eat your heart out charley and ewan, bmw and ktm!!

staak lucassen

Progress Report 14 - w/c 13.07.09 - Race Number 4

firstly, thank you mathers for your kind comment, in fact thank you for writing a comment, good to have some feedback on the blog ; ) that's a little unfair, as i have in fact had some great feedback from ronnie and chris.....by the way mathers, cec stands for cotswold enduro club.

last week i made contact with mick exstance, (thank you liam), a dakar veteran who was only too happy to impart his learning. he has offered to meet up and give me some feedback on my ability and what i will need to do, he was very business like and very focused. so this is a fantastic connection and i'll be heading up doncaster way very soon.

so, race number 4, and a testing one at that! each race had thrown up new challenges and yesterday it was rain, rivers of mud, very steep, muddy and slippery gorges, huge bogs but also some great open runs over a 7 mile course near selattyn in north wales.

0530 start on sunday morning, as i had a 2.5-3hr drive up from the cottage, it was the first overcast race morning i have had, but it was quite a relief after the hot sunshine during the previous 3 races. it also meant some proper wet conditions which i was yet to face....couldn't wait!

using my iphone gps, car satnav, a map and following the cec orange triangles which were stapled to sign-posts , i made it in time to register and get ready by 0935, so had time to chat to a few fellow riders before the race. the sky was very dark, the wind was picking up....the race was about to start. for some reason we were at the back of the grid again, so the course would be pretty chewed up by the time we got away, bring it on!!

yours truly ; ) (photos care of pete cobbe)


a photo of part of the course, you can see the dirt tracks in the distance,


but you can't see the gorge in the fore ground where the following photo was taken


wholly crap, it was a mud bath, each lap taking about 35 mins on average. i managed a 26 minute lap 3, but a 47 minute lap 5, my final and most painful lap yet. it was so slippery that every corner there was a either a pile up or 2 or 3 bikes jammed in a bog or on a steep slope. it was better to hang back and wait for it to clear before attempting to go past, at least at my level! but saying that, one rider literally flew fast me on one section, he must have been airborne for a whole second as he landed on very wet grass on an adverse camber, traveling in excess of 50 mph....it was a f(*&^ing awesome sight, he obviously had balls of steel and a back up team to drive him home!

while i was in the queue to register i got chatting to young lad, very laid back and had an air of confidence about him............he raced every weekend, he must be damned fit to compete so regularly, needless to say he finished first!

i was absolutely covered in mud by the end of the race, my bike must have weight twice as much with all the mud, grass and water that filled every space in and around the engine. the bike was awesome though, after each crash, it started right up and took me to the next obstacle......the entire last lap was one big f(*((ing obstacle, it was hilarious; contouring down goat tracks on very sleep slopes with no tread due to the mud being packed in, i literally slid in every direction; to much throttle and i was pointing in the opposite direction. it was mental......

i was the last rider on the course at one point - they had stopped the race early due to the terrible conditions, but i managed to sneak in another lap - my head was saying stop but my heart wanted to do just one more!!! and i am glad i did ; ) it was a tremendous feeling to finish.....another 3 hour race. i did stop once, not to re-fuel, but to lower the tyre pressure to about 12psi and clean my goggles; when i was not eating dirt from a fall, i was eating dirt from another riders rear wheel....i loved it, such a kid!!

peeling the gear off and packing up was a delicate task to avoid covering everything in mud, but cleaning the bike was another story.....i've got some work to do. it was 10pm before i stopped to have supper, it was a very long day, but an awesome one. it is 2am tuesday morning and i am pumped!

i asked a fellow comeptitor, richard to take a photo to prove i was there!



random photo, chobe taking it easy during preparation.....

Progress Report 13 - w/c 06.07.09 - Offroad skills

last minute decision to go on another 2 day training course with simon pavey's crew in south wales; my first off-road skills training was at the beginning of august last year, man, time sure is flying by!! very exciting, but meant i had to fit a 5 day week into 3 days....

i left london on wednesday after dinner with friends and headed up to the cottage, before continuing the journey at dawn the following day....cruising over cotswolds....it's sooo beautiful at that time of day! journey pretty uneventful other than a moment of panic as reached the severn bridge toll; firstly i keep forgetting that commercial vehicles have to pay over £10 to cross; secondly they don't take cards and i never carry cash; thirdly, i thought i had run out of (timely) options, but fortunately they do take cheques ; )

arrived in time, most people were already kitted up raring to go, i was just desperate for the loo. since i was doing the level 3 there were only 4 people plus the instructor. we were also given a g450 to ride for the 2 days, with a fantastic instructor, gwyn barraclough, well into his fifties but still going strong - christ, he was leading us around for the entire time without breaking sweat, meanwhile i was leaking water from every part of my body......nice!!

it was great to ask gwyn about riding techniques now that i have a few races under my belt and then testing them. having the time to practice without the pressure of racing was brilliant; fast and hard turns on the flat gravel is a lot harder that racing around the berms; sitting compared to standing on the footpegs, brake turning, donuts in the gravel, I even had a crack at jumping over tree trunks...it was amazing what the bike is capable of - although Simon pavey's observation of my attempts was "toby! you having fun riding 'through' those tree trunks!?" i have a legitimate need to practice my wheelies!!

i stayed in a lovely b&b, the pentre riding stables, just up the road from the training centre, so had time to bath before dinner which was back at the abercrave inn with the rest of the team and had breakfast with a very interesting gentleman who after 2 days off-roading, was competing in a car rally in paris the following day, he was in his 60's but showed no sign of slowing!

day two was even better, now feeling in the groove, riding longer routes without stopping, so finding the rhythm, tackling some seriously long and steep ascents; paddling through some very deep ruts, while trying not to fall over too many times! however, i was still sweating like blind lesbian in a fish market and smelt pretty bad too ; )

the g450




we had a great team or riders; jago, a fellow londoner who has been competing for a few years now, ridden with patsy quick in morocco - in 2006 she became the first british female rider to complete the dakar, which happened to be the same year charlie boorman rode there - and competed in the dawn to dusk 12 hr event last year on his own; james, a coast guard from guernsey who is a pretty skilled trail biker; and john, who was over from ireland to follow up his level 2 training.

the team - left to right; james, me, jago, gwyn (we'd lost john by this point!)


the next few photos show james and jago reaching the top of a particularly long and steep climb, which culminates in a really steep exit, where i managed to get to within 6 feet before my wheel started to spin and the bike flipped! all good fun and dramatic stuff....really get's your blood pumping and when you have to drag your bike up, with all the gear on, it feel like your lungs will explode. you can't believe how exhausting this kind of riding is....all good training.....just glad i have the weekend to recover, although i could do without the drive back to london to pick chobe up, as i then have to get back to the wolds to carry out an oil service on my race bike - last chance before my race next weekend.

james on his way up


jago on his way up


we didn't even have to clean the bikes, but unfortunately there is no shower to wash myself off with after the days riding, so it was simply off with the wet (and muddy) and on with the dry, but i was still muddy....still it was only me in the car for the journey home!



always look forward to seeing chobe, just a shame she was not here in the brecons, she would love it...i must get up here with her soon.

more from my race next weekend.

a little late posting this, so my exploits at the race this weekend will follow very shortly!