The First Of The Snows, Kielder Duathlon, 2nd December 2012

Hey there you lot, here's a wee report from the Kielder Duathlon, and oh boy was it cold!

Hello Mr Snow!  So after a week in the Cairngorms walking in the snow it set me up nicely for a Winter Wonderland race further north come Sunday!

Where's Santa.....?

Steve and I travelled up with Chris, Steve's team mate. The car temperature gauge was reading -7 and it was bitterly cold, one of those mornings when you almost feel like your breath has been taken from you as you step outside.

While having a nervous pee-stop by the side of the road near Bellingham (when you gotta go, you gotta go!), I spotted a sheep stuck in the bush riving around all distressed so got the lads out the car to help set it free (after I'd peed and made myself presentable again naturally!).  We managed to clip away the thorns stuck in its back with a pair of cable cutters and that sorted out our good deed for the day!! :D

Arrived at Kielder and met with, yet again, lots of lycra-clad bodies stretching and getting themselves all prepped.  Sorted our numbers out and then realised I had forgotten my bag, pump and spare inner tubes, oopsies, what an utter clot!  Thankfully after some wangling I managed to borrow some in the end and strapped them to my bike with duct tape!

10am came and my running partner Mary set off on the first stint, a 7km run up Deadwater Fell!  Steve's running partner Chris was well up for it this time, after coming 4th last time both him and Steve had something to prove!

Up the winding climbs of Kielder's Deadwater Fell, brrrrrrrrr.......

Chris came back in a time of 42 mins and Steve was quickly away on the bike, overtaking people straight away. We're pretty used to riding in the snow so was quite excited about it!  Mary came in a little later and I was chomping at the bit to get out there, off up the hill climb to start passing people pushing up the icy track.  

Don't let them catch you Chris.....!

Next was a little descent, catching people all the time which gives you a great amount motivation! The organisers had even put in a lovely steep uphill muddy-assed push in the woods, I mean what was that all about?  Anyway, got to the top where my legs started to wake up and feel stronger, I forced myself to stay in the harder gears and just push through the pain.  

Snow? What snow?  Angie stays on the gas.....

20km in 1hr27mins later,  I was passing the dibber back to Mary and off she went for the last 6km.  I went to see Steve who was stood near the track warming himself back up with a cup of hot coffee!  He told me his bike bit had gone well, got held up a little on the singletrack sections but gruelled out the fire roads as much as he could.  He completed it in a time of 1hr 13mins, not too shabby!

Steve aboard his 29'er, giving it some welly.....

Not long after Chris came in looking pretty fresh and they found out they had finished 3rd out of all the teams. Get in there, whoop!!

Mary was next and we cheered her on through the last section, she sprinted the last 20 metres to keep her position from some guy which was good to see!  We took the 3rd place in the women's teams too, bang on!

All in all a cracking day!  Next one is Grizedale in the Lake District!  Can't wait!

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Northern Downhill Series, Kielder Forest, 20th-21st October 2012

Thought I would get you all the low down on the Northern Downhill's Kielder weekender, here we go....

As some of you may be aware I came into this season after losing my mojo and in between my injuries and crashing out I was pretty cut up with my results this year.  Therefore I was determined to pull out all of the stops with the Northern Champs at Kielder Forest, it would have to be the place to redeem myself.

As has been the story throughout most of the race weekends this year it absolutely chucked it down on the Friday and Saturday!  This was also a new track and not fully bedded in, I knew straight off that we were all in for a sloppy one!  Unfortunately due to wrangling with the good old Forestry Commission the very top of the track was not going to be used for the race, it still left a three and a half minute course though and it certainly wasn't shabby!  The NDH boys pulled out the stops with the amazing RedBull Rampage-style start ramp which rolled you off a high drop straight into the first shoot, excellent! 

The top section was the biggest, gnarliest rock garden I've seen so far in the UK, this would be a real test my TF Tuned tweaked suspension and X-Fusion shock.  The rock garden was incredibly physically demanding and caused a lot of riders a lot of issues, so much so a load of riders pulled out of racing altogether!  I must add here that I have nothing but respect for Carl Davison and the Northern Downhill boys who put these courses together, it's not the first time they've had riders pull out due to so-called 'extreme' sections, however how are riders to progress in this sport if they are not being challenged by this terrain? 

We did say it was muddy! Photo by Richard Easton

The track crossed into the woods which were quite dark with a lot of tricky roots to negotiate. The main trick at the bottom was keep your speed up and keep pedalling otherwise you got bogged down in the mud which became worse as the weekend progressed.

My first race run went half-decently with a few errors and one big stop in the slop which took a lot of effort to get going afterwards.  I finished in third place with my first run, because of this I knew other people were struggling with the course's worsening conditions and I was keen on trying to go faster then the other two riders on my final run.  From the start of the second run I was being thrown all over the place, it was really hard going, I did however stay steady, no stops, no stalls, just took it all as it came, the course was a complete mess of mud, roots and rocks.  No-one bettered the times of their previous runs and I remained in third place, more importantly however I was the Northern Champion for 2012!

Photo by Stewart Dickson

The course conditions were damned tough, the combination of an unbedded in new track and the weather playing havoc! The bike however worked like a dream, I am over the moon with the X-Fusion shock, it came into its own, combined with the TF Tuned forks the whole suspension set up was incredibly supple across the weekend, couldn't fault it.

I would like to say a massive 'Thank You' to everyone who has supported me through the year:

Firstly and foremost Frank Wadelton for supporting me with his brilliant FB10 frames, the guy is a legend, a Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductee and an all round lovely bloke, thank you so much Frank.

Then up in no particular order:

Hayes Brakes, Thomson posts and stems, Dave and the Burgtec boys, Urge Helmets, SDG Saddles, X-Fusion Shocks, e-13components chain guides, Pete and Darren at Silverfish, GoPro cameras, Sun-Ringle wheels, the guys at TF Tuned, The Cycle Jersey, Matt at Royal Racing, and last but by no means least Oury Grips.

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