Riding on Ice

Share on Facebook  Share on Twitter

BY: Melanie Alexander

Published: 5th February, 2012

2012 brings many changes to Xcracer with an expansion of the team and a change of format. Whilst I was offered a place for a third year I opted instead to ride for my local bike shop Cyclopaedia who have supported me unofficially for years with advice, nice discounts and most importantly motivation and an interest in my racing. However I will continue to contribute to the Xcracer website and this year will also be back on a 29er.

 

Training I believe has been going well. We visited my sister in the South of France for Christmas meaning a good solid week of riding, which was a good intro into the New Year. The mild weather throughout January has been ideal for commuting and great for getting plenty of hours on the bike and sticking to a plan. 

 

This week it has been a lot harder to stick to a plan with the sub zero temperatures making the commute to work much less appealing and less safe on the icy roads. Yesterday the plan was to get a 3 hour steady road ride in with 3 times 10 minute efforts after the first hour, but we woke up to snow -not a sight you often see in Cardiff. With the roads looking nasty we opted for the cross bikes and were able to get a decent ride in completing the intervals on the long fire road climbs you can find in South Wales.

 

Today was a mountain bike ride with emphasis on practising sections and hopefully developing more skills, all organised by Ian Jeremiah. Matt Thompson and Adam King who both ride for Cardiff Jif - Cyclopaedia  in the Juniors this year, Mark and Ian (the two Vets) and myself  headed off early with a lot of concentration trying to not slip on the icy roads. A couple of hours later we met up with young Ffion James (Abergavenny RC) at Sirhowy to start the skills session. At this point Mark continued on to Cwmcarn and beyond preparing himself for more twenty four hour racing and we went off to play.

 

 

We are really lucky to have some great technical single track descents close to where we are based and it was great fun and challenging re-riding the trails especially in the difficult conditions. It came apparent very early on that I needed to toughen up to keep with the younger riders and to stay on my bike. There were slips and tumbles but also a lot of impressive riding.  A really good day in the saddle and also a long one, seven hours later I returned home feeling pretty worn out.

 

A big thanks to Xcracer.com and the team riders for having me on the team for the past couple of years, to the teams sponsors - Gateway cycles for the loan of the Giant Anthem, Mt Zoom for lightweight parts, Exposure lights and Accelerade for the much needed fuelling in cross country and endurance, it has been great and very much appreciated. And thanks to Cyclopaedia -Cardiff Jif for their future support.