kielder 100

What a balls up!
Was feeling a bit iffy all week before it, camped out the friday night and didn't sleep much was coughing most of it and the constant rain wasn't helping banging on the tent roof. The plan a month before was to do really well and hopefully make a top 20 place.
I awoke by mick telling me it was 5.15am, it was dark and still pissing down. I got up and changed drank some porridge(because i forgot spoons) and got my self to the start line for 6.15.
6.15 is a bit late if you want to be anywhere near the front, i was placed a few hundred places back, luckily once the race had started it was led out at a slow pace by a pickup and i did a mad sprint for the front.
Once the pickup left the top guys let everyone know who they were, the pace was unreal i was coughing my guts up straight away and let them go. I ended up on my own pretty much from the start, the leader group had left me and i was ahead of the 2nd bunch.
The weather was bad it still wasnt properly light and was drizzling with morning mist, i slowed my pace as i wasnt racing i just wanted to complete it. The odd person caught me and we chatted about how bad this was going to be. I was covered in mud and was wet to the skin after 5 miles (only 95 to go). I was feeling ok considering i wasnt well but a problem soon hit when i got to the top of the first major climb and i couldnt ride fast enough to keep myself warm, i was cold by the time i had done any flat or downhill. I reckoned i was in the top 30 riders or so and new the conditions were bad as i saw a few good riders pull out who were in front of me by the 20 mile mark! I carried on knowing that if i took it easy i would easily complete it.
The course was wet, muddy and slippy, from the 5 mile mark i could hear my xtr transmission grinding away (not a good feeling). I was determined though to do it even if it wasn't at a race pace. At the 40 mile mark i hit a problem going down a decent, my brakes weren't working! I had to hold my rear brake lever to the bar just to remind me it wasn't there. I had to ride just using the front brake which was fine until one of the front pistons sieze'd up and pumped my lever up. I got myself to the half way point at 50 odd mile at 4hours 30 feeling ok considering and had  to call it a day, i had no pads, and was coughing my guts up. I wanted to carry on but the lack of brakes meant i couldn't, they where fine on the singletrack decents (which were fun even with no brakes) but  it was the fire road decent's where you'd hit 30mph in no time and had to brake for a corner that was the concern.
So that was it from me, half way and pulled out with numerous other people. Gutted but will be back next year as i loved 99% of the 54 mile i did.

10 @ kirroughtree

Felt pretty rubbish on the bike the week before kirroughtree, my legs didnt have any speed and i was feeling very tired. This didnt bother me to much as i was entering this race for the course its self, it is one of a kind, if you ever want a good trail centre to go ride i would recommend the red route here.
The race course had parts of the fast flowing singletrack found on the red run  also linked up with natural rooty sections which when ridden fast didn't matter how tired you were, you always had a grin on your face.
The start of the race was led out by a ambulance onto a tarmac hill climb to spread every one out ( this is so much better than doing a run to your bike), i found myself in the front group and kept a good pace, the course was a bit damp in the morning and the roots in the woods were fun to say the least but the sun shone all day and the course grew faster and faster. I was leading by lap 3 which i didnt expect, but i knew greig brown would be on my tail soon enough  as he had punctured. Greig caught me and i rode 2 laps with him at a pace i didnt think was to bad, it was at this point in the race where the sun was hot and i really should of been concentrating on drinking lots and eating but this never occurred to me as i was to busy trying to work out a plan when to try drop greig. I made my move on lap 7 and got away from him only to be caught on the next lap where i cramped at the top of a steep climb and watched him ride off into the distance. From this point onwards the dehydration hit me and i had a couple of slow laps, i set my own rhythm and just enjoyed the course while drinking lots. I came round and found some energy on lap 9 only to have a mechanical, the chain jumped off and got jammed between the cassette and the spokes. I had to use brute force to get it out and it seemed like it took forever to do. i came in from lap 9 with half and our to go down 12 minutes on 1st place, i didnt need to go back out and do another lap to finish in 2nd as i had a big gap on 3rd but forced myself out on another lap. This was a bad idea, the first 3 quarters of the lap went well but i had a major bonk that hit me like never before i actually fell off on a smooth part of the trail, i had to ride the last 2km in 1st gear with my head nearly resting on the handle bars it took me forever to get back. Still i finshed in 2nd which is better than i expected and enjoyed it all apart from the last 2 km.Well done to grieg  who got the better of me again we were 1st and 2nd at 10 under the ben.
Damian also came in tired but with a excellent 3rd position in senior vets completing 7 laps, Mick also rode a good race with 8 laps, he managed a respectable 11th place.
Big thank you to liz for looking after me through the race, making and passing me drinks as i past by.

solo seniors

senior vets

coniston loop

Headed to the lakes with mick for a nice hard 27 mile loop from coniston, technical climbs and decents with also added boggy moorland.

mick first climb

Headed from coniston over to the outskirts of grizedale forest and followed the trail high up running parallel to the lake which had a cracking decent back down, i will do this ride again after a dry spell so i can push myself on the decent better, it looks like it could be so much more fun.

above coniston

heading west to hawthwaite was good on singletrack and quite lanes.

heading north now and the hardest climb of the day up to walna scar, really tuff but worth it for the decent back down to coniston

heading up walna scar

mick top of walna scar

decent to coniston

10 under the ben Fort william

Driving up through extremely hard rain shower with the wiper blades on as fast as possible wasnt really the weather me and damian were hoping for, we had faith that come saturday the sun would be out and all would be fine. We set up our tents inbetween showers next to the trail and set off to registration, free food and whisky tasting was also on the menu for competitors at the top station off the gondola which meant that was us sorted for the evening. It was blowing a gale outside and also snowing, i was wondering if i had enough warm riding kit with me to ride in winter conditions, i dont think anyone was expecting snow and hail a week before June but as they say this is scotland!

outside the bar

looking to fort william

Awaking the next morning after a few pints, one to many shots of whisky and a bowl of sweet chicken thia noodles i felt pretty dehydrated (i can however recommend Benromach origins batch no2 as a top notch whisky). Damian was up and dressed and i just lay in bed listening to rain hammer off the tent. Finally the rain stopped i got up, changed and got everything sorted for the race.
The start of the race at 9.30 came round quick and i found myself on the start line still dehydrated, the weather wasnt looking to bad as we set off, sure enough though after the first lap the heavens opened and the rain started, all i can say from this point on about the weather is it just got worse.
The course was amazing it had everything a course should have, fireroad climbs, nice fast singletrack, technical rocky decents, rooty sections, stream crossings, crazy out of control muddy parts, i enjoyed it. I was riding at a comfy pace through the race but come lap 8 the weather had got me down a bit, i was feeling strong but just couldnt ride fast i was cold and wet threw, the rain was coming down hard and i just wanted to give up and crawl into my tent, something stopped me from doing that and i plodded on. I didnt have a clue where i was in the race as both me and Damian were solo on our own. I finished my 11th and final lap at 9 hours 55mins i could of gone out and done another lap but i really couldnt face it.
Turns out i came 2nd, so i was over the moon with that and to make things better Damian got a 3rd place in his category, Another 2 podium places for team cooksons.
I had ridden 102 miles with over 11000 feet of climbing.

podium

Eatpe du dales

Met up with shaun and jason near Grassington for the start of the etape du dales sportive, 110 mile loop round the dales with plenty of hills involved. The plan was to ride round together and enjoy the ride hopefully still getting a reasonable time. We set off around 8.30ish into a headwind which was to stick in our faces for what seemed like the whole ride, add in 4 or 5 hours of rain and you've got a climb up to the Tan hill inn that you'll never forget. All was going well when we managed to lose Jason on a decent, he got a puncture and me and shaun being horrid people left him to defend for himself.
We carried on over a few more climbs, our legs were feeling it and we were both struggling,  up in the hills it was pretty grim with mist wind and rain trying to make the ride a misery, we were both prepared for the weather with our clothing so it didn't bother us to much.
There were 4 feed stations on the way round which were fully prepared with energy gels, food, water and sis energy drinks. We stopped at the last one so i could get a flapjack and pulled our selfs up the last climb. We had 30 minutes to do the last 10 miles if we were to get inside the 7 hour gold time limit. Out of nowhere i managed to get my second wind and managed to drag a group of us at over 25 mph for the whole 10 miles to the end, finishing under 7 hours at 6 hours 55.
Excellent route and would love to do it again in nicer conditions. Jason came in half an hour after us which was excellent considering he came 4th in a 24 hour race 7 days before.

Enduro 6

Arrived at Catton park saturday afternoon and set up in a cloudless sunny but very windy conditions, got the bbq on and ate as much meat as i could (not the best pre race food but it cant be beaten in the sun) followed by a couple of beers as we watched the night time trail start with the sun setting.

night time trial

looking over the arena

We finished the evening with a hot chocolate in the food tent and headed to bed at a reasonable 10.30pm. I had a good sleep and woke up at 8 am feeling nice and fresh. Cooked myself some porridge and got all my stuff together in my pit. The start of the race came quick and i was dreading the 800 meter run. i never run and cant stand running, I can cope with a 50 meter dash but 800 meters is just to much. Im pretty sure i came into my pits right at the back even though i started on the front line. The first lap was spent getting stuck behind people and sprinting as hard as i could on the open parts of the course (which there wasnt much of). I'd chosen to ride with bottles as i didnt want to haul a heavy camelbak round, i think this might of been a bad idea as there was much time on the course to drink out of a bottle and also you lost a minute each time you came into the pits to swap bottles. In the 6 hours i raced i only managed to have 4 bottles and i was really dehydrated at the end. The course was a bit short for my liking at just over 5 miles i would hate to do a 24 hour race round it.
I had caught Shaun up in the race and over took him but i didnt have a clue what place i was in, I thought i was in the top 5, it wasnt till the end after the finish i was told i had won. i never expected to and was well suprised and happy. Not only that but Shaun had came in a few mins behind me in 2nd. 2 Cookson boys on the podium at the same time.

podium

Audaxing

Up early in the morning to ride to hebden bridge via the bacup climb for 8.30am to sign on to the spring into the dales audax. Paid the 4 quid entry fee and had a brew, didnt have a clue about the route even though i did it last year, so just tried to work out who the fast people were and i'd stick to them. It set off at a easy pace and i found myself in the leading group. On the first decent my gps decided to fly off my handlebars so i stopped and went back and spent the next 10 mins catching everyone back up. I really didnt have a clue where i was going now. The ride was ace on quiet roads through the dales passing through appletree wick and bolton abbey. I felt good all the way through the ride and completed it in 4 hours 17 mins. Hopefully i'll find some pics online to add to this. After eating pizza, pork pies and cake back at the finish i set off back home via cragg vale putting my mileage upto 120 with over 8000 feet of climbing. You cant beat audax's there top fun.

gps of the route