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The Unit has been replaced under warranty and there’s something new on route to me…..

There’s no 08 Unit and this is the closest replacement, being steel with sliding dropouts.

I just realised today that it’s 10 years as of my birthday since I took cycling back up properly after a pretty long layoff. One year on some Carerra thing led to a Marin Bear Valley (I know…I know, but I liked it, okay!) then it went a bit silly……

2001 - DMR Trailstar (sold)
2002 - Kinesis Maxlight frame (to replace the Marin)
2002 - Marin East Peak frame (sold)
2003(?) - Norco Fluid
2002 - Cove Stiffee frame
2004 - Santa Cruz Heckler frame
2004 - Kona Kaboom frame (sold)
2005 - Claude Butler Rubaix road bike (donated to Jen)
2005 - On-One Tinbred proto frame (killed)
2005 - One-One Inbred (steel) frame (sold)
2006 - On-One Il Pompino frame
2006 - On-One EBB Inbred frame (hanging from rafters, supposed to sell it)
2006 - Kona Unit frame (killed)
2007 - Spot
2008 - Focus Mares Cross

That’s perhaps too many bikes.

EDIT!!!

I forgot one!!

2007 - Gary Fisher Rig 29er (should sell frame, actually)

There were highs, there were lows. There was pain and suffering. Many drugs were taken, a number of supplements ingested. but at the end of the day I was happy…..

Chaotic travel plans turned into something concrete and Friday afternoon saw myself, Jim Collins and Jim McDade make the journey to Kirroughtree after packing Jim C’s car to capacity. An easy journey ended when we came up against the green fleeced border guards at Kirroughtree. A request to see our camping papers from the jobsworth led to a partial unpacking of the car just to get the damn paper, even though she could have perhaps just checked the names off her list, but hey, it’s all about making people feel valued and important and not just giving them a dull job to justify their existence, isn’t it. Anyways, we got a great camping spot, setup shop then went to eat. Craig visited to drop off some stuff (he was camped down the road with the family) and a chat. The evening ended with the statutory ingestion of special pre-race fluids (aka beer) then sleep.

Saturday came too soon. I did not sleep well at all and the freezing cold at 4am woke me up, leading to the breaking out of the emergency second sleeping bag. Soon it was 7:30 and breakfast was eaten and gear sorted. The compulsory race briefing was sort of accidentally missed while I got changed and before we knew it, it was 9:30 and we were off.

Lap one started with a fire road climb to separate the field before joining the main course, It was here that my ropey BB decided to start creaking and clicking loudly again, all the way up the climb. On the bright side, the climb did separate the field (unlike at Fort William) and there were minimal bottlenecks on lap 1. The lap? Well, it was fast, swoopy, sometimes a little technical, the climbs weren’t too bad and while there weren’t many rest spots, some of the more gradual climbing gave you a respite from the onslaught. So much singletrack. There’s a reason why K is my favourite of the man made sites in Scotland. Anyway, lap one was fine, got back in in a sensible time, refilled my camelback then set off on lap 2.

Lap 2 was a little different. No fire road drag to split the field, as there was no need, just straight into a singletrack climb, then a little fire road to connect things. Part way through lap 2 my right quad started to hurt, quite a bit in fact, though it lessened off a bit by the end. I popped some painkillers and stuck a little muscle rub on between laps, then kicked off again.

Lap 3………..leg still hurt a bit (stopped to stretch a few times), rear brake pads disintegrated so lap 3 ended in a 45 min stoppover at camp for pads, muscle rub, food and a change down to a 17T. Was lap 3 the hell-lap? I dunno, but it was fighting lap 4 for the honour. Lap four was pain free, mostly, but occasional stretching was still required as things tightened up and it felt like the slowest lap. My concentration was starting to lapse so there were a few sketchy moments on some rock obstacles, plus I went ars£ over tit on a root. Then there was the spoke snapping incident, just to help things along.

Getting back in, there was definitely time for a 5th lap, so with a minimal break, I set off and had my best feeling lap of the day. Was it because it was probably going to be my last? Who knows. Anyway, I pootled round, had lots of fun and got back in for 6:50. Was there time for another lap? At the time I thought not, but in hindsight I should have given it a shot. Maybe I was just glad to be back

Never mind.

So, the damage….

8 x Hi-5 summer fruits gels
6 x Peanut Butter clif bars
2 x peanut butter sandwiches
4 1/2 litres of water
1 1/2 litres of lucozade sport (mixed with water in bottle)
1 x cream cake
1 x stale jam donut
2 x annadin
2 x ibuprofen
1 x 250ml bottle of Lucozade caffiene stuff
Big scoop of Natures Kiss muscle rub (Applied to right quad, not eaten)
2 prs brake pads

So, Moray next. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t know if it’s that wee race currently winding it’s way through France, or the fact that I’ve been working my way through Rolleur and The Ride Journal on the train home, but I find myself lusting after mid to high end road bikes.

Damn.

How long is it until the next Bike2Work scheme kicks off?

That’s how long I’ve been in this here building. I suppose, strictly speaking, it’s 11 years come about 9am. I have went home though, so it’s not been 11 years solid.

Oddly, I happen to be at my lowest ebb here too, thanks to a “voluntary” secondment into sorting out someone else’s self-inflicted mess. Timed to perfection too, 6 weeks into a new job that I’m really enjoying and over the loud objections of my boss and her boss too. I mean, a job where a large element revolves around telling people just how much they suck. What’s not to love. Ah well, back to that in about 10 weeks.

I just realised, I rarely mention this place on here these days. I’m assuming that’s because I was happy for a while.

Never mind, it’s a couple of days until the 24th, I’ve got the day off. I really should try and have some fun…….

Does anyone want to buy a cycle jersey?

Addendum…..

It was only supposed to be a 9 week temp job……