Morocco Rally Update….

20 10 2010

Hi All

I’ll keep this brief as unfortunately I don’t have the internet access I was expecting throughout the week (the ‘organisation’ has now password protected it and we have to troop up to another hotel!) – Basically we have just finished day 3 with stonking results!

Also if you want to to see me racing alongside (all right several hours behind!) world champions Cyril Despres and Marc Coma in real time check out this link:
http:vulcain.iritrack.net/tdcom/eviewer/shamrock2010
(click on Moto and tick my race number 207 to see where I am!)

It’s been a hectic week or two since I decided to go for the Morroco Rally at the last minute and the pace has been even more frantic since arriving!

After 14 hours travelling on Friday (including an 8 hour taxi ride), and then prepping and sorting out the bikes on Saturday.  On Sunday we had a full day of admin checks (all our documentation, licenses paperwork etc) which mostly consisted of paying large amounts of money out! Followed by a timed session to fit all the GPS, Satellite comms and navigation gear we had just bought or hired to our bikes and then present our bikes for scrutineering checks. We then had Navigation and safety talks to attend before getting our ‘roadbooks’ (navigation icons on long scrolls of paper used to navigate like orienteering) marked up and fitted – We were finally done in time for the official dinner and race briefing at 8.30pm!

 

Cyril Depres (World Champion) bike gets inspected at Scrutineering

 

 

Day 1 – was a 6 hour long race with a very varied course with a bit of everything – stony tracks, sand dunes, gravel and river beds etc. Toby and I planned to race together and worked well (especially when my navigation gear packed up – my ICO or mileometer packed up which makes navigation very difficult!) We did OK for our first day and made it back in our allotted time.

 

The Pilots Instruments - (from Top: ICO, Balise ditress alarm, Roadbook and GPS (on top of the Iritrack gps tracker)

 

 

Day 2 – through the dunes! This was a harder day both in terms of riding and navigation. We were due to do 2 laps of 130km, we also picked up Paul (another Desert Rose rider) along the way and ended up as all riding together, but didn’t make it back to the end of the first lap in time. After 4 hours we were 2 minutes over and they wouldn’t let us out again which meant we incurred a 5 hour time penalty overall. But we made the most of the afternoon spare!

Day 3 – Ideal conditions (some rain overnight so less dust, cloudy so not so hot and a bit of wind) Very fast tracks that were mostly well defined so navigation wasn’t a problem and Toby and I were on it only stopping once outside our scheduled checkpoint and refueling stops. As a result we had a blast of a day topping out at 145kph across a chod/dry lake bed and hitting some brilliant tracks. We also managed to win our class for the day! Check out the results at the NPO tracking webpage (Although I started first and finished first today, Toby and I will be swapping places as we take turns starting and leading through out the week and today he took the win but we’re effectively riding together – honest! ;-) )

 

So today was great and we’ll see how we do tomorrow! For Fuller reports see Toby’s Site and I’ll try and update you before the end of the week with a fuller report and action photos to follow!

Cheers all

Jago


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : Bike Training & Events, The story so far

Pickering’s Podium Place!

15 06 2010

 Hi folks  

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to update you all but now I have some stories to tell!  

After the disaster of the last outing (blowing up tyres on the A3! see the previous post below) I thought I was going to lose out on riding in May but luckily there was a convenient race on the following week – Sunday the 24th with Chiltern Hills Enduro Club (CHEC) at Tunbridge,  Kent. It was an eventful day – crashes, tactics, racing Dakar and my best race result result so far!  

Jumping Jago - Plenty of Bulk to Balence!

Jumping Jago- getting the (hefty) weight back over the larger jumps!

 Toby very kindly picked me up bright and early Sunday morning and after loading up his truck with the bikes we made our way down to Kent in nice sunny weather having arranged to meet The Desert Rose crew (Patsy, Zippy and Vince) at the course. We arrived at the course to find that it was the same place that Toby, Patsy and Zippy had been practising at the week before (but in reverse). After catching up with Patsy, Zippy and Vince we got down to registering and sorting the bikes and kitted up ready for the 10am off. 

  

Instead of a single 3hour race CHEC events are 2 hours long then break for an hour before the final 2 hours. This is good and bad! They say it decreases accidents due to fatigue in the last hour, gives everyone time for lunch and then 2 hours more riding. Which is good as you get more riding in, but bad as you have to race longer! (And as I found out that’s not easy after an hours break). You are also penalised if you come in later than the 2hours each race (so you have to make a call whether to go for that last lap!) 

“>

Jago keeping it low

Rather than the fun but frantic mass starts, we were called to the starting line in groups of 10, in order of registration number, which meant that Patsy and Zippy were off a few minutes in front of me (and I turn a few minutes in front of Toby) so unfortunately we wouldn’t get to race each other directly (well not until I tried to stay with Zippy for half a lap when he passed me near the end of both the first and second races! The course is  described on the CHEC site as a novice friendly, easy going course which was accurate as none of it was too challenging. It was a mixture of open fields and several woodland sections with a couple of boggy, rutted and muddy sections in the woods, interspearsed with tight single track and some very dusty open trails. One of which was so dusty and loose that it was similar to a desert conditions making passing very difficult. Desert training in Kent! (all we need is a few camels!) 

  

Getting past these guys (and the quads) was a challenge! They kicked up a lot of dust on the fast tracks and are pretty wide through the trees!

I had a good first race apart from the third lap by choosing one rut in a muddy wooded section that immediately gulped down the front wheel up to the forks and threw me off! I tried pushing , heaving and revving the bike through the rut with no luck. The rut was a glue pit that would not let go of the bike! Panting like some weekend-warrior-dad-of-three and going red enough to attract the attention of a kindly marshall who helped me heave it out, I lost quite a few minutes on the lap. Otherwise I was going well, passing a lot of people and getting fairly consistent lap times around 15minutes. Unfortunately getting stuck stopped me from doing 8 laps as I finshed my 7th with about only 4 minutes left so it wasn’t worth trying for another. 

  

Dusty Riders Right Hand Turn - Not the dustiest of places but shows how dry it was!

The hour break was spent resting, refueling and trying to eat something (an unusal job for me as I didn’t really have any appetite, but know I needed to). |Then we were back out for punishment/fun! Now familiar with the course Race 2 was more about endurance. After an hour I began to cramp up badly – getting dangerously cramped hands (trigger thumb preventing me holding the bars and sometimes cramped fingers refusing to brake or pull the clutch is not what you want whilst approaching a 90 degree right hand bend after a flat out straight!) Trying to drink often from my camelback I was getting excruciating pains in my legs that wasn’t just cramp but actually a stinging pain (I presume similar to hitting ‘the wall’ of lactic acid overload or something similar in a Marathon?) My trainer Tim has given me some advice and stretches etc that I will post up on the fitness page soon. 

But Race 2 went well with good consistent lap times of mostly under 15minutes (apart from the slow 4th lap!) and a flying last lap of 10minutes helped make it  8 laps. I thought it had gone well becaue I only saw a few people pass me (including Zippy again- grrr ;-) but I was surprised how well as it meant - leading to a very pleasing SECOND PLACE RESULT! ! !!! :-P   (Second in Clubman Class out of 65 and 6th Overall out of 140 riders is my best result to date! :-P   ) It seems it as a good race for all as Zippy came 2nd overall (and 2nd in the Expert Class) and Toby was also in the top 20 Clubman. Patsy may have come first in the ladies (hooraa!) due to being the only entrant! (Aha) but unfortuately her thirsty two stroke run out of petrol in the first race costing her lots of penalty point placing her 105th overall (aaah!) All the stats and lap times are here if anyone wants them (or for proof! ;-) )

  

Toby getting air

 So  look out for the next installement shortly as the following week I took Lucy and the kids to Wheeldon Farm in Devon for some family motor bike training, some one to one tuition on their indoor motocross track and hit the Devon (green) lanes!  

As ever feel free to comment with any advice, feedback questions or suggestions! (on biking, dakar or the blog instalements!) 

Cheers – Jago 

Jago 'pin-ing it' to second place!


Comments : 7 Comments »
Tags: , ,
Categories : Bike Training & Events, Uncategorized

Step 3 (and half!) Bike Bought and First 2010 Event Completed!

25 03 2010

Wow what a great Day ! :-)      

Blurry backgrounds make you go faster!

 

 Great weather, good course, good result! But I’m getting ahead of myself…    

As you may have gathered I’ve got a bike and did a race on Sunday. I’m now the proud owner of an ex Desert Rose Adventure Riding Academy KTM 400EXC school bike. Check out the bike story and photos on the The Bike Plan.     

Laying it over...

 

 Unfortunately I didn’t get my bike in time to be able to set anything up at the Docklands Riders for Sport Relief  and all although some people think I’m a little wide – I’m not wide enough to take money for a charity ride when I don’t even have a ride ;-)  

So I hooked up with Toby who as doing a 2 and half hour CEC (Cotswold Enduro Club) event on  Sunday the 21st of March called ‘Slow Pete’ – no kidding, it’s aimed at clubmen and novices (as opposed to Experts with no hard or extreme sections). It’s also filmed by Pete from Endurophotos so thanks to him for the photos here, check out his site for other events and action shots! 

I trailored the bike up to EnduroLand Brick Hill near Milton Keynes, after an early start (thanks to my 3 mobile shouting/crying/laughing alarm clocks) I sorted out the kids (as Lucy was away with friends this weekend) with my parents who had the girls and dropped Jed off at 7am with his cousins. 

I got to the race venue in good time around 9am, not too early but just enough to get registered and changed before the race starts (which doesn’t always happen and makes a good result difficult when you arrive to find the rest of the pack already gone!) 

I happened to arrive at the same time as Toby (and dog Chobie) so we parked and prep’ed together. The day was looking good – the ground was soft has it had rained for a few days but it was a sandy track so apart from a couple of bogs, traction wasn’t going to be a problem, and now the sun was shining with few clouds in the sky.     

  I signed up for Enduro Clubman 4 Stroke (Although there were apparently no Experts in this race there was a Clubman Plus class for people who were moving up to Experts?) and the Slow Pete series rotate the classes that start each race so I found myself on the start line with about 20 others waiting for the dead engine start (the other classes were in the rows behind with  Toby in Sportsman class a few rows back so he’d be waiting a few minutes to go after me). 

First corner wasn't as busy as it should have been!

 

This being the first race of the season and the first time I had ridden my new bike (note for future reference – practise on bike before start of a race!) I didn’t get the best of starts and managed to stall it and in my panick to restart I was left as one of the last few on the line.  But no biggy – I enjoy overtaking and making my way through the pack on the first few turns so by the time we got out of the fields and into the woods (after 5 or 6 turns) I’d over taken 6 or 7 people to mid pack and had got up to race pace.    

 The race went well – a mix of motocross style grass track on a field, into woods with tight bermed turns, out to criss cross a valley with nice long hills and a couple of boggy sections then into a wooded valley with a couple of hill climbs and tight turns before coming back along a whooped section to the start field.   

Toby emerging from the bog

 

Each lap was taking about 10 minutes and after the race when I got a print out of stats I was surprised at my consistency with all laps within 30 seconds of each other! I was going well probably less than 10 crashes altogether, but one larger one occurred when I was committed to passing someone on a  line in the whoops when the guy in front weaved and we connected and went down. Turns out it was Toby!  - Sorry about that mate, but I’m sure you wobbled across at some point! (That’s the story I’m sticking to anyway ;-) Turns out Toby had to pit stop to straighten his forks and lost some time (that’s the story he’s sticking to anyway :-) check out his version on his Journey to Dakar blog.     

  

  Fitness wise I wasn’t too bad either – my consistent lap times showed I wasn’t tiring too much and did manage to push hard for 2 and half hours but I did cramp up in my arms and my thumb (getting ‘trigger thumb’ and not being able to ungrip) and had to consciously relax and try and stretch out – difficult when your either on a bumpy straight or tilting it round a corner! 

I must admit though that the next couple of days afterwards I have been as stiff as a board and suffering from severe DOMS! (Delayed onset muscle soreness – apparently !) I also managed to get 10 blisters on both hands that will probably heal just in time to get them on the next event!       

In the end it was a good event – I did 15 laps and came 5th in class, and 9th overall out of nearly 150 bikes which is a pretty good result for me!       

  

The New KTM400XCE with optional 'Halo Effect' accessory

The New KTM400XCE with optional 'Halo Effect' accessory

 

The 'After' shot

 

It was a great day, great riding on a great bike – the new bike is AWESOME! – I did enjoy my two stroke 300EXCE feeling lighter on the front wheel but the motor, torque and traction on the fourstroke 400EXC is just great and makes it so much easier definitely making up for the slightly heavier feeling (not sure it’s really heavier – more of heavier flywheel effect  than actual weight). Luckily I think it came away pretty unscathed from the offs and close contact encounters!     

   The race was great but a huge difference to the Dakar. One of the best sites that sums up the Dakar was sent to me by friend and blog subscriber Becky – check out link and photos from on the Dakar in 24 Steps page. It’ll be a couple of weeks until Toby gets back from ski-ing in the States, then we’re hoping to hook up with Patsy at Desert Rose Adventure Riding Academy  in Ringwood for a planning session (and maybe a ride!) In the meantime Lucy and I are trying to get away for a quick Easter break as I’ll be pretty busy in April with my Go Live at Burberry!       

Jago after Slow Pete

 

 So until the next installment – Cheers.


Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : The bike plan, The story so far


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 48 other followers