Thursday, July 31, 2008

How to adjust front derailleur

This can be a bit tricky.

Guides to do this are here

//www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=75

and for Shimano here

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/SI/SI_5JD0A_001/SI_5JD0A_001_En_v1_m56577569830616200.pdf


Indebted to Grahamharpin off Bikeradar forum who knocked up this easy to follow checklist


  • Lift the bike so the pedals will drive the wheel
  • Slacken off the cable tension, this will move the mech to the smallest chainring.
  • Shift rear to largest sprocket
  • Adjust lower stop screw so there is about 1 mm clearance between chain and front mech cage.
  • Tighten cable again as far as it will go
  • Shift to biggest chainring & smallest rear sprocket
  • Adjust upper stop screw until the change up to the big chainring is easy and does not overshoot.
  • Set rear sprocket to middle of the cassette
  • Change down to lowest chainwheel, if the cable was really tight it probably will not change down so gradually relaase cable tension until it changes cleanly.
  • Check change over both (or 3) chainrings.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Tour of the Black Mountains - the climbs

The Tour of the Black Mountains has a great sportive route, in my opinion the best in the UK due to the extent and variety of its climbs, linked to great views and (generally) good roads.
The climbs start from the off with 20km up an ever increasing gradient to Gospel pass.
Then after a long descent you a false flat leads you south of Brecon where you head west up the Mynydd Illtud. After that you turn south and a succession of climbs hits you, long ones, steep ones and long steep ones (longest steepest coming on the 160km/100 mile mark).

Finally there are a couple of stings in the tail on the run in to home.

All in all I count 13 climbs in all, listed below. These add up to 2300m climbing. The ride is rarely flat though and you end up doing another 13oom of climbing to make a grand total for the route of 3600m over its 185km length.

(Distances in kilometres)



RouteRouteElevationDistanceMetresGradient
Climb StartEndStart Endof ClimbClimbedAverageMaxComments
1Gospel Pass1.320.612154019.34192.2%16.2%U valley, the
further you go the steeper it gets.
2Mynydd Illtud57.663.01343405.52063.8%10.1%Old roman road. Look left to see
Pen y Fan
3Cerrig Duon76.884.12104737.22633.6%11.5%Turn south and head up
4Bryn Rhudd89.893.82223784.01553.9%7.9%Main road drag on A4067
5Chwyth95.397.33384182.0804.0%6.6%Short climb after leaving A4067
6Bryn Melyn103.7105.62574461.918810.0%14.4%Sheer climb with hairpins, don’t
look up at the bottom, feed at top
7Aber Illia112.4114.22483461.8995.6%18.9%Unexpected wall round a
corner in the woods.
8Sychbant118.0122.62444004.61563.4%9.2%Straight on through the cows
9Ponsticill Reservoir132.3134.22573621.91045.4%9.2%Climb out of Merthyr ending in forest
10Creigiau140.0141.53294381.51097.3%16.1%Steep towards end just before
feed.
11Blaen Onnau158.4162.71214414.33207.4%11.0%A mini Alp at 100 miles, great
descent
12Crickhowell170.6172.0962101.41148.1%11.7%Evil climb around the corner out
of Crickhowell
13Forest Coal Pit176.7179.21622492.5873.4%11.8%Last climb of the day!


Gradient details of some of the climbs:

Monday, July 21, 2008

A new challenge - 12 hours on a bike

The Marmotte was my main target for this year and now I am suffering a bit from post goal gloom...what to do next.

Actually I already had an inkling from a conversation back on our club tour in France. Ours being the club it is the topic of time trialling had come up at some point or other (not sure why) including 12 hours. This are rarities and our senior mens club record (247 miles) is a bit special for a couple of reasons: it was set back in 1977 (not quite as old as the woman's which dates back to 1964!) and the record for a junior is actually more (255 miles).

Struck me that the 247 miles does not seem so far if you think of it as just being a bit more than 20mph. The problem is the 12 hours bit. However have done day long rides before and reckon I might be able to cope with doing 12 hours non-stop.

Only one way to find out so I have entered an event on 17th August. Just happens to be the National Championships so will be interesting.

Got some good advice that will need a helper to feed and encourage me so I have roped in Master Miff to come along as well..

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Marmotte Guide

Last post on the Marmotte.

Had some time on my hands on the journey back to France so wrote up a guide to the Marmotte based on experiences there.

Put link for it in Wiki under article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marmotte

Direct link to article here: http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=693883&da=y

(Any changes/comments feel free to email me or add some stuff into Wiki...)

Marmotte - Compared to the best

Following on from last post there another comparison to be made is with that of Andrew Bye, a top British road racer who came in 9th. http://andrewbye.blogspot.com/

Table below shows how we compared on the various sections of the event. It's possible to add a couple of columns to each set of stats to look at power/weight and power as a % of FTP (Andrew did a MAP in January with a result of 457 which gives FTP of 343 (assuming 75% of MAP). My FTP (as per 25TT) is 305 (BTW my most recent MAP was 408 = 306 @ 75% ) 


Me
2008

71
kg


Andrew Bye

74
kg


Section
Distance
Time
Work
Power
Npwr
Npwr/kg
Power %
Time
Work
Power
Npwr
Npwr/kg
Power %
Start to Glandon base
13
0:23
230
152
198
2.7
65
0:23
311
222
273
3.8
80
Glandon Climb
23
1:23
1262
254
268
3.8
87
1:04
1281
331
355
5.0
104
Glandon Descent
42
1:09
572
137
201
2.8
66
0:24
203
137
177
2.5
52
Glandon base to Telegraphe







0:36
606
277
293
4.1
85
Telegraphe
12
0:50
763
250
254
3.6
83
0:40
821
335
338
4.8
99
Tel descent to Gal base
5
0:07
29
74
119
1.7
39
0:06
239
171
239
3.4
70
Galibier
18
1:24
1112
224
229
3.2
75
1:06
1224
306
309
4.4
90
Gal descent to ADH base
48
1:08
396
101
170
2.4
56
1:02
694
185
224
3.2
65
Alpe D'Huez
13
1:10
934
222
229
3.2
75
0:54
1019
313
318
4.5
93

175
7:34
5298
195
230
3.2
75
6:19
6398
273
306
4.3
89


The statistics from Andrew Bye make impressive reading especially the absolute power on the climbs. (The first climb seems to have been done at over FTP which probably means my guess of FTP based on a January MAP is low.)
The biggest lesson for me, I think, lies in the power % column. Even if I have underestimated his FTP it looks as if Andrew rode the event at a much higher relative intensity than I did. His climbs were all over 90% and is overall ride was at 89%.
My figures seem a bit timid by comparision, after the Glandon (87%) I rode the remaining climbs at a more conservative 80>75%, with my overall effort for the ride being just 75%.
I will try to take some lessons from this:
  • I am too scared of pain. Partly I am a coward, but this I think is also because I came at cycling through doing long solo tour when each day needed to be judged because there was always another (often harder) day to come. So I am more used to pacing myself to finish rather than finish fast.
  • Power meters are great for training and pacing but I think I am now paying a little too much attention to mine. I felt great on the climb of the Glandon but got worried because I was over schedule and to some extent I think I made myself take it easy on the last climbs for fear of blowing up.
Coming up this weekend I will be doing another sportive (the "Legbreaker") which I entered just to get the opportunity to see a new bit of the country. I will try an experiment and tape over the displays on my Powertap and Etrex and just ride on feel. There are some tough hills on the ride and I will try to push myself up to and over my pain threshold on these. Should prove interesting...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Marmotte and Power Revisited

A while back, when Marmotte was still in the planning stage I put out this post:

Having now done the event its time to revisit it.

As a result of a combination of events (cockup-did not reset powertap and planned-did not want pressure of time to make me take risks on descents) I did the Marmotte without actually having any track of time I was taking. Instead I just focussed on aiming to do all the climbs at around 260W and see what happened.

The result was a mixture of no surprise and big surprise.
No surprise was that I overcooked the first climb and did 268NW, doing over 280NW for the first part of this. So later climbs came in at 254NW, 229NW, 229NW.
Big surprise was that I finished in 7:34 so pretty much dead on target of 7:30.
Overall very pleased with result, both in terms of time taken and use of power to train/pace. If I do the event again (and probably will) I think I have enough of an insight to do better.

Table below shows my stats for the ride compared to those I got from the year before.

Rider 1 2007Me 2008
SectionDistanceTimeWorkPowerNpwrTimeWorkPowerNpwr
Start to Glandon base

13

0:21

260

199

235

0:23

230

152

198

Glandon Climb

23

1:21

1193

245

258

1:23

1262

254

268

Glandon Descent

42

1:05

469

120

184

1:09

572

137

201

Telegraphe

12

0:48

732

251

252

0:50

763

250

254

Tel descent to Gal base

5

0:07

43

100

141

0:07

29

74

119

Galibier

18

1:14

1077

241

243

1:24

1112

224

229

Gal descent to ADH base

48

1:06

352

88

152

1:08

396

101

170

Alpe D'Huez

13

0:58

928

263

267

1:10

934

222

229

175

7:04

5054

199

235

7:34

5298

195

230



There was a difference of 30 minutes in the finish times and most of this is accounted for by the last 2 climbs where my power dropped off while those from the 2007 ride show great pacing to allow a final sub hour climb of the Alpe.

One interesting thing is how even when I put more power into a climb (as on Glandon) this did not translate into me climbing it quicker. Think this is for a couple of reasons.
  • Experience: the 2007 stats show the benefit of 4 years experience riding the Marmotte. The better you know a climb the better you can pace it in order to turn power into climbing speed. The Glandon for example includes a couple of short descents and if you execute these well you can gain quite a bit of time for not much effort.

  • Weight: I weighed a bit more than the 70kg I had hoped, due to a surfeit of great food. Also I carried more food than I ended up eating + 2kg of sports drink, due to worries about feed stops. Actually found (if you start in early group/ride fast) plenty of food/drink and if doing again would carry less

Final interesting thing is how much extra power I needed on the descents/rides to base of Telegraph/ADH, yet still lost time. This is just a matter of luck. In both cases I was in small groups out of which only a handful of us seemed interested in doing any work. I think this was in part because I started well back within the first 2000 group to go off. Up the Glandon I moved quickly through the field but all the fastest people were already over the top by the time I hit it. If (most likely when) I do the event again I will get up earlier to ensure a place at the front of the group and may also risk going even harder up the Glandon, so as to ensure on the next section I have some fast company to work with.

SUS08


As mentioned did the Southern Uplands Sportive last weekend. Couple of things were especially good about the event:
  • The final climb up to Lowther Hill, the highest road in Scotland at 725m. This is a private road that leads to a golf ball radar station used for military/air traffic control. So we only got the chance to ride it because of the event. It was tough going with some very steep sections but the view from the top made it all worth while (see photo above)
  • B&B at Allershaw House nearby http://www.allershawhouse.co.uk/ This is a very friendly farm B&B standing all alone on a hill overlooking the moors. What makes the place especially special is that they breed and rear rare breed pigs. This means you get some of the best bacon and pork you have ever tasted. This meant I could not forgo a full Scottish breakfast (including black pud and haggis) on the day of the event, not necessarily the best pre ride nutrition but what the hell...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Blog Guilt

Just back from holidays and to find an email from Tony "Flamme Rouge" pointing others here...

Only problem with going away is that makes keeping blog up to date a bit tricky and I haven't posted for a while here and now guilty for not doing so...

In a nutshell what's happened over last few weeks

Went to France and rode first ever French sportives in the "Trophee D'Oisans" which consists of 2 full 175km sportives: the Vaujany and the Marmotte in on 2 successive weekends + a mise en bouche for the Marmotte of les Grandes Rousses (up Alpe d'Huez, down then up to Vaujany, a mere 6km@10%). Finally you can grimpe the alpe on the Sunday morning after the Marmotte has finished.

Had a thoroughly good time, spent enjoying the hospitality of the King of the Mountains team, Helyn and Guy. All the events went well, Vaujany done in 7:10 despite a puncture, Grandes Rousse in just over 2 hours including a 58" climbe of the Alple (to the top 300m short of tour finish) 7:34 in the Marmotte and 1:03 in the Grimpe (last being very much a case of a sore head on a sore body after much post Marmotte celebrations.)

Marmotte was a real surprise as pretty much dead on target time of 7:30 made all the more suprising by fact that during the event I did not have any time measure, just power.

Returned last Monday and since them done first ever cycling in Scotland on great SUS08 event, that made 3rd mountain finish in 3 weeks, to Lowther hill. Not quite as high as ADH but definitely steeper in parts.

May write more about all above shortly, but right now thinking ahead to last 2 sportives (Legbreaker and Tour of the Black Mountains.) Then thinking about doing a 12 TT.