Sometimes Takes Pictures Instead.

Last year I rode the Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross, this year I didn't.

I've avoided racing this year, my race mojo was not with me.

Though I've just remembered I competed in the Summer Polaris with my friend Lisa and we won 3rd mixed vet. OK, so I've not ridden many races.

As usual in the couple of weeks before entries open for the 3 peaks I get reminders of the entry date, so I can't say I missed the cut off for entering. However I decided that though of course I could get round, that I wouldn't be able to improve on my PB, so instead it was better to let someone else who'd challenge themself, have my place.

This was not my only reason though. I really fancied covering this race with my camera. With the bonus that someone was paying me to do so.

Like riding in the race, I knew some proper preparation would be needed. The first thing I did was to look and see where those who had gone before had shot their pictures from. From this I learned that there were lots of pictures out there, and that there were some good shots taken from the majority of easily accesible places. Hmm.

So with my race knowledge I can think of a few places which might be good spots which don't seem to have been covered. Only thing is they're nowhere near each other. Hmm again.

Next how to get about? I could ride a bike on some bits, but along with my cameras, lenses etc on my back, I'd be too slow on the steep bits, and anyway I'd never keep up with the action.

So after much gazing at the map I decided on a route along with some useful tips from 3 peaks guru Dave, though more of that in a bit.

Now I'd decided on where I was shooting, I had to work out what shots I was planning on doing, where the light would be, and ergo what stuff I'd need to achieve that.

Most of my sport photographic work recently has been the sort where if the shot isn't spot on, I can give the shot another go ("can you ride that again please"). In a race situation this isn't an option. So I spent a couple of hours working out some custom camera and corresponding flash settings.

I knew there would be no time for faffing.

So race day, somewhat fuzzy after an evening spent with multiple former race winner Fred Salmon and friends in the Helwith Bridge Inn, we drive to the turn off for Simon Fell and I set off up Simon Fell.

I've got fell shoes on my feet - good. A rucksack weighing 10kg on my back - bad.

For those who don't know Simon Fell is steep, for those who do know and have carried a bike up there, it didn't feel that much easier not carrying one. Anyways, I didn't need to race up there I'd got a 30 minute start on the peloton from Helwith Bridge. Once I'd made it to Rawnsleys Leap I set up my stuff, and 10 minutes later Rob Jebb arrived and I took my first shot. A few more clicks of the shutter, resisting the temptation to stay there longer and I legged it.



Onwards towards Ingleborough summit in a jogging style, stopping occasionally to grab a few more shots. So far so good.



From the summit I retraced my steps and took the footpath down to the Hill Inn. This seemed weird, I was supposed to be taking pictures of a race, and yet I couldn't see any cyclists. Running as fast as my unfit legs can take me, I soon see some riders on the road. I was thankful that I hadn't missed them all. Once with the riders again, a few more shots, and on to the feed station at the bottom of Whernside.



More pictures bagged and I have a route choice decision to make. Original planning had suggested that heading up Whernside was a good idea, my schedule now some way down suggested it wasn't.

So again I leave the race course and traverse the base of Whernside to the Ribblehead viaduct, running though my legs were starting to ache. 'Twas a good plan I've got back some time relative to the riders. More photography, and we jump into the car (Ann is driving) and over to Horton in Ribblesdale.



Gridlock. We aint going nowhere. So back out of the car to capture a few more riders before the car horn going 'beep' signals that Ann's made the junction.

Sandwich and Coke downed, I'm hanging out of the car window to get a few more shots. Never tried that before. Fun.

Next destination Horton Scar Lane, it's a popular spot always with race spectators, and on Sunday no less so. There's a great atmosphere as the fast riders descend the hill and the slower fight their way up. Some great pictures of grafting riders faces.



Not long spent there and finally it was time to return to Helwith Bridge to capture the aftermath, and of course to catch up with friends.

A fun day out on the Three Peaks. To race or not next year, we'll see.

There's a slideshow of a few of the pictures on flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishcyclingphotos/sets/72157625043763522/show/

All the rest can be found here.

Postcript, my legs still ache after all that running.

Can I Come Riding With You?

Four months since I posted anything, I have been out on my bike, but have been either too busy or lazy to write anything on here.

Anyway today I'm going to write about my riding partner for most of the summer.

He's not been riding long, probably just over a year since he first threw his leg over the bike and made a few pedal revolutions, before the bike threw him off. A few tears were shed, he picked himself and the bike up and tried again. Never once throwing in the towel. Frustrating those early days, though perseverance quickly paid off. Soon we were riding a few slow miles, but eventually made it as far as the next metropolis (New Mills).



Anyway at the beginning of the summer hols he decided he wanted to go and do some "proper" riding. So along with his 3 year the elder sister we went on a 12 mile loop, which is steady away in terms of technical ability, mostly towpath type surface, but like most rides round here takes in some steep hills. He rode 90% of it no problem, and pushed his bike up the rest. One of our running/riding friends with similar aged kids, described the ride as child cruelty. :)
Back at home he was buzzing, and asking what was next.

"OK, let's go and do some proper mountain biking" I say, and he says "cool".

A steady ride down the Sett Valley trail, then up Sitch Lane (steep), left up past Barking Dog Farm and we're into off road proper, loose and rocky and he just rides on. A couple of pushed bits, but importantly he gets down the loose rocky descents, with only a couple of crashes. Oh, he does crash and cry, but after we check for major blood loss and breakages, he always gets straight up, and gets back on the bike. Next we skirt Lantern Pike, and he modulates those brakes down the loose sketchy descent no problem. Wow. Back down the road and then to home. Not a long ride, but plenty of technical challenges especially if you consider those little 20" wheels.

Later that evening "When are we going out next"?

The Tissington Trail is a disused railway line that runs from near Buxton, down to Ashbourne. More or less flat, and 17 miles in length. I reckoned the kids would have no problem riding down to Ashbourne, and as a long shot, would even make it back. Transport home was arranged in case of sense of humour failure en route.

We parked the car near the start at bang on midday, and South we rode.
An early cafe stop at Parsley Hey, and then jelly babies fuelled the other 15 miles to Ashbourne.
In the cafe they asked if the kids wanted kids portions of beans toast and chips. Err no thanks, they'll eat the adult portions, and they did.

So I asked if they wanted to ride back, and they said yes. Slow now, especially on the slight hills, but amazingly my lad was having little trouble keeping up with his sister. At 8pm as we pulled up to the car my phone rang. My wife wanted to know where we wanted rescuing from. Tom shouted "we don't need rescuing, we're on the way home".

That evening at 9:30 Tom, sat like Buddha in front of the TV, obviously tired, he asked with enthusiasm in his voice "Are we going riding tomorrow"? Me, "No, I need a rest day".

The week after we went to the Lakes. A couple of 10-15 mile rides, and 3 back to back loops of the Whinlatter blue route. Very little pushing now, the boy is getting strong, if I can ride it sat down in granny ring and 3rd sprocket, he can grunt up it no problem.

He did wipe out quite spectacularly on one corner at Whinlatter resulting in a big scratch on his face. Everytime someone asked how he'd got it, and lots did, he said it was a scratch he'd got in a sword fight.

This weekend he came out on his first grown up group ride, from Hope up the Roman road, on to Hope Cross down, Jaggers and on to Edale, there we opted for the cafe and a train ride to New Mills before bombing back down the trail to home, as the others continued up some more big hills.

Out again the day after, rode all the way up Highgate Road without stopping, every weekend I see adults pushing up there, and then a couple of hours of offroad splashing through every puddle possible, which seems to be one of his favourite bits.

All that riding has taken some toll on his bike, so we spent a rainy day this week fixing up his bike this week. Swapping out some heavy junk (500gm handlebars anyone?), and adding some better stuff UN72 BB and an XT front mech to stop the chain jumping off.



He really likes the whole thing, and even scary jumps and stuff. I hope he doesn't break me when he's older.



If the weather is reasonable at half term, we will be somewhere on the Coast to coast, shame there's not time to fit it in before the end of this summer's holidays, and most likely LeJog next summer.

Anyways I've had a fantastic summer's riding, and I think Tom has too.

Peregrine Perambulations.

Courtesy of STW classifieds, I find myself the owner of a Singular Peregrine frame and fork which was the plan B tourer choice after the Fargo. Mostly built with stuff I had already, though I did shell out for some Titec H-Bars which looked like they'd give two or three different hand positions.

It's inaugural trip this weekend was a plan B. The original plan being a family camping trip, though kids having just recovered from a bug and an atrocious weather forecast meant that the night before the depart, I was planning something a bit more challenging, as they'd elected to stay at home.

So thirty minutes with tracklogs mapping, and the original twenty six mile two dayer has been extended to nearer one hundred miles, with most of it off road.

A not particularly early depart on Good Friday, I headed out into the forecast rain. A couple of minutes from mine, and it's uphill, and so it continues on up to South Head. Thankfully my road cassette coupled with the XT chainset gave me a low enough gear to ride the lot. I thought that I'd most likely have to push up from the Roych, but I gave it a go, and to my surprise got all the way to the top of the cobbles, not a given on a bike without a load. Soon after though, the pushing commenced, which is damn awkward with panniers. At Rushup Edge I checked my watch, and it was clear that this was going to be a long day. The extra weight certainly made my progress slow.

From Rushup and I leave the Dark Peak grit trails that I know well and head into limestone country that I visit rarely. The skinny cyclo-cross tyres slog through the muddy grass well enough, but slither all over when coming into contact with the wet limestone. Still I stay upright mostly with only one unplanned bike dismount all day.

At about 3pm I stopped to brew a cup of tea and eat. The water took that long to boil (as I hadn't turned the stove up full), that I was colder after my warming brew, than when I'd first stopped. Fail. Of course as I was colder, it was no surprise that this was when the rain started really hammering down. The next three hours were pretty miserable really. Slow going because of the muddy bridleways, wet and cold. I was greatful when I got on to the Tissington Trail at Parsley Hay. At last the going was good. Even better I soon came upon an old railway works hut. I got inside, brewed a pot of tea (properly this time) and scoffed some food. I squeezed the water out of my waterproof gloves, and warmed them over the stove for a while. I noted also that my other waterproofs were not. Wet feet and damp clothes, but then I'd been in the rain for eight hours, so wouldn't expect much else. This time the food and drink had done their stuff, and I felt somehat revived. Now of course the rain stopped, and after a short while the sun even made an appearance. I really enjoyed this next section, some ace views, and no one else around. Riding in the big ring more often than not I was soon in Ashbourne. Some cash from the bank, then I backtracked to a campsite near Tissington. I just managed to get my tent up before it went dark. Some nine and a half hours on the bike that day. Supper cooked and eaten, it was time for beer.

Back on the bike I headed to the nearest pub. Friday night 9:30 pm I open the pubs door. Two people at the bar stared at me in a what are you doing here kind of way. I ask "Are you open?", to which they in unison reply "yes". I enter. Next an ear grating screech akin to a smoke alarm needing a new battery, then the same again. opposite the bar there is a cage with a parrot in it. £3.10 later and I have a pint of Black Sheep. Knackered I try and find a comfy seat, instead I settle on a bench seat with a vertical back and a sort of dado rail at it's top which sticks out nicely into my shoulder blades. Ten minutes later and those two people, were again the only two people in the pub.

Back on the bike I head to pub number two. On arrival, I check through the window before entry. Promising, there must have been twenty people in there, some of them are even smiling. Phew. A few beers later and I am in need of sleep.

A most pleasant nights sleep was had in my new "ladies" sleeping bag (1/2 the price of the men's one). In fact such a good nights sleep that I wasn't away until 10:30am next day. An easier day than the previous. For starters it wasn't raining, and for the most part the trails were quick under tyre. A fair bit of (quiet) road too, so 6 hours got me back to Hayfield.

I'm really pleased with the Singular Peregrine's performance. The bar bag and the panniers worked well together, and though obviously handling was different, the bike still handled really well through the rough stuff. Oh and if you are thinking what has he got in all those bags, well the answer is exactly the same amount of stuff less two lenses and a camera that I am taking with me when I go to the Icelandic interior in the summer for a few weeks on a picture taking mission. I'll be swapping the CX tyres for some Marathon XR ones though :)

Testing Times

I'm after a tourer, and my shortlist is either a Salsa Fargo, or a Singular Peregrine. Before I splash my cash though a test ride of both is needed.

Yesterday I picked up Chipps' Fargo, and today after the rain subsided I took it for a spin. Even though it is equipped with Conti Top Contact touring tyres, it handled quite well over the rough stuff.

I've owned a Carradice SQR for ages, though without a bike it would afix to. There is just enough clearance between tyre and saddle to fit this 16 litre monster of a saddle bag to the Salsa. A prerequisite of the new bike, is that this bombproof carrier should fit.



I need to ride it further to make up my mind for sure, but so far so good.

I'll put some knobblies on it next week, and see how it fares on the proper technical stuff with some load.

Still need to find a medium Peregrine to loan for a trial ride before I make up my mind finally.

I reckon this or the Singular will be great for the Tour Mont Blanc.

2010 Adventures Overdue.

Nearing the end of 2009, I realise that I've spent very little time on my bike. My only race was the Kielder 100, and that was a bit of a disaster, and other than a few day trips, not much in the way of adventures.

It's not been laziness. I devoted the days where I would have raced, to taking pictures at those events instead. A strategy which for my photography that is paying off. I've managed to have pictures published in a number of sports magazines. The most recent of which was a picture of Nick for the Ride Journal.



Anyway for 2010 I'm hoping to combine more riding with the photography, and have some big adventures along the way.

So far on the rather small list are a few sojourns. In no particular order Amy, Kate and I are going to have a couple of days out in the Lake District completing the Lakeland Lugger. A route that I formulated over 2 years ago, reccied a coupe of sections, and have not yet completed. Date TBA, but sometime twixt May and July.

A Tour of the Cairngorms. Time to revisit the Scottish wilderness. 5 days or so camping and riding in February sometime between the 13th-21st (half term).

For the summer holidays, I've not quite decided yet, but following some of the Tour de France and completing the Tour de Mont Blanc in under 24 hrs are targets.

I've retired from 24 hour solo racing for the time being, but I will be at Strathpuffer, Mountain Mayhem, and Sleepless in the Saddle with my camera.

Any more ideas for adventures gratefully received.

Kate's Birthday Ride.

My friend Kate invited me along to her Birthday ride, and kindly she'd arranged it to start about 2 minutes ride from my house, so no excuses for not making it, or being late. Even though I was the last to arrive.

Along with Kate for our little adventure were Amy, Ali, Simon and Chris, and they'd all brought along their singlespeeds. I was asked why I hadn't brought mine, to which I replied along the lines of "because I know better".

They had a route planned, however as the local I was allowed to modify our route to incorporate some bits of quality riding that our party hadn't done before. In fact it was modified that much in the end, other than the direction of travel it shared little trail with the original route. Route Hijack.

A pleasant warm up roll down the Sett Valley trail, then off we went up the first hill. Just this side of rideable for it's extent, though of course if you have a singlespeed, you'll be needing the right gear.




Once at the top of the hill, we headed down a nice steep descent, no offs, but a couple of refusals.



Swoopy, droppy singletrack followed, never too tricky, but exposed.
Poor Ali discovered on the way down, that the mud and grit of which we have plenty currently, had eaten her brake pads. So we diverted slightly to point her in a homeward direction before heading off in search of more slippy twisty lines.

We all knew the first section, but then the next special diversion. I'd only done it once before. In preparation for the 3 peaks James and I had ridden it on our cross bikes. On that occasion neither of us had made it to the valley floor without kissing the grass on our way. I had thought though on that occasion, that on a mountain bike it would be possible to clean the descent.

150 metres of descent in a kilometre and all of it on a track little wider than a tyre. The first part without obstacle, but a couple of stoppers and drops meant that more speed was needed than one might have at first thought.

I was waiting for anyone down here. Solely focussing on getting down without the dreaded dab. It was going so so well. I passed the previous points of ejection without ado. The crux, a drop with some rock stoppers was barely an event. Sneaky grass covered ruts that had twice snatched my front wheel last time were glanced at and avoided. Of course just as I thought I'd made it a lack of momentum and inattention forced me to put my foot down. Pah.

I had a little wait before the next rider came into sight. Simon crested the brow smoothly, before spectacularly leaving his bike behind whilst continuing over his handlebars. Nothing broken though. Everyone down safely, and the weather was closing in. A good ride, so far. No need to be greedy, there's always another day. We retreat to the George.

Happy Birthday for tomorrow you giffer.

What? The Wrong Tyres?

I can't believe I wrote that title. Having read numerous threads on mountain bike forums over the years, I'm bored to death with reading about what is supposedly the best tyre for (insert name of place). I am of the opinion for general XC, that it's not about the tyres on ones bike, it's about the rider's skill. The End.

Well not quite. Yesterday Nick suggested I head over to Todmorden with him to ride some of the trails round there with the STW crew and assorted bike industry folk. I'd ridden there before all would be good.

After hammering the coffee machine at STW HQ we assembled outside to split into three groups. Basically rides of differing length and difficulty dependant on how one felt on the day.

I elected to ride on the Todmorden Tech ride which would show some of the hardest riding the valley has to offer. Roughly half of this group was made up of 'locals', and I noticed before we left that many sported what are the bike equivalent of agricultural tractor tyres. Heavy wide, squarish profile, and deeeeep tread. How odd.

Off we went on the road along the valley, and again up the first hill on the road. Oh yes, those tyres sucked it out of them boys, and no doubt those who heard us passing without seeing us thought they could here the sound of distant thunder.

As always after the up, there comes the down, and at first I had no problem staying with the locals. Bare rock, and sandy trails, exactly what i'm used to.

Problems started to arise with my controlling the direction of travel and velocity of myself and bike, when the line to ride was underlying slithery mud covered with the autumnal fallings from the trees above. I was out of control.

As the day progressed I only took a couple of tumbles, but the near misses were many. Mid afternoon I decided I'd run my luck dry for the day, and on more than one occasion opted to avoid the "I'll end up in Hospital if I don't make this" line.

A great day of proper technical riding which caused not only me, but near everyone in our group to involuntarily get off their bike at least once.

Next time I head over that way, i'm going get me some of those there big tyres.

Some pics of the boys below. Click for bigger.