London Phoenix

Great pic Stuart! Look at all those Phoenix riders on mountainbikes! I've spoken to Nick Morrison recently might be tempted back out, Jason's in Lincoln, Paul Troughton in the Lakes, Dan's with child - miss those guys that's the mountain mayhem team ...but bumped into David and Abi at the Summer Brass Monkey on Sunday....

Me chasing Ian Cleverly

Twas ever thus

Always one thing chasing Mr Cleverly but quite another thing getting past.

Beastway 4 results are in:

http://beastwaymtb.wordpress.com/2014/0 ... 4-results/

Weather was glorious and the course very fast

Jeez. Russ, bruce Michael and the boys set out a long 3.5 mile course this evening that with its various twists and turns ended up going up the slope 4 times per lap pretty much, two off road straight up the Hoggenburg. Some good technical tight turns, roots and a log rolls which neutralised the 29er advantage that they have over the stutter bumps and rolling terrain.

I enjoyed myself so much I was even managing some "rad" airtime over the uphill jump on the far side opposite the centre!

Brilliant fun (when finished anyway), I didn't see Jason or Doug so I think I was the sole Pheonix. A good ride for me this week, a decent sprint from the start (up the Hoggenburg!) into the first bend, and then consistent pace & strength in the more tech sections saw me pass a few on the 3rd and 4th lap. Some were really suffering - I passed two skinny whippet looking riders previously out of sight in front of me who were heads down struggling to keep going on what turned out to be a 1h:20 crit. I've fingers crossed for what I think is within the top 15 in class.

Definitely have sore lungs and legs now. Bring on Rd 6 next week, thank to this weeks volunteers!

Sounds like I missed a cracker of a course. Missus had the car. Roll on next week. See you next week Stan, and hopefully everyone else.

I have luvverly gravel rash to show off on Wednesday. I DNFd as I came off and hit the ground elbow first. Not quite blood everywhere but there are times when you realise that getting medical attention is more important than finishing. My sterry strips have now come off and I can no longer see the purple insides of my arm. But boy does it hurt. I think me and the crank brothers egg-beaters will be getting a divorce. I can only un-clip by flicking my heel inwards, which is a draw back when the bike is going down.

Av heart rate was 160. Max on the day 170. All encouraging stuff to help me keep going.

Ouch! Bad luck Doug, better luck this week. Some of those turn-ins were sharp - I nearly went through the tape twice.

I had a terrible evening, no power in my legs at all, luckily came 19th but of 27 riders so not great as I wanted to be in the top 15, and in an effort to do so sprinted like mad from the start and entered the singletrack about 10th place just behind Damien, only to lose 9 places over the course distance. I must be carrying something as those symptoms have re-occured on Friday's turbo session and yesterdays social MTB as well. I'm going to rest until Wednesday as I really need a good ride to ensure I place in the series top 20 overall. Mind you, If Damien turns up and takes a place from the series regulars again he'll be doing me a favor!

I am intending to get there! Such a long ride there and back from west London however. Only two more races though?

Yep - this week is the last scoring race, next week is an exhibition race with prize giving at the end.

Well to prep for tomorrow I'm off to the pub in 30 mins. I've trained hard for years and never won a ruddy thing. So I'll try some 'reverse training'. All good physical conditioning work I assure you.

Yeah right!

Good grief. I set out to ride hard and that I did to maintain my place on the standings. Perhaps a bit too hard on Lap 1 as I was feeling sick after 20 mins, not helped by three successive short "kicks" up the back of the centre at the end of an 19 minute lap.

There seemed less climbing this week and thats reflected in my average (19.2kmh). My average HR was 95% over 1:15h My chest hurts...

On my own though, where was everyone?

@ Stuart L - a chap was asking for you - I forgot his name but he's a small wiry bloke green kit (not H GT) with a goaty, early 40's at a guess, has a son called Stan (by coincidence). He message was "get your arse back on a mountain bike"

Well the final standings are out and .....

Whoop whoop! 13th of 50 in class (Vets) for me from an aim this year of a top 20 finish in my first short form MTB race series . As I consider myself to favor / usually only enter endurance MTB events I'm quite pleased with this achievement in the "crit" version of XC.

That then leaves a top ten to aim for next year

Tomorrow nights end of series finale is a bit of non series scoring fun - Team racing. We race in teams and get "points" as per position - team with the lowest number of points wins.

It's be good to have an LP team even if its a few who want to have a bit of a laugh on an MTB and haven't raced the series/before. Its not technically challenging. It'll be a warm sunny evening so what better could you do than bask in the sunlight at Hog Hill riding around en-route to cake...

So who's coming? Anyone?

Had to post this final round photo for the gurn... Note how the foreshortening effect removes 5ft from the apparent height of the jump (ahem).


BWT-151 by Lambrini2010, on Flickr

Follow the Flickr link for other photos from last night, with LP plus guest coming 4th in class in the Team event.

What an excellent resurgence to the series and much thanks to Russ and Bruce for making this happen and getting Beastway back on the map. Looking forward to next year already!