52 weeks - Recovery the hard way!

Being injured sucks _____ (I'll let you fill in the blanks!) And the past 5 weeks for me have been the toughest in my project so far, with physio packed schedules mixed with delicate racing after my right shoulder dislocation not so long ago!

Find out inside what I have been up to, and if I can even get to race at The Mega Avalanche next week, the race that I have trained all year for!Where to start...

After a shock from the doc and orders not to ride or race until the beginning of August - I had to find hope fast as my self esteem crash landed like a heroine addict on calpol when I found out Mega and me may not happen.

After a google session for decent physios I stumbled across a local legend who specialized in MX injuries and he instantly secured my hope with a realistic goal to have me on my bike with minimal effort within 2 weeks.

With the physio booked and the guy's attitude being superb I did everything he told me and obeyed his every rule. And as he promised I was racing and riding 2 weeks later at a local mini DH race on my new DH Hardtail frame from DMR - Thanks guys at DMR HQ, it really hit the spot and cheered me up loads!


After a fairly average run and with my head and shoulder raised high we ended the day with a mini xc ride with my race team around Cannock Chase with my PIC Martin Ogden in full xc mode.

The following days were covered in long chats with my wife about me heading out to the pre-booked Maxi Avalanche enduro in Samoens - The flight and travel arrangements thanks to a legend (Rob Hamilton Smith) had all been arranged for my welcome to Alpes riding and all I had to do was go - but I questioned it more than any decision I have ever made.

It was surrounded by hundreds of what ifs - and to crash bad here could surely ruin my mega avalanche journey - however through all the bad thoughts all I could think of was letting myself down. So I manned up, got stung by easy jet for my overweight bike box and arrived to my good friend Rob - who's polo awaited us in Swizzerland for our epicly beautiful drive to Samoens!


Very quickly I realized that the hills I was used to seeing in the UK were just made to look like molehills over here - Rob gave me a quick crash course guide to Alpes riding and introduced me to our flatmate Florian who is the only competition in this style of racing to Remi Absalaon. So in theory I was sorted, but in action - it was embarrassing to say the least!


The weekend works on a crazy day of enduro on the Saturday consisting of 4 DH timed individual special stages down this monster mountain in very muddy conditions followed by a nights sleep in whatever accommodation you have mustered into a mass start down the mountain.

The weather however was playing a rough card this weekend - with non stop rain all week and over the weekend the track was either - Mud fest, streams or like an ice rink - it didn't matter if you had spikes or high rollers - they were all useless here!



Special stage Saturday-

We arrived for our briefing and the Brits that had huddled in our area received a half translated version before being called up by our number to head to the gondola and begin our run down.


Track one – Wet, long, steep fields with more holes and ruts than a minefield! The track was crazy fun and if you didn’t slide off from just pulling your brake then you’re a God in my eyes! This track was flat out nuts and it weaved its way down the mountain hitting sections of tarmac, woods, flat out fields and chalet gardens – awesome fun!

Track two – Now if you have ever seen Langollen in the wet then you can imagine this track, but imagine the length of the track to be around 25 – 35 minutes long for the fast boys! The track was steep as hell and was a switchback nightmare crossing roots, rocks, drops and streams! The course was tough, but a real ear to ear grinner at the end. This track beat me up big time!

Track three – Possibly the most fun I have ever had on two wheels – This track was awesome and it was a real test of strength as the track was like riding down a mini boulder field / stream. This was easily my favorite track of all 4 and I didn’t fall off or think bad thoughts on it – My only regret on the track was stopping to adjust my rebound on a blind corner to realize it was the final corner on the track – so I lost time for no reason….doh!

Track four – Now I had a strange time here – mainly down to my mechanical disk brake stretching further than a cheese string and losing all power – so after an interesting mechanical doddle the brake kind of worked and I ambled my way down the track to the muddy finish arena.





After washing the bike for a crazy amount of time we headed back to the chalet to grab some local cuisine and settle in to watch the footie and have an early night. Turns out most of the night was spent rebuilding bikes and making alterations all around, so I just went with the flow and only changed my lever position - but I felt I participated none the less.

Sunday - Mass start day

Sunday rolled around fast and I was encouraged just to go out and have fun by my room mates and not to worry about my shoulder too much. We headed over to HQ and were put into rows accordingly based on our accumulative times from the previous day's stages.

I was not highly ranked and ended up in row F – which took me into a challenger cup race with some awesome dudes and the master's category – who are pretty fast I have to say.

After watching the fairly decent group of riders head off in the Main race we were then summoned to board the start line and make our attempt down a full track, but when we got to the bottom we would have to come back up and race it again!

The race begun and I had a great start positioning me in 3rd for around the first 15 minutes – after a crazy crash in the woods I hit a tree and a rider which opened up my mechanical lever and dropped the cable out. I spent a fair chunk of time repairing my bike and as soon as it was back in I began descending and fighting to gain places. As we neared the finish, disaster struck as my cable pulled through and snapped off leaving me attempting to fix the unfixable – I took a lead out of my pump track mates book and made my way down with my foot as a rear brake – I didn’t look cool and I crashed a lot! The race finished and I had the option to bodge a fast repair or retire – after much thought I decided to sit the race out and sort myself out for leaving for France later – yeah I wussed out a little, but I had clean clothes and a very happy impressed wife because of this when I got home!


After watching Remy only just beat my room mate we packed up and said our goodbyes and I was given a very awesome inside look to enduro DH French/Swiss style thanks to some awesome guys – Rob, Florian and Phil! Cheers people and thanks for kicking the door in on that dodgy toilet to get me out!

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4X Racing at Redhill

Now it's no surprise to many of you who read my articles that I have discovered a real passion for 4x and BMX whilst doing my project and it's been a real steerer in my life especially for my future cycling plans. And after my killer dislocation a few weeks ago training for my first 4x race, I was now in a position to actually race my first ever 4x race at Redhill NPS round 3 - and I was really excited!

Being my age though sucks in bike racing - whether it's DH, XC or 4X it's so competitive in my age group (senior) and always stacked with decent riders - the standard of ability is always high and impressive. I went with the aim to finish top 20 and to give it my best shot over the weekend!

After setting up my team's pits we hit the track for a few hours of practice before getting our race on!


The sun was shining and the day was just awesome - I had a real mix bag of motos which got me a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th - putting me into 19th place and just not close enough to race in the semi finals - maybe next time though!

Check our team website here - to see how the other wee beasties did!

What happens next?

I'm off to Mega - shoulder will be strapped up and I leave in our full family car this Friday, July 2nd with the aim to hit euro Disney on Saturday for my son (and me) followed by an epic drive on Sunday to our destination "Alpe de huez".

Wish me luck and I'll see you soon, hopefully with no more injuries and with a great story to share about my final post about mega avalanche 2010!

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