Winning ways to start '08
It seems that all the team have been taking different approaches to one another in their winter training this season...
Calum has been a regular at the Soggy Bottom xc series at Newnham Park and has wiped the floor in the Sport category. Upping his race distance in these 'training races' should prove beneficial come the National Series.
Ben headed to Wales for the Dragon Series and similarly enjoyed first places, with Calum sometimes there to not make it an easy ride. Unfortunately for Ben an incident on his first ride out on his '08 Scott Scale resulted in buckled wheels, a damaged frame and many other parts when an inatentive driver marvelling at a Christmas Tree knocked him off. Luckily his injuries shouldn't interupt his training.
Lorraine has been rebuilding her base big style in preparation for the 24 hour enduros. Three visits to the Thetford Enduro Winter Series resulted in at least one win and overall third place in the series.
Little Dean also rode two Thetford rounds and just hit up the top 10 in the Veterans. Word on the street is that he's been out pounding the tarmac this winter on his mountain bike with a PowerTap attached, hopefully all the numbers make sense.
Youngster Steve James quite simply loves cycling and attends most of the Berks On Bikes rides, often leading them and disappearing off the front at speed. Judging by his race lap times so far he'll be causing trouble at the head of the Youth field, as Gorrick round 1 has already proved.
Paul (Howard) has taken up running again, well I say again, more like since stopping at school 22 years ago! To add some variety and cross-training he's already competed in his first offroad duathlon with good success and achieved the fastest bike split. Also despite spending two days walking round preparing the first Gorrick course finished 4th in Supermasters.
Warren has moved up to Expert this year with Ben, so the additional lap is going to test their endurance. But we know you both get stronger as the season progresses.
Chris showed up at Gorrick round 1 with a shedload of perseverence. Having not officially ridden since September he completed four laps of the tough DERA Test Track and has now started his training in earnest again for an assault on Oli Beck's National Chimps title!
Not heard too much of what John and Hoppy have been upto but no doubt they've been training in secret and will surprise us all.
To round off our winter riding a group is heading to Tenerife late February to partake in the winter sun with extensive rides up the volcano, a few beers, some rounds of golf and a bit of surfing or windsurfing, should be good.
Come and have a chat with us the races. If you're interested in any of the bikes we ride - mainly Scott Scales or Sparks - we can give you good feedback based on real world long term usage. There are also demo bikes available in-store or at events.