Nighttime Trailquest

I have really neglected my mountain bikes since Cybi moved in but it's hard to find time and we have been running a lot as its something we can enjoy together. After racing bikejor with him I realised I needed to get some bike fitness back and so took my singlespeed out the other week. After noticing there was a night trailquest from Great Longstone (so not too far from home) last night I put an entry in. It's two hours of navigation with the aim being to collect as many points as possible by finding as many control points as possible. I was a little nervous about night riding seeing as its been so long and I'm not feeling very confident on my bike off-road in the light but with where the controls were they were mainly on trails I know well as they were towards my house. I planned a route and set off, grabbing the first control easily...well a little bit of back and forth at the point to spot it in the dark. Then it was time to start climbing, I was pleased with my riding making sure I didn't push too hard but felt I was covering the distance okay. I had to make some decisions as to which controls to go for near the end as time felt like it was getting tight, missing out one of my planned controls. I rolled in with 4minutes to spare and 10 controls ticked off. I was pleased with my timing and route selection. I had forgotten how much harder it is to navigate in the dark, even when you know the trails. No idea if it was a reasonable score overall but a lovely ride, 15miles in total, and great to get out on the mountain bike.

Mountain Mayhem 2013

A bit of rearranging of my weekend work and the manager at my new work arranging for me to have a couple of days off after the event meant that I could race at Mountain Mayhem this year. I had been meant to ride there solo last year but then broke my collarbone. After last years mud-fest it was at a new venue so I had no idea what the course would be like. We were also were unsure we had everything we needed as we still haven't got everything unpacked and organised after our move but Ali as always was a star and had basically packed everything herself. We arrived on Friday night and got ourselves set up in an ideal spot, tent and Gazebo up just in time for the rain.

The short story is that everything went better than expected, I lasted the 24hours and amazed myself by winning the event. Trophies were presented by HRH Princess Anne as well!

So back to the race, the morning was spent getting everything set up and before I knew it I was lining up ready to start the run, the start was at 12noon which I much prefer as less hanging round but also a 12noon finish the next days. I started near the front of the run and just took it easy on the way round so people were streaming past me but hopefully I didn't lose too much time but also didn't kill my legs off too much! There was some queuing on the first lap and I came over the line in second place, behind the current European Champion. It had started raining at this point so I grabbed a waterproof and headed out again, I was already spending a lot of time pushing as the course was very up and then down. I was finding that it was hard to eat or drink on the lap. It was during this lap the girl in 2nd went past me and I was down to 3rd, it was early in the race though and I was more worried if I would last the 24hours as I haven't done anything apart from my ten miles commutes recently. I also saw a number of crashes, one guy who obviously had concussion and I crashed on the first descent which left me covered in mud.

Fortunately the rain stopped and the course started drying out, I had swapped onto Ali's bike and her tyres seemed to work a bit better in the mud. I had taken to walking the first descent as I had scared myself when I crashed! In the next few laps I moved into first and started pulling out a small gap. I came in to swap bikes, back to mine as it had lights on and it was going to get dark soon. Al and Sarah from Garage Bikes had arrived with more supplies and to help Ali with support.

During the night I had a couple of bad laps where my eyes kept closing, including having to walk a long section of singletrack so I didn't fall into the lake. My support team were fab and kept me going, force feeding me and making sure I kept drinking. Sarah seemed to really involve bossing me around! The gap to 2nd was staying pretty steady but I was struggling, I was glad when dawn came which sped me up a bit. At some point I got myself a lap lead so I was able to lurk at the end although I was keeping an eye out just in case we had got that wrong. I crossed the line just after the 24hours to be met by Ali, another true team effort as once again she worked as hard as me to keep me going.

(c) Joolze Dymond

I couldn't have done it on my own, lots of people to thank:

• Ali who is the other half of this team, I have a lot of respect who do these events self-supported as I'm not sure I could!
• Garage Bikes who not only got my bike ready, help me out with kit etc also came down after a busy day in the shop on the Saturday to look after me and my bike.
• Work for letting me have the Monday and Tuesday off to recover even though others were already off.
• Cooksons Cycles who helped me so much over the years and helped with getting me and Ali the Superfly's I used during the race.
• All my friends for all the support and putting up with me being 'Amy' and all the fun rides.
• The organisers for an amazingly organised race and the marshalls who cheered and encouraged me throughout the race.

Dusk til Dawn

Back in 2010 I raced D2D as a mixed pair. I always meant to go out and ride it solo but when Ali suggested we ride it as a pair this year I jumped at the chance. We headed down on the Friday night to stay at her mum's, unfortunately I didn't do a great job of sleeping but lots of rest lying round in bed reading was had. We headed over to Thetford and managed to find a spot not too far from the arena and went to register. It turned out we were the only female pair so we decided to see how close we could stay to the female teams.

I lined up for the start in the dark and we were soon off, it was a lot less scary than I was expecting, starts at cross races have probably helped with that and I spent the first lap trying not to lose any places and pass people on the fireroad. Coming in I was calling Ali's name, only for there to be no Ali there (I had said the only thing she had to do was not miss changeover) she was only a couple of minutes late and amazingly I wasn't mad at her! She stormed round her lap and it was my turn again, it was turning out to be a cold night and I had a lot of layers on while I was waiting. She asked if I would double lap next time so I went and shoved loads of food down me and got ready to head out. The double lap worked well as I was only really getting warm halfway round. Ali headed out saying she was struggling to eat so I got ready to head out again, but as she came into changeover she shouted she would go round again.

We carried on with double laps and the lead in the unofficial women's race changing between us and the leading women's team. They changed there order but Ali came in from her last lap in the lead so I just pushed as hard as I could to keep our lead. It had been exciting through the night and really made us push ourselves which was good as it can be hard when there is no-one else racing in your catagory.

I really enjoyed the race and hope to do it again. We didn't argue and were well matched so we may even race as a pair again!

A Howgills adventure

Ali is uber-keen for biking adventures at the moment and on the way back from Kielder had pointed at the Howgills and announced that she wanted to ride there. As neither of us had plans for today we spent Thursday night looking at maps and then Ali plotted a route during her lunch break on friday of 46miles with lots and lots of climbing. I pointed out that although we wanted an adventure I would rather not ride in the dark (I did take lights just in case) and the 'hill' she had plotted us over was huge!

Saturday morning and Ali was up early and we only left half an hour after we had planned, good going. I was stressed that I had forgot something as I seemed to have ended up in charge of packing. I had at least remembered to put suncream on as the forcast was hot hot hot. After stopping for petrol it was up the M6 to Sedbergh. Leaving here it was climbing straight away, the first half a mile being a gentle introduction on tarmac.

Then onto the fells themselves. Winder at 473m was ticked off, lots of riding and a bit of walking, I found it a little busy up there with another couple of people. A short descent and then up again, I am sure it looked vertical as I rode up to it.

Up Arant Haw we had a sandwich stop overlooking the M6. I felt very small up here.Eventually I ended up carrying up the last bit of The Calf, I'm sure stronger riders than me can ride the whole way.

Now it was time to descend to Bowerdale. I'm not even going to try and describe this amazing section of singletrack it just went on and on.

A tiny bit of road and more bridlewaytook us to Ravenstonedale (where me and Jenn had parked for our January adventure). Here we stopped for ice-creams.

We had plotted an extra loop from here but decided it would be better to finish the day happy than tired and in the dark we started heading back. A little bit of climbing and we were off-road again. A friendly farmer directed us round the back of his house so we had less gates to open (and so all his sheep didn't run away) and then once again we were on singletrack which went on and on again.

Only a few baby sheep, apparently it is a little later they tend to start lambing up here, due to the grass according to the friendly farmer.

A great day out, we rode 25miles and climbed 1290m

Taking advantage of the weather

It was cold but sunny this morning while I was teaching so at lunchtime I made the decision to nip home and switch bikes. Due to Rigger needing brake pads and my on-going back issues I took the superfly back to work with me (along with lots of locks). Come half three I headed up into the hills. Over towards the Strawbury Duck everyone I met was smiling. Then over Darwen Moors. 

I think this is one of my favourite places in the whole world, I hardly ever see anyone here it feels miles from anywhere, yet it is just up the road from my house. Slowly I started to feel like I could ride a mountain bike again. I was taking it easy so as not to stress my bike but that meant I had time to enjoy the lovely evening.

Dropping back towards Bolton I saw a new built trail so I had to follow it...it stopped in the middle of nowhere but maybe it is the start of a new trail that will link up some more options.

As I dropped towards Belmont I saw these cute little baby sheep, obviously pictures were taken for Ali. From here I headed up Winter Hill and down to Rivington. Wondering why it felt like I was riding fully rigid I realised that my folks seemed not to be rebounding, worked out what to turn and sorted it out. Just in time to grab a last couple of descents before heading home.

Commute to work was 1.5 miles with 146metres of climbing
Commute home was 25miles with 832metres of climbing

Guess which was the most fun?

Muddy, Misty Moors

I met Colin again this morning for an off-road ride into work but this time I went on Rigger. It did make the road section through Manchester harder but the off-road sections easier. The trails were very muddy and I was very wet when I got to work.

Onto the evening and I left work and headed back towards Bolton via the Prestwich trails but instead of heading home I climbed up Winter Hill. It was very foggy out and I couldn't really make out the side of the road on the short road sections. At the top and there was no sign of the mast. I made a poor job of descending, a combination of the lack of visability and my lack of skills meant I really minced down the Belmont descent. I even ended up walking one drop as I couldn't see how big it was, I was probably just being a big wimp!

Back home and through the magic of endomondo Ali had a bucket of water ready for me so I could give Rigger a qucik wash.

It has shown me I need more time on my mountain bike.