Mud, Rain and Gears...

Heavy rain, mud and high winds made conditions challenging at the second round of the Thetford Winter Series.

Joe finished in 11th out of 189 after his usual "going off too fast" efforts. 2nd after lap 1 and 3rd going into the last lap it was close but after blowing up he faded badly to 11th. Still dissapointing not to have got a mention in the official write up though...

Niki was 4th after a nightmare start, chasing Debbie Burton who was determined this time to get away.

Matthew managed to miss the start by 5 minutes after a nightmare journey but still managed to catch quite a few riders on his new shiny bike

John also finshed just outside the points so couldnt add to his total.

Fig Rolls in the media again!

Fig Rolls Racing have made it onto both pages of the 'Zoom' race report section of this months MBUK magazine!

On the left page, Joe and Niki finally get the credit they deserve following a fine second place at Dusk Til Dawn in the mixed pairs, and
on the right hand page, Helen Dixon took a fine 3rd place in the womens solo category at the Raasay Rumble 10 hour enduro.


I think the only other person/team to do that was Jenn Hopkins from Minx/Kona!

Roll on next issue, with the report of Niki's dominant victory at the first Thetford Winter Series!

Niki wins first round of Thetford Winter series

Niki had a blinding start with a 4 minute lead over Trek sponsored Debbie Burton. Niki continued a fast pace to win, anyone want to sponsor her?? Joe was first through on lap 1 but as usual he went off too fast and finished a respectable 16th. John came 27th in his race without the aid of energy gels, well done John ;)

Dusk Til Dawn 2007

With the biggest team entry in the whole event Fig Rolls were well placed to do well. That said no one expected Killer to come 9th in the Mens Solo especially considering he didn't feel like doing it beforehand...

Another amazing result was Duncans 17th in the same Solo category, nothing special you might think but out of 127 riders and on a SINGLESPEED! surley one of the performances of his life. Matthew was 70th in Solo on his old rigid Klein despite his tyre rolling off the rim on the first lap



Niki and Joe were 2nd in the Mixed Pairs so held up the long standing tradition of Fig Rolls Racing making the podium at Dusk Til Dawn.



Our other teams (Yes - there are lots of us Fig Roll Nutters) were 44th in mens pairs and 38th in mens Team categories - well done to all and Bring on the Thetford Winter series!

Results

Race report

Sleepless In The Saddle 2007 - Fig Rolls just miss out on podium

After a close race where we swapped positions with the Salsa MTB team and Banjo Cycles Race Team, Fig Rolls eventually finished in 4th place. Lying in 5th by 6 mins with 4 laps to go Joe and Killer rode one on, one off to close the gap and eventually take Banjo cycles on the last lap. We missed out on the podium by only 8 minutes in the end. A return to form for Killer saw him take Joe's fastest lap time crown and special mention to Duncan who's eppy at Joe for missing the handover nearly woke the entire campsite at 3.30am!



Fig Rolls "B" team were 50th out of the 83 teams in the Mixed category after one of the their riders pulled out at short notice.

results

Pictures and full report here

Killer talks us through how he cut up the Banjo cycles rider half way around the last lap.

Apparently the belly is something to do with enhanced lung capacity pushing the stomach out... at least that's what my cousin used to say!

Fig Rolls Dominate Mixed Team Podium at 24/12

With 16 riders (Plus Griff the dog) in total it was the largest turnout for the Fig Rolls racing team ever.
Mixed Team A (Niki, Killer, Duncan and Joe) set the pace up front after a storming first few laps before being overwhelmed by the Endura team to finish 2nd with 22 laps after 24 hours. Mixed Team B were not far behind and took 3rd overall with 20 laps. The "Just for Fun" team managed a good result - 10 laps and rode through the night despite a few problems with broken lights and spirits...

Race results and Report here

For more photos see the Fig Rolls Racing Group on facebook

Bring on SITS! 2 Teams confirmed so far!

Mountain Mayhem 2007 - Eastnor Park - UK

An now, in complete contrast to the Canadian sun and dust, Figrolls Racing (UK) attended the 10th Mountain Mayhem 24 Hour race at Eastnor Deer park, Malvern Hills....

Killer rode solo and Duncan, Joe, Niki, Matthew and newcomer Steve rode as a mixed 5.

After getting there early we managed to bag a camping spot next to the course, handy for quick pit stops. Killer arrived with promised marquee which when combined with mats gazebo made for a great base. It was soon filled with junk (sorry Killer - spare parts/incomplete bikes)

Duncan soon arrived and began the last minute process of building his bike while the rest of us ate loads of pasta and watched the fireworks.


Breakfast Duncan style - something to do with sardines containing lots of salt to stop cramp... sounds fishy to me



In the race Steve got us off to a great one in the Le mans style start and the team settled in to the regular routine of taking turns at the laps. Some fast laps were got in and Killer was doing well (up to the top 20/ 130) but then the rain set in... The course soon deteriorated into a mud bath in places but despite the rain was fun to ride apart from the monster Kenda climb.



Come morning the rain had dried out but the mud had become stickier and by now the lap times had increased from 45 mins to over an hour.



By the end the mixed team had come 18th out of 127 teams and Killer was 13th!



All in all, very tiring... but great fun!

Ride the Whitehorse

At the weekend Paul and I flew up to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory to race bikes in 24 daylight... sounds pretty good eh? First, I need to thank some people. Dave - who took all the photos, Andrea - who not only raced but let us mess up her house and eat all her food for four days, Mike - who joined a team for a 24 hour race with two wierdo English guys from Vancouver who he'd never met and wanted to call the team "Fig Rolls Racing", Robin and everyone else who played a part in looking after us on race day.

So, mountain bike racing in the Canadian Arctic... that's got to be a bad idea, right? You'd be surprised how much of a good idea it really is. First, forget the polar bears and the icebergs. It's summer time so were're talking dry, dusty trails and sunshine to midnight. It got a bit gloomy for a couple of hours from about 3am, but lights are banned anyway... so who cares? When I came out to start my 2am lap there was a pretty enthusiastic party in full swing in the timing area with lycra-clad XC racers dancing around. You really can't argue with that.

Racing machinery ranged from boutique singlespeed 29ers (brought in by Alaskans mainly) to a guy on a Specialized Demo 9... which I imagine would have been lucky to weigh in at much under 50 pounds. The best bike was the organiser-provided "Vomit Comet", a pink spray painted Miyata shopping bike, converted to singlespeed with an inflatable man attached to the back. The privilege for piloting this vehicle around the 17km course was each lap counting double. I got chased by it on the singletrack for a while, there's not much better motivation than that to pedal harder.

Lap times ranged from 36 minutes for the XC superheroes to 1 hour plus, the course gave plenty of opportunities for big-ring enthusiasts to blast along fire road and equally a long stretch of twisty-turny singletrack that was honestly more fun than should be allowed. Mechanicals were few, Mike got a puncture and I had a comedy crash overcooking a dusty berm... but otherwise the gear and the bodies all held together.

The rules for finishing were a little different to the UK events like Sleepless... if you didn't make it back through the line by 24:00, you lap didn't count. The guy who came through at 24:00:46 could have been said to be a little disappointed... but he got a big cheer at least.

We got a total of 26 laps, putting us 4 laps behind the winners of the (surprisingly competitive) mixed 4 person team category. We would have got a better overall position if we had entered the 8 person team category (with just the 4 of us). Them's the breaks I guess. The winning team of 8 guys got something ridiculous like 34 laps but 26 was just fine for us.

Results will allegedly be published on the icycle sport website at some point. You can read about the event on the 24 hours of light website. If you happen to be swinging by Canada's great white north around solstice time next year, I recommend you check it out.

Toonie Race #3 - Buntzen Lake

Here's something a little different. As Figrolls' "Man in Canada" this is my first report of the Vancouver XC racing scene. The intention was to ride in the whole Toonie Race series throughout the summer and trasform myself into a racing beast in time for the 24 Hours of Light which is now coming up all too soon. So, what's gone wrong so far? Race 1 started off well, I got there, the rain stopped, I registered (It's $2 to race, that's what toonie means here in Canada, eh). I had a little time so I went to pre-ride the course and pretty quickly destroyed my rear mech.... not ideal. Race 2 didn't go so well either in that I didn't bother going, whoops.

So, Race 3 - Buntzen Lake... picturesque venue for drunken barbecues and rowdy teenagers, and in this case a bike race. The course was rated as 3/5 for technicality, which here in BC means that 50% of the climbs will be ridable and there will be only limited opportunity for death and dismemberment. My favourite obstacle was a floating wooden causeway across one end of the lake where apparently 8 riders punctured last year. Amusing stuff. The course was dry and fast, except the climbs, which were steep and loose and full of roots and fist sized rocks, steps, and people falling off. One guy broke his chain at the top of a fast descent and was last seen pushing his bike back up from the bottom to find it. I had a race long rivalry with an Aussie guy, who then convincingly destroyed me on the logging road to the finish, along with about 3 other people who I had got well past in the trees. Oh well. Results? err, I didn't come last and it was fun. The numbers will appear on the Toonie website some time I expect, but don't be anticipating anything impressive. In 2 weeks time there's another race, let's hope I can make that strike 2.

Trek XC NPS Sherwood

John was the only member of Fig Rolls Racing to attend the Trek XC NPS Round 2 at Sherwood. He finished 19th in the Grand Vets out of 23.



Results

Although not strictly riding for Fig Rolls, Greg Warby was also in attendence and finished 3rd in the Masters. That means the series points are level with 3 people sharing the top position, couldn't be closer!

Joe has finished his new kitchen so is looking forward to getting out on his new road bike, Niki is eager to start Triathlon training, Duncan is busy making dirty videos for YouTube at Wharncliffe and Killer and Matt are back on the wagon after knee opps. Look out Mountain Mayhem - here we come!

Three Peaks Cyclo Cross

Now that I have finally worked out how to post on the website, here are a couple of photos from my epic 5 hour, 59 mins and 11 seconds of three peaks cyclo cross...

I though that a couple of enduros, a long weekend of mtb touring in the lakes and a bit of road racing would help prepare me for this. I was wrong.

Training for fell running would have been much more useful.
I have never experienced cramp like I suffered in this event.

I managed the course in just under 6 hours, the winner did it in just over 3. How fast is he?

Fig Rolls hit the Road

On 18th April Matthew represented Fig Rolls Racing (although in VC Lincoln colours) in the first Lincolnshire League Road Race of the season.

It was his first competetive outing following a knee arthroscopy in January.

The course was a fairly flat 8 mile loop around near Long Bennington, near to the A1, and Matthew managed to hold onto the bunch for 2.5 laps, only losing touch with the main group when the faster riders caught up and started to string out the group during the hard accelerations out of the tight bends that were a feature of this course.

Expect more comedy road racing results over the coming months, as well as google earth routes from Matthews new GPS bike computer...

Trek NPS/Enduro Round 1 results

XC - Saturday

Killer, Joe, John and Niki rode in the XC event on the Saturday.

Niki beat off rival Ruth Owen Jones to hold on to 4th place in the Female Sport class. She missed out on 3rd by 2 seconds. I think she needs a lighter bike! (30lb Raleigh monster)

Joe was 12th in the Sport class after fading badly from 6th on the last of 4 laps, Killer was 22nd in the same category out of 78.

Duncan managed a lap of Grafham water in 1 hour 15 minutes! - But he was in his biggest gear.

John rode in the Grand Vets to finish 17th best 50 - 60 year old in the UK! ;0)

Although not riding for Figrolls racing today, Greg Warby had a dream start to his season by winning the Masters race by 1/2 a wheel.

Enduro - Sunday

Joe managed to not blow and hold on to 21st in the 100K race. Killer was 47th and Duncan 52nd out of 78

Luke finished 34th in the 25k for his first "proper" race. Not Last! But he did have a few pints the night before! (and stopped to help a female competitor he fancied the look of.)

All the pictures are here

Robin Brew Triathlon Camp 2007

We attended the Robin Brew Triathlon training camp in Lanzarote at La Santa sports village from the 15th to the 22nd March 07.

All pictures are here.

If you have any pictures to share please email them (or a link if they are online) to joebedingfield@hotmail.com so I can load them into the gallery. - Please check back in a few weeks for all the pictures as a few people have promised to send theirs on.

It was great to meet so many like minded people, best wishes for the coming season! You never know, we might see you at a race one day.

Looking forward to next years camp!

Joe and Niki

New Figrolls MTB Racing website Live!

After much blood sweat and tears (well... Not actually, Blogger is so simple) the new Figrolls Racing website is now live. Hopefully you will all find it a great improvement over the old design. Being based on a blog makes the new site much easier to update and for you to post news on too. Please fill in your profile, register to post and let me know if you find any problems.

Thetford Winter Series Race 3 Report and Pictures

Niki claims 3rd in Thetford Winter Series, John gets points and Joe blows up again....

Results

Report

Pictures

Thetford Winter Series 2 Results - Niki and greg Clean up. John speeds up and Joe blows up....

Greg grabbed 1st place in the Solo Mens category with Joe blowing up to finish 35th out of a larger than last time field of 160! Niki came 3rd out of 25 in the womens category and John almost got some series points finishing in 33rd. The weather was great although the course was sticky following a heavy dose of rain. Mud tyres were not the best choice!

Results
crash
Pictures