James Ouchterlony Cycle Racing

MTB Marathons in Canary Islands in 2012

2011-09-30T06:05:00.017-12:00

Over 1200 riders enjoyed The 2011 edicion of 150km Marathon in Fuertventura on the 29th and 30th October. The race was enjoyed by so many but not many foreigners. This is a shame because it is great race for riders of various abilities. Adding to that, Fuerteventura is such a popular holiday destination for all types of tourist and therefore it can accomodate very large numbers of riders in start and finish locations of the race. The race is organised with military precision. The reason being is that the organisers are the Military - Soria9, based in Puerto Rosario, Fuerteventura but orginating from Extremadura from over five-hundred years ago.

The race covers 150km of "Land Rover" tracks and single track from Corralejo in the North to Morro Jable in the South. There are also sections of tarmac that give your joints a brief rest.

For more info about the 2011 edicion go to www.soria9.es and www.ficgc.es.

Most mountain bikers in the islands will now take rest from racing, but not for long because Club La Santa´s excellent MTB stage race is staged very early season of 2012.
Being an Olmypic year there is talk of Julien Absalon competing but this is not confirmed yet.
The selection of the best male riders from Denmark will be there as always including Benjamin Justen, the previous winner of this race.
The female grid is the most impressive:-
Annika Langvad (current World Champion in Marathon MTB),
Gunn Rita Dahle (current European Champion in marathon MTB),
Sally Bingham (as I write she is ranked by the UCI number one in world for Marathon MTB).

There is more info below on this race and the other mtb 2012 marathons in the islands including the Andalucian Bike stage race and the Titan Desert stage race.

La Santa MTB race, 28th, 29th 30 & 31 January Club La Santa, Lanzarote
www.clublasanta.com
In 2012 the race will be over FOUR days with FOUR stages with two extra stages on Monday and Tuesday. Riders can choose to compete in almost any combination of stages. There are long and short races incorporated into the stages of Sunday and Tuesday. Go to the website above for full details.

Andalucían Bike race, February 26 de febrero al 2 de marzo 2012.
www.andaluciabikerace.com
This is UCI stage race and is only in a two person team format:-
Two men or two women or two mixed and two master30.
Inscription costs are €290 before the 9th of January and €430 from the 10th Jan up to the closing date of 19th February.

La Palma Marathon, 17-18th March
www.bikelapalma.com
A beautiful race on a beautiful island.
There are two races with distances of 44km and 70km.
My favorite race of the year. The race has an air of charm and simplicity and has a course that is technical and not too long.

Open de Gran Canaria, 24th March, Gran Canaria
www.canary-bike.com
A classic marathon with a good international field. Over the years many international riders have competed in this race and the race organiser offers a great 4 star hotel for riders that is bike friendly.
There are three races with distances of 28km, 54km and 85km.

La Palma Ultrabike MTB Marathon, 7th April
www.ultrabikelapalma.com
This is new and will be the second race of the year on the island of La Palma and a lot of money is being invested in this race. The race will be longer and harder than original Bike La Palma Marathon . Expect 3500 metres of gain over more than 100 kms.

Desert Titan Race, 29th April a 4th May
www.deserttitan.es
Insription costs are:-
1.695 € Del 29 de septiembre al 2 de diciembre de 2011
1.995 € Del 3 de diciembre de 2011 al 18 de marzo de 2012.

2011-05-12T06:17:00.001-12:00

A picture is worth a thousand words!
Thanks to Alberto Cardona for this great foto.

FudeNas October 30th 2010

2010-10-05T20:52:00.011-12:00

What an amazing event once again. This was the 4th edition of FuDeNaS. Fuerteventura 151km mtb marathon from North to South of the island.

The marathon tracks the length of the island on mainly dirt tracks but with a small amount of single track, asphalt road, sand dunes, hard pack beach.

There is a lot of support from the race organisers military regiment Soria 9 (www.soria9.es). I think there was 7 or 8 water (with food) stops on the course. I stopped at two I think and so I lost count!
Soria 9: from Extremadura, have been based in Fuerteventura for around 15 years and they are one of the oldest regiments in the world. They were formed in the year 1509.

Results can be found on this link below:-
http://www.soria9.es/3_edicion_bis/documetacion/Clasificaciones%20Fudenas%202010.pdf

For a great insight into this race look at this video (made by canarian channel VKS) look at Youtube:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttd3N_u7pU4

This year there were 144 riders in the one day race covering the full 151km distance. In the "ride" category there were 750 riders riding the 151km distance over two days: 65km on the Saturday and 85km on the Sunday. By far the more popular choice. There were no placings or times for the two day ride event. This makes sense and nobody doing the two day ride seemed to want to know more than what they had on their own computer.

Next year I would hope to see 300 in the one-day race and 700 or more in the two-day ride. The race should be staged around the same weekend next year: end of October 2011.

This race makes most bike race organisations look a little inadequate. The reason for this is that no other race can afford to have 800 personnel on the ground (and some in the air) organising a marathon that runs like clockwork. The whole regiment run the event like a 3-4 day exercise. Hummers, LandRovers, helicopters and lots of radio/comms etc...

It has a great atmosphere and well worth flying over from abroad to take part in. I just need to get the organisers to include cash prizes for the elite race field to attract more high level riders from abroad. The prizes you can win in this race are amazing but they are not in cash.

I put three chainrings on for the race: 30, 42, and a 53T chainring. The 53T ring, why? I had it anyway for road training on my mtb and it gave me a smoother drive train with less tooth pressure. I used and it with an 8speed 13T to 34T block. This gave me slightly more at the top end and much smoother feel than the standard 44 or 42T to 11T. I never really used the 30T chainring but I did need it for 500 metres of the race. A hard tail is sufficient for this race in my view but I would like to move towards a 29er. Currently, I have a Hott Bisbide (carbon frame with integral seat post, BB30, 1.5 Headtube and light at 1100 grams). It is a very good ride and is as light as frame needs to be although it is more fragile than my Pipedream Sirius training frame! I used the Continental Tubeless Race King 2.2" tryes for the first time: very fast and tough. Tough tyres is what I like. Riding in the Canary Islands requires a tyre that can handle very abrasive volcanic rock. I would never use a non tubeless tyre over here but people do. Weight weenies!

As it turned out I was 5 mins and 30 seconds fatser than in the 3rd edition, which was in 2008. I trained for 5 weeks for this event and for the first time in 3 years I used a heartrate and cadence monitor during this period. The Garmin 705. Great for motivation, rest day rides and for reminding you your not working hard enough. The cadence monitor (for me) is the most useful part of it. I have to thank my old sponsor Garmin for this. I was not very impressed with the 305 model years ago because of bad sealing and the ingress of water during rain storms. I have only praise for the 705 and lucky people you will hopefully be if you buy the new 800 touch screen model that is coming out soon.

Let us hope for warm dry winter,

James

Santa Brigida XC, Copa de Gran Canaria, 27th Junio

2009-07-04T06:59:00.006-12:00

Yet another great race ...not too far from Las Palmas city.
Santa Brigida positioned within a very rugged landscape and is popular with mtbers from mainland Europe in the winter.
I had a race of ups and downs....I managed to "burp" my tyre and loose all the air. i recovered and won. Petra Wonisch (Canary-bike.com) put on an amazing BBQ on the Saturday night and also had myself and Cristi to stay for the weekend in her Palace stye B&B. The next day was fun too...A group of the younger members of my club went for ride and I was teacher for the morning. The club has riders of just five years old

Vuelta de Gran Canaria, June 13th & 14th 09

2009-06-18T07:25:00.004-12:00

Foto shows the Bike Bike natural team.
L-R, Alejandro, Jonay, Me, Nestor and Jesús

A guest appearance in the Bike Bike Natural team for the two day, 3 stage road race in Gran Canaria.
The race had not been staged for ten years and the last winner was the at the race last weekend and he was not far way from winning nearly.....well done Adriano.
Well done to the winner this year Kiko Alvarez...he is only 42 years old!

For me, the race was a learning race. I was on rental bike and was starting to get used to it and road racing in the last hour of racing.

Many thanks to Miguel Vera for taking total care of me for the whole weekend. During the race.....many thanks go to Jesús and son Alejandro for doing the race support in the caravan. Special thanks go to Jonay for teaching about road racing.
Well done to Nestor for getting on the podium in the masters.

I ended up 3rd in the last stage and 8th overall and no scrathes.

Vuelta de Mallorca, Early June 09

2009-06-18T07:21:00.004-12:00

Just come back from great trip of cycle guiding in Mallorca.
Covered 900 kms in 8 days ...reccie and actual ride.
Many thanks to Tall Stories team, Action Medical Research, Tesco and British Cycling.

Bike Park Tenerife XC race, Tegueste, May 09

2009-06-18T07:12:00.004-12:00

I fine day of racing in the sunshine, with paella and wine to follow.
An interseting race course of a 3 km loop including some north shore on the way up and on the way down. The elite race was 10 laps and i finished it in around 90 mins.
Great to have a race on the door step for a change.
The race was in Bike park Tenerife....www.bikeparktenerife.com
It is a park full sus bikes and has several runs. Shuttle bus etc is provided for riders etc. Its position is Tegueste, near La Laguna in the North of Tenerife.

Campeonato de Canarias XC, Artenara, Gran Canaria

2009-04-21T04:06:00.003-12:00

Another amazing race. What course...point to point 42km XC race. Technical and so much fun.
I won the race but did not get the jersey ...that´s for Adriano....buen trabajo.
Many thanks go to my team, Satuate/Ciclocentro, Jesús, Gregorio & Heather, Miguel and all the youngsters in the club.

Open de España and final round of the Challenge Canarias

2009-04-07T07:48:00.003-12:00

En English below Spanish.

Sábado, 4 de abril, Teguise, Lanzarote.

Open de España y última vuelta de la Challenge Canarias.

Al día siguiente de nuestra llegada a Lanzarote me inscribí en la carrera y me dieron la camiseta y el dorsal; todo perfecto...pero no me dieron ni número para la bici ni nada, sólo para la camiseta. Un poco más tarde me di cuenta de que me había inscrito en la carrera de la Milla Nocturna, que tendría lugar ese mismo día, al anochecer. Les había dado un rato la lata para que me dieran una camiseta de la talla adecuada y cuando vi que no tenía imágenes de bicis me di cuenta de que algo no cuadraba. Tenía hasta los tenis, pero me lo pensé dos veces y no me pareció buena idea intentar correr a 4min y ½ justo la noche antes de una maratón de 80km. Con lo bien que me quedaba la camiseta; cuando se la fui a devolver a los organizadores de la carrera me dijeron que me la podía quedar.
En vez de irme a buscar un cibercafé, para ver dónde era realmente la inscripción de la carrera del día siguiente, decidí hacerle un tour guiado a Cristi, alrededor de Costa Teguise, hasta que nos encontramos por casualidad con los chicos del equipo CMC, La Palma- Víctor, Manuel y el resto del equipo. Nos dijeron adónde teníamos que ir, pero cuando llegamos, ¡ya era demasiado tarde!.
Al final, firmamos al día siguiente antes del comienzo de la carrera en la zona de salida, que estaba a unos 15km. de Costa Teguise, en Teguise. Gracias a Jesús, de Gran Canaria, que nos alcanzó a Teguise en su furgoneta con las bicis.
Como no tengo licencia, sólo pude participar en la carrera en la categoría de Challenge Canarias, pero no puntuaba mi participación para la clasificación del Open de España. No problem.

La carrera fue un auténtico desastre, me había quedado sin bebida energética desde la carrera en La Palma, y para ahorrar pensé: “ok, para esta carrera utilizaré fructosa disuelta en las botellas y me prepararé un par de especie de gel casero con fructosa, también”.
A mi estómago no le gustaron los “gels”. Me dio una diarrea de campeonato y además me quedé tieso, sin nada de energía a los 45 min. de haberme tomado un gel. ¡La culpa es de la crisis!
Me arrastré hasta la llegada utilizando algunos músculos que no suelo utilizar en las carreras y me dirigí con cuidadito hacia el baño en cuanto me hube bajado de la bici.
Gané la serie de la Challenge Canarias, pero sólo conseguí entrar cuarto de la categoría elite del Open de España, después de haber ido segundo durante mucho tiempo, caí al tercer puesto y seguí cayendo hasta llegar al cuarto. Iba tan despacio al final, que casi me gana uno de mi categoría......master 30-40.
Merecen el calificativo de excelente todos los aspectos de la carrera: la organización de la carrera, el recorrido, las señalizaciones, las zonas de avituallamiento, la paella, las camisetas, etc. Pero NO hay que darle las gracias al gobierno, que hizo cambiar todo el recorrido de la carrera a tan sólo 5 días de la prueba. Felicidades a Lanzabike y a Ocisport por su trabajo.

A Cristi la carrera le pareció durísima, ya que las bajadas no son su punto fuerte, pero su entrenamiento en el Teide ha hecho que ninguna pendiente le parezca demasiado larga.

Felicidades a Alejandro Díaz de la Peña el ganador de la carrera.........se lo mereció. Pero fue una pena para Mark Trayter que era el líder del Open de España, pero pinchó dos veces durante esta carrera y ha tenido que cederle el maillot de líder a Alejandro.
Puedo asegurar que Mark y Alejandro trabajan dura y justamente en cada una de las carreras, ya que he coincidido con ellos otras veces. Aún quedan dos pruebas por disputar para que finalice el Open de España.

Alejandro y yo disfrutamos de ir juntos liderando la carrera y turnándonos para ir tirando y trabajando duro. Había dos corredores del equipo Esteve que no hicieron nada sino sentarse detrás de nosotros e ir a rueda durante 40km o más. ¡Qué cara más dura! Se les ha olvidado la palabra “respeto”. A veces, hay corredores que se creen que pueden trasladar sus artimañas de ciclismo de carretera a una carrera de mtb. Sólo recuerdo a un corredor (en el Reino Unido) capaz de actuar de esa manera.¿Por qué no cogen la guagua para darse una vuelta alrededor del recorrido, o le piden a la moto de cabeza de carrera que los remolque? Por supuesto, …están jugando dentro del límite de las reglas de la carrera …Claro! Me dijeron que Alejandro había ido a rueda durante mucho tiempo en la primera carrera y que también eran amigos de Mark Trayter. Eso les da razones de sobra para explicar su conducta, pero se olvidaron de que estaban intentando sacar provecho de alguien como yo, neutral ante todas las cosas. En las carreras de mtb estoy acostumbrado a ir tirando para mantener un buen ritmo de carrrera y espero que los corredores que van conmigo y que tienen habilidades parecidas a la mías hagan lo propio cuando es su turno. Sino, nos daríamos todos un paseo en bici hasta el último km antes de la llegada y ahí nos lo jugaríamos todo en el sprint.

¡Suerte para Sergio Mantecón en el rally de La World Cup en Sudáfrica, la próxima semana!. ¡Espero que vuelva a casa trayendo al menos un sexto lugar!

Saturday 4th April, Teguise, Lanzarote.

The race start/finish was to be in between the airport and the capital city, Arrecife but all was changed (land usage issues) 5 days before the race.

We went to inscriptions the next day and found the tent and race organisers . I signed on and got my T-shirt & number; all good…not even a number board for the bike, just for the back of shirt. A little while after I realised I had entered a one mile running race to be staged after sunset. I had made a fuss to get the T-shirt of the right size and with no pictures of bikes on it I knew something was wrong. I had my running shoes with me but I thought better of attempting to run a 4 1/2 minute mile the night before a 80km marathon. Such a nice fitting T-shirt.

Instead of going to an internet café to find out where the marathon inscriptions really was I decided to guide Cristi around the streets of Costa Teguise until we bumped into the guys from team CMC, La Palma - Victor, Manuel and the team. They told us where to go but by the time we got there we were too late!

We signed on the next day at the new race start which was 15 km away in Teguise. Jesús from Gran Canaria gave us lift in his camper.

Cristi was pleased to find there was a shorter distance race for her as the 80km marathon was too much for her as her second race. Without a licence I was only entering the Challenge Canarias race and would not count for the Open de España race. No problem.

The race itself was disaster as I had ran out energy drink in La Palma and thought it would be okay to use Fructose sugar dissolved in my bottles and too make gels out of it. My stomach did not like the gels a all. I had major diarrhea and ran out of energy suddenly 45 minutes after taking the ´gel´. I blame the Crisis! I dragged my self home using some muscles that I don´t normally use in a race and walked carefully to the loos.

I won the Challenge Canarias but only managed fourth in the elite class of the Open de España. I was going so slow at the end I was nearly beaten by one of my class…a master 30-40 years!

The race organisaion, the course, course marking, feed zones, post race paella, T-shirt etc were all excellent. No thanks to the government for changing the whole race 5 days before the race. Well done to Lanzabike and Ocisport for there work. The lead motorcyclist was excellent considering the bike he was on – well done that man!

Cristi found the race tough. Downhill section not being her strong point but her training on El Teide means that no ascent in a race if too long for her.

Well done to Alejandro Diaz de la Peña who won the race …deservedly. But very sad for Mark Trayter who was the leader of the Open de España series but had two punctures in this race and has now given the leader jersey to Alejandro.
Mark and Alejandro work hard and fair in their races as I have raced with them before. There are two more rounds to go of the Open de España marathon series.

Alejandro and I enjoyed exchanging the lead and working hard in this race. There were two Esteve riders who just sat on our wheels for 40 km or more. One would think that by not doing any work they were racing to save the life of their children or maybe they thought there was 100, 000 Euros for first place! How cunning they are! They have forgotten about the word ´respect´. Sometimes there are riders that think they can transfer all there road racing skills across to the mtb racing. I can only remember one rider (in the UK) acting like this. Why do they not just get the bus around the course or get towed by the lead motor bike? Of course…they are playing totally within in the rules of the race…Claro! They said that Alejandro had sat on the wheel a lot in the first round and they were also friends of Mark Traytor. This gives them valid reasons for their conduct but they forgot that they were trying to taking advantage of someone who far more neutral in the race. In mtb races I do some towing to maintain a good pace and then expect riders of equal ability to do the same. Otherwise we should just all ride to the near the finish and then sprint for the last mile! Thank god for the hills. Maybe I will take one mile long running races!

Good luck to Segio Mantecon in World Cup rally in South Africa next weekend. I want to see him come home in 6th place.

La Garita Rally / XC , Telde, Gran Canaria

2009-03-31T22:01:00.007-12:00

Just came back on the boat from Gran Canaria, with thanks to Armas Ferries!
A great XC race with over 50 school children taking part...from 5 years old and upwards.
Thanks to Heather for adding a scottish flavour to the race with here Flapjacks and Tablet!
Jesús Gonzalez (& girlfriend) and Herman organised an excellent race and luckily we raced in the dry in amongst some nasty rain.
The short circuit was great for spectators.

Many thanks to Jesus and girlfriend for making me most welcome and for inviting me to the race.

Pole position in the Challenge Canarias after three rounds

2009-03-22T07:04:00.017-12:00

Report in English below Canarian.

La foto en medio de la niebla nos la sacaron a 1500 m. de altura.
Muchas gracias a Jony, Mateo y Manuel. Para ver las fotos....vayan a www.jonyciclismo.com, donde encontrarán muchas más.
Los resultados de esta carrera y de todas las pruebas de Challenge Canarias las pueden ver en
http://www.challenge-canarias.com/ ....hagan click en resultados.
Esta era la tercera vuelta de la serie de Challenge Canarias, el maratón de la Palma en Las Islas Canarias.
La última vuelta será en Lanzarote dentro de dos semanas. A lo mejor hay más corredores británicos allí. Estarán los mejores ciclistas de España ya que es una carrera puntuable para el open de España de maratón.
Volvamos a La Palma. ¡Qué isla tan increíble para mountainbikingy para patear! Bien conocida por los alemanes, pero no hay muchos ingleses que se animen a venir para hacer mountain bike.
La carrera de hoy ha sido, con diferencia, la mejor carrera que he visto en Las Islas Canarias y en parte del extranjero.La salida y la llegada se encontraba en El Paso y el trazado cubría la parte sur dela isla haciendo como una especie de vuelta en el sentido de las agujas del reloj pero con mucho zigzagueo y giros. Tanto la carrera como la isla podrían confundirse fácilmente con una carrera en Escocia y con su típico tiempo ( ¡a tan sólo 1000m. De altura!)
Después de los dos primeros kilómetros neutralizados Mike Felderer despegó. Estaba tan sediento de una victoria en Canarias este año, que esta vez lo consiguió. No pude equipararme con su velocidad juvenil y además yo estaba resfriado ( no creo que este hecho me afectara demasiado).

Por supuesto que un atleta no debería competir cuando está rsfriado, pero ya que te han invitado al paraíso y a una carrera increíble no te vas a quedar echado en el hotal haciendo yoga y pilates.

El próximo año quiero ver a más corredores británicoa haciendo el esfuerzo por venir , porque vale la pena tan sólo por el hecho de disfrutar del destino como vacaciones. Las carreras en Las Islas Canarias son un “poquito”más agradables que perseguir puntos UCI en Chipre durante los primeros meses del año. No tengo nada en contra de Chipre, sencillamente esto es mucho más bonito.
Así que Mike desapareció de mi vista ( y yo hice lo mismo con respecto a Andreas Strobel), y entonces me encontré con Mike unos 25km más adelante. Los dos habíamos cruzado un cruce que estaba marcado pero que con la intensa lluvia había desaparecido la línea del suelo. Esto es Normal en un maratón de mountainbike. Así que en este punto nos volvimos a juntor los cinco corredores de la cabeza y entonces fue como si la carrera volviese a empezar de nuevo para nosotros. Mike despegó otra vez pero no se deshizo de mí hasta que hubieron pasado unos 20km.Desapareció. Es una especie de cohete de bolsillo!
Los tres primeros corredores hicimos una carrera cómoda y la disfrutamos inmensamente. Me daba la impresión de estar en un bike park, pero sin que nadie hubiera hecho nada. Todo natural aquí, no hacía falta trabajo extra.

La carrera nos ofreció un tiempo bastante invernal en algunas zonas de cumbre...con manos frías y lluvia. Me hizo hasta gracia volver a ver el barro, ¡hacía tanto tiempo que no veía barro...!

Tuvimos que cruzar una colada de lava ( por suerte ya estaba fría) caminando porque es un área protegida. La carrera tiene muchísmos singletrack...siempre agradable encontrarsélos en maratón.

Después de la carrera disfrutamos de un magnífico cochino asado y de todos los agasajos pertinentes: duchas, lavado de bicis, presentación, etc. Todo maravilloso.
Muchas gracias a Manuel, Víctor y a su club Bayana, por ayudarme en todo momento para esta carrera.
Como siempre, gracias a Kona y a Ergon ...un paseo impecable en la bici...Gracias a Kenda por sus cubiertas Small Block Eight Tubeless , son mis favoritas. Super resistentes y perfectas para correr en Canarias. A casa me traje un vino exquisito de El Paso (uno de los premios).

English:

The photo in the mist was taken at 1500 metres alt...
Many thanks to Jony, Mateo and Manuel the photos....see www.jonyciclismo.com for loads more.

Results for this race and the whole Challenge Canarias series of can be viewed at....
http://www.challenge-canarias.com/ ....click on results.

Today was the third round of the marathon series on La Palma, Canary Islands.

Lanzarote, the final round...is in two weeks time. Maybe we will see more British riders there! There will be the best riders in Spain entering because the race is also an Open de España marathon.

Back to La Palma. It is such an amazing island for mountainbiking and walking. Very popular with the Germans of course but not much English visit for mountainbiking.

Today´s race was undoubtedly the best race course I have seen in the Canarias and much further afield. The start and finish was in El Paso and the race covered the southern half of the island in sort of clockwise 70 km loop but with lots of twists and turns. The race and island could easily mistaken for Scottish race course and weather resp.(only above 1000 metres!).

After the initial neutralised two kilometres Mike Felderer was off! He has been so hungry for a win in the Canarias this year and today he pulled it off. I could not match his youthful speed but I did have cold (I do not think it affected me much)!

Of course an athlete should not race with cold but when you have been invited to paradise and an amazing race you can´t lie in your hotel bed doing Pilate's and yoga.

Next year I want to see UK riders making the effort as it is well worth it just for the holiday. The Island races just a little nicer than chasing UCI points in Cyprus in the early months of the year. I do not put down Cyprus but it just plainly a lot more beautiful here.

So Mike eventually disappeared from sight (and I drifted away in front of Andreas Strobel at the same also) and then I met Mike him coming towards me at around 25km! We had both over shot the a turn that had signage but it had been washed away with heavy rain. That´s marathon racing. There was re-grouping of the top five riders and then the race kind of re-started for us all. Mike was off again but could not lose me until another 20 km. He drifted away. A bit of a pocket rocket he is!

All of the top three had a comfortable race and enjoyed it it immensely. It felt like being in bike park but without having someone made it! It all natural here...no need for extra work.

The race had some winter weather near the peaks...with cold hands and rain. Kind of fun to see mud again; it`s been while!

We had to cross lava field (cold now) on foot because it´s protected. The race had lots of single track for marathon...always welcome.

We all had a wonderful pig-roast and all the trimmings after the race. Showers, Bike wash etc all present. Wonderful.

Thanks to Manuel, Victor and their Club Bayana for helping me out for this race.

Kona, and Ergon are thanked as normal.....A flawless ride on the bike...and I have to thank Kenda...their Small Block Eight Tubeless tyres are my favourite....Super tough and perfect in the Canarys´.

I take home some lovely wine ( one of the prizes) from El Paso.

13th March, 2nd in Challenge Canarias Round 2, Maspalomas, Gran Canaria.

2009-03-16T07:48:00.006-12:00

BLOG EN ESPAÑOL DESPUES INGLÉS.

Cristi and I just got back to Tenerife from a wonderful week of cycling in Gran Canaria.
Petra Wonisch and her team organised a whole week of entertainment for the riders. On Friday and Saturday there was a such variety of things going on for young cyclists, racers and the public at the race expo area. This is not just race; Petra`s aim is to involve the very young, mother´s and father´s and tackle the issues of road safety for cyclists and breast cancer.

Petra likes to attract riders to a week long package deal based at the Gloria Palace Hotel in San Augustin. It was my first stay there and although it is ´only´ a four star hotel I would rate it higher or the same as many five star hotels. Everything is there for the sport tourist and with Spa attached to the hotel you can recover in a professional manner from your training.

Very nice to be among old and new friends from all over Europe. Very nice to see Steve and Sylvia McEwen and Peter Buggle and Karen again. If Steve had not crashed early in the week he may have done better than 6th in the Crit, this which was staged the evening before the marathon.
Steve came from Holland with too great guys Atze Dykehouse and Luke. Atze who was in fine form; he won the Criterium on Friday but punctured both his (slightly too light) tyres in the marathon.
Peter Buggle amazed me as normal…5th place in the elite class and he won his (master 40-50) category…of course! The Celts were out in force!

The race was set on almost the same course as last year but with some more challenging downhill single track….90 km with around 2300 altitude difference.

On race day the very fine sand was in the air (called Calima in the Canarys) and coupled with high temperatures the racing was tough.

Along with higher temperatures this year there was a much higher level of competition - with Nicolas Vermeulen from Belgium and Mike Felderer from Italy, both current national marathon champions of the their countries. Also riding were many good German riders.

I should have been able to win this race but I did not rest enough during the week and especially the day before the race. Still very happy to come in second in elite class and also take 1st place in the masters 30-40.

A group formed at the head of the race comprised of Nicolas, Mike, myself, Andreas Strobel, and for a short while Heinz Zörweg. A few efforts where made to break away. The first successful escape was made by Mike but within two kms I made my way back to him. Shortly after that Mike had problem with his cranks and was forced to stop and wait for someone with the tool for the job.
I was left chasing Nicolas down some technical descents and Andreas was doing the same job chasing me.

My legs were not super strong for the race. After serious session of cramp in the quads I thought I had no chance of holding on to second place. Then came the 1.3 km “walk (or run!) with bike on back” section. After a lot of hill walking this winter I had a feeling I would have an advantage here but Andreas had a similar winter and was getting closer to me. At the top he was just few metres behind me!
With Nicolas and Andreas riding full-sus bikes I thought I had no chance of a win and could end up dropping to third place!
From the top of the walking (San Bartolomé de Tirajana) section the course was mainly downhill all the way back to Maspalomas. I lost ground on 24 year-old Nicolas but increased my gap on Andreas.

Nicolas Vermeulen 3h 36m 12s
Me 3h 41m 06s Mt 30+….1st
Andreas Strobel 3h 42m 55s
Mike Felderer 3h 49m 36s
Peter Buggle 3h 58m 27s Mt40+….1st

Hats off to this reasonably young Belgian national marathon champion who seemed very mature and had nicely set up bike. He also rode downhill very well also! He told me he did fifty races last year!

We rode almost the same course as last year but this year it was slightly shorter on one descent. My time last year was two minutes quicker than this year so I think I was not on full form.

Cristi …..here is the big news….she did her first race and came second!
She did the short course, 38km, and was second in masters 30-40. A perfect race for the novice rider.

So there was around 400 riders at this race. Three distances 38, 65, and 90 km. How many riders who live in the UK entered?….I think the answer is zero!
Must be a really deep crisis over there. This race is wonderful and can be coupled with a training week in the sun. Maybe next year someone might come over. It looked sunny in the Soggy Bottom race but I used to spend more money getting to Plymouth than Tenerife!

The next race for me is round three of the Challenge Canarias in La Palma (it is very beautiful) on the 22nd March and then it is round four in Lanzarote on 4th of April.

EN ESPAÑOL:

Acabo de llegar de pasar una semana estupenda en Gran Canaria.
Petra Wonisch y su equipo organizaron una semana con actividades y entretenimiento para los corredores. Durante el viernes y el sábado hubo una gran variedad de actividades para los ciclistas más jóvenes y para el público asistente a la zona de exposición de la carrera. No se trata sólo de una carrera; el objetivo de Petra es involucrar a los más jóvenes y a sus familias y abordar y despetar la sensibilidad en temas tan importantes como la seguridad vial de los ciclistas, y el cáncer de mama.

Fue muy agradable estar rodeado de viejos y nuevos amigos de todas partes de Europa. Me encantó ver a Steve y Sylvia McEwen y a Peter Buggle y Karen English. Si Steve no hubiera tenido una caída a principios de semana seguro que habría quedado por encima de la sexta posición en el Criterium, prueba que se realiza el día antes del maratón.
Peter me dejó con la boca abierta, como siempre …5º en la categoría elite y primero en masters 40-50 años, ¡por supuesto!¡Los Celtas vinieron pisando fuerte!
La carrera seguía casi el mismo recorrido que el año pasado, pero con algunas zonas de sendero en descenso técnicas que eran realmente desafiantes...90 km con unos 2300 m de desnivel.

El día e la carrera había calima densa acompañada de temperaturas altas que hacían la carrera aún más dura.

Además de las altas temperaturas, este año también subió el nivel de competición- con Nicolas Vermeulen desde Bélgica y Mike Felderer de Italia, ambos actuales campeones de marathon en sus respectivos países. También estaban presentes muchos ciclistas alemanes de gran calidad.

Yo tendría que haber sido capaz de ganar esta carrera, pero no descansé lo suficiente durante la semana y especialmente el día antes de la carrera. Aún así estoy contento con haber quedado 2º en la categoría elite y 1º en la categoría masters 30-40 años.

La cabeza de la carrera estaba formada por Nicolas, Mike, yo, Andreas Strobel, y durante una pequeña parte al principio Heinz Zörweg. Hubo algunos intentos de escapada . La pimera escapada con éxito la llevó a cabo Mike pero en 2 km ya lo había alcanzado. Justo después Mike tuvo un problema con una de las bielas y tuvo que pararse y esperar a que pasara alguien con la herramienta que necesitaba para arreglar la bici. Yo me dediqué a perseguir a Nicolas en las partes técnicas de descenso y Andreas hacía lo propio intentando darme alcance a mí.

Mis piernas no estaban super fuertes para la carrera y me costaba pedalear. Después de tener una sesión de intensos tirones en los cuadríceps
internos pensé que no tenía ninguna probabilidad de quedarme con la segunda posición. Entonces llegamos a la parte de 1.3 km de “caminata con bici a la espalda”. Tras haber hecho muchas caminatas en montaña este invierno, pensé que sacaría ventaja en esta parte, pero Andreas tuvo un invierno parecido y se acercaba cada vez más a mí. ¡Al llegar a la cumbre lo tenía a tan sólo un par de metros detrás de mí!
¡Nicolas y Andreas trajeron sus bicicletas full-suspension y yo pensé que con la mía no tenía opción a ganar y que me iba a tener que conformar con el tercer puesto!
A partir del final de la tubería, (San Bartolomé de Tirajana), el recorrido fue principalmente en descenso todo el trayecto hasta llegar de nuevo a Maspalomas. Perdí de vista al joven Nicolas, 24 años, pero aumenté la distancia con respecto a Andreas.

Nicolas Vermeulen 3h 36m 12s
Yo 3h 41m 06s Mt 30+….1º
Andreas Strobel 3h 42m 55s
Mike Felderer 3h 49m 36s
Peter Buggle 3h 58m 27s Mt40+….1º

Hay que quitarse el sombrero ante el joven Campeón Nacional Belga de maratón, que pareció bastante maduro para su edad y tenía una bici en muy buen estado. Además, en la parte de descenso demostró ser mejor que yo.¡Me dijo que el año pasado corrió en 50 carreras!

La carrera fue igual al recorrido del año pasado, pero este año fue ligeramente más corta en una parte de descenso.M tiempo del año pasado fue de dos minutos más rápido que este año así que todavía tengo que mejorar para las próximas carreras.

Cristi …..esta es la gran noticia….corrió su primera carrera y quedó 2ª .
Hizo el recorrido corto, 38km, y quedó 2ª en masters 30-40. Una carrera ideal para un corredor novato.

En total había unos 400 corredores en este evento. Tres distancias: 38, 65, y 90 km. ¿Cúantos corredores Británicos?.....¡Creo que la respuesta es cero!
Debe ser que la crisis es profunda por allí arriba. Esta carrera es genial y además se puede organizar para entrenar durante una semana con clima soleado. ¡A lo mejor el próximo año alguien se anima!

Mi Próxima carrera es la tercera prueba de Challenge Canarias en La Palma el 22 de Marzo y la siguiente será la cuarta prueba en Lanzarote el 4 de Abril.

21st Feb, Fuertebike Int Maratón, 70km

2009-02-26T08:48:00.002-12:00

Another great race in the Canary Islands. Caleta de Fuste was to be the start and finishing points this year of the slightly shorter 12th edition of Fuertebike.

There was some tough competition this year but I managed to be the first home for the second year running.

We lacked the usual customery wind of Fuerteventura and the sun was out all the way.

For most of the race Ruben Rusafa (Orbea, WC XC star) and Mike Felderer (Sinttesi, Italian Marathon Champ) and myself stuck together.

With 10 km to go Ruben upped the pace on the first of a series of hills leading us to the finish. I matched him until I realised I had more left in the legs and then drifted in front of him. I then TTed it for a few kms to the finish line.

A surprise to win against to young lads on course length of 145 mins.

With Ruben having placed 4th in a World cup XC last year and racing for Orbea at an Orbea sponsored event I did not think I would be able to have more speed in my legs. I started cycling again on Jan 1st after two months off at the end of last year and so I thought i was a bit rusty right now.

All good....next wonderful race is on 14th March in Gran Canaria. The Open de Gran Canaria.

See www. canary-bike.com for more details of the race and the following two (in La Palma and Lanazarote).

2009 Early Season Marathon Races in Canary Islands

2009-02-05T01:09:00.002-12:00

What´s happening in the Canarias in February, March and April? The following races are all marathon distance and are all excellent races with differing scenery.

Fuertebike, Caleta de Fuste, Fuerteventura, 21./22. Februar 09
www.fuertebike.es

Open MTB, Maspalomas, Gran Canaria13./14. März 09
www.canary-bike.com
I will be doing a training camp at this race for the week leading up to the race. Guided rides and training tips.

Marathon La Palma,El Paso, La Palma21./22. März 09
www.bikelapalma.com

Marathon Costa Teguise, Playa de los Charcos/Teguise, Lanzarote4. April 09
www.lanzarotelanzabike.com

These races are part of a series called Challenge-Canarias. Check out www.challenge-canarias.com for more info on this series.

FudeNaS 2008 Marathon, 150km, Fuerteventura

2008-10-26T05:57:00.011-12:00

A tough race yesterday.

It took me a little over 5 hours to race from the northern tip of the island to the southern tip.
Lots of customary wind, hills and some sand dunes to negotiate.

I was very happy to win the elite class and the absolute race.
With many thanks going David Martín of Bemekis, La Laguna for making this race possible for me. David and Eli, José and Anna Laura and Juan Ramon comprised the team for Bemekis. If I had been in their team we would have won the team prize.
The race is and acronym.... FudeNaS....Fuerteventura of North to South. This year was the third year and it is organised by the Soria 9 Light Infantry Regiment based in Puerto de Rosario, Fuerteventura. Around 400 soldiers lent a hand in making such well organised and interesting race. Many thanks to Soria9 and the Canarian Cycling federation.

CLASIFICACION GENERAL...FudeNaS, 150km. 25th Oct 2008

1st......James Ouchterlony (David Jonathan Prop Conlts) 05 09 42 hrs 29,060 (Km/h)
2nd....Matthias Ball (Trek-Dolphin Int) 05 13 18 hrs
3rd.....Michael Kalivoda (Ghost Racing) 05 22 00 hrs

Full results at....http://www.ciclismocanario.es/ ....they´re on the main page of this site right now and there is also a photo album next to result link.

How race un-folded:

We started in Corralejo (the well known holiday resort for foreign sun-seekers) and made our way south to Morro Jable 150 km away.

There must have been about 10 km of asphalt in the race and the rest being fire roads but there was some of tunnels, sand dunes and beaches (with surprised sun-bathers!) and promenade.

We started racing after a neutralised ride through the town after which we hit the fire road and there was a mad sprint for no reason at all (just like the start of every race!). Then it all calmed down and everyone was going along peacefully.
I had no idea who had entered the race but soon enough there was myself, two German´s, David Martin, Leandro Martin and Jacobo Reyes.

The stronger looking of the two German riders was Matthias Ball. He didn´t look like he´d bought his Trek-Dolphin clothing on E-bay so I thought he must be ´´nae bad´´.
The other Michael Kalivoda (World 24 hour champion of 2007; or one of the....!)
Both were cunning and not wanting to work very much. They were not riding the technical stuff very well. The first tunnel proved this...Michael sprinted to the front thinking that he was going to ride the 5ft-high tunnel (with a deep and soft sandy base!) cleanly...he messed up and I found my self pausing in darkness with my back pressed-up against the roof waiting for him to get out the way! No dabs by me! David Martin and I shook our heads. David can do anything on a bike. He is former BMX champion of Spain. He is far to good to just ride along on XC bike. No handed wheelies are nothing to him.

I knew I would have to make a major escape and this happened on the first long steep uphill. By leaving everyone down the hill I sadly had to say goodbye to David also.
After forming a good gap I just monitored it for 100 kms more. Being the first rider I went the wrong way three times! The army was at absolutely every crossing or junction and the marking was excellent but when things are being shouted in Spanish and your speed is high things can go wrong!
So I was making a gap on second place and then loosing it repeatedly!.

Eventually I could see the southern tip of the island - very far away still!
Some desperately quick interrogation to the soldiers while passing a feed station suggested 17 km to go. Continuing my clean run without any cramp would mean a win.

At some point in the last few kilometres of the race second placed Ball looked to close for comfort. I saw him coming down the big sand dune descent and he went over the bars; no danger to him but I knew I had just bought some more time.
Although I was having some cramp problems in the legs I could see that I was getting close and then I saw the finishing arch. The race was won!
Straight of for a massage and then if you wanted it.... mobile army hot showers, paella, fruit etc. The army also provided a free transfer (with bike) back to the North of the island. There was also a very nice cycling top for all riders and other goodies.
Racing in the Canarys´ is so good. There was even a helicopter above just in case of major accidents.

The Kula Supreme performed flawlessly and thanks go to Paligap U.K. for supporting me with a great no nonsense top-end bike.
My main sponsor have put so much into my racing this year.

Many thanks to David Jonathan Property Consultants Ltd. Cheshire. And..last but not least Ergon grips and rucsacs....I love their products!

Many thanks to Binter for flying me to the Fuerteventura (just 50 mins), they are so calm about bikes and don´t charge for them.

AND FOR NEXT YEAR IN CANARY ISLANDS:-

Lanzarote mtb race 31st Jan and 1st Feb 2009. See Club La santa for info.

The first 20 kms of the FudeNaS are the exact same as the start of the Fuertebike 80 km Marathon (held next on 21st February 2009). Make a holiday of it and come out for a week with the family! There is talk of not just Rusafa and Lejaretta racing in the 2009 race (the race is supported by Orbea), but the grand cheif also...J. Absalon. http://www.fuertebike.es/ for more info.
The FudeNaS 2009 edition will probably not take place as the troops are off to Afghanistan next year....boo woo.

24 hour team race, March....Santa Cruz, Tenerife

Open de Cran Canaria 14th March 2009. http://www.canary-bike.com/

MTB race on the island La Palma 22nd March.

World Marathon Champs, Villabassa ,5th June

2008-07-06T20:56:00.003-12:00

What a wonderful race the Italians put on for us all. Spectacular scenery and such an impressive organisation.
My race...well...my lungs are still very poor but I thought I would ride around and see if I can finish. I thought I was going so badly that i would not make it to the end; I thought there would be a time limit at certain points of the course.
Thanks to BC for the clothing and entry and many thanks to go to the Spanish National Team, Cristi, and Dave and Sally Bigham for supporting me in a very professional manner for whole the event.

More thanks go to David Jonathan Property Consultants Ltd, Kona, Ergon, Shimano and Kenda.

Jenn O' Conner had a good result (20th) Sally Bigham said she had learnt alot from the race but did very well considering her solo Mount. Mayhem win just the other week. Liz Scalia produced a good result as normal in her usual calm way.

A shame for Liam Kileen; a crash left him in bad state but he continued and finished the race. Ditto for William Bjergfelt; he will one day learn that 300 odd gram tyres are not for his bike. Two punctures and then a boken chain took him out but then the next day he went out to do the Citizen race (120 KM) and got a amazing result of 12th place...with 600 gram tyres.

Israel Nunez, Alejandro and Sandra all had good races but Israel came in 15th.....estupendo!

Ciao

British Marathon Championships 2008

2008-06-07T00:48:00.002-12:00

Not the best result but apart from my lungs everything was perfect!

I had a great stay at the Mountain View B&B in Port Talbot (Eli and Lisa pictured above). They are a very bike friendly place to stay and not far from Afan of course. Adding to that the support I had from James Towlson from Ergon (grips, rucsacs, seats etc) before, during and after race was amazing.

Sadly, I had to pull out of the race due to a lung disfunction. Today I have seen a real improvement in the problem.

Everything was perfect with my bike during the race and weather was not very testing.

Great to see Ian Wilkinson winning. Nick Craig had won before so it was Ian´s turn!

Next up World Maratón Champs on 6th July.

Gearing-up for UK Marathon champs, June 1st

2008-05-21T23:04:00.002-12:00

I am looking forward to the UK Marathon Championships at Margham Park, near Port Talbot, South Wales.

The last two times I raced there I enjoyed the course. Last year I was lucky enough to finish in second place behind former team mate Robin Seymour. He had helped me with food that day after I blew-up in spectactular fashion. After the race I remember laughing with Robin because I was going at around walking pace when he caught me up - better not do that again!

Maybe it will be a different course this time but I feel happy knowing that Martyn Salt is organising the race as before. We are sure of a good event with his presence.

Sue Clarke and I will form a team for this event. She has great chance of win at Margham..although maybe it will not be technical enough for her. James Towlson from Ergon will also be there and so I am looking forward to teaming-up and meeting up with him after so long.

A message for you...namely...Pauline Love (your old email does not work!)
and Paul C Smith.....I need an email address from both of you so I can reply to you....por favor. The blog does not give me your address info.

Hasta el maratón, James

13th April, Class1 XC, Barcelona

2008-04-09T04:43:00.004-12:00

Barcelona and the bike show was fun I had made a poor performance in the race. I got a cold and throat infection just before race and felt weak in the race. Adding to that the race was about 90 mins long...far too short for me.

I enjoyed joining up with Cemelorca/10 Seguros trade team which has a lot of old team mates from Massi team of the old days.

Jaun Pedro was flying and so was Sergio. Sergio punctured though which put him back minutes.

Rest now with some antibiotics I think!

2008 so far

2008-03-19T19:54:00.008-12:00

1st place ..Fuertebike MX, Fuerteventura
1st place ..MTB Open Marathon, Gran Canaria
6th place..World Cup MTB Marathon , Türkiye

The year has gone very well so far. I have had a great 'winter' in Tenerife with Cristi.
Obviously my form will be better than alot of riders who have gone through a cold winter but normally I get slower when I return to UK for the summer. Trainıng for me ın UK summer never seems to work so this year I hope to stay fast by staying Tenerife.

Cristi and I make a good team. She has taken up cycling in last few months but has always known how great it can be. She uses her bıke like me; to get to work and to go places. I do not think we will use the tow rope ever again; we used it goıng on our first tour around Tenerife but now she can cope with anything. She is the proud owner of a custom made saddle.....made by me of course.

6th place in World Cup Marathon, Türkiye

2008-03-17T06:38:00.004-12:00

Monday...The day after the race.

Would have liked 5th place as I dropped back one place during the last quarter of race. A funny race really. Not used to riding along with Alban Lakata (pictured behind me). He was smooth and was working his way up to first place, but did not quite manage the win.

Lakata, myself and the German national champion worked our way towards Martinez, Dietsch, Sahm & Platt. At the second feed zone there were seven of us at the head of the race. The group was just soft pedaling for a mile or so because there was a big hill just around the corner where breaks would form. Before the hill I went passed UCI Chief commissaire Colin Clewes, at the front of the group, thinking this is rather strange! He looked just as surprised as me.

On the big climb Martinez & Dietsch drifted off the front and eventually Lakata made his move to catch them and took Sahm and Platt with him.

I could not quite match their speed but still had them in sight.

As I neared the last feed zone I was really relying on my last bottle but it and the feeder were no where to be seen! I was suffering and eventually stopped to pick up some random bottle at the side of the road. Paez came by me strong and I limped home with serious cramp for 6th place.

I was hoping to wear my sponsors clothing (Davıd Jonathan Property Consultants Ltd, Cheshire) for this race but as I am National Marathon Champion I had to wear B.C. clothing, otherwise I would have had to re-mortgage the house I do not have to pay the UCI fine!

Many thanks to my sponsor David Jonathan Property Consultants Ltd.

The Kona was brilliant....thanks again to John Hollier of Paligap UK.

Ergon grips are so good that I did not need gloves for this race...I had left them at the last İnternet cafe two days before! Thanks to James Towlson of Ergon UK.

Kenda Small Block 8's again performed really well...my favourite tyre.

Thanks to my Mum for sending me my map of Türkiye so Cristi and I could have a good tour of the Turkish Med. coast-line during the week after the race.

A win for me....8th March, Gran Canaria Open Marathon

2008-03-08T03:39:00.007-12:00

Just finished the race 2 hours ago.

A great course which took 3 hours 39 minutes to win. Second place went to Alejandro Diaz de la Peña of Spain.

Many the thanks to David Jonathan Property Consultants Ltd; without their support nothing would be possible this year.

Also many thanks to:-

Cristi, can not wait to get back to see you.
Bemekis....David and the team at THE bike shop in La Laguna, Tenerife
Kona UK, thanks John..... the Kula Supreme is flawless
Ergon, GP1 grips....I could not use normal grips now
Kenda, Tyres...UST Small block eights today...wonderful
Purple Extreme.....chain oil that goes the distance.

Muchas Gracias a Rubén Mayor por el foto tambien.

Results for race at:- http://nyx.at/canary/_uploads/_elements/1730_file1.pdf

A win for me in Fuertebike Marathon, Fuerteventura

2008-03-01T07:47:00.007-12:00

My first race of 2008 was in..... Fuerteventura on the 23rd of February.

Over 200 racers started and the windy weather was the norm for the island.

With the lack of Spanish Pros in the race this year it became and easy win but I never knew I had such large gap between me a second place until finishing the race.

It is such a great race; very fast but not too technical. Worth doing if you are on the island for early season training. The race starts and finishes in Corralejo on the north coast of the island.

For the results click:-

http://www.ciclismocanario.es/resultados/2008/Fuertebike/Elite%20Fuertebike.pdf

The race is very well organised and includes a post massage, food and raffle.

Many thanks to Cristi, David Jonathan Property Consultants, Ergon Grips, Kona bikes U.K. and all the cyclists in the Canary Islands especially Bemekis team, La Laguna.

Next up is a race on Gran Canaria on the 8th of March, and then it is on to the first World Cup Marathon in Turkey on the 16th March.

Winter 2007 and the year to come

2007-11-27T08:03:00.000-12:00

Weather here in Tenerife has been very dry as with last ´winter´.

Great to be planning another season of racing with the backing of David Jonathan Property Consultants Ltd as my new sponsor.

In 2008 I aim to focus on alot of Marathon racing in Europe, UK and Republic of Ireland.

Races that are confirmed are:-

Marathon World Cup races
Marathon World Championships
Marathon European Championships
Marathon UK Championships
XC UK Championships

I will be also teaming up with Liz Scalia (Britsh Marathon Champion) for the Trans-Alp race in 2008.

I am currently looking for a frame and forks for next years racing. If there are any makers out there interested in helping me I would be delighted if you got in touch.

It also could be a busy year with cycle guiding trips with my work with Tall Stories in Surrey.

2007 British National Marathon Championships, Wales

2007-09-23T21:10:00.000-12:00

A 5 hour race in relative warmth in very wet Wales.

I am very pleased to have come home in 1st place. I have been 2nd twice in this championship and really have had the ability to win it. I trained for at least 9 days for this race! I mean i did not go shopping on my bike so much and actually went out on a ride without panniers and put the Garmin GPS on the bike and looked at my pulse etc....All that tech stuff!
I even spent two days on a kind of fast....because it was Ramadan. Many dates were eaten after.

The Marathon race is just about attrition.....
So many good riders started the race so little finished.

It would have been better if Ian Wilkinson had not punctured and if Paul Oldham had been fresh for the 100k.
Oli Beckingsale was missing too and he would have done very well if he had the time and energy to do the race. He had a hard race against Peter Ris Anderson on Saturday. It's worth noting that Peter beat Oli but had had a tiny amount of sleep on the Fiday night before the XC race and slept in his car with his feet in wheel bag! His flight was (plane crash in Munich) delayed, then his hire car was delayed, then his car journey was delayed by a crash in front of him. By Saturday night he was very ill and could not do the Marathon on Sunday.

We all had technical problems with our bikes yesterday; I was forced into the big ring for half race. Luckily for me I never use a middle ring from day to day so I felt quite at home.

The race was not as hard as the big world marathons because I was alone and in the lead. When I heard that Nick Craig was 1 min 20 secs behind me with two laps to go I had the energy to go faster and widen the gap. I had no idea if he was still in the race.

Hats off to Duncan Jamieson and Ross Creber.....
Ross is alot younger than most in the race and managed 5th place. It would have been a miracle if he did not get slower in the last two hours but he hung in there with his mighty determination.
Duncan was the best placed rider over the Sat and Sun races. Good job for him.

End of season now....
Big thanks go to Alex McNicol for running the most successful XC and Marathon mtb team in the UK this year; the Seymour family have been a great help also.....

Gareth´s girlfriend Lyndie

Barrie and Sue Clarke

Andrew Howett

James Fraser-Moodie and Ruth McGavigan

Steve Smith at Angus Bike Chain

These are just few.

Team Website

2007-04-24T05:34:00.000-12:00

For the latest news from Team Singletrack /Pipedreamcycles...
Click on link for Team Singletrack World
It is on the right of this page under links

World Cup Marathon, Gran Canaria, 17th Marzo 2007

2007-03-19T05:15:00.000-12:00

The weather held but only just. A great location for the this early season World Cup. A really good course with hardly any tarmac sections.
For some of the race there was very light rain which was very good for cooling us down.
The start and finish of the race was in Sioux City... country and western show ground for tourists.
Many many riders...250 in elite and more than that in the shorter distance challenge race.
I was still recovering from the 24 hour race 6 days before and was not feeling my best but was happy with 21st place and finishing the 91 km without any large problems. Simoni was 7.5 mins ahead of me.
It must be the first time Karl Platt has seen the rear view of a Deore mech.
I managed to take two ´long cuts´.....but this is typical in marathons when you never see the course before the race. For results click......
http://nyx.at/canary/_uploads/_elements/1385_file1.pdf
Team mates (below) all finished but Daniel took a fall and hopefully he has not broken a rib.
Jose Manuel Gonález Gómez came in 85th, Juan Pedro González Álvarez 123rd and Daniel Mayato 147th. Many thanks to mi amigos otra vez.

24 hour race in Santa Cruz, 10th Marzo 2007

2007-03-19T04:45:00.000-12:00

Such a great venue for the race. In the middle of the city with overhead lighting throughout the night with no need for lights on the bike, although some riders used them. I hit two pedestrians and one dog....whoops.

Our team came 2nd in the elite class. Nacho, Dalios, Fernando and myself had a good time with alot of support from Poli (manager), Jacob, Daniel and Pablo (massuer) to name a few.

Our team had very young developing riders and we were up against two Loro Parque teams with alot more years experience and riding. With that in mind we did the best we could.

Many thanks to all in Alvemaca/Producciones Gráficas & Bici Sprinter for their professionalism once again. Many thanks also to Margaret for her support and to Jack Richards from Scotland....who came to watch the race just after getting off the plane from Scotland. Jack was visiting for week and enjoyed his training alot.

Fuerte en Fuerte

2007-02-26T02:52:00.000-12:00

My first race of the new year was on the 24th of February in Corralejo, Fuerteventura.
The results can be viewed in the link below. The foto is from the World Cup MX race.
http://www.fuertebike.es/data/es/resultados.pdf
Me and my new team (Alvemaca/Producciones Gràficas) had a great time apart form Nacho who managed to come off his bike a couple of hours before the race; one of those things that happen. He did not have a good race and I hoped he would be up with front runners.
It is the second year of the Fuertebike Marathon and I thought it was really well organised. I was impressed with my free post-race masaje and lunch. Orbea sponsored the event and so of course they sent to of their pros to do the job....but they did not....their men managed 2nd (Ruben Ruzafa) and 3rd (Iñaki Lejarreta) in the sprint for the line after 80 km. They should have sent Absalon to be sure of a win. The race was won by Ivan Alverez of KTM. That left me in 4th and the current champion of Spain, Carlos Coloma in 5th.
Many many thanks to Daniel Mayato from the team and BiciSprinter bike shop of Taco, Santa Cruz for my bike.

Winter 2006 and onwards.

2007-02-02T04:26:00.000-12:00

Over the winter I have been staying up high in Anaga, Tenerife, Spain.
Cycling and more cycling as usual; shopping on the bike, teaching english via bike and training of course.

The winter was very light here with very little rain and it was only a week ago that Tenerife had its proper snow covering on Teide and the skirt surrounding.

I am looking forward to racing in 2007 and I feel much more comfortable knowing that me new team will work much better for me. I should have improved last year but went backwards instead of forwards.

While I was with the Massi-Abarth my racing performance was upset numerous times in 2006 and I made the mistake staying with the team in 2006 when I should have moved on. Saying that with the tremendous help of Barrie Clark and team mate Sue Thomas Massi`s faults were smoothed alot. The problems we encountered were outwith the UK and communication with the team in Spain was very difficult at times.

I wish Massi luck with bike sales in the UK and hope they can satisfy their customers.

More news soon on the new team and bike for 2007.

Many thanks for reading and if you want to get in touch remember to put your email address within the body of your text/comment.

10th Alanya İnternational XC race report - UCI Class 1

2006-10-29T05:20:00.000-12:00

29th October, Alanya, Türkiye.

What a 'Day' it was in Turkey today. Turkish Republic Day and the MTB race ın Alanya. The race was live on Turkish TV (TRT) and a Satelite TV channel or two.

Unlike last years win, İ missed out on the Podıum today...5th place. Great race though.

A quick look at results for Scotland:-

Ross Creber wins the junior race by a long way. He wanted to do the elite race but was not allowed to.

İain Nimmo won the (British XC master XC MTB Champion) masters by a long way.

İ nearly caught 4th place on the 6th and last lap up to the top of the Castle. Bischof had a great race beating Paulisson. The top five elite riders were quite close together which surprised me. I have not trained enough this year for XC races

The TV coverage was amazing....İ hope someone saw ıt; all two and half hours it! The weather was amazing as usual and this race is one of the best races to do on Earth. Make the effort and get out here next year. With the Euro XC champs being in Cappadoccia (central Türkey) next year, Turkey is makıng an amazing effort building up to this event.

Many thanks to Gali and İnbar...great friends from Northern İsrael. Gali supported me today and he was great. He also gave me some Joe's Sealant for tubeless yyres...better than Stans!

Elite men results:-

Johann Pallhuber (ITA) - 1st
Christof Bischof (SWI) - 2nd
Roel Paulisson (BEL) - 3rd
Sergy Risenko (UKR) - 4th
James Ouchterlony(SCO) - 5th

Elite Women:-

Maria Osl (AUT) - 1st
Nataliya Krompets (UKR) - 2nd
Tarja Owens (IRL) - 3rd
İnbar Ronen (ISL) - 4th
Not sure of 5th place but must be a Turkish lady.

Latest news and racing for the near future

2006-09-19T20:34:00.000-12:00

22nd October;
The class two XC Babadagi Hill climb near Ölü Deniz in Turkey was cancelled! Not great but it left me with chance to tour the Aegean and Mediterrianian coast of Türkey. It has been very good, but the initial three days storm was very heavy.

Türkish coast tour has finished today after four days covering 400 km. I Just found a nice place to stay tonıght and the market across the road has email!

Before İ reached Antalya the traffic was non-existant. Scenery and peolpe have been wonderful. I never had a chance to see Türkiye off the beaten track and for what it really is.

25th October;
This coming Sunday it's the 10th Alanya International Mtb Cup Alanya, Turkey...the 29th..Türkısh republıc day.

For more information on both Turkish races go to http://www.mavigemi.com/

Tour of the Karakurrams Mtb Stage Race 1-3 Sept 2006

2006-09-12T01:39:00.000-12:00

Every truck is a masterpiece but used with purpose....

Introduction/Overview

The Tour of the Karakurrams International Mountainbike Stage Race was organized by the Kaghan Memorial Trust (KMT) in partnership with Federal Ministry of Tourism and was the first of its kind in Pakistan.
Khurram Khan, the managing trustee, and another three trustees, Syed Junaid Ali Qasim, Kashif Khawaja, and Lauren Mueenuddin formed the KMT.

The Tour of the Karakurrams mountainbike race will promote tourism and will benefit the victims of the devastating Earthquake which occurred on the 8th of October 2005.

All funds generated from this race will proceed to the Kaghan Memorial Trust for setting up a school at Kawai, near the town of Balakot. Balakot and the surrounding villages were in worst affected area of the earthquake.

To read more about how you can help Earthquake victims go to the KMT website:- www.kmt.org.pk. It is possible to contribute to the Trust in many different ways.

The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) co-sponsored the event.
Munawar Baseer Ahmad, Managing Director SSGC paid rich tributes to the riders for their contribution in a purely humanitarian cause. He also thanked the KMT for arranging such a unique event, which will go a long way in the promotion of national tourism and raising awareness of on-going work to reconstruct the area destroyed by the Earthquake.

Ten teams participated in this international cycle race, each comprising of three riders. In all 31 semi/professional and 15 amateur international male and female cyclists from Australia, Canada, Germany, China, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, UK and USA took part in the event.

My experience:-

Before leaving the UK for Islamabad I managed to spend a couple of days staying in Manchester city centre after my airline tickets vanished from my Uncle's house in Scotland while I was away racing in Northern Ireland (coming second to Irish Champion, Robin Seymour for the third year in a row!).
I had to leave without tickets and then did not quite manage to get onto the plane!
I took up residence at the Hatters Backpacker's Hostel near Piccadily station and was given a double bed on the top floor! Very nice place to base yourself for city centre lash. Couldn't wait to explore Manchester as it had been 4 or 5 five years since a lived there. Avoiding loud music and candy, I went out to an old man's pub with another hosteler and after three quick pints I felt like I had drunk ten teenage pints and I called it a night! As I left the pub the fellow hosteler said he was off to Bangkok, and as he walked off towards Canal Street I knew I made the right choice!

I waited two days and in order to get the next available flight. Pakistani Int Air were very good with my bike and the flight staff were charming. During the flight I must have re-kindled my curry eating habit because from there on it was curry all day everyday! I seemed to be fish out water on the flight - the only non-Muslim person on a 747. One guy I was talking to was rather cool and came out with the joke 'you must be the terrorist then'. Just as well I did not start muttering to myself in a broad Scottish accent!

Arriving in Islamabad I queued up with people from Afganistan and other nearby countries and had a non-verbal discussion about smoking and other things. I then rushed off to the loo to change my shorts to full length trousers!

Atif Khan greeted me at the port and we then drove to Khurram Khan's town house for a green tea stop. The race technical team arrived soon after me, I joined them and we set off for Kawai, Balakot and Naran. It took about 2-3 hours to reach Balakot

Pakistan is not familiar with mountainbike racing; this was a first for them and they did such a great job. One of the many good things about the race was they were free to use any land available. If the weather and altitude permitted us to race in reasonable safety we would race. This meant it was a dream come true for the mountainbikers that had made the effort come to the race. I have to say that most of the field were not mountainbikers. This made the race very different; more relaxed and less competitive as compared with a normal race.
The town of Naran at 2500 metres was the competitiors and organisers base for the event.

Before, during and after the racing each day we were all being filmed by a Charlotte (from London) who is probably still editing footage many weeks after the event. She will be producing a DVD of the event and possibly a short programme for TV broadcast in various countries.

Before starting the stage race I managed to do a few thousand metres of climbing during the four days leading up to the race. Not wise, but alot of fun! I found myself up in mountain villages drinking tea, normally with all the members of a village. They kept me warm by grouping close together and giving me a wool blanket. They were very interested to see me on a bike at such an altitude and were really kind to me.

The day before stage one most of the riders climbed for 2 hours on a jeep track to quite a height (around a 1200 metre climb with peak at 3500 metres) and my legs were ruined from that day. As I never use a granny ring I was probably making things hard for myself. Tim Vincent decided not to do the climb as his knees were still sore from the World 24-hour Champs which he had won 10 days or so before.

Full race results can be viewed on www.kmt.org.pk

Stage one, Naran to Saiful Maluk and around the lake twice:-

For the first day of racing we left the town and climbed to Lake Saiful Maluk....One thousand altitude metres of jeep track climbing to the lake and then two laps of course around the lake on what was very often a very rocky path with sections of glacier to cross. The course was designed by Marty Krieg, my Australian room-mate.

Tim Vincent (NZ) won the stage and his fellow country man Andy Reid took third. Andy is the current N.Z. TT champ and a former CWG and OG competitor. I trailed in to take second place. I was surprised to come second as I was exhausted from the climb the day before and was slowing rapidly.

Beth McCluskey (IRL) won the ladies clearly from Britta Martin (GER) and Francis Helling-Linthorst (NED) came third.

Stage two, Jalkhad to the Babusar Pass and return to Jalkhad:-

I took 1st position in men’s individual event in a time of 3 hrs, 33 minutes and 22 seconds. Tim Vincent, The 24 hour World Champion finished second with 3:46:02, and Andy Reid (New Zealand) took 3rd in a time 3:52:09. Tim was leading the race when he over-shot the turn-around point on the course. This was very annoying as it meant the race was not a true test of legs. I eventually found out I was leading and was not second as I thought....I had been going full out to catch Tim and then started to think I was not on the right course as I could not see his tracks - it had truned into Wacky Races. Once I knew I was leading I started to pedal as if there was to stage the next day. I knew every second counted and Tim would be close behind and possibly catching me. I came in 13 mins before him. There is no telling what the true gap was.

In the Women’s individual event Elizabeth McClusky (Ireland) took 1st place, while Britta Martin (Germany) took second and Leda Cox (UK) 3rd place Britta came in hand in hand with Beth at 4:41:47 and Leda's time was 5:06:08. Leda made up time today and enjoyed the longer stage I think. Leda was far less familiar with this type of terrain and racing and did a great job considiring she races the road. She couldn't believe the weight of her fully-suspended bike!

Stage three, Naran to Kawai:-

Before the final stage the ladies race seemed more clear cut. Beth McCluskey had a lead of just over 6 minutes on Britta Martin and it was going to hard for Britta to make up that time unless something went wrong with Beth's ride.
Strangely, Beth's tyre and tube exploded just before the start time but it was fixed pretty quick. Just before that Tim Vincent's tyre was about to blow but he saw the tube coming through the tyre and patched the tyre double quick.

I had around ten minutes lead on Tim Vincent going into the final stage and around twenty minutes on Robin Reid and with the stage only being only 100-110 minutes long you would think the race was decided.
BUT...
I decided to eat something that disagreed with me and the the night before and then thought it would be nice to stay up all night and throw-up every bit of food that exsisted within me (and other end trouble too of course) . I was absolutely wrecked and just thought how can I race in this state.
To make matters worse Charlotte and her film crew had arranged the night before to visit my kabana at 7.30 am to film me getting out of bed, getting dressed and getting ready for the race etc.

If I raced it was going to be a very interesting stage.

I called for the doctor and he came and went before Charlotte came knocking. God knows what he gave me. Some pills...I think he said some caffine and something to settle stomach; I wasn't listening too well.

Having the useful pressure of having to act out getting up and getting ready for a race I did got up! If it wasn't for Charlotte I would have stayed in bed. I dithered around for a good while purposefully ignoring Charlotte who was hiding in various places in and out of the room trying to stay out of shot.

All the racers congregated near the hotel. I could hardly walk straight, but had to make regular trips to el bano and found my head slumping onto my handlebars as I straddled my bike waiting for what I knew was going to be hell even though I had a ten minute lead

The race was only 60km or so but on and off-road, going down the valley, but with up hill sections. The Earthquake had ruined most of the road's surface and with land slides also it was a road race that had to done on a MTB. As soon as the gun went the Kiwis sent most of their men up the road with Tim Vincent and the Dutch man Remko Kramer joined them.

Beth didn't have too much trouble winning overall but it was Birgit Schnapp(GER) that convincely won the stage.
Second place went to Francis Helling-Linthorst(NL) and one second behind came Beth in third with Britta Martin twenty seconds later. In the GC Beth was six minutes clear of Britta(GER) and Leda Cox of England taking third overall. Impressive ride by Leda who was racing in an alien sport.

Remko Kramer(NL) deservedly won the mens stage a few seconds clear of Nathan Dahlberg(NZ) with Tim Vincent(NZ) finishing on Nathan's wheel.

I dragged myself to finish line and for the last 5 km I was trying to stay with Birgit Schnapp and Bas Hermsen(NL). I couldn't stay with Bas but he gave me some much needed water for what was quite a hot day. I was weaving around on the road quite a bit (luckily it was closed to public vehicles) and had pins and needles building up in the whole of my upper body.
I crossed the line, made a bee-line for the water bottles, then lay down on the road in pain; this is where I lay until I was moved onto a bed and then stretchered off to a tent where I recovered, shivering under blankets and in pain, with some intelligent hydration. Many thanks to Suzanne Forman from England and Matt Usborne from BC, Canada for sorting me out. They were both qualified in medical practices luckily for me.

Eventually I found out I had managed to hold onto my lead and had won overall. I couldn't believe that and was more interested in recovering than winning races. The presentation and ground breaking ceremony for the school to be built came next. The finish of stage three was at the site of the new school's foundations. A plaque was unveiled for the school and presentations made. Lots of media organisations had come and the Minister for Tourism made and address. Three days of very well organised racing. Food was cooked for us each day at the finish line area, tents with mats for changing, and medical services on-site. Great effort was put in to this race for us all.

The next day was spent recovering at Khurram Khan's lakeside house and grounds where we were treated to water skiing, kayaking, archery, swimming, music and buffets. Really appreciated and great fun.

The next day we travelled to Islamabad and in the evening we were treated to more wonderful food and a press conference at a beautiful location overlooking Islamabad.
Then we all went to desert restaurant/cafe for ice cream. For the last three days I had hardly eaten anything and was still feeling not too good. After icecream, which I tried to eat, Beth was starting to feel ill - I think she got over the worst in 24 hours.

Time to fly home. The end of a great trip. I also managed to sleep through my train stop at Dundee and almost reached Aberdeen! Oh what fun.

Many thanks to all in Pakistan for such a great trip and let's hope the race goes ahead next year. Photos to be added shortly.

2006 results so far

2006-09-08T22:37:00.000-12:00

Mountainbike race results so far this year:-

11 FEB 06 UCI C2 XC Palmerston North, New Zealand
2nd place.
A fun race in the mud trying to catch Clinton Avery. I failed to do so as I had probably underestimated his strength and although I was on a good borrowed bike from National Coach, Greame Herd, I was just getting into off-road riding in mud. Visiting the New Zealand XC scene for the first time was great fun and they naturally made us very welcome.

23 MAR 06 UCI C1 XC Commonwealth Games, Melbourne
18th place.
Normally you can decide whether or not to start a race. On this occasion I was unfit to race but so much had been put into the preparation of this race by myself and others that there was no choice.

30 APR 06 MX Specialized 6 hour Marathon team race, England
1st mixed team.
Myself and Sue Thomas raced for the first time with the help of our Massi-Abarth team bikes and kit. Everything went as planned apart from one puncture on Sue's bike which of course she fixed out in the field. With Sue's form being very good we still won the race comfortably.

06 MAY 06 UCI C2 British National XC Series, Sherwood, UK
8th place.
I was not looking forward to this race. The Sherwood Pines XC course does not have many hills in it and was not in the mood for racing yet as my broken ribs had taken a full two months to mend fully and by May I did not feel very fit.
Sue started her race well but her legs were tired and she was overtaken Jenny Copnall and then was involved in a collision with four riders from the sport men class.
4th place for Sue. Not what we expected for her.

I opted for Road shoes and pedals for this race as there is no need to get of the bike during the race. I made the mistake of having too low a pressure in front my front tyre and subsequently 'burped' alot of air out of it and then realised the threads of my compressed gas cylinder were clogged with thread lock making it useless in the heat of the race. Luckily for me Barrie Clarke was waiting for me with spare front wheel in the pits which he put on my bike quickly and then I was off to chase down the main bunch on my last lap. I caught them but did not have much energy left to try a sprint.

14 MAY 06 UCI B XC World Cup, Madrid, Spain
82nd place.

21 MAY 06 Scotland National XC series, Dundee, Scotland
1st place.

25 JUN 06 Scottish National XC Championships, Glentress, Scotland
1st place.

08 JUL 06 UCI C2 British National XC series, Drumlanrig, Scotland
9th place.

16 JUL 06 UCI CN XC British National XC Championships, Moelfre, Wales
6th place.

30 JUL 06 MX Merida 100 kilometre Marathon, Selkirk, Scotland
2nd place.

05 AUG 06 UCI C2 British National XC series, Plymouth, UK
6th place.

06 AUG 06 UCI CN MX British National Marathon Championships, Plymouth, UK
2nd place.

13 AUG 06 UCI C2 Irish National XC series, Castlewellan, Northern Ireland
2nd place.

1-3SEP 06 3 day Stage MX Tour of the Karakurrams, Kaghan Valley, Pakistan
1st place.

16 SEP 06 UCI C2 XC British National XC series, Checkendon, UK
12th place.
This race was going to be difficult as I was still feeling the effects of a recent illness contracted during the my visit to Pakistan.

British Premier Calendar National Point Series - best 4 out 5 races
6th place in elite class.

24 SEP 06 XC Scottish Nation XC series, Aviemore, Scotland
1st place.

Juegos de Commonwealth - malisimo

2006-03-23T14:39:00.000-12:00

Here come the excuses!

What can I say?

What about....Gareth Montgomerie did well for himself. Rab Wardell was going well and was on course for around 14th place (possibly higher or lower...I better cover myself!) but for his punctures.

Great to see Liam and Oli get some world level success once more. A shame not to see two more girls representing for England.
Amy hunt (I have never met I must say) did very well considering that she had not been mountainbiking much recently.

Special thanks go to Robert Maclean who came along way to support me, also my sister and boyfriend, Shimano and Manitou (at the race site).

Ruth McGavigan and myself did nothing to impress anyone really. Ruth had some technical issues hindering her which did not help. We were all up against really strong nations and we knew getting medals around out necks was going to very hard.
Saying that, if I had the form of last November when I won the Alanya Cup I would have been aiming to be 6 minutes down on Liam kileen and not 16 mins as it was yesterday. I had stomach problems during the race but the the main prblem was legs that had not done enough hard work over the months of January and February.
The last two months should have been time for progress, but with injury problems from mid-January, then a high-speed crash in a road race (resulting in bruised ribs) in New Zealand training took a massive nose-dive. Braking or bruising my ribs seems to be a 'favourite' injury for mine!

Alot of people would have liked to see Sue Thomas, Caroline Jackson, Jenny Copnall (or any of the other top UK lady XC riders I have offended by not mentioning).
Very hard for Caroline Jackson who lives next to the course, and has raced the course; she did her bit as a volunteer (gathering rubbish in the pits for the riders amongst other things) at the side lines.

Geoff Kabush had my vote for a medal but had a cold or something along those lines - sad for him but thankfully his team mate did a great job.

It is no secret amongst fellow racers that I 'managed' to give my sponsor-owned bike back to the aforementioned in late November and then waited exactly three months for the new 2006 bike to arrive. A rider can't help being frustrated with this process but it is common/normal and as I have worked for many engineering companies I empathised with sponsor and kept holding on to their delivery date extensions. Most people own a bike as a back-up, but for me everthing had been sold to get this far in the sport. It made sense to do this because I could not afford to hold onto a racing weight XC mtb just for back up purposes. I am very happy with my new race bike from Massi. They are new team and were very helpful to me last year.

It is great to see Scottish mtb XC riders representing for the first time here at the Commonwealth Games and I hope Scottish riders will be at the next Games and improve on our results.

My mission to ride mtbs fast always had a sub-plot away from my own selfish desires; to see the riders younger than I in Scotland get faster than me. Iain Nimmo was doing the same role before me! He's even older! I have been there to push the pace up. We have very few good riders in 18 to 30 year bracket. Ross Creber has a great chance of making the high level....I am counting the junior age riders and the count has just stopped after the number one! Always been impressed with Dean Martin's drive I may add.

For sucess, heavy parental support is normally required along more change in the culture of sport in Scotland. I spoke to Ian Mckenzie of Sport Scotland the other night on the subject BMX tracks and the Glasgow 2014 CWG bid. I said.... 'we need a covered BMX (Dirt) track facility in GLA or EDI and he seemed to think that an open (to the elements) track was fine. That would be a short lived BMX track. What do you think? I may have misunderstood him.

BMX racing is the most crucial thing for our youngsters, furthermore mtb xc needs to evolve to be more in the style of BMX dirt racing. We had one ramp jump in the race yesterday - NOT enough by along way. Fans always flock toward jumps or highly technical descent areas of mtb courses - everyone knows this but organisers of course in fear of injured riders as they know the average skill level is low.
We can increase the skill of our riders with a proper U.C.I. standard covered BMX track in Scotland. I hope this happens very soon, the 2008 Olympic Games are just around the corner.
In Dundee the indoor BMX ramp facility is great and there is room in our cities for the dirt equivalent.

No apologies for spelling and grammatical errors.

Thanks to the many people I have met (from the last two years) will follow soon.

NB: PLEASE PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITHIN THE BODY OF YOUR COMMENT SO THAT I CAN EMAIL YOU BACK.

Tres Dias hasta Juegos de Commonwealth MTB XC

2006-03-19T23:04:00.000-12:00

First of all I thank you for all your wishes via email and website for my good performance in the race on Thursday. Many many thanks to all Angus Bike Chain CC for the amazing good luck card that Roberto McClean brought out to Australia - reaaly thoughtful and really cool for me.
I have been practising the course today and will do the same on Tuesday. My bruised ribs are not going to be a hinderance. Yesterday some accupuncture from the Scotland team physiotherapists of (Sp!) made all the difference....muchas gracias

The Melbourne Games are amazing they have set up everything so well and I am very lucky to be a part of this massive event.

There 29 male riders and 12 female riders in the MTB race....quality not quantity.

One thing for sure the Scotland Team is doing better than ever before and so the mood is great just now. Scottish cycling is at a new level now - let's hope RR, TT and XC can pull some medals

Gold for Chris, Craig and Ross in the sprint last night and of course lets us not forget James McCallum's Bronze also......amazing night.

Lookout for my room mate Duncan Urquart in the TT tomorrow along with Katrina Hair and Alex Coutts.

Great to hear that I was voted Angus Sports personality of the Year. I would like to thank everyone who voted and I think this is great recognition for MTBing. Many thanks.

Let's go for it....James

9 Days to go until the Commonwealth Games XC Race

2006-03-13T19:25:00.000-12:00

Looking forward to a very fast race; the field of riders is of a very high standard as we all know.
Just getting over my crash in February. The bruised ribs have taken some time to heal of course.
Hopefully the race will be on TV in the UK at a sociable time on the 23rd or 24th.

First race of 2006 season in New Zealand

2006-02-12T12:36:00.000-12:00

Despite not having a bike to ride yet and being troubled with my old hamstring/nerve problem my first result from yesterday's XC race at Palmerston North, North Island, NZ was very promising.

My new Massi Z-carbon is due to land here in 7 days or so......so I borrowed the bike of National Coach, Greame Herd. Put my trusty 'new improved' (better than best!) saddle and speedplay pedals on his bike and rode the race.

The full team raced...Ruth McGavigan came in 4th in Elite ladies - good result...Robin Wong(NZ) won her race. Gareth Montgomerie punctured twice and therefore did not have enough resources at hand to fix the second puncture. Robert Wardell punctured, then repaired the problem, and then rode on to finish the race but he also punctured near the end of the race again and so did not place well, but a good job in finishing.

I battled on working my way through the field after starting in my typical way (a touch slow possibly but comfortable with my plan). The field was only about 40 riders but of good quality.

If anyone was at, or saw pictures of the 2005 BC champs at Ludlow, yesterday was a similar course but more slippery! Basically a mud bath! But there was a river to dive into after the race; it was 6 metres from the finish line so I had washed Greame's bike and myself, got changed and fuelled up before alot of riders finished.

My only consolation for coming second was that the first guy, Clinton Avery (NZ Commonwealth representative and second to Kashi Leuchs in NZ), was on home turf and is in mid-season of his racing right now. Worth noting that Clinton is just 18 years old (15 years younger than me!) and so he is one to watch on a world scene in the next few years. He would have been -3 years when I started mountainbiking....Lookout Ross Creber!

I was decending very badly but climbing well; I was not myself on someone elses bike and missed my Hutchison tubless tyres. If you knew my home turf in Tenerife you would know why climbing is a strong point for me.
Confidence was severly lacking before the race as I have spent the last month without a bike here when most team members have two. With the injury niggle also it has been a bit stressful for me and had thought about sending myself home quite alot. Saying that, Greame Herd has been taking care of us all very very well and so I am getting the best chance to suceed in the next two races in NZ and then it is the CW games on the 23rd of March......

It is just unfortunate that my contractual obligations with Massi and the CWGC are not mating well but this is to be expected. A spanish XC team runs to a different schedule as compared with the CW Games, which are very early in the season this time.

Next race is on the 26th of Feb (UCI E2 near Napier) and is very close to our house so this will advantageous to us. The last race is the Continental Champs at Rotorua (this years World champs course) on the 4th of March after which I will return to Australia and go into the Games villiage soon after that.

Napier is a very nice art deco town. We are right in fruit season here so the whole place is laden with really good fruit and veg etc. That's all I need!

Many thanks for your thoughts and support. At the start of last year ABC, Blackadders solicitors (Forfar) and the SC, Dundee centre area played a crucial role in keeping me a float. Right now, Scottish cycling and C.W.Games Coucil for Scotland are doing a good job of supporting us all.

Cheers, James

'Off'-Road to The Commonwealth Games

2006-01-26T14:21:00.000-12:00

After meeting up at GLA with five Scottish Team members (Alex Coutts, Ducan Urquart, Gareth Montgomerie, Robert Wardell and Ruth McGavigan) twe all took a deep a few deep stretchs and starting the three leg journey to Melbourne, Australia via Dubai and Singapore. Many hours later we arrived in Ballarat, Victoria on the 15th of January.

Coach and the trip coordinator Greame Herd had set up a furnished full functioning house in a great location and others already present were Ivor and Elaine Reid, Even Oliphant, James McCalum.
It was great to meet the team members from the track and road for the first time, furthermore two ladies from the track world, namely Katrina Hair and Kate Cullen. With Ruth, Katrina and Kate here they provided balance in a house full of male cyclists. On the 23rd the Greame and the six srong road team left for Zealanda Nuevo for the Tour of Wellington.

The next ten days were spent recovering from the flight and adjusting to the new time-zone and temperature. We saw a day of 43 degrees celcius and so what a pleasure it is when it rains here! Rain normally (torrential) lasts around ten minutes.

It took me a week before I found out that I have family here in the town of Ballarat. Where ever I go in the world I find family. I also seem to move around the world and be in a perpetual blackberry season. Have been out filling the old water bottle with some at the end of some training rides.

Today was Australia Day and so around the central town lake, named Wendouree, there has been alot of live music culminating with some fireworks dampened slighty with some most welcome but un-timely rain.

Also today was the road squad's second day in the Tour of Wellington. Very good and bad outcomes; Duncan was second in the road stage and Evan was second in the critirium. Sadly Robert was eliminated from further satges after a mechanical failure caused him to loose alot of time and James McCalum was involved in a crash - cuts and bruises but should out there again tomorrow.

I look forward to travelling to my new base in Napier, (North Island) New Zealand on the 30th of Jan for three mtb races and then will return here on the 5th of March afterwhich we will all be preparing for the Games races. The mtb XC race is on the 23rd of March.

Hanging Out in Tenerife

2005-11-26T11:27:00.000-12:00

I have tried to blend with the locals by carrying heavy bags of shopping on my head, but I think I will stick to no hands on the bike instead. They have 300 years of experience over me.

I cannot remember how to spell the simplist of English words now.

My neighbour is an eccentric old english women with the stereotypical number of cats and the rest. I had a dinner date with the 71 year old lady the other night but she was too drunk to walk the distance (safely) to the local restaurant.

I seem to pass as an Italiano over here which is good porque it means I probably have the phonetics closer than the average Scot - or maybe it is just the blue eyes! Now, I am playing with this and pretending to be italian when speaking to clueless tourists!

I have the hostel to myself quite often and have become a very amateur english-spanish translator for the German people. Most places I stay I lock myself out a ridiculously high amount of times; no exception here. The hostel is the best yet though for unorthodox entry because it has a 40 foot climbing wall (with 5 routes!) built into the south facing wall. Once I have taken off my road cycling shoes I have some freestyle climbing culminating with a rather tricky overhang - the balcony. Still alive.

It raining today so I hope to visit the gym. Gyms make me yawn - so boring. Anyway, the gym I go to has more entry security than an airplane. It has a palm recognition and PIN number to get in. Air travel is not as dangerous in comparison then.....?

Next season will either be an average performance or complete success. Being out here, not working and pretending/being to be a full timer puts a lot of pressure on me. So it will be difficult to get the balance just right. I am looking to do some trail re-building here in the nat. park

Bastante! James

2005 RESULTS

2005-11-26T09:35:00.000-12:00

09.11.05 1st Mt Sodom XC, Israel
09.10.05 1st 9th Alanya International MTB Cup, Turkey
25.09.05 2nd Conlig Lead Mines, Ireland
10.09.05 54th UCI WC Fort William, UK
23.07.05 3rd XC National Champs, UK
17.07.05 2nd Marathon National Champs, UK
26.06.05 6th Int Cappadocia Stage Race, Turkey
11.06.05 9th NPS 3 Thetford, UK
04.06.05 106th UCI WC Willingen, Germany
29.05.05 80th UCI WC Houfallize, Belgium
14.05.05 4th NPS 2 Builth Wells, UK
08.05.05 78th UCI WC2 Madrid, Spain
10.04.05 21st MX 1, Cyprus
13.03.05 4th XC2 Georgios Alamanos, Cyprus
04.03.05 4th Afxentia MTB Tour, Cyprus
27.02.05 6th Voroklini International, Cyprus
20.02.05 7th XC1 Larnaca, Cyprus

World Record for Fuel Efficiency

2005-11-26T08:41:00.000-12:00

Before I could ride a bike I rode this, and still hold a world record for fuel efficiency. 0.280 litres per 100 kilometres. The record was set at Silverstone on July 15th 1998 and is in the Guinness Book of Records 2002 edition. The record is still current !