BLACK

Training and life are going well....

Mr Forgy is keeping the training varied and upping the hours steadily every week which means that i never know what the next week will bring and i'm always super motivated to get the job done.

We've been having a freak spell of really decent weather, pretty cold in the mornings but clear blue skies and warming up as the day goes on... its really inspired me on all fronts as its like having a brief taste of the summer to come.

I WANNA GO RACING NOW!!!!!!!

Rather than waffle on about what i have been doing every day i'll cut to the chase and get to the good stuff:)

Sunday 17th Feb... Riding with the big man himself, Mr Gary Fisher:)

Got an invite from Trek to go down to their head office and do some riding on their local trails at Woburn woods while at the same time test riding some 29ers from the GF range.
Met Charlie (Wigfall) en route and we rolled up to Trek with plenty of time and helped get the demo fleet, as it happened there was a Superfly for me to ride.... life is good!!!
First impression of the bike i will race for the forthoming season.... Rocket Ship.. if you can't go fast on this bike you'll never go fast.. i am itching to get some saddle time in already have an idea what i wanna do first on it.. Barton if you are reading this i think its time we revisited Lord of the Loops:)
What i didn't know was that the day was set up get some still and video of the bikes in action for some promo work, it meant alot of re riding the same trail but it was a fun trail and cool to ride in a train with 7 other guys... except when we had to ride a section individually for still shots and i kept cutting off line as it was faster, what do people expect i'm a racer if its not taped off its fair game:)

After the work as done it was back to the Trek/Fisher Support van for lunch...

The guys from Trek are super cool and its gonna be great hanging out at races this year, and Mr Fisher.. a real laid back guy still super motivated to keep on pushing the scene.. definately a once in a lifetime chance taken and appreciated.

..oh and i have a job offer:) student life is hopefully soon to come to a close:)

Yet again its been a fair few days since i have updated the blog. Not entirely me being lazy just very little to report.

Last weekend was the usual fair of a long road ride ( this time just under 5 hours) on the saturday and a mountain bike ride on the sunday.
Saturday ride was with Stu (Pryce), all credit as he was on his fixed wheel a non stop pedalling effort for him, a little windy but all in nothing compared to the gales i had endured in Newcastle the previous week.
Sunday was riding with Lee and Andy at Sherwood pines, 2 hours of exploring the trails and enjoying the seemingly endless amount of singletrack trails.

Sorry for lack of detail but it was over a week ago.

This week has been a rest week so very little in the way of quantity to report on, i have been at home all week making the most of not having any uni work for the first time in 4 months. I have done a little swimming, walking and some one leg drills.

The weekend was a little more interesting.

Yesterday (Saturday) i took myself to Sherwood Pines for some mountain biking, people give this area a hard time as they can't look past the very sanitised trails that are there for the general public to enjoy some cycling, but look left or right when riding any of the sanitised trails and you will see a whole heap of tight singletrack... they have held 2 national points series races here for a reason:)
Managed 2 hours of light riding just thrashing the singletrack, i was dressed for winter riding and when sun came out i was breaking a serious sweat... it felt like summer.....



This place really does ride well most weather, nice sandy soils drain quickly...



The only downside to my days riding was a really slow fall in some deep mud that knocked the wind out of me and even now i can't easily breath deeply:(

Saturday night, Nottingham Clarion CC club dinner.. Great night out for me and rach, very rarely get to see most of the guys together all at once. Food was brilliant. There was also a display of club members bikes and i got to see my Trek again.. very upsetting, such a nice bike:(
The evening was a credit to Jenny Harwood's hard work, organising the venue, selling the tickets etc.... looking forward to next years already.

Sunday, i had been instructed to set a benchmark for future testing. I chose to ride the Nottingham Clarion 10 course.. a shameful display of riding saw me go round in a time i can't even bring myself to type.. i am blaming my sore chest and heavy winter bike but those excuses won't be credible come summer when the 10 series begins. Upside to today was the summery weather again... got to wear just arm warmers and gilet instead of winter jacket.. Bonus. I hope this good weather continues nationwide, if i drive to Newcastle tonight and weather has been crappy there i'm turning round and coming straight home:)