Arrived back safely from Japan, despite staying one extra day due to Typhoon Talas.
Leg not completely back to normal following training crash three weeks ago, but managed 12 miles on my mountain bike (down the Chester cycle path) on Monday 5th Sept, then had a gym session on Tuesday (rowing, cycling & cross trainer).
Did a quick 20 mile round trip to Frodsham and back on Wednesday, which included quite a steep hill.
Another gym session on Friday, then on Saturday did a 5 hour ride down to Llangollen, over the Garth and World's End and back to Chester.
This time I did actually go up the Garth - quite a steep climb but ok to ride up (at least now I have a bottom gear of 39-28).
When I got to the Ford at World's End, I carried the bike over, but found the section just after the Ford too steep to ride up so had to walk :(
Mapped the ride on mapmyride,com, and the route is shown below:
The elevation profile is shown below:
It looked like the bit I struggled on had a gradient of between 15 and 20% !
Managed a pretty lousy time of 4 hours 23 mins for the 53.5 miles - however it was quite windy and wet. I'm thinking of changing my tyres for some with better grip since if the roads are wet on 9th October, there is a chance the wheels will spin on some of the steep hills we're going up. Also felt a bit knackered before the start of the ride - should have eaten more and drank more before I set off.
Hoping to go over the Horseshoe Pass and the Shelf on Tuesday - from what I've seen so far, I think World's End will be the toughest climb on the Etape Cymru.
Leg not completely back to normal following training crash three weeks ago, but managed 12 miles on my mountain bike (down the Chester cycle path) on Monday 5th Sept, then had a gym session on Tuesday (rowing, cycling & cross trainer).
Did a quick 20 mile round trip to Frodsham and back on Wednesday, which included quite a steep hill.
Another gym session on Friday, then on Saturday did a 5 hour ride down to Llangollen, over the Garth and World's End and back to Chester.
This time I did actually go up the Garth - quite a steep climb but ok to ride up (at least now I have a bottom gear of 39-28).
When I got to the Ford at World's End, I carried the bike over, but found the section just after the Ford too steep to ride up so had to walk :(
Mapped the ride on mapmyride,com, and the route is shown below:
The elevation profile is shown below:
It looked like the bit I struggled on had a gradient of between 15 and 20% !
Managed a pretty lousy time of 4 hours 23 mins for the 53.5 miles - however it was quite windy and wet. I'm thinking of changing my tyres for some with better grip since if the roads are wet on 9th October, there is a chance the wheels will spin on some of the steep hills we're going up. Also felt a bit knackered before the start of the ride - should have eaten more and drank more before I set off.
Hoping to go over the Horseshoe Pass and the Shelf on Tuesday - from what I've seen so far, I think World's End will be the toughest climb on the Etape Cymru.
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