Cyclists Delivering Supplies Across Peru

On November 8th I will be joining twelve cyclists to begin a unique adventure across Peru. During the first two days we will ride 50 miles from the coastal city of Lima up and over the 16,000 foot Ticlio Pass in the Andes mountains. During the next five days we will then descend 250 miles into the low jungle of the Peruvian rain forest. The road ends as a muddy trail over 300 miles from Lima. We will then return over the mountains to Lima to complete a two week 600 mile tour across Peru.

Although the physical challenges of riding over the Andes are all part of this tour, the real story are the orphans and school children our group of cyclists will help along the way. For example the first day we stay in the town of Chosica at the base of the mountains. Chosica is the location of the "House of Gina" Girls Home where 20 abandoned or abused girls live. The conditions at the girls home are very basic and the girls live on a diet of chicken soup, rice and beans. When we go to visit we will take the girls on a shopping spree to the markets where each girls can choose a new set of clothes for about $20.

During past tours Lon our tour leader tells me it was interesting to watch the girls select their purchases. Since the girls do not usually have money to spend, some of them will hurry and buy the first dress that catches their attention. Other girls savor holding on to their money for two hours and will compare all the dresses in the market before making a decision. All very humbling.

Later that afternoon we will gather with the girls at a nice restaurant for a real meal that the girls choose from the menu. Cake and ice cream are served as dessert. We will then present the director of the Girl's Home with another $500 to buy more supplies and food for the girls in the future. Overall it is a busy day that has nothing to do with cycling, but it will be a memorable day for the girls and our group.

As the tour continues over the mountains there are other schools to visit in small villages along the way. Our group will carry prepackaged bundles of library books to leave with the rural schools. Since most of these schools have few supplies we will also distribute notebooks, pencils and other basic equipment for the classroom.


At the end of the road in the jungle is the town of Puerto Occopa. Here is the location of the orphanage which is the home and boarding school to over 80 children. Some of the children are orphans and some of the children come to Puerto Occopa from deep in the jungle to live for three months at a time and go to school.

The conditions at the orphanage are more basic than the Chosica Girls Home without drinking water, sanitation or much food. The children bath in the river each afternoon. The cost to feed 80 kids is $20 per day for rice, beans, potatoes and powdered milk. During the tour we will hire a truck to bring 3,000 pounds, (1,500 kilos) of supplies the final 50 miles from the major city of Satipo to the orphanage. Some of the children and teachers from Puerto Occopa will meet us in Satipo for a big shopping trip to fill the dump truck sized vehicle with bags of rice, toilet paper, cooking oil, beans and all kinds of supplies to outfit the children. Each child also receives a new set of clothes which they will wear 100% of the time for the next year.

We will spend the night at the orphanage and join the kids in a big party that night. Since the orphanage doesn't receive many visitors, it is a special night for them and our group. They next day we will begin the 300 mile journey back over the mountains to Lima. The challenge of riding over a 16,000 foot mountain won't seem as difficult as the daily challenges that the children we visited face everyday.

TAX deductible donations for these Peru Projects can be made to:

Christ Lutheran Church Peru Fund
P.O. Box 303
Sharon, Wisconsin 53585

Otherwise please drop me a line : andrew.clayton@pedalstudio.co.uk and help make a difference. Oh and there are still spaces so you not too late to join us ? Come on Spinners !!!

Andrew

Down Hill Write Up by Andrew Clayton

I'm writing from the Ben Nevis gondola, heart pounding , hands aching - holly crap this is an adrenalin rush. Just completed 4 down hill runs.

The world down hill record is held here by Greg Minnaar in 4:43:52 ! Like me, he is from Pietermaritzburg - must run in the blood, but I take 3+ minutes more than him :-) He is a Pro and I've never done this before , cut me some slack!

So the key rule here is to not touch the breaks says my pro coach James - easier said than done !

This is serious down hill - the boards at the start say Extreme Down Hill riders take this on.

This is tough work , every rock and drop off shudders up through the arms , through the neck, down the back and down out through the legs.
The back really absorbs most of the bounce but the hands get so sore I finally battle to hold on tight and pull on the breaks ( maybe a good thing - refer above to James' tip, it's the speed that glides you over the rocks ).

Just to set the scene. I've never worn body armour nor a full face helmet before. I've never ridden a custom made down hill track ( they are usually 2 to 4km long) let a lone a down hill bike. They have much more travel - think big springs and shocks. There is no real need for a seat , although I like to ride with it clenched between my knees to help guide the bike ( my knees and thighs will still be bruised for a week or so later) as I bounce down the mountain. One of the biggest differences for me is no cleats on my shoes! (that's my shoes 'attached' to the pedals) Bouncing around I find it tough to just keep my feet on the pedals which is key to giving balance to the ride. Looking down trying to get your feet back onto the pedal platforms can be tricky and very costly! Sadly my bike , hired from the shop is a medium frame, they did not own any larges ! It will do although on my 3 ride down the chain just broke right at the start of the run. I completed with no chain but on that gradient it is not a 'must have' although useful to power over and out of rocks - my third run was to get pictures and my speedy second run was already in the books leaving me very satisfied (and James the coach I might add!) so not having a chain was not too much of a problem.

One of the big keys to down hill racing is reading a line and keeping up the forward rolling momentum. Stopping will almost certainly guarantee a fall! The track is very narrow and no matter the line you pick it will be tough but unquestionably there are better lines to pick and this has to happen at high pace often as you pop over a tricky rocky section that lays bare a scene that looks unconquerable ahead of you and usually well below your eye line. Remember this, 100's of bikes have done it before you so it must be doable .... for the bike at least :-)

So how do you read a line ? I was chuffed with my riding not really knowing what to have expected , this is after all the Expert Pro World Champ Down Hill course ! I road the champ course 3 times and the red run 2 times and stayed up over everything it threw at me - no falls (big bonus) Sure I did not hit all the ramps made for the big air stuff on the flatter section and I never cleared the gnarly stuff by flying over it as the champs do , but I road it all none the less and at good speed ( you have to speed as oddly enough it is your friend in this type of stuff) making jumps where I could , and trust me jumps help clear the gnarly stuff so it is a very worth while skill to have but you gotta be confident to land . Know this though , no matter your ability, these bikes can ride it all even if you can't. Sure picking a line helps but sometimes riding hard , weight back from centre and keeping momentum is worth more than the best line! You gotta just go for it , ride by the seat of your pants with your hair on fire !

Big no no's are riding up to a tough rocky down hill section ( note- the entire down hill is tough but certain sections tougher than others) stopping at the top to see whats ahead and then choosing a line. Sounds crazy but you loose the momentum - you need to trust the bike, it can do it and now u have to as well. Apply skill - weight back , let the bike roll - the front wheel will roll through pretty much anything ( this is where the pros just 'cheat' and clear it - okay controlled landings are tough ), hold tight on the bars but be loose with the hands to let the front wheel pop over and around rocks, nooo front breaks here - better still no breaks if you can. Keep balance , even pressure on the pedals , you may have to help lift the front wheel a little - don't loose your nerve, eyes up looking ahead - always head up focus on whats up ahead- where you look on a bike you will go ! You should find your entire back muscles are put to good use as you control the bikes movement even when the entire back of the bike may be in the air - you have to control the bike ensuring it rides where you want it to - you are boss of the bike !

But trust me you do not want to be the dude who rides to the top of a tough section , where cameras gather , then stops and looks before backing up to ride it . I rode the whole down hill section without stopping and looking first , I knew the bike could do it ! Had I stopped , as I did on my third run to get snaps - the momentum is gone and u can't clean a tough section from a standing start , you have to roll into it - balanced , weight back , comfy , adrenalin pumping, movin forward with a bit of pace . When u stop at the top of the gnarly stuff you end up walking. Blind if there are cameras around, as was the case as I waited on a rider to take a snap of him as he looked to be flying down only to yank on anchors at the top of the gnarly stuff and walk around and down - blind, I took pics just so you folk can see the big - no no !!!

So what is your level, I know I can ride anything, any mountain - that's not being arrogant, it is my level. I turned up and road the entire Champ Down hill today having never been on a down hill bike before let alone a DH course. How did I do this? I took lessons about 4 yrs ago in the Peak Districts and have since ridden a lot. Investing in a coach is critical , saves on cash wasted on broken bikes and bones! The Down Hill sections on the 7 day cross country stage race on www.ironbike.com It would rival this Ben Nevis DH. Being 3200m up in the Alps, you can only imagine what was thrown at us by crazy Italians who like to pride themselves on the tag they have secured for hosting the toughest MTB race on the planet ! 14 hrs a day made it necessary to ride these tough down hill sections otherwise I think I would have been out there for 18hrs a day !! That's when u learn and skill up fast , by day 7of Iron Bike I knew there would never be a down hill that others rode that I could not - u can only get so vertical ! So where do my skills lack ?

The ramping over the tough stuff, getting air and landing ! That's what slows me down. What did I do ? I hired a pro coach here at Ben Nevis, James Shirley. Boy can this 20 yr old ride. He had me pushing my limits and I repeated a few 'fly - off's ' a drop off above my ability . With his help I got it right and I'll be back for more to skill up. Hopefully in time I won't have to ride over the gnarly stuff but just know how to land properly on the other side of it.

You have to keep pushing the boundaries cause one day you will get 'MTB old' and stop testing those boundaries, nothing wrong with that but right now my learning curve is up - exponentially up - and I hope yours will be ! It is a mad rush and thrill - it's rewarding to beat the course, now it is just the clock !


At the start looking around absorbing the view up there I felt one with nature. The air is crisp and clean, birds roam the skies and the city rush is far off in the distance barely visible to the naked eye. The quite rush , the raw rock challenging me - just me vs. the mountain , it was peaceful and fulfilling. My soul was topped up again with earthly goodness.

Ironman Austria: July 5th 2009. Klagenfurt, Austria by Mike Abbott

Ironman Austria is a marquee event. The setting is very special and when the weather is right as it was for us Ironman racing doesn’t get much better. Lakes don’t get much prettier than the Worthesee so it’s a great one for the supporters too. It was a great day…perfect weather and perfect setting. Perhaps I started the day a bit too relaxed. I was chatting away to my mate Nige as we waited to be ushered into the water when all of a sudden the gun went. I usually try to get the swim start right and catch the feels of the pro swim group. This time chaos ensued as I missed my usual jump on the masses. I spend the first 200m getting the cr*p kicked out of me. After taking a big kick to the gut, a hard smack on the ear and a kick to the throat I realised I needed to do something quick!. The kick in the gut left me so winded I sucked in half the lake and decided to put in a VERY hard 300m sprint to clear the pack. The heart rate went off the charts and I paid for that effort for the next few hours. The IM Austria swim course takes us around one loop then back to a narrow canal for the last 800m of the swim. Navigation to the canal is almost impossible with the morning sun over the water and no markers or bouys and the groups were swimming all over the place. The canal was a great for spectators and a bit surreal as a swimmer. The noise from the crowd was deafening. A 55 min swim put me just high enough up the field for the canal (which is only about 5 m wide) ….I heard those swimming 60min to 65 min had a bit of a traffic jam in the canal.

The Austria Ironman Bike course of beautiful and the opening 10k takes you along the shores of the Worthesee Lake. On the bike I could not drink or eat for the first hr as gut was too full of water. I tried in vain to puke up some of the lake water and was still busy with that when at about 20k the first of a number of HUGE groups of drafters started moving through. I had to use the brakes on occasion to avoid getting penalised as the draft busters were out in force but totally overwhelmed with the size of the problem and the speed of the groups. I did my best to stick to the race plan and thoroughly enjoyed the course. All in all I think I got passed by about 300 people in all in packs and moving like the Tour de France. Besides the pelotons my only distraction from the scenery was a sore gut which remained for the rest of the ride and interfered a bit with the feeding plan.


With 30k to go on the bike I stopped eating to try and ease the gut and I started the run feeling pretty good. The course is made up of 2 very different loops making up 1 lap – which in turn you do twice. The first loop takes us out along the lake and back into the resort area after which we head out toward the centre of town along the canal. The turnaround in town is in the main square and the route is heaving with spectators and supporters all day. You can’t really ask for more encouragement. This is a real festival day. I really enjoyed the difference in the 2 laps and tried to keep a good pace up by running through all the aid stations for a change grabbing only water and oranges as I couldn’t stomach anything else. It was a pretty hot day at about 30 deg and the 2nd loop of the run was under trees most of the way….a real life saver!

At about 21k got a time split from my wife Jo that Nige was 1 min back and Eugene 2 min back. I think this split was a bit out of date but it gave me a dilemma. It takes a long time to work through dilemma’s like this when your brain is starved of oxygen and glycogen at the same time! Do I let them catch me and see who’s up for racing or do I put some time into these boys now? I ran the next 3k at below 5 min per k knowing that would do some damage to their progress. Thereafter I quickly came to my senses and realised this was a potential show stopper. If I burned too bright now the last 10 k could be very messy. At the 32k turnaround I could not see either of them and realised they had probably slowed like me. Between 32k and about 37k the pace fell off a bit and I struggled with the lack of nutrition during the bike and early run taking effect. By the last turnaround with 6k to go I was keeping very VERY focused as the legs were falling apart. Over the last 1km I managed (somehow) to lift the pace and hit the line as a very happy chappy. 21 minutes off the previous PB so mission accomplished!

Swim: 55:30
Bike : 5:18
Run: 3:49
Final Time: 10:11

On reflection I think if the Nige and Eugene had caught me it would have been carnage…I think we were all in the mood to race. 

Mike

Why I mountain bike by Aileen Anderson

Moab, Lake Garda, North Shore: famous mountain bike locations. They have developed a cult-like status amongst mountain bikers and if you have not taken your bike there yet, you should. I’ve ridden all of them and they deserve their reputation. Not just because of the awesome, custom built trails with “sweet flow” but for the experience of being in a place that attracts mountain bikers from around the world and I really like mountain bikers, in fact, I’m yet to meet a really bad one. In these places everything is catered to mountain bikers: restaurants, hotels, tourist offices: bike washes, pasta meals, glossy maps. You can arrive at a restaurant covered in mud and still be welcomed with a knowing smile. These places are the perfect mountain biking locations. But they are not why I mountain bike.

Somewhere in Wales

I’m not saying that you should not go and ride these places, you should. In fact, go and book a flight right now but they are not the reason why I love riding my bike. For me, mountain biking is about those unknown places that you find by chance and wonder why no one else is there. My most memorable rides have been cobbled together with a combination of topo maps, google earth and gut instinct. Yes, you often find yourself hike-a-biking over a pass, cursing the thorny bushes, or worse, riding tar, but sometimes you find a cattle track, an old gravel road, a hiking trail that ends up putting the most custom-built trail centre to shame. These trails won’t be marked “the spider” or “rock and roll” and you won’t find little tea houses selling scones or little red and yellow stickers showing you the way. But you also won’t have to negotiate your way around groups of road riders blocking the single track. Sometimes, you may come across a startled sheep or a terrified hiker but if you are lucky, you will get it all to yourself. Then, as you become more familiar with an area and start to see the topo map in terms or pieces of single track, you can spend hours stringing them together into perfect little circles. A few scouting trips are also important. Now days, whenever I go for a run, I spend most of the time scouting a new area for that little piece of track that may close the circle or checking if that tiny little dotted line on the map is rideable.

Forest outside Geneva, Switzerland

I’ve found these routes on the back end of Signal Hill in Cape Town, in the Jungles of Loas, in the Welsh country side, on the ocean cliffs of Kauai Island, on the fringes of urban Geneva, in the Monduli hills of Tanzania, and in the truly awesome mountains of the Pyrenees. I can’t tell you the names of the places because they don’t have names. They are just a collection of trails spontaneously thrown together over cups of coffee before a ride. I will also say that, like any art, one gets better with practice. So next time you think about going on a mountain biking holiday, drive past the trail centre, purchase a good topo map, lay it out in a place that sells a fine espresso and start planning an adventure.

Kauai Island, Hawaii

Spinning Showcase London 09

This year we have teamed up with the International Fitness Forum taking place at London's famous Chelsea Football Club Conference Centre to bring you SPINNING® SHOWCASE LONDON 09. With pumping music, hundreds of sweating individuals, the intensity and energy is at a max. Team that with an additional 3 rooms of workouts, lectures and workshops, you'll go away with a bunch of new ideas to take away for yourself or implement in your classes.

SCHEDULE:
Saturday October 10th
9 AM–6:15 PM Conference
6:45AM–8:15PM Spinning Nation Ride for Help for Heroes Charity
8:30PM Party at The Valmont Club
Sunday October 11th
9AM–6:15PM Conference


For more information call 01494 688285

Special Offer

London to Paris Bike Ride

Once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in a sponsored cycle from London to Paris with 5 time Tour De France winner Miguel Indurain, who will be joining on the last day of the ride. All money raised will be distributed to over 60 sports related projects that Laureus support assisting the charity with tackling a range of social issues such as social exclusion, gun and gang violence and conflict resolution. To find out more about what the foundation does go to: www.laureus.com/foundation.

Miguel Indurain accomplished one of the greatest feats in cycling when he became the first man to win the Tour de France, the world’s premier distance cycling event, five times in succession. At the time the only other cycling greats to have won the Tour five times were Jacques Anquetil, Eddie Merckx and Bernard Hinault, but none of them managed to post their wins in a row. His achievement has only ever been surpassed by Lance Armstrong.

Indurain’s extraordinary exploits made him one of Spain’s greatest sportsman; his indomitable strength and the respect he showed both his fellow competitors and fans, made him one of the most popular cyclists of all time.

Indurain, who was born in a small village in the Spanish province of Navarra, began cycling in his home region. He became a cadet cyclist under the Spanish federation in ‘78 and, as an amateur, was Spanish champion in ‘83. The following year, he turned professional, but had an inauspicious start, dropping out of the Tour in ‘85 and ‘86. However he improved year by year, eventually finishing 10th in ’90.

After his breakthrough win in ‘91, he went onto dominate the Tour over the next five years, propelling him to the position he now occupies in the annals of international cycling. In ‘94, Indurain set a world hour record of over 54 km/hr and, in ‘96 he won gold at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in the individual time trial.

He is unequivocally one of the greatest cyclists of all time and this is your chance to ride with him!

Itinerary
Day 1 – London to Portsmouth
100kms/63 miles

We meet early on Thursday morning at Mercedes-Benz World in Brooklands, Weybridge. Following a short welcome meeting, we make our way out of town along small country roads to our lunch spot in the heart of rural Surrey. We pass through the prettiest of villages, along small roads, heading up and over the North Downs, to our tea break before dinner. Accommodation is in a local hotel in Portsmouth.


Day 2 – Caen to Bernay
100kms/63 miles

We take the 7am ferry departure from Portsmouth, having breakfast on board. We arrive in the village of Ouistreham, France, near Caen, before mid-day. We head off into the French countryside with a fabulous picnic lunch just a couple of hours away. As we pass tiny hamlets, rustic farmhouses and fields of horses we end our day’s cycling in the historical town of Bernay, heralded for its medieval buildings.


Day 3 – Bernay to the Arc de Triomphe, Paris
163kms/100miles

The final morning is another early start to give time for our 100 mile day! We pass fields of sunflowers and corn and stop for refreshments in tranquil little villages along the way. The route takes us past the large town of Evreux, before once again passing through the undulating hills towards the Palace of Versailles, former home of the French Monarchy. We rest here before embarking on the last leg of the journey that will take us all the way to the Arc de Triomphe, Paris. We celebrate our ride with dinner at a restaurant in Paris.


Day 4 – Free Day!

Make the most of all that Paris has to offer before taking the Eurostar back to St Pancras at 4pm. Travel times to other European destinations may vary.

For more information contact Tom Soper (tom.soper@laureus.com) on 0207 514 2799