Fanylion Mountain Bike Team
Official site of the Fanylion Mountain Bike Team. Includes mountain bike ride guides, gear reviews, bike maintenance, team reports and rider profiles of the Fanylion Racing Team.
Scugdale
May 05, 2003, North Yorkshire
Having recovered from a 3 week long heavy cold which reduced me to a huffing-puffing old man when climbing the stairs at home, I thought I was back to full strength and fitness and arranged to ride the Scugdale Loop with Team Shack and Boy Band (making his long awaited return to the Team after a 7month absence).
Having done a 30mile pootle around Pudsey on Saturday 3rd my legs felt a little stiff, however I felt good and Shack was expecting to be the weakest link as he was riding with Team FanyLion’s two fittest members. Though who could have imagined what would happen.
This Scugdale ride was one of the toughest I can remember, though the first leg passed relatively uneventfully (except for a snakebite for me on the Black Hambleton descent – this should have been an omen). However, as we turned for the homeward part of the journey it became apparent we were in for one hell of a time of it. What had up till then been an innocuous tailwind now became one of the stiffest headwinds I have ever ridden in, and as we ploughed through the sand traps of Scugdale Moor, fighting through the headwind, it all went wrong for Team Hodgson: My fitness deserted me. I was John Hooper. Sheldon could have beaten me. My legs felt hollow, I was puffing and gasping for breath and my pace dropped. I was at the back, hating it, and unable to do a thing about it. I was a beaten man.
As we left the track and started the road section to Chequers Café, Boy Band and Shack rode at a normal pace, both looking forward to a pot of tea and warmth and shelter from the wind. I felt as though they were doing 50mph and was unable to keep up.
Even after a steak & mushroom pie and pot of tea at Chequers I was no better. The tough climb back up Black Hambleton saw the end of any benefits gained from the pie, and as we rode along the drovers road back to Boltby Car Park I became more and more tired, and Shack and Boy Band soon disappeared into the distance, waiting for me to catch up at each gate. This was terrible. I felt humiliated.
I arrived back at the car park about 500 meters off the pace, feeling like I had just ridden across Russia. We had done 26 miles and I was crippled.
It is therefore with great sadness but a slight feeling of pride that I pass over the mantle of the Team, jointly to Team Shack and Team Boy Band. They deserve it. On the day they were the fittest fastest riders, and I was their bitch.
This can only do good for the Team as a whole, as it is evident that I am human after all, and definitely beatable. However be warned, I will use this as a stepping stone from which to return, except next time I will be fitter and faster than last season, and I will reclaim my crown.
For now, Shack and Boy Band are Dominant Males, but I will return, oh yes, I will return, mark my words.
Team Hodgson
Alpha Male
Riders present
Team Shack
Team Boy Band
Team Hodgson
Enjoyment level
Zero