Douglas F Shearer

Penrith Merida 2008

I did the Penrith Merida last year, so had a fair idea of what to expect. Or so I thought!

This year I got onto the front row, so as to avoid the three minutes waiting to get past the finish line. Conditions were wet under-tyre, but sunny, and thus dry from above.

The first main climb was the same as last year, about an hours worth of granny ring climbing up a bumpy grass , followed by a great fun descent. The second main climb was a reverse of what we did last year, complete with the stolen signs at the top. I made it all the way to a summit with one other guy ahead of me before we realised the error. There was about 20 people following us. 20 minutes wasted.

From that point on I was pretty demoralised, the walk up to even the point of the missing sign was a bit OTT for a mountain-bike race, and it was followed by a walk down too! The remainder of the route consisted of about 50% road, and a little bit more walking.

I soft tapped for a while, and chatted with Stu. Then I got a second wind and put the foot down again, totally motoring the last 10k.

I enjoyed the mud, but not the walking or road so much. Steven Hallsal entered on his ‘cross bike, finishing about 10 minutes behind me due to a puncture, so it wasn’t really a proper mountainbike course.

On the plus side, I did get a small t-shirt at the end for the first time ever (which was conveniently in a paper wrap so I didn’t get it muddy like the last 6 times), and a Gore Sportive Buff.

I might go back next year, but I’ll need to be pretty keen. Or take a ’cross bike.

Selkirk Merida 2008

Hoping for second time luckier after last year’s mechanicals, the Selkirk Merida is an event I’ve really been looking forward to, with lots of effort going into making sure my knee didn’t play up.

It was wet, for the second year running, but I had enjoyed the conditions last year, so this year was going to be no different. This time I’d prepared a spare front wheel with a knobbly tyre on it, hopefully avoiding whatever issue it was that caused me to puncture last year.

I lined up with the few others on the line with about 20 minutes to go. We were informed that we were facing the wrong way, and turning round meant there was about 800 riders in front of us. I followed quick-thinking Hamish Creber who dived into the carpark and along the back of the wall, climbing over a fence to be on the front again.

The road start was an easy 4 miles as expected, just drafting behind the pace-van until the fireroad. As soon as we left the road I jumped round to the top 10 riders, and a gap was quickly made on those behind. From there on it was just all about staying on the bike, and keeping fed and hydrated.

Over the top of Minch Moor I was still feeling good, but on reaching the bottom again, I discovered I was stuck in the big ring. I knew I wasn’t as strong as last year when this happened, so I stopped and botched it into the middle ring.

Next up was an over-the-bars stack at the bottom of the really muddy descent where the 50k riders join, it took me a while to get it back together, and I felt I was struggling on the huge fireroad climb. At the top I munched a packet of crisps and a banana, and set off feeling a lot better to tackle the last section.

Just like last year I felt the finish was a bit easy, a few little climbs followed by a huge descent with nothing to really drain the last of the power from your leg. Despite this I was glad to be finished.

Stats

2007: 8th, 4h 32m, ~30m on leader.

2008: 9th, 4h 43m, ~30m on leader.

From comparing the difference in riding between the two years, I feel pretty happy with the result. My knee also gave me no bother, so hopefully some solid training between now and the end of the season should see some other pleasing results. Roll on Penrith!

Selkirk Merida 2007

After hearing about the Selkirk Merida and it’s dusty dry singletrack for the past three years, I thought it was time I gave it a go.

So it rained, yah! Was still an awesome course, and because of the daily torture in Poland my legs were feeling great. Unfortunately I had a series of mechanical incidents that kept holding me back.

30km – Front wheel puncture, wasn’t even ware of hitting anything.

40km – Miss the (poorly signed) feedstation, turn in the road, falling over on the greasy surface. James Fraser-Moodie amused greatly. Front shifter damaged so shifting sticky.

55km – Rear brake wears all the way to metal on the first part of the Minch Moor descent, rest of race done with just the front brake.

65km – New saddle comes loose on rooty descent before second last feed station, probably due to my very out of control riding due having only one brake.

75km – Front shifting completely broken, stuck in the big ring to the finish.

Finished in just over 4:30, not entirely shabby.

Penrith Merida

At the weekend I was down in the Lakes for the Penrith Merida with the EUCC guys and gals.

We stayed at Tim’s parent’s house on the saturday, and enjoyed some wonderful home cooking and hospitality.

The Merida itself was a tough one, 83km, and 2400m of climbing, some of which involved some hike-a-bike. Once I got over the start line (2.5mins, must be on the front line next time) and passed a few hundred people I started to settle in. On the first climb I ended up with a group of fairly fast guys who I was near for most of the race.

Towards the end I started to get cramp, annoyingly while sprinting downhill a few km from the finish, so that slowed me down a bit there. I finished in 4 hours and 38 minutes, 39 minutes behind winner Nick Craig, and somewhere in the top 30 (Someone else calculated top 10). The results they give out aren’t terribly accurate and don’t separate the different distances.

It is definitely the toughest race I have done in a while, I’ve had to spend all this week resting so I can recover in time for the Fort William SXC this weekend.

On a side note, I got a pair of Marzocchi Corsa SL WC forks last week, Out of the box they weren’t very smooth, and it wasn’t till I took the remote lockout off I realised they were never fully unlocked. Some lube in the lockout pulley the cable runs round soon sorted that out, and they now work perfectly.