like to go along and discuss mountain biking on the estate with him - future potential and event ideas and how to help mountain biking in the local area. It was a very exciting conversation and hopefully I'll get to meet up with him early next week. Watch this space!
Monday, 8 August 2011
A Quickie
Morning full of emails and catching up on the post. I've found that to really stay on top of events you have to start work on the next one as soon as the previous one has finished. So despite the fact that the Montane Kielder 100 is less than a month away, a number of my phone calls and emails today revolved around 24 Hours of Exposure 2012 and other events in the pipeline.
Crunch time came around 3 o'clock: bury my head in the computer for the rest of the evening, or get up off my arse and go for a ride? The break in the clouds was the deciding factor and I popped out for a short loop around Ashridge Estate. Just an hour, 15 miles, but it was enough to get the legs spinning and heart rate up. Felt good.
Back for a cup of tea and a dark chocolate and ginger biscuit, then buried my head in the computers again.
Crunch time came around 3 o'clock: bury my head in the computer for the rest of the evening, or get up off my arse and go for a ride? The break in the clouds was the deciding factor and I popped out for a short loop around Ashridge Estate. Just an hour, 15 miles, but it was enough to get the legs spinning and heart rate up. Felt good.
Back for a cup of tea and a dark chocolate and ginger biscuit, then buried my head in the computers again.
Sunday, 7 August 2011
A Quiet Year?
In terms of the blog it has been admittedly, but that's only because it's been far from a quiet year in real life. I think I've managed to squeeze in more riding this year than the previous two, but the number of events I've been involved in have also increased so I'm still not riding as much as I'd like - does anybody though?
Since my last post I've skipped through four rounds of the BMBS series almost without a hitch (well, if you discount the two air ambulances we've had to call); finished off The Demo Series; battled through a hectic May that started with another very successful 24 Hours of Exposure at Rock UK that included the European 24 hour and 12 hour Championships this year over one extremely wet and tense weekend, threw in a few days of trail building in Kielder and then nipped over to work on the MTB World Cup at Dalby for 10 days. This was possibly the hardest event I've ever had the misfortune to work on and resulted in an exhaustion related illness - oh the glamorous life of travelling round the country to mountain bike events!
Finally I made it into July and the opportunity to work on the Olympic mountain bike test event at Hadleigh Farm. Maybe it's because I've worked on so many events over the years, or even too many this year, or the fact that I'm rather jaded by the whole 'cross-country mtb race scene' at the moment but for some reason I wasn't as excited about this as I probably should have been and I actually feel slightly guilty about it. Don't get me wrong, it was a great weekend and a fantastic race day, it just didn't feel as special as I imagine an Olympic Test Event should do - that's no reflection on the event by the way, everybody else was positively shaking with excitement, it was just me - so maybe things will be different for the actual Olympics next year. I do hope so! It's been a while since I had that massive event buzz I used to get and I miss it.
Still, having three years of the national series, two World Cups and the Olympics on my resume is still pretty cool. Where do I go from there though?
Since my last post I've skipped through four rounds of the BMBS series almost without a hitch (well, if you discount the two air ambulances we've had to call); finished off The Demo Series; battled through a hectic May that started with another very successful 24 Hours of Exposure at Rock UK that included the European 24 hour and 12 hour Championships this year over one extremely wet and tense weekend, threw in a few days of trail building in Kielder and then nipped over to work on the MTB World Cup at Dalby for 10 days. This was possibly the hardest event I've ever had the misfortune to work on and resulted in an exhaustion related illness - oh the glamorous life of travelling round the country to mountain bike events!
Finally I made it into July and the opportunity to work on the Olympic mountain bike test event at Hadleigh Farm. Maybe it's because I've worked on so many events over the years, or even too many this year, or the fact that I'm rather jaded by the whole 'cross-country mtb race scene' at the moment but for some reason I wasn't as excited about this as I probably should have been and I actually feel slightly guilty about it. Don't get me wrong, it was a great weekend and a fantastic race day, it just didn't feel as special as I imagine an Olympic Test Event should do - that's no reflection on the event by the way, everybody else was positively shaking with excitement, it was just me - so maybe things will be different for the actual Olympics next year. I do hope so! It's been a while since I had that massive event buzz I used to get and I miss it.
Still, having three years of the national series, two World Cups and the Olympics on my resume is still pretty cool. Where do I go from there though?
Monday, 21 February 2011
Changing the Rules
Another day spent riding around Sherwood Pines trying to find any tracks even vaguely interesting enough to make up a mountain bike course of a suitable standard for elite riders and a couple of Olympians. It hasn't been easy. The selection of trails at Sherwood is limited at the best of times and the parts of the Kitcheners trail I have actually ridden have been so uninspiring I've never bothered to do the whole thing.
The task was made harder by new UCI rules stating cross-country mountain bike courses should now be 4-6km long. Sorry, that's not a mountain bike course, it's a cyclo-cross course through a few more trees. Apparently, it's to make mountain biking more exciting and television friendly, but as the British National XC Series hasn't been televised for over a decade, I can hardly see BBC sport suddenly turning up because we've knocked a couple of kilometres off the course.
And as for more exciting, they've obviously never been to a BMBS venue. Let's face it England is hardly blessed with rugged, mountainous terrain so we always make the best of what we have in difficult circumstances. You can probably make a fantastically hard, testing, technical 5km course in the Alps - just send the riders around the alpine meadow, up the side of the mountain and back down the near-vertical, rocky descent. Job done. Not quite the case in Sherwood Forest, or Berkshire, or Plymouth. Even the hugely expensive Dalby World Cup course is 500m too long now!
So with shorter courses (though all of the BMBS courses will probably be pushing the 6km limit, a 4km course would barely get us out of the car park at most venues) and shorter race durations, this could be an interesting year for British Cross-Country Mountain Biking. Watch this space!
The task was made harder by new UCI rules stating cross-country mountain bike courses should now be 4-6km long. Sorry, that's not a mountain bike course, it's a cyclo-cross course through a few more trees. Apparently, it's to make mountain biking more exciting and television friendly, but as the British National XC Series hasn't been televised for over a decade, I can hardly see BBC sport suddenly turning up because we've knocked a couple of kilometres off the course.
And as for more exciting, they've obviously never been to a BMBS venue. Let's face it England is hardly blessed with rugged, mountainous terrain so we always make the best of what we have in difficult circumstances. You can probably make a fantastically hard, testing, technical 5km course in the Alps - just send the riders around the alpine meadow, up the side of the mountain and back down the near-vertical, rocky descent. Job done. Not quite the case in Sherwood Forest, or Berkshire, or Plymouth. Even the hugely expensive Dalby World Cup course is 500m too long now!
So with shorter courses (though all of the BMBS courses will probably be pushing the 6km limit, a 4km course would barely get us out of the car park at most venues) and shorter race durations, this could be an interesting year for British Cross-Country Mountain Biking. Watch this space!
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Time Out
It's very easy to get bogged down with paperwork as an event organiser, so every now and again it's good to get out into the fresh air and get your hands dirty. Last week presented just the opportunity with a trip to Rock UK to do some trail building and maintenance on the 24 Hours of Exposure solo champs race course.
With a handful of willing helpers from Rock UK staff and a couple of huge piles of stone from FC Scotland, the week was spent shovelling, digging, raking, brashing, strimming and compacting on various sections of the route around Priest Hill in Newcastleton.
Despite the typical Scottish winter weather switching from hard frosts to torrential rain, a very productive week was had and good headway made into the task ahead. And, of course, there was lots of splashing in puddles and making mud pies...
With a handful of willing helpers from Rock UK staff and a couple of huge piles of stone from FC Scotland, the week was spent shovelling, digging, raking, brashing, strimming and compacting on various sections of the route around Priest Hill in Newcastleton.
Despite the typical Scottish winter weather switching from hard frosts to torrential rain, a very productive week was had and good headway made into the task ahead. And, of course, there was lots of splashing in puddles and making mud pies...
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
5 in 5
It seems my motivation to ride just isn't there at the moment. Luckily my dirty habit of organising mountain bike events means every now and again I have to go and ride a bike. The strange thing is, once I'm there and ready to go, I really enjoyed riding and just wanted to ride more.
Wednesday was a short loop around Afan checking out a demo loop for the Demo Series. I don't know why, but Afan is my 'make or break' trail. A number of times now I've been to Afan having not ridden for a few months and thrown myself into this south wales deep end. Every trail starts with a lung busting, rocky climb that's a real shock to the system and on this occasion was followed by a fast, rocky descent. Just the kind of mountain bike kick start I needed. If the light hadn't been fading, I'd probably have done another loop (ahem!)
Thursday was off to Margam Park to recce the British Mountain Bike Series Cross-country race course. If Afan is the deep end, this is a diving pool! Climb after climb interspersed with old school off-camber descents. Ace, but not really what you need after so long off the bike and an increasingly more evident lack of fitness. Still, after a lap and some lunch, I was eager to get back out into the forest and explore some new trails (thanks to trail fairy Gareth Hayes), once more ending the ride at sunset.
Friday was a quick and uninspiring ride around Bedgebury in Kent for another demo route. The less said about that the better but I'll join the increasing government trend of blaming everything on the weather. It was, however, a nice break from the leg burning hills of south wales.
Saturday - Sherwood Pines. One of the perks of officially scouting out routes for events is that you get to meet up with locals to show you off-piste stuff. As a cross-country course Sherwood is as you would expect - fast, tight, twisty singletrack with few features and some 'steep slopes' that make up the tiny amount of ascent the course has. My riding mojo was back after four days of consistent riding and the miles of flowing singletrack were grin-inducing enough to keep me riding most of the afternoon.
Sunday and another trip to Cannock for a lap of the 'Follow the Dog' and 'Monkey Trail' trails. The pedally singletrack was making my thighs burn and I could feel the previous rides in my legs. But Cannock is undulating and fun enough to make you want to keep going to the next downhill section (well usually, when it's not an energy sapping, treacle mud fest!)
5 days, 5 venues, 5 rides, 53 miles, 8 hours (alright, it's not going to break any speed records) and a very good basis for getting back into the habit of riding my bike!
Wednesday was a short loop around Afan checking out a demo loop for the Demo Series. I don't know why, but Afan is my 'make or break' trail. A number of times now I've been to Afan having not ridden for a few months and thrown myself into this south wales deep end. Every trail starts with a lung busting, rocky climb that's a real shock to the system and on this occasion was followed by a fast, rocky descent. Just the kind of mountain bike kick start I needed. If the light hadn't been fading, I'd probably have done another loop (ahem!)
Thursday was off to Margam Park to recce the British Mountain Bike Series Cross-country race course. If Afan is the deep end, this is a diving pool! Climb after climb interspersed with old school off-camber descents. Ace, but not really what you need after so long off the bike and an increasingly more evident lack of fitness. Still, after a lap and some lunch, I was eager to get back out into the forest and explore some new trails (thanks to trail fairy Gareth Hayes), once more ending the ride at sunset.
Friday was a quick and uninspiring ride around Bedgebury in Kent for another demo route. The less said about that the better but I'll join the increasing government trend of blaming everything on the weather. It was, however, a nice break from the leg burning hills of south wales.
Saturday - Sherwood Pines. One of the perks of officially scouting out routes for events is that you get to meet up with locals to show you off-piste stuff. As a cross-country course Sherwood is as you would expect - fast, tight, twisty singletrack with few features and some 'steep slopes' that make up the tiny amount of ascent the course has. My riding mojo was back after four days of consistent riding and the miles of flowing singletrack were grin-inducing enough to keep me riding most of the afternoon.
Sunday and another trip to Cannock for a lap of the 'Follow the Dog' and 'Monkey Trail' trails. The pedally singletrack was making my thighs burn and I could feel the previous rides in my legs. But Cannock is undulating and fun enough to make you want to keep going to the next downhill section (well usually, when it's not an energy sapping, treacle mud fest!)
5 days, 5 venues, 5 rides, 53 miles, 8 hours (alright, it's not going to break any speed records) and a very good basis for getting back into the habit of riding my bike!
Monday, 12 July 2010
The Week That Was
It's an odd life being a mountain bike event organiser some times, you never quite know what's going to happen next or where you going to end up.
It all started just over a week ago with my second car accident in 3 months. I've decided now that Dalby Forest is jinxed - I've only ever had two car accidents in my life and both of them have been the night before travelling to Dalby for an event. Nothing major, just a three car shunt this time, very frustrating. My jinx continued when I arrived at Dalby for a week of possible riding only to discover I'd forgotten my riding shoes, also something I have never done in 15 years of mountain biking. So this lead to doing half a lap of the Dalby red route in t-shirt, shorts and trainers (and helmet) balancing precariously on spd pedals.
The Dalby event presented its usual carnage with various ambulances and helicopters popping in and out, yet again highlighting the distinct lack of skillful riders in British mountain biking. This added more fuel to the fire that had been ignited last Tuesday when I sent a rather scathing email to British Cycling criticising their recent approach to exploiting what some organisations are starting to see as cash-cow mountain bikers. (See, it really wasn't a good week!)
Leaving all negative thoughts of Dalby behind it was off to the familiar, relaxing and safe environment of Kielder - well usually, just not when there's a crazy gunman running round the area obviously. Plans to ride off into the wilderness were somewhat thwarted by the possibility of running into either the crazed gunman or "the men in black Range Rovers". I don't think I've ever seen so many armed police officers in a day and driving through a small Northumberland town where every other car is a police car is rather an odd sight.
Still, on to the safety of urban life in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for lunch with Saddle Skedaddle. Sadly, even this didn't prove straightforward and the local car thieves were taking advantage of the police pre-occupation with crazy gun man by smashing the driver side window and breaking into Paul Davis's van whilst it was parked outside the Gateshead Travelodge overnight. Luckily they were the stupidest car thieves on the planet (sorry, you'd already figured that one out as soon as I said 'Gateshead' right) and, whilst getting away with a lovely little Tom-Tom, a large chain lock and a couple of in-car chargers, they'd somehow missed the laptop, brand new iPad and 800 quids worth of brand new bike parts and prizes, opting to go through the cupboards for food instead.
The 9 day long trip ended with a very windy and cold 6 hour drive home. Today was spent doing the mundane parts of life - washing, cleaning, hoovering and reading the post. Sometimes normality is ace.
It all started just over a week ago with my second car accident in 3 months. I've decided now that Dalby Forest is jinxed - I've only ever had two car accidents in my life and both of them have been the night before travelling to Dalby for an event. Nothing major, just a three car shunt this time, very frustrating. My jinx continued when I arrived at Dalby for a week of possible riding only to discover I'd forgotten my riding shoes, also something I have never done in 15 years of mountain biking. So this lead to doing half a lap of the Dalby red route in t-shirt, shorts and trainers (and helmet) balancing precariously on spd pedals.
The Dalby event presented its usual carnage with various ambulances and helicopters popping in and out, yet again highlighting the distinct lack of skillful riders in British mountain biking. This added more fuel to the fire that had been ignited last Tuesday when I sent a rather scathing email to British Cycling criticising their recent approach to exploiting what some organisations are starting to see as cash-cow mountain bikers. (See, it really wasn't a good week!)
Leaving all negative thoughts of Dalby behind it was off to the familiar, relaxing and safe environment of Kielder - well usually, just not when there's a crazy gunman running round the area obviously. Plans to ride off into the wilderness were somewhat thwarted by the possibility of running into either the crazed gunman or "the men in black Range Rovers". I don't think I've ever seen so many armed police officers in a day and driving through a small Northumberland town where every other car is a police car is rather an odd sight.
Still, on to the safety of urban life in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for lunch with Saddle Skedaddle. Sadly, even this didn't prove straightforward and the local car thieves were taking advantage of the police pre-occupation with crazy gun man by smashing the driver side window and breaking into Paul Davis's van whilst it was parked outside the Gateshead Travelodge overnight. Luckily they were the stupidest car thieves on the planet (sorry, you'd already figured that one out as soon as I said 'Gateshead' right) and, whilst getting away with a lovely little Tom-Tom, a large chain lock and a couple of in-car chargers, they'd somehow missed the laptop, brand new iPad and 800 quids worth of brand new bike parts and prizes, opting to go through the cupboards for food instead.
The 9 day long trip ended with a very windy and cold 6 hour drive home. Today was spent doing the mundane parts of life - washing, cleaning, hoovering and reading the post. Sometimes normality is ace.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Down to Business
So with the Christmas/December break behind me and another year over it was time to move on and get things back to normal. 2009 was a helluva a year, not least because I chose to take redundancy in the worst economic crisis in living memory and then decided to set up my own event business, SIP Events Ltd, and organise a mountain bike race; but not just any old mountain bike race, I thought I'd go for something that had never been done before, an event that many said couldn't be done - a logistically challenging 100 mile single lap off-road race in one of the remotest parts of the country. By 8pm on Saturday 5th September 2009, 200 people had proven the doubters wrong and the Montane Kielder 100 was receiving glowing reports from all involved! I think the free beer and burgers was helping though. It was without doubt the highlight of my year, possibly even the highlight of my last 10 years!
2010 was supposed to start with a big fitness kick - illness and bad weather put pay to that so I used the time to redesign and build various websites. SIP Events had a makeover, Kielder 100 had a small update and I also added the all important, all new 24 Hours of Exposure to the family (a work in progress).
With that little lot up and running I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things including some quality ride time. I have a good feeling about 2010, and so far it's living up to my expectations.
2010 was supposed to start with a big fitness kick - illness and bad weather put pay to that so I used the time to redesign and build various websites. SIP Events had a makeover, Kielder 100 had a small update and I also added the all important, all new 24 Hours of Exposure to the family (a work in progress).
With that little lot up and running I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things including some quality ride time. I have a good feeling about 2010, and so far it's living up to my expectations.
Monday, 6 April 2009
11 Bloody Days
11 eventful days. One evening I'm in London trying not to get drunk at what was the official closing down of ITV transmission at the London Studios. It was also the day I got served my redundancy which means I'll officially finish on the 17th of April. Thank God! Finally! I could feel the weight physically lifting from my shoulders and the stress draining from my body. It was fantastic.
Early the following morning I was on a train to Carlisle for a few days pottering about on soon-to-be mountain bike courses in the north. Kielder 100 is coming along nicely. The new Wild Boar 24 course has huge potential and then it was over to Whinlatter to help out at the Whinlatter MTB Challenge. This is where things took an unexpected turn for the worse. I had an accident involving a large, 25kg+ speaker crashing down onto the back of my head. Thinking there must be a bump forming I removed my hat and put my hand to the back of my head. It came back red. That's when the others noticed the blood running down the back of my neck. I've never had a serious head injury before and I have to say there's nothing more unnerving than seeing blood dripping from your own head - it's just not natural and all your instincts seem to be telling you to panic because there's something very wrong. Still, the week of rest probably did me some good.
Then it was off to Sherwood for the first round of the British Mountain Bike Race Series working with Martyn Salt for the first time. (He plays squash ya know.) I raced in the Masters category. I was rubbish. Maybe riding my bike over the winter would have helped. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Full race report coming soon on the race page.
So, 11 days, hundreds of miles, 4 forests, 3 hotels, 2 mtb events and one very large scar on the back of my head. At least life isn't dull. And the Summer is shaping up rather nicely now I finally have my redundancy.
Early the following morning I was on a train to Carlisle for a few days pottering about on soon-to-be mountain bike courses in the north. Kielder 100 is coming along nicely. The new Wild Boar 24 course has huge potential and then it was over to Whinlatter to help out at the Whinlatter MTB Challenge. This is where things took an unexpected turn for the worse. I had an accident involving a large, 25kg+ speaker crashing down onto the back of my head. Thinking there must be a bump forming I removed my hat and put my hand to the back of my head. It came back red. That's when the others noticed the blood running down the back of my neck. I've never had a serious head injury before and I have to say there's nothing more unnerving than seeing blood dripping from your own head - it's just not natural and all your instincts seem to be telling you to panic because there's something very wrong. Still, the week of rest probably did me some good.
Then it was off to Sherwood for the first round of the British Mountain Bike Race Series working with Martyn Salt for the first time. (He plays squash ya know.) I raced in the Masters category. I was rubbish. Maybe riding my bike over the winter would have helped. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Full race report coming soon on the race page.
So, 11 days, hundreds of miles, 4 forests, 3 hotels, 2 mtb events and one very large scar on the back of my head. At least life isn't dull. And the Summer is shaping up rather nicely now I finally have my redundancy.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
The Things You Do
It's been an interesting couple of weeks with lots happening and more than once I have found myself pausing for a second just to get a complete picture of the situation I had found myself in.
For any readers of Tales from the Rock you'll know there was a minor vehicular incident last Tuesday - full story and embarassing phots on Tony's blog here. 'Drive Carefully!', yeah thanks Tony. It's the first time I've ever got my car stuck in 10 years of driving, and I was lucky I didn't hit the power lines! Despite this setback I still managed to get to the meeting with Welsh Cycling on time and all went well.
So it's Tuesday 6th of January and whilst most people are settling themselves back into their warm work places after the Christmas break, I spend the day wandering through pathless woodland in the Brecon Beacons scouting out the venue for the Cycling Festival. The temperature was still below freezing but I still managed to get excited at the prospect of what this forest may hold - the stunning scenery, snow capped hills, bright blue sky and crisp sunshine also played a part in the random giggles of joy.
Now, my friend Paul had driven us over to Crickhowell as I wasn't too happy with the state of my tyres after the incident earlier that morning. Leaving the estate we decided to pop down one of the lanes just to familiarise ourselves with the lie of the land a bit more. Up the hill and round the bend and the road opened out into a huge green field with a large house at the top. It was at this point Paul decided to stop and turn his van round. He began his 3 point turn in the narrowest part of the road next to the steepest part of the verge and no sooner had he completed point two of his turn, he found the van wedged between a fence and the grass verge. Half an hour later, in the freezing cold, dark evening, one of the estate workers used his Land Rover to drag the van out, sideways, down the road. It's the first time Paul's ever got his van stuck in 20 years of driving.
Back to my car and I faced the long drive home across the Cotswolds. Any of you that read this blog regularly will know I'm a great believer in 'signs' and listening to what the universe is trying to tell me. The A40 across the Cotswolds is twisty and dangerous at the best of times, with this cold snap who knows what condition it would be in. I didn't have to wait until I got to the A40; I got just past Ross-on-Wye on the dual carriageway and approaching the roundabout passed an accident on the other side of the road. 'Oh dear', I thought, and as I finished that thought the car took a rather skewed angle at which to leave the roundabout. Aha, black ice. I see. Heart pounding I put the three incidents of the day together and decided to meander slowly and carefully home that night, barely reaching the speed limit at any point. Home safe and sound once more; ready to spend another day in the middle of the countryside in the freezing cold, wind and rain. Oh the glamour.
For any readers of Tales from the Rock you'll know there was a minor vehicular incident last Tuesday - full story and embarassing phots on Tony's blog here. 'Drive Carefully!', yeah thanks Tony. It's the first time I've ever got my car stuck in 10 years of driving, and I was lucky I didn't hit the power lines! Despite this setback I still managed to get to the meeting with Welsh Cycling on time and all went well.
So it's Tuesday 6th of January and whilst most people are settling themselves back into their warm work places after the Christmas break, I spend the day wandering through pathless woodland in the Brecon Beacons scouting out the venue for the Cycling Festival. The temperature was still below freezing but I still managed to get excited at the prospect of what this forest may hold - the stunning scenery, snow capped hills, bright blue sky and crisp sunshine also played a part in the random giggles of joy.
Now, my friend Paul had driven us over to Crickhowell as I wasn't too happy with the state of my tyres after the incident earlier that morning. Leaving the estate we decided to pop down one of the lanes just to familiarise ourselves with the lie of the land a bit more. Up the hill and round the bend and the road opened out into a huge green field with a large house at the top. It was at this point Paul decided to stop and turn his van round. He began his 3 point turn in the narrowest part of the road next to the steepest part of the verge and no sooner had he completed point two of his turn, he found the van wedged between a fence and the grass verge. Half an hour later, in the freezing cold, dark evening, one of the estate workers used his Land Rover to drag the van out, sideways, down the road. It's the first time Paul's ever got his van stuck in 20 years of driving.
Back to my car and I faced the long drive home across the Cotswolds. Any of you that read this blog regularly will know I'm a great believer in 'signs' and listening to what the universe is trying to tell me. The A40 across the Cotswolds is twisty and dangerous at the best of times, with this cold snap who knows what condition it would be in. I didn't have to wait until I got to the A40; I got just past Ross-on-Wye on the dual carriageway and approaching the roundabout passed an accident on the other side of the road. 'Oh dear', I thought, and as I finished that thought the car took a rather skewed angle at which to leave the roundabout. Aha, black ice. I see. Heart pounding I put the three incidents of the day together and decided to meander slowly and carefully home that night, barely reaching the speed limit at any point. Home safe and sound once more; ready to spend another day in the middle of the countryside in the freezing cold, wind and rain. Oh the glamour.
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