Author Archives: Jay Trotman

Wiggle Dragon Ride 2012

As mentioned in my last blog, today I gave the Dragon Ride another chance.

It did not get off to a good start.  To be fair, I should preface this by saying that I was not in a good way first thing this morning.  For starters I didn’t sleep brilliantly, but then I rarely do before events.  But that’s not the big issue.  My insides are.  My IBS, if that’s what we’re currently labelling it, kicked off massively this weekend for whatever reason.  You try carb loading when eating feels horrible, and when you force yourself to because you have to, what you do eat goes through you way quicker than it ought to.  Add in the resultant pain in substantial amounts, and for novelty value hot/cold patches and dizziness and, well, that’s not ideal sportive preparation is it?  I was feeling properly bad last night, and seriously wondering if I’d be able to ride today at all.

Scene set, and back to today.  Changes to this year’s Dragon Ride were many and various being, as it is, under new management.  The start venue is now Margam Country Park which is, just like Pencoed was, right off an M4 motorway junction.  Which, maybe unsurprisingly, backed up in just the same way as ever, and it took 40 minutes to get off the motorway, into the site and parked up.  I was not amused.  Déjà vu…

Those that could were variously pulling over, getting themselves sorted, and riding to the start, presumably abandoning t’other halves and friends to get the car to the car park by themselves, while the rest of us sat patiently in our cars…

Rain came and went.  The rider in the car behind me put on his waterproof, and took it off again as it did so.  Which was quite amusing.  Well, there wasn’t a lot of amusing going on at the time, so you’ll forgive me for finding small things funny 😉

Once in, there was lots of free car parking in several car parks, all being marshalled, but all quite a way from the start, so this was a case of sorting yourself out and then getting to the start.  No return trips to the car unless you had to which, luckily, I didn’t.

One of the things the Dragon ride does right is skipping the registration stage by sending out the rider numbers and instructions etc beforehand – the timing chip is in the handlebar number, supplied with cable ties.  Since 4000 riders or so were taking part, I imagine registering them all might be a major logistical nightmare otherwise!  All you have to do is turn up and ride.   Well, after you’ve queued for the toilets that is.  OK, a lot more toilets than last year, with a whole heap of simple urinal booths, but there was still a queue.

Sadly round about now I discovered my Garmin was out of juice – no idea why as it ought not to have been – which was a bit worrying.  Not because this meant I didn’t have the downloaded route, but because the clock helps me to remember to eat and drink regularly which I did think might be a tad important today all things considered.  Oops…  Still, you can’t decide not to ride because you don’t have a gadget, how daft would that be?

Faffing and toilet done, and I was ready to go ride.  This year riders were allocated a start time depending on their chosen route, presuming to alleviate last year’s queuing to get going problems, and this is where things really started to improve.  I think it worked.  As I was doing the Medio route, I was down for 9:00-9:15am, by which time most of the Gran Fondo riders were already on their way.  Riders were called to the start as per their start times, lined up in pens, and then one pen let through to the start, and from there out, at a time.  Very little waiting at all – *phew*!

According to the times – which are up already – I was over the mat and on my way at 9:12am.  Off into the unknown, feeling very old skool.  Just me, my bike, and the official signs – been a long time since that was the case!

The weather was grey and intermittently damp, but fairly mild without too much by way of wind, so I think it’s safe to say it could have been a whole heap worse, and it was much better than that which was forecast earlier this week.  It didn’t make a frequently grey Wales look any more cheerful, but you can’t blame the organisers for that, now can you?  The first section of the ride was fairly lump free, with the first big climb being the Bryn.  You can generally tell it’s a Dragon climb – you can see the riders stretching away from you into the distance…and I still can’t decide whether that’s a good thing or not.

Riding blind did feel a bit weird.  I grabbed the odd quick look at other gadgets from time to time, and occasionally asked people how far we’d come or what the time was.  I had my crackberry in my top tube bar bag, so at least I could check that at stops, which is important when you’re trying to keep the painkiller dosage topped up.  The first foodstop was near Cefn Coed Colliery Museum, about 47km in.  The queue for the two toilets was minimal, so I used one of those, but there was a long queue for food and water which I couldn’t be bothered with since I was travelling equipped as ever, and figured I could do water at the next stop.

A lot of the route is really about joining up the big climbs to be done, which did involve some dodgy sections on busier roads, and quite a lot of playing with the traffic.  The drivers were all very well behaved though – maybe it’s a Welsh thing?  For some reason they don’t seem to hate cyclists so much…or maybe it’s just because there were so many of us they didn’t have much choice…  Critical mass?  Actually there were plenty of locals out clapping, cheering, watching, and being generally supportive, which was very nice.  I don’t know who’s more mad – us for riding around in circles all day on a Sunday, or them for standing by the road all day watching us do it! 😉

This is us playing with traffic, entering Powys, and showing one of the motorcycle outriders which is one of the extras that this ride has to help it stand out.  I saw one of them helping a rider with a puncture later on too.  Unlike the Magnificat I didn’t see that many riders with punctures either – and that’s after the hideous weather that has flooded Wales over the last couple of days.  Interesting.  Is Wales not flinty?

I know the route has changed this year, but mostly that just seemed to mean doing the usual route (before they messed with it last year) in the reverse direction.  Which made life more interesting if you’ve done the Dragon before, which I have – three times apparently!  So that meant ups that were new, and downs that were easier because I knew them a bit having climbed them, so I could handle them better.  Cimla for example is a lot easier to climb in reverse – but the descent is worse as it’s in a built up area, with traffic and road furniture.  Swings and roundabouts…  The whole route was far more scenic than last year though, even with the more suburban bits and busier roads.  Got to get from A to B right?

Handily for the not constantly informed amongst us, there was a sign at the relevant point saying 60km to go, which meant I knew I was over halfway done.  This was both helpful and motivational, although both the really big climbs of the day were ahead of me.  However I was going pretty well and, yes I know it’s weird, but I was really looking forward to those climbs.  They’re not all that dissimilar from the climbs in the Maratona, as these things go, and I was interested to see how I’m set for doing that.  Actually, while I’m here, and on the signage front, the signs were pretty good.  Plus there were SO many riders doing it, you were never worried that you were lost, so the presence of reminders or additional signs wasn’t as important as it can be.  The major junctions and turns were marshalled, including the route splits, which always helps.

So, time for the first of the big hills, the Rhigos.  I figured the time had come to admit I was a little too warm, and I stashed my arms in the saddle bag, leaving me in just my Cyclosport jersey and gilet as the most flexible, zippable, options for what was to come.


So how did it go?  Pretty darned well!  I couldn’t believe the number of people I was overtaking.  Ok, some people overtook me too.  To quote a certain Jedi knight, “There’s always a bigger fish“…but just for once I wasn’t feeling like a minnow.  These are hills I usually plod up.  This time I just went up them.  Spun the legs around, got into a rhythm, and made my way up.  Go me!

The second food stop was up at the top, around 85km in, which left around 40km to go.  The food and water were clearly separate, with little by way of queues for either, and there were a couple of portable loos too, somewhat impressively still stocked with loo roll too.  A nice young lad in Sky kit filled my bottle with water that was water, rather than energy drink, to which I added my slightly damp Nuun tablets.  Time for a quick drink and half one of my homemade flapjacks whilst admiring the views…  I’d already managed to get through one of my new SiS energy bars without any apparent ill effect, though eating was not easy as my insides were (are?) revolting at the thought of adding anything to them.

Off we go again.  Gilet zipped up – and it did a pretty impressive stuff of letting the wind hit me but not chill me.  Nonetheless I was a bit chilly by the time I got to the bottom.  Mind you, I do like going downhill :).  I knew I’d be warm again soon, as the final climb of the day, once more in reverse, was the Bwlch.  Yes, I can’t pronounce it either.  But I did enjoy it.  I enjoyed being able to do it.  I also had to undo the gilet completely half way up – told you so! 😉

See the ribbon of road down there on the right?  That’s where we’ve come from…kinda cool, no?  Again, I overtook people on the way up, the way people usually overtake me.  Mad, when you consider how bad I was feeling last night, and I really can’t explain it.  Maybe the creatine supplement I’ve recently started taking in the build up to the Maratona is helping?

There are several false summits to the Bwlch…it’s not at the layby and junction where you turn right.  It’s not here either.

 But it is here…in oddly unremarkable fashion.

Right.  I may not have known quite where I was, or how far I had to go, but I did know that from here it was essentially downhill all the way home.  Time for a quick stop to sort out my gilet – I really can’t ride no-handed, I tried just to check that was still true.  It is!  And look at this for a descent.  How much fun does that look?  And as much fun as it looks, in reality it was even better :).

Down, and down, and down…and even when the downs stopped, it was flat or rolling or just suited me.  I had a brief hair-raising moment when a rider insisted on passing me, pulling in front too soon, and then having to brake when a car that could have waited came in the opposite direction.  Braking, backwheel acrobatics, involuntary swear reflex…but luckily somehow it all came together again.  Just as well since, at that point and that speed, if it happened, it would have been properly messy.  My legs wouldn’t stop shaking for the next few minutes, but luckily they were still happy to keep going around.

I was having so much fun I decided to carry on doing so until I was stopped from doing so, and I pushed it hard.  I invented a new disease – APS, or Acquired Peloton Syndrome.  I kept looking over my shoulder and realising I’d gotten myself a whole bunch of new, mysteriously quiet, friends!  Since clearly none of them were going to take a turn at the front I decided to ignore them and just keep on riding for me.  I was flying, and having a blast.  It would appear that there’s only one solution to APS, and that’s to drop ’em.  Which I didn’t do intentionally, but gradually one by one they fell by the wayside, until there was, for the most part, just one left.  He was even nice enough to pull alongside and tell me how well I’d been riding, and also to thank me for pulling him along for, at that point, the last six miles.  He even took a couple of turns at the front until I left him for a bit.  Slowly the area became familiar, and suddenly we were approaching the motorway junction where this all began.  Down a stretch of main flat road…sprint finish anyone?  Well, ok, a little too far from the finish for that really to be true, but man it was fun hurtling down there.  Not sensible no doubt, and the “5km to go” came later than I’d have liked, but I managed the last little rolling section back to the start even though my legs would rather have given ups a miss.  Having slowed down a bit, Mr Nice was behind me again, pointing out that he was grateful I’d finally slowed down, and by the way, if he had a heart attack it was my fault.  Apparently I’d dropped a lot of very strong male riders in my wake…  Really?  Can’t say that didn’t make me feel a little bit chuffed… :D.  We rolled over the finish line together, and he shook my hand.  No, since you asked, I don’t race, this is just what I do.  *grin*.

I collected my medal and goodie bag, and headed back to the event village to hang out for a while.  Shame I didn’t look in it until I got home, as I missed discovering that I needed to go to the Wiggle stall to collect my 2nd free flash tyre lever.  Ah well…

Handing in my rider number – safety pinned (pins not supplied) to the back of my jersey – would have gotten me a free, though reputedly small, portion of pasta.  However that’s off limits for me so I didn’t bother.  It’s not like I was feeling like eating anyway.  I was happy to sit down on the grass, listen to the band, and enjoy the buzz I had from having had a really good ride, and having performed so well for me.  Maybe not having the gadget working was actually a good thing?  It forces you to listen to your body and how you’re feeling more, but to pace/restrain yourself less – maybe I do too much of that otherwise?

I rolled over the line around 14:35pm with only a rough guesstimate of what my time would be, and was all prepared to remain in ignorance until tomorrow at the very least.  However as I was stashing the bike in the car a while later, I got a text from raceplus with my official time – how cool (and efficient) is that?

Official time: 5:24:36 hrs
Distance: 78 miles
ODO: 14278 miles

Provisional results which, like I said, are up already say that I’m 234th out of c.1400 medio fondo riders, though that will probably change a bit as they work out who actually did what.  But still…. !!!  I am totally gobsmacked.  I mean I knew I was doing well, but not that well!  I used to come 2/3rd through the field.  These days it’s nearer the middle.  But there?  I am NEVER that good! *grin*.  Wow!  :).

This year’s Dragon was way better than last year’s.  OK, so that wouldn’t be hard, and there are still some improvements to be made I think, but on the whole I reckon it’s well on the way to where it ought to be, as a UCI Golden Bike ride :).

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

Just for once the weather forecast was right.  It predicted a patch of slightly less bad weather between bad weather (last night) and really bad weather (on its way in).  I really didn’t have any choice but to ride the bike as I really needed to know if the new chain, fitted by Andrew yesterday, was working.  So, in sadistic mother fashion, I got MiniMe out of bed and made him come for a ride for me.  Misery loves company right? 😉  We did the Nyland Loop like this, clockwise, in mild windy wet that could have been a lot worse.  It wasn’t all that unpleasant, and MiniMe was on form, even if he was moaning up a storm about it ;).

Cycling time: 0:51:39 hrs
Distance: 12.03 miles
Avs: 14.0 mph.
ODO: 14200miles

The chain works.  Ish.  I mean it makes the wheels go round, for the most part.  It came off once and got stuck between cassette and spokes, and other than that there was a whole heap of slipping, changing gear when I wasn’t, etc.  I don’t know if it’s too loose, or if it’s the fact that the large chainring and cassette need replacing, which will be happening next week when Andrew’s got them in.  A bit of adjusting may be required before Sunday’s Wiggle Dragon Ride though.  I know, I know, I swore I’d never do the Dragon again, but it’s under new management, a great deal has changed, and on that basis it seems only fair to give them a chance, though I am only doing the Medio route this year.

So not a lot to say for our ride today, but plenty of other news to share with you.  Having been testing out the range of Nunn flavours I’ve come down to two favourites so far.  Lemon tea, which is caffeine enhanced, and Strawberry Lemonade, which is not.  I’ve been known to add half of a tab of lemon tea to one of lemonade to get the best of both worlds.  In either case, I like the taste, carrying the tablets on rides is simple, and they don’t upset my tummy.  What more do you want?  🙂  I was running out, and my re-stock arrived today.

However today was a day of such deliveries.  A man in beige turned up on my doorstep with a surprise delivery for me – just as well I was in!  Courtesy of Cyclosport and Science in Sport, I am now also powered by SiS!  Thanks guys! 🙂

Some of these goodies will have to wait until I’ve ascertained precisely what it is that disagrees with me, after my strict low FODMAP diet moves on to the next stage, as they contain fructose, amongst other things.  However – miracle of miracles – it looks like both the bars and the gels are safe, which is awesome.  I’m looking forward to trying them out on Sunday.

As well as all my new safe things to take with me, this afternoon I made another batch of flapjacks.  I may be getting better at it.  Sadly though, having taken a basic recipe and kinda randomly messed with it, I’ll never be able to reproduce it even if they turn out to be perfect cycling fodder…

Now it’s hard to tell from the photo, but the mix only filled the tray about 2/3 as deep as usual, which had me a tad concerned.  However I guess this is because, following on from some advice I’d had, I used my blender and chopped up all the ingredients much smaller to help them stick together and crumble less on eating.  Other than the usual golden syrup, sugar, lactofree spread, and oats I used mixed nuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sultanas, and cranberries.  I also added freshly ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and some cocoa powder.

I remembered to partially cut them before they’d fully cooled, and they’ve cut up into the neatest bars of all my attempts so far.  Having tried a little bit of one, they’re a maybe a little dry but they are quite dense and not crumbly, so I think they may be going to be quite good.  Result!  🙂  The proof is in the eating, so I guess we’ll see…

And finally…

I’ve been asked to join the PocPac test team, and will be helping them test out improvements to their water resistant pouches, which are designed specifically for cyclists for phone and valuables storage.  How exciting is that?!  Very, in case you were in any doubt *grin*.  My crackberry will always be safe and dry now :).

Wiggle Magnificat (ish!)

Having spent 2 1/4 hours by the side of the road today, waiting for rider recovery, with nothing better to do than twitter and facebook, most of you will already be aware that today did NOT go according to plan.  Many thanks to those of you who interacted with me and made the time pass a little faster…

I’ve been looking forward to the Magnificat since I asked to be signed up for it, and even more so having done the Preview Ride.  It was one of the bigger events on my calendar – and figured as part of my training to help me build up to the Maratona.  I was nervous too, as 127 miles is a long way, and I didn’t know how hilly hilly was, and so a challenge awaited me.  The nearer the event got however, the worse the weather forecast got.  I’d already heard horror stories about the wet weather and related punctures at last year’s event, and various cyclists were bailing left right and centre before even getting to the start line – including many of the Sky Velo ride leaders who were due to be there – clearly fair weather riders the lot of ’em ;).

Still, a little drop of rain wasn’t going to put me off.  Skin is waterproof after all.  And I had a job to do.  Generally speaking I don’t bail on things.  So it was just a question of kit, and preparation and faffing.  And Rule #5.  I was up before my 5:00am alarm, as ever, having dreamt about riding half the event already.  Weird, but not unusual.   There having been a deluge last night everything was wet, even my very shiny car – shiny because MiniMe decided to wash it yesterday. Apparently that was a freebie, I only have to pay him to wash my bike! *grin*.

The inevitable trip down the by now very familiar M4 was wet, but only in a drizzle light rain kind of sense, which was positive.  Ish.  However the closer I got the more the drizzle became rain…and it was definitely raining as I parked the car in the coach car park next to Newbury Racecourse.

Time to go and sign in, and I really wish someone had told me it was a good 5 minutes walk from the car park to registration at the racecourse itself…  There were lists on which to find your rider number, if you hadn’t checked it out online beforehand, and then armed with that, you signed by your name at the desk for the distance you were doing, before being given your rider pack.  All very simple, but with not a lot of room, so I bet there were queues from time to time.

My number was 1432.  Last week was 321.   They feel related somehow…  The timer tag was a part of the rider number, to be attached with decent length cable ties, which was all in all very satisfactory.  It came with various blurb bits, and a route map/instructions just in case.  I had downloaded the latest gpx file for the same reason.

Time to walk all the way back to the car, sort the bike, faff, decide on kit, and then ride back to HQ.  For future reference – get yourself and your bike sorted, then ride to the start.  One trip – done. Especially if it’s raining!  I was damp before I even got to the start.  At least it being a proper venue there were nice toilets etc.

Time to get going – and riders were let away in batches every two minutes by the event organiser Ken Robson.  He’s the man in yellow on the left with a white hat on – getting just as wet as the rest of us!  It may have been wet, but it was pretty mild and there wasn’t much wind, if you’d like your glass half full.  I chatted to Andy, who I met at the preview ride, and who was at the start helping out, until it was our turn to line up.  Always nice to see a familiar face :).

Our batch was away at 8:05am, off into the rain.  There’s a hill pretty much straight away, and the first big hill combo comes around 10 miles in.  I had been worrying about that too, but it turns out that the hills around here are my kind of hills – long slow climbs, with only the odd section of steep enough to be annoying gradient.  No photos for this section though – as taking photos in the rain is no fun, and not good for my already semi-knackered camera.  Sportivephoto.com were out in force though so should I wish for a souvenir of damp suffering I’m sure I’ll be able to lay my hands on one.  I’d like to have admired the views on the way up, but they were hidden in the clouds so I can only presume they were there.

For this first hour the back roads were fairly horrible.  Dodgy road surfaces, covered with debris washed down by the overnight rain.  People started getting punctures from the get go.  That which is washed over the roads here is clearly pointy.  Flinty I gather.  The sheer number of punctures would appear to have been astronomical – and I saw at least one rider every mile or two changing an inner tube…  More of which later.

After an hour or so there were hints of lifting from the grey blanket.  Things became noticeably less dismal.  I even saw rays of sunshine hitting a now visible hill in the distance.

After an hour and half or so it was properly clearing and the roads were drying.  This came as a massive relief to me since I don’t (really) mind getting wet, or cold, but I do mind not being able to enjoy those bits of riding that I can kind of do – specifically downhills.  You can’t enjoy a downhill properly if you’re worrying about the potholes/debris/gravel at every turn and corner.  Dry roads are way better!

The surrounding countryside, when not looking green and lush, was looking very Jubilee.  Cutesy villages, bedecked with red, white, and blue bunting, union jacks, fancy dress scarecrows.  Very festive.  At one point I actually had a discussion with another (non UK native) rider about how he reckons the UK can’t be beaten for pomp, circumstance, and pageantry.  We even discussed whether or not the reformation had added to the UK’s cultural heritage.  Man – get us!  ;).

After many tree lined avenues, and foresty sheltered bits, the scenery started to open up a bit, and after the first few climbs life turned into more of a roller coaster.  You were either going up, or going down…and never going down fast enough or far enough to get you up the next up though!


As well as scenery there was wildlife.  A great many pea brained pheasants of both genders.  The odd rabbit.  A very cute stoat/weasel that ran across the road ahead of me and then stood up, meercat fashion, and watched me approach until it lost its nerve and vanished into the hedge.  An amazing lack of squashed badger though, come to think of it.  Which is nice.  Or at least less aromatic.  And hats off to the bravery of the one small green caterpillar that hitched a lift on my sleeve for a while.

There were regular liquid refreshment stops en route, as well as the two foodstops.  This was just after the first liquid stop…
Kinda sums it up really.  Cute country cottages, lots of thatch, patriotic flags, and a rider in a waterproof…;).

It must be time for a sign, right?  Plus I get to show you what the event signs look like – bonus!  The signage was really good actually – just a couple that weren’t quite as clear as they could have been, but they were large, clear, and plentiful enough for you not to feel lost.

Clearly we were going left, but I love the way you don’t have to specify which of the Wallops you’re heading for – they’re all thataway!    Ride conditions were definitely much more pleasant by now, and some of the views were quite expansive.

The first food stop was at 40 miles in, and all riders were made to cycle over a timing mat for control purposes.

Being at a village hall there were toilets inside, which is always good, and outside the catering was plentiful.  There wasn’t a lot of space to park your bike though, and lying them on the floor isn’t ideal.  I was seriously tempted by one of their very lovely looking fruity flapjacks, but being in careful mode, I’d actually made my own and had them with me – here they are all cling filmed up and ready to go the night before.  I did avail myself of the usual half a banana though.

Here’s a couple of riders doing the timing mat thing, and possibly not expecting to be photographed doing it…

Shortly after this foodstop the 81 and 127 mile routes split, in very well marked fashion, and there I was turning right and all set for doing the full 127 mile Magnificat as planned.  Feel free to admire the nice house/hotel that was on the right there as we went too.  They build their properties small and bijou around there ;).

This was followed by plenty more climbing through green tree lined tunnels, and a whole heap more roller coaster…  Some riders may complain that this doesn’t allow you to build up a rhythm, but since they were my kind of hills, followed by nice descents on dry roads, I was fairly happy with it.

A little while later we popped out of wherever it was we were, and turned left onto a main road near some watercress beds.  Now I may not always be able to remember what I had for breakfast, but something about them rang a bell in the recesses of my memory…  I was sure that round the corner would be…but no, we turned left again, and it looked like I was never to find out if I was right or not.

As it turned out, the left turn was just to detour us off the main road, to the next stop, which was another liquid one, though it seemed to have food too – which was no doubt a good thing for some.  As with all the stops the volunteer helpers were very friendly and indeed helpful, though clearly a tad bemused as to why on earth anyone would do this to themselves…

Photo op taken, and it was off to loop back round again, where we rejoined the main road, to cross it, a little further up.   I looked right,and I was right!  “Mother is always right…”  Here’s one for Mum and Dad :).  They’ll get it, even if you lot don’t.

I knew I knew where I was!  Albeit only briefly ;).  Once over the main road we started climbing again.  The weather was intermittently trying to rain on us, and the trees were quite useful from a shelter point of view.  Apparently this was the 3 mile climb of Old Winchester Hill.  As with many of the climbs, it felt like a climb, not a hill, if that makes any sense.  The views from the way up show how variable the weather conditions were though.

By now I was part of a loose group of 4 riders – which meant company from time to time, wheels to suck or to aim for.  After a period of variously leapfrogging each other, we had gradually coalesced into a small peloton, as often happens.  Here’s one of them having taken a slight lead for a while.

It was nice to have people to chat to a bit.  Finally we were over halfway through, with (allegedly) the worst hills behind us.

Even though I probably had another four hours or so to do,  I was feeling like it was doable.  Especially in company and not in terrible weather.  OK, so I had a long way to go, but I was in a positive frame of mind and feeling pretty good all things considered.  However on leaving one of the next, arrived at rather suddenly, junctions I was in the wrong gear and getting going again made a nasty scrunch…  Then as we turned left up the next hill – Ridge Down Hill or some such – I changed down and…  Well it could just have been my chain coming off but it sounded way worse than that…for good reason.

One snapped chain.  B*gger.  For last year’s Etape I carried a spare link and tool with me.  I don’t these days because, let’s be honest, I don’t actually have a clue how to use them!   My temporary friends did their best to help, one of them had a 9 speed link, but mine is a 10 speed (apparently they’re different – who knew?).  One had a tool but no link…  It just wasn’t happening.  They went on their way, and I walked my sad sorry self up the hill to a safer place by a gate to a field, and called the emergency help line, at around 12:55pm.

In case you were wondering – it’s not supposed to look like that!  The emergency helpline was not responding so presumably busy, but I left a message as instructed, and they called back shortly.  The initial plan was to get the Banjo Cycles mechanical assistance, currently 30 miles away from me, to me.  Great – fix the chain, get going again, it could still be done.  45 minutes later, when they might realistically have been expected to be with me, I got another call.  Apparently they’d been flagged down by so many puncture afflicted cyclists that they weren’t going to get to me, so the next (and only) option was to get rider recovery to me.  After 45 minutes sat by the side of the road I was already cold and clammy and the intermittent sunshine was almost worse in that it meant I got briefly warmer, and then got colder again when it went away and the wind blew.

I sat there for the next forever, all huddled up, getting colder and colder, shivering frequently, and being extremely grateful for my Blackberry.  I tweeted, Facebooked, chatted via twitter with various other clearly not very busy folk, listened to my toons, and tried to be patient.  Which, as some of you will know, is not my strong point.  However it wasn’t like I had a choice.  It was either that or walk 56 miles back!  I couldn’t have broken down much further away from the start if I’d tried :(.

The flow of riders going past me slowed to a trickle, many of them checking to see if I needed help, which I appreciated, but sadly I was beyond help by that point.  Finally the bringing up the rear motorcycle rider pulled up next to me.  He was leapfrogging the last few, mostly puncture delayed, riders to make sure they got home ok, so he stood and chatted to me for 15 minutes or so.  Lovely chap.  Not only did he insist I ring in to make sure someone was on their way (which they were), but he gave me the spare t-shirt he was carrying with him to help warm me up a bit.  Top man!  He only left me when I was safely ensconced in (as it turns out) Andy’s camper van with my bike on the back.  Wish I’d asked his name so I could say thank you properly :).

So that’s 12:55 – 15:10 sat by the side of the road, watching ladybirds, swotting flies, looking for a four leaf clover (no luck unsurprisingly)…

We picked up another equally long suffering rider shortly afterwards, who turned out to be the Paul I interviewed for my Joker sportive review after my snapped cable drama – he must think I’m jinxed.  Plus – small world, no?  We picked up a third rider as well, just in passing, who decided that sod it, he was fixing his fifth puncture, his tires were shredded so the sixth was inevitably around the corner, and the novelty had well and truly worn off – even he was pretty good at getting the tyres on and off by now!  Can’t say as I blame him.  The now full rider recovery van helped a couple more puncture stricken riders as we passed – my pump came in very useful again! – before taking a more direct route back to HQ.  I was finally in, thanks to Andy, with a commemorative jubilee medal for just having taken part, at about 16:50 – probably about an hour ish later than I would have been if I’d ridden!

Pushing the bike along somewhat disconsolately towards HQ, the chain tangled itself in a knot around my cassette, and the guy from British Cycling who I met at the preview, happened to be walking past.  He gave me a hand to sort it, and a rather fed up me, out , before I lost it completely – and the chain went where it deserves to be – in the trash!

I couldn’t face walking back to the car, sorting the bike, walking back to the showers, getting sorted, and then walking back to the car.  Instead I used the posh toilets again, stuck my head in the bar area to see if I could get ahold of a free coffee or some such but couldn’t seem to be able to.  Being on my own, and lacking a friendly face to talk to, I gave up and made the one way journey back to the still remarkably full car park.

Time to make the best of what I had, pack the bike away, clean myself up a bit, put on some warmer layers, and head down an extremely wet and horrible M4.  I think it’s safe to say my day did not go accordingly to plan.  The Magnificat and I now have unfinished business, so I think I may well be back next year!

My very first DNF 🙁 .  Here’s what I actually did.  My official cyclosport review is up here, and you can see the photos online now too.

Cycling time: 4:34:33 hrs
Distance: 71.22 miles
Avs: 15.6 mph.
ODO: 14188 miles

Well she’s walking through the clouds

Another grey blanket cotton wool day.  Not the kind of weather that stops you riding, but not the kind of weather that puts a smile on your face either.  To be fair it was at least less windy and chilly than yesterday.  Bearing in mind the looming Magnificat, the plan was to do a couple of hours flat and easy, which I think we pretty much managed, as you can see.

Somewhere around Godney some eejot of a motorist decided that getting past us was essential.  We’d already singled up, so were being as little of an obstacle as is possible on those narrow roads.  At a wider corner he managed to get past Mim but not me so, rather than (heaven forbid) waiting, he decided it would be far better to squeeze past me with mere inches to spare and toot his horn angrily at the same time.  Once past me, he then proceeded to gesticulate angrily in my direction as to how I should have pulled over and let him past.  Feeling a little shaken by how close he’d been, and having jumped when he tooted – shall I wobble and fall under your wheels now? – I was not feeling conciliatory.  In fact I’m afraid I re-discovered my anglo-saxon vocabulary, whilst extending my middle finger in his direction.  He then slammed on his brakes – because me going into the back of his car would be a good idea how?  Luckily I wasn’t close enough to him for this to be a problem, since I was riding with care and attention!  I did wonder if he was going to actually stop and get out, and was half looking forward to getting to shout at him…  However at this point I’m fairly sure his wife told him to stop being a p*llock, so he sped off again.

Why is it acceptable to hate cyclists so much?  Name me another group that it is acceptable to hate these days?  I spend a lot of my time defending cyclists and trying to see both sides of the arguments, and when motorists are behaving like that, I kinda wonder why I bother.  I’m a bl**dy well behaved cyclist, yet I’ve lost track of the number of close shaves I’ve had with extremely badly behaved motorists, who seem to feel that their behaviour is justified because I’m a cyclist.  Of course there are rotten apples in every basket.  But this is not the city, and we are not the red light jumping popular press vilified cyclists which seem to be the brush we are all tarred with.  We’re just out riding our bikes and enjoying the countryside.  We’re not out there to hold you up, get in your way, point out your lack of physical fitness or your sporting inadequacy…why do you seem to take our existence as such a personal affront?

Consider this – if a cyclist is a prat out there on the road with you, and something happens, the chances are that you as a motorist will walk away in one piece.  Let’s be honest, you probably won’t even stop.  Reverse that situation and the same is not true.  Though you probably still won’t stop.   All of us have taught our children to ride bikes, it’s an accepted rite of passage.  How would you feel if someone drove like that around your cycling child?  Well I’m still someone’s child, and I ride with one of mine.  Excuse me if I don’t ride myself into a rhyne so as to let you past, if I maintain my road position and don’t ride in the gutter, if I detour slightly to go around dangerous pot holes and obstacles and cause you to deviate from your far more important trajectory.  I have as much right to use the road as you, and even on a bad day I’m going to hold you up for what, a whole couple of minutes?  I could go on, but what would be the point?  I’ve never managed to convince a cyclist hating motorist that they were wrong yet…and round here I’m probably preaching to the converted! *grin*.  It does make me sad though…

Anyway, back on the other side of the forest…

Being once more astride her team steed, and thus with nowhere to put the puncture repair kit, Mim decided to leave it at home.  Which is like waving a big flag and jumping up and down and shouting “come and get me” until the puncture fairy finally notices your existence and pops by for a visit.  Which is exactly what happened as we came out of Glastonbury.  Being Glastonbury, the fairy probably wasn’t that far away… 😉  Luckily for Mim my oft-mocked saddle bag is a holder of many wonders, including tyre levers and inner tubes, and the beauty of my more pedestrian frame is marred by the presence of a pump.  Just think of me as a Boy Scout.  Mim hung up her Giant, and got to work…

I did help a bit – it was hard to get the tyre off, and it being my pump I’m more familiar with how it works.  Which it does, and very well.  It’ll never get you up to track pump psi, but it gets a long way there, and did well enough that we managed to do the rest of the ride on the re-inflated tyre without it being a problem.  It also doesn’t leave you feeling like you’ve just done an upper body workout.  Actually I’ve just bought another one for my potential bike…  My current bike was looking quite colourful today, odd when you consider that it really needs a good clean.

The loop I had planned in my head became a little shorter as, with the time out to sort the puncture, the deadline for getting home was closer than it would otherwise have been.  This meant coming home over Mudgley Hill, which I did better than usual, but still not as well as Mim…but since I’m well used to that I wasn’t too disheartened.  Strava says it was my best time so far too – so there.

Cycling time: 2:03:07 hrs
Distance: 33.70 miles
Avs: 16.4 mph.
ODO: 14116 miles

So home once again, but not for long.  It was time to take myself off to see my pit crew and get the bike checked over before the weekend.  It now has new rear brake pads and has been variously tweaked to work a little better.  Somewhat depressingly it apparently needs a new large chain ring, and also a new front wheel – something to do with a concave rim.  Gutted – as they’re not cheap wheels and I really don’t feel like I’ve had my money’s worth out of them – not on a pound per mile basis.  I’m not quite sure what to do about it either…as I’m saving for the new bike (if it ever turns up!) and don’t really have the money to be spending serious amounts on this one if I’m getting that one!

On the positive side I did get to pick up my new Giro Aeon helmet which I can happily report fits great and is fab.  Amazingly light too – so bound to make me go faster, right?  I’m really looking forward to wearing it on the bike soon, and looking all swish and snazzy.  Though maybe not on Sunday, since it’s due to rain all day, so I think it’s reportedly impressive venting properties may be superflous to requirements!

I also have new tyres, which can at least go on either bike, and they just need running in for a couple of weeks before the Maratona.  Plain black this time, stripes are so last year…  Incidentally, I’m Maratona rider number 1189, in the Selle Italia starting group – one of the advantages of being a girl is that you get to be a pen ahead of where you might otherwise have been :).

So my Schrodinger’s bike now has tyres, a pump, and courtesy of the Mario Cipollini Gran Fondo, two bottle holders and some bar tape.  Soon you’ll practically be able to see the bike by the space defined by it’s accessories.  The Emperor’s new bike? 😉

Thank you for the days

Yesterday MiniMe did the Nyland loop, clockwise stylee.  The only thing eventful or remarkable about it was the fact that, in reinstated weather goddess fashion, I made it rain.  It wasn’t raining when we left.  It wasn’t raining by the time we got back.  It sure as h*ll was raining betwixt and between.  With wind and everything.  Mind you at the moment, whatever the weather, there is wind.  It looks like I’m making it rain on Sunday too.  Good to see that I’ve still got it though, right?  MiniMe did good regardless, and even made it over 20mph when I egged him on down the Wedmore straight.  He’ll be leaving me in his wake in no time :).

Cycling time: 0:51:21 hrs
Distance: 12.41 miles
Avs: 14.5 mph.

Today George and I went to the seaside, under a blanket of grey, and into a headwind.  Still, at least it was flat.  And with no goal in mind, no aims, no motive to it, just to ride the bike.  We had a long coffee break at the New Castle, which happened to be open…  I’ve already forgotten what its opening hours are, so it’s a bit hit and miss whether I stop there or not.  I certainly never plan to now, it’s a just an on the off chance thing.  Today it was open, today we had coffee.  Quite nice coffee too.

Out of the wind, sheltered from the wind chill factor, it was muggy enough to sit outside and enjoy the view.  See, I told you it was grey and boring out there..

It is nice to just sit and shoot the breeze sometimes.  Hah – another reference to wind!  Very funny, no?  No?  Ah well, can’t blame a girl for trying *grin*.  After a good old chinwag, thus refreshed on several levels as well as caffeinated, we stretched the loop home a little, and even managed to have the moving air behind us from time to time.

Cycling time: 1:59:31 hrs
Distance: 32.18 miles
Avs: 16.2 mph.
ODO: 14083 miles

I enjoyed the return leg more – I think I’d relaxed into it by then.  The sun hinted at its existence from time to time, and the wind was more in our favour, which made it noticeably warmer.  More pleasant all ’round really.  Not a hard ride, not a fast ride, but far from a bad ride.  Bella’s report from the front line looks like this :).  It was perfect weather for my minxy arms, which I’m loving, and which go very well with my ACG top, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

Once home I sat myself down to read the local paper before having a shower, to catch my breath and chill down a bit, only to be faced with this:

Well I know someone out there who’ll appreciate it…  Honestly, that woman gets everywhere!  I’m not even going to start… 😉

Today is the last day of May, so I can play stat games with you.  I am pleased to announce that I have done more miles this month than in any month before.  Ever.  I’ve even done 227 miles more than last May.  In fact, this month I have cycled 729 miles.  !!!  And so far this year I’ve done 2526 miles.  I know, it’s not important, and it’s not even interesting to anyone but me – but wow – 729 miles!  I’m very happy with that :).

Wheel Heroes 100s 2012

It’s 102 miles to Stratford upon Avon, I got a tankful of gas, it’s actually not dark and I’m wearing shades…at 5:47 in the morning!  Does that make me a Blues sister? ;).  Another Sunday, another early start – this is definitely sportive season.  And unlike the last couple, the Wheel Heroes was not next door.

However, having not slept well, I woke up before the alarm, to rising sunshine, and less wind than that which woke me up in the middle of the night.  Not a bad start.  I took myself off up North, up a very quiet and peaceful M5, and got to HQ at Stratford upon Avon racecourse half an hour ahead of schedule.  Really must stop racing my satnav ;).

Parking was in rows in the middle of the racecourse, on recently mowed long grass which got everywhere!  I parked up and headed over to the racecourse building, complete with all the facilities you could need, to sign on.

There wasn’t much of a queue to sign on, possibly because I was early, and they had me down for the 100km not the 100miles but were happy to annotate my entry accordingly.  Minor niggles – the cable ties for the rider numbers were way too short, and I had to attach my number to the brake cables not the handlebars.  And – sorry stuweb – for the second event in a row, I still don’t like the timing chip sticker/seat post combo.  It’s hard to attach, so I may well have bent it more than a little trying to get it on properly, and it’s just not user friendly!  Mind you, my ride number was kinda cool…

I’ve recently been having issues getting bits in my eyes, and I tweeted an “help me” bulletin.  My mate AJ took pity on me and sent me one his spare pair of Oakleys (people have spare pairs of Oakleys?!) to see if they’d help.  I tested them out fairly successfully yesterday, which he was pleased to hear, and I did joke that I’d painted my fingernails to match.  I wasn’t joking – I really did! *grin*

As I was faffing, my ride buddy for the day, L2P Kevin turned up, so we both faffed, got our bikes sorted, and headed off for pre-ride coffee.

Claud the Butler was in residence again – making very good coffee as ever, though it’s not free.  I guess you get what you pay for, right?  However gassing over coffee is all very well, but at some point you have to go ride the bike, so we went and joined the queue for the start.

We shuffled our way to the front, until it was our time for our rider briefing.

The top signs are for the 100mile route, the bottom for the 100km route.  They were a bit too similar for me.  Put it this way, if you’re going to differentiate between two routes then two different colours of arrow – eg red and green – is easier.  Trying to remember if yours were the orange on blue or the blue on orange is a bit confusing…

Right.  3…2…1… and off we go.  Even at 8:00am it was already warm and sunny as you can see.

The first 25 miles or so are pretty flat – plenty of time for groups to form.  Lots of flying along in the sun faster than is wise that early in a sportive!  We kept discovering ourselves leading packs of riders – which is all very well – but hey, come take your turn at the front too please?!  Here’s a group dropping back behind us on a hill…

While I’m here, I’m about to have a rider etiquette moan.  I know this was a charity ride, so this may well not apply to a lot of the riders, being less experienced etc.  However I can eavesdrop with the best of them, and if you and your group are talking about the sportives you’ve done, up to and including the Fred Whitton, then this most definitely applies to you, and also to others of you out there so…<begin rant>

  • if you’re going to hurtle past me without warning – don’t! – an ‘on your inside/outside/coming through/excuse me’ wouldn’t go amiss.
  • car coming?  even just yelling “car” would be a start.  Car back, car front, car up – added bonus.
  • hole/obstacle in the road?  point, shout, whatever…and save the rest of us from hitting it too.
  • been sitting on my arse letting me/us pull you along for miles?  Well when you finally go past, having dismally failed to take any sort of a turn at the front, may I suggest a thank you would be a nice touch?
  • coming past me in the middle of nowhere on a long ride?  how about an ‘hello’?  or some other form of ‘nice weather we’re having’ small talk.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’ll do for the moment.  <rant over>

25 miles in, and time for the first food stop.  At a village hall as promised, thus had toilets, which always pleases me.  There was a range of sweet and savoury goods on offer – which meant jelly babies and half a banana for me.

Back on the road, in the knowledge that the hills, such as they were, would be starting soon.  One of the advantages of having done it last year – no fear of the unknown for me.  Kevin led the way for a bit, as you can see.

There’s only one way of avoiding being photographed by me, and that’s being behind me.  In fact, as you’ll see here, that doesn’t work either!  Which would be why this, particularly guilty of many of the sins above, peloton is here.  Well you can see some of them anyway.  They sucked our wheels, at a good 20mph+, happily chatting away behind us for miles…and then when we finally decided enough was enough, with food to eat and hills to climb, went past us without so much as acknowledging our existence!  Very poor form chaps.

One of the nice things about the Cotswolds is the number of trees that have been allowed to remain standing.  There are the (blurry) country estate variety – as seen here, near posh houses.  There were a LOT of posh houses.  And large numbers of prestige cars…over compensating much? 😉   However the roads were actually very quiet all day, remarkably so for a sunny Sunday.

There’s clearly money in them thar hills…  There were also various foresty bits, but the best trees were all over the hills and therefore most importantly all over the climbs.  On a day like this shade is greatly appreciated when going uphill!  The hills were my kind of hills – slow gradual gradient slogs – and I actually spent a lot of time over-taking people.  How cool is that?! 🙂

Clearly I’m still using the camera to distract myself going up hill…

At least if you go up, you get views right?  This would be a green and pleasant land presumably…

The routes – 100km/100miles – split around 40 miles in.  There was a CFC clad gentleman on the RHS of the fairly main road holding up a hand drawn sign to demonstrate this which, I’m afraid to say, being on a white board and not the backgrounds described, was not the easiest thing in the world to spot.  Good thing we did!  The 100km went left – which was easy – leaving the 100 mile mob to start heading downhill, and then discover a right turn half way down…which was not easy what with main road traffic both behind you and coming the other way to cross through.  Luckily the classic car behind me paid attention to my indications and let me pull over…but it was a tad hairy there for a moment as we gesticulated at each other…

Things got a little quieter after that, as a lot of the faster groups were clearly faster because they weren’t going so far.  Riding became a little more relaxed and less pressurised – no more pet pelotons for us.  The second food stop was at 50 miles in – again at a village hall – and very importantly had plenty of cold water available, as well as two portable loos.  Not ideal but a darn sight better than none.

Both the shade and the water were very welcome, as the day was just getting hotter as it went along.  I was mighty glad I’d applied my sun cream first thing!  We were underway again shortly, but Kevin was not feeling his best, man flu or some such,  and we had to stop a few times.  Around 60 miles in he decided to take a “short” cut and head direct back – 20 miles – to HQ.  Feeling more than a little guilty for leaving my wingman, I carried on following the arrows, but to be fair I think he was probably happier left to get on with it…

Which left me 40 miles as me, myself, and…my music.  Those few other riders that I saw were mostly ahead of me…for a while…until I went past.  There was a distinct lack of wheels to suck, and a whole heap of headwind to fight against.  Why is the headwind always at the wrong end of the ride?  Even so my average speed was going up all the time.

Being on your own is when you start realising how few signs there were.  No repeaters, not enough signs at junctions, no reminders after junctions, and not enough warning other road users of cyclists on the road, which made the odd sharp narrow corner rather more interesting than usual.  I love being in the middle of the road and meeting a white van coming the other way likewise located…  The gpx course was great – with all the waypoints marked and popping up with turn right/left/straight on messages – but not everyone has such gadgets, and neither should they have to to feel sure that they’re on the right route.

There weren’t a lot more hills to come, but there were some.  Besides, the more miles you have in your legs, the more an incline feels like a hill!  In the meantime, following in the great tradition of sportive blogs with castles in them, here’s another one for you.

This is the Castle Inn, with a pub garden with views from the ridge to the left that were just stupendous, and plenty of people were sat in the sun enjoying them…  Stopping there, and not getting going again, was seriously tempting!  Still eventually there was a well earned descent…totally ruined, almost dangerously so, by having an unexpected sharp left turn off it halfway down just as you’d truly built up momentum.  Another hairy moment that coulda shoulda been avoided.

Wide open views stretched all around me as I pressed on my way…and shortly afterwards was the third and final food stop, just as well equipped and catered for as the other two.

I diluted what was left in the bottles I had, and took advantage of the toilets to wash the salt off my face and cool myself down a bit.  Man it was hot out there!  The only advantage of the headwind was that it cooled you down a bit, and actually the same went for descents.  I should mention that some of the downhills today were truly epic – and only a couple of them were ruined by premature T-junction syndrome!

As I was going down a lonely hill, around 80 miles in, 3 riders went past me at just the right speed.  Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I latched on to the rear and pedalled for all I was worth.  At some point I had to yell “car” due to the presence of such behind us, and thus alerted them to my presence behind them, which they took with very good grace.  I hung on for ten miles or so, until the fastest of the three got on the front, and upped the ante a little at the same time as the headwind hit again.  Having to push that bit harder, and already feeling a little guilty for being unable to take my turn at the front – it being hard enough doing what I was doing, let along doing that – I decided the time had come to give in gracefully, so I dropped back.

If one of these three is you – and I did chat to them at the end and say thank you – thank you again.  Most appreciated 🙂

That only left me ten miles or so to do, and since I was flying solo but flying pretty fast, I pushed as fast as I could to get back.  See – I even look fairly happy :).  OK, so I was bored, and I’d run out of things to take photos of.  The scenery was lovely, and wide, and rolling, and so on but it was, to use the word literally, unremarkable.  I can only take some many pictures of rural landscapes!

Right then.  A bit more wind, a bit more wiggle, some rather more major A roads to get back to Stratford, and there, finally, was the Finish line.

Kevin was waiting for me at the end, which came as somewhat of a relief as I’d been a tad worried about him getting lost on the way back…and to get his revenge he photographed me for a change!  Look at my magical floating feet *grin*.  Good to see him back in one, still not feeling great, piece though.

Cycling time: 5:55:50 hrs
Distance: 101.63 miles
Avs: 17.1 mph.
ODO: 14038 miles

I stashed the bike in the car, and went back to HQ to get changed and showered.  It turned out that I needed 50p for the shower, which my £5 note was not going to help me with, so I’m afraid it was the usual sink/babywipe combo for me.  At least I ended up more presentable than I had been, right?  Then on handing in my rider number I got my free bacon roll.  Well bacon, no roll, due to my dietary foibles.  Which probably meant I got more bacon than everyone else too – so mock my finickyness as much as you like :P.  Very tasty it was too.  It could have been a beefburger, or veggie burger, but bacon is safer.

So – another sportive done, and apparently done at speed!  Well, in my defence, it really wasn’t very hilly – only c 1300 m of climbing all in according to Bella.  I seem destined to do this ride with another rider who’s not on form, and with a nasty headwind at the wrong time! (see last year’s blog).  However there are far worse ways to spend a Sunday than riding my bike in the sun.  I may have new suntan lines – but I appear to have avoided sunburn – result!  Quite pleased tomorrow is a rest day though… :).

UPDATE: official times are up already – and I’m 92nd of 222 – which I’m quite proud of.  If I’d stopped a little less, I’d have been even faster…and I might be third girl in! :).  My slightly toned down, less personal, more PC review is now up at Cyclosport too.

Let me just get this straight.  I drove 102 miles to cycle 102 miles?!  I could just have ridden home! *grin*

 

 

My power, my pleasure, my pain

Ok, so I have the Wheel Heroes sportive tomorrow, so strictly speaking I really shouldn’t have been riding the bike today.  But given what the weather is usually like and the lack of guarantee that it will continue in this sunny vein, it’s virtually impossible to not go and ride given half a chance.  And an ACG ride is more than half a chance :).

Which would probably explain why there were eight of us this morning.  Can’t remember the last time we were that many!  We even had a newbie – welcome Martyn – who had found us via cyclingbuddy.com, which is a fairly new website that allows you to share routes, log rides, but mostly importantly find cyclists in your area to ride with.  Clearly it works!  It’s also further proof that it’s a small world, since he knows the guys from HBB, who make cycling kit, who I also kinda know.

Martyn

Given that I am not the only one with bigger fish to fry tomorrow, that others had to get back, and so on, this was billed as an easy ride.  Out to Glastonbury for coffee and back.  I’d show you the route and actual stats, but I forgot to turn Bella back on after coffee so you’d only get half of it.  But it went something like this, and the stats you see later are extrapolated from GB’s.  It wasn’t that exciting as rides go – exciting is over-rated – so mostly I’m just going to show you how nice it was :).

Look – ACG kit and everything. That’s me that is.  Or at least part of me.   GB has clearly had enough of me taking his photo.  Not that that’s likely to stop me…

So that accounts for two of us.  Thirdly, though usually firstly since he’s so fast he has a tendency to be ahead, was Chris.  That’s his real name.  I call him Figgy (more of which later), and I’m not likely to stop doing that either…

We made it to Glastonbury in no time flat, even with the nasty headwind.  Probably because it was flat.  You may now admire our precariously arranged and balanced bikes.  I hope no-one actually wanted to use the rubbish bin.  Think of it as like bicycle Kerplunk – you have to be really careful about which bike you move when or it all comes expensively tumbling down…

I don’t know if the Farmers Market is new or if we’ve just somehow managed to miss it up until now.  Stranger things have happened.  Many of them in Glastonbury ;).  It was most definitely there today, bringing quite a different atmosphere to the place, and allowing for the purchase of very yummy pastry goods to go with the coffee from Heaphy’s.  I had one of the flapjacks I made yesterday, which had just about survived in my back pocket – result!  Here’s hoping they do as well tomorrow…

So here we all are, barring myself of course, sitting in the sun outside Heaphy’s once more.  Figgy, Martyn, Mike, Dave, Steve, GB, and Ian.  Good riding, good coffee, good weather, good conversation, what more does a girl want? 🙂

Shall we get up close and personal with the ACG for a little while?

This is Mike showing that cycling is actually a very serious business…

This would be Steve, proudly showing that MTBers are cyclists too ;)…

This is Figgy eating.  Not fig rolls for a change.  Hence the name, should you need reminding.  Must remember not to let him eat again – he just gets faster!

And this is Mike and Dave, now apparently seeing the funny side…

OK, can’t sit around all day right?  Places to be, people to see…time to ride home again.  Well if the A stands for Axbridge, and the G stands for Group, the C stands for Cycling, not Coffee! 😉

Presumably Ian is patriotic…  Aren’t we a colourful lot?

Apart from those of us that were black and white of course…here demonstrating how many cyclists it takes to watch another cyclist try and fix something.

Talking of black and white…Martyn was clearing milking it! ;).

It’s all very well trying to take it easy, but it’s so hard when the sun is shining, the wheels are spinning, the roads are flat, the wind is behind you…  We did try.  Honest.  But as you’ll can tell from our average speed (see below), we didn’t do a very good job.  GB informed me that I’m my own worst enemy, and he did try to be the voice of my conscience…before he succumbed to the lure of the chase himself…  So that went well then *grin*.  Ah well, carpe diem and all that :).

Even a sign telling us (and Figgy there) to STOP didn’t have much effect.  Although to give us all credit we did do a very good job of keeping the G for Group thing going – waiting as necessary, picking up stragglers, etc.  No-one got left behind, though various folk did peel off as necessary on the way home.

(sorry, couldn’t resist…)

One last photo for you – of GB and Steve, Level pegging it on our way home.

Wasn’t it gorgeous out there?  And the descent of Weare Hill was even better – I’m presuming that’s where I hit today’s maximum speed of 43.8mph!!!  That’s pretty awesome for me.  Gotta be close to an all time PB :).

Cycling time: 1:50:00 hrs.
Distance: 32 miles
Avs: 17.3 mph.
ODO: 13937 miles

Right, I have some serious faffing to do, and an early night to get, if I’m going to be on the road by 5:30am tomorrow.  I’ve had a proper dinner, in an attempt to fuel up in preparation.  Lamb steaks, safe sauce, gluten free pasta, green beans…  Ever since that butternut squash risotto it doesn’t seem matter what I eat, it doesn’t sit well, but I have to get the food in whether or not that’s a comfortable thing.  Hopefully this will do the job without making things any worse – damage limitation etc.  It tasted pretty darn good and included carbs, and the rest is in the lap of the gods…

The sun

Today’s entry is sort of like a three course meal.  Possibly four courses actually.  Practically a feast…

First off let’s start with last night’s dinner.  Butternut squash risotto.  Very few ingredients at all really (olive oil, black olives, arborio rice, homemade chicken stock, butternut squash roasted with salt and tarragon, and red wine), and the only one that I haven’t had of late was the butternut squash.  Now I did think that butternut squash and I had fallen out a while back, but my dietician was surprised that I thought that, and suggested that maybe it was just because I’d usually eaten it in dishes that involved other “bad” ingredients, such as onion, garlic, and so on.  According to the FODMAP lists butternut squash is safe.  What do I know?  So I thought I’d give it a go.  Ha!  That’ll larn me, right?  Having spent the rest of the evening looking about 6 months pregnant, uncomfortable, and back on the painkillers, I think it’s safe to say that butternut squash is not safe.  It is far from safe, it is about as safe as investing in Facebook shares, or considering Greece a sound financial investment, and I shall not be eating that again in a hurry.  Shame, cos the risotto itself tasted yummy!  🙁

Which brings us to this morning, when I still wasn’t feeling great.  It takes quite a while for my system to settle down once I’ve p*ssed it off properly, and I seem to have done a cracking job this time.  Which reminds me, I need to take some more painkillers.  Typical – this always happens shortly before a sportive!  Mind you, anytime is shortly before a sportive at the moment 😉 *grin*.  Anyway, it was time to go ride my bike in the sun again.  Yes – again.  Isn’t it lovely to have a little patch of consistently lovely weather?  Ok, there’s still plenty of inexplicable wind around, but even that wasn’t chilly today.  Cycling in one layer, with suntan cream applied, and dark lenses in the sunglasses.  Blissful :).

Mim set the route, as she finally has her new Team Hope Factory bike (albeit not with the right wheels yet) and needed to test it out.  This involved being mostly flat, with one big hill.  A route that had a great deal in common with that which I did with George last Friday actually.  Am I destined to climb Westbury Hill every Friday now? 😉  Apparently I get to be the QOM too, but that’s not really true, since I know that I followed a slowly vanishing Mim all the way up – it’s just that she doesn’t have the relevant gadgets, nor care for them!  As ever, I’m only QOM because I have no competition, as someone kindly reminded me yesterday.  I do know, there’s no need to rub it in you know! 😉  The top of the Mendips was windy and still hiding in clouds/fog, which the sun had yet to burn off, and it felt almost like a different day up there.

We made the route up as we went along after that, coming down a blissfully dry Old Bristol Hill, out of the clouds, through Wells for photo ops, and back home via Wedmore.  All very pleasant, apart from the fact that the sun brings out the eejots, who were very keen on re-inforcing the white van man stereotype.  I hate stereotypes, but this one really does seem to be true…*sigh*.  Some people just have no patience.  I’m presumably that if they actually knocked me off, it would have to be a hit and run, because stopping to sort it out would slow them down too much too?

Cycling time: 2:13:44 hrs.
Distance: 34.20 miles
Avs: 15.3 mph.
ODO: 13905 miles

I’ve been so busy since then that it already feels like days ago…  If I got paid for all the things I do for free I’d be a whole heap better off!  Mind you, I’d only spend it all on bike and bike related goodies ;).  Having managed to get a lot of my “to do” list done – go me! – I switched into cooking mode.  I wonder what colour light bulb that involves?

To start with I made home-made gnocchi, using a recipe from one of my new cookery books, to go with a bolognese style sauce that hubby made.  They didn’t go brilliantly well, but well enough that I’m definitely going to make them again.  The recipe used potato flour where I used rice flour since that’s what I had.  Next time I’m going to use gluten free flour, and chill the gnocchi before I cook them, in a bigger saucepan of boiling water, and then I reckon they’ll be even better.  They’re easy to make, and they’re carbs – just what a cyclist wants, right?

I then had another go at making Rudolph’s carrot flapjacks, as planned, whoever Rudolph is.  I hope Rudolph doesn’t mind, but I used sultanas (safe) instead of apricots (not safe).  Come to think of it I suppose it’s Rudolph because of the carrots.  Are reindeers renowned for eating carrots?  I thought that was rabbits?

They’ve worked better than the last lot in that, as you can see, they actually hold together more or less.  More rather than less.  More flapjack, less granola.  They will probably be even more cohesive when they’re properly cooled down.  Then I’m going to wrap a couple of them up in cling film, and see how I get on with one on Sunday.  The forecast for the Wheel Heroes is currently 25C, with an easterly wind, and sunshine.  Good thing that sun cream arrived today then.  Now I just have to figure out what to wear to be cool enough whilst minimising tan lines…whatever the rules say.  Weren’t rules made to be broken? 😉

 

 

Delirious

I wished it would get warmer, and warmer it has become.  And me oh my, but it is lovely out there :).  Would now be a good time to wish to win the lottery?  😉  I was planning on riding today whatever, and as it turns out, thanks to a torch, a dentist, and an osteopath, GB had the day off, so not only did I get to ride, I got company to ride with.  Getting better all the time :).  I didn’t even have to faff about layers.  Because that would be a plural thing, and today was a most singular thing ;).

I met GB in a very sunny Square at 1:00pm.  Everything looks better in the sun, and the Church was looking great.  Taking photos in the Square always amuses me – it makes me look like a tourist, and reminds me that Somerset is somewhere that other people come on holiday and that I get to live here.  A good frame of mind in which to go riding :).

GB has been threatening to do hills, including the glider hill, which I have to admit really didn’t appeal.  I am going to conquer that hill, but I’m going to do it by myself, without an audience, without anyone else to gauge my performance by or to interfere with my mental mojo.  Luckily when it came to it, we made our route up as we went along, with the main aim being to enjoy riding our bikes in the sun, not kill me going up hills.  Phew!

On the way out of town we startled a grass snake that was basking in the sun in the middle of the road.  Considering the fact that they’re verging on endangered, we did a good thing, because if we’d been a car, it would have been squashed.  I stopped and watched it for a little while once it was on the pavement, and then it slithered off into the undergrowth, free to bask another day.  I do like snakes :).

not our snake, but near enough

We headed off towards Wedmore, discovering that while it was most definitely warm and sunny, it was also pretty darn windy, even if it wasn’t supposed to be!  As you can see GB was breaking the rules (15 and 16, I believe), but then since my top was sleeveless (rule 7), so was I.  He was certainly looking very colourful, as was the scenery as a whole to be fair.  Lots of green, thanks to all the recent rain, lots of recently bloomed flowers, and then the blue sky and the yellow sun.  Somerset was looking at its best :).

We took a rather circuitous route to get to the top of Mudgley Hill, to keep off the more major roads, and avoid the traffic.  It also made a change to the usual route, and let’s face it, variety is difficult to find around here.  Odd how climbs that once seemed huge are now not so.  John’s hill (named after an ACG rider) was one we always used to descend, and rarely if ever do in reverse.  I’m sure it was bigger, or longer, or steeper, back then.  Maybe that’s how it felt because it was so much fun to go down?  But today it was just another unremarkable climb.  Signs of progress?  I’m sure the sunshine helped though 🙂  Round the back of Wedmore, and at the top of Mudgley Hill there is, and I think I may have shown it to you before, a sign.  And also a very lovely view.

Being up there meant we got to go down there, although the side/head wind did take the edge off the descent somewhat, as it made me a bit more cautious than I sometimes am.  A lot of the route out after that involved zig-zagging around and doing our best to avoid having to do too much slogging into the wind.  We went via Burtle, which is still a great name for a village.  It sounds like something from the Trap Door (BURK!).  It also sounds like something out of the Midsomer Murders – a quiet little village where nothing happens but where actually all the bodies are buried *grin*.

On a bridge over the River Brue on the other side, past the peat works, is this sign.  Which I always wonder about.  Who was he?  How was he killed?  Why was he so important that he warranted a plaque?  How has it stayed there for so long?  I guess I could probably do some research and find out more…but nah forget it yo home to Bel-Air! ;).

There’s also a boat where it ought to be (which I may explain in a future blog entry) tied up by the house by the bridge.  Small but perfectly formed.  I wonder if they use it much?

And if you don’t believe it was windy, I’m going to prove it.  I kind of understand wind when it’s grey and horrible and I can actually see weather happening.  It’s kinda hard to figure out where the wind is coming from on a day like this, but it was there, and there was plenty of it.  From the South West ish.

Our goal was Brean Down for coffee, on the basis that it was a good day for the seaside, but hopefully it not being a weekend and not yet being holiday season, the roads and traffic to get there wouldn’t be too bad.  And it wasn’t too bad, but there were still too many cars on the road for my taste.  Which is why, as I’ve said before, I tend to ride in the morning, because it tends to be quieter.  The only consolation to the slog there was that there was every possibility that we’d get to fly home afterwards which sounded good :).

I have to say we stood out like a sore thumb amongst the raggle taggle customers at the Brean Down Cove Café.  And from some of the looks we were getting you’d have thought we came from a different planet.  Nothing new there then.  We sat outside on one of the rickety as ever picnic tables in the sun and chilled out for bit.  My americano, once they finally a black one, was generously sized and very nice.  GB’s cake looked lovely…(she says wistfully..).  He chilled out so much he had to put his gilet on before we got going again ;).  We popped up to the beach for photos before heading back, as you do.  Well, as I do.  I have to admit to preferring my beaches with waves and rocks, but this one wasn’t bad :).

I loved these two – eating ice-cream and swinging their legs in the sun – very young at heart and oddly cute.

The route home was indeed distinctly faster, though due to the wiggly nature of the roads, the wind wasn’t as consistently behind us as would have been nice, but boy when it was…GB called it magic carpet time, and he had a point :D.  We parted company at the Webbington – I needed to get back, and given a choice between going my way and then home via the A38 or going home via Winscombe Hill, GB preferred the hill option.  Unsurprisingly – he’s so good at them!

Look – Wendy has reattached my shadow :).  Actually  I didn’t even notice the hill because I was so busy messing around with my camera.  Maybe that’s a tactic I should try more often?  Not likely to work with steep gradients though – I need to be holding on then! ;).

Cycling time: 2:22:21 hrs.
Distance: 41.49 miles
Avs: 17.5 mph.
ODO: 13870 miles

Here’s our route for information purposes.  GB reckons we were pushing it, and I guess maybe we were, but that’s probably because no-one wants to be the one to say “slow down”, now do they?  Pride is a terrible thing *grin*.  Maybe I should try to do that sometimes though…  I got home just before eldest, who decided it was time he took his revenge with the camera, which was only fair.

At least I have proof that it was sunny, and that I got to ride my bike in one layer, in shorts, in sunglasses…  🙂  It looks like the rest of the week may continue to be nice *fingers crossed*.  Having said that I have a sportive on Sunday so what do you want to bet it breaks by then?  Just in case it doesn’t, and having been reminded that the application of suntan cream is a good idea, I nipped over to Amazon and bought myself a couple of bottles of the Riemann P20 which I used last year, which I’d forgotten about, and which I’d run out of.  It’s brilliant for sportives – apply once, and forget about it!

Right.  One last thing to share with you.  Yesterday’s stirfry dinner, which was also today’s lunch. Ginger, green chilli, chicken, peppers, green beans, bean sprouts, carrots, sweet potato, rice noodles, Sharwood sweet and sour sauce, and coriander.  Good yesterday, and even better cold today :).

I really do need to start cooking some more interesting things, so in addition to the little gluten free cookery book I picked up the other week (not quite safe enough), I decided to get these two recipe books from the Book People that are even more restricted so therefore more likely to be safe for me if I’m careful.  I’m still being way too lazy about what I eat, and not eating the best from a fuelling point of view *slapped wrist*.  Yes, I know, I should know better…

They both arrived today and I’m looking forward to reading through them later when the mob are in bed and out of my hair, and planning some yummy meals for us all :).

 

Next to me

Ok, so it was a rest day.  But it was a rest day when the sun was shining and the road was calling, so when he came home from school, and youngest was duly deposited where she needed to be, MiniMe and I did the Nyland Loop.  In shorts!  Not like I had that much choice actually, as all Sunday’s kit was in the washing machine.  So it was shorts, sleeveless top, and minxy arms, which did the job a treat.  Parfait.

Cycling time: 0:48:03 hrs.
Distance: 12.11 miles
Avs: 15.1 mph.
ODO: 13829 miles

I know I call him MiniMe, but man, have you seen the size of him now?  Come to think of it, I probably ought to check his saddle height and position again…

We had a lovely ride in the sunshine, with no agenda, just enjoying being on the bike.  He’s getting better all the time, as he gets bigger and stronger.  When he stops growing he can have some proper shoes and cleats too – but I think that might be a way off, and he grew out of my old shoes a while back!  Maybe I should stop feeding him?

He quite likes being a blog entry – and even chose the title of this himself, because when we’re riding, that is where you’ll find him.  I am also supposed to inform the donor of his top that it’s very lovely and he likes it a lot.  This is as good a medium as any, so thanks GB! 🙂

Anyway, I know I look a right state, but here’s my boy and me, smiling in the sun.  He’s not actually that much taller than me, it’s a position thing, but hey, it’s only a matter of time :).