Aidan Harding

Author: Aidan

  • Speeding up!

    Ok just a quick update as I am away this weekend and so will not be able to forward any info on.

    Aidans last text was a couple of days ago and he mentioned that the tough part was “wet and nasty at the end”. He has however managed to grab a chance to get some laundry done! Maybe the Mexicans won’t be able to smell him coming after all!

    He is now on a stretch in which he said he was going to start bivvying. This is helping him to cover a good amount of ground as he’s starting the day nice and early. At the moment he has managed to move himself up to 8th place and has got a mention in the race up dates for the fact that he is making impressive progress and on a single speed!

    Thanks for all your messages, I have been passing them on in texts, I have a funny feeling that he is going to get bombarded with about 8 from me when he next turns his phone on.

    Taylor I have texted him, asking him to call in and I have given him the number on the website, for the rest of you, if he calls in, we can finally hear how he is sounding!

    Anyway, if have more news I will update on Monday.

    TTFN and have a good weekend!

  • Tough cruising

    Hi

    Just a quick update to say that I have heard from Aidan. He confirmed that the spot wasn’t working but he was too tired to work it out, however he is loving the riding, generally cruising well and no complaints about sore knees or tummy upsets (others are complaining of these things when you read the race updates).

    He said that yesterday was tough but everyone was finding this. Looking at the groups progress today, it looks as though it is another tough day and taking a closer look at the terrain confirms this.

    He is doing so well though as he has climbed to about 11th place, 10 people have scratched already and he should be at Butte, the fourth check point by the end of the day!

    Our thoughts are with you Aidan! Just keep pedalling like you tell me to just keep swimming!

  • He’s moving!

    Hurrah Aidan is on the move and it would seem that he has been for quite a while as he has made it across the American border and is now in the town of Whitefish!

    Whitefish is the 3rd checkpoint and has taken 2 days 12 hours and 21 minutes to get there and is 367.3 miles into the journey. I’m thinking the spot decided to have a break from reporting back!

    Its great to know that he is well on his way, we can all relax and enjoy the ride!!!

    Go Aidan!

  • Tour divide so far….

    Hello!

    Whilst Aidan is away I am updating his blog with information that I know.

    So far things are quite varied.

    He started well, he was in 5th place for most of the first day (Friday) and then he began to drop back a few places. He then stopped at Elkford. I thought nothing of this stop as Aidan had mentioned that he may stay in towns/accomodation for the first 3 days due to these areas being known for bears. However, Aidan was slow to set off which is unlike him. Usually he is up at daybreak so as to maximise the number of hours that he can travel in daylight. I did begin to wonder even more as to what was going on by the time that I realised that it was 9am and still no action. I then recieved a text from Aidan saying that he was experiencing his first technical problem…..his tyre gave out! This happened before he reached Elkford, he bodged it and limped the rest of the way.

    Saturday therefore started with hitching a lift to the next town, Fernie, so as to get a new one. This set him back by half a day, then he was on his way.

    With the problem dealt with, Aidan raced on and making good progress, overtaking people and covering good ground. From what I can tell is that he kept going into the night until about 2 am. If the spot is accurate he has taken some interesting deviations off of the suggested route, they look like short cuts however from a satelite view it appears as though he has decided to leave the trail and bump his way down the sides of steep mountains covered in trees! If his route for Sarn Helen is anything to go by, then this would be about right for Aidan!

    Now though, Aidan hasn’t moved for the past 12 hours 23 minutes and looking in more detail it took him 6 hours to cover the last stretch which should have taken 1 -1.5 hours tops. I am not sure what is going on. I can only imagine that there maybe issues with the tyres again? These were bought out there as the particular 29″ ones he wanted and had been recommended were trickier to get in the UK and so he has not had a chance to test them properly.

    I have sent a text in the small hope that he will pick it up and let me know what’s going on, but it does appear that he is in a rather remote area. One positive thing is that there are still racers passing through the area and so I suppose if help is needed for whatever reason, it is there.

    If i’m honest it is pretty stressful not knowing but I am know that Aidan is more than capable and so I am only hoping that when I wake up tommorow, there will be movement and a technical reason for this stop and that Aidan is safe, well and happy (maybe a bit miffed about bike issues).

    I’ll keep you updated.

    TTFN

    Emily

  • The Tour Divide Approaches!

    Well, it’s been a successful few days in Canada for me. It turned out that the guy I sat next to on the plane from London lives in Canmore (about 20km from Banff), and he was good enough to offer me his sofa to sleep on for a few days. He’s a nice guy and awesomely kind to help me so much. That seems to have set the tone for the other folks I’ve met here too…

    I went for a ride yesterday with another local and it was rough going. I loaded up my bike since I should be getting used to the weight right now, but the local trails in Canmore are not very bike-packing singlespeed friendly. Steep ups and rooty singletrack awaited us. But before we even got to the singletrack, I had to have a little sit down from the climbing. And I’m supposed to be riding the Tour Divide? Oh, dear. I’m hoping it’s the altitude and I’ll get over it. I’m hoping that the trail itself won’t involve gravelly granny-ring climbs. I’m just hoping. After a brutal 6 mile loop, we stopped back in the town and I ditched all the gear. With my bike feeling insanely light, we rode on the other side of the valley and it was fun to have more of a normal ride. The trails were flowy and fast with the odd steep rock slab. Lovely.

    So now there are just a handful of things left to do other than wait. I’m going to head over to Banff later on today. Hopefully, there will be some other racers about. Then it all kicks off on Friday. I can’t wait to have the first 100 miles behind me and know that I’m on my way. The weather forecast looks promising but I’ll take whatever I get for the next 3 weeks.

  • Conwy to Swansea In Pictures

    On Monday 24 May, I set out to ride the length of Wales off-road. It was to be fun; a test of kit for the Tour Divide; and a bit of a confidence-builder in respect of the big event. I largely followed the Sarn Helen route published by Mountain Bike Routes UK, but diverged to get in more off-road and where I couldn’t understand the instructions. I had a deadline of being back in London by 8.20 on Friday morning to get a train to a stag do in Edinburgh. Easy.

    Things went pretty swimmingly overall. The bike, my new Singular Swift, was absolutely flawless. No mechanicals, long legged, and comfortable. My actual legs also worked pretty well. They powered along every day and didn’t have too much trouble with getting up to do the same again the next day. My food selection was fine. No stove and various snacks kept me pecking into my feedbag and somewhat topped up. I did appreciate buying hot food in Brecon, but this will be possible on the TD as well. My GPS worked perfectly, eating 1 set of AAs in just over a day. My kit-packing didn’t work so well, but I learned a couple of things:

    You have to pack the Epic Designs rear bag carefully. I kind of knew this, but this ride emphasised it. Unless you have some good solid stuff at the nose of the bag, putting your food at the back can make it slop down annoyingly. It worked really well on the last day when I had things sorted out.

    The “drybag round the bars” is difficult to achieve with a big bag. My 40L bag was consistently buzzing the front tyre until I ran out of gaffa tape for repairs. It was an ongoing source of frustration and caused me to have to stop repeatedly. My plans are twofold. I will reduce the amount of total kit (in the light of the Welsh ride) and I will use an Alpkit drybag with guides for the straps holding it to the bars.

    Overall, I made the ride from Conwy to Swansea successfully, though I had intended to go to Gower and back. Unfortunately, train failures on day 1 meant that I couldn’t set off from Conwy until evening and the deadline of being back in London for the stag do made me ditch going over to Gower. I’m writing a proper story to be sent to whichever magazine might want to print it so on here it’ll just be photos. Enjoy…

    The route:

    Conwy Castle at the start!

    There were no sheep around and no sign of sheep poo, so this sheepfold was bed for the night.

    Sunrise over a misty valley – this felt really special.

    Fancy wedging your bike through that lot? I didn’t either, but I managed to drag through to the point where I eventually found the right trail: 20m up the hill, where they hadn’t felled all the trees. Doh!

    The trails I saw at Coed Y Brenin were all coming towards me, so instead of riding against the flow it was time for fast forest roads.

    At this point, I thought I’d blinked and turned up in NZ.

    Standard bike + golden sunrise shot.

    That post is a trail marker. Don’t fancy it much.

    I knew there was something funny going on with that trail. After over an hour of knee-deep pushing, you have to laugh.

    Beautiful scenery between Brecon and Swansea. The trails themselves were fun too. Too fun to stop and take photos 🙂

    I was on the Sarn Helen Roman Road repeatedly during the trip but this was one of the few signs.

    It’s not all forest roads. This descent was properly properly GRRR!

    The final stats from the GPS and, in the background, some idea of how much drybag repair was going on(!)

  • Swift!

    A single picture for now, but here’s my Swift:

    Sam sorted me out with this after the Voodoo died again and I needed something pronto to ride the Tour Divide. It’s light, fast, and lovely!

  • When your teeth hurt… you know it was a proper crash!

    One of the things I really appreciate about mountain biking is that there’s nowhere to hide if you’re not up to it. If you get things wrong, there’s no “deferred success”, no letting you down gently. You don’t “not pass”, you fail and there’s just the smack of you hitting the dirt. That was how last night went:

    Work had slipped into the way again, and I set off late. I had deliberately eaten a light dinner in the hope that I could ride light, but that was too long ago. Even on the way to the woods, I was thinking that it could have been better to stay home. But it felt like a ride that had to be done. Even in the first corner, my bike felt like a sack of spanners. Rattling over bumps, dropping the chain, spanging over the roots, everything was disjointed. With my new bike expected the next day (today!), I resented this machine. I lacked flow, and it responded in kind.

    I was here to ride though, so I hit the Full 9 Yards as hard as I could. It has some great fast sweeping corners that can usually flatter your riding. They mocked mine. I wasn’t as fast as fast or as precise as tidy. I carelessly jumped into a left-hander, and my back wheel clipped a small tree-stump mid-air. In the next moment, I was on the ground. My bike tumbled down towards my back and I redirected its fall into the bushes. I was dusty and hoping that I hadn’t broken ribs again. As I sat there, my teeth hurt. So I must have hit my face on the ground. Everything seemed to work ok though: some grazes and a bruised thigh. The bike was fine. So I got back on and limped up the hill.

    The rest of the ride was taken at a jog and that’s not something I’ve done recently at Swinley. Suddenly, I could see all kinds of things off the trail: the trees and the deer, the sinking sun and the needles on the ground. It was nice to really feel the corners without trying to go quickly. It reminded me of that feeling you get when trying something new at swimming. I could feel the trails as I could sometimes feel water caught under my hand.

    And as I rode, my iPod shuffled up some reminders of the near future. Both Josh Ritter’s “Other Side” and Steve Earl’s “Fort Worth Blues” mention The Great Divide. As if I don’t spend enough time brooding on it already!

  • All the usual troubles (and some success!)

    I hate whiny blogs. So there were no posts for a while as I tried to sort things out…

    Trying to do a big event always seems to push everything else harder. It takes so much time and energy that wrinkles in everyday life seem like mountains. And holes in the plan for the event seem like dark chasms. So while my attempts to reduce my load at work are still coming to nothing and I often have to work until midnight after training; and while the frame that I was going to use for the race is broken; and while my knee has been hurting again; these things are not insurmountable.

    The work will do what it does and if some things fall by the wayside, I’m going to try to accept that I can’t do it all.

    The frame will be replaced by something different and better, but more on that when it’s done!

    And the knee still feels odd but doesn’t hurt today. I’ve taken some rest, moved my cleats about 1mm – it felt better, and I’ve been riding with flats for commuting. It’ll get there.

    The fortunate side of the knee is that it has given me time to nail down those last few bits of gear (aside from the new bike!). I got myself a new 500g tarp recently which isn’t ultra-ultra-light, but it’s light enough for my budget. With the tarp and my bivvy bag, I’m ready for anything. If it’s dry and warm, then I can just use a sleeping bag. If it’s wet and warm and I can find a way to pitch it, I can use the tarp and sleeping bag. If it’s wet and cold and I can find a way to pitch it, I can use the tarp and bivvy. And if it’s wet and cold and there’s no tarp possible, I can survive a cold wet night in just the bivvy.

    So, today I cut a slot into a carbon pole that I had lying around and tried pitching the tarp using just the bike and that one pole:

    Pretty successful (the funny wrinkle in the side is due to only partly pegging that side in). It’s wide enough to lie under with gear. It’s high enough not to be right in my face. And if I can find co-operative branches or trees, it could be even better. The pole can easily attach to the bike with velcro cable ties, and the same ties can be used to run a guy rope across the bar-ends. Sweet!

    So it’s back on the bike tomorrow and crossed fingers that the frame damage won’t damage me!

  • Creating a new normal

    I often think of training as being a process that shifts my idea of what’s normal. At the moment, going out and doing 70-100 mile rides every weekend seems normal. “Normally”, that’s not normal.

    The new normal I’m going for now is doing the same rides, but on a loaded bike. I’m working towards getting my Tour Divide setup ready and it’s now close enough to be riding with the full weight every time. My plan this time is to use a big drybag under the handlebars and an Epic Designs saddlebag out back. And that’s it – no hefty pannier racks, no frame bag.

    It’s been worrying me a lot that I won’t have the legs to singlespeed a loaded bike with a reasonable gear ratio. For the Alaska Ultrasport, I had a 22t ring up front. That’s OK for snow, but it’s not going to get you anywhere on the Tour Divide. And I might be able to do 100 miles without being too trashed on my 32:18 XC bike, but what if it weighs twice as much?

    Today (swapping work days around since I have to work Saturday… boo!), I found out. With 12 kg of extra stuff on my bike, I set off into the Chilterns again. I tried not to put any pressure on myself – I expected it to be slow and difficult. I expected descending to be sketchy. So I thought I’d have a go at 6 hours, maybe 8 tops.

    Throughout the whole ride, though, I felt that burden. If I couldn’t do this, the Tour Divide was a pipedream. I had to keep deliberately relaxing my upper body – not letting tension sap my energy or cause injury. The sun shone and the first hour and a half passed incredibly quickly. I was eating up the miles way faster than expected, averaging over 11 mph in hilly terrain. I was winching up climbs when I would usually try to dash up them, but that wasn’t a problem. The top is the top, and the GPS wasn’t lying about my speed.

    It’s a funny thing riding with a big saddlebag. It feels like being a dog with a massive wagging tail. Occasionally, it can get too excited and the tail starts to wag you. Then you’re in trouble. But part of the point was to learn these things. Climbs were steady, keeping any side-to-side movement out of the equation. Descents were interesting until I learned to keep the saddle pressing gently on my thigh. This seemed to dampen the wagging and keep me where I wanted to go.

    By the end of the ride, I’d reached 30 mph on a descent and felt comfortable with the handling. I’d carried all the food and water I’d needed for the day. And most importantly, I wasn’t broken. Maybe this Tour Divide thing will work out…