One day one photo - 2: Brighton

Bike sharing in Brighton (photo: @slc79) 

I spent this weekend around Brighton and the South Downs. Saturday was spent running around Ditchling Beacon and Stanmer Park, taking in the South Downs Way and the Sussex Border Path. It's lovely being up high on this ridge of rolling hills, with the frenetic fans of the Amex football stadium below, and of course the Eye 360 tower, the rooftops of Brighton, and the sea in the distance.

Sunday was the first day of the cyclocross season, with the opening race taking place at Stanmer Park. As ever, it was tough for me, having not ridden off-road for a while. But I  always love racing at this venue.  The sun always shines there, and the clement conditions under-wheel make this a pleasant start to the cyclocross season before the assault from the mud comes. Then afterwards, it's a good excuse to go down to Brighton seafront and lounge with the masses. While there I noticed these bikes. Brighton now has a bike-sharing scheme, which was launched last Autumn. It looks pretty popular, with lots of folks using them anywhere between the Marina and Hove, then up towards Kemp Town and the race course. Though I guess you would need strong legs for that uphill part of the city!

My fellow Penge Cycling Club mate, Shingi Chingwaro rode arounď Brighton on one of the bikes and she was quite impressed. Like with these schemes it costs a nominal amount. She spent to do the ride from the Marina to the pier and back. I was too shattered to ride a bike myself,  but I hope to ride one the next time I'm in Brighton.

One day one photo - 1: Running in the South Downs

Chattri Indian War memorial in the middle of the South Downs

It's the first day of meteorological autumn. Gee, where did the time go? September 1st also represents the first day of my annual one day one photo snapshot. Basically I publish a photo of the day for every day of the month of September.

Today's photo is of the Chattri Indian War memorial, built in 1920 to commemorate the lives of the Indians who fought for Britain in the first world war.

I was out on a trail run in the South Downs, and mapped out a route to get back to my car, which was parked in Ditchling Beacon. The easiest way back from Stanmer Park was to run along the bridleway parallel to the main road, and then up the Sussex Border path to reach the South Downs Way.

As soon as I made the right hand turn to head north, I saw this structure - which wouldn't have looked out of place in India - in the middle of the South Downs? Really? I thought I was hallucinating. But no I wasn't. This makes quite a change from farmhouses and sheep!

I have a secret ambition to run a trail marathon this autumn, and so have been doing long off-road runs. Sometimes the scenery can get a little monotonous. If my route were peppered with a few more monuments like this that would certainly jazz things up.

This is the route I took.

Maintenance - Ugh !!

Cyclo cross is to me as how some guys find their girlfriends - loads of fun, great to be involved with it, gives great highs - but boy is it high maintenance. You've gotta do the right thing at the specific moments otherwise before long you'll get nagging protesting noises and suddenly things go awry big time !

That's what happened to me last Sunday. I hadn't cleaned my bike properly after my previous muddy capers at Stanmer Park. So I paid for it at Herne Hill. A marshall helped me tighten the gear cable, but that did nothing to help my knackered jockey wheels or wonky derailleur. So my race proceeded with difficulty. Pedalling was hard work even before I hit the sticky muddy sections. The slipping gears didn't help matters any, and I continued to slip further and further down the field on my peers. In the end I couldn't go much further at any decent speed and so my race came to an abrupt end.

Thankfully those nice people at Condor Cycles were able to fix the problem quite quickly.
But why can't I maintain my bike ? I hear you say. The answer is I loathe cleaning and maintenance.
When racing cross you can easily spend more time cleaning the thing than actually riding. Where's the fun in that ?

A fellow cyclo cross rider commented on how, even though he had 2 bikes with him at the Stanmer Park race he preferred to soldier on with the one extremely muddy bike than swap it over to a more freely moving clean spare bike. The reason : he couldn't bear to spend hours on Monday cleaning two muddy bikes. Just to clean the one bike had taken him all morning - at least he has the luxury of being able to spend Monday morning cleaning bikes while the rest of us slave away at our desks !

OK - so I know it was a little bit naughty of me to not make any attempt to clean the bike, so I rightfully suffered the consequences. (I will clean my bike regularly in future.) However I must admit that beyond bike cleaning, inner tube changing and the odd lubing here and there I become a hopeless case - changing brake pads, adjusting headsets, indexing - you've lost me there - this is where I become such a girl !

I'll probably develop a bit of confidence to do these things myself once I'm in a sink or swim situation, but as long as I've got the likes of Condor Cycles, Sigma Sport, De Ver Cycles, Geoffrey Butlers and Pearsons etc to help out I'd prefer to support their businesses while at the same time being sure that I have parts that are in tip top condition when I race. The Herne Hill cyclo cross round was a bit unfortunate, but it's unlikely to happen again soon - afterall this is only my first dnf in 3 seasons of cross racing.

And who never knows - maintenance, like Guinness and Marmite may become an acquired taste over time.

London League ??

You may have gathered that the bulk of my cyclo cross races form part of the London League. However, of the 18 races, including the team championships only 2 of them are actually being held in London (2 rounds at Herne Hill Velodrome and 1 at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit). Fair enough, it wouldn't be very practical to hold a cyclo cross race in Hyde Park, and gaining permission to race in the Royal Parks is not an easy task. But what's the deal with organising events in deepest Kent and Sussex ?? The last 2 rounds we've done were along the Sussex coast - almost 50 miles away - and we'll be back on the coast again next week when we race at Stanmer Park, Brighton. Even the round held at Lydden Hill, nr Dover was actually nearer to France than London !!

Don't get me wrong - some of the venues are quite nice and I still appreciate the effort that organisers put into staging an event. What irks me though is the fact that this is called the "London League" and yet we race nowhere near London. It's not doing what it says on the tin. In fact the South East Regional Championships are being held in.......Fakenham, North Norfolk. My schoolgirl geography tells me that's Eastern England - about a 3 hour drive away. Why the hell are they being held up there ?? Naturally many London based cyclists have voted with their feet (or even their wheels) and won't be making the trip up there.

Ok just ranting 'cos I'm having a bad day, feeling tired and not relishing the whole of yet another Sunday being taken up going to do a race I can only hallucinate about winning !

Still, I'm really happy to have the chance to race in the league, and this year in particular there's been a good group of women getting out regularly - so whatever it's called the London League must be doing something right. At the end of the day who cares what we call it !

Cyclo Cross Round Up - The Hapless Rider !

The last couple of London League rounds have been in Sussex. I don't ride there very often so didn't really know what to expect. What I did notice was how hilly the courses were - just at a time when I was distinctly disadvantaged !

STANMER PARK
This was a bit of an ordeal. Having fallen and badly hurt my arm the previous day I was not in a position to ride particularly strongly. In fact I was unable to hold the bars of my cyclo cross bike so ended up using the mountain bike. So a painful arm and a chunkier bike which did not compare with the slick machines of my fellow competitors was never going to bode well. Still, I wanted to give it my best shot, hence I showed up at the start line.

The warm up had been a very hot affair, given the hill and the fact that I was still in my warm up gear. Realising that I was going to have to work harder than the other women just to keep level with anyone I decided to remove my long sleeves and race in fingerless gloves to reduce any risk of overheating during the race.
After 3 laps my arms were freezing, my fingers were even colder, and the brisk cold wind brought with it a blast of driving rain and sleet. By the end of the race my fingers were shivering so much that I couldn't operate the gears. Mistake number one.


I took it easy going up the hill on the early laps and spun a low gear, thinking that although I was at the back, as the race progressed I would eventually catch someone whose fuel level would have run low. No one got tired, in fact the wind probably whipped riders up into an even speedier frenzy just to keep warm !! I only began to put in more effort on the penultimate lap, but it was too late by then. Mistake number two.

I wore my pink kit for this race on the premise that if I couldn't win, at least I could look stylish. I even lost out there ! The ladies' winner, Jenn Hopkins was not only the fastest, but in her Minx-Girl colourful skort and jersey suit she definitely looked the most stylish.

Immediately I crossed the line I dashed back to the car to thaw out and put the race the behind me.


LANCING MANOR LEISURE CENTRE
My arm was slightly better for this one, but still not recovered enough for me to use the cross bike. I was resigned to taking the mountain bike again, but more resigned to not making the same mistakes as before. I'd dress appropriately, set off hard, and just wear my no-frills blue kit.

The weather was incredibly mild for November, so I just wore shorts and my short-sleeved jersey. I know I got that bit right. The hill was so much steeper, and longer than at Stanmer Park. But I wasn't afraid - I was going to power myself up it - ride my first lap like it's my last, really develop a killer instinct, ride like an animal etc. etc.

Immediately the whistle was blown the hard work began. Straight up a long steep hill. I powered along, a fellow competitor shouting at me "spin, woman, change down!"
I just ground away on a hard gear. My quads were burning, but I didn't mind because I was in a bunch. However, the downhill that we eventually got was not much of a reward for me. It twisted very technically through the trees, and the wood chippings made it rather slippery. In fact I found it rather frightening. I soldiered on nevertheless, with my rivals right on my tail. As soon as we hit the more open descents they overtook me. The numerous false flats really drained the energy out of my legs, and I began to pay for the mistake I'd made with my gearing early on in the race.

Still, I was determined to catch my rivals even as they sailed past me and I steadily drifted backwards. But alas, my pedalling became more laboured as I began to suffer from general fatigue. When I realised I was too tired to be able to control my bike on the tricky descents I started pulling into the side to allow faster riders (practically the whole of the field) to get past me. Naturally I lost even more time on my fellow competitors and waved goodbye to any chance of moving up the women's rankings. A couple of people fell, including one guy who had a nasty collision with a tree stump. In spite of that I was still unable to catch anyone.

Finally, I decided to change down to a low gear and just easy-spin my way round. That gave me time to recover, and on the last lap I even managed to overtake a 60-year-old man I'd been sparring with throughout the race ! I'm not sure if that was meant to make me feel better.

Ok, so two races in which I tried different approaches - neither of which worked. But it's all in the learning as they say.
This weekend we'll be back at Stanmer Park, and I shall be on my cross bike. Hurrah ! Who knows, I might be more fortunate next time around.


Photos by Kevin Knox and Joanne Upton