Friday 20 November 2009

Bike update


Sadly the Nicolai went onto pastures new, I believe to be converted to Rolhoff. The Specialized Alez Elite also went to another owner.
New in and obvious from the previous posting is the Pearson Double Cross. That's already seen some racing and some hard winter training sessions. Also new, well sort of is a Graham Weigh cross bike. This is a new budget frame on which I'm fitting a mix of old early ninties Campagnolo I had kicking about and ebay and STW sourced secondhand parts.
Also lurking in the background is an old Gios frame. It's a lovely thing, but not up to todays standards. However I do intend to have it resprayed and fitted with modern Campagnolo and carbon forks. To turn it into what I'd call a gentlemans bike.

Sunday 1 November 2009

Cyclo cross.


After a pretty dreadful year riding wise, what with all the injuries sustained, I have come to find myself in and nearing the end of racing in my local cyclo cross league. After having plenty of time to consider where I wanted to go with my riding, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to return to racing. So with a few miles of running xc under my belt and the desire to race, I promptly entered the local Central CX league. As of now I've completed four of the six events, leaving my local race at the Milton Keynes Bowl and final race at the Hillingdon cycle circuit still to go.
My performances in the races have been pretty much as expected, not stunning but not 'Lantern Rouge' either. However I'm hoping the cross racing will act as a springboard into road racing in 2010.
The road racing being my main target for 2010.

Just prior to my first race I entered a Sportive with fellow BuzzardsMTB riders. It didn't take long for me to realise that they weren't my 'cup of tea', much prefering a session with my buddies or the local reliability trials.

Anyway winter is almost here and I've just had my first wet and muddy ride in months. Whilst most riders chose to stay tucked up in bed, I took the oppertunity to test my cross bikes wet weather capabilities which just so happened to be excelent. So that's my worries taken care of for next weeks almost 'certain to be wet' cross race.

Stay posted!