Jun 28 2009

Bah.

It’s been a crap weekend for riding.

I ended up cutting Friday’s short as I met Marty on the way out. He was dropping off a headset for the spot (thus completing the pile of parts for the build) so I spent the first half of the ride wanting to come home and build the bike. So, I did. :-)

Saturday’s maiden ride was cut short too. I woke up to fog and lots of surface water and got soaked through by this and water on the overhanging branches. A planned two laps of the local ‘test loop’ became one as I was fed up, in spite of the new-bike-glee….

Sunday – weird weather. Looked wet, was sort of not. Dressed in 3/4’s and a waterproof, far too hot so sweated like a pig. Took a wrong turn on a new trail spotted on the OS map and ended up circling back on myself (via some nice singletrack mind you) and leaving myself with far more tarmac than planned to join the ‘new’ trail to something else. Still, a new way to join stuff and one with no bulls part-way through. Idiotic confrontation with two dogwalkers who seemed to think that the north shore in a skills area (multiple signs etc indicating what the site is and what the wooden structures are for) was a bench for them, come toy for their dogs to run over. Twats. Main descent of the day was too slippy as the roots were soaking wet. Couple of near-washouts at the rear.

Dull hammer home on the road then the primary school singletrack descent.

Bah.

Shower, clothes then off to the shop for milk for my pint of milkshake.

The Spot still rocks, mind you. I might write more words about that soon.


Jun 28 2009

88mph

A box was ticked on Thursday evening.

Pre-accident, the time for the 19 miles Beath-Milnathort-Beath sprint was edging towards 1hr 5 so I decided that a good challenge would be to try and break the hour barrier. Thursday night’s ride was to guage my current fitness and see how much work I would have to put in to get inside the hour.

So, I set off and put the power down…….Ignoring annoying kids heckling and a twat in a car, I hammered towards Kinross and Milnathort, round the roundabout then back southwards. Head down and in the 11T at the back as I pass the Loch Leven road.

I hit Kelty and had 8 minutes until the hour was up (I had hit Kelty at about 7 mins on the outbound leg but was a little fresher then!) so kept at it. No traffic in Cowdenbeath, up Fulford Road, down Hill Street and into Bowling Green Street. Slam the brakes on outside the garage……..
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59:10

Damn, now I need something else to work towards. :-) 55 minutes?

On a related note though, a challenge, to those few people who read this and are local.

The Beath-Milnathort-Beath self-timed TT.

The rules:

Timing starts from the Lumphinnans roundabout (not the one at the top of the high street) and ends at the same point.

The route is simple – straight up the Great North Road to Milnathort, round the roundabout then back again.
It’s just under 19 miles and other than a roundabout in Kinross you go straight across, has no junctions etc to negotiate. A simple out-and-back with a relatively flat finishing straight when you hit the Beath.


Jun 28 2009

SSUK

So, the Doig family ventured down south to Dalby Forest for SSUK2009.

An odd one – recent events changed the plan from ‘competitor’ to ‘marshall’ but that didn’t mean I couldn’t hang out, have a few beers and generally soak up the atmosphere.

So, after the lop-sided journey (3/4 of the distance in the first 2 1/2 hrs, the last 1/4 in the second 2 1/2), we arrived at Dalby under sunshine and blue skies and set up camp. The group ride was just returning as we were unpacking so I caught up with people there, plus Phil and his Dad were setting up camp about 10 feet away.

We were set up in time for registration and food (the ticket needed for food being obtained at registration) and encountered more peeps from the deep south (Grant Taylor, Deano Taylor and Philip Diprose) in the food queue. Food comsumed, it was time for entertainment…..ROLLAPOLOOZA.

No, I didn’t enter but I did have a good heckle. I’m sure I was too late to enter anyway and didn’t have an opponent and….blahblah more excuses blah….. anyway….

The band came on after that and the kids varied between dancing to them and playing in the playpark next to the campsite while I had a couple of pints of bitter. They did eventually get tired though and I was abandoned on my own with beer tokens and more racing/band to enjoy, which I most certainly did. I caught up more with people then drifted off to bed at midnight-ish, the content glow of half a dozen pints heeping me company to the tent.

Morning brought breakfast, marshall registration and the journey out to my marshalling point. Although it was 10 mins walk from the campsite and the race started at 11, I was there for 9:45 and then waited. And waited. And waited. I spoke to a couple of riders, riding the trail/course in the wrong direction just before the starting whistle, one of which claimed that they didn’t know they were riding the wrong way, while standing next to a sign pointing the opposite direction from which they came. They changed to the correct line and sped off. Word then came through that the start had been delayed so there was more waiting. Then, it was 11:20 and they were off.

A few minutes later, the leaders sprinted through, followed by a steady stream of riders. They were faced with a choice of lines and those choosing the right hand one were suitable heckled. The stream became a trickle then the leaders appeared behind me (the inward loop went round the back of my spot) and shot off. Eventually, the stragglers appeared in front of me (40 mins after the start?!?!) and were promptly lapped.

1 1/2 hrs of heckling and responsible marshalling followed until the riders started to dissipate and I got my orders to stand down, choosing to walk back to the campsite rather than hitch a lift in the radio 4×4.

Then it was, of course, time for prizegiving….. first up, marshalls. :-)

After that, it was the usual mix of the conventional and slightly less so. Facial hair, biggest leg, the Phil-and-his-Dad prize for being Phil-and-his-Dad, best young rider (decided through a [non-allcoholic] drinking challenge) and some disturbing Haribo overdosing.

Last though was the important job of deciding where next year will be held, the answer to that being South Wales, so depending on the time of year, the Doig family might be going on holiday…..


Jun 28 2009

Silence.

Been sort of busy recently. No time to piss about with pics and write words, so I’m going to skip a dull catchup type post and just say that I rode bikes and that there’s photos of variable quality on Flickr, okay. Still no SSUK post either, which I really should remedy.

Line drawn, time to start afresh with some posts relating to now (and the SSUK post).


Jun 26 2009

Back in Black – Done

With the arrival of a headset this morning (and a thank you is due to a certain gentleman over the hill for that) work could commence on the building.

A couple of sessions, plus a brief spell between them helicopter taping the cranks and we’re done.

Maiden ride tomorrow before breakfast. Early doors. Hoping for better weather than at the moment…….

I’ll catch up with 2 weeks of rides and pics (?!?!) soon. Maybe some other stuff too.