| Assisted Riders & Athletes |
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Read all about our young assisted riders & athletes Callum Irvine, age 16, Aviemore - Biathlete THE FACTS Who is Callum? - Born in Aviemore, Callum is the son of as most people in the village refer to 'Dr Gill'. What does he do? - Left school summer 2011 with a great set of results and has taken a year out to train as a full time athete. He is a biathlete & currently a member of the youth GB winter olympic development squad and competed in the youth winter olympics in early 2012. Member of Cairngorm CC. What does he ride? - on the trails a Merida World Cup MTB special edition - courtesy of Mikes Bikes - Calum can do pretty much anything on this amazing limited edition hard tail from Merida. On the road during the winter Callum trains on his dads Raleigh U6 Cross Bike. Calum's news (in his own words) 28th January 2012 - "Just coming down to earth after the best fortnight of my life so far. I am in Ruhpolding, Germany for the British Biathlon Championships but have just arrived from Innsbruck, Austria, where the inaugural Youth Olympic Winter Games were held. With almost 1000 athletes and more than the same number again of coaches, media etc, this is the biggest event i have ever attended. it started with meeting the British Olympic Association and the rest of Team GB in london gatwick and being given our official kit. Just to unpack and try on the contents of the 100litre bag full of clotjhes we were each given took about an hour. It was christmas all over again. Then we flew out to Innsbruck to our accommodation in the brand new, purpose built Youth Olympic Village. From then on the next 12 days were a blur of ceremonies , socialising and , of course, races. i had two events, the 7.5km sprint and the 10km pursuit. In both i felt that i was in the competition but unfortunately my shooting, which had been my strong point throughout the rest of the season, let me down. I hit 5/10 in the sprint and 14/20 in the pursuit but still managed to take 35th and 29th. I was dissapointed with these results but it was a world class field, and i didnt feel out-classed, so i am now looking forward to the World Junior Championships in Finland in february. Thanks again to Mikes Bikes for their support, particularly with Hi-5 energy and recovery nutrition and strategies which were of great use , particularly as my two races were on consecutive days." 12th December - In mid November i flew to Sweden to race in a FIS cross country race -15km skate- and achieved a pb as well as meeting qualification standards for the youth winter olympics and junior world championships. I then travelled to Sjusjoen in Norway for British Biathlon selection races only to find that there was no snow ( a big problem in scandinavia this year) and to be moved again to Beitostollen. I raced three selection races, and made the British Biathlon team for IBU cup, which is the layer below World Cup, the youngest person ever to do so. It's been great fun ever since, travelling with the team to sweden, germany, austria and italy, skiing with some of the best in the world and getting pb's in every race so far. i have at least one race this weekend in Obertilliach, Austria before coming home for christmas to get some rest and hopefully some skiing on Cairngorm -fingers crossed. 29th October - For the last three weeks i have been training on the Dachstein Glacier, in Ramsau, Austria in preperation for the winter season. It has been an amazing experience including skiing and shooting alongside some of the top biathletes and cross country skiers in the world. To train at altitude over this extended period of time requires careful rest and recovery, and i was lucky enough to be helped in this department by Mikes Bikes sponsorship of Hi5 energy and recovery drinks. I am now planning the next few weeks before i head out to Bruksvallarna, Sweden for the selection races for the Youth Olympic Winter Games in january of next year. 30th September - 'Tomorrow I'm off to Ramsau, Austria, to train on the Dachstein Glacier there. This altitude training will last three weeks and set me up perfectly (hopefully ) for the start of the racing season in November. An average day will entail three hours skiing on the glacier, either distance training or intervals for speed work, followed by at least two hours shooting and running/rollerskiing. Whilst on the snow i will have the chance to ski with (or be left behind by, at least!) the top skiers in the world as at this time of year several national teams use Ramsau as a training base. To help me get the most from this training Mikes Bikes has kindly supplied me with Hi-5 protein shakes and EnergySource energy drinks' 'Just a quick note to say that i raced the bike leg of the Cairngorm Adventure Triathlon today on the merida and it was brilliant. 'Hi ,my name is Calum Irvine and I'm a biathlete and cross country skier. Biathlon is a combination of cross country skiing and rifle target shooting. Although it isn't particularly common in the UK, biathlon is the most spectated sport in Germany and Scandinavia, even beating football. Cross country skiing uses every muscle group in the body so training for biathlon is quite simple. You just do lots of everything! Living in Scotland, training on snow isn't always an option so most of the time I either bike , run or rollerski (like cross country skiing but on wheels) as well as gym sessions and shooting. Thanks to my new Merida Matts TFS Champion, courtesy of Mikes Bikes, that just got easier (and a whole lot more fun). :D'
Elena Melton, age 14, Grantown on Spey - Road & XC THE FACTS Who is Elena? Local girl Elena Melton attends Grantown Grammar and when she is not at school she is out or in training on her bike/turbo trainer. What does she do? - Competes at junior level on the road and XC. Member of Cairngorm CC. What does she ride? - On the road Elena rides a bespoke race bike built by Mikes Bikes - Merida Scultura Evo Carbon Frame, ultegra groupset and shimano rs80 wheels on the trails Elena can be seen out on a XC mtb. Elena's news (in her own words) Before Christmas I was doing some cyclo cross racing but I only did a few because it's quite a long way to drive for about half an hour of racing. There was one just two weeks before Christmas, which was on Mull, that I went to. I was really looking forward to it but then I got a cold and unfortunately couldn't race on the Saturday, which was the serious race. I still went though and raced on the Sunday which was the less serious race where you had to dress up Christmasy. My first cross country race is in March- the first of the British series (in Sherwood Pines down in England) and the the first of the Scottish series the week after (down in Kirroughtree). This year I plan to do all of the Scottish and British XC series, hopefully some of the skinny tyres road races, the Scottish road champs, hopefully the Scottish youth road tour and mabye a few downhill races. (January 2012) The Hairy Coo is a big event which is held at Comrie Croft. There are 3 races, the bairns race, the wee race and the big race. I took part in the big race. The men had to do 5 laps of the course and the woman had to do 3. It was very muddy, very difficult and very long. I came 3rd in the woman's race behind Elke Prasad and Morven Brown who are both elite riders so I was quite pleased. I didn’t really like the technical and it was so muddy that after about the first lap, my jockey wheels got so clogged up with mud that every minute or so my chain got stuck and I had to get off and run. I fell off quite a few times. It was kind of fun and I won a bar of soap. :-) - October 2011Newnham Park Plymouth (Sunday 25th Sept 2011) Round 5 British Mountain Bike Race Series 2011 'It was the final race in the British series and I felt I had a really good chance of doing well. Although after the 12 and a half hour drive stretching over 3 days I wasn't so sure. The course was quite technical with 3 main climbs which were all very steep. The downhill was muddy, rooty, slippy and off camber. By the time I’d done 2 practice laps I still wasn’t feeling as confident as I would have liked to have been. I started the race well sprinting into a good position. The course went up a steep fire road climb and then in to the first single track where we were all still in one long line. As we got to the second climb the race started getting a bit more spread out. Then I came to the main technical descent, I was in 3rd position but I could see that Erika and Sarah weren’t that far behind. I came round the corner at the bottom of the descent and my front wheel got stuck on a rock I had to jump off and as I was doing Erika ran past me. However I quickly jumped back on my bike and passed her. After that I continued to pull away from Erika and Sarah. I kept seeing Amira in 2nd place ahead of me, I’d never beaten her before. When I saw her struggling on some of the technical descents I started to believe maybe I could beat her. It was just near the very end of the race on the final climb where I finally got passed her! I couldn’t relax though as she was hot on my heels right till the very end of the race where in the end I had a 19 second gap on her. I felt really happy, what a great way to end the season. Thanks to my mum and dad for taking me to all the races.'Friday 23rd September 2011 - 'We have just arrived in Plymouth! For final British XC race. We will try and do updates when at races on Twitter at bikehighdoc' 'UK School Games Race Report 2nd-4th September 2011The UK School games was a really great experience for me. I had never done anything like it before. It was really fun but also very hard because we had to do 2 races almost everyday. My favourite races probably were the cross-country and the time trail. I came 7th in the XC which I was quite pleased with because I was competing with people 2 years older than me, and 14th in the time trail. I was also quite pleased with my uphill result where i came 9th. In the team relay Yuka was injured and couldn’t race so I had to do 2 laps and because we only had 3 people in our we got pushed down to 10th, however we still finished 2nd overall.' - Check out the Strathy (23rd September) for a full report
Megan Riach, Nethybridge - Road & Track THE FACTS Who is Megan? 15 year old Megan attends Grantown Grammar in between racing on the track.... What does she do? Track and road racing, currently in the Scottish Youth Development Squad and spends most weekends touring the country in her parents van participating in events. Member of Cairngorm CC. What does she ride? Current fleet includes a Ridley Excalibur, Merida Road Race 94 & Mtrax MTB Megan's news (in her own words) October - We were introduced to Megan's fellow team mates during the October school holidays when they all bundled into the shop for some mechanical advice and help from Mike....after which they tackled the hill climb up Cairngorm in a howling gale - lucky them! 'In August i was away for a week in manchester for track. I went down for a sprint school which was an all day sprint training with coaches and Craig, and i also got to have a good look around the new BMX centre which is pretty impressive(might take up bmx after seeing that!) Then i had a couple of days of just chilling then i was competing at the british track champs for the rest of the week. I was only competing in the Sprint, Scratch and 500TT. I didn't do aswell as i would have hoped for but still not entirely back to fittness, but i did get a couple of PB's and it was a really good racing experience, and it is showing me where i should aim for in track and where i can improve on for next year. Hamish Hepburn, Carrbridge - Trials & MTB THE FACTS Who is Hamish? Age 15, he lives in Carrbridge and attends Grantown Grammar What does he ride? - Saracen Amplitude, Specialized MTB Hamish's news (in his own words) 'Purchased a Saracen Amplitude Cr1 late 2011. I have been out on it tons, and learning new skills to do on it such as bunny hopping and improving my balance.. I haven’t managed to go many places yet but will hopefully be going through to Grantown and possibly Boat of Garten soon as well. I have been around the Landmark car park just playing around and trying to find new things and obstacles to ride. I actually dented the rim on the third day I had it but it is still going strong. I would definitely recommend this bike to anyone who is looking for a bike that can take a bashing on the jumps but also be used for just every day use'.
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