Silly Commuter Sportives

BentMikey

Crikey, what a looser!!

attica

I hope his wife is still giving him earache!

BentMikey

Sounds like you did a good job of showing up his lack of manhood!!!

p.s. I don't believe a word of your slow climb up Star Hill - you were looking strong and fit when I saw you just before the climb, as fresh as a daisy.

jonginge

Sewinman wrote:

Ouch!

Well that was a laugh, really enjoyed it and I thought it was quite well organised. I was given plenty of mule bars and even a free inner tube to replace the one i punctured.

Pace was leisurely to say the least and I got lost for a mile or two (thanks to the driver who told me to turn around), plus the puncture, so my final time was 6 hours 19 mins (5.38 on Garmin)! I loved it too and managed to cycle up all the hills, although I stopped on 'the Wall' and on 'Star Hill' as I was about to have a coronary.

Highlights - seeing on guying puking up. The bloke who did it in jeans, old bike, clipless and wearing a bobble hat. Getting home to find I had one leg covered in blood and a hole in my leg and not having felt doing it!

Did not see anyone apart fro Gabriel, sad i missed the pub...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23702754

Well done, sir. First sportive done and dusted. Not the easiest by any stretch...

Shame we missed you at HQ. We were there for quite a while but, I guess, you were in one of the later start slots.

Hole in leg? Covered in blood? Nails!

attica

BentMikey wrote:

Sounds like you did a good job of showing up his lack of manhood!!!

p.s. I don't believe a word of your slow climb up Star Hill - you were looking strong and fit when I saw you just before the climb, as fresh as a daisy.

Ah, but you didn't get to ride Star Hill did you. long and steep, everyone was crawling up it.

Amnezia, what did you see of the incident where I got stopped?

Sewinman

JonGinge wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

Ouch!

Well that was a laugh, really enjoyed it and I thought it was quite well organised. I was given plenty of mule bars and even a free inner tube to replace the one i punctured.

Pace was leisurely to say the least and I got lost for a mile or two (thanks to the driver who told me to turn around), plus the puncture, so my final time was 6 hours 19 mins (5.38 on Garmin)! I loved it too and managed to cycle up all the hills, although I stopped on 'the Wall' and on 'Star Hill' as I was about to have a coronary.

Highlights - seeing on guying puking up. The bloke who did it in jeans, old bike, clipless and wearing a bobble hat. Getting home to find I had one leg covered in blood and a hole in my leg and not having felt doing it!

Did not see anyone apart fro Gabriel, sad i missed the pub...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23702754

Well done, sir. First sportive done and dusted. Not the easiest by any stretch...

Shame we missed you at HQ. We were there for quite a while but, I guess, you were in one of the later start slots.

Hole in leg? Covered in blood? Nails!

Cheers, well done to you too. I see you thought it was a bit short and added on a few extra miles Seemed that a lot of people got lost.

I was not back at HQ until gone 4pm - started at 10.05.

Stiff legs today! So what is next then!

Sewinman

Attica wrote:

BentMikey wrote:

Sounds like you did a good job of showing up his lack of manhood!!!

p.s. I don't believe a word of your slow climb up Star Hill - you were looking strong and fit when I saw you just before the climb, as fresh as a daisy.

Ah, but you didn't get to ride Star Hill did you. long and steep, everyone was crawling up it.

Amnezia, what did you see of the incident where I got stopped?

Sorry to hear about your encounter, hope it did not ruin it too much...that hill was brutal.

attica

Sewinman wrote:

Sorry to hear about your encounter, hope it did not ruin it too much...that hill was brutal.

Frankly I was glad of the rest

Sewinman

Attica wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

Sorry to hear about your encounter, hope it did not ruin it too much...that hill was brutal.

Frankly I was glad of the rest

I tried to pick a fight with a falling leaf half way up, but no joy.

I seriously think people are more aggressive in the countryside...counter intuitive but anecdotally true.

amnezia

Attica wrote:

BentMikey wrote:

Sounds like you did a good job of showing up his lack of manhood!!!

p.s. I don't believe a word of your slow climb up Star Hill - you were looking strong and fit when I saw you just before the climb, as fresh as a daisy.

Ah, but you didn't get to ride Star Hill did you. long and steep, everyone was crawling up it.

Amnezia, what did you see of the incident where I got stopped?

I was a bit further up the hill (maybe 10-15m), i heard tires screeching and then a bit of shouting turned round and saw a bloke grab a cyclist by the arm. Didn't see any of the events leading up to it unfortunately. They were a couple of other riders with me at this point who also turned round.

I considered stopping to see if everything was ok but at that point i was pretty shattered, wasn't sure if i'd be able to get going again.

shame there always has to be one idiot, i found most of the motorists to be very considerate.

markshaw77

Rich158 wrote:

Not great times due to the icy conditions, but I didn't think the hills were too bad and only dropped into my small ring for Kidds Hill which pleased me no end

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Kudos to you Rich if you managed to get around all that in your big ring - I must admit, having taken out the (heavy) flat-bar roadie for fear of crashing the carbon superbike, I was very grateful for the small ring of the triple, although with a 11-23 on the back, that was probably to be expected!!

Made it round in just shy of 5hrs rolling time (5.5hrs elapsed time with a couple of food stops and a puncture on the way up Ide Hill!!), so not too shabby for a first serious outing of the year - especially considering the slow/walking sections of ice

I must admit, I had to laugh at the point when the road was closed off with a sign saying "Road Closed Due to Icy Conditions" only to find an A4 piece of paper saying "Cyclists please continues with caution"

I past BentMikey around 2/3rds of the way round and saw Jon, Christophe, etc at the end - sorry for not saying hi, but I was too busy trying to catch up with my wife and 3 kids who had (unexpectedly) turned up to support me!!

Attica - sorry to hear about your incident. I only had one minor piece of "sunday driving" when a guy tried to overtake a pair of horses in the opposite carriageway just as I was approaching and ended up nearly taking us all out!!

I thought apart from not using the back-up route, the event was well organised - I certainly didn't have any issues with food or signing - but with the unpredictable winter weather, I think I will probably stick to spring/summer/autumn sportives in the future.

Roll on the summer and the next round of SCS by when I hope to catch-up with one or two of you guys at the Morpeth sometime.

londonlivvy

Rich158 you must have legs of steel. And Attica you have nerves of steel, clearly, not to have been fazed by random angry man.

Congrats Sewinman on your first sportive! Loads of UK sportives will be easier than that, in my experience anyway.

Gutted I too missed the pub - rats - but Morpeth on Friday?

MattHammond - who was due to start at 9 like me - how did you get on? I didn't see him but was undoubtedly overtaken by him along the way?

And lastly... what's the next one? I've signed up for the SWRC Spring Onion on 14th March.

Christophe3967

At last! I got to ride on closed roads! That was very cool. Too cool, actually.

8) 8)

bigmat

That was harder work than I had expected. Omens didn't look good when I was still up at 2.45 (son not been well), managed to sleep through alarm and woke up when mate rang to say he was outside. As a result, missed the 9am start and set off a bit before 10 in the end. Felt good to start with, attacked on the first hill as planned and got into a nice little group with three other guys, flying along for first 25 miles. Wasn't letting the ice bother me and jokingly said to one of the other guys how poor people's bike handling was, as half the problem was people slowing right down so you had to brake and swerve as soon as it got a little slippery. Anyway, as soon as I had said that I knew I had cursed myself and lo and behold at the bottom of the next descent I managed to slide off on a patch of mud / ice, down like a sack of spuds in a big mound of brown stuff. Totally my fault, should have been a bit more cautious. Worse bit was it meant I lost my grupetto, ended up riding the next 40 odd miles pretty much alone. (best bit was I felt vindicated for riding the winter bike!) Felt terrible from fall to second feed stop, hit the wall on The Wall, chain came off at I'm sure the exact same point it snapped the year before last, generally wished I hadn't bothered, but got a second wind after the second food stop, finished strongly, Star Hill didn't seem as bad as I remembered and took about 20 scalps in the last 5 miles alone. Finished in 4:47. Next up the Kentish Killer which unfortunately clashes with the social ride in February. Managed to miss everybody although I think I saw the back of Bent Mikey - carbon recumbent at the side of the road, I assume that was you having a slash?!

Sewinman

Is it not normal to ride alone then?

After getting lost and the puncture I did not see a soul really until catching up with a few people in the last 10 or so miles. They were all very knackered/dieing, so did not really ride with them as such.

bigmat

In an ideal scenario you team up with a few people at around your pace (actually, at just above your pace is ideal) and work with them, sharing turns on the front. Its a lot quicker and more fun. My usual sportive experience is that this lasts until the first feedstop and then its every man for himself - not sure why. Did a couple last year where I teamed up with another rider and had a very strong finish, the Little Lumpy the guy was clearly fitter than me and I half killed myself to stay with him, managed to take the sprint at the end though!

londonlivvy

Sewinman wrote:

Is it not normal to ride alone then?

After getting lost and the puncture I did not see a soul really until catching up with a few people in the last 10 or so miles. They were all very knackered/dieing, so did not really ride with them as such.

I rode alone the whole way this time as I just kept getting overtaken and just couldn't hold onto their wheels. In other sportives I have usually managed to team up with a few people, but the best sportives I've had are when I've organised to ride with friends who are a similar speed.

jonginge

As Mat says, if you can form a group with a few of similar abilities it makes it all easier and more fun.
Last year I rode with CJ and Attica until CJ punctured on a hill. I didn't realise this for a bit...
This year I formed a group with 3 other guys who'd gone off course at the same place as me (Dormansland). We all worked and later we regrouped at the top of climbs when Jim started to cramp up in his hamstring. He'd been pretty strong before that. It all splintered to teeny, tiny pieces on Star Hill, though. I did ride the first 20 solo as I was trying to stay with a chap who was just a bit stronger than me.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23715441
(stupid HR strap)

londonlivvy

JonGinge wrote:

As Mat says, if you can form a group with a few of similar abilities it makes it all easier and more fun.
Last year I rode with CJ and Attica until CJ punctured on a hill. I didn't realise this for a bit...
This year I formed a group with 3 other guys who'd gone off course at the same place as me (Dormansland). We all worked and later we regrouped at the top of climbs when Jim started to cramp up in his hamstring. He'd been pretty strong before that. It all splintered to teeny, tiny pieces on Star Hill, though. I did ride the first 20 solo as I was trying to stay with a chap who was just a bit stronger than me.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23715441
(stupid HR strap)

Stupid question coming up : How did you burn 4233 calories when I burnt 2300 and:
1) my average HR was higher than you at 145
2) you were smiling at the end and I was barely capable of forming words?
3) I weigh more than you.

jonginge

londonlivvy wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

As Mat says, if you can form a group with a few of similar abilities it makes it all easier and more fun.
Last year I rode with CJ and Attica until CJ punctured on a hill. I didn't realise this for a bit...
This year I formed a group with 3 other guys who'd gone off course at the same place as me (Dormansland). We all worked and later we regrouped at the top of climbs when Jim started to cramp up in his hamstring. He'd been pretty strong before that. It all splintered to teeny, tiny pieces on Star Hill, though. I did ride the first 20 solo as I was trying to stay with a chap who was just a bit stronger than me.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23715441
(stupid HR strap)

Stupid question coming up : How did you burn 4233 calories when I burnt 2300 and:
1) my average HR was higher than you at 145
2) you were smiling at the end and I was barely capable of forming words?
3) I weigh more than you.

I take calorie calcs from bike computers with a pinch of salt
However, my HR average is rubbish due to the strap slipping at certain points in the ride (and most of the 45mins off course was slow moving or stationary).
It's also possible that the calories value for my ride was calculated from the data from my PowerTap rather than from an arcane formula based on HR. Will look into that*.
As for 2, well I spent 40miles riding in a group which saved some energy. I also had a caffienated gel about an hour from the end and it definitely worked: I was full of beans up Star Hill and the last 5 miles

Edit: * A quick google shows garmins tend exaggerate the calorie count by quite a bit

amnezia

times and places are up http://www.hell.gb.com/LeftMenu/FinishList.aspx?id=4

jonginge

amnezia wrote:

times and places are up http://www.hell.gb.com/LeftMenu/FinishList.aspx?id=4

B$gger. That 45min diversion cost me a top 10 place. Grr. Overall, the times were much slower than last year, as expected.

attica

Photos up too

smudge002

173rd out of 514. Must try harder.

Sewinman

Interesting that it says it was 63.5 miles, my garmin clocked 69.31 (including diversion). Also I wonder if the second from last timing matt was working, as lots of people have not got a time for that.

It also cheated me out of a whole minute!!!!!!!! :evil:

attica

smudge002 wrote:

173rd out of 514. Must try harder.

Nice work Joe, I was 7 places behind you

smudge002

Attica wrote:

smudge002 wrote:

173rd out of 514. Must try harder.

Nice work Joe, I was 7 places behind you

Ooooh. Pretty close. What time did you start?

I'm not too disappointed with my time actually. It was a hard day and the ice shook things up a bit. I should have really pushed to beat 5 hours but Star Hill completely took it out of me.

attica

I started at about 9.50 and kept my powder dry until Star Hill, then I really enjoyed the last 5 miles or so.
Not as much as Rich did though, he was enjoying it so much he rode straight past the finish and into the next town!

amnezia

198th - Not bad for a first attempt.

The pictures say a thousand words, not smiling in any of them.

londonlivvy

321.. which isn't terribly exciting, but I'm reasonably happy with it for the first sportive of the year.

BUT if you only count the girls, then I came 6th!