Author Archives Pete

Erlestoke 12 2013

May 29, 2013

Well that was blooming marvelous!

erlestoke

Having raced at Erlestoke over the last 3 years I can quite easily say its definitely the best race of the year.  The course has it all; techy single track, steep bomb holes, flowing down hills, blasting fields and gut busting climbs.

We entered the race with high expectations, hoping to build on our previous years results of 3rd in 2011 and 2nd in 2012.  We knew it was going to be tough but with the quality of the course on offer it was also going to be a lot of fun.

Spring 2013 100

Our plan was to attempt to gain an early advantage by riding double laps at the start, since the changeovers can often waste a lot of time.  This plan worked well and by the end of the 6th lap we had managed to gain a healthy 2 minute advantage over the previous years winners team Lumicycle.

At the end of the 7th lap Pete decided  he wasn’t going to be able to maintain the pace on his double lap and signaled to the rest of the team who were in the camping area that he was going to pull in, much to the confusion of the team.. “what does spinning his hand around his head mean?” “Errrmm.. he’s saying he’s a helicopter…” “nah he wants to turn around… oh crap he wants to swap… ANDY get ready.. your heading out!”

Spring 2013 118

From that point on we continued to ride alternating single laps, managing to gain 20+ seconds each lap on team Lumicycle.  As the afternoon sun cooled and the track began to bed in the riding became even more enjoyable. The promise of the quality final wooded singletrack sections made up for all the effort required to get up the tough sharp climbs.

As with all pairs races the riding is the easy bit.  It’s when you get off your bike does the world of pain and discomfort begin.  When your lap finishes all you need to do is stay awake, eat, drink and stay warm. However unfortunately, all your body wants to do is sleep, loose all your body heat and throw up everything you put in your mouth.  But when the time comes round to head out again the endorphin’s flow and the pain goes away.

Erlestoke run the number of whole laps in the allotted time format, with any laps finishing outside of 12 hours not counting.
As Pete finished the teams 19th lap there was just enough time to complete another fast extra lap, but since enough of an advantage was gained over second place the first place finish was in the bag and it was unnecessary for Andy to head out.  However, on completing what he thought was his final lap Pete didn’t receive/understand the full mathematical details of the their result and on hearing “Andy isn’t going” instinctively bolted and headed out for another lap. Finishing less than a minute out of the time limit this final lap didn’t count, but it was a great excuse to get another lap in and nail that final down hill.

Erlestoke 12 2013 podium

“Pete’s tired and has started hallucinating” animal count..

3 cats, 4 dogs, a rat and a massive owl.. though I think that one was real 😀

Thanks to the Lumicycle and the Naked Bikes guys for a great race and to spam biking for holding another quality race.

Many thanks to our committed support crew who without all their efforts our result wouldn’t be possible as well as the continued support from The Bike Tree… cheers guys!

See you again next year, but with Andy out of the country Pete may have to take on Erlestoke 12 solo. 17-18 laps… sounds fun!

Spring 2013 137 Spring 2013 158 Spring 2013 116

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TLI Cycling North Midlands Road Race -Torworth race 1

May 03, 2013

Safe to say I had absolutely no idea what to expect as I lined up at the start line for my very first road race.

I had heard a lot of good things about The League International (TLI) cycling race series and after a few years of hmmming and arrring over entering I finally got round to getting my race entry in for the summer race series.

I cant fault the TLI guys the race format seems to work really well.  There are 3 racing categories A, B and C and each series has 6 racing dates, each category rides 4 races and marshals the remainder ensuring every races has enough marshals.

I didn’t exactly have a race plan other than that I intended to stay out of harms way and stick nearer the front of the pack and if a successful break was going to happen, I hoped to be part of it.

It became very clear from the start that no one was going to work for anybody and it was every man or woman for themselves.  I learnt a lot doing this race;

If you find yourself at the front of the pack and you’re all riding into a headwind, it doesn’t matter how many times you flick your elbow no one will over take and share the effort.
…….Don’t ride at the very front on the toughest part of the course that’s someone else’s job!

If you relax and let off the pressure to much your instantly at the back of the pack.

Very important.. Be at the front near the corners.
Easier said than done, but the concertina effect into and out of the corners is ridiculous. when you’re at the front, you can take each of the corners at full speed without touching the brakes. The nearer the back you find yourself, you end up coming to a near standstill every time resulting in a mad sprint to regroup.

As the race progressed I slowly became more comfortable riding in close proximity to other riders. Though I do need to improve at staying nearer to the front of the race, too many times I looked behind and all I saw was the race officials car.. ooops

Near to the end of the penultimate lap a small group of quick riders managed to distance themselves from main peloton,so not wanting to miss this opportunity I caught them up but in the process I ended up pulling along a few more riders into the group.  Once again  finding myself at the front of the group it allowed me to take one of the corners at full speed, which was a lot of fun!  I quickly realised that  no one else in the group was going to help with the pace making, so I lifted off the pressure and the main group immediately caught us up.
The pace increased notably on the last lap and so before we all knew it we were tussling for position into the last corner. The leading riders pushed hard and the pack quickly split apart, 15 rider back and 800m to the finish line chose my gear and found myself picking each of the riders off and with 400m to go I was at the front. With my head down I had no idea how close the riders where behind and for a split second I thought I might have just got it, but within the last 50m a Sheff Rec rider came off my wheel and took the win. leaving me in second place.

All in all I couldn’t be happier and can’t wait till next week!

Cheers TLI and many thanks to The Bike Tree

Plus thanks to Tim at Kinetic360 for our recent work in the gym.. Olympic lifts FTW!

Dark and White Trailquest -TBD

Mar 17, 2013

Riders

Pete Crawforth

Andy Douglas

3 hour trailquest

round 6/6

Venue TBD

Hit the North 4.0

Feb 16, 2013

 

Riders

Pete Crawforth

Andy Douglas

Can’t wait for this race!

2 hour Endurance race

mountain bike vs cyclocross… bring it on!

Philips Park, Whitefield, Manchester

Map


MTBO and Dark and White -Sheffield

Nov 18, 2012

Riders; Pete Crawforth & Andy Douglas

A great weekend of getting lost on a bike around Sheffield.

The first event of the weekend saw the final round of this years British Mountain Bike Orienteering come to the delightful little suburb of Bowdon Howsteads just on the outskirts  of Sheffield. Race organizer Killian managed to somehow fit in a great circuit into a tiny area that tested everyone’s fitness and navigation skills.  This being my second ever MTBO style event my only aim was to do one better than first attempt and actually finish!  During MTBO races the control points need to be collected in a specific order, with any  missed controls resulting in a void run.

Andy showed us how it was all done with a super fast time of 55 minutes 49. Plus wrapping up the season with an overall league victory in the national M21 category.

My attempt left a lot to be desired, I am very pleased I did managed to collect all the points and finish. However my ride time of 89:09 and 3+ extra km over Andys route shows my MTBO navigation skills need to improve.

Great event though, many thanks to Killian and the rest of the the organizers for all their effort.
Just a shame that some of the locals woke up after the race had finished and decided to set fire to some of the controls!

results and a report can be found here and here

Sunday saw the second round of the winter Dark and White trailquest series also come to Sheffield.  Following a format I am becoming a lot more comfortable with requires each rider to collect as many points as possible in any order and return within the 3 hour time limit.  The distances between the control points are much further than that used during MTBO events and the navigation follows standard OS style maps.

My ride went largely without any issues, apart from riding past a control that was placed half way up a climb and I had decided to head straight to the top and over the other side. I was pretty pleased with my route choice, heading for the highest value most distributed controls first and leaving the option to get as many of the closer to home points before the time ran out.  Two big significant climbs near the end of my run hurt a lot but I now feel I have the strength in my legs to match my ambitious route choices. Finishing with only a few seconds to spare is always the ideal way to end these races and overall I’m very pleased with finishing 3rd, my highest finish in one of the standard trailquest day events.

results and splits

Thats what weekends are all about!