Our weekend got off to an early start, the vans were loaded and with our less than accurate directions in hand we set off for Catton Hall to our first sponsored event: Wiggle Enduro 6 and the 10K Thunder Run. With the exception of a few u turns and choice words for the “reputable online directions” we finally arrived to a familiar sight, Patrick wandering round a field in his jeep. By this time the day was starting to push on, the pits were well on their way, the course was marked and traders had already started to arrive, we needed to prioritise, there was lots to do so we did the right thing and dug the kettle out. Fuelled with the finest flowery tea our pitch and camping area was up in no time and we were ready for the weekend ahead.

Friday evening was a relatively quiet and chilled out affair, Del the Wiggle Whippet nipped out for a quick lap of the course to familiarise himself as he would be joining the light brigade for the Night Time Time Trial while myself and Ben aired towards making a start on the beers and getting the pasta on the go. A quick chat with Tony from Magura next door and it was heads down for an early night.

Saturday got off to an early start and with all the Focus bikes on display, our little market stall set up and the demo bikes raring to go we were ready and in a great spot to see all the action unfold, 48 runners lined up for the 10k Thunder Run and with a quick pre race build up from Patrick they were off, some 34 minutes later saw Daniel Lewis from the Telford AC/RAF cross the finish line in first place with Christian Jones and Laurence Humphreys taking second and third for the mens category. Julia Downes had a 6 minute lead over the womens second place Sally Daw with Wendy Murdoch securing the third spot on the podium. With the Thunder Run complete the Demo day was underway and with plenty to choose from, the Focus First proved a very popular choice with the Superbud and Raven series also getting plenty of laps in. Matthew Page arrived around lunchtime and set up camp with us and started to prep his Raven Pro training bike ready for the Time Trial, unfortunately we couldn’t get his First Expert Race bike in time so with the Pro as the race bike we kept aside a Superbud as a spare. With the varied weather of bright spells and showers tyre choice was tricky and with a practice lap under his belt, he was ready for action. Check out his Blog for more.

With a long break from any kind of racing Del was ready for the time trial, a good 2 hours before he was due to go out, keen would be quite the understatement! With 20th place lap time of 31.03 on the Superbud he certainly set his stall for the Fun category and with Matthew’s 7th place lap time of 27.02 for the Elite category on the Raven Pro our spirits were high and all that was left to do was get the beers out to finish off a great day.

(more…)

We had a visit from our sponsored athletes Stuart Hayes and Michelle Dillon at the end of last week. We’d love to say it was for purely social reasons but they were here to pick up their new Focus Izalco Extreme bikes (along with getting training tips from Paul.) They got the workshop boys to do some tweaks and adjustments to get that perfect fit and we’re getting some amazing feedback from them now.

Well we’ve just got back from Enduro 6, our first sponsored event at Catton Hall and it was a great weekend, Patrick Adams made us feel at home right from the off and we can’t thank him enough for his support throughout. The 10K Thunder Run got the weekend off to a good start followed by the Focus demo day which saw some great feedback from the riders, so thanks to all those who tested the bikes. The main event on Sunday saw a great atmosphere building throughout the morning and with air horn in hand, I was honoured to get the race underway.
Full report very soon…

View all the results from the weekend here

I’m starting this latest blog with bad news - I’ve got a stress fracture in my right foot. I started off in a waterproof cast which enabled me to swim but after a week recuperating at home I went to the local hospital to have my cast checked because it felt tight. They took the cast off and checked the MRI scan I had done in Cardiff and because of loss of mobility they decided to put on an air boot which is much more comfortable and allows me to take it off and use an ultrasound machine to speed up the healing process but also allows me to move my ankle. The down side is that it will be 3 weeks until I can start swimming again.

The injury occurred when I went out to Crete last weekend to race in an ITU Points race and it went really well. I swam strongly (for me) and cycled up to the lead group comfortably, but by the time I had caught the leaders two athletes had broke away and they came into transition with little over a minute lead. I ran strongly and was in 2nd place with 3km left to run when I pulled out because my foot was too painful. I flew back the next day and got a MRI scan on my foot which revealed the fracture.

During the race when I had to stop I didnt feel too bad because I was doing well in the race and thought it would be fine for the Korea race in two weeks time. Unfortunately, the scan revealed otherwise. Im due to be in the cast for 6 weeks and hope to be back racing by the end of July.
I’m trying to pass the time by catching up with all the things I’ve been putting off because of lack of time…..now I’ve plenty!!

RN

Christened the Chrono yesterday with a win at the Duston Tri, a sprint race near Northampton. The swim was entertaining - a 400m pool swim - with people swimming all over each other, but the bike and run were good fun and I felt like I was on good form, completing the swim, 20k bike and 5k run in 58.01 to win the overall women’s race and my age group. With only six weeks to go until the Worlds in Vancouver I’m keen to get in as much race practice as possible and it was great to actually race the Chrono after taking it out for a few training rides in the past couple of weeks. It rides really well, I love the SRAM levers and it even climbs well for a tri bike.
Training has been going well, it’s all getting quite intense now with turbo sessions that are killing me and treadmill sets that are more than making me sweat. Feeling stronger day by day, though, so hopefully it’ll all pay off in the end.
Happy training
EK

The new range of Giro Sunglasses are now on the site. These are all compatible with the Giro Helmet range and have lots of interesting features such as Zeiss™ Certified True Sight™, True Sight™ Technology, Wind Tunnel™ Technology and Skull Hugging Luxury™ amongst many others.

(more…)

More from Rob and James at QE. Just a quick one due to the undergrowth wanting James for their king and cutting his ride short.

(more…)

For Mike Hutchison

Hi guys,

Well a little later than expected but here is an update of what I have been up to and how things are going with my charity weight loss, it is good news though.

It was very up and down to begin with untill I got to grips with weight watchers and my cycling regime.
I managed to squeeze a week in Scotland in my home town of Annan, which is on the west coast in Dumfriesshire. A lovely village on the banks of the river Annan funnily and on the Solway coast.

My journey started from Cheam to Sutton, then onto Saint Pancras. Then a quick 2 minute cycle to Euston, just me and my Killer Belly bike. The journey there was not to bad thankfully.
Anyway I finally got onto my Virgin train to Carlisle, this is where a funny thing happened. I got the bike onto the guards van and the guard kept asking me if it had been booked on. She must have asked me five times, even though no other bikes were even on the train.
She finally asked me where I was going, so I replied Carlisle. She then told me I was on the wrong train as this was the Wolverhampton train. I thought oh no, as I would never have time to get to the Carlisle train. Then all of a sudden another guard turned up, she was on the wrong train and her train had already left!
Once there though I had an excellent week cycling up and down the river and along the Solway coast. The weather was mixed but generally good, even had a flurry of snow now and again. You can see in the photographs the snow on the hills in the distance.

(more…)

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Mountain Bike UK Magazine Felt will shortly be releasing the Limited Edition MBUK Compulsion 2. The bike will have Mint Sauce Decals and come with a Mint Sauce Certificate, created especially by Joe Burt.
It will also be an upgrade of the Compulsion 2 with new components:

There is only 300 of these bikes going in to production but you can be one of the elite few to own this limited edition machine - they are available to pre-order from wiggle right now, but be quick as they are going to fly! The only problem is you are not going to want to get it dirty….

Full details and spec guide for the Felt Compulsion 2 SE 2008 Mint Sauce Ltd Edition

What’s happened to the hike tab?
Wiggle.co.uk continues to move forward and expand as the UKs official number one online cycle shop, and like any dedicated athlete, we are focusing on our core disciplines and what we do best.

We have discontinued some of the more specialist hike categories such as the outdoor jackets, hiking poles and walking boots, but we have kept most of the popular categories that we think will still be useful to our customers. This includes more generic and popular hiking accessories such as tents, sleeping bags, cooking stoves, torches and more.

These remaining categories have been integrated into our ‘Cycle’ section. You will be able to find them under the A-Z cycle menu on the left hand side on our home/cycle page and via our search function from any area of the site.

Any stocks that we still have from the discontinued hike categories have been moved into our ‘Dutch Auction’ style Price Drop section. The price of all the items will reduce by 1% every day at midnight until it’s gone! There is no limit to how low the prices can go but remember the stocks are extremely limited and can be sold at any time – once it’s gone it’s gone!

(more…)