Retro 1 Modern 0

[Lookback]

So, thought I'd share this.... I won a Mountain Bike Race today.... On my Psyclone.... In period correct GT jersey ( was gonna wear my Retrobike one, but decided to go with long sleeves instead ). Anyway, never won a race before, but did get quite close years back before I developed a stomach. Quite chuffed too since the other competitors were all riding modern kit.

Being a bit competitive, I'd tweaked the setup of the Psyclone a bit - took off the carbon risers, and dropped on a X-Lite Ti flat bar and bar ends. Took off the SID Teams and replaced them with a Pace Airforce 2, so basically took it back to a proper XC racer setup.

Anyway, it wasn't a big race, but it was blinking windy, and as it was a point to point sort of thing, it didn't help that I took a wrong turn and ended up at the bottom of an 8% climb, which I then had to ride back up - probably cost me a good 15 minutes. Still managed to get back to the front and win it by 2 minutes though.

In case anyone is interested, it was Stage 8 of Run4Home http://www.thl.org.uk/Threshold/Home.html and all for charity......

Mind you, I can't move now. My neck, arms, shoulders, legs, back and hands all hurt. God bless riding old bikes fast(ish!).

I should also fess up at this point and admit that there were only 3 teams, and one lad had a pedal fall off 2 minutes into the stage, and the other lady was riding her new bike for the first time

 

[tintin40]

But you finished which is the main thing.

 

[feetabix]

a win is a win!....i'd claim it too!.....i have a third place trophy for an expert level race in the early 90's.....the fact that there was only three entrants is utterly irrelevant!....

 

[Lookback]

Even racing in Expert is good.... I only ever made it to Sport class.......

Aside from anything else today, it was interesting pushing that bike as hard as I could. I've always loved the frame, but never run it with a narrow, flat bar and bar ends until today. Its so much better than I am !!!!

 

[feetabix]

ha!....i can't comment on your age, but at very nearly 40 the feeling of unused potential in a sleek, whippy race bike is a constant presence for me!.... :?

 

[MADJEZ]

Excellent, well done.

I will hopefully be doing my first bike race in 28years soon !
Will be on one of the retro fleet and don't expect to win.

 

[the_duke]

Well done Si. A win on the king of steel GT's!

You will have to post some pics of it with the new spec.

 

[jonnyboy666]

awesome! you're so right about the psyclone, great frame, another reminder of the stupid decision to sell mine years ago :facepalm:

 

[Lookback]

Been thinking about doing a "Me and my Psyclone" thread for a while now... i've had the frame from new, so got a ton of pics, and it's had an interesting life... certainly not been a garage queen. I'll get onto it ....

Could also be a laugh to arrange for a bunch of us to rock up to a Sunday morning race and see how we get on. I always like seeing the reaction at Mountain Mayhem when you go past someone on a brand new full suss

 

[tintin40]

Just look at girl racing. At most race events i've been to the girls section have at most 12 riders and as low as 1 but they still race and complete the number of laps.
Must be depressing for some of the girls to see such low rider numbers all the time.