Raid Dolomites aka Randonee Leman Adriatique Days 1-2

Just returned from a holiday in the Alps/Dolomites. After going solo last year I decided to take things a bit easier this by booking on an organised cycle trip. This meant "simply" having to ride my bike between stages while my luggage was carried on to the hotel ahead. This sort of worked, sort of didn't. More of this subject later.

The ride itself followed the "Randonee Alpine Leman-Adriatique", an official "route permanante" from Lake Leman (Geneva) to the Adriatique. It snakes across the Alps , zigzagging from Italy to France in the early stages before staying in Italy for a tour of the Dolomites then finally down to the sea at Trieste.

All in all it officially measures some 1180km in length with 44 cols and 22,131m of climbing.

Those following the route get a card which acts as a guide on which roads to follow/cols to go over but also has a section showing various points where you need to collect a stamp as proof that you have ridden the course.

My ride took place end August 2007. Still being a relative newbie in terms of serious cycling this was my first time flying with bike. All went smoothly on this front with the sole exception that right at the end my Scicon bike case was a bit too big for the x-ray machine at Venice airport.

I took advantage of the fact I would not have to carry my own luggage to pack about 5 times as much stuff for 11 days than I took with me around France for 6 weeks (Parkinsons law of luggage). Still as it turned out I did not take enough.

Day 1: Thon to Sion.

Arrived at Geneva the day before and was taken to Thonon on the shores of Lac Leman. There were 26 of us in all and on the first day we set off in small groups for a relatively easy 120km day's ride to Sion in Switzerland with just the Pas de Morgins (1390, mailto:14km@3.3) in the way. The weather was fine and the going easy. I was happy to find that I could still negotiate a long climb.

Only problem we encountered was right at the end, with the hotel being off in an industrial park outside the main town, with most everyone taking a different route to find it.

Stats for the day: Time 4:23 Dist: 122km, AVS 28kph, Mclimb 1250, AvP 144W, NormP 199W

Day 2: Sion to Domodossola.

Similar to day one, except start in Switzerland to hit Italy for the first time and the mountain in the middle was bigger, the Simplon at 2005m the first time over 2000m and being 20km of climbing at 6.6%. Route at the start was flat so we headed off in groups. Roads were boring and hot, progress was not fast but groups split nonetheless. I dropped back to see if some of the backmarkers wanted some help. They didn't but as a result I lost contact with the main group before climb proper started in Brig. The climb starts with a section in the town then hits a fork. Left takes you up the main road, right takes you on a minor road. I took the right fork which proved to be a good idea as it is shorter, shaded and not at all busy. This is at the expense of it being a bit steeper with the first long 10%s (overall 9% for 4km)of the tour but this too is a good thing as it provides a warm up for the much tougher hills ahead.

I made good time up the hill, declining the offer of a beer shouted out by some old locals sitting on their porch. Halfway up or so the minor road rejoins the main one and the climb becomes a longer and less steep, winding through avalanche tunnels with a constant stream of traffic. Not that enjoyable made less so by the fact that a long bridge is undergoing repair (apparently the mountains are moving apart!) so has a long section of one way traffic. I learned from last years tour and went through the red light, which proved a good move as the road was very narrow and I would have had a very long stream of traffic behind me had I waited.

As I progressed up the hill I overtook a number of others on the tour, though none I was in from the group I was with earlier. The couple of km are quite easy and I sped on to stop at the restaurant at the top to meet up with the tour lorry and a couple of others. I had several beers at the top. In fact more than several as I waited for a couple of hours before the group I was with earlier showed. One distraction during this time was a VW Golf that struggled up to the restaurant from the other side of the pass, wreathed in clouds of white smoke. Not quite sure what was ailing it but it was eventually loaded onto a repair truck and driven off.

I eventually set off down to Domodossola, our destination for the night. This was straight down from the Simplon. Just before getting there I and a few others stopped of at a bike shop (owned by a former Giro rider) for various bits and pieces. My purchases were gels and sports drink mix for the harder days to come.

Domodossola turned out to be a nice small Italian town

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

and the hotel was right in the middle of it. I checked in then went straight out to get some decent maps of the area since the ones provided to us were pretty basic and useless if you wanted to do any off route exploring. I tracked down some in a book shop then headed for the main square where I had yet more beer then the hotel for a very good meal.

Stats: Time 4:19 Dist: 116km, AVS 27kph, Mclimb 1585m, AvP 157W, NormP 212W

Tour de France - pause while service (hopefully) being resumed

For one reason or another I have fallen behind writing up my TDF last year. I had hoped to get it finished before this years tour ended, but now its all over and I have still not managed to catch up.

Still, good news is that I may still be able to finish my TDF blog before the 2006 Tour is finished. This is because, as anyone with any interest in cycling knows, the "winner" Floyd Landis tested positive for testosterone after his famous last climbing stage win. His case is still rumbling its way through some sort of legal black hole.

This somehow neatly bookended the tour as it started with a drugs mess as several of the favourites (plus a few then unknowns) were implicated in what became known as the "Puerto" affair. (strangely for me, because I was on my own tour I was blissfully unaware of all this. I turned up in Strasbourg and the first I knew of the scandal was during the Prologue itself when I had to ask where all the favourites had gone. By a strange coincidence I was also staying at the team hotel of T-Mobile, one of the teams most affected).

Still the 2006 tour itself was relatively free of problems and made a good spectacle. And when it came to an end all and sundry loudly proclaimed that it was time to turn over a new leaf. The various cycling magazines had strong editorials about the evils of drugs and how they would lead campaigns to rid their sport of them.

Sadly this proved not to be the case. The 2007 Tour of France was almost the obverse of the 2006. It could not possibly have started any better. After seemingly months of rain the sun came out and the crowds with it to welcome the Tour to the UK. The prologue and the first stage were grand affairs. The crowds were bigger than in France and at the end of the weekend it felt good to be a cyclist, British and Swiss (yellow jersey being on Fabio Cancellara's shoulders).

Then in the first week Tom Boonen finally won, which is nice because he seems like a nice guy and I have a soft spot for Belgians since my tour. Only downside on this was that Robbie McEwan was obviously a bit out of sorts. Then the climbs started and Michael Rasmussen moved into yellow. This looked like good news. I have always had a soft spot for climbers and the prospect of the tour being won by one made it a lot more interesting.

Sadly that was the high spot. After then it all went horribly, horribly wrong. It started with a trickle but this became a flood. Day after day scandals broke. The tour was ruined as a spectacle. It was no longer possible to believe anything you saw. The winner one day would be gone the next. Entire teams disappeared. Somebody called Contador won on their first tour. It should have been a magical story. But wasn't because this should have been the second tour of the individual concerned. Except he couldnt compete in the 2006 tour because his name was linked to Puerto. So nobody really knows what exactly he won. The Tour? or the competition not to get caught?

Its all left me feeling very depressed. Not about cycling, I really enjoy that. But I won't bother with the pros any more.

Yorkshire Rides (and fall)

Spent weekend in Yorkshire, cycling around and about the Ribble Valley and nearby dales.

Reason for going up was the "Roses Round" sportive which I entered to fill a gap in the July lead up to my trips abroad and because I was not too familiar with this neck of the woods.

Journey up Friday I was regretting choice as it poured down as I headed up the M6 stuttering from traffic jam to traffic jam. I had planned quite an adventurous schedule. Friday was to be a 35 mile apertif, then Saturday ride the etape de dales course (110miles) then Sunday the Roses Round itself (75 miles).

Hotels in the area were at a bit of a premium due to lots of weddings. So had one night at one, one at another.

Friday was spent in the delightful "Backfold Cottage" in Waddington.




http://www.smoothhound.co.uk/hotels/backfold.html




This is a small guest house adapted from one of the cottages in a terrace. I got a very warm welcome from the lady in charge. On finding I was a cyclist she told me that she was quite used to having these to stay as apparently the village is on the Lands End - John O'Groats route, not only that it is pretty much half way on some routes so time for a celebration when you get here. She also reminisced about living in the village during the war when a bike was a rare sight indeed (and hard work to ride as no gears and lots of hills).

I gave the weather until 5 o'clock to clear up but that time came and went and the rain kept pouring down. So I watched the Scottish Open golf and then went to the pub. Had a good local meal of black pudding followed by sausage and mash, washed down with several pints of Thwaites (best being Bomber). Went to bed mulling over plans for next day.



Saturday
(red line = %gradient, blue = speed)

Had full English to cheer myself up and decided on change of plan. Weather forecast said should be OK but cloudy and rain spitting down. So rather than the etape I decided on a couple of rides nearby that would give me the option of an early end if the weather turned out like day before.

Glad to be on bike again and made good progress. One thing became quickly clear. There are no flat bits in the Dales. Everywhere was either up or down. At least on the routes I took not too much so (though think there are a few killer climbs around that I will look for next time I am up here).

Really enjoyed myself until halfway through the ride when, after a longish climb that included breezing past another cyclist, I lost it going down hill. Host of reasons why, enjoying the ride, going too fast, an evil hairpin and wet roads. Anyway I braked too hard in the wrong place and ran out of road on a corner. Agonisingly I thought I had saved it, as I was just getting control of the bike despite being on the grass verge. Then the grass disappeared down a big hole and I went head over handlebars. Funnily my only thought was "oh no not again" as my head hit the tarmac (shades of Tourmalet, just over a year ago). I came to a halt and my second thought was for the bike (I only thought about whether I was hurt later..) By some miracle it was completely intact, apart from the rear light which was no loss as I had intended to swap it later. At first I thought my computers had got lost in all the undergrowth, but even here I was in luck. I found both side by side, still fully functioning, (despite the Hac having a big crack...)

My next worry was if the cyclist I had passed on the way up was going to pass me on the way down. For reasons of self image I could not look like I was some sort of idiot who did not know how to go round corners so I gathered myself up and tried to look as if I was taking in the view before checking which bits of my body may no longer be fully functioning.

Fortunately though blood seemed to be spattered everywhere nothing seemed to be broken. Thanks to my helmet my head was fine, though all my joints were very blooded especially my poor old left knee which always seems to get the worst deal. Biggest injury seemed to be my left little finger, the top knuckle of which seemed to be missing. Most urgent injury was left thigh and buttock which had landed full on in a gorse bush and were both now full of tiny thorns.

Eventually, after what seemed an age I restarted. I still could not quite believe the bike was OK but it was, not even a puncture.

I was faced with a choice. I had planned two rides in the day, in a sort of figure of eight joined at the middle near my start point. Sods law meant I had fallen at the furthest point out of my first ride so I had at least 20 miles to do. Question was would I bail out and have an early bath. I remembered the last time I had fallen. Then I had no choice but to soldier on, inspired by the riders of the Tour I was emulating, who drugs or no seemed super human. Only this week for example a rider had gone 100 miles solo after a fall, only to find at the end he had broken his arm. I took heart from this. Yorkshire was a long way from Newbury and I was damned if I would come all this way just for a 40 mile ride. So I set off again, determined to keep to my land for the day, albeit going slower down hill.

I was very glad I did. The weather got better and better as the day progressed. I got some great views and cycling, including sea views and lots of sheep. When I finally got back to my car I had done 140km of riding and 2400m climbing (the toughest being, naturally, at the end of the ride along a main road in the boiling sun to get back to my car..). Whats more my powertap told me this had a "TSS" of 462 which in theory made it my hardest ride since buying it (due to fact there were no flat bits I think).

I had done a bit of forward planning and my car had a first aid kit that let me tidy myself up a bit. I then headed off to my second hotel. This was pretty much the opposite from Backfold Cottage in terms of hotels, being large and very 70s in terms of decor. Still I had a massive room (in fact 4 rooms in all) and the receptionist didnt blanche at my bloodied state. I arranged an early breakfast and retired to my room for a much needed bath and call to Mrs Miff.

While bathing I discovered I had some souveniers of my fall. Some gorse thorns seemed particularly attached to my thighs and a small stone had got lodged in my little finger. I did some surgery with a toothpick then went for a meal of pasta and steak. Strangely the highlight of this was a side order of rocket salad This came in a huge portion including loads of my all time favourite number one food in the world (parmesan). In fact I liked this so much that I ordered a second as a dessert since it contained more cheese than the normal boards on offer. Despite this and all my cuts/bruises I had a remarkably good nights sleep (patching up my woulds with toilet paper).

Sunday

This was meant to be the main event of the weekend, though in terms of distance, climbing and excitement it was overshadowed by the previous day.

However in terms of scenery it won out, despite not having any sea views. The route took us in a big circle over two main climbs. The second was marvellous, my favourie so far in the UK. The climb was long but fair, with some challenging kicks at the top and tail. But the best was the summit where there was no sudden plunge but rather a long ride along a sort of plateau followed by a very long descent to the finish (though I did miss a turn along the way that meant an unwanted detour). On this last bit I played the good samaritan of sorts, as I found a mobile phone in the road and was able to reunite it with its owner a bit up the road (he did not even realise he had lost it).

The event was quite low key for a sportive, almost the opposite of my last excursion at the Dragon. There were no time chips and in fact I did not even think the event was going to be timed. Actually I quite enjoyed this. Since I was not going for a time I took things easy, stopping at the stops for some Red Bull and cakes, there being no queues at any of them at all. Whats more the finish had some excellent fruit cake (and no degreasers disguised as gels).

"Torrential rain" had been forecast but fortunately that held off until the end of the ride. Whats more the journey back was much quicker and easier than that up.

Postscript

Turns out the event was timed after all though in low key way that meant you had to tell the bloke at the start when you set off. Lovely contrast to other rides. My ignorance of this meant no offical time. Unofficial was 4:55 including stops and detours which put me in equal 13th out of the 57 who did the long course (fastest 3:56). Actually better than I expected given events of the previous day and me not pushing really hard anywhere around the course.

Highclere 2007 - sunny day

A return to Highclere following successful ride last August. Starting to feel like an old timer at sportives now (somewhat prematurely given this is only my fourth event...).

Still first time for something as was riding as part of a team, a novel experience. Accordingly I steered clear of any specific individual target as not sure how others would be riding.

In contrast to Wessex the forecast for the weekend was for sun and it delivered. Day before event I kept off the bike but did do a fairly intense 30 minutes on indoor bike (15 mins Speed 18, 15 mins Speed 16). This seemed to have no adverse effect and I felt very fresh as Sunday dawned. I left early to pick up a fellow rider and we rode to the event together. When there he wanted to speak with bike-shop re his bike so I thought I would tag along and see if I could get a diagnosis as to the rattles coming from my Roubaix.

Chap found the cause, the bolts on my chainring were loose. Something I would never have thought of. He tried to tighten but one snapped. Clearly they were amiss. Happy that at least I knew to get some more I went off to join rest of team.

Course 2007 was reverse from 2006. This meant hard climb up Coombe to start but after then most of first half downhill. Return quite lumpy but no mega climbs.

Recognising this I thought it would be worth pushing hard from the start. So we led the way for our group up to the climb. There I changed down and started the tricky bit of ascent. After a short while my chain slipped off. I cursed, stopped and put it on again. With some difficulty I restarted only to go a few yards before it came off again. I swore harder and looked at the chain ring, discovering that the broken bolt had slipped out and this was causing the chain to come off. So I had to put the chain back on the middle ring. Restarting was especially tricky but managed and got to the top, rather upset. Met up with one team member and we hared downhill to join up with the others. We then hurtled down the Test Valley at a rate of knots, keeping up a 20mph average for nearly 90km. During this time we lost touch with one of our four. We thought he was in a group behind but later it turned out he was having a hard time and called it a day.

At this stage though things started to get a bit harder as south of Winchester we started to head east. The road started to get lumpy and it was difficult to keep together as a group. After a while it was decided best to split, one of us going ahead with me staying with the remaining team member who was doing his first 100mile+ event.

This proved a wise decision as from then on there was no group that we caught and those that passed were going too fast for us both to comfortably keep up. It was a hot day and I knew from experience it would be no fun to go solo, especially on a first big ride. Eventually the two of us made it to the top of White Hill which we knew was the last big climb. With one last push we made it back to Highclere and welcome beefburger/ice cream.

As it turned out the three of us who completed all hit gold standard and we ended up thoroughly enjoying the day. On a personal level it was a very good training ride, I had taken it comparatively easy (170W) and not had much assistance from riding in a group. Even so we averaged 28kph for the ride as a whole. This made a goal of riding an event at a 20mph average seem realistic given the right circumstances.

Tour of Wessex 2007 Day 3 - The Bad Day after the before

tour of wessex 2007 day 3

http://www.bikely.com/

Last day of the Wessex was the hardest. Not physically, single speed Sunday in the wind and rain took that honour. But mentally it was tough.

I was so knackered the day before that I had not bothered to check my time and how I was placed. I knew that, given the gold standard targets, getting a gold was pretty much out of the question. So I decided out the outset not to try too hard and treat the day as a tourist ride.

The weather was grey but not too bad through my hotel window, a definite improvement on the day before. I had breakfast and set off on my bike with gears. After a while I became aware of a noise coming from my bike which I identified as being the rear cassette being loose (having had similar in the past). This was a bit of a disaster. Fixing this was easy, but you needed the right specialist tool. I thought I may be able to scrounge one at the event but this would mean missing the start. The days route was long but the first 60km or so were quite flat. My plan had been to shelter in a group for this section then take it easy as the hills started. Missing the start would mean riding solo which would make things a lot harder.

I had a couple of pieces of luck. First was that the weather the day before had played havoc in the field where the event was held. Lots of things had blown down and most crucially the electronic timing was broken. So the start was on hold. Second bit of luck was that I managed to find a very helpful chap just when I was getting desparate because it looked like no-one had the tool I needed. He was sure he had the right gadget, only problem was he did not know where it was. He had a van full of bike stuff and it was only by taking this all out that we finally located the vital spanner. He sorted me out and I offered heartfelt but hurried thanks as I just managed to make the start in time to ride off with the pack.

As I expected the first 60km or so were quite uneventful. We bowled along at a fair pace averaging some 28kph. I was in a huge group of riders and as the route was along wide straight roads it was not too difficult for us to stay together.

Eventually we reached some signs directing us along smaller country lanes and at this stage a funny thing happened..I needed to go for a pee. Now I know this is quite a natural thing to do but luckily when I ride I don't seem to get the urge to go. I always put this down to me losing liquid via sweat etc. Anyway today was different. I needed to stop so put off the urge until a suitable bush appeared and then stopped for a bit of quick relief.

Having dropped from the group I was with I did not feel any urge to catch up. The roads were narrow and twisty so I could not see them to chase and in any case wanted to save energy for the climbs ahead. These included the "highlight" of the weekend, Dunkley Beacon, the highest point of Exmoor with a long (for England) climb of some 300m, much of with a double digit gradient.

I ambled along, enjoying the countryside and the weather. The latter was proving to be nice and reasonably sunny. All went well until I hit Crowcombe. Halfway through a sign pointed right and more importantly up a small road. This led up to the Quantock hills. The climb was immediately tough, as steep as any around Newbury and longer. Then I saw a sign warning(!) of a steep climb ahead....(as if this was not steep enough..) I soldiered on but with huge difficulty. The climb measured 30%+ according to my HAC and though I pedalled up it at one stage I had to resort to a slow tac across the slope rather than straight up.

The top of the climb had a food stop and here I stopped. Previously I had ridden past these but today I was in need of a banana. I pushed on heading quickly downhill and to the coast. I passed through some seaside towns then off west. This bit was a real slog. The road was long, straight and devoid of shelter from the wind that blew straight into my face. I slogged on not enjoying the experience very much and praying for a time when we would turn south and head to Exmoor. Eventually this happened. Just before a couple of riders passed me and jumped on their back to get a tow. At one stage one beckoned to me to take a turn at the front. I declined pointing out I was tired having done the last god knows how long solo. I did not point out that I recoginised the person doing the beckoning as someone from the first day who had been in our group heading to the finish and had spent precisely zero time doing any work for the bunch.

The big climb was a bit of a tease. The route took us right of the road onto a cycle path/byway through a wood. There were a number of false starts when the road kicked up only to drop away after a couple of hundred metres. So I started the climb proper without realising I was on it.

It proved a bit of an anti-climax. It was long but manageable (my triple working sans problems). Subjectively it was easier than the previous Quantock torture, helped by the fact the sun was shining and the views as you went up were great. On the way up I was passed by some Army guys I recognised from Newbury. They were planning to ride the tour de france route and using the TOW as their last training ride.

At the top of Dunkley Beacon were find views and more bananas. Then a fast descent and some small medium climbs. After 130km or so the route profile showed these were over and it was downhill or flat to the finish.

I cycled along quite quickly, roping in a few others to do a bit of work then pushing on. All was fine until we headed off the main road and up an unmarked (on the profile) hill. It was not the steepest or longest of the weekend, but did have some bits at 25% or so. I hated this hill, mainly because it was not meant to be there. I gave up any attempt to go fast and just twiddled up it. When I got to the top I decided to go slow to the end in protest. I kept to this resolution until I was joined by some others and it seemed easier to stick with them, which I did pretty much until the finish (which came later than posted at more like 210km than the 200km that were meant to be).

I reached the finish with a sense of anti-climax in around 8 hours. All there was quiet so I returned to the Marston Arms for a well earned pint (or two)

First 25 Miler - Harder than I thought

Did first official 25 mile TT last night. Turned out harder than I expected. Largely my own fault as I did no preparation. In fact I only decided to do the event the day before and then only so I could get hold of a club jersey in time for the sportive this weekend.

My preparation was further hindered by me feeling very good the night before, so having quite a hard workout on the Banjo ride, averaging some 190+W. I felt so good I headed off solo at the end to put in a couple of climbs. Then spent the whole day yesterday on my feet doing a mixture of house chores, bike maintenance, golf lesson and errands in town. I literally only stopped 30 minutes before setting off for the event.

Whats more the evening itself turned cold and windy after a day mainly full of sun....

So lots of excuses. Being my first 25miler I really did not know what to expect. I set a target of 280-300W following my 325W average on the 10 miler last month. For the first quarter this seemed well attainable as I averaged 288 but slowly and surely the average declined so that at the turn after 25km the average had dropped to 280 and I had difficulty keeping it around that level up to the finish. My final reading on the bike was 278W but Cyclepeaks reckons 280W for the event itself so just on target. But I felt very tired, unable to hit the 170+ bpm I reached during the 10 miler and writing this the day after I feel much more tired than I expected.

On the good side though the time was respectable. One grail for a cyclist is to get under the hour for 25 miles, and I nearly managed this first attempt do 64 minutes. The course was a bit downhill overall but the wind on the return leg made it harder. Famout last words but I reckon I can break the hour on a warm calm night with a bit of preparation.

Also I set a PB FTP (CP60) of 280W and managed to keep rpm up at 83 average. Re latter though interesting that my most powerful rides are those with lower cadence. Towards end of the event I found a technique of counting 1 2 3 and pushing hard down on the 1 (so alternating legs) seemed to work well in terms of high power but not feeling too hard. Will experiment with this before the next time I brave a TT

Other good news was that my bike performed well, and no bits fell off despite me doing lots of work on it during the day including dismantling bottom bracket and fitting new Toupe seat. Tyres stunning. Inflated to 10bar and they went fine.

Tour of Wessex 2007 Day 2 - The Ugly - Piddling down

The Cerne Abbas Giant. The significance of this plus why I was pedalling down Piddle as it was pxxxing will become obvious later.

Tour of Wessex 2007 day 2

http://www.bikely.com/

Another day, another ride. Sunday turned out to be the opposite of Saturday in a number of respects:

Saturday: Meticulously planned ride, 30 gears and lots of gizmos, lovely weather, much of time riding in bunch, effort to spare on the hills, never passed, relax and unwind at the finish, comfortable ride back to the hotel.

Sunday: No real plan other than to finish, 1 gear no gizmos (even HRM bust), terrible weather, most of ride solo, max+ effort on hills, often passed, no time at the finish, nightmare ride back to the hotel.

Still in two key ways the days were the same as I achieved the goals that I set my self and they were both rides I won't forget for a long time....

That said much of the detail of what happened Sunday is now lost in a hazy blur of cold, damp and pain. I got up on time but dawdled a bit over my Jordans, partly because I did not feel a rush to start on the dot at 7, given I was not chasing a time. But also because a swift look out of the window showed the threatened rain had already arrived.

Eventually I emerged from the hotel and set about moving various bits and pieces from one bike to another. Once done I pedalled away and uphill. Fortunately I thought to check my bike computer was working as it wasn't. This give me a brief moment of hesitation. I had a spare back at the hotel but that would mean going back downhill then up again. I decided that the trip was worth it as I was pretty sure that at some stage later I would want to know how far I had to go.

This proved to be my second best decision of the day. I headed back, picked up my spare and set of again. Bizarrely during my brief return to the hotel I encountered someone else leaving in bike gear, I presumed to do ride as well. He was not as hard/daft as me as he was driving to the start, but he was a lot more optimistic as he was wearing sunglasses!

So I started again, now well behind schedule and fell further behind as I battled the wind/rain and hills to get to the event. I eventually arrived at the start just in time to hear the starter announce that the group expecting to finish in 7 1/2 hours should commence. I had no clue how long the ride was going to take, but this seemed like a sensible target. Certainly the riders who assembled looked, (how shall I say?) a lot less "athletic" than the bunch I had been with the previous day. So I set off with them. It soon turned out that despite my rudimentary bike I was a lot quicker than them so I soon found myself cycling alone. After a few miles I was overtaken by someone (I guess another late arrivee) on a flat section. This turned to a hill and I found I was catching up with him and we rode together for a while. I was a bit chuffed that he spotted my single gear and offered a few words of congratulations. We came to another flat section and as we sped off I told him to carry on as I did not want to try to keep pace as I knew that might risk overtaxing myself early.

I continued riding. I found that I was overtaking quite a few other cyclists on the hills and myself being overtaken (by those I had passed and other late arrivers) on the flats. This made a sort of sense. On the climbs I was basically using raw power to churn along, I had no real option given I was using a 48x16 gear. (When I looked at the climbs later they were done in pretty much the the same time/VAM as those on the Saturday).

All went well until Cerne. Now this place is famous for a hill carving, more famous for what is carved (see top of blog and attached for more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant

Pretty much as soon as the climb started it was clear it was going to be a steep one. I kept the pedals turning but every rotation was harder than the one before. After a while I had another problem, I was going so slowly that it was becoming hard to keep upright. Rather than a smooth stroke my pedalling action had become "grunt, push right leg down hard, wobble, teeter, regain balance, grunt push left leg down hard, wobble, think about to fall, regain balance, grunt, push right leg down hard...." repeat.

My "pace" had now gone below walking speed. I had a terrible decision to make, one of the worst any cyclist has. Was I going to get of and push? I decided I had to. I thought I might make it up the hill. But more slowly than if I walked and leaving nothing in the tank for the rest of the day or tomorrow. Pride was one thing but this had now become a question of survival.

Deciding was one thing, doing was another. It actually took some pretty good timing on the greasy surface to unhook myself from the bike and put feet to ground. Even so I managed to tweak a calf muscle in the process. And that was far from the end of the matter. There was still the hill to climb. Doing this in cycle shoes pushing a bike was a nightmare. Fortunately only a brief one as I made the top in 5-10 minutes

Tellingly I cant see from my bike computer when I stopped cycling and started walking. I can see though that the gradient up this hill got into the 20-25% range. Clearly the guy the day before had been lying.

When I got to the top I was still feeling guilty about walking. My guilt was only increased when I looked down the road and saw that lots of others were doing the same. I had a feeling I had started a chain reaction, everyone was desperate not to get off their bikes or at least not be the first to crack. I had cracked and that had pushed others over the edge as well.

Still no time for recriminations. There were still another 100km to go. So I got back on the bike and started pedalling down the Piddle.

Among the many unfortunate things about Sunday was the fact that had the weather been OK it would have been a great route. Following the nightmare out of Cerne it was downhill to the the sea. This took us down the delightfully named Piddle valley, complete with the villages Piddletrenthide and Piddlehinton. Finally, naturally, was the quite appropriately named Puddletown, which is what you get at the bottom of a valley down which Piddle runs.

While pedaling down the Piddle I was building up a bit of speed and overtaking a few bikes again. At one stage I was myself overtaken by a couple of bikes and decided to latch on to see if I could make up some time, reasoning the faster I went the sooner I would be home and (hopefully) dry. This worked very well. By contrast to the previous day they seemed happy to have someone join them to share the load, especially as we were going into a bit of a head wind. We went some 20km at around 30kph, good for the conditions, before they stopped at a feed station.

I pushed on, eventually reaching the far south of the route at Lulworth where we headed off over the army ranges to Corfe Castle. It really was a shame the weather was so bad, the views otherwise would have been spectacular. Traversing the ranges was a bit tough, with some short sharp climbs. However I was not going to stop again. My resolution was bolstered when someone going passed noticed my single gear, said "respect" and offered a high five. This I returned (albeit with a bit of difficulty as we were heading uphill at the time).

Corfe Castle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corfe_Castle marked the halfway point of the days ride. On reaching it we turned north for home, helped by a wind on our backs. It was round about at this point that my ride became one of survival. I was hugely relieved that I decided to go back and get a working bike computer because this now became the only thing that kept me going. Once I got past halfway I kept myself going by breaking the ride down into chunks, setting targets, the first of which was 100km then 120km. All I focused on was my LCD display, everything else went by the by.

As a result I can recall nothing about the ride back. This goes to show how hard it must have been, as I am quite good at recalling the details of rides (if hazy as to the actual directions I took).

What I can remember is eventually getting back alone to the finish line. I had no clue or interest in my time or position. The small tented village housing this information, along with food and drink seemed a long way away over a very muddy field. As I debated whether it was worth the slog over a very worrying thought started to loom in my mind. I knew how tired I was. I knew I was riding a fixed gear bike. And I knew how steep the hill going back to the hotel was. I became afraid, very afraid that I was not going to be able to get up that hill. I supposed there may be other routes back but I did not know them and if attempted they were likely to get me very seriously lost.

Then it occurred to me. Before the climb was the small village of Marston and in this village I had passed a pub. A pub meant the chance of some food but even more important some beer. I knew I would need both to get me home. So I turned my back on the tents and started the journey back, arriving at the pub a few miles later.

I parked up my bike. Just before I went in I hesitated. I could imagine how I looked and was worried that the landlord may not appreciate a soaking wet and filthy lycra clad cyclist dripping all over his floor. I decided I did not care, my need was urgent.

I needn't have worried. The welcome I got at the pub was fantastic. The locals wanted to know how I had arrived at their door and were suitably impressed by how far I had ridden (even more so when they found out that this was just one of three days). They suggested I try some Cornish beer, Tribute. The name seemed appropriate so I order a pint and some peanuts. When the glass came I realised just how cold I was. My fingers had lost all sense of feeling. I could see they were still attached to my hand but they had lost all sensation. They looked and felt like rolls of putty. Embarrassingly this meant I could not lift the glass, save by putting both palms against it and lifting it to my lips like a baby. But the beer tasted good. So I ordered another and waited for my limbs to warm up, while watching the finish of the Monaco GP and chatting to the people there. One was a postman, who told me he was used to riding his bike up the hills around and about and agreed the one to Sherborne was a bugger. With some drink inside me I started to think about food. Unfortunately I was too late for lunch, but luckily some roast potatoes appeared covered in gravy appeared on the bar. I helped myself and they had an immediate effect warming my insides.

I must have spent an hour or so there. Then I decided I had better move on, otherwise I would never get back to the hotel. When I went out I found the rain had pretty much stopped and the sky, if not exactly blue, was certainly a lighter shade of grey. I had a strange sense of deja vu to my terrible day in Belgium on my TDF. Similarly then I had been soaked, knackered and at the end of my tether. http://mr-miff-on-tour.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html

Similarly then a warm pub, beer and food had done the trick and got me started again.

Even so I don't recall how I got back to the hotel. But I did and sank gratefully into a big hot bath along with tea and the Sunday Telegraph. I phoned Mrs M from this haven of warmth and told her of my days various episodes, good and bad.

Followed this with another great meal. Beforehand in the bar I overheard some others who had gone through the same experience as me. They were debating whether to give the next day a miss and go home early and ended up deciding to do just that. I entertained no such thoughts. Even though opinions were divided about what the weather was going to bring I was sure I would do the next days ride. However I was in a bit of a quandary. I had trained for the weekend with the intention of reaching gold standard. However this required averaging 6 hours for the rides and I had pretty much given up hope of doing that after the events of the day. So I went to bed with no plan, other than getting up and seeing what the Monday would bring.

Tour of Wessex 2007 Day 1 - The Good

Tour of Wessex 2007 day 1

http://www.bikely.com/

Today turned out pretty well. I managed the most difficult part of the day (getting out of bed at 5.30), had my Jordans cereal, 3 cups of coffee and headed off. I forced myself to take it easy up the hill out of Sherborne. Nearing the start I got a bit worried as the ride there had taken a bit longer than planned and I was nearing the 7.00 start. I needn't have bothered as there was a lot of last minute confusion due to people picking up their registrations so the start was delayed by 15 minutes.

Riders set off in groups according to expected race time. First group was 5 hours. I was not up for this but when 5.30 group was announced I moved forward and started off. Timing for this event was best of the 3 sportives I have done. You have a tag on your ankle and just roll over a mat. Dead easy.

I was glad I had done the recce the day before as the first climb came as no surprise and allowed me to move up various groups until I found one that I felt was around my pace. I stuck with this group for the first 20km or so until we hit Alfreds Tower, the first climb of the day and the one with steepest pitches. I had a bit of luck here. My gearing was proving a bit tricky, especially changing down to the low chainring on my triple. I tried moving to this at the start of the climb but it would not budge. Luckily there was a brief flat section, just enough for me to unclip my right shoe and kick the chain over. Reengaged I set of and found the climb not too bad at all. My Powertap came in really useful as I used it to try and keep in the 300-350W range that I knew I could sustain for the expected duration of the climb. (Interestingly the stats I downloaded later showed I had averaged 316W(334WNorm) with a 5 minute peak of 337W(347WNorm), pretty much smack on target and pretty close to my 5 minute CP5 PB of 355W

At the top of the climb the group had thinned out a bit and there were just 6 of us left. We carried on as the route took us over a scary bit of gravel path past the front of Stourhead House. Lucklily my Vittorio Corsa KX tyres stood up to this test as they did everything else during the course of the weekend. (This was not the case for lots of other unfortunates, I think this event had the highest number of punctures I have yet seen).

Our group pretty much stuck together for quite a while. After a couple of hours I noticed my average watts so far were around 215W, much the same as that during my last 100mile training ride. So I knew I was in the right zone. Just short of 2 hours a couple of people went off the front of the group. This was as we were heading into Wells, start of the second big climb of the day. They headed up the hill and we followed. Again the Powertap was great and I kept up a steady pace hitting the top of the hill without too much difficulty. I then led the group in pursuit of the two ahead. One got away but we reeled the other one in and carried on to the second feedstop.

My policy for feedstops so far has been to ignore them as I carry enough food to keep me going and I dont like losing my rhythm. This is especially the case if the feedstop is, as often seems to be the case, at the end of one descent and the start of another. This was the case today. The rest of my group stopped put I pressed on, planning to take it easy for a few minutes to see if they or another group leaving the feedstop would catch me up. So I started climbing at not too hard a rate. Then I noticed that a lone cyclist was ahead of me. At my current rate of climbing I was keeping a pretty steady distance from him so I upped my rate a bit and started to close. After a while I caught him and followed up the hill, hoping we could work together as most of the rest of the course was downhill/flat.

However I got the impression he was a bit miffed to be caught and when we got to the top he put on several spurts I guess to get me off his back wheel. This did not work and I passed him a few times just to make the point that I had no problems keeping up. Then we came to Cheddar Gorge. I know, from later discussions, that the chap was local and he tried to use his local knowledge to leave me on the descent which I must admit was pretty hairy. However I was feeling pretty good and the bike was feeling solid as a rock. (Combination of the tyres and IT Sword bars). So I swooped and followed him around twist and turn, even overtaking a few cars as needed.

Eventually we got to the bottom. Due to traffic he got a lead of 20m or so on me and tried one final effort to pedal away. But I was feeling fine so closed the gap and at this time he pretty much accepted he was stuck with me. So we started to work together a bit, the more so as we spotted a small group ahead. We gave chase and eventually caught them as they slowed to follow a tractor. I was ahead and slowed to join them but the chap I was with saw this as a chance to leave us behind and sprinted past group and tractor. I sprinted to join him and this woke the group up and they joined us. Now we were quite a crew and we sped along happily to the finish.

I guessed my time to be around 5:25 which I was happy enough with. I felt fine with plenty still to give. My first point of call after the finish was the bike maintenance stand, very kindly furnished by Somerset County Council. I left my bike there requesting that my triple be fixed as I was sure I would have need of it over the next 2 days. I then headed for the refreshment tent to get lots of food inside me. Discussions there confirmed that tomorrow was going to be wet. So next stop was route organiser. I asked him how the Sunday course compared to Saturday. He said it would be easier, with nothing as steep as Alfreds Tower. This confirmed me in my decision to go single (NOTE: This info proved to be a lie).

I returned to the bike stand to get my bike. This had a new outer casing on the rear mech and a full set of gears that worked. All done for free!!! Many thanks Somerset (I felt a bit guilty that I would be spending all my money that weekend just over the border as Sherborne is in Dorset).

Having a working low gear made the ride up the steep hill back to the hotel easy. I returned to my room to find the Saturday DT waiting. So made a pot of tea , settled into a warm bath with my paper and phoned Mrs M to relay the days events.

Had yet another amazing meal (with extra pasta) and an early night.

Tour of Wessex 2007 - Prologue

So after many months the first major event of 2007 finally wound around last weekend on the late May bank holiday.

While my training had gone pretty well, albeit with a bit of a disruption due to a US trip and consequent inevitable cold, things took a turn for the worse in the week leading up to the event.

First I got an email from the organisers giving a start time of 07:00. This would mean an early rise of 05:30 to get breakfast & ride to the event. Not very nice.

Then I went to the dentists. Teeth were fine but the practice has installed a giant plasma screen showing 24 hour news. (Not sure of reasoning behind this, maybe hearing latest bad news from wherever is meant to take your mind of any upcoming pain. Still guess it makes a change from the ancient mags they have.) Anyway when the weather came up I got a bit depressed. Sunny now but inevitable forecast for a UK bank holiday was rain, lots of it, on Sunday especially. Oh and wind as well...

Now this was a bit of a double whammy

• Firstly wind and rain are the bane of any cyclist. Most especially if you want to go fast. The wind means you have to get into and stick with a group. But the rain means this will entail spending 5-6 hours getting sprayed by water and road crap from the wheels ahead. Its a bit like being inside a washing machine except you come out filthy at the end.


• Secondly my Roubaix is my pride and joy, especially with Powertap. I have heard mixed reviews of how it would react to 5-6 hours of rain and did not want to find out the hard way.

Thought about this during my dental exam and asked myself what was main purpose of doing tour. Going fast yes, but I really took up cycling again for the challenge. So I decided if the weather decided to do its worst over the weekend I would have a plan B.

This entailed taking along a second bike for wet weather use. Now this could have been my winter trainer but I thought it may be a bit of a laugh and more of challenge to stare adversity full in the face and take my single speed Langster instead. I really like riding this bike. Its almost the opposite of my Roubaix, aluminium, one gear (48x16) and no gizmos (though I do attach my Hac4). Since putting some 25c Conti 4 seasons its proved to be pretty bomb proof and I know I can do 100 miles on it as already have done this year.

So, in the time it takes to check your teeth, my mind was made up, Plan B was the Langster and to hell with trying for a super time. After all the event is meant to be fun....

So with this late decision made I packed Langster along with Roubaix, lots of clothes, cereal bars for the ride and cereal/milk for breakfast into the car and headed west Friday morning.

Friday had a number of pleasant surprises (and one unpleasant)....

Pleasant surprises first

• The drive from Newbury to my hotel in Sherborne was very nice. The weather was sunny and the views of the English countryside superb. As a bonus you go past Stonehenge. And the whole trip is only 1.5 hours. So short in fact that I had to stop for a very agreeable lunch at a pub on the way there so as not to arrive too early.


• Sherborne is in Dorset, a county I had never knowingly visited (apart from a brief stopover at Weymouth en return from France). The county is very picturesque and full of interesting stuff. Sherborne itself is a really pretty town http://www.sherbornetown.co.uk/


• My hotel was the Eastbury http://www.theeastburyhotel.co.uk/ Now I chose this simply because it seemed close to the start/finish of the event (so I could cycle there/back). However when I turned up there I found I had lucked out. The hotel is comfortable, with a warm welcome and a beautiful garden and (important if you are a paranoid cyclist) good secluded secure parking at the rear. However its best feature is the food. This is simply sublime. In the course of 4 nights I had some of the tastiest food I have ever had. Everything was marvellous but the highlights were the simply sounding Assiette of Lamb (actually lamb presented in three very different and interesting ways) and that most basic of dishes: roast chicken. This latter was quite simply the tastiest chicken I have ever had. One measure of art is how it takes the most ordinary and makes you think about it. By this measure my meal was a work of art.

Now the unpleasant surprise. When I booked my hotel I simply looked at the distance from it to the event. It was around 8 miles which is the perfect sort of distance to get warmed up on the way there and warm down on the way back.

It never crossed my mind to check if this 8 miles was flat or not. Now that was a bit daft as around my neck of the woods if you travel 8 miles E-W things are pretty smooth but N-S will involve a climb or two.

Following my arrival I had planned a ride to find the route to the start, pick up my registration pack and then recce the first few km of the Saturday route. I did this and started to have a bit of a concern as I turned out of my hotel and the first road I encountered went up at 5%. My concerns continued as, after a brief blip, the road continued at 5% for 2 miles. Then there was a sharp downhill a pause and then a sharper downhill. I looked at my speedometer, saw I was doing over 40mph and got really concerned. Going this fast downhill meant a steep descent, one that would need to be tackled on the way back.

The graphic above shows the profile of the route (wish I had done this before the visit!). The return leg from the start meant a slog up a 10% hill then a freewheel to hotel. Hardly the best warm down route in the world. Unfortunately I had no map and so no way of seeing if an alternative existed.

Eventually I found the start point, picked up my pack and set off on the start of the Saturday route. I was glad I did as it started with a climb so I knew not to go mad from the gun. After doing an hour or sos riding I turned back and got lost. Eventually I found my route home though by a longer way than I had come.

Still the weather was nice, I had enjoyed the ride and was feeling fit. I had the first of many great meals and an early nights sleep.

Average Power

Thought would find posts like this one all over the place but seem to be difficult to find. Anyway for the record at time of speaking here are my CP values (all real not normalised) just after my first time trial (24.11 riding Roubaix on drops) and just about to do Tour of Wessex.

Age 48, weight 73kg.

CP0.2 799W
CP1 519W
CP6 346W
CP12 332W
CP20 326W (done during time trial)
CP30 290W
CP60 266W
CP180 208W
CP300 192W (long ride first couple of hours 220W then dropping)

First Official Time Trial

Did first official time trial last night, actually managing to turn up in time..

Almost cheesed it as got to the start to find no-one there and no sign of anyone. Pottered up the A4 and had just about made my mind up to accept that I was in the wrong place when spotted a tandem who confirmed time trial was due to happen.

Eventually found the registration, being no. 27 of 27 to check in.

Warmed up and went out with plan to go out in 320W. Managed this and to my surprise managed even better on way back to complete in 325W average, giving a time of 24.11. Not bad for a first attempt and my target of breaking 24mins seems very much on as lost most of the missing 11secs on the start and cruise into the finish.

Final standing showed me 11th, winning time was 21.45 (so way to go for that, including getting a TT bike which I dont fancy at all)

Saturday 3rd June La Trance>Rochefort Nice and easy in the sun

Distance 107 km
Time 4:48
Climb 182
Weather Sunny

TDF 2006 Day 14 3rd June La Tranche to Rochefort

http://www.bikely.com/

After yesterdays exertions of various types today proved to be easy going. It was my second recovery day so I had a lie in and a long breakfast.

My first recovery day proved to be a bit too easy so I planned on doing a few more km this time but keep my heart rate nice and low. Rochefort, a large town 100km to the south, looked the ideal point to aim at so I set off with the intention of stopping there.

Over breakfast I decided to trust to luck and assume the need to buy some lip balm yesterday meant the sun was out to stay. So I decided to swap the lenses on my sunglasses from clear to dark. This proved to be the hardest thing I did all day as it took the best part of 30 minutes to wrestle the lenses into postion. I very sincerely hoped it was going to stay sunny for the rest of the trip...

As a similar mark of faith in the French weather I also dispensed with my arm warmers for the first time in my trip.

The route was flat as a pancake, perfect for an easy ride. While stopping for a quick call of nature a group of 5 French cyclists passed by. They were not going too quickly so it was quite easy for me to catch up with them and I passed a few pleasantries, then they waved adieu and put on a sprint. I don't think they were the fittest group of cyclists in the world as this breif period of speed petered out very quickly and I could quite easily have caught up with them again. However they had a distinct lack of road sense, weaving all over road and causing more than one car to take a late change of direction to avoid them.

I did not want to overtake them as this may have involved getting into a competition with them to stay ahead and I did not want to break my recovery day rule. So I stayed a safe distance behind, marvelling at their utter disregard for every rule of road safety.

Still this experience proved beneficial when we came to a rue barree. I was very happy to see the French contingent move aside the barriers blocking the road an cycle on. This probably explained why French workmen were used to seeing cyclists. The road barreed was long and straight and we did have a brief moment of excitement when a couple of motor bikes whizzed by, taking the opportunity of the deserted tarmac to see how far and fast they could pull a wheelie.

In following the group I actually missed my turning and ended up on a main N road. However proved to be a lucky missed turn of events as the road went straight to Rochefort and the wind was blowing straight behind me. So I motored along at over 20mph without my heart much getting over 110 bpm.

My luck continued in Rochefort. Being a big town I had not bothered to book a hotel in advance. I cycled around and stopped outside a hotel. The owner popped out and asked if I wanted to store my bike. This is the first time this has happened, so I said oui and he showed me a garage round the back. I then checked in and found the hotel (La Fayette) to be a real find. It was a basic hotel but just very well renovated with lots of real wood and small touches that made it a million miles away from being an Ibis despite costing less per night. It was also a non-smoking hotel. It had no restaurant but this was no problem as it was right in the centre of town with lots of restaurants nearby.

So very strongly recommended, details here.
http://www.hotel-lafayette-rochefort.fr/home.php

I had ample time to look round Rochefort before having an evening meal. It turned out to be a nice town, having a long naval history, interesting to see from the French side of view (as most of it their sea history has been one of rivalry to England).

Alongside the river was a park and pretty buildings, which surprisingly turned out to be a factory to make rope.

http://www.corderie-royale.com/13_visitez_anglais/pop_up/corderie_royale.html

All in all a perfect day. I rounded it off in style by heading off to an Italian restaurant and having a pizza followed by a pasta, not caring a jot that my lack of exertions of the day hardly merited such a repas.

Friday 2nd June Kerinhet>Les Tranche Feeling bad but ride well

Distance 184k
Time 7:47
Climb 600
Weather Sunny

My TDF2006 Day 13 June 2nd Kerinhet to La Tranche sur Mer

http://www.bikely.com/

Had a terrible night. Major break down of rear end, caused I think by an unhealthy combination of long days cycling, rich meals and stupidly not heeding advice in French Revolutions not to put orange juice in my bidons.

I will spare graphic details. Suffice to say that over the course of the night I became intimately acquainted with my bathroom and was in severe danger of running out of toilet paper.

Getting breakfast proved a bit tricky as I seemed to be the only person actually staying in the village/hotel. Eventually I tracked someone down and forced myself to eat some bread and jam.

Not surprisingly I started the day with some apprehension and did not book any hotel in advance as I was not sure if I would be able to manage 10km let alone 100.

I recalled stories I had read about Greg Lemond on the tour and how he had ridden one stage in a condition similar to mine. He had bravely pedalled on (equally bravely the rest of the tour had allowed him to), I was not so sure I would be able to.

I only had one priority, to find a pharmacist to get some anti-poo pills. Fortunately I found one quite quickly. Equally fortunately the French for diarrhoea is the same as the English and I knew enough of French customs not to be embarassed asking for some pills for my bottom. (The French for reasons known only to themselves seem to quite like sticking pills up their backsides, a frequent danger when buying medicines there is to get them home and realise you have been given suppositories rather than pills. Fortunately they are not sufficiently wierd as to give you a suppostitory to fix a runny bottom. That said had it been a Sunday and the shops closed I guess my only resort would have been to buy a bottle of wine and use the cork).

After popping a couple of pills I felt remarkably better. In fact strangely despite being very tired in the head after next to no sleep I felt quite strong pedalling. Things were helped as the going was very easy, long flat straight roads linking village to village. The weather was great as well, lovely and sunny. Too sunny in fact as no sooner had I sorted out one orifice than another started to cause me problems and I had to make the second chemist stop of the day to get some lip balm.

Lips balmed I pushed on, trusting this would be the end of my drug stops.

It proved to be which was a good thing as apart from my internal disorders I had one of the scariest bits of my trip ahead of me. To avoid a massive detour I had decided to head down to St Nazaire, cycly through the town and over the big bridge that spans the Loire. (For bridge fans here are the details:

http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0000046

When planning my trip I had blithely assumed that I could cycle over this bridge. When I got closer I was not so sure, it had no cycle path and very little separated bike from truck. However I did not fancy the alternative of cycling north to find another route so I pushed on. It was hard work cycling up to the middle of the bridge, but then very fast going down the other side. So fast in fact that I almost cycled through a road crew working the other end. They looked very surprised to see me so I guess not many French are mad enough to take this route.

Had several more encounters with cyclists and rues barres.

Regarding the latter I decided following my puncture experience to ignore them. This policy worked remarkably well and every time I managed to get through the road works, usually without the French workmen batting an eyelid. (Looking back I did push my luck once. The road barred was in fact a pont non-existant with just a plank going 20m or so over a river. I picked my bike up and walked over this only later realising how tricky this must have been given the fact I was wearing cleats.)

As the day wore on my anti-poo pills started to really work, to the extent I was even able to risk breaking wind. This being a sure sign things were on the up I stopped of at a Logis and booked a Logis ahead in La Tranche (great system, you can do this for free).

When I finally got to my hotel I had done 184km, the longest day of my trip so far, and way beyond how far I thought I would get given the condition I started the day in.

22nd March Powertap v Lifefitness Comparison - results

The results of the tests are summarised on graph above mapping HR against Watts. Powertap is blue, Lifefitness green, dark lines the first session on each, light lines the second.

Observations:

• The shapes of the graphs are clearly pretty similar. The Lifefitness ones seem to be smoother than the Powertap which is consistent with me having to "hunt" the desired watts on the latter, while simply dialling it in on the Lifefitness


• At lower watts (100-178) the Lifefitness HR is slightly below the Powertap. Speculating this may be because the Lifefitness is recumbent. At the 2 higher values (219, 261) the difference is less. In fact for this range the first sessions on Powertap and Lifefitness are almost exactly the same as the graph below for just sessions 1 and 2 shows pretty well.
  

• Strangely session 3, the second Lifefitness session had a HR line less than the first.
• The second Powertap session showed the highest HRs. This may have been because it was after 90 minutes of exercise, also not helped by having the highest variation in watts during each ramp due to me being daft and looking to see what gear I was in (so having to pedal harder to get average up)

Overall on the basis of this first test it looks as if the Lifefitness power is comparable to "real" power as on a bike. I will do a couple more tests to check (in the interests of science but also a good reason to train indoors when the weather is rubbish). Plan to do:

• Same sessions as above but do Lifefitness first and last with Powertap in between.
• Same sessions as above but all on same bike. Expect some variations between each session as happened above but will be interested to see how wide these are. Also interesting to see if the slightly strange result in session 3 (second Lifefitness) repeats and heart rate actually decreases with time.
• Similar sessions to above but with longer time in each interval (time/enthusiasm permitting)
• Carry out some higher power workouts. Problem here is that heartrate can lag power so becomes less useful as a comparison tool. Also difficult to carry out comparable sessions on same day as fatigue is more likely to affect results. But will try nonetheless and see what results follow.

22nd March Powertap v Lifefitness Comparison - the test

Day off today so carried out the comparison test I have been planning since getting the Powertap. Most of my power measures to date have been on my Lifefitness exercise bike so interested to see how that compares in terms of watts to the "real" thing.

Premise was that I could use heart rate as a measure, the correalation between it and power on Powertap/Lifecycle should give a measure of how similar when displaying watts.

Decided to carry out test as follows:

• Do 4 sessions each 30 minutes long. Sessions 1 and 4 done on Powertap, 2 and 3 on Lifecycle.



• Target watts for each session is 100W for 10 minutes then 4*3 minutes ramps increasing to 140W, then 180W, then 220W, finally 260W (so up to 22 minutes) then back to 100W for 8 minutes. Pedal at a cadence of 80-85 rpm throughout until the last 8 minutes which would be at 70-75 rpm.



• Logic behind these values is that I know I can do these comfortably so will not tire during the 2 hours the test takes. (Also eat a small 150-200 cal snack at the end of each session to keep topped up. ) These power values are also where most training is carried out. Having the long run in/out of 100W should give enough time for my heart rate to return to normal between sessions and also provides a good base value.

Session 1 Powertap. First session on Powertap was interesting. It took a while to get the cadence/gear right so that the power was in the 100W average. Again each ramp up took a while to get used to in terms of target watts. This can be seen in the power graph below where within each stage of the test the actual power can be seen to be varying quite a lot around the average, with a noticable spike up at each ramp up.

In the end though managed fairly well to make the actual power hit target. Actual averages were 98W, 138W, 178W, 219W, 261W and 103W. As expected at the end of the session I was not feeling at all tired. One good thing about having to concentrate on the average watts measure was that I had not much idea what my HR had been. So I would do the Lifefitness tests blind in terms of expectations of HR on the Powertap. Had a Twix at the end of this session.

Sessions 2/3. These were a lot easier in terms of carrying out the test as it was just a question of choosing the "Watts" program and setting the same watts as done on the Powertap. Subjectively the sessions felt similar in effort to the Powertap and again at the end of them felt not at all tired. Had a break between the two, having a banana and cereal after session 2 then some chocolate (not planned but my son had some on offer) after session 3.

Session 4. The second session on the Powertap and the hardest in terms of hitting the desired watts target. This was partly my own fault as I wanted to try to make a note of the gears I was using so a number of the ramps show sudden dips as I look down to check the gear being used.

Anyway finally finished. Followed up with some roller work (see other posts)

21st March Road Club Turbo Training

Last session of the road clubs winter training. This one was for a "warm up" to be done day before a time trial.


Consisted of 3 sets of 5*15secs max effort WI, 1 min RI.













Session left me knackered. Mistake was to try to go to hard too soon so WIs show peak then sharp decline as struggle to hold power through interval

Clearly something I need to work on as I know I am no sprinter but think could do better than this. Peaks of 5s 720W and 15s 646W were pretty poor too, partly I guess because went quite hard last night as well.

This was followed by 10mins at race pace but by then pretty tired. Started too hard on 350W and dropped back to a pretty weedy 270 average at the 10 minute end.

20th March - Hard life cycles

Couple of hard sessions on the Lifecycle.

Intervals on the max 20 setting for 20 minutes. Actually only means 2 intervals on the full 400W (1 minute each) but tough nonetheless.

Then speed on varying intensities from 15 up.

Overall nearly half the hours session at levels 4/5 (21 mins 4 and 6 minutes 5)

Weekend rides

Hectic weekend playing with my powertap and starting into build phase.

Saturday did the Lamborn triangle, with goal of averaging 200W. Managed, starting well with 235W to first Ridgeway point, 215W at Wantage then finally 209W at end.

Found keeping the watts up when going fast on level, downhill is bit tricky and something I will need to learn. Frustratingly found that when Powertop fills up it does not wrap round like the HAC so data from end of ride was lost. Still proved benefit of the Powertap as day was very windy and so speed at 27km Avs not good, but sure if did same Power on a calm day would get close to 32km PB.

Sunday went on club run, taking it easier as 147W average showed.

Monday is a rest day, Tuesday plan to compare Powertap and Lifecycle to see how they match up.

March Jersey Trip

Spend a long weekend enjoying the delights of Jersey.

Great trip from start (via the excellently near and easy to use Southampton airport) to finish.

Very lucky with weather as sunny most of the time and not too windy.

Spend 4 days on the island

Thursday: Arrive, pick up Powertap wheel and BMC loan and go for exploratory ride.

Friday: Easy day of riding up and down to St Catherines then test with Tony of Flamme Rouge. Do CP6 test and end up with a result comme this

Saturday: Go out for a ride with Tony and mates. Includes several max effort sprints that leave me gasping (so need to start training on these) plus a few hills that go a bit better. End up doing about 120km

Sunday: Do the tourist trail round the island visiting every bay on the way. Turns out to be a lot hillier than I thought as the bays are usually 100m or down some cliffs. So plenty of short sharp climbing.

Monday return and of to Strasbourg so some rest days coming.

6th March Roller time

Finally get the hang of rollers, doing 35km in total as a gentleish recovery ride. Find that need to go very fast in order to get any noticable heart rate increase, which is limiting factor as start to wobble at high speed.

Also get in touch with Tony from Flamme Rouge re Channel Isles trip this weekend

5th March Well Earned Day Off

Day off today after the Audax. Legs tired but only sore bit on behind as result of 4 hours saddle rubbing against wet shorts....

4th March Wed and Windy Audax

No club run today, its the Newbury Audax.

This runs 106km south and west of Newbury up and over the downs. 3 climbs apparently, Shurlock Hill, Rivar Hill out and Asmansworth on the way back.

Weather forecast had the two words no cyclist wants to hear. "Wet and Windy". Fortunately when we (about 35 of us) started it was neither but this soon changed. Got absolutely soaked and my bottom bracket got even more noisy.

I had thought Audaxes were meant to be easy events so had planned this as a recovery day. Turned out not to be as I wanted to keep up with the lead group so as to get back asap and out of interest as to how Audax compared with Cyclosportif. Turned out very similar. Pace was quick(ish) at 26kph (considering the conditions). Eventually just two of us in front and I dropped of on last climb up to Ashmansworth as did not want to push it to the limit on what was planned as a recovery day.

All in all interesting. May do some more a bit farther afield.

Details here: http://www.aukweb.net/index2.htm

2nd March Max Intervals

End of last base period so decided to push it a bit on the Lifecycle. Sport 19 (almost max) for 30 mins then did 15 mins of Intervals at 20. Meant in practice doing 2*400W for 45 seconds. Managed no problems

1st March Day off

Day off. Got submerged in Oblivion instead, deciding to take it easy following unexpected exertion night before and bearing in mind got a long weekend of training planned.

28th February Training - Unexpected exertion

Went to NRC turbo training class. Was expecting it to be a bit tough, but not as tough as it turned out to be. Training schedule said 4*5mins at 90% MHR with a minutes rest. Actually we did 3*10mins at 90%MHR with 4 mins rest. But survived.

Still felt well enough on return to brave the rollers again and managed to do 4km without needing to grab the step ladder for support.

Single Speed Up Blowingstone Hill

Last Sunday went for club run on single speed. Went pretty well, ending up doing just over 110km. Included a climb up Blowingstone Hill.

This seems to have a bit of history > Blowing Stone

It is also b. steep! But managed it and was rewarded by long downhill swoop to Lamborne.

Training Diary 27th Feb

Boring but thought would use blog for training diary. So here goes.

Last night did first criss-cross 240W<>285W alternating every 2 mins for 40 minutes total. Really good drill with HR slowing oscillating up to just above LT.

Thursday 8th June Larbe>Argeles Gazost More cols and meeting the English

Distance 83
Time 4:48
Climb 2112
Cols Marie-Blanque, Aubisque
Weather Hot


Decide to do Aubisque as nearby and need to stay on in Pyrenees for longer than planned
The unplanned trip home means I will be staying for longer in the Pyrenees than I orginally planned so as to make the flight. So I decide to change my route a bit and take in the Aubisque, a famous HC climb but not one on the 2006 route.



The Marie-Blanque is also on the menu for today. This was a climb that Tim Moore did and he recounted how difficult it was, apparently it being one even the pros find hard. This despite the fact that its a lesser Cat 1 climb, what makes it tricky are the last 4k at 10%+.



At breakfast it looks as if I was the only overnight guest at the hotel.



Turns out only guest at hotel.


Earlyish start to Marie-Blanque. Read ahead so know the last 4 k are difficult.


Prove to be the case, especially as roads not v good. But overtake others which is always good for the morale


Get to top and blown away by scenery. Just expecting up and over but in fact beautiful plateau. Almost too beautiful as I nearly get run over by driver who is looking everywhere but the road ahead.

Surviving this I move onto Aubisque which has dreaded 3 chevron on it somewhere on it. Actually it turns out to be easier than the previous 2 climbs as road surface good and finding a rythm is straightforward. Only problem was taking wrong turn in a town and heading up and around car park (which was very steep, much steeper than the 3 chevron bit of road which was a bit of an anticlimax as Marie Blanque was a lot worse)

The Aubisque was the busiest mountain yet in terms of other cyclists. Happily I was overtaking rather than being overtaken, though one guy did pass me. By coincidence he turned out to be another Brit and when I reached the top I saw him along with a number of others. Speaking to them it turned out they were on an organised trip. (Later I realised they were doing the Raid Pyreneen). I got some tips from the guide about the descent, main one being "when you get into the tunnel remember to turn right at the end".

The cafe at the summit served some of the biggest sandwiches I had ever seen. These took a while to eat and I passed the time talking to another chap, from Ireland, who extolled the virtues of his home country for cyclists. I made a mental note to go over there some time.

I set off again, a bit too quickly as I had been there so long I had forgotten I had to settle up and the waitress had to call me back.

The descent was very fast and would have been faster had I not been held up by a car. I was surprised how poor parts of the road were. Eventually I came to the tunnel and was grateful for the warning received as just after it ended there was a sharp turn right (straight on would have been straight down..)

My chain was continuing to cause problems and when got to Argeles Gazost, my stopover for the night, I headed to the local bike shop. I got a new one fitted (KMC), which the owner told me would be quite expensive (40euros or so). However it did the business and proved to be a very good investment, seeing me through to the end of the trip and lasting several thousands of miles afterwards.

I stayed at a very nice, if bit expensive hotel. They were used to having cyclists, indeed the lady owner was very willing to tell me that Lance Armstrong had stayed there while training. (Apparently he wanted to ride the Tourmalet, but this was closed due to snow. So in high dudgeon he rode up and down the Hautacam twice..). Noting my computer she also mentioned that the first thing Armstrong did on returning from rides was load data up into a computer. Part of the secret of his success no doubt.

I had some time to kill so went for a walk around the town in the evening sunshine. Nice park with small casino. Then had an excellent meal before turning in for bed. Today had been a bit of an entree, tomorrow brought the main course in the form of the highest mountain in Pyrenees: Tourmalet.

Its been a while.....

Its been a while since the last post so very quickly what has happened since:

• Xmas
• New Year
• Never ending jury service with an insight into another world
• First century (km and miles) rides of 2007
• Base training periods 1 and 2 over and done and into period 3