SPAM 2008 - what a difference a year or two makes

(Me above sporting fancy new headgear, a Xmas pressie from Ms Miff, that serves a useful purposed of ensuring I can find my piccies in admist all the others (PS bought the piccies above so will scan in once they arrive))

Well another year has passed. And it ended on a real high when I did the SPAM winter challenge yesterday. This is my bellwether event, despite it being ridden in the UK winter in the wet/cold on a mountain bike, while my preferred choice of ride is on a racing bike in the French summer when it is warm and hot.

The reason for this event's significance lies in history. As mentioned in my previous blog entry I took a new year resolution at the start of 2005 simply to lose weight. I nearly bought a Concept 2 to help with this, realising only just in time that it would be too big to fit into the room intended for it. So I got a Lifecycle instead and never looked back. I lost 2 stone in 2005, getting a whole lot fitter in the process. So as 2005 progressed I started cycling for real, and, as mentioned previously in this blog, came up with the idea of doing the TDF 2006. Come the winter of 2005, I had a goal but that was all.

Starting SPAM - 2006

It was around then I made my first (very naive) visits to Banjo Cycles where a leaflet caught my eye. It was promoting the "SPAM Winter Solstice Challenge" (always just called the SPAM by me). This was to be held in January 2006, with course options of 30 or 50km. As it happened I had been doing some training on (an ancient Decatholon from France) MTB so I thought I would enter as a spur to training and compare myself with other cyclists. I chose the 50km option as it did not seem very far compared to the 150-200km I would have to do in France.

The day of the event came around. I still recall feeling nervous at the start. There were 500 entrants for the 50k and some looked quite fit. However I was quietly confident, after all I had been training all year and was getting quite good on my Lifecycle. I had dreams of coming in ahead of the more experienced riders as I had seen previous year's results with many in the 3-4 hour range. I could do 16kph on a mountain bike easily. So a sub 3 hour time was a possibility. In my more giddy moments I even had visions of coming in first...(well it was just after Xmas when the spirit (well wine and beer at least) had been flowing).

Well they say pride comes before a fall. In my case this was literal. In fact pride came before a number of falls, each leaving me more muddy and dispirited than the last. The weather for the 2006 SPAM was not bad but it was cold with a light drizzle that bound mud to my bike in an icy slushball. I was cold/wet and not going very fast at all. Far from being at the front I was very much near the back, I can recall long periods of riding alone being ever so slightly worried that everyone else may have finished. My old bike did not stand up to the conditions, it became clogged with mud and after a while the shifters stuck so I was effectively in a single gear. Much of the time it took so much effort to pedal it was quicker to get off and walk. I can honestly say it was the hardest event I have ever ridden in.

Still there was a moment of epiphany that I still look back to when I need some cycling strength. At some point in the ride, after what already felt like an age, I reached some marshals who was separating the sheep (following those on the "short" 30km ride) from the 50km mountain biking goats. By this time I was already pretty much at the back of the field. I was asked which route I was following and I said (very wearily I think) 50km. The marshals pointed left, up (another) muddy hill but their faces softened and I was asked very solicitously if I was sure I wanted to go that way. I could instead turn right and downhill to the finish, warmth, hot soup and bananas.

I have to admit I faltered. I thought I was already near the finish. Instead I was only just over half way. I was freezing, my bike was knackered and I was in an even worse state. I could give it all up and head for the finish. No-one would know. I wasnt a member of a club or anything and didn't have anything to prove. That was a crucial test. If I had given up and headed downhill for the finish I dont know if I would ever had started let alone finish my TDF. But I didn't give up, I headed uphill into another 2 1/2 hours of muddy hell.

So I finished SPAM 2006 but only just. I was not in fact last. I finished 466 out of 476 taking 5 1/2 hours. So 10 poor souls were even worse than me! I think they must have finished in the dark. It was all a chastening experience, I realised I had much to do in terms of training. But it also showed me I had the will to persevere if needed and that helped a lot, both in training and events since.

I also had another goal. Finishing the TDF was one thing but the SPAM was unfinished business. It had humilated and almost cracked me. I was not going to let it rest, in Arnie's immortal words "I will be back". (But with a new bike I ditched the Decatholon for a cheap Giant XTC, subsequently upgraded with SRAM gears as the one thing I did not EVER want to happen again was lose the ability to gear change in some muddy field far from home.)

SPAM 2007 - Return and some revenge

So I entered SPAM 2007, which took place almost a year ago. My goals for this event were a bit more modest. To finish better than 2006 (and fall off less). I managed both despite a muddy bath in the first km. I pushed hard all the way round and finished just above halfway down the field in 172nd place out of the 383 who finished. My time of 3:26 was a bit academic as the course was shortened due to bad weather and was more like 40km than 50km. The result left me pretty satisfied and I felt I could hold my head up.

SPAM 2008 - SPAM Surprise

With honour being upheld at the 2007 SPAM I didn't give any thought to the 2008 event. In fact my MTB bike and shoes remained unused and unwashed throughout 2007 as I concentrated on the road, club runs and sportives replacing my MTB rides. I sort of assumed I may do the event but only started to think about it this month, which turned out to be nearly to late as when I checked the SPAM site:

http://www.spambiking.co.uk/index.asp

I found that SPAM 2008 was to be held on 30 December 2007. This was good and bad news. Good news is plenty of time to recover afterwards. Bad is that it meant almost no pretraining and coming right at the end of Xmas week when pud = pounds gained...

I did think if it would be worth entering but then I remembered 2006. If I didn't enter did it mean I was scared? Didn't want to entertain that thought so washed off MTB and shoes and had one run down the canal tow path, pre Xmas. I must say this reminded me of why I liked MTBing so much. Its hard work but fun buzzing around the countryside and maps take on a whole new dimension when you can look for off road shortcuts.

Not being too concerned about doing well I did not let the upcoming SPAM spoil Xmas excess and I ate drank and was merry. Bike and stuff were stuck into the car Saturday night ready for a prompt start and I headed along the now familiar road to Erlestoke. I parked nearby and opened my boot only to find my front tyre was flat and Zen Stone (MP3 player) battery dead. I did an emergency tyre change then headed off to register. I found that the start was not for another 30 mins so whizzed back to the car to charge up my Stone a bit. Made it back to start where I met a couple of guys from Banjo. (One of them was Adam who had taken me out on my first training run back in this mist of time.)

We started off, thankfully not into a muddy field (as happened in January). So no early falls, but there was a steep old hill that I remembered from 2006. Happily I made it up a lot easier and set off. I had no real targets, I had thought about treating the event as an endurance training ride but found my HR following the first climb was much higher so I thought I would just push on. Unbeknown'st to me the course turned out to my liking. After some country sections there was a long road section where I just hunkered down and pedalled. I found that I got overtaken on the country but then overtook back on the road. Anyway I had a great time always just staying on the right side of the red line. I got off and pushed on a couple of hills (simply because it was as fast as riding) but otherwise had a great ride. I didn't fall once, despite some slightly hairy moments. In fact the worse thing that happened was my Stone finally running flat which affected my rhythm a bit. But I made it to the end which came a lot quicker than I expected.

I finished in 2:47, an incredible time and not one I would have thought I was capable of. This left me 102nd out of 336, so now in the top third. Better still its pretty much half the time I did the 2006 event in, put another way I was reaching the real finish of the SPAM 2008 in round about the same time as I met the marshals separating sheep from goats in 2006.

I was pretty elated by this. Especially because though I had pushed quite hard I had never felt on the edge and though a bit tired at the end I felt a lot better (and today feel fine).

PS: My time was good. For me. But the winner did the course in under 2 hours. Respect.

12 months on - 2007 v 2008

It was interesting for me to compare my performances in Jan (SPAM 2007) and Dec (SPAM 2008). Subjectively January was tougher, I trained for the event and gave it my all. However the stats told a different story, as the graphics below show.

In both the yellow section shows HR from 150-170, which is top of my aerobic to sub threshold zone.

2007:

This shows a pretty even split. Overall average is 149bpm, 45% is below 150bpm, 55% above with just a couple of minutes above 170bpm.

2008:

Everything has moved up by 10 bpm. Average is 159 bpm: just 11% is under 150, 79% is in the 150-170 range and 10% (17:15 mins) over 170. The hills at the start kicked my heart into life I kept that going through the road sections. The decline at the end is expected but its only relative to the early portion. Partly its accounted for by me having to slow to fish out food and drink. I also definitely miss my trance music when it stops.

Overall the most surprising thing about the ride, even more than the time, was that with no preparation I set a PB in terms of HR. 163bpm from 1.10 to 157 bpm at 2:56 beat my previous effort on my eyes out Lambourn triangle ride end August. Its some regret that I do not have a Powertap on my mountain bike as I am pretty sure I would have set some power PBs. Maybe next year.....

Weight of my body (and mind)

It being this time of year it seems appropriate to reflect on the progress of my diet. Weight, the mission to shed some, was the route that got me into cycling, kicked off by a New Year 2005 resolution. Back then I was a portly 14 stone plus, I bought myself a top notch exercise bike and some digital scales in Jan 2005 and started pedalling. Progress since then has been pretty good:

(Graph weight in lbs since May 2005 to end Dec 2007, blue line = weight at start of day, red = rolling 3 week average)

Graph above shows how my weight came down steadily through 2005/first half 2006, then stabilising after my TDF.

The graph below shows weight during 2007 remained pretty consistent though with a few ups and downs. The ups came naturally enough around holidays and a business trip to the US. Bizarrely I also came back from my two cycling trips weighing more than when I left. This was not too much of a surprise actually, since the same happened on my TDF, after a hard days riding the temptation to tuck into a good meal is just too much.
My scales also give the option to record a fat%. This can be a bit inconsistent as varies according to the time of day you measure and also if you have just exercise/eaten. I take at the end of each day. Notwithstanding the variances there is quite a clear trend down mirroring my weight loss. The recent trend upwards is puzzling. Not planning to do anything it but will keep an eye on it and see how start of harder training affects it.

Cardiac Drift Test

I decided to try carrying out a cardiac drift test yesterday, to complement the MAPs I have been doing.

Logic is that these should provide an indication of how my aerobic capacity is faring. Given that's the most important for the events I ride makes sense to see if I can check it.

So did a relatively simple test. Set my Lifecycle to Watts, 200W for 40 mins, put on an episode of the Sopranos and pedalled until the credits came up (50mins or so later so got a warm down in as well.). Reason I chose 200W is that it is towards the higher end of my endurance zone of 157W-212W calculated a la Coggan from an FTP of 280W.

Then looked at the HR curve, treating the first 10 mins as a warm up then looking at the next half hour breaking it down into 2 chunks of 15 mins.

Result below (Y axis 110-140bpm):

Shows that in fact took me about 25 mins to get me warmed up then flattened out around 137 bpm (about 75% of my MHR c. 182) So will take out from this:

• My 157W-212W estimate of my endurance zone is in the right area but maybe a little low.
• I should plan to redo the test watching a couple of episodes and see how much my HR changes once I have fully warmed up
• I will try again but in my tempo (213W-254W) zone.

LEL 2009: I am in...

Received an acknowledgement for my LEL 2009 entry. So I'm in, now, as the web site tells me, just another 585 days, 14 hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds to prepare

HAC4 vs Powertap

Finally sorting out a fixed bike is good news but gives rise to the question of how I log rides in WKO, since natch it has not got any power meter.

However I do have a HAC4 computer, which gives a measure of estimated power based on riders speed, weight and ascent. The manual that comes with the HAC says that this is accurate to +- 20W on climbs and +-40W on the flat.

I thought I would carry out a test to check this out. So yesterday I made two rides along the same 18km course, one with my fixed bike+HAC4 and the other with my Giant winter bike+Powertap.

Both bikes had the same tyres (newly fitted Schwalbe Marathon pluses) and both+me weighed pretty much the same 85kg (which was the weight I entered into the HAC)

The weather was cold but very still, with no wind to speak of.

I chose a course that took me out and back to Kingsclere, the next village. It consists of a short climb just after the start and again just before the finish. (see below). There are no junctions or other reasons to stop on the road so I could make the rides pretty similar. I did the first on the fixed then repeated on the Giant. For the second ride I used a constant gear with the same ration as the 42x18 on my fixed. I used HR to pace, trying to keep second ride same as second, taking both rides easy. The only issue I encountered was that I accidently switched my light on during the first couple of minutes on the fixed, which messed about with the HR until I switched it off.

(Course profile above showing 2 climbs and the rolling middle section.

Once done I downloaded the Powertap file into WKO and exported into a csv file so I could use Excel to compare. The HAC file was loaded into Hactronic, then I used Snagit to save the raw data into a txt file, again to be used in Excel (pain having to do this but don't know of way to save raw data with power).

Results were quite instructive. I managed pretty well in terms of HR as the graph below shows.
(HR comparison, Powertap is red HAC is green) The funny HAC data at the start of the ride can be seen but afterwards the two graphs pretty much track each other, being slightly offset due to differences in ride speeds)

The power readings make interesting viewing:

Here the green HAC line seems to track the red Powertap one quite well through the two climbs but in the middle, rolling, section is much smoother and consistently less than the Powertap. (The smoothing is probably due to the HAC sampling every 20secs rather than 1sec, but this does not account for the difference in outputs.)

In terms of numbers a comparison of the WKO evaluation of the two rides is below:

This confirms I did pretty well in keeping HR constant and also shows how the power measures (Work, TSS, NP and Power) are all 11>25% up when measured by Powertap.

Breaking the ride into sectors explains the difference a bit more:

The climbs show much better correalation between HAC and Powertap in terms of average. (Maxes will always be a problem for the HAC given its sample rate). However the rolling mid section shows the average power is significantly different, in fact pretty much by the 40W HAC say will happen.

I used this to play around with the HAC file. After a bit of trial and error I found that adding an arbitrary 20W on each HAC4 record with a gradient of between 1 and -4% yielded a TSS and average power prettty much the same as the Powertap and the graphs between the two were more alike. Most of my rides will be similar in terms of terrain so will use this as a frig factor for purposes of upload to WKO in future.

Riding Fixed

I finally got around to converting my Langster to a fixed wheel yesterday. This was a bit more complicated than expected, due to me also fitting Schwalbe Marathon Plus 28s so as to do all I could to guarantee that I would not get any punctures. These tyres were just a bit too big for the brakes and so I ditched the latter, since they are (I am told) redundant if you are riding fixed.

I did a cautious first run down the road to Kingsclere and back. After a while I got used to the fixed sensation and found everything bar going down hill good fun. I did a follow up ride on my winter Giant next and noticed I was a lot more aware of the pedalling action. So will continue with a few fixed excursions

My Year in Performance Management Retrospect

With the benefit of hindsight I produced a performance chart for my 2007 season as above. And it makes sense, at least the blue CTL line maps well onto my 3 key events.

The yellow TSB line is a bit less meaningful. I remember feeling great at the start of the Wessex so adjusted the starting value to 100 which made it postive around then.

Will pay this some more attention this year and see how it all pans out...

Getting to grips with power based training

It being the start of a new training season and my first with a Powertap, I thought it worth doing a bit of background reading.

Some excellent resources can be found here:
WKO 411

including a pretty difinitive introduction to the subject by Andrew Coggan
Coggan Power Intro

and Joe Friel's guide including power based drills is here
Friel Power Guide

As part of this I discovered a feature of WKO that I had not spotted before, the Performance manager. An explanation for this can be found here

Performance Manager

The terms used are a little complicated and, I think, slightly misleading.

Basically:
CTL = Chronic Training Load = Long Term Load: Default = 42 days
ATL = Acute Training Load = Recent Training Load: Default = 14 days

TSB = Training Stress Balance and links CTL+ATL. A positive number should mean being fresh and ready for action, a negative should mean being less so.

There are some examples included in the last link that explain how these interrelate.



The one above gives most easiest image to comprehend.

The line to focus on is the blue "CTL" line. You can see how it gradually builds through the season leading up to a peak that coincides with the riders main season target.

It will increase through the pink "ATL" lines gradually increasing in amplitude (reflecting the fact that training load is gradually increasing week by week).

The yellow TSB line is negative throughout this time then just before the target event shifts to go positive.

Overall this all seems to make a lot of sense and I will start using it this year to see how it helps addess one key question of how to best plan training to balance increasing load to increase performance without risking overtraining.

Wednesday 7th June Mauleon>Lurbe St Christu My first Hors Categorie

Distance 80
Time 4:12
Climb 1554
Cols Soudet
Weather Very Hot (still)

TDF 2006 Day 18 7th June Mauleon to Lurbe St Christau

http://www.bikely.com/

I had a good nights sleep but woke with butterflies in my stomach. Today was going to be a special day, my first ever climb up a "HC" mountain. HC = Hors Categorie which refers to the Tour de France classification of climbs.

Wiki: The French term primarily used in French races (most notably, the Tour de France) to designate a climb that is "beyond categorization", an incredibly tough climb. Most climbs are designated from Category 1 (hardest) to Category 4 (easiest), based on both steepness and length. A climb that is harder than Category 1 is designated as "hors catégorie".

I was planning to go in the deep end. I had never done a climb of Category 2 let alone a 1 and here I was planning to do one so hard it could not be categorised. The climb in question was the Soudet. Overall it climbs for 30km up 1300m which is beyond anything in the UK. Harder still is that the further you go the steeper it gets, the second 15km go up over 1000m at an average gradient of over 7%.

My nervous stomach meant me only having a small breakfast as I was eager to set off. The weather was hot again, but there was plenty of shade. Finding the route to the Soudet was easy and after an hour or so I saw the first sign on the climb proper.

As I made the first turning up the mountain I looked down and saw a couple of fit looking, shaven headed guys get some bikes out of a car. This was a bit worrying, I was not sure if I was going to make it to the top or what state I was going to be in. I remembered the embarassment when starting cycling of having to get off and push. If my attempt ended this way then I would prefer to keep the humiliation to myself.

This gave me a bit of a spur and I kicked on. True to the profile the first few km are not too bad but things get tougher after passing through St Embrace. They were even tougher for me as I took a wrong turning up a near vertical street, only to find it was a dead end and I had to retrace my steps.

I carried on and the going got harder. The signs by the side of the road counted down the kms to go but the gradients started to get steeper with 8s and 9s appearing. To add to the difficulty the road was being resurfaced. This was something I was going to have to get used to, roads all along my route were being repaired in advance of the tour. This meant that often my back wheel would spin on the newly laid gravel and at times I felt more as if I was mountain biking.

Still I pushed on and saw my first 10% km sign. Then 11%! This is an average over the next km. Now this is tough. In the UK people talk out 25% and 30% hills but the reality is that this only refers to the steepest section of the climb. For example I climbed the Devils Staircase in Wales during training and that had warning signs of 25% and bits of it were. But at the end of the day it was a 1km climb averaging at 11.5% and once done the climb is over. Now I was doing pretty much the same after several km of climbing and several more to go.

I engaged low gear and pushed on. At the end of the km the next sign came up with me praying it would not be another double digit gradient. My prayers were answered, a mere 8%. Then I discovered why people say the Pyrenees are tougher than the Alps, a statement I was to agree with by the end of my tour. Climbing is fundamentally about establishing a rhythm, keeping pedals turning and breathing going on a steady pace. In the Alps the climbs are longer than the Pyrenees but tend to be smoother with less changes of gradient. This makes establishing a rhythm not too difficult. While in the Pyrenees you get things like was just about to happen to me. Just after celebrating the fact that after 11%, 8% was going to mean a bit of a rest the road suddenly went downhill for a bit. This was double bad news, first it meant my rhythm went. Second it meant that the bit after the downhill meant regaining my lost height then adding more. I reckon it was more like 16% then 8% and nearly did for me.

But in fact this was the toughest bit and once over I knew I would make it to the top. The final couple of km was a long drag and I finally left the cover of the trees. At last I made it to the top. I was tired but not dead and full of elation. My first HC, done without stopping. To add to the achievement there was no sign of the bald headed blokes I saw at the start.

I phoned Mrs Miff to give her the good news and took time to savour my triumph and take in the view. Sadly the latter was not much to write home about, the top of the Soudet is pretty nondescript and sadly lacking in sources of refreshment.

So after a while I headed downhill. Fast. Very fast. Faster than I have ever gone in my life. My speedo was registering in the mid 80s kmh and I was having a great time. It was lunchtime and the road workers were heading for the valley and a bite to eat. This meant descending was a bit easier as I followed one of them down.

Descending HC mountains is as much of an experience as climbing them. Nothing in the UK can prepare you for the amount of time you spend shooting downhill which can get tiring both physically and mentally.

My first descent was nearly my last. As I headed round a corner I suddenly found the road had disappeared. The top layer of tarmac had been removed leaving just a layer of hardcore. I didnt have time to think which was probably a good thing. I just shot over a 6 inch drop and carried on over the hard core every bone in my body and bit of my bike shuddering. Somehow I managed to jump my bike up and over back onto the road.

I went downhill a bit more slowly after that, figuring if I was a cat I might be down to 8 lives.

After what seemed an age I finally got to the bottom of the Soudet. I stopped by a tabac and at last the June edition of Velo was out. This had the full tour route details so at last I could be sure I was following the real thing.

Then I looked for a hotel. My first choice was a posh one but this was already full of cyclists (in fact there was a moment of confusion as when I pulled up the receptionist assumed I was with this group and started showing me to my room).

So I cycled a bit more of my route and came across another hotel in Lurbe St Christau. This looked a bit dilapidated and I was one of only a handful of guests. But appearances can be deceptive. The guy running the hotel was very laid back and welcoming and it had a swimming pool by which I lounged and drank several beers. The for evening meal I ordered pizza, which was excellent, piled high with fresh ingredients.

My first HC and I felt grand. Ready for the challenge of tomorrow and yet more climbing.

LEL 2009 - 50 up target

I am a great believer in serendipity. That's what kicked off my TDF in the first place and has now led me to a new challenge. Right now I am doing some forward planning for 2008. In the back of my mind when doing this is the fact that this year, while being fun, did not have quite the same challenge as 2006, in that I never started something I would not be able to finish.

My 2008 plan aims to sort that a bit but mainly through the quantity/quality of the events I will be doing so my challenge is a relative one of time, rather than an absolute one of whether I will finish or not. So my main target for the year is the Marmotte in less than 7:30, which will be hard but covering known ground unlike my 2006 tour.

I am happy I decided to read the Audax UK winter magazine. I joined Audax mainly to save some hassle getting medical certificates for some of the events I was doing. However looking at the rides they planned I had already decided to do a few this coming year as part of my training.

When you join Audax you receive a quaterly magazine full of sterling tales of riders and pictures of cold feet. I don't usually read it but on return from work yesterday I decided to scan it over tea, mainly to read about the Paris-Brest-Paris, an epic 1200km event, with a history dating back to the dawn of cycling. Most of the magazine was given over to accounts of the event ranging from heroic to inspiring to downright boring. Overall I was reconfirmed in my intent to give this a go at some time in the future. However since the event only runs every 4 years the earliest I could do this would be 2011.

Then a notice in the magazine caught my eye. London-Edinburgh-London 2009, a challenge to cycle between said towns the year after next. That means cycling 1400km in 93.4(? why .4: ask the organisers?) hours, so even more than PBP. I was attracted by the coincidence of me happening on this while musing about future challenges, coupled with the fact that earlier this year Mrs Miff and I spent a week in Edinburgh, thoroughly enjoying the place. However the main coincidence is that in 2009 I will have turned 50. So aiming for the LEL 2009 (as I will now call it) feels like a suitable landmark challenge, a challenge I will be assisted in achieving if things go according to plan and I leave the ratrace come 50.

So today I have printed out the entry form and am just about to send it off along with various bits of bumf.

One wierd thing. Entry includes a number of benefits including bag drops, energy bars and a free water bottle. But also 2 pairs of ear plugs?? Guess these are needed to help you sleep but given you will be cycling 20 hours a day or so then not sure there will be much of a problem sleeping when chance arises. From all I have heard main sleep issue is doing it while cycling.

Anyway I have a new challenge...watch this space.

Tuesday 6th June Dax>Mauleon Over the first (little) Pyrenee

Distance 135
Time 6:35
Climb 1864
Cols Osquich
Weather Very hot

TDF 2006 Day 17 6th June Dax to Mauleon Licharre

http://www.bikely.com/

Exhausted by my long ride I had a very good nights sleep. I awoke and breakfasted. I was, by a comfortable margin, the youngest person in the hotel. Dax is famous for its "cures", a popular continental experience that involves spending time drinking or bathing in smelly water. Despite my fatigue I did not particularly relish trying this out so I set off, somewhat excited as today was going to be the day I did my first "big" hill in the Pyrenees.

It took me a while to escape from Dax but once I did I made good progress until I tried taking a short cut. I should have known better as a rule of mine is that short cuts make for long journies but I ignored at my peril. My map showed a route that meant cutting off a section of road by going up hill. The hill was steep and at the to came to a crossroads. This wasn't on the map so I followed Sigrists law of being lost: (If lost and at a crossroads take the uphill route as if you are wrong you wont feel too bad). So I headed uphill and hit a farm with a loose mad, albeit small, dog. This chased me and I sprinted to the summit then hurtled down the other side. This bought me to:

• Another farm
• A dead end
• Another dog on the loose, this time very big.

The latter did not chase me. It simply eyed me up and down as if deciding which bit would taste best. With as much dignity as possible I did a u turn and sprinted back up hill before it could make up its mind. Exhausted I reached the top of the hill. And the farm. And the mad loose dog. That chased me again over the other side. I hammered as fast as I could and shot back down and through the crossroads.

After a while I stopped. Completely lost. Thanks to my compass I knew which direction I was travelling in but not which of the roads that made a maze on my map. I carried on, hoping to find some habitation, free of dogs, that would get me back on track.

Eventually I came to a stone masons. Several chaps were hard at work inside but they stopped to show me the correct route. This got me to a village where I managed to sneak into an Intermarche 2 minutes before closing to grab a bite of lunch.

It was getting increasingly hot as I pedalled on. To add to my woes my gear changing was becoming tricky as it seemed to be getting difficult to get the chain to stick to one cog on my rear cassette. Eventually the chain came off . Putting it back on I got a rude surprise. It seemed to be coming to pieces. A number of the little pins that hold the links together where loose and poking out. I guess this was the consequence of all the km plus the rain in Belgium.

Fortunately I had stopped just in front of a petrol station. So I was able to carry out a messy bodge by using my multi-tools chain tool to poke the pins back in then buy some oils and cleaning rags for the bike and my hands.

I carried on, negotiating my way through a few rue barres until eventually I took a turn leading to the col Osquich. This is a diddy col, a 3rd cat 500m pimple. However it was my first official col of the tour and I approached it with some trepidation, the more so as it was getting very hot.

There were helpful signs at the side of the road telling me distance covered and % gradient to come and I counted these down until I reached the summit. There was a restaurant there and I stopped for a beer and to take in the view, basking in the sun and the glory of making the climb.

After a while I continued to Mauleon. I had booked into a hotel in the centre of the village. The hotel was great, very old and feeling like a castle. Dinner was had in an open courtyard at the centre of the hotel and I ate and drank like a lord, looking forward (and with some fear) to the next day when I would be climbing a real mountain for the first time in my life.

Tour of the Black Mountains 2007

Map here: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Tour-of-the-Black-Mountains-2007

The course:

Had a thoroughly hard but also enjoyable weekend. Did what I expect to be my final sportive of the year and it turned out to be the best.

The event was the "Tour of the Black Mountains", starting from Abergevenny and heading north then east of Brecon, then south and a series of climbs past a number of reservoirs to return to base.

The course (set by the same guys that do the Wessex) looked a bit of a challenge. 115 miles, a big old hill just after the start, then a long stretch on rolling A road, then lots of hills. Then right at the end another long climb.

In the couple of weeks beforehand I was dreading the weekend. The weather was truly awful and the prospect of riding all day in the wet welsh mountains held little appeal. However the closer the day came the better the forecast. In the end it turned out perfect. Dead lucky, second long ride in Wales of the year and both blessed with great weather.

I stayed overnight at the Angel Hotel in Abergavenny:

http://www.angelhotelabergavenny.com/

Once again I struck lucky, another great independent hotel with superb food. Learning from the Wessex I kept things simple, just ordering some penne. But even this simple dish was great.

Due to it being so popular I had to eat in the lounge and as a result had an interesting encounter with a local chap, with who I spent a happy half hour hearing a bit about the local history and looking at some really very good photos of steam trains taken in the area.

Prior to checking in I had checked out the ride doing a 70k circle round the start/end. Glad I did because the last 1km of the first climb was very steep which was good to know. Also the run into the finish included a couple of nasty little steep bits.

Only problem with this reco ride was that it did mean going to bed a wee bit more tired than I had hoped.

Woke on time, ate some Frosties (fortunately breakfast was not served until 8 so I did not have the tricky decision of whether to miss what I am sure would be a great "full" in search of cycling prowess). I donned my "Swiss" top for its first real outing, reasoning that having to ride for my country may spur me on to greater heights...

Very short drive to the event so I arrived, unaturally for me, early with plenty of time for last minute fettling. My cunning plan was to go off right on the dot at 8.00. This was the time set for those expecting to go under 6 hours. Not that I expected for a minute to do this time. But if I set off with this group and stayed with them up the long first climb, this would be the perfect group to stick with along the A road. Worst case and I fell behind I could join the next group along, who would probably be riding around my normal pace in any case.

Best laid plans...when I rolled up to the start at 7.55 a lot of riders had already set off. And I could tell from a short look round those with me that they were not the stuff sub 6 hour times are made of. I cursed a bit and assumed I had missed the first quick group. So I hurtled off, plan now being to catch them. Or if not to find riders going at similar pace during the climb and stick with them. This meant first 15km or so were a bit frenetic. I was catching and overtaking groups all over the place. Finally just before the end of the climb I settled into a group that seemed to be moving quite quickly. The presence of a motorbike just ahead seemed to indicate this was the lead group. Happily I had no problem sticking with them on the steep section but then just as I was relaxing a bit my pedals stopped turning. I looked down and realised my chain had come off....so I stopped, fixed it and restarted ASAP then hurtled at breakneck speed down the hill to rejoin the group I was with.

I made it, albeit with a bit of effort (on the first 2k of the descent I averaged over 200W with several 500-600W spikes after).

Still at the bottom of the climb I was pretty much back on plan. Or so I thought until I reached down to get a drink. My hand came up empty and on looking down I found I had lost one of my two sports drinks bottles. I guessed it must have become dislodged in my frenetic descent. This was pretty bad news because

• Sunny weather is great for riding but it tends to make you thirsty
• The first drinks stop was only 15km away but exactly at the point where I most wanted to be in a group. Stopping for drink meant riding alone.
• In an attempt to travel light (and being honest show of my Swiss top), I was not carrying my Camelback.

I had 500ml of drink to last 70km. Looking at my map I thought that the second drinks stop was going to be at the bottom of the second climb. So I stuck with the group when they skipped the frist stop and headed off down the A40 west of Brecon.

The group proved to be reasonably quick and we averaged 32kph on this stage. Not bad as the road is rolling with an uphill trend and the wind was blowing against us. Sadly, as often seems to be the case, it was not a very well organised group. One guy did about 50% of the work and I guess I along with a couple of others did the rest. 4-5 others just sat at the back (I guess they had the same plan as me....)

Come the end of the A40 the second climb started. The guy doing most of the work split from the front with another chap. I lost a bit of momentum on a turn and dropped from the back of the group. At first I was a bit distressed about this but happy to say I kept a cool head and got into a steady climbing rythm, being very conscious that I did not want to overcook myself going to hard. The climb was a relatively steady one of 5km at 4.5% and I motored along at 280W. Reassuringly the gap to the group steadied, then as the climb continued narrowed. Finally as the climb neared the summit I went through the group and actually finished on top with just the couple of others ahead. I could see one of them so I engaged 53x11 and set of in pursuit. This bit was fun, I did a 6k stretch at 48kph average (though an average power of 215W). I eventually caught the guy ahead. As we moved on to the third climb I thought I would be pretty sure to be able to stick with a group to the next drinks stop.

However my maths was slightly out and I found we were climbing again with no drinks stop in sight. Climb 3 came in 2 halves. During the first half I was getting thirstier and thirstier and when it kicked in again I had to take it a bit easy. (Part 1 was 272W, part 2 234W). When I got to the top and found still no drinks I realised I would have to throttle back. I let the group go on and motored along at a more steady pace, doing climb 4 at 244W.

When I got to the drinks stop at the top I had to take several minutes to drink as much as I could and find out that unfortunately there were no spare bidons.

When I set off from climb 4 I was alone and spent most of the rest of the ride catching/being caught by various groups. I was wary of running out of drink so kept things easy, climbing in the 240s rather than 260s up climbs 5 and 6. At the top of 6 a second very welcome drinks stop was made.

We then swooped down for a long section. So long in fact I thought that the profile was wrong as it promised a final climb. But then we headed off the main road and sure enough the final climb came. It turned out to be a cracker, very much like a mini Alp. My Powertap turned out to be very helpful, I set out to average 260W and as a result made it comfortably. I was joined by another rider and together we swooped down to the final run into the finish.

As I knew from yesterdays recce this had a couple of nasty little climbs, but knowledge gained helped a lot and got me and my fellow rider back to the finish where I was rewarded with a gold medal

Next years training plan is taking a bit more shape. On reflection I decided to give the Stryeproven a miss as the logistics of getting there/back will be a bit tricky and probably best left for another year when I have a bit more time.

So I have decided to focus on sportives and try to do at least a couple in France as well as UK.
My main events the moment the Wessex end May and Marmotte in July. Latter should be a bit of a blast as it reckoned to be one of the hardest sportives on the calendar.
For the Wessex I was planning a target of under 19 hours but latest info on the event shows its going to be shorter than this year. So I think I will aim for a target AVS of 30kph. This will be a bit of a tall order but may be doable. This year I managed 30.6 for day 1, though only 26.1 for day 3. (Day 2 was a washout due to wind and rain).

Setting a target for the Marmotte is a bit trickier. The event is 175km or so long and 4500m or so climbing. Looking over my rides this year I have done similar day rides and averaged 21kph which would give a time of 8:20. However in the excitement of doing a sportive I would expect to go a bit quicker than this, so will set a target of AVS 24kph and a target time of 7:30. It will be interesting to see how I end up doing.....(famous last words)

My first MAP

Did my first MAP test a couple of nights ago. This is a test to exhaustion that you can use to set power training zones (see here for info: http://www.cyclecoach.com/pageID-articles-Power_Guidelines.htm)

My first MAP




The test involved me pedalling away on my turbo, gradually increasing power until I could pedal no more. I started at 150W and increased by 5W every 12 seconds until I faded at around 375W. Apart from the pedalling the hardest thing about the test was checking the watts I was meant to be doing vs what I actually was. I tended to go a bit over all the time so my MAP score was 382W (peak 1 minute). This is "good" according to the site for my 73kg weight. Its a bit under where I think I should be, partly because I have had a few weeks of taking things easy and partly due to me getting used to the mechanics of the test. Will be interesting to see how things go next time....

Monday 5th June Montendre>Dax The Longest Day

Distance 238
Time 9:05
Climb 647
Weather Very hot

TDF 2006 Day 16 5th June Montendre to Dax

http://www.bikely.com/

I wake earlyish still not sure of travel plans following the sad news of my Aunt's death. I want to go back to the UK for the funeral but this means less cycling days and needing to sort out logistics of how to get from/to the UK.

Over breakfast with the family I find out I was lucky to hit on their B&B as there is nothing much by way of accommodation quite a way south. I venture a thought that is going through my head, to cycle down to Dax today. They confirm its well over 200k and think its way to far. But I am not sure. Its flattish and the only way I can make it back to the UK and complete my tour is to get myself well ahead of schedule. This looks like a way to gain a day in one full stroke.

So I head off south. I keep up a very good pace averaging over 30kph for the first couple of hours. The going is fair but no easy since I am heading through some of the most famous vineyards in the worlds. I pass many a sign offering "degustation gratuit" in a cave but have to pass them all up. Quite apart from the need to press on I don't think I would be so welcome, a fly bespattered cyclist is not going to buy many bottles of grand cru.

My average speed drops, mainly due to the roads east of Bordeaux being a maze, meandering here and there with few signs. At one stage I get passed by another cyclist. I speed up a bit to get a tow, today I need all the help I can get.

Around midday I check my progress and think Dax is doable. I phone ahead to book a hotel. Shortly after I lose time by getting hopelessly lost in the vineyards, eventually finding my way with the help of a charming old couple.

One thing I had not factored into my plans was it being a bank holiday (Pentecost I believe). Watering holes were few and far between and the weather was getting very very hot. I was starting to get desperate when I passed by a bar that seemed open. As I stopped and entered a host of firemen/ladies left (not I am glad to say on business, they had been having some bash or other). I had some baguettes and lots of beer and pushed on.

South of Bordeaux is quite amazing. Its a vast regional park "Landes Gascogne" http://www.parc-landes-de-gascogne.fr/

Cycling through it is very strange. The going is dead easy, because it is completely flat. But also strangely hard because the roads are arrow straight through the middle of unending forest. So no matter how long you cycle you dont seem to be making any progress.

After a while the tedium is relieved when another cyclist flashes past. I put on a sprint and catch him. Turns out he is a triathlete who goes in for Iron man competitions, including those in mountains. He is super fit, out doing intervals. When he speeds up he leaves me for dead but recovers and lets me catch up. He is heading to Pissos (confusingly for the French pronounced piss-oss) where we split. He is heading for a swim in a nice cool lake, something I would appreciate rather than the mile upon mile of hot forest I have to get through.

Progress is rapid though and I head down through Morcenx to pick up the autoroute. Not planning to ride down it but a road runs parallel to it that makes navigation easy. However I also see a sign that says its 46km to Dax. Knowing I will be late at the hotel I phone ahead, they say fine but warn me that dinner stops being served at 9.00 which gives me just under two hours to cover the remaining distance. Should be easy but its been a long day.

Push hard and in fact make it with 30 mins to spare. Still I am the only guest in the dining room and the chef is anxious to finish. So I just order a melon and steak. I have certainly enjoyed my meal. 238km in a single day is more than any stage of this years tour and a PB by a comfortable margin for myself.

Only niggle is that my right toe is giving me real gip. I put it down (wrongly as it later turns out) to road vibration and me only wearing one sock. Needless to say I have little difficulty sleeping.

Sunday 4th June Rochefort>Montendre Good day sad night

Distance 150
Time 6:06
Climb 801
Weather Sunny

TDF 2006 Day 15 4th June Rochefort to Montendre

http://www.bikely.com/

Fantastic breakfast. Quite the best of the whole trip despite the La Fayette being "only" a 2 star hotel. Fresh fruit salad, carpaccio ham, huge range of cereals, great fresh bread and croissants. Wonderful.
Leave Rochefort by the "pont transpondeur", a quite unique contraption that is a cross between a bridge and a cable car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transporter_bridge


Perfect for cycles as takes minor roads out of Rochefort. Meet French/German couple who are also on cycling trip. German is pedalling a fixed gear bike along with trailer, looks hard work!
Wave goodbye to them but not for long as I confidently head for the area of France I know best after the Alsace I get lost and end up a dead end in some oyster beds. Return to point I got lost to see the couple again. Wave goodbye again and then think I have taken wrong direction into Marennes so again see them going in as I go out. Take bypass round Marennes to bridge in direction of Normoutier and guess what I see them again coming out of Marennes. Wave goodby for final time and head over to Ronce. Cycle down familar road along coast to La Palmayre/Royan.

This road brings back many happy memories of camping holidays past. There is a hill on hte road that I used to think was tough. It goes up about 30m at 8% or so...so things have changed a bit!

It was along this road that I noted in my diary the problem of using sun tan lotion (now the weather was getting so good): you become a mobile fly trap and end up with face and arms spattered with dead insects. After a few days of this I gave up on the lotion.

South of Royan I left familiar territory as I cycled south down the mouth of the Gironde. I needed to stop for lunch but there were not many villages. However I lucked upon a restaurant by the side of the road that looked very unprepossessing but turned out to be excellent. Think it was called Moulin de Monards. I remember particularly how kind the waiter was, not looking at all nonplussed by having a bespattered cyclist turning up and offering to fill my bidons (an offer I gratefully took up as it was getting very warm).

I push on in the afternoon finally reaching Montendre. I found most of the little towns and villages on my tour to be quite pleasant, but this was an exception. It was very dreary with a main strip that was more reminiscent of a mid-West American town rather than a French one. There were a couple of hotels but both were very run down to the extent that it was not even obvious they were still functioning.

I gave both a miss and resigned myself to having to head further south, which was a bit worrying as I was heading into countryside off the beaten tourist track.

Luck however was on my side because as I followed the road out of time I spotted a "Chambre D' Hote" sign pointing down a gravelled road. I knew what this was. It had been mentioned by one of my French colleagues when I had told them what I was planning. Chambre D'Hote is the French equivalent of Bed&Breakfast.

I descended and scrunched up this until I came to a large detatched house. There were clear signs of life, washing was on the line and windows were open. I scrunched up to the door, noticing as I did a lot of donkies in an ajoining field. I rang the bell a few times but no joy. Just as I was about to give in a lady appeared. She spoke no English but my French was more than sufficent to establish that: yes she had a room and yes I could stay the night. I thanked my lucky stars and followed her to a super large room at the back of the house. The lady explained that they did not serve dinner but recommended a restaurant back in Montendre.

All was seeming pretty OK. I phoned Mrs M only to receive some very sad news. One of my aunts back in the UK had died. I was especially sad about this because she was my favourite who I had known all my life as she lived in the same city as my parents. She was a wonderful person, who everyone seems to have been loved by all who met her. Typical of her was the way she reacted in the face of the cancer that would eventually kill her, somehow managing to keep smiling despite how she must have suffered.

I finished the phone call with my head in a bit of a whirl. I took my maps with me to my meal realising I would have to do some replanning as I felt I wanted to come back to the UK for the funeral that would be taking place in a few days time.

Raid Pyreneen - Fun, Sun & Snow

Did the Raid Pyreneen late September 2007. In a nutshell this is some 730km and 12000m of climbing in 100 hours or 4 and a bit days.
My trip was organised through Cycle Pyrenees (Roquefort Cycle lodge) who had put me up during my TDF 2006 ride. I had a great time, in no small part due to the magnificent support offered throughout the trip by Nick, Austin and Sal. Anybody wishing to do the Raid or sample the beautiful Ariege region should get in touch with them:
http://www.cyclepyrenees.com/lodge.html
The final words Sal said to us before we set off to the Atlantic coast were "remember you are on holiday, you are meant to be enjoying yourselves." These words were put to the test in the next 4 days as we rode through rain and shine (and snow), up and over some very large mountains. But they proved true. We certainly enjoyed ourselves. Here are a few photos as proof.



Day 1. First coffee stop. Stopped for coffee in the morning of the first day after having set out from Hendaye in the morning. Despite a grey start this proved to be a lovely sunny day's riding.





Over the Osquich. The first large(ish) climb of the tour. Brought back happy memories as just over a year ago this was my biggish climb of the tour. Then the restaurant at the top was open, this time it was closed but made up for the fact by having great views across the plain below.




Vital recovery drinking. The potential for beer is often, I think, not fully recognised by the cycling fraternity. The French have a great term for a pint. They call it a "serieux" (serious beer). I needed one as this stop was just before I made a detour to go up the Marie-Blanque via the steep side. Great ride, especially the Plateua de Benou on the other side.



Day 2. The weather took a turn for the worse and we climbed the Aubisque in cloud and that did not rise on the ascent of the Tourmalet as can be seen from picture aside. We had a "secret control" at the top of the Aubisque which gave us the chance to meet the organisers of the Raid (and have some vin chaud..)





Classic top of Tourmalet picture. Three guys here are my companions for the trip, for them it was first time over 2000m so a bit of a landmark. I am not in frame as I had already started off downhill. I had a few ghosts to bury following my fall last year and wanted to get the descent over and done with. Remembered Mongie but could not find exactly where I fell.


Day 3: Having some fun on top of the Peyresourde. Definitely more fun than last time I was here. This is a tough old climb, especially when conditions are bad. Still at least this time I made it to the top without having to count the white lines on the side of the road. Bitterly cold though and so we hung out for an hour or so in the cafe on top of the col. Owner there is a bit of an eccentric and has made lots of wooden toys/games for his customers to play with. Not sure quite why but good fun, certainly a break from cycling.




Coming over the Portet Aspet. The steepest climb of the raid with sections of 18% or so. Kept pace with Davy up this climb and we both enjoyed it. Both also agreed that though tough the Crouzette is tougher.





Day 4: Snow forecast so I had a cunning plan to keep my head warm and dry. This involved putting a tesco bag over my helmet.




Strangely others in the party seemed to find this funny....








Coming over the Port. Conditions prove the value of my headgear.





Strangely though others still seemed to find this funny.









Our support van. This became a welcome sight throughout the trip. Plan had been for just Nick to accompany us, given we were only 4, but his van developped a fault so we had Austin and his van for company as well. Both offered great support, encouragement (and amusement) throughout the trip.




Cycling in a winter wonderland. Hard to believe this is just 2 days after the first pictures and less than 24 hours before the ones below. We had thought that the Puymorens, our final big climb, would be closed due to snow. Luckily it wasnt so we were able to say we rode the whole way, despite conditions.





Top of the final col. And very very cold. Still just a couple of hours later it was sunny...









Day 5: Journey's end. From memories of last years tour to earlier memories of camping holidays. Our final half day involved cycling down the south Med coast through and past many of the places we had spent on camping holidays. That said we had never made it as far as Cebere, the last village before Spain so this was new for me.



Final finish, flying the flag for Newbury RC.









Classic end of Raid photo. Cycled from the Atlantic to the Med.




Not bad....





And a well earned meal......

Raid Pyreneen - Warm up

Did the Raid Pyreneen late September. This was a great trip organised through the Roquefort Cycle lodge/Bikepyrenees.

I arrived a couple of days before the ride. A couple of Irish guys were there already and we had a ride out together up the Cols Ares and Latrape. The weather that day was fantastic and we hoped it was going to stay that way.

Unfortunately next day, the last before our transfer to Hendaye and the Raid start, we woke up to a cold misty day. The Irish chaps needed to go to St Giron so I rode the day solo, checking out the quite scary Crouzette and riding down to Foix.

On my way back I went over the Port and up the very (4km 12%) steep Peguere. On the descent down the Crouzette to the lodge I met the Irish guys coming up. We met later for dinner. They had set some PBs on the trip already in terms of height/distance. They agreed the Crouzette was another in terms of sheer difficulty.

Raid Dolomites - Conclusion

Having a blog can be a bit of a bind when you fall behind...

So I will keep things a bit shorter and try to stay up to date with events.

So just to wrap up the Dolomites raid. When last blogged I was at the end of day 7 in Selle Gardena.

We had a good night there, best meal of the trip.

Day 8 was biggest day. The standard route involved 4 climbs over 2000m, the last being the evil Gaiu (10km at 9%). I thought I would make it a bit more interesting by adding an excursion to the Marmalade. Ended up being a hell of a long day, with me doing over 4000m for the first time. Only just made it into Cortina in time to beat the rain (some others didnt make it). Cortina notable for first sighting of R8 (not keen, too clinical for my taste).

Day 9 was other end of scale. Woke up to torrential downpour so first thing I had to do was buy some waterproofs. Buying in Cortina proved expensive but the Gore stuff I got lived up to its claim of keeping me dry. Day involved a climb up to Tri Cime, which is daft for a Raid as it is not on the road to anywhere, just straight up a mountain. Its very steep and this combined with the appalling weather meant I was only one of 4 from our party who got to the top. I was luckiest as the sun shone while I was there. Others had rain or snow.

Day 10 was the day I had been looking forward too since realising Zoncolan was an option on the route. Set off in cold weather and after descent from the first climb of the day (Ciampigotto, pretty big in itself at 17km/6%) I had to spend an hour or so in a cafe warming up.

However sun started to shine by the time I got to Ovaro and the Zonc.

Climb was the highlight of the trip. Had great weather, sun had come out but it was not too hot. No traffic up the road and once I got started and into a rhythm I found I could make it up by mashing my 30x23. Road was quiet and still had the graffiti from the Giro. Its quite a different climb from the more established "greats", being mostly in forest on a narrow winding road with few hairpins until the very top. Just before the top the forest opens out and the road flattens for a bit until you pass through a couple of tunnels to take a final few hairpins to the top.

Only spectators to my effort were a herd of cows. No refreshments at the top, but great views which you can savour as the descent starts quite flat before becoming very steep.

After Zonc its downhill all the way to Udine.

Day 11. Bit of an anti-climax. Only have 90km to do, all flat. Started as a group and stopped for a coffee after only 500m. Eventually headed off down a long straight main road. Dawdled along until joined by New Zealanders, things just getting interesting when I punctured for first time in 4000km. After fixing I headed off in search of more interesting scenary and came across a hill that had been a frontier in the first world war. It gave great views onto the mountains in Slovenia. Then headed down to Trieste and the end of the trip proper. As chance would have it as I came into the town I met up with some of the others. Celebrated at a pub which I only later found out was called "Martin", so somewhat fitting....

Winter draws on - time to think of summer

The NRC trip to Wales pretty much marks the end of 2007 as far as cycle events go. So I will clean the cow poo off my bike, put it away for winter and start using my winter bike and single speed.

I will also start to think about what to do next year. Fortunately I was assisted in this by sharing a car with Steve from the NRC. He has been riding all his life and in his time has, quite literally, ridden pretty much every ride there is to do, many more than once. Most impressive is probably doing the P-B-P 4 times (P-B-P will be on the to do list next time it runs in 2011). He mentioned some interesting tours in the UK one in the Lake District, the other in Scotland. Both are Audax "Permanents" which means you can do them whenever you like so I will do one or other (or both) in gaps in next years plans.

He also mentioned a tour of Picardy which, running as it does in north France, gives the option of riding to the event, doing it and riding back which would be fun.

Also he has done the Trondheim-Oslo Strkyeproven which looks excellent on a number of fronts: it's in Norway where I have never been, its in June so you spend the whole day in sunlight. You need this as the event is 580km long which, if I did it, would be a comfortable PB on the distance in a day front (my current being around 240km).

So pondering to be done.....

Young again in Wales

Spent the weekend in Wales on NRC tourette. Went back to a youth hostel for the first time in 30 years to find they had changed a lot since was last there. Excellent 3 course evening meal was on offer with choice of local beers (I tried all 4 on offer, as one has to sample the local culture when travelling)

This was my fourth cycling foray into Wales and my luck with the weather continued. We stayed dry the whole time and even saw a bit of sun. First days riding resulted in slight cock up as the two of us ahead blithley sailed by a sign "to the golf course" not realising it was also the road we were meant to be following. Much fruitless searching the Welsh countryside for missing members followed without success. So we made our way back alone and, by the simple expedient of taking every left turn we came to + asking the natives arrived back at the YHA.

Sunday we managed to stick together. I revisited some of the route I followed in the Tour of the Black Mountains, including my 3rd climb of 2007 up Gospel Pass. It was shrouded in mist and not sure if it was this fact or me simply getting fitter but it seemed a lot easier. This despite me eschewing my little gear for the entire trip so doing all in 39*23.

The descent to Hay allowed us to visit an excellent cafe where I indulged in both apple crumble and custard plus some super Welsh cheese. Our route back to the YHA involved several meandering and the inevitable (given Dave was leading) a section on a road with grass growing down the middle.

All in all the weekend involved some 170km of riding with 2000m of ascents. So not bad if not quite the Pyrenees

I saw this picture hanging on the wall of the Roquefort Cycle Lodge. It was taken by Austin during the 2005 tour in the Pyrenees. It left me gobstruck as I think its one of the best pro cycling pictures I have ever seen and Austin kindly gave me a copy to keep (which I scanned so not the best quality I am afraid)

Reasons for this are

• Firstly its just a great cycling picture. The riders are neatly framed by the motor bike on the right and the fans on the left. Most of the movement is coming from the fans who are all in motion while the riders, in contradiction to the reality, look static. But because of this the picture appears to almost be in 3D with the riders coming out of the middle of the picture.
• Secondly in the context of the 2005 tour. Examine the faces of the riders. Even if you know nothing of cycling or cyclists one face stands out, with an expression of steel hard focus while all around other faces show signs of effort and exertion. The face is of course that of the rider in yellow and goes some way to explain why he is on his way to winning his 7th victory in a row.
• Thirdly in the context of later tours. The other recognisable riders in the picture are Kloden, Ulrich, Mayo, Landis, Leipheimer, Vinokorov and (I think right at the back) Rasmussen. So with the exception of Kloden/Leipheimer, you have the full house of disgraced big names 2006/2007.
  
  

Organised vs Go it alone touring

I have now done two tours, one go it alone "credit card" touring, the other an organised tour. There are pros and cons to each but at the moment I am tending towards preferring the go it alone kind. Partly this is down to my nature, I am comfortable being just in my own company and independent/resilient enough to cope with the vicissitudes and adventures that touring will bring.
The benefits I expected from touring as part of a group were:

- Not having to carry my own luggage
- Not worrying about route planning/getting lost
- Not worrying about finding somewhere to stay at the end of the day
- Getting support during the ride (food/drinks etc)
- Riding with others so flat sections will be quicker and climbs more fun
- Getting a sense of shared achievement when tour is complete

In practice these benefits did not really materialise.

Luggage: true I did not have to carry my own stuff but as a result ended up taking more stuff with me and I travelled with a bike box. I actually missed the sense of travelling light and packing up all my "worldly poscessions" at the start of each day. In terms of AVS and climbing not having the extra weight of luggage helped a bit but not a huge amount. Now I tend to look at power as much as speed in terms of guaging how well I am riding. Given this having luggage doesn’t really matter.

Route planning: We followed a standard randonee and all the route info was printed on a carnet I could have got myself. The maps we got were useless, the first thing I did was buy some decent ones of my own. I missed the detailed route planning that you have to do when going it alone. For future tours, organised or not, I will buy maps in advance and plan the route myself.
Finding somewhere to eat/drink: In terms of convenience the organised tour was as much a hindrance as a help. Directions to the hotels were not always clear and some of them were in daft places from a cyclists viewpoint (prize for this is using a motel situated on a road were cyclists are not meant to ride). Quality was OK but not better than what I experienced using the Logis/Rough Guides. Food was again OK but not as good as when I had the freedom to choose where and what I ate myself.

Getting support: Did not really happen. The group was too big and too mixed abilities for one lorry to provide effective support and in any case this did not seem to be part of the package (e.g.. not even basic tools like a track pump were available.)

Riding with others: The group for my trip was of mixed ability and as a result the benefits I had hoped for did not arise. On flats we tended to go slowly and on climbs the group quickly fragmented. The itinerary was conservative but even so many wanted to start early each day to be sure to get to the finish. As a result of this after a couple of days trying to ride with a group I gave up and decided to go it alone, preferring a lie in and leisurely breakfast to an early start and taking opportunities to depart from the route and add a few extra climbs when they arose. Despite this I usually ended up amongst the early finishers each day.

Getting a sense of shared achievement: The mixed abilities, hardness of the route and weather we encountered meant most of the group bailed out at some point or another on the tour. This started remarkably early on. Some actually started the tour without any intention of trying to ride it all, others got in the lorry as soon as the second day. In the end only five of us rode the full route.

It may be that the tour I was on was an exception. I will be going on a second shortly and this may offer a different view. I expect at least the support will be better as at the end of one day we are being offered a massage! So time will tell. But based on experience so far I will be more likely to go it alone than with an organised tour in future.