www.josh-ibbett.com

2012

2012-01-23T21:42:00.000Z

This year will be my 10th season of racing. I started racing cross country when i was 14 in 2002 and to be honest I was rubbish! I still remember my first race very clearly, it was an round of the Eastern Region series at Thetford Forrest and I was so nervous that I false started so we were all were called back. Then when we finally set off I was pretty pathetic and finished near the back of the field. Fortunately I didn't just give up there and then. Something made me want more so once again I lined up at the next round of the series, this time armed with new SPD pedals. Surely I would be so much quicker this time! I managed not to false start which was progress, however I did managed to miss my pedal, loose my balance and fall off just after the start line while all the other kids laughed at me as they rode away! This experience still didn't dampen my enthusiasm so the following year I entered the first round of the National Points Series this time as a youth. The start was ok and the race satisfactory, I believe I finished 23rd which was ok for me. I even survived the piss taking that my race number attracted. It was 911 and I was adamant that it was good as Porche 911's were fast cars. Everyone else thought it was more amusing to compare it to the American emergency services number though.

So after that first Nationals race the bug truly bit me. My parents then began carting me around the country racing for the rest of my time at school. I progressed steadily and made it consistently into the top 10 as a first year junior as well as spending a few years on the British Cycling Talent Team. Then I blew it. I raced too much, trained too hard, fried my brain at school too much, didn't eat enough and imploded. My second year as a junior was miserable and I pretty much stopped racing for a year. Luckily this coincided with starting university so I was soon able to distract myself from bikes with alcohol and dancing. Gradually my desire to ride and race again returned as did my fitness. I was now living in Cardiff and suddenly had proper mountain bike trails right on my door step, a far cry from flat Cambridgeshire where I grew up. Gradually I developed bike handling skills and confidence and most importantly the love of riding returned. The summer of my 2nd year at uni was the best. People had been nagging me to try and enduro for quite a while so finally I gave in a took part in the Torchbearer 12h at Twentyfour12. I rode those 12hours as hard as I could, it seemed totally effortless and made total sense to me. I won the race which helped and from that moment forward Josh the enduro racer was born.

Since that race I have gradually built my enduro experience and fitness up and have collected a couple of decent results in the process. I won my first solo 24h at Relentless24, then came close to pulling of a shock victory at the National 24hour championships in 2010 (my second 24h race). Ultimately inexperience cost me that day and I faded to 3rd place but now had the confidence that I could become the top UK enduro racer (a goal which I am still working at!). Last year wasn't the greatest for me race wise but I did manage to set a new record for the south downs double which kind of made up for it.

So 2012 is set to be a big year for me. I'm going it alone sponsor wise this year and have managed to put together a great set of sponsors who have committed to support me with product and equipment through out the year. I'm very happy to be officially riding for Santacruz UK. I have ridden the Tallboy to all of my best results and love it to bits. The fact that I will now have a shiny new Tallboy to race on plus a Highball hardtail makes me a very lucky bike rider!

The North Face will also be providing me with their brilliant kit. There will be no excuses for getting out in every type of weather now!

USE and Exposure lights have kindly agreed to provide me finishing kits for my bike and their excellent range of lights so I can see in the dark. They are also very understanding employers and enable me to be flexible with time off so that I am able to train and race. Thanks guys!

I will also be rolling on some pretty cool equipment. Reynolds will be providing me with their new xc29er wheel set, its super stiff, light, looks awesome and makes a satisfying echoey clunk when you shift gears (very important!). No wheel set is complete with out some good tyres and thankfully Schwable will be helping me with the best rubber going.

Nutrition is key for any race and they guys at Torq have agreed to continue supporting me into 2012. I can't wait to pop a caffeine gel at hour 18 of a 24h race... its magic!

Lezyne will be providing me with tools and pumps to keep my shiny new bikes in good working order and to keep those Schwable tyres pumped up.

All bikes need a little bit of bling on them and I am lucky enough to have a bling sponsor too. Mt Zoom will be helping me with some nice shiny light bits. These are the bits that make all the difference as every one know that red things go faster!

I'm hoping not to crash too much but accidents do happen. Kask helmets will be making sure my head doesn't damage the floor too much if I do crash.

I will also be keeping things smooth with Juice lubes chain lube and Chapeau Chamoix cream.

So now that I've announced all these wonderful sponsors what am I going to do?
Well the schedule is pretty full already. Racing kicks off with a couple of stage races. I will be returning to Spain for the week long Andalucia Bike race at the end of February before jetting off to South Africa for the Cape Epic at the end of March. I will be racing these races in a pair with super quick (and fellow Santacruz rider) Ben Thomas. Hopefully I can keep up with him!
Upon my return from South Africa will will once again have a crack at the National 24hour champs. Fingers crossed I can recover, 3rd time lucky! After that I will build up to my first solo attempt at Mountain Mayhem, lets just hope the sun stays out.

So that's enough of my ramblings for now. Next week I head off to Gran Caneria for 10 days hard training. I will report back once I have a sun tan!

Santacruz: http://www.santacruzbicycles.com/home/
The North Face: http://uk.thenorthface.com/tnf-uk-en/hp-uk-en
USE: http://www.use1.com/
Exposrue lights: http://www.exposurelights.com/
Torq: http://www.torqfitness.co.uk/
Reynolds: http://www.reynoldscycling.com/index.php?p_resource=items_wheels_item&p_itm_pk=647
Schwable: http://www.schwalbe.co.uk/
Lezyne: http://www.lezyne.com/
Mt Zoom: http://mtzoom.com/
Kask: http://www.kaskhelmets.com/
Juice Lubes: http://www.juicelubes.co.uk/
Chapeau: http://www.chapeaucycling.co.uk/

Happy new year!

2012-01-07T19:03:00.000Z

Happy new year everybody!

Things have been busy the past month or so. I've not been getting in as many long rides as I would like. The cold I picked up before the last round of the Brass Monkeys lasted a couple of weeks which meant I had to play things by ear regarding training. I've been fairly consistent though just lacking rides over 4hours.

I went on a road trip up north over the Christmas period. Before you say it know everywhere is up north from Brighton, but I did actually go to the proper up north where they all speak funny and the weather is crap! I visited fellow endurance racer Rich Rothwell for a few days riding. The plan was for Rich to show me a nice long techy ride out in the Northumberland fells.

Unfortunately as usual my visit coincided with horrific weather. Rich assures me that it is nice up north but I am yet to be convinced! The wind was so strong that we struggled to stay on our bikes, let alone ride the technical descents. As we ventured out from the woods and onto the fells the weather turned and pelted up with horizontal rain and hail. We decided to turn back rather than risk riding in such dangerous conditions. I was a shame but it also meant that we could get a curry sooner!

The following day the wind was a little more pleasant, but still damn strong! We headed out on the road bikes for a tough 50mile loop similar to last years national road race championships. As expected the weather was crap for the first 45mins and both Rich and I cursed rain and wind and each other for being stupid enough to ride in it. Eventually the sun did make and appearance... just in time for the big climbs!

Rich is skinny even by my standards and took great pleasure in telling me how much I would 'enjoy' the steep climbs. I wasn't convinced but was up for it anyway. We rode up the climbs pretty hard and I managed not to get dropped, an achievement I was quite happy with (even of it did take riding at 400watts!). It shows that my focus on riding steep climbs is paying off and I am getting stronger which is pleasing.

Since the new year has begun I have fitted in a few long rides but my efforts have been thwarted by yet another cold. Luckily it only lasted a few days so hopefully the big rides will come more often. I have also booked 10 days training in Gran Caneria at the beginning of February which will allow me to get in a nice big block of training and more importantly a good sun tan before the big races begin!

2012 will also see me move on from the Torq Performance team. It was a great year on the team and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the team. However I decided to do my own thing for this season to allow me to focus on my endurance racing/riding goals.
I will make a full announcement later in the month but for now here is a clue to some of my new sponsors...

Brass Monkeys Rd 2

2011-12-21T19:31:00.000Z

The past weekend I raced the second round of the Brass Monkeys winter series. After finishing 2nd at the first round I was keen to try for the win this time around. Things started better than the previous round, I could actually keep up with Tim Dunford for almost a whole lap! Things started to go wrong after around 30minutes though. I struggled on the short sharp climbs early on and entering the second lap my legs just gave way. For some reason I just couldn't ride fast. I dropped back and soon the headaches began and I slowed even more. I'm not a fan of abandoning races but I really felt quite rubbish so decided that rest would be a better option.

The decision was justified when I was dropped on the social Tuesday night ride yesterday. I just couldn't keep up so I can only assume that my body is fighting off a cold or virus. Hopefully I'll be better for Christmas and the week after where I shall be visiting Rich Rothwell up north for a few days of pain (and a curry!).

Gorrick Brass Monkeys Rd1

2011-11-30T21:31:00.001Z

The past weekend I raced in the first round of the Gorrick Brass Monkeys winter series. This was to be my first race since early July as my South Downs Double preparation and a month of illness mean I didn't have much chance to race in the second half of the summer so I was keen to use the race to set a fitness benchmark for my training over the next few months.

The field was pretty strong, although being winter most people are not really race fit, myself included. From the gun it was clear that Tim Dunford was the man to beat. He cruised away on the first lap and I simply didn't have enough speed to get myself across the gap. As the race settled down I found my self riding with Luke Eggar in 2nd/3rd place. We were soon joined by Ian Payne and enjoyed a nice chat as we smashed round the lumpy single track heavy race circuit.

I decided to try and race from the front so set a nice tempo which I knew that I could sustain for the duration of the race but was hopefully wearing down the guys on my wheel. The plan worked and as we reached the half way mark the chatting in the group stopped so I decided that it was now the time to attack! I rode pretty hard for half a lap to establish the gap then once again settled into cruise control mode for the reminder of the race. Towards the end of the race I faded a little, mainly due to the short steep power climbs on the course which required a burst of aerobic energy to get up. I'm well aware that this is my weakness, a side effect of endurance racing, so it served as a good reminder of the aspects of my fitness that require attention over the winter.

I finished second which was quite pleasing, however Tim won by nearly 13minutes in a very convincing manner. I'd have liked to have finished closer, although I know that my enduro legs cant compete with those of a top elite xc racer over the 4h distance. It has certainly given me motivation to train though and finishing closer at the next round is a nice short term aim in the run up to christmas.

Now to step up the training...

Playing with fire!

2011-11-12T17:53:00.001Z

Training continues at a nice steady rate at the moment. Its fair to say that there has been a 'social bias' towards my training. Mucking about in the woods and riding with mates has been the order of the day so far. I have begun to ride 30mile to and from work a few days a week though over a nice rolling route with plenty of short sharp climbs, exactly what I need as these are my weakness. I've also been rock climbing once a week and am already noticing the improved strength in my little pecker arms!

Last weekend was the 5th of November, bonfire night, and a perfect example of training with a 'social bias'. Check out my video and remember kids... beer, bieks and fireworks are a dangerous mix!

Night rider

2011-11-06T11:16:00.000Z

November is here and my month of rest is over. I've started 'training' again. I say training but what I really mean is mucking about on my bike in the woods. Here's a video from the weekly Tuesday night ride:

Night riding in Stanmar park, Brighton from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Thanks to exposure lights for providing a sixpack and diablo to light the way. They even etched my south downs double record time on the diablo for me... thanks guys!

The off season

2011-10-16T21:29:00.000+01:00

The last time I rode my bike I rode 200miles. Since then I've done nothing. Beating the south downs double record seemed a nice way to end the season so I've been enjoying being lazy for a while. I have managed to keep a little busy though, here a list of whats been going on:

Wall papered bedroom (well 'supervised' my mother wallpapering my bedroom!)
Went to the Pub for double celebrations
Started working full time at USE/ Exposure (don't worry only for a few months!)
Went to Birmingham bike show to work with USE/ Exposure
Got bitten on the ankle by a killer brummie insect
Stood up for 4 days solid
Managed to get bite on ankle infected
Late night trip to A&E upon return from Birmingham
Had 2 days off work due to infected ankle swelling like balloon!

Went back to work
Worked at Dusk Till Dawn
Went back to work and made Maxx D's all day
Moaned about sore hands from making Maxx D's all day
Went to work and played with the laser etcher all day
Managed not to burn off fingers on laser
Drank some Russian Vodka
Went to Brighton but cant remember what happened due to aforementioned Vodka
Had a headache
Went for stroll on the beach
Stroll turns into 2h power walk
Sold junk on ebay
Accidently brought rock climbing shoes on ebay
Wrote this blog

That's obviously a condensed version of my activities over the last few week. Normal cycling activities (and real paragraphs!) resume next week when I begin building my base for 2012. I cant wait!

The Double

2011-09-27T21:32:00.000+01:00

The South Downs Way, a 100mile bridleway route along the historic South Downs from Winchester to Eastbourne, the neolithic version of a motorway. There is 3810m of climbing in the 100miles and hardly an inch of flat. For years the challenge had been to ride the length of the downs. But then some endurance cyclists who are a few brain cells short decided to try and ride it both ways non stop, 200miles with 7620m of climbing. Then some slightly more stupid cyclists decided to ride the whole length of the downs and back unsupported, carrying all their food and equipment for the ride apart from water which was collected from the public taps en route. Then the challenge was the do this in under 24hours which was soon achieved. The problem with setting times for long distances is there is always another more stupid, more competitive endurance cyclist willing to try and beat it. Thus the problem escalated, more stupid cyclists tried the double and the record tumbled down to 18hours and 3minutes set by Ian Lietch in 2009. Then an even more stupid cyclist decided that he would quite like to break the record, ME!

The double record has been in my sights since I moved down to Brighton in the spring. I quickly fell in love with the South Downs, the long rides, big views, the peace and quiet. So not wanting to do things by half i decided the best thing to do would be to do a double.... really quick!

So at the strike of midnight I headed out from the shadow of King Alfreds statue in Winchester on my attempt at the record. I had been super nervous all day, shaky hands and all! I knew my preparation was good. I had the bike for the job, full suspension 29ers are the way to go for this kind of stupidity (big orange ones are even better!), I had the route dialed in my mind, my nutrition plan sorted and was travelling light compared to all the previous attempts. I had no rucksack, all my food and equipment was stored on the bike frame or in my jersey pockets. The reason I was so nervous was a lack of confidence over my form. I had trained hard over summer, recced the route and had planned a block of 3 hard races to get in top shape. Unfortunately I managed to get ill and missed all my end of season races and pretty much not ride my bike. In actual fact I had all but written off the double for this year and if it wasn't for a snap decision upon returning from an awesome trip to Italy a week previously i wouldn't have started it.

I planned to ride my self into it gradually. The first few miles are of road which allowed plenty of time to warm up. The only difficulties encountered in the opening miles was avoiding a Policeman who had stopped to have a wee in the bushes next to the cycle path. I was very conscious of my fitness, or lack of (so i thought!), so was keen to hold back at the start. I knew I would struggle on the steep climbs in the middle of the route so wanted to save some energy for them. I was also running a minimal lighting setup to save weight. I ran 1 Exposure Diablo set to low on my helmet plus another Diablo on my bars with an additional single cell external battery to allow me to flick between low and high to the tricky fast descents. The plan was to ride smart, when Ian set the record he was on incredible form but suffered from 6 punctures costing huge amounts of time. My plan was to take the descents at a controlled pace aiming to avoid flints and therefore punctures, not hit out too hard on the first leg then push harder on the return and try to get as close as possible to my outward bound leg on the way home. The nutrition plan was simple, 1 Torq gel and 1 bottle of Torq energy per hour plus a few Torq bars (well 4 to be precise!) to keep hunger at bay of the course of the ride.

The main dangers of the early stages of the ride were avoiding wildlife and keeping awake. Staying awake wasn't too much of an issue, I was wired on Torq Caffeine gels, avoiding wildlife however was not so easy. I saw a number of badgers early on which all luckily scuttled into the bushes as they saw me coming. There were big herds of deer out but again the soon sprung for cover when i came along destroying the peace on my bike! The main issue were the rabbits. Rabbits have an annoying habit of freezing in your lights and then hopping for cover at the very last minute, usually right into your path. For this reason I tried to leave a bit of a gap between me and the edges of the path to avoid and suicidal rabbits wrapping them selves around my spokes and taking me down. This plan worked fairly well apart from one incident on the super fast farm track descent down to the first tap at Cocking. I was travelling at 30miles an hour in the middle of the track when a rabbit launched itself at my bike. It timed it to perfection though as it managed to miss the spokes and became just another slight bump for the 29ers wheels to roll over. It was a close call and could have ended in disaster so I took it as a sacrificial sign from the double gods to slow down and be careful!

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. My mind started to wander around witching hour, just before dawn. By this point I had been awake since 8am the previous day so was feeling a bit jaded. I was feeling slightly queasy too, a result of too many gels and mixing my drink to strongly for the night, basically I had a stomach full of sticky goo as I hadn't factored in that I wouldn't be drinking so much at night. This was soon remedied by drinking weaker Torq Energy until the sun came up. The first glimmers of dawn began to appear as I passed around Brighton, perfect timing as it gave me a boost just as I was thinking of my nice warm bed only 15minutes away! As I reached Ditchling Beacon I heard my name being called, Brighton legends Rory Hitchens and Charlie Eustace had got out of bed super early to cheer me on and shoot some photos and video. It was a huge mental boost and my mind focused back on the task. The section from Ditchling Beacon to Eastbourne is my favorite of the downs, its a series of 4 gradual 5-10minute climbs interspersed with long sections along the ridge and massive views in either direction. I hit Kingston ride at sunrise and that will be a memory that will stay with me forever. From high upon the ridge I could see the downs silhouetted by the rising sun, the tops of which seemed to be floating on a sea of mist.

I ticked off each climb one by one in my head, encouraged by Charlie and Rory and still feeling strong. I hit the turn in 8hours 27 minutes, a little behind my schedule and 24minutes behind Ian's record time but I was confident that I could avoid problems and keep the pace up for a strong return leg. I reset my clock, the return leg was what counted and I was classing it as a separate ride. I had 9 and a half hours to get back, a slight south westerly wind and was feeling strong as I pedaled back up the hill from the turn with Rory's words ringing in my ears... 'its not about the ride, its about the ride back'.

After the turn I was suddenly back in my racing zone. Having not turned a pedal in anger since July my mind was not entirely hungry for pain and suffering on the way out. But once I hit the turn and had a target time it was on, I put my head down and pedaled! Suddenly I was thinking about times, doing maths in my head , working out how fast I could go, what I needed to do. I desperately wanted to go sub 17hours so I figured it was possible if i matched my outward time, so thought I'd give it a good go. I don't think this was entirely realistic looking back at it, but hey what harm could trying do!

The return leg was going well. I made it back to Ditchling Beacon feeling super strong. Tap stops were quick, I was organised, I knew what drink I wanted and where it was and which individual bag it was in in my pocket. I didn't stop for more than a minute at any taps, this was a key part of my strategy, keep eating, keep moving and don't stop! I think due to lack of sleep I even may have explained to a rather bemused Cow on Kingston Ridge that I had to keep MOOOving. it entertained me anyway!

Once I reached Devils Dyke I treated my self to my I-pod, now the tunes were on I was going to smash it! I figured 6hours back from there would be a good time so I locked in on the target and cracked on. Things were going well, the bike was holding up, no punctures, nutrition good, hydrated, legs a little sore on the steep climbs but that was to be expected. Former double record holder Niel Newell popped up a couple of times to offer some words of encouragement which was again greatly appreciated as the loneliness of the ride was beginning to set in by that point. Its worth noting that this is a huge factor. In 24hour races there is always someone to speak to, you get looked after in the pits you get a clean bike, fresh kit, warm food, but out on the double its just you and your bike. You carry everything you need on your body and bike and most importantly the thoughts to keep going in your head. Its a whole new challenge.

As I reached Cocking once more I was beginning to get tired both physically and mentally. It takes a lot of mental power to think about times, food, navigating and avoiding flints, rock and wild life and 15hours of cycling certainly begins to hurt the legs especially the series of steep climbs leading to Cocking. Thankfully John and Tom from Exposure lights had popped out to see me and cheer me on which was once again a huge boost and very much appreciated.

Over the top of the Cocking climb there are a few miles of rutted farm track. I was keeping to the middle avoiding flint where I could still sticking to the conservative ride plan. Suddenly there was a group of riders coming in the opposite direction (how dare they ride on my South Downs!!) and I had a momentary lack of concentration as I decided which rut to pass them in. PSSSSSSSSS, bugger puncture, I survived all the loose flinty descents and then on a muddy track, the one second I loose concentration I hit the only sharp flint in sight. No worries though, I told my self, there is plenty of time in hand just keep calm and it will all be good. There is probably a fair chance I was repeating this out loud so i'm sorry if I alarmed anyone, I could have easily been mistaken for an escaped mental health patient! My legs were sore so I decided to sit on the track whilst I pumped up the tyre with my cool Lezyne pump and I was up and running within 5 minutes.

However that's when the problems began. As soon as I stood up and began to pedal I was faced with a slight dilemma... there appeared to be 3 of everything! I think my body got quite angry with me when I decided to stop and sit down after 15hours constant pedaling and started to shut down. All the blood had suddenly been removed from my head to go and mend the damage so once I started up again I was all over the shop. My mind was strong still but I just couldn't concentrate. In the end I just picked the middle of the 3 things in my vision, aimed for it and hoped for the best. The short steep climbs up to Harting Down were horrific, I was weaving all over the place, falling off the trail and unaware of anything or anyone out side of my tunnel vision. I'm pretty sure I passed a number of walkers and riders on those climbs who all said hello but i was unable to form the words to reply. All I could think was keep eating, keep moving and don't stop! I broke the route into sections and set a finish line at the top of Butser hill. I knew if I got up there in one piece I'd get back ok. My legs were beginning to break but I made it up Butser with some good self motivation swear words and roars of disgust that I'm stupid enough to do these things.

After Butser Hill its just 20miles left with no serious climbs to speak of. I had 2 gels, a bar and a bottle of energy drink, so I necked a gel and told myself i had enough calories to get me back, 2hours to do 20miles and still break the record so get on with it! I pushed as hard as i could on the flats, went as fast as i could on the descent with out risking another puncture and crawled up the few small hills left. As soon as the gradient tipped above 10% my legs stopped working and i was pinned in first gear. I kept skipping to the high tempo songs on my I-pod to keep my rhythm up and buried my self. I was trying to work out how long it would take to get back. For some reason my inadequate mental arithmetic wasn't up to scratch at that particular time so I was convinced i had blown it and would only just scrape a record.This just made me push harder, I couldn't suffer like that for the last 3hours and not get the record. Slowly the landmarks and miles ticked by and I dug deep, deeper than i think I've dug before. I certainly learnt how to really hurt my self in those last 20 miles. Finally I hit Cheesefoot head and the end of the off road sections, all that remained was a quick blast into Winchester on the road. I think I knew I had the record by that point but I still blasted it as hard as I physically could.

I made the turn into Winchester and sprinted full gas towards King Alfred, totally broken. I didn't feel any emotion, my brain was so tired. Lydia Gould and John from Exposure were there to meet me and I asked John if I had the record expecting him to tell me I was 1 or 2 minutes quicker. To my surprise he said I was 16minutes quicker! 17hours 47minutes and 30 seconds. I was relieved more than anything but also a little disappointed. I was feeling so strong for so long and on for a faster time but the last 3hours proved a bit too far.

In the few days since the ride its finally settled in. I've had a huge amounts of messages of support which I am extreamly grateful for and now that my name is offialy recorded as the South Downs Double record holder I can finally let a smile out. The experience was so magical and surreal that I didn't believe it really happened for a while. But now I do and its a great feeling and I'm extremely proud to be recorded in the history books alongside those other enduro nutters! Now its time to start plotting a sub 17h attempt!

Finally I have to thank everyone who has supported me, given me advice and encouragement in particular Rory Hitchens, Charlie Eustace, Niel Newell, John and Tom from Exposure lights for their shouts of encouragement. Lydia Gould for letting me park at her house and seeing me off at midnight, the guys from Torq for providing the energy to keep me going, Exposure lights for lighting the way at night and Lezyne for helping me inflate that tyre so quick! Also Rob Dean for all the route advice and Sabrine from ActivePhysio Clinics for mending after the ride! i'm sure there's some other people I need to thank but i can't remember right know so thanks anyway you know who you are!

Right, cycling season over.... which way to the pub?!

www.joshibbett.com
Twitter: j_ibbett

The final count down...

2011-09-18T16:05:00.000+01:00

Train to Winchester
Slight hangover
Off at the strike of ten
Muddy trails
Slippery chalk
3 barn owls
1 badger
Cows with glowing eyes
Flocks of sheep
Suicidal rabbits
Clear sky
Moon out
Slight tail wind
7 Torq gels
Down on schedule
Up on record
More to come...

I think I'm ready for the double!

ADVENTURE!

2011-09-16T17:34:00.000+01:00

The dictionary definition of adventure is as follows:

ad·ven·ture [ad-ven-cher] noun, verb, -tured, -tur·ing.

noun
1.an exciting or very unusual experience.

2.participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure.

3.a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.

Adventure is a good word to use to describe the past week and its definitions are a handy way to break down this blog so here it goes:

1. An exciting or very unusual experience.
Its not very often that you get invited to the Italian Dolomites by one of the worlds best mountain biking photographers for a 2 day trail ride to feature in MBUK and take part in a photo shoot. How could I turn down such an opportunity! So last Friday I found myself stumbling around Gatwick airport trailing my bikebox and luggage waiting for a flight to Milan. I was heading to Italy to meet up with my house mate (read landlord!!) Rob Dean and mountain bike photo ace Dan Milner. The aim of the week was to try and ride the route of the Laverado Ultra trail running race, a 90km race through some of the most breath taking scenery in the world. I'd been lacking motivations since missing all my end of season races due to a bad cold so this was just the ticket to get some motivation back.

After a very early morning and a long day travelling across Italy with Dan we made it to Auronzo in the Dolomites where we met up with Rob. After building the bikes, soaking up some sunshine and remembering all the stuff I'd left at home we met the organisers of the race for a Pizza and some beer. They seemed to find it quite amusing that we planned to ride our mountain bikes around the race route. i was a bit confused.... how hard can 90km split over 2 days be!?!?!

2. Participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure.
So on Sunday we set off at a leisurely pace loaded with enough food for a couple of 4hour days (obviously it wouldn't take more than 4h to ride 45km!) and some fresh kit for day 2. The ride out of town was nice and gentle for a few km's before we turned and started to head upwards. Eventually the tarmac road turned to jeep track and then to single track up though the fantastic forested valley. After around 45 minutes the trail steepened and he loose surface and wet roots forced us off the bikes so then the trudging began. As we broke out of the tree line there were a few short ride-able sections and an awesome little downhill but the trail bit back with vengeance and steepened up even more into a series of super steep switch backs. The blistering sun and heat was making life hard work, the view however made it all worth while.

So finally we reached the top of the mountain, some 4hours after we set off. It should have clicked at this point that we had bitten off more than we could chew.... but it was so much fun we carried on. The descent off the mountain was incredible. Fast single track led into steep rocky chutes, over massive root beds and through smile inducing turns. It was AWESOME!

So after the killer descent down the valley, we traversed for a while before getting to the base of the final climb at dusk some 10 hours after we set off....

3. A bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.

So picture the scene... 3 tired, hungry blokes with bikes, already long over their expected ride time at the base of a 2500m mountain pass with an incredible sunset silhouetting the mountains and standing next to a sign post which says its 5hours to the refuge. What would you do? The same as us i expect... carry on! So exposure helmets lights were fitted and we set off up another mountain. We managed to ride at least the first 20meters... then we were carrying! This one was worse than the first, long steep switchbacks, rocky scrambles and steep scree slope. To top things off the clouds lowered towards the top and sense of humor levels reached a low.

Eventually we reached the top which was a relief, what comes up must come down. This was the part I particularly enjoyed! There is a certain buzz that riding down a mountain gives you. This particular night I discovered that when riding down a mountain with only an Exposure helmet light set to low, in the mist, on unknown steep trails covered in loose rock and gravel on the edge of control that this buzz is increased tenfold. The top of the descent was awesome, the bottom scary. Eventually we were forced to shoulder our bike once more. The trails was so steep and narrow and the drop below so long that it was stupid to ride any further. The fact that it was dark made it easier, if we could see the length of the drop below things would have been a whole lot scarier. Put it this way... one slip of a carbon soled cycling shoe on the loose gravel could have been fatal.

Eventually we made it to the refuge 14hours after setting out. Dinner had been served many hours before so we settled for a bowl of soup, some crisps and a glass of wine. Then we slept!

After a good night sleep we awoke to find ourselves in the oldest refuge in the dolomites. The scale of the descent began to sink in as we looked back up the mountain in the daylight, it was probably a bit silly in hindsight. The view from the refuge more than made up for the risks though!

The day began with some sweet single track traversing the valley before yet another hike-a-bike sections over yet another col. The top of this pass was spiced up with a bit of rock climbing up a cliff at the summit complete with the standard 1000meter drop below. The view from the top was once again amazing.

The descent off this col was once again incredible. Almost fully rideable with sweet loose gravely turns which could be carved like a skiier carves the snow. It was ace.

Once we hit the valley floor the climbing began once again. Well i say climbing, really i mean hiking. Here is a photo of Dan enjoying the climb (i think he was pretending!)

The last climb was incredibly humid. We were exhausted, the lack of sleep and food over the 2 days began to take its toll. But we plodded on and made the summit. After a traverse across the ridge we hit the last descent, the descent home. Darkness was once again creeping in as we entered the woods. The track down was a wet rocky rooty affair. Brakes were fading, tyres slipping and bottoms clenching! I had a slight tumble when it became apparent that I wouldn't be slowing down entering a steep greasy off camber rock. Luckily I had practiced my crashing technique when i had slipped on a wet root further up the ridge falling 10 ft down the mountain, the bike cart wheeling a further 20ft into a bog. it was only after that i realised the consequences if i had crashed like that when descending the pass at night the previous day. They could have been bad!
We made it though, 10hours on day 2 to add to the 14 on day 1. What an adventure, and not a bad view to finish either...

The following 2 days were relaxed in comparison. We spent them chilling out at 2300meters, shooting photos at dusk and dawn. I don't need to write anymore though, just look at the pictures they say it all...

What a disaster!

2011-08-30T13:45:00.003+01:00

Disastrous... that's the best way to sum up the past few weeks.

I finished off all my route recceing on the south downs double and was ready to hit the end of season races hard to get some top end form and I went and caught a bloody cold. It went straight to my chest and seemed to sap all energy out my body.

I still decided to try and race the Brighton Bigdog, my local race and one I was well up for. I survived 3 laps before pulling the plug, no power, chest full of flem and a sore head. Not good.

This weekend I was due to ride the Torq 12 in a pair. I hadn't ridden my bike for a week and still felt like shit so had to pull out of that. Not good 2.

Next week is the Kielder 100. Unfortunately I seem to run out of energy after 2hours and am climbing like a brick so I'm going to have to pull out of that too. Not good 3!

Hopefully I can get over this illness in the next week or so. That way I may have a fighting chance of being fighting fit for a double attempt before the end of September.

On a positive note I nailed my start at the Brighton big dog... the first time i haven't cocked it up this year!!!!!

Time to get excited

2011-08-13T14:31:00.002+01:00

This time next week everyone should be nursing the post Brighton Bigdog after party hangovers.
Only 6 days left untill the best race of the season. I've been helping the organisers out with a few things. The course is running super fast as the moment and the rain over the past few days has settled the dust down so there is loads of grip to rail those sweet singletrack corners. Here is a course preview video to get you all excited...

What I did today...

2011-08-03T23:55:00.000+01:00

I lured the helmet cam back to life, SO JUST HIT PLAY!

Untitled from j ibbs on Vimeo.

Double or bust

2011-07-25T19:09:00.006+01:00

I've been pretty useless at blogging the past few weeks. Real life is catching up, work, bills, family and all that stuff! Cycling has taken a little bit of a back foot as I've managed to run my self down a bit and catch a virus of some sort. Its been one of those annoying ones, no proper illness, puking up, flem or any of the good stuff, just head aches and tiredness. The most boring sort of illness it has to be said!

So for that reason I decided not to race at 24/12 this past weekend. 24hour racing is pretty savage at the best of times so racing at under 100% is just asking for trouble. I also wanted to avoid the massive fatigue hole you get after a 24. Don't worry I'm not going all soft and avoiding the pain... I just want to save it for another massive effort later in the season.

I've been living in Brighton for just about 4 months now and am enjoying the amazing trails which criss cross the area. However the best days out are the long days out on the South Downs. You can't beat it, the feeling of being on top of the world as you look down on the English Channel to the south, the white chalk cliffs reflecting the sun and the flat plains to the north as far as the eye can see. For some reason I always feel very patriotic riding the downs. I can just imagine Hurricanes attacking the German air raids back in world war 2, and the iconic British imagery of the cliffs and the seafronts of the seaside towns just emphasises it. I also love the fact that you are going somewhere. One of my favourite rides of the year was to Eastbourne and Back. Normally training rides involve a set time. Riding the downs doesn't, you just pick a location, ride there then turn around and ride back.

Its for these reasons that I'm going to expand my horizons as an endurance rider. 24hour races are all well and good. I enjoy them, I love the competition and trying to win (even if I'm not quite there yet!) Deep down though I crave some adventure. One of the best parts of training in the mountains of Spain over winter was the isolation and exposure of the rides. I guess knowing that you are on your own in the middle of know where, with limited option for help if something goes wrong is thrilling. Its for these reasons that I've decided to take on the South Downs Double . I'm going to attempt it Alpine style, carrying all my food and equipment for the 200mile ride. The attempt is still a few months away but already I'm planning and excited.

I have the rest of the summer to learn the route, the tap locations and work out my pacing and feeding strategy and if there happens to be a record to be broken then I guess that'll just fuel the competitive side of my personality!

Right, time to put some tunes on the I pod and go riding, here's a good smashing along the south downs tune...

Black mountains 3 days... better late than never!

2011-07-06T22:22:00.003+01:00

2 weeks ago I spent the weekend in sunny Wales.... and yes it actually was sunny! Since then I've been super super busy doing grown up things (as well as bike riding!) but have finally managed to knock together a report for the Black Mountains 3 day stage race.

The black mountains 3 day is a new race for the calender this year and is based around Talybont near to brecon. I know the roads around there well from my time at uni in Cardiff and from road racing around the area. I had never ridden around the area off road though so was looking forward to finding some great new trails.

The race started on friday evening with a short 15km time trial which consisted of 2 laps of a circuit. The first half of the circuit climbed up before a tough traverse and then an awesome single track descent back to the start. Before the start I wasn't really that enthusiastic about the race. Time trials are not my favourite discipline, you just know that they're going to hurt! Once I got going though I felt pretty good and pushed on as hard as I could. I felt strong up the climb and then pushed on harder on the flatter top section as I knew this is where I could make the most of my power. However disaster struck on the descent. I managed to rip the side wall of the front tyre... race over!

I repaired the tyre and cruised the second lap but was very frustrated that any chance at the overall win had now gone with in the first 10minutes. At least my team mate Ben won.

The second day dawned and the sun was still out and I was primed with Torq gels ready for the 2nd stage. This stage was set to be 60km with plenty of big (for the UK!) climbs. I was keen to see how I'd fair on the climbs after the Austrian trip a month before. I definitely have the power (the power meter told me so!), but was also carrying a bit more weight due to the mid season break beers (by over weight I mean that I cant see the ribs in my chest anymore!).

As we hit the first climb of the day Ben attacked. I know that I cant go into the red for too long so had to ride my own tempo and hope I could reel him in later in the day. After the initial attack the gap between us remained the same so I pushed on hoping to close it down. It turns out that I was pushing on a bit too hard though. I had my head down riding hard and completely missed a course marker arrow about 30minutes into the stage. It took another 10minutes of flat out pedalling before I realised and had to turn back. It was a stupid mistake and all my fault. The result was I lost a chunk of time and any chance of a descent stage result. The route was amazing though, a real back country race ride with loads of amazing trails which certainly made up for my stupidity.

Coming into the final day I was determined to not screw up again! Once again the sun was out and the tan lines become more horrific by the second. Off the start a small group of us broke away containing myself , Ben and Scott Cornish. We rode together for the first few km's before Ben decided that we were bad company and buggered of again! Myself and Scott rode together for about half the stage before I had a sudden energy drop and had to back off and neck 3 gels in 15minutes to prevent a major implosion! I recovered and chased hard at the end but to no avail. I finished 3 minutes down on Ben in third place.

Overall racing wise I had a pretty disappointing weekend. A bit of bad luck and loads of cockups on my part were to blame. The experiance was great though. Good camping, good weather, good company and awesome trails.

I do have some video to post but I've managed to break my laptop at the moment so it will have to wait for a few days!

Next on the agenda is another 24hour solo, this time at Twentyfour12 in Plymouth next weekend. Hopefully I can keep it together, not crash, not blow finish strong and bag a win! Watch this space...

MAYHEM!

2011-06-22T20:16:00.003+01:00

First off I have no helmet cam video (again!)... so here's some cheesy music to cheer you up while you read!

Mayhem.... that's what the last week or so has been!

My mid season break is kind of working, although I have somehow managed to race every weekend since it began! The past weekend I was at Mountain Mayhem working for my lighting sponsor exposure lights. Since I failed go get a solo entry I thought I'd still go along and take in the atmosphere and use the time constructively and earn some pennies.

What i didn't realise as i packed 1 set of cycling kit 'just in case' I fancied a ride was that once again I would succumb to peer pressure and be persuaded to race in the USE/Exposure mixed elite team along side Sarah Turner, Matt Page and Matt Carr. So the weekend was spent dodging ran clouds in order to keep my set of kit clean if a little unhygienic!

The weekend got off to a great start as we emptied a few crates of beer on the friday night before the race. It was great to catch up with the RAF boys who attended our impromptu party.

The next day my head was a little groggy but i managed to delay my first lap for a while to allow me to sober up a little. Once out on track I decided to take it fairly steady, after all I am on a rest period. I managed to take it steady for at least the first 3 minutes before I hit the timed Kenda climb! As soon as i realised that the clock was on that was that.... PIN IT!

I found a good comprimise to avoid digging too deep was to cruise the flats, big ring the climbs and smash the single track as fast as possible.

All in all I think i did 6 laps all within a few minutes of each other. Even the mid race beers didn't seem to affect my times!

Overall we finished 9th in the category, which was fairly pleasing considering we didnt really take it all that seriously!
Coming out of the weekend I was once again really enjoying riding and racing my bike, something that has lacked for the last month or so. It looks like this taking is easy is working well!

I'm now back in Brighton for a few weeks before the training racks up and racing continues... I'm ready for a BIG end of season, but only when this post mayhem party hangover had gone, thats a story for another time though!

Chilling out at BMBS rd 3 Wasing

2011-06-13T21:34:00.002+01:00

Since I have returned from Austria I have been taking things easy. I have been unable to get a solo spot for mountain mayhem so decided that a well earned mid season break is required. Nothing really happened in the way of training, just having some fun on my bike in the woods.

I had entered BMBS rd 3 at Wasing park with a view to use it as an opener for mayhem though. I didn't really want to waste the entry so i decided to race it anyway.

I also decided that riding the Rollapaluza Brighton Rolla Riot on Friday night would be excellent for opening my legs for the race Sunday! Unfortunately I am horrifically at sprinting so the 500m qualifying heats didn't really go to plan i.e I was rubbish and didn't qualify! So I decided to take note of the age old cyclists phrase 'never stand when you can lean, never lean when you can sit, never sit when you can lie'. As there were no chairs in the bar i decided the best option would be to lean on the bar all night (and most of the morning, whoops!)

Come Sunday the weather had turned for the worse along with my motivation. To be honest I really couldn't be arsed to race, it was wet, cold and my legs felt empty. I had woken up early and driven to the race though so couldn't bail. As far as my starts go this one was ok. I managed not to miss my pedal or drop my chain or both. My starting effort however more than made up for it! I sprinted as hard as I could and still went backwards!

The course itself was quite fun however the series of 4 short sharp muddy climbs in the first few Km's of the course really wasn't my cup of tea. I was rubbish and struggled to keep up. The 2nd half of the course was great though, gentle gradients, rooty single track and 29er friendly bumps.This is were I made all my time and gradually worked up through the field after being held up in the first few sections of single track thanks to my appalling start.

I picket off a few riders a lap untill I was in a group of 4 with 2 laps to go. We were positions 7- 11th. Into the last lap my race instincts really kicked in and I decided i wanted to win 7th! On the first part of the circuit I stayed near the front of the group knowing I just had to keep up. Then about halfway into the lap I gave it every thing in a hard attack. I managed to gap the chasers and smashed the singletrack as hard as I dare in the quickly deteriorating conditions.

I managed to successfully negotiate some back markers and held a good gap over the group to take a rather muddy 7th place. Considering I felt pretty flat in the race I was quite pleased with my last lap effort. I was even more pleased when I checked the results this morning. Turns out the back markers were actually in my race so I finished 5th..BONUS!

Maybe I should do some xc race training rather than just enduro, I might do ok then!
Unfortunately the helmet Cam didn't fair so well in the rain so there isn't any race footage.

Now for another 2 weeks of playing in the woods before the big push for the late season races begins!

A friday treat....

2011-06-10T08:53:00.001+01:00

Here's part 2 of the euro road trip video to get you fired up to ride this weekend!

Torq on tour: Part 2 Austria from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Euro road trip video: Part 1

2011-06-09T12:52:00.002+01:00

Here's the first part of the Euro road trip video covering the Offenberg world cup plus training in the Black Forest. Part 2 to follow....Enjoy!

Torq on tour: Part 1 Germany from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Back in Blighty

2011-06-08T10:43:00.002+01:00

Well the Euro adventure is over.
Sundays stage was once again a sufferfest. We only had 1 mountain pass to race over which was nice. It also ment that I wasnt dropped in the first hour of racing as usual!

I managed to stay much further up the field for the first half of the race over the smaller climbs and flatter sections. However once we hit the days big one I did begin to slide back a little. After saturdays timetrial I had managed to unlock the hurt locker in my head and once again slipped inside for the duration of the climb. I found some nice wheels to follow although I slipped backwards over the last few km's of the climb. Over the top it was all down hill, mainly fireroad to the finish. This ment that I wasn't able to close down many gaps to rider in front so i played it safe and tried my best to get to the finia in one piece.

The final descent to the finish line was once again down the Schladmig world cup dh course. It wasn't quite so fun today though as the arms were pretty ruined after 4 days of pumelling. I finished in 1 piece tough and finally cracked the top 70! 69th on the stage and up to 72nd in the GC.

After a marathon 16h drive back from Austria (I do like these endurance challenges!) i'm now back in Brighton. I was hoping to bag a solo entry to Mountain Mayhem in 2 weeks time but at the moment it looks like an entry is unlikely which is a shame. Instead I think I'll take a well earned mid season break. I've been racing sine Feburary and have travelled all over Europe so both my legs and mind need a break.

(it was a long drive back ok!?)

My plans for the rest of the year are still a bit up in the air, I have 1 24hour race and a crack at the south downs double record in my legs. Which 24hour race I do is still undecided.... it all depends if the worlds organizers pull their finger out! ;)

Alpen tour stage 3

2011-06-04T17:38:00.002+01:00

Today was a nice short day, only 16km. The only problem was the fact that it was a mountain time trial!

I woke up with pretty sore legs and was dreading the race. Off the start I decided to take it fairly easy and then gradually up the tempo. After about 3km we hit a steep fire road. Miraculously I began to find a nice rhythm and began to catch a few of the riders who started ahead of me.

I had to pop a Torq Caffeine gels half way to keep me going but it seemed to work and a felt quite god considering the circumstances. Into the last 3km I began to feel a bit worse for wear but kept my tempo up and finished fairly strongly.

I still finished 71st around 14minutes off the winner but some how managed to drop a few places on GCm to 77th. Not sure how that happened. I was around 4 minutes off the back of team mate Ben which I was quite pleased with (need to find the positives somewhere!).

Tomorrow only has 1 mountain pass with a few more smaller hills so I'm hoping that it will suit me a bit more, maybe I can get inside the top 70!

Alpen Tour Stage 2

2011-06-03T19:31:00.003+01:00

Stage 2 = Pain.

Yesterday I suffered like a dog on the first monster climb before I pulled it together for the second part. Today's stage had a similar monster to start, followed by a mainly fire road descent and then another climb which out did the first! To make matters worse the top of the second climb reached gradients of 30% and had a cheeky false summit.

All in all today was a shocker. I was nicely settled into my back of the pack position on the first climb and once again passed the time comparing pain notes with Mike Blewitt. Towards the top I was gapped and spend the descent valley before the second climb chasing.

The second climb was a monster, super steep and very long complete with a hike a bike section through snow drifts at the top. It appears that my legs don't agree with super steep gradients so I was reduced to a slow plod. I could see Mike ahead and aimed to catch him by the top. I finally caught him as we crested the climb.

The rest of the stage was pretty awesome though. A long boulder strewn descent through the alpine scenery was great fun, although some sections were unridable and involved a bit of scrambling to get down. As soon as we hit the descent I once again began to bring back riders ahead. Entering the last 10km I pushed on as hard as I could. No one overtook me and I continually overtook riders.

Unfortunately I lost so much time on the major climbs of the day that my final efforts were in vain. I haven't seen the results yet and to be honest I don't think I really want to. I know there were at least 3 elite riders behind me so fingers crossed there were a few more behind them but I'm not too hopeful!

Tomorrow brings the mountain time trial and I have a feeling that I'm going to get smashed again.

Alpen Tour Stage 1

2011-06-02T18:59:00.002+01:00

The first stage of a stage race is always the one I’m most keen to get out the way. Before hand I always worry about the pace, where I’ll finish, how I’ll feel and loads of other random thoughts. When I woke this morning the weather was typically alpine i.e cloudy and wet. After nearly freezing to death on the final stage of the Andalucia Bike race I was keen to avoid another such predicament. So I headed to the start in my rain cape, gillet, arm warmers, knee warmers with some top secret Juice lubes warm up balm on, which know one knows about, or at least didn’t until I told you all!

The start area is situated right in the centre of Schladmig and as we rolled up the rain got a little heavier. The Alpen tour is a UCI ranking race (my first participation in a UCI ranking race) so many of europe’s fast boys were in attendance. In fact I recognised many of the riders from the world cup at Offenberg the previous weekend. As you can imagine I was a bit nervous and wondering if I may have jumped in at the deep end a bit.

The first climb revealed that I probably had jumped in at the deep end, and then been ducked under by the bigger kids. The pace up the first mountain was pretty fast. I still lack the top end form due to all the enduro training I’ve been doing so I pushed on as hard as I could. My heart rate was bang on threshold and still pretty much the entire elite field cruised past me, followed by most of the masters! It was here, about half way up a 1700m climb that I began questioning the whole cycling thing. Maybe I’m just not cut out for it? Maybe I should just grow up and get a job? Luckily this phase soon passed and I was caught by Aussie Mike Blewitt. He seemed to be in a similar state to me, i.e maxed out and still going backwards, so we rode together up the climb comparing notes on how much we were suffering (you know its bad when you’ve popped a Torq caffeine gel after 30mins!)

Finally we reached the top of the climb after nearly 2hours. Over the top were a couple of steep slippery single track switchbacks. Here I managed to gap Mike and catch a couple of euros ahead of me. Unfortunately most of the descent was fire road but it did give my heart rate a chance to dip below 170 for the first time in 2h!

Once we hit the valley floor things began to improve. My legs started working and I gradually began to bring back riders ahead. I caught about 5 riders over the next few Km’s before we hit a nice steep single track descent complete with roots and switchbacks and decorated with Europeans sprawled on the floor.

I brought back another 7 or 8 places here before we hit the next big climb. By this point 3h in my legs were just starting to work properly. Luckily for me everyone else was starting to blow a bit. On the next steep fire road climb I settled into a nice steady rhythm and gradually picked off the riders ahead. Between here and the finish I brought back another 10 or so riders.

It was a nice feeling to finish strong and quite satisfying that I wasn’t caught by anyone after the first big climb. The only problem is that there were so many people ahead of me on that first climb that I finished 74th, not good!

O well, todays in the books now so I can only look forward to tomorrow. Hopefully it’ll be a bit better for me and I can hunt down some Aussies who are a few minutes ahead!

On the road...

2011-06-02T16:13:00.003+01:00

Since the disaster that was the national 24h champs life has been pretty quiet (cycling wise at least!). Time has been spent earning some money, recovering and living in a building site! It took only a week to physically get over the nationals. I missed the last 6h which is the part of the race which really causes the damage, so basically I got in a really hard 18h training session. I ate crap and drank beer for a week after before deciding that I prefer bike riding and that I could still use the form I gained for the nationals for other objectives if I kept on training… so that’s what I did.

The first of those other objective involves lots of driving. In fact the driving part has already been done as currently I am sat in a beautiful chalet nestled above Schladmig in Austria. Austria is the final destination on a week and a half road trip along with Torq team mate Ben Thomas. We left England on Saturday and made our way through France and into Germany to watch the XC Word Cup in Offenberg. It was great to see the best in the world racing head to head and it almost made me want to race more Xc races!

On Monday we went for a quick lap of the Offenberg world cup course before following some of the route of the World Class marathon which starts in Offenberg. The weather was certainly world class. 30 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Even the scenery was world class, lovely rolling hills covered in forests and vineyards. The course, however, was not so world class, more world class fire road. We rode about 20miles of the course and didn’t find a single inch of single track. It was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, but the weather and scenery certainly made up for it.

Tuesday we made the long drive down through Germany to Austria. We’re in Austria for the 4 day Alpen Tour which starts on Thursday. The riding here is certainly better than Germany. Today was an exploratory ride to stretch the legs after 6h in the car. In order to get into the town centre we have to ride down a 5minute single track switchback descent… I’ve certainly had much worse journeys to the shops! We then rode up the mountain following the time trial course for stage 3 (its gonna hurt!) and ended up riding down the World Cup downhill course. Not a bad way to round the day out…

24hours of exposure race video

2011-05-13T19:07:00.001+01:00

Here's a video I put together from the opening lap of the UK national 24h race last week. Thanks to Ian and my mum for the filming!!

Enjoy....

24hours of Exposure the UK National 24hour Championships from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

24Hours of Exposure....The national champs

2011-05-09T16:33:00.007+01:00

Finally it arrived, the big one, the national 24hour champs.

After a mad panic since my return from Spain trying to rebuild my bikes, not helped by all the bank holidays, I finally sorted everything in time to leave for Newcastleton on the Thursday before the race. We stayed in the fantastic Grapes Hotel in the days leading up to the race and this enabled me to fully relax and mentally prepare for the battle ahead. This was a far better option than a damp tent the night before the race, and the food is fantastic aswell although it took lots of willpower to avoid a nice beer the day before the race.

The weather leading up to the race was far from perfect. Plenty of rain fell overnight however the course drained well. Come morning of the race the sun was out again and the track riding fast. I was feeling fresh and confident and eager to get underway.

At 11:30 we all assembled in the town square in Newcastleton and waited to be called up to the start line. After last years result I was ranked number 3. Once again we were escorted out of town by the local piper before the race started for real. The neutral section was very nervous. I could tell right away that the pace wouldn't be as pedestrian as it was last year and that i wouldn't be riding away from the field on the first lap again!

My game plan was simple, follow Matt Page or Ant White, I knew these were the guys to beat. From the off the pace was rapid and Matt and myself formed a small gap over the rest of the favorites along with Simon Earnest who was riding the 12h race. We were working well together trying to force a gap when Simon crashed on a gravel corner. Matt then rode over him and had to stop for a few seconds. This allowed Ant, Rich Rothwell and Dave Powell to catch up leaving a group of 5 at the front. The pace was still high although we seemed to be working fairly well together, the race was neutralized for now. About half way into the 2nd lap Matt punctured and there was a comical moment when the rest of us looked at each other then rode flat out to take advantage!

Rich was in a determined mood and was smashing it at the front of the group. This carried on for 2 laps, Dave Powell was dropped after the first hot lap and Ant and I were hanging at the end of it. Matt caught us up again though and immediately attacked. This was the catalyst for the splits to begin. I dropped Rich and Ant and began to close down on Matt.

This was roughly 6hours into the race and little did i know that it was a key moment. Entering the first descent I could see Matt about 20seconds ahead. I was pushing hard hoping to close the gap and work together. On the descent I caught and passed a number of back markers. I then was stuck behind another and called to pass but he didn't appear to hear me. Then suddenly he moved aside and in my haste to catch Matt I dived past. The next thing I knew I was somersaulting through the air and landed in a heap. As I passed the rider his rear wheel skipped out which hit my rear wheel sending me over the bars. It could have been over there and then. I was pretty shocked so the only word that came to my mouth began with an 'F', so apologise to the poor bloke who was on the receiving end!

The crash to away a bit of my impetus and Ant caught up with me again although we were still less than a minute behind Matt. We rode together for a few more laps untill I started to drop off a little bit. I was starting to ache i bit from when i flipped onto my back in the crash but nothing too bad.

As darkness came so did the rain. There was a massive downpour which totally soaked me at the start of the lap. I then got quite cold which started to make my back ache from the knock in the crash. I slowed a little but made it back to the pits after a dark patch, I was close to quitting cycling, hating bikes, the usual bat patch thoughts. Once i made it to the pits though I was able to eat some food, change my clothes and suddenly I warmed up and felt great again. I then began to smash it!

I was feeling super strong and as soon as i was warm my back pain disappeared. Over the next few laps a gradually began to bring back time on the guys in front. It was still raining but i was feeling great and still had plenty of power in the legs.

Just before dawn it rained really hard again and the wind picked up. I was still in a comfortable 3rd position but the cold gradually began to get to me. The same happened again, as soon as began to get colder my back seized up. This time however it locked solid and the power in my legs just vanished. My lap time was half an hour slower and I only made it round with the help of Rob Dean.

Once in the pit I had to be prized off the bike. My back was in spasm and I was frozen to the core. I had to see Sabrine, the physio, and it took an hour to loosen up my back enough for me to be able to move about again. By this time I had slumped down to 7th position 15 minutes behind 5th. The podium was out of reach now and the weather had worsened.

If i am totally honest I really didn't want to get back on my bike to chase for 5th position. I decided not to go out again. It very frustrating that my race was affected by someone else's mistake, but at the end of the day I guess that's just racing.

There are plenty of positives to take away from the experience and also plenty of lesson learnt. Hopefully these will make me a stronger rider in future 24hour races.

One thing is certain though, I want the national title more than ever now!

The Gorrick 100

2011-05-02T13:41:00.002+01:00

This week end I raced in the Gorrick 100. I chose to race in the 3 lap race, mainly as training and a tune up before the big goal of the National 24hour championships next weekend.

Since returning from Spain I had done nothing more than a 30min spin on the rollers each day. My body was in such a state that I had to do the minimum of riding to recover in time. By the end of the week i was feeling a bit better so the race was used to jump my body out of the recovery mode it had slipped into.

The field in the 3 lap race was not the strongest which was good for me as I eliminated the temptation to dig deep the week before the 24 champs. On the start line I really wasn't in the mood to race. For the first part of the race i just sat in the wheels spinning my legs and freewheeling quite a lot! As we reached the first steep loose climb I decided to keep it in the big ring and grind my way up. At the top I suddenly had a gap.... whoops!

I still could get my head into race mode though so i continued cruising at a nice sustainable 24hour pace. Eventually another rider bridged the gap to me and we finished the first lap together. At the start of the second lap I once again sat on his wheel and soft pedaled/ freewheeled as much as possible.

Then as we hit the same loose climb which I gapped the field on a lap previously the same happened again... but this time my race instincts kicked in and I suddenly had my race head on again and pushed on trying to extend the gap.

I pushed fairly hard for the second part of the lap and entering the final lap I had a clear lead. On my final lap I once again settled into cruise mode, taking it easy on the singletrack, no point crashing now!

I won the race convincingly, but more importantly my body responded to the hard efforts and has now awoken from its recovery slumber. It was a soft win but hey... a wins a win!

Now all attention turns to the national 24hour championships next weekend.

Check out my race video...

The Gorrick 100 2011 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

In the clouds

2011-04-26T09:16:00.006+01:00

This morning I woke up feeling like I'd just done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson in the ring. Yesterday I arrived home from Southern Spain after 2 weeks of hiding in the mountains training.

The trip was a good one. The first weekend I was due to race in a Spanish Cup marathon but for various reasons (mainly Spanish federation redtape!) I wasnt allowed to start. In hindsight this was probably a good thing as the temperature was 30 degrees and racing would probably have wiped me out for a week. So instead I took a rest day and did the traditional British thing... get sunburned on the beach!

Once I arrived in Lanjaron the real training began. The first week was super hot, 26-30 degrees most days which made the 6hour rides i was doing quite grueling. Add to this the 3000-4000m of climbing per ride and it didn't take long for my legs to be dead!

The middle weekend of the trip was my 23rd birthday so i celebrated by getting totally smashed.... by riding up the highest mountain i could find!! It was pretty cool eating lunch in the clouds.

I managed 31hours in the first week but by the weekend i could hardly turn the pedals so needed a rest day and lot of food.

For the second week i would be guiding for Freeride Spain so fitted in rides before and after work to make up the hours. Unfortunately i had felt slightly sick during the first week but i just put it down to the heat. When it cooled down and started raining i still felt sick though, so it turned out i had a slight stomach bug. So slightly less long rides in the second week but plenty of uplift to guide the down
hillers!

I still fitted in 23hours but feel a little disappointed... I had hoped for another 30h week, i guess my perception of a big training week has changed a bit now!

Now all i can do is rest and pray to the recovery gods that my body will recover in time for the national 24. I'm sure i will be fine but at this very moment i feel as though i finished a 24hour race yesterday!

A whirlwind...

2011-04-08T09:20:00.004+01:00

Since I moved to Brighton 4 weeks ago life has been a bit crazy. It seemed like I waited forever towards the end of 2010 for things to change and now all of a sudden everything is moving at 100mph!

Since the start of the year I've not been settled in the same place for more than a few weeks at a time. I've been to Gran Caneria for a week then home for 10days then to Spain for 3 weeks training followed by a week stage race and then as soon as I arrived home I moved to Brighton. Once in Brighton I was training, looking for a job, racing and trying to sort all the other stuff which crops up when you move town.

The last few weeks though things have become more settled. I now have a part time job in a Brighton bike shop, I'm getting to know the city and meet people and most importantly learning the awesome Mtb trails around town. Life in Brighton is good, you just cant beat riding back from work along the seafront in the sunshine.

Now that the whirlwind of the last few months has finally settled there is only one thing to do.... START IT UP AGAIN!
Tomorrow I fly out to Spain again for a race on sunday and a final pre national 24 training camp. The race is called El Desafio Del Buda and is a 75km Spanish cup marathon. It will be interesting to see how i shape up against the top Spanish riders.

After the race I am once again heading to one of my favorite places in the world, Lanjaron. I will be staying with the guys at Freeride Spain again and I am looking forward to some proper training again after 4 weeks of short hard intervals and xc racing. 6h rides in the mountains are so much better than intervals... they suck!

This is what I will be riding next week....

Freeride Spain Pt:4 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

BMBS rd1 Sherwood Pines

2011-03-28T08:10:00.003+01:00

The past weekend was the first round of the British Mountain Bike Series at Sherwood Pines. Its a course I know i can go well on, its fast flat nature means there is plenty of opportunity to get the power down and no rest bite from pedaling... perfect for an enduro rider! After finishing 9th last year I would have been disappointed not to be inside the top 5 but secretly i was gunning for the podium.

Sunday arrived and I found myself lining up for my 9th race in 4 weeks! A fast start is essential in Sherwood to avoid bottle necks and to get into the front group. I was pleased to be gridded on the second row so was feeling optimistic. Then the gun went off and, as usual, I cocked it up! I managed to miss my pedal and go from the front of the grid to 4th from last exiting the arena. I do seem to make life difficult for myself. The first lap was spend trying to move up the field without upsetting too many people, but i will admit i was getting a bit cheeky with the overtaking!

Heading into the second lap I caught a Metaltech rider and we worked together nicely for the next 2 laps gradually bring back riders who had gone out too hard. After a while he gapped me accelerating onto a fire road section and i didn't have the zipp in my legs to close the gap so i rode the last part of the race solo.

All the while i could see the lead group on the fire road sections, frustratingly dangling just out of reach. Coming into the final lap my endurance started to pay off and i gradually clawed the gap back. The front group split but entering the final km I caught my Torq team mate Ben Price. I jumped him into the final single track section and managed to hold him off to the line. I finished 5th which was my goal but i am still very annoyed with myself. I saw the top 4 in front of me entering the arena and was a handful of seconds off the podium. If only I hadn't screwed up my start... I cant help feeling that I lost a potential podium in the first 5 seconds of the race!

Check out my race video...

BMBS rd1 Sherwood Pines from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Thats my xc season over for this year. Now the real racing begins starting with a 75km Spanish Cup Marathon in 2 weeks... bring it on!

Gorrick xc

2011-03-20T22:07:00.002Z

Today i raced in the Gorrick Spring series. Well i say race, in reality I rolled around the circuit at a pedestrian pace.
The start was chaotic. Once again i managed to enter the first corner in last place, although this turned out to be a good thing today as i was able to catch the massive pile up on my helmet cam!

Untitled from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Unfortunately i didn't charge the helmet cam and the battery died after the first lap and to be honest that was a fair reflection of the state of my legs! I was pretty ruined after a hard weeks training and just couldn't push hard. I pulled out after 3 laps which is a bit disappointing but i felt i was doing more damage than good by continuing. Hopefully an easier week this week will leave me with some good form for the National xc at Sherwood Pines next week....

Black Park XC

2011-03-13T19:52:00.003Z

Today I raced in the Black Park Xc. It was my first XC race of the year and I was a little unsure how I would go. I know i'm strong but have done no intensity so I was keen to find out how I would respond.

My first lap was appalling! I was dead last off the start line and had no kick in my legs. I soon settled into a rhythm though and waited for the guys who had gone off too hard to blow and get out my way! As the race settled down a group of 5 guys was at the front including Steve James, Scott Forbes and Jody Crawford. Between them and me was Phil Lenny. I kept the gap to the front group the same for most of the race however they pulled away a bit towards the end. Phil was riding at the same speed as me and it was very frustrating that i just couldn't close the 10 second gap to him!
I chased all race but to no avail eventually finishing in 6th place.

Although the result was not spectacular I was quite pleased as I held the gap to some of the fasted XC guys in the country for most of the race. If i had a bit more top end speed I may even have been able to get into the lead group, hopefully in a few weeks I'll have that speed. I'll only get faster!

Heres a slightly trippy video:

Black Park XC from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

FREERIDE SPAIN VIDEO BONANZA!!!!! (updated)

2011-03-10T08:28:00.003Z

I have loads of video from my trip to Spain and have finally managed to upload most of them to the net. So here is an extra special 3 video blog post to distract you from work! (there is another one as well but you'll have to wait until next week as I've gone over my vimeo upload limit!!)

Freeride Spain Pt:1 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Freeride Spain Pt 2 from j ibbs on Vimeo.

Freeride Spain pt3 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Freeride Spain Pt:4 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Andalucia bike race stages 5 + 6

2011-03-06T08:25:00.006Z

After day 4's 'transition' stage we were hoping for some better trails for the final 2 days. The organisers certainly delivered on stage 5 with a great circuit full of amazing singletrack. The sun was out, trails great and our performance was good.
We had set ourselves the goal of beating the womens leaders before the end of the race.

Looking at the profile of the stage we felt that this was our day. It was either up or down and the downs were all technical which suited our strengths. we were able to comfortably sit with the womens leaders all day and were even planning a cheeky attack on the last climb! Unfortunately disaster struck and the bearing in my rear wheel collapsed with 20km to go. This meant that we had to ease up and nurse my bike to the finish or risk either crashing or my bike becoming unridable... incredibly frustrating!

Andalucia bike race stage 5 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

The final day finally arrived and we were once again very motivated to beat the womens leaders. Cait was especially motivated and was ominously quiet before the stage. The stage was mainly fire road and we were dreading a repeat of stage 4. It turned out to be far from the case with great views of the stunning mountains. From the start Cait was looking very strong. I tried to push a few times early on to close gaps but was told off! Cait was determined to prove that she could ride the whole stage just as fast with out my help... so i did as i was told and set the pace!!

I set a nice tempo and Cait followed my wheel over the first climb of the day and it soon became clear that we were ahead of the womens leaders. This proved even more motivating and we pushed on catching and dropping teams all the while. The clouds had begun to darken and as we reached the summit of the second climb it began to snow! This is when the problems began. On a fast fireroad descent we had a puncture. By this time the snow had turned to rain and we were soaked to the skin in nothing but shorts and arm warmers. We quickly got cold and were passed by the leading womens teams.
From that point on it was about survival. It was probably dangerous for us to continue but we had to in order to win the overall classification. After a few hours of extreme cold we finally finished once again winning the stage and the overall title but frustratingly still not beating the womens leaders.

Andalucia bike race stage 6 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Thanks to the organisers for putting on such a great race and extra big thanks to Cait for being a great team mate for the week

Andalucia bike race stages 5

2011-03-06T08:25:00.001Z

Andalucia bike race stages 3+4

2011-03-03T06:50:00.003Z

The past 2 days have been a bit chaotic. On stage 3 on Tuesday was once again based from the hotel in Cordoba. The stage was the best so far. It basically followed most of stage 1 backwards. The climbs which we were cursing on the first day turned into amazing descents. Today was the day that i felt Cait and myself really started to gel as a team. Cait was riding very impressively, clearing the technical climbs and riding the technical descents fast. We found that the best way to ride fast was for Cait to ride in front on the climbs and then i gave her a push to keep on the wheels in front when required (although i must say that this was becoming less often!) We had set our goal of beating the womens leaders of Sally Bingham Christine Norgard. We kept with them for 3/4 of the stage and were even leading them for a while when Cait saw red on a descent and rode flat out!! Unfortunately they were slightly stronger on the flatter sections of the course and pulled away towards the finish. Eventually we were about 5 minutes down but felt we put in a really good performance.

Andalucia bike race stage 3 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Yesterday was classed as a transfer stage. After a 6am start we were on buses by 7am and were transported to Priego de Cordoba an hour and a half away. At 10am we started the stage with the TV helicopter hovering above us as usual. The stage was not the most exciting stage. It started with a 10km fire road climb. We rode strongly up the climb and were only 30seconds off the masters leaders at the top and ahead of the womens leaders. Unfortunately there was no technical descent for us to retain our advantage. We dropped down on fire road an onto a disused railway line where it turned into a road race. We were unable to catch the group in front and were stuck in no mans land for a long time. The headwind was really strong and i was unable to push cait hard enough to keep up with the groups as they caught up with us. Eventually we settled into a group of about 20riders, who all decided that they couldn't be bothered to race. I sat on the front for the majority of the 80km of slightly uphill, headwind fire road. Needless to say my sense of humor was at breaking point by the time we hit the last 10km climb! The final 10km were on really good tough singletrack. We were both shattered from the stage though so took it really easy trying not to crash.
5h30 later we finished, it was a tough day!

Andalucia bike race stage 4 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Andalucia bike race stage 2

2011-03-01T07:07:00.003Z

Day 2.... our first day in a leaders jersey... and it feels good!
After the chaos of the first stage run in conjunction with the sierra morena marathon and the 1000+ riders I was hoping for a calmer start to the day. We were called up towards the front of the grid as category leaders. Each team was called up individually to the start over the pa system and there were TV cameras and photographers crowding around us. Then overhead the TV helicopter arrived, the atmosphere was amazing, noise and crowds everywhere. It certainly made the adrenaline flow!

The actual start was madness. There was a 50m rocky uphill sprint followed by a bottle neck through a gate into a wide, loose rutted descent. The descent was not really too challenge but when you factor in loads of technically inept Europeans on super light carbon hardtails it is chaos. Imagine the start of the mega avalanche and you get a pretty accurate idea. I managed to get a good start and rode most of the descent before some euros stacked in front of me and i nearly ran them over.
Pre-race Cait and i had agreed to ride solo for the first few KM's then meet up at the bottom of the hill.

We finally found each other and settled into a good group. The first stage showed us that there wasn't really much competition in the mixed category so we set our sight on the womens leaders. We stayed with them for much of the first part of the race until we managed to get held up in the some technical single track by some Spanish hikers, erm i mean Spanish riders!

After the second feed I managed to get a slow puncture so Cait kept on moving and i stopped to mend it. Unfortunately i took ages so had to chase really hard to catch up again. Then we reached the final feed and i stopped to get more water and put more air in my tyre while Cait carried on up a steep climb. After another flat out interval i caught Cait again but was pretty ruined after an hour of hard efforts catching up again so we eased up slightly and cruised into the finish.

We convincingly won our category again and most importantly had loads of fun. The course wasn't as technically challenging as stage 1 but still contained loads of fast flowy singletrack.Bring on stage 3!!!

Here's the stage 2 video....

Andalucia Bike race stage 2 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Andalucia bike race stage 1

2011-02-28T07:20:00.004Z

Yesterday was the first stage of the Andalucia bike race. The first day was run in conjunction with the Sierra Morena marathon. After a parade around the host city of Cordoba we set off for the 75km stage. The start was chaotic with the 1000 plus riders from the Sierra Morena marathon all trying to push to the front. The first few km's of off road were fairly tame but enabled the field to spread out. It became apparent that the Spanish riders are not the most skillful. Within the first meters of the first double track descent there were at least 5 riders mending punctures!!

Eventually the pace settled down and we began to make good progress gradually moving through the field. We were unsure of the standard of the competition in the mixed category so were keen to push on. Having never raced in a pair before and never riding with Cait it took a little while to figure out our strengths and weaknesses but we settled on the tactics of me riding in the wind on the flats and pushing Cait on the fire-road/double track climbs to keep the speed up. Although not very flattering for Cait it seemed to work very well and we were overtaking solo riders from the Sierra Morena marathon on the climbs!

The course was pleasantly surprising. I had heard stories that Spanish courses tended to be mainly fire road but it was far from the case here. The first half of the race contained loads of fast fun single track. Later in the race it got a lot more technical with large rock slabs to ride up and steep rough rocky descents. When ever we entered a technical section the Spaniards simply jumped off and walked! We rode 99% of it and were able to gain loads of time.

After 4 and a half hours we crossed the line and were pleasantly surprised to find that we had won the mixed category.... by over an hour!
That evening we donned our first leaders jerseys and shared the podium with world xc champion Jose Hermida. All in all a good day and we are very much looking forward to todays stage.

Check out my helmet cam footage from the first stage....

Andalucia bike race stage 1 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Andalucia Bike race

2011-02-26T17:20:00.006Z

This week i will be riding the Andalucia bike race in southern Spain. It is a 6 day stage race based around the cities of Cordoba and Jaen. I am racing in the mixed pairs category with WXC world team rider Cait Elliot. Today is the registration day so we took the opportunity to get out for a quick spin to open up the legs. The trails are only 5 minutes ride away and we found some super fast single track as well as some techy rocky trails.

Post ride we took the opportunity to explore Cordoba and sample the Tapas and Cerveza whilst sitting in the sunshine. Today the mercury reached 25 degrees... perfect cycling weather!

The race is based in the same 4 star hotel for the first 3 stages. So far the organisation has been amazing. We were greeted on the door by the PR staff after our transfer from the airport was nice and easy. There are bike washes, signs every where, TV coverage for the race (including a TV helicopter which landed in the hotel grounds this afternoon), brilliant route descriptions, chip timing and good prize money for the mens and womens events. The promoters have a background in rally organisation and this is their first attempt at a stage race but so far the standards seems to be very high.

If the first day is anything to go by then the rest of the week should be great. I will reporting back every day and will hopefully be able to post helmet cam footage of each stage.

Rain and pain....in Spain!

2011-02-21T15:31:00.010Z

I've been in spain for 2 and a half weeks now and have just finished a pretty big week in the saddle. Here's a typical week in the saddle of a 'pretend pro'!

Monday- 5h15 mixed pace
On the road today so i ccould use my power meter to do some consistent tempo riding. I decided to the head up the mountain but was having a bad head day. I was scheduled to do 3h tempo but managed 1h before my head fell off. After a the descent i sorted my self out and as punishment for being week minded i did some hard efforts. In the end it turned into a mixed pace ride.

Tuesday- 6h z2
Today i woke up and it was pissing it down and blowing a gale. Luckily i brought all my winter kit with me just in case. After the breakfast of champions (fruit and fibre with yogurt and honey on, 2 slices of toast with jam, an orange and some orange juice!)i set out into the storm on the road bike. With in 15minutes i was soaked to the core but was determined to finish the 6h. Towards the end of the ride i went part way up the mountain and had to stop every 10mins and swing my arms around to stop my hand freezing. I made it though!

Wednesday- 5h30 mixed pace
The sky was a bit angry again today so i decided to stick to the road. I was down for a 6h z2 but as we dropped down towards the coast the weather closed in.

I was riding with Simon (freeride spain owner) so we decided to shelter in a coffee shop to let the storm pass. 2 coffes and tomato on bread later the storm cleared and we set off. With in 10mins it was raining again and freezing cold so we smashed it home to keep warm.

Thursday- 1h recovery
Just a spin on the road today. The wind was still strong and there were a few showers floating about but i got away with not getting wet....just!

Friday-5h tempo on climbs
Today the sun returned...YAY. I celebrated by doning shorts and shirt and rode the hilly coastal route on the road again. The legs felt great after the rest day and i smashed the climbs close to 300watts, a p.b for tempo riding. Today was a real break through day.

Saturday-6h15 z2
After a 5 days of road riding due to bad weather i was back on the mtb. The legs still felt strong and i was flying on the climbs again (all in z2 of course!). There was also plenty of techy singletrack to play on and sharpen the skills. All in all a good day.

Sunday- 6h15 mtb z2
After feeling strong for the first 3h i started to fade in the second half of the ride. My legs were finally getting tired after a massive week in the saddle. We rode some awesome trails today though right up in the snow line.

All in all i rode for 35h 15minutes.. i think its time for a rest!

Freeride Spain

2011-02-08T14:20:00.004Z

Warm weather training part 2 has begun... the Sierra Nevada mountains in southern Spain the location.

I am staying with Simon and Emma from Freeride Spain. This place is amazing, silky smooth mountain roads and rough rocky technical single track descents. The perfect training location for mountain bikers, o and its sunny!

I'm basing my training on 4 day blocks. The first day is on the road bike riding tempo for 3h. Rather handily there is a nice long loop right from the door which takes in the valley road then climbs to just under 2000m on silky smooth roads before an amazing descent back home. It certainly beats flat Cambridgeshire. The next 2 days are long days of z2 riding on the mountain bike. The trails here are amazing and each long climb is rewarded with a hard techy descent. The last day of the block is a rest day. Then the whole process begins again and is repeated for 3 weeks! The 4th week of my trip will include a 6 day stage race with team mate Ben Thomas... I cant wait.

Videos to follow when I find some speedy internet...

Torq team weekend

2011-02-02T11:56:00.005Z

The past weekend I've been in Shropshire to visit Torq fitness for a team get together.

We arrived on Friday for some fitness testing. First up was a lactate threshold test on the turbo trainer with blood samples being taken every few minutes as the power output increased. This pinpoints the power output at which lactic acid begins to appear in the blood and muscles. Following that it was the dreaded threshold test, a 20minutes blast up the nearest hill. Results for this were a little disappointing for me as I was marginally lower than testing last year. My output was only 332Watts and I was hoping to be closer to 350W... possibly I still had some fatigue in my legs from the epic week in Gran Caneria but still disappointing and something to work on!

The following day was a nice 5h group rode around Shropshire, taking in the technical trails around Eastridge as well as the long Mynd and Stipel stones. The next day a few of us did a 4h ride mainly focusing on skills in Eastridge. By the end of the day I couldn't decide if my legs or arms were more tired!

Here is a film from the weekend:

Torq training ride in Shropshire from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Tomorrow I fly out to Spain for a month. First stop is Freeride Spain for 3 weeks of training and then hopefully a 6 day stage race or possibly a week training with the Torq boys... I'm still undecided! Now to pack my bags....

Gran Canaria

2011-01-24T17:58:00.007Z

The new year arrived at last and with it the start of my efforts to train full time, or not as the case may be. I managed to pick up a virus before Christmas which knocked me out for the best part of 4 weeks. Fortunately I managed to shift it in time for my first training camp of the year, a week in Gran Canaria.

10 of us were based in the resort of Maspolomas on the south of the island. Our accommodation was a nice little villa in a private complex complete with pool. The town it self left much to be desired however. It seemed to cater for the party animal in the summer and the elderly in the winter with neon lights, Chinese, Indian and English 'restaurants' on every street. This was not a major problem though as most of the day was spent on the road...

For the first 4 days we put in solid 5hour rides. These were possibly a bit too hard for January training at times. On the second day we managed to find a 10km climb which averaged 20% and was 28% in its steepest sections. If it wasn't for a fresh water spring half way up the climb i may well still be passed out on the side of the road, it was a tough one. On the positive side of it all the other climbs seemed easy in comparison!

On the 5th day we decided to take it easy and ride along the coast to find a cafe. The next day however it was back to business and I was determined to get in 100miles. 7 hours later and after 107miles I made it back. I was a tad wobbly though as I ran out of water for the last 30minutes, not ideal when the mercury reached 27 degrees! The long ride was probably a bit over the top as the next day I suffered as soon as the gradient kicked up. I managed 3hours but was pretty wrecked and suffered from a bit of sun stroke from the previous days efforts.

All in all it was a good week though, a nice 35hours in the tank and more climbing than I'll ride all year in Cambridgeshire! Now my training has been kick started so hopefully I'll only get quicker... just need to get some more power or less weight for those steep bits now!

Here is a video from one of the rides...

Gran Canaria training from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Upping the game...

2011-01-03T16:59:00.000Z

Happy new year everybody, I hope it will be a good one.

I don’t really have a new years resolution as such this year, more of a life make over! I have decided that some big changes are required, the first being my job. Being a lawnmower salesman is not my niece in life, so as of Christmas Eve I am no longer a lawnmower salesman! For a few months I will be training full time, mostly in sunnier climates. It is something I have wanted to do for a while just to see how fast I can make myself. First off is a week in Gran Caneria for a training camp. The aim is to get in some big miles, massive climbs and get some horrific tan lines to flash at the early season races! After that I will be back in the UK for a short while before once again seeking some sun, this time a month in southern Spain. I should be able to complete my base training in the sunshine, sharpen up my skills and find my climbing legs which have disappeared ever since I finished university and returned to the flat lands of Cambridgeshire, I can’t wait!

On my return the racing begins in earnest in the form of XC racing for a month to sharpen up the legs before the final build up to the national 24 race. I also need to find a job on my return, but will be relocating to the exotic south coast first!

Training had been going well before Christmas even though the weather tried its hardest to stop me. Unfortunately I seem to have picked up one of the many viruses which have been passing around over Christmas so training is intermittent at the moment. I felt slightly better and started the Brass Monkeys between Christmas and New Year, but pulled out after 1h with a cracking headache and dizzy spells. It was frustrating but I decided that it wasn’t worth pushing myself for 4h in the cold and rain and making it worse. Now it seems every time I ride at anything above recovery pace my head starts spinning. More rest needed I think. Hopefully it will clear by the weekend so I can get back to business!

Down south

2010-12-14T19:29:00.001Z

Winter training is in full swing now. After a few minor disruptions due to the icey weather and a few ill timed mechanicals a big weekend was required. Saturday was spend down in Brighton riding with Ian Leitch on the local trails. The frost had finally melted leaving the trails sticky, although white chalky mud makes a nice change! 4h later we returned to Brighton via a quick visit to stanmar park for some singletrack before refueling in the pub.

On Sunday we headed to Surrey to ride some trails. We were joined by Ian’s friend Will and fellow 24hour soloist Craig Bowles for another 4h ride. The video shows some of the trails, although I must admit that I made the school boy error of not charging the camera so the video only shows the first trails… enjoy.

Trail riding in Surrey from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

First win of the year!

2010-12-01T13:21:00.004Z

So my first block of training for the winter is over. I was scheduled for a 2 week block to get me back into the swing of things and that went by as expected. At the beginning of the second week I was shattered and beginging to question why I ride bikes, but then the training magic happened and by the weekend I was flying again. Its amazing how bad you can feel one day only for the body to respond, over compenate and make you feel great. My big break through ride came on Saturday, a nice 4h road ride in z2. I had been averaging around 215-220Watts on my power meter so I used that as a target. I was hovering around 220watts for the first 2h and feeling great so I pushed it a little more and by the end my average was 334Watts. Very pleasing considering that was the power I was averaging last march!

In fact I was feeling so good that I decided to make it a 3 week block.However that has now been put on hold this week by the Siberian weather. As I sit here writing this my feet are numb and the thought of another 4h riding in -1 with arctic gales doesn’t appeal. A rest week would be better than crashing and spending a month recovering!

In other news I got my first win of the year, the St Ives Cycling Club Mountainbiker of the year. Quite an achievement considering there are no mountains in cambrideshire! A wins a win though!

Fun in Birmingham?

2010-11-24T11:25:00.000Z

So the past week has marked the start of my structured winter training. There have been plenty of long rides on the road back to back. It is a bit of a shock to the system, and I am certainly feeling it this week. The first block of training always hurts while my body gets used to it. It seems a long way off riding for 5h back to back for days on end, but there’s plenty of time.

At the weekend I took a trip to Birmingham for some riding with local Dan Treby, Rich Rothwell and Neil Halcrow. The pace was high, legs slow and trails amazing. Check out the video...

Stourbridge local trails from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Wicked Wales!

2010-11-16T11:26:00.000Z

Training has been gentle and slightly irregular for the past few weeks. It appears that excess partying is not good for you as I was off the bike for a week with a cold, whoops! All is good now though and the structured training starts as of today.

At the weekend visited Wales for a bit of trail riding, here is a quick video...

Trail riding at Afan from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

And so it begins...

2010-10-28T21:00:00.002+01:00

I am officially bored of swimming. Every time I get tired I just sink! So its time to get back on 2 wheels. This week I have started to build up my base, long steady rides are on the menu at the moment. Here is today's ride...

Don't worry though... I will still be dancing this weekend!

Season review

2010-10-14T19:51:00.004+01:00

This season has been one of mixed highs and lows. The moment I heard about the inaugural National 24hour championships I knew that I wanted to win and that it would be my main focus. I was able to focus all my spare time on my training and racing since this was my first year since graduating from university and fortunately I managed to find enough time to train effectively. I also decided to do it properly and found a coach in the form of Matt Hart from Torq fitness. This really made a difference for me. I knew how to train but having it written down and paying for the honour really focused my mind and made me train sensibly. I also reverted back to using a power meter which became my best friend for the first part of the year.

Initial fitness testing at the start of the year gave some promising results and I was sure that I could improve drastically. Previous years had shown I could do well on a diet of inconsistent training and racing. This year I was aiming to peak for a target race, something which I had not achieved before.

Early season races went reasonably well. I placed in the top 10 at the national xc series race and a few top 5’s at smaller xc races with nothing more than base training showed promise. As the nationals approached I had a real low point where my body felt totally ruined and I had feared that I may be overtraining. After a week of rest though I soon recovered which gave me 10 days to smash myself to get a nice peak.

Those 10 days I did nothing but worry. Matt said that he expected me to be totally destroyed after the block, but as hard as I could push I could not break myself! I was worried that I may have peaked too soon. The 10 day cycle consisted of 4 days on 2 days rest than another 4 days on. In the first 4 days I did a 100mile road ride in 5h on Friday, 3h tempo Saturday, 5h mtb Sunday, 6h mtb Monday. Followed by a similar schedule at the end of the block. On the last day I did a road race, narrowly missing the winning move and spending most of the race on the attack and then did 3h afterwards for a total of 130miles. And I still wasn’t totally wasted!!!!

2 weeks later was the nationals and I arrived feeling fresh and confident. Off the start the pace was sluggish. I was going to stay put with front riders but everyone was going so slow so I moved to the front to ride my own pace and see who would follow. No one did and I spent ¾ of the race leading solo! Unfortunatly I fell apart in the last quarter and was caught and passed with 4h left. I finished 3rd which in hindsight was good but ultimately I feel that I lost 1st rather than won 3rd.
Post nationals I was a mess. I was no good for anything riding wise and didn’t do much until a few weeks before I was due to fly to Canada for the BC bike race.

Amazingly as the race went on my legs came round and I began to post some reasonable finishes, just outside the top 10 in a world class field. I was hoping to reach the top ten but was ill on the penultimate stage and had to pull out. I began the next stage but then crashed heavily separating my shoulder.

Separating my shoulder was a pretty bad low. It meant that I wasted the second part of my holiday and that I was unable to compete in twentyfour12. Most of July was then spend feeling sorry for myself!

Come august I was back racing and somehow managed to pull out some results. 2nd at the Brighton big dog with rob dean, 2nd at a local XC the next weekend and 3rd at Torq 12 the week after with ant white. Things were looking up again! The next big race was the Kielder 100. I was looking forward to it but unsure of how I would fair. I had some bad luck early on with mechanicals and losing my bottle (drink not nerves!) and found myself riding in a podium position for most of the race. Eventually I faded to 5th but was still pleased none the less.

The end of the season kind of fizzled out. The 3 peaks cyclocross was a disaster, I rode like an idiot then my bike broke so I didn’t finish. Then the following week at Dusk till dawn I was at in a solid 2nd place but once again I had bike issues, this time a seized piston so abandoned.

So now I’m making the most of no racing. Partying is taking priority, although I am doing some swimming to strengthen my damaged shoulder a bit.

For 2011 I will be changing teams. I have ridden for Rob Lee’s team for 4 years and have developed into an endurance racer during that time; I dare say it would have happened without the team so for that I am truly grateful.

I’m sure I will be able to announce my new team in the coming months but for now you will have to keep guessing… one thing is sure though, I want a white striped kit next year ;)

The somme

2010-10-05T13:36:00.001+01:00

Dusk till dawn... my local race and one I want to win. This year I lined up hoping I could pull it off. My form has been reasonable over the last few weeks despite the lack of any structured training so I lined up feeling confident. Rain was expected but this was no problem, I had previously finished 2nd before in wet conditions. So when it started drizzling as we lined upon the start line I was feeling confident that it would be fine...
Off the start I settled into a nice comfortable position, following the wheels of Steve Webb and George Budd, the riders to watch in the solo category. The plan was to ride hard for the first lap to get a good position and then settle into a good rhythm. The conditions were fast for the first lap although towards the end the rain began to get heavier. My new exposure 6 pack made life easy going in the single track... the thing is so bright (I was half hoping the light beam would dry out the trails). Through the pits at the end of the first lap my bottle change was a little slow and I lost the wheel of the leaders. Not wanting to push into the red to early on in the race I let the gap go, figuring that their pace was unsustainable for more than a few hours.
By now the rain was torrential. The trails were disintegrating before my eyes and becoming incredibly slippery. The brake were being worn away with every little touch so I decided to not use them unless really necessary. I adopted the 1 foot out and hope for the best method of cornering!
As the race continued the rain got harder being driven by a strong cold wind. I was feeling strong, both mentally and physically and figured the best tactics were just to survive. By 3 hours the course was almost empty as so many riders had abandoned. After around 5hours I got word that George Budd had retired, leaving me in 2nd position around 20minutes behind. I was trying to conserve my bike but knew sooner or later I would need to change to my spare bike. Unfortunately my spare was a single speed and I was reluctant to swap and loose more time. I pushed on knowing my bike was at the limits and required new pads and a good clean. I left it too late though. My 6th lap was hell. The course was so wet and muddy that some sections were quicker to run. The lap was 3 times longer than my opening lap and I knew I had to swap bikes. I also knew that I’d end up running most of the lap if I used my single speed. As I entered the pit I decided that I needed to stay on my Santacruz so asked my helpers to quickly change my pads and lube the chain while I changed kit.
That’s when the problems started. The pistons on my brake had seized solid making them unusable. After 15minutes of trying to sort the bike I was frozen to the core. I began a lap on my single speed but could not get warm, the lashing rain no helping matters! So I decided to turn around and call it a day.
All in all a bit of a disappointing weekend. I was good enough for the podium, but not prepared enough for the conditions. So with that my season fizzled out. Time to hibernate for a few months before refocusing on next year... hopefully next year I can pull off the big win that I feel capable of (preferably with a nice new jersey for winning!)!

3 peaks cyclocross

2010-09-29T20:32:00.002+01:00

The past weekend I headed up to the Yorkshire dales for the 3 peaks cyclocross race. This is no normal cyclocross race however; it crossed 3 mountains Ingleborough, Wernside and Penyghent. O and they are so steep that you have to carry your bike up!
My only previous experience of this race was as a junior. I had a successful day back then; I won my category and was the fastest newcomer. I also enjoyed it immensely and so was looking forward to returning.

We began at 9:30 with the 4 mile road section. This was dicey to say the least. Everyone wanted to be at the front and the constrictions in the road caused by oncoming cars and narrow roads caused many moments which required heavy braking. As we turned off the road onto the first section of farm track I was positioned badly about 40 riders back. It turned out that I was in exactly the wrong place as everybody in front of me suddenly stopped dead as the leaders rode away.

The start of ingleborough is across a grassy field. I closed a few positions here before the gradient suddenly shot up. It was time for the death march. The slopes of ingleborough are savagely steep. To put it in perspective the person immediately in front of you is standing at head level as you climb the steep slope. I decided that the crawling method would be best, ensuring that the wind would not catch my bike and send me tumbling back down the mountain. By the top of the climb I was in a good top 30 position. This was as good as it got though.

As a junior I had remembered the descents to be incredibly fun. I had obviously misjudged them. It was hell. I have been spoilt the last few seasons by racing on full suspension bikes. The contrast between these and the fully rigid (slightly too small) cyclocross with crappy brakes was immense. I pride myself on being a pretty good descended. I like to think that not many people can gap me on a descent, but now I have to swallow my pride. I descended like a tart. I must have easily lost 20 positions. I hate to say this but I was so glad to hit the road section at the bottom
On the road section I got into my rhythm. I caught most of the riders who had passed me on the descent, jumping from group to group and closing the gaps comfortably. However up the next climb of wernside I again lost some places. It seems I had not prepared enough for this event, motivation was fading.

The descent from wernside is rocky with lots of steps. I was feeling every single jar through the rigid bike and began to wish that I was riding my tallboy. Around half way down on a particularly steep section I was hanging onto the brakes on the drops for dear life trying to maintain reasonable control. Suddenly I began to accelerate fast, still holding the brakes. Somehow I managed not to die as I careered uncontrollably down the mountainside. Thankfully the ground levelled slightly and I performed and emergency skid, my foot dragging along the floor aiding the rear brake. As I inspected my bike I saw that the cable had pulled through the brake fixture which in turn had dropped off. Basically I had no front brake. Gingerly I made my way down the mountain, my dragging foot my most effective means of stopping.

At the feed zone I saw my parents and stopped. I had no desire to continue. I didn’t fancy descending Penyghent with no front brake and risking more injury. I was not enjoying the race and although I hate not finishing this seemed a much better option than continuing and not enjoying myself.

I think my relationship with the 3 peaks cyclocross is over. I am happy that my name is engraved permanently in the junior trophy. Maybe I will return when I have a mid life crisis!

I only have 1 more race left this season. My local race dusk till dawn, 12hours solo to finish off the year. Hopefully I can better my 2nd place from 2 years ago, the weather conditions are even looking similar….RAIN!

Make me ride!

2010-09-18T15:28:00.007+01:00

Since the Kielders 100 I have to admit I have been a bit slack. The race took a lot out of me so I had 3 days of rest. Then once my rest was over I couldn’t get motivated to ride much so rested a bit more. The end of the season is looming and the thought of training is loosing its novelty, a few beers and a bag of crisps is much more appealing! I spent my lazy time keeping occupied though. My next race is the 3 peaks cyclocross race. I have built up my trusty cross bike once again.

This was my first ever sponsored bike from my days on the talent team. I updated the paint a few years ago though whilst I was a uni to make it look pimp! 3 peaks is a very specialist event even my cyclocross standards. About 5km of the course is unridable and the bike has to be carried up stupidly steep mountain slopes. I’ve been traning for this by doing plenty of squats and also by carrying my bike up some big hills. The only problem with living in cambrdgeshire though is that are no hills! Instead I have been walking up and down the side of the dam which keep grafham water resevoir at bay.

I have got my act together the second part of this week and have done 3 4hour rides. Hopefully that will see me through to the end of the season in 2 weeks time at dusk till dawn where i hope to get a good result.

In the mean time here is a video from a training ride in thetford forest last weekend (in HD too!!!)

Thetford forest mountain biking from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Thrunton Woods with Rich and Ant

2010-09-08T14:41:00.002+01:00

The day after the Kielder 100 i went trail riding with Ant White and Rich Rothwell in his local woods. Hes a lucky boy!
Check out the video of the trails, this only scratches the surface of whats there...

Trail riding at Thrunton Woods,Northumberland from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Kielder 100

2010-09-06T16:10:00.002+01:00

This weekend was the kielder 100, the UK’s only 100mile race. I was keen to do well at this race although I was a little unsure of my fitness over such a long distance as I had not done any real long rides since I separated my shoulder. Instead I was hoping that a racing for the past 3 weekends would bring on my form nicely.

I travelled up to Kielder the Friday before the race, stopping to pick up Rich Rothwell on the way. We arrived at Kielder castle to find swarms of midges intent on eating anything that moved. To protect us from the onslaught we sought shelter in the handily placed pub. Then like true athletes we continued to carbo-load ready for the big day ahead, the pint and burger did just the trick! Then it was off to bed, rich in his pop up tent and me in my luxury van (complete with carpet, sleeping bag and exposure light!).

We woke early the next morning, to be precise and once again began the challenge of eating when you would rather be asleep. Race start was at 6:30 am so we made our way to the start line for 6, just in time to miss the queue and bag a front line spot!

At 6:30 we rolled out into the gloomy mist for the neutralised start. After a couple of miles we turned off up a fire road and the race was on. A strong tempo was set up the first fire road drag and I began to suffer! Cold air, early starts and no warm up make for a grizzly first 15 minutes. Over the top of the first drag 3 riders had split away from the front then a group of 15 or so including me were behind. I decided to follow the wheels and try to save energy, however once I saw a slight gap to 6 riders ahead I put in an effort to make the move. This proved to be a good call was we worked together well and pulled away. Coming into the first feed at about the 20mile point we caught the leaders. I realised that I had dropped one of my bottles though so had to stop and fill up which resulted in another chase and valuable energy wasted. I soon caught on though and was comfy on the back of the elite front group.

However 5 miles later disaster struck. My tactics had been to sit at the back of the group to save energy but riding down an overgrown rutted descent a rider in front had a near crash so I pulled my foot out to stop. As I did my left pedal body separated from the crank and flew into the bushes and my bottle and cage simultaneously rattled lose and fell off. So I had to stop, run back up the trail to find my last bottle, cage and pedal body from in the long grass as the lead group rode away. I wasn’t very happy and thought my race had ended. Luckily I managed to find all the parts and bodge my pedal back together and chase.

Fortunately for me the lead group had splintered up the next drag, although at the time I did not know. I caught Mike Blewit (3^rd in 2009) and we rode together for a while making light conversation to pass the time. I figured we would ride the rest of the race together, but I soon gapped him on a climb so decided to push on solo. Ahead I could see Matt Pages white jersey glistening in the sunlight which was breaking through the mist so I put my head down and charged on. I soon caught and passed Matt and before I knew it Neil Crampton was in view (last year’s winner) so I chased hard figuring that he would be good to follow. I caught Neil on the descent from the top of kielder and we soon settled down into a good rhythm. We worked together for about 20miles and crossed into Scotland together. On the open moorlands we could see 3^rd place Phil Morris ahead and before we knew it we were together. Up ahead 1^st and 2^nd place were 10 and 5 minutes ahead.

As we entered Newcastleton we were all hanging. We stopped at the feed and raided the food like a pack of hyenas! At the feed JC caught us and the 4 of us rode away together. On the climb up bloody bush road Phil dropped off and JC cramped and all of a sudden I fancied my chances at a spot on the podium. These soon faded though as we hit the last feed. JC caught up, Neil rode off quickly followed by JC and I started dribbling!

The last 20miles were grim. I plodded on as hard as I could counting the miles on my GPS. At what I thought was 2 miles to go I passed the 5mileto go sign! My heart dropped and the trail rose, straight up a switch back climb. Somehow I made it although I had to dig deep. The last descent could not have come sooner, one more climb and I would have been a jabbering mess at the side of the trail. 8h23minutes after the start I finished in 5^th place and somewhat wobbly! I really enjoyed the experience (in retrospect at least!) and will be back next year, this time aiming for the box...

Torq in your sleep 12h

2010-08-30T19:25:00.002+01:00

This weekend I raced the 12h Torq in your sleep enudro. I entered as a piar with fellow 24hour racer Antony White. We were both hoping to go for the win but we soon realised this would be a tall order with a number of elite riders in the field. Off the start we settled into 4^th position and this is where we stayed for 11 hours. After about half way we gradually began to close the gap and we passed third with an hour to go. Over the next 2 laps we created a comfortable gap to secured 3^rd, my 3^rd podium in as many weeks.

Here is the lap video from my bar cam:

Torq in your sleep 12h enduro, lap video from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Next week i head up north for the Kielder 100, my first 100mile mtb race.

St Ives Cycling club xc race

2010-08-23T09:32:00.001+01:00

This weekend I raced in the St Ives cycling club xc race. The race is organised by my mum so most of the morning was spent setting out the course ready for the race. The race itself began at 1pm and I settled into around 5^th place for the first half of the opening lap. Once everyone had tired themselves out from sprinting from the gun I began to squeeze the pace and settle into a rhythm. I moved in to second position by the end of the first lap as the leader edged away. By the halfway mark I began to close the gap back down and with 3 laps to go the gap was 10 seconds. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite close the last few meters and the effort took its toll. I had to ease up a little after 2 fast laps in the middle of the race. I lost about 45 seconds to the leader over the last 2 laps but held on comfortably for 2^nd 55 seconds off the win. A good days work though!

Below is my video from the race:

St Ives Cycling club xc race from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

New helmet: KASK VERTIGO

2010-08-22T20:21:00.005+01:00

I’ve been lucky enough to be given a new helmet to race with for the rest of the season. Its the Kask Vertigo. It may look familiar as it is mainly found in a black and blue colour upon the heads of team sky riders

My version is the MTB specific version (with fetching fluro yellow flashes!) is basically the same as the road one apart from the fact that it has a peak. The peak is easy to remove and fix back in place, especially useful for me as i only tend to use a peak when its muddy. It certainly works well at blocking the mud, this was proven at a particularly muddy brighton big dog race.

I have also raced in a xc race in 20 degrees and it proved plenty cool enough. The internal padding is actually honeycomb shaped which allows the sweat to escape and also allow the air to circulate around the head helping cooling.

I havent face planted yet so I cant really comment on the impact resistance! The helmet will stay inplace in a crash though that is for sure. The fastening syslem is great, a slow slung band fits around the back of the head and holds it in place firmly and the gels gripper pads just get stickier with sweat!

The chin strap is great too. Pure leather with reflective piping. This is especially great for a mtb rider as standard straps always get stained with mud and are impossible to clean. The kash ones simply wipe clean. All in all a great helmet, very comfy and looks great. What more could you need?

The Brighton Bigdog

2010-08-16T09:59:00.001+01:00

This weekend was the Brighton Bigdog. I was down to race as a pair with fellow Santa Cruz tallboy rider Rob Dean. The event was great fun even though the weather didn’t manage to hold up. The course went from dry to super wet and slippery then to sticky back to dry and finally back to super slippery! We placed 2^nd in the pairs category which is pleasing as it is only the second time I’ve ridden my mountain bike since separating my shoulder.

Following the race was the after party complete with free bar. It was great fun from what I remember! I’ll leave to rest to your imagination...

Here’s my helmet cam footage (pre mud!):

Brighton BigDog 2010 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Time to ride

2010-08-10T17:45:00.004+01:00

Finally i have managed to get back to some kind of normality cycling wise after seperating my shoulder 6 weeks ago. The past 2 weeks i have been putting in steady miles on my road bike. At first my shoulder ached constantly but gradually the strength has increased and its getting back to normal.

Yesterday i rode my mtb for the first time since the crash. All seemed good however i am still reluctent to pull up hard on the bars to bunny hop logs and other trail obsticals as it tweaks my damaged tendon. I am however going to race next weekend at the brighton big dog. The lack of a big target such as the National 24 has made motivation to train low. I really don't fancy spending hours on the road looking at numbers from my power tap, and there are no good mtb trails where i live. Instead i think i will build some form by racing lots and riding for fun.

My latest video is also ready, thanks to gerard at SOHI films for putting together a quick roundup of the BC Bike race:

I've really enjoyed putting together and filming videos of my races and it is something i am going to contiune to do starting at the weekend. Lookout for the BigDog video next week...

BC Bike race stage 2 video

2010-08-01T20:02:00.000+01:00

BC Bike race stage 2 from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

On the mend...

2010-08-01T16:23:00.002+01:00

2 weeks has now passed since my initial trip to the physio and my arm was taped back into position. A week later i was back for a check up and some more treatment and this time the results were more promising. I had almost full movement in my arm (although it was weak) and the shoulder hadnot dropped position which shows all the muscles and ligaments were healing.

So now i am back on my road bike and putting in the miles. This week i did a block of 3h z2 rides on 3 consecutive days. Its a bit of a shock to the system after 3 weeks off and my average power is down some 20watts from the form i had pre nationals but i felt stronger every day. My legs were pasted by the end though and i’ve just taken 2 recovery days to heal up. I have also been doing some very litght shoulder weights (1.5kg.) to help build some strenght back up.

I’m hoping that in 2 weeks time i will be fit enough to race at the Brighton BigDog. I’m racing the for 6h in a pair with Rob Dean, a fellow Tall boy rider. Team 2 Tall Boyz on 2 tall boys is ready for action! On thing is for sure, I will 100% be ready for the free bar and the dance floor at the after party!!

I have finally got my hands on some video editing software so am putting together some films from all the helmet cam footage i have from the BC Bike race. There will be a full proffesional edit soon but here is a quick film about stage 1 in the mean time, more to follow...

BC Bike race stage 1 helmet cam from Josh Ibbett on Vimeo.

Broken

2010-07-16T19:00:00.004+01:00

Today i saw the physio about my damaged shoulder. The out come was not good. Tape is now holding my shoulder in place as the ligaments are damaged and are unable to support my arm. In the short term its 2 more weeks off the bike, and lots of nursing in the long term.

This is what it looked like a few days after the crash ( note the step in my shoulder, thats the top of my arm where it is not held in place properly!)

This is a diagram of whats happened. Mines a type 2 shoulder seperation. Basically the ligaments are damaged.

This is what the pysio did... the tape holds my arm on!

Back home

2010-07-15T21:42:00.005+01:00

Since my last post I have returned home to England. The second half of my trip to Canada was a bit of a disaster riding wise, i.e. I didn’t do any! My shoulder was too painful all week. In the end I had to resort to going for walks in the mountains around whistler.

The second part of the week was spent in Squamish. I was kindly put up by Dave from Corsa cycles. By this time I had realised that my shoulder was more than just bruising. A doctor confirmed my fears and I was diagnosed with a type 2 Shoulder separation. I found the best treatment was to drink beer; the numbness seemed to ease the pain.

Dave arrange for one of his mates to take me up in his plane. It was certainly a great experience flying about the mountains and seeing Squamish and Whistler from the air. Then on the final day Dave threw a party in Corsa cycles and we all got drunk! I can’t thank Dave enough for his kindness…. Thanks!

I arrived home on Sunday, slightly jetlagged and sore. Monday morning was spent in A&E to check for fractures in my collar bone, thankfully it was in one piece. I am still off the bike though and unable to drive. Its looking 99% certain that I will not be able to race at Bontrager 24/twelve which is extremely disappointing. Instead I will use this rest as a short break before training hard for my goals later in the season including the Kielder 100, 3 peaks Cyclocross and my local event Dusk till Dawn.

Also I would like to wish good luck to my friend Nina who is moving to New York to chase her dreams…. Good luck!

BC Bike race

2010-07-04T01:28:00.002+01:00

The Bc Bike race is finally over. I'm now in whistler. The race started well, and i gradually worked my way up the overall classification every day. On the 4th day however my luck changed. A snapped chain and then getting lost for a few minutes after missing the course marking lost me 10minutes whilst riding into a top ten position. The next day i clawed back some more time and set myself up in a good position for a final push in the last 2 days. However i woke up on the 6th day with a stomach bug. I couldn't eat much but started regardless. I just didnt have any energy though and had to pull out at the first aid station. Its a bit disapointing but there is not much a could do to prevent it. Today i started the stage. I was feeling a lot better and was out to have fun as i no longer had an overall position. Things were good up the first climb and i was in a confortable position. On the descent of the bike park i was having great fun airing the doubles and table tops. However i misjudges a step up at the bottom of the hill and performed the perfect 'dead sailer'. Over the bars i went head firstlanding in my shoulder and sliding along my back. My shoulder is bruised and pretty sore so once again i DNF. I still have a week out here so will be training hard shoulder permitting. Full report and video to follow....

Canada calling

2010-06-22T12:41:00.002+01:00

On thursday i finally fly to canada for the BC Bike race!
The race begins with a short prolouge around vancouvers north shore on saturday morning before the race begins for real on Vancouver island on sunday. I'm really excited about going away. The trails in canada are awesomeand its a great opportunity to test myself again some pro's.

Hopefully the form will be ok. I've struggled to get back into training since the 24hour national championships, i dug a bit deeper than i realised! BC bike race should be great training for 24twelve though.

Next time i blog i will be in canada!

Onwards and upwards

2010-06-10T16:45:00.002+01:00

Since the 24hours nationals I have been taking things steady. Eating junk and drinking have become the norm for a few weeks. The serious athlete healthy habits need to be relaxed sometimes!

Now training has resumed in earnest ready for my next test. In 2 weeks I will be flying to Canada for the BC Bike race. This entails 7 days of single-track heaven! I can’t wait. Hopefully I can post some respectable results. There are a number of pros in the field so I hope to up my game.

2 weeks after I get back I will once again saddle up the the long haul. I’m racing the 24 solo race at Bontrager 24twelve. Originally I was entered for the 12h but my performance at the nationals and the fact that 2 American pros have entered the race has swayed my decision. I want to reach the top so racing some of the best guys in the world will hopefully help me get there.

Bring it on!

Juice Lubes!

2010-06-02T21:22:00.004+01:00

I'm happy to announce that Juice Lubes have agreed to sponsor me...

They will be providing me with all manner of cleaning and lubricating products to keep my santacruz running smoothly throughout this season.

So far initial impressions are good. The Fork Juice is particularly impressive (and makes your bike smell like strawberries). I haven't had the chance to test the Dirt Juice bike cleaner just yet (my bike is still sparkley clean since the juice lubes guys cleaned it for me after the National 24).

Further reviews on lube performance to come....

In addition to the Juice Lubes I have also been supplied with some Esi Grips. Lightweight, comfortable, silicone grips in an array of pretty colours...

Further reviews to come following some more thorough testing

Thanks very much for the support guys, i hope to be on a podium near you soon!

24hours of Exposure

2010-05-26T20:25:00.005+01:00

So after months of training and preparation the day of the big race had come. The big race of course was the inaugural UK 24hours of Exposure Solo mountain bike championships.

We arrived at Rock Uk, our hosts for the weekend, in good time on Friday afternoon. After the usual faff of setting up camp, I headed out onto the course for a practice lap. Since my previous visit a few weeks earlier many of the boggier sections of course had been replaced with much firmer trails. This led to a fast course with around 500meters of climbing per 12mile lap. Combined with the oppressive sun this added up to create some tough conditions for 24hour racing.

As another hot sunny dawned, the final preparations began. Bikes were checked, bottles filled and the last meal eaten. At 11:30 the riders assembled 2miles away from the arena in the centre of Newcastleton for the ceremonial signing on and start. At 12 noon we began. The closely knit peloton rolled out of the town and began the 2 mile climb to the arena.

As we crested the top of the climb to begin the first of many laps a group of 20 riders was present at the front. The initial miles rolled by extremely slowly. It was at this point early in the race that I decided that I would ride to the front and ride my own pace to see what happened. By the end of the first lap my lead was a minute. I continued to ride a comfortable tempo out front for a few more laps expecting a group of favourites to bridge across to me all the while. Eventually Ant White caught me up and we rode around for a few more laps together. On around the 5^th lap however, Ant seemed to slip backwards and so I continued my epic ride off the front of the race.

By the evening I had realised that my gap was growing so decided to try and keep it until darkness fell. The plan was then to up the tempo and try and crack my rivals in the dark. The plan seemed to be working. I was feeling great and time was flying. This did not last however. As dawn broke around 5am my head\began to succumb to the lack of sleep. I was struggling to concentrate. The result was inevitable, a slight lapse in concentration, the wrong line and bike/tree interface. I soon picked my self up and the bike appeared to be ok. However on the next corner the tyre blew off the buckled rim… bugger! So a number of minutes were wasted changing the tube and trying not to panick!

A few laps later my whole body began to feel fatigued. As I entered the pits on the 18^th lap, I asked my pit crew where the 2^nd placed rider was. Imagine my shock as he rode right by me before they had time to answer! The race was on. Unfortunately the engine was not responding from the commands from the bridge. As much as I wanted too my legs jut didn’t want to go hard. The result was that I just cruised at a manageable pace watching the leader disappear into the distance.

As the last few hours dragged on my body weakened and I slowed. I knew the race was lost and finally on the last lap I was caught for 2^nd. Ant apologised as he sped away, but he shouldn’t have. I played my cards and they had been trumped.

Finally I dragged my body across the finish line for 3^rd place. Matt Page took the win with Ant in second. I can’t say I’m disappointed however. I took the race to the big boys but was unable to hold on when it counted. O well, it was only my 2^nd ever 24hour race, there is plenty more to come…..

Dog Soldiers

2010-05-05T20:12:00.006+01:00

Since my last batch of ramblings I have been very busy. The week after the southern XC my legs were hammered. And so I busied myself by doing nothing! It required a whole week of resting for my legs to finally feel back to normal. I was scheduled to race in the Midlands Xc on the Sunday, but come Saturday morning motivation was lacking and legs were not too keen on turning so I made the wise choice not to race. Instead I went out for my birthday and drank lots of beer for the first time since Christmas, dancing counts as a workout anyway! As it happens I went out for a ride on the Sunday in a slightly hungover state with little sleep and was flying! Maybe alcohol and dancing is good race preparation afterall?

It was then back to the grind stone and my final build up to the national championships. Long rides after work are the order of the day and the legs are certainly feeling stronger after a block of higher intensity training.

This past weekend I have been on a bit of a road trip. I warmed up for it by riding 100miles on Friday nights after work before setting off early the next morning for a ride with Rich ooop north. Being the kind gent he is we headed out into the wilderness through dark werewolf infested woods and up long steep windswept climbs. The werewolf reference is due to the fact that the film ‘Dog Soldiers’ was filmed in one of the valleys where we rode. Fortunately for me there was no full moon so Rich didn’t grow all big and hairy and eat me. He just smashed my head in for 3h instead… cheers Rich!

From Morpeth I headed up for a pre ride of the National championships course at Newcastleton. First impressions are good. Plenty of climbing with some wicked fun single track. Although there I one particular corner which I may be a little more careful on come race day. I managed to get a little to excited and hit a loose corner way to fast. The result was me sliding along on my face for a few meters. After a few minutes lying in a heap my head stopped spinning and I jumped back on my bike and carried on. However I was a little concussed and dazed and it took me 5 minutes to realise that I had headed the wrong way down the trail! Still having a headache stopped my legs hurting so I rode for another 2h in a dazed state, I guess that’s good training for the national 24 where I shall be dazed for most of the second half of the race (if not I’m not trying hard enough)!

After my 5h ride at Newcastleton I then drove down to Pickering. Next riding location Dalby. On a lovely sunny bank holiday morning I began my first of 3 laps at Dalby. I seem to be missing something in the world of cycling fashion however, since when are builders bums, jeans and trackie B’s good for cycling in? They can’t have realised the consequences of riding in jeans in the wet yet! As it happens it did rain and hail, and sleet all interspersed by fine sunshine… cracking. So a little under 6h later I completed my 3 laps of Dalby in all conditions on the mighty Santa Cruz tallboy. I love big wheels, they eat bumps for breakfast!

Now I have a few days of rest before another final block of smashing my self until I can hardly move… fun fun fun

Southern xc rd 1

2010-04-12T21:27:00.001+01:00

The last 2 weeks since BMBS rd 1 have been pretty full on. Gradually day by day I have felt faster and stronger as I push my body to new levels of fitness. My lungs feel like they are increasing in volume and the pressure I am pushing through the pedals is gradually increasing. However it would be foolish to think that this good feeling would last forever. It would be even more foolish to expect this to last forever, the body just can’t cope with such stress for too long without finally collapsing and begging for repair.

Unfortunately I managed to reach this stage on Sunday morning. I lined up for the first round of the southern Xc wondering if the legs would be ready for some punishment. The answer was quick to arrive. The gun went off and elbows went out as the horde of monsters began the charge of the Xc start. I wasn’t part of this however; I had fluffed the start and was scrabbling around the back of the pack trying to clip my foot in the pedal, whoops.

After the early mistake I began to move up the field and settle in around midway down the pack. As we entered the first section of loamy single track the pace slowed as each rider weaved single file down the path ahead. Some where around halfway through the first lap my mind started wandering, I’m not sure what I was thinking about but it certainly wasn’t about the trail ahead. Suddenly there was a load creak and a line of riders waiting impatiently for me to move out of their way as I lay on the floor blocking their path. Somehow I crashed on the easiest bit of single track on the course and twisted my bars 90 degrees. I reached into my pocket to grab my multitool to correct my bars. Bugger, that was the thing I had forgotten and was niggling the back of my mind on the journey down. Luckily brute force prevailed and I was away again with a new found energy to catch up.

The next 2 laps were a game of pursuit. Gradually I worked my way forward through the pack; however the legs didn’t seem willing to put in the required effort. At one point on the 3^rd lap a top 5 position was looking entirely feasible. By the end of the 5^th lap it was out of the question. My legs buckled, too much training, too hard for too long. The game was up and I switched to conservation mode.

I crossed the line in 7^th position. Not disastrous but I know on a good day a podium was achievable. Now I need to rest to allow my body to heal and when it does I shall be stronger. The big battles are yet to come…

Whinlatter challenge and BMBS rd 1

2010-03-30T22:01:00.002+01:00

Two weeks ago I finally reached the end of my winter of base training. At long last the races had arrived and it was time to turn some pedals in anger rather than the long steady rides my body had become accustomed to over the winter.

The next phase of training involves plenty of harder efforts, the hardest of which involve lining up at the start line of some XC races. Last weekend my first test was at the Whinlatter challenge, a 30mile xc race with 1500meters of climbing over 2 laps. It was certainly a shock to the system! Firstly due to the intensity and secondly due to the fact that I have trained in Cambridgeshire all winter and struggled to get more than 600m of climbing in a 5 hour road ride!

The start was up a 10min fire road climb. My plan was to try and keep near the front but not go into the red as my body is not used to such hard efforts. At the crest of the climb I was just off the back of a lead bunch of about 15riders. Fortunately the climb was rewarded with an equally long descent. Thankfully my descending skills were not too rusyt after a winter on the road bike and I soon began closing in on the riders in front.

After the first 30minutes a pattern began to emerge. The riders around me would be faster on the climbs, however I would gain more time back on the descents and flat. Gradually I eased myself up the field . At this point I should probably mention the new Santa Cruz tallboy…. AMAZING! It the first time I’ve ridden a 29er and its fair to say I’m hooked. The levels of grip are amazing and it just flows over roots and rocks like their tarmac.

Entering the second half of the race a group of three had established. One rider was stronger on the climbs one less strong on the climbs but fast down hill and me who was slower on the climbs but faster down and across. We began swapping positions on the climbs and descents for the rest of the lap. Entering the final 500m fire road climb we were split by 10 seconds. Unfortunately I just didn’t have the legs for a maximal effort up the final climb and slipped 30 seconds back. The descent to the finish was a fire road drag strip so disappointingly I was unable to close the gap. Still a 5^th place finish was promising especially as I was 30seconds off a podium.

This past weekend I lined up for my second xc race in as many weeks. This time the national xc at Sherwood pines. This was a little more serious than the previous week. All the pure Xc racers live for the National series so the field would be competitive.

And so I lined up at the back of the grid eager to see whether 29er wheels were good at running over bikes and bodies in the carnage that is the start of a fast xc race! The start was relatively clean and I managed to move into the top 20 entering the first single track section. It was then that every one in front decided to sprint for the same gap at the same time only to realise that the said gap was too small. The resulting pile up was impressive if a little frustrating as I watched the leaders ride away. After a bit of cyclo cross practice using bikes and bodies as hurdles I was back aboard the tallboy.

For 3 laps I rode my own tempo catching the riders ahead and slowly moving up the field. Entering the final 2 laps I was joined by two more riders and we worked together to try and bring back the leaders who were always frustratingly in view on the fire road drags. By the final lap the digs had begun and my legs began to revolt. They just don’t like going into the red! Entering the final 2 miles my legs were shot and I began to slip off the riders in the group. At 1 mile to go I was caught by another rider and I entered the arena with him. Sprinting was not on the cards so I was beaten to the line with a late surge. 9^th place is still quite pleasing though. Last time I raced a national xc all I could manage was 24^th! Things are progressing nicely; I will only get faster…

A smashing time

2010-03-11T21:01:00.001Z

I’ve been a bit quiet recently on the blog front. Now I’m no longer a student I don’t have so much time to waste!

Things are going good though. February was a mixed month. I managed to pick up a virus of some description which meant that I trained inconsistently for 3 weeks. I just felt sick every time I rode my bike and lost my appetite. One week I managed to loose 2kg in a few days, not good. You can be too light, I just felt week and horrible and then picked up a cold. I guess being able to see your ribs in your back is not the best thing!

Things are going well now. The enforced rest has allowed my body to adapt to the punishment I have given it since Christmas. Now I’m just smashing it again, fun times. As I write now I am approaching the end of my final block of base training. Things are starting to get a bit more intense now. I raced on the road at the weekend in a local road race. The distance was fine; the intensity of the sprint up the finishing climb was not however. My Enduro legs didn’t like that so much and I ended up 20sec of the remains of the bunch at the finish. There were only 30 finishers though so I guess that’s ok. O yeah and I did a 5h ride the day before, which may have had something to do with my legs hurting!

I’m finally going to ride my new team bike this weekend. I cant wait, hopefully 29inch wheels will suit my lanky body nicely. Now I have 2 days left of punishment left before a rest week. I can’t wait as my body needs a bit of rest to get stronger. Then its time for some racing!

Miles of rest

2010-02-13T12:43:00.002Z

Following the Thetford enduro 3 weeks ago I caught my first cold of the year. And what a stinker it was! Sneezing snot non stop, yummy. Although it was a bit of an annoyance it shifted pretty quickely and i was back on the bike.

I manage a good strong 20h week. Plenty of good long rides with a bit of tempo riding thrown in to up the intensity a bit. Things were looking good as finished my first big week but then I started feeling a bit funny. My system mus have been rundown a little as i seem to have caught a bug of some sort. I felt sick for a few days and had a few stomach problems so had a few days off as i couldnt eat enough. Things seems ok again but this week i have tried to resume training and feek nausious every time i put in any slight effort on the bike. Not good. So I am now having 3 days with NO BIKE!!!!! Its rubbish, the longest I've been off since my post season binge. Hopefully things will sort themselfs out so i can train again next week.

In the mean time I am resting and eating trying to put on some weight. A few days of undereating due to sickness following a big week have left me skeletal, show me the pies!

Thetford winter series rd3

2010-01-25T20:40:00.003Z

Since Christmas my life has revolved around lots of long steady miles on the bike. As fun as this may be the urge to race is sometimes too much so I found myself on the start line of the Thetford winter series round 3. I decided to ride single speed mainly due to necessity; it’s the only race worthy Mtb I own at present! I can’t wait until my garage is stocked with my new Santa Cruz team bike J

I have been riding my single speed lots this winter, so I was more than happy to race on it. The only problem I had was what gear? I have been training on a 34-16 at endurance pace so I guessed that at race speed maybe a 14t cog at the back would suffice. Unfortunately I was particularly unorganised the week before the race and was unable to get hold of a 14t, the next best option was 13t so that had to do!

Anyway that’s enough of boring technical rubbish. I turned up at Thetford and quickly established I could turn the chosen gear with a quick lap of the car park. The Thetford series seems to be super popular, so much so that they have a series ranking based grid. As this was the first round I had entered I was at the back, bugger!

We set off at 10:30 on a relatively dry and fast course. I soon began to make my way through the field on the first sections of fire road, but then around 2 miles in I hit a bump and dropped my chain. So now I was back where I started and stuck behind slow people in the single track.

Results aren’t particularly important at this time of year so with that in mind I rode at my threshold for the first hour and a half. I soon made my way back through the field but had no idea what position I was in, but that didn’t matter because it was fun!

After about 2h I eased back conscious not to ride too hard in these early races. Some sections of the course began to get a bit draggy in the latter part of the race but thankfully I have spent plenty of time with single speeders so was familiar with the single speed gurn pedalling technique i.e. pull really hard on the bars and push really hard with the legs in a slow motion manner.

With around 3 laps remaining I caught the 4^th place rider was seemed to have given up. He hadn’t given up enough to sit on my wheel though! So I cruised around with him for the rest of the race unable to drop him as he just whacked it in the big ring on the fire road while I span franticly.

Coming into the last lap it looked like I may be on for my first ever sprint finish in a Mtb race. I tried my best to break away on the draggier sections but it wasn’t going to happen. The sprint for 4th was a formality, I span out: he won!

All in all it was a pleasing race. 5^th place on a single speed with nothing more than steady miles in my legs is an encouraging start to the year. Now I’m going back into hiding until the spring!

Also I forgot to mention I'm doing the twitter thing now @j_ibbett if you want to see some random ramblings!

New decade

2010-01-03T15:45:00.015Z

Instead of trying to make long rides sound interesting as i usual do on here i have decided to welcome the new year (and decade) with a look back at my time cycling. This will be the start of my 9th year of racing so I've dug out some photos of my racing years so far...

2002
This was my first ever race aged 14, i felt so cool on my hand me down cannondale in TEAM colours with matching jersey. It was the eastern region series at thetford and i was last!
2003
I had only raced at thetford up untill now. The first NPS round was at thetford and i gave it a go. The rest is history, from then on i travelled around the country doing the NPS.

In the winter of 2003 I joined eastern region velo and took my first victory in the youth eastern league cyclocross on my mountain bike!

2004
My second year racing youth and i started to do ok and get in the top 10 in the nationals. I joined team Synergy and was also selected for the British Cycling Talent Team and was very excited to get my first sponsored bike!

2005
Now a Junior cycling was taking priority over everything in life (and still is!). I was top 10 in the NPS as a first year junior my best being 5th position.

I also raced the 3 peaks cyclo cross and was first junior, best newcomer and also beat all the U23's! A trend was begining to emerge: I did better the long the race was!
2006
My second year as a junior and i trained harder than ever before. The Olympic Development Team had just been launched and i wanted to get on it, unfortunatly i trained too hard and messed up this season and the 2007 season, bad times.

2007
Thanfully Rob had faith in me even though i was overtrained and useless when i joined Extreme Endurance. My performance of the year was at mountain mayhem, i think i cleaned 84 bikes in 24 hours!

Towards the second part of the year i gradually began to get my racing legs back, but i was starting from zero again.

2008
Its safe to say this was my breakthrough year. I was totally unconfident of my fitness and ability in races untill enduro 6. I was ment to do a pair with Rob but he couldn't make it so on the spur of the moment i changed my entry to solo, ELITE! Good job aswell as i came 6th and finally began to belive i could take on the best in endurance races, it hurt though! After Enduro6 i decided to enter my first 12h at 24/12, I won! Then i came second at Dusk till dawn against the fast guys.
2009
The past year was crazy. Uni work was crazy in the first part of the year, and my whole life changed in the second part with moving home, begining work etc etc. As a result i raced lots, trained little and was pretty tired. Overall I was pretty disapointed with my results as individual races. However overall in the circumstances i guess i cant be disapointed. 2nd at bristol 12, 2nd at transwales, 3rd at SITS mixed team, 4th at Torq 12h 5th at 24/12 12h not bad i guess.

The only result I'm pleased with is my first 24h solo. I was tired but worked on my nutrition and mindset in the run up and had a pretty perfect race. I cant be dissapointed with that performance, o yer and i won! 2010
I'll tell you at the end of the year! But I'll be faster than ever before that for sure...

New bikes :)

2009-12-23T19:03:00.002Z

Looks like we're on santacruz next year. I shall be riding a tallboy. Hopefully a nice light bike will make me faster! I'm looking forward to trying the big wheels aswell.

Syncros are the new title sponsor of the team which will be known as Syncros endurance and will also provide us with some pimp components.

Bring on 2010!

Let it snow

2009-12-23T10:35:00.008Z

Well it’s been a bit snowy here lately!
Riding on the roads has been pretty risky so I have spent most of my time riding around the arctic tundra on my single speed mtb. In some places the snow has even been so deep that I’ve been forced to push some sections. It’s great fun though, maybe iditabike isnt such a silly idea!

Looks like I’m on the mtb again this afternoon, -7 on the way to work this morning!

Busy, busy, busy

2009-12-16T18:30:00.005Z

The last week I have been busy!

Training is well and truly underway now and last week it was time to have a bit of a rest to ease the pain in my legs and get stronger after a few good long rides. The first part of the week was spent throwing weights around in my garage instead of pedalling. I was hoping that I may actually grow some muscles by doing weights but in reality I don’t think they are any bigger, all the fat has just been used up so I now resemble Skeletor!

Hmm actually even Skeletor has muscles, I shall have to try harder.

We also gained a new family member at the start of the week. Shes keeping us on our toes and likes causing mischief.

The latter part of the week involved a bit more cycling. Before the super serious training starts it is always usefully to have a fitness test. So on Thursday that’s exactly what I did. Nothing like turning yourself inside out and coughing up flem in a flat out 30min hill climb. I was pleasantly surprised by the results as well especially as I haven’t ridden at threshold since summer and also had 5 weeks off! Always nice to find the power scores hitting new highs, even more so when they are higher than the 2 top 10 elite BMBS riders who were also tested J

At the weekend I decided to visit my uni mates in Cardiff and also ride some real trails. So Saturday I went to afan for a steady 4h in the sunshine. It’s so nice to actually ride on hills and down trails with corners! The only bad thing was that I managed to leave all my food in the car and rode 4h on water only. I never knew there were so many stars in Wales, especially in daylight!

Round the world

2009-12-01T16:03:00.003Z

http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/Follow/RaceViewer

Have a look at this...

The clipper round the world sailing race is in full swing. Currently they are sailing form Cape town, South Africa to Freemantle, Australia. The fleet is currently in the middle of the southern ocean. My Dad is currently on the crew of the Jamaican Lightning bolt boat and will be for the next 2 weeks as they make their way to australia.

I like to think all those rainy sleepless hours spent helping in the pits at races were good training for this adventure!

AAACHEEEW!

2009-11-23T19:13:00.000Z

Well my training for the new season didn’t last very long! The month I spend partying every weekend and not sleeping till at least 3am finally caught up with me. I managed to catch some kind of nasty flu bug. So instead of training I have spent a week off work in bed feeling sorry for my self.

Things are looking up now though. My legs felt super fresh at the weekend and the snot levels were almost acceptable so the bike was wheeled out. I managed 2hours. The first hour I thought I had lost all my cycling ability as I was sooo slow. Fortunaly I had forgotten about this thing called wind so when I turned around I was flying again!

Sunday was the local cycling clubs hill climb. The course is quite amusing; the record is just under 3 mins with an average speed of 31mph!!! There is more downhill and flat than climbing, got to love Cambridgeshire.

Anyway I avoided the ‘hill climb’ as I felt the wind chill on the descent may agitate my cold! The following club run was more reminiscent of a Belgian classic which horizontal rain and horrific crosswinds, so much for not agitating the cold. And I almost got dropped in the crosswinds!

One thing is for sure… I won’t be peaking in February in my usual style!

And so it begins

2009-11-08T19:46:00.004Z

This week is the beginning…

The last month has been a bit crazy, more parties and beers than I can remember. This week however the training began.

This time around I’m going to do it properly. Last year my mind was working in overdrive after my 12h successes. 2 weeks was the space of time I had off the bike, followed by big miles. It worked a treat and I was absolutely flying, unfortunately it was only January!

I have to admit that I screwed up the past season. I failed to peak for all my major races. My body was so tired at Easter that I needed 2 weeks of total rest to avoid the pit of overtraining. Fortunaly I was ok for Bristol 12 but no where as fit as I know I can be. My first main target of the year was 24/12 and I managed to get there in good shape. Unfortunately my mind was not doing so well which ended in catastrophic mental meltdown.

I felt that in order to redeem my self I should ride another 12h to set my mind right again. Unfortunaly I had already committed to Trans Wales and sleepless in the saddle. The result was a consistent month solid of racing, almost 80hours worth. By the end of august I was tired and run down. Between then and relentless 24 my training was minimal. It was more a case of not getting ill or exhausted before my 24h debut. I did however address some of my fundamental weaknesses, my nutrition and my mind. Fortunaly these changes made a huge impact and I was back on it at Relentless24.

Next year I know I can and will be better.

The first steps started this week. I’m doing some weight training, trying to grow some muscles. I have also built my self a single speed training bike for the many hours of mud slugging come….. bring it on!

Quiet time?

2009-11-02T22:21:00.003Z

Since relentless 24 i havent touched my bike. Physically and mentally i needed a rest so i decided the best course of action was to do as much other stuff as possible so that there was no time to trian.

To be honest drinking beer and dancing like an idiot took up quite a bit of this 'quiet' time. But i guess that drunken dancing is better than drunken sitting?

This past weekend i have been doing some important product testing..... needed to try out my skin suit and nutrition programme ready for next year.......

........i think its time to sober up and do some training!!!!!!!

Relentless 24

2009-10-14T19:32:00.003+01:00

As Autumn closed in it signalled the end of another long and tiring season. But before I could relax there was one objective to fulfil before I could hang up the wheels for the winter: my 24hour solo debut.

We loaded up the van and began the long journey up to Fort William in the shadow of Ben Nevis for my final race of the year Relentless 24. The course was a perfect mixture of fast flowing single track, rocky technical sections, natural rooty drops and of course a few climbs to get the legs burning.

In the weeks before the race I was very unsure about riding 24 hours. A combination of physical and mental fatigue after a long season was gradually running me down. However in the few days leading up to the race things began to click together in my head. I had made a number of changes to my preparation including a radical nutrition change as well as working on my mental strength.

And so I lined up on the start line next to my team mate Dave feeling surprisingly calm. I knew I couldn’t be in any better shape in the circumstances and that I was ready mentally with tactics and nutrition. The plan was simple: ride my own race. I had never raced beyond 12hours so the plan was to play it safe and start conservatively and pick up the pace later on if I was still strong.

And so we started with a short run before leaping onto our bikes for the shortened first lap. I soon established my rhythm and settled in for the long haul. The first few laps I felt so slow. My body felt fine but I was riding well within my self and doing my best to resist clicking down a few gears and pushing hard. One by one the laps ticked by and I continued to drink and fuel my body. Time seemed to be passing fast and every time I entered the pits my pit crew kept asking if I wanted to know my position, the answer no, the only person I was racing was myself.

As darkness fell I still felt strong and consistent. The trails were great fun in the dark and I tried to entertain myself by making small talk with riders when ever I caught them. One thing really struck me at this event and that was how friendly and courteous the riders were. People were moving off the trail to let you past before they were even caught, sometimes even insisting you passed even though you didn’t really want to! Certainly better than the ‘professional’ club racers often found getting stroppy on English race courses.

Up until midnight the weather had held of nicely. It was warm in the woods although the wind was picking up and making the descent to the finish a bit chilly. However into the early hours there were a few short heavy showers. I was caught in one particularly heavy shower in the exposed second half of the course and then promptly froze on the wind swept descent to the finish. I pulled into the pits and made a quick change of clothes. To my surprise I was Dave sitting in the pits. He too had been soaked and was changing his kit. At this point I was still oblivious to my race position although I thought I must be doing ok if I had lapped Dave. But I carried on determined to focus on my own race until day break.

The showers began to take their toll on some of the natural sections on the course. One section had developed a wheel eating hole on the landing of a drop. I found this the hard way as ended up upside down after an over the bars ejection. Thankfully another rider untangled me and I only suffered a cut knee, to match my other knee and bruised hand from an earlier topple. The pain was soon forgotten as soon as the pedalling continued.

At day break I gave in and asked my pit crew my position. Good news Dave was second! So I carried on motivated that I only had to finish to win. If anything I let my concentration slip with this news and I had my first bad patch soon after. Suddenly I felt hungry and a bit blurry. This was bad, was I blowing? I ate all the food I had and carried on. The next half a lap was surreal. I began hallucinating and seeing things in the woods. At one point I’m sure I saw and elephant and a ghost along with rocks with smiley faces. To cope I decided to embrace the moment and play along rather than feel bad about my self. I started giggling!

At the end of the lap I stuffed my face with food and carried on. By this time the race was entering the final 4 hours or the ‘death zone’ as it is sometimes known. Luckily the hallucinations had disappeared and the legs were feeling strong again. At 22hours I began my final lap. I was informed that Dave was only 5 minutes in from of me so I pushed hard to catch him effectively winning the race with an hour to go. Dave was in a state when we met so I kept him company to the finish. He then found that he still needed to complete another lap to hold onto second position despite suffering serious stomach pain. Fair play to him he dug in and held second by 5 minutes.

All in all it was a great end to the season a team 1-2 and some great support from the rest of IronHorse extreme. Thanks to everyone who helped me in the pit including Dad, Zoe, Jo, Rob and Rich.

Now I need a rest!

Final build up

2009-09-29T12:03:00.002+01:00

I've been a bit quiet on here recently.

Since the Torq in your sleep 12h at the end of august I had a much needed rest. Then the final preperation for my 24h solo debut at Relentless 24 began. I've had a good solid 4 weeks training and I'm feeling strong.

This weekend is Dusk till Dawn 12h where i will be racing in a team of 3, as final tune up for Relentless the week after....

not so bad

2009-09-07T20:41:00.002+01:00

I've been a little dissapointed with my results so far this year. So far I've had no races that I've been really happy with and know i can do so much better.

The past week I was a little tired after a busy month so i decided to have a week with no bike riding. When I looked back over the last 2 months I began to realise why I was tired. In 7 weeks I raced a 4h enduro, 2 12h solo enduros, a 24h in a team plus trans wales. I worked it out as something like 70Hours actual riding time. Quite a lot really!

Then i worked out that in that time i was on the podium 5 times and didnt finish outside the top 5. I guess i have to be happy with that.

Now I'm rested up and ready for the final push. 4 weeks of hardwork before a short taper and my 24h debut... can't wait!

Torq in your sleep

2009-09-02T10:37:00.002+01:00

This weekend I headed down to Hampshire for the Torq in your Sleep 12h event. The circuit was based in the army training grounds of Minley manor and consisted of a 8 mile circuit which twisted its way around the woods. There were a few short sharp power climbs and plenty of tight twisty single track. Conditions were dry, so dry in fact that some sections were like riding in mud due to the thick dust on the trail.

The race began at 12 on Sunday. The start was chaotic to say the least. It seems that there were a fair number of xc racers in teams trying to get to the front at all costs. I found myself barged into a pile of sand which lost me all momentum and my place at the front of the pack.

After a few laps the pattern of the race began to emerge. Myself and Adi Scott were riding together in 3^rd and 4^th place whilst the 1^st and 2^nd place battered each other at the front of the race. We decided that the best tactic was to stick together and gradually draw them in. Around the half way mark we were beginning to make inroads into second position but Adi decided to up the pace. I was unable to respond so had to settle into my own rhythm.

Before long the dreaded low spot hit. Energy levels faded and my mind began to wander. I slowed substantially for a few laps before dusk which allowed the gap to a podium position extend. As night fell my body began to respond again so I pushed as hard as possible to try and close the gap. It began to work and the time gaps started to close in. However with 2 laps to go the gap to 3^rd was 7minutes and my gains were 2mins at most per lap. The maths don’t lie, i wasn’t going to be on the podium so i had to just ride around to finish the race.

I gave it my all but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. The race was close though. The winner completed 18laps (on a single speed!) and 2,3,4 and 5^th positions all finished on the same lap. My team mate Dave was 5^th behind me; he’s getting faster every time!

Thanks to Mum, Dad, Zoe and Rob for helping out in the pit. Now its time for a short break before a month quality training for my 24h debut at Relentless 24.

Summer Holiday

2009-08-24T22:01:00.005+01:00

After quite an up and down year so far I decided that I well earned holiday was in order. There were a number of places which I would have loved to visit. The Caribbean, Italy maybe even Australia. Eventually I decided that the best place for me to visit in order to have a great relaxing time was Wales! I decided a lovely beach holiday in the sun was in order so I booked a lovely surf hut next to the beautiful warm sea. Then I realised New South Wales was in Australia so I ended up doing Trans Wales instead! What a great time it was…

The week started down the pub on a Saturday night in Builth Wells drinking beer. The following day the first transition stage of the race began. The stage was an 80km ride to Llandiloes. The first stage was designed to wake the legs up and prepare for the week ahead, it did exactly that! After the stage we visited the local town looking for some protein shakes and carbohydrates to aid recovery for the following day. All we found was a pub and a chip shop.

The second day saw the first racing stage of the race. It began with another 80km ride to the Climax trail. The climax trail is one of my favourite trail centres, mostly due to the last descent. Luckily the stage missed the main part of the climb meaning more downhill than up. The stage went well. The Ironhorse MKIII soaked up all the drops and rocks nicely. At the end of the day I ended up 2^nd on the stage. This was a pleasant surprise considering I was riding for fun rather than results. That evening was spent planning a full on assault on the top step of the podium. Unfortunately I was consulting with single speeders so the ideas got more ridiculous with every pint. At one stage I laughed so hard I dribbled (quite a lot (every where))!

Tuesdays stage began with a lovely ride across the moors to Nant y Arian trail centre. The ride brought back memories of the previous years monsoon conditions. The river which the track crossed was a good 2 foot lower than last year. We reached Nant y Arian and began the special stage. The course was basically one big descent with a long dragging fire road climb back to the finish. I was great fun to ride the descent, although the climb seemed to drag much longer than I remembered. After the stage we had a nice slice of cake in the café before trekking onwards to the campsite in Cwmystwyth. I even managed to place second on the stage again and keep second on the overall classification…. Tidy (as they say in wales!).

Day 4 was a split day. It began with an awesome ride to Cilcwm. We started with the splashes, a series of river crossings which left us slightly moist. It then concluded with 10km single track to the finish, where we set up camp and prepared for the special stage in the evening. The special stage was a night time trial around the Cwm Rhiadr trail. The course was 7km, half up then half down. The stage was run under light drizzle which left the trail extremely greasy. Fortunately I used my Exposure Maxx D light with a Joystick Max so the darkness was no issue, I think they may have even dried the trail as I moved such is the brightness of the beam! Once again I finished the stage in second position however it was close, third position was only 2 second back.

Day 5 was a toughie. We rode across to Brechfa forest for a special stage. The trails there are great, super fast and fun with some tough climbs. The special stage was a fast fairly flat affair. There were no real technical challenges, just flat out pedalling. I found this stage extremely tough. I finished 5th on the stage but as this was the last special stage I secured second overall in the classification. All that was left was to get to the camp site. Unfortunaly we had to trek up the climb of Brechfa twice more before we were allowed to ride the road home. This broke a lot of people both mentally and physically, I was one of them. My body was broken and my mind tired. That evening we kicked back a little at the local pub. At eleven we headed back to the camp site. On the journey we were then persuaded into ‘1’ more drink by the Italian visitors to the race as we passed Llansawel’s other pub. The night ended at 1am rocking the Italians camper van whilst drinking sparkling wine!

Day 6 … hell! Hangovers were the order of the day. The first climb went on for a long time and lots of people overtook me as I wrestled to keep the morning’s breakfast in place between sambuka flavoured burps! Then a miracle happened, the alcohol dried up and the legs began working again. I was flying over the second part of the stage, maybe it’s a good nutrition strategy for a 12h race?

The final day was supposed to be a relaxing affair… yer right. Racing is much more fun. We covered the 65km in 3hours. The legs were screaming at times but the grand prize was there to be had at the finish line… a night out to be remembered in Builth Wells! As it happens it was a night to be remembered, so much so that I can’t remember much past the pole dancing in Builth’s finest night club. Although I do have some cracking bruises and a second place finish in the overall classification.

It was an amazing week. Super company, great organisation, great trails and some good parties. Can’t wait to do it again!

newspaper.........

2009-08-24T20:17:00.000+01:00

A Family weekend away

2009-08-12T13:31:00.001+01:00

Following the disaster that was 24/12 a 2 week break from training and racing was required in order to get my mind and body back on the right path.

This weekend signalled the beginning of the build up to the second big target of my season, Relentless 24, my 24h solo debut.

The weekend was spent racing at sleepless in the saddle as a mixed team. The intentions were to have a nice relaxed weekend away. The team was a family affair with husband and wife Greg and Katy, mother and son (yours truly and the associated mother) and Andy. We were riding as the St Ives CC team, my local cycling club.

Stupidly I volunteered to do the first lap and the run. This was a bad idea; it appears that I am not brilliant at running. I returned to the arena just about holding off a stitch in around 30th position and quickly grabbed my bike. By the time I returned after the first lap I was in 8th position. I handed the baton to Greg and promptly forgot to tell and one I had arrived back and started talking to people in the area! Solo is far simpler!

The plan was to do single laps until darkness, when Katy would do a double to enable to skip a lap later on in the night. The reason for this was that we had to look after their 2 year old daughter, Milly. It’s quite complex balancing racing and babysitting at the same time!
As darkness fell Andy, Greg and myself did a double lap each to enable the others to grab a little sleep. As dawn broke news came that we were in 4th position and closing fast on 3rd. This came as a bit of a surprise as we were really just away for a nice social weekend!

As the end of the race neared we had reached 3rd position. We had a 5 minute lead over 4th when mum went out for her last lap. She pushed hard and came back in with a lead. I then went out for a hard lap followed by Greg before sealing it with another lap with 15minutes to go. We held our 3rd position, a great result for a nice family weekend away!

St Ives CC also had a men’s team entered who finished 30th and Russell rode solo and finished 18th all in all a great effort.

My Iron Horse-Extreme team mate Dave was also racing. Unfortunately he had to pullout due to a back injury after a strong first half of the race... he’ll be back!

Brain ache

2009-07-27T21:59:00.002+01:00

Well the last few weeks have been interesting. My body has responded well to the hard training since I have moved home and I have been feeling strong and ready to race physically. Mentally though things have been different.

Last weekend I raced the Thetford summer series 4h Enduro. It was a bit of a last minute decision to enter but at the time I was buzzing and ready to tear up any race near me! The day loomed though and I struggled to find the motivation to get out of bed, let alone race.

Off the start line I hit the front and rode hard for a lap, the competitive instinct kicked in as soon as the gun went. Towards the end of the first lap I settled into a good 4h pace in a group of 3 whilst 2 riders slipped off the front of the group. This is how it stayed for the majority of the race, a hard pace which was easily sustainable

However around the 3hour mark my back began to seize up. It was bearable for a while but eventually it became unbearable, or so my brain was telling me. Once I found my self dropped from the group my brain flicked the switch in my head and the legs shut off. I cruise to the line content on saving my self for the big one the following weekend. I placed 5^th.

The following weekend came around quickly. The Monday after Thetford I visited the Pysio/ chiropractor. It seems my back pains weren’t with out cause. I had managed to shift my shoulder bones out of position (probably due to lifting at work) which was causing tension in my back. That was sorted so it was time sort things for the 24/12 12h race.

First off was to rebuild my IronHorse MK3. I raced it for the first time at Thetford however some changes were required. Thankfully Bertie Mafoons cycles helped me out with some parts so my ride is now pimped!

On Thursday I headed down to Plymouth to prepare for the race. Unfortunately my pre arranged pit crew had to pull out at the last minute leaving me with no support. Luckily I have great team mates and Dave agreed to help me out, he probably regretted this later!

The race started at midday Saturday, and I assumed a position at the front of the grid, start the way you mean to go on after all! The plan was to start fairly hard before settling into a nice sustainable rhythm. After the first lap I was in second position a minute down on the leader. There was a chasing pack of 3 and I was feeling good.

This situation continued for around 4hours, although I knew that Ant White was closing in on me. Eventually Ant caught me and for some reason I started having major doubts about whether I could continue. These dark thoughts only lasted for half a lap; the key to racing endurance racing is to keep negative thoughts away.

A few laps later these thoughts began remerging and I was unable to keep them at bay. I didn’t seem to have the deep down drive to keep on pushing and to actually race. The only time these thoughts disappeared was when I rode thought he arena and was heckled by Matt Carr and his fellow 69er crew! The random mid race bunny hop over matt lying across the track amused me for a few minutes, but once again the negativity came back.

By this point I had almost stopped trying. I was just going through the motion of turning my legs around, powerless and weak. I didn’t even want the eat. This was the start of a viscous circle. I then began to get hungry and have a serious sugar low. I was weaving on the climbs and every thing. It didn’t dawn on me that I was still in third though!

Eventually I saw 4^th place catching me and randomly stopped in the woods and felt sorry for my self. Thankfully Adi is a great guy and stopped to make sure I was ok and gave me some food. I decided that there was no way I was going to carry on for another 3 hours and trudged back to the pits. Once I arrived back I told Dave I wasn’t going out took my helmet and gloves off and lay on the floor sulking. Thankfully I didn’t get any sympathy. Everyone rallied around tried their best to get me out on my bike again. Eventually Dave persuaded me to finish the lap (our pit was before the finish line) so I set off with no gloves across the line then stopped with the 69er crew for a chat. These guys are heros! They fed me a pork pie, some Pringles, gave me some fresh gloves half a bottle of coke and a severe talking to! Something worked because the switch in my head flicked back on and it was all systems are go!

My legs were actually feeling good, it was purely catastrophic brain failure. I knocked out another reasonable lap. Towards the end of the lap I stated to feel a few unwanted bowel movements. I’ll spare the details but it certainly rode the end of the lap fast then ran to a portaloo!

2 hours to go I was suitably relieved and ready with a fresh bike to ride again. It was dark now so I cracked out my new Exposure lights and ripped up the night. There’s something about racing at night. It’s great, I wish there could be more darkness in races. My laps were reasonable now although I think my sugar levels were wavering at this point due to lack of food earlier on which affected me at times. All was good until the final water crossing. Something must have caught my rear mech as suddenly I found the mech wrapped around my frame. Bad luck was hitting now. So I ran the final part of the lap quite annoyed.

Once I got back to the pit I had a bit of a paddy and had another sulk. Yet again the guys made me go out again! Thanks! My final lap was a good one. I felt good in my head and strong in my legs. By this point it was too late though. I finished feeling strong; I almost considered carrying on after the finish to make up for my miserable brain failure earlier. I was 5^th in the end. Not brilliant but I learnt some pretty valuable lessons which will no doubt be useful later on in my racing career.

Thanks again to all the guys who helped me and didn’t let me stop, Dave, Nia, Ben , Steph, Matt, the other Matt and the 69er crew… and sorry for being such a pain in the arse!

Now i need a bit of a mental rest after all the major life changes of the few weeks, although there is still an itch to make up for 24/12 in there ;-)

Summary

2009-07-14T21:50:00.000+01:00

After the Ras I had three days of easy riding/ rest.

Thursday night I raced at MK bowl. The week before the Ras I was nearly dropped after 45mins, this week I was 12^th after moving from the back to the front of the bunch in the last 1km… things are looking up.

Since then my life has followed a pattern:

Wake up

Walk dog

Eat

Work

Eat

Train

Eat

Walk dog

Sleep

Repeat

I’m feeling better for it though, no more wasted miles. This weekend I’m warming up for 24/12 with the Thetford summer series 4h Enduro.

Ras De Cymru

2009-07-06T21:31:00.004+01:00

For the last 5 days I have been in Wales racing in the Ras de Cymru stage race. The race is a 6 stage road race, with an individual time trial, a team time trial and four road races. I rode as part of a team from my local cycling club St Ives c.c. I have ridden the race twice before and this time I persuade some of my club mates to join me, they were in for a shock, Wales is much hillier than Cambridgeshire!!

The first stage was a 4 miles individual time trial with a mile climb at the end. I was surprised by the amount of time trial bikes and aero gear, for an amateur race there was a lot of expensive kit around. I did it on the drops, old skool! The temperature was in the 30’s, it was hot, hot, hot. My race was poor. Last year I was 35^th, this year I was in the high 60’s. The heat took its toll and I nearly saw lunch gain then got a stich. I was even caught by my minute man, a certain Rich Wood, former extreme endurance rider.

The second day brought more sun and heat. The stage was a 50mile hilly ride. Over the first short climb I was in a comfy position in the bunch. Unfortunately my team mate Mark punctured at a critical time and never bridged back. Over the second climb I moved to the front of the bunch. The first part is quite steep and exposed in the sun. I suffered and dropped back a little, but soon crept back as I kept my own tempo. Over the top I made the front bunch of 40 riders. Unfortunately my team mates didn’t make the split and were dropped coming in a few minutes down at the finish. In the afternoon we had a 14mile team time trial. We rode an extremely controlled race and clocked a time only 2 minutes slower then the leading team. We were very happy about this as we judged our effort to perfection and stayed in contact with a number of teams who were riding full aero bikes with skin suits and aero helmets, a good effort. The result of the day was that I moved up to 37^th in the GC.

The next day was a ‘flat’ road race over 3 laps with fast uphill finish. I sat in the bunch along with my team mates. I was a bit careless towards the finish and sat too far back in the bunch and lost 17 seconds as riders ahead of me sat up on the final climb creating a split. My team mates Mark and Jamie were in the front half of the bunch whilst Tom rolled in 30 seconds down. He dug in deep after being shelled on the first climb the previous day and riding alone for 45miles. A good effort for one of the elder statesmen of the race!

Stage 5 was the hard one. 4 ascents of a 1km climb averaging 22%. Over the top of the climb is a rolling road exposed with cross winds, a real killer. I managed to dig deep and stay in the bunch over the first 3 laps. The finish was at the top of the 4^th ascent. I dropped about a minute on the front runners with dead legs. Poor tom was dropped on the first ascent of the climb; he battled on for 50miles in a small group 20minutes down, good effort. Then we had the 5 mile uphill ride back to the finish! I picked up tom in the van!

The final day was a 45mile road race with a 4 mile mountain top finish. The first hour was so fast. We averaged 28miles an hour. No break aways were established. There were a lot of sore legs in the bunch. We hit the final climb together and I decided not to follow the surge of the bunch at the start of the climb. I rode my own tempo up the climb and gradually overtook quite a few riders. I finished 44^th on the stage and climbed to 35^th on the final GC. Mark finished in the top 25 on the stage and Jamie and Tom finished a few minutes down.

Over all we finished 15^th in the team classification. It was a great event, very well organised and a great effort by all the team. I’m very tired now but in a few weeks time I should be flying… just in time for a certain 12h race!

All mended

2009-06-28T21:18:00.001+01:00

What a contrast to last week!

I managed half a bike ride last week and had to turn around as my knee was so painful. This week I visited the Chiropractor on Monday to sort the damage. It turns out that I shifted my pelvis across when I crashed at the beginning of Bristol 12. That in turn was seizing my back up and more seriously pulling the muscles off balance and focusing all the pain in the tendons of my knee. No wonder I felt so dreadful at Bristol 12!!

I was still a bit sore for a few days as my muscles and tendons relaxed after a fortnight of being pulled at all funny angles but midweek I was back in training again. On Wednesday I managed a good long ride with the club 10mile time trial thrown in for good measure. I’d forgotten how much time trials hurt. My time wasn’t amazing but hopefully it will come down a little as I get fitter.

Thursday I raced a criterium at MK bowl. I made it with 10mins to spare due to horrific traffic, then realised I had no money! Fortunaly my blagging skills enabled me to race. The circuit is just under a mile long with a few sharp slow corners and an uphill drag to the finish. After Thursday I now have a big decision to make… which is more painful, a time trial or a crit!?! The endurance training in my legs certainly told. The first 45mins were ok but when the hammer went down and we had to sprint out of the corners, were lined out on the finish drag and then had more attacks sent me flying backwards! Thankfully the pace eased up so I didn’t get dropped. It’s all good training though.

This weekend I have been working on my endurance and efficiency. The trick is to trick your body to think it’s going for a long ride when really your not. I’m trying a few new techniques which should make me more efficient and burn the right fuel at the right time. Hopefully it will work, initial signs were promising. Although it means I can only have a coffee and no cake when the club run stops at the café!

Next week is the 5 day Ras de Cymru stage race based in Newport, Wales. It starts on Wednesday with a short hilly time trial. Day 2 is a hilly 50mile road race followed by a 15mile team time trial. Day 3 is another 50mile road race. Day 4 is a savage 65mile hilly road race near Brecon and the final day is a 45mile road race with a 4mile mountain finish! I should be strong after all that…

Check out the route here:

http://www3.newport.ac.uk/docstore/2/adurst01/2009%20Ras%20de%20Cymru%20Handbook%20100609.pdfhttp://www3.newport.ac.uk/docstore/2/adurst01/2009%20Ras%20de%20Cymru%20Handbook%20100609.pdf

Chaos

2009-06-21T10:32:00.001+01:00

Well I’m now officially no longer a student. On Friday I picked up my degree results and moved home for good. I now have a 2.2 degree in product design. I probably should have achieved a better grade but if I’m honest my mind has been else where for most of the 3rd year, bikes are so more interesting than university work!

I’ve not ridden my bike this week. My knees have been giving me grief since Bristol 12. They were a little sore during the race. I think I may have moved my pelvis in one of my many crashes at Bristol 12, which is causing muscle imbalances and pulling my knees. I’m seeing the chiropractor on Monday (after work… need to get used to that!!!) so hopefully it will be sorted by then end of next week, just in time to get a good kicking in the Ras de Cymru 5 day. My legs do feel strong after Bristol though so at least I will be fresh for the rest of the year.

Hopefully things will improve in the second part of the year. There will be less on my mind now that university is out the way and living at home again will mean there are fewer distractions!

I’ve been a bit lost this last week. It’s amazing how you can moan so much about all the uni work, but once it’s gone it’s hard to fill the empty time, especially when injured. I filled most of my time this week by becoming a party animal… it was my last week as a student after all! Does dancing until 4 in the morning count as training?!

and ...... relax!

2009-06-14T17:27:00.002+01:00

This week I’ve been relaxing. My body took a real pounding at Bristol 12 so needed some time to recover. I took until Wednesday before I could walk up the stairs with out a short rest to ease the pain at the top!

Early on in the week I had a few spins on the rollers just to keep the legs ticking over and aid recovery. I also managed to do some partying! Probably not good for the body but defiantly good for the head. I won’t be a student for much longer so I’m making the most of it while I can.

This weekend I went for a couple of nice spin in the lanes around Cardiff. No rush, no aim just enjoying the sun.

The next few weeks will see lots of changes for me. At the end of next week I collect my degree results then leave Cardiff for good. I begin my new job working for my Dad the following week. Lots of big lifestyle changes will take their toll to begin with so I have no firm plans regarding training for the rest of this month.

The build up to 24/12 begins in earnest on the 1st of July when I start the 5 day Ras de Cymru road race based in Newport. It will no doubt be 5 days of pain as I get smashed around the hills of South Wales, but as the saying goes… What doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger!

Bristol mud fest

2009-06-09T11:39:00.001+01:00

The past weekend was Bristol bike fest, the first big target of the year, and an important weekend for the team in our ‘home’ race.

Rob, Dave and myself were all entered for the 12h solo race. We practiced the course on Friday evening in lovely dry conditions, however minutes after we stopped the heavens opened. It was going to be a wet one!

So the following morning we all lined up in the pouring rain preparing for battle. The start was delayed by 30minutes due to traffic issues so the race turned out to be an 11h30min Enduro.

Off the line I managed to keep upright and avoid the flying limbs in the Le Mans start. I picked up my bike in the top twenty and was off. I soon found the leader of the solo category and tried to stay on his wheel. His pace was too hard for me on the climbs so I eased up a little and told my self he’d crack later and I’d catch up.

The rain made the early laps hard going. I had a number of crashes as new roots began to emerge each lap and the conditions changed. After a few hours a dry line emerged in some areas of the circuit which made life easier.

This was my third 12h solo event. In the other two I’ve almost felt invincible for the entire race. It often seems like I’m having a bit of an out of body experience. My legs just keep motoring, the bike flows, my mind is focused and I enjoy the experience immensely. After 4hours I realised that this would not be the case in this race! The course was super rough and the mud made it hard going. My back began to ache and my legs hurt. This was going to be a long old slog.

Time checks to the leader kept increasing but I still hoped that he had stated too hard and would fade towards the end. As the race progressed it became increasingly obvious that this was not going to be the case. The gap increased, I pushed harder to close it and it just got bigger! My mental state was not at its best. I was real grumpy!

The race felt like such a grind at the time, but looking back at it now it seems to have passed so quickly. My body is now sore all over but my mind seems to have blanked out the suffering I went through.

My team mates put in good rides. Dave finished fourth in the solo and Rob finished 2nd in the single speed category, his first attempt at single speed solo. Not a bad team effort.

I finished second. I stayed there from start to finish. I guess I should be happy about it but I still finished half an hour down on the leader. In my books that’s a bad second place. I found some weaknesses which I will now work on. Half way through the race I questioned why I even bothered putting my body through this, afterwards as I was in pain, grumpy and feeling sick I was never going to race again! A few days later I’ve realised that’s its only 7 weeks until my next 12h, guess I like abusing my body after all!

Thanks to Dad, Zoe, Shaun and everyone else who helped out in the pits and put up with me being stroppy for most of the 12 hours!

hanging...

2009-06-01T20:07:00.004+01:00

What a great week. The sun finally decided to make an appearance and I managed another solid week of training again.

Tuesday I tagged along with the local chain gang. There’s some pretty strong riders around Cardiff so as usual the pace was pretty fast. I turned into a perfect pace for me to be at my threshold for the whole ride and 1h30 later I was suitably tired.

On Wednesday I met up with Rob and Dave and finally collected my new team bike. This year I’m riding the MKIII. Hopefully it will be a little more grateful then the Azure when I hammer downhill on the limit!

Thursday I decided to race. One of the local clubs promotes a series at llandow motor racing circuit. The track its self is not particularly interesting but it provided a good workout. There were 2 races a 3 /4 cat race followed by a handicapped E1/2/3/4 race.

The first race was interesting to say the least. The only ‘technical’ feature of the circuit is a chicane just after the finish line. Unfortunately it appears that roadies can’t corner so there was a lot of bad line choices and a crash on the very first corner. Things didn’t get any better after than. The next lap there was a massive crash on the dead straight, slightly uphill finishing straight!!! Work that one out. Fortunately I saw it coming and grabbed a hand full of brake before I ran into the carnage. My mate was knocked unconscious for a while, his bike wrecked and another guy hurt his wrist. So we all got a telling off from the commissar and restarted. I decided to avoid crashed and sat on the back for the rest of the race. I suffered like a dog though. The repeated sprint out of corners and to close gaps took their toll and I was hanging by the end.

So then I did the second race. After a few laps the scratch group had caught us and the race soon lined out. I hung on at the back counting down the laps. Eventually there was a gap and in the line and I didn’t have the legs to sprint across it, so I sat up and cruised to the finish. A good solid 2h workout though, most of it with my nose on the stem and bum on the front of my saddle! Enduro races seem easy after crits though.

Sunday I took the new horse for a spin around Cwm carn. Its surprising how well it climbs for a big bike, possibly even better than my azure. As expected it goes down fast!

Now I’m resting up for Bristol 12 on Saturday. Hopefully the last 2 weeks efforts will pay off. I finally finish university this week as well. As of 10am Thursday I will be free…

Back to business

2009-05-25T10:44:00.002+01:00

Finally I’ve been riding my bike…wooo!

After a really terrible time since Easter I’ve finally completed 95% of my uni work and have had a massive load lifted off my mind. With all my printing deadlines met on Monday it left me nothing to do… apart from try to beast my self into some kind of form ready for Bristol 12.

So on Monday I headed out from Cardiff on my mountain bike. Thankfully I managed to avoid the rain storms which had been floating around for the previous few days, but still managed to dress like I was expecting them! It was a rather warm ride. The ground was still a bit wet though so it made for some interesting riding in places. I decided to head over to Caerphilly before climbing up to the top of Machen mountain to ride the super steep rooty trails. It was the first time I’d ridden Machen in the wet; it was interesting to say the least! Thankfully I managed to get own in one piece. After around 3 hours I began to get pretty tired as the hard efforts on the hills took their toll. I arrived home a little under 4hours, certainly the longest ride I’ve managed in a while.

It took me a few days to recover from Mondays efforts but by Thursday I was back out in the hills, this time on my road bike. My plan was to ride the hills hard and sit at a tempo pace in between. As it turns out I was feeling strong and rode the climbs and the in between bits hard! The legs were beginning to remember what to do.

Another easy day was required before a long hard ride on Saturday. This time I rode the climbs hard and sat tempo in between feeling strong again. Hopefully it’s a sign of good things to come before Bristol 12 in 2 weeks time.

Next week I have a few hard group rides and a crit (or 2!) planned, hopefully they will get some speed in my legs, then its resting, resting, resting so I can dish out some pain at Bristol ;)

what a relief!

2009-05-17T19:35:00.002+01:00

Well the last month has been pretty stressful that’s for sure. The last two weeks have been almost unbearable. My university work has been reaching its peak and my cycling has certainly been affected by it. Finally this today I lifted a massive weight off my shoulders by completing the majority of my work. I haven’t touched the bike at all this week after last weekend nightmare; I just haven’t had the time or the energy. Instead I’ve been chained to my desk producing 8 A2 sized presentation boards for my university viva’s (1h presentation equivalent to exams) and also producing prototype models. I’m quite glad that I’m sponsored by extreme energy drinks, those things have kept me going the last week!!

Today I finally managed to get out on my bike for an hour and a half. It was good to let off some stress hammering up the hills. My legs defiantly feel strong after a rest, whether that transfers into race winning speed is another matter though! I now have 3 weeks to get some quality training in before Bristol bike fest. I’m now counting down to 10am Thursday the 4th of June, the end of my last viva and the end of university forever!

Tomorrow I’m going to get an adrenaline fix by riding down some hills fast…