Category: Sport

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MTB Ride: Mary Townley Loop

Had a lovely day today. My training rides these days tend to be not much more than an hour in length. This has its advantages – you can go out and totally hammer yourself for an hour or so and get all the training benefit; I really believe that if you want to be fit to race well you can gain little from pounding out the miles. Greg Lemond agreed too in an excellent article in one of last year’s ProCycling magazine articles.

However, training theories aside, there comes the odd day when you really just fancy a long ride on yer bike! Continue reading “MTB Ride: Mary Townley Loop”

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Nick Craig: A Vet, but not done yet

Just browsing through some fell running results and I see that 3 Peaks legend Nick Craig has been posting some of his best ever fell running results this year. This from the supposedly full-time bike rider.

See some of his recent running results here, including second to one of Rob Jebb’s main running rivals Lloyd Taggart a couple of times already this season.

Talking of Rob, most of you may have noticed that the recent birth of his first child – daughter Millie – doesn’t seem to have blunted his sword in any way – with a repeat performance of his 2008 Fred Whitton ride in the Lake District, placing equal first with former national hillclimb champion James Dobbin.

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Jebb’s peaks domination continues

Robb Jebb’s seven three peaks cyclocross victories would be enough for most mortals, but it seems he can’t get enough.

In this year’s three peaks race (the running race, that is), Rob completing the 55th running of the 24 mile course in 2 hours, 54 minutes and 53 seconds, making it four wins in the running race since 2005.

Perhaps more special and notable in this year’s victory, was that Rob became a father on 25th March for the first time. Millie Hannah Jebb was born to Rob and Sharon, meaning that, rathr worryingly, fatherhood seems to have done nothing to dent Rob’s thirst for victory.

Full results from the fell race here.

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Broken left collarbone and 7 lug stitches

Not a very good day on the bike really. It was meant to be a relaxed reintroduction to mountainbike racing after ages off the sport but it turned out to be 20 minutes racing then a trip to Fairfield hospital via Mountain Rescue Land Rover and an ambulance.

Complicated feelings just now and I need to go back tomorrow to find out if the broken collarbone needs to be pinned. Continue reading “Broken left collarbone and 7 lug stitches”

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Cannondale Six Carbon – my lovely new bike

Had the great pleasure of building up my new bike from Wheelbase on Wednesday night. Just waiting for a slighly nicer day than today to take it for a spin… it’s light, as it looks, and I’m sure it’s going to handle as well as it looks. Decided to stay with the compact chainset for now til the big crits start in the mid summer time. I might as well use those generously twiddly gears for the ridiculously hilly Fred Whitton wide in May. It also needs another 2cm ont he stem – it’s a bit shorter than my last frame – but that’s on order. Continue reading “Cannondale Six Carbon – my lovely new bike”

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Some photos from the 1980s

ThreeThree great photos ‘from the archives’ here from Flickr – all from a user called Fleming2009 (I think I should know what the first name is but it’s been on the tip of my tongue for ages!)

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Mark Cavendish wins Milan San Remo!!!

It may not mean that much to any non-cycling people out there, but seing Mark Cavendish win today’s Milan – San Remo has an enormous impact on me. For the first time in my life, I have seen a Brit win a classic cycle race.

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Three interviews in one: Bontrager, Jebb and Gould

Tim Gould’s three-peaks-specific interviews are hard to come by on the web – the era of his doiminance pre-dated the digital age, but this page of interviews from rouleur magazine gives three in one – two dominant winners Gould and Jobb, and a seasoned and respected ‘name’ of cycling Keith Bontrager.

Read the article here.

My favourite quote is from Rob Jebb, whose tale he told at the 2008 Three Peaks podium still makes me giggle…

When I was about 14 I was watching the race at the summit of Ingleborough on my bike, supporting Fergy, when Tim Gould came running towards me with a bent wheel. He noticed I was on my bike and asked for me my wheel. I said no, as I didn’t know how I would have got home with a bent wheel. As Tim ran on he was swearing at me for not having given him the wheel – I didn’t really think anything of this but the marshals on the summit were not impressed that a Peugeot professional swore at a youngster and reported him the organiser, John. John made Tim write a letter of apology, which I’ve kept to this day. In the letter, he said that he hoped the incident would not deter me from riding the Three Peaks in the future!