Cape Epic - Stage 3

Down to business today as yesterday's stage seem's to have taken its toll on the riders. Jeremiah Bishop and Trek team mate and 24-hour champ Chris Eatough hit their grove and managed to even spot some more wildlife. Disappointment and excitement were witnessed today as songo team mates Christoph Sauser and Burry Stander were forced to withdraw due to the latter picking up a niggle in the knee. I will post later on this when more info comes to light, lets just hope that the BMX track still gets build for the kids. On the up side though the stage could not have had a closer finish with the top three finishing within 4 seconds of each other. Wish i could have been there on the finish line to see the top-of-the-top having an all out sprint for the day's spoil's. A two team battle seems to be evolving as Cannondale Vredestein, yesterday's stage winners, came in just a second in front of prolgue winners, MTN Energade. I can't sum up the race better than the guys on MTB Race News.

Cape Epic - Stage 2

Waited a bit too long today for the results to come through from the Cape Epic's toughest day in history. I think it took out more than I thought and the riders were tending to themselves rather than their admiring public. I can't blame them after seeing the graph of the route they took yesterday:I've been up that first "small" climb and trust me it is not that small and also nowhere near as short as it looks on that graph. A challenging 8% average gradient the Montagu Pass is nothing to be scoffed at esspecially when you have a 140km to undertake on the day. Yes I will repeat that for those of you who thought I may have mistyped that: 140km!!!! Ouch!!!! I think the liberal use of explanation marks is completely justified once you re-read that last sentence. As you can see in the picture the second killer is even longer and steeper and I will not repeat it becasue once should be enough to make you cry, 18% gradient's. Even the pro's were forced to push their steed's up these loose, rocky cliff's. What made matters worse was tip-toeing your way down the other side where had you had the abilities of a mountain goat you may just have been able to manage. Did I mention that the baking Karoo desert peaked at 39 degree's... centigrade. Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fuglsang made a miraculous comeback after the dissapointing start to this year's edition. They finished almost five minutes ahead of yesterday's winners, who managed to hang onto their yellow jersey. Burry Stander reflected on the past two days with grimace saying he had never hurt as much in his career. “I thought the Giro del Capo was tough, but this has been a nother level.” In third place was the German Alb-Gold Mountainbike team, Hannes Genze and Jochen Kaess. Pictures of the last two days can be found here and here. Also from the Trek Team a take on the race so far take a look at Jeremiah Bishop and Chris Eatough. these are two of the best in the world and to hear how difficult the race is from these guys can only mean that this is not a race for the timid.

Training break

Today we took a break from our serious training schedule and the group headed out for an easy ride. We went up a hill which basically translates as the camels back, you can use your imagination as to how it looks. I've done this loop before but as usual today I found that the mountain has many angles from which to attack it. Really great just going for a ride with the guys from the group. We took it really easy and even managed a coffee break for about quarter of an hour. Homemade cookie's, the works. There was a threat of rain in the air, I guess the last death throws of winter trying remind us that Mother Nature is still in control. I didn't do anything crazy and took it easy up all the hill's, talking most of the way and generally jack-assing around with a friend who hasn't shown up for practice in ages. Someone he caught onto the cookies and must have gotten him out of bed.
Also want to announce that we, Ofir and myself, will be doing the Shvil Israel in Passover. Basically means riding Israel in its entirety, plus minus 800km. We're on a tight schedule and will be doing it in about 9 days so should make for interesting trip. I'll keep the posts updated about the trip as I've been dreaming about this since I got to Israel.

Cape Epic - Stage 1 Video

Other than the porno music this is a pretty awesome video. Wish I could be racing right now.

Cape Epic - Stage 1

So the first serious test was taken today and who other than world champion Christoph Sauser stepped up to the plate. He and Burry Stander took the yellow jersey off the MTN lad's who looked like they have more than needed yesterday finishing 20 minutes off the pace. Team Bulls put in a great effort to finish just behind the winners and taking up the rear was the Norwegian pair, Martin Bratland and Kristian Torgersen. So a bit of a twist as some of the underdogs made their way to the front of the pack. Lets hop ethey keep it up and make the rest of the race interesting.
Race reports from the pack are around and one of the reason's for only posting this now was waiting for the tired legs to cool down and then make their way to their laptop's to give us their insight. Jeremiah Bishop gives us a brilliant insight into the race and almost poetic way of describing the "magic" that the Cape Epic is. He mentions seeing two monkeys and not sure if tha tis a dig at the race leaders or a genuine spotting. Quote from the man himself and one I'd like to use on my competitors this season: "we reeled them in like tired fish", brilliant. Team Dolphin Trek were more than pleased with the ladies finish on the second step of the podium and in good position on the overall. Here's a quote by Fabienne Heinzmann: "It was a good day for us. Katrin was fast at the start, which helped me as I'm always a bit slow at he beginning. We worked really well together today. At about 50 km's in the race, we caught up with Sundstedt and Syder. Too bad we had too let them go, as I was low on food and had too stop for a gear problem as well. Overall we had fun, today was tip-top!".Photo's of the the Trek team from the first grueling stage of the Cape Epic. Team Songo's day is summed up here, with some valuable insight from team Manager Bobby Behan. Songo have a YouTube channel so be sure to keep refreshing for the latest from the race. Also great to get some reports from the midpack, as Team BBB were more than happy with their day. Full results here.

Volvo Challenge

Well challenge was a perfect description of this hlf centuary race. I can't say that I didn't have a good race but the race basically ended before it started. The reason you may ask, well its a fifty fifty between arriving slightly late and race organization confusing us with cattle. We arrived about an hour before the start then got our things ready before heading to the start line, only to find that they had squeezed about hundred and fifty people in a lane as wide as a car. Needless to say becasue we didn't decide to camp there on the line from the previous evening we started from the back of the pack. As much as I wanted to push to the front I thought there will probably be enough space to get to the front after the gun went off. WRONG!!!! We only got to the line three minutes after the gun had gone off then proceeded to be held up becasue after 500m or so they decided it would be enough and stuck in a nice little hill. So we were jammed in and forced off the bike. I grabbed my bike and started running with Ofir, my partner for the race. We made up quite a few places doing this but still were took quite a bit of energy to get to the front. After 8km, by this time it felt like 20, we had made headway and were working at a good pace. We worked well together and kept up our initial efforts. My legs were already starting to make themselves known but I wanted to make up some time and we pushed on as close to the line as possible. The trail was brilliant and after the bad start things started to look up. Really fast single track took us down after some meaty climbs. On some of the descents I was flying and feeling really good and everytime felt we were making up time. Every hill we got to we would pass another group of people so I knew we were going along well. By the end of the second and final lap though every litle effort resulted in legs threatening to cramp so had to balance between pushing as hard as possible without going over the edge. Rather difficult balancing act as some of the hills were long. Granny gear to the rescue!!! The last section of the loop is a technical fast descent and I found myself lashing the course for all it was worth. Got to the end with Ofir completely exhausted and on the egdeof cramping but happy to have finished. Had a great partner and enjoyed the race but didn't stick around becasue I personally still had a bad taste in my mouth from the start. Live and learn. Next year we will need to bring the tent along;)
Looked this morning at the results and saw we finished 14th overall with a time of 2:55:15.85, can't say this makes me much happier as the winning time was 2:35:12.10. We'll never know so rather take the lesson and come back stronger next year. Can't download teh picture but you can se us finishing over here.

Cape Epic gets under way

A dream of mine is too take part in this magic race that takes place in my hometown. Typical that one of the biggest stage races in the mountain biking world takes off only after I leave. Well that's what you get for wanting to see the world. So today the prologue took place, yes prologue?!?! Not sure if there is another mountain bike race that has a prologue but then you can never take creativity away from South African's. They also used their local knowledge to their advantage, the MTN Energade team of Kevin Evans and David George taking the honor's. Well done boys. no mean feat as Cannondale Vredestein team mates Roel Paulissen, a 2005 winner, and Jakob Fuglsang were less than a minute behind. Taking up the last place on the podium today were favourites Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm of team Bulls. Marathon world champ Christoph Sauser was just behind with SA champ Burry Stander. You can read Christoph's view on how the opening stage went on his blog. Jerimiah Bishop will also keep us up to date with his diary in cyclingnews.

Behind the Iron Curtain

I'm not sure about you but I always wondered what they got up to over in Siberia during those long cold winters. Well with a bit of gold paint and plenty of vodka these two have come up with an impressive display of pure strength.

Punctures

I'm writing about an event that thankfully has not happend to me in quite some time. We've all had them at some time, you can't be a cyclist without this peril. Fixing punctures are not on my all time list of favorite things to do on a ride. That snakelike hiss can only be more terrible if the source was an actual snake. But normally as a cyclist you drop your head and pull over hoping that spare tube is still in good condition. I went through a patch last year that I was getting a few pucntures a month. Some were snake bites, for a full run down of the types of punctures take a look here, and some nasty little horned monsters throwing themselves at my unprotected wheels. I remember at one point I was siting in the evenings patching up all the tubes, it became quite expensive to keep buying new ones, almost every night for a full week. The most terrible thing would be a puncture with a group of strong riders and then have to pull over, everyones eyes rolling, and then stumbling around with gloves and tiny tools. This all topped off with a spare tube that also does not want to inflate and on closer inspection reveals another hole. I can count these with ease on both hands and still need to use some of my toes. My worst was a ride all on my lonesome into the wild bush without either spare tube or pump. Something I vow never to do again. Murphy must have spotted this predicament I had placed myself in and subsequently placed a nice big rock in path path while flying down a hill. She at least let me get to the bottom before the inevitable PSSSSSSSSST. I was buggered and had to walk about five kilometers to the car with shoes not ideally suited for hiking. After that I converted my bike to a tubless system. Basically you take a smaller inner tube, 20" in my case, and split it along the outer edge. This you place around the rim with the valve in place and the extra tube flapping over the edge. After that you replace the tire and then just before popping the tire on completely you fill the it with some sealant. Then you inflate a little making sure the tire is sitting on the wheel OK. After this inflate to your desired pressure and using a box cutter remove the excess inner tube that will be squeezed between the tire and rim. Just make sure not to cut the tire and there you have a DIY tubeless system that I have used without hassle for well over a year. You will need to refill the sealant every now and then but other than that you can be sure that the chances of getting aflat are drastically reduced.

Wearing a helmet???

I have to say that after seeing the images on Collins post I'm not sure whether the helmet helped or not. I would post some of the photo's on here but they're are pretty graphic and to be honest I would warm the quesy to rather just carry on reading. the guy got his head stuck in/on a back of a truck. Not exactly sure how to explain it but somehow he managed to jam his head, helmet and all, into the back of a semi. Needless to say the helmet saved his life because it could only have been certain death if you look at the state of his bike. however the poor guys trip didn't end there and he was dragged along for a few miles before the cops pulled over the truck. Now imagine stepping out the truck and seeing what was hanging from the back. Hope the guys is OK becasue apparently he did survive so hope he isn't paralyzed becasue his neck looked almost giraffe like hanging off the back.
Another favourite of mine is history. I look it at school and have always had a keen interest in most things vintage. So when I start cycling one of the area's that I enjoyed reading about were riders stories from the peleton. The guts and the way the guys dug so deep to win a race or put on a brilliant performance. Recently I came across Richards bolg and he has some really fantastic reading. Johan Van der Velde, a dutchman in Italy and a dominate one at that. You would not expect the dutch to do well in the hills, seeing as half the country sits below sea level. If you want a story about someone pushing the very limits of human ability then look no further that the '88 Giro. van der Velde went on to take Cima Coppi on the climb up the Gavia in weather that could be described as unridable, with half the peleton finishing the race in their team cars. He took the stage by horns and drove through rain and snow making it all the more impressive for the dutchman to take the highest climb of the Giro that year. Read the full story on Richards site.

What a week

So this crazy week has finally come to an end and also taken its toll. I arrived home early this morning to do some training that I've missed out on the whole week. i got in a good training ride in on monday and thats been it so I was really looking forward to getting out for two hours this afternoon. Arrived home buggered from another day in the wars at work, pressure from the project definitely putting people and myself on edge. I just couldn't get ampt for the ride and fell asleep on the couch for two hours. Sleep??? It was more like a coma. I'm not an insomniac but lately I've been waking up at four in the morning and not able to get back to sleep. So the tiredness has just built up more and more and today seemed like the breaking point. I can report though sitting here typing this I feel hundreds. The little power nap picked me up big time so I'll survive this weekend.

Speaking of which I have the mini-marathon Volvo Challenge this weekend. No training this week + longest race of the year = low expectations. Was expecting to win but I'll be pleasantly surprised if I finish in the top ten. Looking forward to the race becasue the race organizers normally put on a good event on the side and not just the race. So tomorrow may go for a little ride just to move the rust around and not go into the race completely unprepared.Also realized that this whole "Round Up" post's that I've been trying to work in are not what I want from my blog. I should need to round up someone else's post but just work them into my posts. Blogging is to me a personal path and not a news reel of what others are doing, although this is also not a bad way to do things. I mean if I can 't work them in then posting a link is simple enough without having to do it on a daily basis. So the idea died rather early in its conception, unless you find those posts interesting then I don't mind continuing with it. Some leave a comment if you want me to continue with my Daily Round Up.
I found a brilliant link to a cartoon strip today. Anyone who has a desk job understands that a little distraction during the day makes things much better. It's pretty new my the looks of it but hopefully we see Yehuda Moon having a bright future for us unfortunate droll soul's bound to their flickering monitors. Yet more distraction has can be found on the Bike Hacks site, they've been taking the piss on those unlucky enough to find themselves wiping out on video. Apparently You-Tube is full of the stuff. If you don't wince or at lest pull some funny faces watching these you are not normal. Some of that stuff has to hurt as I recently found out when I wanders of the track a bit and found a lonely rock needing a cuddle.
Another of my favorite blog's is Belgium Knee Warmers who always seem to come up with some form of entertaining post on a regular basis. Writing about Pro vs Amateur riders, particularly on how money affects the sport. He suggested getting rid of the money who rid the sport of its doping problems. He gives some counter points but I really don't thing that it would help in the development of the sport. I mean we live in a pretty capital world, there's no getting around it, so trying to cut something that is part of everyday life wouldn't do anything other than kill the sport.
This also got me thinking about how we are bombarded with marketing and advertising everyday. Our outlook on the world is surely through the media that we use to require it. So watching Fox, CNN or Sky news will probably give you a pretty bent outlook on life as they are surely directed by their financial backers, in other words the commercials. They also harp on about how they bring you a neutral pint of view. Hogwash!!! How can your point of view be neutral if you want to report on it. Without your point of view you would watch the news without having all the discussions about the report, which would also be a bit boring to tell the truth. Two good examples of this are the latest atrocities of China and the Elections in the States. Watching the various ways that the stations approach it just gives you an idea as to how people bring across their views. I reckon it would be great to find a news media where people on the street are writing the news report. I also don't want to constantly listen to the death and destruction of the world when surely there must be some good going on?!?!

New Car, bad on me

Well today I'm getting a new car. Some Japanese mass-produced gas guzzler . The great thing is that I don't need to pay for fuel as it's a company car. I'm not doing my bit for the environment, I know, but the drive is an hour and twenty minutes if you're lucky with traffic. Now if it takes that long in a car then I'm figuring the cycle to work and back may be more than the time I need to work. I've also been reading lately about the people who commute and was quite inspired. So I started looking for work closer to home. I figure that I'll benefit more than the environment out of this. Firstly it'll help my fitness once I get used to the half hour commute to work it'll be pretty sweet. Secondly being closer to home means that I'll spend less time on the road and more time in training. Another upshot in terms on time is that I'll get home and not collapse on the couch, so Mirit will certainly be happier with this. I may even be able to help out with cleaning up after we eat in the evenings. Obviously I'll also feel better for not pumping carbon into the atmosphere in doing so offsetting my carbon footprint a tiny bit. So hopefully I may be happy in the job hunting front and be able to return the new car and replace it with two wheels and something closer to home.

No more of this in the near future I'm hoping

Round Up 080325

OK so this Round Up thing has been taking over my main posts the last few days but thats mainly due to uber workload. Also had a rest day today so other than dreaming about getting out of work and taking a ride in the awesome weather we're having I was chained to my desk with stuff to do. One of the subsidiaries is going love next week so this means pressure, the fact that they have monkey's doing the work doesn't help my situation and a major overall with zero time was required this week. Luckily things have also quietened down on the racing front as we finish off the month. Only the Volvo Challenge coming up in Meggido this weekend so its nothing to serious. Also not a league race so I'll be using it for a fun ride.I'm pretty interested in frame building although I'm not to confident in the fact that I'd be able to pull off a masterpiece without a it looking like something out of a Dali painting. Craig is putting together a frame and has a full picture show on the brazing of his tubes before he puts it together. I'm really keen on seeing the finished product. You never know, I may always find a spae second to put something together although I'm more likely to build something out of bamboo and some wood glue.
Do have have a need, a need for speed. Sorry about that, must be fatigue from work creeping in. Well came across this piece of madness on Two-Wheel-Blogs. Two guys in South America by the looks of it charging down a seriously snaking, switch back death trail. In the beginning they huck it past some guys going to "slow". Unit says he sort of was impressed byt the way they made their way down the hill and went past the other chaps but I found saw it from a different light. No doubt the brother's Grim had some crazy skills but they basically pushed their way through some of the corners cutting off the other riders, they managed to drop a "Gratzi" every now and then but hey its an open trail so need to be a bit more polite from my point of view. Take a look and see for yourselves.

Round Up 080324

I you love beer then Tin Donkey is one on the first places you should check out for sheer golden delight. I guarantee that you will feel the need to open an ice cold lager after reading one of his posts, so take the boy scout method of being prepared and reach into the back of the fridge before sitting down to one of his post's. One that really caught my eye was about the strange twist to a beer shandy that the Bavarians have. Originating from a bike race in the early parts of the century Radler has taken more to the main stream. Really interesting background so take a look if you want to baptize yourself take a look.
Something closer to home, or at least root's, the Cape Epic. Time is drawing near to this huge race that has in the space of five years taken multiday races to new hieght's If by now you haven't heard of this race in South Africa check out the site to see what you've been missing while you were asleep. Its on the top of my list and apparently so too on some of the top riders in the world. Christoph Sauser will be riding with top South African Barry Stander, all for a good cause. Take a look at this list to get an idea of the quality you may be up against if you found yourself on the start line. Jeremiah Bishop gives us an insight with his blog as to what you can expect from nine days through some of the most beautiful parts of SA, I can vouch for this becasue I grew up in the area. 24 minutes long, you may definitely want to take me up on that first tip of sitting down with a cold one, I certainly savored every sip watching the guys work so hard.
keeping on the topic of beer Jason invested in some high quality brew this weekend so sure he may be feeling a bit tender today. After those deadly hills he did sure he deserved them. Gregg reminded me of a rather important even in a cyclist's life, the summer solstice. It completely slipped my mind until a stumbled across the post. I can't say I celebrated it at all partly because of the race but mostly due to the fact that I completely didn't realize it seeing as the weather has been sweet for the last two weeks or so. most of the posts I've been reading are so keen to have spring finally arrive that even the slightest hint of sunshine has them out on the road putting in some none "indoor trainer" miles. Snow may be only falling here and there but the wind has unfortunately taken its place. Our conditions are no better this side and the desert in the south feels as if its on our door step. The hot winds pumping up makes stepping outside rather uncomfortable for anything longer than six seconds. The upside is that I don't need any layers to keep the warmth in but rather the opposite. Will need to invest in a vest this summer and a few more bottles for water.

On Fire

You'll have to excuse this post as I blow my own whistle a bit. I've worked hell of a hard this season so far and it has come off this weekend and I was on fire not just becasue of the sweltering heat. Well this weekend saw the third of the UCI Israeli Cup events and probably my best so far this season. I must say that I've been preparing really hard and working most cold mornings to get the hours in. Ofir my coach has also really helped fantastically with everything as well as the team trainings twice a week. Everything just came together to culminate in a brilliantly executed run on what to me was the most difficult race of the year. The climb in the beginning was long, steep and crazy with some slippery sections. After reaching the top completely over heating becasue of the 30 degree heat, I could only manage to take two deep breath's while gearing up and then the technical descent that went up and down on some really tight corners and little sharp climbs.I was loving it though although I had a bit of a rotten start only managing to get to the top of the climb in fourth behind my rival who was just in front of me. I tried to regain my composure and get the heart rate down becasue the start really was a little crazy with the other guys flying. So from about fifty meters off the front I started to work the descent with my technical skills and the fact that gliding beneath me was the perfect machine, a Specialized Epic S-Works. Basically a full blown racing beast with BRAIN technology, put simply it only works when you need it to work.

By the end of the first lap I had made my way back up to the front lying just behind the leader saving some energy for the climb that was coming up. It's amazing how much pressure you release sitting on someones wheel and letting him take you around. It also puts more pressure on them to choose their line and try to push a bit harder. After getting out of the single track i made my way to the front and didn't look back. I had plenty of power still left and put in a big dig to the top of the hill increasing my lead by a few more psychological meters. Ido was with me by now but I decided to not wait for the end but opted for the mid race push, especially after the climb it would test the fitness. I managed to drop him and he actually fell out the race completely after that, in the end not even finishing.

The rest of the race I tried to concentrate on the five meters of track in front of me and pushed hard all the way. The last lap saw the last challenge come in on the start, about half way up Dav put in a big effort but just as he was coming onto my wheel I stood up, geared to a bigger gear and put all those interval trainings to good use. Good might miss Johnson. I made it to the top with ample distance and basically just push all the way to the end. The heat did make things difficult but I was absolutely loving the ride becasue it was so technical. In the end I came over the line a minute ahead of Nir who eventually finished in front of Dav, unfortunately he got a puncture at on one of our rather nasty pieces of volcanic remains jutting out the ground. We all shared a well deserved beer after the race and enjoyed the first days of summer. So all in all it was a great day and the best way to start the summer marathon series that we'll be getting under way. As for insight which might help, I started drinking protein powder mix after tough workouts. Not to bulk up but rather to recover. Last week I was far from home and didn't take any with. I think this had something to do with my rather lack luster week last week. Yesterday I remembered to stick some in my bag and today I feel fine. So it may not be connected but the only big difference other than the trek across the country was also the missed protein to aid recovery. Hope it might help.

Round Up 080323

Imagine doing a trip from England to Australia. just the flight is strentuaous enough but to actually do the entire distance by two wheeled power takes some doing. I stumbled across this blog about Mark and Juliette McLean's epic adventure Down Under. The article though does not provide much details about the trip but rather the nifty little dynometer-come-recharging machine that Mark hooked up to his bike to power the electrical devices they had with them. My thoughts of doing something like this would be to leave all these world stangle holds behind and enjoy the solitude, apparently Mark still needed to update his blog and the laptop would not run on love alone. So a little bit of innovation led him onto this sweet device:Not sure about the weight but this little baby charged everything from flashlights and laptop to the tazer Juliette carried with her no fend off annoying dogs. Bike commuters has a bit of feel good Wednesday Woolday. They take a look at EWR's Polo Jerseys and take a bit of a walk through of where the company comes from and what to expect from the jersey. I'm pretty interested in alternative clothing and this retro jersey really caught my eye, especially the old English emblem embossed on the chest. I reckon if the royals had to take a trip around one of their estates you would catch them wearing one of these designs except maybe the City name's would be entirely correct.

Round Up 080322

Well from today I'll start with giving back to the community in a way. I'm subscribed to quite a few blogs out there and thought it would be a good idea to highlight the interesting blogs that I come across everyday. Mainly I'm interested in the racing side of things so new stuff that comes on the market and people are checking out will always peak my senses. Bicycling has a the interesting main stream info that you would expect from one of the industry leaders. On the other hand one of the reason's for me blogging so I generally try to stay away from the main-stream blogs and find those gems hidden in the rough. No one brings more to the table than Mr Moulton, as a frame builder of note he has some very unique insights into the biking world. I especially enjoy the walks down memory lane where Dave gives such insight and personal touch to his posts that it makes you want to learn a bit of history. On the racing side of things I follow from the best in the world to the rising star's: Christoph Sauser, Jeff Kerkove, Blue Star, Colin Griffith, Dave Byers, Dave Nice and two of my favourites becasue of the ping pong between them, Rick and Jason.There are many other and hopefully I will be able to pay homeage to some of the other bloggers out there that make my day at work a little more bearable. Keep it coming

Big Day tomorrow

Today was bike day for me, even though I didn't go for a ride I spent it doing genereal biking stuff. We have this little piece of dirt on the side of our house and the neighbor has just put in a new porch. This meant that there was a ton of dirt lying around. So my mad scientist brain started turning various calculations and speculations over. I looked on the Net and found what I was looking for, downloaded the guides and went from there. If you haven't guessed yet I wanted to build a pump track. I started where there were mounts left over from the construction and these would be the berms that I will use. From there I built some rollers and Bob's you uncle i had the beginnings of a pump track. Took the bike around and immediately ran into a few problems. So unless i was going to use a BMX the rollers were to close together not allowing me to "pump" and get my momentum going. So back to the drawing board!! Took out a few of the mounds and build some of the others up and now its starting to look like something. Still pretty far off from where I want to be as I need to get some flow going. That basically took up my morning then I had to clean the house:( Not to bad as Mirit was at work and I wanted to fix things quick so she'd get home to a house that was spik and span.
This afternoon I concentrated on getting my tin donkey reading for tomorrow. If she was a donkey this morning after two hours of scrubbing, decreasing, re-oiling and adjusting I have a thoroughbred beast frothing at the mouth. The race tomorrow will probably decide whether I move up to the expert category or not for the season. I've decided that if I do win then I'll move up and get some more experience up with some tougher competition. I also want to get Uriel, a friend and my mechanic that I've been teasing about beating. He's be out of training for a month or two so this may give him the incentive to come race again. Great guy and genius when it comes to tinkering with bikes.

Full of holes and loving it

This week has been less than great in terms of both training and energy levels. Don't know why but the last two days I've just felt flat. No energy, nothing. Been in bed early but still just a lack of power or my normal levels of bouncing off the walls. So this morning I woke up feeling slightly better yet still no "I want to get out and ride" feeling. Think this weekend took more out of me than I realized, what with the drive and the race. That was this morning though....Went out this afternoon on the trail that I'll be racing on the weekend. Luckily it's really close so jumped over just after work, well a little before but I have burning the midnight candle. Its the third of the Israeli Cup races and officially my third UCI event, although they don't really count for much these days. It takes place in the hills of the Galilee with nothing remotely flat as you can see in the graph.The trail kicks off with a whopper of climb basically breaking the field to bits without even giving us a chance to get to know each other. So no chatting on the start thats for sure but we'll have plenty of time for chit chat afterwards. We do three laps of sheer work. After the tough hill we snake back down the hill moving up and down the on some tight turns, scattered quite liberally with rocky drops and some calf chewing steps. I really liked the course although there were a few complaints of it being far to difficult with no flow. I think on a course like this you need to work to get that flow. I can't say that I was flowing as usual but after getting to know the beast and taming her a bit I started to find my way around the corners and keep the momentum going. However there was a sting in her tail, coming off a fast little section with some snappy switchbacks I found myself leaning hard into a corner only to find that the sturdy looking rocks weren't so sturdy. I came a cropper and my left side from shoulder to shin has strawberry burns all over it. Glad that I got out there for the ride, tomorrow morning its early morning two hours at recovery pace just to get the muscles working.

UCI Marathon World Cup Report

Well this weekend saw the start of the UCI World Cup circuit, at least for those with some endurance in their legs. The Marathon race took place in Manavagat, Turkey on Sunday drawing teams like Dolphin-Trek and Team ALB Gold. Velonews has a really good write up on the race, mentioning that it was the specialists that came through with the wins. 90km is no laughing matter but for these professionals it was a great start to the season. Esspecially in the women's race where it came down to only 5 seconds. That's nothing if it comes down to the line probably no more than ten meters. If you want to see pic's of the racers going through some of the major points look here:

• Naras Bridge
• Aqueduct
• Seleukeia ruins
• Singletrack
• Oymapinar Dam
• Finish area
• Ceremonies

Top three places for the elite men and women respectively are as follows. For full race results available follow the links on either:

• Thomas Dietsch 3:38:54
• Alban Lakata 3:39:15
• Karl Platt 3:41:13

• Pia Sundstedt 3:28:16
  
• Annabella Stropparo 3:28:21
• Esther Suss 3:35:39

If you're looking for some of the team reports and how they found the race Team Dolphin-Trek were very happy with their early season podium finish of Alban Lakata. Will Bregfelt gives us an in depth idea of the excitement and pain of racing in the pack. Bad luck unfortunately ruined a possible top ten finish but hopefully after three events of not wearing the lucky rabbits foot he'll have learnt his lesson and we'll wee him finishing higher.

Coffee's served

Bike hugger highlighted the blogosphere is full of coffee posts this last few weeks. I saw a few interesting pics out there with recycled bike parts as you can see above. I'm thinking that every office needs one of these. I mean surely this is doing your part in the global warming issue. Another interesting although fantastically expensive option to espresso on the go is the Handpresso. From what I can see it must have been developed by a Italian who just couldn't leave home without the his cuppa in the morning. But by the looks of the website its a crazy Frenchman that decided it would be a good idea to combine his hand pump with a coffee machine. Not sure if I'd be willing to take a chance on this high pressure coffee making pump but at 100Euro I won't be handing over that type of cash either. Here in Israel we normally keep a gas stove on longer trips where we make coffee the Middle-Eastern way. Called Turkish coffee, although I didn't find any in Turkey when I was there, its a dark roasted blend with cardamom. The smell is intoxicating after you've been charging around on a few single tracks. We also love herb tea, using mint, spearmint, zuta, lemon- grass and even rose petals. One thing I've found since being in Israel is a whole new world of spice options. We normally try to combine a ride with a visit to the local hummus shop, hummus is a mixture of chickpea's, garlic and tahini. Lovely thick mortar that fills you for the rest of the day and then some.

I did it

That's the face of a completely satisfied racer standing at the top of the podium. This week I went to the race with the target of not letting Ido, the guy in second, out of my sights. I made this mistake last week and paid for it in the end. The course was really windy although not as windy as Jason's ride by the looks of it. We left on Thursday, actually missed half a day of work so this month I might get into a bit of trouble for all the time off. What can you do, its a passion and I'm finding my addiction rather hard to appease. So after a three and a half hour ride to the south we were greeted by icy winds that cut through every layer of clothing I had on. Took us about ten minutes to prep and then we were off to see what this quite little part of Israel had to offer. I have to say that I was really surprised becasue the track was not at all technical and lacked those killer hills to really test the competitors.
Yesterday woke up to a beautiful day although the wind had decided to stay for the race. Arrived early because the Elite and Expert riders were taking off quite a bit before us and I wanted to support the other team members. just before the start they decided to increase the number of laps for the riders so the had an extra twenty five minutes to ride making the race a little more difficult. Unfortunately they decided to keep the number of laps down to two for the sport category. We took off a little late because of the extra time it took for the other race to conclude but then we were under way and head-on into the wind.
I decided on a tactical race becasue there was no point wasting energy pedaling down the hill when I could sit on someone else and let him do the work. If you look at the size of his legs then you would feel that sorry for him. Another mistake I made last week was trying to push the big gears instead of spinning at a higher cadence. These two lesson's stood me in good stead as I made my way around and there was honestly nothing between us over the line. I decided to push a bit to see if he still had legs and we got to the start of the downhill together but again I let him take the wind. By the half way mark I decided that I needed to make a move soon becasue I did not want to wait to the finish straight which was a fast decline. With about two km to go I dropped my gears onto a smaller cog in the back and accelerated up the hill. I caught him completely unaware and was able to put in a descent gap. My legs were screaming at me as we weaved through the single track to the last hill. I still had a fifty meter gap so decided that if I could make it to the top in front I would take it. I pushed it really hard all the way keeping the lead without giving an inch.
Over the top of the last climb my legs were now full of lactic acid and burning must I knew that now I had to push it all the way to the finish. After shifting to the big plate and shift all the way down at the back I go up and started pushing. By the time we got to the finish straight he had made up some time but I held it to the end for my first overall victory of the season and also the category win. I'll try get some more photo's but didn't see many people braving the windy conditions.

Dead tired

Well just got back from a hard ride and over three hours in the car. My back held up and as for the race, well lets just say that tomorrow there will be a full report with all the details. Really tired and can hardly keep my eye's open but decided to post something, safe return and some news. Don't have any energy to go into details but tomorrow I'll write about everything.

Its a Miracle

As you might have read yesterday I was in agony with my back. moving became increasingly difficult and all the Voltaren and Bengay were making the house smell like a camphor plant. I don't mind the smell but Mirit doesn't seem to dig it that much. So I remembered we had pain killers lying around the house, neat little Adex gels, 400mg of ibuprofen per capsule. Little pamphlet inside recommended taking one tablet with a glass of water, I decided that my medical knowledge allowed two of these blue little bombs of pain relief. Yes it was that bad that I basically lay in bed the whole night thinking how I was going to race on Saturday!! I put on some more Voltaren and went to bed.

Think I dreamt of some strange bright lights during the night and heaven behold I woke up this morning without even a twinge. I gingerly tested the muscles, first a turn to the right... no pain, that's good; and then a twist to the left, also lack of any gut wrenching pull down my spine, hallelujah!! Now I'm not sure if ibuprofen is a banned substance but I sure as hell don't care becasue the pain I was in last night surely needed so sharp, quick action. This is also an over the counter drug so I'm sure there can't be much in terms of banned substance in them. I'll check it out. So at least I can walk around and the trip to the south may still prove fruitful. Fingers crossed.

Broken back

Well if yesterday morning was problematic in getting out of bed becasue of my rather tender back today was impossible. Everytime I switched position last night I woke up with this sharp twinge and basically tried to settle down again. Decided to see a professional, yes I know I should have gone a while ago but men are simple creatures and don't need fancy doctors to tell them their body is broken. I mean I'm the one that can't sleep not them, probably sleeping on one of those ergonomically designed monster beds with dual springs on individual pivots or something to that nature. Luckily I also have a wonderfully supporting girlfriend who feels my pain. So this mornig Mirit turned me over and ribbed my back exactly where it hurt the most, sure she got some pleasure out of this. I must say that it really helped and my day was more than bearable after I also put on one of those back braces.
My next Cup race(the links are in Hebrew but here is the profile of the lap we need to do) is on this weekend. Its all the way in the south so the travel and my back pain has not focussed me that much. I say that but I will still give 100%, just not expecting miracles that's all. We'll also be camping which should make the back issue even more interesting. Fisrt thing next week though its me and the physio having a god one on one.

Easy Recovery

Today had a recovery ride around our area. Yesterday was quite tough so today it was out in zone 2 for about an hour and then very easy for another hour this morning. My legs were still feeling a bit tender even though I took it really easy. Must say that riding slow is really difficult for someone like myself who wants to charge 100% at all times. After reading a bit from various coaching sites I found that it isn't necessary to get miles under the wheel but rather concentrate and focus on weaknesses. My coach, Ofir, has us on a weekly program where we build for four weeks then rest a week, which supports this view. Every time we start again the intensity increases. Recovery is just as important as the building and working because you need to give your muscles time to rest and rebuild themselves. I can see the results of this by comparing how I was racing just a few weeks ago. This last race I was feeling much stronger on the climbs and felt much easier during the race. I reckon that without a structured plan it would be difficult to built any sort of form season after season.
Glad I took it easy but my back has been giving me some serious problems lately. I woke up this morning with a sharp pain on my left side. Normally I feel it on the right side of my back but today the left was playing up. I think though that this has more to do with the fact last night started exercises for the back. Just some stretching, no actual exercise as such. The stretching was a little difficult but there is a yoga stretch called the cobra, you can use you imagination as to how it looks, where I felt the most uncomfortable. After finishing up I did not feel any pain or discomfort so thought I had done some good towards getting my muscles more supple and flexible. Fast track to this morning and I was cringing when I had to get out of bed. Still went for the ride but the whole days I've been feeling the occasional pinch so think I've actually done a nerve or something. will rest it up a bit and then see how it goes.

Israeli MTB Cup results

So the race finally came around on Saturday. The first race in the cup series here in Israel, it was also an international UCI event. Not sure thats so great after seeing that everyone got underway yesterday in the Paris-Nice. Could be a thousand riders short if they go through with their threats. Lets hope that they can place their egos to one side and actually concentrate on the spectator's. All we want to see is riding without all the doping thrown in. Completely sidetracked there for a second so back to my race.

The start was slightly delayed playing on my nerves somewhat but as you can see i was pretty relaxed on the line and even got an interview in with the local sports channel. not sure if I'll crack the final cut so I'll just wait and see. They also decided, quite logically, to removed a hairpin turn coming off the tar after the start lap. This made the start lap alot less tactical as there was plenty of space on the hill to get a good position. I started really well and was in the front from the start and did not have to jockey for position near the middle before the single track that would tkae us all the way to the bottom of the loop.

I got to the bottom in first and then we started to climb. There was a strong wind on the open hill so that made things slightly more difficult but to tell you the truth I hardly noticed it as I was focusing on the guys around me. On the climb I lost a position and made the unfortunate mistake of letting the rider go. My reasoning was that he had gone to soon and I would catch him a bit later. By the end of the first loop I was about a minute down and realized my mistake. From there on in I was in chase mode.

I caught up to him within about fifty meters on the technical down hill. I could almost touch him and was certain I could keep it up on the climb. Every time I would get the gap to about twenty meters he would push a bit at the top of the climb and I would drop back again and need to chase. I had left it too late and once I got to the last climb I was basically on him but ran out of gas. I didn't hit the wall, it was simply a realization that I had let him go to far in the beginning. So my first race of the season that I didn't finish on the top of the podium. Can't say I was too pleased about that but you live and learn. On the up side though it means there will be a bit of a battle this year with him in the races. Our next race is in Arad in the south so I'm in serious preparation for that one.

Pumped for tomorrow

So the racing officially start tomorrow. Two month's of hard training and building myself up are going to be tested to the nth. Today rounded off a tough week of training and I hope I didn't push it too much. This is what Ofir, my coach, has planned for us so I follow the plan as close as possible. I also managed to get in the ride with some of the younger expert and elite category riders. Went well and I was able to stay up with them the entire time so feeling confident that I'm on par for the season. Don't really have anything to measure it up against seeing as this is my first season but I'm hoping to take a win overall for the sport category. Tomorrow will also be the first time that I see the competition for real. The other races were not attended in drives but they were great warm ups and get the first few under my belt. Lesson's were learnt and now its time to put this practice into full use.

This morning went for a ride along the route of tomorrow one last time so as to check that there are no surprises they decided to put in. The will be alot of climbing so this is to my advantage as I enjoy the hills but also some super fast singles that lead down to the bottom. I reckon I could make time up on both of these if I keep my head and don't overcook things and get ahead of myself. Just need to remember to enjoy the ride and not pump myself up too much.

Jeff Kerkove's blog and pyramids

Stumbled Jeff Kerkove's blog today and it has some awesome reading. Updated regularly and has some sweet insight into the mind of a mountain bike racer. when you're talking about daily ride's of four to five hours you realise that this really is their job and it takes a hell of alot of work to get to the top. Luck has nothing to do with it and reading these blog's inspires me to hop onto the bike and complete my training, even with cold damp weather that makes a warm bed all the more welcoming. Another great feature of Jeff's blogs are that they are loaded with pics so you get to see exactly where he was riding the day and more or less what he got up to.

My less strenuous training this morning saw me discovering a single in my back garden. Went out this morning with a good friend and he showed me a single track that until today was unbeknown to me. I had been using the route to go directly to the two technical climbs that lie on the other side of the forest. In between though there are some sweet flowing ST, not at all technical but great to get the legs warm and keep the skills tuned. I did the hill's twice becasue had to do interval training so basically got to the top of the hill and then turned around and repeated it. On the way home we have a slight uphill making it perfect for my pyramid intervals. Starting at 1 minute all out and then 1 minute rest working up to 3 minutes at one minute step ups. Really worked well but I find that when I'm in the group I push a bit harder:(

Sauser's offseason community work

Mr. Sauser has been very busy in his off-season training in south Africa but more importantly he is giving back to the community. The great thing is to see the best in the world not thinking they are above helping those in need. Another reason why I'm so interested is because it is happening within my home country. I have to say that things are looking up and I really hope that his new project will help those in the community forget about their poverty and focus on something more positive in their lives. Here are some photo's of the project, the charity he is supporting is Songo so go check it out. Well done Christoph!!!

Israeli MTB Cup

So this weekend is the "official" start of our season with the Israeli MTB Cup kicking off on Saturday. Really looking forward to the race after the bright start to the season. The fact that the race is also my training ground gives me the feeling of some sort of home advantage. Check out the route on Google Maps to get an idea of the terrain. Went out on Saturday to do a few laps at "race pace" and have to say that its a tough one. Basically no level ground and you're either flying down technical singles with the names like Dreamer, Scorpion and Race Face or climbing up Lazy or Anaconda. I'm really looking forward to seeing the top guys racing and seeing as this is an UCI race there may even be a big name or two.