Kelly McGarry at Red Bull Rampage 2013

Truly incredible...

Rapha Gentleman's Race 2013 NE USA

If this doesn't make you want to get out and ride, you must be dead (or not a cyclist)...

(I highly recommend watching full-screen and in HD)

Great Descents: Hanase Omote

Well, here I am, slowly plugging away at that challenge. After tomorrow's ride, assuming it's not rained off, I'll be about 320km deep... requiring me to do another 500km in a week. It's Festive 500 all over again, except hot. Ugh.

After my ride on Tuesday I took a few days to recover and frankly still haven't been feeling that great. I think the heat got to me more than I would like to admit. I set off yesterday with the aim of putting in about 150km and turned back at the top of Hanase Omote, which absolutely killed me - managed about 80km total. Not what I was after, but better to play it safe than run myself into the ground.



I think the problem is that temperatures have increased about 10 Celcius in about a week, which leaves no time for acclimatisation. Came just at the wrong time for me, too. Still, it is mid-May - it should not be this hot. It doesn't seem to be cooling down much and it is muggy as hell. Pretty disgusting already. If this keeps up, the summer proper is going to be an absolute scorcher... well, more than usual...

Meanwhile I've been borrowing a friend's GoPro Hero3 Black camera, which is small and light enough to be mounted all over the place... including on my helmet. Thus I have been filming quite a bit - I have a whole ride's worth of footage to finish editing and piecing into a video, and I also filmed last Sunday's CycloFemme ride (a global ride event designed to get women into cycling, which Grecia organised here Kyoto). It's a neat bit of kit.

I took it on Friday... and managed to overheat it. This is apparently a common problem, and a pretty disappointing one. Not sure if it's down to the hardware or just the fact that it's sat on top of my helmet in direct sunlight, but still, it should be able to cope with this. I set it to record the entire descent of Hanase Omote, which is spectacular, but it overheated and crashed about 4 minutes in. I did at least manage to record and save that first section, however, which is the best - switchbacks galore - and I was absolutely ripping it down the hill (I hit 70 kmph, or 43 mph, apparently) so the video is pretty cool anyway. Check it out below (I recommend viewing in HD and full-screen).




I hope to film more descents soon (hey, I love descending... fast) so check back for those!

Rapha Continental: Assynt

Merry Christmas, everyone!

With the Rapha Festive 500 challenge underway (more on that later), I just wanted to showcase a gorgeous piece of cycling filmmaking from the folks at Rapha Continental.

This literally captures everything I love about cycling in 5 minutes. I highly recommend watching in HD and fullscreen for the full effect.



The Rapha Continental: Assynt from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Ines Papert in China

And now for something completely different (and utterly spectacular)!

A little reminder that climbing - especially ice climbing - isn't just about gnarly new routes on remote mountains.

Getting yourself out of trouble...

We all hope it never comes to this, but if the worst comes to the worst, this is how you'd hope it goes.

I know this video has been around for some time now but my blog hasn't and it's one I've re-watched a few times over. It never fails to amaze. Great job by both of these guys for getting out of there safely, calmly and independently.





Meanwhile planning is underway for my next trip - more of a single-day cragging style trip this time, but to Sounkyo gorge all the way up in Hokkaido. From what I understand it's like a Japanese version of Rjukan. Promises to be especially cold! More on that soon...