Fixed gear: A niche record to have a pop at

Richard Seipp contributed to this blog the other day - about his dedicated training for this year's race on a trip to the Lakes.  On the another blog post in the Team Here Come the Belgians blog, Richard's talking about the challenges of going for the fixed gear record in tis year's 3 Peaks cyclocross. Similar but significantly different to 'Shaggy' John Ross's singlespeed record from 2009, the fixed gear bike means no freewheeling option.

“What gear are you going to ride then?” This keeps me awake at nights at the moment. Too big a gear and I'll be on foot for all the off road that points upwards, and too small a gear and I'll be left way behind on the road. I trialled 42:18 and found it unmanageable offroad uphill. Today I've ridden 38:18 and that seems a little bit to easy. So somewhere in between I guess.

John Wyatt's 3 peaks fixed gear record of 4:52 set in 2006 seems well within Richard's grasp - his fitness is sound and he's an experienced fell runner.  Hear of how he aims to put down a better benchmark on the blog here