Day out at Fineshades MTB centre, Corby.

Niki and I stopped on our way back from Rutland to take a look at the new cycle centre at Fineshades. Finding info online about this place wasn't straightforward as their website is being rebuilt but i found the postcode (NN17 3BB) on the forestry site.

There is a bike shop on site (run by Rutland Cycling) - the chaps in the shop were really friendly and gave us some good advice about the trails

There are two trails, one family route (5 miles) which is ideal for kids etc and a Red graded route about 1/2 a mile down the road. 

We started with a lap of the family route. This was more fun than it sounded with a number of "Skills loops" that added optional short singletrack sections to the main path. See below for a dodgy video from my camera phone (one handed)

These skills loops, despite being mainly short were great fun and I'm sure more will be added.

Once we had completed the 5 mile loop which took about 45 mins we stopped for a rest in the cafe

Brand new visitor centre cafe

Cup of tea x 2!

After a quick chat to the guys in the shop (some great deals on Exposure lights for you Matthew!) we headed back down the main entrance road and over to Wakerley Woods to ride a loop of the 3.5 mile Red graded loop.

This was much more challenging and mainly singletrack with some steep drops (all ridable) ideal for the more experienced rider. A loop took about 40 minutes as we chose to ride some of the sections a few times. 

The centre is brand new and some bits are still being developed. The bike shop run a weekly Wednesday evening ride at 6:30pm which I may well turn up to soon. They promise to show you some of the best bits to ride! ;0)

Well worth a visit! £1/hour to park. £1 for tea.

 

My take on L’Eroica 2011

Good Moment: Pisa Arrivals, seeing John there as arranged. I love it when a plan comes together!

Bad Moment: Realising after 20 mins we were in the wrong queue for the hire car.

Good Moment: Nice Italian girl giving us a free car upgrade when she saw our bike bags. “L’Eroica? Benissimo!”

Bad moment: Stripped bolt on John’s rear mech

Good moment: He bought a complete ‘60s mech in the jumble and used the bolt from that

Bad moment: Discovering our accommodation only had a double bed (John was laughing!)

Good moment Discovering a quilt in the wardrobe we could roll into a dividing bolster.

Bad moment Disastrous service in the restaurant, eventually gave up.

Good moment Crashing out with tummy full of cakes - emergency rations.

Bad moment Waking up and realising we’d overslept

Good moment Signing on ready to go. Excitement!

Bad moment Realising our watches were still on UK time, we’d lost another hour. DOH!

Good moment Climbing the first hill, waymarked with hundreds of oil lamps in the dawn light.

Bad moment John dropped me already! The pattern for the day established then.........

Good moment Reaching the first stop for breakfast. Sumptuous Italian fare. Mmmmmm!

Bad moment. Crank already coming loose.

Good moment Yup, I remembered the spanner!

Tough choice 1. Take the 135km option with everyone else or soldier on alone with 200k ? (Guess)

Bad moment. Next refreshment stop had been stripped bare by all those thirsty 200k’ers ahead of us.

Good moment Reaching Montalcino, at 2600km the highest point. More grub, warm welcome, wine.

Great moment Swooping down on tarmac roads for a change. 50 mph is an under-estimate.

Ooops moment Overshot the turn-off, back onto the gravel stuff.

Bad moment Realised I’d left my musette at Montalcino, with water and grub.

V. Bad moment: Grumpy old man at next check point. “No Aqua”. We were parched.

Good moment Great lunch stop. Pasta, cakes, water. Overhauled dozens, not dead last anymore!

Tough choice 2 Tea stop: Jump in the sag wagon with the rest?? Or plod on knowing we were going to miss the cut at the last check? (Guess)

Great vista John silhouetted against the setting suns rays, dust billowing behind as he set the pace up ahead

Great moment The final checkpoint re-opened for us, fed us, watered us then guided us 6 miles out of the town with motorbike.

Scary moment Swooping down more roads in the pitch black, just relying on instinct, silly frog lights and John’s rear light ahead

Amazing moment Cheering reception crowd as we entered the finish area. Free souvenirs, wine, panforte. Felt like heroes

Tired moment Trying to do justice to the free pasta party. My tum was too full of gels. I was dog tired. Hope John was too.

200k, 10,000 meters of granny-ring climbing on gravel roads with gradients up to 20%, most descents on rutted, corrugated gravel with brakes hard on, so so slow. After 100km my legs and brain were dead and I was glad of my strategy of taking it easy from the start. No punctures despite tubular tyres, only one departure from the bike in a loose gravel descent – ooops! - few mech probs though close inspection back home revealed my bottom bracket bearings were starting to break up, victim of the hammering vibrations. An amazing experience with hospitality not to be missed.

Peter Bedingfield

Fig Rolls goes to l’eroica

L’eroica  ‘the heroic’ is an event started in Tuscany,  Italy, to save some of the ancient white roads from modern tarmac. All competitors have to ride bikes built before 1986 which means no clipped pedals or bar shifters except the end of bar type.  The event started in 1995 and has become very popular, especially with old racers and bicycle collectors. Everyone is encouraged to dress in vintage gear, the older the better. They now restrict entries to 3500 due to its popularity.

Peter (my older brother) and I decided to attempt the gruelling 205km. Not the best idea, considering the training we had put in. Pete’s  longest  ride was 15 miles and mine 30 miles. We took different flights to Pisa and met at 10am picking up a hire car. We had a free upgraded to a people carrier when the Eurocar receptionist saw the size of our cycle bags. All loaded we set off for Gaiole in Tuscany where we could register and receive our bike numbers and unexpectedly a black cap in a retro cream cotton cycling bag. 

A bike jumble sale was in full swing with a lot of excited Italians mulling around and talking about past races. Pete wanted to register his Carpenter bike on the organiser’s website so we assembled our steeds back at the car. The derailleur on my Carpenter had a stripped thread so while Pete did his thing I went looking for a rare bolt. Some hope. I had to purchase a rear derailleur to get up and running again but got a good deal at 30 Euros for a campagnolo grand sport. Some were 80 Euros. Pete was gone a long time so I went looking for him. 

After meeting up again we set off for our pre-booked accommodation in Radda a few miles away. By the time we arrived it was about 7pm and we were both starving not having eaten since breakfast. Radda was a rustic old town looking medieval in places, with cobbled streets and ancient stone work. Our rooms were right in the middle of it. It took time to track down the landlady but we got in and took some time to set up the bikes with numbers, lights and spares etc. We planned to start riding at 5 am the next morning so went out looking for a pasta load up at about 9, already a bit late for an early night. After passing a couple of over priced hotels we found a restaurant down a dark winding lane. It looked perfect but the prices were the same as the hotels. We were now desperate so we took the plunge and sat at a table. After a shortish wait a busy waitress asked us what we would like. There were no menus about so we asked for one which she provided. She then went and we chose our meals quickly awaiting her return. We waited as she passed us again and again, avoiding eye contact. We eventually resorted to waving our arms in the air as she shuffled by. At last she acknowledged us but ushered another waiter to take our order. Water, a pasta starter followed by a pizza main course. The water came quickly so we were hopeful the rest would follow suit. We were both tiring by then but after about 30 minutes we were presented with a small bowl of pasta with a few baby tomatoes. Now for the real taste of Italy. Homemade pizza cooked and roasted on an open wood fire. We could see the logs burning from where we were and were salivating at the thought of tucking into the crunchy base. Time went by and the busy waitress passed our table continuously.  Looking across the table I could tell Pete was fading by the way he had laid his head on the table, arms stretched wide and the snoring was a dead giveaway too. I adopted the same position as we waited for an eternity. Nothing came our way so when we were both awake we decided to quit. Pete went to the till and was told it would be a couple more minutes. Too late...too tired. We staggered back to the rooms and scoffed some cakes bought earlier. Now 10.30 we hit the sack.

I woke at 4.30... Well I thought it was, forgetting to add on an hour for Italy time. We left as quickly as possible in a sleep daze. By this time all the other 205k riders were on their way. We started at 7 am already 2 hours late.

Once away our sleep deprivation and hunger vanished and the excitement of the task took hold. We were cruising down the tarmac road trying not to go too fast at the beginning. A few miles later Pete had to stop as his crank had already loosened. Only 200k to go! We then arrived at a candle lit hill made of light compacted hard core. It was tough riding and like all the climbs to follow, never seemed to end. There were so many false horizons but I tried to ride each one however slowly. Pete had ridden the shorter route in 2010 and knew what to expect. He started with the strategy of walking if his heart rate exceeded 140. This meant he walked the last part of any steep climbs as I rested at the top. He didn’t stop because we had to reach the 80k point before 3pm. This was the cut off time allotted for the longer route. Ok for the 5am starters but not for us. The riding was fantastic with a mixture of hard core and tarmac. Some dodgy descents would start tarmac and just as you hit 40mph would change to rutty stony gravel. Not for the feint hearted but Pete and I seemed to cope better than most, gaining places as we went. The first ristori or food station couldn’t have come sooner and everyone tucked into free pasta, bread and cakes, served by local farmer’s wives, some dressed in local costumes. I too suffered a loose crank but we had no other mechanicals or punctures. We passed many people changing tyres. There would be up to six Italians changing one tube, all with their own take on how it should be done.

We reached the cut off time with half an hour to spare and stuck to the long route. All the other riders with us were going for the 80k which left us about dead last. The only rider we kept coming into contact with was an old (about our age!) stocky, bearded Italian who just grunted when we tried to communicate with him. He passed us on the climbs and we passed him going down.  Your mind seems to go into a daze after a number of hours, just staring three yards in front of you trying not to hit the road side or loose grip in the gravel. I think the Italian was in this mode. All the while you are passing wonderful scenery looking a bit volcanic in nature with fields of figs, olive and almond trees. Dusk was also something special. All the time I was riding I was thinking ‘will I hit the wall soon’, and I presume Pete had the same thoughts passing through his mind.

 We started to run out of water about 10k from the next ristori. We were on our own with no sign of any people or houses. We struggled but just made it only to be told by a farmer and his wife ‘no aqua’. They even had a bottle of water on their table. The hospitality had been brilliant all day and this was the only negative we experienced.  The next few miles were hard and dry but we had no alternative but to keep going. Our next stop was a long one with loads of water, food and rest.

Time was ticking on when we arrived at Asciano, another water hole. Here people were waiting for a bus for the last 40k but with true British spirit we battled on. The hills had no let up and I had to walk the steep ones. As the bus went by I wondered if we had made the right decision. It even gave us a last chance to jump aboard. It was getting dark and was pitch black when we arrived at Castelnuovo, the last food stop. On arriving into the town we found all the direction posts gone. We asked round and were told that everyone had gone home. One of the officials invited us into an old stone building where the leftover food was. He and his mate then proceeded to feed us with all we could eat. We had to find our way out of town but they came to the rescue with their friend guiding us out on his scooter. It was now pitch black and all we had for lights were two little LED frog lights. Even the moon deserted us and the road markings were non- existent .  A bit scary on the fast tarmac corners.

After 15 hours we arrive back in Gaiole. We rode past our car, parked on the outskirts and into town and thought everyone would be packed up and gone home. Far from it. We were greeted by a crowd all clapping and cheering ‘bravo, bravo’.  We stood on a podium and were presented with plaques and local food. After  a chat with the organisers we knew that the last food post had phoned ahead and they were relieved we had made the last leg home. After photographs we made for the pasta party tent. There sat with his wife was our little Italian comrade but this time he had a big smile on his face. With congratulations and handshakes all round he introduced us to his wife as if we were long lost friends.  He was the type of character that even if a bus had knocked him down  he would have made it back. I suppose that is what  l,eroica is all about.

Best bits:  1. The Tuscan hospitality.                                                                                                                                    

                  2. Descending Montalcino at up to 50mph on long winding roads.

                  3. The first 50k before our legs and minds went blank.

                  4. The finish with a sense of achievement.

John and Peter Bedingfield

Summer Training

Been a bit quiet on the UK Fig Rolls front recently. This is due to a combination of injuries and not botheredness for me, as well as the above junior team member taking up time. Today we had a trip to Sherwood Pines where Jessica had her first singletrack ride.

She chose the woods rather than the path at all times too :)

Fig Rolls Canada Race Roundup

We've been busy over on this appendage of the Fig Rolls Empire!

Lots of racing, and slightly pained expressions like this one Andrew is wearing.

NIMBY50 - A gnarly and excellent race (which isn't 50km long, but feels like it). Andrew got 10th place in the 30-34 year-old male category with 3h16m34s and Lina got 5th place in the 30-34 year-old female category with a time of 3h39m32s.

Return of the Ripper 2011 - Three races on the North Shore with healthy doses of pain, ridiculousness, and fun. Andrew crawled in at the back of the King of The Shore category for people who raced all 3 events on the same bike and wrote about it here.

Wade's Excellent Adventure - Paul and Andrew stormed into a rather unexpected 3rd place in the 2-man team and 5th overall in the most fun race ever (though it's a close thing with NIMBY). Chromag liked it too.

24 Hours of Light - Paul and Andrew did this race up in the Yukon back in 2007 and Lina and Andrew will be back this weekend to have another go.

Dusk til dawn imminent

Crikey. Metcheck currently predicting 300+ mph winds for the weekend!

I hope that's an error...

Monster

In a purchase justified by bike rationalisation and the sale of my previous cross bike, I now have a lovely brown Surly Cross Check. This has been built up in a more utilitarian manner than my previous bike, ridden to work and around the Lincolnshire countryside and down a few bridleways.

I saw an ad for some cheap 29er tyres a few weeks ago, and after a bit of research got them. The bike has now become a bit of a monster truck. Just took it out for a pootle round my local loop and it rolls straight over all the ruts, bumps and tractor tyre marks.

Big grin on my return.

Singletrack Weekender

As Joe said below it was ace again. I really need to a) get fit and b) practice on trails that are not fields :) Here is one of my DH runs. I took better lines in the race and didn't stop to look for a puncture either... ( i also need to sort out the shaky camera mount)

Singletrack Classic Weekender - Downhill Practice from MonkeyBoy on Vimeo.

12 Hours of Cumberland

Here's a race report from Fig Rolls Vancouver Island representative, Marc. Congratulations islanders!

Since the Vancouver lads were all off on other adventures I recruited some new racers, and we kicked arse. The format was the same, he who has the most laps wins.

We stuck to same plan as last year, with each rider doing a single lap. Dave took us out to a blistering start with a 35 min lap. The superb course was from miners, two and a juice, buggered big, short and curly, railroad connector, lower crafty, black hole, space nugget. I followed on the sh@t bike (which counts for two), unfortunately or fortunately the shit bikes were a little shitter this year and didn't play as big a role, my two laps were all we needed. One was size small the other was size rigid. The small was designed to blast your legs, the other without suspension was designed to shred your arms, the ridgid even came with ball bearings in the handle bars to remind you of every jarring bump. Trevor and Tylor matched pace and we off to a great start.

We took the lead early on and held it for the day. We squeaked out 20 laps in 11 hrs 28min. Giving us the most laps in our category and the most overall. Next were a couple of solo riders with 17! Those lads are machines.

All in it was an excellent tiring day.

Figrolls @ singletrack weekender

Video is bad quality i'm afraid!

Matt H up first but punctures, Duncan next then Matthew. Niki managed not to record me - must have been too fast.

2010 Season begins and a new team member is added

After a long silence, I thought I should post something to update what has been going on. After dusk til dawn 2009 i managed to get plenty of riding in - Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and a good amount of night riding over at Sherwood. A few decent length off road rides round the Lincolnshire Wolds too. Snow turned up, and made for some great rides.


After Christmas, some more riding and then all stop when the first of the next generation of Fig Rolls Racing appeared on January 24th - Jessica Margaret Lea.





In sympathy with her mother I appear to have been eating an extra 500 calories a day, only i am not feeding the baby. In this busy time very little riding has been done, although in quiet moments bearings have been replaced, forks sent away for servicing and products bought online.

I have become slightly more disciplined and managed a good few cycle commutes though. Riding is now mostly about using the previous 'dead' time to good effect. A few loops have been devised from my front door, and a new 'cross bike has somehow appeared in the garage, allowing more from the door riding but over a longer distance and making use of the tarmac between the rights of way. I did also have an entertaining encounter with a dog in the village...



As I realised that the first (of my 2) events this year is looming ever closer - The Singletrack Weekender - I thought I should step up the training. To this end I met up with Joe, Duncan, Nikki and Amelia in Hope and we set off on a training day. This was ace - I hadn't ridden in the Peak District for ages, and this was the first time on my little slack hardtail. I love it.

Did manage to make the damping on my forks leak though, but this has now been remedied.

After that, I have managed a few very flat local loops on the singlespeed, and the cross bike is now ready for an outing, just as i am on call for a week and have picked up a cold from a sharing colleague.

I am really looking forward to the Weekender, and hopefully after that I can get my self in gear for some longer rides ready for another go at soloing Dusk til Dawn in October.

The Taste of Success

Fig Rolls (Canada) were in action in the Comox Valley Snow to Surf Relay at the weekend and scored 12th place overall... 1st place in the Open Mixed category. Better even than that... the medals were chocolate.

Paul has a bunch of great photos here. For the record, the protagonists were:

Alpine ski - Paul "115mm underfoot" Palfreyman
XC Ski - Nikki "fast haircut" Licht
1st run - Kala "new recruit" O'Riordain
2nd run - Angie "escape from the books" White
Mountain bike - Marc "race face/captain power" Power
Kayak - Johnny "leaky boat" George
Road bike - Jacek "freaked out by road bikes/freak of nature" Doniec
Canoe - Lina "engine" Augaitis and Andrew "rudder" Dye

North Vancouver Dirty Duo 2010

Spring is here in Vancouver... and that means mud, snow, and rain. Yeah! Lina and I had a great race in the Dirty Duo on Saturday and I wrote about it here. We got 2nd place in the mixed run / bike relay! Photos below from Don... via the Dirty Duo website.

Downhill Racing in Lincolnshire

Steve, Duncan and Matt came over to Market Rasen yesterday for a mini DH race. As I am on Baby Standby duty it had been deemed sensible for me not to race, so I did a bit of filming. Here it is...

Market Rasen Mini DH from MonkeyBoy on Vimeo.

November Misery

The month started with some rain and mud cross racing in Louth. Enjoyable? Maybe, sort of. I did learn that a 32mm wide michelin mud tyre does have a lot of grip though.
After that I have been poorly with sore throat, cold etc so almost no playing out so far. Rubbish.

Here are some amusing pics from the cross then. I'm not sure that the misery of the pouring rain comes across fully...

Octoberfest

A little update on what I have been up to this month. It started with Dusk Til Dawn. I missed this last year due to being broken after my solo attempt at SITS. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise with the awful weather that the event suffered. This year I was back for another solo attempt. My first solo was just before I got married. This time it is just before I become a father - nothing like a significant event to focus the mind. Both times I have been given number 79 too.

In short, it was ace. Dry, dusty and sandy. I rode my inbred with a nice low 32:20 gear. This let me spin along on the flat bits, pootle up the (gentle) hills and go faster than a lot of folk on the singletrack. The singletrack that was possibly the best Thetford singletrack I have ever ridden.



I exeeded my own expectations by managing 8 laps (about 85 miles) even with my pitiful summer of riding behind me.

After D2D I was then straight off on my holidays with Claire. This involved a healthy dose of doing nothing in the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, combined with a nice old skool XC ride in the Dales, and a couple of days blasting around Whinlatter Forest while Claire took some slow walks in the forest and enjoyed the cafe. The momentum from this has now been kept up with weekly night rides in Sherwood forest after randomly meeting a few guys there. I then stumbled across a 4 hour enduro race at Sherwood. This was attacked with a more sensible 32:17 ratio, and got me a (just) top 50% placing with 5 laps of the forest. Ace.

Mountain bikes are brilliant, but I think I am going to have to re-learn to love the road bike now the weather is finally fading.

Of course there is always 'cross, but my competitive streak is struggling to come out yet this winter.


Pictures to follow once i find them...

BC Bike Race 2009 - the whole gory story.

Nikki (Canada) just sent me an epic tale of bicycles, racing, and... err, well... mostly bicycles and racing to be honest. Here it is, in all it's glory (click on it).

Cyclocross in the flatlands

And so it begins again. Another 'cross season has started. After missing the first round of the Lincolnshire League last week to do the Sherwood XC race, my season has begun. Time to remember the pain and joy of racing once more. So Sunday saw me lining up at RAF Cranwell on a sunny (too hot) Sunday with 50+ others to blast around in the dust.







A long course including a steep gravel descent, horrid run up and some nice singletrack through the woods took its toll on me, especially combined with the hot weather. By my last lap I had finally got back into riding a cross bike, able to jump off and on smoothly and handle the twitchy bike through the woods and over roots with only 35mm tyres and without 130mm of suspension fork.

I got an absolute beasting but remembered why i enjoy cross. It hurts but there is always someone to have a race with. Hopefully now I have remembered how much I need to push, and can move up a couple of places next time.

For contrast, this weekend will be Dusk til Dawn, and after missing last years mudfest due to injury, I am looking forward to it. Am taking the singlespeed (with a low gear) and aiming to enjoy it.


I did also get asked where my friends were (after the other Fig Rolls came cross racing at Christmas) I said they all thought it was too fast and had been scared off...

XC Racing is ace

when it is warm and sunny. Did the last round of the midlands XC today at Sherwood Forest. Thought I would use the singlespeed to get a bit more time in on it before dusk til dawn. Hmm, I forgot that I really am not a short course racer. Ouch. The elite mens leader lapped me 3 times I think, so I was hoping that I wouldn't have to go out for my 4th lap after I had started cramping and run out of drink. Yes I did. Oh well, at least it was fun.

Almost no fireroad and constant singletrack = smiley Matthew. Just a shame by back now feels broken and my legs don't work. Having done 2 hours of pain, as of next week it's back to the local cross league for just 1 hour of horror every Sunday. Good times.

Mrs. Lea enjoyed it too, she had a picnic blanket, a picnic and a book to read. She thought it was much better that all the other rubbish bike races she has been to (SITS 08 in particular)

'Cross the Rock CX

This Sunday I (Andrew) left my DH bike behind in Whistler and headed to Vancouver Island with Marc for my first CX race of the season at Beban Park. The weather was inappropriately nice and the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. I also counted at least 10 Kona CX bikes... including mine. For me, the race involved just under 47 minutes of puke-inducing sprinting around a course that included a BMX race track and the "Whirly whirl", a bi-directional spiral thing in a huge sandpit. Good times. I ended up in 12 place (of 30 intermediates), just behind a man who I now know was Mr Wade Smith from Cowichan Bay. Mr Smith and I had an epic battle all through the race, which disappointingly ended with him crashing in the Whirly Whirl, right before the finish and me taking the glory of 12th place. A hollow victory. Thank you Mr Smith for a great race.

I ran into the guy who came 5th on the ferry on the way home and apparently the lead pack had got a bit rowdy, almost ending in fisticuffs. Drama. Obviously this is why I chose to languish back in the middle of the field. Right?

There's lots more CX coming up and Lina and I are planning on getting a few races done. Stay tuned for more sketchy-bike action. Hopefully it will pour with rain next time.