It's where you came from

Skip does her usual erudite and eloquent job of describing today's Dartmoor Classic, the best sportive in the United Kingdom. I'm not brooking (my joint favourite) any argument over this one, Di Canio convince me otherwise. (ouch).


http://www.thecyclingmayor.com/?m=201106

I do disagree that she held me up however, I was 17 minutes slower on riding time than last year, and 20 minutes in total, and given my recent form, the heat, unaccustomed to which I am, the wind, and my failure to eat much before the second feedstop, I don't think I could have got anywhere near the 7 hours 5 minutes required for silver. I'm quite happy with another bronze medal in any case for two reasons.

Just like anyone, a bit of external validation never goes amiss, and there will be some people going home without a medal, so it does actually mean something.

I'm still pretty buzzy, even 8 hours after finishing, or maybe it's my very red arms that are stopping me sleeping. At least I too have razor-sharp tan lines and Frankenstein hands, the marks of a true road cyclist. Bizarrely, my right arm is a deeper shade of red than my left. It's glowing like it's radioactive. The first hour or so was quite misty, so it wasn't until we had turned eastwards, exposing said right arm, that the sun came out in full.

I wonder if there is a living in keeping obscure statistics, and copious collections of random, or not so random, data. Regardless, here are some of mine:

Irrespective of the GPS data, (Charlie lost the plot a couple of time today), the official mileage, as measured by Cateye (other wireless cycle computers are available) was 105.79 miles, and the climbing was somewhere north of 10,000 feet. Not a fact that last one, a rough guess. In 2010 I had to expend 56calories per mile, this time it was 61, meaning it was a bit tougher or something has gone wrong with my heart, or both.

Today my maximum speed, 45.9 mph, or 73.44 kph, was the second fastest I have ever done, and the fastest on a 50 tooth large chain ring (as opposed to a 52). Picture the anorak that one came from.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/498740
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95031961

Of course this ride owes much of its charm by virtue, and it is a virtue, of taking place in Devon. Land of my childhood. And the views today were truly spectacular, especially as they happened just before a monumental climb (Rundelstone/Merrivale) or breathtaking descent into Tavistock, Horrabridge or Moretonhampstead.

And I never, ever tire of going there, to the moors, the sea, or staring into my old house and remembering how I escaped onto the carport roof when I'd been sent to my room.  Or driving round various places and seeing all the crash sites of me on various bikes, or football pitches where I played with my friends into the dark evening until we could barely see the ball. And the Mid Devon cycling club has organised a fantastic event, I encourage you to enter if you can.

Be quick though, I think more and more of us will be heading down there. Me? Well maybe, but right now I'm thinking of that bungalow where I'm going to retire to, play a bit of football, ride my bike......

You've such amazing grace

Pivotal times. There's a lot in this so concentrate. Or go and look at Facebook if you get bored easily.

There's a time when life seems a bit dull, and every ride is the same as the last, and your work is like a giant hamster wheel, and let's face it, we get stuck in a rut.

Today marks the end of the week for me. My weeks run Monday to Sunday because my heart rate monitor does a weekly count of what I have done, and you know how I love a good gadget. This time last week was a bit of a low point. Bunny says I'm the living embodiment of KBO, but it was clear to me that if I kept BO, I'd soon be well and truly B'ed. So something had to change.

I came into this year's cycling season pretty revved up. I hadn't really revved down from last year and although this was great for early season events like the White Horse Challenge, I was rapidly slipping down the curve of performance towards mediocrity and boredom.

It's a small step but I have eaten really healthily this week and set myself some personal fitness targets. Got some rest, gone to bed at sensible times. Been busy but focused at work. Less will be more. I went to a fantastic conference in London on Friday, which though not relevant to a cycling blog, also gave me an opportunity to meet interesting and amazing people and discuss lots of new and different ideas.

And I also realised just how amazing so many of the people in my life are. Don't worry, just because I sat next to an American author and world-renowned coaching expert on Friday doesn't mean I've gone all gushy. It does mean I see the wood for the trees, the wheat for the chaff, the stones for the moss (it's all I can think of). Amazing people. You know who you are, and I admire and respect every one of you.

Except for the Texan, you have played fast and loose with your honesty for too long and the time is coming, I'd  fess up now if I were you.

Anyway today was the Somerset 100 Charity ride for Above and Beyond, (supporting the cancer hospital in Bristol, still time to sponsor me via link at top of the page). It started in Wedmore so Skip and I rode over there, for an 8.30 start. About 50 riders was the final count and I can honestly say I enjoyed it more than anything I have done in ages.

Because I was so well-rested I went off reasonably quickly in a group at the front, but dropped off the back to wait for Skip, who had been caught at some lights. To begin with I was doing most of the work (mainly on the asy flat bits), about half way round we switched over and she did most of the work (on the tough climbs. It was hard, it's the 3rd longest single day ride I've ever done at 117 miles, but I really enjoyed her company today. We are like that.

But the best thing was the whole vibe of the event. Every penny went to charity, a mobile broom and feeding van patrolled the course, driven by volunteers, making sure everyone was OK. Everyone was very relaxed and just nice to each other. Run from Sweets tea rooms, it was all part of their annual fund-raising day, and we arrived back to see the place packed with classic cars, a plant sale, trampolining, horse rides, and all the usual paraphernalia of a charity day, with everyone giving their time for free. People enjoying themselves, doing what the English do best.

The route was largely flat with a few chunky and draggy hills towards the end. From my perspective it doesn't get better. Show me heaven, and if it has a nicer view, friendlier people, then make me a convert.

My performance was better, I averaged over 16 mph for the whole day, including our ride out there and back, the latter was very slow because we'd been gassing at the funday, and although I'm tired and stiff, I can see me getting a bit better before the season finishes. Coupled with all the other dietary and fitness changes I'm making, and of course that perspective, well you won't need to show me heaven, I'll be there on earth.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93437450

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/484603
way there

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93438013
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/484604
ride

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93437021
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/484598
home run!

It's the good advice that you just didn't take

I had, as you will know if you read yesterday's post, a good rest yesterday. I did feel fairly zonked in the morning, but by the time mid-afternoon came round, brownie points in the bank, sun still high in the fluffy white clouds-azure sky day, all my backed-up Sky plus programmes watched, I was so twitchy to get out on the bike it was uncomfortable.

But I rode it out, if you'll pardon the pun because today was scheduled to be Bristol's Big Bike ride, and I was really looking forward to it. I'm becoming more and more fond of "the rules" (note, those of you who don't care for straightforward Anglo-Saxon language may care to avoid these rules)

http://www.velominati.com/blog/the-rules/

and with rule 5, 9 and 21 to the fore, I figured that despite the atrocious forecast, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger.

Because I was so rested I woke before my alarm went on (or went off depending on your fancy), and had a thought. These new super-skinny 20mm tyres are not good in the wet. I'll swap my wheels from K1 for the day, after all, don't want any mishaps do I?

If you thought yesterday was ironic, well that decision surpasses any vestiges of the word that can exist.

I picked Skip up and we drove into Bristol, parked at work in our basement courtesy of a secured car park space, and changed into full wet weather gear. Not only was the rain torrential, it was blowing a fair gale too, a nice south-easterly that I expected to be a horrendous cross wind on the M5 Avon bridge, and a headwind across the levels to the base of Brockley Coombe.

Last year 5000 people turned up for BBBR, this year it looked like only a couple of hundred hardy souls had braved it, but you know what, see rule 5 I thought, I'm going to enjoy this in the same way I enjoyed Exmoor Beast 2009. See Rule 9. At that event the organisers, faced with far, far, worse conditions, let us ride to an altitude of 1500 feet, around 100km of wild moorland, and we all thumbed our noses and the elf from safety.

Unfortunately the BBBR organisers are as weak as that man's clenbuterol concentration (it's still a banned substance though), and five minutes, yes five minutes before the start they cancelled the whole thing. As well as the weather they blamed an accident on the Portway. Well, Skip and I decided to thumb our noses again, as did many others, and we went anyway, figuring it would take them hours to get the signs down, and that didn't matter anyway, because we know the route. It's only 38 miles, what could possibly go wrong.

I was off like a rat up an aqueduct, past the coned-off accident which was as much of a danger as the West Ham strikers last season, and bombed down the Portway towards the M5 pedestrian bridge. Just before I got there bombed seemed appropriate as "bang" my back tyre blew. We quickly found a sheltered (and unfortunately dark) spot and 13 minutes later we were off again, up onto a very windy bridge, and another puncture.

Once onto the other side it soon became apparent that the cause was a very small split in the external tyre wall, along a seam. Given the few miles I have done on them, it must have been there for some time, but I haven't ridden them since Mad March Hare. It also explains the blow-out I had back in February outside Glastonbury. So best laid plans AGAIN!

The Captain came to our rescue, both bikes into the back of his car and back to the office.  Big, big thank you to him, I am in your debt, and look forward to returning the very generous favour. We changed, I grumbled for England and we went home. Below is the shortest ever output I have had from Charlie Garmin:

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/470793

I tell you, by this time next week I will make a coiled spring look as lax as the Spanish cycling Federation.

All I can say is that I expect the Somerset 100 to be terrible, I will have a shocker, my bike will fail on multiple occasions and I expect the weather to be the worst in living memory. Is someone trying to tell me something?

It's just a state of mind

"Do you know what irony is Baldrick?"
"Of course I do sir, it's like silvery or goldy, only less valuable."

It's Saturday morning and I have had a very busy week, at work, at home, in my head. Just as the past is a foreign country, my head is a foreign country most of the time, I have to have the phrase book out all the time. So as I type this, trying to find a comfortable position for my back and neck after my latest near-miss with an automobile, whilst cycling down a hill at speed, looking out the window to blue skies and sunshine, knowing that I'm riding tomorrow and the forecast is for torrential rain, having ridden home last night in cold, driving rain and wind, seriously under-dressed, balancing hypothermia and skid risk on super-skinny tyres, the man on the radio is talking about introducing measures to counteract the effects of a drought.

Irony? Baldrick knows nothing.

The answer to the drought problem in East Anglia is simple. Don't bother with standpipes, rationing or hose-pipe bans. Just arrange for me to have an extra two or three weeks holiday, in the national interest, and get me to cycle around Bury St. Edmunds, Lavenham, Attleborough or Wisbech for the duration in lightweight summer gear and (particularly) summer shoes and socks.

It will rain for a month.

As soon as I go back to work the good folk of Suffolk, Norfolk and wherever, can enjoy unbroken sunshine for the rest of their summer, allowing the grain to ripen properly, and wheat yields will top 4 tons an acre.

As for the near-miss on the way into work, well they seem to be happening so frequently that I'm getting tired of writing about them. I always take extra care ddescending St Peter's rise in Bedminster. It is urban for a start, with lots of parked cars and so I gave them a wide berth, but usually once I get to the bend in the road I can see far enough ahead to take my fingers from the brakes and let gravity do its thing. So it was slightly disquieting that it was a car pulling out from a parallel parking space on the other side of the road and coming across my path that made me swerve suddenly into the gutter and brake sharply.

Luckily it was dry in the morning or I'd have been off. If it had happened in the evening when the roads were awash with rain I'd have had no chance. I didn't notice for a couple of hours but my neck and back are very sore, I suspect the avoiding action didn't help.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/91506795

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/467815


I'm beginning to think this post is becoming a bit of whinge, so time to get a grip. The ride in yesterday was actually lovely. It was cold, very cold for June, but nice and misty and speckles of sunshine falling into the lanes, helped by the super-early hour of the day. I think life doesn't get much better than moments like that. Few people were up and about, a desire to be at the office by 7.30 meant I left at 5.45, and with the mid-summer sun, it gives enough light to do that.

Thank you to everyone who has sponsored my efforts in advance of next week's Somerset 100. It means a lot to me to be able to raise funds for Bristol's cancer unit, and the ride itself promises to be a great one, almost the antithesis of last week's Dragon debacle. There are a few other activities going on at Sweet's cafe too, all in the same cause, as well as a very modest 35 mile ride on pan flat ground that everyone could do. So if you can ride a bike, want to support a great local cause, meet nice people and have a bit of fun, why not come along and fill the last few remaining places?

Sign up here:

http://www.somersetcycling.com/Somerset_Cycling_Somerset100.html

When you're riding at your own risk.....

As the nice man from the Dragon ride said, "go that way and you are riding at your own risk, with no food stops, no signs, no insurance, and no mechanical support, no official time, so I want your number please if you do".

Not exactly a tunnel of love is it? Skip's blogged things from her vantage point, so I'm not going over old ground (unlike if I had actually got to do the 120 mile route, where you have to do the same climb from the same direction, twice, which is clearly wrong in so many ways).

http://www.thecyclingmayor.com/?m=201106

And I have done a bit of my own venting on a cycling forum, here:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12781853

I am left with a feeling of disappointment that for the third weekend in a row I have not accomplished what I set out to do. I was really looking forward to today, and although I felt a bit sluggish on the main climb of the day, actually I wasn't as my average speed was up there with my best sportive performances. It's just that Skip was on one today and seriously kicked my butt going uphill. Heaven help me when she gets fast on the downs, ;-)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90350816

There was one funny moment when we came round a corner, to be greeted by the sight of Port Talbot in all its glory and Skip said, wow, "what a view". I was behind her, watching her wheel, and looked up at the desolate industrial wastelands and nearly wet myself. "South Wales finest", was my paltry response. The Bwlch climb was great, I would have liked to have seen more of the beauty of the Welsh landscape, than be routed through nondescript roads, and dual carriageways.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/456153

So what to make of all this. On the one hand it was a pleasant day out in company, if only with a route that was too short and a bit dull. On the other it was quite a lot of effort and hassle to end up riding only 70-odd miles, with less climbing than I could do round here, but that at least has eased me back from the overtraining trap I was falling into.

Swings and roundabouts, six and half a dozen, every cloud and all that, silk purse and sow's ear. No I know that last one isn't relevant I just wanted to see if you were concentrating. Actually there is a much funnier version of the same sentiment, but it's far too rude to put on my blog. Especially now my boss reads it.

I think I'm still in the "life is too short" programme I have been in since Friday night. So despite my irritation at the thwarting of best-laid plans today, I don't think I care that much. My other big event of this weekend was Kung Fu Panda 2, and the message, "Inner peace", yes I could certainly do with some more of that please....

It all adds up, and what you have is enough

Some days are better than others, and for me today was one one of those for wildly contrasting reasons. Being Friday I rode to work, had a nice strong coffee in the morning, and got loads done. I don't want to be fate-tempting in case it all goes wrong, but it was the complete opposite of "one of those days".

It was blisteringly hot on the way home, it had been fairly warm on the way in too, even at 6.30AM, so I'm hoping things cool a bit for Sunday and the Dragon Ride. I'm hoping my new 21mm tyres will make all the difference for the 120 mile route. It will also be delightful to be back in Skip's company for a sportive, I've really had enough of all day cycling on my own.

On my way home, as I was cycling up Old Hill in Winford, I came across a strange scene. It's a narrow country lane, and yet two cars were parked in a passing place and there was a knot of people, hugging each other and kneeling by the verge. As I got closer I could see they were all visibly distressed, crying and comforting each other and putting bunches of flowers in the hedge.

I felt like I was intruding on something very personal and private so I didn't linger. But later when I got home I found out that a woman had been thrown from her horse at that spot last evening, and later died in hospital.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-13638405

It's a short and precious gift, this life. However yours is, easy, tough, happy or sad, I urge you to treasure it, because you just never know when it will end, do you?

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/451947

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89899267