Ride Reports

lost_in_thought

Very impressed! Good work!

Feltup

Rob and James cycle it as a team so they have the same time. They flew past me 6 miles from the bottom of Hardknott and apparently got to the top 20 minutes before me :shock:

Not really sure how long it took me to get up it because my brain had shut down. I could hear cheering and motorbikes stalling behind me and I could work out which line looked possible to get up but that was it.

The descent was horrible in the wet. It didn't help that I stopped and unclipped a foot at the laybe at the top where my friend was waiting and then set off and couldn't get clipped back in until half way down. Very unnerving. I couldn't get too afraid because my glasses were so steamed up that I couldn't see anything to scare me.

Feltup

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Feltup - I cannot believe you did that ride. I know the roads you cycled very well and I am awestruck.

Truly speechless with admiration here. That circuit has been known to break cars, for you to cycle it..... :shock:


Mind you... Kirkstone....mmmmmmmm......

Kirkstone was awesome!!!!! It just made me want to go to the Alps and do descents like that that last ten times as long.

Think some cars won't have much of their clutches left after getting caught up with all us cyclists!

Christophe3967

Feltup wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Anyone know how Rich got on in the FWC?

Feltup's posted over in Sportive section and the photos of Hardknott are well worth a look.

Rich did 7hrs17 or something like that. Really good time!

Awesome work guys - hope you had a few beers to celebrate.

Feltup

Christophe3967 and LiT:

Thanks for the congrats. No beers last night, drove home, got some food fell asleep!

Tonight I shall treat myself!

Rich158

I guess it's time for my report of the FWC, nothing like as long as Feltup though as he's really said it all. The descent from Kirkstone was awsome, I could do that all day. Up to Hardknott the climbs weren't too bad, but my choice of 39x25 let me down on the big bugger I had to walk from the first hairpin, there was really no way I was getting up that, after riding 100 miles solo. That's right no bloody group would form for me, i kept starting to try and form one, but no one was playing ball. perhaps my 19.5mph average to the first feed station put people off

However nothing was to prepare me for what happened between Hardknott and Wrynose. having unzipped the sleeves to my top in bright sunshine, we then rode into a god almighty hail storm, and can you zip the buggers back on :evil: :evil: The hail just got harder and harder, and there was me in a short sleeved top and gillet :shock: riding at 20mph plus. I've never felt pain like it, I was pretty much all in by Wrynose, although I very nearly made it to the top in a monumental effort, the hail killed any resolve I had left and I had to walk the top.

However the fun was only beginning to start. The descent is hairy at the best of time, when it running a river in parts, and iced over in others it was purely a matter of survival. I can honestly say I've never done anything so terrrifying in my life, I really don't know how I made it down in one piece :shock:

Even so got back to Coniston freezing bloody cold, and felt like I was well into hypothermia for a time of 7:14, which includes two fairly big feed stops. safe to say I was well pleased given the weather conditions

As a footnote the highlight of the ride was watching Rob Jebb go up Hardknott like it wasn't there, honestly the guy looked like he was sprinting up :shock: :shock: :shock: I've never seen anything like in my life, it brings it home how far ahead of us these guys really are.

Rich158

Just another quick report, if anyone is ever in Coniston, the loop arround teh lake is one of the pretiest rides I've had in a long time, well worth it even if it is only 15 miles or so.

And a quick boast, 178th out of 833 finishers put's me well in the top 25%, how pleased am I

Feltup

Ah ha you did over take me some time around Gosforth then. I let a lot of riders go past rather than forming a chaingang because my first priority was to ride the whole thing and I knew if I tried to ride it at a pace like yours there would be no way I could get up Hardknott.

7.14 is awesome mate.

Rob and James went passt me just after Irton Pike. They were looking so fresh!

Rich158

tbh honest I can't remember very much about who I passed, it was a case of head down and go. To cap it all I forgot to put my number on the bike so I was anonymous. I would have given you a shout when I got up there, but in typical fashion managed to wipe all the numbers of my phone as well.

I think just finishing the thing is a hell of an achievement, as is getting up Harknott. A compact beckons for next year I think

Feltup

Yeah I forgot to charge my phone :roll: The lead up was a catalogue of errors.

Friday started coming down with a cold, sore throat put luckily the blocked nose cleared.
Saturday forgot to put pillows in car
Saturday night gave fiancee my sleeping bag because she was cold which meant I kept waking up freezing.
Bloody owl wouldn't shut up just above my tent 2.00am
Owl still hooting away2.30am
Prop plane does a low level pass of tent at 3.30am
friggin sheep 4.30am


My mate who is a demon climber put a compact on and was hating it before the ride then raving about it after!

Rich158

I was loving my standard for most of the way, I thought I'd got it licked untill Hardknott, but then nothing can prepare you for that if you haven't experienced it before.

Luckily I booked into a B&B, which although heavy on the wallet, was very comfortable. It was however over twee, even for the Lake District. I could see the owners face just fall when I walked in. All scruffy hair, trainers, and jeans, he visibly shuddered as I crossed the threshold

lost_in_thought

Rich - did you have a bike in your hand as you walked in? I bet that would have gone down well too...

Well done! Amazing work from both of you. If I sign up for a sportive it won't be that one!

Feltup

Rich158 wrote:

I was loving my standard for most of the way, I thought I'd got it licked untill Hardknott, but then nothing can prepare you for that if you haven't experienced it before.

Luckily I booked into a B&B, which although heavy on the wallet, was very comfortable. It was however over twee, even for the Lake District. I could see the owners face just fall when I walked in. All scruffy hair, trainers, and jeans, he visibly shuddered as I crossed the threshold

I can picture it perfectly. The proprietor thinking " oh my god I will have to disinfect everything now". I've been to a couple of B&B's like that, they hate climbing/surfing/cycling types!

Rich158

lost_in_thought wrote:

Rich - did you have a bike in your hand as you walked in? I bet that would have gone down well too...

Well done! Amazing work from both of you. If I sign up for a sportive it won't be that one!

Fortunately not, i don't think I'd have even made it accross the threshold :roll:

What a lovely room it was, little rag dolls, dried flowers with little ceramic animals in them, frills everywhere, and some old needlework sections of the bible on the wall proclaiming gloom and doom to all. I felt very much at home

You should give it a go LiT, it's not as bad as you think

cjcp

Rich158 wrote:

And a quick boast, 178th out of 833 finishers put's me well in the top 25%, how pleased am I

Rich - as Feltup said, that is awesome. Seriously good work, fellas. 8)

And Feltup - a tent!?! WTH were you thinking, lad? Why make a hard job harder????? :shock:

Feltup

cjcp wrote:

Rich158 wrote:

And a quick boast, 178th out of 833 finishers put's me well in the top 25%, how pleased am I

Rich - as Feltup said, that is awesome. Seriously good work, fellas. 8)

And Feltup - a tent!?! WTH were you thinking, lad? Why make a hard job harder????? :shock:

It was like Bethlehem by the time I got round to looking! In hindsight it wasn't ideal preperation sleeping 4 hrs in the cold with a cold! Friggin owl.

cjcp

Ta-wit. Ta-woo.

Kieran_Burns

I was more worried that your sheep frigging was going to tire you out too much. :shock:

Mind you I think it's very brave of you to come on here and publicise your personal warm up routine

itboffin

So what did I miss?

Feltup

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I was more worried that your sheep frigging was going to tire you out too much. :shock:

Mind you I think it's very brave of you to come on here and publicise your personal warm up routine

I learnt it the weekend before as I cycled up the Rhondda Valley :shock:

Feltup

cjcp wrote:

Ta-wit. Ta-woo.

You can shove your ta-wit up your tawa.........

cjcp

In case you were getting withdrawal symptoms...

il_principe

You lot are mental, big well done. The Whitton looks like a total chuffing nightmare, must make other Sportives seem like a piece of pi$$!

Rich158

jashburnham wrote:

You lot are mental, big well done. The Whitton looks like a total chuffing nightmare, must make other Sportives seem like a piece of pi$$!

tbh it's reputation far outweighs the actual event, there's plenty of relatively flat sections to blast along in between the climbs. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would encourage everyone to do it at least once if only for the scenery, which is breathtaking.

I fully intend to keep doing it until either I break the 6:30 mark, or it breaks me

Sjaak

The scenery is indeed pretty amazing, Ullswater was as smooth as a mirror, full tree coverage at some of the ascents making it cool and sheltered from the wind (if there was any).

A66 was amazingly fast. Had a blast and passed a hundred or so riders and took just less that 3 hrs to the first feed, pretty much solo. I think that unless one's with a club, the undulating landscape really doesn't lend itself for spontaneous chaingang formations for any distance over 2 mls, or so it seems....

What time did you set off?

Rich158 wrote:

tbh it's reputation far outweighs the actual event, there's plenty of relatively flat sections to blast along in between the climbs. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would encourage everyone to do it at least once if only for the scenery, which is breathtaking.

I fully intend to keep doing it until either I break the 6:30 mark, or it breaks me

Rich158

Sjaak wrote:

The scenery is indeed pretty amazing, Ullswater was as smooth as a mirror, full tree coverage at some of the ascents making it cool and sheltered from the wind (if there was any).

A66 was amazingly fast. Had a blast and passed a hundred or so riders and took just less that 3 hrs to the first feed, pretty much solo. I think that unless one's with a club, the undulating landscape really doesn't lend itself for spontaneous chaingang formations for any distance over 2 mls, or so it seems....

What time did you set off?

Rich158 wrote:

tbh it's reputation far outweighs the actual event, there's plenty of relatively flat sections to blast along in between the climbs. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would encourage everyone to do it at least once if only for the scenery, which is breathtaking.

I fully intend to keep doing it until either I break the 6:30 mark, or it breaks me

I set off at 7:30 and hit the first feed station in 2:45'ish which felt pretty quick. I had a real blast after Whinlatter, managing to keep the speed up above 25mph or so, had one guy drafting me the whole section :evil: It really annoys me when people pick up your wheel but aren't prepared to do any work. Still I found out why when we hit the flat as he dropped off pretty damn quickly.

The next target is the Tour of Pembrokeshire - 115 miles, 10 800ft of climbing. I'm aiming for sub 7, and as close to 6:30 as I can get. This time I'm really going to go for it, I felt I was a bit too passive in the Fred, and could have done another 30-40 miles when I'd finished.

itboffin

This is why yokels have a bad rep. stop putting this shit in your gardens it scares townies :shock:



That thing is over 10 ft tall - wrong I tell you wrong!

itboffin

Time Weather Temp Wind Visibility
1000 Light Rain Shower 12°C S 24 mph 43 mph Very Good
1300 Light Rain Shower 13°C SSW 24 mph 46 mph Excellent
1600 Light Rain Shower 14°C SSW 25 mph 46 mph Excellent
1900 Sunny intervals 11°C SSW 21 mph 39 mph Excellent

Not the best weather for a epic ride into London, oh well never mind :evil:

Christophe3967

King of the Downs sportive this morning - two 50mile loops, one through Surrey Hills (Leith, Pitch, Shere, Coombe Bottom, Ranmore Common, Box Hill) and the other through Kent, taking in a lot of the HOTA course. The course was a figure of 8 with the middle being Evans Cycles depot at Gatwick.

Set off in OK weather and the forecast was for showers with a high of 16. Arm and leg warmers and overshoes were left in the car. :oops: A gilet will be fine I thought to myself. The rain started just before the foot of Leith Hill, and by the time we rolled in to Coldharbour it was bouncing of the road. Took shelter under some trees and waited for it to stop. The problem was that I was already cold and wet and getting colder. It was clear the rain wasn't stopping so I pressed on. By Coombe Bottom, my breath was as visible as any January morning, and I could no longer feel my feet. This was actually worse than the HOTA blizzards, as then my feet were dry and I was at least dressed for the cold. Box Hill took 9.30 and I was overtaking plenty of riders without any one coming past me. That's 90 seconds more than a couple of weeks ago chasing JG, CJCP and JB, it was that painful.

Didn't dare stop at Box Hill, even though the thought of coffee was incredibly tempting. I was getting concerned about how cold I was. Thought briefly about stopping and phoning home to get picked up but remembered that I'd got the car. Heading back to Charlwood through Leigh and Norwood Hill, and the rain stopped. And the sun came out at last. Heaven. Stopped to wring out my socks and fingerless mitts (what was I thinking, wearing those ffs) but could only get one shoe off because I'd lost the feeling in my fingers. Rolling past Gatwick a rider about 200m in front of me just collapsed and took out the guy beside him. Fortunatley neither were badly hurt and there was a WVM behind me, who stopped and gave the guy a lft back to base. His teeth were chattering, and he looked like death. Stopping to help them had left me frozen again and the sight of my car parked up proved too tempting. Never have I appreciated heated seats in a car more. Never ever again will I set off for a long ride without arm warmers. :oops:

So just the 50 miles - 4500 feet of climbing apparently (although my computer has 1200 metres). Hot bath and a glass of red wine has restored my circulation, but lesson learned.

Next weekend, I'm thinking of riding down to Dorset where we're going camping. I'm not going to mention this to the GF just yet.

itboffin

Smirks in a kinda of I know your pain way, cycling eh gotta love it