TwentyFour12 2011 - Cotic-AQR storm to 4 podiums incl. 3 wins!

Quick update after the weekend's Bontrager TwentyFour12 down at Newnham Park, Plymouth as the Cotic-AQR teams took the event by storm with 4 podiums including 3 wins...

• 24hr mixed pairs: Anne & Simon 1st!
• 12hr mixed pairs: Ian & Katie 1st!
• 12hr female pairs: Ruth & Kirsty 1st!
• 12hr female solo: Rachel 2nd!
• 12hr men's teams - Matt, Mat and guests Dan and Eelco.

More info. & photos soon!

Bristol BikeFest 2011: 3 podiums!

The Cotic-AQR team had a fantastic weekend at Bristol BikeFest, now in its 10th year, with 3 podiums in the sunday races! Even the rain didn't dampen the spirits and there were smiles all round on Bristol's ace swoopy singletrack :-)

Ruth & Kirsty - 3rd in female (and mixed!!) 6hr pairs!
James & Matt - 3rd in male 6hr pairs!
Rachel - 2nd in 3hr solo!

Rachel reports below on her first race since her big injury back in March...

After over two-months off the bike due to a fractured pelvis this was to be the first race of my debut season racing for Cotic-AQR holidays. In fact, this was less of a race and more of an experiment; I’d only had the go-ahead from Anne Dickins, AQR physio, to get back on the bike a week beforehand. The advice from Kate was to go out and use this as a training ride going steadily over the first couple of hours and then doing some interval training in the last hour so this ‘race’ was much more about riding for 3 hours than it was actually going fast or worrying about the competition. I chose to ride my (well, Kate’s actually) KP24; not only is the bike beautifully light and responsive, it also provided me with much required cushioning for my poorly bits and allowed me to sit down and pedal on some of the rougher stuff when my leg strength didn’t allow me to stand up and power through.

The race didn’t start well. I still can’t walk long distances without limping so running up a hill in bike shoes wasn’t ideal! With Kate’s voice in my head I tried to be sensible I didn’t rush into the race, allowing the traffic in front to pace me. I completed my first lap in a very modest time although my inability to press ‘start’ on my watch meant I didn’t know exactly how long it had taken. I allowed myself a quick stop to remove my waterproof and set out on lap two. With less traffic I got into a better rhythm, and tried to maintain a sensible pace. At this stage the mud was playing havoc with my gears so I stopped to clean and lube my chain as well as change my bottle. Lap 3 went well although my legs were starting to hurt somewhat. I was really pleased how I was riding the course actually managing to catch people on the two long sections of swoopy singletrack. I completed lap 3 knowing that to complete two more laps I would need to lap 3 mins quicker than my current average, even without stopping that would be close. Lap 4 went well, despite the pain from unfit legs and lungs and I squeaked in just in just over time. My final lap would need to be my quickest if I was going to do this, as I’d got a bit held up on some of the singletrack I was fairly confident with a clean run I’d make it. The final lap was great and I hardly got held up at all, until right near the end of the course when another ride veered into me. Desperate that this wouldn’t blow my chances of getting over the line in time, I grabbed my bike to jump back on only to find my saddle at a very odd angle. I quickly yanked the saddle round and hoped it wasn’t going to be too far out of position for the remainder of the lap. Complete with crooked saddle I pedalled as hard as I could up the final two climbs and made it over the line with 40 seconds to spare, phew!

So, I’d made it – over the finish line (achieving my first goal of completing the 3 hours), completing 5 laps and pleasingly onto the podium in second place. I was delighted to finally start, let alone finish, my first race for the Cotic-AQR team and I certainly enjoyed my post-race recovery cheering on my team mates in the 6 hour event.



Erlestoke Twelve: 2011's first team event podium

Erlestoke12 - 6hr mixed pairs, a photo by James Dymond on Flickr.~Ruth and I only decided to race 6hr pairs at Erlestoke Twelve about 3 weeks before the event when I realised that it was nearly June and I still hadn’t raced yet this year... having a year off from individual xc racing has been great for freeing up weekends but I’ve still got the competitive bug!

Anyway, despite my idea of only entering once we’d seen a definite forecast for the day, I turned up at Ruth’s place the night before the race to find a rather soggy forecast for the next day. It’s probably this that helped her persuade me to have a bit of a lie-in and turn up without enough time for a practice lap... after all, 3hrs of racing each would be plenty to get to know the course.

Or so we thought! ...I can now confirm that taking the long way to get there, rushing to arrive on time and having a virtually empty fuel tank in the car are most definitely not recommended pre-race preparations! Once our camp was set up I had enough time for a few laps of the car park before the race was on!

Being honest, my first lap was dire! Stuck in traffic, not knowing the course and not being warmed up all added to that “what the hell are we doing this for?!” feeling! Being stung 3 times under my jersey on that lap didn’t help either!

Luckily though, there is a ‘but’... the course was fantastic; lovely dry woodsy, natural singletrack, fun bombholes, decent enough grassy climbs and some semi-technical sections to catch riders out at speed. And so as the race went on we settled into a great rhythm, blasting out nice brisk laps and leaving each other pace and timing notes between laps! About 1/3 of the way through we were 2nd started to take notice of our competitors, with 3rd only a few minutes behind and 1st a few ahead: the race was now properly on!

Luckily for us, the pressure eased when Emma Bradley (MXC) in 3rd punctured and lost about 25 minutes but we couldn’t back off if we were going to give the leaders a run for their money. Despite some really consistent lap times and a totally mechanical-free race we couldn’t quite catch them (Progression Fitness) – but were delighted to finish 2nd, just 2m33s down – having reduced it from 6m. Massive credit is due to Ruth’s really speedy laps and mega-consistency and I was really pleased with my own times too which got quicker as the race went on!

Great start to the team-racing season with some valuable lessons learnt... warm up, warm up, warm up!*
* Oh & don’t be late for lap handovers otherwise your team-mate gets rather angry - & rightly so! Sorry Ruth!

Exposure 24 - National & European Solo MTB Champs 2011!

Wow, what a weekend that was!  Newcastleton, Scotland played host to the national and European 12 & 24 hour solo mountain bike championships for 2011 and the Cotic-AQR Holidays race team headed there in  force.

The beautiful setting supplied a superb race course from SIP Events but unfortunately the weather didn't play ball and nearly 20 hours of rain aligned itself perfectly with the race!

Never mind though, as the Cotic-AQR team shone through anyway...

• Kate Potter: 1st in 24 hour women's race
• Anne Dickins: 2nd in 24 hour women's vets race
• Anthony Jordan: 15th in the very competitive men's 24 hour race

So a massive congratulations all and huge thanks to sponsors Cotic, KCNC, Magura, Skins, Purple Extreme, Industry Nine and Torq whose kit kept the team going through the race.

To read more, see

• Kate's blog
• Anne's blog

...or scroll down for a selection of the photos...

For the full race gallery, see Flickr.

BMBS Round 2 - Ruth's view from the front!

Ruth's slightly belated write up of my recent experience at the second round of the British Mountain Bike Series at Dalby Forest on 17th April 2011...

Photo by Darren Ciolli-Leach of XCPIX
 

Initially my goal for the 2011 season in the Expert Women category was to get a podium. I wasn’t too worried about which position on the podium I achieved; I just knew that after putting in some hard work after an unimpressive season for results in 2010 I really wanted to earn myself a national level podium.

At round one of the BMBS I surprised myself by not only achieving a podium, but also achieving 2nd place, just 30seconds behind 1st place! Well, never in a million years did I think I would achieve my goal for the year at the first round.

So, in the run up to the second round of the series, I was apprehensive – to say the least. I knew that I needed to prove that my result at Sherwood wasn’t a one off! So I decided to get up to Dalby nice and early and spent time getting used to the course and the way my new Cotic Soda race bike felt on the terrain. With Kate’s expert coaching and guidance behind me I had my mind in a good place and tried not to put too much pressure on myself and just practiced the lines on the course that I was comfortable with and that I knew I could ride easily during the race itself.

On the morning of the race, I worked hard to keep myself calm and focussed and keep my nerves under control. Dalby is a technically challenging and mentally demanding course and I knew I would need to stay focussed the whole way.

The race got off to a good start – I led the pack out into the first corner, with only a couple of Juniors overtaking me initially into the first bit of singletrack. At the end of lap one I was in 3rd place, with 2nd in my sights and legs feeling good.

Unfortunately by the middle of lap two my front mech, which has been on its last legs for a while, finally gave up and I was left to race the remainder of the race with no big ring, which didn’t help for those sprinty sections where time can be easily made up – or lost!

I fought hard during the 2nd lap and came through the arena in 1st place, with 2nd right on my heels and fighting all the way into the first singletrack section.

After some switching around with various overtakes on the nasty uphill sections at the end of the third lap I was back in 3rd place and hot on the heels of both 1st and 2nd place! I knew this was going to be close and I knew I couldn’t let the two riders in front of me get away.

So I gave my last lap all I had left and kept with 1st and 2nd right until the bitter end. We dropped down through Medussa’s drop and up the final big climb. When we dropped back down onto the last fire road I decided to make a go for it and sprinted past both riders into 1st place. I then led into the singletrack passed Worry Gill and up the climb to the final bit of singletrack before the arena and that last drag up to the arena felt like an age with two competitors breathing down my neck! I knew that I just had to keep them behind me through the singletrack and out into the arena and then hope for the best that I could sprint fast enough with just my middle ring to hold onto my win!

As we came into the arena we heard the shouts from our supporters and at the last corner there was nothing in it. I sprinted out of the final corner, giving it everything I could with only my middle ring for power, and could see 2nd place creeping up on me, but thankfully I just held it and took the win with 1 second between me and 2nd place, and only 3 seconds ahead of 3rd place!

I was over the moon to win the second round of the British Series, and it was such a great race – one of the best to watch for a long time according to a friend! My new race bike was amazing, and I am now treating it to some TLC with a new front mech and a fork service to make sure it’s rearing to go for the next round, I just need to make sure my legs are too – and with Kate and Ian Potter and the AQR team behind me, I’ve got all the support I need!

Post-Portugal Sodas & sunsets

Kirsty sends an update from Bristol...

What could be better then a cheeky post-work ride in the early evening sunshine? How about a cheeky post-work ride, where you find an even cheekier new downhill trail that your husband hasn't spotted first :-)

After a fab week in Portugal - full of sun, Soul (of the Cotic variety) and waist-deep river crossings - I was bursting to get back out on my bike. A quick spin around Ashton Court and the local woods on my Cotic Soda fitted the bill, and I was treated to a beautiful sunset, as well as several deer and squirrels crossing the trail. There is something about these early spring rides, when the trails are dry, the weather is warm and the air is full of anticipation.

I've decided to take a rain-check on the first couple of rounds of the nationals, as I have some fairly major commitments away from mountain biking. As I write this, I'm pretty gutted that I won't be on the start line at Sherwood, but evenings like this serve to remind me that what I really enjoy is simply being out in the fresh air, having fun on my bike.

Here's to a summer full of cheeky new trails :-)

BMBS Round 1: Ruth takes 2nd on board her Soda!

Sunday saw Round 1 of the 2011 British Mountain Bike Series at Sherwood Pines with just Ruth racing due to other members being tied up elsewhere around the country.

What a great race it was though, with Ruth coming in 2nd just 30 seconds or so down on the winner in the women's Expert race.  The first race of the year for her on board her new Cotic Soda and a podium too, so a huge well done from the team!



A week of riding in the Portugal spring sunshine? Count me in!

That was the view of 20 riders ready to expose themselves to AQR Holiday’s inaugural training week in the Portuguese spring sunshine. Amongst these dedicated souls were the majority of the new Cotic AQR race team keen to get to leave the cold and wet UK behind for some pre-season riding and skills alongside bike- and body- setup.

This little corner of the Algarve is somewhere the Potters know well but this was the first time that AQR had offered guiding in this area. And what a perfect setting it was us to hone our skills with a combination of fast and loose or techy descents alongside some short and sharp (and long, sharp, leg and lung busting) climbs. And river crossings….

Day one started with a bike-set up session led by Ian Potter. After running through some of the basics in the ‘classroom’ we headed out onto the trails to see the importance of this in action with the first of many ‘climbing challenges’. It was amazing to experience how much a change in stem length or height of the front end changed how well many of us climbed up this steep loose section of trail. I for one have really benefited from Ian’s expertise here; I’ve spent 3 years convinced that the front end of my bike is too low trying longer forks, higher stems and bars to little avail. And now I’m riding flat bars, a flipped stem and minimal stack headset and what a difference it makes both up and down hill. (I won’t dwell on my reaction when Ian first suggested this to be but it’s safe to say that I’ve since retracted my comments!)

We were also introduced to a local café and there range of cakes including the infamous figaloo. A cake, as the name suggests, made of figs, and figs, and more figs. My excuse is that it wasn’t really cake but a natural source of vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates which I required after a day’s riding to ensure my body was in tip-top condition for the next day.

For those of us keen / stupid enough day 2 started with a morning run and dip in the pool with Kate Potter. This all sounds rather idyllic until you realise the gradient of the hills and the temperature of the pool! But it was a lovely way to start the day – fresh air, perfect temperatures and a smug feeling of having achieved something when everyone else is lounging in bed. The other plus is that it helped us all justify extra helpings of breakfast, ideal!

The day then properly started with a ‘bikers’-bodies’ session led by Anne Dickins, not only a Cotic AQR racer and 24hr national champion, but also a physiotherapist specialising in core control and how we can use this to improve how our bodies work on the bike. It’s amazing how much time and money we spend looking at how our bike can improve our performance but ignoring how we use our muscles to control ourselves on the bike. Again this session continued out on the trails with Ian and Anne videoing us all on another one of those ‘climbing challenges’. Both Anne and Ian used these videos to help them and us identify what tweaks to bikes and bodies that we might benefit from.

On day 3 the much awaited sunshine appeared and it was definitely worth the wait. The skies were a glorious blue and the trails quickly changed from their fast gritty damp state to super-fast dry and dusty. The overnight rainfall meant for some additional challenges in riding across streams that suddenly appeared on the trails. Apparently this crossing is ride-able…

On our rest day most of us took the opportunity to have a 1 on 1 assessment with Anne who identified which bits of us were working well and which bits not as well (or in my case not at all!) on the bike. By using those videos taken earlier in the week and simple demonstrations on the bike Anne even managed to convinced the most cynical of us (I’d love to mention names here but in the interests of team harmony I won’t, well for now anyway….). Later in the day we headed out with Ian and Kate for more skills practise – skidding, cornering and switch-backs.

The rest of the week followed in a similar vein. More glorious sunshine, more great trails, more tips and tweaks to our bodies and bikes and more figaloo. We also benefited from sessions led by Kate and Ian discussing nutrition, training and race psychology and race preparation.

We all headed after a fantastic week’s riding having learnt loads with a noticeable improvement in our skills. I’ve even started working on my cyclists’ tan line, not bad for March. Now I can’t wait to keep getting back out on the trails to keep working on all those tips and tricks I picked up, even the UK sun has started to come out to help me on my way. All I need to do now is find a recipe for figaloo.

Photos courtesy of James Dymond, Kate Potter and Hannah Reynolds.

2011: Cotic - A Quick Release holidays race team

Welcome to the first blog entry for the renamed Cotic - A Quick Release Holidays mountain bike race team!

After a great 2010 season, AQR HOLIDAYS is proud to support a race team again in 2011, alongside COTIC BIKES as the team's other headline sponsor. 

The team would also like to thank the following co-sponsors for their support in 2011 –

MAGURA FORKS AND BRAKES

KCNC stems, bars, seatposts, seat clamps, chainsets, chains & jockey wheels from CLEE CYCLES

INDUSTRY NINE wheels

SUNWISE EYEWEAR

A QUALITY RIDE COACHING

SKINS COMPRESSION CLOTHING

661 GLOVES

TORQ ENERGY PRODUCTS

ALIGATOR I-LINK CABLES

CRANK BROTHERS PEDALS & HEAD SETS

FENWICKS BIKE CLEANER

SWINNERTON CYCLES

BIGFOOT BIKE BAGS

PURPLE EXTREME LUBRICATION

JOOLZE DYMOND PHOTOGRAPHY

POWER BALANCE

The 2011 team is...

IAIN COLLINS – XC & Team events.

KATIE COLLINS – XC & Team events.

ANNE DICKINS – 2010 24 Solo World Champs 4th place - 24hr solo and pairs.

JAMES DYMOND – XC & Team events.

ANTHONY JORDAN – 24hr solo and pairs.

RUTH OWEN-EVANS – National & Local XC races (Expert) & Team events.

IAN POTTER – half of AQR Holidays & AQR Coaching- XC & Team events.

KATE POTTER – half of AQR Holidays & AQR Coaching & World Cup XC racer - 12 & 24hr solo events.

KIRSTY EASTWOOD – National & Local XC (Masters) & Team events.

MATT PRIOR – XC & Team events.

ROBBIE RICKMAN – 4X & Endurance downhill events.

RACHEL SOKAL – 12hr solo & Team events.

TEAM SUPPORT – JAMES DYMOND, IAN POTTER, KATE POTTER, SIMON USHER

Iain Collins

Anne Dickins

Ian & Kate Potter

Kate Collins

Kirsty Eastwood

Matt Prior

Rachel Sokal

Ruth Owen-Evans

Robbie Rickman

See you on the race course soon!

Dusk till Dawn 12 Hr - Perth Australia

A few months back when Paul suggested that Adrian and I would go pretty well at the local Perth 12 hour race, it sounded like a fun idea. Especially as Paul had offered to be our trusty team manager.

Adrian Middleton is a fellow Canberran who has moved to Perth and regularly rips my legs off in our afternoon training rides. And whilst he's not technically an AQR rider, there really aren't that many of us around down under so I was prepared to mix the team up a little...

It wasn't until a couple of weeks out that Adrian realised the 12 Hr was actually a dusk till dawn. But he took it in his stride and when the weekend arrived and temperatures in the high 30's were forecasted, riding all night suddenly seemed like a good idea.

Team Delta-AQR. Please note: Paul's moustache was for fundraising purposes only and it has thankfully, now gone.

There were 400 entries in the race, many in teams of 4, 3 and 2 and the standard die hard soloists as well. The course was perfect. Plenty of fantastic singletrack, fast flowing descents and just a few climbs but nothing that ripped our lungs out. And straight away, Adrian managed to get us in a fairly decent position. In fact he entered the first section of single track in 5th and finished his first lap of the 17km track in about the same place.

The race leader heading into the singletrack on lap 1 in the late dusk.

When Adrian came sprinting into transition, I grabbed his CO2 canister (yup I'd forgotten mine) whilst Paul transferred the timing chip and velcro strap from one ankle to the other. I think I got out about 20 seconds after Adrian had arrived so Paul was proving his management skills already.

Out on course it was pitch black and at the pointy end of the field, it was actually pretty lonely - I wan't about to catch anyone and strangely, it wasn't until 20 minutes into the lap that someone turned up behind me. I hadn't ridden the trail and felt like I was breaking in all the wrong places and generally riding slowly. But with some reassurance from Paul when I returned and a check of my lap time, I felt better.

Come on, come and eat some dinner!

As the night wore on, Adrian and I settled into pretty consistent lapping. Adrian continued to ride strongly doing laps of around 56 minutes and I was coming in after an hour flat.

A chill out whilst Adrian was out smashing another lap.

Attempting not to blind people whilst looking around in transition

Consulting the official team timing book.... Nobody but Paul was allowed near the pen.

Good times

As the night wore on, our cheer squad of James and Jason hit the road, with Jas taking his camera with him. But the fun out on the trail kept going. The wildlife was out (plenty of spiders, a few possums and at one point, even a family of kangaroos). We managed to get Paul to go to bed at about 1am but when I came in from my double at 4, he was up and back helping by preparing food, drink bottles, timing checks etc. If anyone is looking for a great team manager, his rates are quite competitive...

Anyway, to cut a 12 hour story short, Adrian went very hard when the sun came up and I tried to do the same. We had had the mixed pairs competition sewn up fairly early but it wasn't until the presentation that we knew how we'd done overall. So, out of 164 teams entered, we ended up 7th overall and managed to take out not only the mixed pairs but the pairs in general (27 teams raced). The guys who 'won' the men's pairs didn't look so happy when the presenter reminded them that they'd actually been beaten by team Delta-AQR....

But saying that, I have to put in a special mention for our mate Chris Fisher (said with a kiwi accent). Chris raced and won solo, did the same number of laps as Adrian and I and came in 4 minutes before us. Top effort from a top class rider.

And huge thanks to the race organisers for putting on a brilliant event, our trusty team manager Paul and our photographer Jason Chua.