Life In The Saddle

I saw a blog on this topic on BikeRadar and thought there were some key points missing. So here are just a few useful tips to make mountain biking easier and safer. 1) Cadence: Keep it high; this is more important than on a road bike, where changing up a gear and powering it up to speed is possible, on a mountain bike it is key to keep the cadence going so that if you hit an unexpected small incline or bump you have the momentum and power to push over it. Aim for 85-95 r.p.m. 2) Climbing: Looking ahead at the trail, rather than down at your front tyre is one thing for balance and peripheral vision, but it also important for thinking ahead. As you near a climb think about your cadence. It needs to stay high when you hit the climb, so change down a few gears, spin up to above the r.p.m you would normally use; then as you hit the climb it will gradually decrease back to normal and maybe a little below. This is the most efficient way of climbing and again allows you to push over ...

Today was a rest day - an unusual occurrence now that I'm at home and have the trails and roads of the Isle of Wight on my doorstep, but having had over a week of sunshine, and cycling in shorts and jersey, the weather seems to have caught up with itself. So today's rain and tired legs have confined my to just one small gym session. I don't mind though because the last week of riding has been fantastic - I built the new On One Whippet up about ten days ago and it is one rapid bike. Super-stiff and seriously light for a mountain bike, it flies up the hills and is surprisingly forgiving on the downs. Hardly any issues with it at all, in fact the only real one is that during yesterdays ride I went through a large amount of sheep Sh*t on a downhill from Shorwell Down and then proceed unknowingly to massage a pile of it into my beautiful new white SLR saddle for the rest of the ride, staining it rather yellow on one side - I guess sh*t happens! (actually most of it came off with...

In September 2009 I cycled with a friend from Le Havre to Paris and back; two days down there, two days back. It was a fantastic trip - carrying all our kit on our old steel road bikes and loving the French back roads, cheap camp-sites and rolling onto the cobbled streets of the Champs Elysée in Paris after a few days of very rewarding cycling. Perhaps some time in the future I will get round to writing up a blog post about the trip, if I can dig out the photo album and rack the memory. But for know I thought I would write about a planned trip that I would really like to do sometime in the future, potentially this September, depending on how finances and time go. So here it is: "Le Tour des Montagnes": 1480 Miles, 18Days and some of the best climbs and roads in France. The Route: Le Havre, France Orleans, France Lyon, France Grenoble, France Col du Galibier, Valloire, France Col de la Bonette, Jausiers, France Marseille, France Montpellier, France Saint Girons, France Lourdes...

It might be a 3hour drive from Warwick down to the National Velodrome in Newport, South Wales...but boy is it worth it! The facility is almost brand new - built just a few years ago and inside it is an impressive sight, even more so when you walk in to the spectators area to see the Olympic Youth Squad training on the track - very impressive lads and girls, all pushing some serious speeds up to 40mph as they practised their 500m times on the 250meter track. After getting suited up in skinsuits and collecting our bikes we headed into the centre of the track - a little daunting to say the least - the angle of the banking is pretty damn steep! The coach got us riding round the flat area on the edge of the track to get used to the fixed speed bikes. Then gradually we moved up the banking - first on the "Cote d'azur": the blue edge of the boards that isn't too steeply sloped, then moving up and gaining speed onto the higher levels of the track. Before long we were picking ...

This week I watched the fantastic 'Chasing Legends' produced by Gripped Films about Team HTC Columbia in the 2009 Tour de France. If you are a cyclist prepare to be glued to your seat, shivers running down your spine as you're inspired by what is undoubtedly the best cycling film I have seen. The up close and personal accounts with riders, journalists, team mechanics, coaches and photographers gives the kind of insight into The Tour that I have never seen before; and trust me I've watched quite a few cycling videos. Gripped Films have really captured the essence of what The Tour means to people - to the riders, a three week period of emotional and physical mountains and troughs. For the spectators; passionate involvement far closer to the action than can be seen in practically any other sport. It is this personal account of the race that allows you to be absorbed into the emotions and thoughts of the teams; and in many ways to really feel that you are there and taking p...