Photo © Joolze Dymond www.joolzedymond.com

Geraldine looks back at the Whyte Winter Mountainbike Series at Thetford and describes her experience of the races, ranging from enjoying the dry and fast swoopy singletrack at Brandon to surviving the muddy swamp at Rendlesham in January. Click here to read her story.

The last round of the sell-out Thetford MTB Winter Series was held on Sunday 22 February, and featured a big turnout from London Phoenix who spent the Saturday night preparing for the event by fueling up with beer and curry.

Women
Geraldine Treacher came a well deserved 7th in the women’s 2 hour race, while Abigail Armstrong put in a stellar performance and got a podium finish in the 4 hour. In doing so Abi caused a major upset by beating hot favourite Bernie Wolff. Well done Abi!

Men
In the men’s 2 hour solo event, Matthew Webber and Stuart Lockyear both came tenth in their respective age categories, with Alex Christians just behind Matthew in 14th place.

The 4 hour men saw Werner Van Der Merwe take a heroic 7th place, with Jason Wright, Federico Wynne, David Steele and Douglas Baker all putting in solid performances.

Alex Christians said:
“The course was absolutely superb! Pretty much dry (apart from a few areas) and offering just the right amount of grip to rail through the many bermed corners between the trees, ‘speeder-bike’ style (think Star Wars: Return of the Jedi). Throw in some fireroad sections, add a couple of short but reasonably demanding climbs, and the course had just about everything (other than the usual ‘bomb holes’).

“By the last of the 4 laps I was battling with 2 other riders who had overtaken me on a fireroad section and were clearly on a mission. Sitting ‘third wheel’ and coming into the last climb, the bumpy ‘Plumbuster’, I overtook one of them and then halfway up the climb went past the other, managing to slot in 3 backmarkers between us by the top (a good security measure). The last 2 short sections were much wider, so I put the hammer down up the last uphill section to come in 14th (out of 183). Pretty happy with that, but most of all I had a great time on the bike.”

Stuart Lockyear adds:
“Having been ill since Christmas I wasn’t expecting much results-wise, and I said as much to one of my ongoing mtb rivals, a certain Chelmer Cycles rider. He took it in the spirit one generally does when confronted with an acknowledged rival attempting to put in a range of excuses on the start line. However, he was gridded having done well in the three previous races, so chatting to him meant that I managed to secure myself a gridded place without anyone noticing .”

“All in all and after an epic battle with the Chelmer Cycles rider (who I ended up beating), I was chuffed to have enjoyed the race immensely, maintained a good pace without fading and ridden at an average HR of 158 for 2 hours 20 min without feeling like death. Back to my old self again! And it was nice to roll in 10th out of 104. Mind you, those 4 hour riders – Werner, David, Abi, Douglas – how do they do that? Respect.”

Stuart’s race report where he reveals the full extent of his ability to bend opponent’s minds like spoons can be found here, and Alex’s here at his Overbiked blog.

I turned up more for a couple of hours race pace training than looking for a good result, having been coughing up my lungs ever since Christmas. So I said as much to one of my ongoing mtb rivals, a certain Chelmer Cycles rider. He took it in the spirit one generally does when confronted with an acknowledged rival attempting to put in a range of excuses on the start line. However, he was gridded, having done well in the 40+ 2 hour races in the series, so chatting to him meant that I managed to secure myself a gridded place without anyone noticing.

I got my trade mark explosive start – often followed by exploding lungs about 3 minutes later – but this time I felt good, flying past Chelmer Cycles and catching Alex Christians who was clearly taking it steady after crashing at the start of the last race. I went past, offering a few choice words of encouragement, but he came past me again on the next stretch of fire road. But he stayed only a few riders ahead and, soon held up in the singletrack by the rider in front of him, I took a detour into the rough stuff to get by him once again although he was soon past for good and disappearing into the distance.

Half an hour into the race I was nearing the end of the first lap, enjoying the dry, twisty but fast course, not coughing at all and still feeling good though my heart rate was hovering at a constant 164 (93% of my max). Chelmer was still behind me so I thought I’d at least complete the first lap ahead of him even if I then backed off. In fact he passed me on the final climb and pulled away as we started our 2nd lap. I was expecting to start suffering but it didn’t come and I spent the next 2 laps having mini-battles every now and again, whilst trying to ride smoothly and not get delayed by the sometimes heavy traffic in the single track sections.

As I finished the 3rd lap I saw Chelmer in the distance ahead of me and put in a big effort to catch him, which I did with about 2/3 of a lap to go. I tried to keep silent behind him but he heard me clatter over some roots and took a swift peek saying “Oh no, I thought it was you”. I said to him (mindful of my claimed illness on the start line), “come on lets pace each other and if we’re together at the end I’ll let you through as you’re looking for series points”. He said something like “nah, that wouldn’t be racing” so I left it there, although planned to follow that anyway.

We passed a few backmarkers and 4 hour riders. As we got to a short but sharp sandy fire road climb he said to a 3rd rider we had caught ”Go on, you’re faster than me here”. At this moment, race instinct kicked in and I gave it everything I had left in order to attempt a gap and see what happened. This succeeded – so well that I managed to put another rider between us before entering the next singletrack. Knowing there was only 5 minutes or so left I kept going as hard as I could, more in a spirit of experimentation than anything else, but noticed I had maintained the gap into the hardest section of the course, aptly named the Plumbuster. After that there was a short big ring climb where I looked behind and my rival couldnt be seen so I gave up any thoughts of Armstrong/Pantani on the Ventoux and kept going hard until over the line. Chelmer rolled in 15 seconds later. Not happy. It really wasn’t intended as gamesmanship, but I know how it looked. All I can say is that when you’re racing you take split second decisions which on subsequent calm reflection, you might regret.

All in all, I was chuffed to have enjoyed the race immensely, maintained a good pace without fading and ridden at an average HR of 158 for 2 hours 20 min without feeling like death. Back to my old self again! And it was nice to roll in 10th out of 104. Mind you, those 4 hour riders – Werner, David, Abi, Douglas – how do they do that? Respect.

Phoenix riders David Murrell, Andrew Angwin, Alan Goode, Ken Iino and Matthew Harper raced under clear blue skies at the final of the Hog Will Winter Series this weekend.

David said:

“This was my first race in team strip, which I had been wearing in bed all week. Excitement only begins to describe my mood as we lined up for the start.”

“On the last lap I decided to attack with 400m to go. I soon broke clear and made a gap, but then it all started to go wrong. I foolishly looked at my HRM and saw I was at 180bpm. This was not good as the climb was still to come. With legs screaming and heart trying to pop outside my chest, I got swallowed up by the pack.”

In the 3rds Matthew Harper had no real difficulties keeping with the pace, and crossed the line as one of the top twenty finishers.

If you’d like to try racing for the first time, or if you’d like to get back into racing, please get in touch and maybe join us at one of our mid-week training sessions at Regents Park. And once again thanks to Taka Wu for the great shots.

London Phoenix has a regular weekend training ride that departs at 7.00am every Sunday from
the Bald Faced Stag in East Finchley (map to meeting point below). The route varies from week to week, but usually loops through Potters Bar, Cuffley, Hertford and Little Berkhmstead.

The ride is open to everyone but please ensure you have read the following
BEFORE you decide to come along.

• Distance. 80 to 100km
• Average speed. 26 – 29km/h
• Duration. 3 – 4 hrs
• Profile. The route includes some hills

Please ensure you bring 2 inner tubes, along with enough food and water for the duration of the ride as there are no tea & cake stops along the way!

We will wait for anyone who punctures or who needs to “water the verge”, and we will wait a few seconds at the top of hills to regroup, but please be aware we are a race-orientated club and this is our training ride so we won’t always wait for you if you are finding the pace too high. Please be prepared to find your own way back in such a situation.

If you’re not sure you can manage the distance or pace yet, but still want to meet us on a training ride, or if you have any questions, please contact the membership secretary.

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London Phoenix rider Alex CHRISTIANS proved himself to be master of MTB, Track AND Road this weekend with a brilliant win at the Cat 4 race at Hog Hill. Having achieved a top twenty place before Christmas at the hugely popular and closely fought Cat & Bec Hill Climbs, there were few who doubted Alex’s ability to tame the much-hyped Hoggenburg. And so it was. He said of his first competitive road race:

“The first few laps were fairly uneventful. Soon though it became clear the wind was going to cause a few problems, particularly on the climb out of the top part of the circuit. Sure enough, the field soon splintered, and a group of 20 or so formed at the front out of the original 32, with more riders being dropped by the minute. There were a few half-attempts to attack on the ‘Berg’, but I got the feeling these were just testing the legs (and the field). Anyway, I made sure I was near the front on each ascent, and I felt pretty comfortable.”

As the race unfolded only one other rider was able to match Alex’s pace on the Hoggenburg with any consistency – Ian Gentry (VC Baracchi) – but by the last lap this had all proved too much. While Alex calmly dealt with an attempted break at the foot of the ‘Berg, and then powered his way through to the top and a convincing win several bike lengths clear of the next rider, Gentry was left nursing his wounds at the back of the group wondering what had gone wrong.

So congratulations to Alex, who now joins Robert Moore (winner at Hillingdon) and Matthew Harper as the third Phoenix rider to have gained a 3rd Cat licence in 2009.

A full account of the race can be found on Alex’s blog – Overbiked, and thanks to Taka Wu for the photo. To find out more about racing with us, simply get in touch.

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