Marco Locatelli's blog of the 2011 race... from Italy

Google Translate isn't bad if you need to get by and don't speak Italian, but it's not perfect.  Marco's seemed to enjoy this 2011 epic... it comes across quite poetic actually...

Here's the Google Translate version of his original blog here
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North of England
Yorkshire Dales for accuracy
Or 200 km north of Liverpool
We start from Orio Friday 'with 28 degrees and arrive in Liverpool with 11 degrees
Just to clarify that we did not come to make a tour of health
We rent two cars
Some casino with Hertz but in the end give us a Galaxy and Kuga
Show
We slapped on our bikes, and even canned way to Settle
First shaking with RHD
And 'the night and luckily the traffic and' almost non-existent
A couple of stops and after a three hour or so we are at your destination
Hard time to find the fucking Bunk-house where we will base
We lie down to be 5 am or down 'to them
Fainted for a few hours

Then breakfast
and good 'Taliani we brought the coffee maker at home ...

Meanwhile, outside the wet and windy
Good omens
Anyway the moral 'high
"We get the box" from the machines and get to remount our bikes
Everything works
All in Order
Yeah!

We decide to go to "make the numbers" but we arrive in the heart of the fateful 3P Helwith Bridge that all is quiet
No mention of the coming race
Nothing at all
We are stunned to fill his belly with a delicious fish and chips as indigestible

Let's walk in the country and return to Helwith Bridge where we meet the vice organization that calms us:
will put everything 'moving in the morning on Sunday
Be as quiet
is all ok!

The bombard of questions
How many members are there?
How many eateries?
Pasta party end?
And the prize?
And what condition are the roads?
He responds very seraphic all our questions
Approximately 670 members
No refreshment
No pasta party the final
A flood of cash prizes all
The streets?
Which roads ... Here there are only a few traces in the paths and lawns anything ...
I understand that even here, the rules of the throttle paragraphs 8 and 9
Or ...
If you have mechanical problems are your dicks
If you are in trouble are your dicks
I understand to be in place, including the mentally ill like me!
No frills
No cotillones
No inflatable
No mountain bikes only and strictly moto-cross, and no change and 'tolerated means
It is serious
No chat
No distinctive
Mutism and beating
Hoping to stay in the time that the organization imposes
Disqualified
The obligation to stop
And the eternal pillory!

We return to the base and prepare to eat the delicious spaghetti
The Bunk House is crowded at dinner we slowly and fifteen
4 Italian 2 Scottish English and the rest with many editions behind cycling
Anecdotes of the race start
The legends begin
The advice
Big laughs and then everyone in bed
The alarm clock and 'at 6.30 just to get it right
Light breakfast finishing touches to the bike
Souvenir photos


Last check the pressure
I opt for 3 bar and 3.4 bar behind the front
Undriveable
But having the tire to feel soft and 'guaranteed pinched
So the choice is being required
The top riders are all tubular handlebars and dual brakes to no camelback water bottles but they do not have all the supporters located at strategic points
I've brought me a water bottle
The others have also taken camelback

We align the finish starts to rain and dense
Low clouds
But I want to pass the moments and the
The car in front of cap does indeed been traveling faster
shells and the group without any problems
A few miles and turn decided on a grass
There 'no roads or only grass path
The riders spread out and take the path that most 'likes and you start to climb
Destination clouds
Report and on very short
We are facing the first of the three hills
We are on Ingleborough
The brutal
After a while, and 'impossible to pedal to the slope and then sit down in the shoulder and the bike up with brisk
I've seen videos of the most recent editions of 'times and now I'm here really
I'm excited I cling to the network as many do, but they are in trouble 'in great difficulty'
The wall has a slope incredible and more and more 'high
Someone slips and drops the ones behind him
It 's really hard to climb
We are in the cloud and it 'all wet
If I stretch my arm in front of me from what I cling to the grass and 'vertical climbing
Then suddenly opens
We are on a windswept plateau of stones
The visibility 'and' limited
We're ghosts in the fog
There are tracks and if you lose 'those before you, most do not know' where to go
Moments hell
Then he starts to climb again always with the bike on your back
There 'also an obstacle to be overcome Marines style
Then finally we reach the first checkpoint
Here we have the chip on the wrist
It 'a kind of Pennine 5 cm long, which is threaded into a detector that people are holding
Wood chips and begin to fall

Moments and the risk of canopy
The road and 'steep and difficult
There 'mud and large stones and sharp
It goes down better on grass but sometimes' so soaked you as a tipping point and you fool
The British, however, have no qualms giu 'gun without remorse, and if you havoc: so honored!
I am terrified
Stiffened with fear
Point for survival
I pass dozens but I fuck
Arrival at Cold Cotes in the head with the feeling of being a miracle
On the plane there is' a spectacular typhoid
Whole families to support children, wives and sisters and brothers, fathers there 'to say that England are 20 for 200 slaughter!
I'm still alive
I resume the desire and devour the stretch of asphalt that leads to the second hill Wherneside
At the beginning of the climb there 'for a drink station
Or a glass of water
I take one and give up a golata Wherneside
Here is' a road pedaling for a few hundred meters, then bike on the shoulder and up an endless staircase
The clouds have lifted but it 'came a wind that blows extremely tense side of the hill
Going with the bike on your back the wind whistling between the spokes and between the cable sheaths and I have to resist not to be knocked down
It takes 58 minutes to climb to the top
A good time only 4 minutes above the table to get under 4 hours
But when they begin the descent approach to pain
Here is a path alternating flooded with very rough and steep rock to heavy and sharp real slippery stone slabs
I do the long walks and the brave who try to help give life to a real circus with hood slipped the rabbit leaps and flights of seagulls ...


32 minutes and end this suffering and also to return the asphalt to Ribblehead
Clearly, the wind and 'against
The legs are stuffed, and now I can not do group
Now we're all desperate to be only their step
Arrival at Horton where and 'place the second gate
If you do not come out six for 14.00 hours
I guarantee that it 'happened to many

I transit around 12.30
Missing the last peak
Pen-y-Ghent
The latter, and I 'liked most' of all
A little 'for the name
A little 'why' and 'the last
A little 'cause ups and downs always on the same road / trail and you can see the friends you have in front and those behind
A little 'why' and 'fairly affordable pedaling uphill and downhill
The top riders from the top to finish it takes me 19 minutes ... 27 culvert usual ole '!
Arrival in Helwith Bridge as I was in a movie shot from the truth at last
Under the banner of the finish line hand-written to launch the usual scream Abdujaparov
I take dozens of "well done" and I put them in his pocket
Apply to me as gold
Now I'm Good
The monkey 'once again sedated


I go inside the car with that feeling of deep satisfaction
Nirvana and 'a step away!


The Olive and KingPetrucci SuperGelli that standard is changing
The two old men I have played and dangerous Petrucci has even won its category in the first edition of his race when the British claim that you have to do to win the 3P least 5 / 6 times

High esteem Petrucci soak-up to the podium and 125 pound beautiful fresh!
Finished the race back to the Bunk House-I Doccio I change and go to the finish line


I put myself in line to take the necessary and so drunk on pints pints
So a royal dinner at the Old Lion in Settle with super-sirloin steak and more beer belt
We are all well SCATTAdori finisher and that 'but his pace and reached the' arrive without a diploma and the only 'Robert, who suffered a mechanical problem before the last climb ...
A real shame
We are satisfied and the night runs away in a flash but the morning I can hardly walk down the stairs from the sore legs ...
The acid comes over me
Normal given the short workout to run uphill and downhill with the bike on your back
Normal if I consider that accuse a detachment of the vastus lateralis muscle of the right leg from the last stage of the Transalp meta 'in July ...
It 's official
And 'now that I stopped to regain strength and heal the tendon
But it 'just after this officer on the ninth floor of the Sanpaolo
There 'printed my name on the head of a bed with straps ...

The loudest jersey in the Dales

Piers Mortimer's blog on the Team Velocake blog.  May be another 'personal worst' on a tough year but the jersey made up for it Another great read with lots of the same emotions most of us have felt over the years in this race.

Read the blog post here or click the loudest bit if the jersey

"I tell myself me and this race are finished, no need to do this again. I will be back next year."

Greg May - lessons learnt and lessons to learn

Greg made the trip from Ireland again in 2011 after a year off the 3 peaks in 2010 and his preparation was meticulous... (in part!) as his blog shows. As ever, and a recurring theme in this race isyou can never prepare enough. 

"Turn left onto road, big ring, smash it out…or so I though. After about 500m cramp…not a little …but both thighs and hamstrings at the same time. Try to pedal…can’t…f**k.. get off bike to stretch….cant swing leg over cross bar…f**k….pedal again…cramp…and repeat."

Some good lists there on hios blog anyway about what went well and what he'll do different next time..!

The Isle of Man TT of cyclocross

"the thought struck me during a moment of clarity half-way up Whernside that this race is essentially what the Isle of Man TT is to Moto GP racing… the latter is a modern-day slightly sanitised spectacle, whereas the former is the purest form, as tough and still to this day demanding of the ultimate sacrifice as it always has been… and I found myself thinking the same of the 3 Peaks Cyclo Cross in comparison to an hour and 5 laps around a city park"

Some cracking thoughts here post-race by Whyte Bikes designer Ian Alexander.  I knew Ian for many years - first when he raced as a skinny junior (Will his thighs fill his cycling shorts now? Katie asked me when I told her Ian would finally be riding - we haven't seen him for ten years!).

Aside from catching up with a friend from my days in Cheltenham, I was so pleased to watch my favourite race unfurl itself to such an experienced cyclist as Ian.  A modest but strong and very wise rider, Ian's ridden the Ras in the past (as a team mate of Rob Jebb at the time, as it happens) and certainly knows a thing or two about bikes.

It was a great joy to link up again with Ian and a shame I wasn't in good enough condition to chew the fat after the race, wandering round all slinged up as I was.  His blog's a great read here on the Whyte website. Thorough, analytical, but also heartfelt and warm.

"I fed and watered without problems too and I was pretty sure the only wall I was likely to hit was the hard stony sort lining the trails. "

(Read Ian's pre-race tech blog of his Whyte bike via an earlier post here)

Geek Haven

Really geeking out on this at the moment.  It's a great visual way of seeing where youyr strengths and weaknesses were in this year's 3 peaks cyclocross.

(I've found out that the descent off Penyghent was where I lost most of my time)

What else you will learn:

• Andy Peace would probably be on the podium again if he descended as well as Rich Thackery or Ian Taylor (and if Jebby wasn't racing!)
• Rich Thackery yet again takes the Penyghent descent leg - utter downhill god.
• Lewis Craven's 14 mins by the roadside at Stoors Common with no puncture support cost him another possible podium place
• People lower down the field had relatively much poorer legs for the Ribblehead > PYG leg.  Fatigue..!

Mark Mckie's first time

Just discovered a few blogs from the pre- and post- race days from Mark Mckieof York Cycleworks on his first event.  Well done Mark a solid first ride and sounds like more to come.

Read hios post-race blog here

and more in the run-up / aftermath here

Velocake Podium

They ride bikes, they eat cake. I may be one of them, as I even have one of their jerseys. But I didn't podium this year.  Steve did for them.  With two of my cousins.  And my brother.  Cheeky. Read their blog here.

Welland Valley back once more in strength

The guys from Welland Valley have more cyclocross experience between them than many small-to-medium countries. With a fine pedigree behind them. Adrian Killworth, Andrew Wood, Julian Rathbone and Dean Barnett all turned up for this year's event and a club update is here.

"All four of the intrepid Welland Valley riders were climbing well with Barnett descending as quick as the leading riders as he used his previous 3 Peaks experience to seek out the quicker lines."

Crosstrax celebrate brilliant 2011 team victory with a movie

Some great video work by Team Crosstrax to top off a great performance in the team prize this year whilst the other teams around them crumbled.



Crosstrax @ 3 Peaks Cyclocross 2011 from Ed Barber on Vimeo.

Adrian Nelhams returns

Adrian Nelhams has written on his Blog ...

"...apart from the toughness and the challenges on the day it's got to be one of the best events I've ever done. I had a smile on my face when over 650 of us left the start & headed up the road to Horton-in-Ribblesdale, just to be part of something like this was special & then to finish in a good time, I couldn't have been happier."

Mee too Adrian.  Know where you're coming from.  I used to be nervous at the start - now I'm just excited.