Fred Whitton Challenge 2016, the big thread
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ugo.santalucia wrote:Bilkobaggins wrote:Think even some of the pro's might reach for the pampers on those descents.
PROs can be quite a weepy bunch... I remember when they cancelled a steep descent (Monte Crostis) at the Giro because it was wet and most PROs would refuse to go up, let alone down Hardknott. Hard man races are a restricted number in the calendar and don't get much appeal... look at the fuss they kicked for a handful of wet cobbles sectors at the Tour 2014... the Team managers made it sound as if they were going to war. Strade Bianche is considered extreme, while having ridden those roads extensively, I can say they are smother than most tarmac we did on sunday
That said, the Tour of Britain went over Honister a couple of years ago. They went over the opposite way from the Whitton so had the descent into Seatoller. It was seriously wet and from the TV footage I saw they were going down the descent a hell of a lot faster than I would have been in those conditions.0 -
There was some reckless descending... especially the Honister 92 guys... They obviously know the descents very well and fly down with total disregard for others... ignoring the organisers' advice to take it easy and frankly setting a bad example. You gain 10-20 seconds which are frankly not worth bothering :?alexjones5 wrote:Echo some of the comments about riding standard, I've no issue with people trying to kill themselves but I have when they try to take me with them. Hairpin on Newlands descent, I heard a guy coming too fast, shouted a warning, he carried on, realised, slammed on and nearly took me out as he cut straight in front of me. Not good..left the forum March 20230 -
It was a fantastic day, very well organised, and we got so lucky with the weather. Both my arms and legs are burnt! Haha
I cycled with a friend and it was our first time doing the event so we took it pretty easy to begin with with not knowing what to expect. We chatted with many cyclists and was just enjoying the day. The day fled by without much incident and then suddenly disaster struck. My friends rear mech had snapped off right outside ennerdale cafe. We had to wait ages for some help and in the end i had to push on to Calder Bridge to try and get some help. That was the only sour point of the day.
Surprisingly i felt fine throughout the entire event and had enough in the legs to complete Hardknott without walking. I was very close to cramping though, the quads was twitching all the way up! The last section was pure hell and was glad to have had those concrete pills! But the feeling of accomplishment when you reach the top is like nothing else.
The worst hill of the day was Honister, not so much because it was steep, but just the fact that there were too many cyclists on the road swerving all over the place. The pace i was going at meant i was overtaking a lot, and finally come to a point where a bloke swerved into me and i came to an halt and had to unclip. You can imagine what it was like to get the foot back in the pedal and push off. My second attempt saw me stumble to the right and a cyclist clipped my back wheel. Off he tumbled onto the bank into a puddle of water soaking is backside. He was not happy. All i can say is sorry mate! Third time lucky i managed to clip in and set off. Hope the bloke is ok who was bloodied at the bottom of Honister.
All in all a great day. Same again next year!
On hardknott
Honister
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So you managed to find one of our flatter routes then?London-Red wrote:went for a 20 mile spin around Kendal this am and put in 1300ft climbing without noticing... Let's hope the form holds
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ugo.santalucia wrote:Bilkobaggins wrote:Anyone still tired from this ? I'm cream crackered still. I'm sleeping standing up !! Looked at bike once or twice but that's as far as its got.
Not really... I am cycling quite hard into work in the rain... legs are fine... possibly I rode a bit conservatively in fear of hitting a wall
Haha, fair enough. I'd probably be fine. Maybe it's just the weather lol.0 -
Anyone do it last year or 3 years ago comment on what difference the conditions made to their time ?[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0
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DeVlaeminck wrote:Anyone do it last year or 3 years ago comment on what difference the conditions made to their time ?
Kast year I did the Etape du Dales in exceptionally high winds in 9h 15m
This year I did the Fred in good weather and 7h 58m
Go figure...left the forum March 20230 -
DeVlaeminck wrote:Anyone do it last year or 3 years ago comment on what difference the conditions made to their time ?
in 2013 I did 7h 46 compared to 6h 59 this year. I'd like to think I'm fitter now and ride more cleverly but I'm also 3 years older!
Definitely was better for the mindset which does play a massive part although there was a block headwind all the way up Eskdale this year which wouldn't have helped.0 -
DeVlaeminck wrote:Anyone do it last year or 3 years ago comment on what difference the conditions made to their time ?
I've done it this year and the two years previous.
This year there was a pretty stiff headwind on the last third of the ride which was particularly annoying on the run up to Hardknott and on the climb itself. That in itself knocked me back around 10 min from my schedule. The heat was also pretty sapping, particularly as the day wore on.
The good conditions did allow for quicker descending though and in the first half of the ride there wasn't much wind at all.
All in all therefore I would probably say it was a "neutral" year with maybe a slight bias toward a quicker time (if you handled the heat better than I did).
For what it's worth I was pretty comfortably sub 7 but not by as much as I expected (mainly due to the heat and stupidly not stopping at the first feed to eat & fill up bottles).
If you took 2016 as the baseline I think 2015 was at least 15-20 min slower for me if not more as the wind was appalling at times with very strong gusts plus rain which made the descents a nightmare. I was around 7:30 that year which was a disappointment as I was hoping to go below 7.
2014 was probably another neutral year, some headwind in the middle section but a nice tailwind up Cold Fell and Hardknott. Bit of rain but not continual downpours. This was the first year I did it and came in around 7:15 (probably could have gone a bit quicker if I'd known how close I was to the 7hr barrier).
I hear 2013 was a nightmare though so I think the times for that were quite a bit slower, luckily I didn't ride it!
Saying all that though if you look at the results for the last 5 years the very top guys were all finishing around 6 hrs give or take a few minutes each year. Was interesting to note though that Rob Jebb missed breaking his record by 7 minutes this year as I heard he was going to have an attempt at it.0 -
Going to be bold and step in to an internet forum I've been following for a while but not posted in yet.
Rode the Fred myself at the weekend, and quite happy to be in the bottom 20% for a first attempt. Some of the descending I saw was pretty suicidal - I went down Honister at around 20-25mph and had people flying past me, ignoring marshals requesting them to slow down for accidents, etc. Mental stuff.
I grew up on the edge of the Peak District and when others were on the park drinking cider I was out on the Snake and Winnats, so I'm not unfamiliar with decent sized hills, but nothing quite compares to those last two!
Other than that, great ride, amazing weather and brilliant people along the way, a bit more water might have been handy, but there were plenty of non-organised ways to procure that - thanks to everyone who organised, supported and rode alongside. Hope to get my speed up a bit next year!0 -
stu227 wrote:Going to be bold and step in to an internet forum I've been following for a while but not posted in yet.
Rode the Fred myself at the weekend, and quite happy to be in the bottom 20% for a first attempt. Some of the descending I saw was pretty suicidal - I went down Honister at around 20-25mph and had people flying past me, ignoring marshals requesting them to slow down for accidents, etc. Mental stuff.
I grew up on the edge of the Peak District and when others were on the park drinking cider I was out on the Snake and Winnats, so I'm not unfamiliar with decent sized hills, but nothing quite compares to those last two!
Other than that, great ride, amazing weather and brilliant people along the way, a bit more water might have been handy, but there were plenty of non-organised ways to procure that - thanks to everyone who organised, supported and rode alongside. Hope to get my speed up a bit next year!
Well done Stu!
I have to agree with you on everythingleft the forum March 20230 -
Nice one Stu !0
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petegraaf wrote:DeVlaeminck wrote:Anyone do it last year or 3 years ago comment on what difference the conditions made to their time ?
I've done it this year and the two years previous.
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2014 was probably another neutral year,..............
I hear 2013 was a nightmare though so I think the times for that were quite a bit slower, luckily I didn't ride it!
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Cheers for that, I did 7:19 in 2013 and 7:12 last year so sounds like if I get a good day a sub 7 is at least possible if I can get fit again though nearly 50 now so time may be running out !
Wanted a sub 7 for years since doing a low 8 not long after I got into cycling in the early years of the Fred then crashing when going well the year after which cost me a sub 7 then getting ill and missing it the year after - after seeing the weather this year and 2 years ago when I didn't do it starting to feel cursed.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
Thoughts of never again at the finish begin to turn to what if a few days on...
A glorious day and route, surprisingly fast even, until the brute that is Hardnott, nothing quite prepares you for how much tougher it is than everything else on the route. I went around in well under target time 7hrs but if I were to do it again I'd put a 32 on for Hardnott. It took every ounce of willpower to make it up on a 34/28 and I was feeling okay at the bottom. I'm sure I'd have saved a load of energy, not gone that much slower up the climb and not been quite so knackered into the wind across to Wrynose had I been able to call on a 32.
Agree with all that's been said about the descents. I'm a pretty confident descender on an mtb which does seem to help on the road but the site of the poor chap who'd come off at the bottom of Kirkstone was an early wake up call, hoping he's well on the mend. After that the descents were treated with the respect they deserve and the marshals warnings were much appreciated.
Many thanks to all those involved with the organizing/running of the event and thanks also to those I drafted from time to time, hope my wheel helped a good few out also!0 -
I would love to be able to do this but know I am far from being able to due to fitness reasons and just not having the time to spare to training for it. I live near the Lakes and probably know the whole route very well from the comfort of a car seat.
I used to do challenge walks so I know the feeling you get from completing a challenge, having done the Keswick to Barrow charity walk for a number of years. It was run over some of the same roads the Fred goes over and the day before it this year and at 40 miles it's a nice walk to do. I've done longer and harder challenge walks too and the I get the feeling of never again followed by thinking about the next year as soon as the aches and pains have been forgotten. You start to forget the pain and aches to just leave the memory of the successful completion.
Well done to all who have done it this year and never say "never again"! If you enjoyed it you will do it again if your time constraints allow.0 -
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6.58
Major issues with cramp from Hardknott onwards.
Not so sure the weather plays that much on time unless it's biblicaly bad like 2013. I'd say this year was a touch harder than last year with a headwind from calder bridge.0 -
Overlord2 wrote:I'd say this year was a touch harder than last year with a headwind from calder bridge.
Was that a headwind? Com'on... maybe a light breezeleft the forum March 20230 -
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Just back from a glorious sunny week in the Lakes. Congrats to all who did the Fred - some impressive times here. I got round in just under 9 hours which was what I expected and I was happy with, given some serious disruptions at the start of the year. Had to walk on Hardknott which means I'm going to have to do it again. I'm not giving up until I've ridden the whole thing!
I went back and rode Hardknott again a few days later and it was pretty straightforward, with average power of less than 200W - less than 80% of threshold for me. The challenge is doing it after 90 miles of tough riding, and I just didn't have enough miles in my legs this year.
Also suffered between Hardknott and Wrynose. Maybe it picked up during the day, but that felt like more than a light breeze to me!
Had a great first half to the ride, though. Lots of riders meant there was always someone to ride with and the support at the roadside was a real boost. Marshalls keeping the junctions clear was also a great help. All in all a fantastic day - thanks to all involved.0 -
I'm having withdrawal syndrome, I think I'll sign up again next yearleft the forum March 20230
