Tuesday 17 January 2012

Fresh Rubber - Halo Twin Rail

With every new unique event comes a list of 'must have' bike features ... for racing on gravel at the Dirty Kanza 200 a wider than normal tyre is going to be used and not only that but a fairly robust tread to cope with the the flint of the Flint Hills we will be riding in.
Halo have kindly sent myself and Rick Perry a set of their Halo Twin Rail tyres, 38c wide and with extra puncture protection its like they made them for gravel Grinding :)



Huge thank you to Halo for their support.

Sunday 15 January 2012

Dirty Kanza 200



I got an entry for the Dirty Kanza 200 !!!

This is my primary goal for 2012 ... the event sold out after opening yesterday in 3.5 hours !!!

200 miles of Kansas gravel await me ... time to increase training miles, build a bike, book flights etc.

Gonna be a great year.

Monday 9 January 2012

Progress

I thought it was about time to break radio silence and post an update as to what has been happening over the last few months.

Shoestring racing is going to be back on track for 2012.

First and most important change has been my long term coach , Mark Forgy, deciding to prioritise himself a little more in a more than hectic lifestyle he leads ... As Mark reminded me we have worked together since 2008 so every great achievement I attribute to Mark and his guidance making sure I was physically and mentally ready ... I wish Mark the best of luck in whatever he decides to achieve and I am sure we will stay in touch for many years to come.

At the moment I am without coach so simply doing what I know works until I can find someone to fill Mark's shoes.

Kit wise I was almost riding for a new team but decided that my schedule is so hit and miss and my events so random at times it would just be easier to have the flexibility in owning my own bikes and paying my own way ( although with help from friends ;) ) .

Event wise I have started to put together a great year of riding ... Hit the North 3, Whinlatter Challenge, TransALLgarve to name but a few.

The biggest challenge of the year comes in the form of a single event in the US ... a single day event in which I hope to be very competitive ... I will leave it at that until next week when the entry hopefully gets secured.

Fair to say I am very focussed at the moment .. I started the year on New years day with a Metric Century on the cross bike with Cross Club rider Adam Cooke , Last weekend another big 70 plus mile ride .. this weekend hopefully another century ... just gonna keep pushing out the distance until I am VERY comfortable at the event distance I want to do well at :)

Hopefully in the next few weeks I will give a more detailed run down of both the event I am gunning for this year and also all the bikes I plan to ride and race :)

Happy Days :)