MTB Skills Academy Details 2013

MTB Skills Academy Details 2013

Savoury Ride Snacks...

I recently discovered from a friend of mine a fantastic recipe and method for a savoury ride snack. The idea came originally from Garmin-Slipstream's team physiologist, Dr. Allen Lim. So, if it's good enough for a Pro Team then it's got to be good. Besides, I just fancied a change from the usual oat Flapjacks and the energy bars that I usually consume whilst on a long ride. They taste great and I've had no issues with digestion on a ride following consumption.

Ingredients (for 9x9 tin)


2-3 x fresh eggs.
1 x (dry) cup sushi rice (approx 200g)
3 x slices bacon.
2 tbs Soy sauce.
Parmesan cheese (Optional).
Salt to taste (Optional).

Method

1. Scramble and cook eggs in frying pan, breaking them up thoroughly into small pieces then set aside.

2. Thoroughly clean through the rice with water. Cook the rice according to directions (Only use Sushi rice otherwise the cakes won’t hold together). I found that the Sushi Rice I made took approx 30 mins to cook. For the 200g of rice I used approx 300ml of water (there was no requirement to drain the rice as the water gets fully absorbed).

3. Fry bacon or pancetta in frying pan over a medium heat until done (thin-sliced pancetta crisps up very quickly, so watch it carefully) – if using bacon, blot thoroughly on paper towels.

4. Crumble pancetta or bacon into small pieces and fold into rice along with eggs. Add soy and parmesan to taste.

5. Transfer to a shallow baking pan (9×9) and, using a spatula, firmly press down on mixture. As an option I transferred the pan to the grill just to brown off the top which then provides a nice crisp texture. Let cool, cut into bars sized portions to slip into a jersey pocket and wrap in foil. Refrigerate.

Start with smaller batches like this until you know how many cakes you can eat in a few days of riding. It's best to consume within 3/4 days!!


VARIATIONS: Try omitting the bacon and cheese and creating a “sweet” rice cake using honey or fruit jam instead of soy sauce. Experiment, have fun.

WMTB – round 2 at Coed Y Brenin.

Coed y Brenin visitor centre (old site) hosted the second round of the Welsh MTB league and again Towy Riders/TRCC were well represented in all of the categories. Once again racing commenced with the under 8’s, followed by the under 10’s and then the under 12’s, who raced the lower section of the technically stony and rooty course.

To all that have never been to Coed Y Brenin, it was the first forest to be developed for the sport of mountain biking and to this day retains its reputation as the sports premier location – therefore the course was guaranteed to be not for the faint hearted. It was truly MTB racing at its best. This was especially true for the under 8 and 10 course which saw them race on a proper mountain biking course – not like the cyclocross course that was in Margam a few weeks ago.

In the under 8’s we saw Garan, Freya and Cian battle with a very testing course with a podium position going to Garan as 3rd boy whilst Freya and Cian battled on for 5th placed girl and 8th placed boy respectively.

For the under 10’s Heledd was the only Towy Rider to brave the trip up to Coed y Brenin and came away with a well deserved 2nd place.

In the under 12 year category there was again only one brave Towy Rider, Iwan Evans, who battled the bigger and tougher under 12’s course and secured a podium position with his 3rd place finish in a very well fought contest.

Youth and Juvenile riders set off at the usual time of 11 o’clock accompanied with the women, sport male, veterans and grand vet racers, all tackling the full gruesome and extremely technical full course, with its rocks, stony descents and challenging drop offs.

Wayne Davies and Wayne Jones took 13th and 17th place respectively in the veteran category with Craig Godfrey in 10th position in the Sport category.

Nicholas Jones finished in 3rd position in the Youth category with Tanwen completing the course in 3rd position of the Youth girls.

For the Juvenile girls category Jessica, in another outstanding race took the 1st position.

For the junior boys Carwyn Davies and Geraint Godfrey raced hard and fast to complete the race in 4th and 6th positions respectively.

Overall – a great day of demanding racing and no mud in sight. Got to be a first for me. All we need now is to get some of our ladies out racing MTB and we will be represented in all categories.

2013 Welsh MTB Series – round 1 at Margam Park – Port Talbot.

By Lee-Michelle Jones

The 2013 Welsh Mountain Bike Series got under way this weekend at Margam Park on verywet and blustery welsh winters day.Racing started at 09.30 with the under 8’s, followed by the under 10’s and under 12’s battling on the lower section of the muddy, and very technical course.Garan Jones and Freya took second boy and girl in the under 8’s with a steady and controlled race, while Cian put in his usual gutsy skillful performance.

In the under 10’s Gruffydd Daniel raced his way to complete his first WMTB race with a solid performance and is now looking forward to the next battle of the series. In the under 12’s, Iwan Evans, Cian Roberts, Iwan Godfrey, Adam Thorne & Tom Butterworth all braved the blistery rain and mud to battle the longer lower section of the course to gain 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th & 13th respectively. 

Racing started for the longer course riders at 11am – with the women, vets and gran-vet riders braving the 3.5kms muddy swamp. As the course preview stated … there were some muddy wet areas but overall the course was riding well. As a spectator, there were a number of “over the handle bar falls” and looking at the state of the competitors – it was clearly mud, sweat and tears!! Clearly a tough course physically with little way of rest and certainly with some muddy challenges!

In the veteran race both Wayne Davies and Wayne Jones battled the mud well to complete in 14^th and 16^th positions respectively. In a spectacular race, Nick took the youth A win completing a speedy second fastest first lap of the race on the full course, with Matt Thorne finishing in 10^th position. Both boys met the mud well following “over the handle bar” falls and still came out smiling. Hefin also braved the full course in the youth A category but sadly retired following a puncture.

In the juvenile male, Ioan Thomas also had to retire due to a mechanical problem soon after the start, so will eagerly await the next round.

In the Youth A female category, Ffion James from Abergavenny took the overall win, with our own Tanwen coming in second position with an outstanding ride knee deep in mud, sweat and smiles.

In the second race of the day, which started at 1pm – we saw the junior racers battle the mud with Carwyn Davies completing the challenge in a respectable 5^th position and Geraint Godfrey taking a superb 9^th.

There were clearly some serious challenges out there today, with the rain, mud and the challenges did not stop there. For I am sure some washing machines also braved the onslaught, cleaning the kit ready for the next round of the WMTB series. 

 Full Event Results

All Photos : Courtesy of Craig Fawkes (Follow this link to view more)

MTB racing - A young riders view!!

By Matthew Thorne

The weather was as usual wet, cold and windy and signing on may as well have been in a different country! It was so far away from the car and the marathon of a walk was made twice as bad by the fact the road leading up to it had more water on it than concrete! Resulting in people and bikes dodging about the whole length of it. Enough of the moaning for now! The racing was fantastic and the atmosphere was great considering the amount of mud and water that seemed to get absolutely everywhere! The course was very muddy which made it a lot more technical to ride. On the first lap, before the field had spread, it was just a line of riders strung out on the first climb up the singletrack. The first bit of technical descent was a straight rocky section which wasn't particularly steep but had enough loose rocks to give you something to think about! Having the bonus of a full suspension MTB with powerful brakes is that there's no need to brake too early, but obviously the spectators standing at the bottom of the descent didn't know that when they all scrambled to the sides with a look of shock on their faces - when I started screaming at the bloke in front who decided he wanted to stop and walk the last bit! The last sections of the course was just mud, mud and you guessed it, more mud!! On the first lap a rider came flying face first past my shoulder and straight into a wet, gooey puddle of mud and I laughed, probably loud enough for him to hear (ooopsy)!! But Karma got me back on my second lap as I suffered the same fate as he had and went straight over the bars and got a face full of dirt! overall a fantastic race!!!!!

Welsh athletes shine at National Cyclo Cross

Jessica Roberts (Towy Riders) demonstrated her talents at the National Cyclo Cross Championships at Bradford's Peel Park on Saturday, winning the National Under-14 girls title by a comfortable margin.
Roberts rode within herself for the first two laps, before going clear of her breakaway companion Lucy Horricks (Hope Racing) to win by an impressive margin of almost three minutes. Roberts' success follows her domination over the National Trophy series, where five wins saw her comfortably take the series honours.

Welsh athletes shine at National Cyclo Cross

Winter Turbo Training

With the poor weather here in Wales which has inhibited a lot of my riding the only way to keep things in check physically during these periods is the indoor trainer. I, like most people find this style of training mind numbing & tedious and the constant drone of the resistance unit spinning would send most asleep.
Recently, I've had to re-visit indoor training partly as mentioned earlier the weather and additionally the lack of time I tend to have with work & family commitments. Having owned turbo trainers before I thought I would look into what was on the market and try to emulate first, the experience of riding on the road and secondly something that would focus the mind and thus maximise the result of the workout.
As I have a Carbon framed road bike I felt a little reserved with using a standard fixed trainer like a Tacx Trainer or similar. My reason being, when carrying out a hard interval standing I felt the lateral forces across the rear triangle of the frame with it being fixed to the trainer could be quite high resulting in potential damage to the frame.
First off I opted for a set of Fixed Rollers. These were great once I got used to maintaining balance and not falling off!! Once mastered, I found that I could really hold good form and there was no chance of getting bored as I was constantly engaged with the ride. The only limitation I found, it was near impossible to stand whilst riding. As a result I opted for the Tacx Galacia Rollers, these were great as the entire roller frame would move backward and forwards with the rider. They were fantastic for standing and far more comfortable in the seated position than the fixed roller.
This brought me onto a further problem, the lack of affective resistance. I attempted to achieve this by deflating the tyres or using the gears on the bike. The trouble was, as I got stronger I was able to complete an entire training sessions in top gear.
So, back to the drawing board and a bit of digging around the interweb I soon found that there was a trainer that fitted the brief on both accounts. It was called the Kurt Kinetic Rock & Roll. Believe me, this is as good as the video below illustrates...

Now, that I had found the tool for the job I went on to looking at the various training packages/videos that would motivate me to get out in to the garage and train! For the rider that really wants to push themselves then a company called thesuffefest would be right up your street. The sessions generally last around an hour and give you a visual guide of the effort/cadence that you're  required to put in whilst following an edited video witch has a well thought out soundtrack along with the occasional motivation text flash - some of which I think are really good. (this link to my Garminconnect give you an idea of the work output I put in - 'on the Rollers I may add') Below is a video introduction of the same session I carried out.

For the rider that doesn't want such an intense workout or maybe requires some variation with their winter routine I found a company that creates some really nice videos (breathtaking scenic shots)  supported again with great dialogue and music. The company's name is Cyclefilm - again see below...

 By sheer fluke I discovered via a friends post on Facebook an app called Trainerroad which with a 30 day free trial I knew I had to give it a go. The rider is offered an array of turbo trainer sessions along with the option to follow a full training package. The part I especially liked was that Trainerroad software is synced to Sufferfest videos. Additionally, they are able to generate 'Virtual power' readings from some listed turbo trainers. I've completed a couple of thesufferfest videos using this App and have been pleasantly surprised with the result - I did find a tiny amount of latency between the video effort prompts and the trainerroad effort prompts but nothing too concerning. I put it down to the video graphics card of my laptop not being able to handle MP4 files. Below is their introductory video...

The system is also based on a community which allows the user to sync their workouts with trainrroad servers and compare your results along with others users.
The last App I would like to share is Strava. I've used Garminconnect for many years but  have recently been introduced to Strava by a friend. What I find rather special about this app is that outside of the indoor trainer arena (which you can upload data from if you wish) is that other users in the area that you ride can along with yourself segment certain parts of a ride which are then comparable by time. This I think is a brilliant idea and if you're a competitive minded rider you're able to  set yourself goals against yourself and other riders. The system uses KOM for the segments, from which you can gain points and be gifted with some Kudos from your friends in the area who also use the app - what a great idea!! (Strava Link of my local ride). Additionlly, the user is able to migrate their .TCX files from other applications like Garminconnect...