Silly commuting racing

Roastie

DiggingDeeper wrote:

Hog Hill today for cat4 race

Goodness, I was racing at Hillingdon today. The track was dusted with snow and I was feeling particularly nervous given that I'd had a nasty fall on packed snow on Thursday.

All proved unfounded, there was tons of grip. But perhaps I was overconfident. Made my move too early and ended up getting knackered.

Oh well.

(Isn't winter racing just mad?)

DiggingDeeper

Roastiecp wrote:

The track was dusted with snow and I was feeling particularly nervous given that I'd had a nasty fall on packed snow on Thursday.

All proved unfounded, there was tons of grip. But perhaps I was overconfident. Made my move too early and ended up getting knackered.

(Isn't winter racing just mad?)

We had minus 2 but they had done a fab job of removing ice - some of the corners are a bit tight at Hog Hill, six inches from the mud at 24 mph at times

Making a move too early sounds familiar - I led 90% of the first lap, cycling slower as the lap went on, cos I knew I must be missing a trick, to be dropped a lap later (note to self)

I don't think its 'winter' that's mad, probably just racing, but I will give it another go

How did you do?

Jay dubbleU

Mrs_Ragbrutty wrote:

Right. Am fixed. Broken bones are not quite so broken anymore. Kerbs do a lot of damage I've found, as do *** car drivers who can't see, don't look etc.

Racing, I'm getting to thinking that I'm always going to lose, I appear to be at the top of the food chain and the only way is down. I shall not shave, I shall wear my baggies and plead on behalf of my knackered knees.
BTW Are we allowed to race tractors and milk floats as well?

Sometimes tractors and milk floats are all we who dwell beyond the Pale have a chance to race - nevertheless all are grist to the mill - roadies, creaking mtbs, children and small animals :twisted:

jimmypippa

90% of the bikes I "see" are paperboys (usually boys not girls). I saw one with lights the other day.

Aimlesssly weaving about the road, at about 5-mph. In the dark...

itboffin

I raced three deer in the forest this week, does that count?

Slim pickings out in t'country

UnworthyPapaLazaru

itboffin wrote:

I raced three deer in the forest this week, does that count?

Slim pickings out in t'country

If they were on bikes, yes.

jimmypippa

That would be +1000 for rarity, no?

redvee

itboffin wrote:

I raced three deer in the forest this week, does that count?

Slim pickings out in t'country

Was this one of your scalps?

Roastie

DiggingDeeper wrote:

Roastiecp wrote:

The track was dusted with snow and I was feeling particularly nervous given that I'd had a nasty fall on packed snow on Thursday.

All proved unfounded, there was tons of grip. But perhaps I was overconfident. Made my move too early and ended up getting knackered.

(Isn't winter racing just mad?)

We had minus 2 but they had done a fab job of removing ice - some of the corners are a bit tight at Hog Hill, six inches from the mud at 24 mph at times

Making a move too early sounds familiar - I led 90% of the first lap, cycling slower as the lap went on, cos I knew I must be missing a trick, to be dropped a lap later (note to self)

I don't think its 'winter' that's mad, probably just racing, but I will give it another go

How did you do?

I turned up the wick too early on the 2nd last lap - so on the final lap ended up going from about 4th in the group halfway on the main straight to the back of the group on the last corner.

Yeah, winter is ok. Racing is good too. Just the two together are mad (but loads of fun).

I'll definitely be there next week!

itboffin

redvee wrote:

itboffin wrote:

I raced three deer in the forest this week, does that count?

Slim pickings out in t'country

Was this one of your scalps?

Looks about the same, the forests around here* are swarming with them, yummy!

*The Savernake Estate

redvee

This was in CenterParcs in Warminster, what you can't see in the pic is the edge of the patio at the back of the villa. The deer was no more than 10 foot from the patio door. This wasn't a holiday visit either, I was removing the furniture.

girv73

First day back in the saddle since mid December today, I'd been off games with a sick note from my mummy since then (manflu, grade 1).

Oh it was terrible. It was one of those rides where I question the sanity of cycling to work and do I really like this cycling lark at all anyway. The legs were flaccid lumps of dead flesh and the lungs were pain balloons that burned with every gasped breath. I won't mention the parts of me in contact with the saddle, suffice to say this was also the first ride on my new 95psi skinnies and rigid forks. There was the devil's own headwind, then it started raining too and I found I'd left my waterproof jacket at home.

To SCR then: an older gentleman on a be-panniered tourer thing passed me with a cheery "Good morning!", and I had plenty of excuses, but no answer other than a raspy "morn-gasp-ing". Sure it was my first day back, I was still a bit ill, I'd a heavy backpack, my new forks had altered the geometry slightly and I wasn't perfectly comfortable, the squeak from my front mudguard was annoying ... but in SCR these things mean nothing. The simple fact is, not a single extra uHoy of awesome could be dredged from the reactor core to reclaim my scalp. Chapeau, sir.

Then I get into work, strip off and flick on the shower. Nothing. Dead. Great. Also someone had helped themselves to my shower gel and left me the empty bottle, presumably as a token of their thanks. I had to get washed up at the sink using the stingy antibac hand soap from the dispenser. Nice. I've half a mind to get the bus home

cjcp

Roastiecp wrote:

DiggingDeeper wrote:

Hog Hill today for cat4 race

Goodness, I was racing at Hillingdon today. The track was dusted with snow and I was feeling particularly nervous given that I'd had a nasty fall on packed snow on Thursday.

All proved unfounded, there was tons of grip. But perhaps I was overconfident. Made my move too early and ended up getting knackered.

Oh well.

(Isn't winter racing just mad?)

I heard they had to delay the start while they salted the track. (Did last winter's race series. Most of it with my tongue hanging out, breathing hard. :? )


As for today's commute, what a tailwind! Saw Frosty again this morning. His RLJ'ing meant he was ever present, but he needs to work on his straight-line speed. :twisted:

Girv - good to have you back. Good read too!

Clever Pun

couple of roadies and a SS'er another guy on a road bike but in generic sports gear really needed to sort his breaks out he'd come in to a junction he’d pull on the breaks and bring one foot down to slow himself... nut job. I made a special effort to leave him well behind me

DonDaddyD

She was awesome, marinated in awesome, baked in awesome and served with awesome sauce poured on top.

This morning, I set off from my home turned onto the main road and immediately I picked up a guy riding a Condor with Endura tights and a lady on a Genesis single speed and green cycling kit/shorts. It was a pretty solid pace between the two of them hovering between 18 and 20mph. I made it my business to keep up with them but not overtake lest I might peak too early and get scalped.

We pull up by the lights and they were two incredibly friendly cyclists talking amongst themselves. She even said “Morning” to me while having a conversation with the guy. Women cyclists never and I mean absolutely never speak to me but to hold a full on conversation, wow! A guy on a brown Surly steamroller with bull horns joined us.

As we carried on to the next set of lights the guy on the Condor kept pointing to the ground warning us of drain pipes and stuff. This is something I don’t do or have ever witnessed; it was appreciated for the most part but annoying as he was doing this while riding at between 18 – 20 and I was struggling to remember my breathing.

At the second lights all four of us lined up at the ASL, the Lady on the Genesis joked about it being a race, the light went green…

BAM

The woman was gone and no not into the distance, I mean visibly gone. I in all my years never thought I’d ever witness such savage speed on a bike. In the name of all that is considered holy she was fast. My God! Fast! The Condor guy and I gave chase though it was useless she wasn’t even around the bend she was well up the road.

She didn’t just scalp me, she scalped the World!

Next set of lights and she’s all smiles and conversation, I sink my mind into Terminator mode and start sizing up her dimensions, desperately trying to ignore the fact that she burnt me while wearing legwarmers with fluffy tassels on the back. I soon realised that if Armageddon was shaped like a body party they would be her thighs. Those things were not only large and shapely they contained their own gravitational pull, seriously light seemed to fold around them and there was slightly less ambient sound from the World whenever I got close to her… :shock:

All four of us lined up, unfortunately she was too eager and she set off while the lights were still red, technically it was an RLJ. Personally I think being stationary is too painful for her thighs. I’m glad she did because the speed she put down once she hit the incline (on the main road) was frightening.

She even did the cheeky look over the shoulder to see where we were. Ironically (for me) we were sat at the lights looking in awe as she pounded the open road ahead.

cjcp

So, the bottom line is that you were scalped by a girl. Oh dear. :twisted:

ChrisLS

...DDD...wow...don't you just live for moments like that?

il_principe

cjcp wrote:

So, the bottom line is that you were scalped by a girl. Oh dear. :twisted:

A girl on a SingleSpeed no less. Someone needs to get some interval training in...

Littigator

I wish I could've seen the faces on all three of you that she dropped....priceless!

itboffin

girv73 wrote:

First day back in the saddle since mid December today, I'd been off games with a sick note from my mummy since then (manflu, grade 1).

Oh it was terrible. It was one of those rides where I question the sanity of cycling to work and do I really like this cycling lark at all anyway. The legs were flaccid lumps of dead flesh and the lungs were pain balloons that burned with every gasped breath. I won't mention the parts of me in contact with the saddle, suffice to say this was also the first ride on my new 95psi skinnies and rigid forks. There was the devil's own headwind, then it started raining too and I found I'd left my waterproof jacket at home.

To SCR then: an older gentleman on a be-panniered tourer thing passed me with a cheery "Good morning!", and I had plenty of excuses, but no answer other than a raspy "morn-gasp-ing". Sure it was my first day back, I was still a bit ill, I'd a heavy backpack, my new forks had altered the geometry slightly and I wasn't perfectly comfortable, the squeak from my front mudguard was annoying ... but in SCR these things mean nothing. The simple fact is, not a single extra uHoy of awesome could be dredged from the reactor core to reclaim my scalp. Chapeau, sir.

Then I get into work, strip off and flick on the shower. Nothing. Dead. Great. Also someone had helped themselves to my shower gel and left me the empty bottle, presumably as a token of their thanks. I had to get washed up at the sink using the stingy antibac hand soap from the dispenser. Nice. I've half a mind to get the bus home

What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger now MTFU and stop whingeing. :P

Edit: the bus....! WTF are you thinking :roll:

itboffin

@DDD bin by a girl (not LiTs) and a single speed no less, i'd say the war is not going to well

greg66_tri_v2.0

DDD - when confronted by that sort of thing, there is only one option: you mention to her in a friendly way that her back wheel looks like it needs truing, because it has a really nasty wobble to it.

She tones it down a bit as a result. In the meantime, find a side road to ride down. Come out when the coast is clear.

il_principe

Greg66 wrote:

DDD - when confronted by that sort of thing, there is only one option: you mention to her in a friendly way that her back wheel looks like it needs truing, because it has a really nasty wobble to it.

She tones it down a bit as a result. In the meantime, find a side road to ride down. Come out when the coast is clear.

:shock:

No you don't. You MTFU and blitz her at the next lights, even if it damn near kills you. Scuttling down side roads is a slur on the sacrosanct spirit of SCR.

TheBrogueadier

No scalps for me recently, though I've been seeing more and more cyclists out in the evening recently - Annoyingly most of them seem to be MTBers or Hybrids so no points for passing...

Only noticible engagement in the last half of last week was a frustrated MTBer trying to scalp me.. Traffic was going slowly so I couldn't get up to a decent speed (stuck around 20-22mph) and was stuck behind a car; damn MTBer kept hopping past when the traffic slowed, then had to brake (no chance of passing the car) to the traffic speed and I'd have to pass him again when the traffic sped up. Still, once the traffic got upto speed I put him back in his place; very firmly behind me.

Made the rather interesting discovery on Thursday that I have absolubtly no brakes at all in the rain when at speed.. Unfortunalty what prompted this discovery was a car pulling across my lane and stopping, choosing to stare dumbfounded at my approach rather than doing the decent thing and getting out of the way... Not at all sure how I got around him intact; it's all a blur.

girv73

itboffin wrote:

What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger now MTFU and stop whingeing. :P

Sound advice there

itboffin wrote:

Edit: the bus....! WTF are you thinking :roll:

Yeah you're right, WTF :shock: Must've been the weird chemically soap stuff I used.

greg66_tri_v2.0

jashburnham wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

DDD - when confronted by that sort of thing, there is only one option: you mention to her in a friendly way that her back wheel looks like it needs truing, because it has a really nasty wobble to it.

She tones it down a bit as a result. In the meantime, find a side road to ride down. Come out when the coast is clear.

:shock:

No you don't. You MTFU and blitz her at the next lights, even if it damn near kills you. Scuttling down side roads is a slur on the sacrosanct spirit of SCR.

Hmm. You might have a point.

I've plainly got used to spectating The Game instead of participating in it.

spasypaddy

AS OF TOMORROW! FOR ONE WEEK (possibly two) ONLY I AM BACK IN THE GAME!!!!

cjcp

Good man - what's the news on the job front?

DonDaddyD

ChrisLS wrote:

...DDD...wow...don't you just live for moments like that?

It was a sight to see! Even though slightly humiliating I do enjoy picking up competant cyclists along my commute it makes it interesting and I ride faster for longer that way.

Greg, IT, CJCP, Jash

Yes she was a girll, with fluffy tassels on her leg warmers and yes she scalped me. A quick FCN rating came up around 0, she had full war cycle kit, clipless pedals, no bag and a foriegn accent. Weirdly I don't feel ashamed about being her b*tch. But I'll admit her FCN rank makes no difference I could have been kitted out for a race on a bike twice as expensive as mine she was faster than me.

Fear not, I'm going to MTFU, train hard and make sure no one does that to me again. Wen next I see her again I'm going to scalp her so bad her childrens children will be born without heads :shock:

lost_in_thought

Ooooooh scalped by a girl.... and a girl on a SS! See I knew that had to hurt the fragile ego of the geared roadie... :twisted:

I'm going to scalp her so bad her childrens children will be born without heads

It's funny, but I don't think it's true...