Silly commuting racing

jonginge

cjcp wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

prevent being overtaken. Traffic was building ahead so I lifted and shook my head, which elicited a chuckle from CJ behind.

You heard it then.

Spidey sense was up to max

gtvlusso

To the people going up Filton Hill last night - pedal harder or get out of the way! Fixed wheel, big gear bikes don't like going slow up hills, gets difficult to turn the cranks - so, I have to hammer it.
Ultimately, you have gears so you should be gunning it up there!

Come on people I am gagging to be raced and have a good ol' challenge!

coopster_the_1st

At last. My first bit of SCR since I started commuting 3 months ago.

Waiting at the lights and a hybrid with the same FCN (as far as I could tell) pulled up on my right.

Lights go green and he decides he wants to take the front so goes for it and pulls a 5m gap while I am getting up to speed. I am happy with this as it gives me a target to chase.

Start reeling him in and see him change gears to go faster as I am still going up through mine. When up to speed I am struggling not to draft him while waiting for a gap in the traffic and feel him physically give up when a gap appears and I go past. Didn't see him again so either he turned off or blew completely.

Was surprised that SCR made me try harder and was going a couple of mph faster than normal with an added incentive. Loved it

Just wish I could find a few roadies to see how I match up.

Bikequin

Due to various work commitments hadn't been on the bike much in the last couple of weeks. Also took a new route this morning as my normal route didn't seem to be throwing up much in the way of SCR - Went up through Balham and then up to vauxhall bridge, plenty of slow going roadies and RLJrs but nothing really shifting. Then was a pretty lonely ride up into Mayfair as everyone seemed to have turned off towards Parliament Sq and the city.

Still wasn't impressed with how I felt on the bike this morning - I was a sweaty mess by the time I got in.

itboffin

You should all be ashamed of yourself page 2 and it's not even 7pm

All this rubbish talk of lights, tube travel etc etc

Shame all of you.

I did note earlier that riding home so early the roads are actually quite pleasant around 3-4pm

Waves fist ..... Shame!!! :oops:

Zephr

Right, ok, you 2 roadies that were trailing in my wake from London bridge all the way to deptford, good try...
and yes, with a road bike I WOULD be faster, however, I figure I have to give you a bit of a fighting chance.

No idea how many others we scalped on the way down, I ran out of fingers and toes.

however, twas a good race down to depford, though i was fully expecting to be ripped to shreds by you at any moment!

(but wasnt) 8)

cjcp

Get in. Get. In.

Whizzed along Embankment and down Millbank. Gaggle of roadies gathered at VB lights. Goes green, and we're off. I see from the shadow that I've got company. A glance back confirms more behind him. This is how it stays until CB lights. I filter quicker than the others and I'm off down the slope. No one's got my wheel this time.

Traffic by AB spoils everyone's fun, but it clears after the lights and I'm joined by a quick filtering roadie. Good stuff.

A home game at Chelsea means that the NKR is gnarled up and the quick filtering roadie puts some distance between me and him. B*ugger. There's now no-one else around, and I lose some impetus. I take a swig of a drink, slow for more Stamford Bridge traffic and take a breather. And, whooosh! An older guy on a hybrid belts past. My first reaction is "good speed, sir". Second (delayed) reaction, "WTF? Who said you could do that? :shock:" So I set off in pursuit .

We pass the edge of Parsons Green and he's still gunning it. I'm impressed by the length of time he's held this speed; his bike doesn't look light.

However, he's beginning to slow. But we're both gaining on a scooter. This scooter's in the middle of the road, doing 23. WTH? I pass on the outside. :twisted: I only manage 27-28, and he starts to accelerate, but doesn't pass. The guy comments at the next set of lights that he was struggling to keep up. I was struggling to breathe.

Lights go green and I see it's clear all the way to the top of Putney Bridge. I fancy another dig at him. Straight into the 13 sprocket, out of the saddle all the way. We're level until he pulls away about 30 yards from the summit, and pips me to it. Dagnabbit!

My consolation, however: the fast filtering roadie is waiting at the lights.

I keep my distance. I bide my time, hoping he turns onto Queen's Ride. He does. And to my delight, there's a Dynamo just ahead of us. I pass them both, and they hop on for a tow. Keep my scalp over Bolan Bridge. Phew. All I need to do is find my legs for when I bump into JG on the morning's run...

baronsouthside

While waiting at a red light today, A local ned on a badly fitted supermarket MTB in a rather reclined/saddle too low position, jumped the said red light while holding a lit fag in one hand and an open can of Irn Bru in the other while steering with the undersides of his wrists :shock:

I think he was late for an appointment at the job centre.

prawny

Only one cyclist this morning, chinese student on a FS BSO, destroyed him good and proper, yeah - IAM THE MAN! :roll:

Why don't people cycle in brum

Wallace1492

baronsouthside wrote:

While waiting at a red light today, A local ned on a badly fitted supermarket MTB in a rather reclined/saddle too low position, jumped the said red light while holding a lit fag in one hand and an open can of Irn Bru in the other while steering with the undersides of his wrists :shock:

I think he was late for an appointment at the job centre.

You were well and truely scalped then?

Get quite a few of them when I go along the clyde to Renfrew. Cycling on the pavement, they speed right up when you go by and "race" you over 100 mts, after which they collapse with exhaustion, but as long as they "managed" to get in front, they feel that they have "won". I never rise to the bait, and just keep a steady speed.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Ye Gods.

Half term at the moment, so I'm supposed to getting a bit of a lie-in. When I left the house today, no one else was awake. Hell, I was barely awake.

I roll up to CB lights sitting the lead car, and spy a couple of roadies at the lights. They're off, giving it some gas. I'm sitting back watching. At the lights past the railway bridge. #1 gets to the front, ahead of a bus and a car both indicating left. I line up behind the car, with #2, who turns out to be none other than JG. Feck. There goes the easy ride in.

Lights change, and JG says something, which the translator later worked out was "that's CJ up ahead". In what seemed a blink of an eye, JG had hauled us up to the high side of 50kmh, which meant we were gaining on CJ. Slightly.

Through the lights and I come to the front. Our rate of gain on CJ isn't increasing at this point, but we get there in the end. At least CJ had the good grace to look hot.

VB lights were regrettably green, so through we went at c Mach 7, then proceeded to put on the sort of threading through traffic display from LBR to Viccy Embankment that you don't usually see outside the Edinburgh Tattoo. All we needed to finish it off were bows and arrows to be fired at each other between the cars.

Quite tired now.

highwaymunky

Got passed by a guy in jeans with a huge rucksack on a really nice racer this morning, then I gave chase but this guy was either blind or mental cause he went through every single red light & there must be about 15 on the commute through Sheffield without even slowing down. Nutter!!

Every time i'd catch up with him i'd get nailed by another red light. He may have won the race but I have the moral high ground.......... is it better.......... really?

The Running Man

Just over 27 miles in this morning : averaged 18.2 mph and the traffic through Devizes and Melksham was pretty grim.

Lovely fresh morning and great fun but still not another rider in sight til the last 200 yards down London Road into Bath.

Think I'm going to have to start varying my route in if I want to find some competition ........

I think a lot of the bike traffic into Bath comes in on the canal towpath. I have done it a few times on the TriCross but because of the bridges and pedestrians etc it takes absolutely ages and my average speed is crap - though it's fair to say it's infintely more scenic than the potholed A4.

Might try coming in via Bradford on Avon next week ....

Greg T

Greg66 wrote:

All we needed to finish it off were bows and arrows to be fired at each other between the cars.

This is very high on my fantasy gaming list.

I think the major issue will be remaining in control fo the bike you are riding non handed as you release the arrow.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and all that.

Until your inner Sioux kicks in and you can comfortably fire from the saddle whilst whooping you are going to be restricted to either engaging your enemy from static or getting close in enough to guaruntee a hit from your single shot before you lose control and spank in.

Given the propensity of board members to spank in for no good reason (Jash, Rick, Sailorchick etc etc etc) it's going to get messy when we involve edged weapons and muscle powered missiles.

cjcp

That was coooooooooool.

Yep, "Feck" was what I thought when JG rolled alongside me on the NKR. Exactly what the legs needed, as it turns out.

I figured the traffic had held up JG when I glanced back and saw he wasn't there. But I was a bit shocked when I saw a chap in blue next to him. More so when he's on my 4 o'clock at the end of DSC.

The legs felt better than yesterday morning. I clocked up a coach assisted 33.7mph in the tunnel, the fastest I've got out of the crosser in the tunnel (I was a safe distance back, but the wind shadow was huge), and *still* JG eased alongside. WTF do I have to do????

Greg T

cjcp wrote:

WTF do I have to do????

D lock the cant

MonkeyMonster

highwaymunky wrote:

Got passed by a guy in jeans with a huge rucksack on a really nice racer this morning, then I gave chase but this guy was either blind or mental cause he went through every single red light & there must be about 15 on the commute through Sheffield without even slowing down. Nutter!!

Every time i'd catch up with him i'd get nailed by another red light. He may have won the race but I have the moral high ground.......... is it better.......... really?

If he escaped ahead using rljing you retain the scalp. You just get a new one each time you overtake before he breaks the rules and forfeits it again. So how many in total?

MonkeyMonster

Dammit guys, why is the proper action on the days I had to take the tube...

Curse you!

Not that I stand a chance, but still.

mrc1

Greg66 wrote:

At least CJ had the good grace to look hot.

Get a room

amnezia

This morning was very quick, seems to be less traffic on the roads.

Dynamo on Cervelo was dispatched fairly early although tbh i don't think he was trying too hard. No one else was playing.

I think i may have sneaked past King Donut at the HOP, still wearing a vest?? I was short sleeve sans baselayer and it was pretty cold..

jonginge

Yeah, that was fun. When Greg and I were chasing down CJ, I was spinning like a dervish and, whenever I looked, Greg had an almost glacial cadence. I was thinking 'If Greg puts the hammer down then I'm in trouble'. I was a bit stuffed at the end of the DSC. Thankfully, the pace up Millbank wasn't all out and I had a chance to recover.

The traffic was slow but did allow us to safely filter at a reasonable speed (faster than I'd normally go) past HoP and onto Vic embankment. CJ led at north of 25 after Greg turned off at temple. The lights were favourable all the way to the tunnel, where the coach, ultimately, slowed us down. Good ride.

Bikequin

Was regretting wearing an extra layer by the time I got in this morning - really quite warm outside. A couple of fairly quick roadies up from Balham to Clapham, I think I had them comfortably for out and out pace but they had me for getting off the lights (really need to get some double sided SPDs for my winter commuter - single sided are a nightmare). Other than that not too much to report.

I have to say I am very jealous of anyone who gets to ride the embankment in the morning - sounds like an absolute race track.

mudcovered

The Running Man wrote:

I think a lot of the bike traffic into Bath comes in on the canal towpath. I have done it a few times on the TriCross but because of the bridges and pedestrians etc it takes absolutely ages and my average speed is crap - though it's fair to say it's infintely more scenic than the potholed A4.

Might try coming in via Bradford on Avon next week ....

It does I usually see 3 or more bikes going in the Bath direction as I head towards BoA. You won't get any scalps though as they are MTBs and hybrids.

At commute times there is not that much pedestrian traffic. My average from Combe Down to Trowbridge is usually somewhere in the 15-16mph range so the towpath won't slow you down that much but the traffic through BoA might. You will also have to deal with layers of mud building up on the bike (and the rider if you don't use guards). At the moment I'm having to wipe and re-oil the chain every day. :shock:

Mike

King Donut

amnezia wrote:

I think i may have sneaked past King Donut at the HOP, still wearing a vest?? I was short sleeve sans baselayer and it was pretty cold..

Yep still in vest. You're not the cute blond who kept up from VB all the way on to Vic Embankment are you?

... damn, thought not. What you on?

amnezia

King Donut wrote:

amnezia wrote:

I think i may have sneaked past King Donut at the HOP, still wearing a vest?? I was short sleeve sans baselayer and it was pretty cold..

Yep still in vest. You're not the cute blond who kept up from VB all the way on to Vic Embankment are you?

... damn, thought not. What you on?

No but i did notice the cute blond, she was holding a decent pace through millbank.

I'm on blue/black giant.

Roastie

A dude on a tri-bar equipped Coppi wearing Milram shorts came flying by this morning by Battersea Cats and Dogs. I wound it up and got back in touch, but it was really hard work.

My cunning plan was to take a short break behind him (like 30s), and then put in a hard effort and see how it would turn out. Just as I was getting ready to go when a numpty woman wobbled her way across the road in front of us. Coppi pilot swerved to avoid her; I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out so in the split second decided to drop anchors to avoid a potential pile up. This meant he got through the ped crossing on amber, red for me. By the time I was rolling again he was a speck in the distance.

To be honest, given how quick he was, I didn't rate my chances of taking his scalp too highly, but you always try.

That left me a bit miff, but I went on to bolster my ego by caning a red carbon-tailed Spesh roadie rider and an annoyingly quick Sirrus (I think) pilot over London Bridge.

The Running Man

@ Mudcovered ....

Yes I was over your way last Sunday getting slightly lost and nearly getting wiped out going down a steep hill into Freshford (I think) aquaplaning for about 20 feet through a bed of mushy leaves!! That woke me up :shock:

And even at that time of day BoA was busy and the traffic in from Limpley Stoke was pretty heavy as well and none too careful either.

Hmmm - might just have to create some imaginary SCRs

cjcp

MonkeyMonster wrote:

Dammit guys, why is the proper action on the days I had to take the tube...

Curse you!

Not that I stand a chance, but still.

Why would you have to take the tube on a day like this? :twisted:

cjcp

King Donut wrote:

Yep still in vest.

:shock:

itboffin

So cliquey and elitist on here you lot make me sick :P

I might even start a thread about it, getting to you yet CP?