40psi

In spite of my gung-ho previous post, we’ve decided that due to the severe flooding at the moment we may struggle to get to the start of the planned daft ride and back from the finish too, given we’d need to drive through the middle of some pretty badly affected (and rather remote) areas. We’d obviously complete the ride itself, no problems

So….we’re going to do a part road, part off-road Daft Ride instead. A bit closer to home but still very big. What is guaranteed is that we’re going to get wet….

Dave and I have got another huge Daft Ride planned for this weekend. If the epic-ness of past Daft Rides are anything to go by, this one promises to be BIG.

The weather forecast however suggests that it’s going to be very wet, very windy and possibly pushing the daftness much closer to the ’stupidity barrier’ than ever before.In fact, there’s a ’severe weather warning’ for the next few days for most of the area we’ll be riding. 

We’d be silly to attempt such a big ride across such wild and desolate terrain in those conditions – there are 5 ‘major ford crossings’ that might just be deeper than they usually are, it’s likely that the wind will be right in our faces for most of the route, the weather in the last couple of weeks will make sure that the route will be very muddy in lots of places, not to mention the relentless climbing. It’s long enough to ensure we start and finish in darkness too.

Sod it we thought, after several nanoseconds of pondering. It’ll be ace, Let’s do it.

Yesterday must have been some kind of ‘Let’s a ll drive like knobheads’ day. I rode a regular route from here across to Oldham, Stalybridge, Glossop, Hayfield and over to Macc via some big ‘orrible climbs. It was pouring with rain, it was getting dark and it was very windy.

With this in mind I was using my brightest lights front and back and was also wearing a bright orange jacket. No matter, everyone was denying my existence anyway, pulling out, pulling across, turning left in front of me, the usual bollocks. One woman wound her window down to demonstrate with her stinking potty mouth just how much class she had after I had shouted “NO!” at her as she strarted to drive her car across my path.

It must be the fact that these people are sat in the safety of their cars that they think it’s ok to shout abuse, wave fingers, ignore cyclists because if they did this to someone face-to-face they’d probably get a slap.

Eventually I left the pillocks and their cars behind and arrived at the proper hills. It was completely dark by now and the wind had picked up. The horizontal rain had also returned and stayed with me until I reached Prestbury where a cottage pie was waiting   My toes were frozen – time to dig out the overshoes again….

pic: Tim Kershaw

The original plan involved me riding over the Lancs/Yorks border, through the Calder Valley and to Brighouse for the ‘cross race, however this wasn’t going to work due to Rachael’s karate lesson. So we drove over, I would then race then ride back. I was really looking forward to the ride home – I’d got the route clear in my mind after I drove home the same way from Huddersfield last week – it included some ace roads, through villages with ace names (like Barkisland) and some big climbs such as Blackstone Edge. I wasn’t really looking forward to the race though, not sure why. Probably the horrendous feeling of nausea I experienced at the Boggart Hole Clough race a couple of weeks ago was pecking my head a bit.

Once we arrived I bumped into Chipps with his Ibis uber-bike, Tim was there with his camera (hence the photo above) and Dave had also arrived, looking ‘full factory’ with 2 bikes

After a rolling start the fun began. The course was dead good – mainly woodland singletrack, short steep ups and downs, slippery off-camber bends, a gravel trap, a flight of wooden steps and plenty of roots to test one’s knowledge of correct tyre pressures…

What followed was an hour of sweat, pain, snot, stupidly high heart rates and the taste of blood in the throat. A bit like interval training but with just one really long interval. I came to grief once, right in front of Deb, Michael and the kids, slamming to the ground with a complete lack of grace and grip on a bend that was threatening me from the start – each lap I was getting more and more confident and as such the inevitable encounter with the ground got closer and closer – the crash resulted in a load of mud up the side of my leg and a bent-inwards brake lever so I had to ride the remainder of the race with a wonky hand.

It was a least lap 5 before I was lapped I think, although that might be wrong. No idea how badly I did because the results aren’t out yet but I don’t care about that really. If I can do a few of these and get better at them that’s great, but it’s good just to do something so intense that it’s hopefully going to improve my ‘top end’ in the long-term.

After the race I had a quick cuppa, a quick natter, a quick change of jersey, put some lights on the bike and set off for home. The route eventually climbed Blackstone Edge, down towards Rochdale and then home a couple of hours after I’d set off. I didn’t need the lights until the last few miles but by then my front brake was completely useless, which made negotiating the roundabouts in Middleton very intereresting.

At the moment the next cyclocross race in my diary is a month away (followed by another one the day after!), but in contrast to this morning’s state of mind I’m actually already looking forward to it….

Warren’s worked his magic again ready for us to start plugging the next race in February 2010. Have a look and when we open the entry (soon), don’t hang about. Last time we sold out in 4 days.

Hit the North 1.5 rev 2.0 (catchy huh?)

This week I’ve properly discovered riding my bike to work.

Yes, riding to work. How long have I been riding bikes? Seems I always drive (because I have to visit a client or something) or I walk, it’s only a mile and a half after all.

If I ride, it takes 10 bloody minutes!!!! The best thing is,  I don’t end up wanting to kill people like I do if I drive.

Down the road, turn right at the tip, along the cycle path through the woods, done. Work. Big sprint home again. Yeh.

Can you still get bicycle clips?

There. I did it. I’ve entered the Strathpuffer 24 in the solo category at long last. I’ve been threatening myself with this race for a couple of years now – in January I’ll finally do it. I stayed up until midnight last night to enter on the website – by 12:07 it was full. Dave’s also in again for double the Ragley awesomeness.

Budge and Phil have entered as a pair. I think they’re going to blame me if they get cold (they will).

I’m picking up the caravan this weekend. After that I’ll be getting it all nice and comfy and maybe I’ll drag it up to the Highlands for the ‘puffer.

Ding Dang Doo.