Silly commuting racing

itboffin

Working from home today but look at that lovely clear blue sky I might just pop out for a quick spin at lunch time on the TT

cjcp

Likewise for me for the rest of the week.

Thought you said you had handling issues.

itboffin

cjcp wrote:

Likewise for me for the rest of the week.

Thought you said you had handling issues.

I do but I read that the aero bars should be the same width as your knees so i'm going to adjust them, it's pretty tricky getting used to such a different position on the bike esp at high speed.

cjcp

I would have thought that it's more to do with the relative width to your shoulders, because that's what your arms are connected to.

Gazzaputt

Bloody cold start this am. Roubaix 3/4s, arm warmers, windproof top and woolie socks.

Nice poodle in though. Cyclists on the Old Kent Road are dwindling in numbers now I notice.

itboffin

Bloody weather

The sun shining so brightly it's actually forced me to get out of bed! arh well never mind I needed more coffee anyway....

Might even put some clothes on :shock:

I love working from home me!

As you we're, carry on

TheBrogueadier

Cold start but got going nicely - Armwarmers off after 5ish miles as I was beginning to overheat a touch.

I've seen my challenge!

Encountered a shaven roadie - Nice looking (well, as far as it could be) Trek Madone, Polka dot jersey and bright orange helmet..

He gave me a cheery 'Morning!' as he passed; his pace was slightly faster than mine, he gained around 30-40 seconds on me over the next few miles.

While I may be outclassed currently it's given me my FCN drive back - I will claim his scalp!

I just hope there are more like him on the Portway for me to envy.. umm.. I mean scalp.

MonkeyMonster

Did a rather cheeky blast past couple of roadies and finally had a nice red light behind me so I could run off with those scalps and on to victory!

lost_in_thought

And I'm back in gainful employment. Only part time though, got to ease yourself in gently. I might actually do my CV soon...

Look out, west London...

jonginge

lost_in_thought wrote:

And I'm back in gainful employment. Only part time though, got to ease yourself in gently. I might actually do my CV soon...

Look out, west London...

Congrats. Which route will you have? Are there going to be hordes of sobbing, scalpless roadies on embankment?

lost_in_thought

JonGinge wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

And I'm back in gainful employment. Only part time though, got to ease yourself in gently. I might actually do my CV soon...

Look out, west London...

Congrats. Which route will you have? Are there going to be hordes of sobbing, scalpless roadies on embankment?

Alas no, I've once again failed to get a job east of Hyde Park, so its literally one road from me to work - Ealing to Notting Hill area...

jonginge

lost_in_thought wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

And I'm back in gainful employment. Only part time though, got to ease yourself in gently. I might actually do my CV soon...

Look out, west London...

Congrats. Which route will you have? Are there going to be hordes of sobbing, scalpless roadies on embankment?

Alas no, I've once again failed to get a job east of Hyde Park, so its literally one road from me to work - Ealing to Notting Hill area...

Truly the roads of Notting Hill will be paved with disembodied scalps

Aidy

lost_in_thought wrote:

And I'm back in gainful employment. Only part time though, got to ease yourself in gently. I might actually do my CV soon...

Look out, west London...

You should get yourself something as a reward.

Say, a Campag Record chainset?

gtvlusso

lost_in_thought wrote:

And I'm back in gainful employment. Only part time though, got to ease yourself in gently. I might actually do my CV soon...

Look out, west London...

Chapeau!!

back to the grindstone then....ah well, with the current forecast and certain mobile mergers, my ar$e may be out on the street in the next 12 months or so!

New baby, kids, blah blah blah - re-org, efficiency, bonuses for some, redundancy for others.....

Wonderful.....

Roastie

Congrats on the job LiT - I hope it is something rewarding.

Me? Feeling a bit rough today (and hence sorry for myself) . I think that I may not have shaken the chest infection that slowed me down a few weeks back. Left an hour later than usual, and the traffic was horrendous - or at least compared to what I'm used to. The headwind got me down a bit too.

Thankfully SCR was like the first stage in a racing game where all your opponents are so slow that you could crash into every immovable object and still win the race, so I remained unscalped.

biondino

Hello everyone.

Nice to be back in the saddle, though I'm going to be replacing tyres at a ferocious rate over the next few days thanks to Schwalbe's blonde moment with the Ultremo Rs.

I got my second puncture on Tuesday - came out of my wine-tasting about 10pm to find my rear completely flat, and of course I'd just lent my pump to a colleague so had to flag down a young lady to borrow a pump (thank you, if it was you who helped me out on King Street on Tuesday evening and you're reading!). Disappointingly for the anecdote, the biblical rainfall was taking a semi-breather at the point where I had to replace my tube, but it's a shame after 4000 miles of puncture free riding I'm now on 2 in the last 300 or so.

And yesterday I forgot my helmet - it did feel nice, not riding with one!

si. d

I'd like to say thankyou to the chaps on Filton Ave. Bristol this afternoon, what was a dull and frustrating day at work was turned around completely with a very short but fun duel.

Although not strictly SCR in the classical sense (I was doing my best impression of a sprinter), it was nonetheless a real pleasure.

MonkeyMonster

Wheeeeeee, embankment racing again. Went past 5 roadies, 2 beefed it up and over took, rlj'd into the distance only for me to catch up and over take them both at the end

So much fun

Roastie

Nice one Monkey!

Bassjunkieuk

Had a rather busy day at work. Being 2 engineers down meant I was plenty ready to stomp out some pent up frustration through my cranks this evening and boy did they suffer :twisted:
As I got the bike out the office I saw a chap in high-vis on a hybrid come up from the car park. Much like a cat would play with a dead mouse I set off following him hoping that it might be a Chris Hoy-esque cyclist.....no such lick as we parted ways with him heading towards the station.

I unleashed hell along my favourite strip, dropping a few cars along the way and I actually held up a car that was trying to rejoin the carriageway as I was matching her speed fairly well before turning it up a bit and overtaking :-) I do quite enjoy casually glancing at drivers as I ride alongside their car, I do realize tho that I might just look like some crazy man but's it amusing to show that you don't need 2 tons of metal and an engine to achieve such speed!

On a game-ish note whilst trying to find the goods lift at the new building we are shortly being re-located to I came upon the mother load of bikes. It appears that having a shuttered garage entices people to bring the nice bikes to work - including a Pinarello FP3, a rather tasty Bianchi Via Nirone and a custom built SS.......fat chance that any of the riders will be heading my way tho :-(

UndercoverElephant

A good bike to work scheme really helps on the "Nice bikes in the shed" front too. Our bike shed has never looked so bling.

Travelling through Musselburgh last night, I had to do an emergency stop to avoid going into a car that had just done the same. This left me in a rather large gear to be setting off in. The car in front moved off and as I was grinding from a standstill, there flashed past me a chap on a nobby MTB. He grinned hugely as he went past.

"You'll never make it stick!", I said. :twisted:

His legs were going at a phenomenal rate in his biggest gear. I caught him within 20 meters, he was maxed out at about 18 mph. I overtake, and he just blew up into a wheezing, sweaty mess at the side of the road. He'd obviously put everything he had into the 30 meter sprint.

gtvlusso

SCR WFH today - Working from home.....

Now, how loud should I play my electric guitar?!?!?!?

Seriously though - I am snowed under with work.....dog is not helping me out at all, she won't even make me a cup of tea.....Border Collies....useless!

gtvlusso

Oh and "Chapeau" to the dude on the Specialized Allez on the A38......Nice flat speed, but your a$$ is mine when it comes to hills and endurance.

try and keep up old chap - would have been nice to have had a race on for a change.

Fixie vs geary, I should lose.....!

Kieran_Burns

biondino wrote:

Hello everyone.

Nice to be back in the saddle, though I'm going to be replacing tyres at a ferocious rate over the next few days thanks to Schwalbe's blonde moment with the Ultremo Rs.

I got my second puncture on Tuesday - came out of my wine-tasting about 10pm to find my rear completely flat, and of course I'd just lent my pump to a colleague so had to flag down a young lady to borrow a pump (thank you, if it was you who helped me out on King Street on Tuesday evening and you're reading!). Disappointingly for the anecdote, the biblical rainfall was taking a semi-breather at the point where I had to replace my tube, but it's a shame after 4000 miles of puncture free riding I'm now on 2 in the last 300 or so.

And yesterday I forgot my helmet - it did feel nice, not riding with one!

Ahhh!!!!! :shock:

He said the 'p' word! He SAID the 'P' word!!!

Aahhhhh. Hot potato, off his drawers, Puck will make amends. Aaahh. :shock:

lalalalala I can't hear you lalalalala

I may be over-reacting here.... :roll:

R_T_A

Kieran_Burns wrote:

biondino wrote:

Hello everyone.

Nice to be back in the saddle, though I'm going to be replacing tyres at a ferocious rate over the next few days thanks to Schwalbe's blonde moment with the Ultremo Rs.

I got my second puncture on Tuesday - came out of my wine-tasting about 10pm to find my rear completely flat, and of course I'd just lent my pump to a colleague so had to flag down a young lady to borrow a pump (thank you, if it was you who helped me out on King Street on Tuesday evening and you're reading!). Disappointingly for the anecdote, the biblical rainfall was taking a semi-breather at the point where I had to replace my tube, but it's a shame after 4000 miles of puncture free riding I'm now on 2 in the last 300 or so.

And yesterday I forgot my helmet - it did feel nice, not riding with one!

Ahhh!!!!! :shock:

He said the 'p' word! He SAID the 'P' word!!!

Aahhhhh. Hot potato, off his drawers, Puck will make amends. Aaahh. :shock:

lalalalala I can't hear you lalalalala

I may be over-reacting here.... :roll:

Next he'll be saying "Candyman" three times in a mirror :shock: :shock:

redvee

Scalped aToB car on the way home tonight, it was caught in traffic though

greg66_tri_v2.0

So. I depart MSC this evening, and it's lovely. Quiet, windless and mild. What could be better.

I miss the lights at VB and have to wait. I'm about to finid out what could be a lot worse.

Two roadies come by as I'm waiting. Both in high end lycra; the first is medium build on a white CF Colnago. Second is uber skinny, on a steel Colnago. JG, I never thought you were a lardy Sumo. Until now.

They sit (stand, actually) there ahead of the ASL with matching trackstands. Chatting. I wondering whether this is a display intended to impress me.

The lights are amber and they're off. The lights are green and I'm off. I'm kind of expecting a proper Projection of Power by now. But before the DSC I'm right up their rear ends, wondering what's going to happen.

But it's like watching really sh!t porn. The skinny guy is spinning live a dervish, and the other one is rolling. But the really good bit never happens. They rotate on and off the front, and rotate, and rotate. I confess, I became slightly hyponotised. We exit the DSC and I realise that that this isn't healthy. I stamp down, and do the fly by.

Now, there's an outbreak of activity at this; I can tell from the shadows. The other one is wrestling to get back onto my wheel. No sign of skinny. The lights before the railway bridge past the power station are red, and I slow. And slow, and slow. Then the other one comes past, RLJ'ing, and then skinny comes past. Awesome.

I wait at the lights, and then go. I roll up the lights and the trackstands are out in full force. The lights go green and we're off. They have uber low gearing and tear off. I stamp down. And here's the thing. At the bottom of the slope off the bridge, I have to back off. Well, ok, I don't have to, but I can't help myself. It's fascinating. Skinny is all movement but not much motion forwards. I really can't be arsed to give these two a tow, so I sit back and watch. It's quite a show.

We come into the lights at AB, and there are two queues of traffic. All three of us take the middle line; as we cross the junction they're doing their working together bit, but I think it's time to go again, so I do. And this time it's bye bye, and there's no frenzy of click-click-clicking.

Weirdest thing I've seen in a while.

Citizen Smith

Proper tit for tat battle this morning....was waiting at Tooting Broadway lights to turn right up Tooting High st towards Bec and watched roadie doing a fair lick head in that direction. The lights took age to change so had quite a lead to eat up....I couldn't see his flashing rear light in the distance but told myself to MTFU and give chase.

Despite being only been in the saddle for a couple of minutes, gave it beans up to Bec and thru Bec lights. Managed to catch said roadie at the start of the infamous drag strip up to Balham....he's on a Trek, red top + arm warmers, race number on the seatpost....he's certainly not on a recovery ride but nor has he topped out....guage his speed, drop a couple of cogs and I'm past with plenty in the tank....comp said 27mph as I passed under Balham station railway bridge. Thought that was the last of him.....past Waitrose, full whack past Cyclopolis & Subliminal, plenty of juice up past The Avalon and as I ease of at the top of the rise prior to the lights by Majestics, Mr Trek eases by....woah, game on!

Lights go green by Clapham South, I hold in position and it's the waiting game again as we head down the CC dragstrip...I take the lead again as we pass the duck pond, down to CC tube and I have to admit my 2 layers are now by this point feeling a bit warm...luckily both of tops have zips so there's some temp control to be done. We're down the High Street now, I know he's at my Six and he decides to undertake in the bus lane while I freewheel drafting a van (yes I'm not proud but that bus lane surface is bloody awful).

Through Clapham North lights, I've got the better acceleration and he must be getting a bit annoyed now. He outfilters me at the next lights but I do him again on the approach to Stockwell and that's the last I see of him as I beat the lights at the tube (Cue DDD's poetic pummelling the road alone quote).

Trek man, if you're out there....you must have a very sore head! Until we meet again....

Greg T

Greg66 wrote:

But it's like watching really sh!t porn.

If you get a bad script there's nothing you can do with it.

I blame my agent.

benno68

Greg T wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

But it's like watching really sh!t porn.

If you get a bad script there's nothing you can do with it.

I blame my agent.

What's that saying Greg T.

That phrase "A poor workman always blames his tool" just sprang to mind.