AQR have just in fact been nominated for the prestigious Singletrack Reader Awards 2007 under the Best Holiday Experience category and offer a superb array of skills coaching and holiday options so hop on the link and have a good look around to see what takes your fancy. The lovely Joolze has also been nominated under Best Photographer category (you’ve seen lots of her cool photos already on this weblog) so I for one will be getting Singletrack issue 39 and casting my votes!
In my opinion the all-ability skills sessions offered by AQR are worth their weight in gold. We went up to Sherwood Pines a couple of times recently and had a brilliant time being taught the mysterious arts of cornering, manuals and bunny hops by trail gurus Ian, Kate, Jon and Paul. Well maybe my bunny hop was more like an ant hop but at least it gave everyone a good case of hysterics with my rather excessive rear wheel lift!!

Seriously though, whatever level you are at there is a whole bunch of stuff you can learn that will help you ride faster and in fact it is sometimes better if you are able to learn this stuff at the outset of your riding exploits as then you don’t have any bad habits to unlearn!!

You see in this shot here I’m now going sooooo fast that Mr M almost missed me!!

Of particular interest to us girlies in 2008 is the all-ability ladies day scheduled for 1st March (our men folk are also most welcome as there will be two groups) when you can hang out and learn all those things you might have been afraid to ask in a welcoming social environment. It is bound to be great fun and Kate is just in the process of finalising all the surprises in store so if you fancy coming along then keep an eye on the AQR site for how to book - of course Jo doesn’t actually know this yet but I will be trying to talk her into coming along and keeping me company 

This brings me nicely on to what will be the noble steeds of choice for the AQR Race Team which as you’ve probably guessed from the logo are Cy’s super sexy cycles Cotic. If you haven’t been lucky enough to catch one up close yet and are wondering what all the fuss is about then pencil 2nd March in your diary for the COTIC BIG DAY OUT where you can see them and try them so again, keep an eye on the AQR website for details. I will also be posting up some photos of my sexy new Soda on the weblog when the frame arrives in the New Year - I can’t wait to put my lucky gold Chris King headset back into active service 

The team will also be fuelled by TORQ energy products and I have to say that I am starting to go a bit cold turkey when I don’t get my daily dose of banana and mango recovery drink - it’s almost worth four or five hours on the turbo trainer to be able to have an extra big double helping although I think that my butt might actually beg to differ!!

Here for your amusement is a rather bizarre shot by Mr M of yours truly on the trainer watching movies in the comfort of our kitchen. I never really enjoyed resorting to the trainer but this year my inner hamster appears to be gradually taking me over……..

Anyhow, if you need to keep those legs either spinning or running then it’s worth checking the Torq stuff out as they do a great range of natural tasting flavours in drinks, bars and gels so there is bound to be something in there you might like (still waiting for someone to bring out marmite flavour though) or if you don’t really dig flavours (which I quite often don’t at 3am in the morning in a 24hr race) then there is of course the trusty no-taste neutral.

So that’s it for my piece of exciting news. I’ll of course keep you posted on the full team story as it unfolds over the winter and all that’s left is to wish you all:

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Catch up with you all again soon in 2008 when by then I hope you will have all pencilled in your forthcoming adventures for the year and I can also share with you mine…..