Fin.

Well, that’s it. The racing season is over for another year, so it’s time for a bit of rest and recuperation. I say it’s time; but with November just two weeks away, planning for winter training is in full swing. However, all’s good at Monkey HQ, and everyone is having some fun making the most of the dry trails and indian summer. we experienced in the past few weeks.

Back home here it’s starting to get a bit chilly, and I think it’s fair to say that winter is approaching. However, with the lack of structured training on hand at the moment, there’s still lots of time for bombing around the woods, as well as starting my bit of running for the year and getting the legs ready for the long runs of the winter.

The forest is amazingly dry at the moment, so evening rides with dying sunlight are the perfect way to end the season; and what a season it’s been. With the best year of racing so far for the team, 2010 looks to be a great year for all of us…but lets not get too bogged down in that yet. There’s still time for some great riding before the conditions take the inevitable dive for the worst…

See you on the trails,

The Monkeys

(and on the iPod this time round : My ‘Winter Running’ iMix..check it out on iTunes!)

Last of the Summer Sun…

It’s that time of year again… summer is coming to an end, but what an eventful one it has been! With limited races, I took to racing around the woods everyday in the holidays, coming back and only having to wipe a thin layer of dust off my bike. The highlight, however, undoubtedly for us all would be our trip to the Pyrenees, staying with our great sponsor Les Sorbiers. Tackling monster climbs and hairy descents by day, and eating the delicious local cuisine by evening, its safe to say we came back with as much power in our legs as was humanely possible…not to mention a few cuts and bruises for good measure. All good things have to come to an end unfortunately, and before we knew it we were back home, cleaning bikes and back into our own training programs.

With just one last British XC round left, effort is still high until the small break that October holds…

Keeping it upright (At home anway!)

Alex

And on the ipod this time…Dizzee Rascal – Maths + English

Sun, Dust and Evening Rides

Had a bit of a busy time lately, and a fun time it’s been too! Last weekend was the BMBS at crow hill, and after loads of rides around Epping, it was fair to say I was as ready as ever for fast singletrack! I was really pleased with my 4th, just slightly missing out on the podium, but I wasn’t too disappointed. A really great weekend in all, and I just managed to keep up with Ben in the marathon (for 2 and a half laps) until I totally ran out of steam (and torq gels!).

Back home I’ve been keeping it fun, doing loads of after school rides that turn into hour long epics, racking up as many miles as I can in the evening sun. With no mud in sight, and seemingly endless singletrack  it’s hard to come home sometimes, especially when you have 6 weeks worth of coursework to catch up on. That reminds me…

See you in the dust!

Alex

(And on the iPod this time: Sigur Rós – Takk)

Single ring chain device… Like Oli B’s…

There was a lot of excitement at Dalby……and not just the sort of excitement reserved for big weekends in remote forest with lots of secluded parking spots on offer!!!!

Oli Beck was riding a single ring set up and he had ridden it at Houffalise the week before. Now this needed some more investigation, when I caught up with him  it was a 36t front chainring running a 11t-34t rear cassette. Also there was  a new prototype chain device from MRP which was adapted from one of their excellent downhill devices. Mmmmmmmm  I thought. If they can do that then it should be pretty easy to do the same thing. A few hours later surfing the likely web sites and I had  found what I thought was the answer. DMR do a very nice and minimalist chain cage that looked like it might do the job and you can’t get much better than a Middleburn chainring. So a couple of clicks later I was waiting for a nice new 36t Middleburn hardcoat ring and a DMR Chain Cage to arrive. Unfortunately it didn’t all arrive until Thursday which meant that we had to fit it that night so that Ben could race in the Friday Night Summer Series the next night at Daventry. Of course it wasn’t that simple…. The mounting brackets did not fit onto the Seat Tube, so some serious re-engineering was required. It wasn’t possible to come up with the final solution that night so Ben and I agreed that he would run an experimental set up on Friday (this meant that there was only one mounting point on the seatstay and it needs two, so we both knew that if it went wrong it would mean the chain throwing off the ring and maybe causing all sorts of problems. I mackled it together as best as possible and we set off for the race looking to gather data for the final engineering solution.

Wow what a night! Not only did the device work but Ben went from the back of the 150 rider field to the front and was running in a battle with Adi Scott for 4th place. The device was working …. with a bit of noise and rattling, Ben and I knew we had to add some spacers here and there to make it work properly and the second mounting point was necessary for strength and stability, but, My God! it was working fine. On the last lap there was a steep, stinging climb to the finish and this is where the lack of ratios might hurt, but, despite dead legs Ben came out of the last corner and began the uphill sprint top the line with Adi trying to pass him. as they neared the line Ben rose out of the saddle and thrust ahead to take the win in the Juniors and 4th place overall. The new device had worked and the next day I bought some bits and pieces, engineered the mounting points to allow two brackets and added washers here and there to give a better chain clearance. The pictures show the final set up and in the bargain Ben has saved over half a pound in weight, most of it from rotating mass. Mission accomplished, now we have to see if it is rideable at Margam????

Ben

P is for Preparation

Just 3 days away from the 3rd national race of the year, and my preparation for the race is in full flow, so I thought I’d give an insight into my race prep. Since it being half term, I’ve been enjoying large amounts of bed-time, mostly getting up at 9, so I can get 10-11 hours sleep. Hydration is key, especially drinking water, and staying away from energy drinks until the big day. About 3 bottles a day is enough, so you need to go for a pee every hour. No rides this week, but lots of short, intense turbo sessions so I don’t feel flat on race day. My top workout in a week before a race is as follows. For each number of days leading up to an event, you do (x) number of 1:30 intervals, with 3:00 recovery in-between. Along with a 15 minute warm up, and 5 minute cool down, a recovery is certain by the next day. So if it is a tuesday and the race is on sunday (five days away), you would do five 1:30 intervals. Make sure you really go at them though. I usually do a maxium of 2 of these a week before a race.

I find that one of the most important things to do pre race is stretching. Preferable once warm (eg after a turbo session), and followed by a hot shower, you can feel like a difference person afterwards. Anyhow, back to resting, which includes quiet forest walks, and then afterwards a nice cup of tea!

On the iPod this time: Royksopp – Junior

Alex

Post Dalby

I thought this would be an excellent excuse to avoid revision, so here goes.

Dalby was a fantastic course, very technical which suits me, however the climbs were a bit short for my liking. I struggled to get to grips with the course over the weekend having not ridden off-road for so long, I properly through my slef in at the deep end.

I got a good start and was towards the front as we hit the singletrack but the lack of riding really showed as I went backwards on the flattish singletrack quite quickly, although I nabbed places back on the climbs. As we hit the second technical descent, Medusa’s drop, my front tyre burped and went down to about 10psi. Its not a problem I have had before with the stans but at least it re sealed on its own. However I made a mistake before the race had even started that cost me about 5 minutes on the first lap.

I’d taped my gas cartridge on far too tight and couldnt get it off. Doh!

Once I got it sorted I was going again but well behind. I kept circulating with the idea of picking off people as they blew up or dropped out.

On the second lap my bottle cage came off which was a pain, but didnt slow me up that much but I didn’t drink any where near enough as a result meaning that come lap 3 I was blowing out the back door.

However I finished in 24th and took 17 ranking points. Not a bad turn out considering the weeks previous.

It was a race for learning lessons, better bike prep on my part was needed as well as actually riding before the event, but I did the best I could do and enjoyed it along the way.

The rest of the team had some excellent results with Alex just missing a podium in a sprint finish. Ben and Nat also just missing the Junior podium in 4th and 5th respectively. Chris and Paul also had strong rides in the Elite race after both suffering form illness in the first round.

Anyway, I have my last exam of the year tomorrow afternoon so I had better do some work. Then I am free to ride as much as I like!

Roll on Margam with its long climbs and 25km enduro lap!

Catch you on the flipside,

Brodie

Keeping it wheels down

As some of you may know I have had a bit of a bad time of things recently.

During March I had 1 bike stolen and 2 big crashes.

During the Coed-Y-Brenin Gold rush enduro event on the 8th of March I fell off the edge of the trail on the single-track climb and ended up down a small ravine. Apparently I had fallen about 4m onto very large rocks, but I’m yet to go back to the scene.

I was put on a spine board and had my left leg splinted by the excellent guys from extreme medics and the air ambulance was called. However I didn’t get to go in the tumbly wumbly as it was very windy so not suitable for someone with spinal injuries. Therefore I faced the long drive back to Aberystwyth on a spine board in the back of an Ambulance still wearing my wet kit.

Once I arrived at the hospital about an hour later I was patched up and sent home with a hair line tibia (shin) fracture and bruising to my back and neck. I was told to go back immediately should any other problems arise regarding my back/neck. Sure enough they did and a few hours later I was back in the hospital having my neck re-examined.

The diagnosis was that I had ligament damage to my C2, C3 and C4 vertebrae. I was given some very strong pain killers and one dose of valium to get me to sleep that night. The valium threw me straight out of my tree; I was bonkers for the rest of the night.

Anyway after a few weeks of taking it easy the neck problems cleared up very well and I was told to start using the leg normally again in 2 weeks and that I should have no problems riding.

After a few rides to test the water I decided the best way in was the deep end so went to Llandegla for the first round of the Welsh XC series on 28th/29th of March.

I went to Llandegla on the 28th to have a ride around Llandegla and get a feel for the place as I hadn’t ridden there before.

About half way round the black route, I binned it.

I was on a very fast flowy descent (the one after the high boardwalk for those that know Llandegla). This descent had lots of braking bumps going into the corners and technical sections so I was picking my lines around the top of them. In several places the trail split either side of a few trees as new lines had developed off the beaten track to avoid the braking bumps. Just with the way the trail flowed and the line I was on I ended up on one of these different lines just feet from the main trail. I just happened to choose the one with a 2 foot deep 2 foot long ditch running across it.

I went over the bars and wacked just about everything. The pain when I first did it was excruciating. I knew I had done something serious.

Again I was carted off in an Ambulance this time to Wrexham hospital where, after a lengthy series of painful manipulations and X-Rays I was told I had dislocated my Acromioclavicular (AC) joint. This is the joint where the end of your collar bone meets the acromion of your shoulder blade. I was given 20 units of Morphine whilst in Wrexham then packed up (along with a cast for a broken wrist) and sent home. No Dragon round 1 for me.

After bouncing between several different hospitals all over the UK for various reasons I ended up back in Aberystwyth to have treatment involving physiotherapy and checkups with the surgeon. It turns out I had quite a serious AC joint injury, however surgery was avoided although I may need it later on but fingers crossed.

I have now been discharged from the orthopaedic clinic and have been told I can race and ride to my heart’s content so I am hoping to be at Dalby forest for the 2nd round of the NPS just to take it easy and enjoy being back on my bike with my fantastic team around me.

I know many people were and still are sceptical as to whether I should have been riding again so soon after the first crash, but I was genuinely ready to ride again, the 2nd crash was totally un related, it wasn’t caused by my previous injuries nor did I injure the same areas again. I was just unlucky.

Anyway that’ll about do for catching up I think, see you at Dalby.

Keep it wheels down,

Brodie

Sunshine at last!

Hi all,

Sorry that we haven’t posted for a while…everyone here has been busy preparing for the new season and as of today, the first national race is just 2 weeks away! Just last weekend we took the trip up to Fort William, Scotland where we did a bit of race practice, and rode the vicious course which was great. Sunday was the individual time trail where we each did alap on the course as a test…hopefully all the hard work will pay off in a few weeks time.

Back home it has been sunny all week so lots of  good training has been done, and the tans have been topped up! Ciao for now!

Slime Surfing

Hi all Alex here with the first post on the orange monkey blog…hopefully it’ll be getting pretty cool soon!

Went riding on sunday in Epping Forest, but it was like an absolute quagmire so we didn’t hang around too long, and we (me + dad) were pretty knackered from our road ride the previous day…

Feeling good so hopefully I’ll be on top form later in the year!

Alex B