Ride Reports

Christophe3967

itboffin wrote:

I would like to start the ball rolling on the excuses, let me see now...

Crutch rot or something similar
Wrong sort of weather, too hot/cold
squeaky whatever put me off
i'm not used to riding in another country
Sunday's are never my best days
of course I would have been a lot better if I hadn't already shot my load on the Highclere
I'm not in anyway competitive i'm just doing this for "fun" :roll:

that should cover it.

I did 81 miles and 1300 metres of Surrey Hills yesterday. As a warm up. :oops:

Roastie

Stupid me at Hillingdon.

Outfoxed at the end and left like a deer in the headlights.

I'm going to go back to moping now.

itboffin

We survived the Dragon Ride

More much more to follow ...

Citizen Smith

itboffin wrote:

We survived the Dragon Ride

More much more to follow ...

HOORAY! Looking forward to the debrief!

Bassjunkieuk

Got out for a couple of rides yesterday........first was an incredibly painful ride with the eldest and my mum (don't laugh.......) as she hasn't had much chance to ride her new bike yet. I can safely say it's not an experience I want to repeat again soon. I think we averaged about 9mph over the 1.55 route to the shop and I genuinely think my 8 yr old daughter could have overtaken her at some points! The worst part was on the way back to heres when I have some chav on a BSO come rolling past, no hands shouting "scuse me.......". If it hadn't been for the fact that I was being the rear guard and my eldest was in between us I would have gone racing off after him and done my own "excuse me" as I blow past in the mid 20's!

Ride home was a bit more fun tho as I took an extended route to take in a climb up towards Crystal Palace from Penge. I did learn something yesterday, riding hard in hot weather isn't good when you don't have fluids with you. I was gasping by the time I got to the top and then didn't help myself when I bombed down the last hill towards home. I even made an attempt at a new top speed PB but missed it by about .8mph, "only" hitting 40.7 :-D

I know all this pales into in-signifance compared to ITB's Dragon Ride antics (of which we are still waiting to get all the gory details!) but it sure as hell beat taking the car home :-)

Stone Glider

Signed up for the "Three Counties l'Eroica" @ Salcey Forest on Sunday, 100K with, mainly, local CTC riders. Lovely morning with good weather promised (and delivered) what's not to like?

Off we set, with me at the back, rolling along when oops! Terribly corrugated patch of road under a dark railway arch - bumpty, bump - rear light flies off and shatters, drinks bottle leaps out and manages to jam itself between leg, chain and crank, I end up on wrong side of road, facing the way i came????

By the time i get sorted the peloton was well gone and I rode the rest of the day alone, except for the odd lonely duel in slow-motion with a couple of guys even older than me who seemed to know the route. (Cheating IMHO).

Never mind, it was a great day to be out on a bike and the roads near Cranfield were a special treat. Ended up doing 115K, I said map-reading is for cissies,

itboffin

Where to begin.....?

mmmm

Clearly if you've not ridden in Wales before then you won't fully appreciate just how endless long those climbs are... endless barely does them justice add to that the scorching hot day and the wicked pace we set off at and you can imagine the fun and games we had, so let me start at the beginning.

Some months ago during a fairly normal testosterone fueled forum session I drunkenly signed up to the Dragon Ride 190km sportive not realizing at the time i'd signed up to the 'big one' I ignored the seriousness of this undertaking until the day became a very real possibility, before i'd even set off for the ride I'd decided to downgrade the to the more manageable 130km distance and thankfully so for it was a blisteringly hot day up in those mountains and even with the ample well stocked feed stations it was a sweaty sweaty effort.

Setting off the night before to Brizzle (cheers Attica) meeting up with Jash & Attica for a pre ride pasta feast and a couple of beers in the local, all good carb loading natch!

As you'd expect it was an early start for us up around 5am out the house just after 6.30 am only to get stuck in the mother of all traffic jams coming off the M4, bloody cyclist we're everywhere, these people are a public menace :evil:

Now being the sensible lads we are we'd agreed the night before that we'd start out easy warming up then slowly open the pace :roll: yes well I guess the excitement got the better of us because a couple a miles in we were in lead group pushing the mid 30s with smiles all round

Eventually we came to or senses and dropped into a more reasonable mid 20s pace :shock: were i'm pleased to report we held station gradually picking off riders and smaller bunches that was until the first serious climb, now it would be no exaggeration to say those climbs ARE mountains and the first few miles burned baby burned, our speed like everyone else dropped off rapidly eventually evening out into a steady spin, our very own pocket rocket Jash practically shot up the mountain with Attica close behind I myself stayed in the rear of our peleton just making sure the rear was well guarded from attack :?

Finding my own steady pace I'm very pleased to report that I claimed a huge bag of scalps on the ascent in fact on every ascent of the day, hold 10, 8, 6 mph respectively on each monster climb and laughing as I went.
The first smirk was went I noticed on almost reaching the summit that the road turned and shot up again then turned again, this then make me laugh out loud add to that the supporters standing by the side of the road and the cow bells plus the amazing alpine style views with thousands of cyclists stretching as far as the eye could see it was just like a scene from a pro tour, even better was the Mavic support vehicles, police directing the traffic and holding back the traffic at the red lights (yes we all RLJ) as well as tons of local support it was all very inspirational.

Good job too because that sort of climbing coupled with the weather and distance is pretty tiring stuff, now whilst Jash and I were putting in our own stella performance battling alone in the now howling Welsh headwinds Christophe & Attica were out there fighting their own battle with the 190km beast, it must be said that Attica hadn't actually planned to do the long route but due to a bit of poor marshaling he'd taken the wrong turn at the key split and found himself split from the group thus he MTFU and took the extra 40miles like a proper man/SCRer. Chapeau sir!

"Clearly there's more to this story but for now I must get on with some work...."

obv. we all finished and from the now published times we did well and in turn SCR style we celebrated with beer and 'training' food stuff ie chips

Roastie

Well done!

Christophe3967

OK, here goes - over to our senior Dragon Ride Reporter, live from West London having escaped from his "hotel" on the outskirts of Port Talbot, where everyone speaks in strange tongues although the occasional "bloody brillyant, boyo" can be heard at the tops of mountains....

What a fantastic day. I am already planning next year.

Arriving not long after 7 for an 8 a.m. start, the cars were already backed up to the first roundabout after the M4. Nevertheless I was in the 4th group out so, knowing that ITB Attica and Jash would probably be stuck on the M4, thought that I might have a good chance of not getting overhauled before the first food stop at 50K. :shock:

Fantastic atmosphere at the start – the Mavic support car laden with bikes and wheels, motorbike support riders, police, ambulances – and probably over 2500 riders waiting to get away. Even having Phil Collins blasting out over the PA system wasn’t as awful as it would have been normally. You just needed to be there. And the weather looked promising – but I wasn’t taking any chances and had my arm-warmers on. Later in the day, when the temperature reached 28, I was pleased to have taken them. Had I not, it would no doubt have been raining and 12. 8)

Having never ridden more that 80 miles (last Thursday actually) I was determined to take it easy to start with and see how I felt at the first stop. I was aiming to do a sub 8 hour ride and hope that the boys would still be there to have a beer with afterwards. :oops:

The first big climb saw us heading up the Bwlch mountain road, scooting down the other side at 40 mph (being a complete wuss descending, plenty of people came flying by) then along the Rhondda Valley, before heading up the Rhigos mountain to a welcome feed station, almost 2 hours in, so figured I was on schedule. Most of the time I was in a group of 20 or so riders, which made it good fun although important to keep concentrating.

Soon after the food stop came the split timing mat and then the route divided – the long route heading into the Brecon Beacons. I didn’t see anyone taking the short route and just followed the herd, being unable to read the signs until the last moment, as always. :oops:

We headed for the hills and a 6 mile climb to Cray through some more unpronounceable places accompanied in the main by sheep noises and badly adjusted bikes, seemingly mostly running Campag. The weather and the pockets of people clapping as we passed made it seem less painful as the computer showed that I was now in unchartered territory on the climbing front. 1400 metres or so is as far I had ever gone and I knew that we would be getting close to 3000 before the day was out.

I was struck by how the same riders kept popping up, and the number of times you thought, that’s the last I’ll see of him… eventually I just thought I was hallucinating. :?

More downhill fun – I reckon almost 10 miles where the speeds hardly dropped below 35 mph – my hands ached as we rolled into Neath, through the town centre and without warning hit the nastiest hill on the whole ride, Cimla at the top of which was the last feed station. Sadly I only spotted the crisps after I’d necked a jam tart and a cake, but was glad to have a slightly longer break before heading for the Afan Valley, and the second ascent of Bwlch (from the other side). Now Bwlch hadn’t seemed so fearsome in the morning and I was more interested in not missing the 100 mile mark, as this would be my first non-cricket related ton.

So, my eyes were glued to the computer, which suddenly seemed to be stuck on 152 km. This was because my pace had slowed to that of a giant sloth with a hangover. The road just never seemed to ease up but about 5 miles later, we crested the mountain road, I stuffed a mouthful of energy bar in my mouth and headed for the valley, still 2 km short of 100 miles, which I missed as I was flying down the other side at 35mph.

By this time I had already had a text from ITB advising me he’d finished. :shock: How could this be? I’m sure I’d have noticed him passing – and I’m sure he’d have let me know. :evil: Was he doing the shorter route? He must be. I was past caring really – my right foot had been sending shooting pains up my leg for a while and as these intensified I knew that I couldn’t continue to ignore it, as I was hardly pedalling. I stopped and took my shoe off. Two minutes later one of the motorbike medic riders was asking me if I needed help. How cool is that? It was like being in a real bike race. As it was I could feel my foot was fine and after 5 minutes I was on my way, spurred on only by the thought of the SCR boys sitting in the beer garden of the pub near the start / finish as I dragged my sorry ar5e over the finish line. I was still hoping to sneak in below 8 hours but wasn’t sure how much climbing was left. The computer thought there might be 400 metres… I just hoped it was wrong.

The prospect of cold beer was all the incentive I needed to nail the last 20kms which were pretty flat and disappeared in a 25 – 30 mph blur racing a DeVere guy who did no work into a stiff headwind.

Ended up with a 7.24.30. And the beer was lovely, boyo.

Some great pics on Yogi's website btw like these. http://yogi.terapad.com


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itboffin

Chapeau chap that's a damn fast time if I do say so.

Also it seems there were a lot of DQ riders not sure what that was all about.

Christophe3967

itboffin wrote:

Chapeau chap that's a damn fast time if I do say so.

Also it seems there were a lot of DQ riders not sure what that was all about.

Hmm, and l if you'd have texted a bit earlier, I might have got up that last frickin mountain a bit quicker.

DQ's were the RLJ's that we were warned about. The first set of lights I reached turned orange as I arrived with 20 other amigos and I looked at the Welsh copper on his motorbike, all leathered up, and thought 'Nah'. A couple of guys fancied their chances and he just wrote down their numbers with a barely disgued Celtic smirk I would have caught them up and told them but was in energy conservation mode. 8)

itboffin

Whilst I don't condone RLJ that's a bit harsh in fact at the last main set of lights I was waved through the red lights by a motorbike copper, talk about sending out mixed signals.

roger_merriman

it's about image or rather public perception, bikes are "lycra louts" who always jump red lights. so being waved though by a copper is fine, just rolling though on your own isn't.

to be honest it's not a race etc so seems a bit dumb to jump the lights.

itboffin

It's not a race.... righttttt :roll:

Christophe3967

Some pics from Yogi's website (which crashed yesterday)...




This is the final big climb up Bwlch. 8)

itboffin

I recall every inch of that road vividly :?

lost_in_thought

Wow, nice work guys! I'm doing my first ever sportive this weekend, and I'm already getting nervous! :oops:

Christophe3967

lost_in_thought wrote:

Wow, nice work guys! I'm doing my first ever sportive this weekend, and I'm already getting nervous! :oops:

Nothing much to worry about - pacing and refuelling are the keys. Get in a group if you can but if the pace is not to your liking, either drop back or speed up and find another one. You'll have a blast.

Citizen Smith

lost_in_thought wrote:

Wow, nice work guys! I'm doing my first ever sportive this weekend, and I'm already getting nervous! :oops:

Which one are you doing LiT?

itboffin

Yes LiTs come on spill the beans which sportive are you doing?

oh and I'd just like to mention AGAIN I came 135 out of the 813 finishers on the short (81 miles) distance I thank you thank you very much, i'll be here all week well at the very least banging on about this for a while

Seems I won't be able to make the New Forest ride i'll be in Boston at the time

lost_in_thought

It's called 'Flatout in the Fens', as the name suggests it's nice and flat! I've signed up for the 77 mile distance, mostly because my main focus is just to get round and develop some understanding of what one does at a sportive, but have received an email informing me that I can do any distance I like on the day... so could do the 112 mile one if I'm feeling good - or the 153 mile one. Or not. :shock:

TBH, like I say, it's just going to be a tentative first step into the world of sportives. I hope I don't get lost.

Christophe3967

itboffin wrote:

Yes LiTs come on spill the beans which sportive are you doing?

oh and I'd just like to mention AGAIN I came 135 out of the 813 finishers on the short (81 miles) distance I thank you thank you very much, i'll be here all week well at the very least banging on about this for a while

Seems I won't be able to make the New Forest ride i'll be in Boston at the time

Good effort - that puts you and Jash well into the top fifth 8)

Sadly, I have failed to have made even the top third on the long run - I'm near the bottom of page 3 out of 9 although there's a whole page of DNFs and DQs. Stopping to massage my foot cost me 6.5 minutes and 64 places, but even so I would still have been just outside the top third.

Anyway, as we always say, its not a race...

Christophe3967

lost_in_thought wrote:

It's called 'Flatout in the Fens', as the name suggests it's nice and flat! I've signed up for the 77 mile distance, mostly because my main focus is just to get round and develop some understanding of what one does at a sportive, but have received an email informing me that I can do any distance I like on the day... so could do the 112 mile one if I'm feeling good - or the 153 mile one. Or not. :shock:

TBH, like I say, it's just going to be a tentative first step into the world of sportives. I hope I don't get lost.

Sounds like the one to go for - there'll be signposts and you always got the Garmin as a back up.

bigmat

I missed 7hrs by 39 seconds - gutted! On the plus side, I did record speeds in excess of 50mph for the first time on a bike which was great fun. Best sportive I've ridden this year, nice route, loads of groups to ride with and a perfect day. That last time up the Bwlch hurt like hell though. I had absolutely nothing left up there, thank god I had a bottle of water to pour over my head!

Christophe3967

MatHammond wrote:

I missed 7hrs by 39 seconds - gutted! On the plus side, I did record speeds in excess of 50mph for the first time on a bike which was great fun. Best sportive I've ridden this year, nice route, loads of groups to ride with and a perfect day. That last time up the Bwlch hurt like hell though. I had absolutely nothing left up there, thank god I had a bottle of water to pour over my head!

Chapeau Matt - and 50 mph as well. I maxed out at 43 :shock:

bigmat

Most impressively of all I managed not to be disqualified for RLJing, I'm a reformed character!

il_principe

lost_in_thought wrote:

It's called 'Flatout in the Fens', as the name suggests it's nice and flat! I've signed up for the 77 mile distance, mostly because my main focus is just to get round and develop some understanding of what one does at a sportive, but have received an email informing me that I can do any distance I like on the day... so could do the 112 mile one if I'm feeling good - or the 153 mile one. Or not. :shock: TBH, like I say, it's just going to be a tentative first step into the world of sportives. I hope I don't get lost.

You'll love it and if it's well signed then you should be fine. I took 2 wrong turns on Sunday, one when I was all alone right near the end, prob added 7/8 mins to my time which is a tad annoying!

Anyway, the Dragon. Official time is 05:22:28, moving time is 04:53:24. Official time puts me at 131st out of the 813 (53rd last year) that finished the 83 miler. As always wasted a fair bit of time at feedstops and my av speed was down on last year by .8mph (17mph this year). Still a good day, especially on the climbs where I felt strong and was overhauling a fair few peeps.

Had a bit of struggle into the wind at the halfway point or so, chapeau to ITB for helping me out with a nice tow there, I always get a mid ride dip and it decided to coincide with the wind, typical! Got in a great little chaingang for the last few miles, me and 2 scottish chaps - hooned along at between 27 - 30 for around 4 miles or so. I rather uncharitably took them on a small hill, but they'd dropped pace and I wanted to bowl on - typically I then took a wrong turn at the next roundabout and they must've come in ahead of me!

All in all it was a fine day, lovely weather and rather warm. I was very glad of my 2x750ml bottles and the feedstations were well stocked. Will defo go again next year - hopefully with a better training regime under my belt!

Have to big up the Welsh for the quality of their roads, on the whole that tarmac was lovely and it made for some confident descending. My Garmin (which relies on GPS only to calc speed) shows a top speed of 43mph, ITB’s sensor equipped speedo showed 60 something on the descent we took together. Not sure which is more accurate but there was some exhilarating descending. I cannot wait to get back out to Wales in August and seek out some similar climbs/descents.

Edit - in line with Christiophe's comments - stopping for 5 mins to alleviate a stubborn thigh cramp cost me 19 sodding places. Combine that with the wrong turns and I reckon (conservatively) that lost me 40 places overall (10 mins) which puts me closer to last years performance which involved 2 feedstops and nothing else. Anyway, mustn't grumble, it's my fault for going wrong twice and my fault I cramped - forgot to take any extra Nunn tablets, doh!

Christophe3967

Il Principe wrote:

Will defo go again next year - hopefully with a better training regime under my belt!

+1. Have already booked the Southern Sportive today for this Sept

Next year I think a stay at that Holiday Inn place right on the start line is in order. Worth it to avoid all the nonsense trying to park cars and get away in the first group. Bet it gets booked up incredibly early though.

cjcp

Good work chaps, and good reading! :-)

Mat - I found the second haul up the Bwlch a couple of years back a bit of an effort, particularly by the the time you reach the turns at the top. Tell me, did you have the climb up through the housing estate to Cimla this year before the 2nd Bwlch? You don't it before the first ascent and it's a nasty little peg too, so figured that sapped the energy more than the miles.

+1 for the quality of the road surface. Much better than the HOTA (yeah, ok, snow) and Highclere.

itboffin

the pics are up at http://sportivephoto.thirdlight.com/gallery.tlx

i'm 1971
attica is 1981
jash is 1980
not sure about christophe's number