Silly commuting racing

cjcp

lost_in_thought wrote:

So how does one qualify for said winter series? Do you have to join a team?

Nope, you can just turn up and race on a day licence and pay the entry fee. It's organised by Imperial Racing Team (was last year anyway). However, it would make sense to join the BCF if you're going to race frequently as you then don't pay the day licence fee each time. Plus, I think you also get commute insurance with the BCF.

UnworthyPapaLazaru

This is far too serious for SCR!!! Licence!!! Organised!!! Fee!!!

lost_in_thought

cjcp wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

So how does one qualify for said winter series? Do you have to join a team?

Nope, you can just turn up and race on a day licence and pay the entry fee. It's organised by Imperial Racing Team (was last year anyway). However, it would make sense to join the BCF if you're going to race frequently as you then don't pay the day licence fee each time. Plus, I think you also get commute insurance with the BCF.

Thanks CJ, a mine of information as usual!

I actually recently joined the BCF to get the insurance, so maybe I have a race licence already, I will have to check, I don't think I clicked the 'yes' box for that.

Joining a team would probably be more fun though, and I'd find out just how rubbish I currently am and how hard I'd have to work to get anywhere!

Bassjunkieuk

lost_in_thought wrote:

Joining a team would probably be more fun though, and I'd find out just how rubbish I currently am and how hard I'd have to work to get anywhere!

Says the lady who used to ride a GI that would scare Chris Hoy :-D
I don't think I could ever join a team due to family reasons and the need to shave my legs, least I stand out as some sort of wannabe.....

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Racing should have weight categories like boxing! Im a skinny lad and there is no way I could take on some of the man mountains I see on bikes. So that is me ruled out...!

In fact, scratch that, Im using Bassjunkies excuse.....Its family reasons. Honest.

cjcp

lost_in_thought wrote:

cjcp wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

So how does one qualify for said winter series? Do you have to join a team?

Nope, you can just turn up and race on a day licence and pay the entry fee. It's organised by Imperial Racing Team (was last year anyway). However, it would make sense to join the BCF if you're going to race frequently as you then don't pay the day licence fee each time. Plus, I think you also get commute insurance with the BCF.

Thanks CJ, a mine of information as usual!

I actually recently joined the BCF to get the insurance, so maybe I have a race licence already, I will have to check, I don't think I clicked the 'yes' box for that.

Joining a team would probably be more fun though, and I'd find out just how rubbish I currently am and how hard I'd have to work to get anywhere!

If you have bronze membership, this allows you to race on a closed circuit such as Hillingdon. To race on open roads, you need a full licence, which comes with silver and gold. I think that's right anyway.

Bassjunkieuk

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

Racing should have weight categories like boxing! Im a skinny lad and there is no way I could take on some of the man mountains I see on bikes. So that is me ruled out...!

In fact, scratch that, Im using Bassjunkies excuse.....Its family reasons. Honest.

You could look at it like I do, I think that as I'm quite lean I have less weight to shift, like a car with a high power to weigh ratio :-D So what I lack in sheer muscular power I make up for by being a featherweight 10st something!

I did do MTB racing once when I was at high school as part of a national multi-sport competition, it wasn't anything serious but I had good fun! I actually crashed about 50 yards from the start of the first one - a silly mistake, taking a chicane that goes on the grass from concrete when it's wet isn't the best place to sprint for a position! At least I took some other poor suckers out with me in the resultant wipeout :evil:
I managed to make up some positions as I was seemingly one of the few who had any level of fitness and could actually ride the whole course for 4 or 6 laps, so I kept overtaking people pushing their bikes up the small hill we had to tackle!

The funny thing was that the following year someone commented that they hope they have a better start then last year! I'm sure it all took part on a circuit over Leyton direction as I remember having to use the blackwell tunnel to get there - having said that it was about 10 years ago now! Those where the days :-)

cjcp

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

Racing should have weight categories like boxing! Im a skinny lad and there is no way I could take on some of the man mountains I see on bikes.

In which case, on the hills, you should hand out a bit of whipping.

cjcp

Anyway, still feeling the effects of last week's man flu. This morning was tough and just about fended off the unwanted attentions of a SS hybrid. Didn't need to go all out, but still in a place where my lungs didn't want to be. It's a bit like that film, Space Camp, where they need to save their fuel for that one almighty, Ohm's Burn, to get them back down to Earth. I have to keep my energy for that one push on Embankment where I keep the pretenders at bay until traffic or the NKR where I can recover until we get to Parsons Green without having to get off the bike and sit in a shop doorway for five minutes while my breathing calms down.

Greg T

cjcp wrote:

without having to get off the bike and sit in a shop doorway for five minutes while my breathing calms down.

I've had to stop in the Putney Petrol Station drinking milk and eating fig rolls before now....

On that night I seem to remember having to have a coke and a glucose bar at the petrol station at the end of The embankment also....

A two petrol station pit stop strategy on a 15 mile ride........

lost_in_thought

Greg T wrote:

cjcp wrote:

without having to get off the bike and sit in a shop doorway for five minutes while my breathing calms down.

I've had to stop in the Putney Petrol Station drinking milk and eating fig rolls before now....

On that night I seem to remember having to have a coke and a glucose bar at the petrol station at the end of The embankment also....

A two petrol station pit stop strategy on a 15 mile ride........

Chaps, I think this may count as 'trying'... :shock:

linsen

SCR...

There's nothing like being chased by two MTBs up my least favourite hill and then being side by side with a friend in a car (albeit a clapped out old VW) at the last set of lights to shave a little off my time - I'm hoping for a point for the fact the car took at least 200yds to overtake me again......

Wrath Rob

Do any of you in the Embankment Peleton ride a bronze fixie? I had a little tussle with someone on one tonight which was unresolved due to traffic. Unfortunately I've contracted tempus unus vir duco so was not in the mood to really play, After he caught me napping I managed to get past at some lights due to the marvel of modern invention called gears but I knew that he was tailing me and sure enough as I backed off for the traffic at Albert Bridge he came past. He slowly filtered through but I took to the cycle path and didn't see him again.

To be resumed...

Wrath Rob

No action today, which my lungs thanked me for.

Even the car drivers seemed well behaved. Which is more than can be said for the cyclists. One, on a Brompton no less, barged past me at Vauxhaul, went 1/2 way across the junciton and then got in everyone's way when the lights changed. What a tw@t. The 2nd jumped the red lights at Threadneedle and cut me up going down Old Broad Street. I thanked him for his actions.

Sometimes we are our own worse enemies.

cjcp

Still in "active recovery". Even let a mtb who was trying his damndest go (albeit through gritted teeth) last night and have his moment of glory.

Wore far too much clothing this morning for fear of getting another chill, so had sweat dripping off me by the NKR.

Bassjunkieuk

Like WB I had nothing of interest today. The closest I got to a worthy (looking) foe was at the cycle path at the underpass to get under the A3. I didn't try passing in the tunnel due to the parents and kids coming the other way and then we went straight over at the roundabout when I went left.....just aswell tho as I was really on a go slow this morning!
I just didn't seem to have the usual urgency and my average speed took a hit!

Did have a shout at some stupid cow in an Audi tho, traffic was backed up on a residential road and I think she was trying to overtake the car in front (in a slow moving queue!!!!) she pulled out and went to accelerate round just as the traffic started moving. I guessed what she was going to do and just stuck in primary to block her :-) She then had to re-join the queue exactly where she was, as I rode past I noticed her window was down so I yelled "stupid cow". I think she said something back but it was muffled by the wind!

On the plus side I'm glad the torrential rain and high winds missed London this morning, although it looks like I might be lucky to get home dry this evening!

Greg T

cjcp wrote:

Even let a mtb who was trying his damndest go (albeit through gritted teeth) last night and have his moment of glory. .

A MTB.

Set faces to stunned.

Now listen, I'll be the first man to admit that in a moment of weakness I've sat in someone's bum bubble waiting for the shouting in my head to ease off a bit before making my move.... However, letting a MTB do you even in advanced stage man-flu is a disgrace....

You might want to have your Shame gland function checked as you may be low on manodrin, the hormone of being a bloke, when this is low the shame gland shuts down and you feel no shame.

Wore far too much clothing this morning for fear of getting another chill, so had sweat dripping off me by the NKR.

It was a steamer. I had a gillet and arm warmers on and I was dripping, God knows what the full waterproofs and a hat under the helmet riders were doing...

jonginge

Greg T wrote:

It was a steamer. I had a gillet and arm warmers on and I was dripping, God knows what the full waterproofs and a hat under the helmet riders were doing...

Ditto. Gilet was too much but at least it meant the white top I had on (mistake no2) didn't turn grey

Clever Pun

Greg T wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Even let a mtb who was trying his damndest go (albeit through gritted teeth) last night and have his moment of glory. .

A MTB.

Set faces to stunned.

harsh but ultimately fair

I took the embankment last night and managed to drops a couple of fixed single speeders the traffic is cack around embankment but either side it's scalp city

il_principe

I had a lovely "Duvet Day" yesterday, enjoyed a couple of afternoon Laps of Richmond Park where i thoroughly destroyed a bloke on a Specialised Tarmac, he really looked like he was trying hard as well the poor fella. Annoyingly there were 3 police vehicles cruising around the park which meant descending Sawyers hill at 20mph, grrrrrrr. Being a Royal Parks copper must be one of the easiest jobs on the planet.

lost_in_thought

Interesting that there were fewer idiots in the Embankment area this morning, I think they'd all migrated to the Uxbridge road to try to kill me...

I had 5 pedestrians walk out in front of me on separate occasions, turns out I can now instinctively unclip whilst skidding in order not to crash, and a cyclist undertaking me, which was just annoying, as well as several mopeds using the bike lane, not checking their mirrors before doing so, one of which actually hit me! Grrrrrrrr.... :evil:

I'm not hurt or anything, there might be a bruise tomorrow, I was pootling down the cycle lane, and he just pulled into the side of me looking straight ahead.

On another day I'd have just been shocked, this day he got an earful.

Lucky he wasn't moving at any speed. :evil: :evil:

Interestingly, all the cars, buses and vans/hgvs were very well behaved apart from one private coach which tried to squash a passat and one BMW who pulled in front of me (I was in the bike bit at the front) at a red.

And no prey at all...

grumble grumble. :x

jonginge

lost_in_thought wrote:

I had 5 pedestrians walk out in front of me on separate occasions, turns out I can now instinctively unclip whilst skidding in order not to crash, and a cyclist undertaking me, which was just annoying, as well as several mopeds using the bike lane, not checking their mirrors before doing so, one of which actually hit me! Grrrrrrrr.... :evil:

I'm not hurt or anything, there might be a bruise tomorrow, I was pootling down the cycle lane, and he just pulled into the side of me looking straight ahead.

On another day I'd have just been shocked, this day he got an earful.

Good on yer

lost_in_thought wrote:

And no prey at all...

grumble grumble. :x

Not much except a few with parachuting windproof jackets, no points there!
But I showed a moped the way up millbank. Hurrah

cjcp

Greg T wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Even let a mtb who was trying his damndest go (albeit through gritted teeth) last night and have his moment of glory. .

A MTB.

Set faces to stunned.

A minor correction: it was a hybrid. Minor because I view them as the same. I was shaking my head at myself inside.

And, erm, also, <coughs very loudly> I did let a fast chap on an mtb have some fun off a few set of lights this morning while I was trying to address my sky-rocketing body temperature before getting realising that there was nothing I could do but put the hammer down and get even more sweaty.

lost_in_thought

jashburnham wrote:

I had a lovely "Duvet Day" yesterday, enjoyed a couple of afternoon Laps of Richmond Park where i thoroughly destroyed a bloke on a Specialised Tarmac, he really looked like he was trying hard as well the poor fella. Annoyingly there were 3 police vehicles cruising around the park which meant descending Sawyers hill at 20mph, grrrrrrr. Being a Royal Parks copper must be one of the easiest jobs on the planet.

Do the polizei get upset with you for going to fast? Or were you stuck behind one?

I'd like be a park plod on a bike... like the usual plod on a bike, but in the parks.

DonDaddyD

Jeez! Cycling today was a nightmare this morning.

A black guy on a hybrid, a roadie in clipless on a Scott and me. When I joined the main road back in Norbury the brotha overtook me as I began to pick up speed, I then pretty much shadowed him though Norbury as traffic was rife. I lost him during a bout of filtering as a bus blocked my path (oh how I miss the agility of my Mountain Bike – Giant M2 – in those situations) but caught up to him as Norbury folded into Streatham. The guy on a Scott then joined us and the real game had begun. It was only a hybrid so I overtook it with ease and made my shapes to first match the Scott for speed and then drop him with the righteous sound of sweet thunder as my feet turned those mighty cranks of my SCR 3; this I hoped would usher forth my comeback fight following the harrowing experience of wiping out kiddies and being roasted by Bassjunkie and Snooks at the London Freewheel. Yes I’m still scared (I’m that competitive).

Along the highroad (Streatham) this lady in a BMW on the school run (that's the motorist equivalent of a Weapon of Mass Destruction ) ignored the giveway line, oncoming traffic and with all the petulance of a cab driver pulls out from a side road onto the main road right in front of the cyclists ahead of me. He, like me, wears clippy-in shoes (clipless) and instead of going over or under her bonnet decides to take the fall while swerving out of the way.

It was really sad to see because he forced himself to fall off the bike instead of hit her car. Willingly injuring yourself is hard to do. Anywho, after checking if the guy was alright me and another cyclist started having a serious go at the women, who at this point couldn't even be bothered to wind her window down and check if the guy was hurt. We lectured her about where the giveway line was and what a giveway line actually means. Her response? To tell us that she didn't hit him and he should have stopped and waited for her to (basically giveway to her as she believed her and her almighty car had priority over main road traffic) join the main road. The rules of the road don't work like that.

We rode off. I was on edge all the way to work as I found practically all the motorists on route were either vans or cabs and were in no mood to even consider the cyclists on the road.

Tomorrow I'm leaving at least 30mins earlier.

Soon I hope to leave the grime of Southern-most South London (aka Da Endz) and move closer to the tracks (I don’t think I would ever be able to cross the tracks entirely, I’m tainted) where people are posh and, so I’ve been told, generally more courteous.

il_principe

lost_in_thought wrote:

jashburnham wrote:

I had a lovely "Duvet Day" yesterday, enjoyed a couple of afternoon Laps of Richmond Park where i thoroughly destroyed a bloke on a Specialised Tarmac, he really looked like he was trying hard as well the poor fella. Annoyingly there were 3 police vehicles cruising around the park which meant descending Sawyers hill at 20mph, grrrrrrr. Being a Royal Parks copper must be one of the easiest jobs on the planet.

Do the polizei get upset with you for going to fast? Or were you stuck behind one?

I'd like be a park plod on a bike... like the usual plod on a bike, but in the parks.

Yeah they do. There are now signs up in the Park reminding cyclists that the 20mph limit applies to us as well. TBH I usually ignore it completely but the copper was going 20 and I'm not sure he'd have taken too kindly to me cruising past him. I did draft a BMW on my second lap, he was going 30 - 32 amazing how easy it is to hold that speed behind a car! I had 3 mins or so at around that speed, lovely. Kept catching his eye in the rearview, he wanted to shake me but didn't dare go any faster! I overtook him later when he was in traffic and gave him a little nod, don't think he liked that!

Also Kudos to the old fella with the 'tache in the Park yesterday, proper old school roadie!

Greg T

jashburnham wrote:

Also Kudos to the old fella with the 'tache in the Park yesterday, proper old school roadie!

Old dudes on road bikes......

I've heard that Yoda can do the 3 lap Challenge under 50 mins.

Hmmm - anticlockwise I ride.

lost_in_thought

Greg T wrote:

jashburnham wrote:

Also Kudos to the old fella with the 'tache in the Park yesterday, proper old school roadie!

Old dudes on road bikes......

I've heard that Yoda can do the 3 lap Challenge under 50 mins.

Hmmm - anticlockwise I ride.

Thanks for that, lightened my mood considerably. Am in a grump after my moped-wrangling, pedestrian dodging run in.

And it is also remarkable how fast you can go drafting a bus (carefully!!), they create a massive air pocket!

ride_whenever

DonDaddyD wrote:

Along the highroad (Streatham) this lady in a BMW on the school run (that's the motorist equivalent of a Weapon of Mass Destruction ) ignored the giveway line, oncoming traffic and with all the petulance of a cab driver pulls out from a side road onto the main road right in front of the cyclists ahead of me. He, like me, wears clippy-in shoes (clipless) and instead of going over or under her bonnet decides to take the fall while swerving out of the way.

I'd always hit the car, generally skidding and sliding, it's the only way to educate drivers. Plus what will cost more to repair, the panel of her bmw that you slide into, or the minor damage that you're going to recieve?You've slowed right down and so are unlikely to break a wheel or anything, but panels flex easily... Ideally roll onto and slide down the bonnet still clipped in for dramatic effect.

DonDaddyD

ride_whenever wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Along the highroad (Streatham) this lady in a BMW on the school run (that's the motorist equivalent of a Weapon of Mass Destruction ) ignored the giveway line, oncoming traffic and with all the petulance of a cab driver pulls out from a side road onto the main road right in front of the cyclists ahead of me. He, like me, wears clippy-in shoes (clipless) and instead of going over or under her bonnet decides to take the fall while swerving out of the way.

I'd always hit the car, generally skidding and sliding, it's the only way to educate drivers. Plus what will cost more to repair, the panel of her bmw that you slide into, or the minor damage that you're going to recieve?You've slowed right down and so are unlikely to break a wheel or anything, but panels flex easily... Ideally roll onto and slide down the bonnet still clipped in for dramatic effect.

Oh I agree but in a 'if I'm going down I'm taking as much of your car with me' kind of way