Preparing for Broken Spoke Sportive

Have the Broken Spoke Sportive next week. Starts and finishes in Chester, so will have the novelty of being able to cycle to the start (probably only 2 miles from where I live). Have been mixing it up a bit this week with a Chester Road Club Chain Gang on Tuesday 15th May, followed by a club 10 mile time trial on the Saighton course, on Thursday 17th May (organised by the Birkenhead Victoria Cycling Club), then a quick ride out to Hope/Llay and back (18 miles) on Saturday 19th May, followed by the same route on Sunday with an added loop out to Frodsham and back (around 40 miles).

The Thursday night time trial went OK for my first time - did 28:20 on my road bike (no tri-bars). Will be doing this again next week so have a target to beat. Route below:


Full results can be seen here

Quite pleased with the Sunday ride - route shown below. Considering the route including come back through the centre of Chester, an average of 17.6 mph was OK particularly as the route wasn't flat.



Will be doing a Chester Road Club 10 mile time trial on Thursday 24th May, then have the Broken Spoke Sportive on Sunday 27th May - this is an 85 mile route out into North Wales (over the Horseshoe Pass and down into Ruthin and then back to Chester - should be good fun !)

Windy Days

Did a couple of ride this weekend (12/13th May). On Saturday I went out with a couple of others for a ride out towards Nantwich and back through Delamere (stopping at the Station Cafe) and then back through Frodsham to home. The outbound ride was great, but when we turned towards Delamere we realised why - because we had a strong wind against us all the way back. Still, a reasonable average speed for such a ride (17.2 mph average for 52 mile ride). Route below:



I also went out Sunday, just for a short ride (18 miles or so) on my usual route out to Hope/Llay and back through Rossett/Doddleston etc). Had a strong wind against me as I was cycling out to Hope, but had a great ride back into Chester. Reached a max speed of over 43 mph on the steep downhill just before the A483. Must have recovered from Saturday as my average speed was 17.6 mph.

Circle of Hope 2012 Ride

The Circle of Hope charity ride in aid of Clatterbridge Hospital took place on Sunday 6th May. Around 200-300 cyclists took part, some doing a 15 mile ride, some doing a 50 mile ride and some of us (who are clearly mad) decided to do the 100 mile route. Start and finish was in Hope (North Wales) and the route headed out to Corwen, back towards Llangollen, over World's End, and then went out to Malpas, Beeston Castle etc before heading back to Hope via Aldford, Farndon, Gresford etc.

Map of the route from Strava is shown below:



 As you can see, it was slightly less than 100 miles, and was quite hilly particularly in the first 40 miles or so. Going out towards Cheshire, the roads were fairly flat so we could pick up some speed. Reasonably happy with a time less than 6 hours, and an average speed of 16.2 mph.

Some others from where I work also did the 50 mile ride, and all finished fine (although they had a few mechanical issues along the way).

Will post some photos when I get them.

Also managed to raise £168 for Clatterbridge Hospital. 

Preparing for Circle of Hope bike ride

I'm doing the Circle of Hope bike ride on Sunday 6th May, a charity bike ride in aid of Clatterbridge Hospital. I decided to do the 100 mile route, which seemed a good idea at the time. You can find out more about the bike ride at: http://www.circleofhopebikeride.org/.

To get in shape did a fairly hilly ride (last Sunday) out from Chester over "The Steps" to Minera and the down towards Llangollen, and then turned off the main road to go over The Garth up to Panorama Walk and then over World's End. At least it was all down hill to Chester after that. I felt a bit knackered before I set out, and the time wasn't great.



Also went out for a quick spin on Saturday 28th April - just out to Hope and back to Chester via Llay, and then out to Frodsham and back. At least that was a bit faster (average speed over 17 mph for around 40 miles)

Wrexham Fibrax Hilly 24 MIle Time Trial, 15th April 2012

The 2012 Wrexham Fibrax Hilly 24 mile time trial started about 0.5 mile before the Britannia Inn on the approach to the Horseshoe Pass. The route went over the Horseshoe Pass (where the riders were timed) and then down into Ruthin (via the Nant Y Garth road), and then back, to finish at the Ponderosa Cafe at the top of the Horseshoe Pass.
I have ridden over the Horseshoe Pass plenty of times, but usually have cycled 30 miles or so to get there, so this was a chance to get a reasonable time.
There is a long history behind the Wrexham hilly time trials which you can read about here.

In 2012 there were approx 65 riders entered, including Ryan Mullen and Andy Wilkinson who were the two main favourites.

I went off too fast, and went into the red zone halfway up the Horseshoe Pass and had to back off a bit. Once over the top, it was fairly fast into Ruthin although we had the wind against us. This turned out to be quite good since we had the wind behind us most of the way back.

Anyhow, ended up doing just over 1 hr 32 mins. Not great but at least I got around, and wasn't last. There were 7 of us entered from Chester Road Club, and three of us were around the same time (1 hr 31 min or 1 hr 32 min), so we should get plenty of points towards the West Cheshire Time Trials Cycling Association (WCTTCA) points competition. Details of ride from Strava below:



If you fancy doing this, look at a picture of the profile of the route below !!!

Incidentally, Ryan Mullen won and Andy Wilkinson was 2nd. Not sure who won the prime up the Horseshoe Pass. Results are here.

To prepare for this time trial, I did a fairly long hilly training ride on Wednesday (I had the week off because of the Easter school holidays) - see below:

Chester Road Club Chain Gang

Tuesday 10th April saw the start of the 2012 Chester Road Club chain gangs. The idea is to ride as groups - on this occasion there was a "slow" group and a "fast" group. I was in the "slow" group and there were 6 of us led by Phil. We rode taking turns on the front and peeling off. After 5 minutes or so we got the hang of it and got into a good rhythym. We did two laps of the Saighton circuit, approximately 14 miles or so. The "slow" group did 40 mins and 9 seconds according to Gerry (who was timing us) and the "fast" group did about 38 minutes.

There was a good turn out of approx 12 riders and it ended up being a good work out - good preparation for the Wrexham hilly 24 coming up on Sunday 15th April.

Strava summary is below.

Rides up til 8th April

Did a 53 mile ride down from Chester over the Steps and then over the Horseshoe Pass and back to Chester (details below). Apparently I was 4th overall on "Puncture Alley" according to Strava. Also set my best time over the Horseshoe Pass (quite timely as I'm in the Wrexham Hilly 24 on Sunday 15th April which goes over the Horseshoe Pass). However my best time is still not great (25 mins or so).



Reasonably happy with this ride, as I also did a couple of short, reasonably fast rides in both of the days before, one of which is shown below: