Battle in the Bowl 2018

Sunday morning I went through the very familiar routine of packing bike and gear into the car. Unusually though I had absolutely no idea what to expect at the other end of the journey. I was heading to Matterley Bowl near Winchester; a familiar venue I know for hosting Southern Series XC races in the past. The event format this time however was going to be very different. I was going Cyclocross racing!

Yes, it is off-road and yes I was riding my mountain bike, but the course was distinctly different from what you’d find at a mountain bike race. There was nothing remotely technical in sight. No narrow singletrack swooping through the trees and rocks. Just 3 miles of wide gravel paths and lots of open grassy turns. As a venue the natural amphitheatre of Matterley bowl is spectacular. The trade stands with their colourful banners and flags nestled against a back drop of steep green slopes. The hillside covered in zig zags of course tape fluttering in the breeze. Almost the entire 3 mile course could be viewed standing in the arena area.

Dusty opening gravel loop

The sun was beating down on the opening dusty gravel road around the bottom of the bowl. Climbing slightly before the course turned left and cascaded across the green Downland grass. Dozens of twists and turns marked out by the dazzling white course tape. After a dizzying number of switchbacks riders were eventually funneled back onto gravel at the base of the climb. A proper lung buster the wide white chalky scar was longer than most hills you’ll find at local XC courses with an unrelenting gradient. Once up to the ridge a grassy double track path took you around the top of the bowl in the opposite direction to the start loop, before a loose and sketchy, high speed decent dropped you back to the start.

Backwards and forwards between the tape!

Not owning a Cyclocross bike I’d be racing my MTB in the “Open Warfare” category. The number of race recruits swelled to 65 by the glorious sunshine. 6 laps awaited.

Keen not to make the mistake of my last two races where I’ve been too cautious, I pushed my way to the front row of the grid, looking to avoid the melee behind. It proved an excellent decision! As we sprinted away, charging down the gravel track, I latched onto a rear wheel seeking a tow into the headwind. Amongst proper Cyclocross bikes my gearing was pretty marginal for such high speed racing, my 30t chainring spinning like a windmill in a hurricane. Amid the dust and stones a couple of the riders ahead of me dropped off the pace and I had to dig deep to bridge the gaps and stay in the slipstream of the group. We swept onto the grass. The looping switch back nature of the turns meant I could check behind and see I was part of a lead group which had distanced the chasing pack by 5 or 6 seconds.

We swung through the curves between the tape, the grass thankfully flattened on the racing line by the earlier junior and youth races. This did mean however that it was hard to go off-line and pass. I managed to dip inside one rider, but was then rudely chopped by another as he came through.

We powered into the bottom of the climb - my time to shine! I steadily slipped past riders as we hauled ourselves up the hill. The incline steepened nastily just at the summit and I snuck into 5^th behind the leading quartet. We traversed our way around the top edge of the bowl, still climbing gently. The gaps between us opened, except behind me! I was passed just as we turned into the decent. Stones were sent scattering into the trees as we both battled for grip. It was a totally flat out decent, with a chicane half way down placed in an effort to reduce the speed. Then heavy braking back onto the grass at the bottom for a tight hairpin left. There stood a marshall waving his arms with another desperately repairing the tape as two of the leaders returned to the course after overshooting the turn!

A rider passed me as I took avoiding action and I followed him closely across the line to complete the first lap. This was actually quite lucky as I was now able to grab a lovely tow around the gravel loop of the bowl, saving my energy for the climb where I re-passed him. I stretched the gap behind slightly and chased the rider 50 meters ahead around the top of the lap, before plunging down again.

Back on the gravel, this time I was the carrot and the rider behind latched onto my rear wheel before passing and pulling a slight lead into the maze of grassy turns. I caught and repassed him on the climb and worked hard to stretch out a small gap for the second time.

The hill!

Despite my efforts I was reeled in by the same rider on the blast around the bowl. Disappointingly he shook me off his rear wheel while passing back markers and I was left chasing to close a gap that this time slowly grew. I got close on the climb, closing right up to his rear wheel, but this time I was chasing in the dust rather than stretching a lead.

Lap 5 was an exact repeat. I got within a couple of bike lengths on the climb, but lost ground gradually over the rest of the lap. In the taped section we swung backwards and forwards past each other. I could also keep an eye on those a few seconds behind as the bell sounded and we charged into the final lap.

I threw everything into the climb and closed to 10 meters. In a do or die move I sprinted out of the saddle. I closed and closed, until there was just a back marker between us. My legs were screaming, my heart was pounding, I had nothing else left to give. This was as close as I got. As I turned into the final descent I knew there were no more passing opportunities and sat up, cruising across the line 7^th overall.

I was 4^th veteran (over 40) home. A fantastic result, but 4^th is always tinged with slight disappointment. As the commentator had kindly reminded me during the race, “Come on Ben, there are no prizes for 4^th!”

Challenging yourself and trying something new by stepping out of your comfort zone, even slightly, can be very rewarding. I really enjoyed trying something different and it gave me an excellent workout ahead of next weeks Southern XC Championships.

Gauging my G100 performance

I was wondering how to evaluate my 24^th placed finish at last weeks Gorrick 100? I felt pleased with my performance, despite the crippling cramp. Did it provide any indication of how I’m riding and my fitness compared to previous years?

Two years ago I raced the Gorrick 100 during my build up to the Swiss Grand Raid and British Marathon Championships. It was a big year for me and in terms of endurance riding I’d have considered myself about as fit as I ever have been.

My finishing time on Sunday of 5 hours 43 minutes, was 29 minutes faster than 2016. However, race times themselves are obviously irrelevant as the course and conditions are totally different.

At the previous two editions I finished 24^th out of a field of 57 in 2015 and 22^nd from 48 in 2016. So last weeks 24^th out of 60 entrants, would suggest an equivalent, or maybe even slightly better performance compared to previous years. Of course it does depend entirely on who else showed up.

I then tried to compare myself to other individual riders. Amazingly only five of those who raced on Sunday also competed 2 years ago. The closest of them, a chap called Chris Clayton, beat me by 6 minutes in 2016. Scarily within a handful of seconds I was exactly the same distance behind two years later!

The gaps to the other riders were also comparable within a minute or two. Obviously, this doesn’t account for their performance, or changes in fitness over the intervening 24 months, but the general picture is clear.

So what do I take away from this?

My current perception that I’m not as fit today as I was in the past, is largely based on the fact that I’m spending less time on the bike, rather than any factual evidence. In 2015 and 2016 I was averaging over 150 miles and cycling 10 hours a week. Since the beginning of this year I’ve averaged 8 hours and just under 120 miles a week.

Sundays result suggests that slightly less training might not have had any detrimental on my overall performance. It might support my belief that in the past I was doing a lot of “nonsense” commuting miles. Perhaps my more limited training now is slightly more focused and beneficial.

Kawasaki G100 2018

When you pull into the carpark and the first face you see is multiple national champion Ben Thomas, already on his warm-up rollers, you know you’re racing with the big boys!

This was my 8^th Gorrick 100. The challenge of this event is one I have loved since I first raced it way back in 2007 at the original Swinley venue. For me it is as much a personal challenge as a race. There are no age categories to hide in, it is just you against 60 riders, the course and the clock.

After a year off and the move to Minley Manor the format has remained the same. 7 laps of an 8 to 9 mile circuit, with twists, turns, hills and drops aplenty. 11 years ago I toiled for nearly 8 hours in the saddle, at the time comfortably my longest ever ride. I would be hoping for a much faster time this year, but I knew the mental and physical battles to reach the finish line would be just the same.

The weather is always going to be a critical factor when racing 100km off-road. On Sunday Britain was in the middle of a bank holiday heat wave, so hydration was going to be key. I dropped off 9 bottles at the feed zone, one for each lap plus a couple of spares.

As we got underway in the dappled shade I was aware I’d probably started slightly too far back in the pack. At least this gave me the chance to warm-up slowly as we cruised through the opening sections of dusty forest trails. I gradually gained more positions than I lost over the opening 2 laps until I found myself in a fast moving group of 4. We were really hammering the trails in maximum attack mode. I knew it was a pace I couldn’t hope to maintain, but it was such a buzz I took my turns on the front and chased the others through the trees. It encapsulated everything I love about racing. It was awesome fun!

It came to an end mid-way around lap 4. I dropped my bottle while taking a much needed drink. On a warm day I couldn’t afford to leave the bottle behind so I quickly spun round, retrieved the bottle and chased after the group. I caught them quickly, but paid for my efforts and they soon rode away from me.

I was alone and it was payback time for that earlier fun. In any endurance event, you’ll have dark moments and it was now that I really struggled. It was as much a mental battle, knowing there were still hours of racing ahead as my body wilted. Lap 5 was tough and my paced slowed. It is not often I am left wishing for a full suspension bike, but the fatigue from the constant chatter of roots took its toll. My arms were screaming with lactic, making control of the bike as challenging as powering it along.

However, as is often the case I recovered and with renewed dynamism began to push the pace again. Into lap 6 I was feeling strong and reeling in back markers left, right and center. Then without warning cramp hit like a gunshot in my right leg. I briefly tried to ride through it, but even the subtle gradient I found myself on was too much. I stopped and stretched, the back markers repassing me no doubt inwardly smiling smugly to themselves! It looked pathetic, but in the end I had no choice but to push the bike to the top of the slope and freewheel down the other side. I had to seriously consider the very real likelihood that this would be my first Gorrick 100 DNF (Did Not Finish).

I devoured every bit of food I had on me and downed my drinks bottle in an effort to boost fuel and fluid reserves. I was now at least able sit on the bike and turn my legs over, but if I tried to put even a moderate amount of effort through the pedals the muscles would immediately spasm and lock rigid. Thankful for no more hills I crawled back to the feed zone where I took on board all my remaining water and food. The car was parked just behind me, but I never even looked at it. One lap to go.

A rider from Pivot Boompods pitted just as I limped away. Damn! I knew he would surely pass me before the end of the lap - if I even made it that far.

I was walking wounded, nursing myself along, staying off the brakes as much as I could trying to maintain momentum. I was spinning an easy gear doing my best to not appear weak and offer too much encouragement to the rider behind, who was inevitably closing me down.

With the cramp now troubling both legs I approached a section of track which dropped down into a gully with a steep rooted bank up the other side. At speed on the previous 6 laps I had just swept up and out, but I knew now if I needed to pedal out of the top of the incline the cramp would hit and that would be curtains. So instead, I the took the long way around. The Boompods rider stared at me in surprised disbelief as he swept through and past! The trouble is I am too competitive to just to let him go.

I was beginning to feel very strange on the bike. Light headed and dizzy I clipped a couple of trees as I tried to keep him in sight. On a fireroad descent I got close enough to grab his slipstream. I even had just enough momentum to dip in front of him as we entered the next section of singletrack. There was only 1.8 miles to go, but I was out for the count.

Riding in a slightly out of body experience I realized that I was catching someone ahead. Could anyone really be slower than me? I passed him too, the whole time thinking that if either of the riders behind had any kind of sprint finish left in them I was toast. The truth is they were probably struggling as much as me and I didn’t see them again. I crossed the line 24^th out of 60 in 5hrs 45min.

Exposed to the full heat of the sunshine in the car park the cramp hit me hard. I lay on the grass for some time before I could even contemplate trying to fold myself into the car for the drive home.

The Gorrick 100 is an event that dishes out equal levels of pleasure and pain! A day riding the bike in the sunshine, along glorious singletrack trails. The agony of fighting body and mind through cramp and exhaustion. The massive sense of achievement at the finish. I love it!

First race of the year!

1^st race of the year. 1^st race as a Veteran. 1^st four lap XCO race since August 2016. I may have entered more than 50 Gorrick Spring series events over the years, but there were plenty of new experiences for me on Sunday.

The first race of the year after a winter of training is always full of unknowns and mental demons. That fear increases when moving up to a new category. Surrounded by unfamiliar faces was I about to discover if I was totally out of my depth or the next big thing!

I already knew that this year wasn’t going to be quite like my final season as a Master. No trips to the podium this year! The Veterans is frequently the fastest category (as it was this Sunday). It is where the ex-pros and sponsored riders come to start their “retirement”!

Gorrick run a Veterans Plus category over 4 laps, as well as the standard 3 lap Vets race. A legacy I expect of trying to split up the much larger number of entries we used to see at races a few years ago. I chose the Vets Plus as this is where the ‘big boys’ hang out, and I wanted to gauge myself against the best ahead of  4 lap Regional and National races later in the year.

Despite a weekend forecast of wall to wall rain, conditions were overcast but dry. The light over night precipitation had just dampened the soil nicely, providing a massive amount of confidence inspiring grip in the corners. Which is good because there were A LOT of corners!

The Area 51 venue is a compact privately owned site and the guys and girls at Gorrick do a great job to squeeze in the 20 minute lap by looping backwards and forwards amongst the trees. There isn’t much elevation onsite, but the route still includes several punchy short inclines. I’m well suited to the short bursts of power required for these and accelerating out of all those corners!

My lack of confidence showed as we leapt away off the start line. I was slightly cautious and found myself too far back. There were precious few places to overtake and I’ll admit to slightly cutting a corner to get past one rider who was holding me up. I then caught a guy on a single speed (why would you race on a single speed!?) He was terrific through the technical stuff and quick at the bases of the hills, leaving me little opportunity to get by. Unfortunately, he was holding me up at the top of every incline. I pressurised him as much as I could hoping to force a mistake; breathing down his neck and practically buzzing his rear tyre. He did slip more than once, but each time it wasn’t quite enough to squeeze through. It wasn’t until the final bend of the first lap that I dived down the inside, but then the course opened and we were in a flat out sprint to reach the next section of singletrack first.

I pulled a few lengths and hit the subsequent series of curves at maximum attack! Front tyre digging into the dirt, the rear wheel drifting wide. It was like playing a computer game, diving left and right. I loved it! The gap opened behind, but I paid the price for my efforts with terrible stitch. There is little opportunity to recover on this type of course, but I tried to get my breathe and then regroup. My second lap was my fastest and 30 seconds quicker than the first.

I’d made the break from those behind, but the riders ahead were out of reach. The gap remained about constant and I am left ruing my cautious start. I had the speed to mix it with those in front, but I gave them to much of a head start. I was only two and a half minutes off the top ten at the finish line.

A massively positive day for my first Vet race. 15^th is ok, but more importantly it showed I am competitive and I enjoyed thrashing around a great course. I’m looking forward now to the season ahead and trying to move forward.

The death of XC racing!

When I was a young impressionable teenager, mountain biking was all about Cross country “XC” racing. MBUK featured coverage of the races and I put up posters of world cup riders like GT’s Rishi Grewal and Raleigh’s David Baker on my bedroom wall. In the 1990’s XC mountain biking was uber cool!

XC team photo used to sell a bike. Very 1990's!

Skinny lycra clad racers don’t make much of an appearance in magazines or in brand marketing anymore. The big names in the sport are EWS riders like Richie Rude and Jared Graves. Selling bikes in recent years is all about dramatic shots of burly Enduro bikes, with riders in baggy shorts throwing themselves off a precipitous mountain ledge in a shower of stones.

Roll into a trail center wearing lycra, on a bike with 100mm of travel and wait for the stunned silence and awkward glances from the padded and full face helmet crowd resting in the back of their VW Transporters. At XC races there is an obvious lack of youngsters coming into the sport. It’s the same old faces every season and none of us are getting any younger! The guys winning the local races now are the same as 10 years ago. Where are the young guns coming in to knock them off their perch? My gut tells me they are either indoors on the X-box, or styling it up with their mates at the local downhill trail. A XC race is no longer a ‘cool’ place to be.

At my local events, race entries have dwindled. To take a benchmark, the Gorrick Open category is where many aspiring young riders, including myself, cut their racing teeth. The races used to regularly attract fields of over 100. I spent my formative years desperately battling for a top 10 position. Last February there were only 11 competing in Open at one of the rounds. The knock on effect is that organisers are planning less races. When the 2018 Southern Series was announced, there were only 4 dates. Worse still there are just 2 Gorrick Spring Series events this year. We’ve got used to both series being fought out over 5 or 6 rounds.

Part of this (especially in Gorricks case) I feel might be down to the lack of available venues, but no doubt fewer competitors means organisers have had to tighten their belts when negotiating with landowners.

Another challenge is strength in other areas of the sport. Gorrick have followed the trend, replacing one of their XC events with a gravity Enduro race. There are also many cyclocross races and the popularity of road riding in the UK on the back of our professional athletes successes, has also shifted the spotlight away from mountain biking. There is a local road sportive somewhere almost every weekend throughout the year and weekly races all through the summer.

There is however the sense that things may be changing. A number of the major brands have recently announced new XC focused race bikes and smaller brands seem to be following suit. Advances in technology mean that a XC bike is now a far more capable machine. This means that courses are getting more gnarly and technical. Races are no longer fought out on forest fireroads. The twisty, rocky singletrack is now scattered with dramatic drops and gap jumps. This provides striking, photogenic images for marketing, and a more appealing perception of fun and excitement rather just the threat of burning legs and lungs!

Nino Schurter at the World Cup in South Africa February 2018

Sections of the latest World Cup courses look more like Downhills tracks. This has added to the drama of the sport and we all have a new hero in Nino Shurter to idolise. I watched the first round of the World Cup in South Africa last week, transfixed to Redbull TV for the whole 2 hours. (Another one of challenges of XC racing in a world of quick fixes, is races lasting over 90 minutes, compared to a downhill run of 3.)  I was in awe of the skill on show, shoulder to shoulder racing the whole way ending in a sprint finish! As an advert for the sport you couldn’t do better.

Click here for highlights of the...

Closest finish in history!

So I am hopeful for the future of XC racing. After all the discipline is the closest to the type of off-road cycling that most of us actually take part in on Sunday morning. 

Merida Brass Monkeys - Frith Hill

Throbbing, aching legs, stiff joints and every movement an effort. That’s just sitting at my desk today!

The reason for my discomfort? Yesterday I raced the Merida Brass Monkeys 4 hour endurance race at Frith Hill near Deepcut in Surrey. It was minus 3 degrees when I left home and although the temperatures had risen slightly as the start time approached, the puddles on the opening loop were still frozen solid. I thought I’d have the normal 15 minute “warm-up” before the off. Not much warming-up took place, the result was numb fingers and shivering as I rolled towards the start.

I haven’t raced much this year, so my pre-race prep was slightly rusty. I’d got distracted chatting to a few familiar faces during my warm-up which meant I joined the grid near the back, with only a handful of riders behind me. When the race got underway I was immediately held up as the pack ahead funnelled into the trees. Once into the wood there was plenty of beautiful singletrack, but this meant there was no chance of overtaking so I cruised around picking off riders here and there when I could. We also quickly caught the slower guys at the back of the 2 hour race, adding further to the congestion.

My favourite phrase when instructing new riders is, “Speed is your friend”. Riding obstacles slowly can frequently be harder than attacking them with more momentum. Your inertia carries you over the roots and rocks in the path, which can quickly catch you off balance when tackled more cautiously. For example… Following a back marker about ¾ of the way around the first lap we had to clear a fallen tree. I lifted the front wheel which cleared the trunk fine, but misjudged our slow pace and the rear tyre bounced off the top, rebounding sideways. My saddle was pushed into me with such force it rotated to a 45degree angle. I rode the rest of the lap standing on the pedals, which is surprisingly tiring!

I stopped in the pits, grabbed an allen key and corrected the saddle. It may only have taken a minute, but so early in the race the field hadn’t strung out and dozens of riders I had just battled past came streaming through. Taking the opportunity for a swig of water and bite of banana I was underway again and once more picking my way forward through the pack. Suddenly a rider ahead fell, I dodged round the prone figure as he writhed in the mud, but my front wheel washed out and I also went down with a thump! More time lost and 3 positions handed back to those behind. I was aware my knee hurt afterwards, but it was kind of lost in the general body aches of racing. It was only the next day as I was limping around the office I realized I must have given it quite a whack!

Laps 3 and 4 were stunningly fun. Now with some free space around me I could enjoy all that glorious singletrack! Braking late and diving into the corners, accelerating away towards the next bend. There were also a couple of really sharp climbs which perfectly suited me. I powered up, weaving between people pushing their bikes or leaning against them grabbing a breather! 

At this point, despite my problems, I’d been averaging 40 minutes a lap, so I was still aiming to squeeze 6 laps into the 4 hour race time. The weather however, had other plans! It started to rain towards the end of lap 4 and the course quickly became very slippery indeed. I had to abandon hope of that 6th lap as I slithered around the twisty corners battling for grip. Water flowed down some sections of the course like a stream. Riding to the left or right of the marked route was frequently faster than the gloop created where hundreds of tyres had churned the trail. Of course, where there were trees or bushes this wasn’t always possible and I even had to resort to foot on a couple of short inclines near the end of the lap such was the poor state of the course.

Having started so far back I was genuinely surprised and pleased to find I had finished 8^th! My trials and tribulations had definitely cost me several minutes, although this probably didn’t affect my race position dramatically. I know next time to make sure I arrive in time to grab a decent starting position to prevent getting caught up in the traffic. 

Welcome to Watopia!

It had been raining all day and now the temperature outside was well below zero. I was not looking forward to a freezing bike ride on the treacherously icy roads. As it turned out my ride was so warm, all I wore was a pair of shorts!

It wasn’t my usual evening route either. Setting out from a picturesque seaside port I cycled up through the foothills of snowcapped mountains, all along traffic free roads. The only other people passed were other cyclists of every conceivable nationality. There was no need for an airfare to experience the foreign land of Watopia.  I hadn’t even left the house, I was plugged into the virtual world of Zwift.

Indoor turbo sessions are traditionally amongst the most tedious ways to spend an evening. I used to regularly schedule indoor interval sessions into my training, but even with headphones blaring out my favourite tunes, or watching TV, 30 minutes of sweaty monotony was about as much as I could stand.

In contrast my first visit to Watopia was fully absorbing. My online avatar only pulled to the side of the road well after an hour had passed because it was 10.30pm, I had to be at work the following day and was now in desperate need of a shower!

I don’t know if it will continue to hold my attention in the same way, but there is a whole world out there to explore! The resistance to the rear wheel varies dependent on the terrain and gradient, simulating a real world ride. You find yourself jumping out the saddle to crest a short ramp, or settling in for longer ascents. It creates a much more stimulating interactive experience.

All the time there are other cyclists all around you. Some zooming past at improbable speeds, others you catch and some you end up riding with. (Yes, slip-streaming works!) If you want you can even chat with them, wave, or ring your bell! Naturally you can adjust the appearance of your avatar right down to a slide bar to control the length of your socks!

I only scratched the surface with my first visit, but I’m looking forward to discovering more. The downside is that although there are no travel cost you still have to pay to access Watopia. When my 10 day free trial ends I need to decide if it is worth the £12.99 monthly subscription. You’ll also need a Smart trainer like my Tacx Vortex, which at the best part of £400 is one of the cheaper units on the market.

Of course I’d much rather be out in the real world, which is the main reason I enjoy cycling. However, when the weather outside is really miserable there is something to be said for the comfort of staying indoors. Added to which your bike doesn’t get dirty. 

Today I cycled around an empty central London!