Cross

Tags

Azencross, Belgium, BPost, Brooks, BSB 9, c13, cambium, Catlike, CX, cyclocross, dirtysox, FMB, GripGrab, kirstperiode, Loenhout, Malteni, Nextie, Niner, SIS

I have a mixed relationship to cross. Some days I wonder why I do it and others I wonder how I could live without it. Since coming home from the Single Speed Worlds in Japan I have been tired, really tired. I have trained very little and rides for fun have been few and far between. There has been a load of personal issues thrown in on top too so that when I left for the Christmas racing period in Belgium I was a little stressed, in bad shape and not reeeeeaally in the mood. After a nice race in Namur though I became sick and had to skip Zolder and Diegem. This resulted in three days sitting on Pieter’s sofa, feeling sorry for myself and trying to figure out how I could host a Minecraft server on my mac so that my son Loke and I could play together across the continent.

This was the side of cross that sucks. I have moved heaven and earth to be here, made all kinds of sacrifices, my friends are putting me up (and putting up with me), helping out as much as they can, and it all results in me sitting fatly on the sofa wondering what I am doing with my life. I was falling into a dark place.

As could be expected I start to get better. A morning riding in the forest proves that I can once again both go outside AND ride a bike. So we head off to Loenhout for the Azencross. The whole time I am still kind of sceptical. If we get treated badly, sent to a shitty parking spot, it will all prove that cross sucks and I need to move on asap. But then after getting a nice carpark (we tried stealing Sven’s without luck), checking out the course during the Juniors and U23’s I head off for a warm up lap.

I head out of the start straight in a group of riders, among them former and current world champions, national champions, all wearing kits that I normally associate with the front of the race, and I am blown away by how magic it all feels. The course isn’t too muddy and I manage to stick with them for the first lap but the magic feeling doesn’t leave me, even though they are long gone. Perhaps cross isn’t so bad.

While we sit at the car waiting for the race to start a large group of 15 or so people come out of the property we are parked next to and become curious as to who we are. They ask many questions, are amazed that I am from New Zealand, ask for my race number, wish me good luck and tell me they will cheer for me. Ah, that was nice.

I am called up to the grid. The next name on the list is Lars Boom. I am standing on the grid next to a guy in Astana kit that rode ‘the Tour’, that doesn’t happen every day. I am warming up to this cross thing.

I have what I call a ‘lazy start’. This means I don’t kill myself in the sprint and count on taking people in the first few turns when they start making mistakes. This goes reasonably well, and through some solid riding, no mistakes, and a couple of nice bunny hops I collect some places. Feeling good.

The crowd is warming up, I have spotted the 15 people from the parking place and they are cheering as promised.

The course is fast and has more opportunities for jumping than any other I know, this brings a smile.

I can see from my lap times which are between 45 seconds to 1 minute off the leaders each lap that I only have a round or two more to race. Time to jump a little higher and maybe give some high 5’s. There is one group of guys, they were extremely vocal from the start, they have sooo made my day (plus they actually know my name) that I try to shout to them that they should come by the car for a beer after the race. They are shouting too loud to hear me. This creates a funny scene and the screaming increases in volume.

I finish pretty tired, but not too tired, closer to the back than the middle, but all things considered not too bad. Everything went as planned, there were no mistakes, I had lots of fun. Maybe I will stick with it for just a couple more races, to see if there really is something in this cross thing…

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An Update…

Tags

29er bike shop, Belgium, Brooks, BSB, BSB 9, Catlike, CX, FMB, GripGrab, Koppenberg, Koppenbergcross, Malteni, Nextie, ninerbikes, Science In Sport, SIS

As I clear away the cobwebs on this blog here is a quick wee update:

Part of the reason things have been quiet is that when I have done any writing it has ended up here – http://blog.brooksengland.com/wps/racing-cross-in-china-part-1/#more-15393

This is the story of my trip to China, part 2 should be released soon (it is written, I am just waiting for Brooks to publish it)

I had my first Danish cross race last weekend and this weekend marks the start of my Belgian season. For anyone that is interested, we (Bender and I), will be here on Saturday checking out Niels Alberts race and here on Sunday doing the legendary Koppenberg. As an interesting aside we will also be here from 1700 on Saturday watching the All Blacks wipe the floor with the Australians in the Rugby World Cup Final, it’s gonna be epic. I am hoping to convince these guys to join us 🙂

A mechanics advice to triathletes

Tags

beijing, Brooks, BSB, cambium, Catlike, China, CX, Niner, NZ, Qiansen trophy, Science In Sport, SIS

Triathletes, roadies don’t like them cause they don’t follow the ‘rules‘ and they are are the bane of bike mechanics cause they show up at the 11th hour before an event they have been training for months if not years for expecting you to be able to drop everything and service their bike for them by the afternoon. I myself have a bike with bars that point forward so I feel I am allowed to rip on them, though I would die before you caught me riding in compression socks.

Having just spent 9 hours sitting on the back of a motorcycle last Sunday tending to the needs of unfortunate and or ill prepared athletes at the Ironman Copenhagen I feel like I have some pearls of wisdom to share. 
 
Pearl #1 

Compression socks increase blood flow in your legs and help aid in recovery. When you are out killing it on an ironman course your legs are doing everything they can to move blood around your body, socks aren’t going to change anything. Plus it will help cut down on the roadie-hate. While we are at it, lose the white kit, there is only one person that can pull of the white kit look and they have these lovely little rainbow stripes on them. 
 
#2 

Test your equipment before you need to use it. I have tried this one myself. Do the valves on your spare tubes match your rims? Does the head on your CO2 pump fit your valves? Do you know how to change a tube? Did you choose fancy lightweight tyres or something a little more practical? Are you running latex tubes, and if not, why not? 
 
#3 

You have spent months training, thousands of kroner on a race entry, for gods sake why don’t you buy a new set of tyres before the race? (And put latex tubes in them) 
 
#4 

Aero bike, aero helmet, nice tight suit, good position, and sporting the ZZ Top look? Beards aren’t aero. Enough said. 
 
#5 

Position. So many people sitting badly on their bikes. It made me wince. Get help, you need it. Gitte, #106, get some tri bars, you are missing out on free speed, 2km/h over 180km is a whole lot of time. But to the one guy I saw riding a flat bar city bike with mud guards and a carrier on the back, respect, that shit was mad. 
 
#6 

If you are going to ride tubulars then for fucks sake learn how to glue/tape them on! And if you don’t know (which is a stupid idea, learn that shit) then get a shop that knows what they are doing to glue them on for you AND prep your spare tyre with a stretch and a round of glue. I saw some tyres holding on to the rim by what the danes would call a ‘pussy hair’ and then got replaced with an unglued tubular, made me wince, again. 
 
#7 

Once more, learn to change a tube. 
 
#8 

If you would like your bike checked before you race then I suggest you put as much effort into that as you have everything else and BOOK A TIME.

n+1

Tags

BMX, BMX Butikken, Brooks, Catlike, GripGrab, Malteni, Niner, Pedal & co, Rockstar energy, Simple Bikes, SIS, Wethepeople

Everyone who is semi-serious about bikes has probably heard of n+1. It is the formula for working out how many bikes you should own. n being the number of bikes that you currently have. So you get the picture, the collecting never ends. There is also another version of it called n-1, this time n equalling the number of bikes that you can own where it results in your partner leaving you. I think it is a funny way of looking at it, but too often I feel it is used to cover up the materialism that underlies our culture. People use it to laugh off having among their other bikes, six steel race bikes with period components that they have found at garage sales that just need a finishing touch before they are ready to be put on display. That is where I start to distance myself and ask ‘why?’, are you starting a private museum? I am guilty a bit too. I own an undisclosed number of bikes stashed in 3 different countries. I used to look for those bargains that the local paper sometimes coughed up. Not because I needed a mint condition Gios Torino or a Klein Quantum Race but because I saw them as beautiful steeds that I wanted in my stable. Until I started to notice how the bikes I had once lived for riding on, my Cinelli Supercorsa, Santa Cruz Bullit, now collected dust. They weren’t made for display, they were made to be ridden. And so my collecting stopped. I still have a couple of bikes that it is exceptionaly rare for me to ride, but I like to think that I use what I have and I have put n+1 behind me.

Well, that was until not long ago…

Loke got a BMX for christmas and after we got home from New Zealand we finally got a chance to take it out. Now if you ever thought an adults bmx looked small then wait until you see a 16″ one for a 7 year old. They are very cute. We went to the skate park in Fælledeparken, the second largest of its kind in Denmark. Part of motivating Loke however involved showing him things. There weren’t any other BMXers to be inspired by so I had to step up. Wow, it was a lot of fun! I kept telling myself ‘you don’t need another bike, you don’t need another bike’ but by the end of two days in the park I could see that it was inevitable. One of the joys (read: dangers) of working in the industry is that it rarely takes long to go from thought to action (complete bike). In This case, text to Travis at BMX Butikken, Sunday night, stop by the shop to talk about it Monday morning, and then this Monday evening

 

And no, it wasn’t a fun ride home with both this and Loke on my singlespeed.

My first day out riding was in this place

 

Port4130. Now I have done a lot of crazy things on bikes but it has been a very long time since I was this scared. There isn’t even a ‘nice’ way to get into this thing. For Andreas and I (the token rookies and evenings entertainment) we had to lower our bikes and slide in.

The rookie corner

It is extremely intense and demanding riding. A lapse in concentration can cost you dearly and it pays to keep your runs short to avoid confusion. But wow what a feeling!! It is addictive and hard to stay away from, I want to go to the park more now than I do the forest. But for the next couple of weeks I can do neither. The story of how this new addiction lead to me breaking my arm, well that can wait for another day…

The advantages of being small…

Tags

Brooks, BSB, Catlike, CX, Niner, NZ, Science In Sport, SIS

There are a few positive things about being the little fish in a big ocean when it comes to racing cross and one of them is getting to pick my sponsors. Ok, I am maybe making that sound a little more glamorous than it really is, but what I am getting at is that I choose who to contact first regarding doing a deal. So I start with the brands that I know and like to begin with and work my way down from there. If I am lucky I strike gold on the first attempt. This was case with Catlike. I have been using their helmets since we started selling them in Track Bike Shop. I liked the look and fit of them (good for small heads) So much so we had a batch of them made custom for the shop. I must admit they had some teething problems at the start with the retention systems at the back, but the service was always good and defects were quickly replaced. The Kompact Pro was such a favorite of mine that at last count I still have three of them kicking around (though two live in New Zealand).

My helmets and I have been some pretty good places

So I was pretty stoked when their new helmet the Mixino showed up in the post. A better fit than the Kompact and the retention system has moved light years since the last time I bought a Catlike. I have been in helmet bliss since then and the Kompact Pro that I raced in last season has moved on to greener pastures (recycling depot).

My helmet was definitely looking better than me that day…

Another thing I have been really glad for this season has been the Science In Sport energy products I have been using. Again I was a fan from way back and they were on the top of my list. I like the complexity of their recovery products and the thought that has been put into the ingredients. Ok, they still use Aspartame as a sweetener but you have to go pretty far to find a sports supplement that doesn’t. I like their recovery drink Rego so much that there have days where I have not been in the mood for finishing the workout where just the fact that another 15min of training will mean that I have ‘earned’ my right to have one. (based on the idea that extra protein is unnecessary after any training of less than an hour in duration) Their other hit with me is the Overnight slow release protein mix. For use again only during periods of intense training it also contains tryptophan which helps produce niacin and seritonin which in turn aids sleep. The irony often of many hard training sessions is that it can sometimes be even harder to sleep afterwards.

The shelf of goodness 😀

I’ll be looking forward to trying out their new mountain bike shoes this summer!!

Mmmmm, summer…

Tags

29+, 29er bike shop, Brooks, christchurch, haven, haven mtb park, maxxis, New Zealand, Nextie, Travers Bikes, worsleys forest

Our little adventure in New Zealand started in Christchurch. In spite of the devastation wreaked by two huge earthquakes there are loads of cool things happening here and it is still one of my favorite places. Christchurch also has some great riding to offer and this is but a sample…

Worsleys forest is a favourite of mine on the Port Hills and has had a ton of new trails put in since I was last there. Although I find that it isn’t super single speed friendly (well not with a 32×16 gearing anyhow) as it involves a pretty heavy climb followed by some rather fast descending. My adventures this time sent me off on trails that I could see were not dug with a rigid hard tail in mind, but were fun and challenging none the less.

Nice views to be had from Worsleys

Macleans island was a new one for me. There has been a bit of money sunken into about 10-14kms of trails out there but unless you are taking your kids out riding or like riding ‘singletrack’ on your road bike you won’t find it very challenging. I would even have trouble squeezing the word ‘fun’ into the description. Boring and monotonous would be better. On the good side it was a short drive from my dads and was very 32×18 friendly. Next time I might pop a 14t on the back though…

There was nothing worth taking a photo of at Macleans Island, so here is a random sign.

Haven Mtb Park, hidden way up a steep dirt road near Gebbies Pass, with almost no sign posting, nor instructions online on how to find it really is a hidden gem. Kelly was the only person I know that even knew it existed and I attribute that to her having had lived on the actual property until not long ago. So having met the guy behind it all at the pub, driven out there thinking I could find it, finding out I was wrong, finding out there is no mobile phone reception within 2km of the place, getting better instructions from two random guys out riding near it, I finally found the place. P.S. if you don’t have a 4WD then don’t even contemplate going all the way up the driveway. After you have passed these first tests then you have earned the right to sample some lovely little trails, 22km in all, that I think few others have tried. There has been done a lot of digging and trails have been carved, allowing you to climb and descend, on some very steep hillsides that would otherwise be impassable. There was good flow and variation in many of the places I went and it was well suited to my single gear. If I had one complaint it would have been that the one serious climb trail that there was had hairpin turns too tight for the longer turning circle of my Travers and it was impossible to ascend without putting a foot down. So if you are in the area then I seriously recommend going to the trouble of checking it out 😉

A lot of work has been put in up here$

The climb…

The days in between

Tags

29er bike shop, Brooks, BSB, BSB 9, BSB9, Catlike, Circuit Zolder, CX, cyclocross, GripGrab, Malteni, Namur, Nextie, Niner, Rockstar energy, SIS, UCI, WC Zolder, World Cup, World Cup Cyclocross

Don’t leave Belgium empty handed!

Guest bedroom project

There is stuff to fix

More stuff…

but wait, there’s more!

Then there are abbeys to visit.

Christmas shopping to be done…

And now we drive to Zolder…

Namur

Tags

29er bike shop, Brooks, BSB, BSB 9, BSB9, Catlike, CX, cyclocross, GripGrab, Malteni, Namur, Nextie, Niner, Rockstar energy, SIS, UCI, World Cup, World Cup Cyclocross

I like Namur. It is a crazy course, pushes you to the technical limits of your riding, and always makes for some jaw dropping close calls. I thought too that I could get an ok placing (relatively) because I like the technical scary stuff.

Leading into the race I was without a mechanic 😦 but I did have the worlds best soigneur. My friend Rie made sure that there was order, that things were in place, and that sore muscles and stiff joints were quickly dealt with. Regardless of how I saw the actual race unfolding my body has never felt more ready. Our team car had shrunken a little too.

The race itself was unlike any other I have ever done. I have ridden the course and raced it before but what actually happened was, well, quite unique. To begin with there were almost 70 of us on the start list, which (maybe) I don’t think the UCI had accounted for when we were called up to the grid. I think those last 10 extra riders or so drew the process out a little. By the time we were on the grid, I had taken my zip-off pants off, we were still chatting and joking when suddenly the air was filled with the sound of shoes clipping in and I was filled with a sinking feeling. The start had gone. I just rode, Rie never got to finish her sentence, and I crossed the start/finish line riding without hands as I peeled off my jacket. The neck warmer and hat under my helmet would have to stay on for the rest of the race. But it was ok I caught the rest heading up the hill as you can see here

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Guys! SVENNESS socks are World Cup tested. Get yours at www.svenness.com. @cxbeaver @hotsaucecycling #namur

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At the bottom of the next hill though I lost my chain, and badly, so I had to jump off and fix it. By this stage even the very back of the field was starting to disappear. Luckily after a couple more laps I started to haul in some of the riders in front of me and had gained a couple of places. Then my front tyre blew out. It didn’t just go ‘pffffffffff’ like they usually do, it went ‘BANG!!’. Again it could have been worse, it wasn’t super long from the pits so I just had to run for a bit ant then ride the last 100m on the flat before I got a new bike. Again time to start working on those places again. I had two guys with beards and an Australian in front of me so something had to be done.

There were good fights to be had at the back 🙂 Photo – Martine Adam

Here is when things were under control

Photo – Tom Prenen 

And here is when they weren’t

Photo – Tom Prenen

I had a discussion with Rie on the way down from Denmark about how I quite often finish races with ‘a little bit left in the tank’. That is to say, not completely dead. I find in cross it is important to keep your shit together as mistakes often cost you more than that little bit of extra speed ever gained you. So as I started to reel Garry, my Australian counterpart, in I decided that today was the day to empty the tank. I caught him on what would be our last run up the steepest hill, and I was confident that I had closed that door soundly until I could hear him gaining on, and actually passing me, on the last climb leading to the pits and what would be our ‘finishing line’, the 80% zone. Somehow I managed to catch and pass him once more before we hit the flat and proceeded to try and put as much space between us before the ‘line’. With about 30m to go my bike made a crunching sound and the rear wheel locked up, my derailleur now snugly wedged in my spokes. I threw the bike on my shoulder and gave it everything I had left for the last few meters. The UCI commissars looking at me funny and telling me to take it easy, the race was over. I don’t think that they understood the epic battle that had just taken place. I was left drooped over one of the barriers, gasping for air, as they removed the chip from my race number. As I turned around I saw Garry lying on his bars, spit hanging from his lips, I decided that we could discuss events later.

I ❤ Namur (seriously) Photo – Fabienne Vanheste

Without the problems I encountered then a top 50 place should have been achievable, but then again that is the nature of the game. I was just glad that I got to finish, albeit with no working bikes left. It was a great race and a good fight at the back of the field. It is really nice to have a few more new faces there, like Mark, Robert, Garry, and the Spanish riders, Augstin and Ramon. Now the preparations for the big one begin, Zolder, if I am going to get to finish a race in Belgium then it will be that one!

This is what happens when you bring Dutch people to cross races…

 

 

Spreading the Niner love

Tags

29er bike shop, Brooks, BSB, BSB 9, BSB9, Catlike, CX, cyclocross, GripGrab, Malteni, Nextie, Niner, Rockstar energy, SIS

We ran in to some logistical difficulties over the Christmas period regarding cars and getting to the last races. There was just a few days where we fell short and couldn’t seem to find a solution. Pieter jumped into action and went as far as sending mails to the likes of Skoda (hey, they like cycling) to see if they had a car we could borrow for a few days. We ran into a bunch of dead ends until finally, after a little Facebooking and mailing Pieter got a reply back from Seb from Niner Benelux asking if this would do?

Riding in style

Definitely feeling the Niner love now! So if you are coming to either Diegem, Loenhout, or Baal then it is the Niner van and the GripGrab tent that you need to keep an eye out for after the race where we will be sipping cold Maltenis 😉

Soigneur CX Cup

Tags

Brooks, Catlike, CX, CX Cup, cyclocross, GripGrab, Malteni, Niner, Rockstar, SIS, Soigneur

As I have mentioned in a blog post before, if there is one single thing that lies behind the huge growth of cross in Denmark the last couple of years then it is the bike shop Soigneur. They have now taken over the old CX Cup and turned it in to the Soigneur CX Cup and added more races and new locations.

Last weekend I managed to join one not far from town. Both my Niners are in Belguim, safely tucked away at Dirk and Anneke’s, so it was time to bust out the Surly. Saturday, normally the day that would be spent making sure that the bike was humming and ready to race was instead spent on a long run, hanging out with Emma, and then straight off to meet Jim for a beer. Just as I was heading out the door to meet Jim I looked at the spot on the wall where the Surly usually hangs and wondered where it was. Fuck. It was at work, plus it had no gears. Piss. Now for me, it was a 10km ride to the race from home, but to go via work it would be over 30. Nice, no sleep in on Sunday morning.

Having picked up the bike I set it up with a fast gear to get me to the race and a couple of dfferent options for gears during the race. As simple as single speeds can be they can prove to be difficult in some aspects. Chain line is one of them and things like using a QR on a bike with horisontal dropouts is also a bit of a no no. Both of these things ended up giving me grief later in the day but for now it was fine.

The course made good use of the park it was based in. It had rained a lot leading up to the race creating some exquisite mud sections and also some rather large puddles in general. It also had a lovely steep Valkenburgesque climb (but slipperier) followed by a fun descent. The race is split into two classes for the men, given the large number of competitors, Men, and Prestige Men. The latter being kept for the leading riders that are competing after points in the over all cup. Given that I was single speeding on an old steel bike and I am not riding the cup I chose to just race ‘mens’ it also meant I could get home quicker and on with the rest of my day. In the warm up laps I had no problems with the bike, so long as the QR at the back was tightened as much as humanly possible. Once the race started I had managed to drop the chain four times before completing the first lap. This sent me from the front five to about the last five. I chose a lighter gear, giving a better chain line, and then only dropped it too more times during the remaining 55 minutes of the race. Once the mechanical problems were sorted I proceeded to drag my way back to the front again eventually taking the win. It was a fun course and I loved getting to play in the mud again. I look forward to racing there in the future, though I would like to see a bit more grass trimmed and bushes pruned 😉

This sums up my race, lovely photo, don’t know who took it though.

The puddles helped keep the worst of the mud off the lower part of the bike

Yeah, mud!

Great before and after shots from Anders Bergh