2012

2012 was going to be a quiet year. No spending lots of money on flying to races in far-flung places. No spending months on a bike instead of working.

It hasn’t quite worked out like that. I’ve managed to keep the aeroplane time down, but there were too many interesting challenges around to resist them all. So here’s what’s on the menu:

February

• Dyfi Winter Warmer – A relatively short race, but Wales in February will involve water and probably ice. With fast and technical downhills, it should be an excellent first outing for me on the Singular Buzzard.

April

• The Devizes to Westminster Kayak Race – Emily is doing the paddling, and I’m just supporting, but it’ll be epic!

May

• The Cairngorms Loop – A new event. 180 miles round the Cairngorms. I don’t know what to expect: the weather could be anything; the distance could be possible without sleep. It would be mad to go without emergency bivi gear, though. The line-up of riders means it’ll be a nice gathering, too.

June

• Bristol Bikefest 12hr solo – I feel pretty much over doing 24hr solo races, but 12 hours solo on a nice course will be fun!
• Grenzsteintrophy – 1000km bikepacking race along the former border between East and West Germany. With the help of Privateer Magazine.
• Black Mountain 3 Day – Stage endurance race in Brecon area

July

• TwentyFour 12 – The 24 hour race that’s fun 🙂 Entering as a team.
• England-Wales-England – My shiny, new race. Around 1000 miles of bikepacking right here in the UK.

September

• Scottish Coast to Coast -Emily and I have a vague plan of taking a straight-line across Scotland with packrafts and bikes. Ride/paddle/carry as required. We’ll also be trying to use as much bushcraft as possible instead of carrying so much dried food. Much to figure out other than just the month we’re aiming for!

Floating Goals

I’m not sure when these will happen, but they’re intentions to get done some time:

• West Highland Way Double – I know it has been done, but I still want it. And without really stopping, the time can be vastly improved. The only real difference in my approach (compared to last time’s aborted attempt) will be to take decent wheels and tyres instead of the worn-out temporary stuff that I took last time. Nice tubeless Ikons. Some wheels that I’m used to instead of something thrown on the week before: sorted.
• Half marathon (running) in < 1 hour 30 minutes. My running is coming along again, but I want to sustain it enough to do this comfortably. Not organised, probably (more-or-less) a loop along the Thames from Hampton Court Bridge to Walton Bridge.

With all that on the cards, it’s a good job I have the help of Singular, Velosolo, Maxxis, and Gore. Sam’s working on getting us more team deals, too, but more on those when they pony up 🙂