Provisional Route Plan for September

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All Set For France and Spain September 2011

3 Friends - Tim, Ben and Francis

3 Bikes - A Peugeot, Specialized and ?

3 Countries - Britain, France and Spain

3 Weeks - In September

Over 1300 Miles of roads...

Yesterday we booked our ferries to Spain in preparation for our touring trip to France and Spain in September. Very Exciting!

I talked about the route in an earlier Blogpost (link).

Not a lot had changed in it except that we are now planning on going to Santander in Spain first and then making our way back up to Le Havre, via the Picos de Europa, the Pyreness and the Alps. We have planned the route to take us 3 weeks - including two full rest days. This means that we can cut back the daily mileage to a "moderate" sixty miles when we are in the mountains and more like 100 miles when we are on the flat plains of central France.

My kit is all coming together for the trip:

Black Classic Ortlieb Panniers:

a Tortec Expedition Rear Rack, and a lot of upgrades to the Peugeot winter training bike - it's steel frame is perfectly suited to lightweight touring.

This trip is going to be the most challenging thing that I have ever done on a bike by a long way.

I'm going to try and blog throughout it whenever I can, but as we are 'camping wild' for a lot of the trip it might be difficult at times.

'Everybody Hurts' - Southern XC Perham Down

When you're racing a Mountain Bike event it is probably fair to say that "Everybody Hurts Sometimes" as the REM track goes; however after Sunday's Southern XC race at Perham Down in Wiltshire, I reckon I probably hurt more than most, as a consequence of two pretty major crashes and a very hard, but largely unsuccessful effort in an attempt to get back into the main pack.

When you arrive at a venue and there is an air ambulance sat in the car park it normally means the course is a hard one; in fact there were two broken collarbones before I had even started my race, as the junior and open categories demonstrated some carnage around the course.

On the pre-race warm up lap Sean Williams, Jamie Brett and I rode the course and confirmed that it was indeed challenging but great: a mix of short sharp climbs, dusty descents, chalky drops and weaving single track. Once again my single track inability was showing even on the practice lap as I seemed to fall a bit behind Sean and Jamie every time we got into the woods. I knew that in the race itself I was going to have to put some serious effort in on the hills in an attempt to hold a decent position through the single-track.

The Race

The start wasn't that full on - more my kind of riding; gradually building up to pace; I stuck with the main pack through the first section of single-track and seemed to be feeling all right, with Jamie just a few riders back.

On the first grassy climb I picked up quite a few places, easily moving into the top 7 or 8 riders. As I had thought -I was just going to have to hang on in the single-track and pick up the places on the climbs - fair enough, I could deal with that.

However the single track posed more of a problem that I imagined - during the Island Games I had managed to counter my lack of single-track practice by riding the tricky sections of the course numerous times before the race; but after just one practice lap on this circuit, my weakness in Mtb handling ability in these twisty narrow sections began to show. I lost a few places in the first section of woods, but then regained them on a fire-road section.

It was in the second section of woods though that the proverbial s**t really hit the fan. I clipped a tree with my handlebars and came down hard on my hip, nothing major but it knocked my rhythm and quite a few riders came streaming past.

Remounting and cursing under my breath at my poor performance I rode on. I took a few riders back on the next few uphill sections of the lap and really enjoyed the dusty down-hills and technical sweeping sections of the course.

But it was while enjoying a very steep chalky drop that my race came to a rather abrupt halt. The drop was seriously steep and very fast; and at the bottom there was a long, hard-pack straight section where you could really make the most of the speed. I was flying along, at around 35mph I reckon, making up some decent ground on the main pack in the distance, but with no-one else immediately in front.

As a result I didn't realise I needed to slow down, and indeed there were no signs or warnings of what was coming, despite the rest of the course being well-signposted. At 35mph I crested a small hump, which looked like I would just jump off the other side, only to find that in fact the other side was a ditch! So instead I went over the handlebars at some considerable speed; hitting my ribs and forearm pretty hard on the bars and then skidding along on my back to a pretty sudden stop: definitely NOT fast!

Standing up and checking my bike and body for any considerable damage I again remounted, this time in rather considerably more pain. While I had been rolling around in the dust about four riders had pulled in front and I was now at the dead-last back of the field. This race really wasn't going according to plan - all I could hope for now was to regain as many lost places as possible and perhaps overtake those four or five riders that had got past me.

By the uphill section of the second lap I was back in contention with the back group, overtaking three riders and gaining ground on the others. Then on the fire-road section, whilst I tried to take a much needed first drink of the race, the whole bottle top came off in my hands and I dropped the bottle on the ground (spilling its sticky contents over me in the process). Not wanting to leave it on the track as a hazard and knowing that I had already pretty much "finished" my race, I stopped to pick it up; letting a few riders through in the process.

The rest of my race was a mixture of trying not to lose too many places on the single track and gaining a few more on the up-hills. I just enjoyed the dusty descents and swooping technical sections of the course and tried to get to the finish without doing myself any more damage.

I eventually rolled across the line in 12th out of 16; making up a few places on the last lap. It might seem odd for me to say this, but it was still an enjoyable race; a great course and when I wasn't on my bum in the dust the legs actually felt pretty good.

We also had some interesting discussions between the three of us on the journey up there and back about the prospects of a real Isle of Wight Cycling team and the chances of getting a good team together for Bermuda 2013 - all really interesting and exciting stuff.

This week I am hoping to do the Portsmouth Circuits Race on Wednesday, then the next race after that will be the Goodwood Road Race on the 24th July - time to get on the tarmac for a bit!

Full Results List

Natwest Island Games XC Mtb Race

Every bit of training I have been doing this year seems to have been leading up to this event - the XC race in the Natwest Island Games. I knew the Criterium race wasn't going to suit me overly well; but I gave it a decent shot, always hoping for a better result in the Cross-Country event - here's how things unfolded...

The Course

If the Criterium Course was hard, then the Cross Country course was brutal.

The women had to do three laps and the men five, of a course that challenged even the Commonwealth Games athletes at the front of the field.

Starting again on the top of Fore Down, we raced a fast section through the grass area on the top before quickly hitting a section of single track, where inevitably the riders became spread out as we rode single-file through the technical lines in the top part of the course.

It was then time to drop...we descended VERY quickly down the side of the down, on an off-camber grass track, building up enough speed that you had to be very careful not to over-cook it, and end up on the barbed wire fence as you made the swift right-hander at the bottom.

Your momentum then carried you onto a difficult section of grass terraces that demanded constant concentration to avoid losing the back-end and crunching your rear derailleur on the terraces if you dropped off them (this happened to one of the top Guernsey boys).

At the end of the terraces you were then forced to pop the chain down into the little "granny" ring on the front, because as you made the hairpin turn to start your ascent of the hill you were confronted with a very steep section through the trees. This caused problems for me twice; as the chain dropped off the inside ring and I had to dismount to get it back on. The ascent took you up through a great section of wooded single-track and back up onto the top of the downs: lungs burning and legs aching.

The second descent was equally as fast as the first, skirting the field that borders the Bowcombe Road; the grassy track allowed me to max-out my gears, which must have meant I was doing close to 40mph down there! (good job the St. Johns guys were standing by as you rounded a sharp left hander at the bottom into Cheverton Farm - I know my back end was skittering about quite a bit on the dry, loose flints.

Out of the farmyard you had a flat section that posed as a good place to take on some energy gels and a bit of liquid before you hit 'THE WOODS'!

When I tried to ride this section a few weeks back it was completely unridable in places because of the rainfall we had been enduring. But with a good bit of sun and plenty of riders compacting the trail down over practice laps in the last week, 'The Woods' had become a fantastic section of the course; challenging, but great fun to ride. With a bit of luck the farmer is hoping that we can keep this section of the course permanently open for local riders!

After emerging from the woods into Cheverton Quarry it was a vicious ascent back up onto the top of the down, with some incredibly steep and technical sections towards the top, which certainly pushed the exhausted riders.

The lap didn't end there though, we had "The Drop" to navigate - a very steep, rock strewn descent that needed every ounce of concentration to just stay on the bike. To make things worse, at the bottom you had to skid round into the "Bomb Hole" (which was included in Crit race).

After that it was then back up to the top of the course, and what after 5 gruelling laps would be the finish line!

My Race

Once again, my start was pretty poor, and I ended up clinging onto the back of the front group as we entered the first section of singletrack; soon we were spread out as a result of the single-file riding and those on the front once again had a slingshot into an early lead while I was still stuck in the single track. One thing that I'll definitely be working on this year is my starts!

After the rapid descent I was picking riders off on the uphill section, until I had a chain drop incident and lost a few places.

I made those up again on the flat section before we hit the woods, but then lost them again due to poor riding on a few of the technical uphill sections in the trees. I wasn't sure what was going on, I had ridden "The Woods" numerous times and had been fine, I put it down to first lap nerves and tried to calm the frustration. I regained the lost places on the final uphill of the first lap and continued to hold a place among a couple of Jersey riders and a Menorcan.

On the second lap we dropped one of the two Jersey riders, I had another mechanical; dropping the chain in the woods, only a minor one, but it called for a bit of a burst to catch up with the two others. At the top of the second climb the Jersey rider punctured and had to change his bike - some of the guys had taken the risky decision to run very lightweight tyres, and with all the bracken, broken clay pigeons and flints everywhere there were a couple of puncture victims; luckily I was running heavy duty tyres; a bit more weight to lug around, but at least I didn't flat!

On the fourth lap the Menorcan escaped; in fact he caught and overtook my team mate Sean Williams who was the next rider in front of us; he must have had some rocket fuel energy gel or something! His luck didn't last long though, as he too became a puncture victim; another guy running thin tyres at very low pressure apparently!

On the final lap I was making up significant ground on Sean and could see him in front of me on the longer sections of the course. I then had an unfriendly encounter with a tree in 'The Woods' and lost some valuable time - nothing damaged, just a bit bruised. Sean was still in sight on the final climb, but there was little motivation to put a huge effort in to overtake a team-mate; especially the team manager! So I just hung on to the finish, eventually rolling across about a minute behind Sean; both of us a long way in front of the next rider back.

Sean took 12th and I came in 13th, a major improvement on Monday's result for me!

Very satisfying!

Full Results List

It was an incredibly hard race, but a fantastic course and there was some amazing support from local families and team members alike. I'm not sure people realise how much we appreciate the support as we roll past in a zombie like state of pain; but it really does make a huge difference, so a massive thanks to all who came along!

It seems crazy that the Games are all over now, so much has been leading up to these races, and they haven't failed to disappoint in terms of challenges and competition. I knew it was going to be tough - it was! I knew the team would do a fantastic job at organising it all and they did.

I'll write another blog in the next few days about what my hopes are for the future; at 20, I was the youngest competing in the mountain biking by about 6 years I reckon, so hopefully there will be some great events to come for me, including I hope a few more Island Games...Bermuda 2013? That would be amazing!

Follow my progress on the blog and on my twitter account: timwiggins1