So it looked like the holiday was going to be a bike-testing opportunity, but there are times when work and pleasure do mix! They say nothing goes faster than hire cars or demo bikes…

After 2 weeks with only one day off the bike, riding Morzine-Les Gets’s most braking-bumped DH’s as well as bigger XC loops with some of the most mind-blowing sections of ‘proper’ trail we’d ever ridden, the bike didn’t dissapoint. To be honest it’s far closer to being a perfect enduro/trail ride that I expected for a first prototype, there’s a few details to revise and we’re looking at minor tweaks to the suspension rate but I’m happy that if it could handle general Alpine riding and trails such as Drum’n'Bass and Run of the Mill as well as it did, we’re onto a potential winner. With an unusually stiff rear end and a roomy front-centre it felt totally at home out there, as well as climbing as efficiently as any other bike we’ve ridden. All round trail ability with a bit of bias toward the downs, ideal.

While there’s nothing truly new to be done in bike suspension these days and we’re not claiming any new technology here, we are confident we have an ideal mix of proven suspension systems with new tweaks, a good geometry and a well balanced frame design in a very confidence-inducing package. Like our aim with the rest of our bikes it’s simply a great ‘rider’s bike’, so it’s going ahead once proven to be UK-winter ready.

More updates on this one as the second round of frames arrive later this year.

A big thank you to everyone at Flow MTB – to Jess for the most amazing food, Phil, Sara and Emily for looking after tired riders and also to Phil and Guy for proving one of riding’s rules – ‘be careful when following a local!’. If you’re thinking of a trip to the Portes du Soleil, give Flow a call, they’re well recommended and the best chalet we’ve stayed at so far.

Cheers all!

Firstly, the best news for us in some time is that Vin Cox has finished his Great Bike Ride and he’s got a claim on the round the world record! He rode 18,225 miles in 163 days on an Alfine-hubbed Genesis Croix De Fer – an almost unbelievable achievement. He’s put in a claim to the Guiness world records office and we await to see if both Vin and the Croix de Fer become record-breakers..

To Vin, from all of us at Genesis, good work and hope you’re enjoying a well earned rest!!

Read all about Vin’s epic ride in aid of the Geoff Thomas Foundation here

We did ok, James P represented the UK well getting within a fraction of a second of the winner’s time and leaving me behind, but the Copenhagen fixed-gear crew were tough competition! Highlight of the visit was a few hours riding in the local forest on Saturday - for a flat country Denmark certainly has some fun trails. Just to put the visitors on the back-foot when following the locals (often a risky thing!) we were given Ari 29ers to ride. With the brakes on the wrong way round. Ari bikes are custom-made by Ben’s brother and the monster-fork 29er was Ben’s own bike – probably the most original and fun bike I’ve ridden in years. I’ve been quite 29er-sceptical in the face of more and more requests for a Genesis 29er over the last year or 2 (one does exist, I had it made in 2006 but didn’t take it further, due to priorities and volumes mainly) but I loved the Ari bikes, really interesting and good to ride. Look them up, Aricycles.com.. made in Israel. If you want a TIG-welded custom steel bike that no-one else in the UK will have, this is a builder that should be on your list.

Big thanks to Kristian and Ben for their hospitality, plus thanks to Kasper from Dansk MTB website site for the pointer to the Copenhagen Cycle Chic lifestyle site. Nice..

Ben Ben Cykler

Danish MTB Culture

As usual the race started a 2pm on Saturday and as luck would have it the sun was still out. After the usual 800 meter le mans start I jumped onto my bike ready for 24hrs of pain. The first lap went well, Ant White took the lead, with myself and Rob Dean just behind. Rob pushed on getting a gap on me whilst I decided to hang back a little. After around 4hrs Rob dropped out due to a bad back and I moved into 2nd well aware there was a group of three riders just behind me. I then went through a bit of a rough stage and at the 8hr mark Dave Powell and Jason Miles made a charge and in the space of 3 laps I dropped from 2nd to 4th.  As the night set in, I was feeling good again and ready for a battle. The race also proved a good testing ground for some new Light and Motion Secca lights which were seriously impressive. It wasn’t just the sheer brightness but also the range, which pretty much eradicates the need for a helmet light even in technical singletrack.

Positions didn’t change over the next 8 hours. Ant and Dave cemented their places at the front but Jason and I were very close (with a few minutes separating us), and then a good gap to 5th. As the sun rose I was starting to hurt but after 14hrs on the bike this was to be expected. With 16hours gone and 15 laps down I came into the pits feeling a little light headed, the race was still on though and with 8 hours left I knew anything could still happen, so I continued hoping that I could find something in the tank to find a way to take 3rd. As the lap progressed, I was starting to feel worse, but put this to the back of my mind and kept grinding up the hills.  I don’t remember much after this, just the next minute I woke up in the medical tent with a couple of paramedics around me. I don’t think there was any major issue, I had obviously just pushed it a little too hard… Fair play to Jason who pushed me all the way. That was it though race over which was kind of weird as I expecting another 8hrs of racing before I got to step off my bike. Now all I had to do was head back to my pit explain the situation and get ready to pack up knowing that I had spent 16hours on a bike for pretty much nothing. On a good note I didn’t do myself any serious injuries so my focus now turns to the Colorado Trail Race which is only 6 weeks away, lets hope I can stay on the right side of the ‘pain barrier’ out there.

After the texts went out the only taker was Mike Mcfarlane (www.mikemcfarlane.co.uk), I had met Mike through working at Ride Cycles and he was now working at a local outdoor store but had taken a big chunk of time out so was free for the trip.

 Amazingly Mike didn’t seemed phased by my optimistic time scale of 2 and a bit days… after some shifting of dates we decided to get the train on a Sunday morning to start riding about 3pm in afternoon, then a return train at 10am on the Wednesday… with trains and times booked we had a rigid timescale to work with. I decided to go very light… or as light as I could as from past experience I always ended up taking a world of crap I didn’t need.. With all gear on the bike it still felt pretty rideable…

As I left home on the Sunday morning the sun was shining and it looked to be a pretty warm adventure although forecasts predicted showers I couldn’t see from where.. As I arrived at the station Mike, his Wife Susan and dog were waiting… me and Mike had chosen fully rigid singlespeeds and after the goodbyes we were on a train filled with alcohol fueled Scots.. We lucked out with seats booked in the quiet carriage:)

 After 3 hours of train we arrived at Milngavie and the start of the West Highland Way.. It wasn’t long before the WHW signage had us circling Mudock Castle looking before finding the way out and being sent on our way… the first section was easy undulating bridleway and Tarmac.. Navigation was easy and the sun was shining… it wasn’t long till we reached the shores of Loch Lomond.

We made good use of the pub on the shores of the Loch to sink some fluids as the weather was still amazing and showed no signs of letting up. When the singletrack trail started a proper it wasn’t long before we were into the hike a bike section that all who have ridden the WHW will remember.. Progress became very slow as we rode short sections and carried longer ones.. Just as we were both looking forward to a good feed and the light was fading we rolled into a campsite with a bar and a restaurant which although was closing still rustled up some lasagnes!!

The night’s accommodation was the campsite in the bivvi bags with a tarp rigged up from a fence as the weather definitely looked alot more overcast.

We woke and were on our way by 7am… with an estimated 40 miles done on the first day we looked to do 100 miles a day for the next 2 days to get the job done… we rode to the top of the first rise and enjoyed a breakfast trailside with the sun warming the air around us.

The trail now was pretty variable.. Double track.. Jeep track… singletrack… grassy. Rocky… dirt.. Every trail was undulating but for at least the first part of the day there were no serious climbs and there was some awesome descents.

After some decent pushing we got to the first real rideable sustained climb of the trip up onto Rannoch Moor with a pretty long wide dirt track… luckily it was just about right for mine and Mikes singlespeed gearing although I chose to sit and grind it out while Mike chose to get out the saddle… the trail leveled out and then eventually we got our reward with a great rocky descent.

As we finished the descent the trail hugged the road on a grassy trail… so we cheated and bashed some tarmac for a few miles till we headed right and onto the Devils Staircase… a full on hike a bike which would take us up and over then down to Kinlocheven. After a snack at the top we began the more down than up trail to Kinlocheven… one feature of most Scottish trails are the water brakes.. Nice channels running across the trails formed of bits of rock.. these have to be hopped or rolled… just as I was hefting my rear wheel over one I unclipped a foot and to avoid a headfirst fall I chose to throw my weight back over and ended up coming off to the side with a pedal square to the calf muscle!! Ouch.. Luckily no more damage than this.. Now with an aching calf muscle I couldn’t stand to pedal.. To make  matters worse I puncture a mile or so later on another water brake!!

 Now time was getting on.. It was 4ish and I had expected to be in Fort William by now but we were only in Kinlocheven with another sizeable up/over/down to get under our belts to finish the WHW.. all the tales of how hard this route was were proving accurate… still we carried on but I had the doubts of my timescale creeping in and had already started formulating plan b,c and d in my head… getting out of Kinlocheven was another push and carry and where we thought we would top out and be able to see Fort William all we could see was more double track stretching as far as we could see

 The double track continued and every crest of a rise just allowed us to see more double track stretching out beyond us… this was starting to wear thin as I really wanted to put the WHW behind us knowing even when this was done we still had 150 miles to go. Finally we descended to a junction where the WHW met a military road and the signboard indicated that the military road was a 2 mile shorter route… so we took it to try and start clawing back some time.. Although tarmac the road delivered some very cheeky climbs until it finally gave up and spat us out into Fort William at around 5pm it had been a long time getting here.

 When faced with huge distance to cover and limited time to do it in the only thing a rider can do is… buy fish and chips and sit in the sun and ponder the situation.

 We had looked at plans b,c and d and all involved multiple trains and expense neither us wanted to get involved with so we turned back to finishing what we had started… from experience on the WHW we decided that an attempt on the East Highland Way at this point would probably leave us miles from our destination as our train departed on Wednesday morning so we decided to take to the tar and at the end of a 60 mile off road ride we decided the best course of action would be a 40 mile singlespeed road ride!!

 Strangely although my calf was still aching the road riding was quite pleasurable.. we had spent so many hours riding and hiking to only make the smallest amount of progress and now the miles were flying by… the first 12 miles to Spean Bridge went quickly then we set our sights on Laggan as a spot to stop for the night. We pedaled on and as I had the better road gearing Mike sat in and basked in the wind free environment.. We soon were at Laggan Wolftrax although we both thought better of a quick lap and after that, Laggan.

I had hoped for a scenario similar to the previous night where we would roll up to a bar or restaurant but unfortunately Laggan could only offer a disabled toilet, playground and a picnic area… none of which were very appealing at all so we pressed on a further few miles down the road and headed off the tarmac up a trail to where we found a good spot for a bivvi and while I set out my gear Mike took up the role of chef and we dined on dehydrated meals and cups of tea.

 We woke on Tuesday morning with a more optimistic outlook on the whole adventure… I don’t think Mike’s belief in what we were doing had wavered but I am known for large bouts of negativity in the face of adversity:)

The plan now sat at more road work to Aviemore… good breakfast.. Visit Bothy Bikes (www.bothybikes.co.uk) .. Find the Speyside Way and ride to Keith where we would find a good spot to sleep and then train Wednesday morning. The morning was really cold and it took a fair few miles for the feeling to come into my hands… when it did the miles passed easily.. I had a figure of about 30-40 miles to Aviemore in my head so when we saw the 12 miles to Aviemore sign spirits were at an all time high and I pressed the pedals even harder with the thought of a good breakfast within my grasp. Getting to Aviemore we went to visit Bothy Bikes first… what a great shop, I had heard of them as they are a Genesis dealer but that’s not all they sell.. They had such a good selection of bikes and parts and the guys were very friendly and you got a sense that they just rode, rode and rode bikes.. I look forward to getting back and doing some local rides.

 A quick ride via a cash point saw us sat in a cafe enjoying a huge cooked breakfast… we didn’t even give prices a second glance as we filled our boots with great cooked food, orange juice and latte’s!!  We even stocked up on a cake each for later.

The Speyside Way started behind Aviemore station and after riding through the back streets of Aviemore and quieter roads started out on a very wide well groomed trail.. Fast and flowing… it then dived into some woodland for some singletrack before out onto a quiet country lane then onto a nice grassy disused railway. We knew that this was going to be the easy section of the trip with not a great deal of elevation to it and mainly well groomed trails all rideable.. although it was not without its surprises as we found ourselves first in a field with 2 bulls shortly followed by in the thick of a wood with no trail in sight as the person that had signed the route overlooked a 4 way junction with the SW being the less obvious of the trails to follow… they did however manage to place a number of signs mid track when there was no option but the direction you were going in… Not so helpful.

The route was punctuated by map boards indicating what section of the trail you were on and every time we stopped at one we had made much more progress than we had thought although I was not keen on giving up the idea of just going straight to the railway station to avoid any unnecessary missed trains… the alternative was ride to the beach then ride to the station but it is a little known fact I hate sand and therefore have no desire to be anywhere near it.

 As we came off the official SW route we headed towards Keith on road again.. This time alot hillier as we left our valley bottom behind and climbed out and over.. Again progress was pretty quick and the ten miles on the road passed quickly with us arriving at Keith around 6pm. We pedaled to where the campsite signs directed us but all we found was a park home site surrounded by some rather uninviting wastelands… we rode to the station and again nothing of worth there.. We had never really planned any spots to sleep.. I was getting a little fed up as I was ready for a pint and a good meal… Mike however unphased by my ever increasing bad mood in a moment of extreme bravery suggested that we just ride to the beach and sleep there!!

Amazingly I agreed but under protest and said I would be getting myself there as quickly as possible… which Mike let me do and as I tortured my legs in an insane ten mile singlespeed fully loaded with luggage time trial it’s started to rain. Luckily as quickly as it started the rain stopped and I arrived at Buckie… the end of the SW.. unfortunately Mike headed for Spey Bay… after a few phone calls we manage to find each other and settled into a spot on Spey Bay (only as it’s a shingle beach no sand!!)… dinner was a less appetizing pot shot noodle thing each with some beef jerky… we rigged the tarp and bivvi’d for the night… well almost as the wind picked up the tarp took on the form of a sail and threatened to carry our bikes down the beach so Mike took it down.

 Wednesday morning only required a 14 mile ride back to Keith and luckily they let us catch our first train early… the dirty riding clothes were packed and I rewarded myself with a fresh long sleeve.. Aberdeen station were less so accommodating with earlier trains so we settled into a Costa marathon punctuated by charging of iphones in the apple store

 All in a great trip… my calf is still sore… my bike a little unridden since getting back… I had alot of doubts as to whether living on a diet of only Singlespeeding is healthy so I have come back with a fresh desire to get some gears and see what has changed.

 Big thank you to Mike as he endured all my various moods and still came out smiling and pedaling at the other end

I arrived on Friday making the long journey up from Oxford, camping next to some old friends and team mates, Josh Ibbett, Anthony White and Richard Rothwell. We were joined by Steve Heading who although injured had come to watch and heckle. The event had a pretty chilled out atmosphere and it was good to catch up with old friends and share a few beers (thanks Russell) before the proper pain began the next day.

At 11am on Saturday we all made our way down from the camp site and main arena into the centre of Newcastleton. The start list contained all the main contenders, it was probably the first 24 solo race where all the top riders had turned up, and as we gathered and signed on everyone knew it was going to be a proper battle to take the crown.

At 12 noon in the (for Britain anyway) scorching heat we were off. As we rode out of Newcastleton behind the starting van there was a bit of chatter but mostly a tense feeling in the air. Many of the riders in the field saw this as their key race of the season and had been training hard for months.

After some initial jostling for position on the first lap I was in about 9th place. Due to the heat I had decided to take it slightly easier than usual to save some juice for the dark hours as I knew the sun would really sap the energy. 24hr races are long, and psychologically, the first 6 hours are some of the hardest as you feel some initial fatigue, but know you have a long way to go. I haven’t seen any 24hr races won in the first 6 hours but I have seen a lot lost.

There were some early casualties, and some riders backed off after an initial fast start. It was still hot but I was feeling ok and the benefit of the weather was that it was easy on my bikes (I didn’t have any mechanical issues during the race). This meant for the first 8 hours I was able to keep pushing on without stopping, just grabbing a bottle as I went through the pits at the end of each lap.

At 8ish I made my first stop, moving onto my second bike and helmet which were setup with my lights. I’m currently using an L&M Stella on my helmet and L&M Secca on my handlebars. This gives me plenty of juice in the single track and a decent battery time meaning I would only need to stop once to change lights. I realised at this point I had a slight issue, I hadn’t correctly set my seat angle and wasn’t enjoying the nose of the saddle crushing my balls. I decided though that maybe this would help keep me awake as tiredness set in so I didn’t bother stopping to change.

The dark hours are my favourite especially this weekend as the heat dropped and I raised the volume on my mp3 player, settling in for a long night on the bike. At midnight I asked my support team (my dad and Steve H) where I was in the race, I had managed to move into 5th place after passing James Lister in the pits the lap before. I knew I had to keep pushing on to hold my 5th and hopefully move up.

During the night the fireworks had started up front. After Josh had gained an early lead during the heat of the day he had managed to hold this and build on it, gaining a substantial lead on the early race favourites, Anthony White and Matt Page. At one point Matt took some time out in the pits which usually means the end of the race for most. Matt had other ideas and managed to gather his thoughts, get back on the bike and push on (eventually going on for the win).

By the morning I had consolidated my 5th place. I was some way off the top 4 so I carried cranking out the laps making sure that I didn’t bonk or make a mistake. At the 18 hour point my body was starting to feel the burn and all the climbs were hurting, and my upper body ached on the descents. I had been here before and knew that I wasn’t in any abnormal amount of discomfort to I pushed on regardless.

The last few laps were as ever pretty painful but the Altitude kept soaking up the bumps crossing the line at around 11am with 237 miles down. I was spanked but pleased with a top 5 placing in the first ever 24hr British champs.

The worst moment occurred 15 minutes after the finish when I realised that it was only 4 weeks before Mountain Mayhem which I knew would be just as hard…..

One week on and my body has pretty much recovered. I have some slight knee pain and my legs are a bit flat, but all things considered recovery has gone well. I have probably put on about 5lbs in weight so it’s all about getting back on the bike and pushing on to get ready for Mayhem. I’m looking forward to my trip to the Alps next week to help the cause……

We’re at every round this year – more info here