Weekend Social Rides

itboffin

All of these events were always meant to be "social" rides, perhaps we ought to plan shorter 'flatter' routes and follow the weather more closely

Linsen and I did 50 miles around the pan flat New Forest a couple of weeks ago, now that would be a great social ride venue.

Not that I think there's anything your route Attica, I for one would be happy to give it a bash 'weather permitting'

DonDaddyD

Attica wrote:

TBH I'd prefer a ride more akin to the social niceties of the IOW ride than the balls out speed of the Marlborough loop, just because these are meant to be social rides rather than training rides, so in that spirit, over to you folks, who fancies a pootle?

Was the Marlborough Loop balls out sprinting? Seriously no bombast here, I have no basis for comparison (having never ridden that far before, never ridden up or down hills that steep or ever ridden without traffic lights or in that rain). I thought that was social ride pace. :shock: (After experiencing that - I paced myself because I had no idea of the distance and didn't want to burn out - I think I could have gone faster... except the hills).

Would love to do i again. If there is a largely flat ride (no 17%+ hills) I'll be all over it.

Bassjunkieuk

There where a few times on the ML that we did get some silly speeds considering it was meant to be a social :-) I'm not quite sure if it was just down to individuals not wanting to be left or seeming to be "slow" but I'm sure we had a good little sprint within the first 3 or 4 miles :-)

Once I have some free time I'd love to try and put together a route for everyone to try out down in my neck of the woods, all my exploring on the way home from work in the car last week to find some nicer hills turned up some lovely countryside with some good hills! I even spotted a lovely looking pub with outside seating which would make an ideal lunch break! Unfortunately due to where I live it still means riding for about 5-10 miles on "normal" trafficed roads to get to the good bits - I'm hoping that sometime over easter I can get the bike out over that direction with Sportstracker to map out some ideas :-D

lost_in_thought

I'll play! May is fine... for any of the above rides. I am looking at the schedules of the family, then will propose some weekends for a to-the-seaside-and-back Essex ride, which will be very, very flat!

NGale

roger merriman wrote:

linsen wrote:

I think I am next free in June or July sometime.......

:shock:

to be honest i think thats me too!

though might take the bike down and have a play with chedder gorge on tuesday if weather isn't too nasty as i'm staying over with my little sister (all 6ft of her) dropping off a old MTB for her.

i assume the chedder gorge is more fun going up than down?

Oh great why do I get the feeling I may get the 'cyclist upside down in a ditch' call that day

roger_merriman

NGale wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

linsen wrote:

I think I am next free in June or July sometime.......

:shock:

to be honest i think thats me too!

though might take the bike down and have a play with chedder gorge on tuesday if weather isn't too nasty as i'm staying over with my little sister (all 6ft of her) dropping off a old MTB for her.

i assume the chedder gorge is more fun going up than down?

Oh great why do I get the feeling I may get the 'cyclist upside down in a ditch' call that day

na certinaly not up any how! while i'll get up most hills i'm normally fairly slow about it.

Jay dubbleU

May is good for me except for the first bank holiday weekend - I don't claim to be fast but I am stubborn 8)

stuaff

Anyone else doing the IOW Randonnee?
http://cycleisland.co.uk/

Jen J

Hey strangers

I'm gingerly getting back into cycling, although I can only do a few miles at a time before my arm screams at me to stop, but a flat Essex seaside trip sounds good.

I am racing almost every weekend now until mid June and after that most weekends until September, but if I'm free when the Essex ride (or a local ride that BJUK mentioned) is planned I'd love to come along assuming it's just a pootle.

My fitness is gradually coming back through running, and if I eat some painkillers, I should be able to extend the cycling to more than a few miles

Miss you guys...

_Brun_

That's great to hear JJ!

If the cycling's too painful you can just run to the seaside and eat ice creams while waiting for the others to arrive.

sarajoy

Only just spotted that this was a likely local thing...!

Sadly the weekend of May the 9th is my flat warming party - so it's out for me. Mind you, that means I don't have to say 'yes' and consequentlyworry about being the slowest, tiredest, unfittest :P

Have a good time!

If anyone is likely to be out on the Brizzle-Bath Railway Path (love how that trips off the tongue) tomorrow, they might see me pootling along it with a mate or two

itboffin

I have a challenge :twisted:

Capitol to Coast SCR style..............

Morpeth Arms (London) to Mud Docks (Bristol) :roll:

The most direct route is 115 ish miles along the A4 :shock: I'm guessing a more leafy route would be more like 150 miles, any takers?

cjcp

And breathe....

Bassjunkieuk

itboffin wrote:

I have a challenge :twisted:

Capitol to Coast SCR style..............

Morpeth Arms (London) to Mud Docks (Bristol) :roll:

The most direct route is 115 ish miles along the A4 :shock: I'm guessing a more leafy route would be more like 150 miles, any takers?

we'll leave it to you and BoB to scout out a suitable route, you might also be able to rope that other mileage junkie Rich into helping out ;-)

Rich158

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

itboffin wrote:

I have a challenge :twisted:

Capitol to Coast SCR style..............

Morpeth Arms (London) to Mud Docks (Bristol) :roll:

The most direct route is 115 ish miles along the A4 :shock: I'm guessing a more leafy route would be more like 150 miles, any takers?

we'll leave it to you and BoB to scout out a suitable route, you might also be able to rope that other mileage junkie Rich into helping out ;-)

Just what are you saying BJ, I seem to be getting a reputation. Beware the quiet man in the corner

Sounds good, I'd def be up for an alternative C to C SCR style It'll help me keep ahead of ITB in mileage stakes

tailwindhome

This little jaunt may help get the miles in


5 days around ireland?

Bassjunkieuk

WheezyMcChubby wrote:

This little jaunt may help get the miles in


5 days around ireland?

Now why on earth would you suggest something like this........besides weekends only last 2 days (unless your ITB.....) so this being a 5 day event it wouldn't be a weekend social ride ;-)

itboffin

WheezyMcChubby wrote:

This little jaunt may help get the miles in


5 days around ireland?

Very very temping however something weird happens to me when I get on Irish soil all thoughts of exercise go straight out of the window.

mmmm Guinness mmmm beef mmmmm oysters mmmm Ireland mmmm :shock:

greg66_tri_v2.0

Feck me.

Note to self: when cjcp says "Ok, this ride on Sunday, I need to be back by a certain time". At that point, even if said "certain time" is Tuesday of the following week, tell him someone close to you has died. Or dying. Or might be dying. Because if you don't, evilness awaits...

So, 7.30 at Kingston Gate. Christophe3967 is there already. Jash rolls up next, then cjcp. Jonginge was fashionably late. Tsk tsk. We set off towards (roughly) Shere.

Now, when I head out that way, I take nice roads. Big ones. Straight ones. A ones. Like the A4 (Heathrow and air traffic looks good in early morning mist, and most A roads are pretty - ahem - flat). Not cjcp. He likes "quiet" roads. Little ity-bity roads. Ones where you can't see very far ahead. Bleargh.

Undeterred by bends and undulations in the road, and being the only one who knows the route, cjcp led us off. For most of the first hour, whenever I looked down at the computer, I didn't see a number less than 36kmh for our speed. A bit ambitious for pacing a four hour ride? No, not at all. It was, I realise, no coincidence that the song running on perpetual loop in my head was the dour and miserable "Only Happy When It Rains" by Garbage - "Pour your misery down on me". I was missing the A4 already.

With indecent haste we hit the outskirts of Guildford, one climb away from Shere. I know this climb; it's not steep, just a long grinder. I know from past experience that my legs and lungs always rebel against the first climb, and sure enough, the invisible thread attaching me to the leaders stretched, and stretched, and then snapped, leaving me to trudge up. Ho hum.

Climb 2: that was OK. Legs and lungs had been suitably castigated on the descent, and were prepared to play ball. Climb 3 (after an all-too-brief and tantalising scoot along the A25): we pass the 18% sign and all we can hear is the click-clack of riders (aka: us) heading for the blunt end of the cassette (except, of course, Jonginge, who in addition to not eating has helium for bones. If he dropped to the small ring at the front, I didn't see it happen). Two sharp turns and I'm (a) well behind the gear with legs heading south to <50rpm fast; and (b) spent. That hill was long, unpleasant, long and unpleasant. I remember coming round a bend with Jash, breathing like a child molester who's been dropped into B wing by accident, and seeing it kick up ahead for a long stretch. I said "oh dear". Jash did the decent thing and rode off.

(In case, dear reader, you were wondering where beloved cjcp was during all this, the answer is at the front).

If there was a climb 4, I don't recall it clearly, save that I think "one more to go" wasn't uttered at the end of climb 3.

Last climb was Box Hill, something I've ridden faster in the past than I could manage today. Jash, cjcp and Jonginge hared off to demolish a murder of Dynamos (wrong collective noun; 5 points and gold star to anyone who can say what "murder" is the collective noun for). I was spent, s-p-e-n-t by this hill. I managed to collect a stray from the back of the Dynamos. "For me, eet iz one ov zose daze" he muttered in a plainly fake French accent. "Me parlo Italiano", I said cheerily.

200 yards from the top, as I collected a bunch of girl triathletes, Christophe3967 collected me, muttering something unfeasibly optimistic about times. I gave orders to the engine room in stern terms. Scotty was smoking dope and reading porn mags with one hand pushed way too far into the front of his trousers though. He wasn't going to do sh!t, and he didn't care.

From there, we headed home, meandering back and forth across the main roads I like to call "the Most Direct Route Home From Box Hill". Jash knew this part of the route, so led out. Any thoughts that this would be the - ahem - "active recovery" part of the ride were banished when cjcp realised that An Almighty Bollocking was awaiting him unless he was able to ride a motorbike home.

Well, he tried, I'll give him that. He may have done enough to knock the "Al" off "Almighty".

So, when it came to part company, I was given clear and easy instructions to get me back into Richmond Park. I smiled and nodded politely. Y'see, I had a choice. Richmond Park, or the A3. Pretty easy choice, in my view.

So I get home to find the irreplaceable Mrs G66 has cooked a roast. We had one of the kids' friends round (said friend has a build like spaghetti). Three small children, two adults. The butcher said the joint would feed 8-9.

There were two slices left by the end. 'Nuff said.

Thanks to all. It pains me to say it, but we - esp I - must do that again. I think two years between long rides is probably too long.

itboffin

Love it G66 sounds like fun :twisted:

Young un's today eh!

cjcp

That was a fantastic ride. Thanks chaps, and good to meet you Christophe.

As Mr66 says, Jon's climbing is incredible. He was in the 50 - the 50 FFS! - on Whitedown until after the switchback. This was after we passed the sign saying "18%" and the loud, internal "DANGER! DANGER!" alarm sounded in the rest of us.

He then rocketed - and I mean rocketed - away from me after the "zag" on Box Hill. Strictly, he's a 4th Cat. However, if he hadn't been held up at the bottom, he'd have got up that hill as fast as a 2nd Cat in our club, and not far off a 1st Cat's time. The boy's a freak.

Quite appropriate that word on the left side of his yersey was "IBEX".

cjcp

JG earlier today:

jonginge

My ears are burning, and only some of that was due to the (intermittent) sun.

Good ride all told. First hour and a half I was riding like a bag of spanners. A few miles into the hike out to the hills I hit a bump in the road and my brakes jammed partially on. Until it freed at the next lights I was having to do 350Watts (the powertap is such a great toy) just to hang on to the group. Not pleasant. Chris 'motorbike' Jenkins throttled back a bit once we hit the lanes, to the relief of all I think.

My legs had finally turned up by the time we hit Whitedown and, yes, the 34 was employed after the 2 switchbacks once I saw the wall ahead and remembered the pain from my first ever Kingston Wheelers club run. Halfway up I was less mountain goat more asthmatic donkey but luckily the others were out of earshot

Box hill was great... except for the idiot driver who impatiently overtook a group of riders with a car coming in the opposite direction. He cut back in rather close to Jash :evil:

Edit: many thanks to CJ for the post-ride coffee, cake and sarnies. Good also to meet martinc

A murder of crows. I knew this without resorting to google, honest.

roger_merriman

JonGinge wrote:

My ears are burning, and only some of that was due to the (intermittent) sun.

Good ride all told. First hour and a half I was riding like a bag of spanners. A few miles into the hike out to the hills I hit a bump in the road and my brakes jammed partially on. Until it freed at the next lights I was having to do 350Watts (the powertap is such a great toy) just to hang on to the group. Not pleasant. Chris 'motorbike' Jenkins throttled back a bit once we hit the lanes, to the relief of all I think.

My legs had finally turned up by the time we hit Whitedown and, yes, the 34 was employed after the 2 switchbacks once I saw the wall ahead and remembered the pain from my first ever Kingston Wheelers club run. Halfway up I was less mountain goat more asthmatic donkey but luckily the others were out of earshot

Box hill was great... except for the idiot driver who impatiently overtook a group of riders with a car coming in the opposite direction. He cut back in rather close to Jash :evil:

Edit: many thanks to CJ for the post-ride coffee, cake and sarnies. Good also to meet martinc

A murder of crows. I knew this without resorting to google, honest.

whitedown is great isn't it! i'm sort of devoping a normal loop out to climb winterdown and whitedown, as i like a steep hill.

jonginge

roger merriman wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

My ears are burning, and only some of that was due to the (intermittent) sun.

Good ride all told. First hour and a half I was riding like a bag of spanners. A few miles into the hike out to the hills I hit a bump in the road and my brakes jammed partially on. Until it freed at the next lights I was having to do 350Watts (the powertap is such a great toy) just to hang on to the group. Not pleasant. Chris 'motorbike' Jenkins throttled back a bit once we hit the lanes, to the relief of all I think.

My legs had finally turned up by the time we hit Whitedown and, yes, the 34 was employed after the 2 switchbacks once I saw the wall ahead and remembered the pain from my first ever Kingston Wheelers club run. Halfway up I was less mountain goat more asthmatic donkey but luckily the others were out of earshot

Box hill was great... except for the idiot driver who impatiently overtook a group of riders with a car coming in the opposite direction. He cut back in rather close to Jash :evil:

Edit: many thanks to CJ for the post-ride coffee, cake and sarnies. Good also to meet martinc

A murder of crows. I knew this without resorting to google, honest.

whitedown is great isn't it! i'm sort of devoping a normal loop out to climb winterdown and whitedown, as i like a steep hill.

Ah, this is a usage of the word great that I wasn't previously aware of.

roger_merriman

heh well bare in mind i both love and grew up with very steep hills ie the local hill to my folks (where i am at the moment) is around the 20% on average ie it's average is the same as the peak of whitedown, lord knows what it's peak is. so i'm a steep hill lover, and Mr May for the kingston wheelers

lost_in_thought

Sounds like great fun! See, that's the traditional usage of the word 'great'.

My planned 80-odd-miler (a LOT flatter) was rather impeded by the fact that I woke up at 1030 thinking that going to bed at 2230 would ensure I woke up at a suitable hour. Wrong.

The friend I was planning to meet for part of the ride and lunch couldn't get home after 1400, and knowing the speed he cycles at we decided to try again tomorrow.

So I went for 40-odd miles instead, lovely run around the lanes, barely an a-road in sight, stopped for a tea in Finchingfield, and headed home for some DIY.

Hopefully the weather will hold out for tomorrow. Less wind would be nice though, it howls across the flat land round here. I wish I'd been somewhere hillier like surrey. Oh no wait, no I don't... :P

Oh and everyone knows it's crows... now, what about a 'muster'?

stuaff

Flat? Oh you soft London types Today, I did the annual IOW Randonnee. The whole 100k round the island route (and the island is most definitely not flat). Yes, weedy old me, on my silly little folding clown bike with its 20" wheels and its huge 11kg weight. And it was a bit blowy. Did I crack? No, no and no. The chain drop fairy kept dropping by to hack me off (gave me a break at least) but I made it around in just over eight hours (including leisurely breaks), and I walked only one climb all day (no run-up). 22 gear inch bottom end is quite handy. And I was overtaking people on those! Shame it wasn't a commute Sunburnt, but not knackered (by any means) and chuffed- longest ride ever, until Friday night at least!
LiT, the Maxima was made for rides like this....

cjcp

Good effort. Did you go to Cowes and then follow the river south to the middle?

stuaff

cjcp wrote:

Good effort. Did you go to Cowes and then follow the river south to the middle?

Nope, started from Wootton (nearest to ferry from Pompey), route then goes East Cowes-Yarmouth-Whitwell-Alverstone-Bembridge-back to Wootton. Route map here http://www.iow.gov.uk/living_here/envir ... s/RTI1.pdf