One challenge at a time

Prepared for the off early this morning I ignored the dark clouds above and stole hope from the odd ray of sunshine that dared to show itself. It is definately a labour of love this training malarky. Fed up with being wet and cold on a bike... the winter hangover has persisted but must be persevered through and it was with that in mind and a few hours to kill that I set off this morning. It didnt take long to attach all my kit to my bike. Literally ALL the kit that I am taking with me on the test of my life so far... the Tour Divide Race. The Ridgeway start,  just outside of Streatley, is a hell of an introduction. Legs that haven't got a clue of the punishment about to be faced are thrown into the fray with a hill that climbs up onto the ridge... Stony.. slippy... full of bumps (and often bruises) and a constantly wearing gradient... it continues for what seems like forever (to unprepared legs). My mind however was prepared and knew what was coming... the gears were low and I s...

Following several mildly disasterous fully loaded outings on my bike I thought Id blog a bit about the kit and my thoughts in set up so far for anyone thats interested. Some less technical posts will follow. As a general rule... Im not kit crazy (whatever some of my friends may think). I havent actually weighed my kit yet.. yet being the operative word. .. rather going on the feel of it. I have had 3 fully loaded test rides. 2 short and 1 longer... all provided lessons about me and my bike... which is another way of saying they didnt go too well. My first impression is that the kit bags I have are good... verging on the great BUT whereas they worked with my road bike perfectly ... there are a couple of issues with my mountain bike. Aside from the fact that I am now fully convinced that I need to shed even more weight! The frame bag doesnt leave enough space for bottles on my bike in the places where there are clamps. I can either get a smaller frame bag (Im looking at the Alpkit pos...

Kit was packed with consumate care making sure I had everything I would take on the Tour Divide. This was my first fully loaded run out and after the disaster of last weekend (see previous blog) I was a little nervous that this would be worse. I got up early and after some faffing was on the road to Winchester and the start of the South Downs way. My plan was to cycle out until around midday... turn round and cycle back... hoping to do a huge amount of mileage in the process. So it didnt work out quite like that. I managed a paltry 41 miles in many hours of cycling albeit in pretty crappy trail conditions. The mind boggled at such a pathetic attempt but as the disappointment cleared ... the analysis began.... Having uploaded the route GPX to Ride with GPS (https://ridewithgps.com/trips/13466774) Looking at it - once the mud had dried out a bit I did manage to keep the speed up a bit.  Total moving time was about 5 hours with a stopping time of nearly 4 hours!! thi...

Training weekend in the Lakes... Grizedale forest to be exact....  This was a chance to try out carrying kit and a few tweaks on the bike...  Coming hot on the heels of 9 out of 10 days at work... including the new 14 mile cycle to work and the 14 miles back and a late night... a 4am start and a 5 hour drive to meet up with nicola and david j at Grizedale Forest .. was not the best way to prepare for what we hoped would be another epic ride or two. To say I was knackered was an understatement! But... I reasoned... with all the 'Lid Logic' I could muster... THAT is precisely how the Tour Divide will be. I had packed an approximation of all the kit that I will be taking with me from Canada to the Mexican border and packed it into the bike packing bags as it would be for the start in June. New innovation... well for me... was the packing of my sleep system... but more of that in another post to come. The bags were packed ... the bike was ready...and as I drew up to the visito...

Whilst not much mountain biking has not been achieved in the last month I have spent some time researching my fears.. Wild animals in the UK conjour up images of foxes... badgers... deer... animals that are way more scared of me than I am of them. Catch a glimpse of one of those and it will be them that run away not me. Therefore one of the more scary aspects of the Tour Divide is an unexpected wildlife encounter. On this ride it is me that is scared of the animals and not the other way round. And so began the research into the native predators along the route and the likelihood of 'bumping' into one of these magnificent creatures... hopefully figuratively and not literally. My reading pre signing up to the dotted line started with books and blogs documenting racer's stories... many of which had at least one mention of an encounter. This info has been backed up by comments on a thread on the Tour Divide group on facebook where nearly everyone who commented had a story t...

Jens Voight .. a cycling great... made famous the phrase 'shut up legs'. Along with Rule #5 (Harden the Fcuk up) this is my biking mantra. Cycling through the winter months is invariably a challenge. Its cold and dark and often wet. This winter however the training has to continue given that.. as  many of you know.. I am attempting my hardest CraZiest challenge to date at the end of June.. Cycling in an individual time trial version of The Tour Divide... a awe inspiring (and fear inspiring) off road race from Banff in Canada all the way down to the Mexican border in New Mexico. Throw in a house move (actually 2 house moves) and the highlight of my year.. every year.. The Gathering (A weekend of music from my inspiration Mike Peters) not to mention work... and time for training has been a bit curtailed. This all changed with my move to Tadley and a 14 mile commute to work with another 14 miles back.  But more of that in a bit. Motivation to get up and go out on a bike in the...

It was already one of those dayz. With less than dogged determination.. I hit the snooze button several times this morning.. the 05:30 alarm being deemed waay to early. Despite that I managed to drag my arse up and out the door by 06:30 (half hour later than intended) having prepared all my kit the night before. This involved collecting my bike from storage (I am temporarily technically homeless) and gathering together a myriad of old and new (untested) kit. I had some aero bars ( yes those things again... not the chocolate version) .. which took an age to attach due to the bolts repeatedly falling out and then not engaging the threads! And all on film 😁 One of those dayz... Despite this I eventually manage to get them on. They werent very pretty (yes that is important) and wouldnt be useful for my planned ride in Exeter today.. I was looking towards the bigger 'Tour Divide' picture. The aerobars might provide a welcome rest for my hands on the few flattish and...