King of the Downs
Comments
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sbaywatch wrote:FransJacques wrote:you have to carbo starve then carbo load - deplete your stores on tuesday/wednesday (not via exercise but vai diet) then hit long and med chain carbs on friday/saturday and you'll be primed.
don't eat too much on saturday night. have a good poo on sunday. sorry but a good poo is key to getting all the gels and bars thru your system the next day.
avoid hard to digest veggies with lots of fibre the day before - soft mushy food is best.
Buyer beware with this advice especially the first bit about carbo starving :roll:
Soft mushy food?
Good poo?
The benefits of a good poo could never be emphasised enough! Moreover, it's literally like getting rid of a carbon seatpost and a stem in one go :shock:left the forum March 20230 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:sbaywatch wrote:FransJacques wrote:you have to carbo starve then carbo load - deplete your stores on tuesday/wednesday (not via exercise but vai diet) then hit long and med chain carbs on friday/saturday and you'll be primed.
don't eat too much on saturday night. have a good poo on sunday. sorry but a good poo is key to getting all the gels and bars thru your system the next day.
avoid hard to digest veggies with lots of fibre the day before - soft mushy food is best.
Buyer beware with this advice especially the first bit about carbo starving :roll:
Soft mushy food?
Good poo?
The benefits of a good poo could never be emphasised enough! Moreover, it's literally like getting rid of a carbon seatpost and a stem in one go :shock:
, OK, I'll give in to that classic bit of advice 0 -
big poos rid your system of back pressure which inhibits the free flow of new bars and gels thru the system
few years ago at the marmotte we had pizza the night before - really undercooked pizza to the point that the dough was pretty soft and gooey. next morning i had a big dough ball totally bunging up my system - it was hot but i could barely drink i felt so full and bloated.
didn't finish my first bottle until 2 hours into the ride (let alone gels or bars - forget it) by which time i had almost bonked from depleted glycogen. not a good plan
think poo. think through put. think clean pipes with lots of nice pink surface area to assimilate what you need.When a cyclist has a disagreement with a car; it's not who's right, it's who's left.0 -
According to the website (and an email I received after sending a slightly paniced enquiry) the Evans computer system has lost all entries booked before the end of November. We booked ours at the end of September specifically to avoid missing out so I'm not best pleased. :x
Apparently the procedure is to go to the 'unregistered' desk on the day with your confirmation of entry. Needless to say I think we'll get there early as presumably this means they have no idea how many riders have actually booked (it's already oversubscribed with just the ones who they do have down) and they only have a finite number of timing tags. Feed stations may also be a little congested (possibly Old Mother Hubbard)......
The rider list is at http://www.box.net/shared/ld0f9rno3p so have a look.0 -
is everyonre pooing yet? ok peeps, start pooing. later I will take a long stick with some steel wool and really ream out the ol' colon. (just joking but some noobs believe everythng, even that LA is clean...anyway...)
see you all tomorrow. should be a scorcher - well a UK style scorcher. with the heat there will certainly be a thermal tomorrow so will be breezy starting 1-2 pm.When a cyclist has a disagreement with a car; it's not who's right, it's who's left.0 -
not sure what to wear yet will prob be a bit cold in the mornining but meant to be 20+ later. Am only doing the 50 but that may take me as long as the people doing the 100 route
Not GPX file up on the blog yet which is a bit annoying, want to save it so I can ride this again later0 -
Still no GPX file, but at least they've posted up a list of the missing entires (including me and the missus) which is a relief.
1300 Riders so almost 33% oversubscribed :shock: so I doubt we'll get that lost even without GPX.0 -
And as if by magic the GPX has just appeared.
Best of luck eveyone, see you there.....0 -
.... this is too early to be awake.
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Agreed, eating a huge breakfast and waiting for that all important poo0
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Don't know what happened there!!
As I blamed poor performance on wet/cold last year, can I still blame the heat today?
Started great. Was an early start, but worth it for those first few hours. Cool, bright, traffic free.
Riding easy for the first loop and was well pleased with 3:40 back to the start. First few
hills on the second loop were fine, then it all went wrong. Feet hurt loads (they never hurt),
legs didn't want to keep going round. York Hill was breaking point, but after some food and
water, felt better .. till the final climb. Broken again. A real struggle back from there. 8:46 I think.
Including getting there and back, 198km. I'd go out and ride another 2, if it was possible!!
Great event.0 -
Agree cracking event, well stocked water points. The sun cream was a life saver. Agree with you, the first loop was very good but the second loop really put me in some trouble on those hills. I also had it in my head it was 180km, not 185km.
Will definitely do that again. Pizza and Beer now.0 -
Started early to get a bit of the cool weather. Did a sub 8 hour ride and it was very uncomfortable even with a few hours in the morning where it wasn't as hot. Went home after the ride, had a sleep, then went out for an early dinner and there were still a number of riders out on the course. Poor souls - I hate to think what it was like riding the full course in the heat of the day and being out there for that long.0
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Full course was good, though as predicted York HIll was an absolute brute! A spill (rider stupidity) after 60m made the last 50 a bit more challenging and I now have some gorgeous road rash! 7h 04, will try and do better next year.0
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well after crashing last year I at least managed to get round ok this time. Started as one of the final groups out and just did the 50 as this was fist event of the year. Got beaten by all the hills apart from Box Hill. Don't been over it in ages so got really annoyed to get to the cafe \ rest area at the top and then have it still climb higher. Surely the rules state once you climb a hill you get a decent.
56 miles in 5 hours so I can see how bad I am at cycling0 -
Hi Guys,
Good to know you had an enjoyable event with us today, not so keen on your bowel habits though!
We'd had some discussion about the choice of route for this years event. The first loop has the long draggy climbs and is the shorter of the two in the beautifull Surrey countryside. The second is a longer route with short, sharp climbs. So the discussion went along the lines of would everyone like to do the scenicshort ride, with the hardy souls going on to the main challenge, or should we take everyone on a challenging 60 mile loop with the Full course going on to do the Surrey stint.
Views greatly appreciated.
Last rider came in about 6.15 btw!
Ta
Dean0 -
Dean, for what it's worth I thought the full route worked well, scenic and manageable for the first half, then a challenge all the way to the end. Although I don't believe your 10k to go signs were telling the truth!!
Francis0 -
did anyone see the photographers ?
I was one of the last out so not sure if that affected anything but I never saw them at all on the first loop. First time I was out in the sun rather than in all winter gear so would have liked a pic.
For the sigs for the hills i'd love to see them detail how long each hill is as I had no idea how to pace myself and what to aim for.
Pasta and drinks at the end were great and we could buy coke and stuff too which was nice.
Second year and will be back again very well run event0 -
I would like to thank the Evans team for such a well organised event. I really enjoyed the day, which was a good traing event for my upcoming Lejog. The feed stations were well stocked and the start and finsh were very efficient.
I also thought the 10k sign was a bit optimistic, but I was very tired at that point!
I think it would be useful for some of the signs on the course to have a mileage marker that corresponded to a point on the map, just so you could see where you were and give you an ideaa of how far you had to go. I would also have these marked in miles rather than km as the event was publicised in imperial measures.
Thanks
Tim
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TimDecker0 -
Wow what a day, an experience I will not forget. Evans - give yourself a huge pat on the back, brilliantly organised, friendly staff and well stocked feed stations. Great route, looking forward to next year already. One thing, not sure if you can help but any chance you could turn the heat down a touch for nexts year event!!!0
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Dean,
I think you have the two loops the right way around. Keep the longer and more manageable hills on the first loop and the sharp climbs for those signing up for the long route. I am sure that some riders do the shorter distance because of time constraints but for those who sign up for the shorter ride who are not confident about doing the whole distance, sending them up York Hill, White road and The Wall is probably going to put them off rather than encourage them.
It was particularly cruel after however many miles to detour off Titsey Hill and go up White Road, particularly when knowing a more gentle climb up Titsey brings you out at the same spot !
It was a very well organised event on a tough but memorable course and there were a few roads close to home that I hadn't come across which will now be incorporated into training rides (but not White Road, York Hill.......)0 -
Really well organised ride. I clocked around 6:10 for the full distance which hurt an incredible amount0
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Just to echo the above, I have to say that I think that I thought it was a superbly organised event. The route markers were always where and when they were needed, so you could just ride and enjoy the route instead of worrying about navigating.
The feed/drink stops were also superb. I couldn't have done it without the nutrition and fluids.
The only thing that was missing was the 'hill marker' for Yorks Hill. As I was slogging up it I believed that it wasn't one of the 10 listed climbs, just another intermediate leg-sapper, which was pretty demoralising.
As for the distance, I recorded 115 miles. When it said 10k to go I thought I only had about 6k, so was pretty gutted.
It was a great day, and my computer said 6h 42min for the ride, so including food/piss stops, I reckon it'll be about 7 hours.
Great day. Well done Evans.0 -
As others have said a very well organised ride and enjoyable day out on the bike.I did the full route and recorded 115.8miles, mind you with the zig zagging to get up some of the hills it probably added some mileage.
The hardest hill is definately Yorks Hill, just when you think it can`t get any steeper it kicks up even more.Putting the feed station up at the top was very sensible.I struggled up in a very low gear 30/26 and that was hard.I guess many would have to got off and walked it.
I opted and took Evans`s advice and left the car at home and cycled in and back home afterwards making a total of 146miles for the day.
I think i did a time of 7hr 6min which i was really pleased with.0 -
Well organised ride - ta.
Due to waiting for mates - left a good hour later than wanted to. Then punctured after about 12 miles (roads still need a damn good seeing to) after hitting a massive pothole (which also broke bottle cage!). By the time I'd fixed that and sorted out my pockets (to carry one) it was then a long chase to try and get back to a decent group and the heat got to me! Did the 1/2 way point in 3 hours of cycling (not including puncture time) and was getting too hot and flustered (and tired) so bailed on the second half, went home, painted the fence and went out in the evening again when it was cooler!
Ride was good though and enjoyable - I did notice a LOT of gel wrappers on the ground though - totally inexcusable - I carried my bust tube until I found a bin - people can do the same with their wrappers.http://www.georgesfoundation.org
http://100hillsforgeorge.blogspot.com/
http://www.12on12in12.blogspot.co.uk/0 -
+1 Great route, great day, well sign posted, well stocked feed stations, everything I wanted my first sportive to be.
Super hot day to be partaking in such masochistic sportive excess, I chugged down six bidons of energy drink and was still getting de-hydration cramps, lost about four pounds in water weight.
Also recorded 115 miles on the sat-nav and 7h 30 ride time (so about 7h 50 including stops) so quite pleased with that for a first go.
Saw a nasty off around the 100 mile mark on the hairpin descent, hope you two guys are okay?
Also saw a lot of gel and bar wrappers (they were the ones being given out at the feed stations so definitely know they came from the event) don't quite get how people think that is acceptable, if it falls out by accident okay, but deliberately discarding it :x ?
All in all a very good day and a relief the IT fubar was resolved before the event (although my partner still missed out on getting a timing chip she did get a timing card so will still get an official time).
Despite feeling like it's a tick in the box and I have no need to do it again, I know I'll be back next year to have another crack at those hills. 0 -
BTW it was mentioned in the original bumpf for this that the price included free entry to another ride-it event of your choice, any idea how we claim that (I quite fancy the Brighton one)?0
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Great route, great day. This is my first sportive, so i just did the half.
I had a great day! Superb organisation from Evans, everything from teh registration to the pasta was excellent. I'm especially keen on the fruit cake they had at the feed station
I missed one sign & went down to West Dorking so I had to backtrack back up the hill. I was just enjoying myself too much along the bombing along the top all by myself, so I flew straight past the marker.
The climbs were good. I found the first a bit of a killer, but Box Hill seemed quite easy in comparison. The route was a good mix (for me) of smooth straights, and slightly rougher roads. I saw a few people with punctures, but (thankfully) nothing more serious.
appetite well & truly whetted for doing more.
Everyone was very friendly too!
My total distance on my 'puter was 91km showing about 3hrs 30 mins , which seems about right with the detour. I had no idea how long it would take me, so I'm pleased with this result --
Battaglin C13 (white)
Cube Analog (green/white)
Decathlon 7.3 (yellow)
Pinnacle Arkose 3 (grey)
Looking for bike n+10 -
Good point Heckler, that was mentioned.0
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Hi All.
Sorry for the late reply, I had to sort out the carnage at the event centre, unload 4 vans, load it all into one and drive home via checkpoint one to drop off the keys we forgot to give back!!
It's great to know you guys enjoted the ride, makes the hard work worthwhile.
To answer some of the points:-
Cake. Cooked by Jon (the Gore Man) He usually does 3 or 4 for us, This event he did 25 and even had his mum cooking them as well.
Route choice. Yep, making the challenging route for all those who relish a challenge whilst leaving the easier route for the masses sounds about right.
Marker on Yorks Hill. I could write an essay on this! Basically, there are issuse with one resident, I know this so visit all the houses on the hill before the event, if I can't speak to the owner I leave a letter, last year I got an anonomous letter, this year an e-mail saying that they did mind. We have a route checker driving about an hour in front of the first rider checking the markers. They were removed on the lower section of the hill so they put some more up. Realising they had made a mistake they went to move it two minutes later only to find them gone again and a landrover disapearring up a drive. This is why there was a marshal at the bottom of the hill. The only thing I can think is that the git came out and took the Hill Marker down. There were reports about a landrover going down the hill beeping and swearing at the riders,probably the same guy.
Free Ride. Is in the process of being sorted. We were going to mail everyone a code but realised this could be put up and everyone could enter for free. You should recieve a mail in the next few days.
Rider on the last hairpin. Is fine, had his chin stitched and came back to get his bike later.
Think that's it.
See you all next year.
Dean0
