Keswick Bikes Team News & Blog
Updates on our sponsored team - KeswickBikes.co.uk has now been moved to our very own BlogSpot. This will mean that you find out as soon as possible just what the team are getting up to. Just click on the photo to access our latest race blog.
!st & 2nd at 2008 Mountain Mayhem for Female & Male Team
Cheryl's email something of understatement: "Good Result at the weekend for all lots of mud and madness. Thanks for helping us out with the van and other bits – all led to a good but rather muddy weekend. Bike a bit worse for wear! "
Any way they have all gone off to do the TransAlp now!
Summer Polaris 2008 & Emily is 3rd solo!
Polaris Challenge Summer ‘08
Tweed Valley
KMB Race Team: Emily Brooks 3rd
This two day MTB navigation event was held on 5th/6th July starting from Innerleithen near Peebles. The usual summer format of 7 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday was followed, with Traquair House being used as the base camp. For the first time, the Polaris Challenge was run alongside the well known a.c.e adventure race, which used some of the same checkpoints. It made for a more sociable weekend, which included live music and the usual access to stalls and Wilf’s delicious hot food.
Saturday morning started with glorious sunshine that didn’t last long. As forecast, the heavy rainy and high winds arrived and those who had picked their route with this in mind reaped the benefits. The map covered a large and very hilly area which included the one-way single track at Glentress and Innerleithen, and the high exposed ridges to the southeast of Peebles. It was not uncommon for competitors to have climbed 2500m by the end of the first day. As the rain fell the temperature plummeted, and Wilf’s chilli was a welcome warmer at the end!
Sunday used the same map, although the checkpoint values had changed which meant a whole new route choice was open to competitors. With little road riding available and all the points being high up, it was another hilly day - excellent training for those of us going on to do the Trans Alp race in a couple of weeks! The rain was continuous but those who chose to finish down Caddon Bank singletrack were rewarded with a fun swooping ride to finish.
Emily Brookes 2008 National Trailquest Champion
Emily rode a great two day event to win the points score and the championship!
Cheryl Frost wins Keswick Triathalon
Not only did Cheryl single handedly organise the 2nd Annual Keswick Mountain Festival (well almost!) but she also won the Triathalon, what a girl!
Ben Bardley 3rd place in Keswick Triathalon
Another great result for our much loved world adventure sport hero.
Chris Hope in Action
Race Report By Keswick Bikes Team Rider: Chris Hope
KeswickBikes.co.uk Female Team Win Sleepless in the Saddle 2007
KeswickBikes.co.uk female race team has won the 2007 Kona Sleepless in the Saddle 24 hour endurance race, one of the toughest team challenges in the mountain bike race calendar.
The all female team was made up of; Emily Brooks, Vicky Ware, Maddy Robinson and Christine Fischer. Team leader Emily Brooks who works at Needle Sports has already got a record of success in mountain bike competition but to achieve an outright win at this prestigious national event which also attracts pro teams from abroad was a brilliant achievement for the four riders.
During the 24 hour competition, which does not even stop once darkness sets in, the team achieved 31 laps of an 11 mile loop over the 24 hours. Even when her lights failed on one of the laps, rider Christine Fischer had to make do by following other riders lights in the pitch black! When the team realized there was a distinct chance of winning, they pulled out all the stops and managed to find the time to ride an extra two laps to their nearest competitors.
- Kielder
Not a particularly exciting area to mountain bike but for those wanting to do well in the national trailquest league it was important to turn out and compete. Most of the previous events have taken in a circuit of the reservoir but this year all checkpoints were to the north of the water. Navigation was never too difficult due to the good quality tracks and the well printed map and route choice was also fairly straightforward. That meant it was all down to riding as fast as possible for 4 hours. With the exception of Jimmy Taylor the riders at the top of the league including Neil Atkinson, Chris Hope and Bryan Singleton were present. Andy Wrigley, although not having competed in many of the earlier events also turned out. After 4 hours of hard riding only one check point separated the top 4 riders. Chris Hope and Neil Atkinson were awarded joint first (Chris picked up 25 points more than Neil but then lost them all by being 12 minutes late!). Bryan Singleton was third and Andy Wrigley fourth.
National Trailquest Weekend
The National Trailquest weekend was held on the 2nd - 3rd of June at Thornbridge near to Bakewell, Derbyshire. Having had a disappointing result at Glentress and having missed the Nidderdale event due to a clash with the Fred Whitton Challenge, Chris Hope was keen to get a good result and improve his overall position in the national league.
The event on the Saturday was the only 5 hour event in the national league, so it was the main opportunity for riders favoring long events to make their mark. The event area covered a lot of road and good bridleways, so despite Chris having never ridden the area, the navigation was not too difficult. After a brief look at the map, Chris thought that the 'clean-up' was on but reserved judgment until approximately 1 hour into the event. It then became evident that providing he didn't have any mechanicals or make any mistakes that it was just a matter of how fast all the check points could be collected, and whether anyone would be faster. Unfortunately Jimmy Taylor was 2 minutes faster but both Chris and Jimmy were awarded a win and gained 100% for the event. A good result.
On the 6th of June, Chris Hope and Andy Wrigley made the 5hr journey north to Fort William to compete in the '10 under the Ben' MTB enduro. This was the first in the series of three 10 hour enduro races run by No Fuss events which attracted approximately 750 riders. The rules are simple - ride as many 10 mile laps as you can in 10 hours. Riders could enter as either solo, pairs, trios or quads with teams taking it in turns to do laps. Both Keswick Bikes riders were competing in the solo category, which proved to be extremely demanding as temperatures soared into the mid twenties. The coarse contained a fantastic mixture of forest road, technical single-track, north shore, river crossings and even a section of the World Cup downhill course. Both Andy and Chris had their race heads on and got carried away in the mass start resulting in some quick initial laps, which they paid for later! Both riders opted for hard tails initially as the quicker option, Chris riding a Kona Kula Primo and Andy on a Kula Supreme. Five laps later and the hard tails were exchanged for full suspension bikes as the rough sections of the course were taking their toll. Chris finally completed 10 laps in 10 hours 28 minutes (6th solo) closely followed by Andy who also completed 10 laps in 10 hours 38 minutes (7th solo).
4th Cross Cumbria Trailquest
Coniston was the venue for the 4th event in the Cross Cumbria Trailquest series. The event covered an area primarily south of Coniston taking in Walna Scar, the Duddon Valley and the west side of Grisedale. Having achieved two wins in previous events Chris Hope was keen to get a third but knew it would require a clever route choice, and fast riding to beat Bryan Singleton on his home turf. Chris realized shortly after setting off in an anti clockwise direction that it probably wasn't going to be the best way but by that time was committed. The chosen route resulted in a committing 11km loop with 300m of ascent through Grisedale with only 35 minutes to spare. There was no option but to go for it but it meant that Chris finished 13 minutes late incurring 30 penalty points and finishing in second place to Bryan Singleton who had an excellent ride.
Fred Whitton Challenge
Keswick Bikes were represented by a strong team in early May at the Fred Whitton Challenge. This classic Cyclo Sportive covering 112 miles and all the Lakeland passes had gained a lot of hype over the winter as there was much speculation regarding whether or not Rob Jebb's 6 hour record could be broken and if so who would do it. Phil Malcolm was certainly keen and Alistair Robinson, although maybe not quite as focused on this particular event due to other more important road races was clearly very capable. Chris Hope, a recent addition to the Keswick Bikes team as a mountain biker, had never actually ridden a road bike prior to last winter but decided it would be a good challenge, bought himself a Felt F4 and set about training. In addition to the Keswick Bikes team other hot favorites included the Wheelbase riders (Stuart Reid and Lewis Craven) and Honister 92 riders (Andy Wrigley and Damian Smith)
The day was perfect - dry, a light easterly and the 9 o'clock bunch of 30 riders were psyched. The initial pace was quick, primarily set by Alistair and Phil, but settled down to a more realistic pace on Kirkstone. The bunch remained together until Honister, and then Stuart Reid and Lewis Craven really opened it up by setting a blistering pace up the 1 in 4 climb. The only person to see them again was Damian Smith who managed to keep them within his sights until Irton Pike. Meanwhile, Alistair Robinson, Chris Hope and Andy Wrigley tried to maintain the fastest pace allowable to limit the damage done by the Wheelbase rider's injection of speed. Phil Malcolm was unfortunately having trouble with cramp, which plagued him for the rest of the ride. Chris Hope pulled away from Alistair and Andy on Newlands Pass and maintained his position throughout. As the race progressed many of the leading riders were aware that the times at checkpoints were significantly up on previous years and providing that they didn't 'blow-up' the 6 hour barrier could be broken. Sure enough Lewis Carven and Stuart Reid finished together in a remarkable time of 5 hours 45 minutes, Damian Smith in 3rd place in 5 hour 50 minutes. Chris Hope closely behind in 5 hours 51 minutes and Andy Wrigley and Alistair Robinson in 5th and 6th position respectively in 5 hours 57 minutes.
This weekend 21/04/07 saw KeswickBikes.co.uk riders in action on both Saturday and Sunday.
Having placed 4th in three of the previous rounds of the series Alistair finally secured his first podium place in the 2007 Lakes and Lancs Sporting Courses Time Trial series. The Lakeland Landrover Coniston Grandprix, run on a tough 20 mile course and containing the daunting climb of Grizbeck hill, had a start list of more than 40 riders, riding his Felt DA time trial bike Alistair recorded a time of 50 minutes and 32 seconds which remained the fastest time of the day until the final seeded rider, Blair Buss of Team Swift Allsports, clocked a time 47 seconds faster to take the win. With the Shap hill climb next on the time trial agenda Alistair will be looking to go one step higher and depending on conditions will be targeting the course record for the 9 mile climb.
Sunday 22/04/07 saw three KeswickBikes.co.uk riders take to the roads of North Lancashire in round three of the Cycling Development North West road race series. On the pan flat course based on roads around Elswick village the race was always going to be run at a high pace, in the E/1/2 category race Alistair and Philip where caught napping early on a missed the initial break involving 8 riders, and despite the break coming within 14 seconds of being caught midway through the 96km race this proved to be the winning move, in the sprint for the minor placings the Keswick riders paid for chasing hard and slipped well outside the top twenty. In the 3/4 category race Paul Armstrong finished with the bunch and, despite getting boxed in during the sprint finish, finished a respectable twelfth place.
Whinlatter Course Record
Alistair Robinson shatters record at Whinlatter Hill Climb Time Trial by over 1 minute on 17th April 2007.
KeswickBikes.co.uk rider Alistair Robinson rode a time of 18.27 on 17th April to beat the previous record of 19.29 set in 2005 by VC Cumbria rider Adam Powel. This follows Alistair's achievement of the previous week when he broke the course record at a 10 mile Time Trial north of Carlisle event organised by Carlisle cycling club; Border City Wheelers.
Other KeswickBikes.co.uk riders recording great times included Chris Hope on his début time trial event, which followed his stunning victory at Round 2 of National Championship Trail Quest Event from Braithwaite on Sunday 15th April. Additionally ex KeswickBikes.co.uk employee James Taylor managed a third place behind well known Cumbrian rider; Peter Strong.
Sunday 2nd April saw Keswick School's high flying Down Hiller James Scott achieve an excellent third placing in a very competitive Youth category at Round 1 of the RAV 4 Scottish Downhill Championship in Innerleithen against some very stiff competition.
KMB Winning in 2007
Adam Brayton has taken the first victory for KMB in 2007 with an outright Expert class win at the first (Hopton) round of the Pearce Cycles DH Winter series event. Adam posted the second fastest time of the day with his first run and had the fastest run out of every category in his second run taking some notable Elite scalps along the way!
Nice one Ad, we're proud of you.
Adam races on a custom Iron Horse Sunday, with Bergtec pedals and hubs, Sram XO shifters and Rock Shox World Cup boxxers and Maxxis tyres. Want one? give us a call...
Team News
The 2007 bikes are here and the team riders are itching to mix it up in the new team kit.
Alastair Robinson will be hunting scalps for his first category licence on the road for KMB this year on his Cervelo Soloist Road bike & the awesome all new Felt time-trial bike. Joining Alastair on the road is Phil Malcom who will also be riding a Cervelo Soloist.
The Downhill team have chosen to ride the Commencal Supreme DH for this years bike with Paul and James both looking for series wins in their age categories after some early season training. As the exception to the rule, Adam will ride a full custom Iron Horse Sunday colour coded to the KMB Black and Kawasaki Green racing strip!
Come and say hello if you see any of us at an event!
2006 Review
From the shop who have staff who really ride, the 2006 season has been quite a year for KMB's racing teams!
KMB've had riders competing and winning XC and 'cross races at National Level, like John Galway and Duncan Stuart (Kona King Supreme), and even internationally with Jimmy Taylor riding at both the Euro and World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships (Marin Mount Vision).
The Mountain Bike team also took 3rd at the Mountain Mayhem and a team win at perhaps Cumbria's toughest off-road event, the 'Grizedale Mountain Bike Challenge' against strong local teams from Wheelbase and Grizedale MTB.
On the Downhill side of things Liam, Paul Wheldon and Adam Brayton have been flying the KMB flag qualifying and racing at the World Championship series downhill round at Fort William with Adam going on to represent the UK in the European Championsips, all racing their Kona Stab Supreme DH bkes.
