Mountain Mayhem Powered by Tunnocks Caramel.

For those of you who don't know, team VeloCake was again racing at Mountain Mayhem at the weekend, powered by Tunnocks Caramel wafers. The true taste of Scotland.

Whilst our mtb captain, Gary recovers here's something to hold your interest until he pulls his finger out and shares.
Gary will soon be taking over from Felix Baumgartner as the official face of Red Bull.

Not only that, but Amy won the Womens solo race and despite having to honour a bikeshop sponsor, had VC shorts on all the time.

Small circles

Saul has been proudly (not sure where that came from) flying Velocake colours in the burdgeoning North Yorkshire coast youth mountain bike racing scene (it's sick out here for under-8s) for a couple of years and has finally worked out that going fast for the entire length of a race can be fun.

Pre race chilling*

After a single podium last month, this morning, amongst the buzzing 2-strokes at Low North Camp, he got the hang of it and scored three podiums in three races - a 3rd, a 2nd and then another 3rd, just getting pipped at the line. Conditions were moderately slimey, making a few of the dads pretty smug about not being at Mayhem and generating much cursing from Islabike riders with from-the-box semi-slicks.

Pushing for 2nd - 3rd place is just out of shot

His 2nd was in the big money race - earning a Maccy Ds "Value Meal" and making his mum groan at the prospect of having to find an opportunity to cash it in. They know all about athlete nutrition in Yorkshire. It runs out that two certificates, a burger voucher and an actual real shiney medal are exactly what an 8 year old needs to have a brilliant day.

* There's no under-4s class so Ezra's keeping his powder dry for now ;-)

Cyclocross....In Summer?

 

 

Here's the VeloCake RT sommelier Piers, (He has excellent accompaniments for all the major races) laying  the "smack down" to our friends at V.C. Moulin at the the recent summer Tod Cross.

If you need a visual metaphor for a Flandrian Hardman, here it is.If you squint it could be Sven Nys.

Cross, cobbles and he showered  in Jupiler afterwards

Zeer Vlaamse!

Introducing team NWAlps/VeloCake

This June, team NWAlps/VeloCake will be attempting to smash* the 24hr Mountain Mayhem race at Gatcombe Park Gloucestershire. As three of the team are noobs it thought it only right to introduce them to the rest of you....



Firstly, Dangerous Dan, Enormously tall, 29er curious, has a singlespeed addiction & is a closet Star Wars figure collector

Andy, bike maintenance shy, new dad, ultra competitive beer & kebab monster. Don't ever let him change your tube!

Puppy Paul, wheels off the ground, tree lover, tea devourer & breaker of bikes

And finally Me, cake eater, blogger, mostly desperately holding in my stomach & nervous first time racer

We've managed to get support from nuun hydration products and Tunnocks caramel bars.We'd love any VeloCakers to pop in, have a brew or a beer, maybe a caramel bar and heckle us lightweights as we mince around the course. Follow us on twitter @NWAlpsVeloCake and maybe we'll see you there?

 *eat as much cake, drink as much beer, socialise and maybe do the odd lap of the course.

The Dream Team returns - rumblings of life in Scotchland

After a break for a season, the Scottish dream team are back in business in June.

This time out, its the Glentress 7, a 7 hr lap race malarky in some obscure riding spot near Peebles.

The big grumpy one is riding, while the smiling helpful one is pitting.  Although there's a shedload of riders, the Vet men solo category only has 31 riders in it (when last checked) so the plan is for a top 30 place in my category.  Its my first time at that event, so I'm a little anxious.  That said, the course seems to play to my few strengths so we'll see what happens....

The following week sees the Selkirk MTB marathon and more familiar ground.  There's going to be some course changes there, so I can't rely on familiarity to maintain my reasonable record (27/107(?) in the 2012 middle marathon as an example) so it falls to fitness and luck to see me through.  It should be fine.

So, Scotchland seems to have woken up which means Velocake are back in the endurance MTB game (none of that roadie or CX nonsense) and we're in the same mood we always are.  :-)

How to get ahead in VeloCake

New VeloCaker, Andy Jackson of Macclesfield has sent the DS a lovely pair of lemon buns from Brassingtons of Brown street. (worth a visit) A simple but tasty affair, a bun, stuffed with cream and a dollop of lemon icing on top. The photograph doesn't do them justice, as they got a bit squashed in the post.
Take note, this is how to win friends at VeloCake.