Someone shot me with an air gun when I was riding home from work last week. I pondered going to the police but then quickly (and I think rightfully) assumed that nothing would be done and i’d end up getting involved in all sorts of manic bureacratic hassle. It didn’t pierce the skin – in fact I had the tiniest of bruises, but it just made me annoyed.
National Trophy round 2: Chantry Park, Ipswich
The second round of the highest level of cyclo-cross competition in this country and I travelled down to Ipswich a bit nervous, but also a bit resigned to my form not being where it was last year.
Had an overdue bit of bonding with my Wheelbase team mates Rob, Stuart and Lewis (thanks for the lift!) and managed to keep it down to four polite pints of Guinness on the evening before. Rob and Lewis didn’t snore: my luck was in !
The race day itself was very, very enjoyable. I’d never turned up so early to a national trophy event so preparation was very relaxed and subdued. The course itself was an absolute cracker – some testing technical bits but all pretty fast if you kept your concentration up.
The ‘other’ races (Juniors, Veterans, Women, etc) were good for the North West riders, which helped to make the day rewarding.
My performance in itself was still pretty lacklustre. I had one of the slowest opening laps I’ve ever had at this level, which didn’t help, despite having a good warm up. By the time I got myself motoring I’d ‘missed the train’ and could only make up a few places. On the whole, my performance was better than Cheltenham and I was right on the nail with skills and technique, I just wasn’t fast enough. More structure to the training will follow! 33rd in the end and a lap down on German winner Malte Urban.
Links:
British Cycling website race report and photos
Lots more photos
North West cyclo cross association website report.Â
Hidden hole.
A simple, but a very very funny prank on youtube.
Beach Balls
A hard day’s not cycling
I organised a bike race on Saturday for the first time in a good few years. It was a really very satisfying experience. The ones I used to organise at Cheltenham – mainly road races and time trials – seemed to be such thankless experiences, where riders expected so much of you and were’nt willing to put themselves in your shoes. Not all the time, but most of the time, this was what it was like.
Organising any event like this isn’t particularly easy. You can be lucky with some things (the weather was near perfect, no-one crashed enough to warrant first aid), and other things you can plan (the venue itself was really good – self-contained non-prescious parkland with a course to challenge all abilities).
What you can’t stress enough though is how you rely on other people so much. My name was down as the organiser, but for Katie, it was just as long a day, and probably more tiring in many ways, because she doesn’t have the ‘things will be okay’ kind of attitude that I have at times like that.
The best bits of the day was the realisation that the North West Cyclocross community is a very strong one – and people were genuinely willing to help out wherever they could without being asked. It really lifted me up.
So BIG ‘thank you’s go to: Katie, Jean and Bill, Matthew Pixton, Louise Gore, Stuart and Billy Reid, Josh Varty and his marshalling friend whose name I can’t recall, Wheelbase (for the generous prizes), Mick Spiers, Ray Pugh and everyone at Bury Borough Council Parks, especially David Wells. Finally, thanks, of course, to mum, for babysitting Lily. The day with Lily at my side not moaning and getting on with things would have been blissful, but utterly unattainable.
Would I do it all again? You betcha.
The race report and photos can be found here.
A few of the 15 minutes of fame ticked off.
Part 1 – the video diary
Part 2 – the race
In a slightly odd and certainly unpredictable series of events, I had the enjoyable and very memorable experience working on a video diary with Sam Bailey of BBC’s Countryfile programme the other week. It was all strange in many ways – not least because I’ve worked for the Countryside Commission and then the Countryside Agency for almost twelve years now and have been keen to promote my work on the programme, but when my turn came, it was because of a bike race!Most of the readers here will know of my obsession with the Three Peaks Cyclocross race, a long, hard, mountainous cycling race every September. Every training ride I do is taken over by thoughts of riding the Three Peaks, and part of my obsession has manifested itself in the race blog I keep. Anyway…. to cut a long story short, it’s because of the blog that, when the BBC heard about the race and were doing a feature on the area, they contacted me to do a video diary.I had a great day filming with them (the five hours or so was useful training and mind-preparation!), and the video diary and race were shown on 8th October. Click on the images to the left to watch the coverage, split into two episodes!
In at the strike
There’s something amazing about this for someone interested in photography. It’s quite simple in many ways – almost too simple. I’ve no reason to think it’s a hoax – statistically it was bound to happen to someone. It’s just a story about someone experiencing an electric storm nearby and trying to capture it on camera, then as the shutter opens (on admittedly the fourth attempt), a bolt hits just 20 metres away. Split second timing – or just luck – it’s the ultimate in ‘caturing the moment’.
National Trophy cyclocross round 1 – Pittville Park, Cheltenham
This is quite a ‘precious’ event for me as it goes back in its early days to myself and Pat Alexander organising the first ever cyclocross in Pittville Park. I was slightly disappointed to not have a good race on what should have been a good course for me.
I finished 38th in the end but should have really been a bit better than that. I can’t blame anything and hate using excuses – I just wasn’t fast enough. Need to work on that.
The course itself was really enjoyable to ride and I had the bonus of some welcome support from ex-clubmates at Cheltenham as well as a good family contingent.
Having to work on the fitness now!
Dave Haygarth’s latest tune
This blows my mind a little bit. I was doing a six(ish) monthly search on Google for “Dave Haygarth” – it’s amazing what turns up, when I came across a band from Watford called the Desires, whose lead singer/guitarist is called Dave Haygarth.
You can listen to a not very bad at all song of theirs, too.
Click here….
Three Peaks cyclo-cross 2006
It’s Sunday night, the bikes are washed down, Lily’s in bed, and it’s a lovely moment to sit here and contemplate what a great day I just had. I prepare for this race as if it’s the only race that matters, and can’t say that there’s been a bike ride or fell run during the last year that I haven’t thought about the Three Peaks.
I finished 15th today – my best position from eleven events – and took five minutes off my previous best time. This, despite being seriously delayed by a snapped chain on Penyghent – the final climb – which forced me to run for ten minutes whilst people I’d worked so hard to drop trickled past me. I was in eleventh place at the time and it was looking pretty safe – but that’s the type of race it was – and I’m not bitter because anything in the top 20 would have made me chuffed – I’m bloody elated. Continue reading “Three Peaks cyclo-cross 2006”
Podcast: Heart Racing
Heart Racing is the new tune I’ve put together after – literally – about a year of dithering about. We’ve been so busy on the house in the last couple of years that music has really taken a back seat.
Heart Racing (mp3)
NOW UPDATED – 04 October 2006 – thanks for your feedback – I’ve upped the vocals a bit and knocked back the snare drum for an altogether better mix! Link now goes to the re-mastered version.
Click more below for lyrics.
Continue reading “Podcast: Heart Racing”
Minnelli-what?
From 1997 to 2001, I worked on a national lottery funded initiative “Millennium Greens”, which helped people to create new community green spaces where they were previously lacking. The word ‘Minnellium’ came about because of the number of times during that era that people either said it (inadvertantly) or actually mis-typed it. It just made me chuckle every time I heard it.
I had started to make my own electronic music at the time and needed a name for my ‘band’. It sounded right because the word sounded electronic and modern. I soon bagged the URL minnellium.com and so the word / brand started to take on its own form and gradually it has become less about the audio and more about me, generally.
Minnellium isn’t an alter ego – it’s become a moden day metaphor for me and mine!
D.