Easter Sunday rides...

briantrumpet

I was wondering what rides people were planning for Easter Sunday. No work, good weather...

I'm planning to do a solo 100-miler from Exeter: up to Wheddon Cross on Exmoor, across to Bishop's Lydeard near Taunton, back across the Brendon Hills to Honiton and then back to Exeter. 100 miles and 7,400ft of climbing. I'm resting my legs today in anticipation. The Easter eggs will have to wait till I get home from the ride.

Here's the route:
http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=233591

Garz

I have been on holiday all week and loved the weather so ES is now pencilled in as a rest day. Three hundred and five miles this week is enough (18,700ft).

8)

BBQ tonight and a few cans methinks are deserved! :idea:

Paul32uk

Looks like a nice route and you have a lovely day for it

Are you setting off early to avoid the heat? I was out by 5am this morning and saw teh sun rise over meon valley which was quite nice. Roads were dead too!!

You map plotted only says its 3555 feet of ascent so unsure where the 7400 comes from tho?

Sounds like you've had a busy bike on the week there Garz. Jealous you're having a BBQ too!!

rodgers73

Did Doncaster to Scarborough yesterday (80), stayed over then Scarborough to York (50) and train home. Lovely!

briantrumpet

Paul32uk wrote:

Looks like a nice route and you have a lovely day for it

Are you setting off early to avoid the heat? I was out by 5am this morning and saw teh sun rise over meon valley which was quite nice. Roads were dead too!! You map plotted only says its 3555 feet of ascent so unsure where the 7400 comes from tho?

I've got a late night tonight, so no, not an early start. There's quite a lot of tree cover going up the Exe valley, and there should be a blow on the tops of the hills, so I hope it won't be too scorching.

Re the ascent - that's from Mapyx Quo, which has extremely accurate contour data (it's plotted to something mad like a one metre grid for the whole of the UK), so it picks up all the small ups & downs that Devon & Exmoor do so well. I think you'll find that sites that use Googlemaps consistently under-read on ascent/descent. Certainly when I compared the Mapyx figures for the Tour Ride in Somerset/Devon last year, it agreed with the official figures.

Paul32uk

Ahhhh, I didnt realise that about google maps etc. That would explain why I'm completely knackered when I plot a route with a high amount of ascent according to google :oops:

I need to get me a gizmo like you have!!

briantrumpet

Paul32uk wrote:

Ahhhh, I didnt realise that about google maps etc. That would explain why I'm completely knackered when I plot a route with a high amount of ascent according to google :oops:

I need to get me a gizmo like you have!!

It's actually a good free program, but you have to buy the OS 1:50,000 map tiles - though they are very cheap (less than £1 for a 10km sq tile), but you can print out proper OS maps from it showing your route.

meanredspider

briantrumpet wrote:

so it picks up all the small ups & downs that Devon & Exmoor do so well. I think you'll find that sites that use Googlemaps consistently under-read on ascent/descent. .

It does beg the question: are all ascents created equally? Clearly they aren't. I know that there's some dips in my commute route which, because the "climb" is preceded by "drop", I hardly notice. Combined in the reverse order (climb then drop) would seem harder because I wouldn't have the momentum. The small ups & downs are much easier on the legs than the relentless climbs even if they are followed by a long descent.

Have fun

briantrumpet

meanredspider wrote:

It does beg the question: are all ascents created equally? Clearly they aren't.

I've just checked the Mapyx website, and their elevation data is derived from the Ordnance Survey OpenData at a resolution of 50m. This is what they say:

"OS Digital Terrain Model is a 1:50 000-derived height product.

The DTM is at a 50 metre resolution, that is the grid points are 50m apart. The height accuracy is approximately +/- 5m RMSE. "

So it wouldn't pick up the tiniest bumps, but would seem to catch any noticeable ups & downs with a fair degree of accuracy. It would be interesting to know how Google derives its height data, but the profile that Bike Route Toaster produced is a distinctly smoother line than Mapyx produced. My guess would be that in order to keep the data processing manageable for a website its elevation resolution is severely compromised. Certainly Mapyx Quo makes big demands on memory & processing power.

Garz

Google is not that accurate judging by the latest sportive I done. It reckoned the steepest incline was 15% and was slighlty out on the elevation numbers. The figure it gave was an average and not the steepest gradient over a section.

Like mentioned you should only use it as an estimate and not expect it to be dead accurate.

JST

Well, as I have to work today, albeit short hours, I have cycled the 8 miles to work and then I shall be cycling to my parents 30 miles away whilst my wife takes the car. Not sure if I will cycle home on Monday as we are meeting friends for lunch so I may have to have a few beers with them and stick the bike in the car The wife is preggers so she is on Taxi duty - she is very understanding

briantrumpet

Ride completed - absolutely stonking. I ended up missing out one lumpy bit but going a bit further round, so it ended up at 107 miles. Perfect weather (quite cool out of the sun). Plus mostly good roads - only one prattish driver, everyone else good. Stopped twice when I saw people in their gardens to ask to fill up my water bottles - they were only too happy to.

A couple of snaps from the ride:

On top of Exmoor (on the B3224 to the right of Wheddon Cross)



And further along the road, looking towards the Quantocks



Lovely, eh?

ShutUpLegs

Sounds like a perfect day

Secteur

Fantastic, and well done!

How do you guys do 100 milers for fun??!!

I will be doing my longest ride ever tomorrow - 32 miles (up from my usual 25 miles which I do twice a week) - will take me just over 2 hours at my usual rate of riding, and I will probably be knackered by the end of it. Plan to start early (on the road 0630hrs).

I can only dream of 100 milers!!!

I usually console myself in the fact that my 25mile rides are very hilly -1800ft ascent - I used to think this was a LOT, until I started reading threads like this! My 32 miler tomorrow is 2400ft ascent.

Anyway, well done!

petemadoc

Secteur wrote:

Fantastic, and well done!

How do you guys do 100 milers for fun??!!

I will be doing my longest ride ever tomorrow - 32 miles (up from my usual 25 miles which I do twice a week) - will take me just over 2 hours at my usual rate of riding, and I will probably be knackered by the end of it. Plan to start early (on the road 0630hrs).

I can only dream of 100 milers!!!

I usually console myself in the fact that my 25mile rides are very hilly -1800ft ascent - I used to think this was a LOT, until I started reading threads like this! My 32 miler tomorrow is 2400ft ascent.

Anyway, well done!

No worries, you'll soon be upping your distance. I remember when I first got my road bike, cycled about 3 miles to the next village and couldn't believe how far I'd gone so quickly! :shock:

I haven't done many training rides recently so did 40 miles with my head down as fast I could. Av 19.08, wish I could get to the elusive magic number . . . .20

ChrisSA

I did a 42miler on Wednesday - furthest I have ridden so far, but only by 10 miles or so. Elevation data from MapMyRun (from Garmin 305) shows 1215' ascent.

It was a commute, but not a time limited one. Really nice to just get on with it.

R8JimBob88

I got this short but steep ride in on Friday -

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/225080

62 miles with 7200ft ascent. I think there were about 10 ascents over 15% with the steepest being 25%

rolf_f

62 miles for me. From Middleham through Leyburn into Swaledale. Up Swaledale to Muker and then over the Buttertubs Pass (First pic - ugly thing from Google Earth as I wasn't photographing today!) and down to Hawes. Past the Wensleydale Creamery and up over Fleetmoss (quite a nice ascent as there was a bit of breeze - Google pic looking back to Buttertubs pass). Brilliant descent - held a motorbike at bay for quite a while until he past me and we then both got held up by a car.
Then down to Kettlewell and up Park Rash (which was pretty vicious - see comedy hairpin pic) and the long roller coaster ride back to Middleham.

Weather was fantastic - a bit hot on Park Rash as the wind was missing there but you can't beat the Dales scenery for wild prettiness!

jus71n

Did a local 40 mile event yesterday, plenty of hills and biked home did 52 miles in total

first time I've ever done 50+ miles I'm buzzing, really loved it.

Back on the commute today (12 miles) legs feel heavy