New girl on the block :-)

This is my first blog post as a Minx team rider so a little about myself maybe and then (as I AM British) a little about the weather!

I'm Elaine and I have been a fat tyre addict for about 4 years.

There... I said it...:-)


The last two have been totally unbearable with me entering, riding or racing anything and everything (OK, well except cross.........yet)

My list of places I want to ride is still longer than the places I have riden & I love my local "trails out the back gate" just as much as I do Afan or the Alps.

I seem to have collected numerous, very expensive bikes and random parts, in my garage fairly rapidly (I really have no idea how that all happened as I am always skint)

MIT.....I ride for fun.

I dont train and seem to do OK racing that way. I always told myself that I will ride as long as I enjoy it and as soon as I find myself riding because I have to or it says so on a chart on my wall then i will stop for a while and climb again (my other passion)

If I have a big event like a 12 hour (No... I will never solo a 24) then I just ride more. I sometimes call it training but thats only to cover up the fact that I am infact going out on the cross bike on the road for a few hours so I dont have to clean it when I get home!.. and to me, thats training rather than riding :-)

I once started crying when I tried to explain to someone just how amazing riding made me feel. So I guess that makes me terminal!.. I realise that I wont feel like this for ever so I am going to ride as often as I can where ever I can and accept that when the mojo goes, which it may well do, then I do something else until it comes back.
I have as yet, NEVER found anything in my life (all 40 years of it!) that gives me the kick that riding my bike does.
An unknown quote I have on the wall in my garage says "Nothing inspires me to ride, riding inspires me to live"...

So 2010 sees me joining Jenn, Fi, Lisa & the other girls cranking it for Minx and I cant wait...
I did quite a few events last year in pairs and solo and have now managed to finish 3, 12 hour solos, 2, 24 hour pairs including the Strathpuffer (NEVER again.. OUCH) and numerous other Enduro and sprint events. I am going to concentrate on Enduro events this year but I daresay I will do my local Gorrick sprint series as its quite the social gathering and I ride with a great local club who are always there to support and cheer me on no matter what jersey I am wearing.
This year I am also racing through the winter which is a first as I usually rest a little!.
The Merida Brass Monkeys Enduro series is 2/3rds of the way through with me with one first and one second place so its all to race for in the last event of the series on the 31st January.

I have also got quite the expert at snow riding this year.....:-)
I ride from my home near Swinley Forest into London quite often and I decided to ride into town to meet a friend for lunch on the ONLY day this winter that the whole of the South came to a complete standstill in the snow.
So the first time I throw my cross bike onto my back and run, is up Ascot hill past the lines of stationary cars just to keep warm! Stopping occasionally to help push a car or two.
If I hadnt actually done it I wouldnt have believed it was possible to ride a road bike on sheet ice and not only stay upright but actually get traction to climb up hills... so that was a 3 hour ride home, past all the people stuck in their cars, a little chilled by the time I got there but very well practised in ice riding with some very steady and constant pedal stokes and easy on the brakes!

So bring on 2010, dry fast trails, good kicks, no mechanicals with ale and cake a plenty....:-)


I look forward to meeting and riding with you all soon.
Happy 2010 and Happy smiley trails.....

Elaine