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'Hot' new frameset :)

I don't feel quite ready to unleash this full item yet but all I will say is huge thanks to Pat at Ison Distribution the UK guys for Salsa for supplying a Gravel Eating Monster ...

.. Salsa being a brand I have always loved it is exciting to finally get my hands on one for a big event..

A little taster image ..





Build will be happening this week hopefully ... next weekend hoping to come back with the full low down on the bike build and its maiden voyage :)

Training fit for purpose

The only way to know what its going to be like to ride for 12 hours is to ride for 12 hours.

It had been a while since I had ridden for 12 hours or more ... never on a cross bike as by the very nature of cyclocross most time spent on a cross bike in one sitting is usually an hour so it seemed fitting to head out and just see what happened.

The route was simple ... head out on the Reivers route to Bellingham (just before Kielder Reservoir) .. swing north east and keep riding along the pennine cycleway until I hit Berwick upon Tweed then turn south and ride home .. easy.

The weather was great in that it was dry and sunny .. what wasn't so great was the headwind I had for the first 3 hours all the way to Bellingham .. so strong at times it was blowing the earphones out of my ears !! .. on a side note thank you to VeloBeats for the producing such great riding music :)

The north westerly journey to Berwick was mainly a crosswind which was great ... the route was very 'rolling' ... never ridden this route so had no idea what to expect .. a ton of small hills.. some medium sized one.. mostly lanes but sometimes off road too .. a real mix ... first stop of the day came after 6 hours in Wooler ... quick Co-Op shop stop for more water and an energy drink then back off again.

I reached Berwick after 8 hours ish of riding and was happy to make the turn for home ... only 70 ish miles remained ... I tried initially following the Sustrans Coast and Castle route No.1 but it was pretty convoluted for a man trying to get home so to eat some miles I jumped reluctantly on the A1 .. luckily this far north its not as busy with a decent if small hard shoulder to ride on... 21 miles later just past Alnwick just as it was getting dark I chose to take the coastal route on a quieter road.

Then at Ashington feeling quite tired I suffered a puncture :( A quick change then home via Bedlington, Seaton Delaval, Earson ... back on familar ground the miles went alot quicker ..

Home finally in 12 hours 40 minutes having covered 180 miles ... so I can ride for 12 hours plus .. discovered a few little niggles I need to work out ... another 2 months of training think I will try another one and see how if at all I have improved :)

Fuelling the Fire

In all the time I haver been racing one thing I have yet to master and am notoriously bad for is nutrition ... when to eat, what to eat, how much to eat ...

I have been told a million times the basic principles but never listened ... with this years goal being the Dirty Kanza 200 I wanted to put everything into this race so am paying a little more attention to food for fuel.

With this it was well timed that fellow Brit Dirty Kanza entrant Rick Perry secured us some great sponsors to provide us with the products we need.

First up on the bike nutrition ... riding for 12 hours plus requires variety in what you eat.. energy products alone are great but sometimes you need something more natural and a little less engineered... Eat Natural Products have supplied us with enough bars to support all the training that we plan to achieve between now and June and I will be taking some with me too ... they are great tasting natural bars that offer a welcome break from energy product .. right now my personal favourite is the almond, apricot and yoghurt coated :)
Making sure I get enough calories on the bike is one thing but the importance of recovery has been stressed over and over again so I have adopted a recovery drink and snack straight after any training session .. the drink is a chocolate milk or dedicated recovery product .. the snack is protein rich product called Bounce Balls. Another all natural product .. noticing a theme here .. they deliver all important protein for post excercise recovery ... I have been using 2 flavours.. peanut and almond ... both taste great and take the hassle out of figuring what to eat.






Huge thanks to Eat Natural and Bounce Foods for fuelling this adventure :)

EARTH DAY PLANS FOR 2012


The plans are taking shape for Earth Day 2012 on three different continents this year around. As in 2011, the project will collaborate with Earth Day New York for the "E" Drive (above) with "Climate Friendly Vehicles" in the streets of Manhattan, ending on Times Square where the "Cat Walk" will take place. See last years version HERE.


According to Wikipedia: "Bangalore is the capital of the Indianstate of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and fifth-most populous urban agglomeration. Bangalore is well known as a hub for India's information technology sector." Here the CO2 tag will be done by runners and in collaboration with Dr Rajat Chauhan who is a Doctor in Sports - Exercise Medicine & Musculoskeletal Medicine. He is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi who said "Physician Wealth of a nation should be measured by health & fitness of its youngsters, not by pieces of gold & silver".


According to Wikipedia: "Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland. Its position, on the western edge of Africa, is an advantageous departure point for trans-Atlantic and European trade; this fact aided its growth into a major regional port." In Dakar the CO2 tag will be done in collaboration with the Danish NGO "Cykler til Senegal" who have been sending over 7000 Danish bikes to Senegal since 1996 and LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development), which is the world’s largest not-for-profit organization promoting leadership and sustainable development.

We look forward to making this happen and the idea of celebrating 
and respecting Mother Earth on Earth Day in three different cities around the world, is also a dream come true for the project in general.

What's on the Android Market for Soccer?

Before I launch into this post, this is a post purely targeted at Android phone users, particularly fans of Best Android Downloads. I thought as an iPhone owner I should understand more about the dark side because I am thinking of getting one of the new Samsung handsets this year. Note that all links go to the Android Market - enjoy!

Football apps for mobile and tablets fall into 2 broad categories: keeping up to date with fixtures/results/news and games. I think as football fans we know where to go to see how our team have done. Whether its the Beeb, Sky Sports News or the popular free ESPN app we now what to do on our touchscreens when its 17:00hrs on a Saturday early evening. Most clubs have their own apps for up to date match previews and player interviews, mostly free.

This post however is about soccer playing apps. I ventured into the world of the Android Market to find the top 3 best free and top 3 best paid soccer apps and this is what I found:
Top 3 soccer game android apps - paid

PES 2012 Pro Evolution Soccer
PES 2012 Android app
1. PES 2012 (link)
I have downloaded Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 on iPhone and after borrowing a friend's HTC phone to play this I was equally impressed. OK so it's free on iPhone (for a lite version) and a couple of bucks on Android, so what. Great integration with Facebook for social gaming and most importantly incerdible touch screen gameplay for those boring moments on the train. For the soccer gamer pros.


EA SPORTS™ FIFA 10
FIFA 10
2. FIFA 10 (link)
EA Sports know the score with what a good mobile game needs to be. Simply menus, nice positive feel when controlling the players and passing is really nice. PES looks nicer but there's not alot in it gameplay wise.



Real Football 2012
RF 2012 Android app

3. Real Football 2012 (link)
Great value for a dollar. Really sociable format and nice smooth gameplay. I quite like the graphics of this one too, a bit old school in places but this is a great smartphone rival for Konami and EA Sports.





Top 3 soccer game android apps - free

run Football Manager (soccer)
run Football Android app
1. run Football (link)
run Football is my favourite free soccer app on Android. It is a Football Manager game that is super addictive and particularly good for people that are happy to get their friends involved in social gaming/multiplayer. Takes me back to the days of Champ Manager!




Football Kicks
Football Kicks Anrdoid app
2. Football Kicks (link)
With over 7 million downloads, this is superb footballing fun with an unorthodox format. Positive feeling gameplay where spin and pace help you master the perfect free kick. Becks eat your heart out. Chip over the wall, bend around it, get a posh new haircut - lots of fun!



Pocket Soccer
Pocket Soccer Anrdoid app
3. Pocket Soccer (link)
Old school and addictive. Pocket Soccer has an overhead view, 'kick off' style (going back a few years there) and is highly popular on Anrdoid. It's beauty is its simplicity, by far the most old school game listed in this article. Nice and light memory wise. If it was an addictive top 3 this would rank #1! 

AC Milan 4 Arsenal 0 Champions League 15th February 2012

Before launching into my Champions League match analysis of AC v Arsenal I must apologise for the lack of blogging recently, no excuses are worthy of even beginning to type when you claim to be 'BlogFootball' on Twitter!

So Arsenal made the glamorous journey to the San Siro this evening to play AC Milan in the Champions League for the first leg of their last 16 tie. In recent seasons, Arsenal's total football style has made mincemeat of most opponents, with only Barcelona and possibly Manchester United blocking them from being champions in terms of form. However no Nasri and no Fabregas has made Arsenal less formidable in Europe. That said, their league form is decent at the moment (Van P = goal machine) and going into this game they would be relatively confident of being able to 'park the bus' at the San Siro. But under Wenger, have Arsenal ever been capable of parking the bus?

AC Milan have bought well. Ibrahimovic, Robinho, Van Bommel, Boateng : the nucleus of a superb AC Milan team. AC started very strongly with Arsenal looking a bit static in defensive areas, only the Verminator looked capable of dealing with the movement and attacking play from the home team. In the 16th minute, after some decent possession AC Milan bagged one with ex Tottenham man Kevin Princes-Boateng scoring an absolute screamer (if you didn't see it, You Tube it).

Arsenal's retort to AC Milan's first goal wasn't really good enough, as the Gunners couldn't get behind Milan's defensive line. In the 38th minute, Robinho scored after some great pass and move from AC Milan. Milan kept the ball very well and Arsenal's midfield couldn't penetrate to get the ball through into advanced areas for Van Persie or Theo Walcott. A frustrating first half for Arsenal but is more that AC Milan were good than Arsenal were bad. 2-0 at the break was definitely a fair reflection of the match, it could have easily been 3 or even  4 to the home team.

Wenger had to make the change: Theo Walcott for Thierry Henry. The perfect setting for the genius Frenchman to galvanise the younger Gooner players and provide that extra bit of magic. Straight away he provided nice link up play and Arsenal were just getting going when Ibrahimovic linked up with Robinho and score from outside the box with a fantastically placed strike finding the bottom right hand corner of the Arsenal net. 3-0 down, ouch.

Arsenal showed character and determination but AC Milan looked really impressive in all areas, better than they've looked in years. The second half was pretty much the same story as the first half, both teams locked in midfield battle but Milan were first to the ball most of the time and also showed more determination to get the ball back. 

In the 65th minute, Van Persie hit a nice on target volley that worked the Milan goalkeeper to tip it around his post. This was Arsenal's first real chance of the game and was shortly followed by a substitution where Chamberlain came on for Arsenal as Wenger went more 'kitchen sink' than 'park the bus'. You might as well go out fighting. 

In the 69th minute, Boateng came off. The damage had been done but I couldn't help but think that the Arsenal midfielders would have been relieved to see the industrious Boateng go off. Still, this was a team performance by Milan, dominating Arsenal in all areas. There were notable performances by Antonini, Ibrahimovic, Robinho and Boateng.

In the 77th minute, Djourou brought Zlatan Ibrahimovic down in the penalty area (I thought it was a pen, but I am a Spurs fan!) and Ibrahimovic netted the penalty to make it 4-0.

In the 84th minute, Van Persie headed on target - decent header, decent save. Just not Arsenal's night, unfortunately it would be a miracle if Arsenal progress into the last 8. The San Siro was virtually silent for the last 5 minutes, Arsenal fans must have felt battered tonight but AC Milan would have tested any major European team this evening.


African Nations Cup 2012: Zambia clinched the cup after prominent Ivory coast star Didier Drogba, Kolo Touré and Yao Kouassi Gervinho miss penalty kicks.

African cup of Nations 2012 came to an end with Zambia beating highly rated Ivory Coast on penalty shoot-out after 0-0 score in extra time. Zambia won the crown as consolation of county lost 19 years ago when 18 member of the squad died in Libreville after plane crash. Ivory coast playing their 19th Africa Cup of Nations finals while Zambia 15th, but both team were play the final for only third time. Ivory Coast won the cup in 1992 and Zambia was looking for their first cup having finished second place on 1974 and 1994. This year’s final brought 18th (1st) and 71st (16th) teams in FIFA ranking in world and CAF in bracket respectively.

Ivory Coast earned a penalty on regulation time after a penalty box foul on Gervinho, but Didier Drogba took the penalty and sent the high above the bar and put his team on penalty shoot-out risk. Both team start well in penalty shoot-out, Ivory Coast taking the first penalty leaving Zambia with tough task of coming from behind and level the score. The shootout went correctly for the penalty kickers but not for the goalkeepers, until it was 7-7 each. Then came the two consecutive miss for Ivory Coast by Kolo Touré and Yao Kouassi Gervinho sandwiching Zambia miss by Rainford Kalaba. 22 years old Stophira Sunzu took the next penalty for Zambia and converted to make the score 8-7 and won the African Cup of Nations for his country.
Chipolopolo coach Herve Renard was confident winning the tie and confidence translated to his players who faced highly rated players in the world at every position. Zambia became only the second team in The Southern part of Africa to lift the cup after South Africa

Africa Cup of Nations 2012 Top scorers
Christopher Katongo Zambia 3
Emmanuel Mayuka Zambia 3
Didier Drogba Cote d'Ivoire 3
Cheick Diabate Mali 3
Manucho Angola 3
Houssine Kharja Morocco 3
Pierre Aubameyang Gabon 3

African Cup of Nations Zambia vs Ivory Coast video highlights

Top 5 scorers in Premier league, Spanish La Liga, France Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Scotish SPL and Serie A competition for European golden boot on 08 January 2012

Barclays Premier league, Spanish La Liga, Italy Serie A, Ligue 1, Scottish premier league, German Bundesliga and France Ligue 1 top scorers competition for golden boot on 11 February 2012. Cristiano Ronaldo leads the European league top scorers in both number of goals as well as goals coefficients, followed closely by Messi and Van Persie.

Barclays Premier league top scorers
1Robin Van Persie
Arsenal FC
22
2Wayne Rooney
Manchester United17
3Demba Ba
Newcastle15
4Sergio Agüero
Manchester City15
5*Yakubu AiyegbeniBlackburn Rovers13
Robin Van Persie keep on scoring and with hat-trick against Bolton he has opened a five goals gap with second EPL top scorer in the list. Wayne Rooney double against Liverpool fired him to seconf place. Demba Ba might have been close if had played as many games as Van Persie. The striker left for African Cup of Nation were he failed to reproduce the club goal scoring but soon after return he get back on score sheet with new partner Papiss Demba Cisse from SC Freiburg who scored 9 goals in Bundesliga.

Top assist
David Silva (Manchester City) 12
Emmanuel Adebayor (Tottenham Hotspur) 10
Antonio Valencia (Manchester United) 9
Ryan Giggs (Manchester United) 8
Juan Mata (Chelsea) 8
Robin Van Persie (Arsenal) 7
Samir Nasri (Manchester City) 7
Theo Walcott (Arsenal) 7
 Nani  (Manchester United) 7
 Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur) 7
 Stephane Sessegnon  (Sunderland) 7 
___________________________________________
Bundesliga top scorers
1Mario GomezBayern Munich
18
2Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
SC Freiburg16
3Claudio Pizarro
Werder Bremen15
4Lukas Podolski
FC Cologne15
5Robert LewandowskiBorussia Dortmund14
Gomez didn't score last round but stays at the top of list with pressure still mounts from other bundesliga top scorer award challengers. Claudio Pizarro score a brace for Werder Bremen in a 2-2 draw with SC Freiburg

Top assist
Juan Arango  (Borussia Monchengladbach) 8
Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich) 7
Claudio Pizarro (Werder Bremen) 6
Raffael (Hertha Berlin) 6
Gokhan Tore (Hamburg SV) 6 

Kevin Großkreutz  (Borussia Dortmund) 6
Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund) 6

Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich)6
Patrick Herrmann (Borussia Monchengladbach) 6
_________________________________________
France Ligue 1 top scorers 
1Olivier GiroudMontpellier16
2Anderson NenePSG11
3Kevin GameriroPSG10
4Batetimbi GomisLyon9
5Loïc RemyMarseille9
Olivier Giroud hang on the top with 4 goals advantage, Anderson Luiz de Carvalho Nene has rapidly moved to second position, he score a double in PSG 3-1 win over Evian Thonon Gaillard.

Top assist
Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille) 11
Jérémy Menez (Paris Saint-Germain) 8
Eden Hazard   (Lille) 7
Cedric Barbosa (Evian Thonon Gaillard) 6
Michel Bastos (Lyon) 6
Yann Jouffre (Lorient
) 6
Dennis Oliech (AJ Auxerre
) 5
Olivier Giroud (Montpellier) 5 

__________________________________________ 
1Cristiano Ronaldo
Real Madrid
24
2Lionel MessiBarcelona 23
3Gonzalo HiguaínReal Madrid
14
4Radamel Falcao Atlético Madrid 12
5*Roberto SoldadoValencia12
* Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao) 12
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are on tight tough competition for the pichichi as well as European golden boot awards, and recently Van Persie has joined this fight. To see a fair fight to the end, football fans should play that none of the top scorers get injured. Ronaldo and Messi competition is also reflected on goal assists in La Liga of which all six top assist are between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Top assist
Ángel Di María (Real Madrid) 13 
Mesut Özil (Real Madrid) 11
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 8
Daniel Alves (Barcelona) 8
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 6
Xavi (Barcelona) 6
Cesc Fábregas (Barcelona) 6 
Raúl García (Osasuna) 6
Susaeta (Athletic Bilbao) 6 
___________________________________________
Italy Serie A top scorers
1 Antonio Di Natale Udinese 17
2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic AC Milan  15
3 German Denis Atlanta 12
4 Edinson Cavani Napoli 12
5 Miroslav Klose Lazio 12
*Diego Milito (Internazionale) 12
*Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina) 12
*Rodrigo Palacio (Genoa) 12
Di Natale and Ibrahimovic at the topseparated from followers by 4 and 3 goals respectively by six followers players each with 12 goals. German Denis has lead the Serie A top scorers for long time before he surrender.      
Top assist
Fabrizio Miccoli  (Palermo) 9
Pablo Armero    (
Udinese)  8 
Antonio Cassano (AC Milan) 7
Alberto Aquilani  (AC Milan) 6
Miralem Pjanic (AS Roma) 6

Djibril Cissé  (Lazio) 6 
___________________________________________ 

Scottish Premier League SPL top scorers

1Nikica Jelavic Rangers14
2Gary Hooper Celtic13
3Jon DalyDundee United 11
4Francisco SandazaSt Johnstone 11
5Garry O'ConnorHibernian10
Nikica Jelavic goal scoring ability earned him a transfer to Everton and looking to adapt and start reproducing goals though not in a rate seen at Scotish Premier League.

Top assist
Steven Davis (Rangers) 10
Anthony Stokes (Celtic) 8
Nicky Law (Motherwell) 8

Brrrrr !!!!!!!!!!! Hit the North- 2012


Hit the North is an event I will never miss .. ever .. I love the course and the atmosphere .. even the organisers are alright :)

The event is 2 hour long affair and is always a battle between cyclocross riders and mountain bikers or more importantly cross bikes and mountain bikes .... last year the event was muddy and a cyclocross bike was the weapon of choice .. this year I gambled on more mud so the cross bike was chose.

The trip down started at 5am with Cross Club riders Adam Cooke and Rob Walker also racing .. soon as we arrived the cold was evident.

Signing on there were alot of familiar faces .. always good to catch up with people that you really only see at races.

Getting ready and 'warming up' (unsuccessfully) I couldn't feel my fingers ... the start was for the first time right at the lowest part of the course leaving a longer climb ahead right from the gun .. on the start line I was on the front row ..



after a bit of shuffling around I found myself 6 or 7 rows back .. right behind Guy Martin of Isle of Man TT fame ... straight off from the gun the ducking and weaving started to try and get on ...



alot of people I think underestimated the climb and there was alot of people fading before we got to the singletrack.

The course was rock hard frozen .. cross bike getting a little bullied on the frozen ruts .. the descents were a little cheeky and I opted to run a few sections ..



what time I was loosing on the downs I felt that I was more than holding my own on the climbs ... the lower part of the course was fast flowing singletrack and a lovely descent with berms .. lots of fun !!!



I managed to get away relatively unscathed until on consecutive laps I slid over smashing my bottle cage and then the following lap shoulder charged a tree .. donated plenty of skin to the cause.

Towards the end of the race although I was still catching and passing the back markers there was a sizeable gap to the place in front and behind me so I got to ride at about 80% effort and enjoy the singletrack... I even managed to get through the time cut off and get another lap in.



I finally finished 21st ... not a fantastic result but what I took away from this event was so much more than a result ... I thoroughly enjoyed racing my bike ... I lost nothing on the flat or the climbs so my legs are good even if my bike handling needs some work ... I now just need to build this comfort and effort over 200 miles and at around 40 degrees hotter.

Bring on June and the Dirty Kanza 200

All pictures courtesy of Ed Rollason Photography

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