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.

Bikes and Boards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYbsX_KxqCM&feature=youtu.be

Airport Security Alert

So, I'm on holiday in Turkey and having a mooch around the, 'blag' shops when my girlfriend spots the ultimate holiday gift for me. After a short, obligatory haggle I became the proud owner of a Turkish sculpture.

Next day, I'm packed up and at the Airport. The procedure here was after check in you took your bags to the security x-ray machines. It was a very busy time with three flights all boarding within half an hour of each other. I load my suitcase onto the conveyor belt and as I walk through the body scanner without incident I turn to watch my bag come through the x-ray scanner and I'm suddenly aware at the increase in Turkish being spoken by the guards as a number of them gather around the x-ray monitor. The conveyor belt goes into reverse and my bag enters the machine again. As the bag re-emerges, a security guard asks if it is my bag, if I had packed it, if I knew it's contents, if I was carrying any weapons and if I could open the bag. I oblige and unzip the bag and start searching with him. I'm slightly unnerved as I notice that the queue is building behind the security zone as all the guards gather around me, chuckling and talking as I pull out the, 'suspicious' contents from my bag. They wanted to confirm that I wasn't carrying a weapon as I stood there, holding aloft 8 inches of solid stone, like a trophy of embarrassment.
My girlfriend and the guards were in fits laughing, the huge queue behind us looked less amused.

SF hills

The hills of SF are just so iconic. Images of them have been burnt into my brain since an early

age from film, photos and video. I've since been enough to go up and down many of these famous hills. Walking, driving, skating and riding, the hills are just so fun and sometimes scary.

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A photo of a photographer taking a photo of another photographer

Next to compositions involving hedges this is Sandy's favourite style of photograph; a photo of a photo being taken. As a special bonus for him this is me taking a photo of a photographer taking a photo of another photographer riding his bike. As Sandy would say, 'that photo was just askin' for it'.

Since this was taken Kyle Emery-Peck broke his ankle. Heal up soon, dude.

Seattle to San Fransico

If it wasn't for Sandy inviting me and making this trip happen I would have missed an epic experience. He was a true dude the whole way. The lol-o-meter, jigger-jabber, Hasselbad and T5 moments, breaking Taj, hilarious stories and quotes,  he helped make it all stress free fun. After riding the whole distance with Sandy you have thought we'd capture the finishline with some sort of scenic, momentous photo? It might not look like it but with this photo I think we really did capture the essence of what we did......a random guy took this photo for us with one of the disposable cameras, we're giving it major jibber-jabber and sandy has a rotten black banana cock as I'm having a fit of the lolz.

Random........part 3