Tracy Moseley gets all fit.

I mean like, she rocks right? Properly rocks.
My fitness regime involes watching people do their fitness regimes.

Best MTB films ever?

Ok so this little piece took me about a day to research. Well, I had my top five within about 15 minutes but I had to research for hours just to make sure. Obvs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/mar/08/mountain-biking-youtube-video?page=all
Anyone got any better suggestions? Of course you have!

Passportes 2010

Wahoo! Registration for this year's Passportes du Soleil on 26 and 27 June opens on 10 February. Proper nice event, mainly because you get to eat and drink beer every 15km. Or so. The 75km route is taking in nine resorts this year as opposed to seven with the MTB fair rocking Chatel. Passportes may be in and around Morzine but do yourself a favour and leave the DH bike in the chalet.

Did I complete it last year? Did I hell. I got sucked into a pothole near Chatel (Question: why has Fionn stopped on that berm? Answer: to point out the massive hole in the trail I've just nosedived into.)But after the ensuing paddy, I did still manage to drink beer and eat every 15 minutes. I mean kilometres.

In 2009 800 people registered on the first day and entries are limited to 4,000. Tie it into a week in Morzine and then on to Mega Avalanche which kicks off 5 July and you're laughing.

Run Rabbit, run

Me in Chamonix. Photo: Tom Humpage


I went out with my sister last night and we weren't on the bikes. God no. The last time she got on a bike was when I hauled her sorry ass over the Golden Gate Bridge on a tandem. So we went out and we got to talking and we both agreed that it's taken a while but we can no longer avoid the crushing realisation that: This. Is. It. This is it. You can hum the Strokes here, I find it helps. And this realisation reminded me of a sentence from Updike's Rabbit which has literally been on my mind for years. I paraphrase of course, but it's something like: 'somehow overnight I had morphed from being someone who had so much potential, into someone who could have been so good.' We decided, over our second bottle of Pinot Grigio (natch) that the morphing had indeed taken place. No matter, we both still had our health and wrinkled youth, besides what's the future when you have chilled white wine?

But as I ploughed into work this morning, a sole cool-clad cyclist in a sea of day-glo and bad, bad footwear, I got cataclysmically panicked. Agreed the hangover wasn't helping but let's just focus here people, yeah? Jesus I thought, I've missed the boat. I didn't even know where it was going, but it's gone. Look at all these people pedalling so fast on squeaking chains, flashing lights clinging to every orrifice, they're still racing to catch the boat – they can still see it. Me – I'm sat on the harbour wall with a big bag of chips, tenderly groping my extra fat wondering if it's worth trying to swim. Nah.

Back in the day before I morphed, cycling for me was amazing. It was challenging, every route a personal triumph. My road riding took me across America and through the Alps, opened up the landscape and a side of me that relished in the present and enjoyed overcoming obstacles. Mountain biking used to be about beers and berms, rock music and the closest thing I could find to mad, off-piste skiing. Even commuting was a great way to start and end a day, a chilled ride through one of the greatest cities on earth.

And I'm sorry to be depressed about it, because all the blogs I read are really upbeat all the time about bikes. And I'm still stoked on bikes and I think the chicks are amazing – 2010 is a wicked year for MTB for sure. But it's getting really boring have some over weight bloke get pissed off when I pass him on the way to work, and then try and sandbag me the rest of the way to Farringdon. It's quite sad the way the industry is so cliquey. It's frustrating the way mainstream journalism can't get its head around using experts to write their bike information; and it's so demoralising when it seems like everyone is so caught up outdoing each other with all the bollocks that they forget everyone is free to ride a bike however they like.

My mate Mark who runs GPM10 and re-inspires me every summer when I ride with him in Chamonix, says it's all just a load of bollocks and if you hang out in Cham with proper cyclists you rise above all that stuff. So maybe it's time to make the move. Plus he's like 46 or whatever, so has done a lot more morphing than me.

In the meantime I watched this montage of the TransAmerica trail from a blog on Adventure Cycling's website. I did this route in 2006, on my own. Wicked. I hope it's not the best thing I've ever done on a bike, but it feels like that today.

It can't be Britney, surely?

In a spate of Great News, the physio has requested I ride for at least 15 miles in one go this weekend in order to see whether my knee is getting better or will blow out again. I have been informed very strongly that five hours of continuous dirt jumping is not the same thing. Damn. It.

Did y'all hear the podcast yet we did a couple of weeks ago with courier Emily Chappell and Phil 'the horse' Moore? It went up yesterdat afternoon. It's here if you want to listen. I bray like a donkey in it but I'm hoping that can be endearing ... It was nice to hang out in the city on a bike and not be riding to work. I spend pretty much every weekend getting out of London to the hills so it was good to make the most of what was on my doorstep rather than whinge about how horrible all the concrete and rude people are. And I would like to point out that I recorded that podcast four hours after I got hit by the blubbing driver. Above and beyond people, above and freakin beyond.

In other news Glyncorrwg ponds have confirmed that Skyline Cycles will be taking over the running of the Drop Off. Whether that results in a name change and/or smaller portions is yet to be discerned as the press release explaining it all is languishing somwehere that isn't my inbox.

But the most cataclysmic thing which has occurred in the last few days is the realisation that of all the seven million songs on my iPod, the one that gets me the most psyched when riding is Britney Spears' 'Gimme More.' Now I know this skater chick Lucy Adams who used to ride for Rogue and she admitted on BBC radio that her favourite tune to skate to was one from Steps. Don't deny it Lucy! She also kicks ass on a skateboard so I figure if she can admit to riding to Steps, Britney is ok right? But it's not really is it? Can anyone help me out by admitting to a more embarrassing one?