Elise on her way to a 4th place at her first ever DH race

A few weeks after the enduro, several of EUCC’s downhillers entered the first borderline events race of the year at Innerleithen. The track ran mainly down Gold-Run, with dry conditions, despite the surrounding areas being covered in snow! After a weekend of uplift and chocolate milk, race runs went well on Sunday, despite a few restarts due to a crash on course.

Chris Hartley loving life!

We had some fantastic results, with Elise Bardsley placing 4^th in her first ever downhill race! For the men, Adam Ramsay placed 25^th, Chris Hartley getting a personal best 18^th, and 1^st Year Calum Mackie placing 11^th! And well done to Calum McRitchie, who managed to take the win in the men’s expert category! Good weekend all round, get the chocolate milk in!

Calum McRitchie, winner of the expert men’s category!

Mr Ramsay showing how its done

On the weekend of February 3rd, several of EUCC’s members had entered the Innerduro round 1 at the famous downhill trails Innerleithen. Enduro racing involves riders being given a set amount of time to complete the race, during which they need to climb the hill 3 times, and are timed on 3 different descents to the bottom each time. The person with the shortest cumulative time wins. The weather for the weekend was dry and overcast, but damn it was cold and windy! We climbed the XC trail to the top of the downhill trails, where the first stage went down an enduro track next to Matador. It was pretty muddy and rooty, with a leg-burning fire-road climb half-way through, and then another rutty track through some trees to finish the stage. It was then another climb to the top, with the next downhill starting opposite the first one. The second stage was a hard, painful bog, which led onto the red xc trail, which then cut onto a steep roosty track to the finish of the stage. The last stage started right at the top again, went down make or brake, and turned onto another rooty steep track, ending on the last part of caddon bank. It was hard work but great fun. Everyone managed to ride together and have a great day, whilst having 3 good race runs.

Post-race chocolate milk!

EUCC had great results from the race, with Elise Bardsley placing 11^th , Rich Teague getting 49^th (on a hard-tail!), Adam Ramsay 34^th, EUCC alumni Chris Hutchens placing 5^th, and Calum McRitchie taking 3^rd! Additionally, The weekend ended on a high note with everyone getting in on the co-op chocolate milk!

Calum McRitchie on the podium for 3rd place!

Since the completion of the new Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, EUCC thought it would be rude not to have a go at riding the new velodrome! After dedicated organization by Andy Leith, a group of EUCC’ers headed through to the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.

Calum, Duane, Adam, Chris & Grace outside the Emirates Arena

After getting changed into our kit, we walked into the velodrome infield. My first thought upon walking in there was ‘I can’t believe how steep those bankings are!’ TV really doesn’t do it justice, as a mountain biker I thought there was no way a bike could keep traction around such steep bends! After getting us to just ride up onto the straights and back down a few times, the coach told us to give the bankings a go (‘the faster you go the less likely it is you’ll crash!’ – hah!). I built up speed to take the corner the first time, but chickened out, convinced my wheels wouldn’t stick. I then obeyed rule number 5# of the cycling code (http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/) and decided to go for it the second time. It was a very strange sensation being that vertical and having magical grip keeping the bike on the track, as well as seeing other riders riding ‘next’ (above and below) you! We all left the first session pretty stoked and were looking forward to completing our accreditation.

Everyone after their first accreditation session!

Over the next few sessions, we started moving onto riding alongside each other, doing chain-gangs and track stacks. In the final accreditation session, we were assessed by having us race against each other! We did some individual sprints, a scratch and elimination race. Since then we have had several accredited sessions, where we’ve practised Keirins, team sprint and pursuit and many other things! Some of our members even decided to give racing the local track league a try!

I would strongly recommend anyone to give track cycling a go, it’s really an unforgettable experience!

Steep velodrome banking

Been a while since we’ve updated you on what the club’s been up to over the winter period this year.  We last heard of the EUCC success at the BUCS Cyclocross. Around the same time a group of us hit up a weekend long trip to 3 of the famous 7Stanes trails. After driving down on the Friday to Urr Lodge near the borders, and having a night of EUCC cooking and classic Nazi Zombies movie, we rode Dalbeattie on the Saturday morning. The weather was a mix of sunny and raining, but the trails were in good condition with no other people around!

Everyone chilling mid-ride at Dalbeattie

A quick lunch stop and a few miles later, we drove up to our second trail centre of the day – Mabie. For a  warm up to our lap of the xc trail, we did a few laps of the 4X track. Unfortunately our president’s face had a bit of a disagreement with the Mabie dirt, and had to be taken to hospital. We decided to skip out the trail and just spend the rest of the afternoon playing on the 4X track – which soon turned into 12X…. (see video)

After another night of EUCC cooking and film, we rode down to ride Kirroughtree. After turning his wheel into a pringle the day before the Mabie 4X track, Chris had to hire a wheel just to get round the trails for the day!

Chris’ wheel post 12X race at Mabie..

First reactions from everyone upon riding Kirroughtree was great, the trail flowed real nice and everyone was super stoked

Everyone looking stoked from a weekend of shredding the gnar!

At the half-way point, we came to the McMoab slab, where many tried, but mostly failed to get through the rock slab faultlessly. On the way back to the car-park, I think everyone experienced a loss of energy, and we were all very happy to demolish the small grocery store and local chippy on the way back to the Burgh. Here’s a video from the weekend!

http://vimeo.com/54664516

EUCC travelled down to Durham to race the BUCS Cyclocross Championships this weekend, taking home Silver in the Male Team category. Thanks to the hard work of both the mens and womens team Edinburgh walked away with 21 BUCS points, a promising start to the 2012/13 season.

The team celebrate after completing the gruelling hour long race. Photo thanks to Tom Owen.

Cyclocross combines the speed and test of fitness found in road racing with the technical bike skills needed in mountain bike racing. Competitors race round a short, off road course littered with tight corners, flat out straights and technical sections that mean shouldering your bike and talking the obstacle on foot.

A fantastic course set out by Durham University included several features including a set of stairs, a tricky hairpin on a steep grassy slope and two boggy banks to climb up, not to mention the myriad of tight, twisty corners. The racing was fast and furious from the off with everyone vying for the holeshot in the first corner and to avoid the congestion at the set of stairs.

The race slowly settled down with competitors spread out around the whole course with each rider pushing their limits to last for the hour. Despite the gruelling nature of the race people were in good spirits and a great sense of comradery built up. Final sprints were made to try and gain as much time as possible before the hour was up.

An outstanding performance saw Iain Paton take a closely contested 4th place and heading up the Male Team along with Jack Taylor and Rich Teague taking 2nd place. Elise Bardsley and Yvonne Laird also putting in a strong performance to take 6th in the Female Team category. Full results can be downloaded.

More photos and videos from the event will be up soon.

Cycling up the hills is never anyone’s favourite part of a ride, so when BUCS announced that the first Championship of the season, the Hill Climb, was oversubscribed by 80 entries it came as quite a surprise. EUCC sent down 8 riders to compete in this gruelling event.

The course was 1.2 miles long with an average gradient of 7.7%, the start and finish of the course being over 10% with a bit of respite in the middle. Starting outside the pub, riders were set of at minute intervals to chase down those in front of them. The road kicks up sharply as it winds through the village of Cubar before opening up to an incredibly vista of the Peak District. This was no time to be admiring the view as the gradient subsided for a bit, meaning you could up the power and make some time.

Adam putting the power down for the final sprint to the line.

The first left bend threw you into an unforgiving head wind that made the slightly flatter section feel just as much work as the rest of the course. Luckily supporters were lining the road banging pot, pans and old bikes. You really did feel like a Tour de France rider racing up one of the famous Cols even if your legs didn’t feel like it.

A final hairpin spat you out with a straight climb to the finish. There was no hiding here, all or nothing to the finish line. A slight bend was the final obstacle, turning this the finish line lay further than you remembered it. Out the saddle and sprint over the line. Job done. Collapse in the hedge. Enjoy flying down the 110m you just climbed up.

Edinburgh riders put in a sterling performance, Vicky Ware represented the females with a time of 8.13.9 and finishing 11th in a very strong field. In the men’s Iain Paton topped the board for EUCC with a superb time of 6:08.4, placing 13th, with the team of Iain Paton, Rich Teague and Jack Taylor placing 10th.

Calum and Adam celebrate reaching the top of the climb.

EUCC would like to thank Paddy for making a fantastic event despite the initial troubles and Andrew Leith who went above and beyond making sure EUCC could represent. We look forward to seeing you all at Cyclocross in the near future! Full EUCC results on the Racing Page.

Last Sunday saw EUCC make its first trip of the semester to the famous Innerleithen 7 Stanes downhill trails. These trails offer a big variety of riding, from the sweet, fast and smooth berms of Make or Brake, to the rough, steep and sketchy roots of Cresta.

At the end of the week, drop in!

It was an early start for some (especially after a Saturday night, luckily there weren’t any severe hangovers!), with everyone meeting at the CSE carpark at 7:15am (and on time, well done all). We got the bikes loaded quickly – after having taken the front wheels off all the downhill bikes, looks like Arnold Clark don’t make vehicles big enough for us – and got to the trails with just enough time to get kitted up and sign on to the uplift.

Neil and Rich offered to drive the van for the downhillers to Inners – and also managed to get some sweet enduro/xc riding in during the day – cheers guys!

Neil and Rich took the opportunity to ride some of Inners’ XC and Enduro tracks

The first uplift left the car-park at 9am, with riders getting into a bus, and the bikes loaded onto a cattle truck. This has been the format for the uplift at Innerleithen for many years, but news recently has been that a local group, AIMup, have had a positive community ballot, which gives the group clearance to start building a mechanical uplift service and bike park. This means more riding and sweet trails coming our way! The only task left now is to raise £5.5million for the project – the group is aiming for an opening date sometime in 2014.

The weather was good all day, apart from a short shower around lunch time. Trail conditions were perfect, not muddy or wet, and not dusty either – just tacky enough to throw down some steez! People did a mixture of tracks, and as a club we probably sampled most of what Inners has to offer through-out the day. There were a few flats, but no major mechanicals. We had a few members who had never tried downhill before, and it was great to see how stoked everyone was from a great days riding.

EUCC was lucky with the weather today – here Elise makes light work of The Luge

unfortunately, one rider got a bit rad coming out of the bomb-hole near the finish. One broken collar bone. a drive to the hospital in the ambulance and some morphine later, and Oliver is on the road to recovery, heal up soon bud!

There will be more uplift trips to Inners soon, but before then we have some great downhill trips planned to Falklands, Ae Forest, and more! Stay up to date on the facebook and announcements page for more DH action!

Oliver enjoying some hang time – we hope he heals up quick!

Innerleithen played host to the annual Innerleithen MTB TT, a grueling time trial around some of the most technical tracks at Innerleithen interspersed by super steep climbs to sap all your energy.

Stu powering up the first climb, still smiling despite the lack of gears!

The first climb was a brutal slog to the top to get the legs burning. With riders being set off every minute there was plenty of overtaking happening as everyone vied for a good position into the first descent. Cresting the top led you into some boggy singletrack where the riding was more akin to skiing with the amount of mud. Eventually the boggy mess gave way to steep rocks and roots that would test even the most technically gifted rider. Finally the barrage of rocks gave way to the second climb, a retrace of the initial climb right to the top again.

Starting the second descent wasn’t the rest most people were hoping for. A boggy traverse along the fire break meant keeping the power down to continue moving, although many people resorted to running as this was actually faster. After what seemed  an eternity the trail dived off into the trees with a flowing section of rooty corners. Gaining confidence on these sorts of trails meant you could up your speed and really attack the descent. This section of trail spat you out at the top of Plora Craig so you were really able to put the power down and attack giving your arms a bit of a rest. You still had to be alert as there were several rocky features that could catch you out when riding the section at such speed.

Rich riding the final timed descent, Cadon Bank.

The final climb definitely felt the easiest, a slog up a fire road almost to the top of the hill for the final descent and a timed section. With legs burning you dropped into the descent, a flat out trail with several jumps to keep it interesting. This turned into several rocky switchbacks to keep you on your toes and letting you get the bike sideways.  A sharp U-turn at the bottom threw you out onto a fire road sprint to just make sure your legs really were on fire before finally turning into a natural section of switchbacks into the lower half of Cadon Bank. Off the brakes and putting down the power was the name of the game here with large jumps and drops really testing the skills of the rider, all the way down to the finish line at the bottom.

Rich on the podium taking 3rd Senior and ESCA Senior Champion.

It proved to be a particularly successful day out for EUCC with Calum McRitchie grabbing the fastest descent of the day, 6 minutes 14 seconds and Richard Teague placing 3rd in Seniors and winning East Scotland Cycling Association Mountain Bike Champion 2012. All the riders had a brilliant day sampling some of the finest trails Innerleithen had to offer in some glorious weather.

A big thanks goes to the organisers Innerleithen MTB Racing and all the marshals. We hope to see you all next year!

Another year, another fantastic ride around Glentress with the new intake of freshers. Setting a new record for the club, 46 riders gathered at the CSE for a day of shredding the red at Glentress. 

Group Shot at the top of Spooky Wood.

El Presidente getting stoked on Spooky Wood.

Stu puts the power down on the climb.

 The time has come again to host EUCC’s annual trip to Glentress, which arguably provides some of the best trail riding in the UK. An eagerly anticipated day of sick riding and great banter, it promises to be an awesome day trip for both new and existing members. Get the dates in your calendar, get the day off work and be sure not to miss out! View the facebook event page and click attending now!

https://www.facebook.com/events/484449388241057/

To whet your appetite here’s a video of last years: