Author Archives Andy

Whinlatter Duathlon

Nov 11, 2013

Rider: Andy Douglas

Duathlon? I do

Whinlatter SS

Photo with thanks to SportSunday

Results, Photos, The Bike Tree

On Sunday I took part in the Whinlatter Duathlon; the first event of the series run by the brilliant High Terrain Events. This year the event was part of the World Off-road Duathlon Series, with a Spanish team ‘Team Mindundi’ flying over to compete.

At the start of the year, at my first attempt of an off-road duathlon (Grizedale), I was overtaken on the second run by Tom Gibbs coming 2nd-place by about 20 seconds, reflecting my lack of running fitness. This year I was a little more prepared, having done about 4 runs recently, and even some ‘block training’ where you practice changing between run-bike a few times during the workout (the neighbours thought I was going mad!)

The weather in the UK has been great recently; if you are a fan of cold, wind, and loads of rain, but for Sunday it all changed and we had wall-to-wall sunshine and snow above 400m. The course was therefore covered in ice, making it really difficult especially on the bike, with the only sections spared tending to be on the tops of berms, and the well draining sections.

Bonfire and whinlatter 2013 027 RUN 1> Off we went, pretty fast paced, I initially held onto about 6th place, with Chris Steele storming off into the distance as a lone leader. The run was much more demanding than I’d been expecting. There was a lot of climbing, some of it on very marshy, muddy steep tracks through the forest. I was trying to keep a good position but not use too much energy in doing so, because I knew I could put more effort in on the bike. Run routes

By the end of the first run I was well positioned in 4th place, but I knew there was a long way to go and the next 18 km off-road biking followed by another equally hard 6 km was feeling like the least enticing thing I could imagine.

Bonfire and whinlatter 2013 039A quick change onto the BIKE and I headed out into the ice fields of the blue Altura trail, almost crashing on the first corner, not realizing quite how icy it was in the center of the track. With the ice, you had to really concentrate on every rock and root to make sure you didn’t lose a wheel out of the corner. I slowly caught the few riders ahead with just Chris still ahead. A marshal whispered ’20 seconds ahead’ and around the next bend I could see the leader. We cycled together for a moment but I knew I had to gain a healthy advantage over the rest of the field if there was any chance of holding onto it to the finish, I wasn’t keen on a repeat of last year where I was overtaken practically in sight of the finish line.

RUN 2> ‘I’m knackered’ I thought as I set off on the second run. My legs didn’t seem to cramp too often though and I managed to find my feet and gave it all I could to the summit of Seat Howe. After a punishingly steep climb up the snowy forest climb the view at the top was amazing, savored only for a second before letting my legs go and rolling down to the finish, looking over my shoulder as I went!Bonfire and whinlatter 2013 043

I was so happy and relieved to hold on to the win. This event really is painful and I needed a long sit down before being able to move at the finish! I think its pretty tough for anyone competing and was amazing to see some of the achievements, with competitors still coming in over the line after 4 hours of hard running.

Bonfire and whinlatter 2013 057

 

 

 

To top the day off (as well as Man United beating Arsenal) was the prizes of an awesome Salomon bag, a lovely framed photo, AND A KEG OF ENNERDALE BLONDE ALE!! Woohoo!

See ya at the next one, if I’m not a raging alcoholic by then!

Many thanks to High Terrain Events for a well organised fun race, to SportSunday for their great winners photo and to the lovely people at the The Bike Tree for their continued support, cheers guys!

The Bike Tree

World MTBO Championships

Aug 30, 2013

24th place in the Sprint Distance MTBO World Championships

Andy has spent the last week in Estonia racing for team GB in the World Mountain bike orienteering championships. Fellow Brits include Ian Nixon in men elite, Emily Benham in women’s elite, and Edwyn Oliver-Evans in junior.

20130903-134430.jpgThe terrain area varied between maps. The sprint distance began in a tricky open area of intricate small paths, before heading into the urban area of the town of Tapa making use of its many small streets, parks and back alleys. Sprint map

20130903-134444.jpg

 

 

The middle distance area was a relatively small area of dense forest packed with short, steep hills containing a maze of different size tracks from ATV tracks to MTB singletrack. The elite map took riders around 24 checkpoints which criss-crossed their way around the 30cm 1:10 000 map. Middle map

The long distance event was in a large area of alternating hills and marshes, with plenty of the now familiar XC-Ski trails, which tend to zig-zag their way up and down the hills counter-intuitively. Long map

20130903-134515.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andy has placed well up the field at 24th place in the sprint distance, making it one of the best positions for GB elite men in recent years. A disappointing 56th place in middle distance on Tuesday could have been much better if Andy hadn’t made a five minute error following a wrong control-line from control 12 to 20!

Great Britain took 14th nation in the Relay. A good result for GB but they showed hints of a faster, more accomplished team. Relay map

Andy was again a little disappointed in 50th in the Long final, as it is his favored distance. A grand total of 5 fairly moderate errors lost almost 20 minutes in total over the couple of hours riding.

All in all a great week, with an excellent position for Andy in the sprint, and plenty of extra experience at this elite level of MTBO

See BMBO for team GB blog. WMTBOC 2013

20130830-221938.jpg

 

Racing in Sheffield!

Jun 29, 2013

We’ve been travelling around the country all year on biking trips and for races, but last week we had the pleasure of racing from the front door! (not literally) (but almost literally)…

First up was Nutcracker Round 4 held at the new Parkwood Springs BMX-meets-MTB-track. I was doing night shifts that weekend so had an awful attempt at a couple of hours sleep in the morning before getting up and riding out to the start.

Parkwood

It was a good pace up the first climb and I settled in behind Andy Nichols. On the first downhill I took a gamble taking the B line as fast as I could and managed to steal a place taking me into the lead. Having ridden here plenty I took advantage of my local knowledge and pushed out a good lead.

'Doing nights at Parkwood'!

‘Doing nights at Parkwood’!

The course took us up most of the trailcenter bits and around a couple of playing fields before heading down some off-camber, slippery new singletrack where everyone was searching for any possible grip going into corners. We were then spat out on the official trailcenter bit again to lunge round some berms and attempt the table tops on the boat that is my 29er!

I managed to keep pulling away over the six laps and came in first with a fairly comfortable lead.

Back to bed

Dark and White’s MTB Orienteering Score Race in Sheffers…

D+W2

Wednesday came along and I was so pleased to be able to race a bit of MTB orienteering again having not raced since December! Dark and White were running their excellent event starting from the cricket club in Totley with most Checkpoints (CPs) spread around Blacka, houndkirk and topping out northerly at Porters clough.

I went straight into Blacka for a couple, before heading out on road up to the parks and an in-out for the Porter clough CP. A hard 10 minute effort back up hill to the top of the Lady Canning’s plantations was rewarded with a fast, dry, sandy descent straight down to the road- proper sketch in the dust, but really can’t complain about being too dry!

Then some more awesome singletrack along Blacka and then more heading south again to pick up the remainding CPs above Totley and then a blast down into the finish. A time of 1:32 for all CPs; think the quickest Ive done. I got schooled at the end too by world champ Killian Lomas, as I messed up trying to find a CP in a hedge! Id forgotten how much fun racing MTBO is- flat out XC speed combined with trying to navigate yourself the quickest way around the CPs, barely being able to check the map while you rail corners and race up hills; all the time with one eye on trying to stay ahead of the competition.

Another first place in the same week makes two; best of luck to Pete for Thursday in the road race to try and make it a Treble…

Dark and White Sheffield 2013- click to expand

Dark and White Sheffield 2013- click to expand

Whinlatter Challenge

Apr 22, 2013

What could make a race in heavy rain, 2000m of climbing, mud everywhere, 60km, off-road just a bit more fun?

‘Summer tyres and no brakes’ you say? Perfect

Whinlatter challenge 2013 results

Team pedal pursuits were out and about in Whinlatter Forest on Sunday trying to have a bit of a bike race. We got there nice and early- Pete possibly the earliest of all at 2:30am! Despite this we both emerged into the ‘elite’ starting box with about 30 seconds to go before the starting gun, and hence got a terrible start behind the 60 or so other elite riders.

We made up steady places on a long first climb, and pushed hard to try and get amongst it.

Pete

The weather was, as aforementioned, crap. It made everything that bit harder with cold numb fingers, slippery slate below, and mud splattering in our eyes every few minutes. In fact, there was no bodily orifice the mud didn’t find. The weather made the prospect of racing difficult and having to catch up the lost time from the poor start seem even more absurd.

Andy actually managed to start to enjoy it with the downhills offering some much needed rewards. The rocky tracks stood up to the rain very well, and fighting for grip and speed on every slight off camber made the long descents properly exciting leaving him buzzing by the end; ready to go and attack the next climb.

Climb, descend, climb, descend, climb, descend, … it was hilly

Andy gradually made up places over the 3 laps and caught his last man on the final hill to finish an astounding fourth place, especially given our poor starting position.

Pete’s new bikes wasn’t playing nice today and decided to abandon all thoughts of braking power, and so each downhill for Pete was a mixture of foot-out sliding, and fighting to control speed using berms and deeper mud patches! It was amazing he finished 3 laps at all given this all started on lap 1!

The race was billed as 50 km, which turned out to be 60km! But it was great fun considering the conditions.

Andy –I took some offence to being offered only electrolytes drink at the ‘food’ station. I thought to myself “I’ve probably got about a kilo of minerals and ‘electrolytes’ smeared all over my face in mud form, and this is all you can offer when I’d love an energy bar or banana”!

Nor was the irony of the signs ‘Hydrate or Die’ lost on me as I near drowned in constant rainfall.

Pete- moments after starting I could feel that it was going to he a long race. Jumping straight out if the van and straight onto the bike in the pouring rain doesn’t suit me. usually taking at least an hour normally to warm up. With tight legs I started grinding my way up the hills. No problem I thought.. I’ll make up for it on the down hills. Ah no maybe not. On the first big descent I lost all power in my front brake and practically all from the rear. Being able to pull both levers straight back to the bars is always a little disconcerting…
Having no brakes should in theory speed you up.. but in wet conditions control is key. By the second lap I was getting used to it and using the banked corners more efficiently. As the race progressed my legs loosened up ans felt more comfortable, I didn’t speed up but didn’t slow down either.

Time to get some serious speed work in during training sessions its not long till Erlestoke!

All in all, a great challenge (as billed!) despite the terrible weather and a good result early in the season.

Funny photo on Sport Sunday

 

Grizedale Off-road Duathlon

Mar 11, 2013

Riders: Andy Douglas

High terrain events duathlon – 6.5km Run, 24km Bike, 6.5km Run

Results
Photos by high terrain events

On Sunday I competed in my second duathlon. I’ve been looking forward to this race, with it being hilly, technical off road riding in the Lakes. It definitely didn’t disappoint.

I was tempted with a start-line psyche-out-the-competition joke commenting aloud about looking forward to the swimming section but thought against it in the end. I set off on the first run in about 10th trying to hang on to the fast paced start with some tough looking competition surrounding. It was a fell race type course heading sharply up a slippery, rocky climb to about 330m then coming back round to descend a slate double-track where you really needed to watch your toes for fear of tripping. I made it round the first run feeling alright but keen to get out on the bike and give it some hammer-time (as MC hammer would say if a mountain biker). This was the first race on my new epic 29er and it turned about to be a perfect course for it- lots of jagged rocks and bumps that would have normally sucked loads of speed from my 26er HT.

I gradually overtook some riders on the tricky switch back climb until I was just with one other rider- we stuck together for a little on the fire-road and had a quick chat.

“I think we’ve got a good lead” he said. “What? How many are ahead of us?” I asked. “None” he replied. I couldn’t believe we were at the front. I got a bit carried away and properly flew down the rest of the downhill into transition with the bike smoothing out seemingly anything in it’s path.

I came into transition 2 and fumbled embarrassingly with my laces, showing my naivety at these run-bike transition sports. But I had the lead by about two minutes and was pumped to try and stay out in front.

My legs had other ideas though, and my quads sparked with pain on every step for the first 10 minutes of running. I just thought to myself “You can’t stop if you’re in the lead!”I pushed on up the hill and was still ahead at the top. I thought I could maybe hold it on the down but Tom Gibbs was too strong in the end and managed to pull and hold a good gap down the increasingly difficult last downhill to the finish.

A quick lie on the floor and a cup of tea and I couldn’t have been happier with second place. It was an awesome race with a really good course and atmosphere.