24 Hours of Exposure

24 Hours of Exposure – UK Solo 24 hr MTB Championships

Challenge the Day!

In a celebration of 24 hour MTB soloing, we are proud to announce an event that takes 24 hour endurance racing to it’s pure soul by introducing – 24 Hours of Exposure – The UK’s first Solo 24 Hour MTB Championships.

24 hour soloing is fast becoming one of the most popular categories in the world of endurance racing and now we aim to provide a tailor made opportunity for riders to pit themselves against their peers, the elements and whatever the mountain bike gods deem fit to throw at riders in pursuit of their goals. Only their strength of both body and mind stands between them and the ultimate aim:

The UK Solo MTB Championship title.

This will be a true test worthy of championship status incorporating a tantalising and motivating 10-mile + loop around some of the best all weather trails that our partners, 7Stanes, can provide in Newcastleton.

For the winner in each category there will be an exclusive, specially designed championship jersey along with a handsome prize purse, not forgetting a few random spot prizes thrown in to encourage everyone to complete this arduous mission.

Open to anyone over the age of 18, novice or experienced, everyone will receive first class support with all facilities right on trackside from light charging by our title sponsor Exposure Lights through to mechanics and tech support, to make this one of your best ever 24 hr experiences.

If you’re ready to challenge the day, then this is the one 24 hr event you can’t afford to miss.

Brought to you by the organisers of the groundbreaking ‘Montane Kielder 100’, SIP Events have teamed up with Exposure Lights, 7Stanes, Rock UK, Morvelo and XCRacer to provide you with yet another thrilling race experience.

Rory Hitchens of USE/Exposure Lights delightedly explained USE’s involvement with this dynamic new event:

“This is the race to challenge yourself at, to make your mark and to undertake that Solo effort you’ve always promised yourself, in this respect we are very excited to sponsor the Championship.

We encourage all riders to make their own bid for glory and take part in the 24hrs of Exposure and also look forward to the ultimate showdown of British talent for the National titles. We at Exposure Lights also realize that in order to succeed in any challenging event like this, preparation is the key, and by announcing the event we aim to give riders a strong chance to get those winning base miles in now, and Exposure Lights will be guiding their way forward through these long winter months!”

The date to remember:

22^nd-23^rd May 2010

The venue:

Rock UK, Whithaugh Park, Newcastleton.

Keep an eye out for more information over the coming months as we dot the ‘i’s’ and cross the ‘t’s’. This is one event not to be missed!

For more information on this exciting new event please visit:

www.24hoursolo.co.uk

Otter's pockets

If otters did have pockets, I expect yesterdays Brass Monkeys Enduro would have simulated what it would be like inside one....
To say it was wet, would perhaps be a slight understatement. In all my years of covering races I can honestly say this ranks in the top 3 for wetness... and still they came!
Severe weather warnings and local flooding did nothing to deter the eagerness of riders who wanted to get some winter fun on a new circuit. Early indications were that if it did rain, the course would be fine, seeing how there was a solid sandy base... However with the amount of rain we had, Noah would have been proud, in fact I'm sure I glimpsed him dashing through the trees out of the corner of my eye...
Mud did feature a wee bit, it wasn't as bike clogging and as soul destroying maybe as the mud encountered on Saturday at the Wheelbase 'cross, but still there was enough to cause slipperage...
Oh and brake pads were so last year darling... Trees were the order of the day and luckily there were plenty to hug as an aid to stop you going further than you anticipated!

On days like this I hate to think what it's doing to the camera. Dave did stirling duty on the brolly front/tea making/van driving/website sorting front as he always does... How did I ever manage without him!
As soon as we got home, which entailed an equally wet drive back, it rained virtually every step of the way, luckily the bus is waterproof, we emptied the soggy camera bags and popped all the wet equipment in our specially designed drying room, otherwise known as the airing cupboard....
Photos from the day were a mixed bag, with the telephoto struggling to focus through all the rain, still we managed to bag most riders I reckon. Well done to everyone who braved the conditions and gave it a go!
Thanks also to everyone we accosted at the end so that I could get a few more muddy face for my collection. It's coming on nicely now... Though if I don't get any for a race or two is fine with me!

Photos above a few shots from the wettest daytime enduro I think I have ever had the pleasure of wading through...
Including a muddy face shot of Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Romero who is dabbling with a spot of mountain biking at the mo and chose the Brass Monkey as her first proper race.
Check out the race report which will include a mini interview with this young lady, both in the next issue of MBUK and the Gorrick website...
Right gotta go and wring out a few of the flashes....

Adventure...

...a disaster that didn't quite happen.

That was the brilliant quote I heard on the radio the other day and brought a smile to my face as I thought to myself me and Dave have an adventure every time we go out in the bus. I don't think we have any near disasters, a few dodgy moments occasional maybe! Still the quote tickled me:0)
Our latest adventure was to capture images of the brave souls undertaking the Test Valley Tour down in Andover. We travelled down the night before in the bus and camped out in a great little campsite in Wyke Down before heading over in the morning. As per usual, it's part of the job I guess, I'd been reverently watching the weather forecast. It hadn't been looking too good. It's been weird, it seems every time I watch a forecast these previous weeks its been all doom and gloom but the actual events have got away virtually unscathed. So perhaps I should have been a little more pessimistic about reports that the grim weather we're having at the moments would have blown over where we were shooting.
Ah well it didn't quite work like that.
The night was spent listening to torrential rain, while feeling the bus sometimes gently sometimes not so gently rock in the gusting wind. Anyway the next morning, things didn't look too bad and I thought that maybe just maybe we'd be okay.
We set up first photo camp just outside the start and from 8.30 onwards riders belted past as they ventured out to to the short or long loop. As the morning progressed, I could hear thunder and caught glimpses of lightening but was hopeful I'd miss the worse before we headed off to another section. However, the rain came before I'd finished with the bridge. I stuck it out for as long as I dared, then began the traipse back to the van, feeling particularly wet and soggy and a bit cold.
A hot cuppa ( one of the reasons the bus is so great..) and a waterproof jacket and the heating on full we headed off to the woods!
it was still raining by time we got there having virtually sailed some of the sections to get there as the puddles on the road were so deep! We selected a suitable spot set up some lights and then Dave went off to make some more tea and rustle up some breakfast. I meanwhile was struggling to see anything through teh camera as the lovely little mist had descended in the eyepiece, still it makes the whole job that more interesting when faced with challenges like this! Not!
By the time we saw riders they were looking decidedly wet and bedraggled and increasingly muddy. It was as if they'd all indulged in a spot of mud wrestling half way round. Still there were plenty of smiles and a bit of friendly banter. By midday the sun started to replace the showers, bringing the autumnal colours to life in the woods, with flashes of mud sodden lycra, cotton, polyester etc, providing a few key highlights every so often.
By 1pm we'd reckoned it was slowing down to a trickle, riders that is. So we headed back to HQ to capture a few shots of riders returning to a most welcome finish.
Well over 400 riders came and gave this a go, despite hail storms and torrential rain they all seemed to enjoy the experience! That's the joy of mountain biking. What else can you do to get that dirty just like you did when you were a kid, all in the name of fun! Well of course there is mud wrestling, but I guess the sights aren't quite as picturesque as the ones you catch mountain biking!
A long drive back home for us followed, tired but warm. Then it was all stations go as we tried to sort out the galleries.
We are having all sort of issues with moving servers at the moment. The first company we were with, were just taking the P by pulling our site down with no notice and for no reason and trying to get to the bottom of what was happening was like pulling teeth. So we opted to go virtual, but with another company, one hopefully that has real people that want to help rather than hider.
So far so good, except to move servers you have to transfer your domain and therein lies the problem. The one company is dragging it's feet delaying the process. We've been sitting here for over a week ready to push the button to start the process of moving to a better, faster server. This has meant temporarily disabling the photocart section of the site, which is a real pain as that's where all the photos are stored for viewing purposes!
There was no sign of us resuming open status at the moment so poor Dave worked well into the night to provide a temporary solution to this problem. he set up a separate database where people can access the images.
However we've decided to bite the bullet and reopen the galleries and will deal with the fallout later... Oh hum...
Hopefully in a day or two we'll be on the new one... Fingers crossed. Meanwhile the adventure just keeps on rumbling on!

Photos above are from the Test Valley Tour. Many thanks to riders who so kindly let me take muddy face shots at the end much appreciated:0)

Webtastic

It's been a long 'ole week not helped by the mammoth driving session I found myself involved in all in the name of work.. Sunday we were due down at the Gorrick for the second of their Autumn Classics. Normally we head down to the in laws and hile across from there, all very civilised. However Dave had a dose of 'man flu' and decided it wouldn't be a good thing to pass it on to the parents, which left me with the choice of heading down by myself, or staying at home and nursing my poorly husband. Well of course I opted for the latter;0) Okay so his idea of nursing are completely different to mine, I guess me announcing I'd married the snot miester probably didn't help!
Anyway this left me 230 miles away from the Gorrick which I had to be there for 8am to meet up with a rider for a Gorrick interview. And so began a hideously long day. It must have been Karma. I got up at the ungodly hour of 3.30am and set off at 4am. Admiring along the way the changes of light which I very rarely see as I can categorically state I am not a morning person....
I arrived in plenty of time only to find my interviewee was running a bit late, 60 mins to be precise... Oh well. Went set off into the woods watched the young uns pedal furiously past and then set up a few shots. Fortunately it didn't really rain but it wasn't the kindest of days. Still Keith of WXC , well when he eventually found me., supplied me with a few cups of tea to keep the cold at bay. I finally finished up at 5pm and then set off arriving home at 9pm completely exhausted. I didn't feel too bad the next day, but as it wore on I just got more and more tired. I couldn't face the gym...
I think I've just about recovered now! The rest of the week other than recovering from that epic quest has seen me sat in front of the computer fielding hundreds of emails as well as working some new banners for TORQ and then putting together a website proposal for international mountain biker Kate Potter. So it's been a real webtastic week.... Image above is a screen shot of how her new website will hopefully pan out....
Next week I have another photoshoot lined up, lets hope the weather is kind and it's not too cold, I hope the clients have access to plenty of coffee, I think I'm going need it;0)

Teaching slugs to fly

I'm not sure how they get in and to be honest I very rarely see them, unless I get up in the middle of the night and need a drink. Then I creep downstairs and there they are, big, fat, slimy slugs... If I didn't know differently I'd say our cats were keeping them as pets, but then again I know they prefer things with legs which they can chase. They were very disappointed when the legs fell off their pet spider and it didn't move as much as it used to do...
Coming home last night around 2am after a long day at TORQ towers, where we had a full days photo shoot, we were greeted by one such slug. Happily tucking into the bit of cat food our lot had left, which to be honest is usually not very much, but I guess enough to get a slug all excited. After all what would you rather? Creeping around in a cold wet garden looking for some suitable plant life to suck all the juices out of ( well they do that as well) or sneak into a lovely warm house with tit bits of cat food to feast on. Now I'm all for encouraging wildlife, but I stop at slugs, the homeless snails of this world. I did once when trying to get some plant life to feature in my garden, try a few remedies to stop them and their snail friends from annihilating my carrots and razing my spinach and lettuce to the ground. First we tried the beer trap, they obviously turned their noses up at the cheap larger we bought, the slugs round here are a better class of larger drinkers. Next we tried hair clippings and crushed eggshells. Nope, no joy there either. All I got was earache from Dave cos I kept trying to cut his hair every other day and make him eat eggs ( he doesn't believe me when I tell him he'll grow up big and strong..). Still on the eco route, I picked up some of those used bags of ground coffee that they give away at Starbucks occasionally. Well that was a resounding no, looks like they were treated to a lovely sup of coffee to round off their hungry munching.
Finally in a fit of exasperation I resorted to those horrid slug killer pellets. They said they were organic on the packet, but when I got up in the morning and saw all those carcasses littering my garden, well I couldn't bring myself to use them again....Sigh. So now we teach our slugs to fly....
If we come across any in the house or munching away on our veg in the garden, they get a short, sharp lesson in aeronautics as they are launched, far, far away into the night, never to be seen again, that is until the next night. Some of those slugs must be training for astronaut status now, seeing how many air miles they probably have under their slimy belts....
Anyway rant over....
Yesterday as I said we spent a whole day shooting the entire TORQ range and a couple of cats...You have to be flexible in this game;0) Now I'm sorting through the images, before starting to design the next TORQ ad and rustle up a few banners for the impending new TORQ website.
Talking of websites I'm also working on a new web platform for Kate Potter as well as working on the new BMBS XC guide for next season, looks like it's gonna be a packed year of fun times ahead. I love the off season it's always so quiet!! Not.
Monday though, I didn't think I'd see the rest of the week, as I very nearly killed myself, or so it felt. I must keep reminding myself that I'm not 25 any more, time has marched on and I've been dragging my heels to keep up. Anyway seeing how I've finally got myself a regular gym habit and am spinning 2 or 3 times a week, I thought I'd break it up a bit a do a step class. Years ago I used to love step, so thought this won't be too bad, I still have rhythm, but what I don't have is the fitness! Doh! So maybe an hour of hardcore step wasn't the best. But I did it despite nearly falling over in trying. Towards the end it was all I could do to lift my feet onto the step let alone do it in any sort of sycronisation with the rest of the class... Still I survived to tell the tale and next week I'll be going back to relive the misery all over again. It's got to get easier right??
It's times like that, I look forward to spending my weekends hard at work carrying my camera gear that weighs about the same as a small cottage, to find a nice secure mud lined ditch... I never feel half as tired doing that all weekend as I did doing that step class! Yikes!
This weekend sees us heading for Gorrick land again for the second of their two autumn XC races. It should be a nice rest after all this gym stuff;0)
Sorry no pictures of slugs, they're just too fast for me;)
Up above though a few shots we got yesterday. TORQ new organic mango bars..ummmm organic goodness.... Then there is a kitten in a basket.... Finally Anth.... Top man and we had a scream getting a headshot of him. This is just one of many, it took a while.....

Spooky Spin

What a hoot, a real scream, so to speak, I can say I've ever had the most enjoyable spin session, 45 mins of sheer grit, sweat and tears of laughter, for a while!
In celebration of Halloween, 12 brave souls, most in fancy dress, (that probably explains why there was a pink fairy on the bike one side and a red devil the other then...)spun to a collection of ghoulish music, whilst spin instructor Rich shouted instructions, lit by candle light and sipping the occasional glass of red wine. Must admit to not going in fancy dress myself, well I was dressed in black so it sorts of counts, but having never been to an event like this before, well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
It has to be one of the most memorable experiences involving a bike for a while! Yes, even more enjoyable than sitting in a mud lined ditch, or wandering around the Euro's in nowt but a t-shirt as it was the middle of summer and it wouldn't rain, would it?? Or even 5am at Twentyfour12 as I'm starting to suffer from hallucinations, adamant that people are following me.... Yep it beats all of those highlights for me by a long shot, honest;0)
I'm slowly getting back into the grove with the whole bike riding malarky and spin is a fantastic way for me at the moment to get that boost of fitness that I need to get out there and get dirty again, so to speak!

Pics were taken with the D3 just using the available light and cranking the iso up to a mind blowing 6400, f2.8 1/60th. If I had the time I'd have sorted out the off camera flash to add a bit of fill, but it was all a bit of a rush. Thanks to everyone who lined up for the group shot and thank to Rich for his best 'halloweeen hover' pose!

Bimbling....

Aye that's what I've been mainly doing this week. I'm officially on holiday, which means in fact Mr.Joolze is on holiday and he's been trying to tear me away from the computer for a bit of a rest. Just when you've been racing all year and you need a change of scenery I find it helps if I get a bit of a break to to leave me all refreshed and raring to go.....
So after a stint at the local CX race in Nottingham on the weekend, where we saw Kate Potter make her CX debut on the brand spanking new X Cotic, especially built for her as she expressed an interest in CX racing over the winter with a load of input from more experienced riders. Looks like the 'X' will be rolling off the production line sometime next year. Anyway after taking some pics in some stunning light after the rain had cleared away it was time to retreat to Dymond Towers and take a break. So did we head to sunny climes? Or take a break to another part of the UK? Well um no, not really. But I have been steadfastly ignoring (almost) my computer and we've only ventured out with the cameras once...
Again we spent a brill day with the Potters, this time up at Dalby, where come April Kate will be riding the World Cup race there. Seeing how she missed the test race this year due to illness she just wanted to have a quick look at the area and get an idea what she will face.
So we hitched a lift, with bikes and cameras of course. I can now say that I have ridden my first bit of northshore ever and have ridden part of the world cup course, I will now, in light of my recent form be looking to enter the race there...Ah actually I'll be working so I wont be able to, ummmm what a shame...NOT!!! I really enjoyed the bimble I had on my Cotic but we left Ian & Kate to explore the course by themselves, their skill sets and speed a tad bit faster than ours....
A couple of hours later and we all met up for some photo opportunities. As Kate goes into her new season of World Cup racing, she's upping the ante as far as her presence on the worldy widey webby and so we wanted to take a few images of her outside of racing. She declined my offer of dressing her up as a latter day Crocodile Dundee, so we just had to take some images of her on the boardwalk to make use of the stunning light and autumnal colours before heading off to ride the fearsome 'Worry Gill' a few times....

Still on holiday but now I'm catching up with months of receipts and invoices that have been littering my desk, before heading off to a seasonal Halloween spin...can't wait!!

Pics above are of Kate at the CX in Nottingham, the beautiful new steed from the Cotic stable, plus a few images from our fun at Dalby....