Dragon Ride 2012 "post match analysis"

farmgirl

Cracking event, 10 times better than 2011 for me. Huge well done to the human race events crew for making things work as well as they could. It is difficult i'm sure for everyone to be completely satisfied but I really think they did doa great job.Agreed about the littering - an absolute disgrace. Will be back again next year and hopefully they will keep the same route because it would be good to compare times year on year plus the route was excellnet, trough and challenging just like it should be!! Just sneaked gold - so happy with that :-)

dodgerdog

Farmgirl,

Well done on the gold! I thought I had done well and didn't even manage a bronze time :oops:

proto

Hey Farmgirl, I think we're near neighbours, Thame, Oxfordshire? Years ago I used to watch you give the boys a hard time in Mini Rugby when my son Alex was playing for Chinnor!

(if it's not you, please forgve me!)

Fantastic ride by the way, sensational time. Congratulations.

nunowoolmez

I luckily opted for my leg warmers, probably didn't need em but my legs kept warm n comfy anyway...& bite free!! Agree that everyone i spoke to was ace & a real friendly type. I really enjoy coming to these events & just chatting to & riding with random folk. My total time was 9:37, ride time was 8:40. My aim was just to finish under 10 hrs so i'm happy with that. Next year if i get in i will aim to knock an hour off that. A great day riding. Shame about the 4 hour drive home in the rain!!

farmgirl

proto wrote:

Hey Farmgirl, I think we're near neighbours, Thame, Oxfordshire? Years ago I used to watch you give the boys a hard time in Mini Rugby when my son Alex was playing for Chinnor!

(if it's not you, please forgve me!)

Fantastic ride by the way, sensational time. Congratulations.

Ha! Yes thats me, blimy that was a long time ago! Cheers! Hope you had a good ride? Nothing like those climbs round here, well maybe 10x up stokenchurch hill! Just got to try and hang on to my form for the Marmotte now, oh and try and get the weekend off work which could be more of an issue!

benno68

sampras38 wrote:

I've upgraded everything on my GTC SL and the only thing left that came with it as standard is the seat post.

I've changed a few bits on mine too, Deda Superzero seatpost, Fizik(Alliante I think), Ksyrium Elites (Mich PRO4's) and Easton EC90 forks as the 2012 frame was a warranty replacement so had to buy forks for it. Got the 2010 one repaired and chucked 105 on it and it's my preferred bike of the two, I didn't fancy trying the Devils Elbow on a 39 even with a 28 on the back so used the 2012 one with a compact and a 27 on the back.

The photos of my bike aren't that good tbh - look up my number 0832 if you fancy.

cwm

number 1216 and i do look cool lol.
obviously anybody that went out after me saw me as they went past and those that went out before me didnt,
good day

proto

farmgirl wrote:

Ha! Yes thats me, blimy that was a long time ago! Cheers! Hope you had a good ride? Nothing like those climbs round here, well maybe 10x up stokenchurch hill! Just got to try and hang on to my form for the Marmotte now, oh and try and get the weekend off work which could be more of an issue!

Oh, I don't know, two reps of Kingston Blount followed by a sprint up Whiteleaf would match Devil's Elbow (just!). Nothing like the Bwlch though.

benno68

cwm wrote:

number 1216 and i do look cool lol.
obviously anybody that went out after me saw me as they went past and those that went out before me didnt,
good day

I left at about 8:15 Cwm and got in around 18:50. I didn't bust a gut so was able to have a laugh with a few guys on the way around. I was the fatty in Cardiff Ajax Kit in a group of 4 to 7 - you may have seen me.

Swervin

Agree with all that has been said on the 2012 Dragon. A brutal & beautiful course, with the only downside the litter deposited by fellow cyclists. The inclusion of the Rhigos & Bwlch in the last 30 miles was a real sting in the tail.

I recorded a Grand Fondo time of 9 hrs 14 mins with bike time of 8 hrs 45 mins by the Garmin. I really did die on the last few miles though, which brings me to my question.

My food consumption throughout the ride consisted of 2 energy drinks, 2 energy bars, 3 gels, 2 bananas & a bit of malt loaf. I could not bring myself to eat anything else and ate nothing from the foot of the Rhigos onwards - I finished with a real gut ache and total exhaustion.

How much do you guys eat on a similar ride and what strategies do you have for topping up the energy levels. I do eat a good breakfast in advance but slowly run out of energy slowly after 50 miles. Any advice would be gratefully received as I am doing the Marmotte in 3 weeks.

mudshark

Swervin wrote:

How much do you guys eat on a similar ride and what strategies do you have for topping up the energy levels.

Well you must be burning 500 - 600 calories an hour so you really want to get as much of that back into your system as you can. You've got to eat from early on and not wait until you're hungry - from in the 1st hour. As you have a problem taking food in you need to find out what works for you - I find it hard to eat some food but am OK with lemon energy drinks, gels, energy bars, malt loaf and cereal bars. You need to drink a lot more energy drink for sure and find out what else you can tolerate.

Cjauto

What a great day my first road event only did the 130k that was just enough for me . Did it in 5.07 hours split time was 2.16 , looking forward to next year may try the long one need to shift another stone first. My next event is the abergavenny iron mountain 100 mile so that will push me to my limit can't wait .

dombo6

Swervin wrote:

How much do you guys eat on a similar ride and what strategies do you have for topping up the energy levels. I do eat a good breakfast in advance but slowly run out of energy slowly after 50 miles. Any advice would be gratefully received as I am doing the Marmotte in 3 weeks.

I did a similar time to you and this year went the almost 100% gel route once on the ride:
Started with 2-3 scrambled eggs on brown toast, glass of OJ, cuppa tea and muesli in the b&b
On the ride, every 10-12 miles I had a Torq gel, approx 40g of carbs, sluiced down with Torq energy drink. In between gels I stuffed a Clif shot block in my cheek - these took about 3-4 miles to dissolve.
Feed stations at every 30 miles or so I had a banana, couple of salted spuds and a red jam tart.
For Rhigos and Bwlch I had 2 caffeinated Torq gels within 5 miles of each other.
All told about 8 Torq gels, 2 isotonic GO gels and a pack of Clif Shots plus 3x 750ml bottles of energy drink and one final bottle of Nuun/Magnesium tablet mix. Previously i have always tried real food but found it a struggle to eat and digest on the move. The gels were nice enough that i actually looked forward to eating them, esp the Black Cherry yoghurt!
For recovery I inhaled the pasta on offer in about 30 seconds, and then had a cheese and ham omelette sandwich, an orange and 500ml of strawberry REGO, although a pint of semi-skimmed milk would have worked better if chilled. Been eating like a pig ever since to keep my skinny 69kg frame properly fed, but that's cyclists for you

For the Marmotte I would allow another hour or so on your Dragon time, 15 gels and some packets of your favourite drink powder.

pantsani

Food - 2/3 bars - any brand with loads of carbs in them ( roughly in 1st half of event ) - 4-6 gels ( 2nd half of event ) depending on how long/hard it is - Torq my current favourite

Drink - starting with 2 x 800 ml bottles of carb drink( whatever is going cheap at the supermarket) , as much carb & electrolyte drink as I can lay my hands on aiming to stop once on easier events , twice on hotter/harder/longer events like the dragon.

I will also have gradually eaten well in the previous 2 days, although I didn't do this last weekend due to feeling rough and tbh it didn't seem to cause any major drop off of energy for the final 50 miles, I felt worse in the middle section.

Personally if I went the all gel route , I'd have really bad guts and be able to sh1t through the eye of a needle for days afterwards but that would be good in terms of ease of taking it on, in v quick events it's seriously hard to chew and swallow whilst pedalling near your threshold.

benno68

I had a mahoosive pasta dish at 5:30am, and a couple of slices of malt loaf at 8am before starting. Took about 8 pieces of cake and 2 bananas and probably took on 10 gels over the day. Had a couple of extra cakes at the feedstops and 2 more bananas and the pasta at the end.

I'm a fairly big lad at 14 stone so have a decent amount of natural reserves!!!

nunowoolmez

pasta in the morning - never heard of that before! Not knocking it but don't think i could get my head (or stomach) around it!! I usually leave the huge pasta meal til the night before & then have a big bowl of porridge with brown sugar, syrup & a banana in the morning with a couple of cups of tea & a glass of OJ. I will sup on a berrocca drink en route to the ride & have another banana before starting.

For a long ride like this one i take 10 Torq gels & a few MaxiFuel Viper Boost gels. I will also take 5 or 6 ZipVit carb bars (choc covered strawberry) & make up 2 750ml bottles of High 5 energy drink. I take a small tube of High 5 electrolyte tabs too for further down the ride & also a couple of High 5 energy drink sachets with caffeine incase of a major bonk.

I never actually use everything i take & usually have a couple of bars & 3 or 4 gels left over at the end & i only ever use the caffeine sachets if i am about to have a major blow up. Luckily i've not needed to use em yet!! I always make use of whatever energy drink is on offer at feed stations & make up 1 bottle with this & another bottle with High 5 tabs. I also take on a few bits at every feed station to keep me going but never take on loads. At the Dragon i had maybe 3 potatoes at every stop

Anonymous

Benno68 wrote:

cwm wrote:

number 1216 and i do look cool lol.
obviously anybody that went out after me saw me as they went past and those that went out before me didnt,
good day

I left at about 8:15 Cwm and got in around 18:50. I didn't bust a gut so was able to have a laugh with a few guys on the way around. I was the fatty in Cardiff Ajax Kit in a group of 4 to 7 - you may have seen me.

I was riding around you guys on and off all day, red white and blue kit yeah ? I was number 2219, definitely back next year, going to train a lot more, drop a stone and hopefully scrape a Bronze Did you see the crash on the descent at the road narrowing ? It looked quite bad, but my view was blocked by a couple of tools screaming past as the marshall was screaming at them to slow down. Just wish people would make an effort to pick up wrappers, I just stuff them up the side of the hem on my jersey, then bin them at a a feed stop.
Photos I ordered came through today, very good. I look cool, calm and collected, exactly the opposite of how I felt

benno68

dmclite-2.0 wrote:

Benno68 wrote:

cwm wrote:

number 1216 and i do look cool lol.
obviously anybody that went out after me saw me as they went past and those that went out before me didnt,
good day

I left at about 8:15 Cwm and got in around 18:50. I didn't bust a gut so was able to have a laugh with a few guys on the way around. I was the fatty in Cardiff Ajax Kit in a group of 4 to 7 - you may have seen me.

I was riding around you guys on and off all day, red white and blue kit yeah ? I was number 2219, definitely back next year, going to train a lot more, drop a stone and hopefully scrape a Bronze Did you see the crash on the descent at the road narrowing ? It looked quite bad, but my view was blocked by a couple of tools screaming past as the marshall was screaming at them to slow down. Just wish people would make an effort to pick up wrappers, I just stuff them up the side of the hem on my jersey, then bin them at a a feed stop.
Photos I ordered came through today, very good. I look cool, calm and collected, exactly the opposite of how I felt

Yes that's right mate, just had a quick look at your pics, the lady on the Planet X bike rides with Cardiff Ajax, but usually wears Cardiff Tri Kit - she's a strong rider. I saw the same faces on numerous occasions as we stopped quite a few times to regroup on hills etc. My number 0832.

I was ahead of the crash, but one of our guys was shaken by seeing the poor guy being seen to by medics. Saw the guy being moved onto a spinal board, hope he's ok!

alex1rob

Saw the ambulance on the descent. One marshall shouted at us to slow down then the next one moaned at us for going too slow. Hope the chap is ok.

0976 is me. Fairly chilled in all photos apart from that hellish climb!

Anonymous

Benno68 wrote:

dmclite-2.0 wrote:

Benno68 wrote:

cwm wrote:

number 1216 and i do look cool lol.
obviously anybody that went out after me saw me as they went past and those that went out before me didnt,
good day

I left at about 8:15 Cwm and got in around 18:50. I didn't bust a gut so was able to have a laugh with a few guys on the way around. I was the fatty in Cardiff Ajax Kit in a group of 4 to 7 - you may have seen me.

I was riding around you guys on and off all day, red white and blue kit yeah ? I was number 2219, definitely back next year, going to train a lot more, drop a stone and hopefully scrape a Bronze Did you see the crash on the descent at the road narrowing ? It looked quite bad, but my view was blocked by a couple of tools screaming past as the marshall was screaming at them to slow down. Just wish people would make an effort to pick up wrappers, I just stuff them up the side of the hem on my jersey, then bin them at a a feed stop.
Photos I ordered came through today, very good. I look cool, calm and collected, exactly the opposite of how I felt

Yes that's right mate, just had a quick look at your pics, the lady on the Planet X bike rides with Cardiff Ajax, but usually wears Cardiff Tri Kit - she's a strong rider. I saw the same faces on numerous occasions as we stopped quite a few times to regroup on hills etc. My number 0832.

I was ahead of the crash, but one of our guys was shaken by seeing the poor guy being seen to by medics. Saw the guy being moved onto a spinal board, hope he's ok!

Yeah the girl was tapping out a nice rhythm, but the bloke on my left in one of the other photos looks to be in a world of pain, , loved that climb as it started out warm lower down but cooled as you went up and the descent was really fast and turny, a few near misses down the lanes. Up to that point it had rained on most descents but dried up completely after that. brilliant day out, can't wait to get back.

leviathanical

This year the dragon scorched my ass - no where near prepared enough.
Here's a video of my ride. I started early, 8am or so but it felt like everyone and his dog passed me so you may well see yourself. Enjoy the pain!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mistr-ajLoE

benno68

leviathanical wrote:

This year the dragon scorched my ass - no where near prepared enough.
Here's a video of my ride. I started early, 8am or so but it felt like everyone and his dog passed me so you may well see yourself. Enjoy the pain!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mistr-ajLoE

Nice one mate - great video. I may borrow my sons Go Pro which he uses when surfing - amazing piece of kit!

I liked the Devils Elbow section of your video - I am revisiting that beast next month on the Tour of the Black Mountains.