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06/03/2023 – One Ride to Verulam All
The Verulam CC Reliability Ride (VRR) is the last event I rode before lockdown and the first one I took part in when things opened up. And this year my calendar seemed to open up with a VRR-sized space at just the right time. Why would I do this again? It’s usually cold, the course is really challenging and the start is out in Redbourn.
Last year I had puncture after puncture. That wasn’t going to happen this year. I shod my bike with 30mm Challenge Strada Bianchi tyres - full on Spring Classic mode. Richard chose a modern classic in blue with 28s and mudguards. Sensible bikes were the order of the day.
This bike loves being in the big ring a little too muchWith 4,500ft of elevation, plenty of technical sections and the roads full of potholes, mud, water and gravel, this is probably the toughest of the Chilterns Classics series. This year the course is tweaked and it’s 68.6 miles (down from 70.1 last year), but it still includes some leg, back and spirit breaking climbs.
I drove up and met up with Richard, who had ridden up from Islington. He was looking for a big day and I was just looking to get round. There were a few others planning to be there, but it was a complicated weekend with another train strike to manage. Despite the VRR field being mainly composed of local riders, I felt there were fewer taking part.
I don’t get bored of saying this. It’s only 12 quid. Yes, it costs just £12 to enter and while there are no food stops or aid stations, you get hot drinks, pastries and a pile of bars to grab at the start and then shed load of sandwiches and cake at the end. It’s cycling’s grassroots, old fashioned and quite timeless in its low-key and friendly ways.
How did it go, I hear you ask? Well, I set out at 9am behind a group of about 30 keen-looking riders. Placing myself strategically towards the rear of this pack, I was looking for a group to drop off the back and ride at a mellow pace that I could comfortably get involved in. No such luck. They were going at it hammer and tongs. Averaging 245w over the first three miles was not something I could sustain over the full distance of the course. That’s my hour power, my race pace, not something I could stay with. I dropped back. Please note I was not dropped. I. Dropped. Back.
Richard mixed it up with the big group for another mile before realising I had “tactically fallen back.” We pressed on, still going at a fair lick. There is a lot of amazing woodland on this ride and a few decent vistas, too. We ploughed through the Ashridge Estate and then past Albury and the Musette Café. I had earmarked the No 2 Wine and Cheese Deli in Wendover for a pit stop and it did not disappoint. We took on toasties and coffees, just as well as a pair of climbs were about to hit us in 5 miles' time.
The view from the deli as two more arrive in WendoverWhiteleaf and Wardrobes. They sound innocent, sweet even, but they are buggers. Whiteleaf - #23 in Simon Warren’s 100 Greatest Climbs book – is a half mile that averages 10% and tops out at 20%. No sooner have you go down the other side of Whiteleaf than you hit the 0.87 miles of Wardrobes Lane, which although averaging a more modest 8.9%, it tops out at 13.4%. And Wardrobe is sneaky. It hides its steeper section where the road turns sharply left. Round that bend and you hit the 13.4% part. Not such a brute as Whiteleaf, but riding these two back to back is makes you really glad to close the door on Wardbrobes, so to speak.
Richard had some kind of diagonal weird crossover going on with his chain just as we began Whiteleaf. It went back into place. Phew. Whiteleaf done. Then he was well ahead of me on Wardrobes Lane. It was only when we’d got past the top, I understood why. He couldn’t get in the small chain ring. He necessarily had to blast his way up. Mr May is something of a grinder, rarely using the small ring. “Perhaps there were too many cobwebs?” I quipped. Maybe. After 5 mins of failed fettling, he decided to call it a day and big ringed it to High Wycombe train station. Having ridden up, he ended up logging 75 miles. Not so shabby.
Endless rolling hills awaitI wasn’t expecting to see any more groups on the road, but within a minute of Richard’s departure, a pair of riders came by. They were both local and on the VRR. Great. They knew the route really well and I was happy to be guided. I locked in on a rear wheel and went into wheelsucker mode. Their pace was a little below what we’d been doing, but still strong enough. It took 20 miles for me to step up and take a turn on the front. When I looked back, I’d lost them. I really, really wasn’t riding hard. I hoped nothing untoward had occurred and rode the last 5 or 6 miles to the finish. I later learned they ran into another rider they knew and eased off for a chat.
After refuelling at the HQ and uploading my data, I was quietly and tiredly delighted. Compared to last year, I’d ridden faster, kicked out more watts and hadn’t had a single puncture. Strava gave me 128 achievements. And I had hit my maximum heart rate on Whiteleaf. Blimey! If reliability rides are in any way accurate as traditional early season fitness and form tests, then I am starting to get excited about what I can achieve this year.
If you want to ride the route, you can drive up or take a train to Harpenden (3.5 miles) or St Albans (5.4 miles).
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/35324751
Next week (12/03/23) is the Berkhamstead CC Spring Classic, which starts from Aldbury at the Musette Cafe. Get a train to nearby Tring if you fancy it.
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Can't resist another Rockwell Financier 204 Minus image - after all, cycling is a numbers game, as someone once said.
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+Aidan thanks for these - a bit of a teaser for Part 3.
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+ShauNuff I can almost taste their toasted panettone served with lashings of butter. They had a special deal - £2.50 for coffee and panettone.
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And here's one more very early days club ride at the rest stop in Whetstone.
+RichardM +ShauNuff and +AndrewCass are there - can anyone name the others?
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So, I had a great catch up with Jordan yesterday and he solved one of the ongoing mysteries of Islington Cycling Club. Where exactly did the colour palette for our kit come from?
This has remained a closely guarded secret, until now. Many had thought, because of the green, it came from the Islington Council branding, which at the time included a swoosh with two greens in it. But you'd be wrong.
Jordan put these colours forward because they were on his favourite calculator - the Rockwell Financier 204 Minus .
Well, now you know!
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27/02/2023 - Year 1 of ICC - Part 2 of Now We Are 10
Can you even imagine how exciting it is to launch a cycling club? Very. Except, as I related in Part 1, we created the club in Jan 2013, but it wasn't until 28 April 2013 that the appalling weather we had that winter relented and we finally found the confidence to take our show on the road. The weekend of the first ride I was not available to take part. No bother, we had Richard and Jordan lined up to lead a small group of new recruits.
The first club ride at Pizza Amore, Whetstone – Richard (second left), Richard (fifth from left), Andrew (far right)The committee plan to recreate the ride on the actual date, which falls on a Friday, but if you’re free, below is the original route. You won’t find Pizza Amore any more, but there are still several other cafes in Whetstone to refuel at.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/4558075
As you can see from this next photo of an early club ride, we still didn’t have any kit.
No kit, but getting fit – Jim Shaughnessey (soon-to-be committee member, fourth from left), Richard (second from right), Stephen Taylor (soon-to-be committee member, far right)OK, not much branding in evidence here. However, we had a plan. Jordan worked up some designs with a designer pal and we had some options. I wish I had them, as the one most people wanted was all grey and black. Very safe and inoffensive. Not many clubs had any green in those days and Jordan managed to convince the rest of us to have something that popped a bit more. He called me in to look at swatches of material from Bioracer – our chosen supplier – at the Rouleur offices, where he was working. We were happy with the pale grey and graphite grey, but chose a light, brighter more zingy green.
Bioracer’s mock up of our club kitWe chose a very subtle and old school bib short design – just the club name in white on black. The idea was that most people have black bibs and we would blend. We didn’t want to cause members unnecessary costs, either. To that end we chose Bioracer products from the cheaper end of their enormous catalogue. We spent every penny we had from TfL on the biggest order of jerseys we could muster.
Meanwhile, we ran club rides starting from Whittington Park. And, ambitious inclusive club that we wanted to be, we also ran coffee and cake rides and began a youth programme. Coffee and cake rides recruited people who wanted to ride in a group, enjoy a social stop, but didn’t feel too sporty. We had a contact at Age UK, who sent us some cyclists. Most of these rides were led by the incredible Judith Paris. Judith ran a local social enterprise called Get More Bikes and upcycled old clothes into stylish urban cycling wear. I think we staged half a dozen of these. The sticking point was that nobody who did the coffee and cake rides joined the club. Shame.
The coffee and cake ride at Granary SquareAt the other end of the age range, our youth programme was rolled out at Holloway Secondary School (now Beacon High) with Stefan Malinowski coaching. I knew Stefan from his cycle instructor work and that he was also a British Cycling qualified coach. It would take three attempts to get the youth programme up and running properly, Stefan coached each time.
Then the kit arrived!
OMG. Kit made by Bioracer. The pros wore Bioracer. Naturally, I tried it on that very second in the office.
The following week I managed to get the then leader of the council, Catherine West, and one of her team, to model our kit, so we could do some impactful comms.
Catherine West (centre) in an CC ladies jerseyAs you can see, Catherine West - now MP for Hornsey and Wood Green - is sporting a different jersey to the one the chap to her right is wearing. We had a special ladies’ version. It was nipped in at the waist and only had two rear pockets. These may now collectors’ pieces, but the reduced cargo capacity and fit did not suit everyone and they were canned.
We also ordered kit for the youth programme. Here’s one of my sons (both of my boys became members) modelling the youth kit in our back garden.
Youth kit – note the offset (darker) pocket designIn order to get us to look like a club on the road the committee made some very strong decisions about kit. We’d increase the initial joining fee and give new members a club jersey. In effect, we earned no income until members renewed. We also agreed to only charge members what we paid Bioracer. Our kit should be affordable, stylish and an advert for our club.
Aside from Andrew Castiglione, Richard May and Jordan Gibbons, our early days committee included these marvellous people – Stephen Taylor, Jim Shaughnessey, Laura Perrett, Alison Alexander, Aidan Farrow, Luis Blanco, Rob Valdes, Rob Jones, Rob Culkeen (many Robs) and Chris Tsen. If I have left anyone out, please, please forgive me! Initially, the committee were our pool of ride leaders. Eventually, everyone got a job with a role, but to start with it was all hands to the pump.
Early committee agenda – you can see the ambitionI booked council meeting rooms for our committee meetings. They got livelier when we shifted to upstairs rooms in pubs, as you’d expect. We tried a couple, until The Canonbury offered their upstairs room for free. This worked a treat, because we could actually hear what each other were saying.
https://islingtoncc.microcosm.app/api/v1/files/2fa4c0a4b2ccab186afb7eb59451fbf4ce553986.jpeg
Robert Culkeen - our first membership secretary
Early club ride in (mostly) club kit – Laure Perrett (third from left), Alison Alexander (fourth from left)
Another early club ride in kit. From right: David Shannon, Stephen Taylor, Jim Shaughnessey. Richard May is far left. Front: Louisa ThomsonAlways ahead of the curve, Jordan became notorious for including some rough sections on his routes. Gravel was but a twinkle in his eye and back then we called it a “Jordan Special” when we hit dirt.
A Jordan SpecialThat June, during Bike Week, the council was staging a Festival of Cycling in Finsbury Park. Oh-oh, we had an idea. Aside from having a stand to promote the club, why not close the internal road to traffic and run crit races? Why not? We only had 18 members at the time and we’d need 8 at least out on the course as marshals, a couple managing sign ups and motor bike outrider. We did a risk assessment with the British Cycling regional lead. He would be commissar and drive behind the racer in a car. My mate Nick Herman - not a club member, but a kind soul who had a motorbike volunteered. Nick rode at from front of the race the clear the way. Jordan christened this the North London Crits and knocked up a poster.
North London Crits publicityWe gained a set of prizes from the great and the good. We had a risk assessment, riders had entered. What could possibly go wrong?
Jordan at the sign on desk
The under-12s raceThe under-12 race set off. I think they did two laps. Wow. CC Hackney, who had a strong youth programme had quite a few riders out. Next up was the under-14s, and here was when the world stopped turning for a moment. Not long after they set off I got a call – someone was down on the course and an ambulance had been called. It turned out it wasn’t a rider, it was a member of the public who – it seems had a skinful – and was larking about on the course and collided with a bollard. Whether they were dazed and flat out from imbibing or from bollard bashing, we’ll never know. Good first aiders that we were, the patient could not/should not be moved. They blocked the course and it took 90 minutes to get an ambulance, in which time the commissar called off the remaining races. Sigh. So near, so far.
Yours truly promoting the club, aided by Charlie the dogLater that summer I was the only ICC rider at the first RideLondon 100. I freelanced from group to group and got round in under 5 hours. Inspired by flying the flag for the club and riding a closed roads event for the first time I had ridden at an average 20mph. I was flying.
Flying the club colours at the finish of the inaugural Ride London 100And just like that it was Christmas. We had 99 members. I nudged Angie, my Mrs, and she became the 100th member. Now there were four ICC members in my house alone! (This might actually be a record). We had no money having spend everything on kit, but desperately wanted to celebrate. Richard kindly offered to host at his house, Alison baked. I’ll just leave a few (poor quality, sorry) images below, which speak for themselves.
When we started, we had one club ride a week. One group. Then we had a longer ride and a shorter ride. Then a faster and a slower ride. By early 2014, on Sundays we offered groups at three speeds, A, B and C groups, where A was the fastest. We now had two midweek evening club rides - Fixie Loop (Thurs) and North London Hills (Weds), plus two groups at Regent's Park on Saturday mornings - 8am fast and 7am faster. Tuesday mornings, hill repeats of Swain's Lane at 6.30am (for the love of god!). There was a Wednesday evenings chain gang on the Inner Circle at Regent's Park. And to try and grow our pool of ride leaders, I started running workshops on How to Plan and Lead a Club Ride. All this was happening within 10 months of our first club ride.
A year passed. We did a big group shot at Whittington Park. What a year. Jim ran our social media, Rob J designed all our publicity, Laura and Alison created the Intro Rides, Stephen and Chris led on leading rides, Richard chaired and created a group riding etiquette guide, Rob C had his hands full with 5-10 people joining each week. And I tried to keep everything working smoothly as club secretary and harness all this amazing cycling passion that was unleashed. I enlisted the help of David Kitchen - founder of the London Fixed-Gear Forum and developer of Microcosm, the software it now runs on, to help us set up our club forum. We had plans to run a 200km audax and a time trial in 2014.
Somehow or other we had a hit on our hands. Managing all this extraordinary growth would be a challenge. More of that in Part 3.
First anniversary group -
23/01/2023 – Group therapy
Can you get better value for money than the Westerley Winter Warmer? For just a tenner, you get the choice of a 27, 37 and 67-mile ride in the beautiful, but challenging Chilterns. But it doesn’t stop there. You get tea or coffee at the start, bananas and energy bars to grab for the ride and are set off in handy groups of 10 riders (in 3-minute intervals). And we were promised lunch at the finish. The organiser’s email read “All food / drinks are included in the entry fee so no need to bring money.” Nice.
Organiser Frank Proud in purpleYou have to be lucky with the weather for events scheduled in January and we were. It was glorious clear and crisp for this reliability ride. Plus lucky that the organiser had done a super detailed recce, flagging all the little hazards and road defects that had come up due to general wear and tear and the recent freeze up.
The "glamour" and pre-race excitement builds at the scout hutThe ride starts in pretty Chalfont Saint Giles and the HQ is the very serviceable scout hut where I took a brew, banana and bar and thanked heavens that the weather was well above freezing and the skies clear. I had planned to do the 67-mile route, but I hadn’t planned on having a job interview on the Monday following. It felt like too much stress to do the long route, as I had some more interview prep to do later that day. I went backwards and forwards and at the last minute I loaded the medium route.
Bananas and Aussie Bites
I attached myself to a group of 5 that had set off west towards Seer Green. There was a climb out of Chalfont Saint Giles and I settled in to the group’s pace. As I’m not the world’s best climber, an initial ramp really helps me understand if I am going to be able to stay with a group or not. And I wanted to. It was a really cohesive group of local riders, quite chatty, going at a sensible pace. Checking my bike computer, I could see I was kicking out an average 200w, which is decent for me for this kind of ride. And it felt sustainable. Just as I began to get attached to this group, I started thinking about where we’d split. They were doing the long route, so this might be a short and sweet alliance.I was riding my gravel bike, which I’d converted to a winter trainer with 32mm tyres and mudguards. I left a handlebar bag and the group’s roadie sensibilities meant they couldn’t resist a few piss-takes about how much lunch I’d brought with me. At about 12 miles it was all change, I went left to the medium route and the group went right and the one bit of weather that wasn’t playing ball – the wind – started to be a factor for me as I was now solo. Would I regret not doing the long route and showing off the amazing contents of my bar bag?
The climb up Hatches Lane, by Hatches WoodWell, not so much. At 22 miles the routes must have overlapped, because I passed two of the group by the roadside. None of the others were anywhere to be seen. The group had blown up in some respect and I pressed on purposefully at pretty much the same tempo as when I was in the little group all the way to the finish, where… lunch was served. This was chiefly a series of big baps that had thoughtfully been filled with a base of tuna, cheese, ham or egg. I say base, because you were meant to fill it with all the other stuff that was laid out – see photo. Plus tea, coffee, cake and fruit, of course.
The DIY bap barHaving refuelled on a cheese a pickle roll and a hot cuppa, I headed home. I know I didn’t do the whole thing, but I did get to enjoy the ambience of this fabulous grass roots event and ride a reasonable amount in the stunning Chilterns, while not being so knackered that I couldn’t face practicing my presentation and rehearsing answers to interview questions. Next year, I’ll go long. Meanwhile, my great thanks to Frank Proud and the Westerley CC team that stage the WWW.
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23/01/2023 – New Year's resolution
Last March, I started writing my View From Here blog to combine two things I enjoy enormously, cycling and writing. It was - and still is - my hope that my enthusiasm encourages readers to try something new in the cycling world. The forum counter shows that this blog has now had more that 10,000 views in 10 months. This is way more than I could have imagined when I started it. So, thank you, dear readers. I’m still very much enjoying writing the View From Here, so I’m going to commit to writing another year’s worth and see where I get to. While it's still January, I'm counting this as a New Year's resolution.
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16/01/2023 - Now we are 10 - Part 1 - before we even launched
And just like that Islington Cycling Club is 10 years old. Happy birthday, ICC!
Like our monarch, our club has two birthdays. The committee has plans to mark the first club ride later this year, that took place on 28 April 2013, and I hope many of you will take part. But there is another birthday, 16 January, because on 16/01/2013 the club’s first constitution was signed and Islington Cycling Club began to exist. Why was there such a gap between the two dates? Well, I’ll answer that and tell you all about our pre-history, so-to-speak, in this first of two blogs about the history of our wonderful club. (Maybe more than two, let's see how this goes).
Going back to the very start – before the start - all the way to September 2012. This was a highly successful year for British cycle sport with a ton of gold medals at the London Olympic Games and the first British Tour de France winner, Sir Bradley Wiggins. It was also the year Islington Cycling Club was conceived. I was working at Islington Council as the cycling officer and my colleague, Michael McNeill, on the Sport and Leisure Team suggested (no doubt prompted by all that British cycling success) that I start a local cycling club. Hackney had one. Finsbury Park had one (but their rides all began in Potters Bar), there was an almost defunct CC lslington. We need one. I accepted Mike’s challenge and got cracking.
We did not fancy any turf wars with CC Islington. A little research was called for and it revealed CC Islington was founded back in the Fifties and that they now numbered just 5 or 6 members and had all - it was said - moved to Hertfordshire. In our early days of the club, old met new when I ran into a CC Islington rider in the flesh at the start of the Suburban Breakout audax.
Islington Cycling Club and CC Islington come face to faceBack to the development stage and I freely admitted that I really didn’t know that much about sports clubs. So, I created a working group of local people with a range of expertise that might help. My cry for help was heard by Andrew Castiglione, a fellow cycling instructor and cycle sports fan who has professional financial skills, Halim Bouderghouna, former pro rider, in fact No 10 in Morocco (now the owner of Future Cycling shop in Muswell Hill), Keir Apperley the founder and coach of nearby CC Hackney and Peter Catermole, regional development manager for British Cycling and I’d met a guy on a Gregarios club ride, Richard May, who, it turned out, lived in Islington and was a lawyer, which sounded useful.
- Andrew became our treasurer and still is, in fact the longest-serving committee member. It’s 10 years now!
- Halim advised and then stepped back to develop his business. Also a former cycle instructor he’s a really passionate cyclist and great mechanic and builder.
- Keir was just super generous and gave us lots of ideas and encouragement. At the time CC Hackney had nearly 200 riders and a very successful youth programme that Alex Peters and Tao Georghegan-Hart had passed through. Keir ran that. He’s also a masters road a track racer with some distinction himself.
- Peter helped us take some key decisions - to simply be called “Cycling Club” and not to specialise in one discipline, so members’ interests could guide what we offered. He provided much useful information and guidance. He was extremely generous and wise. Our first constitution was on off the shelf British Cycling one.
- Richard was something of a maverick and I couldn’t imagine him being the member of any club. And yet he was very committed to having a local cycle sport offering, one that was inclusive and had a youth programme. Richard would serve as our chair for five years.
- And yours truly served as club secretary for six years.
Aside from that working group, I put together what I called a steering group. This mainly included council colleagues from various teams. It had a grand title, but it was simply a group of various stakeholders that I formed to spread the word and offer advise. In particular, to get their steer on what they thought local people wanted. I brought in Housing, Youth Development, Sport and Leisure and also some local bike shops. Mosquito Bikes in Essex Road (now Velorution) sent us Jordan Gibbons, more of Jordan in a bit.
When we got close to signing the constitution, I made the call to join the two groups and form the committee. That’s when all but Jordan from the steering group dropped out!
- Jordan stayed on the committee for several years, he was also working as a journalist for Rouleur at the time. He enlisted a designer buddy to help design the kit, led our very first club ride and created his infamous “Jordan Specials,” which were bone crunching or super muddy off-road sections on road rides.
Some of the things we put into our early vision were:
- To affiliate to British Cycling
- The thought that people wanted rides that start locally
- A nobody gets left behind policy
- The ambition to have a youth programme from the start
- That the club should be called Islington Cycling Club, full out. Not Islington CC. This was to make a strong difference to CC Islington and avoid confusion. One of CC Islington's number at least was still time trialling, so we needed to sound different.
We had absolutely no money though. We knew kit would be important. It would advertise our club and give us an identity, but it’s not cheap to buy in bulk. Hmm. What to do? I was at work one day and a Transport for London colleague contacted me and asked if I had any projects that could benefit from some underspend. She was vague about how much was available, I was just to put a list together and the costs. Well, I had just the community project... Islington Cycling Club and I wrote a long shopping list and the rationale for the spend. Bikes, kit, turbos, tools, repair stands, helmets, event equipment, money for coaches. You name it. I threw everything at it. I think it totalled about £30,000. In the event, she said, yes, and we were awarded £2,500 and we blew the lot on our first kit order.
By the time Jordan and I signed the constitution, we were in a deep and cold winter. It would be months before the weather improved and we felt like we could confidently stage our first club ride. More of that next time…
Watch out for my next instalment will cover how we developed our kit, our first club ride and how the club quickly grew in numbers that none of us could predict.
- Andrew became our treasurer and still is, in fact the longest-serving committee member. It’s 10 years now!
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04/01/2023 - A festive less restive
Happy New Year!
This Christmas I thought I’d try something new. As far as winter training goes, I usually save high volume for March and concentrate on higher intensity sessions until then, mainly sweet spot stuff. This year I’m ahead of schedule and retained a good (for me) level of fitness after my post-season break. Using the Rapha Festive 500 in place of my traditional spring training camp seemed to fit the bill. In the latter I ride 100km a day for five straight days and this sets the scene for kicking on for the higher intensity training that follows. The F500 (I’m calling it that) asks you to ride 500km over 8 days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. So, as far as being ahead of schedule goes, I’d be three months ahead, with a good base to start 3 months of my build phase. I’d be race ready by the end of March. Here's how I got on, my F500 described in numbers...
Duck pond at Chapmore End, HertsDays cycled: 8
My approach was to ride every day of the challenge and avoid longer days in the saddle. That means an average of a 65km ride, roughly 2.5 hrs, which wouldn’t impact too much on my family commitments and various other social events. As the first two days are Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I had less time to ride and I didn’t make the daily average, so there was a little catch up needed.Turbo days: 2
The weather played ball most of the time, but there were two days that were out and out stinkers. I’m absolutely not up for 2.5-3 hrs of riding in the rain. I can handle an hour or so of higher intensity work, but a long, wet cruise doesn’t appeal to me in slightest. Virtual rides are very much admissible for the R500 and I have a FulGaz account. The world is your ointment with this kind of platform with huge number of films from all parts of the globe to pedal to. With the use of a smart trainer, these offer variable resistance according to the gradient of the oncoming terrain and something to look at and keep your mind occupied. And you can pump out some bangers to keep you motivated.Days I’d wished I wasn’t doing the F500: 4
I struggled on and off in the last four days. Unusually for me, I seemed to bonk (the cycling equivalent of the wall) quite early on these days. On one occasion, it felt like I left the house having already bonked. I’m not a big boozer, but I was having one or two drinks a day throughout the challenge and I may have been subject to “boozer’s bonk.” Is that a thing? I think it was for me.Days riding with a fixed-gear: 1
I started the challenge thinking I might ride some or all or it on a fixed-gear bike. How strong would that make me? Very, if I actually did it. My first ride - ridden with DaveJ – was on the Fixie Loop and naturally I rode my fixed-gear bike. Rode it a bit harder than I needed to, with too much time with my heart rate in Zone 3. Oops. I switched to a geared bike and as the fatigue built, I had no desire to go back to the fixed-gear bike. Maybe next year a fixed F500, but not this one.Distance ridden: 515km
I made a plan of various rides to get me up to 500km. In the event, I had to change my plans for weather and shifting family commitments. On the penultimate day, which was a turbo day, I thought I’d left myself with about 80km to do on the last day. On Day 8 the forecast was abysmal, but it looked like there was a 2 hr window of dry from about 7am. I hit the road at 7.30am aiming to do about 55km and looking to make up the balance on the turbo later in the day. I was so surprised and relived to see a message pop up when I uploaded the 55km ride to say I’d completed the F500. In fact, I’d done an extra 15km. My maths skills are usually better, but a tired body goes hand in hand with a tired brain. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.Number of rides: 13
There were 8 days and I did 13 rides. More bad maths? Nope. On Day 5 I split my virtual ride (in virtual Cambridgeshire) in two 37km sections with a long “rest stop” in between. On Day 7, I planned to do a 55km virtual Mallorca ride, but I really struggled. I did 33km and blew up. My poor mind tried to work out how to grind out enough kilometres to leave me with a doable distance on the final day. The only way I could countenance this was to do shorter efforts. I rode two virtual laps of Central Park (9.5km each) and found a flattish (virtual again) time trial course (K46/10) in Worcestershire to clock another 16km.Punctures: 1
This I count as a great victory since the roads were very wet throughout, which always increases the chance of a blow out. Mine came halfway through my longest ride (87km), again not the worst time. What is the worst time? I think in the very first few km or last few km of a ride is the biggest wind up. That always rains on my parade.Café stops: 0
Nothing seemed to be open. It was perhaps my poor planning. At the least, a warm drink would have been handy on any of my rides.Bars and gels consumed: a lot
I stocked up before the holiday season and got through most of my supplies. In the main, I was powered by Torq gels and Veloforte bars. I “stack” my fuel by starting with a gel and then bar, then gel every 30 mins or so.Times proper food was consumed: Once
By the time I did my longest ride on Day 4, I was a little weary of sports nutrition. That morning I made myself a peanut butter and jam sandwich. I found a good spot to picnic at a table of a pub that was still closed in Coopersale, which is just beyond Theydon Bois in Essex. PBJ sandwiches always make me smile and they have the advantage of having a sticky filling, so they don't fall apart easily in you bag or pocket. With a shedload of festive leftovers, maybe I should have wrapped these up in burritos a few times. My method with burritos is to use baking paper and rubber bands to keep them together. Next time...Things I’d do differently next time
- Drink less booze
- Be more flexible (8am start every day was unrealistic)
- Find at least one café that’s open
- Drink less booze
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22/12/22 - Snow joke
It’s taken me a while to get round to writing this post. It’s but of a painful one for me and I’ve been consciously avoiding it. There’s been a serious cold snap with a serious amount of snow and ice and serious consequences for cycling.
I know, I know, if you have turbo – and I do – you keep calm and carry on cycling indoors. But I didn’t feel calm. Not at all. The week or so of freeze up reminded me a little too much of pandemic restrictions. In particular, it reminded me of early 2021 when I caught Covid while still unvaccinated. The illness itself hit me pretty hard and to add insult to injury I suffered post-viral fatigue for six weeks. During that time I was unable to exercise and became quite depressed, as I rely on physical activity for my sense of wellbeing. And my being, it took a nosedive, to say the least.
From that time I really have a massive appreciation of what people who’ve had long Covid have been going through. The inability to do, causes depression. Not just feeling down and depressed, but actual depression.
Once I was clear of the fever, I was left with a sore chest. As a lifelong asthmatic, this is worrying. As soon as the chest pain eased off, I got on the trainer. Nothing major. Just 15-20 minutes of easy pedaling. And I mean super easy, 130-140w, but my heart rate was much higher than it should be. The following day the chest pain would return and I’d be knocked out energy-wise. A few days would pass and the chest would improve gain and I’d try again with the same results. And repeat for six weeks. It took three of those super easy 15 minute sessions I a row without a reaction to feel confident enough to up it a little and get out on the road.
My fitness had taken a big hit, but I was so determined to get it back and enjoy every second on the bike. I added some midweek road miles to my schedule to regain my base and in about 8 weeks I was flying again. PBs followed that season at 10 and 25 mile time trials, I ran a 5 day spring training camp and completed the King Alfred’s Way over four days. 2021 way a good year for me in the end.
Last week, although still able do static bike training, that lockdown feeling started to resurface. I don’t like it. I like endorphins and I like structured training, but what I like most of all is getting out of the house, seeing some countryside and having a bit of an explore. It’s partly the challenge and partly just being somewhere different.
Initially I tried some Zone 2 virtual rides. It makes sense, right? A couple of hours chugging along building the base while gazing at some virtual scenery on the screen. I just didn’t have the heart for it. Maybe it was the knowledge that the freeze up was going to be going for a while and this felt terminally dull. New plan, for my next ride I took it up a level (or a zone in fact) and managed 70 mins in Zone 3. Not quite the 2 hours I’d planned, but something and I didn’t feel too bored. To be honest, whatever I tried on the turbo felt rubbish, because I was feeling trapped.
My usual week of cycling consists of three midweek turbo sessions (Tuesday-Thursday) and two or three gentle-paced commutes. Monday and Friday are rest days. Then at the weekend I usually I let rip and get out and about and do some longer rides. This is what I look forward to. In spring and summer there’ll be an event or race thrown in most weekends. It wasn’t until the rain which washed away the snow had passed that I ventured out. I took on the Radlett Revolution route and in spite of it being a little busy with motor traffic, I loved it. What a relief. Normal service has been resumed, as they say.
Now that the white out is done, I’m really looking forward to the Christmas break and getting out there on the bike. I’m even going to give the Rapha Festive 500 a go. I’ve actually never done it. I’ve planned my rides out and if anyone wants to join me, I’ve posted details on the forum thread here.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
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14/11/2022 Winter is coming… or is it?
Scary things are on their way. And I don’t mean white walkers, the undead, the Lannisters or sudden wedding massacres. What we fear as cyclists is plummeting temperatures, endless rainy days, high winds, black ice, shorter days and puncture after puncture. Then there is that slick, sticky road grime that gnaws and grinds away on your expensive bicycle components. Perhaps it’s more Apocalypse Now than Game of Thrones. The prospect of taking your pride and joy out in hostile conditions is enough to have you babbling “the horror, the horror…” This year’s unseasonably warm weather deep into November has only served to delay the inevitable and perhaps ramp up the tension, because winter will surely come soon. How will we cope?
First of all, you need to look after your body. What to wear, what to wear? My rule of thumb is that if you feel a little bit cool before you start exercising, by the time you are up to speed, you’ll feel warm enough. I have a winter jacket, but I rarely use it. A merino base, long sleeve jersey and a gilet is enough for me. If I need more than that, it’s usually sub-zero and then I won’t go out for fear of ice. That said, I usually get caught out by black ice where there's some frozen run off once every year.
As I’ve been riding a few years, I have quite a glove collection. Obviously you won’t be wearing mitts, but I think two sets are needed - a lighter, full-fingered glove and a heavier duty thermal glove. You can get an integrated system of light gloves and an overglove. Then there are the lobster-style super heavy duty gloves, also useful at near freezing temperatures or if you feel the cold in your extremities. Some of us do and it’s painful.
By the way, not these lobster gloves.
Those are for Halloween. I mean this kind of lobster-style gloves.
You could also acquire a waterproof set of gloves. Alright, three or four sets. Well, that escalated quickly!Keeping your legs warm is somewhat obvious, wear 3/4s or full tights. And your feet will need attention, because that’s not even funny when you can’t feel your toes. Thick socks and those toe warmers or full overshoes will also help protect your pretty cycling shoes from an early demise. Or you could get a set of winter cycling shoes. I’m a fan. Get a set that is both thermal and waterproof and you won’t regret it. A cap and a buff for for neck should also be in your armoury.
Then there’s the bike. You can winterise pretty much any bike. Start by changing the tyres for fatter and/or more robust ones and I’d urge you to clean it after every wet ride. You should fit mudguards, that’ll make it so much easier to clean and keep the crud off of you and your components. And your fellow riders, of course. Use lights, even in the daytime, and make sure you can fix a puncture. You will get more punctures in the winter and then some more. Nothing worse than standing at the roadside with numb digits trying to repair a flat. If you can do it with your eyes closed, so to speak, it will feel the much easier in tough conditions.
I like having a dedicated winter trainer bike with full mudguards and cheaper-to-replace components. I thought this was a universal thing, but apparently, it’s peculiar to us Brits. A fixed-gear bike fits the bill perfectly for me. The only thing that will wear out is the chain, brake pads and tyres. A new set of each of these will see me through the season. Riding with one gear means no thinking (about gear changes at least), high cadence/pedal stroke practice and overloaded climbing, which is strength work. When spring comes and you switch back to a geared bike, you get the bonus of it feeling so much easier.
OK, now that we’ve drifted onto training. Most cyclists tend to ride slower in winter for several reasons. Whatever the reason – scientific training reason or whatever – it’s an opportunity to be social and have a chat with other riders. It’s a chance to explore, too. Is there a route you’ve been wanting to try, an extension to existing loop you’d like to build in or have you ever just wondered where that road led to? I like to get some daylight in winter, so if I can get out, I will get, but there are always those days. Two, three of four hours in the rain might build mental strength, but is not so great for your physical health. You could just suit up and do a shorter ride or, if turbo training floats your boat, ride indoors. Every gym has static bikes, so you can always get a session in.
Be smart. Avoid days when there’s a risk of ice or if it's sub-zero stick to main roads that have been salted (that's assuming the council have had the gritters out). You absolutely must clean your bike from top to toe if you do that. It’s great to have a hot drink and take on some fuel at a cafe, but don’t stop for too long. It can get really hard to warm up again. It makes sense to be flexible as to what time you head out. Choose wisely. Cycling makes weather forecasters of us all. Will Saturday be dryer than Sunday? I like using the Rain Today app. This will tell you when it’ll rain in the next hour and how heavily with a high degree of accuracy. You can also look further into the future by bringing up their radar map and zooming out to see if there are rain clouds looming beyond the hour mark.
There’s still some racing to be had in winter. Cyclo-cross makes a virtue of the wet and the mud and velodromes have a lovely warm roof and the air is kept at a cosy 28C. Nice! You can even find the odd time trial, sportive or audax. If all else fails, you can always do something apart from cycling, such as cross training, switch to running, weights, yoga, pilates, core work, badminton (did I just say badminton?). You might come back fresher from the change. Or you might find a new passion.
Unsurprisingly, Canadians know a thing or two about cold weather riding, check out this video from Canadian Cycling Magazine about prepping your bike for winter.
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17/10/2022 - The sincerest form of flattery
Il Lombardia - or the Race of the Falling Leaves, as it is sometimes known - is the final Monument of the cycling season. In other words, it’s a big deal and it brings a full stop to cycling's road racing season.
South London cycling club Dulwich Paragon have run a sportive for several years now in tribute called The Ride of the Falling Leaves. And very nice it is, too. I’d say it is my favourite sportive. Starting in south London at the Herne Hill Velodrome with coffee and pastries, you take a lap of the famous circuit before heading out on a beautiful rural route that includes some eye-watering climbs (Toys Hill and Sundridge Hill both come to mind). As if that wasn’t enough, the ride finishes in the grounds of a cricket club, where pasta and a beer are served as part of your entry fee.
So, when Spoke Cycles in Codicote put forward their own more northerly Ride of the Falling Leaves, I jumped at it. Like the Paragon event, this would be 100km (with a 60km option) and the ticket promised beer and frites at the finish as part of the entry fee, with Il Lombardia on the big screen.
On the day, the weather played ball with crisp, blue autumn skies and, yes, there were autumn leaves rattling around the roads. Parts of the route map looked familiar to me, in fact, I think I’ve ridden nearly all of these roads before. For good reason, they are quite lovely. There are no super large climbs – this is Hertfordshire, not Lombardia, remember – but the Spoke route does undulate (a lot) and there are some tough sections.
Whereas I had previously attacked the Paragon’s RoTFL events, aiming for a gold standard time, this year I wanted to play it differently. I wanted to use the event to signal, not the last race, but rather the beginning to my winter training base miles and so I planned go a bit easier. That thought didn’t last long, as I attacked the route from the off. It just felt right and the first part of the course seemed like it was egging me on to do so. I was going great guns, but starting to feel it by 30 miles. And I did regret my earlier exuberance by the 40-mile point, roughly where the food stop was, as my legs were none too happy with me.
It was great to see Spoke owner, Alex Anderson, there staffing the food stop and encouraging riders. I understood from him that there were only 100 places they could offer this year, as they were being cautious with the café’s public liability insurance. Next time could see a much expanded field and their next event… wait for it… it might well be a gravel event. And Alex also revealed that Spoke are looking to expand their menu. Watch that space.
A guy called Rob left the food stop at the same time and we nursed each other through the next 12 miles or so, until his patience or my limited climbing ability expired. I struggled through the last few miles solo and gleefully queued for my chips and pint and a chillax watching others murder themselves at the legit race.
I’d highly recommend both the route and the event. Given that the route comes south, you could do it any time. If you ride up from north London, you could pick it up at Epping Green.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40604675
Or you could take a train from Finsbury Park to Welwyn Garden City, which is only 3 miles from Spoke and do either the long or short route. Here’s the shorter version.
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03/10/2022 - Going coastal
When the World Championships are done and dusted, comes the realisation that the season is all but over. We’ve raced or done our big events or challenge rides, maybe quite a few of them. The best of the weather and the party is over, but we still have all the strength and fitness we’ve built up through the summer. All revved up and nowhere to go. What to do, what to do?
Road trip!
Well, off-road trip. I decided to take myself and my hard won vigor on Cycling UK’s new off-road route in Kent, the Cantii Way. And, no, I still don’t know how to pronounce Cantii. This route is 150 miles and is mostly traffic-free and mainly on the coast. Pretty, pretty flat. I knew this would not be as technically challenging as the King Alfred’s Way, which I‘d ridden last year, and that suited me down to the ground. I wanted mellow. And mellow is more or less what I got. Well, what we got.
I planned this a few months back. Regular View from Here readers will have worked out by now that I am something of a planner. This was the perfect ride to get to spend some real-life time with my former colleague Benjamin. We’d worked together for 6 months in the lockdowns. When we weren’t working at getting more people cycling, we were talking about cycling. We just had to get on bikes together.
Planning. It’s half the fun for me. What kit will I take with? What size tyres should I use? Fenders or no fenders? Benjamin was happy for me to create a schedule with all the rest stops at 15-20 mile intervals. I'd researched that they were top rated or at least decent looking and checked their opening times. I maybe went a little bit too far by creating a pacing predictor, so that we could see the likely arrival time at each rest stop according to a range of average speeds. Clearly I’m spending too much time on Excel in my day job.
We were riding this in two days from Ashford, clockwise. The train from St Pancras to Ashford International is just 35 minutes or so away and you are straight onto the route. And we were on the route, but going south not north. Oops. An extra mile there. I went with 35mm tyres and mudguards and soon got to have that choice tested with the roughest part of the route. It was only a short section and 35mm proved to be a sound choice joining the Crab and Winkle Way that links Canterbury to Whitstable. From Whistable onwards, we were on the coast almost the whole way to Dover.
It was sunny, blue sky above, blue sea to our left and we were riding the promenades. Traffic-free, but not pedestrian-free, so we couldn’t blast it. We didn’t want to. Stopping at spots like Reculver, you want to take them in and enjoy them fully. And I always want to chat to whoever is about. Why? (A) I just like meeting people and (B) I often learn something about where I am.
Aside from pedestrian and dog dodging, riding along beside the beaches, harbours and seagulls brought another challenge. Wind. And it was always a headwind. I know it wasn’t crazy windy by the standards of how it can be on the Kent coast, but it was constant. Benjamin couldn’t care less. In fact, he liked it. He’d lived on the Isle of Thanet and he attacked the wind at every opportunity. The wheelsucker in me was delighted. Go, Benjamin!
We sped on towards Broadstairs, where we planned to catch up with a mutual colleague, Patrick. He rode out towards us and escorted us to the Bandstand Café on the front. This seemed like a good choice from my internet scouting. There was a clue in bandstand which I hadn’t considered. There was a performer crooning and playing keyboards over backing tracks. A little sign against his keyboards proclaimed “Nostalgia.” And that’s what we got, perfect for the elderly clientele gathered. It all seemed to fit for purpose until he went a bridge too far and took on Desmond Decker’s The Israelites. With this track it was time for these Israelites to make our exodus from Broadstairs.
We landed at our B&B in Dover – yes, B&B, I’m not ready for bike-camping – and chilled out a little before heading to a pub to refuel. I’d picked out The White Horse which served Beaverton beers and good-looking food. The walls and ceilings were covered in graffiti - names, times and dates. It took us about half an hour and half a pint to work out what this odd decor was all about. Channel swimmers. The big clue was E-F ad F-E. England-France and France-England. Some teams, some solo. One solo swimmer had E-F-E next to a 27 hour time. Zoinks. That is a lot of swimming. It was amazing to be surrounded by all that endeavour. I felt pretty done in after more than 80 miles of fully loaded riding, but wow, 27 hours. Benjamin had to Google the longest solo swim – 77 miles unaided. That must be about 50 hours in the water. The Oregon Quacks team tickled me, as my wife is from Oregon and a graduate of the University of Oregon. Their sports teams are all called Oregon Ducks.
Did I mention the 80 miles fully loaded? I slept hard. And getting up was hard. There was some muscle soreness. After a generous cooked breakfast we got going and the soreness melted away. After climbing out of Dover, we are routed on the hills behind Folkstone. It’s only 500ft above sea level, but it affords some good views of the town, such as it is. The route stays scenic until you approach Dungeness. Bleak doesn’t come close to describing it. Marsh to one side and the nuclear power station on the other. Our rest stop was appropriately named End of the Line. It was a good time to stop because it hammered down while we ate.
The rain cleared bang on cue for the end of our scheduled stop and we ploughed on towards Rye, aware that a significant amount of rain had been forecast for the rest of the day. We passed the power station, but the coastal view didn’t open out until we reached Camber Sands. There was a considerable military area and then an industrial area. We escaped this to enter the Romney Marshes, which have an atmosphere all of their own. I was feeling in good shape, stronger as the ride went on. I even, and this is all true, took the wind for a good long stretch to Rye and pushed the pace.
If you don’t know Rye, well, you should. It is a stunning historic town and I’d picked out the Cobbled Café for our afternoon tea. Assam, actually, and I paired it with Victoria sponge. Tea was delightful, but also paired with a downpour. We checked all our weather apps, forecasts and it looked like downpour would continue for at least the next two hours. We called it and took the train from Rye. That made it an even 50-mile day. Decent enough. I did head to the station feeling somewhat interrupted. I had more, I was growing into this ride, but 2 hours in heavy rain would not be fun. That was it, all done.
A few learning points for me:
- I thought I’d overpacked, especially at the 50 mile mark on Day 1, when I felt like I was dragging a juggernaut along. However, I used or wore everything I brought with the exception of one thing.
- I didn’t eat all the bars and gels I had. I always make a point of packing enough food to be totally independent, but this is far from a wilderness ride. From Whitstable round the coast to Ramsgate there are a slew of cafes on the promenade. And slew of loos, too.
- There are no easy days when you are fully loaded
- On a related note, taking a mini convenience lock is worthwhile for your loo stops
- 35mm tyres were fine for this ride. There are one or two really rough sections, but if you can weather these, you’ll get the benefit on the majority of this route. Not sure if I'd do OK going any narrower in the rough for my personal comfort levels
- There are two (very slightly different) versions of this route, one takes in Margate and the Isle of Thanet, the other cuts out Thanet and add a loop to Winchelsea. You could actually combine the two - it only adds 10 miles
- The off-road section in the run in to Dover is unnecessary. It takes you away from the speedy tarmac descent into the town and instead offers you a track with three of four joy killing gates, just when you want an easy life
- I like chatting to strangers, but when they say "I really am a rubbish photographer," I should believe them and carry on with a selfie
- And finally, however tired you may seem after a day’s ride, don’t underestimate your body’s ability to bounce back the next day
- I thought I’d overpacked, especially at the 50 mile mark on Day 1, when I felt like I was dragging a juggernaut along. However, I used or wore everything I brought with the exception of one thing.
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19/09/2022 - Golden oldies
How on earth does this old chap – me – find himself racing at a national championship? I’m asthmatic and I have a knee deformity. I’ll grant you Ian Botham is asthmatic and (like me) Paul Scholes is both asthmatic and has Osgood-Schlatter disease. But I don’t have their talent, I just don’t have “good DNA.” I train very hard to be by club standards reasonable. And yet here I am at a national championship.
How - in the name of Mike - is this even possible?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0euxBgTEvGQ
Well, by choosing to race a niche (time trials), within a niche (veterans), within a niche (on a tandem). A niche, within a niche, within a niche. Turns out if your category is obscure enough, you don’t have to qualify, you just pay £12 and show up. This why I find myself at the Veterans Time Trials Association (VTTA) National 25-mile Championship with my tandem partner, Richard May alias +RichardM.
Our brilliant plan to arrive 90 mins before the off feels like misguided enthusiasm when the race organiser announces that owing to heavy mists on the course, the start is delayed by 30 minutes. It’s a really heavy mist and we’re informed he can delay the start by an additional 30 minutes maximum, after which we either race or it’s all cancelled. We bide our time and check out the competition. Although there were five pairs entered in the tandem category, one pair did so in error and have requested to race solo. We had plenty of time for a good nosy at the other machines.
So, a gang of four competing for the national title. There are Kirton and Stockley, 81 and 82 respectively and racing on their James Fothergill steel machine. It features a home-rigged water pipe for the captain and it seems the stocker is expecting bad weather with a rain coat lashed to the frame, too.
Then there is Swanley and Churchill (75 and 63), who are riding their Matrix Tank. This is an aluminium and carbon composite frame. The stoker has an interesting hand position on their set up. The top tube is even between the two riders, so the stocker has to have their arms either side of the pilot’s rear end to get in an aero position. We estimate their chain ring at 60T, ie mahoosive!
Lastly there are the Hutchisons (59 and 57) who are also riding a Matrix Tank. It’s unusual to see two tandems of the same mark in one place. Their configuration also has what I’m calling the “cuddle position” and a carbon belt on one side of the drive chain. The cockpit looks flash and they tell us this is a brand new bike for them. Gosh. Earlier in the season we beat them on the F11/10 by just one second. If they’ve made improvements, that second could vanish fast.
Let’s not forget us, Shannon and May. We are the “youngsters” at 58 and 51. We just so happen to have made one or two improvements to the Calfee Dragonfly we race on. The front wheel has been swapped for one with an 85mm depth rim, the tyres are brand new GP5000 TTs, the cockpit has been moved forward 7mm (so the pilot’s head is lower), the bottle with tools in it has been replaced by a small saddle bag, we’ve both got trip socks and aero overshoes on and I am wearing a proper TT helmet. Plus I've lost a whole stone in weight since we last raced. All this must add up, surely.
The clouds seem to have lifted and the organiser announces that we’ll start with the 30 min delay factored in to start times. Right then, onto the turbo to warm up, grab a couple of gels, pop the overshoes on and off to the start. I’d been careful to make a route from the HQ to the start point. It’s 3.5 miles. I don’t want to get lost. However, when we swing out of the car park, Richard’s path is totally at odds with the route on my head unit. He’s following other racers, so no problem. Except time is ticking down towards our start time and my route says we are miles (yes, miles) from the start. I have a total mini melt down and order Mr May to halt. It seems I've loaded the wrong route on my computer and it's guiding us to the E9/25 in Chelmsford. Today we are racing the F2A/25 which is near Cambridge. Oops. Not even the same county. Knowing what has happened I am able to stop freaking out, especially as the start is visible and just 200m down the road.
We haven’t ridden the F2A/25. It’s meant to be PDQ (pretty darn quick). And it’s not a complicated route. Go west to a roundabout, come back to the start, repeat, done. Even with our recent track record of accidentally ending up on a motorway, we’re confident of at least finishing this one. Boom, we’re off and quickly up to an average speed of 27mph. 27.8 at the roundabout. Cripes, this is PB territory. It’s really flat. That’s great, but it means there’s no rest going downhill, just a moment to catch our breath at the turn points. We have to give way at the first roundabout, which sucks our pace a bit, but there no repeat when we do it the second time.
We overtook the senior pair, Kirton and Stockley, at about 6 miles, but don’t see hide nor hair of the other two pairs. It’s not exactly warm, but I’m sweating buckets trying to keep my power up and so relieved when we reach the finish. I guess I was in the “if you’re not sure if you can carry on” zone that Chris Boardman says is about right for time trialling. The other two Boardman zones are “I can’t go on like this” and “I think I could go harder.” I gave it everything and I’ve rarely been happier to snap the stop button and the finish and check the time.
Our official time was 54 minutes and 53 seconds. A PB and a huge improvement on our previous best of 56:13. It's also a club record. Richard was thinking that sub-55 would be a good 2023 target. Think again, buddy. Back at HQ we check the other teams’ times helpfully projected on a big screen. We are the fastest machine by some way. The gap to our nearest rivals, the Hutchisons, is 1:18. A bit more than the single second earlier in the season. But wait. Have we won? Like VAR, we have to wait and check.
The VTTA Championships are handicap events, using VTTA Standards. Standard times that a man or woman is rated against for their age. This means mixed tandem pairs can compete against single sex pairs and all ages get a fair crack at it. It doesn’t feel fair as the adjustment (based on the time difference to your standard time) means that we’ve gone from being the fastest machine to the slowest. And the senior pair, although the slowest, are now the fastest. I’m not one for scripture, but the first shall be last and the last shall be first spins around my head for a while.
Many congratulations to Kirton and Stockley. They actually put in a time of 1:02:53, which is pretty astonishing for octogenarians. I’d be pretty astonished just to be racing in my eighties. Something for us all to aspire to.
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08/09/2022 - The cost of cycling crisis
We all know there’s a cost of living crisis. We are currently getting daily messages about large numbers of the population having to choose between heating and eating. This is very real and very tough. Sports that are expensive to participate in such as cycling, may well see a drop off in numbers or may become increasingly less accessible to people on a low income. Cycle sport can be something of a money pit.
There’s never been a better time to start the recent Hacks for cheap cycling thread.
Kudos to +ChrisGold for getting that that discussion started.Part 1 - groupset hell
At this precarious moment in economic history Shimano have launched their 105 Di2 groupset. For those not in the know, groupset is collective term for the gear and brake system of your bike. Di2 means it’s electronic. And the new 105 Di2 groupset is also disc brake only and comes in at about £1,700. It’s meant to be really good. But there is no rim brake version and no mechanical version being made.
You could – indeed still can for the time being – pick up a mechanical, rim brake 105 groupset for £500 and a brand new complete bike from a respected manufacturer equipped with 105 for about £1,000. For this reason 105 has been affectionately known as the people’s groupset. Why is (or was) that £1,000 price point important? Well, it’s roughly what a new cyclist looking to get serious about cycling is prepared to pay and what you get for your money is seen as good enough to compete on.
Campag decommissioned their 105-equivelent groupset, Veloce, in 2020. They still make their 11-speed, mechanic set, Centaur, which can be had for about £600. However, Centaur is not being made in large numbers. Maybe bike manufacturers should start offering more complete bikes with Centaur? C'mon, give Campag a call! Then there’s SRAM. Their stable are all electronic and start at a price only a few hundred quid below 105 Di2.
The cost of an entry level racing bike will likely rise to £2,000-2,500, well beyond what most new riders are able or prepared to pay. 105 is longer the people's groupset. Without a race-worthy mechanical groupset you either have to go to Shimano’s next level down from 105 - Tiagra - on a cheaper or put up about £2,000 for a bike with one of the lower tier electronic set ups. Is my concern misplaced? Is Tiagra good enough to race on? Will Tiagra become the new people's groupset? It's 10sp and there are disc brake versions. And are SRAM and Camping missing a trick for not having a lower level groupset that could work well on a £1,000 complete bike?
Part 2 - my list of 10 hacks to save you money and keep you cycling
- Join ICC! Seriously. It’s amazing value. You get a heavily subsidised jersey when you join and so many riding opportunities, the forum, this blog…
- Quit the foreign legion and have your own DIY spring or autumn training camp at home. Remember all those routes you wanted to try out? Here's an example, I took a week off to ride and others are invited to join for as many or as few days as they fancy.
- Abide by the one bike to rule them all philosophy. Have a couple of tyre options and a set of mudguards for wet days and sell your surplus bike(s). As Mrs Shannonball says, "How many bikes can you ride at once?"
- Go second-hand. Use eBay, the forum, other forums. Old is still good. Like, er, good old Shimano 105, for instance.
- Excuse me if you’ve heard this one before, but don’t buy upgrades, ride upgrades. Do the miles. That is the bit that counts.
- Race fees add up over a season, so pick your events wisely. Many cycling events are now £50 or more to enter. Audax and reliability rides are usually about £12-15 and time trials are a similar price.
- Talking of adding up, what about all those subscriptions? I mean monthly moolah going out for Zwift, Strava, Training Peak, Trainer Road , RideWithGPS, Wahoo SYSTM, Rouvy and so on. I know I’ve had a touch of FOMO when it comes to these platforms and I’ve shut a couple down.
- Can you fix it? Start with the simpler things, such as punctures, brake pad replacement and popping in a new chain. Let YouTube be your university of bike maintenance and borrow the tools you need, if you don’t have them.
- Friendship is free. Also the views. Those fabulous views are free. Go somewhere pretty, take a digital photo. Share it. Reconnect with other riders and go explore.
- You can spend a small fortune one year on gels and bars, so why not make your own. There’s a ton of recipes out there. I like this one for energy bars, I’m a total sucker for peanut butter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMJEIiWV3VQ
- Join ICC! Seriously. It’s amazing value. You get a heavily subsidised jersey when you join and so many riding opportunities, the forum, this blog…
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22/08/2022 - Physics fail
This summer I spent a few weeks in America. The main purpose was to have a well-earned holiday and catch up with friends and family in Oregon and San Francisco, who we hadn’t seen for three years. While Stateside I also set myself the challenge of trying to defy the laws of physics. I aimed to do this in two ways.
First, I wanted to lose weight while on holiday. I know, crazy. This is never an easy thing and all the more testing when you’re spending time in the US of A, where sugar seems to be added to everything, portions are larger by default and just breathing the air feels calorific. I’d been dieting in the weeks running up to departure and had lost 10lbs. This loss was hard won and I was super keen to avoid supersizing myself.
My second challenge was to ride up Mount Diablo, which is near San Francisco where we’d spend the last three days of our break. Climbing is far from my strong suit and, according to Strava, this would be my biggest climb, eclipsing my ascent of the Puig Major back in 2015. Yeah, I know my limits, so I don’t take on mountains often (or at all) and I considered hauling my ageing, overweight ass up Diablo would be the second way I could break the laws of physics.
The first three weeks of my trip were to be spend with my in-laws in and around Salem in the Willamette Valley. The valley is mainly farmland and pretty darn flat, so little climbing practice was available to me. But I had a plan. I had a series of intensive workouts from my coach, Tim Ramsden, and I had earmarked a couple of reasonable climbs to cut my teeth on – one near Detroit Lake in the Cascades where we were going to camp and another near Waldport on the coast, where we’d spend much of our first week. Alas, on that week it felt like all bets were off as I went down with my second dose of Covid. I did manage four rides before surcumbing, including one up to Orchard Heights, west of Salem, where there are actually some hills and some vineyards. At one view point, I watched the mists rise from the valley.
Aside from the aches and pains of the virus, it was a mega pain to lose a week of training and, once I tested negative, I nursed myself up to speed. I had suffered six weeks of highly disruptive post-viral fatigue when I had my first Covid in Jan 2021, so I was very cautious indeed. On Tim's advice, I was working on heart rate. I started with a couple of Zone 1 rides, then a couple of Zone 2 rides before upping things another notch. I knew from my first encounter with the virus that I should look out for an unusually elevated heart rate, so I worked on HR rather than power to monitor things made a lot of sense. Looking ahead, I still strongly doubted I’d be in any shape to take on my biggest climb when we got to California in a couple of weeks. Darn.
I recovered enough to be riding in our second week while we were camping next to Detroit Lake. The climb I’d found there began three miles away at Idanha and rose 2,100ft over 7 miles. Decent enough for hill repeats? I set out super early, and was greeted by moody looking lake.
However, as WC Fields would say, when I got there, it was closed.
The area around Detroit Lake was subject to one of the worst burns in the autumn 2020 series wild fires that raged up and down the West Coast. A sign proclaimed that there was fire damage on the road – fallen trees and/or “widow makers” to remove. The latter being unsafe trees that might fall – and the road was closed. I managed an out and back towards Breitenbush instead. This was a long and really gentle climb - really a rise - but the ride was limited by another road closed sign 10 miles in. You can see Mt Jefferson and the burn stretching for miles.
This is a clean up job on a vast scale to make the roads and trails safe again. There is an off-road route, the Cascading Rivers Scenic Byway, that runs from Detroit Lake to Estacada, that I was hoping to try. As you’ve guess, this was closed, too.
So, our time in Oregon came to and end. It was great to reconnect with family. Sad, though, to say goodbye and have seen many of our favourite beauty spots badly burnt and to add insult to injury, I’d been badly burnt by Covid. I’d done what I could with my diet, but with no access to scales, all I could do is hope I was still on track.
We still had three days in Berkeley, San Francisco, with our friends the Zapiens. Three years ago I'd tempted Richard to climb Mt Tamalpais with me. The route featured a 10-mile gravel section and some the most beautiful views of the Bay. That ride saw Richard really struggle, but he was so utterly committed that he drove himself to complete it. I “coached him through” by sarcastically (and repeatedly) offering to call him an Uber.
In spite of all that, Richard is still talking to me and has become something of road cyclist in the last three years, riding with the Grizzly Peaks Cyclists and completing a series of century rides. He was up for Mt Diablo and given my Covid and all the climbs he has around Berkeley to practice on, I anticipated having my ass handed to me on a plate.
I hired a decent-looking carbon bike from Sports Basement and we set out early doors towards Mt Diablo so that we could avoid as much of the heat of the day as we could.
We went out through the lush and lovely forests of Tilden Regional State Park and gained 1,000ft, which was nice little warm up. When we got to the far side of the well-to-do towns of Lafayette and Walnut Creek, we entered the Mt Diablo State Park and got down to business. There are two ways to approach the summit, the North Gate and the South Gate. The former is harder and is what we’re doing.
Richard’s wife, Nicolle, had hiked this mountain and warned us repeatedly about rattle snakes. As such, my eyes darted left and right whenever we stopped. I’d seen some benign yellow racers out hiking that week, but really didn’t fancy coming face to face with their venomous relatives.
It was hot now, 90F. I paced myself, I had a 32T cog. I had water. I had more water. I had gels, I had bars, I had more water. I don’t know how long we’d been climbing when we got to a ranger station – much more than an hour. We made use of the restrooms and there was a sobering sign – another 4.5 miles to the summit.
We ploughed on. We got to a campsite with some shade and took another moment. We’d climbed 3,500ft so far and I was working on the basis that this was a 5,000ft climb. Richard said we’re just a few hundred yards from the summit. I’d been working off the wrong figure, in fact Mt Diablo is 3,849ft (and the climb is over 12 miles). Despite knowing the finish was a 17% section, I somewhat excitedly attacked, which I totally regretted as my hamstrings felt like they were going to explode.
Mt Diablo is a lone giant, like Mt Ventoux, so you get long distance views in all directions.
We had some PB&J sandwiches Richard had packed. I bought some choc ices at the visitor center and we chatted to the blissed out people wandering around the summit. One was a young triathlete who ridden up on a time trial bike. That seemed so wrong, but kudos to him.
After we descended, the temperature rose to 95F. Wow. Just in time we reached the Canyon Club Brewery and took in tacos, a chicken sandwich and a couple of their delicious brews. We went from the hell fire of Diablo to being blissed out and chilled out, while being “entertained” by the “country infused vintage rock and roll” of Dave “Ouzo” Land.
I’d been to the mountaintop, but had I lost or gained weight? Back in Blighty I stepped on the bathroom scales and, would you believe, I had actually lost 3lbs. Take that, physics!
Here’s the Diablo route:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40579790
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22/07/2022 - A parallel universe
There is another universe out there. You can access it more or less wherever you are in the world. It is quite different from this one. No, you are not entering a scene from the movie Everything, Everywhere, All at Once nor another timeline from Doctor Who. This is off road riding. Mountain bikers know how to get there, audax riders dip into it and the recent gravel phenomenon has opened up this zone to more of us cyclists. But how to get there? I’m going to demonstrate my method, which does not include spells, time machines, selling your soul to the devil or doing something unusual, a la Everything, Everywhere All at Once.
Let me explain first how I ended up hanging out in this other plane. The first lockdown hit us and I got absolutely sick to the back teeth of cyclists drafting me or riding near when we were doing our allowed daily exercise, unvaccinated and living under strict restrictions. I cracked and got myself a second-hand gravel bike, in my case from a club mate, and got off the grid. I wasn’t a complete newbie to riding off road, I had a mountain bike in the Eighties and have done and enjoyed Rapha’s A Day in Hell/Hell of the North events with its long gravé sectors, but at no stage developed any rad, as they say, skills.
I described this existence as off the grid because it’s somewhat quieter there. The traffic consists of occasional horses or dog walkers and there are no shops, close passes or crowds. It’s a land of chuck, chunder, babyheads and peanut butter mud and it can get gnarly. I dipped in the Stateside vernacular a bit there in how Americans describe their “trails.” Blighty puts its best foot – or pedal – forward on a land that consists of Byways, Bridleways and Unrestricted Byways. Farm tracks and livestock abound and it’s all very agricultural.
OK, let’s go to this brave new world. In many ways, it’s actually an old world, ancient even. Some of the best off-road riding you can find is on bygone roadways such as the Icknield Way (110 miles), which claims to be the oldest road in Britain, a 47-mile part of the Pilgrim’s Way, or the Ridgeway (85 miles). In fact, the Ridgeway forms a large part of one of Cycling UK’s series of multi-day off-road routes, The King Alfred’s Way, which loops from Winchester. This sits alongside the mighty 800-mile Great North Trail, the West Kernow Way in Cornwall, Cantii Way in Kent and their latest one in Norfolk, The Rebellion Way.
There are number of organisations that run gravel event rides, too. One of them, Hidden Tracks, are getting in on the longer distance off-road act with a forthcoming London Orbital route. Glorious Gravel and Trail Break are two more gravel event organisers.
Another approach is to search for others riders routes on RideWithGPS (RWGPS), for example, or you could make your own route. YouTuber Simon Willis has a great explanation of how he uses Komoot to create gravel routes on his Always Another Adventure channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sGPp2Slw1U
Or you could use any of the other myriad mapping platforms out there. My way of planning off-road rides is a fairly old school one, in a digital kind of way. I find most online mapping tools are somewhat inadequate and I can struggle with hard copy Ordinance Survey maps, not because of inaccuracy, but because the way things are marked is not distinct enough for me.
I aim to avoid using footpaths where cyclists are legally not permitted. If you do use them, they can be really hit and miss. Many are overgrown and you will hit gates and other anti-cyclist defences. Byways and bridleways for me and the Footpathmap website (FPM) I use is really clear at identifying them. Bright pink for bridleways, blue for byways and green for unrestricted byways. Footpaths are red. This works for me on a psychological level, too, knowing I should avoid the red ones.
I like to draw my routes on RWGPS and have another tab open with FPM for reference. The colours of FPM really pop and it becomes a simple question of joining the blues, greens and pinks to make a loop. Some area have multiple options and this is a good enough reason for me not to simple click two points and ask Komoot or some such app to work it out. The reason I like using RWGPS to buid routes is the Draw Lines function. Most mapping apps have an automatic drawing function to follow the roads between the points you click, but none recognise every navicable byway or brideway. Some you simply don’t get used on auto, so the solution is to switch from follow roads to draw line mode and manually draw that section. Then switch back to follow roads.
Here’s a couple of routes I created using this method.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/39069823
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/35515738
An alternative, and I’m not joking, is to just get lost. If you don’t slow down enough to explore and enjoy the scenery andwonder “where does that other path go?” then you are missing a lot of the joy universe offers.
How do you go about creating your routes?
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07/07/2022 – Chariot of fire
Imagine, if you will, a huge Roman sports arena, the crowd booming loud and large and gladiators charging around in chariots. Or being chased by chariots. A frenetic and violent scene, full of colour and guts and bloody-mindedness. That, dear reader, is what the Reading CC 25 time trial felt like…
Well, actually, we were west of Reading on a section of the A4 called Bath Road not far from Aldermaston, where warheads for Trident missiles get assembled. And, like a missile, +RichardM and myself intended to launch ourselves on the green Calfee tandem around the course at top speed. And why not? The H25/1 course is one of the faster non-dual carriageway time trial courses in the south, so it has the dual appeal of being both rapid and relatively easy on the eye.
Our very first 25-mile race was on this course and yielded a sub hour time, 58:43, in spite of overshooting one roundabout (“You see that nice marshal in hi-viz?” “Er, no. Oops”). So, going off-course aside, we were hopeful of a decent time. There was a slight alteration the original course. A cycle lane had been put in at the west end and so the turnaround was a little earlier. Really minor change and the course is now known as the H25/1A.
So, to the start line. Some bothersome Velotoze shoe covers had precluded our structured turbo warm up, but no bother, we felt good and ready. Ready enough to decline the offer of being held up on the start line. Not such a great decision, as we struggled to clip in after we pushed off and lost a few seconds in that moment.
OK, let’s rewind a little. Tandem time trialling is a very niche activity. Often we are the only entrants, but the £20 prize had attracted a second machine. This machine was a stunning-looking steel tandem trike. Yes, trike. We’d looked at the results of the team riding it on the CTT website and they were good.
Back in the race we set off with Richard joking that he felt we were going to be chased down by what felt like a chariot from the movie Gladiator.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tVXEltaews
Whilst I was deeply grateful that our rivals were not equipped with bows, arrows, swords and other brutal weapons, I did get the sense that they were breathing down our necks. At the six-mile point there is a turnaround at a roundabout and as we came back we saw the chariot, I mean trike, approaching it. They were definitely getting closer. At the next turnaround, there was no sign. Could we have gained ground? I knew that they were closing because they must have been on the roundabout when we exited it. Darn, overtaken at halfway was not a good look. We were now going back into a slight headwind, which was miserable, but we held on. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 miles. It wasn’t until the 18th mile that we succumbed to the three-wheeler.
Cool and calm lawyer by day, Richard is an emotional racer and he reacted with a passion. The trike moved ahead of us, but I could feel in the pedals his desire to bring them back. And I looked to raise my game, too. Try as we did, we could only slow down the growth in the gap between us. This was partly down to their strength and good aero positions, but also we had no less than five hold ups for traffic. At one point a van more or less parked in front of us causing a near dead stop. This was suboptimal, to say the least, but part and parcel of racing on the open roads. It can happen, but this was an unusual number of interruptions. Even without them, our competitors would have beaten us, probably by 15 seconds or so. Hats – or should I say helmets – off to them.
Our time was 59:21, them 58:02. Disappointing in a sense, but looking at all the results that day, only about half went under the hour. So, not bad really. That’s it. Exit, pursued by a tandem trike.
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30/06/2022 – Inbetweeners
What do you do in between your races and events? Whether you take part in challenging long-distance rides, hammer around a circuit for ranking points or prefer to go bikepacking, these are the high points of our cycling calendar. This is what makes us tick, what we aim for and our celebration of the joy of cycling. But what do you do in the gaps between? Here are 10 suggestions:
- Let’s get this out of the way first and then move on. Yes, you could always do something not related to cycling. Really. You could. Walk the dog, spend time with friends or family, do some baking (see homemade scones below). Why not do something for others? Volunteer for something, read a book, get another interest. Get some perspective. There are other things in life apart from riding your bike. Honestly.
- OK, enough. Meanwhile back in reality, why not talk about cycling? You may not have a race to take part in, but you could talk about racing. There are a lot of pro races to catch up on and get inspired by. Whether it’s track, crits, grand tours, cyclo-cross, mountain biking or even BMX, it’s the safest way to take part in our sport - from the armchair. Except you don’t burn any calories that way.
- Which leads me to the next thing to think about between events, your diet. This really is an everyday endeavour. You may or you may not want to lose weight, but you certainly need to fuel your rides, you need to recover, you need to reward yourself for all the hard work. And food, well it’s so darn tasty. Actually, working out your fuelling strategy is a good thing to do in the between times. When I say strategy, I mean find out what gels and bars don’t give you an upset stomach and yet are reasonably enjoyable to eat. What do you eat first, gel or bar? How often? Or do you prefer something homemade? Maybe some rice balls?
- And then there’s retail therapy. Perfect to while away the time. This can be fun, but it can get dangerous, because there is always a ton of new products out there and a lot of push to get you part with your hard-earned cash. Why not window shop? That’s what I aim to do most of the time. That’s what I tell myself. Go shopping, but try not to buy anything. Easier said than done with the world of online sales a click away. Must resist, must resist. Cold shower. If you have to have something, make it a reward for an event or achievement. (No, David, waking up does not count).
- Closely related to shopping (and window shopping) is upgrading your bike. There can be an actual need to do this - maybe your wheels are worn, your frame is knackered or your tyres getting shabby. But if we’re honest with ourselves, often it’s our egos that are knackered and getting today’s new tech would make us feel so much better. Mind you, a new bike would definitely make me feel so much better. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
- You could use your time to do something useful. Like, clean and repair your bike(s). There’s always some small job that gets put off or maybe you just never really clean your bike and get it back to a showroom shine. Now’s the time. You don’t want to turn up to an event with a filthy bike and risk that niggling issue becoming a critical one. See it, service it, sort it!
- I’m getting more sensible by the minute here – you could (wait for it) – do some training. Yes. Focus on what your upcoming event needs from you and do sessions that build the right skills and fitness. There are loads of plans out there, books, apps with plans or you could work with a coach. I work with Tim Ramsden of Black Cat Coaching. Why not mix it up and reverse one of your usual routes, try some hill repeats (I’ve been saying that for year and I will eventually get round to it) or aim to keep with a faster group than usual. Or you could practice your leadership and lead a slower, more comfortable group. Give a little back.
- While you’re at it, you need to make sure you look after yourself. Do you get the rest you need? Service your machine. Do you have any injuries to attend to? If so, you could book a relevant therapy session. Have you had a bike fit? Small difference from a fitting session can have a huge effect. Breathe in and out. Relax…
- …and while relaxing you can dream about your next event. Or better plan your next race. Events are full of logistics. When do you need to leave? Have you got enough time for a warm up? What warm up will you do? Do you have a check list of everything you need for your event? Make one. Nothing worse than being on the start line and realising something’s missing. Like when I recently omitted to pack any gels.
- And lastly, you could always write a blog. About cycling, naturally.
- Let’s get this out of the way first and then move on. Yes, you could always do something not related to cycling. Really. You could. Walk the dog, spend time with friends or family, do some baking (see homemade scones below). Why not do something for others? Volunteer for something, read a book, get another interest. Get some perspective. There are other things in life apart from riding your bike. Honestly.
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An eBay steel - 16/06/2022
All three of my bikes are now quite nice. Too nice to leave on the street. It's a good problem to have, as they say. Coming back from hybrid working, I've started commuting again, albeit once or twice a week. We have a bike room at work, so I can ride a nice bike to the office, but I fear the paintwork getting ruined by other cyclists moving their bikes in and out. I must admit, I've started to pack some pipe lagging in my back to protect my tubes. That's when I knew I had to do something. I also want to be able to cycle to a meeting or go out in the evening on my bike and be able to leave it on the street without fear.
So, I gave myself a brief to find a bike that I wouldn't have a breakdown if it got jacked, but was still fun to ride. And success - I managed to pick up this old steel Peugeot racer from eBay for £60. Not so very much wrong with it. I guess it's from the Eighties, without the decals I can't say which model. It's 7-speed and has eyelets for mudguards. Where the decals had been removed, there was loads of sticky residue left on the frame. A good tip for sticker glue removal is to spray with WD-40 and wipe off.
The biggest issue for this bike - and probably why I got it for £60 - was that the cranks had been cross-threaded, so it was either repair or replace them. Someone had really gone to town trying to put a pedal in the wrong way and the hole was seriously widened. So, I opted for the latter solution as it was a chance to reduce the 52/42 chainrings to compact (50/36) and soften up the 13-23 cassette for commuting.
I got a new chainset from SJS Cycles for £40 and added some Deda bar tape for £8. There really wasn't that much to do on it. The tyres, brake pads, bottom bracket are all good, cables good and chain not stretched, nor the cassette worn. The wheel bearings are good, just a very slight kink in the rear wheel, which I can address later. I had a spare Brooks Cambrian saddle and a frame pump hanging about in my bike shed to finish it off.
Thanks and praise to the ever-useful The Bike Book from Haynes, which I am always referring back to for various jobs on the bike. I especially look for things I don't do that often, such as the crank removal I've just done, bottom bracket and front mech readjustment.
Now, I must remember not to get too attached this bike (or upgrade it further) and remind myself its purpose is to be left on the street and not worried about...
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14/06/2022 – Lemon to a knife fight
At the start line of the Surrey Hills Bike & BBQ I say to the starter (before he manually scans my race QR code), that “I’ve brought a lemon to a knife fight.” He doesn’t get it. Maybe he’s not a Wombats fan, but I’m on my Mason Bokeh gravel bike at a mountain bike event. Having taken an early train from Waterloo to Guildford, myself and +RichardM arrive at the HQ moments before a mass of MTB riders funnel through the start gate, including another ICC rider, +AlexSzomboti. Most appear to be starting bang on 9am, so they are clearly very, very keen. Everyone seems to be on a mountain bike, aside from me, Richard and Alex. Hence my referencing the Wombats. I feel like I’m going to get sliced, either by those who are more suitably equipped and have proper skills or by the course, which promises to be reasonably challenging or should I say gnarly.
I got lured in to entering by (1) the thought of taking on a more technical riding challenge, (2) seeing a truly beautiful part of the country and, of course, (3) the after-ride BBQ (specifically the chilli). It’s only 30 miles, I reflect, how bad can it get? The first two miles are on tarmac and lull you into a false sense of security. Then you hit a rough-as-feck cobbled farm track that would give Paris-Roubaix a run for its money, whilst passing a genteel game of village cricket. It begins… the next mile throws a great quantity of sand and consequently exposed tree roots at you, whilst you manoeuvre on single track. Oh-oh, 30 miles of this?
Well, not 30 miles of sand, but we did return to the sandy trails in the last couple of miles. Along the way there were some tough sectors of various kinds and some more mellow ones. One part with “baby head stones” sticks in the mind. They were hard enough going up, but harder going down. Talking about descending, there were a few V-shaped channels (not sure you can call them trails) we went down. I was super cautious on these, but the MTB folk screamed down with their fancy suspension and fancy bike-handling skills, riding high up the banks of the V on the bends. I got suckered into trying this and almost spilt, then got sensible and slowed down, then got caught in two minds about how to proceed and came off. Lucky for me, I was going very slowly at the time and it was more of a gentle unseating than anything spectacular.
The Surrey Hills Bike & BBQ is organised by Trail Break and they did a great job of marking out the route with arrowed signs and ribbons tied to shrubbery, both in matching orange. These were so frequent you felt really reassured you were literally on the right path and I hardly had to look at the GPS on my bars. Trail Break runs a variety of off-road events that range from MTB to gravel. Their South Downs 100 on 2 July looks awesome, as does the Ridgeway 100 on 11 September. Both of these are more of an emphasis on gravel rather than MTB, but, as with this ride, the MTB rides are just fine on a gravel bike.
I’d go a little further and say there were many sections where being on a gravel bike was better than a mountain bike. Most climbs (on or off-road), I was able to move past MTB riders and on every single bit of tarmac I screamed by the MTBs up, down or flat. However, on the tarmac many roadies climbed past me at pace. This was especially so on Combe Lane. If you don’t know it, this is a really great climb that features in the 100 Great Climbs books. It’s about 0.9 miles long and towards the top it there’s a blind left-hander that reveals a 18% section. Nice. The route, although only 30 miles, is close to the so-called golden ratio (1,000ft of elevation gain per 10 miles), so there are plenty of other rises to test your climbing legs.
There was a healthy field of 176 and, aside from the three ICC riders (all of us on gravel bikes), I only saw one other entrant on a gravel bike. There should/could be a lot more, as this ride is a lot of fun on a gravel bike - plus there’s a BBQ at the end! Like a sportive there are gold, silver and bronze time bands*. Richard and Alex (2hr 27min!) managed gold, while I was 6 mins outside of the gold cut off and made a "strong silver." This was 8th in my age group, so I’ll take that on an MTB course. Not bad for a lemon.
*Update with background from Martin Harrison at Trail Break: The Gold, Silver, Bronze system actually came from mountain biking; specifically from our rides! We have been running this format of Trail Rides since the early 1990s and came up with the Gold, Silver, Bronze bands when we started, as a less formal adaptation of the reliability ride format, to provide a legal way of timing a ride on public rights of way (we used to have category called “Pub” below Bronze too!). When we launched the first of our road sportives in 2006, we carried over the same system to keep the rides legal on public roads. None of the few early sportives that existed in the country at the time used anything like that, but others subsequently started to adopt it and it eventually evolved into a standard for the sportive format.
Things learned:
- Gravel bikes can handle a lot more than you think (and my off-road skills less than I think)
- It's worth trying to do something a bit different
- Some Sunday train services have no toilet. I hear that it can be handy to have a takeaway coffee cup handy, especially when it's a 50-minute journey...
- Gravel bikes can handle a lot more than you think (and my off-road skills less than I think)
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The only way is Essex - addendum
The official RideLondon times show that although Richard crossed the finish line before me in 4:57:13, I was actually the faster rider on the day with an official time of 4:57:12. This is not the first time this has happened when we've ridden a tandem. I have "beaten" Mr May on some Strava segment or other, also by a full second. No bragging to be done, but very a curious phenomena.
Islington Cycling Club
"You will always be in our hearts and on our roads." - @Giro d'Italia on Michele Scarponi
24/04/2023 – Highway to Hell
Back in 2010, Rapha staged it’s first Hell of the North ride. An homage to Paris-Roubaix, it was 50 miles in length and featured 20 gravé sectors rather than pavé. These were gravelled paths and dirt tracks – the best they could do without access to French and Belgian-style Spring Classic cobbles. There was an apres ride social at a pub to watch the finale of Paris-Roubaix and enjoy a beer and frites. It was free to take part and take part I did.
I was working as a cycle instructor at the time and went along with an instructor buddy called Neil. Neil was on a cross bike. Sensible. I was on the only bike I had - a steel Peugeot with down tube shifters and 25 mm tyres. How times change. I don’t think I saw anyone else on a cross bike that day, everyone seemed to be on road bikes and all seemed determined to tough it out. Maybe there were one or two MTBs. It also has to be said, there was no GPS routing. There wasn't even a cue sheet. We were given something that looked like a brevet card with a roughly drawn route. It wasn't a map. More like an artist's impression of the route. The route itself was signed by pink chalk marks. I just followed the riders ahead and hoped for the best. The rest stop was fairly spartan, it featured bananas and water only.
Even in 2019 most entrants were on ordinary road bikes with narrow tyres
Times (and tech) do change. When disc brakes came to road bikes, the opportunity for fatter rubber opened up. With that an opportunity for a new kind of bike, the gravel bike, with tyres that were beefier than you could fit on a cross bike. Bikes that could compete with many mountain bikes for off-roadworthyness, so to speak, but were also lively on tarmac.
The route card for the first Day in Hell
In 2010, most riders had 23mm tyres. I took part in 2013 and rode - I kid you not - on a fixed-gear bike with 25s and a 66in gear ratio (48:19). I had quite a few punctures that day and it was a slog. After eight editions of the Hell of the North, Rapha renamed the ride A Day in Hell. Pretty much the same fare, except the event became a paid for thing and places were limited. I didn’t get a place again until the 2019 edition and then, having learned my lesson, rode my titanium (geared) road bike with 30mm tyres. The ride was more plush, but I still got a few punctures.
The 2023 edition was not as muddy as I'd feared
Fast-forward to 2023 and it’s now £25 to enter Rapha's A Day in Hell. The start is from Rapha’s HQ, which is Elthorne Road in Islington. Handy, eh? And it wasn't at all hard to get a ticket, even three days beforehand. This year Rapha offered three routes: 100km (standard), 136km (long route) and 100km (optimised for 28mm tyres). I took on the standard and RideWithGPS indicate about 25% off-road. It wasn’t at all. After 10 road miles you’re into it and it’s mainly off road all the way to when you hit Shenley on the way back. You could pick up several tracks from here if you wanted to stay off road – probably all the way to Finchley.
As you'd expect, gravel bikes now dominate the ride
Compared to 2010, the bikes are of different order. Tons of beefy rubber-equipped gravel bikes and road bikes with 28-32mm tyres. Something that hasn’t changed is that the field is almost exclusively male. I found this odd. Rapha has worked to champion women’s cycling and their RCC rides seem to feature a good proportion of women. I think I only saw one or two women riding, which, as an ICC member and in general a human, did feel very odd.
Two Mason Bokehs enjoy a well earned break in Shenley
This year I worried (unnecessarily) about it being too muddy. There were one or two short sections that were really sloppy, but all were rideable. Rapha set up a feed station in Brickendon at the Farmer’s Boy and there were bananas and tons of bars and gels to grab, along with inner tubes. I got chatting to a chap who was also riding a Mason Bokeh. I think we were both starting to flag and stopped off at the Orchard Cafe in Shenley to refuel. It was only 10 miles from the finish, but I just had to have some real food.
Rest stop giveaway goodies acquired
Below are the three 2023 routes. You can also find all of the historic Hell of the North and A Day in Hell routes on RideWithGPS.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42377131?utm_campaign=Get%20Ready%20for%20A%20Day%20in%20Hell&utm_medium=email&utm_source=exponea
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41817400?utm_campaign=Get%20Ready%20for%20A%20Day%20in%20Hell&utm_medium=email&utm_source=exponea
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42377248?utm_campaign=Get%20Ready%20for%20A%20Day%20in%20Hell&utm_medium=email&utm_source=exponea