Every Thursday at 7pm in Bristol is a little something called the Chip Shop Ride. People meet up, ride a few miles in the city, ending up at a chip shop where greasy food is consumed. I try & get along to these as often as possible, and last time the GoPro was out, so I put together a super short video.
Earlier in the year our good friend Gav held the unique Fixed N Chips points based alleycat in Bristol, it was a glorious day & 80 riders (including Ed) took part in the event. The video has been put together showing the day from all angles. So sit back, grab some chips & enjoy the bike based sausage fest!
FIXED ‘n’ CHIPS 2012 from BÖIKZMÖIND on Vimeo.
Back in August, the day after Tunnel Sprints Tim and me bumped into Gav in town and he mentioned he wanted to hold an AlleyCat in which being the fastest didn’t necessarily mean you would win.
This weekend that AlleyCat happened. Fixed n Chips, as it was excellently named proved to be a massive success and with the original aim holding strong, the consumption of a battered sausage or pot of mushy peas was key to claiming a top placing!
Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realise this until after the race with my two sausages eaten just not cutting it as far as points were concerned, although it did make up for missing breakfast.
I took second place in the trackstand comp, which was cool and I’m glad I didn’t hit the deck in front of the 100 plus people watching!
In total there were 79 racers, surely a record for a UK AlleyCat? Or maybe in London they have a few more?
Gav has played a huge role in the resurgence of the Bristol fixed gear scene and everyone really enjoyed the event, Nice One!!
A special mention for Dave B of Bristol South CC, who visited an extra wrong chip shop, got TWO punctures and still came in 6th place overall!!
This Saturday is the Fixed n Chips alleycat in Bristol. Organised by Gav of BOIKZMOIND fame this promises to be a really great race, and Gav has put in countless hours to make sure everyone has a good time & potentially takes home some sweet (& salty & vinegary) goodies. Ed will be there representing Hamilton Wheelers & battling for the prestigious prizes. The action kicks off at 2pm at Queen’s Square.
So, Tunnel Sprints have been & gone. After weeks of organisation, sorting sponsors, prizes & helpers, the night was upon us. We had no idea of how many people would turn up, we’d done our best to entice a large number of people, but who was to say how many people would turn up to an event in a damp (but warm) tunnel in the middle of nowhere on a Saturday night. It seems our job was done when 46 people signed up to race on the night (38 guys & 8 girls), that meant all we had to do was ensure the races run smoothly.
Racing started shortly after 9pm, and with a knockout format (with a little tweaking by Christian) 2 hours later we had whittled the numbers down & eventually we had 2 winners. First place in the men’s race went to the 2010 Tunnel Sprints winner Kieran Ellis. 1st place in the girl’s race went to Lucy Walker, who had only got her first fixed gear bike earlier in the week! Congratulations to these 2 who put in some very fast times on the night (we will publish results & times later this week).
These 2, along with nearly everyone else who raced won tons of prizes donated by these awesome local companies: Boston Tea Party – Bristol Dropouts – Listen Supply Co - (iL) Soigneur – WhiteDuck Screenprint - RipeDigital – TheFootDown – BOIKZMOIND - StudioAde - Boneshaker Mag - Red Bull
We would like to thank each & every one of you that attended on Saturday night, whether you raced, or just watched & cheered on the riders, without any of you guys this wouldn’t have been as fun a night as it was. It was our first event, but we are already planning our next one! The response we have had to the event has been amazing, but we couldn’t have done it without the help of everyone else!
Big shout outs to a few of our friends who helped out on Saturday: Timpson, Al, Mark & also to Gav Strange of BOIKZMOIND fame, for supplying the all-important megaphone & walkie-talkies. Without the use of these we don’t know what we would have done! Gav also took loads of great photos which are now on the BOIKZMOIND Facebook page. See some of them below & go here to see the full album.
We hope you guys had a good time, and if you have any photos or media from the event then please share them with us us via Facebook, Twitter, or using the hashtag #tunnelsprints on Twitter or Instagram.
Now we no longer go to work and return home in the dark (a desperate existence) midweek races have commenced.
It was a contrast to the other event I would have attended tonight, the Boikzmoind chip shop ride, this serves to highlight how my riding has progressed/changed over a very short period of time! Hopefully I will make it to one of Gavs rides soon.
Wednesday saw a circuit race at the Ilton circuit which is around the perimeter of an old Second World War RAF base. This was the first in a series of these events (every 3 weeks) organised by Team Tor 2000.
I, along with Kieran and Mark entered the Cat 4 only race. The wind was really up today (partially a good thing as it blew threatening clouds away quickly), due to the shape of the circuit this can have a big impact on the racing. For example there was a block headwind on the home straight and a couple of other sections. Kieran provided us with a tactical diagram via email at work this morning.
The bunch settled into a rhythm fairly quickly with not much going on, I sat around the back of the bunch for ease of moving sides in the wind.
Half way through the race, just after Mark had taken the intermediate sprint, a guy from RU Training Today CC broke off from the bunch and proceeded to ride away from everybody and not get caught. Very strong move to pull out a gap and hold it for that amount of time, kudos.
I took a couple of flyers off the front to try and bridge to a couple of other attackers but nothing stuck. I attacked into the head wind (as per Kierans attacking diagram) where the bunch was less willing (read, not willing) to work on the front, but everything kept coming back together on the tailwind sections. Pretty negative racing that allowed the lone guy to stay away. We can’t have been going that slow though as we nearly got the 3rd’s who went off in front of us on a couple of occasions.
Knowing I would not have anything in me for the sprint I led the bunch into the last two corners, ramping up the pace a bit hoping that Kieran and Mark would be behind me. Turns out Kieran was content to cruise in from the back, Mark however was right in the mix. It is interesting watching a sprint into a headwind open up, it looks like everyone is pedalling in treacle. Mark swung to the right as he got up to full gas, looking strong for the finish. Unfortunately he was unceremoniously cut up by another rider, forcing him on the brakes and to drop back a few places.
Going to enjoy riding these midweek races to try out a few different things during the race and help boost experience! Once again I felt like improvement was made.
Next week in the quest for experience and points its the Bath Crits!