Horse Shoe Pass (yet again !)

Did a good ride out into North Wales on Saturday 21st July. Total mileage was approx 53.5 miles with about 3500 feet of climbing, and I did a time of 3 hours 17 mins - which is about 4 mins faster than the last time I did this route. Details from Strava below:



Also did a 10 mile time trial on Thursday 19th July on the Saighton circuit. It was slightly wet and quite windy, and I did a pretty awful time of 28:53. Hopefully will do a better ride next Thursday in the Chester Road Club event.

On Tuesday 17th July I did the Chester Road Club chain gang (twice around the 7 mile Saighton circuit) where I averaged about 21 mph.

Lastly, on Sunday 15th July, went out with 69 Cycles and we did a good ride out to Connah's Quay (along the Chester cycle path) up Pioneer Hill and then back through Buckley and Hawarden. Reasonably high average speed for this route - see below:



Will go out with 69 Cycles again on Sunday 22nd July - if I keep this level of activity I should start seeing some benefits in terms of faster TT times. 

Victoria Pendleton Documentary

Watched the documentary earlier in the week, on BBC1, about Victoria Pendleton. It was pretty inspirational stuff. It showed the amount of work and dedication needed if you want to get to the top in sport. Often you see the glamorous photo shoots or adverts or podium presentations, but you rarely see all the unglamorous stuff going on in the background, which was shown in the documentary.

It should be said that her achievements are even greater when you realise that, according to the documentary, the Britsh Cycling Management Team seemed completely devoid of any kind of emotional support.You got the impression they would be happier managing a team of robots rather than real human beings.

Firstly there was the romance with her coach. Work place romances are commonplace and are not illegal, nor morally wrong. Often management turn a blind eye, which rather sensibly seems to have been done in the first instance. However, why the manager chose the day she won a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics to tell everyone in the cycling team about their relationship - despite the fact it was none of their business - seems to be a case study of not how to handle such an issue. Let's be perfectly clear, neither VP or her coach have done anything wrong and have absolutely nothing to apologise for. In fact, despite raising some sort of initial moral issues, and sending the coach off to the swimming team, the management can't have too many scruples as they've brought him back into the team.

Secondly, just after she won the 2012 world championship, she collapsed to the floor, and Dave Brailsford, instead of hugging her or showing some empathy, shouted "Steve" - who is the psychiatrist - clearly anything to do with emotion is done by him - to sort the situation out !! He seemed quite a nice chap, but you got the impression he has his work cut out after the riders have been through the tough training regime that is in place.

In fact the only person in the documentary who seemed to have even less emotion that the above people was the mysterious Swiss coach, who came across as some sort of "Terminator" type character. 

Anyhow, hope VP wins gold in London. Whatever happens, she is a legend in British cycling.

Recent Bike Rides

Had quite a bit of traveling with work during June, so didn't do as much cycling as I would like. I am now back in the office for a few weeks so hopefully will settle into the following routine:

• Saturday - longish ride 50-70 miles
• Sunday - 30 mile ride with 69 Cycles (Chester)
• Tuesday - 14 miles - chaingang with Chester Road Club (CRC)
• Thursday - 10 miles - Time Trial, Saighton course (D2/7)

 Yesterday, I went out with a couple of  CRC riders (Neil and Tim) and we did a good ride out to Ellesmere - which looked quite nice - we stopped by a lake in Ellesmere for something to eat and drink. Did a reasonable 17.5 mph average for a "rolling" 60 miles or so. Route below:


On Sunday 8th July, a group of 6 of us went out for the 69 Cycles Sunday Sort Out (69 Cycles is a bike shop in Chester: website at: http://www.sixtyninecycles.co.uk/). We did a pleasant ride out to Delamere and back: Route below:



Need to decide what TT/sportives to do next - still undecided about the Etape Cymru (which I did last year). Will have a think about my schedule in Aug/Sept/Oct and update in the next blog.

69 Cycles Sunday Sort Out Ride 17th June 2012

Went along to this as the time/distance were convenient (8 am start, finish by 1015 or so). Good turn out of around 15 cyclists. We did a pretty challenging route over to Brymbo in North Wales and then up to Bwlchgwyn before heading (mainly downhill) back to Chester. Good average speed for that course of around 17.6 mph.



Good crowd of cyclists, good atmosphere, well recommended - although quite challenging on return to Chester. Good for speed work. Will definitely come out on this again. 

Alf Jones Memorial 25 mile TT, 10th June 2012

This was the first 25 mile time trial I've ever done. It was on Sunday 10th June 2012, and my start time was 0705 (!!). It was also about half an hour's drive from Chester, so it was a pretty early start. Start and finish was close to the A41/A49 roundabout near Prees, with the HQ being at the Raven Cafe. I didn't particularly enjoy the course, as the A41 is pretty heavy with traffic, at least towards the end of the race, and there were three roundabouts you had to go round pretty much all the way.

Anyhow, my aim was to keep above 20 mph, so I was aiming for 1 hr 15 mins or less.

As it turned out, did a 1:14:08 - which was above 20 mph, but not by much. I only overtook one person on the race, who I beat by 5 minutes, but it turned out he was 67 ! Looking back at the ride stats, I think I could have gone harder - as it turns out I was still feeling OK so did another 20 mile ride on the same afternoon. I seemed to be catching people up on the hilly sections, but then falling back on the flat sections, possibly because I am not using a high enough gear. Anyhow plenty of room for improvement next time.

Sometimes it's better when it's grim !

Sunday 3rd June - instead of staying in to watch the procession of boats down the Thames, I decided to go out on a short bike ride. Had dithered about whether to go out most of the day as it was pouring down with rain and I am still suffering from the last vestiges of a cold. At 7 am I had decided not to go out (was possibly going to go on a ride from 69 Cycles in Chester, which starts at 8 am every Sunday).

Anyhow once I got out on the bike, I quite enjoyed it. Although it was raining it was not particularly cold, and the bad weather meant there were less cars around than usual. Did my standard route out to North Wales down Lache Lane, and felt like I was flying, getting from the start of Lache Lane to the Wrexham road near Hope in under 26 mins. When I got there, I realised I was flying because the wind was behind me !

Anyhow all in all a good work out. Route below:



For what it's worth, this ride was nowhere near as grim as the Mad March Hare Sportive 2012.
That was both very wet, very cold, and very hilly, with all the hills coming near the end.

Looking back at 2012, the Oswestry Hilly 17 mile time trial was also a bit grim, with torrential rain soon after I started. I did reasonably well in that one.

So the lesson is, even when it looks grim before you start off, it is rarely quite as grim when you are actually out there on the bike.

Earlier in the week, (Tuesday 29th May) I did the usual Chester Road Club chain gang out at Saighton near Chester. Unfortunately, one of the riders fell off, and I think they broke their collar bone, so David, if you're reading this hope you get better soon. Luckily one of the other Chester Road Club riders had their wife parked nearby and they took him to A&E.

Broken Spoke Sportive 2012

I'm not good at cycling when it's hot. Also although I can get up most climbs, I'm not fast up hill. I've also discovered that I much prefer courses where the hard bits are at the beginning and it's easier at the end. So all in all I was going to find the Broken Spoke Sportive difficult - and I did.

It didn't help that we did 21 miles in the first hour (at least it was fairly cool then) - and I thought to myself then that I would pay for that later.

The Broken Spoke Sportive started and finished at the Catholic High School in Chester - so there was the novelty that I could actually cycle to the start (only 2 miles from where I live). There was a quick check in, and some freebie gels and energy bars. There were two rides: the long route (85 miles) and a shorter route (55 miles). I chose the long route. The ride out to Bangor-on-Dee and St Martins was flat and quick. There was a well stocked food stop at St Martins (after about 28 miles).

Once we turned right at Pontfadog, the climbing began. I'd never been up this climb before, and got most of the way up it until it became too steep and I had to walk for 100 yards or so. However there was a great technical descent on the way down to Llangollen. I somehow managed to get lost and myself and another rider had to ride into Llangollen, over the bridge, and do the Horseshoe Pass right from the bottom. There always seems to a wind against you when you climb up the Horseshoe and today was no exception (!). Once over the top it was a fast descent into Ruthin, where there was another well stocked food stop - including baked beans on toast, coffee, buns, bananas and soft drinks.

Once out of Ruthin, we went over another hill I have never previously been up - and I never want to see it again. It's called Old Bwlch and it was another one I had to get off and walk. Although I managed to get back on again near the top so I was photographed cycling over the highest point.

Once after that there was a rolling route back to Chester, with one or two unexpected climbs along the way.

Positives: Very challenging route, great motorcycle marshalling, the best stocked food stops I've seen on a sportive, and good value for money (approx £20). Also the event raised money for the school which must be good. And last but not least, there was a friendly group of cyclists on the ride who mainly knew how to ride in a group.

Negatives (for me): Pretty awful time - and too hot - would prefer this on a day which was about 10 degrees cooler. At least I've now got well tanned arms and legs

Route below:



Earlier in the week, on Thursday 24th May to be precise, I did the Chester Road Club 10 mile TT on the Saighton course (D2/7). I tried using tri-bars this time - although I'm still not keen on using them. Got a time of 28:06 which was an improvement on the previous week (28:20). Will try to get down to sub 28 minutes next week. Good entry of 44 riders. Results are here