Twrch Trail Winter Nightride

Sometimes there are not enough hours in the day. The training has to be done though. The plan was to get up early and get out on the bike before me wife goes to work. Normally I have to get back by 11:30 so a decent ride is possible but I woke up to find my dog wasn't feeling too good. He's been sick. by the time I'd checked he was OK and cleaned up the mess it wasn't worth it. I'll be honest I didn't get up super early either.
I took the kids out on the bike midday when I could have been watching the Manchester United v Liverpool game. My eldest on her little 20in MTB and the other behind me on the trailer bike. However much fun it is it's not training.
When my wife got back from work I cooked the dinner, found the Moon with my daughters telescope, washed up etc.. All this takes time and delays the start of my ride. 8:30 after reading my kids a story I manage to get out.  Lights charged and ready I was off to Cwmcarn for two laps. It was very cold. The days have been mild for the past week but as the sky was clear the temp dropped. No idea how cold but was below freezing I'm sure. I was dressed OK so I would be fine. I was thinking of riding up off road up the canal path but I guessed it would be better just to get there do my training and get home.

Lighter, Brighter, Faster? Diablo/Prolight Combi

I was going to use my Exposure Diablo for the first time. On my Giro Prolight helmet I don't think you can get as much power for such little weight. My helmet with light probably weights quite a bit less than quite a few helmets on their own. Hopefully will be an excellent combination for racing. Coulpe d up with my Hope 4LED it was out riding (hope replace this with an Exposure MaXX D asap).
By the time I got to Cwmcarn it was just past 9pm and there was not a soul in sight. The puddles in the carpark were already starting to freeze and there was an amazing frost. With my bright lights shinning on it it looked like someone had tipped a massive tub of glitter and spread it on everything. As I know the trail pretty well and the lights were good found I could ride pretty much as quick as I could in the day. I shot up the first few climbs up to the top. Some joker had randomly stacked rocks around the trial. Some were un-naturally balanced so there is no way they would have landed like this. This was all over the trail pretty much every section. I found it funny. I wonder what time some would have bothered to have done it. I probably wasn't the only person to have ridden in the dark but was probably the last person to have that evening. At the top on my 1st lap I must have had a good mobile signal and received a few texts and Twitter alerts. I stopped and answered and then carried on. The down hill was good fun in the dark. I'm not the quickest in the day but felt like I could go just as quick.
Starting my 2nd lap I put in a big effort. This was today's training. I might as well make it quality training. Big efforts on the climbs then take it easy on the down hills and as quick as it was safe on the flat. It feels a bit odd being out on your own so late. All you can hear is your heart beat most of the time. Anything that is reflective is a distraction. Sheep are just plain spooky at night, all you see is their eyes at first. Someone had dropped their Specialized thermal Winter Glove. You'd never see it in the day I'm sure but the reflective bits were clear as day with my lights shining on them. On my second lap just as you get to the concrete bit that you some times have to walk up if its a bit damp I totally shat myself when I caught a glimpse of what I though was some random person just standing there. I'd never noticed it before. I hadn't seen it on the previous lap as I'd put the bike in the granny ring and ridden up the concrete. this time I got off and walked. So I saw the big wooden statue for the 1st time. Spooked with my pulse racing on I went. I went a bit quicker on the final downhill bit knowing where the jokers had left the balanced rocks. I finished the lap just after 11pm. It was really cold so I stopped and put my Goretex jacket on. One very swift ride home on the road and it was time for a well deserved bath. Really impressed with the Exposure light. I can ride with confidence with it.

Lower down the trail.

A View from the top
Not a very impressive pic but the view looked fantastic to the eye

The Spooky Wooden Man

First (& Second) Ride of the Year

The first ride of the year was on New Years Day. I got out for an hour with my eldest daughter. She is 7 1/2 and rides a pink Specialized Hot Rock 20in Mini MTB. We are lucky that there is a disused golf course not far from out house where people walk their dogs. I've been teaching my daughter to ride off road here. It's not bad at all. Some single track and lots of different paths to follow. The Golf course has long over grown but you can see clearly from the Google Map shot what it once was. It would make a great venue for a cyclo cross race but it would never happen as it's private land and I'm not sure your allowed to walk your dog there let alone ride a bike there.

What was Tradegar Park Golf  Course

The scond ride of the year was on my own. I had planned to ride the South Downs Way on the Bank Holiday Monday but plans don't always work out. I stayed in Wales a day longer and headed out to Cwmcarn like I do often. I had planned to get a good six hours plus in but feeding my children and a quick rebuild of my Crankbros
rear hub meant I got out of the door a full two hours later than planned.
Over the New year the temperature outside was quite mild. I was in my garden fixing my bike and it felt OK. So I headed out in leg warmers, clubs shorts, no overshoes, one thermal top my Assos Jacket and a Gilet. I'd only ridden about 2 miles and it had started to snow. my buttocks were pretty damn cold. Why spend £175 on winter tights if your not going to use them. Riding fast to keep warm down the canal tow path that runs from Newport all the way to Cwmcarn and I was OK.
Getting to the Trail Centre car park the snow was like the slight dusting on the top of a Victoria Sponge cake. The lower sections of the trail were still very muddy like they had been a few days before. It was quite slippy over the rocks but that adds to the fun right? With my legs getting cold as I stopped for a drink and a chat in the car park I decided the training starts now. I hammered it up each climb like I was in a race.
My legs felt very good. You get enough of a breather in between climbs to recover quite well. On my second lap the snow was coming down quite heavy. The Trail was pretty much covered white now. Just brown where the tyre tracks we pushing the fresh snow down into the wet mud. The massive snow flakes were annoying as I had forgotten my Jawbones (glasses) and the odd one was hitting me in the eyes. On one occasion I closed my eye, hit a tree route and went over the bars. So glad I didn't hit anything hard.
Second lap was the same as the first. Fast up the climbs recover on the flat and downhill bits. Third lap wasn't quite as fast but only 90 seconds down on the previous two but it wasn't down to a lack of effort. The snow was getting pretty heavy and it was getting a little slippy out there. I don't think I have put my foot down so much apart from when we had the solid ice. A muddy ride back home on the canal path. Long bath and relax.
A good days training. I felt a lot better than I did on the ride a few days before. Time to get back on the road bike and get some miles in.

Pics from my last few rides: All Twrch Trail

The first short fire road section of the Twrch Trail

One of the many hairpin corners

The second and longer fire road up to the top of the Twrch Trail

The Mist up the top. Couldn't hear anything apart from my heart beating

Looking down the trail (see snowy pic below to compare)

Where has Twmbarlwm gone in the mist?

A light dusting of snow

Looking down the trail from the top

This is the amount of snow that settled in about an hour

Looking down the valley from the bottom of Twmbarlwm 

The only place I have ever used the granny gear
on my Lapierre

I have been riding the Twrch Trail for about a year now. It's always been great in bad weather. It has this almost all weather surface that until now hasn;t really cut up. After the tow lots of snow and the freeze thaw that goes with it the whole trail has loosened up quite a bit now and is really cut up. I have never seen it so muddy.

All pics taken with my crappy iPhone 3GS camera
Twmbarlwm
Twrch Trail 

A lesson in bike handling

Sunday I went out to do pretty much the same ride as I did last weekend. A few laps of the Twrch Trail at Cwmcarn and up and over the mountain behind. The thing is mid week we had a slight thaw and although much of the snow on the low ground has gone a lot of it has turned to ice. The roads are pretty clear but anything off road has now got a thick layer of ice on it.
for instance the canal tow path that joins Newport with the Ebbw Valley had sheet ice pretty much the who length. For some bizzare reason unknown to myself and my friend Simon we decided to ride the tow path.
It took twice as log as normal and was pretty sketchy.

A third of the way up the big climb

When we got to Cwmcarn I noticed it was quite different to last week. We had fluffy snow last week. Now it was a mix of black ice or a crunchy mix of snow and ice. Riding the 1st section low down was a pretty fair indication of what was do come. Tyre tracks in the snow frozen solid so there were tyre sized ruts on the trail. A bleeding nightmare as your tyre just wanted to follow the little rut.

The last of the really icy parts just before the fire track

Normally I don't have to dab my foot down anywhere on the Twrch Trail. It's all very ridable but today there were parts that were a bit too much fun. Getting over some of the normal slippery bits took a bit more care and you really had to attack some of them. Certain areas though were near impossible to pass. The section leading up to the fire track in the pic above was so slippery it was pretty hard to walk up with the bike.

<-- This a way

We didn't go on the jump section this week just on the twisty Twrch Trail at the top. It was fairly icy but was OK as you could ride off line a bit and there was no ice. Over the gate and up onto the mountain as last week. This week all the puddles with thin ice were completely frozen solid and as hardly anyone had been up there it wasn't slippery like on the Twrch Trail. So to be fair we could ride anywhere without fear of slipping about too much. As the sun was so strong and there was very little wind it was actually quite warm up there.

Stunning views up the top

We did have one large frozen puddle collapse which was quite funny as we were about a third the way across it at the time when it gave way.
On the way back down the Twrch I realised that this ice was becoming a bit tricky. Last week was fun I could ride down without having to brake much and the back wheel would skid a bit but was easy to control. This week you hit the brakes and your on your ass. I really felt like I had to keep my wits about me all the time. The ice was really hard to ride down.
The final flowing downhill section which is just about the most perfect flowing downhill I have ridden in the dry was just a nightmare. Last week it was snow this week was icier than anywhere else. My mate Simon was ahead of me and I saw him lose both wheels to the ice and I followed with caution and did exactly the same. The only thing that could make the iced up Twrch Trail totally ridable would be some studded tyres.
Schwalbe do two types. The Snow Studs like in the pic or the Ice Spike Pros which are a bit OTT. With 90% of the trail perfectly ridable with my Schwalbe Nobby Nicks I don't really think I need a full coverage of studs
I'm sure we have not seen the last of this ice so I have ordered a pair of the Snow Studs. I just wish I had ordered them in July when I noticed them in stock everywhere. One thing I took from Sunday's ride is that I really had to try hard to keep the bike rolling up the trail. The iced up trail meant I had to try and roll over obstacles without peddling too much. Something I will only get better at. I need to learn to ride more efficiently, carrying momentum forward with me so I don't waste so much energy. This will be handy in the long endurance races no doubt.

I also saw a group of riders out in Shorts and track mitts. Some people are just too tough or daft (-5C or colder).

Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro

Schwalbe Snow Stud tyre

Cwmcarn Twrch Trail then over the top of the mountain to Mynydd Maen & back

Riding up the road to the Cwmcarn Trail Centre

Sunday Morning I woke up early to get out on the MTB for 4hrs worth of  training. I open the front door at 8am and decided it was far too cold so I waited an hour and went out at 9am. I went straight up the road to Cwmcarn through Risca to get their quicker.
The road that leads up to the Cwmcarn Trail Centre was closed as it was really icy and although I've live in the area for over 30 years I had no idea there was an alternative route up there and the car park was half full already at 9:45.
Before I'd even got to the trail centre my water bottle was already starting to freeze up. I put the bottle in one of my pockets to keep it a bit warmer. I had another bottle in my bag side pocket. I didn't check that. I didn't hang about to see who was about I just set off up the trail. I was suprise how much snow was still about. lower down. Where there was no tree cover there was compacted snow and where the trees stopped the snow the trail was icy and solid. If it hadn't been so cold I'd say it would be very fast conditions if it was a used in a race. Grip was never a problem. I went up to the top and had a play on the jumps and a few trips down the XC switchback section.
Right up the top there is a gate that leads to the mountain above. I saw that at least two riders had gone up there from their tracks so I thought I would join them.

Some iced up single track lower down the trail

More icy single track

The bumpy fire road (smoothest I've ever ridden it)

Riding over the top of Twmbarlwm and then North over towards the OS trig point Mynydd Maen it was very cold. The snow was solid and there was a lot of ice. I had ridden up there in the Autumn with my daughter and the all the large puddles were frozen solid. Some of them were about 30ft long and I could ride over the edges of them OK. I was riding down a large rut that seems to be about 6 inches deep. I'd been riding down it for a quite a few metres when I heard some cracking. Suddenly I just dropped about a foot maybe more into the water below. I managed to stay upright and not get wet. It came as a bit of a surprise I must say. The temperature according to one of the riders at the top of the Twrch Trail was about -5. So over on Mynydd Maen with the wind chill it must have been quite a bit less.
The view from the top of the mountain was fantastic. Apart from some electricity pylons there was no sign of anything man built. I could see the Bristol Channel, England, The not so black at the time Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons the sky was that clear. To the South through West to North it was clear. From the East I could see dark clouds and feared some bad weather was coming my way so I thought it best I head back to the Cwmcarn Trail. On the way back I made my own way going over different tracks not following the two tyre tracks I had followed before. It's hard work not knowing the tracks and having them covered in snow. I met a group of three riders on their way up had a quick chat and headed back to the Twrch. Climbed over the fence at the top of the Jumps section and had a few more runs down them. On last run I met three blokes who were having issues with one of their bikes. looked like the one chap had blown his forks up. Not the nicest of rides back down for him.
On the way down the downhill part of the Twrch Trail I found it very icy. I don't think I touched the front brake once and took it very easy. when I got to the car park at the bottom I thought about going for another loop but thought better of it and headed home via the canal tow path. I certainly didn't expect to come across a fishing competition. Those guys looked cold all sat there with their Roach Pole trying to catch what exactly?

Bloody good day on the bike I say  Hopefully will get back up there on Sunday or maybe Afan Forest

Very icy single track that had no tree cover

At the Top of the Twrch Trail. Left or Right (I did it both twice)

Just above the Twrch Trail riding over to Mynydd Maen

OS trig point on Mynydd Maen at 459ft

Looking North towards the Black Mountains

The frozen canal on the way home

A bit of a cold day for a fishing competition 

So I've got a Mountain Bike (What next?)

Coming down off the Gap Road
Brecon Beast 2010

Last year I decided that I would try something else. I had become a little tired of road racing and wanted something that was a bit more fun. Don't get me wrong, I love road racing but as I live between London and South Wales I was finding it a bit crap. I have the Cwmcarn Twrch Trail (I'll get back to that) right on my doorstep on the weekends and I thought I'd get myself a MTB. I really didn't intend to race just have a bit of fun. 

Before my bike had arrived I had borrowed a bike off a colleague and took it up Cwmcarn. Next thing I know I've entered the OS Mountain Mayhem 24hr race as part of a Mixed Team of 5 & had started to plan my season. So I entered a mix of XC races & Enduros.

I was into the MTB so much I only did two road races all season. I do plan to do more road races in 2011 but more for training than anything. 

I did the North East London based Beastway series which started very well for me. 1st race I was second in Masters. I was leading until I did my trademark one crash of the race. Most of the series I was in the top 4 or 5 with the odd week of Hell due to a puncture or broken ribs. Right in the middle of the Beastway series was the OS Mountain Mayhem 24hr. I raced this as part of a team. It was bloody awesome. I can't believe how much fun it was and how hard it was. I was riding for my club Norwood Paragon CC. A team of 5. 4 boys and one bloody fast Lady called Kaye. We did bloody good considering Doc broke his thumb. I had my trademark crash and Adam slept in a bit late one lap. We came 10th which wasn't bad considering. I saw the state of the solo guys and thought they looked a right mess. No way would I be stupid enough to try that.

I then did a few of the local races in Surrey which were pretty cool. 

An early round of Beastway

The high & low point of my season were the Enduros all the races i had done so far were no more than two hours long. The Low point was the 75km Big Welsh Enduro in Margam Park. I thought I was fit until I turned up to this race. Boy I had a shock. I wasn't last but not far off. If it hadn't been for some friends cheering me on I would have packed. 
The high point was the Brecon Beast which was 110km and up and over the Brecon Beacons mtns. I really enjoyed it. I was actually competitive pretty much the whole way round until I snapped a chain. When I crossed the line I was told I was 8th. confusion with the results puts me outside the top 20 but I know where I came. I suffered the whole way round but loved every minute of it. It was in the final kms of this race I pretty much decided that I was going to try a 24hr Solo. 

So there were are, I said it 24hr solo. At the London Cycle Show the XC Racer Shop announced that the entries for the 24hrs of Exposure and the Mondane Kielder 100 so I entered them both. Jump in both feet first, might as well and so it starts......


Better get training!