Third year on the trot. Each time you learn and refine. It just gets better and better until you reach a pinnacle like this. Continue reading “2017 Family Road Trip – Les Français des Jeux”
2017 Family Road Trip – Les Français des Jeux
Bob Graham Round 1: Dave: 0
My, what a day out. Or rather, ‘What an evening, night and morning’ out. There was so much preparation, an impeccable team of helpers, and plans that would make General Haig look like a chancer. I’d trained and was in great shape. All I had to do was put one foot in front of the other for 23 hrs and 20 mins, and my Bob Graham Round would be completed. Continue reading “Bob Graham Round 1: Dave: 0”
France 2016. More of the same, please
It wasn’t broke so not much needed fixing.
Another gem of a family hol making the most of our nearest neighbour. Brexit was all a shock to the Haygarth system and we needed Euroengagement as a tonic. Continue reading “France 2016. More of the same, please”
Stick to La Plagne – our 2016 family holiday
We were due a good ‘with cousins’ holiday… and this was a corker. Phil, Anne & family had had their arms twisted that a ski holiday could be affordable and achievable if we drove, and I told them we could. Katie and I had driven to the Alps before (in 2012-13 New Year) and we knew is was kind of no big deal. So we booked a chalet and off we went for February half term.
Continue reading “Stick to La Plagne – our 2016 family holiday”
Teen in the house! Lily’s birthday
The teens are here. Very weird how it all passes so fast – it never ceases to be weird. Lily… the little baby who slept for hours on end in a pram, got carted up mountains and on countless runs in a 3 wheeler jogger is now a huge giraffe-like girl who does the jogging herself. Continue reading “Teen in the house! Lily’s birthday”
France Holiday 2015
Since we got the caravan early last year we’ve been building up mentally to the big one. It’s very special for me to do a road trip like this with the children in the caravan because it bears an amazingly close resemblance to my own memories of the same in the mid 1970s. My dad would take us all down there over two days’ driving (on what was, presumably, less fast but less busy roads) and the days have lodged deeply in my memory. Continue reading “France Holiday 2015”
Cross Comes Calling
So… I’d had a season off ‘cross and was enjoying a bit of gentle riding, when there was this strange calling to get racing again… Continue reading “Cross Comes Calling”
A failed mission to derail a chain.
1 x 10 gears. 1 x Ti 29er bike. 1 x happy rider.
This setup is proving totally bombproof.
I’m up to 120 miles of heavy winter / spring abuse of my Titus Fireline Evo Ti. I made a few personal adjustments – I’m impressionable, but at times I’m old school. I still like to clip in, am not a fan of the extra weight a dropper seatpost brings unless I was riding in the alps on a weekly basis. And the gears… let me tell you about the gears…
I tested the single rings on offer from Absolute Black in the autumn on the cross bike (video here) and was impressed. I was keen to try this out on gnarlier, rockier riding on the mountain bike. It stands to reason that the weight lost by shedding a front changer, cable and mech is a bonus, and it is basically a damn sight tidier and cleaner in that department, too. It’s rocky rather than claggy round here (a different problem to the ‘cross scene) so I was keen to see if the concept worked – without the clutch-style rear mech that SRAM insists upon.
All I can say is that the chain has not even hinted at derailing.
Loving the bike – a light, forgiving trail bike adorned with some very generous On One Smorgasbord / Chunky Monkey ‘all mountain tyres make it feel incredibly tough, but nimble.
More here:
- Titus Fireline Evi Ti
- Absolute Black Chainrings
- On One Tyres: Smorgasbord and Chunky Monkey
Cyclocurling
Whilst the nation is grasped in the four-yearly passion for curling, it occurred to me that this rather fascinating and addictive niche sport may just be the way to get the sport I love – cyclocross – into the Winter Olympics for 2018.
There has been much debate about the potential for the IOC to open up the Winter Olympiad to sports normally practiced in winter (such as cyclocross) – as opposed to the current rule which is ‘sports normally practiced on snow or ice’ – but I think I may have found the way in that cyclocross has been looking for …
Lily’s Eleventh
Don’t get me started on the ‘they grow up quick’ thing. Lily, who was a babe in arms the day before yesterday, was eleven yesterday. Lovely quiet but perfectly formed day including
- a day’s leave for me
- bit of tolerable shopping for Converse for both girls
- Ten pin bowling with Elsie and Lily
- Lunch for us all at Pizza Express
- Picking up Lexie and Leah, and a visit from Lucy to make too many children beginning with L party
- Sausage & Mash and a Chocolate Fondue
- Netball with gloves on because the ball was too hard for delicate girls
Lily’s Gone to the Dogs
It’s normal for a ten year old to have a bit of love for animals. Lily’s always been very enthusiastic about dogs, big cats, and horses in particular. They’re definitely her thing. You can feel the enthusiasm glowing from her when near animals, and it demonstrates itself quite a lot when you try and chat to her about them (and generally get corrected on your inaccuracies – quite disturbing at times)
For her Christmas present (2012!) her treat was to go on a husky ‘sledding’ trip. It was the end of May before we and the weather finally both got our acts together, and we went to a great place called Pesky Husky in Staintondale, just north of Scarborough. The sun shone for seemingly the first time all year, and the trip was just a delight.
Video here
We tagged along to the the trip, a couple of days over half-term staying in Hartlepool – where Katie was born and brought up. It was great to share some of her old memories and places, particularly in such lovely weather. A trip up Roseberry Topping, a morning at the beach in Saltburn, as well as a trip to Robin Hood’s bay and round Ward Jackson Park in Hartlepool itself.
Photos here
Strava: The film
I recently wrote about a love hate relationship with Strava. The app that bikes back doesn’t want to go away.
Some try to sue them, love, some hate, but it’s not quite like Marmite – as we all seem to love and hate it a little bit. A little bit like real racing, we love it when it goes well. We hate getting beaten.
But perhaps most significantly, it does seem to change the way the more competitive-minded of us go about our training rides. Even on a nice day. So the other week, I made a short film.
Can be watched in HD here.