Ride Reports

boy on bike

JonGinge wrote:

BoB, chapeau... and you nutter! Paris-Roubaix sportive for you next year?

Paris-Roubaix... think that's too bumpy - even for my Assos bibs!

Anyway, I have an even nuttier idea taking root in my fetid brain... will disclose soon

Eau Rouge

Inspired by stories here, I drove to Brockenhurst with the intention to follow the route of one of those charity cycle events I saw. The only catch being that I didn't know the roads half of it was on, didn't have a map/GPS, and had only seen it on Bikely before setting off.

There was a bit of a wind, which switched from horrible headwind to lovely tailwind along the route. The road surface out of Brockenhurst would rival the Flanders cobbles, but I was making progress nicely, when I came across a junction and didn't remember any of the road names. Straight on seems the right option so I took it, only to arrive in a village called Pilley, and not the Boldre I was looking for. I was just beginning to wonder what to do when I pass the Church Land I was looking for. Turns out Boldre and Pilley are either right next to each other if no the same place. Up the road I see an elderly gent out for a walk and decide to ask him to confirm I'm on the right road, which he does.
Half an hour chat later I finally resume my ride. and carry on. I help a women I'd passed earlier who had got her gears seriously messed up, with the chain trapped by the front mech and off the top of the cassette. Just as I sorted it her husband arrived after turning around.
I then met what would have been a short sharpish rise made into what felt like a tiny Alp by the huge force of the wind blowing straight down it. Wierd geography in action, as that wind was far stronger than anywhere else all day.
I was doing a pretty good job following the route, though I did go the wrong way around a little loop before Burley. Out of Burley I found a long drag of a climb that I struggled up only to discover the A31 at the top. 80+mph, two lanes, no hard shoulder, no thanks. Back down the hill to find the road I should have taken to get to Ringwood.
I knew the plan was to turn North, pass through Ringwood's minor roads, and back into the forest. I find the North turn, but the lack of signposts lead to another long drag of a hill, only to find another A31 dead end. Back again, two wasted long drag climbs, just what I needed!.
I pull alongside some guy in a mountain bike to make sure I have the right road this time, and I do. By the time I get though Ringwood I've covered more miles than I'd done before, and was starting to feel it. (Yeah, a massive 34 miles!) but I'm now on roads I sort of know all the way back to Brockenhurst. I do eventually give in after one too many rolling lump into Linwood and stop for five minutes to eat a flapjack before carrying on.
The speed is getting lower and lower now, but I knew it would, all I want to do is get back to Brockenhurst in reasonable time. The road from Linwood and through the "Ornamental Drives" to Brockenhurst is mostly single lane that cars have to drop off to pass each other. They, of course, don't seem to think they need to do this for me. I'm determined that they do, Silly cars. The Ornamental Drives, two single track roads through managed woodland (including two genuine huge Redwood trees) are lovely but I'm tired. I've been mostly using the tops for the past 10 miles.
I finally get to Brockenhurst, and then turn a corner and I'm back out of it again! Strange. I turn around and after quickly asking a walker, discover that the non-too-obvious sign pointing to the road through the ford is the one I want. Just as I get near the station the computer is saying I need all of about half a kilometre to clock up 50 miles. I slow pottle up and down the road fixes that and I stop.
I don't think I've ever ridden 50 miles before, it won't be the last time.

cjcp

Good stuff. When's the next 50 miler then?

itboffin

JonGinge wrote:

Christophe, good skills on getting the 'just need to pop to a bike shop' under the radar. Prologue is my LBS, they are pretty good 10% discount to club/BC/LCC members.
I had a similar dark hill go slow this afternoon, almost had to foot down at one point. Still, took a second trip out this evening and trimmed a bit off my 3lap time.

"Smithfield" as in london meat market? When?

Indeed. 6th June: http://www.nocturneseries.com/smithfield/
Been to the two there have been so far. Good fun. Stood by the pub at the corner to the start/finish straight. Get there a bit early and we may be able to occupy the pub

Now then would that be the butchers hook & cleaver ? as per the itboffin pub crawl no 7

itboffin

boy on bike wrote:

Right, I'm now sufficiently recovered to give an account of my little outing on Friday...

We were due to go up to Loughborough for the weekend to stay with Neil² and familly, so inspred by ITB I decided to have a go at the "you drive, I'll cycle and meet you there" approach. I then told enough people about it to ensure that I couldn't back out, decided that the weather forecast was not too daunting, got up early and set off at 7:00. I used a route chosen by ViaMichelin: generally pretty good and stayed off major roads. There were a couple of places where the directions were NOT so clear (bearing in mind that all I had with me was a paper turn-by-turn directions sheet!) and so in both these places I got lost - the first occasion ended up with 2 junctions of the A34 getting shell-shocked by lorries thundering passed. This coincided with me and the rain passing going in opposite directions, so a definite low point!

I made it to Wantage for my first stop - soup and coffee in a cafe. Although this was 57 miles and 3 and a half hours of riding in, I had managed to make a fair few unscheduled stops while getting lost, so by the time I left the cafe it was getting on for 12:00 - I was about an hour behind my self-imposed schedule.

The next part of the ride was great - small villages skirting round Oxford, until rejoining the Oxford - Banbury road about 15 miles south of Banbury. By this time my stomach was giving me grief from all the energy drink and bars I had been chugging down, so I had a quick lunch stop at a garage to get a scotch egg, a sausage roll and a pint of milk down me (nothing like a pie and a pint for lunch...). I also bagged some more savouries for the rest of the ride - and pressed on.

After lunch, progress was a little quicker: got on past Banbury and up to Southam - a bit of a slog up this bit. Here the road turned 45 degrees and I was on Fosse Way: now in the late afternoon sun this was my favourite part of the ride - although there was now more of a headwind. Shortly after this I made my second wrong turn, adding 5 miles and an unscheduled trip nearly into Rugby :evil: Luckily Neil² was still at work and managed to advise me on recovery (which was to retrace my steps, to find that the reason I had gone wrong was because the road I should have taken had been closed for roadworks! Footpath still open tho - phew).

Getting late now... had hoped to be there by 7pm but ETA had gradually moved out. Neil² had volunteered to ride out to meet me: he met me just before Leicester and was able to tow me the last 25 miles (in the gathering gloom) up to his place - to be met by a whooping gathering of assorted N² and BoB family members. Which made it all worth while!

Lessons learned:
- long rides require stops - need to factor in enough time
- full-strength PSP22 is hard on my guts! Need to take it more watered down
- take savoury food on rides, as well as just energy bars
- Assos F1 Mille bibs are supremely comfortable. Worth every penny
- "Rolling Hills" don't feel quite the same when you hit them after 100 miles...
- Headwinds are b@st@rds
- I am capable of cycling over 150 miles in 1 day

Final stats:
157 miles, 10 hrs 30 riding, 14 hrs 15 elapsed.
Averages: (moving) speed 15mph; cadence 84; hr 130
Maximums: speed 37.6mph, cadence 156, hr 170

4.25L PSP22, 4 energy bars, 3 gels, 1 bowl veg soup, 1 cup coffee, 1 giant sausage roll, 1 scotch egg, 2 bananas, 1 pt milk

p.s. went for a 15-mile ride with N² today to see if I could still do it. Legs felt ok, averaged 18.6mph. Which was nice.

Chapeau BoB

Truly an epic journey.

Christophe3967

BoB, Eau Rougue et al. Epic stuff, and great reading. Keep it up chaps.

itboffin

Today is a gooood day to ride

www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=5502

Rich158

boy on bike wrote:

Right, I'm now sufficiently recovered to give an account of my little outing on Friday...

We were due to go up to Loughborough for the weekend to stay with Neil² and familly, so inspred by ITB I decided to have a go at the "you drive, I'll cycle and meet you there" approach. I then told enough people about it to ensure that I couldn't back out, decided that the weather forecast was not too daunting, got up early and set off at 7:00. I used a route chosen by ViaMichelin: generally pretty good and stayed off major roads. There were a couple of places where the directions were NOT so clear (bearing in mind that all I had with me was a paper turn-by-turn directions sheet!) and so in both these places I got lost - the first occasion ended up with 2 junctions of the A34 getting shell-shocked by lorries thundering passed. This coincided with me and the rain passing going in opposite directions, so a definite low point!

I made it to Wantage for my first stop - soup and coffee in a cafe. Although this was 57 miles and 3 and a half hours of riding in, I had managed to make a fair few unscheduled stops while getting lost, so by the time I left the cafe it was getting on for 12:00 - I was about an hour behind my self-imposed schedule.

The next part of the ride was great - small villages skirting round Oxford, until rejoining the Oxford - Banbury road about 15 miles south of Banbury. By this time my stomach was giving me grief from all the energy drink and bars I had been chugging down, so I had a quick lunch stop at a garage to get a scotch egg, a sausage roll and a pint of milk down me (nothing like a pie and a pint for lunch...). I also bagged some more savouries for the rest of the ride - and pressed on.

After lunch, progress was a little quicker: got on past Banbury and up to Southam - a bit of a slog up this bit. Here the road turned 45 degrees and I was on Fosse Way: now in the late afternoon sun this was my favourite part of the ride - although there was now more of a headwind. Shortly after this I made my second wrong turn, adding 5 miles and an unscheduled trip nearly into Rugby :evil: Luckily Neil² was still at work and managed to advise me on recovery (which was to retrace my steps, to find that the reason I had gone wrong was because the road I should have taken had been closed for roadworks! Footpath still open tho - phew).

Getting late now... had hoped to be there by 7pm but ETA had gradually moved out. Neil² had volunteered to ride out to meet me: he met me just before Leicester and was able to tow me the last 25 miles (in the gathering gloom) up to his place - to be met by a whooping gathering of assorted N² and BoB family members. Which made it all worth while!

Lessons learned:
- long rides require stops - need to factor in enough time
- full-strength PSP22 is hard on my guts! Need to take it more watered down
- take savoury food on rides, as well as just energy bars
- Assos F1 Mille bibs are supremely comfortable. Worth every penny
- "Rolling Hills" don't feel quite the same when you hit them after 100 miles...
- Headwinds are b@st@rds
- I am capable of cycling over 150 miles in 1 day

Final stats:
157 miles, 10 hrs 30 riding, 14 hrs 15 elapsed.
Averages: (moving) speed 15mph; cadence 84; hr 130
Maximums: speed 37.6mph, cadence 156, hr 170

4.25L PSP22, 4 energy bars, 3 gels, 1 bowl veg soup, 1 cup coffee, 1 giant sausage roll, 1 scotch egg, 2 bananas, 1 pt milk

p.s. went for a 15-mile ride with N² today to see if I could still do it. Legs felt ok, averaged 18.6mph. Which was nice.

Chapeau BoB, and I thought I had it hard with 100 miles, what's next the Dave Lloyd Mega

Feltup

Some excellent reports here and one of true lunacy, I'll let you summise which one that is

Rich: I see you managed to average something above 17mph, your computer lives! I hope you took your turn at the front and dragged those pros along

LiT: Mmmm nice bike but the picture is too small, we need to see more detail. Nice one on doing 65 miles, the recovery is going well. (DOH, just seen the whole thread dedicated to your Maxima!)

Saturdays ride was with my FWC partner in crime. We decided a nice ride out in to the countryside was in order and so set off in to the Chilterns for a couple of warm up hills before the lovely gentle descent to Benson. This road is at a perfect gradient to allow you to tap along at 25+mph without too much effort. Continuing through Wallingford and into the lanes to Blewbury, home of my favourite skate ramp. It's in a funny position out in the countryside between tennis courts and a croquet club and right below the Ridgeway hills. You know it is a posh village when you pull your skateboard out of your car and realise you are parked next to a McClaren SLR with croquet mallets in the passenger seat.

The next part of the ride to Wantage is not a favourite of mine and it was no different on saturday with the extra traffic and a swirling wind. It didn't help that a lady tried to run my mate off the road. I was aware of a car sat just behind us but what I hadn't realised was that she had pulled up alongside Andrew and only then realised there wasn't room to overtake two bikes while two trucks were approaching. She then started to try and fit in the gap between Andrew and I, the whole 18inches of it, at which point Andrew knocked on her window and told her where to go. Considering we were doing 20-25mph at the time to be able to knock on a cars window shows how rediculously close she was. Luckily she did drop back before overtaking safely a little later. :roll:

Into Wantage and a young female lemming walked out in to then road texting happily away with not a glance to see if anything was coming. I can see a lot of teenage deaths soon by electric cars which are also very quiet. Her friend had a stronger sense of self preservation.

The road from Wantage to Chievely is lovely and has a great mix of climbs and pedal mashing descents. We nearly got landed on by a red kite as it went for some road kill but it pulled up in time for us to get a very good look at how big and beautiful these brids are!

The run home was pretty uneventful although I have to mention the descent to Streatly as it was very fast and exciting. I bottled the corner 3/4 way down and feathered my brakes but still took it at 47mph topping out at 49mph - sooo close to breaking 50!

Back at the house and the stats were:

80miles at 18mph average with 3500ft ascent.

jonginge

itboffin wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Christophe, good skills on getting the 'just need to pop to a bike shop' under the radar. Prologue is my LBS, they are pretty good 10% discount to club/BC/LCC members.
I had a similar dark hill go slow this afternoon, almost had to foot down at one point. Still, took a second trip out this evening and trimmed a bit off my 3lap time.

"Smithfield" as in london meat market? When?

Indeed. 6th June: http://www.nocturneseries.com/smithfield/
Been to the two there have been so far. Good fun. Stood by the pub at the corner to the start/finish straight. Get there a bit early and we may be able to occupy the pub

Now then would that be the butchers hook & cleaver ? as per the itboffin pub crawl no 7

No. Bit further along long lane. Opposite fluid on charterhouse. NIce loop

biondino

I am falling so far behind you lot. I did my first proper 3 laps of the park on Sunday - with a friend so there should be some sort of penalty for occasional drafting - in 67.16. And I was almost sick twice, on Sawyers Hill and Dark Hill on lap 2, which was also our slowest. The wind was coming from an unusual direction (easterly?), which was a blessing on Sawyers Hill but meant I couldn't get above 33mph on Broomfield.

Having said all that, the agony was probably worth it as hopefully it will have spurred the muscles on. Just got to keep stretching myself! At least I have the fitness back from before I broke my rib, so that's a plus. Just need to keep building on it...

roger_merriman

i find RP more of a work out, or at least i work harder around there than out in the downs though after my legs feel the downs more, i'm fairly heavy as roadies go but used to hills so i slain winterdown and whitedown with out much problem.

itboffin

Bagged myself another 100km for this month metric challenge, I paid for it though, every mile after 10 miles was hard going perfect weather but lack of food yesterday really took it out of me after 10 miles my stomach was making angry noises which is very unusual for me.

I did however manage to maintain an avg of 16.2mph and a top of 49mph not bad for this old dog.

I tried to take some pictures but the mobile quality not that good, posted with the route here https://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/wor ... ?id=888663

I'm off to sit in the garden and drink pimms by the jug load

Bassjunkieuk

itboffin wrote:

Bagged myself another 100km for this month metric challenge, I paid for it though, every mile after 10 miles was hard going perfect weather but lack of food yesterday really took it out of me after 10 miles my stomach was making angry noises which is very unusual for me.

I did however manage to maintain an avg of 16.2mph and a top of 49mph not bad for this old dog.

I tried to take some pictures but the mobile quality not that good, posted with the route here https://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/wor ... ?id=888663

I'm off to sit in the garden and drink pimms by the jug load

Nice ride speedy Gonzales :-D
Just what I want to read about as I face a 15 minute walk to the train station........

benno68

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Bagged myself another 100km for this month metric challenge, I paid for it though, every mile after 10 miles was hard going perfect weather but lack of food yesterday really took it out of me after 10 miles my stomach was making angry noises which is very unusual for me.

I did however manage to maintain an avg of 16.2mph and a top of 49mph not bad for this old dog.

I tried to take some pictures but the mobile quality not that good, posted with the route here https://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/wor ... ?id=888663

I'm off to sit in the garden and drink pimms by the jug load

Nice ride speedy Gonzales :-D
Just what I want to read about as I face a 15 minute walk to the train station........

49mph - nice one, don't think I'll ever hit that with my compact chainset.

Feltup

Benno68 wrote:

49mph - nice one, don't think I'll ever hit that with my compact chainset.

I hit 48.6mph on Saturday using a compact but I sure as hell wasn't pedalling! I have spun up to 45mph but if you hit a bump at that speed and that high a cadence it throws you all over the place. I prefer to pedal up to 40mph and then tuck, it feels much more stable but you need a good steep hill

itboffin

Does anyone/everyone else get bombarded by flies, bees etc etc etc.? it got so bad at one point I couldn't open my mouth to breath, nose breathing is not enough when your pushing hard and insects in the face at speed really hurts.

Also the dappled light through the trees onto the road hides pot holes really well, I lost my grip 3 times today, really scary again at speed.

benno68

Feltup wrote:

Benno68 wrote:

49mph - nice one, don't think I'll ever hit that with my compact chainset.

I hit 48.6mph on Saturday using a compact but I sure as hell wasn't pedalling! I have spun up to 45mph but if you hit a bump at that speed and that high a cadence it throws you all over the place. I prefer to pedal up to 40mph and then tuck, it feels much more stable but you need a good steep hill

I've managed 45mph but felt like I was peddling like hell, and it was down a big hill, wonder if an 11 tooth sprocket would be better as I'd only use it for downhill anyway!

benno68

itboffin wrote:

Does anyone/everyone else get bombarded by flies, bees etc etc etc.? it got so bad at one point I couldn't open my mouth to breath, nose breathing is not enough when your pushing hard and insects in the face at speed really hurts.

Also the dappled light through the trees onto the road hides pot holes really well, I lost my grip 3 times today, really scary again at speed.

Yup, and the insects are only gonna get worse as the weather gets better. Still, saves taking energy bars I guess

Seriously, I don't use sports glasses at the moment but really think I need to get a pair soon. As for insects in the mouth, dunno what the answer is to foil the little blighters.

itboffin

Benno68 wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Does anyone/everyone else get bombarded by flies, bees etc etc etc.? it got so bad at one point I couldn't open my mouth to breath, nose breathing is not enough when your pushing hard and insects in the face at speed really hurts.

Also the dappled light through the trees onto the road hides pot holes really well, I lost my grip 3 times today, really scary again at speed.

Yup, and the insects are only gonna get worse as the weather gets better. Still, saves taking energy bars I guess

Seriously, I don't use sports glasses at the moment but really think I need to get a pair soon. As for insects in the mouth, dunno what the answer is to foil the little blighters.

There's no way i'd be able to ride without glasses it's like riding through a hail storm at the moment.

Feltup

Benno68 wrote:

Feltup wrote:

Benno68 wrote:

49mph - nice one, don't think I'll ever hit that with my compact chainset.

I hit 48.6mph on Saturday using a compact but I sure as hell wasn't pedalling! I have spun up to 45mph but if you hit a bump at that speed and that high a cadence it throws you all over the place. I prefer to pedal up to 40mph and then tuck, it feels much more stable but you need a good steep hill

I've managed 45mph but felt like I was peddling like hell, and it was down a big hill, wonder if an 11 tooth sprocket would be better as I'd only use it for downhill anyway!

I have a 11-23 on the back but to be honest you just need to find a steeper hill. It just gets silly spinning at really high speeds.

il_principe

Rich158 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Sounds awesome Rich!

... my GOD that thing shifts. I know 'it's the engine' and that, but it's incredible. It's like it's helping, not just being an inanimate object...

I know what you mean, it's exactly how I felt the first time I got the Mad one. No matter how much power you put in, it just wants more........no..........encourages you to put in more and every pedal stroke is rewarded with a massive surge forward.

+2

Epic Power Transfer!

My plans for riding on Sunday were foiled by the missus, I wasn't happy! Hope this weather lasts...

cjcp

Feltup wrote:

I have a 11-23 on the back but to be honest you just need to find a steeper hill. It just gets silly spinning at really high speeds.

:shock: Leckwith Hill is steep enough as it is! To give you an idea, it has an escape lane for HGVs just before the bend to the right.

You could do over 50, but, tbh, I don't find it a pleasant hill. The road surface was always poor. Mental thing.

itboffin

Ah yes one small detail I forgot to mention about today's ride, I did the first big 300m hill in the big ring all the way and wasn't any slower than normal okay so it's a compact set-up 50/34t with a large MTB cassette but I still managed to maintain 80-90rpm all the way to the top. :?

This was not a good idea after only 3 miles into a 60+ mile ride

benno68

cjcp wrote:

Feltup wrote:

I have a 11-23 on the back but to be honest you just need to find a steeper hill. It just gets silly spinning at really high speeds.

:shock: Leckwith Hill is steep enough as it is! To give you an idea, it has an escape lane for HGVs just before the bend to the right.

You could do over 50, but, tbh, I don't find it a pleasant hill. The road surface was always poor. Mental thing.

Maybe I'm not tucked enough, like I said earlier I have hit 45mph and that was peddling probably 1/3 of the way down. I go up it more that down though - last night hitting an inspiring speed of 7mph :oops: . Overall I dd 7.8 miles home in 30 mins (including stopping at lights).

CJCP - the road surface is probably as you remember it! Just checked on bikehike. From the bridge over the river going up to the bend at the top is .76km (.47mi) total climb 66m (216ft) - sounds pitiful when reading some of the ride reports on here.

Any idea what % gradient that works out at, maths was never my strong point

Feltup

cjcp wrote:

Feltup wrote:

I have a 11-23 on the back but to be honest you just need to find a steeper hill. It just gets silly spinning at really high speeds.

:shock: Leckwith Hill is steep enough as it is! To give you an idea, it has an escape lane for HGVs just before the bend to the right.

You could do over 50, but, tbh, I don't find it a pleasant hill. The road surface was always poor. Mental thing.

Road surface plays a big part. Undulations are bad enough for unweighting the wheels and creating speed wobbles.

I shall amend my suggestion above to "you need a steep hill with smooth tarmac!"

I am hoping the Kirkstone Pass is in good condition for a blast on the FWC.

itboffin

Well it started out as a little pootle to shake off yesterdays 100k but its so nice out there I couldn't resist it, not trying to hard I quickly found myself heading towards Combe Gibbet that one almost did me today :? it was full out of the saddle mind over matter, I will not dab affair I won!!! of course but only just then I remembered my Trek is sporting a standard double with 12-25 cassette no wonder I felt like puking at the top :shock: I snapped a short video clip to show off the panorama

The view from the top


After a short rest at the top to take a couple of snaps, honest I attacked the descent with vigour slowing only to admire the view and make the odd animal noise :shock: at the passing wildlife.

It was one of those rides that just flows perfectly sweeping effortlessly round tight bends up and down small hills, powering along the straights, today it all just worked.







It wasn't all fun and games, well okay it was! but I did pick up a double puncture on the recovery home, but hey if you're gonna get a puncture I can't think of a nicer day or scenery to have it.

See more here
http://picasaweb.google.com/itboffin/AprilCycling#

Rich158

Now I'm jealous, especially being stuck in an office that's getting hotter by the minute :evil:

If I'm going to be hot and sweaty this afternoon, the bare minimum is that I'm on a bike

itboffin

Rich158 wrote:

Now I'm jealous, especially being stuck in an office that's getting hotter by the minute :evil:

If I'm going to be hot and sweaty this afternoon, the bare minimum is that I'm on a bike

Now the wind has dropped it's just hit 20 here I think i'll clean one of my bikes then ride it around the village to dry off.

Rich158

go on, keep rubbing it in :evil:

I'm not going to rise to the bait :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: