Silly commuting racing

biondino

One of you blames the agent, the other calls the agent a tool. We're only trying to do our job

UndercoverElephant

There are no small parts, Greg, only small actors. :shock:

Greg T

UndercoverElephant wrote:

There are no small parts, Greg, only small actors. :shock:

I always make the most our of what I've been given, it's not a job it's a vocation.

benno68

:roll: It's a hard life - but someones gotta do it.

What thread am I on? Sudden loss of memory :?

cjcp

The route home is lengthening now the nights are drawing in. Oh, and because the road in RP is still in an unacceptable state. :x

Lovely evening for a ride though. Scalp remained intact, but not many roadies out.

EDIT: There was a big chap on a red and black Cervelo - the R3? Decided I didn't want to hang around to check so sped away like a frightened dog after the HoP.

redvee

Legs didn't want to play this morning, I blame the huuge, for me, miles I put in yesterday. Went out and clocked up 30 miles.

gtvlusso

redvee wrote:

Legs didn't want to play this morning, I blame the huuge, for me, miles I put in yesterday. Went out and clocked up 30 miles.

That'll learn you!!!

cjcp

Adjudication needed:

Left early this morning and spotted one of the biggest drafting fairies in the business. JG - you will know him. It's the very rapid guy in the hi-viz who's latched onto us more than once.

Anyway, spotted him on Millbank, latched onto the wheel of a rapid guy I'd been following since the LRR, but had lost in filtering after BB. I was closing on Millbank, but not fast enough to pass them. I eventually did so around Parlt Square. However, as a result of me slowing down some 400 yards before Blackfriars to turn left to make a stop off Fleet St, Rapid Hi-Viz Fairy Guy passes me.

Now, is that a scalp?

I'm not convinced it is. If I kept the pace up, he wouldn't have caught me before his usual turn off.

Greg T

cjcp wrote:

However, as a result of me slowing down some 400 yards before Blackfriars to turn left to make a stop off Fleet St, Rapid Hi-Viz Fairy Guy passes me.

Now, is that a scalp?

Never in a million years.

I'm constantly being out filtered and ambushed by some dude I've just passed as I brake for lights / obstructions etc.

I'm sanguine about it - it's a long game.

cjcp

Tidy.

I'll tell him next time I pass him. Just so he knows.

jedster

I'll tell him next time I pass him. Just so he knows.

wash your mouth out!

that would be acknowledging the game - clear breach of ethics

cjcp

jedster wrote:

I'll tell him next time I pass him. Just so he knows.

wash your mouth out!

that would be acknowledging the game - clear breach of ethics

Sorry, you're quite right. :oops: Can I just briefly freewheel instead to delay the inevitable latching onto the back wheel?

Clever Pun

2 scalps of note last night and this morning

last night a I spot a roadie in full discovery kit behind me over tower bridge, we're both filtering (I'm on the pista) he comes out ahead on Jamacia way and we're blowing everything else out of the water I close in and confirm my suspicions that he shaves his legs...yes.... I line him up and rock up the spinning and cruise past him nonchalantly as you likeand get opening up more distance... I expected more effort, shame.. his shame

this morning I notices a fixed rider (I'm now on the squadra) he's got the same bag as me, the same oakley baggies I've got and calf tattoos....wtf??? Mine are better, I'm faster and have more hair and I'm faster so I leave him for dead

amnezia

cjcp wrote:

Adjudication needed:

Left early this morning and spotted one of the biggest drafting fairies in the business. JG - you will know him. It's the very rapid guy in the hi-viz who's latched onto us more than once.

Anyway, spotted him on Millbank, latched onto the wheel of a rapid guy I'd been following since the LRR, but had lost in filtering after BB. I was closing on Millbank, but not fast enough to pass them. I eventually did so around Parlt Square. However, as a result of me slowing down some 400 yards before Blackfriars to turn left to make a stop off Fleet St, Rapid Hi-Viz Fairy Guy passes me.

Now, is that a scalp?

I'm not convinced it is. If I kept the pace up, he wouldn't have caught me before his usual turn off.

I know the guy your talking about, in fact i saw him this morning and so guessing that was you on the unbranded red framed bike?? I was behind you most of the way up until parliament square.

Set off later than usual, am not used to having that many other cyclists on the road, was feeling a little bit crowded.

cjcp

Yep, that was me. What were you riding?

amnezia

I'm on a blue/ black /silver giant

Citizen Smith

To: Chap on a Holdsworth's orange frame, heading West on Embankment last night

Chapeau! Impressive speed and advanced scooter drafting skills. Tried to catch-up but to no avail....legs weren't responding, warp drive was offline.

biondino

Hit 3,000 miles for the year this morning! 4,000 was my (relatively conservative) target so I'm just about on course, though I'll have to ride a fair bit more in the winter than I did last year I expect. No worries

What do people reckon about cyclists riding two abreast (at a fair pace) up the Kings Road, regardless of following traffic or road situation? I was going to have a word with them but wasn't sure it was appropriate - though they were clearly holding people up unnecessarily. Not that it matters because cyclists will just re-overtake, but it seemed inconsiderate and likely to get on drivers' nerves. Thoughts?

cjcp

biondino wrote:

What do people reckon about cyclists riding two abreast (at a fair pace) up the Kings Road, regardless of following traffic or road situation? I was going to have a word with them but wasn't sure it was appropriate - though they were clearly holding people up unnecessarily. Not that it matters because cyclists will just re-overtake, but it seemed inconsiderate and likely to get on drivers' nerves. Thoughts?

I'm generally not a fan of it after Embankment/through the NKR as the roads get a bit tighter and cars tend to stick their fronts out into the bike lane, so prefer to have room to move.

cjcp

amnezia wrote:

I'm on a blue/ black /silver giant

Where do you commute from? Were you behind me going down Cheyne Walk/from the start of Embankment?

amnezia

cjcp wrote:

amnezia wrote:

I'm on a blue/ black /silver giant

Where do you commute from? Were you behind me going down Cheyne Walk/from the start of Embankment?

I commute from Wandsworth and yes that was me behind you on Cheyne walk just after Edith Grove

snooks

biondino wrote:

What do people reckon about cyclists riding two abreast (at a fair pace) up the Kings Road, regardless of following traffic or road situation? I was going to have a word with them but wasn't sure it was appropriate - though they were clearly holding people up unnecessarily. Not that it matters because cyclists will just re-overtake, but it seemed inconsiderate and likely to get on drivers' nerves. Thoughts?

I think if drivers get peeved by one cyclist "in their way" then two cyclist taking up the whole lane is going to pee them off a bit more, it's also not great for the overtaking cyclists as they have to go closer to on coming traffic (i.e. motorbikes and cars that have moved out to give cyclist room on their side) than necessary. Rather than popping out around and back again.

Although in reality a car might not be able to get past 1 cyclist in the primary, they can see the gap ahead so don't see the cyclist as "blocking-the-road", however when you have two cyclists together, common sense goes out of the window and they see them in the way and slowing them down, which we all know isn't the case, but if there is a break in the oncoming traffic where the car could overtake two cyclists following each other safely, the driver will feel that the 2 abreast cyclist are holding them up because the driver can't overtake. (The cock (sic) James Martin springs to mind)

I don't mind cyclist going 2 abreast going down bus lanes as the lane is usually clear and it's not unusual to get whole lane free. (It's also good to chat when there is a truce in the game)

cjcp

amnezia wrote:

cjcp wrote:

amnezia wrote:

I'm on a blue/ black /silver giant

Where do you commute from? Were you behind me going down Cheyne Walk/from the start of Embankment?

I commute from Wandsworth and yes that was me behind you on Cheyne walk just after Edith Grove

Specialized Needs

amnezia wrote:

I know the guy your talking about, in fact i saw him this morning and so guessing that was you on the unbranded red framed bike?? I was behind you most of the way up until parliament square.

Not drafting CJ, I hope

cjcp wrote:

Adjudication needed:

Left early this morning and spotted one of the biggest drafting fairies in the business. JG - you will know him. It's the very rapid guy in the hi-viz who's latched onto us more than once.

Anyway, spotted him on Millbank, latched onto the wheel of a rapid guy I'd been following since the LRR, but had lost in filtering after BB. I was closing on Millbank, but not fast enough to pass them. I eventually did so around Parlt Square. However, as a result of me slowing down some 400 yards before Blackfriars to turn left to make a stop off Fleet St, Rapid Hi-Viz Fairy Guy passes me.

Now, is that a scalp?

I'm not convinced it is. If I kept the pace up, he wouldn't have caught me before his usual turn off.

What is your gut feeling? Do you believe, in truth, that you had broken and dropped him? Had you made it stick? Look inside your heart of hearts and surely you will truely know.

cjcp

duncedunce wrote:

amnezia wrote:

I know the guy your talking about, in fact i saw him this morning and so guessing that was you on the unbranded red framed bike?? I was behind you most of the way up until parliament square.

Not drafting CJ, I hope

Hehe. I can confirm he wasn't. I think I only got ahead at Parlt Square because I pulled away hard from the ped lights outside the HoP and made it through the lights on Parlt Square because I didn't see anyone behind me then.

cjcp wrote:

Adjudication needed:

Left early this morning and spotted one of the biggest drafting fairies in the business. JG - you will know him. It's the very rapid guy in the hi-viz who's latched onto us more than once.

Anyway, spotted him on Millbank, latched onto the wheel of a rapid guy I'd been following since the LRR, but had lost in filtering after BB. I was closing on Millbank, but not fast enough to pass them. I eventually did so around Parlt Square. However, as a result of me slowing down some 400 yards before Blackfriars to turn left to make a stop off Fleet St, Rapid Hi-Viz Fairy Guy passes me.

Now, is that a scalp?

I'm not convinced it is. If I kept the pace up, he wouldn't have caught me before his usual turn off.

What is your gut feeling? Do you believe, in truth, that you had broken and dropped him? Had you made it stick? Look inside your heart of hearts and surely you will truely know.

[/quote]



My heart says that I wasn't scalped because I was slowing down well in advance of my turning. The speed he was going, he was busting a hump. If I was going fast, he would have sat behind me until his turn off. That's what he does. He wasn't ever going to catch me before his turn off. Trust me. :twisted:

Jay dubbleU

duncedunce wrote:

amnezia wrote:

I know the guy your talking about, in fact i saw him this morning and so guessing that was you on the unbranded red framed bike?? I was behind you most of the way up until parliament square.

Not drafting CJ, I hope

cjcp wrote:

Adjudication needed:

Left early this morning and spotted one of the biggest drafting fairies in the business. JG - you will know him. It's the very rapid guy in the hi-viz who's latched onto us more than once.

Anyway, spotted him on Millbank, latched onto the wheel of a rapid guy I'd been following since the LRR, but had lost in filtering after BB. I was closing on Millbank, but not fast enough to pass them. I eventually did so around Parlt Square. However, as a result of me slowing down some 400 yards before Blackfriars to turn left to make a stop off Fleet St, Rapid Hi-Viz Fairy Guy passes me.

Now, is that a scalp?

I'm not convinced it is. If I kept the pace up, he wouldn't have caught me before his usual turn off.

What is your gut feeling? Do you believe, in truth, that you had broken and dropped him? Had you made it stick? Look inside your heart of hearts and surely you will truely know.

Not a scalp - drafting and filtering have no part in The Game

Roastie

Shortly prior to my knee-stem accident I had a frustrating encounter with a dude on a road bike.

At the Latchmere this dude had rolled into the ASL I was waiting in just as the light turned green. The SCR twitch kicked in and immediately I was winding The Pig hard up to cruising speed. The chain skipped a little, and I probably should have paid more attention to it, but you know how it is (I should have known better...).

Now even with The Pig as it had been in the last few weeks (wonky crank, flats, 46T big ring) I'd have expected this to be a good SCR. With a 48T ring and proper pedals I had no excuse whatsoever. Except that on replacing the cranks, not knowing the length of the existing BB, I had held off on getting a new 110mm unit. Then with Saturday, I just didn't get a chance to get one. Nevermind, it was on my shopping list for the way home.

So I had the new cranks fitted with 48T big ring, but mounted to a 128mm BB. So the crank chainline was so far out that the mech couldn't reach the big ring at all. So I was limited to the middle - which I think is a 36T or something stupid.

There I am, spinning The Pig for all I'm worth when the dude on the road bike settles to a speed that is *just* out of my reach. Gr.

Heading into Vauxhall I was still very annoyed about this when I give it horns and WHAM! Knee meets stem. Intimately. Double Gr.

Going to pop into somewhere tonight for a new freewheel, chain and BB. Hopefully be back on two wheels next week. I've a score to settle.

Roastie

@ CJ: No way that was a scalp.

TheBrogueadier

A quiet ride in this morning, not even a sniff of anyone to not-race..

A shame really as I had been looking forward to making amends for last nights self defeat, and subsiquent humilition:

Took the long way home, an extra 4 miles on the route and the addition of a nice hill (Parry's Lane - 50ish meter climb in around 1km or so, not horrendus but given my current fitness it's not easy).

Alas! Under the watchful smiles of a rather fetching lady jogger I made the mistake of trying to hard and overcooked it - The shame of needing to take a break on the hill was horrendus, and after the 60sec stop I managed to summon enough spine to make it to the top where I joined the main road and got scalped by two extremely happy looking hybrid riders who joined from the non-hilly route.

Tired and humiliated I could do nothing but turn a bit redder and peddle slowly homewards with nothing to redeem myself against but mountain bikes.

Greg T

TheBrogueadier wrote:

Under the watchful smiles of a rather fetching lady jogger I made the mistake of trying to hard and overcooked it - The shame of needing to take a break on the hill was horrendus, and after the 60sec stop I managed to summon enough spine to make it to the top where I joined the main road and got scalped by two extremely happy looking hybrid riders who joined from the non-hilly route.

I feel dirty just reading that.

Hot water just won't wash that away.