Wednesday 10 October 2012

Mega fast, mega expensive bike




Chris Hoy is a beast. I went to the Manchester velodrome the other week and his training bike, (hence the Sugino 75') was on display. £100, 000!!!!

Fast bike

This bike is pretty famous, it was ridden by Chris Boardman, breaking various records or winning medals. It was designed by Lotus Engineering. It was ground breaking and roughly cost £15,000.
There were a few of these bikes made, this one is on display, with a portion on the track Chris beat the hour record on in The Liverpool Museum.

Monday 8 October 2012

3 Peaks Cyclocross

The 3 Peaks Cyclocross race, even on paper seems like a daunting task. It's a slightly crazy race that requires all competitors to carry a survival bag and whistle and one that only the English could make into part of it's cycling culture. Riders become obsessed with the training for it, the technical side of bike sets up and then the actual riding, running, walking of the Yorkshire fells.
This year was the 50th year of the race and it was easily the worst weather and conditions for the last 31 years. I went along as a support rider for Yani. It's a pretty grim day for everyone, the cold winds and relentless, sometimes horizontal rain just weren't creating a fun day. The riders came off the fells and looked like soaked warriors with very few smiles. I managed to met Yani at the base of each peak, gave him a bottle and off he rode to tackle knee deep peat bogs, 50mph winds on the top of the peaks, flooded roads with slippery cattle grids and groin deep water. It's no wonder that by the time we made it back to the car he had mild hypothermia.
Yani finished in a more than adequate 227 position out of the 512 finishers, approx. 700 started.




You need to check out the history, route and the reports of the race, especially photos and video of the 2012 race.