team news

2008

August 2007

Main event for the team in June was Mountain Mayhem 24 hour race. Almost as much effort was made getting the team together and entered as was made riding it. We had a very stong team this year consisting of Gary Allan, Tony Green, Andrew Mcdonald, Simon Barnes. The weather was dry at the start but soon made a turn for the worst at about 10pm it started to rain and the ground got very muddy. Lap times for our team went from 45ish mins a lap to around a hour a lap. Tony and Simon both had mud build up issues on there bikes but matt and jon worked late into the night making sure all the bikes were in top conditon ready for the next time out.

Probably the largest 24hr MTB event in Europe, the SSMM was set close to the Malverns in the grounds of Eastnor Castle over a warm and benign weekend. The course was just under 8 miles, with 300m of climb per lap, single track and a fast downhill section.
Over 390 teams entered, including many of the top MTB riders in the country - Nick Craig and Oli Beckinsale to name a few.
Antony, Andrew, Gary ,Simon formed the GA Cycles team, two of whom had never done a 24hr MTB event before. Antony was elected to do the first lap, which entailed a mass start on foot, the riders having to run to the bikes 'Le-Mans' style. Unfortunately this meant that unless you managed to be in the first few rows, the mass would cause a slow first lap.
The team settled into 1 lap on, 3 laps off until night [about 9pm] where they opted to ride the conventional 2 laps a piece each time to keep up the speed and stop the bikes filling with mud, they went back to doing 1 lap each in the morning. They completed 26 laps Tony and Andrew managed 7 laps each and gary and simon 6 laps each due to running out of time.
The final results put, GA Cycles 18th in the Sport men Category and 3rd in the Oldies missing out on second by around 30 seconds!.

2006

Antony rode the IOW 3 day navigator MTB event on the May Bank Holiday. Catherine rode too opting for the enduro at the last minute because she came down with a bad cold. I wouldn’t even have ridden! I had a good first two days and came 3rd in the Vets. I had hoped to do really well on the third day short course, but my navigation lost me a couple of minutes and my route choice wasn’t the best. Constant NPS adversaries the Numplumz Vets both beat me.

Anotony rode the first round of the UK Marathon series at Margam Park on the 4th June. I had done the second round of the NPS the previous day and finished 8th on a very hard but not too technical course which suited me. I got in with the lead group (Nick Craig, Robin Seymour etc) until after about 5km they decided to race! 10k after that in a fast moving group I punctured at the most muddy point. I settled in for another 80k and pulled back people I recognised after about 60k of it. I ended up first Vet by 4 minutes after a battle with the second placed Vet who beat me by a place the previous day. I beat the Numplumz guys!

Chris - Mid week racing: Had a good run at Eelmore, circuit racing. Came 11th. It ended up as a bunch sprint, after a few brave attempts to get away by various riders, none lasting more than a few laps away due to the head wind on the top straight and each break only having 2-3 riders involved. In the break I was in, it felt like having a bungee cord tied to the bike and then being pulled backwards, I went from 22 mph to 12 mph, then turn the corner and go 30+ mph at level 1 HR!!!

MAY 2006
Glen Longland’s Road Race saw Rob Hurd in GA kit for a win. Gary came 7th and Simon 10th. Not quite sure where Paul finished as Gary didn’t say.

Catherine has been doing some running races – sixth female and 3rd vet in the West Wight 3 Hills. She also got 4th place (no vet category) in the Trek 4 hour women’s race. The rain started as soon as the race did and turned the course into a real challenge. The course was relatively flat, but some good technical singletrack got very slippery and most of the top finishers had team mechanics working to clean the bikes. Catherine managed to stay cleaner than I did though!

Chris Robin and I were set to do the Gorrick enduro 5 lap event. Robin didn’t arrive, blaming a late night. Chris unfortunately damaged his rear mech and had to pull out without doing a lap. An expensive day out. I finally got to ride my new Felt in anger and managed a good ride. I tried to hang on to the front few guys for the first lap but then had to ease back. I rode on the limit on a slightly too technical course for me and ended up 4th, only 4 minutes off the leader and getting past two of the early lead group.

I rode the NPS vets event at Sherwood pines and was I thought sixteenth as they called out the finishers. The results show 18th, but I was pleased given the determination of everyone The real reason for going was the 4 hour enduro the next day. I started faster than I had anticipated I would and just felt better all the way through. I managed to complete six laps in under the time limit, and knew another lap would seal my position. It’s difficult to know who you are riding against as the 6, 4 and two hour riders are all speeding round. I set off after a brief pit stop to try to clean my glasses and get some of the crap out of my rear mech. I was OK for a third of a lap but then started to bonk. I crashed twice on the now really slippery singletrack as I couldn’t concentrate and was really hungry. When I finally finished I was third which was far better than I thought I could do. I didn’t get lapped by Nick Craig or Start Bowers which I thought I might. My first job though was to get to the Felt team tent and scrounge food as I could hardly walk.

No news from Phil Gale, but he is riding the National Road Race champs at the end of June.

I’ve not heard from Nigel.