I’m not sure if it’s a Mayhem hangover or something else, but I’ve fallen out with riding bikes offroad recently. Whenever I went out I was getting annoyed about stupid things – too muddy, too many flies, too many people on ‘my’ trails, tyres too draggy….so I’d been running a fair bit, 8k offroad running and all the pain that involves. Knowing deep down that this is all wrong, wrong, wrong (but good prep for the 3 Peaks all the same), I got the road bike out and went for a 3 hour ride on it the other day. Ace. I loved it. I rode miles and miles way, then rode back again, climbed loads of hills, hit 40 on the way back down a couple of them, got my HR really high and got a nice and fast average speed.

So I did it again this morning – I only had 2 hours so I sped up to Rivington via the Breightmet badlands, past the bottom barn, up to Belmont Rd, Egerton then back home via Affetside. Averaged about 18mph which is bloody quick for me (considering the hills) and found myself chasing down a few other roadies for a laugh.

I’m enjoying this lark so much at the moment I’m even looking forward to the Manchester to Blackpool charity ride tomorrow (I’m doing it with a group from work) – I’m expecting to be riding alone though as I’m aiming for 3 and a half hours. Then I’ll ride back, perhaps.

Next week I’ll get the 29er out again and hopefully have some fun. I’ll be ready for a change soon anyway…

We went to Urbis today to see the “Videogame Nation” exhibition, basically a history of British gaming with loads of old and new consoles and stuff to play on. I’ve very little interest in this sort of thing these days but Michael loves it and I certainly spent an unhealthy amount of time in my early teens sitting on my arse waggling a joystick.

Even though I thought Jet Set Willy, Jetpack, Outrun, etc, were all ace years ago, they’re pretty crap nowadays (Sensible Soccer is still great though) – the award for the Most Pathetic Gaming Experience has to go to Daley Thompson’s Decathlon though. What a load of shite. Since when does anyone take a run up in the shot put? If you remember, you had to smack 2 buttons or waggle your stick from side to side really quickly to get the guy to run as well, which inevitably led to your joystick or keyboard breaking.

The weirdest things about the whole exhibition though were the obvious omissions. Not one Playstation 2. No Atari consoles. No Commodore 64’s or Amigas. Very strange (or lazy). It’s ok though, there’s loads of modern and very impressive technology there for visitors to waste hours on plus you can go and look at the other exhibitions on the other floors, such as the New York art and ‘Underground Manchester’ stuff.

No riding today. Woke up this morning coughing up phlegm and had a sore throat. Great. Summer and I’m still getting infected with bugs. Hopefully it’ll be gone by the morning when I’m going for my second 10k run this week…

According to the thermometer in the car on the way home from work, it was 31 degrees yesterday. I drove down the M66 through a scary-looking thunderstorm whilst tentatively pootling along the flooded carriageway at 30mph. Not looking good for a big training ride tonight, I thought. Maybe I should go for a run and avoid getting soaked/struck by lightning.

It soon cleared up though, leaving behind blue skies and rapidly increasing temperatures again. By the time I left the house at 7:30pm it was still hot and very sticky and within a mile or so I was pouring with sweat, every climb inducing a gallon of fluid to pour from my head onto my top tube.

Once I arrived at Rooley Moor Road and started the ascent up the cobbled bridleway, I immediately removed my helmet and strapped it to my rucksack. I can’t remember the last time I rode without my lid on but last night was exceptional circumstances. It felt quite liberating, a bit like riding for the first time without a hydration pack. Anyhow, once at the top I put the soaking smelly helmet back on and rode down the trail into Stacksteads, along the road then did a lap of Lee Quarry. It had gone 9 by this point so I had the place to myself I think. The dry conditions made the gravelly surface VERY sketchy – it’s going to be fun (in a comedy grazed-elbow sense) for those racing there this weekend!

Rode back through Ramsbottom, got home at 11:30. Main HID light packed in at 10:15. Good job I carry a spare LED 🙂

Friday was the annual Darwen Real Ale Wobble – loads of cyclists meet up at a pub, have a pint, ride to another pub, another pint, then another pub, then another pint…you get the idea. It all ends at the Black Horse in Darwen where chip butties are served, washed down with a fine selection of real ale. Well worth a visit…

Anyhow, Simon organises this each year and puts a route together. It’s a good un too, mostly offroad and with just enough bumpiness to keep you on your toes after a few bevvies. Good work fella!

My night ended with a 20 mile ride home, full of beer and chips. I failed to MTFU enough to keep all my Food Of Champions down though. That’ll teach me for trying to ride fast as I would do without 5 chip barms and 5 pints sloshing around in my tum 😦

After a couple of years of horrid weather at Mayhem the forecast for this one was looking good. Just what everyone deserved, in fact. Dry and sunny. It would be a double-edged sword though, I knew that there would be far fewer people dropping out of the race as in previous years thus making it more of a challenge to improve on my placing last year. Still, I was looking forward to a dry and fast race for a change and also not worrying as much about Deb and the kids getting cold and wet.

Despite the forecasts, it did rain, but not much. Just enough to make the course greasy in places but still not bad enough to have me swapping tyres or even changing my clothes.

Regular readers of this blog will know that the week leading up to the race wasn’t ideal; I was a bit tired due to relentless 12 hour days at work and it also left me with some frantic packing and preparation of kit the evening before we were due to travel down. As with all things though, it was all ok in the end and we all made it in one piece. I had some earplugs this time for the first time ever – so I actually had a good night’s sleep despite the screaming kids in a neighbouring tent.

I saved a gap in our “soloists colony” for Dave’s tent, expecting him to arrive with a one or maybe two-man tent. What actually emerged from the Berlingo was the mother of all tents, much bigger than everyone else’s, perhaps even large enough for him to consider setting up a small cinema at future races 😉

Saturday, 2pm. I lined up as close to the front as possible, much closer than I have done in the past. What I did notice is that the standard of “running for one’s bike” is much higher at this end, as is the amount of time I got elbowed. Once I’d found my bike (I thought I’d lost it for a minute), I was off. There was some congestion on the first lap but a lot less than I normally encounter. What I also noticed was that there was a much funnier standard of muppetry on the course this year – it seemed like the heat was affecting brains, causing inexplicable crashing and general ineptitude. In future I’ll be a bit more bolshy when passing slower riders – less asking and more barging 😉

(photo courtesy Harry Burgess)

The race was going well. I was getting enough food down, staying hydrated and my lap times weren’t too erratic. I didn’t realise until about the halfway stage of the race though that I was on the same number of laps as Rod Mason and another guy. Rod 4^th, me 5^th and Other Guy 6^th. I’m pretty sure I was in 4^th at one point, lost that place whilst drinking tomato soup in the solo tent at 2am, got it back after passing Rod, lost it again and then spent the remainder of the race chasing him (or “doing a Benny Hill” as Rod put it). At the same time, I found myself having to defend 5^th from the guy in 6^th. He passed me at one point too. I caught him and somehow dropped him, eventually creating a 40 minute gap (well I thought it was impressive anyhow).

I knew the pursuit of 4^th place was a lost cause on my penultimate lap when Rich told me that Rod was about 5 minutes in front. If anything I was getting slower now, so in my head a 5 minute gap was by then unassailable (unless Rod decided to lurk/have a cuppa – unlikely).

So that’s how it finished, me 5^th place in the solo catagory with 22 laps. Understandably, I’m very, very, very pleased with that. Following my 12^th place in last year’s race I wanted to get into the top 10, so I was over the moon to get 5^th spot.

Link to results