Some good training.

Hi there!

Thought I'd update about what's been going on in my world. The month of May had some ups and downs, mainly due to the weather!

The month started with my favorite event on the yearly calendar the Dyfi Enduro - http://www.summitcycles.co.uk/enduro_08/index.html I have been to this race 4 times and it's always the first event I put on my program at the start of the year. The people are friendly and the course is great! The flapjacks at the halfway feed station are AMAZING!!!!! I had a decent ride on my rigid singlespeed mountain bike,coming just outside the top 100 (out of 600) despite having 2 punctures. I thoroughly recommend this event to anyone who likes their mountain biking muddy and technical!

Next up was the Squires and Spires Cyclosportive - http://www.justracinguk.com/event.asp?EID=29
an 80 mile road ride through the rolling hills of North Hamptonshire. The weather for this ride was just beautiful and my Univega Via Mountain King was just perfect with it's lightweight carbon frame and juicy Dura Ace gears on Mavic Ksyrium wheels!

The sun shone the whole day and the ride, whilst not a walk in the park, was very pleasant in it's well researched low traffic route. At one stage I found myself riding down a smooth narrow road right through a Rape field resplendent in bright yellow in the sunshine. Good times! I'd like to thank Spike and Claire my South African compadres on this enjoyable ride.

The weather the following weekend was not quite as good. For the second round of the NPS4X I took my Univega RAM XF-932 to the Edge Quad Centre near Bridgnorth. A fun flowing track covered in what turned out to be the slipperiest mud I have ever seen! It seemed to rain right before every one of my motos and so we would all pile into the first turn and invariably someone would end up falling over and sliding down the hill in the mud. It ceased to be a serious competitive event and became hilarious! The guys I race with in the Masters category don't really take these things very seriously anyway but at one stage we were all nearly in tears watching each other trying to race down the side of a muddy hill. I had a really great day!

The next day was off to Prestigne for the World famous electric bike 'rally'. I was riding a Kalkhoff Pro Connect that had been supplied to us by the manufacturer as a lightweight race version. Very tasty indeed. In the right hands it will do 30 miles and hour plus! The course of the UK's premier electric bike 'race' was very tight and twisty through the narrow streets of the town, including an industrial estate and through a churchyard (complete with people going to a baptism halfway through the race!).

Lloyd and I swapped the lead for a few laps before he fell off and subsequently got a flat tire from a drawing pin. I carried on in the lead before I too succumbed to a flat. Seems there was a lot of drawing pins left around the track ... I managed to get a spare wheel from another bike but had evidently lost a lap to the guy who was coming second. I tried as hard as I could but it turns out 8 minutes is not enough time to make up a lap and came second.

The last event of May was the Tour of Wessex - http://www.tourofwessex.com/

I missed out on the first days stage to attend the wedding of good friends Sarah and Tim in Derby. A beautiful day with great people dancing the night away until midnight.

However this meant that I didn't get much sleep before my 106 mile road ride the next day in Castle Comb, Somerset! About 3 hours I think. The day started off in drizzle but soon cleared up into bright sunshine. The course, again well researched, took us all the way down to the coast near Bournemouth and back including some steep hills and lovely vistas. Riding my Univega Via Mountain King, again with Spike and Claire, we finished in 7 and a half hours looking forward to the next days 130mile stage.

However the weather overnight was appalling! I woke up several times in the night with the tent blown down upon me in the wind! I lay in my sleeping bag and listened to the rain belting down on the tent and wasn't looking forward to the days ride. I poked my head out and decided that I only really do things things for fun and if I wasn't going to have much, I wasn't going out. I waited around to see if it was going to get any better but it didn't look like clearing up so I called it a day and headed home. The driving rain trees down on the road on the way home suggested perhaps I had made the right decision.

Next month looks a little light on events but heavy on training as I prepare for the big months of July and August with racing in France and Canada to look forward to.

I am racing the La Marmotte Cyclosportive on the 5th of July on my Univega Via Mountain King And the Megavalanche endurance downhill on the 13th on my Univega RAM XF-932. This last event has been made the Unofficial Hardtail Downhill World Championships! Looking forward to that!!!

I'll be heading over to Canada for the TransRockies on the 6th of August, hopefully on my Univega Alpina HT UPCT Team Edition, and coming back on the 20th.

Tom!