Sat eve was dry and bright so I was optimistic for today’s weather. But the forecast was gash, with rain and gales forecast and lo and behold, just before I set off from home it started to rain. My car’s thermometer was stuck at 5.5degC, dropping to 4degC on Garrowby Hill, then settling at 5degC as I arrived at Twang.

I was actually on the reserve list, and evidently several sane souls opened their bedroom curtains and made the sensible decision to return to bed as I got a ride. Most of my warm-up consisted of sitting in the car with the heater on. I finally went for a quick spin 30mins before the start and didn’t think it was too bad. It was pretty blustery though.

Clothing choice was critical today. I plumped for Seal Skinz winter gloves, full length sleeved base layer, short sleeved shirt, full-on depths-of-winter Moonglu team jacket, knee warmers and a cap. I thought I might be too warm but I was happier to face the overheating risk than the ‘freeze to death and have to pack’ option.

The ride up to the top of Life Hill was an experience in itself and it was tough even getting to the start on my own, the wind was slicing across the flat plain before the climb from the right. There was also a dead hare on the right side of the road. Maybe it had been blown to death? It’s back part was missing and it’s guts were hanging out but it’s head was intact. It had massive teeth and was grinning at me.

We assembled at the start/finish line and luckily, unlike 6 years go, it didn’t start snowing. But it was still drizzling and cold. Then we were off. One idiot had bare legs and no overshoes. Fool.

The pace was manageable on the first lap. I had heard the road surface at the far side of Life Hill was bad, but evidently the potholes had been patched up as we descended. I was able to make good use of my newly regained descending mojo and confidence-inspiring (and hopefully puncture resistant) brand new Continental GP400S tyres and move up plenty of places on the descent as nervous riders braked.

The first lap went relatively uneventfully, however on the 2nd lap we went up Life Hill at a fare old pace, my HR was in the low 170′s and I was right at the back, suffering. I moved up on the descent and once up and over onto the main road I could see a group of 4 had got a gap off the front and were giving it big licks. I looked over my shoulder and the bunch was in smitherines, evidently the injection of pace had caused some big damage and there were gaps all over the place. I descended like a madman hitting 46mph and got on the back of the chase group who were also ramping up the pace in chase of the 4 leaders.

As we sped past the roundabout and onto the fastest flat part of the circuit I was getting a drink but as I was about 20th wheel I was relatively relaxed and let myeslf drift back through the bunch…..and out the back! That was it. After 2 laps there were about 20 of us left! Carnage! The following car with flashing amber light was behind us, we were the last riders on the road. Holy fuck. This made me feel much better and I knew that if I stuck it out I could beat most of the riders with me up the finish climb, so I dug in and hunkered down for a wet and cold 4 more laps.

The wind was still really strong at the bottom of the climb and the front riders were staying in the left gutter as the wind battered us from the right, so you couldn’t get any shelter, riding in the water-filled gutter, being sprayed by the bike in front whilst trying not to let the wind split you from his wheel. I was actually hating it and loving this bit, it felt very like a Belgian classics race indeed.

On one lap a lad actually got blown off the road and onto the grass verge, but we were riding so slowly at the time due to the wind he had time to remount and catch us up. And on another lap there was a shout from up ahead and a lad simply fell over at the foot of the climb. I thought he might have touched a wheel but aftrwards someone said he had simply fallen off his bike. Maybe too cold. There was also a lad in a ditch somewhere. Maybe someone told him there was a sauna down there.

By now the rainwater was seeping into my gloves and whilst they remained watreproof, they were full of ice cold water and my hands were numb. I had to keep looking down to make sure my fingers were actually on my brake levers on the descent because I couldn’t feel them. And I had to operate my front derailleur with my wrist because eventually my whole hand was numb. And I was chatting with a lad about how cold we were and talking was difficult, our faces and lips were freezing up.

By lap 6 one of the breakaway riders had blown (think it was Ewan Sewell who won it last year) so the break was 3 riders, so our group was going to be sprinting for 4th place. I fancied myself to win the bunch sprint so made sure I was as hydrated as possible, searched out my remaining gel and got ready for the last lap. I would be over the Moon with 4th.

However on the small drag up into Twang for the last lap it arrived, MoonCrampTM!! Nooo!!! I was actually surprised it hadn’t come on sooner due to my lack of race fitness and the cold, but I had been checking everyone else in the group out and everyone was suffering like a dog, so I told myself they would all be cramping up too so just manned up and carried on. In fact Stephen Bottomley from Crosstrax was so cold I could see him shaking uncontrollably, so much so that his bike was weaving about all over the place. Insane.

Just as we entered Twang village Craig Gath (who had been pretty active/optimistic all race trying to get across to the leaders) made a big attack and another rider went with him. There was no way I was going too and I never thought they’d survive the plain of crosswinds just the two of them, so expected them to die on the final climb.

As we turned to the bottom of the climb the 3 leaders were just ahead of us, about 200m, with Gathy and his partner about 100m ahead, but they were holding their position well. F**k. We were now sprinting for 6th at best.

On the run in it was as windy as ever with a few optimistic attacks that I made sure I covered in case a mini-break formed, but every time I caught one I sat up and none succedeed. There was then a few early attacks but all came from too far out I covered the bursts until we got to the last pitch of the climb and it was time to go, time to unleash the PodgeSprintTM and spill my guts.

There were 6 of us of the remaining riders who were in any shape for the sprint and I came over the line 5th out of the group, my tired legs unable to create the necessary power to take 6th, so I ended up with 10th.

Only 18 riders completed the race and the winner was a 2nd cat, which was a shame. In fact why James Allen even turned up is beyond me. He’s won the last 2 races he’s ridden and got his 2nd cat last week, so why would you turn out in awful weather to beat lesser riders? He obviously needed the prize money.

Getting changed was an experience, struggling to undo my helmet strap and shoes with numb hands whilst starting to shake uncontrollably, getting piss wet through as quickly as I could get into dry clothes and getting cramp in my legs as I took my leg warmers off. What a state.

But hey, I got a pwang. And £15. My road race account is open for business.

Andrew Noble, Team Moonglu RT wrote about his experiences from the full Liege-Bastogne-Liege Sportive, ouch.

Andrew wrote:

It was dark when we started and I was nervous about riding 270k.

Got in a group after 13k just as we got out of the neutralised zone.  Some unlucky souls had punctured in the neutralised.  Straight out of the neutralised zone the road went up for about 4k and I felt great.  No problems staying with anything, felt fantastic.  Continued in one group or another all the way to the first feed at about 55k.  It was continually rolling up to this point and was dry.  The hills were long but not so steep but it was just grinding.  Stocked up at the feed to get an idea of what I liked and disliked and off we set.

All groups had vanished after the feed and groups of 1’s, 2’s and 3’s had formed in echelons as we were on the tops now.  It hammered it down, bouncing off the road and then hail.  Soaked to the skin even with a rain jacket on.  Rode the next X km’s in a daze just holding the wheel in front as we got battered by wind and rain.  The weather then backed off a bit and we turned onto some back roads.  It was cold so we rode fast to keep warm.  My rain jacket wasn’t as technically well designed as everyone seemed to be cutting through the wind but I seemed to be inflated like a sail.  We rode through a nice leafy area and it started to dry up.

We then went down a 7km decent and I was so cold I had to stop.  On the following climb I wasn’t going too well but got over the top with a high pace and soon bunches started forming out of the echelons.  It had started hammering it down again.  These rolling roads continued for a long long time into a strong head/cross wind and the hills started to get shorter and steeper but the pace didn’t relent.

Finally we got to Bastogne.  It was torrential raining with intermittent hailing at the feed station and I was shivering uncontrollably.  I was so cold that I just ate and ate and ate in an attempt to warm me up – they only had sweet snacks though, nothing savoury and no plain water.  Me and my mate also agreed we needed to take the pace down as the pace in the last hour had got a bit silly for a 170 mile ride.  So we set off with tail wind with the start of the majority of the classified hills still about 70k away.  After about 30 mins I started to feel a bit rough.  Then over the course of the next 2 hours my stomach/gut/back/liver/kidneys degraded into one painful slosh.  From the bottom of my chest to the top of my legs was just an area of pain.  I desperately need the loo and I needed to be sick.  But I kept pedalling and the rain kept falling.  We then came to a small but steep climb and I didn’t have the will to pedal fast with all the pain in my body, my mate went away from me at light speed and even snails were over taking me.  Over the top I saw I had 42k to the start of the next categorised climb and ultimately where the feed station and toilet would be.  The “fear” came over me.  How the hell am I going to ride 42K?  It also dawned on me that I hadn’t eaten since Bastogne and that if I didn’t eat soon I would be in an even worse place.  But I couldn’t eat or drink because it made me physically wrech every time I put something sweet in my mouth.  This wasn’t how I visualised the day would go.

I then forced food and drink down me methodically every 5 mins for the next hour or so, each time wretching, holding the food in my mouth and finally swallowing for the second time.  All the time desperately needing to fart but I couldn’t because I would have emptied my guts there and then.  It was a dark dark time.  Especially with the lingering thought of having 150k to go.

Things didn’t get any better, but I did get into a group and hold onto it.  The pain by this time was incredible and again the will to pedal had left me, average HR for this section was about 63%.  The 3km long climb to Wanne couldn’t come too soon and I almost cried when I saw a sign for it.  I dragged my body up the climb maintaining a better pace than I had done for over 2 hours and literally barged everyone out the way to get to the loo.  It then took me 5 mins to get undressed cause my hands were so cold I couldn’t unzip my jacket.  I emptied literally everything out my body and all the pain went.  It was marvellous.  I ate banana’s at the feed as they didn’t make me wretch but I didn’t stock up with enough banana’s for the next leg.  Needless to say it was a short lived high.

Over the next 4 climbs I started to feel some rhythm, don’t get me wrong I wasn’t flying but with every pedal stroke I was getting stronger.  Then it all started going wrong again, it was hurting a lot to do very little – in my excitement at not feeling in immense pain I had forgotten to methodically eat every 5 mins, in fact I had forgotten to eat or drink anything at all since the last feed station, which was particularly important as I’d emptied everything out my body only an hour before.  So here I was with 70k to go, mentally beaten from everything that had been thrown at me and now pedalling on empty.  I ate the only bit of food I could stomach – ½ a banana – and then tried to drink but I didn’t have the will to resist the wretching so just didn’t drink.  My thoughts were that the final feed station wasn’t far, they must surely have something savoury/banana’s/plain water.  That feed station was about 20k away and again it was a “date with pain” to get there and I was all for getting a taxi.

The final feed station was practically empty and there was barely anything left.  I ate what I could and drank some water but now anything I put in my mouth was making me wretch.  We set off on the final 40k or so with the 3 famous climbs to go.  All thoughts of smashing up them was gone – I’d be lucky not to walk.

I don’t really remember this last section, I’d gone insular, dealing with only my own thoughts and not communicating with anyone or anything.  I got over the climbs, got passed by everyone and rolled down the other side.  I remember the final drag to the finish climb and the fact that I was swerving.  Some old Belgian guys were cheering me on and ignoring all other riders going past me.  I must have looked ruined.

I got to the finish and my mate picked up medal, certificate and T-shirt for me.  I went and bought some chips and couldn’t eat them – I had about 5 but they made me sick.  It was still raining, I was still wet through and we still had 5k to ride to the hotel.  I must have been bordering on hypothermic cause I felt terrible and was shivering uncontrollably again.

I got to the hotel somehow and showered.  We had ended up riding 285k and climbing 4700m all in all.  I got fully dressed in down jacket and walking trousers and got into bed.  I forced some weetabix down me.  After an hour I started to feel OK and we went out for food, the pain of the day dissolving into a distant memory.  Bitterly disappointed with the speed I rode but elated to be “home”, warm and safe.

Behind all these Eurosport televised spectaculars are a huge movement of social riders riding the associated Sportives. Take your choice of distance and ride the same roads as the pros with the same level of European organisation, these are a must for most weekend road riders and ex racers.

This year our resident Dutchman, friend of the shop and father of team rider Casper, Jan Kaars Sijpesteijn returned to his homeland to ride the Amstel Gold Sportive with brothers Casper and Ernst.

Jan chose the 125km route, a distance he was comfortable with and rode the route on his Moonglu built Lynskey Sportive titanium road bike. As a regular mile muncher Jan rode the route with bunches of riders of similar ability. He provided some rough stats from the finish:

Official Distance: 125 km

Recorded Distance: 123 km

Official rest spot at 83km – 3 hrs 8 mins: 26.4 km/hr

Overall – 5 hrs and a few minutes – 24.8 km/hr.

The main hills are in the second half of the tour.

Total riders: 12,000

Jan crossed the line with a smile on his face, all in all a great weekend and not bad for a 60+ year old.

I was wanting a top 5 in this today though events panned out a bit different. Only two Moonpoo’s before started was not a good sign. I got there nice and early and met Stuey Ol’ Lady. I signed on with Group 1 and soon we were away. The pace started okay and we hit the first off-road section at Copgrove. Pace was high and I sat on the front with a Nova rider for a bit, then moved in behind on the faster tarmac sessions. Through Ripley and onto a longer section which steadily climbs. This was hard and I thought to myself that I wasn’t feeling on top of my game. We came out onto the B6165 at the bottom of Burnt Yates and rolled over the first climb. I was struggling to recover from the previous section as we were still rising and the pace wasn’t easing. Up the climb to Burnt Yates and my legs slowed up, as I moved backwards (well, I didn’t actually move backwards as I was still moving forward – I mean it was a backward moving sensation as the bunch started to ride past me). Shit, I was out the back, but not by a lot! No one behind to help me chase, I was on my own.

I started to chase into the wind and got agonisingly close but could quite close the gap. We hit the off-road by Brimham Rocks but my legs felt empty and I watched the group move slowly away.Damn them. And their eyes. In hindsight, I reckon if I’d dug in deeper on the climb I would have probably used less energy! I didn’t feel to have any power on the slight inclines so thought I’d better eat and fire a gel down my neck too.

I started the climb up towards Fountains Abbey and noticed a couple of riders behind who had been dropped earlier and also a couple of riders up ahead. I let the two behind get on so we started to work together with Yorkshire Velo man and York Cycleworks man. We soon reeled in another Yorkshire Velo-man-low-over-bars-a-bit-like-Feillu-man and a Nova guy and then we were 5. Working as a group we pulled in another two Cycleworks riders, including Craig Gath. I was surprised to see him out of the group as he was riding strong. We’d also passed a couple of riders who’d punctured but I was unsure how many riders were still in the front group.

Gath was dragging us around. Each time someone went on the front, he was soon back on there, driving the pace. He was a machine but with fast, gerbil like breathing. The off road sections were tough and the pace was hard on them. We continued riding in the group of 7 but it was like riding in a breakaway with no let up.

We had a couple of ‘wrong turn moments’ (which without those, we’d have won. All of us) at Dishforth and Sessay then headed on the road towards Helperby, and towards the sand section! I got on the front as soon as we hit the sand and rode hard. This is a decent length of off road which rises slightly and as I pushed on, I couldn’t hear the riders behind or the gerbil breathing. Back on the tarmac, only then did I look round to see only two riders, Gath and Yorkshire Velo. The other velo guy was chasing back but the others were gone. We pushed on as three to Aldwark and Great Ouseburn when Gath muttered something about a slow puncture. Tough luck. That’s Scotton. Then there were three.

Up the penultimate off road climb, Yorkie Velos were struggling and dropped off. I was on my own. A bitch of a headwind up the A168, then onto the last off road through to Arkendale where I took a wrong turn, realised and turned round, to see one of the Velo guys pull out ahead of me. Damn! I chased him back and we rode together back to Staveley, and I pushed to finish before him.

Overall, a time of 3hrs 24min. Winning time was about 3:11. Not sure where I was place yet until results are posted. Average HR for 60miles was 160bpm! Mental. I feel proper battered. Disappointed I didn’t stick with the group, but a moral victory and blowing up our group on the sand.

After seeing these helmets first hand at the Bike Place show in Harrogate, we decided that this Italian brand would work really well in Moonglu. Kask is a company focussed on safety, infact they only manufacture helmets but are better know in the ski and climbing markets. This was until they signed up to supply bike helmets to the biggest new team in the pro peleton, Team Sky.

Kask offer a tight range of helmets with structured price points but more importantly the company is focussed on safety and style.

From Kask.it website:

KASK is an Italian company at the forefront of the design, development, testing and production of safety helmets for various activities from Cycling, Skiing and Climbing through to workplace protection.  Although relatively young, there is a wealth of experience within the engineering and design team which has led to KASK’s rapid evolution to becoming a leading manufacturer of the world’s best safety helmets.

At the centre of KASK’s ethos is the desire to match together the very best technology, functionality and comfort in a great looking helmet. There is un-ending research in to new technologies that will contribute to this goal along with continual testing and feedback from the various top level athletes that work with KASK. The fruits of this process are helmets that are quite simply the most comfortable, secure, safe and stylish available. Features such as the weight-saving integrated safety frame and the unique up-down double pivot fit system ensure that KASK remains the number one safety helmet brand within each sector it operates in. Finally, add to this the fact that everything is manufactured and made in Italy and you can see that KASK truly is a superior and unique brand of safety helmet.

If your desire is for the best product available to protect your head whilst allowing you to enjoy your chosen activity to the maximum then KASK Helmets are the only choice.

CSD – Comfort, Safety and Design. The three key elements of a safety helmet that KASK is unbeatable on.

Kask helmets are instock and available to buy now, we’ll get them on the website asap.

We’re running our first Strava contest. Not heard of Strava, well neither had we until 3 weeks ago but now we’re hooked and it’s given you the chance to win some prizes courtesy of Moonglu. Every Thursday after work Moonglu run our affectionally named Club run and we have created a Club Run Segment on Strava.

This first contest will run for one month starting immediately and finishing at 12 midnight on Saturday the 14th April. What do you have to do to win? Record the fastest time on the segment.

Where is the segment? It literally starts from the shop and ends on the Kirkby Malzaerd road on the run in back to Ripon. The route has something for everyone, flat sections, climbs and a fast run in back to Ripon. Details are available through the leaderboard link below or we can provide exact route details instore.

What’s up for grabs? We’re putting a pair of Maxxis road training tyres and an LED rear light into the pot for the first contest. It’s simple, fastest time wins. The leaderboard below is live at all times.

Some further info on Strava here

A note to participants:

This is an open competition available to anyone. Although there is a speed element to the contest, each rider is responsible for their own safety and Moonglu do not condone dangerous riding in any way. The times set above were done so safely with utmost respect for other road users, please ride with the same level of respect for road users and observe the rules of the road at all times, including traffic lights and junction priorities.

Interested? Why not join us and some of Moonglu Race Team on Strava.

Who to follow:

Neil Dunkley (Moonglu owner)

Mike Harper (Shop Manager)

Steve Hodgson (Moonglu RT)

Add you name to the list and we’ll follow you.

We have created our first Strava ‘segment’ on our Thursday night climb out of Masham, past Swinton Castle and up through Warthermarske:

That was the old way of thinking. To create Giant WheelSystems, engineers studied the ways the individual parts of a particular wheel affect each other. This research informed the overall design process, pushing Giant to develop wheel components that work together to deliver best-in-class performance. Every rim, spoke, and hub has been designed to function as a system to improve overall performance.

These wheels are instock and available at Moonglu now: Giant Wheel Systems