PARKSTONE’S Mark Chadbourne (ride) has been in action earlier that usual this season, competing in the Barnsfield Heath Winter series.

Unnown to most of the riders competing, Chadbourne was an early devotee of the sport of mountain biking and is a multiple off-road national champion in the veteran’s age category.

Chadbourne first started riding mountain bikes in 1988 when the machines had no suspension, were made of steel frames and riders wore, by today’s standards, rather odd-looking helmets.

Chadbourne took up the sport as an alternative to windsurfing when there was no wind. After competing in his first race at Matchams, he started riding in the Southern Area Mountain Bike Series.

With the Crow Hill course near Ringwood included as a Southern Area round (May 17) as well as a National Series round (June 27), Chadbourne is looking forward to the off-road season.

He said: I will do the national and southern area mountain bike series and hope to retain my titles. The racing is always good, the courses are excellent and the atmosphere friendly.”

Chadbourne, like many off-road specialists, spends between 50 to 80-per-cent of his time training on the road.

“Riding off-road takes a lot of skill otherwise you waste a lot of energy going nowhere,” said Chadbourne, who added: “There is no point in being fit and strong if you spend a lot of time upside down in a puddle!”

With the current trend towards power-based training, Chadbourne is still a firm believer in heart rate-based training.

He said: “More and more of my team mates are moving to power meters and benefitting from the training data it gives them.

“However, all of these things are just tools to make sure you can train efficiently but there is still no getting away from hard sessions where it hurts.”

With the success of TeamGB in velodrome cycling, Chadbourne has never really been tempted by the track. “I have done a few track sessions and really enjoyed it, but for me I just like going fast off road with our great local countryside rolling past.”

JONES VICTORIOUS

PAUL Jones (Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers) made a winning start to his season by winning the Bournemouth Arrow CC 10-mile time trial at Ringwood in a blistering time of 21:44, averaging in excess of 27mph on the notoriously slow course.

Jones beat fitness trainer Leighton Girling (Poole Wheelers, 23:36) who narrowly defeated last week’s winner of the 25-mile event, Martin Beale (New Forest, 23:38).

EVENT ALTERATION

TOMORROW’S final event in the Wessex League Winter Series has been changed from Barnsfield Heath to a road race at Woodlands near Verwood due to the unavailability of the Barnsfield circuit. Event organiser Mark Standhaft is pleased with a new course. He said: “We have been able to speedily organise this road race and I’m sure everyone will love this new circuit around the scenic Woodlands area.” Online pre-entries for the event close at midnight tonight but entries will also be accepted on the day.

Race headquarters is the Woodlands Village Hall with a start time of 10.30am. Further information at www.entryweb.co.uk

  • Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers start their club time trial season tomorrow with an unusual 9.6-mile mountain bike event starting at the Council Offices, Furzehill, at 3pm.

The trial is the first counting event for the season-long Boyson Trophy.