Helen Findlay

Happy 2010

2010-10-08T04:57:00.001-07:00

Well, it’s October already and I still haven’t done a blog post this year ! Better fix that (sorry relatives in New Zealand and ladies in America who actually read this !) so here it is, split into nice categories for you:

Motorbike

Bit of a false start on this one, Santa dropped if off on a Wednesday a couple of weeks before Christmas. Took it around the block, yay, it works. Two feet of snow on Thursday which hung around for about three months. Not the best conditions for a novice. Got going again in spring and now take it to work as many days as I can, and have even been all the way up to East Croachy near Inverness on it, via the long way as I am not allowed on motorways. Finding the limits of the bike now, for example the A9 really is not fun with a top speed of 60 mph. OK 70 but it was downhill with a tailwind. Was toying with the Big Bike Licence soon but my Big Bike Fund was demolished by a Big Mechanic Bill for the van so will need to wait for spring again now and save up some cash.

Racing

Retirement from racing is boring, and I am getting fat. Did two races for the Salsa team this year, Sleepless in the Saddle (which we won with about the same script as last year) and Dusk til Dawn in the solos. I came second, which was a huge surprise as I sacked it after 6 hours with fatal bike failure after slogging through a couple of feet of mud all the way around. Nice set of Exposure lights for a prize – thanks v much ! Was leading when I went out for my last lap, but had to come off the course early as had no brakes (not really an issue in the mud) no rear shifter and a chain that functioned in one gear, about 50% of the time. Decided I had tried hard enough. Turns out almost all the rest of the field collapsed before I did. Might see if I can get some weight off over winter and mebbe do some SXC races next year, depends on the courses they put up, not keen to travel for hours for short race on a boring track.

Innerleithen MTB Racing

A cracking year for the events team. The iXS cup in May was a LOT of work, but a huge victory in both reception and execution and we got some great coverage. See www.ixscupinnerleithen.com I have a few things on my list of what I would do better next year, but sadly we won’t get the chance. BC have allocated the date that we need to run the race to the British Series organisers for their C1 event. Most frustrating, as they lied and said they had a venue lined up when they didn’t, and had the chutzpah to put Innerleithen on the form to the UCI, when we are running an event at that weekend so that’s blatantly non-factual. So now there will be no C1 race in Scotland the week before the World Cup at Fort Bill at this rate, as we have missed out on registering the date with UCI and the British Series organisers can’t secure a venue. Nicely done. But at least we will have no competition for our event at Innerleithen on the last weekend of May 2011, press releases soon.

We are running a winter series, the Proper Mountainbike Series, fine tuning the details and sponsorship now, but will involve most of the mountain biking disciplines, with a couple of new formats in the mix. All will be revealed on www.innerleithenmtbracing.com next week sometime.

The kids mini DH race series this year was totally awesome. We put on 3 races for ages 10-16, push-up no uplift, on short tracks. They loved it ! And we had a great time apart from one incident early on involving a helicopter, but that turned out fine in the end.

Work

It’s a big building in Edinburgh.

Other stuff

Big year for Kieren, went to his wedding in May and then down to visit him and Kate and baby Michael last weekend. Here is a picture of Kieren feeding Michael who is wearing the fleece I bought for him in Peebles.

Not been anywhere interesting this year as both my passports are expired. Working on that ! Enjoying hanging around the Borders, thinking about selling the flat in Edinburgh, but no urgency with anything so might just stay where I am in Peebles until I have to leave. Will need a garage though if I buy a fancy motorbike so that may spur some action !

Check my new ride...

2009-12-09T11:25:00.000-08:00

OK obviously that's not me on the bike it's some Italian guy, but my one of these arrives on wednesday. Mid-life crisis anybody ??

Scary Goat Sheep

2009-10-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture from the Peebles A & P show a couple of months back. Fiona and Martin and Nathalie and Alan came to visit and we had a most excellent day looking at the animals, watching the tractors pull the horse floats across the mud and observing the breeding habits of the Young Farmers in the bar. How scary looking is this goat/sheep thing ?? How feeble does that rope tying it up look ??

Sleepless in the Saddle

2009-08-10T02:39:00.000-07:00

The Salsa Ladies were victorious at Sleepless in the Saddle. It would have been difficult not to be, as we were the only Expert team entered ! We decided to do it properly, did all our laps and beat all the Enthusiast Ladies teams, which could have been quite embarrassing if we hadn't. And Anna won the Queen of the Night prize with a stonking 45 min lap at 10pm. Great race, and the boys got second in Expert Men. The course was bang-on, the mud if anything made it more interesting, and the weather stayed sunny. As you can see from the pic, the maximum height requirement still applies on the team, 5ft 2 and under only for us Salsa Ladies. The drive back was a bit challenging, 5 hours up the M6/M74 with no sleep for two days. After 3 double espresso stops was down to 50mph on the Moffat road, so little did I trust my reactions. Good prizes too, some pink Enduro tops, not really my color but will be good for road commuting as you can see them from the Great Wall of China. And ACTUAL CASH !! Woohoo...

As you can see from the picture of George multitasking like a woman, it was bright and sunny and the secret to getting on the podium in the mens is to take any chance of sleep you can get !

Selkirk Merida

2009-08-05T01:18:00.000-07:00

Here I am all smiles, back from what felt like a very long Selkirk Merida 85km on sunday. It was climbier, but also due to aforementioned increasing oldness and fatness, felt a lot harder. Course was great and once I figure out where they all are will ride the best sections again. Might find my computer which fell off at about 40km, so hard on your head when you don't know how far you have to go !

Have had a great time racing this year, Mountain Mayhem was absolutely brilliant, was so nice to be in such a professional set-up with the Salsa Team. Paul and co grabbed the bike off me after every lap, delivered the standard lecture on my poor bike maintenance, and fixed it for me. The bike came back running better than it had started. The team were excellent too, we all worked well together and kept it going, finishing in 3rd on the Expert Ladies podium. So thanks Sara, Anna and Faith a great team. The course was pretty untechnical, but at 4am I was thankful for that.

Managed to get myself on the top step of the podium at Ten Under K'tree, due more to a lack of competition than anything else. That was an interesting race, the course on the face of it seemed dead easy and boring, but by lap 8 I was really toiling over all the rock steps, and taking the new cut stuff faster and faster. Took third at Ten Under The Ben in another tough and hot race.

Have been really busy organising the British XC Champs on 19th July with Steve and Dan, and Rich from Glentrails helping. It went off really well on the day, apart from a stuff-up with the Commentary. Loads of the Scottish kids won medals and we have had heaps of good feedback. (There was some moaning from forum twats, which I decided to ignore, especially when I looked at the results of the biggest moaners who almost all came dead last or sacked it after one lap. None of whom had the decency to approach us directly. And the biggest stirrer was the chap who has tendered for the event 3 years running and can't provide a DH course as well. Agenda anybody ? Most unprofessional). We were very lucky with the weather, the course held up well and all the campers had a great time at Walkerburn Rugby Club. And I have NEVER seen so many spectators at an XC race, barring World Cups, when I finally had five minutes I went and watched the end of the Downhill. So if I haven't thanked you already, THANKS HEAPS to all of you that helped, marshalled, set up the barriers, attempted to make generators work at 7.15am, all those little things. Dougie the Moto X guy seemed to be enjoying himself too, and when I have time I will photoshop a high-vis vest on to him !

I will leave the last words to Liam Killeen, who won the men's race: " In terms of technical courses this has to be up there some of the best World Cup courses like Mt. Snow."

Next up iXS European DH Cup, May 29th next year. I'm off to Germany in 6 weeks to meet with the organisers at iXS at their Bischofmais race.

This weekend it's Sleepless in the Saddle, really hoping the weather forecast contains some actual facts, its big suns all the way to monday at the moment....

Weekend in Welsh Wales

2009-04-07T00:52:00.000-07:00

Just back from a long weekend playing on the trail centres in Welsh Wales with the Thetford MTB Racing crew. Fantastic ! Great company, great riding and really quite exceptional cakes. Diet starts next weekend… We rode Lladegla (bermy and bmxy) Coed Y Brenin (rocky and muddy with added fireroad) and Penmachno (flowy and smooth, with added rocky bits on the last descent). I have been recruited to the Salsa Racing ladies team for some of the endurance events this year, in what is shaping up to be a busy year of racing for me. Retiring next year honest… Definitely only one road race this year, as I have already entered it, and I missed the first Scottish Crit race taking Ramona to the V.E.T. My poor neglected road bike. Here is my race schedule for the year if any tall dark handsome blokes would like to stalk me:

April 19 – Tour of the Meldons roady time trial (feel the burn)
April 26 – SXC Aberfoyle
May 17 – SXC Laggan (if One of the Steves will give me a lift on the Sunday no point reccieing this course)
May 30 – 10 Under The Ben solo (yeah baby !)
June 14 – SXC Fort Bill Scottish Champs
June 20/21 – Mountain Mayhem – Salsa Ladies team
July 12 – 10 Under Kirroughtree solo
July 25/26 – Twenty Four Twelve – Salsa Ladies team
August 1 – Long Big Hard Durty One – Offroad Triathlon in a team with Nathalie (the Frog Woman) and Alan (our Secret Weapon in Flyaway Shorts)
August 2 – Selkirk Merida (if and only if it’s a sunny day I ain’t schlepping my arse about 85km of Borders Hills in the peeing rain)
August 8/9 – Sleepless in the Saddle – Salsa Ladies team
August 22 - 10 Under Moray solo
September 6 – SXC Badaguish (2nd best XC course in Britain IMHO)
September 20 – SXC Drumlanrig
October 12 – Dusk til Dawn solo

Race Report SXC Kirrouggghhttttree

2009-03-31T03:08:00.001-07:00

The course was pish and I got beat, but it was a fun day...

http://www.innerleithenmtbracing.com/

I was riding my new MSC Koncept which was mint, corners faster than I do, but its extensive powers were somewhat wasted sadly.

Swag report - one reasonably tasteful trophy made from old slate tiles, added to the extensive collection in my bathroom. One bottle of lucozade, one lucozade bar, one box lucozade "sports vitamins" made in Belgium I hope, one clif bar and bag of gel shots, one mini-tool from That Other Bike Shop We Don't Name bringing my collection to three, one Scottish Power drink bottle, bringing my collection to five hundred million and one. And a well smart Buff with SXC logo on it so good result there.

I now come away from races with more nutrition products than I arrived with, not complaining like, but really need to eat more during the race !

Roll on SXC Aberfoyle, might even manage to do some training before then...

Off this weekend to Wales with Dawn and Paul that ran the NPS last year and some of their pals can't wait.

Announcing the winner of the fattest lassie to ever stand on a podium competition....

2009-03-07T01:42:00.000-08:00

Here is me at Thetford Winter Series 4.

Glentress Duathlon - if I ever say I want to do a running race again shoot me...

2009-03-02T04:34:00.000-08:00

OK well it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good either !

This was the final and the Long race of the series, I was hoping to make some time on the first bike leg to make up for my rubbish running but it wasn't to be, had a bad start stuck in traffic, then my front mech had a spaz and I only had the top of the big ring or the bottom of the little ring, then awful chainsuck so had to run up half the climbs, got stuck behind mincers on the descents, it was just endless hassle the kind of race where you actually pray for a puncture ! Moving to my efficient changeover - armed with a pair of scissors as I have to use cable ties to attach my mtb shoes just now and scissors to get them off, a tactic that impressed Prasad no end - and away out for the run in a well back by this stage 2nd place.

This is a point for me in a duathlon where all the runner girls start flying past me, but weirdly it didn't happen that way. I slipped, slid, walked, fell over, waddled, took wrong turns and stumbled my way nearly to the end, when 300 metres from the finish a girl came past me, and I had nothing in the tank so dropped to 3rd. Well, almost nothing, looked over my shoulder towards the end and spotted another runner girl, so summoned last wee bit for a "sprint" finish. Some lessons there on nutrition for these kind of races was totally bonked by the end. I finished up with second place in the Seniors, Lesley took the win with a good solid performance that gave her the series win too, well done Lesley ! Prasad also took the win on the day and the series win.

Quality prizes BTW - chocolate and wine !

Overall I guess I would have to say I almost grudgingly enjoyed it - was surprised I didn't lose as much time as usual on the run. Have some weird injuries this morning, I got a tree in the face and have scraped my eye, nasty welt where I stuffed the peg down my running bra (you had to collect a peg to prove you made it to the top of the hill) and terrible blisters on the soles of my feet.

Another great event from the Glentress Duathlon team, but next time can we have a 8 hour bike and a 10 minute run ? Then I will rock in an awesome and stoked fashion.... Have been asked to write an article for the local newspaper in Peebles about it will post when/if it's published.

First race of the year goes well - Thetford Winter Series round 4

2009-02-24T12:13:00.000-08:00

Expectations were low, I got back from Middle Earth less than a week ago and have been seriously toiling with the jet-lag, which is unusual for me. Wide awake at 2am then up for work at 6am, not good and I have not been my usual cheery self. Dawn and I set off for the long drive to Thetford, staying with her friends Tracy and Russell who made us feel very at home and fed us lots, and arrived in Cambridge early evening.

Didn't help that I tried to fix my rear brake myself (Women - know your limits - don't try to fix your bike, stand around looking pretty until a man does it for you) which meant I had no rear brake as the piston popped out taking with it half the fluid. Didn't think it would matter on a flat course so I decided sleep and food were more important than rushing about trying to get it fixed, and I was right never even missed it.

You can read the report on the BC site but I managed to win this race again, had to work a bit harder for it this time. A girl in yellow was determined to stay at the front, so I let her pace it for the first half of the 1st lap. Then my bag of tubes/canisters/tools which had broken fell off so got dropped as it took me a minute or two to fix it. Went really hard and caught her at the start of lap 2, which hurt quite a lot as I have done nothing except steady base miles for about 6 months, still coughing bit of lung up. We had a few tussles, but I was able to get away using the sneaky trick of drafting off some male riders passing us on a fireroad (hoping thats not against the rules ?) and led to the end of the race. Not by much as it turned out, finished 2.37 ahead. Was pleased to come in over the four hour mark, was no way going to do another lap !! Last year I had to lurk at the finish line in case anybody else went out again... Turns out the girl in yellow needed the win points to take the series so that was one sullen podium, but I would be annoyed at being beaten by somebody as old and fat as me (cringing at the photos) so can't really blame them.

I love the races at Thetford they are so friendly, and the flat course and swoopy BMXy singletrack makes a change, it's a lot harder physically there is just no rest, I was almost looking forward to the short slightly climby bits.

It was a long drive back, totally wired and subsequently more sleep deprivation, so taking a days leave from work today to sort out some stuff for upcoming races and de-stress a bit on the black run at GT, I seem to be awfy busy just now, but I guess it is better than bored !

This one is for you Jacquie...

2009-02-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to posting a picture of the prize Jacquie made for me when I won the Scottish Masters XC Champs. A book about her day at the races. I was very touched, and it's one of the best prizes I ever got, certainly the most thoughtful and personal.

Some cute pictures of my sister and nephews

2009-02-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

And one day I will figure out how to use the timer and we will all be in the same picture ! This is Fiona and her two boys Alexandre and Marcel.

It's just like Scotland really

2009-02-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

Except for the fact that it is 7pm, and still sunny and 25 degrees.

Having a great time in New Zealand, this is a picture of lake Rotoiti at Saint Arnaud. I stayed here for one night on my recent 784km circuit of Nelson lakes and the Kaikoura ranges.

Started my tour in Wellington, caught the 8.30 ferry over. The first day was very hard, and nearly put me off the entire enterprise. I didn’t start until after midday, had 90km of hills to get to Nelson, and it was at least 35 degrees. Wasn’t used to riding with the weight of panniers, you have to drop to a low gear and slow right down for the climbs. And I miscalculated water consumption, and how far you can be from a town on New Zealand roads. A black dot on the map with a place name can just mean a dog tied to a letter box. Had to take a bit of a risk about 30km from Nelson and fill my bottles from a stream, but the damage from dehydration was starting already, so just took the risk of nasty giardia bugs. So far so good.

Had a few issues with my saddle too, some minor discomfort, had to keep moving it around and adjusting the height. It was about day 5 before I finally cracked it.

Anyway, apart from these minor problems everything went fine, I had a great time riding through some beautiful places. Got very sunburned, met some nice people and consumed some high quality coffee and cakes. New Zealanders are so friendly, every time I sat down in a café with my bike somebody would be over to ask where I was from, what I was doing. Stayed in Blenheim with Viv and Les, some friends of Mother and Winton who were just lovely and made me very welcome.

Did a circuit of 784km in 9 days with one day off, so averaging nearly 100km per day. Nelson – Saint Arnaud – Murchison – Springs Junction – Hanmer Springs – Kaikoura – Blenheim – Picton. The longest day was 139km over the Inland Road to Kaikoura from Hanmer, very hilly, the road kept dipping down from the plateau to cross over the river, then back up again. Absolutely stunning and worth the strained hamstring by the end of that day !

Met up with my friend Kim in Kaikoura who is over for her bro’s wedding and the Coast to Coast. Went out dolphin watching which was amazing. The dusky dolphins were all around the boat, surfing under the bows and jumping up out of the water. I wasn’t quite brave enough to don the wetsuit with Kim and swim with them, thinking (rightly) that I would be sick as a dog the whole trip (and I was) but again it was worth it !

My bike died on the last climb of the day. The front shifter refuses to work. Meant I had to coast down the ferry, but could have been a disaster if it had happened a day earlier.

Having a nice relaxing week this week, caught up with Jo and her two boys, Adrienne and Mike and their two boys and Stephanie and Paul. Always brilliant to see everybody and I wish I had some more time in Wellington. Was trying to talk Adrienne and Stephanie into meeting somewhere in the middle for our birthday this year. Mexico ??

Off to Te Papa just now to meet with my kiwi equivalent and do a bit of research.

Back in Scotland at the weekend !

32,000 lbs of thrust

2008-09-15T02:21:00.001-07:00

Apologies for the cheesy pic. This is me and my friend Kieren at the RAF Leuchers airshow. Kieren used to fly Tornados, so we had to have the compulsory picture in front of his old ride.

Has been a busy year this year as usual. Moved to Peebles a couple of months ago, am renting a room off my friend Steve. Am liking it, the commute isn’t the best (22 miles) have been riding my bike in to Edinburgh as much as possible, but that is the price you pay for being able to look out the window of the house and see trees, not to mention being able to ride straight to the trails. Have started doing hill-running, planning on spending a lot of time running over winter. Ramona loves it too, spends lots of time in back yard wars with the other cats.

Went out to Pra Loup in the French alps for the World Masters champs for a week at the end of August. Was awesome, warm and sunny all week and heaps to do. The race was way hard and considerably above my level, I was well out-classed and worried about getting cut with the 80% rule but made it around and finished in 12th. My mate Paul did a brilliant race and picked up a silver medal in the DH 40+ cat, and Greig finished 24th out of about 80 riders in the XC 30+. I have to say, if I go to this event next year will not bother resting up for the race, there are loads of good trails to ride and mountains to climb out there, and I don’t think I would get any more or less humped in the race for it. My wee apartment was ace too, just perfect for one midget with all the mod cons, but in midget size, tiny little dishwasher etc.

Have been involving myself in more race organising, me and roommate Steve have been running an XC time trial one evening a month, see the reports here. http://innersmtbracing.blogspot.com/

Organising the SXC round at Glentress next weekend with Andy from the Forestry doing the course and the marshalls. Has been a lot of work, there is a lot more expected of a Class 2 UCI event. Tearing my hair out this week trying to find 100 metres of barriers, on a budget of £zero. Fun. I do enjoy it though, combines my two main hobbies, mountainbiking and bossiness/organising/rules/paperwork. Have been approached about putting on the British XC Nationals next year now that would keep me busy....

I'm not in it for the prizes

2008-06-23T10:08:00.001-07:00

Which is lucky, because this is what I won for winning the Scottish Masters Champ title. Although I have to say, I am most impressed at John The Fish from the SXC negotiating such a good deal with the Liberace House of Crap !!!!!

Me and Jacquie P

2008-06-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of me with Jacquie Phelan, Legend of Mountainbiking and my roommate for the last few weeks. We were at the premiere of a movie called Hardihood at the Edinburgh Bike Film Festival, about a week in the life of some pro Downhill racers in the USA. Great film ! Jacquie was in it so she introduced it and did a talk about it afterwards. It all got a bit political v quickly, highjacked by some folk who want to ban mountainbiking cos people drive to Trail Centres. Better than sitting in the pub watching boring soccer matches and drinking beer I reckon, which is prolly the other option for the Trail Centre Punters.

Victory Under the Ben

2008-06-02T05:50:00.000-07:00

I have absolutely never wondered what it would be like to ride my mountainbike for 10 hours. Have had a few problems recently, what with my forks dying and my hand being totally spack have been toiling a bit in races. Managed to scrape a win in the Masters at Fryrish but was riding like a bag of spuds on the descents. Got Steve to sort out my forks, and adapted my right hand grip (Ergon grip on backwards) and the situation is much improved. Apart from all the people coming up to me and going "you've got that on backwards" that is.

So didn't enter 10 Under the Ben with a lot of confidence. Wasn't sure my hand would hold out for that long. Not sure how to pace it, so looked at last years results, the female winner did 7 laps, figured I needed to do 8. Budgeted myself 1hr15 mins per lap, filled a box with many many many bottles of drink, abandoned it in the pit area and away I went. Oh yeah and set my HRM to beep if I went over 80% of max. Death or glory and all that.

All went very well. Got stuck in loads of traffic at the start, but as the race went on I clawed that back and settled in. Actually got faster towards the end, as a result of a) increased confidence on the descents as I got back in practice and used to using my right hand more b) 2 cans of Relentless at the start of 7th lap c) less traffic. The heat prolly went in my favor as well.

Had no idea how I was getting on, Peter from Finishline was doing timing and kept saying "you are going well" every time I came by but I never managed to hear where I was. Few events of note on the way around. Realised I was seriously hungry on lap 5, shoved way too much food down, threw up a bit, swallowed it back down, needed the calories !!

Turns out I was well ahead. 8 laps in 10.06. The nearest woman was 7 laps in 9.37. I would have got 22nd overall. I think that is called releasing the furry AND crushing the souls of the weak beneath my wheels.... Fiona D did well too, taking 3rd place, we are shaking hands in the picture.

Pure knackered this week, so have taken a week off the bike, will start training properly soon for the World Masters in Pra Loup in august. Has been weird, and even more oddly my hand has been really sore and I have lost some movement in the joints, can't close it or grip well at all, so obviously biking is good for it.

Heading down to Inners tomorrow night to map the course for the TT series, have set up a wee website for that http://innersmtbracing.blogspot.com/

This weekend was the World Cup at Fort Bill, will post on that soon Fi has sent me some ace pics.

-----------------

I won !! I won !! I won !!

Full report later, but Jacquie has asked me to say that she predicted my victory...

Highlight: caning it on the last two laps after 2 cans of Relentless. Lowlight: swallowing my own vom on lap 5. Archie would have been proud of me.

Some advice on Attire for Lady Cyclists

2008-05-30T00:28:00.000-07:00

Helping to pack up the Cellars at the moment, and found a bound volume of the first year of "Cycling" which is absolutely brilliant, and shows how much has changed, while at the same time how much has stayed the same.

I have reproduced a letter from a lady reader below. And in other news, I have a legend of Mountainbiking staying with me at the moment, Jacquie Phelan of the famous WOMBATS group is in Edinburgh visiting, doing some cycling training and playing her banjo. It is nice to have the company !

Off to Fort William this weekend (trip number one) for 10 Under the Ben, a 10 hour mountain bike endurance race. The weather forecast is looking scorchio I can't wait. Full report on monday.

Dress for Lady Cyclists – Cycling – 23rd May 1891

Another Fair Rider addresses us on the subject.

"Sir – I am sure such an attractive paper as Cycling (Flatterer ! Ed) must have a large number of lady readers, therefore I would ask you to kindly allow me to give them a bit of my experience in support of the letter from RT on “Dress for Lady Cyclers”.

Early in my cycling career, (three years ago) I was in the habit of wearing my ordinary walking dress when riding, but one unlucky day the trimming of my dress caught the pedal and became locked in with the toe-clip attached to same, and before the machine could be stopped my foot was forced under and crippled for six weeks, therefore I was prevented from riding for some months after. My experience teaches me that ladies should wear a plain short skirt of heavy material, as little drapery as possible and not to reach lower than the ankles, a loose bodice and on no account indulge in tight lacing. A small hat and neat shoe, of course.

Few ladies have a really graceful position on their machine; a long reach is the greatest fault, thus causing that ugly side to side motion called “pumping”. Let the pedals be at an easy distance, the peak of the sadlle four inches behind crank-axle, the handles low but within easy reach, and the lady cycler would soon find the advantage."

Border Raiding

2008-03-07T04:55:00.000-08:00

Here is a pic of me at the Marin Winter Enduro, round 4, at Thetford down in England. Not quite sure how it happened, but I managed to win the women's 4 hour event in spite of a 7 hour drive each way. Must have been all that climbing in the Sierra Espuna at the end of January... and of course the traditional pre-race week cake loading. Also not quite sure how such a flattering pic happened, I swear I wasn't stopping to check my make-up each lap, must be a trick of the light.

Dabbled in a road race last weekend - it was pish, crashed on the first lap hurt my hand and lost a fair bit of skin, very frustrating.

Its the XC Time Trial on sunday, in memory of my friend Alistair Lees who died last year. Has been taking up a lot of my time to organise, but we have 86 pre-entries and will close the field at 100 on sunday morning, so I think you can call that a success !!

Everyone has been great, we have loads of volunteers and John at the Bicycle Works gave us loads of great prizes, as did the Downhillracer.com DVD guys Mark and Stevie.

Now to stay on the bike for two whole laps....

Spot the Elephant in this picture

2007-11-05T04:36:00.000-08:00

Blogging – only really any use if you do lots of exciting things ! So for those of you around the world who have been wondering what I have been up to, here is the last 6 months in 500 words or less.

It all started at and finished for me at SXC Dalbeattie race in April. Came off attempting to pass a guy in the Vets on a gravely uphill corner. Landed quite heavily, noticed my little finger on my right hand was sticking out a bit funny, put it back. Kept going, Lesley had got in front of me when I dropped my bottle earlier and I wasn’t having that. Went fine until I hit the next technical descent, when I realised I couldn’t hold the brakes or the front of the bike for that matter and it was kind of hurting.

Stopped at the First Aid station and got taken off the hill in a 4X4. Cathy Mordaunt drove my to the hospital as Hazel wanted to stay for her podium. X-rays confirmed a spiral fracture to the 4th metacarpal. Sent home to Edinburgh and summoned to the ERI on Thursday for surgery to insert pins. Woke up after the op in a haze of painkillers, Fiona R came and took me home. The next morning was hell, felt like somebody had knocked me out and hammered nails through my hand. Large amounts of pain. By mid-afternoon I had taken 3 days worth of strong codeine tablets, so downed a bottle of red wine and slept it all off. 3 weeks later the butchers at the ERI pulled the pins out with a pair of pliers and no pain-killers, I’d have punched the guy if I had a good hand. At one point he felt like he wasn’t getting enough leverage, and left the room to get an even bigger pair of pliers, somewhat like those things they use for cutting people out of cars. And he kept calling me “Mrs Findlay” ggrrrrrrr.

Recovery has been a nuisance, the main effect of the operation was to create large amounts of scar tissue in my knuckles, that no amount of physio has shifted, so I can’t close my hand or grip properly. 8 months on and I can ride a mountain-bike again, but my hand tires and starts getting bumped off the bars after a couple of hours. And I’m very fat as I haven’t been training properly. But onwards and upwards, have entered for the World Masters Champs in France august 2008, should be able to ride a bike properly by then ! Planning on doing loads of running over winter.

Mother and Winton came over for a couple of months in August, and it was brilliant to have them here. Christine gave me a job as a library assistant at RMJMs 3 half days a week, so I had plenty of time to spend with M & W and still a bit of money coming in. I was lucky enough to be looking after a flat down in Leith as my friend Bill was still away in India. Moved back into my own flat at the start of September. Its good to be back in my own home again. Bought a new fridge-freezer and cooker, and planning to re-do the kitchen over winter.

Whilst M & W were here I was interviewed for a role similar to the one I had back at the Museum of Scotland a couple of years ago, just before I started my adventure in Europe and this blog. Was lucky enough to be offered the job, have been here about 6 weeks and I think its going to be great. Working full-time again has been a big shock to the system mind !! There is a lot of change at the Museum just now, we will be closing the Royal Museum for renovations next year, so there are challenges ahead. Not least of which is how to pack an elephant for removal, and I think they made a fine job.

Spent an awesome week up in Fort Bill for the World Mountainbike champs early september, doing some hill walking and road rides, and watching the proper athletes in action. My next adventure will be a return to my old haunts in El Berro in Murcia for two weeks offroad training camp end of January.

Right, that was the fun stuff, now on to the sad news section. My friend Alistair Lees died on Friday 2nd November of cancer. He was 43. Still doesn’t seem real. We will miss lots of things about him, but I loved his honesty and sense of humour. Will never forget coming back in the van from a race, I changed the CD and Al says “see next time you are out shopping for CDs – try not to spend so much time in the pish section !” Even funnier if you knew Alistair’s taste in music !!

New product lines at Wiggle

2007-04-12T05:24:00.000-07:00

Part of the "women specific" range no doubt.

Just a quick wee update. Got back to Scotland mid march and really not coping. The trip back with Petra was great fun we had a brilliant time. Arrived back to snow and rain and not really settling in too well. Have my PC and broadband internet set up now at Bill's flat so feel a bit more in touch with the world.

Been spending quite a lot of time sorting stuff out, selling bikes etc. Helping Neil organise the SXC practice race for the World Champs up at Fort Bill. Putting together the mountainbike event for the Edinburgh/Glasgow Corporate Decathlon for Bike Knowledge. So not wasting my time totally !!! Looking for a part-time job a couple of days a week but procrastinating a bit there it has to be said.

Did the first SXC race up at Laggan, well, started it. Wasn't feeling great, haven't done much proper training recently shouldn't have bothered. And in the words of Aussie Downhiller Nathan Rennie. "I was ridng like a girl. Got my skirt caught in my chain a couple of times and that was my race over". Paul (Scottish Cycling's new Regional Coaching Cordinator) has agreed to coach me on the proviso that I do everything he says. Those of you that know me well will see the possible flaw in that plan !

Mother phoned this morning, her her and Winton will be in Edinburgh for 3 weeks from 6th August. Yippee I can't wait !! Will be awesome.

Steve, Andreas, Paul, Ali and some piggies..

2007-03-01T02:04:00.000-08:00

I will leave you to figure out who is who...

I learned a new Spanish word today. “Pitufa” - it means “Smurf”. Very useful. There is a funny line in the film Slackers along the lines that Smurfs are blue to prepare the world for the coming of Khrishna, who is blue. Turns out that Pitufa who came along riding today is neither blue nor a Hindi deity, and is in fact called Juan-Antonio and works in Bar Fuente Lillo. I liked him, he said I must be “duro” to ride down the trails without shin and elbow guards, which makes a change from the usual “fuerte” or “loco”. Wishing I knew the Spanish for “I’m so duro I eat quiche in front of truckies”, but I doubt it would translate.

Been a few weeks since my last blog, has been busy busy busy. Paul and Ali came out for a week and just went mad for biking in the Espuna. They were up there every day (I took a couple off) and had a great time. On the last day we did shuttle runs with the two vans, which was fun, but I reckon with all the phaff of getting bikes in and out, driving up the hill etc I could have ridden up just as quick. So I’m not a convert to shuttle runs, and you miss half the ride if you don’t climb. I’m sorry but its just WRONG. And bad for the environment.

We had a great week, got to see goats, wild pigs, had menu del dia at the Perdiz, went into Murcia for a meal one night, and Paul and Ali even got a small bit of sun on their uber shiny white bodies.

Fiona W came out the week following, and we hit a more leisurely pace, riding most days, doing some road rides and checking out some unfamiliar trails at Callblanque, which was an awesome spot right down onto the beach, but we got a teeny bit lost, er more than once. Fiona was really lucky with the weather, blazing sunshine every day ! The new slimline Fiona is much quicker on the bike and I think the Masters lassies at SXC will be seeing a new face on the podium this year….

Spent a couple of days cleaning and tidying and lining up everything in my house at right angles, then went away down to the Sierra Nevada to meet Julie C and Renell, who were on a weeks guided holiday with Switchbacks in Bubion. Great trails, rocky, steep and cornery. A bit above my skill level, but by the end of the two days I had the hang of keeping my speed up and weight back, and was making a much better job of it all, diving down all sorts of terrifying rocky bits. As everyone else was well tooled up with Turner 5 Spots, Rocky Mountain Slayers and Orange 5s I reckon I did no bad on my wee hardtail. It’s the only bike I have that works at the moment, so I didn’t have any other option. I kicked them all on the climbs !

Tobi, the pervy Swede (ah the Swedes and their sexual liberation) took loads of biking pics in the Sierra Nevada so I will try and get some of the better ones, where my arse doesn’t look fat, on the blog.

Only 10 days to go now in Camposol (where the sun always shines) and I will be sad to leave. Everyone has been so nice to me, have met plenty of folk to go biking with, and its hard to feel anything but cheery when its so relentlessly sunny. If my family, all my friends and my cat moved out here it would be perfect. Gorgeous day today and brilliant riding with Steve, Toni and Juan-Antonio-Pitufa.

Petra is flying out on Monday 5th march and is coming back with me in the van. My itinerarerarery:

11th Camposol - Burgos
12th Look around Burgos, sneak in a bike ride if I’m allowed - Santander Ferry
13th Plymouth - Exeter to drop off fags and booze - Salisbury for the night
14th Salisbury - Epsom sneak in another bike ride with Kieren hopefully then see Janine and Jeremy that night, Chris McM too.
15th Epsom - Boness - Edinburgh

That’s the rough plan, Petra hasn’t approved it yet so there may be some changes.

Will be switching my Orange mobile on again tonight, so I will be reachable on that. But don’t expect long calls or even answers to txts unless its urgent. Not at 70p a go anyways. Nothing personal.

The racing season is well underway out here, a big pro road race went through the Espuna on Sunday, and the Moto Cross Spanish Nationals Champs are on this weekend. Might go and have a look if I can figure out where it is, and find somewhere to lock my bike.

Hasta Luego.

Call me Ishmael

2007-01-15T01:25:00.001-08:00

Am sitting outside in a vest top and jeans, due to the unseasonally (even for here) warm weather at the moment. Just spent a nice relaxing morning cleaning my bike. I don’t know much Spanish but I do know when I am being spoken about, my bike was the subject of some discussion among the Spanish Saturday mountain-bikers yesterday. After about the millionth comment about how “Loco” I am to run such ungrippy tires on my bike, and my failure to learn the Spanish for “I ride this bike on the road and don’t want to wear out the other tires I have that cost £70” have caved and put decent tires on, will just have to resign myself to changing them, and to increased speed and confidence on the descents. And cleaned the bike for the first time in months. Mud being such a rarity it didn’t seem worth it before.

I must be part of the crew now, Andreas gave me one of the tops they have had made with the campsite logo on the front and Orange (Steve’s bike company) on the back. Its black, fits perfect and I am made up with it.

But anyways on with the blog. Christmas was ace, went out with Petra and Drew to a restaurant in El Pareton. Good food, good company and far too much drink. Repeated same plan for New Years Eve but without so much drink. Not sure if it is because I am getting fitter, or because I am getting older, but hangovers hurt much much more these days. Spent the time over the festive period hanging out with Petra, doing a bit of hiking etc and looking around the shops. Boots are dead cheap here, I bought a gorgeous black kind of cowboy kind of gothy snakeskin mid calf pair for 50 euros. Sales started 7th Jan but I am controlling myself, although might pop up to the Condomina Nuevo tomorrow, (sadly not a giant condom shop) I actually need some clothes honest.

The festive season drags out until 3 Kings Day here on 6th January, when most of the towns stage a re-enactment of the visiting of the Kings, Baby Jesus, camels, everything. I went out on my bike…. I am kind of wishing I had gone along to see the show it sounded fun. See Petra’s blog for more info and pics (link)

Was loading the mountain bike in the back of the van up at the town centre on Monday, and this English guy comes up to me and asks if I have a road bike. His name is Martin and he races for one of the local clubs. On Tuesday mornings he rides with a group of the local pro roadies, and would I like to come along ? That was a very definite yes, have been wanting to hook up with some road groups for some fast blast type training that is hard to do on your own. We set out from Camposol 10am the next morning to meet the group coming down from Murcia at 11am in a café in Librilla. Turns out the current world number 1, Alejandro Valverde is a local pro roadie !!!! I am not sure he was actually in the group that day, there were 20-30 of them, many in the Illes Baleares team kit and looking very flash. Lots of fancy mobile phones and diamond earrings glinting in the sun. I thought it would be quite fast and I would die, but I was fine, they must have been having a slow day, didn’t think I was working that hard. Although my HRM told me different when I got home, must have been the excitement of all those nice legs.

Had some work this week in the mail room wed-fri, it was good to get some money coming in, but bad timing as I missed the chance to go down to the Sierra Nevada for the day and ride with Julie C. But decided to be sensible, I have a shiny new hardtail frame to pay for…..

Took Petra to the airport on Wednesday, it has been nice having her out here and I will miss her. Bit of a dry spell for visitors now until Paul and Ali at the start of Feb, and Fiona W the week after. Petra has said she might come over the first week of march, then come back with me in the van, which would be awesome.

So if anybody wants to visit, my spare room is empty for the next three weeks…… Its about 15-20 degrees during the day at the moment, was 29 in Torrevieja one day last week, and I don’t remember it raining since November. Can’t promise that will last mind.

Made two New Year resolutions 1. read Moby Dick before I go back to Scotland. 2. do stretching routine at least 4 times a week. Both so far on track. Moby Dick has 135 chapters, so 2 at night before I go to sleep (about 9pm - seem to need about 10 hours every night, or maybe its because I can have 10 hours every night) and that one will be ticked off. The stretching routine feels good too, I am sure it is helping.

And my annual predictions for celebrities that will die this year: Margaret Thatcher, Willie Nelson (both natural causes) and Michael Jackson (bizarre suicide).

Happy New Year to all, if I feel like I do today all 2007 its going to be an awesome year !!!! And Alejandro sends hugs……

Feliz Navidad

2006-12-20T10:47:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Santa Cactus !!

Love from Helen

2006-12-12T04:56:00.000-08:00

Just had brilliant weekend up in the Espuna, 30 odd guys from an mtb club in Cordoba were staying in the campsite for the long weekend so came out on Saturday. They were really good riders and some of them even spoke English, was a good laugh, and I set my stall out early by kicking them all on the first climb so they were impressed. Not sure if that means that I am fit or they aren’t.
Sunday we went hiking up in the higher peaks which was superb, lovely clear day and some quite technical scrambling. Not so much English spoken in that group but was fun anyway, and saves me the bother of polite conversation !! But it was lucky I have some experience of that, with the language barrier you don’t really know what to expect sometimes. All I really got was that we would be out for four hours and there would be an opportunity for beer at the end. Took plenty food water and clothes and needed all of it.
Petra arrived last night, so will be over there tonight to look at all her pictures from the trek in Nepal. She bought the bad weather with her, the temperature really dropped yesterday I actually needed longs, a roubaix and a buff out on the bike. Its raining today so will take it easy.

The picture at the start of this is from the top of the climb on Sunday’s trek, and I think the guy in the picture is called Pedro. The Cordoba mtb club had “Agamo y Lomo” on their shirts which I think is something about sheep ?? Not sure, anyway have invited them all over to Scotland next year, traded email addresses with some of the English speakers, they sounded quite keen.

Lets call the whole thing off

2006-12-05T02:15:00.000-08:00

It’s December and the start of Produce Dumping and Festival season in the local area. I found this tomato dump at the farm next to Camposol, they have tried to be discrete and tucked it between two wee hills and a big pile of firewood, but I was running along the tops and spotted it from above. I saved as many as I could but was too late for most of these tomatoes. If anybody has a good recipe for tomato sauce that can be frozen email it to me ! I’m told that local farming isn’t really viable any more, which is why the economy is now based around building houses for British people, and selling them stuff. Without getting into local politics even that has been done a bit half-arsed, the Urbanizacion that I am living in has not been adopted by the local council, and the Mayor of Mazarron, the nearest big town, has said quite frankly that it won’t be.

Wednesday and Friday this week are public holidays, and the parade/festival starts down at Puerta Mazarron tonight I’m heading down later on. Am now booked in for social events for dinner on Christmas day, a dance on New Years Eve and a Gourmet night on Three Kings Day, 6th January. Better get loads of training done to work it all off. Need to try and remember what day it is too.

Have settled into a routine out here, road rides, running, eating, exercises, reading my books, doing the Guardian crossword, and lots of sleeping. Saturday is mountain-biking day up in the Espuna, which is always good fun and I always come back covered in bruises and scrapes. Usually a mix of English and Spanish speakers, and never quite sure what you will get to eat if we have a café stop. On Saturday something came out that I am told was “Pigs Face” but they might have been winding me up. Last week we had a celebrity guest, the brother of the man who runs Polaris World, one of the really big companies that build houses out here, and are building a new ghetto on the road to Alhama. Should have got his brother’s address and had a few truckloads of tomatoes delivered to him.

The only other event of note around here is that my new proper offroad running trainers arrived. I am very excited about this, I love my new trainers, they are gorgeous and they fit perfectly in fact frack it here’s a picture:

Toledo and the Museo del Prado

2006-11-27T01:29:00.000-08:00

Uneventful drive up to Toledo (didn’t even have to cross-dress to get permission*) some might even say boring. Found the campsite fairly easy using a tactic of driving around the outskirts of the city until I encountered some helpful signs. I have to say though, its no fun trying to navigate with nobody to take it out on if you make a wrong turn.

Headed out on the road bike for a couple of hours to get the lay of the land. Flat, with a vicious and freezing wind. Took me 90 minutes to get to Pueblos de Montalban and about 30 minutes to get back. Don’t imagine it would be much fun being a roadie around here.

Next task - getting the tent up. But first a small cycling tour of the Ferreterias of Toledo, as I had managed not to pack the ten-pegs. Oh how I laughed. Oh how the woman in the campsite shop laughed, then helpfully wrote down the right words for me and marked some shops on the map. I got 4 pegs each in 3 different shops, there seems to be some kind of conspiracy to keep stock levels low. Was good move anyway, campsites in Spain are stony and hard, the pegs I had were a bit insubstantial for the job. The over-engineered steel things I have now would keep the Space Shuttle pegged down.

Toledo is a well cool place, like way medieval. A bit like Venice in the layout, lots of small confusing streets, with a Moorish influence to a lot of the architecture and design. Not as touristy as Venice thankfully, and well populated with people who actually live there. Spent a day walking around, and walked home along the circular route on the other side of the gorge/river, to get the classic Toledo view as featured in the works of El Greco.

Also like Venice, a lot of Toledo was closed for winter, but got to see the El Grecos as they had moved the highlights to another museum during repairs to the building. Quick buzz around the Sephardic museum then across town again for the Alcazar, which I think means Castle. This was also closed for repairs which I was disappointed about as it was occupied by the Nationalists or the Republicans or the Fascists (how many sides were there in the Spanish Civil War ?) in 1936, in a siege that lasted for two months and to quote the Rough Guide “ they barricaded themselves in with a large group that included 600 women and children and up to 100 left-wing hostages. The latter were never seen again” in other words they ate them. I wanted to see the museum set up by Franco (Fascist ruler of Spain until the mid 1970s) with all the propaganda as it sounded dead interesting but was closed for winter boohoo.

Thursday was a quick trip to Madrid and back. Only took 30 minutes on the fast train, very fast indeed. Good solid 6 hours in the Museo Del Prado checking out (in no particular order - OK that’s a lie in a sequence dictated by the guide book, I mean in no order of preference) the Fra Angelico, Van Eycks, Van Dycks, Boshes, Brughels, Durers, Titians, Rembrandts, Rubens, Cranachs, El Grecos, Velazquez, a couple of Botticellis, even a Gainsborough and of course the endless Goyas. Good old Philip II, his occupation of the best bits of Europe during the Renaissance, and his good taste in art. And the fact that Spain hasn’t been invaded and looted since the 11th century and didn’t have a Protestant Reformation (the Inquisition quite sensibly burned people and not paintings). Fantastic museum, love it, although if I was being critical I would say that there are far too many Goyas, every time the man sneezed it was stuck in a frame and hung up, and they could make more of the Tintorettos which they don’t seem to rate, but these are minor quibbles.

Not quite sure why I like religious art so much, was raised an Atheist by my dad (a Protestant Atheist I realised when I moved to Scotland) will have a think about that one.

Did a bit of shopping then, need some new trainers for running, but could only find the kind of shops that sell sports gear to people that don’t actually do any sport, ever. Got pretty close in a massive department store, they had some Salomons with pictures of people running off-road on the tags but not my size. Only thing for it then was to retire to a bar and drink some wine, in the style of the Madrilenos.

Next day got up at the first crack of 10am (its tiring walking about art galleries all day) went for a run on the walking path alongside the river Tajo, then headed for home.

I have a question that I have been pondering. People often approach me, and not just in Camposol, and start speaking English before I have said a word. This happened in the queue at the Prado, Spanish guy started chatting to me in English straight away. I asked him how he knew and he laughed, then got held up at the x-ray machine and bag search so I never got an answer. I have decided it must be a process of elimination. I have blue eyes and am not dark enough to be Spanish or stylish enough to be Italian. My clothes don’t reek of the 80s so I’m clearly not German, and my attitude isn’t pah ! enough to be French. I’m 5 nothing tall so you can rule out Holland or any of the Skando countries. In terms of people that come to Spain in large numbers that only leaves the Belgians. And as every Belgian I have ever met speaks English I think that must be what it is, they think I am Belgian, which makes English a good bet. Its obvious really….

That’s enough from me, this is getting too long as usual. Have decided I will come back to the UK on the Santander-Plymouth ferry on the first sailing in spring 12th March. If I book now it isn’t that expensive, and will end up cheaper than the cost of diesel, hotels/camping and road tolls to get across France, and takes 24 hours many of which I can spend sleeping. Having driven all the way once with company I don’t fancy doing it alone, and its an excuse to head up to the Basque country for a few days. Sounds like a good plan to me. Maybe I’ll try and talk Martyn Salt into putting on the first NPS race in Plymouth in 2007, save me a trip later in the year. (As if.)

Hasta luego !

(* you will only get that reference if you watched MASH, an American comedy from the 70s and 80s. It isn’t very funny but I felt obliged to work it in somewhere.)

I´m on the road again...

2006-11-20T06:12:00.000-08:00

Decided to take a wee side trip up to Madrid and Toledo for the next few days. 4 reasons for this:

1. Might be starting work in the mailsort at the start of December.

2. Petra arrives on 10th December so want to get it done before then.

3. Weather looks OK for camping this week.

4. Had a fall-out with James yesterday, and he left on his bike in a huff early this morning and wouldn´t speak to me. On the plus side I guess it is one way of avoiding dealing with emotional goodbyes, but it still hurt.

I’m quite upset by all this, the kind of upset usually only fixable with 2 bottles of red wine, 20 malboro lights and a French rugby team. Sadly these items are no longer available to me, so a day in the Prado, easily the best art gallery in western Europe, should do the trick !

Good ride today, did some road climbs in the Espuna. A combination of being really pissed off and having a local roadie guy trying to chase me up the climb (ha - he won’t try that again) led to me putting over 4 minutes into my previous best time for the climb, 17.5 k of ascent up to 1300 metres or so.

Will sort some stuff out monday, including hopefully a Spanish mobile phone, and leave dead early on Tuesday for Camping El Greco in Toledo . With a name like that its clearly not to be passed by on this mission. Back Friday as I have an arrangement to meet the local guys up at El Berro on Saturday for some offroading. Had to avoid El Berro today, there are 6 stray kittens living in a dumpster in the car-park at the campsite. Have been told that as soon as the man who deals with such things get back from his holiday he will drown them. So want to give them some food, but that would just be delaying the inevitable. Can’t come back from Spain with 6 more cats !!

The house on the end of my street was broken into on sunday, which is a bit of a worry as the neighbours across from me and next door are heading away for a few days and we are all going at the same time so thats the whole street empty. So I guess both bikes and the laptop will be getting a trip to Madrid.

Cheerier blog next time (gentle readers) I promise….

Sierra Espuna and my villa

2006-11-15T05:42:00.000-08:00

Can’t believe its just over three weeks since my last entry, time passes quickly over here !

Went out with Helen and Ellen and Betty to a Halloween dance on the 30th, was a good laugh. There was a comedian, a girl band and an Abba tribute band. We were sitting right at the front, and I was the youngest person there, so came in for some stick from the comedian but it was all good humoured.

Found James at the airport OK the next day, took him out for an easy spin up over the hills to the guns at Puerta Mazarron on the Wednesday. Lucky that we went out, as it then rained for about a week. Well, not all week but it felt like it. I think that was the years rain all at once, all the ramblas were full and towns were flooded, a rare event around here.

Have been along to the mailsort and collection to get some training, sounds like I will have as much work as I can manage over Christmas, which goes until 3 Kings’ Day on 6th January in Spain. Petra comes over on the 10th December (yippee !) and is staying at Helen’s right through until after New Year.

Rain stopped on Sunday and we met up with Mark from Downhillracer the guys from Glasgow who film the downhill races in the UK. Did a route known as the 1000 bends up the way (it took a while) and “Salvaje” down the way, which means either “savage” or “wild” we aren’t quite sure but it was a long hard technical route. I only crashed once which was getting off pretty lightly really. Or getting off pretty heavily if you want t look at it that way.

Mark gave us a copy of their latest DVD which is awesome (stoked) and the book that goes with it, so that was a few evenings entertainment. I’m in it actually, there is an interview with Ruriadh Cunningham at the NPS race at Inners and you can see me and Paul walking by in the background. It covers the Scottish SDA races, some British NPS races and of course the World Cup up at Fort Bill. Superb DVD, good mix of riding and

Not much happening the rest of the week, but had brilliant weekend mountain biking in the Sierra Espuna. Finally managed to meet up with Mark, Stevie and Daniel on the Saturday. Friday was a bit of a failed attempt stymied by a car rally of all things. Anyways we started on Saturday with 8 riders, 3 as above, me, James, a guy called Steve who owns Orange bikes and lives out here with his family, and Andreas and Simon two Spanish guys who run the campsite at El Berro. James was the first to drop out as he had a cold so was just coming up to say hello anyways. I was nearly next, went over the bars on a chute that was pretty steep, tried to bail and made an arse of it. But it was OK as I landed mostly on my face, bit of a gash on my chin and my helmet has a big crack in it so I was pretty lucky really. Nobody will believe me when I say this (I can hear you scoffing already Paul) but I only bailed because Simon in front of me was going so slowly I was worried about running into him, nearly did a bit earlier in the run on a technical bit, and rode the whole section fine earlier in the year on hire bikes. Need to get back there soon and do it properly !!

Anways stuck a plaster on my face and we made it almost to the bottom of the hill. At this point both Stevie and Daniel managed to lose rear mechs, Stevie’s rear drop-out completely smashed. Steve and Mark went to collect a car to get those two back up, and I continued on with Andreas and Simon. Got to the bottom of the hill at the canal, and Andreas had to go back for his rucksack. He appeared back 15 minutes later with the rear mech hanging off his bike !! Oh how we laughed…..

So then we were 2. Simon has some English so we managed to communicate a bit, stopped every so often for photos and landmarks, Aguilas (Eagles) etc. Ran into an English guy called Mick who we met last time we were out here, he was on a guiding run with a couple of Welsh girls. Rode with them for a bit, then came across a BBQ put on by a local mountain bike club. The Espuna is a National Park, and there are loads of BBQ sites set up in the park, but only for use in winter as the fire risk is too high in the summer. It also seems to be a Spanish custom to always share food, as they invited us to join them and we came away stuffed with sausages, ham, drink etc. Of course one local humorist pointed out that if I had drunk a beer before I started I might not have a plaster on my face. Ha ha ha but he did have a point.

Go back to café at the campsite in El Berro tired but had a great day. Met up again with the same crew on the Sunday. Steve’s wife Judith came down to say hello and among other things told me that they go out from the campsite every Saturday 10am and all are welcome, so I will be along quite regularly I think. Great to meet some locals and some Spanish people to ride with. Simon was saying (I think) that the local road club meets on Sundays in Alhama so will give that a shot too once my Spanish gets a bit better. Another brilliant run on the Sunday, but a bit less eventful. We got an uplift to the top from Jose-Maria (the husband of Simon’s wife’s mother’s cousin, or something) and his trailer. Even James came up in the uplift, something I never thought I would live to see but I have the photos to prove it. The trails here are fantastic, seems to be plenty here with good variety, although you really have to learn to love hills.

So to all those who are thinking of coming out to visit BRING MOUNTAIN BIKES. Preferably ones that can pedal up hills, not sure how often Jose-Maria will be available.

The boys are away back to Glasgow now, after one last day filming in the Espuna. James went along but I sat that one out was well knackered. Came down with a cold yesterday so next few days doing chores and catching up with emails methinks. If the picture-bot thing works today there should be a photo at the front of this entry of my wee villa, with my houseboy doing his chores.

Until the next thrilling instalment…..

El aguila ha aterrizado

2006-10-27T02:26:00.000-07:00

Left Edinburgh on Friday 13th October, an uneventful trip down to Epsom with the usual crawling traffic on the M25 past Heathrow. Greeted with good news and bad news, Janine has lost her job, but was up for a weeks holiday in France and Spain so wanted to drive down with me in the van. I am not sure if she would have made that decision again with the power of the retrospectoscope, it was a long way and we had to have some hard days driving. Sight-seeing was quite low on my list of priorities (1. getting there alive 2. riding my bike if possible 3. seeing some nice places)

Pleasant night out in London with Chris McMillan and his friend Luther. Got to check out his new flat near Clapham, in which he has just had a new bathroom installed, including a two man shower. Nice. Went to a meat frenzy restaurant and had BBQ and key lime pie, getting in some food stores for the long trip ahead.

Got away nice and early on the Dover-Calais ferry on monday, which only took an hour as la Manche was pan flat and foggy, and were in Rennes setting up our tent for about 5pm. This part of the trip was the only bit I had planned in any detail, so the navigation was pretty much flawless. The campsite was quite far from the town, so after an hours walk we found an Italian restaurant stranded in the sea of Creperies and hogged down some pizza and some French cidre. The region is known for its cidre, which is quite low alcohol and very refreshing, and doesn’t make you want to pick fights with Rangers fans.

Had kind of decided that getting a tent up and down is time consuming, and wanted to do a one day on/one day off tactic with driving, so we stayed 2 nights in Rennes. Tuesday we drove up to Mont Saint Michel and had a look around the famous monastery. A short look in my case, as I walked out to use the toilet and couldn’t get back in again. Oh well, I was needing a coffee, seen one medieval monastery seen them all. Wednesday was another long driving day, tried to choose a destination that would entertain Janine for a day, so that I could get a days bike riding in the Pyrenees.

Lourdes seemed the obvious choice as Janine collects tacky souvenirs, and Lourdes is the world capital of tasteless religious tat. Stopped for lunch at La Rochelle in an attempt to combine driving and seeing something, which was possibly a tactical error as I was getting very stressed and bad-tempered trying to drive into the town, and it was a bit rubbish. Went to a cool museum of animatronic puppet type things through history, all very odd and frankly a bit sinister. Was very worried the lights would all go out and the puppets would come for me. Back in the van and headed for Lourdes. Got there at 9pm, found a park in the centre and ventured a pied to find a hotel. First place we looked at was clean, quiet and only 30 euros each for two nights, easy decision. Quick North African meal, which I mostly slept through I was so tired and home to bed.

Thursday wasn’t looking great in terms of weather, clouds were gathering, but I was determined to get out on the bike so headed up the Col du Tourmalet. Remembered why I love riding in France so much, the drivers and passers-by yelling “allez !!” and “courage !!”. Needed it a fair bit, it was a tough climb and I really aren’t fit for that kind of thing right now, but made it up OK, then nearly froze to death on the way down the other side. Made a start up the Col D’Aspin, got about half way I reckon and couldn’t see the top as it was in rain clouds. Was gutted but had to come back down (and up and over the Tourmalet again from the other side) but it just wasn’t sensible to keep going. Got even more frozen coming down the Tourmalet again, by the time I got the van heater blasting away could hardly drive for shivering, but it got the tent dried in the back.

In Lourdes we did indeed experience a miracle. Was waiting in a bar while Janine visited some tasteless religious waxworks museum, and got chatted up by a French bloke. Not really interested or anything, but he was actually rather nice, and its always flattering to be asked !!

Friday another big driving day. I knew it was going to take longer than we thought to get over the Pyrenees, had reccied a campsite just south of Barcelona, with the plan to stay there two nights and take a day trip into the city the next day. First hold-up was at the Col de Puymorens, the tunnel was closed so had to drive up over the Col, an hour delay. Then we got to Bourg-Madam, the last French town where you cross the border over the river into Spain. The bridge was closed, which was so frustrating, you could see the “welcome to Spain” signs across the way. Followed the Deviation signs in a circle, then a figure 8, and realised we had no chance. I’m braver in French than I am in Spanish, so asked some mechanics in a garage for directions. Made my usual mistake that Janine observed, of asking in quite good French, to be greeted by a torrent of French words they assume I can understand. Once we had explained that the bridge was closed one of the mechanics scratched his head then said “attendez dix minuits” followed by some other French that I kinda got the gist of. He came back 10 minutes later in his car and beckoned to us to follow him. We then got an escort for about 5 km on the diversion across to Spain, until we picked up the signs to Barcelona. What a nice Frenchman. So if you car ever breaks down in the Pyrenees make sure you get it fixed at the garage in Bourg-Madam.

So that was another hour late, and already thinking about not pressing on to Vilanova del Gitru (heard of it ?). But as it was still light and we seemed fairly close we passed the last sign on the map for a camping. We may have been close but we then hit awful traffic, roads funnelling from three lanes into one, every red traffic light in Spain and again arrived at our target town at 9pm, after leaving at 9 that morning. I was shattered, and the directions for the camping were “off the C32 towards Taragoza” so we had assumed it would be a small town and really obvious. Vilanova del Gitru turns out to be huge, with big industrial bits and masses of hotels. Quick 10 minute stop to calm my nerves and I managed to find a map in a hotel, with campsites marked. A few more wrong turns, some dodgy driving from me, having to get out of the car to read road signs in the dark, it was all going on. Got to the campsite 10pm, but luckily Spain is one of those countries where people stay up late, and the fact that I was clearly going to cry or kill the caretaker swayed him to open up the desk for us. The reception manny couldn’t have been nicer. Janine then had what was nearly the best idea of the holiday “lets get a beer before we try and put the tent up”. Wise words. Stumbled out of the campsite bar at midnight, (Spain is such a civilized country) got the tent up, cooked some cassolet that I was too tired to eat and collapsed in bed.

At this stage I was starting to suffer a bit from accumulated tiredness and hallucinations, not helped by sleeping on an airbed that was slowly going down overnight. Got up the next day at the first crack of 10am and headed on the train to Barcelona. We had lucked in seriously in that the campsite was only 2km walk from a train station. I sleepwalked through a lot of the day, we had lunch in a fantastic restaurant called Raj at the back of the markets in the Ramblas Janine had been recommended, we had to wait an hour for a table but it was worth it, went for a walk and came back. Looked at the Sagrado Familias, but got there 8 minutes before closing so I decided not to spend 8 euros on a quick peak. Depressed ourselves trying on clothes in Spanish shops which are not cut for stodgy kiwi girls, then arrived at the Gaudi house 30 minutes before closing, and again I decided to save myself 16.50 euros on something I was too tired to enjoy and went for a wee sit down.

Couple more vino rosso and back on the train to Vilanova. Pack up camp and drive Monday to a nothing town called Sagunt that is rumoured to have a Roman Amphitheatre. We can see it on the hill but of course we get there too late to look at it, and of course its Sunday so the place, which lacks charm anyway, has tumbleweeds blowing through it. Find a very cheap hotel. Janine: “I’m not wasting 20 euros on this dump” and the day is rescued a bit when we find a waitress in a bar who speaks English, takes pity on us and cooks us up some nice pasta and salad.

Now its Monday (my birthday) and the hallucinations have started creeping back in. I could have sworn Murcia is only 2-3 hours drive from Sagunt. Perhaps it is if you follow the pay road signs, and don’t duck off the motorway cos you think see an A road that seems to lead to Alicante and on down the coast. It did, via fracking Poland. And hundreds of road works. OK, that one was my fault, but you have to make snap decisions when you are driving, and I always figure that getting off too early is a more easily fixable mistake than staying on too long.

Arrived at Campasol finally at last about 2pm that day, hit the supermarket and headed for Petra’s sister Helen’s house. Quick cup of tea and headed for the villa, which I was thrilled to find is a veritable palace. All brand new, large double room with spare bed, twin room, fold down bed in the lounge, terrace at the front, at the back and roof terrace. Tele with no reception but a DVD player. I have books to read, and there is a book exchange in the town every second Tuesday. Loads of signs on the noticeboards for Spanish lessons (and kittens, I am soooo tempted) so will get stuck into that once I have settled in.

Take Janine straight up to the Hot Springs, to find that the developers have got hold of that too, and have started making a huge concrete pool, lets hope it takes as long to build as anything else around here. The pools the local people have dug out by hand are still there, with the naked German bloke that seems to come as standard. We hid in one of the colder pools until he had gone and taken his willy with him. Pleased to report the main pool is as hot and cosy as before.

Campasol itself I have to say is not the most picturesque of towns. Its still being built so lacks foilage, and they are extending the motorway down to Mazarron and are working on the road through the middle of the town just now. The bit I am in is finished, and has a view out over all the surrounding hills, so when you get here its nice. Once you get off the main roads the cycling is great, lots of quiet well maintained hilly roads, and polite drivers.

Looks like I will have a part-time job in December helping with the Christmas mail. Cos Campasol isn’t finished yet and hasn’t been handed over to local government there is no mail delivery service. You pay 5.50 a month to register at the pub, they collect the mail from Mazzaron and sort it, and it can be collected at the pub 4-5 each day.

Spending this week reccying the roads, and quite enjoying having the time on my own. Helen lives about 100 metres away with her husband Bill and sister-in-law Ellen so there is always company close at hand. Helen has been really nice and is looking out for me. We are all going to a Halloween party in the local restaurant on the 30th.

James arrives on the 31st for a couple of weeks, if he doesn’t crash and break something racing in Turkey. The Downhillracer.com guys from Glasgow are staying in El Berro next week with their bikes so will hook up with them for some offroad action. There are plenty of folk threatening to come out and visit in January and February for training camps, so I won’t be short of company. Have noticed that you can get cheap flights from Murcia to Edinburgh with Jet2.com so might pop back for a weekend in December if I can find anything dirt cheap enough.

Like my drive down, this blog is now going on far too long, so will save and head up to the internet café to plug in the laptop and get it posted.

Will take some pictures and get them posted next time its pure blue skies. Has been a bit cloudy the last few days, I even had to wear arm-warmers on a descent yesterday.

Helen

P.S Its 2,146 miles to Campasol from Edinburgh, or 3434 km if you want a bigger number. It cost 63 euros in toll roads, £60 on the ferry for two people. Not sure about the diesel bill, will work that out soon, but we didn’t go as direct as I would if the goal had merely been to get here.

We are currently receiving a high number of calls so you may experience a delay...

2006-09-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Aaaarrrrghhhhh, have heard that far too many times this week. Have moved out of Grove Street flat and got it all ready to be rented (well, as ready as it will ever be, its only for renters after all) and am now spending half the day on the phone to Telewest, Orange, Powergen etc changing my address and cancelling accounts.

Am living down in Leith at my friend Bill’s flat. Bill continues to resolutely remain in India and sends no word. Living in Leith has it moments, last night the Neds in the estate across the road put on a nice fire display in the childrens playground, it was very artistic. I’m also fairly convinced the girls in flat 1 are professionals. But not everyone in Leith is a thieving opportunist. Was driving along to the supermarket yesterday, stopped at traffic lights and the guy behind me gets out of the car and bangs on the window. “crikey, what have I done now, some lane-changing offence no doubt” But no, he hands me the spare key to the van, which had been left swinging in the back door, parked on the street, overnight. Am almost insulted that nobody thought my van was worth stealing !!

Had a good holiday in Wales, in spite of illness. The picture at the top of this entry is me, Fiona and Alison hanging out the windows of the cottage, taken by Martin. Had a grim time at Sleepless in the Saddle, was suffering from a tummy bug that I thought had cleared up, but came back with a vengeance as soon as I tried to ride my bike. Did one lap and came off looking green and feeling nauseous. Toughed out another lap later on (I had to do at least 2 to keep us in the race, which was kind of the plan anyway) and the team were doing well, although I had spent my 3 hour break walking between the campsite and the toilets. And sometimes running. We were doing well and in second in the mixed category, when it started chucking with rain. Bruce broke his bike at the start of a lap, and had to run the entire course. The whole track disintegrated into a bike-eating quagmire, and we had dropped to 8th, so sacked it.

Spent the next couple of weeks trying to recover, riding my bike a bit. Went up to visit James at his uncle’s house in the country near Arbroath, which was nice and relaxing. They even put on a not bad barbecue for Brits. I think that might be the first time I have been woken up by gunshots, as the boys tried (and failed) to kill something for us to eat.

So less said about racing really the better. Terrible race at SXC Drumlanrig, although ironically due to a collapse in will at the front of the field I technically won, nice pair of Zeal Optice sunnies, thanks v much ! Disappointing race at NPS Checkendon, I was feeling fit and started off well and got ahead of a couple of girls, felt I could have held it. Got taken out by some knobber in the mens Sport cat who essentially barged me and took me off my bike. Didn’t even stop to ask if I was OK. By the time I got myself up and re-organised the two girls had passed me and I was in last. Got all demoralised. Maybe I could have tried harder, maybe that was as well as I was going to do, who can tell. As long as the knobber in the Sport cat was secure in his 25th place that’s OK then. Oh well, it was an enjoyable weekend in spite of all that, although I can’t say I want to go back to Reading ever ever ever again. Stopped on the way back to the hotel after the race and ordered a curry. We decided to go for petrol while we were waiting. Took ages to find a petrol station. Then we couldn’t find the curry shop again !! Drove around for what seemed like hours, but probably wasn’t. And of course there was a petrol station every 50 metres after that, which was very amusing. Luckily I hadn’t paid for the curry so we gave that up and headed for the hotel.

Getting stuff sorted out now for the last SXC race up at Aviemore on sunday, I’m quite looking forward actually, have resigned myself to going like a donkey in a wheelchair so will concentrate on having a laugh, it’s a great technical course with some fun descents. And of course looking cool, the second most important part of racing. All the work is kicking in now finishing up the SXC accounts for the year, ordering trophies etc so keeping busy.

Have booked a villa in Murcia on the Costa Calida for 4 months, which was surprisingly cheap and surprisingly painless. Have a couple of potential offers to look after Ramona, so we are all systems go for wintering in sunnier climes. Hoping to get away from Scotland around the 15th October, take a week or so to drive over, visiting folk in Londres and spending some time in France. Might drive down to Biarritz and ride my bike in the Pyrenees for a few days. It’s a long drive to Spain so prolly best to break it up.

Am not wasting my time while I am not working. Have perfected my scone recipe, am just off around to see Fiona and the Reddicks at her flat, where much decorating is going on so she can get it sold. They definitely need a scone break.

Next entry from France….

Mid-Life Crisis Girl

2006-08-04T02:54:00.000-07:00

I know I seem kind of young to be having a mid-life crisis, but remember that I smoked for (ahem) a number of years so will probably die in my 60s !!

Anyways, work has been getting me down to the point where I have decided that life is too short to spend 7 hours a day feeling miserable, so have decided to quit. Will hand in my weeks notice at some point soon, definitely by the end of August. I have two weeks holiday starting 12th so will hopefully be able to post it in while I am away. A bit unfriendly, but as my boss has now moved from not speaking to me to hissing at me when I pass her in the corridor not really feeling like being generous with that.

Yippeee !!!! Just waiting on my re-mortgage coming through. Have decided to draw on some of the ridiculous amount of capital that I have in my flat, bought on the cheap just before prices went off the scale in Edinburgh. That way I get to keep the flat (rent will more than cover an interest-only mortage) and the investment, and have some money to live for a couple of years and travel for a while, then retrain in something more interesting. Or as Kieren put it "Helen, I can't believe it has taken you 10 years to work out that Librarianism is a bit boring"

I fancy a journalism course, have always regretted that I never took that place at Wellington Polytech PG course in 1994. Will see what happens. Immediate plan is to mess about in Scotland in September, do some racing down in England, then head somewhere warm for 6 months. Haven't quite decided where yet, but printed off the dates for the NZ XC series in jan/feb 2007 yesterday. Would be nice to go somewhere and learn a language too, there are some possibilities in Spain or Italy.

For those of you that think I am silly to spend the money I should be saving, here are some rationalizations: 1. I have no family and children to worry about and never will so who needs the security 2. Life is short and fragile and its a waste spending it being miserable when you don't have to. 3. Some people spend £30k on a wedding, and thats never going to happen is it ? 4. Lots of people retrain at my age, and I am lucky that I made a well jammy investment 5 years ago and can benefit from it. 5. I would have gone slowly bonkers if something hadn't changed. 6. Whats wrong with riding my bike for a while - it makes me happy.

The only thing that gets me down about the whole plan is that I will have to find a permanent home for Ramona (my cat) who I will miss terribly but she will be happier somewhere settled. Hazel knows some body who lives in the country that might be able to take her, she would love that.

So anyway, other things that have been happening. The Selkirk Merida was on sunday, a 88k offroad "race". Well its not really a race so they say, but if it was I would have won it, was first woman over the line in the long event. Brilliant day, great course etc really enjoyed it apart from the terrible back pain from my camelbak and the long fire-road climbs, but toughed it out.

I have rented out my flat for the Edinburgh Festival and moved down to Bill's empty flat in Leith. Too good an opportunity to make money to miss out, and I will be away down in Wales for a week anyway. Bill resolutely appears not to be coming back from India and hasn't been in touch quelle surprise. Its making my bike or car commute to Livi 20 mins longer each way I'm pure knacked, but that could be 5.25 hours of offroad racing on sunday catching up with me.

Went to a funeral on wednesday, Sandra that I used to work with, and is a good fiend of Petra, her husband Harry died suddenly last week. Terrible shame, they had just retired and were looking forward to spending some relaxing time together. It was a nice funeral, humanist celebrant with no religion and lots of Robert Burns poems.

British XC Nationals down in Wales a few weeks ago. I have attached a wee report I wrote for the SXC website below. I thought I had come 8th, but according to British Cycling rankings I came 5th. I am now 5th ranked Elite XC rider in the UK, which is a bit of a joke as its due to the points for the Scottish races being counted, and I generally get on the podium. I am certainly not the 5th best rider in the UK !! Am hoping to finish the year in the top 10 tho, to keep my Elite licence for 2007 if I decide to stay in that category.

Here's the report from the British Nationals:

"Travelled down to Wales at a leisurely pace on friday. Driving, entertainment and bananas supplied by James Ouchterlony.

Arrived at the venue, sun out, nice view, good parking spot "choice one, quick lap of the course no worries". Hmmm. The course was, as my mother used to say about my outfits when I left the house on a saturday night during the 80's "different" (as in you look "different" tonite dear). Slog up a steep grassy climb ouch that hurt. Exit on to the loosest driest dustiest steepiest fireroad in the history of the western world. Drier than a stockmans throat in Alice after rounding up 500 cattle during the 1984 Castlemaine strike, well you get my drift. I managed to ride most of it in practice apart from a short section where I was forced off by the tractor towing the DH'ers up the hill.

Oh well, my only mission was to finish the race, due to my recent spate of DNFing. Rumor going about the camp was that Ollie B had driven back home to get his granny ring. James stuck with his double. Many people (not naming names but if you really want to know check BC site on monday for the LONG list of DNS at the end of the results) packed up their bikes and went home.

Went back up on saturday, Ruth McGavigan and I decided not to bother riding up the godawful climb and hitched a lift on the DH truck. The descent was ace, steep, loose, lots of fun but all rideable by the Test Midget so happy enough with that.

So anyway, sunday morning comes along, and we all line up in the traditional fashion, except nobody seems to know when we start, what order we start in, who is in what category etc etc. I just know I have to go up that climb 5 times and it will not be fun. Stand next to Jenny Copnall (British Champion) at the start line, overhearing a conversation along the lines "who am I racing, is Amy Hunt racing us, whats going on etc etc" the commissaire didn't appear to know. And anyway the whole thing was put back many times as the DH was running late (quelle surprise)

And we are off, and that climb is even more of a b***h in the race than it was in practice just could not stay on the bike. I had the luxury of some professional drinks service courtesy of The Barrie Clarke Massi-ve, standing at the top of the climb, but sadly my bottle fell off at the top of the descent so that was a lap reminscent of the great Castlemaine strike. I even picked up a bottle off the ground and drank the contents I was that thirsty.

But back to the race, it was hard. Jenny C was the only woman that I saw that actually rode the whole climb. I was lapped by Ollie Beckinsale (Mens British Champion) 3 TIMES. On his last lap he was so far ahead of the rest of the men, I heard this dude behind me whistling a wee song. "do you want by ?" "Oh not thats OK - take your time" I think he just wanted to check out my arse.

Enjoyed the descents, had a few wee crashes but none of them hurt too much so cool.

Some good results for the Scottish riders, Ruth rode a fantastic race to take the Silver medal, well done Ruth. Hamish Creber won his race, Iain Nimmos (his evil greek twin) won the Masters and Ross Creber took 4th in the Juniors after leading most of the way but puncturing. James O was 6th and James FM was up there in the top 10 I think.

I have seriously no idea where I came. There were 12-13 girls in my race, I didn't have the best time, got lapped so only did 4 laps, but I think the drop out rate was quite high BUT I FINISHED. The results may not reflect the actual race events, due to the short lap that did seem to be separating the men from the boys many were lapped and there was much confusion.

This is the second time in 2 years I have driven down to Wales for the Nationals to take my bike for a walk !! But all up a good weekend, how can it not be enjoyable to ride your bike in such nice weather.

Drive home hellish, but thats for another forum discussing the best way to throw up in your car on the hard shoulder of the M6.

See you all at Contin (maybe - I'm seriously considering taking up Downhilling)"

Petra's fundraising cruise for Hep C awareness

2006-08-04T02:37:00.000-07:00

And here are me and Fiona on the Maid of the Forth. Obviously, I totally disapprove of women drinking pints, but it was for charity after alll.

Scottish XC Champs Podium

2006-08-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

Well - the picture-bot seems to be working again !! Here's me on the podium collecting my silver medal at the Scottish XC Champs.

Life still has some surprises for middle-aged spinster librarians...

2006-07-03T01:16:00.000-07:00

The first surprise recently was my silver medal in the Scottish XC Champs. I wasn't really expecting to make the podium, just seemed to go well on the day. Was especially good for me as I was being chased quite hard on the climbs by Ruth from Peebles CC behind me, but was putting time in on the descents. Was a brilliant day out and a great race at Glentress forest.

The second surprise was my recent boat trip. Those of you who know me well will be aware of my pathological avoidance of boats, due to chronic inability to hold on to my lunch. My friend Petra was diagnosed last year with Hep C, and is taking part in a trek in Nepal. To raise funds she organised a cruise on the Firth of Forth. There isn't a lot I can do to help Petra with her illness, but I figured the least I could do was forget my comparatively insignificant worries and go on her cruise. It was rather enjoyable in the end, twice the recommended dose of dramamine and a few pints mixed quite well. As you can see from the picture I'm not that much of a zombie at all.

Third event was more of a shock than a surpise, I ran over a small child at pedestrian lights. They were on green and he just ran out. Lucky for him I was going slowly and paying attention, had time to slam on the brakes and stopped before he went under the car, he bounced off the bonnet and has nothing worse than sore wrist and bruises. Took a few years off my life ! I am now driving everywhere in the city at 20mph. I just don't even want to think about what might have happened if I had been going faster or messing with the CD player or summat. Have felt sick all week just thinking about it...

Am having a bit of a quandary at work. (Thats like a swandri except without the natural fibres). They want me to apply for the job permanently, except I am not very happy, my boss is a moody cow who never speaks to me and they aren't upping the pay. I get quite lonely sat in my office all day on my own. Actual job stuff is going quite well when I get out there, I spoke to the Corporate Management Team last week and they were well impressed. I just can't face much more of this. But I have a mortgage to pay. Or I could sell my flat, stick the bikes in the back of the van and bugger off somewhere sunny for winter.. I'm going to live 5 years less after the car accident last week so who needs that pension ?? Might just leave this one to fate.

I have some good weekends coming up, away through to Drumlanrig with Hazel for NPS race next saturday, staying with Julie C on the saturday night then me, Hazel, Julie and Sam are meeting the Rockhard race team at Kirroughtree sunday morning for a ride about.

Weekend after that its the British XC nationals somewhere in Wales, am heading down in the van with my friend James. Don't think I'll be testing the podium at that one !!

World Cup XC - Fort William

2006-06-05T01:52:00.000-07:00

Have had the chance to recover a bit now from what was another fantastic weekend up at the World Cup round at Fort William.

Riding in the XC race puts a whole different perspective on things, and I have to say I am somewhat in awe of the people who do this kind of thing fulltime. It's very stressful ! They don't make it easy either, there are so many things you have to collect, sign on for etc, and you get called up to the start line 30 minutes before the race, great fun in freezing cold rain.

Three things that stand out from the weekend:

1. I was standing around chatting to Doug from Alpine Bikes at their stand the day before the race, with my bike all numbered up and ready to race, and got asked for my autograph by some school kids ! I have to say I wasn't very graceful, threw back my head and laughed, then recovered enough to sign their programme and ask them to cheer for me the next day. I think they had mistaken me for a proper athlete. Doug got a picture on his phone, will get that up on the blog. Actually getting handed a leaflet about drug-testing procedures by the UCI rep was another such moment, getting mistaken for a proper athlete again, but I suppose I would hang around at world class events.

2. The Chinese Womens team. They seemed to be all on their own, with no vehicle and no support, and spent the whole weekend kind of camped out at the race and washing in the public toilets. Thats dedication !! And how they knew what was going on I don't know, I was toiling and would have had no idea if more experienced riders hadn't helped me, and I speak a version of english. They did really well too.

3. Cannondale saving the day ! Full report on that soon, will finish this blog at lunch this week.

Alexandre Findlay LaHood at 2 years old

2006-05-31T00:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of my gorgeous wee nephew on his 2nd birthday.

and this is how I'm living now...

2006-05-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

Must spend an afternoon on housework - can't find the cat sometimes in the morning, I think she sleeps in the SXC t-shirts.

5 days to go....

2006-05-22T02:20:00.000-07:00

Have been mega, uber, super busy past few weeks, flat out like a lizard drinking as our strine cousins would say, what with training on the bike, organising and running Bike Knowledge classes, working full time and helping run Scottish XC series. Oh, and working a day job too. My house has become a giant storage area for bikes, tires, bits of bikes, SXC t-shirts, camping gear, dirty dishes and clothes that haven't been ironed. And bits of paper for Bike Knowledge. And invoices for the SXC. And the odd dead thing that Ramona brings in (my cat) hope I have found all of those...

This is a picture of what my flat is supposed to look like (tho not normally that dark)

2 big pieces of news:

1. I managed to scrape a qualification to ride XC races at World Cup level. And before anybody gets excited (Mother and Winton !) that doesn't mean I'm coming to Rotorua in august. Cycling is a professional sport, but to race at international level for your team you have to meet a minimum standard. I had to get a top 10 finish in the Elite category at a British National race. This is all because I fancied riding in the World Cup series race at Fort William at the end of may. So anyway I managed to get 10th at a British race down in Nottingham a few weekends ago, (by 14 seconds can't say I wasted any effort there) so have entered to ride in the race at Fort William next weekend. I have no ambitions to impress anybody, I will be happy to not come last !! I am doing this for the pure thrill and excitement of riding with 100 odd of the worlds best, world and olympic champions. I think I will enjoy the race more than any I have done, no pressure on me to do anything except try and not crash, and 10,000 spectators to cheer me on.

2. We held our launch party at the weekend for Bike Knowledge. It went extremely well, as have the classes so far. I think we are on to a winner here, you should have seen the faces on our customers when we taught them some basic biking techniques, thrilled as and keen for more !! Will post photo from that once it's emailed to me.

Really looking forward to the weekend, once the race is over can get down to the serious business of partying in Fort Bill, and watching the Downhill on the sunday. Have taken a long weekend to will swing by Laggan on monday the way back.

Work still kinda sucks, but I think any day job would be shit boring at the moment, too much else going on. The financial holocaust continues, now the Edinburgh City Council are after me for council tax I don't owe them. Am thinking more and more that I will have to sell my flat. It is getting more expensive living on my own in inner city like this, and I just can't afford it. Didn't envisage living on my own for this long, the council tax just goes up and up as do all the other bills, esp when its always your turn to pay (same goes for the dishes !) So anyway once the job situation has settled in that I find one that doesn't suck, will start looking at moving out of Edinburgh, maybe Mid-Lothian or towards the Borders somewhere. Would be nice to have a garden too, for Ramona especially. I can then settle down to my middle-aged librarian Spinsterhood properly and start recruiting larger numbers of cats. Or maybe I'll just throw everything in the back of the van and move to France...

Have had to restrict myself and not buy a new bike this year, just some nice 165mm XTR cranks for the Santa Cruz. But as those cost more than most peoples bikes do, can't really take too much credit for rationing there.

Interestingly, this riding in the World Cup thing has proved to be a bit of a bloke magnet. Nothing serious to report so don't get excited anybody (Mother and Winton !) but lets just say I'm enjoying the attention. Unexpected side-effect !!

Full report from Fort William next week.

Fame at Last !!

2006-04-07T00:47:00.000-07:00

SCU Newsletter 6th March 2006

BikeKnowledge.com and Brokeback Mountain Bikers

2006-03-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

And in other news, we ran our first Bike Knowledge event last weekend at Glentress Forest. We were asked to put on a mountainbiking event for the Edinburgh Corporate Decathlon, and hold two training sessions running up to the event.

More about that soon, will finish this entry at lunch tomorrow.

OK I'm back - don't know where the last two weeks has gone !! Settled into a routine now of working at West Lothian Council during the week and spending weekends either biking or working on the business. We are in the preparation stages at the moment. I am in charge of Operational matters (or Managing Director, if you like) which involves setting up administration systems, costing guiding and tour packages, scoping routes, sourcing potential guiding staff, and of course dealing with record-keeping and accounts. Hugh (Sales Director) is working hard on our marketing strategy and organising the launch party. Alice (Communicaton and Website) is doing a great job with www.bikeknowledge.com. Joe (Corporate Strategy) is, well, exploiting his friends to scare up new business opportunities, and a fine job he is doing too !!

We are officially opening for business 16th April and were hoping to have the launch party the next weekend but that may have to be put back.

Work at West Lothian Council has it moments. Lets just say I am enjoying commuting out to Livingston 3 times a week. 2 and half hours on the bike in a day and home for my tea at 6pm result ! Means I have to get up at 6am but don't have to spend an hour in the car every day so good bargain if you ask me. I'm keeping a very close eye on the job ads.

First SXC race of the year last weekend up at Laggan. I came 2nd which sounds like a good result on paper but I was 6 mins behind the winner so not too happy with that, I know I can do better. Had a good comedy crash, had just passed a guy in the Masters race (and was quite cheeky) and took a corner too fast, crashed right in front of him. He was cool about it and only laughed at me a little bit, I was laughing too until my finger swelled up and went purple and numb this morning. Wee trip to the Minor Injuries Clinic tomorrow if it hasn't got the feeling back.

Have put an entry in for Sleepless in the Saddle in August, a 24 hour team race down in England. We are in the Mixed category (4 blokes and a girl) and have a quality team, me, Drew Sharkey, Alistair Lees, Sean McArthy and Kieren Jarret. I have entered us boringly as Bicycleworks.com cos most of us ride for that team but will have to come up with a better name. Sadly, some friends of mine have already taken "Brokeback Mountain Bikers" as their team name. I am now thinking "Hels Bitches" could be the way forward. Email me if you can think of something witty !!

That’s all for now…..

My new office

2006-03-19T11:22:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of my new office. Its big and empty and a bit lonely. The huge carpark in the background is the Scottish Motor Auctions. Cars come in, they move around, they go out again, the carpark stays full. Lots of movement and activity to effectively stay the same. Anyways, the new job is turning out to be a bit of a disappointment. They are paying me less than they said they would, and just said "its Personnel, thats how things work around here". Got my contract 2 weeks after I started and discovered that it is a one weeks notice arrangement, and I don't get sick pay for 6 months. Then my boss on friday told me that she can't authorise my 2 weeks holiday in august as the couple who work in the processing room will be off for a week of it and she doesn't want to be in the office on her own as she's pregnant. I have entered a team in a 24 hour race and 4 of my friends have booked the same holidays to go mountainbking in Wales. If I don't go I will have to go on holiday on my own again this year, and pull out of Sleepless in the Saddle. So the plan now is to get out of the place with references by August, which is pretty close to what the plan was anyway !

It's monday so this must be Spain...

2006-01-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

Got back to Edinburgh on 12th January after what has to be one of the most boring flights ever. Maybe I am getting old or something, or perhaps it was the shitty seat I had (middle seat - hate it) but it did seem worse than usual. On the way out is always much more tolerable as you are going on holiday. Although I was impressed by the bladder control of the window seat woman next to me, didn't get up once on either 12 hour legs of the journey. I was up and down every 10 minutes, and still couldn't get aisle seat woman to swap with me. She must have been peeing sand by the end of that.

Day and a half to change bikes for the road bike, and flight to Murcia. Lots of driving about in the dark to find the villa. (Must remember to write to the mayor of Fuente Alhamo. Went through it 8 times in two weeks, got lost 6 times)

Cannondale Chris came over for the weekend from Switzerland. He is in training for L'Etape du Tour 2006 so I got to bore him with lots of chat about endurance training, hills and nutrition. He will ride 110 miles on the day with a finish up Alpe D'Huez. Chapeau !!

Spent two weeks doing lots of road riding, with the occasional day off to go for a run along the beach. Murcia and surrounds is a great spot, although the wee town we were in was a bit minging. It was a brand new English and German ghetto. There were lots of nice villas but there were also lots of building sites and bits that looked like concentration camps. Nice. And all the pubs had English football on the tele and english karaoke. Classy. I can see why people want to live there though, the weather was brilliant, only one day of rain and a couple of days when we sat out in shorts and t-shirts.

My friend Petra was over, by chance her sister stays in the same town. Was good to hang out, although the trip to the Hot Springs wasn't such a good idea, Petra fell over in the mud and broke her wrist and spent the rest of her holiday in plaster bad luck.

Julie and I got to do some mountain-biking yippee. We stopped at a cafe one sunday and I saw some guys with mountain bikes speaking English. Went and chatted to them, and they were from Glasgow and staying in the Hotel we had been sent to for bike hire, and agreed to let us come out with them and their guide on monday. Result !! We would have been pretty lost otherwise, masses of great tracks, none marked on the map and absolutely no sign-posting. So big thanks to Callum, Stevie and Dave for a great day out. The bikes we hired were hilarious. Fully rigid with hydraulic v-brakes that were on the wrong hand (but had surprising stopping power) and flat pedals. Once I had got over my initial fear of death and figured out how to stop my feet sliding off the pedals it was excellent fun. Am inspired to finally at last finish rebuilding my hardtail (OK get one of my friends to do it in exchange for dinners and cakes) with flat pedals just for fun.

The picture at the start of this post is L-R, Jenny Wright, Julie Cartner, Pippa Handley and me. And it isn't a perspective trick, I am a foot shorter than them. Hazel Sutherland was with us too but it taking the picture. I of course am stuffing food in my face, but this was the top of a 10k climb so I deserved it !

5 hours to go....

2006-01-08T18:54:00.000-08:00

It's my last day in Wellington, I can't believe how fast it's gone !!

Spent most of this week hanging out with friends and family, and getting in some last minute training on the bike while I had the good weather. Have been dead lucky, it has only rained once the whole time I have been here, and that was overnight. Today is a bizarre weather day in Wellington, scorchio and not a breath of wind. Keeping a close eye on the airport in case the mist comes in but its all looking good so far. Went for a run up in the Tinakori Hills this morning, hanging around Wellington has definitely improved my hill running.

I land at Edinburgh tuesday afternoon, unpack, change bikes, pack again then I'm away to Mazarron in Spain with Hazel, Jenny, Pippa and Julie thursday lunchtime. Will take the laptop and try and get some pictures posted.

Didn't manage to get to Dunedin for the first NZ XC series race yesterday, it was too close to when I am flying out to the UK and I couldn't get a seat on a plane out later. Shame cos even as crap as I am it looked like I would have managed a top 10 placing due to the small field. Cheating I know. Looks like if I want to ride at Fort Bill World Cup this year I will have to qualify the hard way, or perhaps realistically not bother. Will see how I go, have kind of decided I fancy the enduro races at NPS level in UK this year anyway - but we will see !!

Driving in the Third World & New Years Eve

2006-01-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

Having driven in the USA, Canada, France, Spain, Italy etc, I can now confirm what I have always suspected, KIWIS ARE THE WORST DRIVERS IN THE ENTIRE WORLD !!!! You take your life into your hands every time you hit the open road. I have had more near-death experiences on the bike around Wellington city in two weeks than I have ever had in Edinburgh in 10 years.

Got the Ferry over to Picton on friday and picked up a rental car and drove to Christchurch. Terrifying. Single carriage way all 400 kms, and lots of very impatient drivers. The rental car was a Nissan Shito, about 1000 ccs with automatic transmission and 171,000 ks on the clock. Go well it did not. The Kiwi answer to that is to drive about 2 feet from the back of the car in front, then overtake on a blind corner, or even better a blind summit. Got stuck behind a couple of camper vans, and when we finally got to one of the 4 (I was counting) overtaking lanes between Picton and ChCh they sped up !! About 3 of the 200 cars stuck behind them got past, while all the other cars passed each other in the queue. No wonder people take such risks. The road toll between Christmas and New Year in New Zealand was 20 deaths.

Arrived in ChCh somewhat traumatised late on friday afternoon, and went to visit my friend Kim's bro Steven who has just bought a house there. Even by Kiwi standards it was huge, could have hidden a whole rugby team in the place.

On saturday Alistair and I went for an excellent mountainbike ride around the Port Hills, was a great day for it, and found some superb tracks around the hills. Long hard technical route on the last descent to Sumner beach, had a bit of an Overconfidence Incident on some rocky steps. Alistair had stopped but I thought "what a big girl, I can ride that" and nearly made it but for the last step and my forks being a bit sha**ed cos they leaked oil on the plane. Straight over the bars and some new scars to match the rest of them on my knees. Oops.

Stopped for coffee and bagels in cafe on the beach then rode back along the road to Shirley. Quick BBQ then out the door and uptown for NYE. Alistair wore his kilt and got plenty of attention from the laydeez which pleased him greatly. Did the rounds of a few bars, many wines and possibly some beers, maybe even dancing, I don't even remember getting home I guess we must have got a taxi. Woke up on the floor in the morning feeling very unperky. Have decided that was the end of drinking now for me until the end of the racing season this year, have drunk my quota !!

Next day went to visit my cousin Donna who has an even huger house up in the Port Hills for a BBQ, and saw nearly all my aunties and cousins and their various children. Had a brilliant time, was great to catch up with everybody, not sure when I will get the chance to again. Stayed the night with my auntie Judy and uncle Don then left at 7.30 to drive back up to Picton and try and avoid the traffic.

A few words on Tuatara. They are very shy. Spent hours trying to find them at the wildlife park in Karori and eventually spotted one sticking it's head out of it's cave. And they are much smaller than you think. I thought Tuatara meant "big lizard" but it means "terrible lizard" so there you go.

Off to see King Kong tonight with my sister (the movie that is) and Te Papa Tongarewa (museum of New Zealand) on thursday. Got some great pics of the Port Hills on saturday, but still toiling with technical problems.

Only 5 days to go in NZ now, as always it has flown by.

Oh, and forgot to mention last time, I had a job interview on the 14th before I left, and was offered the job that day. Sometime in early february I will be the new Records Manager for West Lothian Council. Tres glamorous !! Hell commute to Livingston, so might have to take my bike as much as possible. Can't say I am looking forward to being a wage slave again, but glad I know where my next mortgage payment is coming from. Although it was kinda fun being unemployed when it was summer and I still had plenty of money it was kinda grim over winter and I was getting depressed and fat. Maybe I'll try and save my money and take next summer off !!

Greetings from Middle Earth

2005-12-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

I have been in New Zealand for 12 days now, and still haven't spotted any Hobbits, Giant Gorillas or talking Lions, which is disappointing.

The flight over was fairly painless, aside from the ridiculous "transit" at LAX. We were made to line up, fill in a green form, get photographed and fingerprinted, walk 50 metres and hand half of the green form back, then get back on the plane again. Massive threat to US Homeland Security averted there. Oh well, at least they didn't make me pick up my bike and lug it the 50 metres, and it gave us something to do for an hour while the plane refueled.

Having a great time in Wellington, getting out on the bike and visiting friends and relatives. As Winton (my second Dad I guess you would call him) had to work on Christmas day at the Dominion Post we had a Christmas Eve dinner up at the beach house at Te Horo, with my sister Fiona and her bloke Andre and my nephew Alexandre, and Winton's daughter Rosie her husband Matt and their daughter Charlotte. Had a brilliant time, cooking the food on the bbq and sitting on the deck in the sun overlooking Kapiti Island.

Mother and I had a pretty quiet Christmas day, visited my cousin Amanda in Upper Hutt to see her new house, and was pleased to also catch up with auntie Linda and uncle Graham and my cousin Andrew.

Attempted a long hard technical route on the bike a few days ago, the Kennett brothers (famous kiwi trail builders) have put together a trail along the ridge from Mt KauKau to Makara Peak. You can see the ridge from my mothers house in Wadestown, and I have often looked out the window and wondered if I could ride my bike along it. Sadly not, was 6k into the 36k route and was getting blown off the bike in the howling northerly. Its very exposed up there, and after coming off backwards and just missing a rock with my head decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and cowardice was the better part of discretion. Will either find a friend to go with or wait for a less blustery day.

Went out on tuesday with Adrienne and Stephanie (oldest friends from school) and a few girls in town. Few drinks and nice malaysian meal. Small education on acceptable taxis at the end of the night, things have got so bad with complaints about assaults from drivers that I was made to wait for a cab from a particular company to arrive at the stand. Pretty worrying, used to be that you could trust a taxi to get you home.

Winton owns a 1956 Wolseley that used to belong to his dad that he has restored. We had a great day out in it yesterday over in the Wairarapa visting some of the vineyards. Very stylish for travelling in. Will post some pictures when I figure out why my mothers PC won't accept the USB connection from my camera. Have eliminated the possibility that it just needed a good kick. Bizarrely I ran into an old friend Caroline Atkins who I used to work with at Vic Uni Library and more recently lived in London. She was back seeing family and is living in Auckland now, and pregnant (of course, everybody I know in NZ either has babies or is pregnant - am surprised people don't utilise me as an aid to conception) anyways that was a pleasant surprise to run into her and catch up.

Busy next few days coming up, off to see Jo and Daniel and baby Lucien today, going to Narnia with mother tonight and visiting the wildlife sanctuary in Karori to see the Tuataras (big native lizards) with Ady and the twins tomorrow.

Heading down to Christchurch for New Year weekend, my friend Alistair is there staying with his bro for 6 months and will catch up with some of my aunties, uncles and cousins. Hoping to get a days mountainbiking around the Port Hills, but have just had alarming email from Alistair that he is a pure roadie these days so might have to do something about that.

Petra - have some pictures of Alexandre will send them when I sort the technical issues at this end !

Winter has been cancelled !!!

2005-12-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my mother (pictured with my stepfather Winton) who doesn't quite control the weather, but was generous enough to buy me return flights to Wellington for my christmas present. Thanks mother !! Counting the days, only 12 to go. And not before time, I have come down with a nasty cold this week so have been skiving for several days now. And skiving is not easy when you don't actually have a job....

I fly out from Edinburgh the morning of the 15th December, return the afternoon of the 10th January. On the 12th January I am off to Spain for two weeks cycling in Murcia, near the Sierra de Espuna national park.

I have been filling my time while I am looking for a job with a number of projects:

The Sweeney Project. I have been helping my elderly neighbour a couple of times a week, taking her to the shops, collect her pension, the opticians etc. She is in her 80s and is a bit deaf and can't walk far but is pretty sharp. We went out last week and had christmas dinner at Frasers. Will try and convince her to pose for a picture.

The SCU Project. Have also been doing some volunteer work for Jenny at Scottish Cycling, which has been quite interesting, and gets me out of the house !! Spent a couple of afternoons last week proofing the Scottish entries in the British Cycling Calendar. The power - mwah hah hah etc.

The Wales Project. Will be going away next weekend with my business partners Hugh and Joe and Hugh's sister Alice to Wales to do our Trail Cycle Leader course and assessment. We are looking at starting a small business next year delivering cycling training. More details on that before we launch.

The Blog Project. A friend of mine is in Tenerife being a professional mountainbiker and training for the Commonwealth Games. I offered to do a weblog for him. This became a project on its own, and I have to say I am quite pleased with it http://jamesouchterlony.blogspot.com This meant of course that my Blog looked a bit shit, hence the upgrades you see now !!

The Shit, I Had Better Get A Job Project. This is one of those projects that goes on in the background. Not much happening the now, prolly cos it's the lead up to christmas. I have one interview on the 14th December (the day before I leave for NZ) and am cautiously optimistic about it. Will mean a daily commute to Livingston tho...

The Ebay Project. Selling off loads of bike bits on Ebay, it's amazing what people will pay money for. Got £16 for second hand Ultegra bottom bracket last week. Have also started selling stuff for other people for a cut. Got £18 for my friend Paul's exceptionally tasteless Halfords Team pink and orange tiger striped skinsuit. Scary.

The Winter Training Project. Am trying to get out and do the miles on the bike, but have to say it isn't easy in this weather. Am managing a couple of longish rides a week, and have been running, spinning and doing free weights or exercise ball workouts. Have decided gyms are very tedious. When I first started going I thought everyone was staring at me, but after spending an hour on the running machine while the weights were busy, I realised that it is soooooo boring the only thing to do is people watch. Would wear my sunglasses so I could do it properly, only I think I might get thrown out. Meeting Julie C at Inners/GT next week for a mtb ride, very much looking forward to that.

Will post some pictures of our Trail Cycle Leader Adventures in Wales.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

2005-09-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Haven’t done an entry for a while, so for anybody still reading, this is what I have been up to:

UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Finals in Fort William. Awesome weekend ! Drove up by myself (and the three bikes in the back) on the Friday and met my friend Kim. The rest of the ERC lot were staying at a bunkhouse in a council estate at Corpach. As this would have broken both the “no bunkhouses” and “no council estates” rules, we were staying in a cosy wee B & B just above the main street.

The cross-country on the Saturday was fun to watch, if a bit predictable in the Womens with Gunn Rita-Dahle making her win look easy. A few Scottish girls were riding, and a couple of kiwis so I had lots of people to cheer for. I spoke to a couple of the riders afterwards, and it sounded like a great event to take part in, with big crowds and everybody cheering for you, so I am thinking about trying to qualify next year. I would come last, and be dogged by the motorbike that follows the end of the race, but I think it would be worth it for the experience.

Saturday night and while the boring (sorry guys) ERC folk stayed in their bunkhouse for a few quiet drinks, me, Kim and my new American friend Joe went out for a night on the town. Brilliant night, drank far too much and talked loads of rubbish with lots of mountain bikers I have never met before. Nearly lost Kim, who was busy trying to chat up the Norwegian winner of the Four-Cross on my behalf (what a friend) but remembered about her in time and went back to the club to look for her.

Although I have never actually thrown up in a Gondola, on Sunday morning it was looking well on the cards, so I decided to walk the 700 metres to the top of the Downhill course. Met up with Fiona and Martin and the rest of the ERC crowd to watch the Downhill, wandering down the course and running into people on the way. Every time I see Downhill racing I am both massively impressed and completely terrified at the skill of the riders. Great to watch, with the crowds cheering the British riders, including Steve Peat and Tracy Mosely who both won their events. Steve Peat was the last rider down, and in a nail-biting finish won by about 3 seconds.

I had forgotten that I don’t have a job at the moment, so when Joe suggested that Kim and I stay another night and go biking on the Monday it didn’t take much persuading. Spent the day riding the WC course at Ben Nevis and the black route at Laggan. A perfect end to a superb weekend.

Had some more mountain bike guiding work the weekend after, 8 Norwegians and Swedes wanted an afternoon’s riding in the Pentlands. They were all over 6ft, including the woman, so it looked kind of like the opposite of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They were a good fun crowd, if a bit competitve. I left them to it most of the day, then raced them up the last hill to the hotel, hanging just behind the fastest guy and overtook him at the very end. Well it had to be done really.... They were quite drinky too, having pints of Stella at lunchtime and wanting to be taken to the Flotterstone Inn en route in the Pentlands. Something to do with beer costing the equivalent of a days wages in the Skando countries I suspect.

Not much happening since then. My friend Janine came up last week from London for four days. We had a fairly mellow week, visited Rosslyn Chapel, where they have just started filming the Da Vinci Code, and the Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Modern. I had a job interview that week back at the Museum, which was all a bit fraught. Didn’t get the job in the end, but wasn’t that disappointed to be honest, not 100% sure about the job and only applied as my old boss (and her boss) had urged me to do so. Starting to look up the job pages and send off some CVs to a few places this week.

Oh, and I got a podium in the SXC series Elite/Expert race in Badaguish last weekend. Only cos only 4 girls entered the race, but I was going fairly well and felt good so pleased enough with that. Another mug for the collection !!

Fell off my bike AGAIN yesterday. On a really easy bit I have ridden over about 500 times on Falla Brae at Glentress. Forgot I had fast tires on, wasn’t concentrating, was tired and took a corner too fast. Splat. Blood gushing out of my knee. Didn’t think it was that bad and rode back to Edinburgh, but once I got the tights off and washed it, was quite a mess so had to go to the hospital to get it cleaned out and stitched. Nurse said to stay off it for 7 days. Ha ha ha – as if !!

Troyes, RIP Ginger Cat and some questions about the French...

2005-09-09T01:05:00.000-07:00

Finally back in Edinburgh, after a looooong drive across half of Europe. Set off from Morzine at the first crack of 11am on saturday, and drove until I got bored. As I was only in Les Gets at this point I thought I had better put in a bit more effort, so hit the motorways for 5 hours. Got off and drove around a bit looking for a nice wee country hotel, no luck, so headed into the nearest sizeable town, a place called Troyes.

Very tempted at this point to make a few references to Homer and the Iliad (Brad Pitt in a leather kilt and all that) but don't want to blow my cover. I am hoping that there are still a few people out there that think I am a tough cool mountain-biking chick, and don't know that I am in fact a nerdy bookish cat-loving spinster librarian.

Lucked in severely in Troyes, was a good size place, found a place to park the car and a nice hotel pretty fast. Nearly kissed the guy behind the counter when he asked if I wanted a room with a bath or a shower. Managed to squeeze in 4 baths in two days.

Went out for a few hours on the road bike on sunday and reaquainted myself with the big ring. Was nice to ride on some flat roads for a change. Had another bath, and set off to do all the touristy stuff in Troyes. The highlight was the "Maison de l'Outil et de la Pensee Ouverte". This was a museum of Tools. Much more interesting than it sounds, it was a couple of floors in a medieaval half-wood house of pre Industrial Revolution Tools, for making things like barrels, shoes, baskets, smithing and carpentary etc. They had huge big exhibition cabinets full of axes, hammers, files. Made for some unusual photos.

Next best thing was the Gothic "Basilique St-Urbain" a well proper Gothic cathedral, with gargoyles and flying buttresses (the best kind of buttresses) and everything. Back to the hotel for a quick bath (it was 40 degrees in the sun, I swear) and out for a French Chinese meal, which was excellent and well above any Chinese I have ever had in the UK.

Left about 9ish monday morning and headed slowly towards Calais. Had a bit of a horrowshow moment in the queue for lunch in a motorway services. Decided to phone the ferry company to get on an earlier boat, instead of the 10pm I was booked on. Was looking at the ticket, wondering why they didn't use the 24 hour clock like most Euro Types. Oh. They do. MERDE. Instead of looking at arriving 7 hours early for the boat I was on schedule for 5 hours late. Phoned and did some serious groveling, explained how I had changed the day of the boat over the phone blah blah blah lie lie lie and they put me on the 5pm for an extra £20. Nice Ferry people !! Got there at 2.30 so they put me on the 3.30, so was back in Epsom for 6.15, exactly 5 minutes after Jeremy got home. Picked Janine up from the train station, a few wines and another pleasant evening in Epsom.

Bit of a grim start to the final leg of the journey up to Edinburgh. Found a dead ginger cat on the road at 5am, that somebody had run over and just left. I was a couple of hours too late to help him out. Stopped and wrapped the poor wee thing in a towel and tried to arrange him nice on the grass at the side of the pavement. Couple of fraught hours worried that he was one of Jeremy's cats (he wasn't wearing a collar) but they had both been spotted scoffing well after I had left so that was OK. Still, I can't believe somebody could run over a pet and not even stop. Somebody loved that cat, but at least they will think the driver tried to help him, and won't find him splattered on the road. And I know I am soft but I don't care !!

Finally back in Edinburgh after I reckon about 30 hours driving up the M6. I'm liking the new Toll Motorway at Birmingham by the way, was £3.20 to miss out all the traffic around Birmingham. Bargain.

OK. I have observed a few things about the French that have me wondering. If anyone has any information that would clear up any of these questions I would appreciate an email.

1. "allez tout droit" - whats that all about ?? This apparantely means "straight ahead" when anybody with even a basic knowledge of French can see that it means "go always right". Although this may explain French military tactics, in particular in relation to the (non) defence of Paris in WWII. They were busy driving their tanks around in circles.

2. Stupit little dogs. In the same way that every Italian women over 40 grows an enormous bum, every French woman over 40 adopts a stupit yappy little dog. Accidently (honest) kicked one while stepping back from a counter, went to apologise to it and the maniac psycho smelley little thing tried to bite me ! Nice.

3. Every time you go out for a walk somewhere in France, you are guaranteed to pass at least one person carrying a naked baguette. You could be way up the top of a mountain on one of the most isolated Grand Randonees at 5am in the middle of a blizzard, and somebody will come by clutching their baguette and giving you a cheery "Bonjour !"

4. Jonny Halliday. Seriously !!!???!!!

Off up to Fort William this weekend for the last leg of the Mountain Biking World Cup. No idea what the weather will do, so am packing everything from shorts and sandals to full-on winter hill walking gear. Should be good fun, there is a well huge crowd going up.

Congrats to Jo and Daniel in Wellington on the birth of Lucien on Wednesday 7th September. I feel a trip to Baby Gap coming on....

Au Revoir Morzine...

2005-09-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

It's been nice knowing you !! Have had a cracking week this week, fantastic weather all week, in fact today was the first day that a cloud dared show it's face over the horizon. To be honest it was getting a bit too hot, I have sunburn on top of sunburn on top of more sunburn.

The lifts closed for the end of summer on wednesday, and this town is now DEAD. I think my decision not to use the lifts has been a good 'un, all the best trails I have found have been inaccessible by telesiege. All the trails you can get to in the lifts are in a terrible state, rutted and worn and muddied up in the rain. Not to mention some what busy. Found some most excellent stuff by climbing up the walking paths and roads. Best descent of the week definitely the Col de Cou. Took me four hours of up and down to get to it mind... but it was worth it.

Not sure what to do this weekend. Haven't heard back from Britta, my own fault really for the short notice, and she has just moved house etc, so no quick segue into Germany.

I am very tempted to head up to Namur, have just realised I haven't been to Belgium at all this year, so need dosed up on Frites, Biere and Surrealist Art. But it's quite hilly in the Ardennes and I feel the need for some flat roads. At the moment I'm thinking Reims area, it looks flat on the map. Might just drive tomorrow for 4/5 hours then get off the Motorway and see what I find. Or even consult the Rough Guide.

L'Alpe D'Huez and Le Grand Guide Chaud

2005-08-27T01:46:00.000-07:00

In July, the local cycling club in Bourg D'Oisans held a TT up D'Huez. About 30 entries, but this night the record was broken. Some French dude called Patrice Somethingfrenchthatsoundslikeagirlsname got to the top in just over 43 minutes. In the same race a french lassie did it in just over an hour, to finish in the top 10. Chapeau !!

I was riding my full suspension mountain bike, with quite aggressively knobblie tires. And I'm a girl. Was quite pleased to manage it 1n 1.29. It has become a bit of a Tourist Attraction. On a slightly cloudy tuesday morning in late August I must have passed about 50 folk, and about the same passed me. I always felt a bit mean passing french blokes on fancy road bikes on my FS VTT, so tried to say "courage" in the most non-patronising manner I could. Good for them, because trust me it wasn't easy. Every corner is numbered, starting at 21 at the bottom, and bizarrely it gets flatter towards the top, so you can start speeding up a bit for your sprint for the line.

The VTT was a most excellent choice of vehicle, at the top of the climb was a huge sign detailing all the offroad paths back down again. Choice !!

Found the most awesome of path I have ever ridden in my life. It was narrow, had a 500 metre (I think, was trying not to look) drop over some of he corners and was very tight and turny, as well as being narrow, rocky and quite steep in places. And rooty in others. Superb !! There were a few road sections, and it took me an hour to get back down to the valley. Arms and hands sore from constantly working the bike.

At the top of the hill I passed some English DH'ers all padded up. Heard them saying something about French lassies being well hard, no body armour etc. I have decided that my approach to body armour is to rely on some limited skill and some unlimited common sense instead. And anyway, on this path body armour wouldn't have saved you, although a parachute might have helped !!

Then found a nice gentle old railway line path back to the Van. Best 4 hours cycling in a long time, and quite close to L'Etape 2004 for best day in a bike ever. Have discovered a useful function on maps called "the key". There is a bit at the side that tells you what all the different lines and pictures mean. Very handy. Will use that.

Yesterday I decided to treat myself to a days guided ride around the Port Des Soleils vtt trail, using all the ski lifts for the climbs. Turned up in the morning to meet all the French guys, Michel, Jean-Charles and Davide who were coming along, and of course the Guide, Thierry. I am sorry to say this, as obviously I generally disapprove of this kind of thing, but he was HOT. In a tall, tanned and handsome kind of way. Was a bit baldy and had a silly little French beardy thing going on, but that just took him away from being ridiculously perfect. He kind of knew it though. Gratuitously took off his shirt during our lunch break, and it wasn't even that sunny. Just some kind of Public Service to women I guess. Made the day more entertaining.

Was a good fun day out, Thierry quickly sussed I knew what I was doing and sent me down increasingly more technical trails, first. Wahhoooo !!! Lots of fun, although lots of waiting about. 9 hours out there, and 4.30 hours on my computer to cover 65 k. A lot of that was the lifts I guess. French chivalry seemed to dictate that I wasn't allowed to go on a chairlift alone, so I never got to see if I could gob on any cows, a bit of a disappointment. But I got to try out my French a bit.

One more week to go in Morzine. Am hoping to go and visit my friend Britta in Bonn in Germany next weekend, just waiting on her email. Have known Britta since we were 16 and used to cheat in French class (OK Britta could speak French and I used to cheat), looking forward to seeing her, haven't caught up for a year or so.

Il pleut et il pleut et il pleut et il pleut...

2005-08-23T01:21:00.000-07:00

Pg 980 of the Rough Guide to France states that; 'one place you're unlikely to be cycling to is the ski resort of Alpe D'Huez'. OK, so it doesn't have Don't Panic written on the front in big friendly letters, but it is usually more reliable than that !

But I'm starting in the middle. (one of the many benefits of a classical education) Spent most of last week exporing the trails and road climbs around Morzine. Not easy if you stubbornly refuse to use the chairlifts. Bit of an Epic ride on friday, decided I liked the look of a walking path to get to the top of a col that would take me over to Swiss airspace and some lovely descents. As I was climbing up, remarked to myself that it would make a great descent, and I must try it from the other side sometime. I am not sure where I lost the path, although it was horribly clear over a beer later on. Ended up 4 hrs in, carrying my bike to the top of a mountain, hoping to see a massive carpark and telesiege on the other side. Nope, 200 metre drop. Bollocks.

Nae food left, cloud closing in and pretty knackered after 1200 metres of climbing, so set off back down the path, terrifying a few french walkers. Oops. Will not be defeated, Sir Ed Hilary and all that, so will tackle it from the Swiss side sometime. Will remember and take Tensing to carry my bike, mind.

Started raining somewhat on saturday, no worries, I needed the rest, got lots of shopping and chores done, finished The Algebraist by Iain Banks. Rained again on sunday, so did some desultory climbing intervals and back to my tent. Bored now. Contemplating a home made tattoo. Feel like I'm in an 80's Aussie Soap 'Rack off, or I'll dob you in to The Freak' Desparate enough to start reading the book Kieren leant me 'Sea Harrier Over The Falklands - Commander Sharkey Tells It Like It Really Was For Our Lads'.

Monday morning and it's raining even harder and my tent has really startet to let the water in. Hurriedly throw all the stuff I care about in the Van and head down to a hotel in Bourg D'oisans, the plan tro wait out the weather and get my kiwi arse up some famous Tour climbs. Realise after an hours driving that I don't care very much about my road shoes, they are still in the tent. Looking at the map though, this might not be such a bad thing, to go up D'Huez, Galibier and Telegraphe in a circuit will involve some offroad action, and the VTT is much less scary on the descents, and has lower gears. (but we all know how unreliable French maps are...)

Nice meal in the hotel last night, Magret de Canard, and the waitress spoke English and felt sorry for me on my own so invited me for coffee ! Nice day today so about to head up the hills...

Leith Hill, Mrs Kieren, Swiss Dance Parties and France

2005-08-18T02:05:00.000-07:00

Right - have found an English keyboard - will make more sense now.

Have been in Morzine a few days now, have settled into my campsite. I was a day late, but the charming Monsieur Maxim saved me a lovely spot, right on the edge of the terrace, with a great view out over the mountains. Haven't really communicated with my neighbours yet, but they have a wee white dog that appears to be called "w**ker" which makes me smile when I wake up each morning and hear them calling on it.

Had a days mountain biking in Surrey before I left, and I have to say I was somewhat underwhelmed by Leith Hill. The map I had wasn't brilliant, so I headed for what the Bike Shop Guy described as the "best trail in Surrey". Mucho disappointment. Flowed nicely but lacked any kind of technical challenge. No wonder they all flood up to Glentress.

Went to visit Kieren's mum Christine in Dorking for a cup of tea on my way back. A lovely woman, didn't look nearly old enough to be Kieren's mum. She worried me a bit, was concerned about me camping on my own, but I am too knackered from either driving or riding all day so far to feel nervous, and the campsite is totally full.

The most bizarre experience so far of my holiday has been the Street Dance Party in Zurich. The main street of Zurich runs along the river Lim, and was packed with I swear close to a million German speaking teenagers in the most terrible fashions I have ever seen ! It seems the 80's are back with a vengeance in the German speaking world - or more likely - they never went away. Bright colors as far as you could see, tragic tragic bogan mullet haircuts, on the women to. The big fashion (for boys AND girls) is to wear a short kilt style skirt, then some trousers that start at the knee and flare out over your shoes, leaving the knee to thigh area bare. I am hoping and praying that this is just some fringe Swiss teenager fad, and not something that will eventually catch on and we will all be wearing it. (the horror)

Anyways, lots of loud music, lots of drugs, lots of people snogging, usual street party form. Wandered about a bit with Liz and Kaium, then went for a drink in Spanish bar with some friends of theirs Blos(American) and Magdalena (Polish). Finished up at B & M's flat drinking some vodka that tasted like grass. They didn't seem to be offended that I wasn't drinking it. Staggered back to L & K's flat at about 3-4ish, so bit of a slow start the next day.

Sunday morning went for a wander around Zurich (s0me of the party-goers were still at it) through "Needle Park" then took a boat trip around Lake Zurich. Train back to Basle.

Just a few thoughts about France:
1. Who exactly is meant to "Cedez Le Passage" ? It appears only to apply to foreigners and people on bikes.
2. What is the word for: A big coffee, with some milk on the side.
3. France is very like Switzerland, but less cheesy.

And no doubt a few more but running out of time now...

You Are't in Guatemala Any More, Dr Ropata....

2005-08-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

And thats for sure. Apologies if the typing in this blog gets q bit rqndom, I qm using q french keyboqrd, qnd rqlly cqn't be qrsed trying to do ,uch more thqn touch typing.

Anyways, London was cool, wqs greqt to cqtch up zith Jqnine qnd Jeremy qnd Pete. Stqyed in Epsom for q fez dqys, zith q x couple of trips into London. I feel q few words should be sqid qbout the nez qnd horrible form of rqndom violence being perpretqted in thqt city qt the moment. I too was q victim in q smqll way. Yes thqt's right, I visited q Gqstro Pub. Now, I know people qre used to pretty much being mugged by wqiters in London, but this was extreme. 30 quid eqch for essentiqlly peqsqnt food, served to us qs if we were peqsqnts. Of course, it was a brilliqnt evening qnd Chris McM wqs the chqrming qnd witty compqnion he qlways is, but I did limp out of the plqce.

Wednesdqy qnd I mqde it to the ferry qt Dover no probs. The crossing wqs good qnf wqs in Frqnce by 0100. Pulled into q services qnd slept in the bqck of the vqn for the night, which wqs surprisingly comfortqble. I love Frqnce !!!!

For some strqng reqson they seemed to b qble to understqnd my French. Perhqps living in Scotlqnd hqs fuinqlly led me to develop some more vowel sounds, extrq to the two qllotted to kiwis qt birth.

Qrrived in Bqsle to visit Chris D qkq Cqnnondqle Chris. Wqs pretty lost co,ing into the city, so decided to hqve q beer. Remembered something qbout outrqgeously low drink driving limits in Europe, so took drqnk hqlf of it, qnd took the glqs bqck in. Found q huge detqiled city mqp on the wall. Further eveidence thqt everything IS better qfter you hqve q beer. Found Chris' flqt no worries. Went out for mqny mqny beers on the first night, then spent the dqy wandering qbout the city in the sun. Thqt night went for q couple of hours roqd ride zith the Cqnnondqle guys, was good fun pinging bqck qnd forzqrds into Frqnce qnd bqck qgqin into Switzerlqnd. Qlso got q shot qt the huge pile of sqmple Cqnnondqle kit thqt lies qbout the bqck of the office - score !!

Switzerlqnd is qn qlmost psychoticqlly orgqnised plqce, for exqmple in Chris' building to do his lqundry, he hqs to put his nqm down on q rotq qt the stqrt of the month for his 3 hour window to use the mqchins in the bqsement. Qnd if you use the wrong type of string to tie up your recycled newspqper bundle they won't tqke it. I decided to lqunch my own form of rebellion qnd not pqy the 60 swiss frqncs they wqnt off you for roqd tqx. I figured pleqding ignorqnce of Swiss Germqn would be fqirly convincing.

Spent sqturdqy night through in Zurich visiting with Liz Gornqll (now Guerrero) qnd wqtching the mqssive street pqrty. But more on thqt lqter qs I qm running out of time.

Qrrived in Morzine lqst night qnd set up cqmp. Hqve picked up some mqps qnd will hit the trqils this avo..... yippee !!!!

Edinburgh - London safely negotiated

2005-08-08T01:44:00.000-07:00

Finally away on my trip, after feeling like I have been hanging about Edinburgh for weeks.

Has been an eventful couple of weeks. Boring part was packing up everything I own to leave my flat tidy for my American tenant who arrived last friday. Fun part was that I got a couple of days work mountain bike guiding.

My two clients were called Scott and Chett, a couple of American guys. They were good cyclists, and really funny, interesting to talk to. They came from Florida and are more used to flat boggy riding, so took a while to get used to the hills. Although apparentely having to bunny-hop over an alligator wouldn't have phased them !! They wanted to see about Glentress and Innerleithen, as they had read about the Seven Staines. Was the best two days work I have ever had, well paid, fun, and they even gave me a tip at the end. The highlight for them was definitely the Spooky Woods section at GT, they had never seen a "beam" in their lives (now I know how a kiwi accent sounds to Americans - "choice bikes, bro") but by the end of the second day were launching off the exit of the berms and getting noticeable air on the jumps. I decided to finish with a highlight and took them down the Caddon Bank descent at Inners. They couldn't believe we do that in the dark in winter... I wish every day at work could be like that !!

Eventually left on thursday to drive to Sherwood Forest. Figured as I was in the area I might as well do the NPS XC race. Had a few trips up to the hospital in Edinburgh, in fact that was my last stop before hitting the road. Nothing serious, just took a chunk out of my ankle with the chain ring on my road bike t'other week, and it was festering. After threatening a while it isn't infected and the nurse (aside from telling me not to wash for a few days, will be disobeying that one) told me to stop worrying about it and enjoy my holiday. Just a bit paranoid about getting an infection and ruining my holiday I guess.

Anyways, back to Sherwood Forest. Less said about that the better, here is an excerpt from a ranty email to a friend of mine that kind of sums it up:

"Was cruising along in third yesterday, could see girl in second, warmed up and feeling strong. 3rd lap was trying to put some space between me and the south african lassie in fourth. In the Zone roadie time trial style, then realised I couldn't see anybody in front of me, or behind me, and there weren't any tire marks on the track, and the fireroad didn't look at all familiar. BUGGER.

Turned around and went back to the marshall, who said he tried to yell at me, and that "3 or 4" girls had come past since I took the wrong track. In my race thats half the godamn field. I am ashamed to admit that the whole tough wee kiwi act deserted me at that point and I burst into tears, was crying too much to even attempt to chase the race down.

I'm such a twat. Keep telling myself that it's not the Olympics, nobody actually died or anything, but it was important to me. Am gutted, feeling really fit at the moment, and in the last three races have either crashed, drowned in mud, or took the wrong path (I can't believe I did that what a egg). My friends in Epsom have been pouring wine down me which is helping a little.
Perhaps in a few days I will see the funny side. Everytime I leave the room somebody yells out directions. Very f**ing funny..."

So anyway that was that really. Gritted my teeth all the way down the M1, in fact found myself in a line of traffic nudging 100mph at one point, Go The Van !! Am in Epsom for a few days before I catch the Ferry to Calais on wednesday night. Chilling out, went for a cruise on some trails with Jeremy yesterday while poor Janine was ill in bed. Ended up spending 45 mins cycling and 90 mins in the pub - superb ! Had a BBQ last night, will head off on the road bike for a few hours this avo. Meeting Chris McMillan tonight at Waterloo station. Hopefully head over to Leith Hill for some offroad action tomorrow, then drinks tuesday night with J9 and Di.

A Bientot.

The Battle of The Somme

2005-07-27T04:01:00.000-07:00

Was away down in England last weekend for the British Cross Country Mountain Bike Champs. Travelled down with my friend Kieren from the Edinburgh Road Club. I was entered in the Masters Category (30+) and Kieren in the Seniors (20+).

The weekend started well, we had a good trip down and stayed in a village called Iron Bridge, the main tourist attraction of which was the (wait for it) first iron bridge ever built at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Hard to believe now, the main source of income seems to be tea-shops.

Kieren's brother Tom and his mate Adam came up from London to meet us. On saturday we went for a practice run about the race course, which was dry and fast and looking good. Adam and Tom hired some bikes to take part in the Open/Fun category early sunday morning. They immediately started beer-loading as preparation for the race.

It was probably a good tactic !! On sunday it absolutely chucked it down, and turned the entire course into a muddy hellhole worthy of a Wilfred Owen poem. Adam had pulled out of the race with a "hamstring injury" but Tom carried on and managed his two laps, the course being still rideable at that point.

I set off about 12.15, and managed one lap actually on the bike. The rain continued to get heavier and the course got muddier and more churned up as more riders went over it. Lap two involved a lot of falling off, sliding and running down steep bits carrying my bike. Was seriously considering pulling out, and was preparing my speech for the club committee (who had given us financial support to race) as I want through the changeover area.

Nae luck !! Was spotted by James Ouchterlony, best rider in Scotland and general all round nice bloke, who yelled out some encouragement as I went through. Couldn't give up then without looking really stink !! So I soldiered on. It was frustrating, was feeling good and fit on the climbs but just couldn't stay on the bike long enough and got wet and cold on the rest of it. Then I heard the start gun go for the Senior Mens race and it was all over for me. Put in a big effort to at least get to the last descent before they caught me, and mostly managed it. Spent the rest of the 3rd lap getting out of the way, which involved a fair bit of running alongside the course, so I could keep moving and stay out of danger. Snotty bunch they were too, only 3 people said thanks to me for getting out of the way. Elbows out next time...

So anyway, after 2hrs 54 mins (nearly three hours !! Spare it !!) I finished in 6th place out of 13 entrants, so pleased enough with that under the circumstances, but reckon I could have done better under better conditions. But I guess a race like that brings out the more skilled riders, which is only fair.

Tom finished second to last in the Open, but was a pretty heroic effort for his first ever XC race and having got in at 4am after drinking loads of cider the night before. Adam and Tom both reckon they will train up and come back next year....

Kieren finished 33rd out of 65 entrants in the Senior Men, which was a pretty good effort with major chain suck and only the big chain ring. The above-mentioned James O got 3rd, which was a brilliant result for him and the Scottish Team.

Off now to pack my mud tires permanantly in the back of the van...

Last day at the Museum and dangerous white substances

2005-07-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

It was my last day of work today for a while, a busy busy busy day of emailing, following Le Tour on cyclingnews.com and eating cakes ! I have to admit to a few wee tears, I met so many good people, and although my job wasn't always easy it was definitely never boring.

Said goodbye to the Goldfish on my way out.

Busy packing up the flat now, and heading down to England for the weekend for the British XC Nationals at Bringewood. Feeling fit, but injured my hand in one of my trademark stupid little crashes at the weekend, so not sure how I will go. But who needs to brake anyway ? I'll just Single Speed it...

Joke of the week, courtesy of my mother:

"Dangerous white substance found at Lions training session today.

The Lions Touring Rugby team training session was delayed today for nearly two hours.

One of the players, while on his way back to the dressing room happened to look down and notice a suspicious looking, unknown white powdery substance at the end of the field.

Coach Clive Woodward immediately suspended practice while the Police were called in to investigate.

After a complete field analysis, the Police determined that the white substance, unknown to the players, was the try line. Practice was resumed when the officials decided that it was unlikely that the team would encounter the substance again."

Supremo-fantastico-amundo

2005-07-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

Just back from a brilliant 10 days in the Dolomites in northern Italy. Was away with a group from the Edinburgh Road Club, me, Andrew Sinclair, Niall Macdonald, Denise Lamond and Richard Garret, and joined for a few days by Hazel Sutherland and Cliff White who were bike touring. Also shared the odd glass of wine with Jackie Reid and her brother and friends who were there to do the Marathona.

It was a pretty gruelling trip over, drive through to Prestwick, flight to Bergamo, then collect rental cars and drive up to San Cassiano. Niall's workmate had assured us that "it's only a couple of hours drive" For Michael Schumacher maybe. Major schoolgirl error at Europcar when I realised I had carefully taken my driving licence out of my wallet the day before. Was about to start crying when Andrew stepped in and put it on his licence. Advice from the Europcar dude: "if you get stopped by Caribinieri you lost your licence in the hotel, OK ?"

I had drawn the short straw and was driving by myself, and after a small detour in the direction of Rome, and eventually got on the road up to the Dolomites. This was a traumatic drive, it was a dark and stormy night, with the scenery lit up dramatically every so often by fork lightning. Seemed to drive constantly uphill. At one point the rain got so heavy I had to pull over for a while, I couldn't see more than 5 metres and due to the switchbacks strongly suspected there was a 200 metre drop at the side of the road. I was right. Made the hotel by 1.30 in the morning, luckily the advance party had sorted out my room key and rang me to give directions.

A few days to acclimitise and it was the main event of the holiday, the Marathona dles Dolomites on sunday 3rd, a Grand Fondo type event with 3 routes, 50k, 110k and 147k. As opposed to the Grand Fondue events with Ham, Cheese and Steak. After much eating of pasta and a 10pm curfew the night before, we set off down to the start line at 5.30 am.

The race itself wasn't at all what I expected. I had seen the profile and knew I would be spending the entire day either climbing or descending, but had thought there would be some kind of atmosphere, a camararderie in adversity or something. 8000 people out on the road and it was deadly silent, as everybody slogged up the climbs or tore down the descents. Jackie Reid passed me on the second climb. After 55k had taken me three hours, and Jackie was the only person I had spoken to the boredom set in, and I decided I wasn't enjoying it enough to justify the physical toll of riding the full 147, which would have taken around 7-8 hours. So I wimped out and decided to do the 110k. Enjoyed myself much more after that, stopped to look at the awesome scenery and decided I was going to say hello to all the girls I passed. This was not as easy as you might think, as Italian blokes are quite small and German women don't shave their legs. Luckily our names were on our numbers which gave a bit more of a clue. Got a few replies, mostly not in English but it helped pass the time.

Headed down to Belluno on the monday and spent the rest of the week in a villa in a wee village called Castion and 1965. The villa had everything you needed, but none of it had been updated in 40 years. Did some road rides, sunbathed, shopped, chatted, ate lots, watched the Tour de France on the tele, perfect holiday.

Returned to a lovely sunny weekend in Edinburgh. Back to work tomorrow, but only for another 7 days, so I might just cope !

Chased by the Muffia and swimming with da fishes

2005-07-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

Been away for a while and not had the chance to write an update. Event of note recently was the Scottish Cross Country Mountain bike champs up in Inverness. Was a bit worried as this was only my second race in the Elite/Expert category and having been utterly tanked and coming last in the race before, hopes were not high so I decided to relax and enjoy myself.

It was a great course, lots of variety and and some good fun descents. Made a much better job of this race, was in amongst it for the first lap, then had a comedy crash on the second. Totally my own fault, there was a wee narrow bridge over a river, and was going well so feeling confident I asked the marshall as I passed "has anybody fallen in yet ?" Stupid stupid stupid !! It was enough to lose concentration and go head first into the river. I was VERY VERY LUCKY, there was a river to catch my bike and a shrub to catch my face. Only injury a few bashes on my face and a bit of a black eye. Got back on my bike and everything seemed to be working. Lost a fair bit of time and was getting caught by the girl behind me, so dug in and did a faster 3rd lap to hold her off.

Finished in 6th this time out of 7, 7 mins back on the Scottish Champ Catherine as opposed to 14 mins back last race so more than happy with that. Oh, and I actually quite enjoyed it too ! The race was won by Genevieve Whitson, a fellow Kiwi, so a good result all around.

Scottish National Duathlon Champs 18th June

2005-06-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago, my friend Kim emailed me: "theres a duathlon around Arthurs Seat in Edinburgh, you do a bit of running, do you fancy doing it ?" Well I can say now with considerable authority, there is quite a difference between doing a bit of running and taking part in a running race. And I am deeply suspicious that she only wanted me along so there would be somebody she could beat (sorry Kim - just joking - honest).

Decided my best approach to avoid humiliation was to dress as obviously like a cyclist as possible, and wear some very dark sunglasses. And ask lots of really really really stupid questions at the registration. Sample: "why are you writing a number on me, will it wash off in the shower tonight, where do I pin my number, can I draft off the other cyclists" etc etc.

Luckily it was a lovely warm day without too much wind, so it was nice to be out and about. The first run section was hell - I lost about 5 mins from the front of the race over 5k. Did better on the bike section and passed 4 girls (and quite a few blokes) but it was too short to make up for my rubbish running. The second run of another 5k didn't hurt so much, but I looked over my shoulder in the last 200 metres and was getting caught by a lassie I had passed on the bike, so had to sprint for the finish. That hurt rather a lot !!

In the end my mate Kim came 5th, and I came 8th in a field of about 15, and we had a good time, laughing at the weird triathlete types (just pick a sport guys - and preferably one that doesn't involve running in grut togs). It's two days later and I still can't walk properly. Never again !! Might just leave running for fun from now...

Scottish Summer arrives at last....

2005-06-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

It's 2pm in the afternoon and I am making the most of the Scottish summer. That is, sitting in the house waiting for it to stop raining so I can go out on my bike.

I have created this blog to keep in touch with friends and family in New Zealand, and to report back on my adventures in Europe this summer.

First trip scheduled is Italy 30th June - 10th July, to take part in the Marathona dles Dolomites, a 90 mile hilly road race over some of the climbs used in the Giro.

I finish work on 19th July (yippee !!) and will be heading down to Engerland for a week or so, then back up to Scotland to hand my flat over to my American tenant Robin for the Fringe Festival.

Back down to Engerland 1st August, then across to Belguim, Germany, Switzerland visiting friends on the way, and setting up camp in Morzine for a few weeks. Back to Italy, for the MTB World Champs in Livigno first weekend in September, then a dash across Europe to end up in Fort William, Scotland by 10th September.

(then I guess I had better start looking for a job, mebbe)

I will post diary entries along the way, please feel free to add any comments if you have something interesting to say. All I would ask is that you remember that my mother might be reading them !

New Zealand seems to be coming up on the television a fair bit at the moment, partly due to the Lions Tour I guess. There is a programme on tonight about Gangs, the first episode featuring the Mongrel Mob, and advertised with pictures of some guys with Porirua patches. Ah, so nice to be reminded of home ! Will tape it and send to NZ if its any good.

Helen