JUNE 2009

23 June 2009
A Memorable Mayhem

The results are in and The Bike Mechanic Team came in a very respectable 30th place in the Sport Men's Category, out of a total of 229 teams, completing 25 laps in 24 hours and 7 seconds!

This year the course was 14km long with 350m of climbing, making it a pretty tough course. The Kenda Climb was once again in attendance - a brutal 150m climb over a distance of 1.8km, which consisted of a rutted grassy climb to start, then a steep gravel road climb and then onto some singletrack - plenty to keep the legs and mind occupied. There were a few interesting descents to make it worth the climbs, although some would disagree!

The weather forecast looked good for the weekend with just a few showers, so everything was crossed in Team HQ that we didn't get a repeat of Mountain Mayhem 2008. After a steady practice lap on Friday, the traditional pre-race preparations got underway - BBQ, some light refreshment and socialising with friends who had gathered in our little tent village for the weekend.

Saturday morning came with the seemingly endless wait for the 2pm start, giving plenty of time for the pre-race nerves to kick in. With some light showers during the night came the inevitable mud and after seeing some riders come back from their practice laps covered in sticky mud, panic set in. Did I have the right tyres? Did I have enough clothes? Would it be a repeat of last year's nightmare? So many questions, and so much time to think about all the answers.

Finally it was time for the starting line-up. We decided between us that Mark should do the Le Mans style run and start this year. Mark being the stronger runner would get a headstart from the main pack of riders and give us a strong, fast, first lap. And with a storming 56 minute first lap, the plan worked, and it was time for me to take the second lap in 51 minutes. We were on to a strong start and with Andrew and Jon following on with 56 and 55 minute laps, I had a feeling that things were looking good for the Team.

We continued lapping in sub-hour times until the early hours of the morning when we had some rain, which created some sticky and others slippery sections around the course. Nevertheless, the course remained rideable, and mostly enjoyable.

Once mid morning came, we were on the home straight and we knew we were in for a strong finish. With 3 hours to go, we calculated that if we were quick we would be able to squeeze an extra lap in at the end, but it would be tight. What we didn't appreciate was how tight it was going to be. After Jon's fast last lap the time on the official clock said 23h:07m:08s, meaning Mark would need to complete a sub 53 minute lap. His fastest lap was 50 minutes 42 seconds, so we knew he could do it, but could he do it after already completing 6 fast laps? Our race was on and he set off at blistering pace out of the arena. I was already dressed and ready to ride, and when we saw Mark pass the halfway point on the Kenda climb in 25 minutes, it was time to go and wait in the arena.

It was probably the longest 5 minutes of my life, watching the clock count down to 24 hours. Each tick got steadily louder and all I could focus on was the final corner and straight of the course, looking out for any sign of Mark. Then all of a sudden he appeared and was sprinting towards the change-over point, but it was too late, the hooter went, just as Mark came within 10 metres of the line. The look of disappointment on his face was devastating to see, but he had given it everything, and had finished in style!

The Mayhem this year will not be forgotten in a hurry, and for me, it was one of the best. The Team were excellent, and thanks for all their hard work, not only completing the laps in quick times, but also for being great team mates and friends. Huge thanks go to our support, Louisa and Charlotte, and Anne who joined us for the weekend!

As well as a good performance from The Bike Mechanic Team, there were even better results from good friends of ours. Matt Page, riding for Focus/Wiggle finally realised his dream of winning the 24-hour Solo Men's Category, and even proposed to his fiancé Nia at the finish line! And also, congratulations to Jo Evans, who came 2nd in the 24-hour Solo Women's Category.

Full results can be found on the Original Source Mountain Mayhem website.



18 June 2009
Media Tarts

Getting recognition on The Bike Mechanic Blog and Bike Radar wasn't enough for our winning singlespeed pairs, Mark and Andrew. They've just made it onto today's edition of The Merthyr Express (Page 47!). They'll be wanting an agent next.




07 June 2009
Victory at the 2009 Kona Bristol Bike Fest

Mark and Andrew, riding for The Bike Mechanic stormed to victory over the weekend at the 2009 Kona Bristol Bikefest, to claim the Men's 12-hour Singlespeed Competition title, completing 17 laps, and winning by a 2 lap margin.

Huw and Jon, also completing 17 laps, finished in a very impressive 8th place in the Men's 12-hour Pairs Competition.

Also, Anne earned another podium position, coming 3rd, riding in the 12-hour Solo Veteran Womens Category.

Full results can be found on www.timelaps.co.uk

So fantastic results for us all! Mark and myself have raced in the Pairs Category for a number of years, but this was Andrew and Jon's first taste of pairs racing.

It was The Bike Mechanic Team's first visit to the Bristol Bikefest so the 10km course was all new to us. It didn't fail to impress however, with long sections of fast twisting singletrack, slippery roots and rocky descents as well as a couple of tough climbs. The race started very wet but as the day wore on, it got steadily drier. We all avoided any major incidents, although I suffered a very annoying 15 minute delay during my 3rd lap with a puncture, 4 broken spokes and a bent rear mech.

I have uploaded the data from my Garmin Edge 705 onto my Motion Based pages for those who love stats and figures.

Congratulations to everyone, and as the 2 pairs from this weekend join to become a team of 4 for the 2009 Original Source Mountain Mayhem in under a fortnight, we should make a very strong team for the Men's 24-hour Competition.






01 June 2009
The Bike Mechanic supports Lôn Las Cymru Challenge

The Bike Mechanic will be supporting brothers Aled and Gwylim Hopkin from Llanharry, South Wales, in August 2009 on their 5-day, 254 mile journey through Wales. Starting in Holyhead, the Lôn Las Cymru trail follows Route 8 of the National Cycle Network and takes in some of Wales’ most breathtaking scenery, riding across three mountain ranges and finally ending in Cardiff Bay.

They will be raising money for the Gareth Thomas Memorial Fund, and will be raising awareness of Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), a charity that works towards raising awareness of Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) and campaigns for proactive screening of young people. It offers help and support to those who have suffered a loss, provides medical information, carries out Mobile Cardiac Screening and ECG Testing Programmes within local communities and contributes to medical research.

Gareth Thomas, who Aled and Gwylim knew from a very young age, died in his sleep from an undiagnosed heart problem aged 21 years, on February 25 2007. This was a huge shock to them, especially as he was fit and healthy. Gareth’s parents, Anne and Trevor, set up a memorial fund in Gareth’s name to raise funds for the wonderful work that CRY do.

The Bike Mechanic will be supporting Aled and Gwylim to ensure that their bikes are fit and in working order for the challenge and provide them with some essential spares, and this year's riding tops to wear on the way.


If you would like to donate to this very worthy cause, please visit their Just Giving site

MAY 2009

08 May 2009
New Season, New Look

The Bike Mechanic website has had a spring clean and a fresh new look to match this year's team colours by Jim at Powerspike, designer and host of this site. Hope you like it!


04 May 2009
Another Howies Dyfi Enduro Mug

I've earned another Howies Dyfi Enduro mug to add to the collection! Jon and I had a very enjoyable day out at the Dyfi. We both did very well. Out of 665 riders this year, I completed the course in 3 hours 28 minutes which earned me a 46th place overall, which I'm very pleased about, and Jon came in 242nd completing the course in 4 hours 24 minutes.

After a week of April showers and sunshine before Sunday we expected the course to be very wet, but it was in surprisingly good condition apart from one particularly muddy, slippery descent and a few shin-deep puddles that I found myself in at times.

The course was longer and seemed tougher this year but it may have been down to me being further up the field battling to keep my forty-something position that I found myself in early on during the event. Being higher up the field was a new experience to me and I found it tough having to constantly watch over my shoulder for riders gaining on me. One thing it did do was to give me the incentive to keep pushing hard up the climbs.

The course was 53km long (plus an additional 10km road ride to get back to Machynlleth at the end), with approximately 1,900m climbing. For those who enjoy stats and figures or would just like to know the route, I have uploaded the data from my Garmin Edge 705 onto Motion Based.

The route took us up seemingly endless climbs, only for us to lose the height which we gained within minutes, down steep, shaley descents which if you messed up, had the potential to slice open any exposed skin.

It got difficult towards the end and with 10km to go I ran out of water, which wasn't ideal as I had the dreaded "bonus climb" that the first 200 riders have the pleasure of completing before the last descent. I was however met at the bottom of the climb with a gorilla offering a banana, which helped my mood and hunger! After what seemed like hours, I finally reached the top and cramp started settling in, but fortunately it was downhill from here to the end.

So, another great Howies Dyfi Enduro, and a great start to the season, which hopefully, will only improve from here.

APRIL 2009

30 April 2009
2009 Howies Dyfi Enduro

Only 3 days to go before the "official" start of The Bike Mechanic Team's racing season. Jon and Huw are due to ride at the Howies Dyfi Enduro starting in Machynlleth at 10am. Look out for us in our new tops. Report to follow next week! Good luck all.

MARCH 2009

21 March 2009
2009 TEAM RIDING TOPS

Our 2009 riding tops are ready for this season's events, modelled by me below.




6 March 2009
RACE ENTRIES 2009

It's that time of year again when the entries for the main 2009 events are released, and The Bike Mechanic Team are already entered into various events, including:

3rd May - Howies Dyfi Enduro

Huw Thomas
Jon Whittaker

6th June - Kona Bristol Bikefest

12-hour Mens Pairs
Huw Thomas & Jon Whittaker

12-hour Mens Pairs Singlespeed
Andrew James & Mark Deacon

19th June - Original Source Mountain Mayhem

24-hour Mens Team
Andrew James, Jon Whittaker, Huw Thomas & Mark Deacon

25th July - Bontrager TwentyFour12

24-hour Mens Pairs
Huw Thomas & Mark Deacon

24-hour Mens Solo
Jon Whittaker

So, all in all Summer 2009 is set to be busy for us all! More news to follow.

FEBRUARY 2009

4 February 2009
SNOW RIDES

A remarkable spell of winter weather left us with about 4 inches of snow yesterday, not the ideal conditions for a training ride, but the thought of staying indoors over my lunch hour, watching TV whilst spinning on a turbo trainer to get some quality training done instead of venturing out and having some fun riding was enough for me to put on the thermals, dust down the singlespeed and head out into the local hills for a blast in the snow.

It was a wonderful ride. I was the only one to have ventured out into the snow, apart from a few animals that had left their tracks overnight. The dry powdery snow made it very hard going in some places, but sliding, slipping and skidding (gracefully, and in a controlled manner of course....) brought about a huge smile and some very loud laughs from myself.... probably a good thing that I was the only one there.

Even though it hampered my riding "plan" for the day, the change in conditions and the idyllic scenery made it a fun ride and stopped my current 6-day-a-week training plan from getting stale.

JANUARY 2009

20 January 2009
RETURN FROM THE FREEZER

The Bike Mechanic Team are back from the Strathpuffer 24 after a weekend of gruelling riding in some of the most varied conditions I, for one, have ever ridden in.

The event started off with some bad news for the team. Mike had to pull out after suffering from a chest infection for a few weeks leading up to the event, and without an immediate replacement we were suddenly faced with competing with a man down.

Despite the near freezing temperatures, the weather was surprisingly good on the Friday while we set up camp, and indeed Saturday morning brought dry and sunny skies, a most welcome surprise from the wet summer events we'd had in 2008!

The Strathpuffer 24 course offers, in my opinion, one of the most enjoyable, possibly most challenging courses of all the 24-hour mountain biking events in the UK at least. This year, the course was approximately 10km in length with nearly 300m of ascent per lap. The course provides a mix of technical, rocky, and fast, flowing descents, with long climbs, sometimes very steep, but very little opportunity of recovery between the descents and ascents, making it a tough course when combined with the weather and course conditions.

The event started at 10am, with David riding the first lap for the team. He put in a blistering lap time of 35 minutes, which was followed by 2 very fast laps by myself and Jon (37 minutes and 42 minutes respectively). We then moved onto riding double laps in order for us to have some rest between laps.

The fast course times continued and we found ourselves well within the top 10 teams for the opening hours of the event. We continued the pace for several hours but once darkness fell, being a rider down in the team took its toll and we began to tire from trying to keep the pace up against the full teams of 4. The lap times increased and the weather finally began to deteriorate during the night, bringing colder temperatures, stronger winds, and snow.

I found myself riding 3 laps in almost blizzard conditions around 2am. David took over in the early hours for another 3 laps and Jon did his final lap during daybreak. With just over an hour to go, I went out for the team's final lap. I was dreading the conditions but to my surprise the course and surrounding area was covered with a thick layer of snow, making my final lap one of the most enjoyable and scenic laps I've ridden at an event.

I crossed the line for the team just after the 10am finish time, completing the event with 25 laps, finishing in 32nd place. Considering we were only a team of 3, we are pleased, however looking back at the results, if we'd had Mike with us, we would have finished well within the top 15, possibly top 10 teams. With that in mind, a return in 2010 will be in order to prove a point!

A big thanks to Jon and David for being great team mates and for putting in such a big effort. And get well soon Mike, and a huge thanks for supporting us at the event despite not being well.

Full results can be found on the Sportident Website




5 January 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A very happy new year from The Bike Mechanic! Since the last post we've had a very cold spell of weather and some excellent dry conditions to ride in preparation for next week's Strathpuffer 24.

We're all set for our trip up to Scotland, and local reports from there suggest that the course will be very enjoyable. All there is to say for now is good luck to The Bike Mechanic Team and all who are taking part. Race report to follow....

NOVEMBER 2008

5 November 2008
STRATHPUFFER 24

News just in.... The Bike Mechanic Team will be making an early start to the 2009 season, returning to race in the depths of the Scottish winter at the Strathpuffer 24, which claims to be the toughest of all 24-hour endurance races.

After coming a respectable 24th place at the 2008 event with Dan Taylor and Mark, Huw and Jon will be returning to better their performance, but this time teaming up with Scottish locals, Mike Wann and David Wilby, who raced against (and beat) The Bike Mechanic Team in 2008.

Time to dig out those woolly socks and thermals....


2 November 2008
NEW TEAM MEMBER

After riding for us a couple of times this year at the Strathpuffer and the Kona Cheddar Bike Fest, Jon Whittaker has agreed to ride for The Bike Mechanic Team at various events for 2009.

Being the keen rider he is, he has already entered the Bontrager Twentyfour12 on the 25/26 July 2009, attempting his first solo 24-hour race.

The rest of us will be there in some shape or form, but we'll decide at a later date....